What a great week!

This week was a wonderful one! 

Monday we went on a nice hike. One that we went on a few weeks ago! But this time it didn't rain. The weather was perfect! 

Then this week people continued to progress really really well! 

One funny story and one miracle from the week.

First on Monday night we met with this guy. It was our second time meeting with him and he had a baptismal date. He told us at our lesson that he was reading and praying daily and excited for his baptism. After the lesson we go down to our bikes and Elder Heaton says woah look at that spider by the gate. And I was looking and then I noticed there were 2 stickers that the church makes here. We were like holy cow what are these doing here? There must be a less active member that lives here! So we pulled out the ward list and find the address we are at. Well then it turns out the address is the same as the investigator we just visited. So we look at the name and it is the investigators name. Then we called him and were like "You were baptized before?" And he had no idea what we were talking about.. He completely forgot his baptism. But yeah.. It turns out he is already a member! Good thing we didn't baptize him again! 

Now on Thursday we were meeting with David! He was found like the week before I got here and we started teaching him the lessons then. He started out not very interested but happy to listen to us. Well his interest and excitement has grown over the past 2 months and as he has kept the commandments he's become super super happy! At the beginning of our lesson we explained that we were going to finish the last of the commandments and that he'd be ready as far as lessons go to be baptized. Then we asked how he was feeling about baptism, he had a baptismal date of July 8. He replied that he wants to do it! Then we asked how he felt about moving his baptism up to this week and he replied that he wants to do it as soon as possible and he had thought of that as well! So his baptism will be on Thursday! I'm super excited for him! 

Oh and the Sisters found someone a while ago and then we taught him cause he was a man and then it turned out he didn't live in our ward. But he go baptized on Saturday and we got to go! Super awesome!

I know that the church is true. I know that the gospel brings happiness and can change anyone if they let it! I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through him we can find real peace. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Jensen

Pictures:

Saw Aaron!

Baptism!

17 Miracles

This week was one of the best of my mission. 

On Monday we went camping with our ward. At least for the afternoon.. Then we had to go home! But  it was a ton of fun to get out of the city and go to the beach and a big field! While we were there we played a lot of frisbee and had a great time! 

Saturday night we watched 17 Miracles with a couple of our investigators! It was really great! But this week we had more than 17 miracles of our own. Every single day we went and met with 2 to 3 people which is a ton for here and each and every one of them made noticeable progress through the lessons! It was incredible! Everyone is reading the scriptures and starting to pray and learning how to repent and it has been a real blessing to be able to see it all happen. I can't explain how blessed I've felt this week.

We are teaching the commandments to several of our investigators now and they have been to church 2 or 3 times as well. It is looking like several of them will be prepared to be baptized in the coming weeks. 

Also we had one investigator pass his baptismal interview, but he is still not quite ready to be baptized. The last 2 times he did interviews in 2012 and 2013 his mom and daughter passed away. So now he is determined to wait until God tells him in a dream to be baptized to go through with it. We are doing our best to help him seek an answer through prayer and scripture study. He has already had some dreams that convinced him of the truthfulness of the church. He's so close!! 

I love it here. I shared my testimony in church yesterday of repentance, the Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ and His Atonement and I'll share it here as well. A few weeks ago at a mission conference I learned something I hadn't ever realized before. When Joseph Smith went into the grove he wasn't just curious about which church was true. He  wanted to know because he wanted to repent and have a remission of his sins. I love that. It helps me understand why he could be so sincere and seek with such great intent. I know that the church restored by him does allow us to find that remission of our sins. My favorite scripture is Ether 12:27 "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness..." When I got to the MTC this scripture became real. I quickly realized many of my weaknesses and mistakes. As I studied the Book of Mormon it felt like everything I read was telling me I needed to repent and be better. It was a somewhat painful experience.. But after weeks of praying and seeking that remission of sins that Joseph was seeking there came a time when the pain, guilt, and inadequacies faded and an enormous sense of peace and joy replaced them. I know that Jesus Christ atoned and died for us. I know that He lives and leads His church. I know that as we turn to Him we can find peace, joy, and power to change. I love Him. 

Have a great week. I love you all! 

Love, Elder Jensen

Pictures:

The beach

We stood  up an egg at noon on the day of the dragon boat festival (Good luck for the rest  of the year)

Movie night 

Surprise!

Monday we went to an amusement park. It was super super fun! A couple of great members and the Elders we live with and the sisters in our ward all came and it was a blast. 

Tuesday I answered a call from President and he asked if he could talk to Elder Olsen. Elder Olsen's mouth dropped while he was talking to him. He got called to be the new recorder in the office because his Chinese is so good. He moved the next day! So now I have a new companion! It is Elder Heaton! He was in my zone when I was in Songshan so I have been on exchanges with him before! And he is awesome! We had a really really great second half of the week together! 

Elder Heaton is really good at talking to everyone! It has been really great and we found a couple of really cool people. I'll share one fun experience we had this week! One of the best on my mission so far. We were biking to the train station and waiting at a stop light and then all of the sudden Elder Heaton was like lets follow that car all three of them just waved to me. I didn't see the car but said okay and we turned around and followed it into the lane behind us. Then Elder Heaton said it had turned down this road and we look and it is a dead end and there is no car. But then we see that it leads down into a parking garage of the apartment complex next to us. We were about to turn around and go back but something came over us and we were like lets keep following it! So we biked into the parking garage. On the first floor we didn't see it. So we dropped down another floor. Still didn't see it so we dropped down another. Still didn't see it so we dropped down one more. And finally we found this car with a family getting out of it! They were pretty surprised to see us down there, but they were really nice and said go up to the first floor and you can talk to our son there. So we went back up and met there son there and he is awesome! He lived in Dayton Nevada for a year in high school. Now he is 19. While he was there he had Mormon friends that would invite him to the church to play basketball with them! What a miracle! Haha we had to run to the train station so we just quickly set up an appointment with him and now we will be meeting this week! 

Saturday I had an opportunity to go back to Xindian for the baptism of a man that I taught while I was there! It was really special to be able to see all of the members there again! I love them all so much! It was a nice service. Then we hopped on the MRT and went to Songshan for another baptism of someone that Elder Heaton taught before they realized he lived in Songshan. It was also really great to see all of the members there again! They are all doing really well! 

So it was a pretty spectacular week. 

Today we are going to our ward camping activity. We can't camp of course, but it will be fun! 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Jensen! 

Pictures:

At the amusement park!

Progress

I just want to say congrats to Brinn for taking state in the 100, 200, and 400!! That is so sweet! Way to go! I love you! 

Last Monday we went on a sweet hike in Neihu. Right when we got there it started raining and it poured on us the whole time! It was like swimming;) Haha really great though. Taiwan is beautiful and we had a lot of fun. 

Then this week was just awesome. All of the people we are meeting with are starting to show some great signs of progress. We are teaching a man named Joe. He is doing super well! We met with him for the first time 3 weeks ago after knocking into him like 7 weeks ago. Now he has been to church twice and loves it! While we went by his house yesterday he told us that in our lesson on Friday my companion Elder Olsen told him exactly what he needed and he's been thinking about it for the last couple of days and how he wants to change! Also when we met him on Friday his wife gave us homemade cake and it was the best thing ever! But then even better her husband was helping their son and she came up and started whispering to us and said "Thank you guys so much.. Please keep coming. He really needs you guys he's been having a rough time I won't say too much but please keep coming he needs you guys!" That was a really sweet moment. I love their family a ton! 

Also the sisters found someone on Wednesday and we met with him on Thursday then Saturday he came to a baptism and Sunday he came to stake conference! He is doing really awesome! His name is Dickie! He's just getting started but he has a ton of potential! 

Saturday we had a special mission conference. Elder Quentin L. Cook came and it was a really really great meeting! We only had about an hour with him but I learned a lot! He also bore a really powerful testimony! I'm so grateful for the chance to be serving here. I love my mission so much! 

I know that the Lord has a plan for all of us and I know that the Book of Mormon is His words for us. I love the Book of Mormon a lot. The talks were all about the Book of Mormon in Stake conference and I was reminded how much I love it! We should all read it everyday! 

Have a great week! I love you all! 

Love, Elder Jensen! 

Pictures: 

Cool kid we met in the 7/11

And a family I taught in Songshan that has a house here too! 

Mother's Day

I'll be skyping in a minute so I won't say too much today! Just a few highlights! 

There was an article in the Liahona in I think March about a spiritual feast so our stake has been trying to do something similar. Yesterday for Mothers day we did one in every ward and there was special musical numbers and talks that were supposed to be focused on the Savior and Mothers. It was a pretty big success! There were around 160 nonmembers who attended in the stake! Our ward had 22! It was awesome! And the spirit was really strong in the musical numbers! I love the power music has to bring the spirit! 

Also we set some really solid baptismal dates this week with some really awesome people! I am so grateful to be serving here! We have been blessed with a ton of great people to teach lately and they are starting to progress and it is so exciting:) 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Jensen

Pictures: 

We went and made a sky lantern and sent it up and then went and saw a waterfall! It was a fun time. 

Joy

Being a missionary brings the most joy and satisfaction of anything I've ever done. I love it! 

Monday Amber and her friend took us to 九份and野柳 one is an old lane full of shops and food! They made the movie spirited away based off of there and then the other was a rock that looks like a head next to the ocean! It was pretty fun! Lots of really really good food and beautiful sights!

Then this last week we had a goal to find people to teach because that is something we have been struggling with! We saw some great success. We were biking when we felt we should turn and go check out a park we'd never been to before. There were only 5 people there and they all turned out to be a family and the mom described herself to us as an investigator of another church. She was really interested in what we were sharing and now she is going to bring her whole family to church next Sunday! That was a great miracle! 

This week we also went to the home of a man that we knocked into several weeks ago and has been attending the sisters English class with his 5 year old son. He and his wife were both really interested in the message of the restoration! At the end they were like "Thank you guys! I learned some stuff today. You accomplished your goal as missionaries" They were really sincere but it kind of felt like they were saying "well that is a cool story.." But then we shared the last two paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the man was like can I really get an answer? This is exactly what I need! He then committed to begin reading the book and seeking an answer for himself. Then he said that destiny had come;) haha we are really excited about them!! 

I know that the Lord is directing His work. I know that as we do all we can to be prepared to participate in that work that He will give us chances to bless the lives of others. We had ward council this week and at the end of the meeting the Stake High Councilman said something I really liked, "The gospel isn't about what you know, it is about what you do" It is easy to talk.. But how many of us are willing to really change things and really make things happen. 

I have been trying to become a doer. And I am also trying to change some things about the way I work as a missionary so that we can have more spiritual power because I learned in Preach My Gospel the other day that that is what will really make us more effective! 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Jensen!

Pictures: 

1 and 2. Jiufen

The rest: Yeliu

Swell

The last couple of days have been swell!

I feel like we were just emailing! Hmm... The last couple of days went by really quickly! All is well here in Taoyuan. 

I have been pondering a lot lately about how we might use a more effective way to find people to teach. I am happy to spend all of my time on the street and knocking doors.. I really enjoy it! But I also feel there must be a more effective way to help people come unto Christ! We will keep trying things and hopefully find something that works:) 

I  just want to share my testimony that I know this church is true. The other day we were chatting with a member and she said she came to church by herself and she has a testimony of God then she said "Do you actually believe this though?" That and a few other experiences this week got me thinking. I do know it is true. People ask us sometimes if we have ever had like visions or talked with God and the answer for me is no, but I have had countless experiences as I try to do and be my best that I witness the hand of God in my life and that is more than enough for me! This week I'd like to invite everyone to keep working to build your testimony! Keep seeking to build your faith in the simple principles of the gospel!

I also didn't take any pictures this week! I'm sorry! 

I love you all! Also I love the song "Love is spoken here" we are singing it for Mothers day and we were practicing yesterday.. I always remember family home evenings back home when we sing it! Such a great song! 

Love, Elder Jensen!