March Madness!

I think March Madness is probably going on right now in the college basketball world.. I am not sure. But I can tell you that that it is definitely going on over here! 

This past week was absolutely crazy! Probably the most successful week of my mission to this point! 

So Monday night we had a pretty cool experience. We went to dinner with a group of 5 college kids and they asked us questions about America and coming to Taiwan and about our missions and "Why Mormon". It went really well and at least one of them will be meeting with us tonight! Probably a couple! But this girl is an interesting story! She has really good english and she said she learned it from watching youtube. Then she said that she watches some vloggers from Idaho's videos and that they are returned missionaries and talk about the church often. They taught her that even if you have a different religion if you run into missionaries you should just meet with them and see what it is all about! So when we asked her if we could meet with her she was like yeah they told me to so of course I will! Pretty cool! Thank you to Idaho's Vloggers! 

That night we also met with our 10 year old An An. She is doing awesome and will be baptized this weekend unless they go out of town for the four day weekend coming up. We weren't able to find out what they are doing yesterday so we will have to see what happens with them this week! But she has learned and grown so much! The primary president told us that she is really impressed with how fast she is progressing! She is a lot more excited about it all than the other little girl that is already a member! But it is starting to spread to her as well so that is awesome! 

Hmm.. Tuesday we went down to Zhunan for district meeting and that is about all I remember! Except for it may have poured rain that day! There were a few days it poured all day! I have just gotten used to having soaked pants all day! 

Wednesday was a super super awesome day! Elder Diepeveen had district leader meetings in Taibei so we got to go down there and I got to go to Tianmu!! It was my first time back and I got to see Aaron and go and visit a less active with one of the missionaries there! It was a lot of fun and brought back a lot of memories! I love that place!

Then things started to get crazy! So Friday we had a lesson set up but the investigator didn't show up and I started making some calls from people we had met on the street! This lady answered and asked if we could meet that day! We met with her and her boyfriend 30 minutes later and we also invited Sunny to come with us! We sat down and they said the reason they came is they actually are a little interested in this message so that was a great start. And then Sunny shared her super powerful conversion story/testimony and it all went fine and dandy! They both set baptismal dates and came to church yesterday! They are doing really well! And I think they live together so we might get to help them get married!! First time doing that out here! 

Hmm.. Then things just continued to go really well. And last night a member fed us dinner and then during the family home evening they started talking about friends they want to share the gospel with and we ended up leaving with 9 names of people they want to prepare to meet missionaries and dates for when and we are going to be helping them prepare them for that day! That was a huge miracle. The church has been putting a big emphasis on working with the members to get those referrals and it is starting to catch fire! Our ward is all doing super awesome lately and getting pretty excited! 

So that was our great week! And I just want to close with my testimony of the Savior for Easter! We have been watching the come follow him video that just came out a lot with the people here. It is a cartoon and it is super simple so it is really good for helping the people here understand the positive influence of Christ without going to deep and making them confused! It is a super powerful video! I know that as we choose to follow Christ he will lead us to the best place available for us to go! I know that as we put our trust in Him he will give us the strength we need to overcome the trials and challenges of this life! In him we can find peace, power, and joy! What a wonderful message!! 

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you! 

Happy Easter! 

Love, Elder Jensen

College kids and one of my favorite things in the world! Rice fields;)

So good to see this guy:) And the Zheng family with Sunny! Love our ward!

Goals!

This week we went on exchanges down in Zhunan. It might have been my last time serving with Elder Marks my trainer. He will be going home at the end of this transfer in April. Pretty crazy! We had a really good time!

Thursday when we were back in our area things got pretty crazy! We are just trying to keep up with all the people we need to meet with which proves to be a bit difficult when we only have Thursday Friday and Saturday. But it went pretty well! We had the chance to meet with four or five people that are progressing really really well toward their baptismal dates. It is really interesting because most of them came from part member families or friends of a member and I'm noticing that teaching them is quite a bit different. Most of them seem like they have already made the decision that they want to be baptized and they are just meeting with us to learn how and to grow closer to the Savior. It is much different than some people we find that are happy to just listen to us talk but don't want to act and do the things they need to to get an answer! 

The girl that is supposed to be baptized this Saturday however did not come to church yesterday so we probably will be postponing her baptism a bit. She is really really good as far as all of the gospel knowledge goes. But she is still lacking that action part that is super crucial! 

Hmm.. Other things that happened this week. Elder Diepeveen and I told the investigator we were meeting with after church yesterday that we would bring her a lunch to eat.. That was pretty interesting because we never cook! On Sundays we usually just boil noodles or make rice or something super simple unless a member feeds us. Well I called her and asked her if there was anything she especially liked to eat and she said she likes to eat potatoes;) Pretty interesting answer for a taiwanese.. Anyway we ended up making her some mashed potatoes for lunch and it went okay! She is still progressing towards baptism so we didn't mess up too bad! Hahaha also Sunny is amazing! We still see her very often and she is always helping us with everything that you can imagine. We asked her where we could buy potatoes and she showed up at our house with potatoes and bacon and told us how to make it! Which is impressive cause she doesn't cook..  She called a friend and asked them how to do it for us! Hahaha she's awesome! 

I also made scotcharoos again last Monday and I shared them with our district and some people in the ward and some investigators for their birthday and with the Bishop and his family cause we are really trying to develop our relationship with him! Everyone really liked them! Lots of people thought they were too sweet.. But still good:)

And that brings me to goals.. After I made those I decided that I am going to stop eating candy and sweets and treats and all of those wonderful things! So far it has gone pretty well! I'm glad I have made it half a week;) Elder Diepeveen and I also set a goal to speak Chinese all the time! That has gone well too and I've hardly spoken English since Wednesday! Since starting it I feel like my Chinese has gotten worse so that has been a bit frustrating! I think it just makes it a lot easier to see your Chinese isn't wonderful when you speak it more! So this will be great for helping me improve and get some better Chinese! 

This week was a good week! I am learning the Christlike attribute of patience and it is great! I'm learning that we have to be patient with ourselves.. This past week I felt like I was able to see a lot of my weaknesses and I'm just trying to patiently work to improve them! Just like my favorite scripture Ether 12:27! 

Love you all! Keep it up! Remember that you are awesome! 

Love Elder Jensen!

Also, a member showed me a picture of some really tasty looking treats! I guess there's some new business starting up called Sweetbuns or something! Everybody should check it out!  

This is me flipping over the two of them a few weeks ago!

Had some fog and did some cooking!

Ate hamburgers!

Drawing a Blank

This week was full of a lot of really great things! I'm not sure what they were though;) I'll start from the beginning of the week and see what I can do! 

Monday we went to a trampoline park for the second time and it was super awesome! I love it there! So much fun to do some fun stuff on a trampoline every once in a while! 

Tuesday night my stomach starting hurting and I woke up twice that night and threw up.. I don't really know why! So I didn't feel too good for Wednesday but Elder Welch had to pack and so I got to rest a bit and I made it through the day just fine and dandy:) By Wednesday night at English class I was feeling a little bit better! 

Thursday I started with my new companion Elder Diepeveen from Lehi! He's already been living with me for the last 3 months. Both of our companions just moved out and they put us together! I'm convinced that I will be companions with everyone from Lehi;) Anyway things have been going really well with him so far! We put the two of our investigator pools together and we now have a group of 6 people with baptismal dates and they are all pretty solid! 

We set a date with Jerry's sister who has been investigating for a while for the end of this month. She has faced some family opposition in the past so we are hoping that we can help overcome that and her baptism will go smoothly! 

Yesterday we also went over to a foster childs home.. She is a member but her caretaker is not. She just took all of the children to be baptized and she takes them to church it is interesting. But there is another one there who is newer and hasn't been baptized yet. We were able to set a date with her as well! She didn't quite understand everything we were saying, she was pretty distracted, but she was really excited to be baptized! 

Lots of little miracles like that and the work is just really taking off here in Xiangshan! I'm super excited for the upcoming weeks! 

Also congrats to Jacob shipp and Nathan Allen on their mission calls.. I was pretty convinced Nathan would be coming here, but Singapore will be awesome too! And by ways of news, four people from Lehi got here this last week. Sister Miller is in my district, but the other 3 are all out who knows where. Hopefully I'll get to see them at some point! 

Oh last exciting thing from this week!! Elder Toronto from the 70 who lives in Beijing spoke in our ward yesterday! THat was pretty lucky for us! He was awesome he shared a lot of things I really liked about the strengthening power of the Atonement! He also taught our Sunday school and that was really cool too! He taught us about agency and how important it is that we are able to make mistakes because they are what allow us to grow and improve! I really liked that. I also learned that in order to learn we have to ask questions. The Lord isn't going to tell us something we aren't searching an answer for, because that is kind of like a parent telling a kid to do something that they don't want to do! Us asking shows we are prepared to listen and then we can receive that answer and apply the answer because it is what we want! I don't know if that makes sense but I liked it! 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! He lives and because He lives we can overcome weakness, disappointment and failure. We can become as He is! 

I love you all! Have a great week:) 

Love Elder Jensen! 

Took this this morning cause I realized I didn't take any pictures this week!

Week of Miracles

This was a crazy week! Last Monday night we met with the man we chased down on the scooter and it turns out that he is super prepared. He accepted a baptismal date of April 2 and he started reading the Book of Mormon and he also came to our baptism this week. He thought it was really great! 

That is the other miracle.. On Tuesday we got a call from Sunny saying that the member that was going to be helping us meet with her (can't meet with women without a adult male there as well) told her he was busy that night and we weren't going to be able to meet with her. I started asking her when the next time we could meet was, probably Thursday or Friday. Well then all of the sudden she said "I was originally thinking I could be baptized tomorrow." I kind of when in to shock;) I knew she'd be baptized but I didn't expect that! So we called our ward mission leader and asked if that was possible and he got to work on that and then we called the district leader, luckily he lives with us and is close, and set up an interview for her that night at 8. She passed her interview and then we got the baptism all set up for Thursday instead of Wednesday! It was a crazy night trying to get all of that figure out and super exciting! It had to be Thursday or she wasn't going to be able to do it until the 19 because next week she has a test and this weekend she wasn't sure if she'd be able to or not. So.. That was a huge miracle!! And she got baptized and she has a fire right now! We've gotten to hear her share her testimony with owners of restaurants, in people's homes, and in sacrament meeting this past week and it is super powerful! There is a lot she still doesn't understand completely but she has a strong testimony of the help the gospel has had in her marriage. She said that she doesn't pray for herself but she knows that we pray for her and her family and she has seen a big change in the way her husband treats her since she has been meeting with us. It is really powerful when she shares that and then adds that us meeting her must have been organized by God and that she has been buddhist for 40 years. It is great because everyone here is buddhist and she understands them all really well and then says that she was too and now she just joined our church! She is awesome! 

That was the highlight of our week! The rest of the week was also pretty good though! On Saturday we hadn't had much success. Hadn't found any new investigators. And we had 15 minutes until we needed to be home. We said a prayer that we'd be able to find someone and then we committed to talk to everyone we passed. If they said hello we were going to quickly talk to them and ask if we could pray for them. The second person we talked to told us he'd come to church before we invited him and then we were able to pray with him and share a little bit and then teach him how to pray and he came to church on Sunday! That was another really wonderful experience from this week. 

This next week is transfers.. I think I'll be staying but I'll be getting a new companion! Should be interesting! I've really enjoyed being companions with Elder Welch. We have learned a lot together and really pushed each other to be better!  

We work hard all of the time and get rejected or stood up multiple times daily, but you never know when you will run in to someone like Sunny who will end up getting baptized. That is what keeps me going! I know that the Lord loves us and is mindful of each of us. He has a perfect plan for each of us. We just have to be willing to follow his will for us. I always thought that that meant if we followed his plan we'd always be happy and never have any problems, but now I think it means he'll help us reach our potential and that is going to take a lot of challenges and trials. 

I love you and miss you all! Hope that you have a blessed week! 

Love, Elder Jensen

Creamy kisses for all of you;)

I made scotcharoos finally they were probably the most delicious thing ever ;)

Baptism!

After church / and confirmation !

Wendy!

Learning the Pipa with Medassy and Jerry. 

Selfies...

Jimmy one of our awesome members!