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.