Monday, April 25, 2016

Temple

Last week was a great week! We got the opportunity to attend the temple twice! Once for our preparation day and once with our ward for ward temple day because we brought Sunny to do baptisms!! 

I am still here in Xiangshan with  Elder Diepeveen. Neither of us moved and so we are looking forward to another great transfer here! We have so many people that are so close to being able to be baptized, and they really want to but they are younger than 20 and need parent or guardian permission. So we are really working to get that! It's hard cause neither of them have parents here in Xiangshan. 

Hmm.. So we went to the temple on Tuesday and then we had our end of the transfer English party on Wednesday! It was a lot of fun! We have some fun English students! I'm having a hard time remembering anything that happened this week! The highlight was probably Sunny again! She is absolutely amazing. She bought us some really good pie a few times this week and then she bought pie for a member in the ward and an investigator and came with us to give it to them! One night we ate dinner with her at 5 pm and then went over to her house to grab the pie to bring to people, and she had told us she had this neighbor with 7 kids and that is like unheard of so Elder Welch and I had already knocked their door and they said no, but then when she told us they had 7 kids we went back and knocked again and also had no success. Well that night I was like, it's been a while lets go knock again! And this time the mom came out! Before it had been the dad or kids! And now the mom is a new investigator and Sunny came with and became her friend and it was awesome!! And then the rest of the night Sunny came around with us to each of our lessons and helped us! She is providing people for us to teach making friends with all of the people we were already teaching and just all around killing it! We are super super grateful for her! And we think her husband will be taking the lessons soon! He asked us a few questions the other day.. It's coming! 

And then the next day we went to the temple with Sunny for her to do baptisms! She is pretty afraid of the water! But she still did it no problem and she said that the temple had a really special feeling. A lot different than other places! She really liked it! 

Then on Sunday Sunny spoke in church and shared some awesome experiences about prayer and helping us with our lessons and going to the temple and it was really moving and the investigator we had there that Sunny had just chatted with all about her conversion is now very interested! 

Hahaha lots of Sunny.. Great week! We had a lot of fun! We are really making an emphasis to find families to teach right now! We want to help families really bad! 

I know that this gospel has really blessed me and my family! It has blessed every aspect of our lives! It's such a great message and it really changes people! I love seeing people as they learn and grow and change! It's such a special opportunity to be here and time is precious. I'm really grateful for another six weeks to spend here in Xiangshan with all of the wonderful friends we've made here! 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week!! Take care.

Love Elder Jensen!

Temples and English Class



  That first picture is me... Think it might be one of my favorites in Taiwan!  Also Elder Marks getting ready to head home! Crazy....







Monday, April 18, 2016

Egg

This week was a great week! I'll share a few highlights with you! 

Monday we went to that trampoline park again! I always love it there! 

Tuesday and Wednesday I have no idea what happened;) Just English class and district meeting and the usual stuff!

Thursday Elder Marks came on exchanges with me in Xiangshan to do An An's baptismal interview! It was a lot of fun to get to be with my trainer for one last time! He goes home this week! Also earlier in the day An An's caretaker called and told us not to go for the interview but we decided to just go anyway and do the interview even though she might not let her be baptized right away! An An passed the interview with flying colors and is looking forward to being baptized on May 1st. 

Then Egg! Egg got baptized on Saturday!! It was super awesome! Throughout teaching her she never had any problems or questions and just kind of accepted everything we taught her. We kinda worried that she didn't really care and was just kinda doing it to do it, but after she was baptized she got up and bore a really moving testimony and shared how grateful she was to have been able to learn about God and be baptized. Then she started crying! Pretty great! 

Sunday she was confirmed and it's now all official! 

Sunny continues to be super awesome! She did some wonderful things for us this week! She fed us lunch at a pretty nice restaurant twice throughout the week and she brought food for dinner on Sunday for us! She is always taking care of us and I'm not going to complain;) We love her! She also came to An An's with us last night and helped us figure out all of the caretakers concerns so we could get that all worked out! She just talked with her in a way that really helped her relax about being baptized and I don't know, it's hard to explain but it was awesome! 

Then the other highlight was coming home from church on Sunday! We met that couple Sister Li and Brother You a few weeks ago but for like a week and a half they haven't been answering our phone calls and we were really worried about them! Well as we rode by where they live we ran into Brother You outside and it was the best!!! He said that they have just been super super busy lately.. They are working 4 jobs between the two of them! But they still really want to come to church and meet with us so that is good! We got to meet with them for a few minutes that night and it was wonderful to see them again! I'll send a picture they're the best! 

And that is about the sum of our week! Sorry it's a little short this week! It was a really good week! Also this week is transfers and Elder Diepeveen and I have both been here the same amount of time.. We think one of us may move but we have no idea! We'll see! We'll find out tomorrow. I'll let you know next week! 

Hahaha we woke up at 3 this morning to email before going to the temple! Wish us luck the rest of the day.. I'm already feeling a little funky;) 

Have a wonderful week! 

Love Elder Jensen!

Trampoline 


Elder Marks

Love

Baptism 

Two awesome investigators. 

Li and You

An An and Wan Xun

Some people that told us they had homework to talk to foreigners!

The district. 

Monday, April 11, 2016

Conference

This week felt kind of like a blur! We had an awesome training on using charity and the Savior's pattern of teaching to really help our investigators and I loved that! Then I went on exchanges with Elder Lindahl. We had a good time and we saw a ton of success! We were down in Zhunan and we went to this college and a few people let us into their dorms and we sat down and taught them. It was pretty weird to me to be in their dorms.. But we found quite a few people that are going to continue meeting with them. 

And then we just went out and tried to meet with the people we needed to meet with and get the work done we needed to! It was a lot of fun! On Monday night we found a Mother and her daughter and we met with them yesterday. The mother really likes to talk so we had a hard time sharing a lesson with her but I feel like the gospel can really help them and she's really willing to meet so hopefully we can get their whole family progressing! 

We also have Brother Zhong an 18 year old we named Jarom and he's completely ready to be baptized but his mom won't let him. Here you have to be 20 to sign for yourself on stuff like that. He texted us last week and told us he really wants to be baptized and get the priesthood because God is always helping him and he wants to share that help with others. So that was a pretty cool thing to say.. I love him! 

In other news Egg passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized this Saturday! She is super cool and doing pretty well! She's got two less active friends and if we can get them all coming to church every week I think they'll all be super solid! 

Another highlight of the week was conference! It was super super good! I loved all of the talks! I felt like each one spoke about something that I could use! Really cool to see all the emphasis the church is putting on Families and the Priesthood and of course the Atonement I loved it all! Learned a ton! 

I especially loved the talks on forgiveness, humility, and the last talk by Elder Holland. I feel like a lot of times you hear all of the things they talk about and feel on top of the world but then go to apply it and it's harder than you thought it would be and soon all the excitement to grow, improve, and change is replaced by small failures and disappointment. I learned from his talk that that is okay and that if I'm patient I will be able to make those changes and overcome weaknesses!

And then the last highlight is that last night the AP's called and told us we had interviews this morning! President Jergensen is super super great and I loved our interview! He said the perfect things to help me continue to learn and grow as a missionary! I'm so excited to go out and apply the vision he's shared of this great work!

Also today we will be hanging out with a member that just came back for the week from BYUI He is pretty cool so we are excited about that. 

I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all and miss you! Take care! Be safe! Continue to feast on the words of the Lord and his Prophets! 

Also next week we are going to the temple so we will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday! 

Much love, Elder Jensen
~簡長老 

Jerry

Rice fields

Dinner

Monday, April 4, 2016

China

This was a really good week I think! It's all kind of a blur! Nothing as crazy as last week but still really solid. We were able to meet with the couple Shelly and you a few times last week and we taught them the word of wisdom and they committed to live it so that was really exciting! They didn't make it to church yesterday though so they will not make the baptismal date of the 16th! That is okay though they really like the message and they are working hard to live in accordance with the teachings of the gospel! I think they will get there:) I don't know how to describe them.. They just work together and have a great unity that is not seen very often! They are super young too and just working hard and trying to be happy! Pretty special group! Last time we were able to talk on Saturday Shelly still hadn't had any coffee or tea which when we shared on Thursday she said she loved! Super cool! 

Hmm.. The investigator Egg is still on track to be baptized on her birthday next week! Looking forward to that! She is great! Also An An is doing super well!

Lets see here.. This week was the first time I haven't worn a coat since like December and it was really nice! Also really really hot already! Crazy how fast the weather changes like that! 

Now I will tell you about China! Most of the people that I have met from China have been extremely prepared! Well we met this girl on Tuesday and she was extremely prepared and from China. We were in this store and she came in and started calling Elder Diepeveen tall and super handsome! Hahaha she called him extremely handsome a good number of times;) But we just pretend like we don't understand and keep talking;) Anyway we set her up to meet with us again in 2 hours and when we went back she was sitting there waiting for us. We sat down with a member and her and we were talking and she was starting to say he was handsome again and I was getting worried that she didn't have any interest in the gospel and just thought Elder Diepeveen was the most attractive person she'd ever seen. Well shortly after that she suddenly said 'What are you guys here sharing? Tell me everything" We then were able to share the whole first lesson with her and it went incredibly well! She would stop us and ask questions if she didn't understand (Which hardly ever happens) and she'd listen and then say okay keep going and it was super cool! Then at the end of the lesson she accepted a baptismal date and said if she knew it was true of course she'd be baptized. She also told us that she felt like we had shared quite successfully! I've never had an investigator evaluate our teaching before, it was pretty cool! 

That was pretty much our week! Except for yesterday a member in our ward brought a sister moving here from Taibei to church. She has a friend there that is a member but she is not. She seemed quite interested! Super great to see the excitement and help of the ward continue to grow! It has been amazing. The mission started emphasizing working with the members and we have suddenly seen miracle after miracle finding investigators through the ward! I'm still learning how to do it but so far it is going really well! 

Also just wanted to say congrats to Brinn! She is killing it in track so far! Don't let it get to your head;) 

I have been reading some chapters in the Book of Mormon that are about the Savior and it has been really interesting! For some reason I never realized how much each of the chapters in the Book of Mormon is about Christ until I had preach my gospel tell me;) But it is true! There are so many powerful verses about him! I love it! I love the Book of Mormon! I know that it is true and that it brings blessings into our lives.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love Elder Jensen!! 

The bikes we've been riding in Zhunan. They are tiny!