Finding people to teach!

Dear Wonderful Family,

What a great week it has been! We are still trying to find people to teach, without much luck but we are pressing forward in faith! On Monday of last week, we went knocking doors. We had planned to knock this street for a long time but for some reason, our plans kept falling through. Finally, we got around to it, and I knew that there would be someone special on that street. I said a prayer in my heart before we began and asked Heavenly Father to lead us to someone who was prepared to hear the gospel. We knocked about 10 doors without any luck. Finally, we knocked on one and a girl who looked about my age answered the door. Right off the bat, we introduced ourselves and asked her if she had a belief in God. She told us that she hadn't thought about it a lot and that she believed more in Science (as she is getting her PhD in Chemistry). She was really nice and she invited us inside (which NEVER EVER happens in England!). She told us her name was Louisa, and she was just so friendly. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. We explained a little bit about it. She talked to us for a while (she is extremely talkative), and told us about her life. She told us flat out, "I just have to tell you, I won't become a Mormon." Haha. we were like, "Haha, Okay!" So, even though she doesn't know it yet, i think she is going to be baptized. It's going to be a little bit tricky because we might have to teach her without her realizing it. She invited us to lunch with her and her boyfriend next P-day. We met her boyfriend the other day and I actually think that he might be more open to being taught, so he might just be the key. All I know is that Heavenly Father wanted us to meet Louisa for a reason, and it is our job as missionaries to figure out what that reason is. I think this is one of my favorite parts about missionary work. Every person that we teach comes with a different background and foundations. It is our job to tailor what we teach to their needs and understanding, and figure out what it is that they need to learn and more importantly what they need to feel, and how we can help them to feel that. I know that the Holy Ghost is the true converter. When someone feels the Holy Ghost, they cannot deny it to be true. Isn't that amazing? And even though our investigators don't have the gift of the Holy Ghost, we do! This is why it is important to have frequent contact with investigators- so that they can feel of the spirit that we carry. I am so grateful for this gift in my life. It helps me every day to learn and to grow. I can feel it especially when I am having my hour of personal study every day. I am just always learning something new and I know that it's because of the Holy Ghost, that helps my mind to be enlightened. I encourage you all to pray to have the Holy Ghost with you more fully, to lead you to those people that you can share it with. I promise you that they will feel of that Spirit that you carry, and they will wonder how they can have it with them all of the time.

I love you all so much and I know that this church is true. We are so blessed to have it!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Real Fish and Chips

First official meal of fish and chips!

Our mailbox

The Mailbox!

Sister Thomas made dessert to cheer us up.

Another great week!

My dear family,

It was so great to read all of your emails this week! I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be part of such an incredible family. You are all such a strength to me.

Well, this week was pretty slow to be honest. We are trying to find more people to teach, with not much luck at all. At times I feel like Moroni did when he looked at the city of Nephihah and began to doubt because of the wickedness of the people. Sometimes I feel like there just isn't anyone here who will accept the gospel and it makes me so sad to see the wickedness of the people. I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week about the 1,000 stripling warriors and the miracles that occurred as a result of their faith. Right after Moroni receives the epistle from Helaman, telling him about the miracles that have happened, Moroni sees the wickedness of the people of Nephihah and doubts that they will be saved. I thought it was interesting that this verse was included about doubt. I have been thinking a lot about faith this week as I have been reading, Jesus The Christ. I don't think I ever really read the New Testament, besides when I was in seminary and every day my testimony is just expanding about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am learning more and more that faith is a principle of power. Every miracle performed by the Savior was conditional upon faith. The woman who touched the Savior's garment, had faith that if she could but touch him, she would be healed. And she was. The Savior didn't actually do anything to heal her- it was HER faith that healed her as she looked to the Savior. Isn't that cool to think about? This week I also learned why faith is compared to a mustard seed. A mustard seed is very small, but when planted it yields a pretty big bush/tree. There are other seeds which are smaller than a mustard seed but none of them grow to be very big when planted. So, just like the mustard seed, our faith can start out very small and grow to something marvelous! Dad, I loved what you said about planting a seed of faith. If we just let that faith work within us and not cast it out, it will begin to grow and we will know that it is good. I have seen that with many of my investigators. It's the ones who will believe, but not yet KNOW, that pray about it and let it work within them that believe and their testimonies grow and are strengthened. This week, we taught Ryan about the Restoration and we brought Hong with us to translate. It was so cool. I could kind of follow what she was teaching him, because I'm starting to pick up a couple words in chinese. Haha. When she taught about the Godhead, it finally clicked for him. He is still struggling with smoking, but he said that this week when he had a craving to smoke, he said a prayer and the desire when away but that two hours later he had the desire again and didn't pray and then smoked. Haha. So, we will keep working with him! I think he is really close to getting a baptismal date. We are also going to have Brother Thomas, our ward mission leader come and give him a blessing to help him stop smoking. We will also teach all the lessons to him again with Hong, just to make sure that he understands them all. I told my companion this week that sometimes I feel like I am serving a mission in China and not England, since we have mostly been teaching the chinese. Haha. It's good though. I am developing a love for the chinese people. This week Matt and Jerry had us over for dinner, and I was able to practice my chopstick skills again. :) We heard about the Boston Bombing on Tuesday, i think and it just made me so sad. These are definitely the last days. I am sure of it. I am so glad to hear that those people who are in our ward that were there are safe.

Well, family, thank you for all that you do for me! Pray for us this week that we will be led to those people who are prepared to hear the gospel.

I love you all,

Sister Jensen

The first picture is me pointing at the mailbox, where I deposit all the letters I send home :) The second picture is of a dessert that this cute member in our ward made for me and my companion. My companion was having a rough day and we went over to get a blessing from Brother Thomas. They invited us to stay for dinner and Sister Thomas brought that out for dessert. It was so cute.

Matts Baptism!

Ryan, Hong, Jerry Matt, Robert

Amazing week

My sweet family,

Happy Monday! It's amazing how much I look forward to P-days to hear from you all. It's been a really great week. We were a little bit nervous for Matt because he was to be baptized on Saturday and he had told us that he didn't really have a firm faith in God. So, we had been praying about what we could do to help him find his faith. Finally we came up with something that we thought might help. We picked up him and Jerry and took them on an adventure. We took them to a little playground and blindfolded Matt. We showed him a candy bar and said, if you can finish this obstacle course then you will get this. So he said he would do it. Jerry helped me to find his way and I tried to tempt him to give up. About five minutes into it, I think it clicked and he told us that he knew what we were trying to do- that Jerry was the Holy Ghost and that I was the devil. After he finished, we gave him a whole sack of candy bars and we sat down at a picnic table and talked about it. We sang. "I am a Child of God." He really felt the spirit. We asked him to say a prayer and in his prayer he said that he felt a stronger faith in God. It was so amazing. So, we went forward with the baptism! On Saturday he was baptized and it was glorious. I was able to  give a talk on the Holy Ghost. I felt so blessed to be able to watch him progress in the gospel and see him be baptized on my 2 month mark. It was a tender mercy of the Lord. At the baptism, I was trying to teach Jerry some piano, and he started to sing I am A Child of God. Haha he had listened to it on his phone and had memorized it! Haha. Jerry is a legend.

So, Shirley was supposed to be baptized this week as well, but she told us on Tuesday that she didn't want to be baptized anymore and that she doesn't want to be taught the lessons anymore. Paul dropped us as well. So that was a major bummer. And now, we are down to one investigator-Ryan. So this week we will be doing a lot of finding! Ryan is doing really well though. So, he started smoking when he was 10 years old (which isn't uncommon in China), and so he has been struggling a little bit with that, but he has been smoking less and less every day which is really good! I think that he will be baptized within the next 3 weeks.

That's really about all that has happened this week. We started a new transfer, and it's crazy to think i've been here for 2 months now! I'm excited for the future and what will happen. Mom, I loved your letter about trials. I have been thinking a lot about sacrifice and trials lately. We watched a video in Sunday School yesterday about John Tanner, an early saint who sacrificed literally all that he had for the church. He sold all of his property used the money to pay off all of the church's debt, which was about $60,000. On one of their treks, his daughter died. He was also called to serve a mission for the church and left the very next day after he had been called. When I think back on the early saints, I can't even comprehend how much they sacrificed for us and I wonder if I would have been able to do it too. I really hope that if it came down to it, I would be strong enough in the faith to give up all I have. Because everything we have, really is not ours, and the test of life is to see if we will give all the Lord has given us, back to him. I know that trials are for our good, and the Lord is only testing us because he wants to see what we are made of. We wants to know if he can trust us with his sacred work and so he sees how far we will go for him. So really, when we are given trials, we should rejoice because the Lord is putting his faith in us. I love you all so much and I want you to know that I know this gospel is true. I know that the Lord will always bless us when we sacrifice all we have for him.

I love you all,

Love,

Sister Jensen

More Pictures of Nottingham

 Famous Robin Hood Statue

 Church building in Toton

Goofy Zone leaders; Eckelt, Wilkey