Aaron's Baptism

Aaron's Baptism.

Phone Booths

 Sister Bertha and I stuck in phone booth.

Looks delish!

Be Diligent and have Faith

Dear Family & Friends, What a week! Lets start with the highlights from this week!! Friday: Zone Meeting and Interviews!!! Zone Meeting was SOO good. I love our Zone Leaders, Elder Steel and Elder Eppel. We began the meeting by having a personal study of Mosiah when Abinidi is talking to King Noah and his priests. Abinidi cried repentance to the people for a LONG time and was rejected. Eventually he was murdered for his testimony. He didn't see the fruit of his labors. But one person believed his testimony and from there went on to baptize hundreds of people! From this story I really came to appreciate that Heavenly Father works miracles through small means. I am only one person and maybe my contribution isn't as big as someone else's but I do have faith that Heavenly Father will be able to use me to accomplish his purposes as I am obedient. For the remainder of Zone Meeting, we concentrated on 3 things: 1.Setting apart 2 hours of finding every day 2.Asking for Return appointments in every finding situation 3. Finding and teaching in unity. We role played teaching someone in our companionship and switching off every line to say something. It was hard! and you really have to trust and have faith in your companion. But when you get the hang of it, it is really powerful. Interviews with President went so well! It is always a treat to be able to spend a few minutes with him, one on one. He is an incredible man. I am always amazed at how well he knows me. Saturday: Aaron's baptism!!! So, we were really worried about Aaron's baptism, because he has been on a date before and has not followed through with it. He sent us a text on Friday night saying that his Mum might have bowel cancer. We immediately sent out a prayer request to the Zone for Aaron and his family, that his Mum would be alright and that he would have the strength to move forward with his baptism. For most of the day, everything was going well. We went to the chapel at 4 to begin filling up the font and his baptism was scheduled for 6 o clock. At about 4:30 we got a call from him saying that he couldn't go through with it because he was just under too much stress, etc... We persuaded him to come to the chapel right away to get a priesthood blessing from the Elders. He got there around 5:00 and received a blessing from Elder Alejandre. It was a powerful blessing and after it was finished, Aaron said, "Wow! I feel so much lighter! Well I guess there's no point in letting all that water go to waste!" Haha it was a MIRACLE. I was so grateful for the power of the priesthood. So, we had to rummage around the chapel to find Aaron some whites and a suit jacket and somehow it all came together in the end! It was so cool. He just kept telling us how much lighter he felt as if a burden had been taken off his back. I knew that it was the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am amazed at how far-reaching the atonement is. If we will only come unto Christ, he will take those burdens off our backs. Well, the rest of the week has been filled with finding and visiting LA's! We are really working hard to find new people to teach but are struggling. Please pray this week that we will find people to teach. :) I know that as we are diligent and have faith, we will find people! Thank you for your prayers and support! I love you all. Sister Jensen

New companion

New Companion, Sister Bertha!

Missionary Service!

 Doing service for our Ward Mission Leader family, the Pullen's.

 The Pullen's. 

Elder Alejandra and Leal.  Leal is from Shelly, Idaho.

Transfers!

Dear Family & Friends, It has been such a crazy week!!! Saying goodbye to Notts4 was soooo hard. I really have grown to love the people there and I will miss them like crazy. Tuesday before transfers we were running around like crazy trying to say goodbye to everyone, teaching lessons and having coordination. I was feeling really nervous and unsettled about leaving my first area and I was lucky enough to get a blessing from my WML (Brother Thomas). I am so thankful for the priesthood! It made all the difference and I was able to get a good night's rest. I also had to pack that night and it was nuts. I think I'm going to have to purchase another bag when I come home because I'm already accumulating so many things! Haha. Just kidding, I'll probably just throw away all my clothes before I come home to make room... :) So on Wednesday morning we woke up and got ready for transfers. The Thomas' picked us up and brought us to the train station where we headed to the mission office. We got there around 10:45 and then spent most of the afternoon just chatting with other missionaries, waiting for everyone to get there so we could leave. Transfers are always hectic! I was nervous to meet my companion, Sister Bertha, but I was excited as well! We met at transfers and we got along great, right from the start. She is from San Diego, California and she is SO much fun! She is full of energy and she is so bubbly. She looks a lot like Logan Moffat, haha but her voice sounds like Aunt Holly. It's really funny! So being around her is like a little taste of home. :) She is fantastic. She has been out for 6 weeks so I am follow-up training her. She's basically trained though already. She is a great missionary. Around 4:00 we finally made our way back to the flat in Lichfield. I got situated and got some groceries and then we went out finding that night. It's a beautiful area! There is this MASSIVE cathedral in the center of town that apparently people come from all over to see it. I've only seen the outside of it, but it is beautiful! I think we will go and see the inside of it in a couple of weeks. My District Leader is Elder Alejandre. He is amazing! He is from spain and has the thickest spanish accent. He talks to us in spanish sometimes. We are also so lucky to have a senior couple in our District, The Hiltons. They're from St. George, UT, and they are so sweet. We are in the process of finding people to teach right now, as Sisters just came into this area last transfer so it is still pretty new. We're going to put together a musical fireside (just using the same program from Notts 4) to teach the restoration! Haha, pretty soon all of England will experience musical firesides :) I'm hoping to teach the first 3 lessons from PMG through musical firesides this transfer. We have some very musically talented people in the Lichfield ward so hopefully it'll turn out great. Everyone has been buzzing about the British Pageant that just concluded. I wish we could have gone! I keep hearing how amazing it was. A few of the apostles were there on the closing night to watch it. I don't think they'll be doing it again next year but they said maybe in a couple of years, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm in the process of getting to know the members so we went by this one lady Pauline Jarvis a couple of nights ago. She's probably in her 80's and isn't very mobile but she is still so full of spunk! She was crackin' me up. She has one of those lifts that takes you up the stairs. I asked her if I could use her bathroom and she said that yes I could but she told me I had to take her lift up the stairs. It was so funny. We're going to do some service for her this coming week. Last night after church we went to the Peacock family for dinner. They are an older couple, all their kids have moved out. The mom is from Glascow, Scotland and the Dad is from England. I love Scottish accents :) They are beautiful! I was wondering where Grandpa Jensen served in Scotland, because there are quite a few scottish people in England! Well, if there is one thing that I really learned this week, it is the importance of reaching outside ourselves to serve others! I think I am only just barely beginning to see that. It can be difficult to lose yourself in the service of others because humans are very selfish creatures! But it's amazing the happiness that you can find when you are focusing outward instead of inward. There are SO many opportunities to serve around us! As I am realizing this, I am also recognizing so many things that I wish I would have done when I was home. One thing I would love to do differently and I would challenge you to do as well is to think of those people in your ward or community who are maybe lonely or who need a helping hand. Go visit them! Instead of taking your 3 hour Sunday nap, get out and visit someone! You will be blessed and so will they! Why doesn't Heavenly Father just come down and help each one of us out personally? He is capable of it. But when we help someone else, 2 people benefit from it! I LOVE that! It's so true. We can be the answer to someone's prayer. I hope that you will all look around you and at least go visit ONE person this week who you know is in need of some company. I promise you will have a good experience! I love you all SO much and I am so thankful for all that you do for me!!! The church is true!!!!!!!!!! Love, Sister Jensen <3

Last Week in Notts4

Dear Family & Friends, Man, it has been such a bittersweet week! I will most likely be transferred this Wednesday. I will find out tonight during "dodge calls" where I am going! :( It has been a pretty harsh reality, and I'm not ready for my time here to end! I have grown to love all the people here and it will be so hard to say goodbye. This week we had Zone Conference which was just amazing. We learned about how to center our lives on Jesus Christ. President is such a powerful man. It was great learning from him. I also got to talk to Sister Rasmussen for a while. She is my hero! I am amazed at her selfless service. She does so much for us missionaries. One change was made in our mission as the work is moving forward! As of August 7th, all missionaries will now have texting! YEAH!!! This week we met SO many people! Notts 4 is booming and I'm sad I won't be here to see it grow. There are so many people that have been placed in our paths who are ready for the restored gospel. We taught Donna and Eddy on Thursday and while we were there, their friend Athe came inside and we were able to teach her as well and get a return appointment. On Friday, Sister Merrill went to the training meeting in Birmingham and I went on splits with Sister Thomson in Derby. It was great being in a different area. Derby is probably 20 minutes by train from Nottingham and they're basically competing cities. Haha, it's kind of funny. Anyways, we did a lot of finding that day and also taught a couple of lessons. On Saturday, our Sister Training Leaders came to our area. IT WAS AMAZING! I love being able to learn from experienced Sisters in the mission. We did a ton of finding and we found some AWESOME people to teach! Sister LeFever and I were walking on High Road in Beeston and I saw this lady standing outside a shop with her dog which was a Jack Russell terrier. I went up and started talking to her about her dog and told her I used to have one as well. We just got talking about everything and then her husband walked out of the shop and started talking to us as well. I love when you can talk to someone and it's so natural! She eventually just asked us what we were doing in England and we started to talk about the church. She told us that she has 2 teenage daughters and she feels as if they have been missing something in their family. I talked to her about how having the gospel in my life has helped me to have high standards and to get through the teenage years. I could tell that she really felt the spirit of our message. I asked her if we could come by next week and see her family and she said yes! So we set up a time for next Friday and it wasn't until I was walking away that I realized I won't even be there! Later that day, Sister Turnbow and I taught Emma (Chinese RC) and at the end of the lesson I asked if she thought any of her friends would be interested. She referred us to her friend, Flora and gave us her address. On Sunday we stopped by and she let us inside! She is SO amazing!!! She told us that she has always believe in God but in China everyone believes in Buddha. It was such a testimony to me that everyone KNOWS there is a God, they have just forgotten that they know. All we do as misisonaries is remind people about what they already know. She said she wants to learn more about God and have a relationship with Him. We talked to her about how God is her loving Heavenly Father and that he has a body. We told her that she can live with him someday if she does certain things on earth. Normally we would teach the Restoration on the first lesson, but we just felt like she would benefit more from lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After we were done teaching her, she just smiled and thanked us. She said, "Nobody has every told me these things before. Thank you." Ah. It was incredible. I'm really sad I will have to leave her, but I know she is in GREAT hands with Sister Merrill. Looks like the weather at home is really nice! We had a couple of rainstorms this week. The weather here is SO deceiving! Every day I think it looks like good weather, so I leave my rain jacket at home and then we get caught in the rain. Yesterday, we were walking from one appointment to the other and it started downpouring. We were walking on the pavement and a car drove past us and all the water from his tires flew at us. Needless to say, we were drenched. I felt like I was in one of those car insurance commercials. Haha. The appointment we were going to flogged us so we started knocking doors on the street. We met one guy and got a return appointment with him and he lent us his brolly, (umbrella.) As we walked away, we were like, "Sweet, leverage! He has no choice but to meet with us again" Haha. So, just a funny story from this last P-day that you might enjoy... So we usually grocery shop at (now) Costco, Tesco, and Sainsburys...which are fairly normal prices, (except at saving $$ Costco! Woot!), and everyone raves about this place, ALDI (which is a german chain), because it is mad cheap, and everyone loves it! So we thought we'd give it a try. Two Words: N E V E R A G A I N ! Let me tell you about our funny, and made the day so much better, because I have never laughed so hard in my entire life experience. So we went, and we try to get a trolley, but they are all locked up with chains connecting one to the other. What grocery store locks up their trolleys? So we see a pile of baskets, and figure, we'll just use the baskets...fine, its annoying, but whatever. We grab a basket, and when we walk in we see a trolley....in completely open space, no one is around it, it is completely empty, and well....we need one, so we take it, and continue shopping. About three minutes later, this lady walks up to us, and asks (mind you..she is yelling, actually yelling) "EXCUSE ME, DID YOU TAKE THIS TROLLEY FROM OVER THERE?!" Sister Merrill: (very candidly) Yes. This woman, FLIPPED OUT, She yelled "THAT'S MINE! I PUT MY POUND IN IT!" She grabbed the trolley, and walked off. Uhhhhh....what?! She put her pound in the trolley? Sister Merrill and I were so confused, and couldn't help but laugh. Whatever. We later came to find out, that you have to pay for your trolley...you put a pound in the trolley and it releases from the line. Really England? Anyway, we laughed even harder when we realized what this lady meant by "putting her pound in it" we legitimitely thought she placed a pound and it fell through...and whatever....we thought SHE was the stupid one, someone was going to jack her trolley AND her pound! hahahaha. Anyway, we get our food, which isn't even impressive, sure it is cheap, but it is also ghetto! And then when we were done, and were checking out, we already knew that here in England, they don't bag your food, haha. But they'll usually offer to give you a bag so you can bag your food. After we paid, we awkwardly stood there, we asked if we could get some bags and the cashier said "That will be 3p!" Uh...? WHAT? You have to BUY your trolleys AND your bags? What is this place? haha. Sure, it is only 3p! But still!!! We bot some bags and quickly left...We held the line up long enough. Sister Merrill and I had quite a laugh, but we will probably never shop at Aldi again! Haha. Well, I love you all so much! Thank you for your constant prayers and love. They are felt! Love, Sister Jensen