Monday, September 28, 2015

Zhong Qiu Jie Kuai Le

This weekend everyone has been celebrating the Mid autumn festival or moon festival. Which is Zhong Qiu Jie. It has been a lot of fun! Everyone does tiny barbecues out on the road and eats lots of moon cakes and stuff! They are super tasty! They have pineapple ones! 

So this week has been the best so far! For a few reasons!

 The first is that we had our baptism. I don't know if I said but his name is Aaron. He is super super awesome and hearing him bear his testimony after the baptism was one of the highlights of my mission so far. He is a great friend and he's just really cool! Also after the baptism he was asking me about how to go on a mission. He said he might like to go after he graduates! I hope he gets to! That would be so awesome!! Then Sunday Elder Marks and I got to help a member confirm him. It was great. Oh also a member that really helped with his lessons baptized him. 

The next thing was that we finally had some success finding new investigators!! We found 6 this week and a lot of other potentials! 3 of the 6 were the family we met knocking a few weeks ago! I have been calling them to try and get them to set up and they finally did! It was wonderful! Hopefully it goes well with all of them. The one really good one from last week didn't show up to our meeting and we haven't been able to get a hold of him. 

Saturday before the baptism a member took us to an all you can heat hot pot. You take vegetables and meat and throw them in the boiling soup stuff in front of you and cook it and you just go until you are full! I can't eat very much and get full pretty fast but I did have quite a bit of bacon, lamb, and beef.. It's all in these little strips so it cooks super fast! I also tried some fish some fish skin and a little purple squid. It was all really good except I didn't love the squid.. It was really rubbery and not too yummy. They also had ice cream and a lot of other desserts and I loved it! Oh there was like a flower petal thing and that was tasty too! 

I really love it here in Tianmu and I can feel my love for the people here growing every week! A scripture I have been thinking about a lot this week is Matthew 10:39. I started realizing I was a little focused on myself and how I am going to learn Chinese and how I am going to get better at spreading the gospel and stuff.. I realized that I wasn't turning out like the character of Christ so I have been working on that! And it works! I think more about the people and how I can help and serve them and I feel happier and less worried! I want to learn Chinese so that I can effectively share the gospel with the people here. Not just to know the language. I am getting better at helping in lessons and I have started talking and helping in the on the street contacting as well! We have phases for the language and I am hoping to finish up phase one which is all the lessons and gospel things within the next two weeks. 

Tomorrow we have our 6 week trainer trainee meeting thing so I will see everyone I came out with for the first time! I'm excited! 

Looking forward to another great week! I love and miss you all! Have a wonderful week!

Baptism!
His friend from home that brought him to church. 
After our Harry Potter party for English. 


Love Elder Jensen

Monday, September 21, 2015

Tianmu/Shilin

The This was a really good week!! It was super tough being over two areas at once. Just cause we lost a lot of time going back and forth and we weren't sure if we could set things up cause we didn't want to have conflicts with the other area! This week we spent 3 nights in the Shilin apartment and 4 in Tianmu! It is pretty fun going back and forth! But also a pain packing stuff around.. Especially with no backpack. 

I learned a lot from being with Elder Anderton this week and we have some things we can improve. It is hard cause I feel like theres so much to do and we are falling short. But I'm just trying to get better and better and hoping eventually it will come! 

So this week we had some miracles! The first is we found my first new investigator for our area since I've been here!! "New investigator" according to the mission requirements anyway.. It was super awesome! So we went back to that same area where we were able to knock and go in to the families house and share a lesson with them. (They haven't set up again by the way.. Say they are too busy) But we knocked some more doors and again someone let us come up and he let us come into his house and share a message with him and then he set up to meet with us this week!! He's in college at the exercise college pretty close to our house. Said he runs a 100 meter in like 11.2! Not faster than some of the kids from high school.. But pretty fast! He is really cool and I hope that goes somewhere!

Also Elder Anderton was out finding with a member one night while we were at a lesson and he found someone that lived in our area. They came to church! And before church he met with us and he was another really awesome guy! He set a baptismal date for the end of October! Hopefully he keeps that desire! 

And last! We have a baptism on Saturday!! Our awesome investigator that just moved here passed his interview! His name is Aaron. Well english name. He is studying english and french so he speaks pretty good English! I like talking to him because if I don't know how to say something I can just say it in english most of the time! He is the best! I can't wait for his baptism this weekend! We are going to work with him this week to make sure he's ready and is going to stay active and have a strong testimony! I'll send pictures of the baptism next week! 

Other than those things this last week was just pretty crazy and fun and hard and happy! 

Elder Anderton has a member coming to help be his companion until the transfer meeting on Friday so he won't be with us this week. Also the other Elders that were in the MTC the same time as me will be coming! And that means so will Elder Hawkes!! Super excited for that! And I can't believe I'll have already been here a whole transfer.. That is crazy! I love it here in Tianmu! The weather has been a bit more comfortable these last few weeks and it's great! So many wonderful people. 

Thank you all for the prayers and support. I love and miss you all! Have a wonderful week! Remember the Lord! He loves each and everyone of us! Until next week! 

Elder Jensen

There are nice cars everywhere;) and I got my new tags!



Monday, September 14, 2015

Crazy News!


So this week was the best week yet! Each week gets a little bit better and I think I get a little bit more adjusted! 

The 18 year old we were meeting with last Monday set up and we will be baptizing him on the 26th if everything goes according to plan. He is really awesome! I like him! 

So this week was mostly the same stuff.. Really searching for new investigators but we still didn't find any. We did have a few miracles though! We were getting no where and then prayed that someone would be willing to meet with us and the next man we talked to said he would be and gave us his number! He still hasn't set up.. But that was enough to get us excited again and then we found two college students from Hong Kong that just moved here and they were really interested and awesome! They don't live in our area though! 

Also this weekend we were looking for some less actives and we decided to knock the apartments in one area. We had no luck and were about to leave when I realized we hadn't knocked the rest of the apartment that the Less active lived in. And felt like we should do that before we left. Like the second person we rang let us come up and then they gave us water and crackers and let us teach a whole lesson! It was awesome!! Also they had been to our english class a long time ago.. Like a couple of years! So that was really cool!

Then on Friday we had an outdoor zone conference. We went to a mountain called Yang ming shan and hiked and had a lot of training on being positive and overcoming fear and being bold and it was all super awesome and motivating! We now say our favorite thing about each day before we got to bed! It might be worth trying! 

Now for the crazy news.. Our Zone Leader Elder Ure is moving into the office as the recorder so he has to leave today for training. So his companion Elder Anderton will be joining us in a tripanionship and we will be over TIanmu and Shilin for the next two weeks until he gets a new companion! It is going to be really interesting to see how we will work it out and where we will live and how we will keep up both areas at once! I'm really excited though! I really like Elder Anderton and it will be really great! Wish us luck;) Also Elder Anderton is like a brand new Zone Leader and now he'll be training one.. Crazy! 

That's all for this week! We had a lot of great things happen! We've had 4 people attending at least part of church and then a couple other less actives as well! I love them all! I'll let you know how things are going here next week! 

Have a great Week! Love you all! 

Elder Jensen

Officially a resident!

A really awesome lady from the ward made us an awesome lunch at her store today!

Sunset over Tianmu
And the hike.

Our zone


Monday, September 7, 2015

Best Week Yet

It is crazy that this week I will have already been out of the MTC for a month.. Time goes so fast! And slow.. Time is so weird! 

This was definitely the best week I have had so far! I am starting to be more comfortable with the language and kind of know my way around and it's great! I still don't know a lot of Chinese but I'm getting more comfortable with just trying and that helps a ton! Learning a lot everyday! 

This week was not as crazy as last week. We didn't do much on Monday.. Just got some groceries and cleaned our house a little bit. It was a mess when I got here. It is slowly getting better! 

Tuesday we had a training from the zone leaders about becoming real shepherds and knowing our sheep by name and loving them and being willing to sacrifice anything for them! It was a really really good training! 

The first person I met when I got here, a recent convert, moved out to go to college this week! He was always helping us with lessons and stuff! I will miss him.

Sunday night we had a fireside for recent converts and stuff in the Taipei area at the  chapel by the mission home and temple! Someone told us about Taysom Hill there too.. Too bad for him! There were a ton of other missionaries there and it was really great to see some people from the MTC for a minute! Everyone seems to be doing well! The fireside was all about temples! We are having a big push to get recent converts to the temple.. All of the talks were great. At least from what I could understand. 

So.. We still haven't found any new investigators from our street contacting or working with the members. We got a referral yesterday though. But yesterday at church a boy we didn't know was there. He said he is 18 just moved here for college and has met with the missionaries for 3 months already and thinks he wants to be baptized! That was super exciting! We will be meeting with him tonight. Hopefully it goes well! 

It is crazy.. You'd think that when missionary work is all you have to do everyday you would have plenty of time to do it. But every night we get to the end of the day and there's still things we need to get done! There's never enough time! 

We met with a really devout member of another church this week! It was really cool and the spirit was really strong! She told us how she's really searching for truth and when she's with us she has a good feeling, a feeling of the holy ghost. She told us all these questions she has and we were explaining and she kept having ahha moments where it just makes sense. It was a big testimony builder to me of this gospel and all the answers we have. Unfortunately she said she needs to think about stuff and didn't set up again but it felt like she was able to feel the spirit testify and we will call her and see if we can meet again. 

Elder Marks bike broke twice this week. Once the chain and once the tire! So we did a bit of walking! It is so slow.. Hahaha yesterday we walked to a hospital and it was a ways away and we hadn't eaten all day, but the funny thing is I felt okay! Not too hungry all day and not too weak! So it all worked out! 

I read the first few chapters of Mosiah last week and they were really really good! I hope you all can have an opportunity to check them out! 

Oh and I have found this week showing people the "Because He Lives" video is an awesome way to bring the spirit! That video is awesome! So powerful! Even when I can't read the words cause they are in Chinese I feel it! 

Also here is a quote from a few weeks ago somewhere that I really like! "Great men and women don't think in terms of time, but in terms of opportunities." 

I think that is pretty much it for this week! Have a wonderful week! Love you all! 

Elder Jensen 
English class Wednesday evening. 

Didn't take too many pictures this week.. Sorry! But here is this one!