My testimony of Missionary work.

I think that as Latter-day Saints we have become confused with what missionary work is. It isn't about knocking doors all day or talking to people in the streets. It's not even about going out teaching with the missionaries or going on a full-time mission yourself. Missionary work is ALL about invitation and love. Missionary work is not just for those who are not members of the church. It is for every single person on the earth. It is about working together to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End! This is our purpose as members of the family of God. A key word in that purpose is "receive." What does it mean to receive something? Well if I were to write you a card and give it to you, would you just take it and throw it on the counter and leave it there forever? I hope not! To receive something means that we read it, that we really take it in and that we ACT. Many of us have received the restored gospel in our lives. We have exercised faith unto repentance and we have been baptised as a witness that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and always remember him and keep his commandments. We have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and we are striving to endure to the end.  The gospel of Jesus Christ enables us to use these principles as a rewarding pattern of living. We should be constantly exercising faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repenting, partaking of the Sacrament, and striving to keep the Spirit in our lives. This would be Ideal. But, human nature sometimes gets in the way of idealism and we sometimes get stuck at the beginning, middle, or end of the pattern. Some may be struggling to have faith in the Saviour. Others may be stuck in the process of repentance. Maybe someone you visit teach hasn't been coming to church for a while and therefore is missing out on the renewal that comes from partaking the sacrament. Or perhaps there is a mature sister in the ward that just lost her husband and is struggling to "endure to the end." Wherever we may be in our individual progress, each of us needs the support of one another. This is where missionary work comes in. We fulfill our missionary responsibilities as we invite others to come unto Christ! We can do this in many different ways. We can visit that sister in the ward who hasn't been to church in a while and invite her to come and sit with us. We can invite that friend who we've known for a long time to come and see what Christ can do for them. Maybe our invitation will be more simple. Maybe it will come through acts of service to those who are in need. As others see our light and goodness, they will want to partake as well! Invite the missionaries over to your home for a meal or maybe even invite them to use your home as a place for investigators to be taught. Whatever your invitation may be, you need not be afraid. Remember the Lord's promise that says, "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you to bear you up." I know that that promise is real. As we go about this great work, always remember that we are standing shoulder to shoulder with the world's greatest and most perfect missionary. Of this I know and testify. 

Fastest week of my life!

So, the time has come....

It has been the fastest week of my life and I really don't even know what to say! Yesterday at church the ward all sang a welsh farewell song to me. I'm not sure what it's called... something like "we'll keep a welcome in the hillside" I was such an emotional mess! Not to mention that 4 of the less actives we've been working with came to church yesterday and Heather made it as well!! It was such a wonderful last Sunday. I have a permanent swarm of butterflies that seem to have taken a lodge in my stomach and a prayer of gratitude for my loving Heavenly Father. What can one say to summarize 18 of the best months of their life? It's funny how we think we have our life planned out and we think we know what we want. I thought I wanted to get married young, jump right into life. I thought I was ready for that. And of course, Heavenly Father knew better. In His most gentle and beautiful way, he has helped me to learn the lessons that will prepare me for the next phases of my life. It reminds me of one of my favourite songs. It goes like this:

All i've ever wanted

All i've ever dreamed of

Everything I hoped

And all the things I prayed for

Couldn't hold a candle

To what I've been given

I've been given what I need

A mansion on a hill

Or love like in the movies

Perfect little dreams

Where no one has a problem

Instead of all those things

I thought I really wanted

I've been given what I need

Even when I didn't understand

When I thought you had no heart

Thank you for rejecting my demands

And always giving me the better part

All i've ever wanted

All i've ever dreamed of

Everything I hoped

And all the things I prayed for

Couldn't hold a candle

To what I've been given

I've been given what I need

From that day on October 6th, 2012, my life has been changed. But even more than that, through the grace of my Saviour, Jesus Christ, I have been changed. It hasn't been an easy ride. I never expected that it would be. But it has been the best. I have grown to love this land and these people with all my heart. It is so much more difficult to leave this home than it was to leave my home of Eagle, Idaho. But I know that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan awaiting for me to discover. I will face the future with faith, because I know that He will keep His promises. Thank you to all of you for coming on this journey with me and supporting me all the way. I love each one of you so much and I am so looking forward to our joyous reunion on Wednesday. (Although for me it will be Thursday 4 am.) Haha.

I would like to close with my testimony. I KNOW that our Heavenly Father lives and that he loves each and every one of his children. We are precious to Him. He is aware of even the tiniest details in our lives and He intends for us to be happy. Sometimes he sends trials our way but He always knows that they will be for our benefit and that if we let them, they will make our hearts more tender. I know that through his infinite and encompassing love for us, He wanted the absolute best for us. He wanted us to join with Him in His joy. So, he made a perfect plan in which we could become like Him and find everlasting peace and happiness. Central to this plan is our perfect brother, Jesus Christ. He offered himself a sacrifice for OUR sins. He came to the earth and He did the will of the Father. He was perfectly obedeient, perfectly charitable. In the most loving act of all eternity and all eternities to come, He performed the atonement in our behalf. He triumphantly rose from the grave and I know that He lives! And because He lives, all of us can live together forever with our families. These incredible blessings are conditional upon our obedience. I know that obedience=happiness. There is NO other formula. There is no other way. The way is through Jesus Christ. He is our example. I stand all amazed at His love that He profers me. I am eternally grateful for my loving Heavenly Father, for never giving me what I wanted, but for always giving me everything I need. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Our last lunch with Sister Stapley and Rasmussen.

Sister Stapley, Jensen, Rasmussen, Leiss, Burch.

Final Exchange!

Dear Family & Friends,

So this email will probably be really lame, and I'm sorry about that! Haha. We are leaving to go to Cardiff soon to look for a carry-on bag! It's been a wonderful week and kinda crazy as well. Monday night we went to teach Judith but she wasn't there :( So we did some tracting around the area. Tuesday morning we had to leave early to train into Birmingham to go pick up the car. We got there at about 12:30 and we got to have a nice chat with President. Sister Rasmussen also took us out to lunch! It was great to spend time with her. We always talk about Eagle together :) Haha. But then we feel bad because it leaves my companion out of the conversation so we have to stop. We went out to eat at a place called Tinseltown which is an American restaurant. They had big televisions set up with music videos playing and pictures of celebrities all over the walls. After we left, Sister Stapley and I were talking about how AWFUL we felt in there! It was so weird and felt so worldly. I kinda felt like I understood what it would be like to be a celestial being living in a telestial world. (Not saying i'm celestial by any means!!) It was strange though and kinda freaked me out about coming home. Well, we didn't make it back to Blackwood till about 6:30 that night and we had a lesson with a lady called Beverly. She is so cute! We met her in week 1. She's a mum of a 5 year old boy, but her partner and her aren't married. WE had a really good lesson with her and he little boy loves us! Before we came, she told us he said, "Mum, when will my lovely ladies be here? I just love them." haha He's so cute! AFter beverly we came in for the night.Wedensday was coordination and district meeting. We had a lesson with two potentials Mike and Jean. We met Mike last week and he said we could come back. His wife joined in on the lesson as well! They are in their 70's and the NICEST couple. It was such a powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong. Jean told us at the beginning that she didn't believe in anything but she would listen. Her heart totally softened. At the end of the lesson, Mike was just sitting there, looking really in awe. He said, "I just can't describe what it is, but there's something coming from you both. You just have something about you, I don't know what it is! The only word I can think of is clean, but that's not really it either..." Then his wife said, "Yes, I can see it too. It's incredible, and I envy you both!" Haha, IT was so cool. It's amazing that the light of Christ is visible in people. If you have the spirit with you, people will be able to see it; and that comes from righteous living. It was a powerful experience for everyone involved.

This week we also had exchanges. I got to go to Merthyr Tydfil with Sister Appleby. I was happy to have my final exchange done! It was fun though and I love getting to know other sisters. Sunday we got to teachthe youth in Sunday School and it was pretty difficult to get them to participate. Haha. It was a beautiful sabbath though and I was very grateful for the opportunity to bear my testimony for the final time in Britain. :'( I also got my flight plans on Saturday and I refused to open the envelope for about forty five minutes after we came in. I burst into tears as soon as I saw what it was. Everything is starting to feel so surreal. I'm just really happy I still have one week left in this beautiful country and I'm excited to give it all I've got. I love you so much family and will speak to you in a week!

xxxxx

Sister Jensen

 Ted Heathers Dog

 Sister Applebee

Sister Leis, Applebee, Jensen, Stapley

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are, it's almost August! I can't believe it. It's been a lovely week, and VERY warm! We've had to take some breaks in the shade so we didn't get heat stroke! The work here continues to progress very slowly but we are doing our best with what we've got! We got some good news yesterday. Right at the start of personal study, President called and informed us that we will be getting a car for the next two weeks and that we should come pick it up from the mission office on Tuesday! So you can imagine we are pretty excited about that. This means we can get places SO much faster and we can get so much more done!

This week was full of a LOT of tracting. We had a lesson on Tuesday with Heather and we took a recent convert called Ceri with us. She is 22 yrs old and she LOVED it. She told us afterward that she has been thinking about serving a mission and solidified her desire.

This week we also discovered a couple new parts of our area. It's SO MASSIVE! If it was in Idaho or Utah you could probably fit 5 stakes inside of it. Haha. We went to two areas, once called Abercarn and the other is called Crosskeys. Abercarn turned out to be a really successful area and we found a new investigator called, Owen. He is so cool! He's probably in his late twenties. We knocked his door and his wife answered. She said her husband would be interested but he wasn't home at the minute. So we continued knocking the street and by the time we made our way back, he had come home and was leaving again to take the dog out for a walk. He stopped us and asked us about the Book of Mormon we left at his house! He told us that he is super open and he loves learning about other faiths. He said that he will give anything a try and he wouldn't be one to say that he knows everything. One of my favourite things he said was that he doesn't want to be like a Pharisee in the time of Christ, who saw Him before their eyes and all they wanted to do was kill Him. We went back the next day to teach him and it was mostly just answering his questions. He asked us what was up about all the "mormon stereotypes" and wanted to hear from us what the truth is. He's so cool! We have a lot of faith in him and we'll be seeing him more this week as well.

We also met a lady called Judith. She was in our area book as a former investigator, who had only been taught once, and her record had no reason for why she was dropped. So we stopped by her and she let us in! She's super interesting... In a good way! She is really into health and natural foods and medicines and she's working on writing a book about it right now. She also has a super strong faith in God. She told us that she is just always thinking about God and how she wants to please Him and her whole life work is just to help people. So we're excited to teach her again tonight after P-day.

This Sunday was a lovely meeting! We got a new bishopric and the Bishop was released and called in the Stake. So there are some fun changes going on in the ward and I think we may be getting a new ward mission leader as well.

I have been thinking a lot about compassion this week. I'd like to share an experience I had this week as we were tracting. It was in the early afternoon and we had just begun knocking a street. The first person who opened the door said his name was Ray, and he said, "Oh wow, they've got sisters now!" So we knew he knew who we were. We asked him how he knew about us and he said that his son used to meet with the Elders. He then told us that his son had passed away about a year ago, as he was cycling on the street and was hit by a car. He seemed in control of his emotions as he was telling us and we offered our sympathy. We tried to turn the conversation to the gospel and asked him about his personal beliefs. He said that he did believe in God but he didn't feel he believed in him enough to ever commit to a faith. Well, he continued speaking, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. I noticed his lip start to tremble and he hastily reached out to hug me. (Missionaries really aren't supposed to hug the opposite gender), but the spirit constrained me from doing anything about it. I hugged him back, and as I did, I could feel his body slightly trembling. It was only a quick hug but filled with so much emotion. He said that he had to go, apologised, and then went inside. I think I was so shocked by what had happened that as we walked away, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. I felt so much compassion and love toward this stranger, and just wished I could so something to help him. We agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate for us to go back and try to give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet but we would go back soon.  The dictionary describes compassion as: a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” I searched the subject of compassion on lds.org and found this as well:  "Compassion motivates us to give service to the poor and needy. When we follow Jesus’ example and serve those who suffer, they receive relief and blessings. But those who serve also receive blessings of joy, happiness, fulfillment, and even forgiveness (see Mosiah 4:26). If we are to be like Jesus, the service we give others must be motivated by the pure love of Christ. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve taught:“Even the most extreme acts of service—such as giving all of our goods to feed the poor—profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ”

I hope and pray that each of us can find someone to reach out to in compassion this week; to share that pure love of Christ with our brothers and sisters.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Almost August

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, here we are, it's almost August! I can't believe it. It's been a lovely week, and VERY warm! We've had to take some breaks in the shade so we didn't get heat stroke! The work here continues to progress very slowly but we are doing our best with what we've got! We got some good news yesterday. Right at the start of personal study, President called and informed us that we will be getting a car for the next two weeks and that we should come pick it up from the mission office on Tuesday! So you can imagine we are pretty excited about that. This means we can get places SO much faster and we can get so much more done!

This week was full of a LOT of tracting. We had a lesson on Tuesday with Heather and we took a recent convert called Ceri with us. She is 22 yrs old and she LOVED it. She told us afterward that she has been thinking about serving a mission and solidified her desire.

This week we also discovered a couple new parts of our area. It's SO MASSIVE! If it was in Idaho or Utah you could probably fit 5 stakes inside of it. Haha. We went to two areas, once called Abercarn and the other is called Crosskeys. Abercarn turned out to be a really successful area and we found a new investigator called, Owen. He is so cool! He's probably in his late twenties. We knocked his door and his wife answered. She said her husband would be interested but he wasn't home at the minute. So we continued knocking the street and by the time we made our way back, he had come home and was leaving again to take the dog out for a walk. He stopped us and asked us about the Book of Mormon we left at his house! He told us that he is super open and he loves learning about other faiths. He said that he will give anything a try and he wouldn't be one to say that he knows everything. One of my favourite things he said was that he doesn't want to be like a Pharisee in the time of Christ, who saw Him before their eyes and all they wanted to do was kill Him. We went back the next day to teach him and it was mostly just answering his questions. He asked us what was up about all the "mormon stereotypes" and wanted to hear from us what the truth is. He's so cool! We have a lot of faith in him and we'll be seeing him more this week as well.

We also met a lady called Judith. She was in our area book as a former investigator, who had only been taught once, and her record had no reason for why she was dropped. So we stopped by her and she let us in! She's super interesting... In a good way! She is really into health and natural foods and medicines and she's working on writing a book about it right now. She also has a super strong faith in God. She told us that she is just always thinking about God and how she wants to please Him and her whole life work is just to help people. So we're excited to teach her again tonight after P-day.

This Sunday was a lovely meeting! We got a new bishopric and the Bishop was released and called in the Stake. So there are some fun changes going on in the ward and I think we may be getting a new ward mission leader as well.

I have been thinking a lot about compassion this week. I'd like to share an experience I had this week as we were tracting. It was in the early afternoon and we had just begun knocking a street. The first person who opened the door said his name was Ray, and he said, "Oh wow, they've got sisters now!" So we knew he knew who we were. We asked him how he knew about us and he said that his son used to meet with the Elders. He then told us that his son had passed away about a year ago, as he was cycling on the street and was hit by a car. He seemed in control of his emotions as he was telling us and we offered our sympathy. We tried to turn the conversation to the gospel and asked him about his personal beliefs. He said that he did believe in God but he didn't feel he believed in him enough to ever commit to a faith. Well, he continued speaking, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. I noticed his lip start to tremble and he hastily reached out to hug me. (Missionaries really aren't supposed to hug the opposite gender), but the spirit constrained me from doing anything about it. I hugged him back, and as I did, I could feel his body slightly trembling. It was only a quick hug but filled with so much emotion. He said that he had to go, apologised, and then went inside. I think I was so shocked by what had happened that as we walked away, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. I felt so much compassion and love toward this stranger, and just wished I could so something to help him. We agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate for us to go back and try to give him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet but we would go back soon.  The dictionary describes compassion as: a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” I searched the subject of compassion on lds.org and found this as well:  "Compassion motivates us to give service to the poor and needy. When we follow Jesus’ example and serve those who suffer, they receive relief and blessings. But those who serve also receive blessings of joy, happiness, fulfillment, and even forgiveness (see Mosiah 4:26). If we are to be like Jesus, the service we give others must be motivated by the pure love of Christ. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve taught:“Even the most extreme acts of service—such as giving all of our goods to feed the poor—profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ”

I hope and pray that each of us can find someone to reach out to in compassion this week; to share that pure love of Christ with our brothers and sisters.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Challenging but wonderful!

Dear Family & Friends,

Can you believe there's only 3 more of these? I can't! I'm sorry if I'm not as descriptive as I used to be in these emails! I will do my best :) If there's anything that I feel at this point more than anything, it's exhuastion!!! I'm not complaining, because I know it's what I should be feeling, but I just feel bad when I'm struggling during sunday school to stay awake!! Forgive me family if I sleep for a few days :)

This week has been challenging but wonderful as well. Monday after p-day was crazy. We were supposed to get a lift to a lesson with Amy from a member but the member called and cancelled on us about an hour before the appointment so we had to cut our pday short to bike there. It was in a little village called Pantside and if it wasn't for the hills, it would have only taken us about 20 minutes to get there but we had to get off our bikes and push for a lot of it. I know, we're whimps. It was worth it though because the lesson went great. Amy is the sweetest and we got a Return Appointment with her.  It was a short lesson, only 30 mintues because we had to bike to a LA's, Lynn, who was feeding us at 7:30 and that took us about an hour to get there. Again, not because it's super far, but because of the hills! We had dinner with Lynn and then read from the BOM with her.

Tuesday was great. I had my final Zone Meeting :'( and everyone sang happy birthday to me and gave me a card. We came home after and then did some finding. Some members called us and asked if we wanted to come out with them on splits to help them do their Visiting Teaching. So I went with one of the ladies and it was lovely. We taught Christy this week as well, she was the one who has a member friend. So her friend came to the lesson and we talked about God as our loving Heavenly Father and about prayer and the atonement. It was good. She is still hesitant to come to church but she wants to start coming to youth. We also got two new investigators, Susan and Martin! They are both Christian but Martin has been meeting with the JW's so we've gotta get him while we can! Ha. Just kidding :) He had SOOO many questions so we got an appointment with them for this week.

Heather is doing great! We taught her twice this week and she has such wonderful questions. We taught her the restoration and I think it helped to put everything together for her. We're hoping to commit her to a baptismal date this week and hopefully she can get baptised this transfer!! Please pray for Heather! :D

On Saturday we went to one of the little villages we haven't been to yet. It's super far away so not accessible by bikes. We got a lift there and then got a bus back. But it was such a ghost town! We were able to stop by some of the members there and one of them was a 92 year old woman called May Pavey. She is so lovely!! We sang her favourite hymn for her, which was How Great Thou Art. She tried her best to sing along but couldn't really. Then she offered to say a prayer and it was so beautiful. She just had so much gratitude to Heavenly Father for being a member of the gospel and she made us all cry! I hope I can be like that when i'm old and wrinkly :) We also stopped by a LA couple, the Probert's. They're in the 80's and haven't been to church in a long time. We had a good chat with them and talked about coming back to church. The husband, Harry isn't as interested as his wife is but he didn't say no! So We're going to go back and start re-teaching them which is HUGE. We called the Bishop and he was ecstatic to hear that. S

o at the moment we're doing our best with what we have! I love Wales though. It's so beautiful and the people are very friendly! I love the gospel! I love being a missionary! It is the best.  I really am enjoying my last few weeks. The Lord is truly blessing me and I just feel so at peace. Thank you all for your love and your prayers!

Love you so much!

Sister Jensen

The Davises and their son Phil

The District

Mike and Jean from Wales

Mike and Jean

Tiring Week with so much finding!

Dear Family and Friends,

      Well, it's been a very tiring week! But the Lord is blessing us. We've been doing so much finding, which in this area is just tracting. We've had a couple of miracles! Last week we tracted this street and we GQ-ed a kid called Jago. He wasn't interested at the time but we gave him a mormon.org card and invited him to check it out. Well, later this week, we got a headquarter referral with the name of Jago and he had requested a BOM. So, we went to the address, knocked the door and his Mum answers. She told us she was really busy and was about the close the door when we said we were looking for her son. Then she just opened up to us and was really nice and kept apologizing for turning us away. Haha. Well, she then called her son's phone and we got to talk to him. He told us to call him in a couple weeks after school finished then we could come by.

Well, we continued knocking in that area and we met a girl called Christy. She wasn't very interested at first but the more we got talking she started opening up and told her about a friend she has that's a mormon. She said she always seems happy so maybe it has something to do with her faith. Her friend lives only about 20 minutes away so we got a return appointment with Christy and she said she would call her friend to see if she wanted to come for the appt as well! Well, later in the week, we were talking with one of the members and he asked us if we had met a girl called Christy. We said yes, and he told us that his sister is her friend and that Christy had gotten in contact with her and she is planning to come to the appt! Talk about planting seeds and being a good example! :)

     Yesterday we were knocking around this little village called Pantside. We me a family on the way home who have two little kids and just got married about 10 weeks ago. They are super nice and said we could come back so we will be going round this evening.

     We're also working with a LA lady called Lynn. She is really bitter at the moment about some things that happened in the past with some of the members and she struggles to read and pray and come to church. We visited her this week and she is going to be really tough! But the good news is that she came to church this week and we'll be going to see her tonight as well.

     Saturday we were asked to come and present a little class about missionary work to the Young Women for their personal progress. Most of the YW in this ward are converts and the only members in their family! It's so different than what it's like in the states and it's so challenging for these girls. There were only three that showed up. Well, we stuck around afterwards for lunch and the YW president pulled us aside. She told us about some of these challenges these girls are facing and how horrible it has been for them. I definitely feel that the world is more wicked here than it is in Idaho/Utah, and it is becoming more and more apparent that these are the last days. My heart breaks for this girls and I feel we are here largely to help them and be an example to them. Many of them have never even seen Sister Missionaries before! It is heartbreaking to see where they are and all they have to go through and know that if they just kept the commandments they would be happy. But of course everyone has to go through their own learning experiences.

      In many of our interactions with people, we get the same question: If there is a God, why do all the bad things happen in the world? Wouldn't he stop it? It's frustrating because we hear that question probably twenty times every day and it's difficult to give someone an answer that will make sense in a short conversation. It seems that everyone wants the answers but not badly enough to get down on their knees in humility and ask God. No one can know of spiritual truths without prayer. I can feel the influence of the adversary more here than I have before in any of my previous areas. Satan has a great hold on the hearts of the people and it is always linked to pride. It is only when we're humble that we can learn. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that my hope and faith is centered on Jesus Christ. The end is near and everything that is unfair in life CAN be made right through the atonement. I feel very strongly that angels surround us and protect us every day and that this is the most important work any of us will every do! I plead with each of you to stand up and defend your beliefs. Stay in Lord's territory and stand up for truth. Be in the world but not of the world, because as soon as you step onto the devil's territory, you no longer have the spirit and you are under his influence. I testify that you will be protected and strengthened as you choose to do what's right and follow in the Saviour's footsteps.

    I love you all dearly and pray for you daily! All my love,

         Sister Jensen 

Sister Stapley

Wonderful people

Transfered to Wales!!

Dear Family & Friends, Wow, it has been a whirlwind of a week!!! I'm not really sure where to start!! Monday was the day of transfer dodge! So we mostly just did our emailing and shopping and got ready for the coming week. That evening we all had dinner with the missionaries and all the recent converts and investigators to say goodbye. During the dinner, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and gave me a bouquet of flowers and a card. It was a great birthday surprise! We got a text from President during the dinner asking us to call him. So I went into the bathroom and called him and he thanked me and released me from my calling as a Sister Training Leader. So at this point I was pretty certain I would leave! We went home shortly after and got ready for bed. The dodge call came at 10:30.... I was going to Blackwood with Sister Stapley!!! So this means that we would be "pinkwashing" (we would replace a set of Elders). I was super excited! Blackwood is in Wales by the way, really near to Cardiff and Caerphilly. So Tuesday was full of saying goodbyes. It was very hard to say goodbye to many of the people there. I will miss each of them so much. Well, on Wednesday we got all ready to go and drove to the mission office for transfers. It was nice to see some familiar faces! I was fortunate enough to borrow a bike off of one of the sisters who will be a STL so that was good! After about an hour, I met up with my companion Sister Stapley (she just got released as a Sister Training Leader in Birmingham) and we got on the Coach to drive to Wales. It was about an hour and a half drive to Cardiff, where we got off and met up with the other set of Elders who are serving in Blackwood. They helped us with our bikes and luggage and we got on a train. It was about 20 minutes on the train to our stop. We talked to some girls on the train. The welsh accent is really different to the English and it took me some time to process what they were saying! Everything on the signs is in English and Welsh and I can't pronounce any of it. Haha. The welsh people are SO much friendlier as well! They just want to talk to us for ages. It's great! haha. So we got off the train, then had to get a bus. AFter the bus, it was a 20 minute walk to our flat. I felt so bad for one of the poor elders! He is a new missionary and he was carrying Sister Stapley's bag the whole time because one of her wheels broke off. Haha the poor Elder was just sweating the whole time! Luckily my bags have held up really well, so thanks Dad! Well we made it to the flat and just as we did a car pulled over and a lady got out. She told us her name was Sister Tamlyn and she asked if we needed any groceries. (Our Flat is right across the street from the grocery store). We said that we did and she was SO nice! She went and got us a few things to hold us over until P-day. Well, the Elders left and we explored our flat. They Elders had actually done a decent job getting it ready for us. Their cupboards were just full of loads of canned food haha so we were really grateful for Sister Tamlyn. Well at this point it was already 8:00 so we just took our dinner hour and tried to get settled in. Then it was Thursday! So my birthday! In the morning we got ready and did our personal study because we had to leave at 9 to make it to coordination at 10 at the chapel. Let me tell you, this is probably the HILLIEST area in the mission. The Elders warned us of it when we came and they were right. Blackwood is just a valley surrounded by massive hills and our area is all the neighboring villages that sit on top of the hills! haha. So the hill to the chapel is super long and steep. It took us about 45 minutes to get the the chapel from our house although it's probably only a mile and a half away. Well, we made it to coordination and it was with our stand-in WML, Ed. Apparently our real WML doesn't do his calling and doesn't often come to church. Well after that we had district meeting. In our district is us, the Blackwood Elders and the Caerphilly elders. They are all really nice. District meeting went well and then we had district Lunch. There is a small tesco express next to the chapel so we all walked over to get something to eat. After district meeting we decided to stop by our real WML. Just as we were biking in the drive, they were pulling out to leave somewhere and they invited us to have dinner with them on Friday. Well after that we went and taught they Elder's only investigator, Heather. She is in her mid 50's and has been to church a few times, and is just waiting for that confirmation before she gets baptised. She's really really nice though. The rest of the day was spent working around our area and getting to know it better. We did meet Amy and Garrith, brother and sister and got a return appointment with them. Friday was rain, rain, rain, all day long!!! We got caught in it on our bikes and we just got completely drenched! It wasn't the most productive day as we were trying to get places and severely underestimated how long it would take to get there! haha. Well the Dinner appointment went well with the Davies family. Saturday was a great day with so many miracles! We have been picking streets to knock and we picked a couple streets in a village called Newbridge. It was getting toward the end of the day, around 6:30 and we were both fasting. We were knocking this treet and a lady opened. She's probably in her early 20's. At first she didn't seem interested but as we testified about the nature of Heavenly Father, she started to open up and she asked us if we would like to come in! So we went in and started teaching her. She had so many questions. Not long after, her partner and 2 little girls came in as well. The girls belong to them but both from different relationships. So we taught them all together and they loved it! We taught them how to pray and we said a prayer with them and gave them a Book of Mormon. The lady, Jenna, said she loved it and had goosebumps the whole time we were there. We got her information and she said we could come back on Tuesday! It was such a miracle! Sister Stapley and I were just so excited. We had a massive hill to bike back up to get home but it didn't matter because we were so happy. Well, of course when you're doing the most good, you experience the most opposition, because just as we were biking up the hill, the thing that switches the gears on the chain of my bike completely broke off, making it impossible to bike. So we walked the rest of the way home! We met some cool people along the way though. It was so great and a testimony of how the Lord will bless you if you are willing, obedient and hard-working! The next day was Sunday. We walked to church and the members were all so welcoming! They are very excited to have Sisters in the ward as it has been a long time. I was again able to put my piano skills to use as well and that was a blessing. Heather came to church and loved it! The DAvies, the WML and his family asked us to come for dinner again so we went there after. After lunch as we were walking, we met a girl, Grace who is so sweet and interested in meeting with us! We made our way home, put our quads in the flat, and then did some more tracting. We came back in for dinner, call-ins and study. It has been a wonderful and tiring couple of days! My body is aching from the hills but it's all a reminder of how grateful I am to be serving here and for the miracles Heavenly Father has blessed us with. I am so mindful of his love and I feel it all around me up here in Wales. It's very different than serving in the city as we rarely see anyone out and about, but it's great becasue it almost feels like I'm camping! haha. I am really loving it and looking forward to this coming week. Oh, also an update on Coventry! Sister Bertha replaced me there and they have been doing great! Bryan and Edison are both on baptismal dates for July 26th, and John bore his testimony in sacrament meeting! Unfortunately I won't be able to go back for their baptisms because it's so far away but i'm just so happy for all of them and know they're in good care.I love you all so much and hope you're having a great week. Love, Sister Jensen

Pretty Good Week

Dear Family & Friends!!! Hello!!! Well, It's been a pretty good week!! On Monday night had two appointments. We went and visited a recent convert family and did a family home evening with them. After that we had a Dinner appointment with the Bishop and his family. It went really well. After that was Dodge Night! So we found out what is happening this transfer. They usually call us around ten o clock but they didn't call until about ten twenty seven! So we were freaking out. Finally the call came and we found out that... we are both staying for another transfer! So I was pretty happy about that. Tuesday was the day before transfers but for us it was just another missionary day. We did some finding, taught some lessons and then in the evening we got to drive to Birmingham to see a baptism of someone that Sister Gardner taught. It was in a place called Stourbridge. It was such a great baptism. After that we came back and met with Sarah and her friend Kristina. We had dinner with them and then talked about the gospel. It went really well! Wednesday was transfers. In the morning we went to family history with John! It was so awesome! I even got to look back in my lines a little bit and I found one of my ancestors was actually born in Coventry and christened at the St. Michaels cathedral, which we walk by almost every day!! John loved it and is looking forward to coming again next week! We taught some lessons and did some finding and then we went to ward coordination and we had a sports night after with our investigators and recent converts. The rest of the week was pretty normal. Just some awesome missionary work! It was so nice to be able to stay in the area all week as we didn't have any exchanges. We're still teaching Tyler and he's doing really well! He took us out to chinese food again and we taught him about the 10 commandments. He's struggling with the tea part of the word of wisdom because tea is such a huge part of the chinese culture. Please pray for him this week! He is scheduled to be baptised in June. He even came finding with us once this week and LOVED it! It was so funny! He asked to come out with us again. We also met with our recent convert and she brought two of her friends for us to teach! Well, that's basically it for the week! We're being blessed and finding new people to teach. It's going to be a great transfer especially heading into the summertime! This week in gospel principles I learned something really cool. Our teacher was talking about faith, hope and charity. He said that often we think faith is a belief but actually, hope is believing something that you can't see and faith is the action that you make because of your hope. Charity is the love that motivates you to have hope and to act in faith. I loved that definition and I felt that it helped me to understand it better. I'm so grateful for the pure love that my Saviour offers me! As I was pondering during the sacrament today, I the words of "I Feel My Saviour's Love" went through my head. The last line says, "The love he freely gives me" It made me think, do I give my love freely or does it come with a price? With some people, it's easy to give love away but with others it can be more difficult! :) But i want to try to just love others like the Saviour does, with a love that does not end! That is my challenge to you this week! I love you all so much! Have a great week :) Sister Jensen

Another Week Gone

Dear Family & Friends, Wow, another week gone! It's been such a great week. Monday after P-day, we got to visit a less active family, The Kamara's. The mom has cancer and is recovering at the moment so it's very difficult for her to make it to church on a Sunday. But it was wonderful being in their home and feeling their spirit. They are from Africa and have the cutest boy and girl. They made us laugh until we were crying and we were also able to have a great spiritual thought with them. We will see them again this week and invite them to read the Book of Mormon together as a family. Tuesday was zone conference! My last one... :( We had to leave quite early so we could give the Elders a ride and we made it there by about 9:30. It was SO great. President did some training on how we need to accept and even seek for correction from the Lord so we can improve. It was a great meeting. I was also asked to give my departing testimony with about 8 other missionaries who will go home this week or next transfer. Sister Hanks was there too! We sat next to each other, and cried as we thought back on the last 16 1/2 months. It was a very surreal moment! I remember exactly a year ago at the same Zone Conference when my trainer, Sister Lewis, was giving her testimony and preparing to go home. Well, after the conference we went on exchanges. I went to DeMontfort with Sister Bournemann. She is from Denmark and is so nice. We were on bikes and let me tell you, it felts SOOOO good to be on a bike again!! Haha. I felt like I was flying. We taught some lessons that evening and then did finding the next day. It was a really good exchange. We exchanged back around three and then came back and taught a lesson to this new guy called Jason. He is from china and is seriously SO nice! We taught him with one of the chinese RC's CC. She was perfect. He committed to church and even said he would like to bring his girlfriend, Joanna. Then we had ward coordination and discussed the preparations that would be needed for the baptism on Friday. (Some sad news, unfortunately Steve just wasn't ready to be baptised so he didn't make his date. But we will continue teaching him and hopefully see him progress!) Well, Thursday was a crazy day! We saw Tyler at ten and taught him. Then we met one of the senior sisters in the ward at her allottment to help her out. It was so fun doing some gardening! Haha. Then we ran and grabbed a bite to eat from Subway and went to help our recent convert John to paint his new flat. We did that for about an hour and then went to pick up Poppy (a RC) to go teaching with us. We then went to teach Amy at the chapel! Amy is the cute girl that we met last transfer. She has been home in China but made it back this week. She brought us back little gifts, one of which is my surname, painted in beautiful letters. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it and remembered how we had taught her that she is a daughter of God last time. She said she needs more time before she commits to a date but I know we will get there. After that, we came home for dinner then went to teach Bryan! Bryan is doing SO well!!! He is really starting to understand the restoration and he is becoming one of my favourite people to teach. He committed to a date for July 26th and i really think he will make it. In the lesson he even referred to the church, as "our" church! So we are really excited for him. He texted us later on in the week and said that he had been reading the Book of Mormon and he can feel it transforming him. Wow! It's so cool when someone with a really strong christian background, who reveres the Bible, is humble enough to put Moroni's promise to the test. It strengthens my testimony of the Book of Mormon and the power that it has to change our hearts. Well, Friday was a crazy day as we did our weekly planning and made all the preparations for the baptism and the activity afterwards. We were in charge of putting together another hot pot night so we had to find all the pots from investigators and RC's and get the food for it. We prepped everything around 5:00 pm and the baptism started at 6:30. I was asked to sing a song, "I Feel My Saviour's Love". Haha, afterwards, Irene, one of the RC's showed me the recording that she had made on her phone. Haha. Maybe I can get her to send it to you. The baptism went really well. Three people were baptised and there was a good turnout from the ward.We also had 3 of our investigators show up and stay for the activity after. Saturday morning was football and it was raining! But we decided to stick it out and we were glad we did because some of our investigator's ended up coming and we all had a great time. We came back for lunch then we got a text from our former investigator, Kristina saying that she still had one of the baptismal dresses and we could come get it if we wanted. So we went by and the poor girl was super stressed, preparing for her final exams. We offered to clean her house and we did while she studied. Then Sarah Fox showed up and we all had a chat! There's been this documentary that showed her a couple nights ago called, "Meet the Mormons" and there's been a big hype about that. So they were asking us questions about it and we were trying our best to answer them. The documentary was focused on a missionary and what it's like. It wasn't done by the church and apparently it was pretty rubbish from what we've heard from the members. They told us that they really dramatized the home-sickness, and didn't even show any teaching or baptisms. Ha. So that's been a fun one to deal with. Luckly, our RC's and investigators have handled it well and it's opening more doors for us! Just a testimony that when you try to kick the church, you always kick it upstairs! Someone even approached the Elders in city centre the other day and told them how much more he respects them after watching the film. Well, Saturday night we came in a bit early as Sister Gardner and I have been experiencing some weird stomach issues. Ha. Possibly a mild case of stomach flu/food poisoning. BUT! Don't worry Mum!!! It's not bad. :) And Sister Rasmussen is taking good care of us! Sunday was a wonderful day! Jason brought his girlfriend to church and they both loved it! We had a dinner appointment with the Bishop's family after church and then had a lesson with Tyler. He is still really struggling but we're just happy he agrees to meet with us. We came in for dinner afterwards and to do call-ins and comp study. It was a great week! And this week should be exciting as well. We'll get the dodge call tonight so we're all pretty excited/nervous to see what will happen. Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you enjoy celebrating the 4th of July! I will be wearing red white and blue! Love you all so much XXX Sister Jensen

I love England!

Companions!

Warwick Castle!

Learning and Growing

​Dear Family & Friends, Well, it's been a week of learning and growing! Last Monday, we all took a trip to the Warwick Castle as a district. It was so cool! The grounds are huge and they had a lot of activities set up around the castle. We got to walk inside and they had it all set up as if it was still being lived in, with wax people everywhere too! Outside of the castle they had a few shows like a falconry show, and a demonstration of the largest working catapult. We ran into a few americans and our ears were burning from their accents! Haha. I'm really sorry if I come home and it takes me a little while to adjust to how you all sound. Haha. Anyways, it was a really good experience. After P-day, we had a dinner appointment and then we had to drive to Westcotes for an exchange. I spent the day with Sister Roscher. She is from Dallas, Texas! I was trying to remember some of the areas where Jake served but the only one I could remember was the really dodgy one, Oakcliffe. Haha but she knew where it was and just laughed when I told her the story of Jake getting sprayed in the face with mace. Well, we did some finding together and we were able to teach a lesson of the street which was really cool! We also had a lesson with David and Steve, after which we had dinner, evaluated and then drove back to Westcotes. The next day we were supposed too have three lessons, but thay all flogged, so we filled the time with more finding and also we were able to do some service for the Bishop and his family. They had asked us a couple weeks ago to paint their shed so we got to do that. We only had a bit of time for dinner and then had to rush to Ward Coordination. Sister Gardner did some driving practice in the car park afterwards because she was scheduled to take her driving test on Thursday morning. Thursday we had to wake up aound five fifty to make it on time for the driving test. And of all places, she was signed up to take her test in Beeston, my first area! It was so weird being back there again! Here test was scheduled for 8:10 and it went flawlessly, she passed! So the good news is I can leave the area now! We rushed back after that to make it to our district meeting at 10:30. It went really well. We learned about the spirit and how we can't do anything in missionary work without it. We had district lunch after, and then drove to Chelmsley Wood for exchange. I came back to the area with Sister Reidhead.We did some finding for a bit and then had a Dinner appointment. It was with a family that we haven't had a DA with yet so we were really excited! They have 2 boys and 1 girl so it almost felt like being at home again! AFter the DA, we went back to the chapel for a baptism of the elders. We also got to teach a lesson to Steve! He's doing really well and keeping all his committments! Well Friday, we did more finding in the morning and then exchange back around two thirty. It was crazy getting back because we still had to fill out the progress record at the library and it was Edison's birthday so we printed him off some pictures of us together and put them in a frame. He took us out to dinner that night for his birthday (We thought we should be the ones paying, but he said it was chinese tradition and he wanted to do it!) haha. So we went to a chinese restaurant called Han Dynasty. I must say, i'm getting very good at using chopsticks! Saturday morning we got to go visit Sarah. She's doing a bit better than she was last week but she describes it as "spiritual whirlwinds". She has so much support though so I know she will be okay. AFter Sarah we came back to the flat to do our weekly planning and lunch and then went finding for the night. We also got to meet with John! He had just gotten back from the temple trip and was just glowing with joy! He told us that he got to do 20 baptisms and he can't wait to go back and do more. Sunday was a wonderful day! We were blessed to have 4 people at church, one of which was Bryan! It was his first time there and he LOVED it. He told us after how he was really impressed how all the young people were involved. We will try to set him on a baptismal date again this week as he won't make his first one. But please keep him in your prayers! He just needs to get that witness from the BOM and then he'll be ready to go. Well, this is the last week of the transfer! We will have zone conference tomorrow and then only one more exchange and the baptism on friday night. It should be a really good week! I would really encourage you all to make a goal this week for how you can improve your relationship with your Heavenly Father, and then do it. I made a goal last week to try to have vocal prayers every day and it has really made a difference. I feel close to my Father in Heaven and I really can feel the spirit directing me to align my will with His. That is the purpose of prayer and what a blessing it is that we can communicate with our Father anytime we want! I love the atonement and the opportunity that it gives us change and be better every day. I love you all and wish you a blessed week! XOXOXO Sister Jensen

Whirlwind of a Week!

Dear Family & Friends, Wow, well, it's been a whirlwind of a week!! We had two exchanges this week. Our first was on Tuesday. I actually got to leave the area for the first time in forever!! I went on exchange with Sister Sequiera to Loughborough. We mostly did a lot of finding because all of the teaching appointments fell through. It was SO great to be out of the car, working like a normal missionary again! I have missed it. Back in Coventry, Sister Gardner and Sister Ellis taught Steve (our amazing recent convert John's, friend). He is so excited about the gospel and has committed to baptism on the 27th of June! They also taught a guy called David. We found David about a week ago. He was adopted into a Jewish family when he was a child, but isn't a practicing Jew. During our conversation, he asked some amazing questions and he agreed to meet with us again so we could discuss them! So they met with him and taught him Restoration and apparently it went really well! We will teach him again this week so we're excited for him! We exchanged back on Wednesday and after, we taught Marjorie and Michelle, two chinese girls. We taught them plan of Salvation. It was interesting. Both of them are Buddhist and it was weird because they were agreeing with everything we taught but then they would throw in what they believe. Haha. Oh well, we will continue to teach them and see how it goes. We were supposed to meet Tyler at four o clock. We went to the place where we were meeting him and we waiting for about 15 minutes, but he didn't show. So we went to city centre and we were talking with people, when suddenly he jumped in front of us, out of breath. He apologised and said he probably just missed us. He explained, almost in tears that he had just met with his tutor and found out that he won't be able to graduate this year as he planned with his Master's degree because he failed one of his courses. He was DEVESTATED. We felt so bad! So we sat with him on a bench in city centre and tried to get his mind off it. The poor guy. He's been so busy lately with his dissertation and now this so we haven't been able to see him. Please keep him in your prayers! Thursday was district meeting, then we had some asesome lessons with Wisdom, Steve,and Edison. Friday we had exchanges again! I stayed in Cov with Sister Reed. We did some finding, and then we had a lesson with Bryan that evening. He's the one from Nigeria who has awesome questions. Well we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was an awesome lesson. Saturday we switched back in the afternoon then had a baptism of CC< the Elder's investigator. Steve was able to come and loved it! At the baptism, Bishop asked me if i would be willing to do a musical number in sacrament for father's day, if I wasn't missing my Dad too badly. Well, I told him I would love to even though I was missing my Dad :) Haha. So I decided to sing "He Sent His Son." I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to pay tribute to not only my wonderful Father, but also my Heavenly Father. The words of the song really hit me too. It goes like this: How could the Father show the world of love and tenderness? He sent His son a newborn babe, with peace and holiness. How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go? He sent His son to walk with men, on earth, that we may know. How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death? He sent His son to die for us, and rise with living breath! What does the Father ask of us? What do the scriptures say? Have faith, have hope, live like His son, help others on their way. What does He ask? Live like His son. I believe that Heavenly Father also sent my Father to me to show love and tenderness. My father has followed in the path of the Saviour to be and example to of how I should live. He has sacrificed SO much for me to teach me that I should sacrifice all I have for the Lord. How gratefuly I am for the gift of my Father. I love you Daddy! I hope you had a great Father's day and that you know how much I love you. Thank you all for your prayers and support! Love, Sister Jensen

Burmingham District p-day

Super Busy

Dear Family & Friends, I can't believe another week has gone by SO fast!!! It's crazy to me how the time is flying. This week we have been super busy. Sister Gardner has been working on getting her driving license so on Monday night she had her first driving lesson. We didn't die, so it was successful! Tuesday morning was leadership council. It was AMAZING like always. President did a training on how to use our time effectively by planning meaningful activities for every hour of the day. It was great to be there with all the other missionaries. Oh, and Dayna and Tyler Rasmussen were there! It was so weird having Eagle Idaho combined with England... haha. After leadership council we came back and taught a couple lessons and then had dinner, and went finding. We started teaching this guy called Wisdom. He is so cool! He's from Nigeria and was out proselyting when we met him! The lesson was a bit difficult because he really challenged everything we said. But we just invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He wouldn't agree. He said he would pray first to find out if he should read it. Well, about an hour after the lesson, he send us a text that said, "I have decided to read your Book of Mormon." We were so happy! So we will see how things go with him. Wednesday morning we had another driving lesson and we had to go to the family history centre after to print something off. John was there doing his family history and the consultants wouldn't stop praising him! They said that he is just doing so well and doing it all on his own. They even requested for us to ask Bishop if he can be called as a new family history consultant! He already has 8 names to take to the temple. He is doing SO well and we are so proud of him. We had a lunch appointment after that and then we had a lesson with a potential called Ermeas. Last week when we were teaching a lesson in IKEA, he interuppted us and asked us if he could join in. We were already finished though so we just took down his details and set up another time we could teach him. Well we were teaching him Restoration and in the middle of the lesson, he was like, "Now, what do you guys think about Mormonism? Back when I lived in another town, I was meeting with a couple lads and they were talking about some golden plates" haha Sister Gardner and I just looked at each other, trying to hold our laughter in and we told him that we are actually members of that church. Haha. It was so funny. He took it well though and we invited him to read and pray and be baptised! It was a great lesson. Thursday was our Zone Meeting. It went really well. Sister Gardner and I did some training and we used a talk called, "Overcome Feelings of Inadequacy" It was great. We had a couple lessons after that and then a dinner appointment and some more finding. Friday we had to drive to a place called Wednesbury to take Sister Gardner's driving test. She didn't pass :( But she is staying positive and will try to take it again soon! We drove back, filled out our progress record and then left for Nuneaton to go on an exchange. I stayed in Coventry with Sister Obies-Sanchez. She is from Spain and will go home at the end of this transfer. We taught some lessons and did some finding and then we had a dinner appointment with Tish and Sarah (Our recent convert). It was really interesting... Sarah brought up a few concerns that she has. She is still doing fine but will you all please pray for her this week that she will be able to overcome her doubts? Thank you! Saturday we taught some lessons in the morning and then had to drive back to Nuneaton. We taught some lessons and then went to the chapel for the baptism of Walter, the Elders' investigator. It went really well! After, we decided we should try to stop by Tyler's house to see if we could catch him in, as we still haven't seen him! (The Elders ran into him in city centre though and said that he has lost his phone and that's why he hasn't been responding). Well, we knocked on his door, and we heard someone say, "Who's there?" I said, "It's the sisters!" and he said, "Jensen!!" haha it was so cute! He opened the door and was just so excited to see us! He said, "What are we doing? Have you had dinner? Do you want to go to dinner?" It was about 8:20 pm though and we hadn't had dinner yet but we knew we wouldn't have time, so we said we couldn't. Then he asked if he could go finding with us? haha so of course we said yes! It was so funny. We talked to some WACKO's and we were really glad he was with us. haha. Thank you Heavenly Father!! The next day was Sunday and it was so great. John, brought one of his friends, called Steve and he LOVED it! We will begin teaching him this Tuesday. We had five of our investigators there and two of them were friends of people we have taught, or are teaching. It was so cool. The Lord really is blessing us here. And member missionary work is the way to go! I love our ward here as well. There is SO much diversity! There was two baby blessings of an Indian family, and then Walter who is chinese recieved the holy ghost from Brother Lam, who is from Hong Kong. Seated in the congregation were people from England, America, Scotland, Hungary, India, Africa, Spain... I just realized how cool it is that we all come from such different cultures but we believe in the same thing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone! After church, we had lunch and GQ-ed our way to do service feeding the homeless. After service, we taught a lesson to a potential called Jun. He is chinese, and doesn't believe in God, but doesn't NOT believe either. We were going to teach him at IKEA but it was closed so we sat outside. A team of the Elders were there too teaching. The lesson was going really well and then out of NOWHERE it got super windy and it started to downpour! We found a little shelter and waited for the storm to pass. It was so funny. Four missionaries with a few investigators all huddled under IKEA. haha. The storm didn't last long and we finished the lesson. Jun is so awesome and will come this Saturday to see a baptism! Anyways, it was SUCH a great week! I am looking forward to the coming week. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week as well :) Love you! Sister Jensen

P-day Fun

Ice skating on p-day

Love Being a Missionary!

Dear Family & Friends, It has been another wonderful week! I am loving being a missionary. This week we got to do lots of finding in our area and it was so great talking to so many people. It made me realize how much I have really changed here. At the beginning, going finding for a few hours was a chore, and now it's become something I enjoy. There is so much joy in sharing the gospel. I also realized this week that we will have Zone Conference this transfer, and at every zone conference they have departing testimonies, and I will most likely give mine this transfer since it will be my last! I have learned SO much here and I am so grateful for this experience. BUT! I still have time left and I am looking forward to giving it my best efforts. This week we had a couple awesome miracles. We taught our investigator Bryan again. This time we taught him with a recent convert, Mary and we were on exchange as well. The lesson went really well. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was so strong. We invited him to read and pray and we also invited him to a baptismal date on June 28. He said that he would be baptised if he gets an answer! It was so inspiring. Tyler has been really busy this week so we didn't get to see him :( But we found some other awesome people! We talked to a guy called Mohammad and he wouldn't give us any contact information but he agreed to come to church, and he actually came!!! It was so cool.We went on exchanges twice this week. We went to Peterborough and I stayed in Cov with Sister Mackay. It was our third exchange together so it was lots of fun! I also got to go on exchange with Sister Harkness. It was great. I love the sisters here. It amazes me the powerful impact they have and how hard working they are. A mission really isn't easy but these sisters are doing so well. I feel so blessed that I get to learn from them! Today we had district pday and we went ice skating! All the elders got matching ties and went in their suits. It was good fun! I will attach a picture :) Well sorry it's really short this week. I hope you all know how grateful I am for your support and love. Have a fantastic week! Love, Sister Jensen

Dayna Rasmussen visiting England

Dayna Rasmussen catching up on old times.

Leevoy and Edison

 Edison

 Leevoy

Sister Gardner and Tyler

Sister Gardner and Tyler

So Many Blessings!

Dear Family & Friends, Well it's been one of the best weeks of my mission thus far!!! We've seen sooo many blessings this week. John and Leevoy both got baptised this Saturday! They were both so excited and the service went great. It was so wonderful to see them take that first step onto their eternal paths. We will be going with John this week to get started on his family history so he can go to the temple in June! Leevoy will be going back to China this week unfortunately, but he will be back in September so we'll make sure the ward keeps track of him. The weather has been incredible the past couple days and it seems to make a big difference on the attitudes of people here! haha. (Me, included) I am loving the sunshine! Missionary work is way better when it's warm and sunny. We won't have any exchanges this week since it is transfers so we will get to be outside a lot doing some finding! We're really excited just to dedicate this week to our area and hopefully find some more awesome people. We will also be traveling to Birmingham on Tuesday night for a baptism in Sister Gardner's first area. She is very excited. We will find out tonight if I will be transferred. It's possible that I will but if I stay then I will probably finish my mission here. This week in District Meeting Elder Unice talked to us about making every day count. A line from one of my Zone Conferences came back to my head. It goes like this..."You cannot waste time without damaging the eternities" That quote has stuck with me since then and I know it is true. Every day that we have we are given the precious gift of time! It's a concept that's difficult to grasp because sometimes it seems like we will have an endless amount. But here on my mission I am really learning that time is measured daily. Not weekly, monthy or yearly. It is what we do on a daily basis that affects our lives forever. Truly, we can't waste time without damaging the future. I think about all the hours I spent on facebook, pinterest, netflix, etc... I'll never get that time back! And it could have been used doing something of an eternal nature. Furthering my personal intelligence, helping others to feel of the Saviour's love, sharing the gospel with a friend or strengthening my testimony through personal prayer and scripture study. I hope that each of you will think about the ways that you use your time every day and try to remember just how precious it is. I promise that as you replace a "time waster" with something of eternal value, you will have great faith and charity because you will feel like you are doing what the Lord would have you do with your time. I love you all so much and i'm grateful for the many wonderful, priceless memories you have given me throughout the years and for the continued support that I receive every day here. Love, Sister Jensen

Ammon Like Servants

Dear Family & Friends, Well there isn't much to say since we just skyped yesterday!! That was so amazing to see all of you again. I wished I could have talked all night but it was wonderful anyways. You all looked so happy! It was great to meet Shannon and Derek as well. They seem like such amazing people. This week has been crazy busy like always!! On Tuesday this week we had mission leadership council. It was SO amazing and I felt a greater desire to do better. President trained on working with members and being Ammon-like servants. He talked about how we need to be the ones serving the members, not the other way around. We should be the first to stack chairs, we should leave the building clean after we use it and we should always have a "How can I serve" attitude. It was a wonderful training and we're looking forward to implementing what we learned. President also introduces two new things that we will be doing. We will start to teach lesson 5 before baptism and he also wants us to keep in touch with our recent converts for at least 90 days after baptism. So that's exciting. We had two exchanges, one to Loughborough and one to Nuneaton. We had some awesome miracles! We taught John with our ward mission leader and it was a powerful lesson. John is so elect!!! Our Ward mission leader suggested that we move forward his baptismal date, because it was supposed to be in June but he is fully ready for baptism. We went through the interview questions with him in the lesson just to see where he was at and he had no problems with anything. So we're going to teach him loads this week and we'll see if he is ready for this Saturday. His desire for baptism is amazing. He is super excited about it even gets kinda giddy whenever we mention it! He is awesome. We also taught a guy called Tyler this week. He is chinese and scheduled for baptism late June. He's a very logical thinker though and the gospel isn't coming easily for him. In our lesson we asked him if he could ask God one question what would it be? And he said he would like to know what will happen in his future. We asked him, Do you think God cares what will happen in your future? He said No. We tried to testify to him about how much God loves him and if his earthly father, who is imperfect loves him so much and cares about his future, how much more does his Heavenly Father who is imperfect care about him and his future. The spirit was so strong and we were both getting kind of emotional. He said that if anything, he believes that God cares because he sent me to be his angel. It was such a special moment and I know that Tyler felt the spirit. We will continue working with Him and pray for him. Please pray for Tyler! Well, I sure love all of you SO much! Thank you for your continuous support and prayers. You are the best! Love, Sister Jensen

Tan in England!

Dear Family and friends!! 

What a wonderful week it has been! I actually got a tan in England!!! Sunshine does exist! Everyone here is much happier than normal which is always a plus for missionary work. We've been able to do a lot of teaching this week which was wonderful. We also went on two exchanges. Sister Gardner still doesn't have her license which means I have to stay in Coventry for every exchange. It's a little rough because it means we only have about 2 days during the week when we're actually together. But our investigators are all doing really well right now. Leevoy is very excited for his upcoming baptism and we only have a few more things to teach him. We also taught Tyler this week. He is now on a date for June 28th. He is chinese and doing his post-grad in automotive design. He took us out to lunch after our lesson with him this week to a cantonese restaurant. He made sure that we tried everything before he told us what it was. Haha. The weirdest thing we ate was cow stomach. Which actually wasn't that bad! Just really chewy. We also started teaching this guy called John. Sister Muller and I met him a couple transfers ago and he lived in the Elders area so we handed him over, but I guess they could never get in touch with him because he texted us and asked how we were doing. We set up a lesson with him and he is SO incredibly golden!!! We had a perfect first lesson with him about the restoration. We got to see him twice during the week. He came for a baptism on Saturday and we taught him plan of salvation and invited him to be baptised on a date! He accepted and is looking forward to his baptism in June! He is so prepared!!! Lots of our investigators have been super busy recently though with Exams. Those will finish this week so we are VERY excited about that! Things are going really well right now so we cannot complain! The sisters are all doing so well also. I love being able to go on exchange with them and learn from them and get to know them. This week I got to go with a new missionary which was a treat! The poor girl was just so tired and is still adjusting to the schedule. But being with her just made me realize really how far I have come and how much I have learned on my mission. I feel like all I remember and all I know is missionary work. And what I have learned more than anything is that I am so imperfect and that I really don't know anything at all! I know that God loves His children, but just like Nephi, I don't know the meaning of all things. But that love is all we need. If we know how much God loves us and wants us to succeed then that love will govern every choice we make and prepare us to live with him again someday. The gospel is so wonderful and beautiful. I am so excited to talk to you all in less than one week!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Love,

Sister Jensen 

Serving with your best friend

Dear Family & Friends,

Week 1 of the transfer! It's already been a great start. Sister Gardner and I are basically the same person so we get along SO well. It's great. It's like serving with your best friend. This week we started out the week with District meeting and interviews with President. He asked us to tell him about a time when we resolved someone's concerns. I always love interviwes! President is so full of wisdom and love for each missionary. I don't know how he does it! I also got to chat with Sister Rasmussen which is always a treat. We love talking about Eagle :) Haha. We had some lessons after that and we also did some finding. The Elders passed us some of their investigators, as the lady fancies one of the Elders. Haha. So we taught them for the first time this week. They are super nice. On Wednesday we got to teach Leevoy who is still set for his baptism on the 17th of May. We taught him Law of Chastity and it was probably one of the best lessons i've had in a while! The spirit was so strong and Leevoy was so humble. By the end of the lesson he was almost in tears telling us that he had broken the law of chastity already. We told him that he didn't need to worry, and that he could repent now. It's so amazing to be able to testify of the atonement to someone who has never used it. It is such a blessing to be able to do that every day. We are also teaching this guy, Lamar, who is convinced that he just needs to find a "woman" that will turn him around. haha. Sister Gardner and I were having a hard time not laughing during the lesson. We're trying to explain to him that NOW is the time to repent, and you need to do it for the right reasons. We'll keep working with him :) Edison is doing great. He has been very busy lately with coursework and exams so we haven't got to teach him as much as we would like. We stop by his place every now and then though just so we can keep contact with him. We're starting to build relationships with some of his housemates as well and one of them came to church yesterday! On Thursday we drove to Peterborough, which takes about 2 hours for the first exchange of the transfer. I drove back to Coventry with Sister Williamson (Sister Gardner doesn't have her license yet, so I will pretty much be doing all the exchanges in Coventry this transfer). Haha sister Williamson and I had a VERY interesting night!! So, we had been asked by the YSA to help out with an outreach night- to go visit YSA who haven't been out in a long time. So they gave us a couple addresses to go by and we took 3 YSA girls in the car with us. The first one we went to, we just took one of the YSA with us inside, Brenda. We knocked on the door, and a lady in a blue bathrobe came to the door. She looked so shocked to see us and invited us in. Haha. She tells us to sit down and then the first thing she does is goes to the electric piano and starts playing us this song. It was on like the organ setting and she was really getting into it. hahaha She did like three more after that and then she would look at us and say,"One of you plays the Cello. Which one is it?" and we were like, "None of us..." She said, "Well, if you look back in your families, you'll find someone who does. Didn't know that did ya?" Haha. Oh man this lady was so not all there but she really enjoyed our visit. That is one fun thing about missionary work... You never know what to expect. Every day is a new adventure! haha. Well, the next day, we taught a couple lessons and then drove back to Peterborough. That night we got back around six thirty and then had to do our weekly planning. Saturday we had to help out with a family history fair at the church. We were also asked to do the relief society lesson and then i got a phone call asking if i would speak in sacrament meeting! so we had to go to the library and do a little bit of preparation. We had a first lesson with a girl called Amy, who is seriously the nicest thing ever!! She told us that she had no belief in God. During the lesson we just talked about how God is like her earthly father. Her earthly father is in China, she can't see him right now, but she knows he is there and that he loves her, and she can communicate with him over the phone. In the same way, we know that God is there and that he loves us, even though we can't see him and we can communicate with him through prayer. She told us she gets approached a lot by people in the streets who give her religious books to read. She said that she never reads them but she doesn't throw them away because she wants to be respectful. And she said that normally she wouldn't agree to meet with people but because of how bubbly and friendly we were, she wanted to see what it was all about!! How cool is that??!?! Then we committed her to pray. She asked if she could pray even though she drinks alcohol? haha it was so cute. We said, of course, you can pray anytime. So she texted us the next day and said that she prayed for the first time and that it actually wasn't bad! We are so excited for her! She is willing to try and so I know that she will gain a testimony. I'm so thankful for my personal testimony and i realize more than ever how important it is that we are constantly nourishing our testimony. It's through establishing those patterns of daily scriptures study and prayer that lead to our conversion. I hope you are all taking time out of your day to have those meaningful studies and prayers. I promise they will make the biggest difference. I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week!

Love,

Sister Jensen