Another Fantastic Week!

Dear Family & Friends, Another fantastic week in Lichfield, England! The biggest miracle of this week was when Victoria committed to a baptismal date!! We had a fantastic lessons with her about the Plan of Salvation and she agreed to be baptized. She also prayed during the lesson for the first time this week! It was a beautiful prayer. She is now just waiting for a spiritual confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. Please keep her in your prayers!!! Another milestone of the week was our first English lesson!! We got to the house where they lived to walk with them to the chapel where we'd teach them. As we were knocking on the door, one of them came running into the house, sweating from head to toe, holding a bag. As he was dropping off the bag he told us that he was in a big hurry... he had just come from an interview and had another one in Walsall. He had no form of transportation-just his legs. He had ran from his last interview and was running to his next one, which is about a twenty minute drive in the car. It was SO incredibly humbling to see this man who had come thousands of miles away from his family in search of a job, literally running from interview to interview. It made me SO grateful for all the blessings I have! Well, we walked with Eduardo and Armando to the chapel and began the class. (We really had NO idea what we were doing and basically just improv-ed the whole thing... haha). We first started by introducing ourselves and then gave them each a "Placement Test" to see where they were at. Sister Andersen and I sat with Eduardo and the Elders helped Armando. After the placement test we went over some vocabulary words and then asked him questions to make him use English (correcting him along the way and seeing where he needed improvement). We figured out that he can speak pretty well and get his point across but he struggles with understanding people when they talk normally. So we have prepared lesson two and will be teaching it tomorrow at the chapel! Hopefully we'll be able to get more comfortable with it and also find more people to invite to the classes. On Wednesday we had Zone Meeting which was just SO good. I love being in a room with 30 other missionaries. We had been asked to prepare a two minute talk about why we decided to come on a mission. I just had a feeling I would be picked to share mine so I was really trying to think about it before the day of. I pondered and prayed and really couldn't come up with much. Serving a mission was just always something I wanted to do! It didn't really come all the sudden and it wasn't a difficult decision. I recognize and appreciate that for some, deciding to serve a mission is very difficult and it takes a lot of prayer and fasting to figure it out. But I am grateful that for me, the decision to come was a simple one. I still remember singing "I hope they call me on a mission" at age 3, and I genuinely meant those words. For all who are still trying to decide if a mission is for them, my answer to you is this: A mission is NOT for you. Missions have never and will never be for the missionaries. Missions are for all of God's children who have not had the INCREDIBLE blessing and privilege that we have had- that is to have the fullness of the Gospel in our lives. So if you are among that tiny percentage of people who have been chosen and set apart to have the gospel in their lives, stop wondering if a mission is for you, because it's not. It is only a small way that we can show Heavenly Father our gratitude for all He has given us. (Sidenote: This doesn't include Sisters, as serving a mission for girls has always been dependent upon the individual. Those who have been blessed to be sealed in the temple are doing the best missionary work by preparing for and raising righteous posterity!! Our contributions to the furthering of this work come in many different ways and ALL are accepted of the Lord). I sure love my mission and I'm so grateful for the many amazing people who have touched my life in England. There are so many people here that have helped me to feel at home and others who have stretched me out of my comfort zone to help me become better. I know with all my heart that this gospel is true. It is a knowledge that can only be felt, not one that can be proven. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it was restored through the true prophet Joseph Smith. I know that we will all have the opportunity to live together again as eternal families because of the unconditional love of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He is my personal Redeemer! I love this gospel and I love you all for the endless support and love you show me each week! Love, Sister Jensen We have the same family!!!! Cupcakes for the Elders! The lighting of Lichfield for Christmas!

Interesting Week

Dear Family and friends,

Well, it's been an interesting week! Wednesday was my "hump day" which basically means that i'm halfway done and it's all downhill from here! It was Zone Conference that day and Elder Dyches came to speak to us. So, needless to say it was a bit of a difficult day to realize that I only have a short amount of time left. I can't believe how fast time flies! I can remember perfectly what I was doing this time of year last year! How could I forget? This is the month when I received my mission call to Birmingham, England. I can't help but laugh thinking about how I said, "Birming-HAM" and we have it on video! Well, I can bear testimony today that Heavenly Father does know us all perfectly. I know that my mission call was inspired and I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I have met so many incredible people who have impacted my life forever and I know that I will meet more in the coming months. My testimony has grown SO much since this time last year. I KNOW that the atonement is absolutely real. Our Saviour loves us unconditionally and he wants to take away our guilt and shame. But the most important thing I've learned about the atonement has nothing to do with sin. It is that Jesus Christ suffered for our weaknesses and that I can call upon his strength at any time of the day or night. He is always there to help us up. I know that I couldn't do anything in missionary work without Him! 

So, this week we have met some brilliant people! We were in Burntwood doing some finding and we were headed to our dinner appointment but we had a bit of time until we were to arrive there. So we decided to stop into this little flower shop and get a flower for Sister Dracocardos, who was feeding us dinner. Well, we went into the little shop and were the only ones there. We started talking to the owner of the shop and of course she could tell that we weren't from England and she asked the golden question: So what are you doing here? We did our whole spiel on missionary work, etc. She asked us a few more questions, like Do you like it here? Which is the funniest question because everyone asks us and we always answer in the affirmative and they are so surprised. Haha. They can't understand why someone from America would like living in England. Well, anyways, she told us that her name was Kaylee and that her Mum is a Mormon! (YES.) So we asked if we could come back and talk to her more about the gospel! So she said yes- and we'll be seeing her tonight! Also, we begun teaching this lady, Victoria and her two sons. We taught restoration and it went SO well. It was so funny because in the lesson, she just said, "Oh and I'm going to start giving up coffee." Haha, she apparently remembered the word of wisdom and committed to living it even before we asked! We'll be seeing her again tonight as well. 

Roy is doing really well and came to church this week. He is a gem! He's still having a hard time with prayer. But I know that he will get there. Also, Charlie showed up at church this week!!! We weren't even expecting him and he just walked through the door. So that was a very happy moment. We will begin teaching English classes this week to Carlos and Eduardo and we're really excited about that. 

Zone conference was absolutely amazing! Elder Dyches is so cool. He trained us on how to use our time more effectively. I got to play the piano for the meeting so that was also a great opportunity. His wife was a convert to the church and she is incredible as well. It is an exciting time to be a missionary! We're all really looking forward to the coming year and the changes that will happen with our missionary work. Thank you everyone for all your prayers and support! They are felt! I love you all! 

Sister Jensen 

Week of Miracles

Dear Family & Friends! WOW It has definitely been a week of miracles!! It is amazing how things really never go according to plan, because they always go according to God's plan. Well, last week on Friday we GQ-ed into this lady, Brenda. She was super solid but didn't feel comfortable giving us her information but she did tell us that she lived on Morley Road. So we decided, of course, to knock the WHOLE of Morley Road. (Let me add that it is a VERY long road). And so we began! The first day we knocked we did about 20 doors. We were trying to look for signs because we knew she had a german shephard and she lived alone. We were getting to the end of one side of the street and the last house obviously belonged to a family but we decided to knock it anyway. A woman opened the door holding a little boy. She had purple hair, tattoos and piercings. We did our spiel and she told us that she meets with J-dubs (Jehovah's witnesses) but that she would love to have us around. She kept saying how she loved our accents. Haha. So we set up a return appointment with her! So a couple days later, we came back to Burntwood (this is a little town outside Lichfield where all this was happening). We showed up for the appointment with Nikki (purple hair lady) and she wasn't in. So we decided as a back up plan to finish knocking Morley Drive. Well we knocked doors for about an hour and a half (not to mention it was pouring rain), and we were just not having any luck. Out of about 40 doors, we gave away one Book of Mormon. Well we pressed on. We came to one door and we could hear someone behind the door. So we lightly knocked and out came Brenda!!! She told us that we almost missed her and that she was going into Lichfield if we wanted a ride. So we of course accepted and we got to have a little chat with her in the car. We got her phone number and just got to know her a little better. Looking back on how everything worked out, I just know that Heavenly Father was in charge. Had Nikki showed up to her appointment, we would have missed Brenda all together. It was such a testimony builder for me about faith. I had been praying every night since we met her that Heavenly Father would put her in our path again. But he didn't just let her walk past us in the street. We had to exercise our faith by working, by using the knowledge that we had and doing ALL that we could. I know that true faith is exercised not when we are on our knees, pleading, but when we are on our feet working. Well, we also got to go back to Nikki's and got her phone number so we can set up a return appointment with her for sometime this week. We've also been doing some area book finding- basically going through the area book looking for formers or potentials that we could try by again. We found this one lady, Victoria who had been meeting with the Elders pretty consistently before sisters came into Lichfield. She had been on a date before but it didn't happen because she worked on Sundays and couldn't make it to church. Well, we decided to give it a shot. So we knocked on her door, and she answered! She loved us immediately (because we're American) and before we even asked she said we could come by again! So we got a return appointment with her for Monday (tonight). She is super normal, has two boys, and she's SO nice. I can definitely see potential with her! Sister Andersen and I are so excited for this coming week! We've been working really hard to find people to teach and hopefully we will be able to reap our efforts this week and begin teaching and putting people on baptismal dates! Roy is doing really well. We taught him Restoration this week. He told us that he already knows the Book of Mormon is true. The issue is that he just has never prayed before and he said that he's doing all of this 3/4 for his wife, Pat and 1/4 for himself. We really need him to see how it has to be for only him and the Lord. We will continue to pray for him and hopefully the spirit will work on his heart. We are also hopefully going to begin teaching English this week to the spanish lads!! We're going to print out loads of flyers offering free english classes and have Carlos give them out to all the lads at work. Also, this Thursday is Zone Conference and we will be hearing from Elder Dyches! He spoke in General Conference. He will be giving us some training so we are very excited for Thursday! That is about all that is going on right now in the EBM. The weather is definitely getting colder and LOTS AND LOTS of rain. But the spirit in the air is a happy one as Christmas is around the corner! It makes me so excited to be here and to be a missionary at this special time. I am SO thankful for my many many blessings and I love you all so much! Have a great week! XOXO Sister Jensen

Forgot a cool thing!

OH! I forgot one really cool thing that happened this week! So it was an evening and we didn't have an appointment and now that it gets dark so early it's difficult to find productive ways to spend your time since nobody is out to GQ and people get freaked out if you knock on their doors. So, we decided to bake cookies and bring them to our neighbors! So we knocked on the people's door beneath us and a man with his boy answered the door. He introduced himself as Paul and his son, Luca. He was not from England- we could tell straightaway. He said he is from Lima, Peru and he married an English woman barbara and Luca is their son. We stood on their porch and talked for about 30 minutes about England, America, and what we do as missionaries. Paul told us he is Catholic and he has seen Mormons in Peru before. We got to tell him a little bit about what we believe and he took it well. It was SO cool. Hopefully we'll continue to build relationships with them and see what happens!! 

Precious Children!

 Cutest little boy, Jacob

 Annalelise Dracocardos age 5.

Happy Halloween!

Dear Family & Friends, Well, Happy Late Halloween!!! Halloween was basically non-existant here in England! Apparently nobody really celebrates it. Everyone finds it weird that people go door to door asking for sweets.... So that was definitely a let-down!!! We did get a call from the Zone Leaders asking us to be in by six o clock so Halloween night was spent in the flat! Well, as you may know, this week was transfers!!! I am still in Lichfield, but with a new companion, Sister Anderson. She is such a sweetheart! She's 20 years old, from Colorado and we basically have the same family we discovered! She is also the middle child with two brothers on both sides AND her older brother is named Jake! Haha. Well, we get along great and it's going to be a great transfer! Sister Bertha was moved to Swansea, Wales! She was really excited. It was sad saying goodbye but she's on to bigger things! Well it was a really great week!! Our district got moved around a bit as well. We have a new District Leader, Elder Okounghae. He's from London and has been out almost 10 months. He was really nervous about it but is doing a great job so far!! We had some major miracles at church this week with three investigators there!!!! Rachel and her 8-year old daughter Bethany came and they both just really enjoyed it and said they would love to come again next week!!! Also, Roy came to church and stayed for all three hours!!! The Sunday school lesson was perfect as well because it was on Eternal Marriage and Roy came with his wife (they've been married 53 years so it was a great topic!) We're really excited about these next couple months. We met with a member of the bishopric, brother Mace and went through the entire ward list and found some more LA's that we can go and visit. Also, I don't remember if I told you already but these three spanish lads came to England for work a couple weeks ago. Carlos is originally from Equador (a lamanite!!!- he's already a member of the church) and is living with the Bishop for now. Then there's two others that are living with Pauline. One of them, Eduardo is religous and we've decided to start teaching them all English while introducing Eduardo to the church! We are REALLY excited to begin working with him!!! Some good things will be happening this transfer! We're really excited to buckle down and do the Lord's work! Well, I just want you all to know that if there's anything I've learned on my mission it is that Heavenly Father is involved in the smallest details of our lives! If you haven't seen his hand in your life today, pray that your eyes will be opened and then look for it because I promise you that it is. He is very aware of you and loves you SO much! I know that He lives and that He is watching out for us day by day... We can show our love for Him by the way we live! I know that obedience brings happiness! I love you all SO much!!!! Love, Sister Jensen

My New Companion!

 New companion Sister Anderson from Colorado!