Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  

Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

This week has been pretty interesting. We didn't do hardly anything because Elder Cox has been sick a lot of the week, but the stuff that did happen was pretty cool.

On Monday we stopped at the church to use the wifi to sync our Ipads and people had just finished setting up for the ward party. Well, apparently the Fishers (a recent convert couple) left their phone there so we offered to take it back to them but we had to go to dinner first. So we get to our dinner appointment, it was good then at the end the brother was sharing some of his favorite scriptures and it was a pretty spiritual moment then all of the sudden we hear fire alarms going off and a voice saying "its the wife, its the wife".  Then Elder Cox pulls an IPhone 6 out of his pocket and apparently Sister Fisher was trying to call Brother Fisher. It was hilarious. Later we were curios to see what Bro Fisher's ringtone was for us. So we call the phone and the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah started playing. It was awesome.

Tuesday morning we had to be up at Liberty, Missouri for a Zone Conference. So to make it on time we had to stay the night with another set of elders. So you have 4 elders, 2 beds and 1 couch, that still leaves someone on the floor, and I was the lucky one for that job. So instead of sleeping on the flat ground, I slept in their tub and it was actually really comfy and I slept really well. The conference was awesome and as a Christmas gift we all did a session in the Kansas City, Missouri temple. It was cool to see 60 missionaries all standing in a little celestial room.

Wednesday Elder Cox was sick, so we went to the church and watched cheesy church videos and played the piano. I took a nap underneath the piano.

Thursday was cool. We were trying a potential investigator, it was probably someone the missionaries had tracted into about 2 years ago. So we knocked on the door and the guy opened it and let us right in because it was cold. He used to live in Wyoming and knew lots of members there. He said that he had always wanted to read the Book of Mormon but never had the chance. We informed him that we had a free copy to give him and he was very excited, he looked like a kid on Christmas. Then as we were leaving we found out that it actually wasn't the person we were looking for, he must have moved some time ago. This guy was just a total stranger and had never really talked with missionaries before. We set up a return appointment for this coming week.

Friday we volunteered at a retirement home and we got to play a game with about 6 old ladies. We all sat around the table and had 2 ft long pool noodles and we just hit a balloon around. It was hilarious and those ladies had the time of their lives. Our job was to get the balloon when ever it fell out of reach.

Sat it stormed pretty bad and we couldn't do a hole lot but we made a couple of visits. The ward party was supposed to be that night but they canceled it because of the bad road conditions. Then on Sunday they canceled church because people have to drive from 45+ minutes on really bad roads to get to church. Since the roads were bad enough they grounded our car, so we ended up walking all day and it was pretty cold. It said about 0 degrees but with the wind chill and the humidity it felt about -15. I learned that no one really likes to talk to you when it's that cold. It was pretty fun though the roads were slick enough and my shoes were bald enough that I literally was skating down the street like I had ice skates on. I'm guessing it looked pretty comical to watch two Mormon missionaries skating down the street. Although Elder Cox being from southern Nevada does not know how to walk on ice. It was a good day.

Thank you so much for all that you guys do, it really means a lot.

Make it a good one,

Elder Jensen

From: Kenneth Michael Jensen <kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net>
Date: December 12, 2016 at 9:37:37 AM MST
To: Mindy Jensen <mindyjensen@hotmail.com>, Donald.Roberts@myldsmail.net
Subject: Week 49

This week has been great with some unique stuff. First off we helped an older couple move a fridge and the fridge was literally frozen. The morning was really cold and it had snowed/iced and the Fridge was covered in ice. So that was fun.

I hit my 11 month mark, that's weird.

On Wednesday it SNOWED! Finally. But i was on exchanges in Olathe and didn't expect the snow so i only brought a lite Jacket. And we were in a walk area. Yay!  So we walked all over Olathe and froze to death and preached the gospel. That was cool. I have also learned that humidity just makes things worse, either colder or hotter. So a 11 degrees here (which thats about what it was). It probably feels like about a -5 back home.

We have had a couple cool lessons this week mostly with Less Active members. We have mostly been sharing the Churches new initiative Light the World. Which is awesome and its all about service.

On Saturday we caught a ride with a member up to Olathe for the Stake Leadership meeting and then the Adult session of stake conference. And at the adult session Matt Pennington, a man i had the privilege to teach and help join the church, was asked to bear his testimony, And it was very powerful. It has had an amazing impact in the way i view my calling and knowing what one missionary, as he is guided and really is just a tool for the Lord to do his work. It is amazing.

Then on Sunday the Fishers a couple in the Ottawa ward were asked to bear there testimonies, and although i was transferred into Ottawa the just 5 days after there baptism, i feel a sense of responsibility for them, I have been able to help them an new converts entering into a brand new world and being the person they can answer questions and seek council. I feel a great source of joy from our union. Nothing has brought me more happiness that seeing someone change there lives and come to a knowledge that God loves them and they are where they need to be.

I am reminded of D&C 15:6 where the Lord tells us the thing that will be of greatest worth to us.
"6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen."

I know of no better place to be than in a place where we can affect the lives of others in a positive way. I know that this is the true church. That Jesus is the Christ and it is only because of His Atoning sacrifice that we may become perfected and live as a family with our Father in Heaven again. I have seen the joy that comes to people as they change, I have seen it when people have the "light bulb" moment when everything makes sense and i cannot describe the feeling that comes and the happiness and the honor i feel to have a friendship with these people. And i cannot wait for the time that we may rest with them in the kingdom of our Father.

Thank you all for the support that you have given me you all are examples to me.

Make it a good one,
Elder Jensen

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

So this week started off pretty cool. A member asked if we could help him out in picking up some food for a local food drive. Even though it was cutting about 3 hours out of our P-day. We meet him at Walmart and he had the money that was donated. As we start shopping we ran into a less active family and were able to have a good contact with them. Then later we saw an investigator couple and were able to set up an appointment with them. Then a worker asked us why we were dressed up and we were able to explain that we were missionaries, and he had actually lived in Utah for a while but wasn't a member, I didn't know that was possible. Then as we left the same less active lady was leaving and we helped her put her groceries in the car. So yeah the Lord knows his children and places them where they need to be. It was a testimony builder to me that service really opens the gates for so many blessings.

On Wednesday we helped a member rake his leaves. I had never done it before and I didn't realize that it is kinda physically demanding. I didn't really realize it until later that night but I was really tired. I made it through nightly planning, no doubt with the help of the Lord, but then in our prayer to close planning I totally fell asleep. Then I guess Elder Cox just left me there. About 15 min later we were sitting in our chairs writing in our journals and Elder Cox started talking to me and I fell asleep again. So then I just gave up and went to bed.

Thursday for Thanksgiving we were invited to a family's dinner in Lane, Kansas - a town that might have 100 people in it. But it was pretty cool and awkward at the same time because they are the only members in their family so everyone else had no idea who we were, but they were extremely nice and the food was good.

The rest of the week was just trying to contact people and trying to find new investigators. No luck yet but we are doing well with less active members, we had some cool lessons this week as well.

Thank you all for all you do. It is really quite amazing the amount that I have been able to experience. I couldn't trade it for anything.

Elder Jensen

This was a good purchase 

Elder Cox didn't believe me that I could sleep in a bath tub, so I did.

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

So this week started off pretty cool. A member asked if we could help him out in picking up some food for a local food drive. Even though it was cutting about 3 hours out of our P-day. We meet him at Walmart and he had the money that was donated. As we start shopping we ran into a less active family and were able to have a good contact with them. Then later we saw an investigator couple and were able to set up an appointment with them. Then a worker asked us why we were dressed up and we were able to explain that we were missionaries, and he had actually lived in Utah for a while but wasn't a member, I didn't know that was possible. Then as we left the same less active lady was leaving and we helped her put her groceries in the car. So yeah the Lord knows his children and places them where they need to be. It was a testimony builder to me that service really opens the gates for so many blessings.

On Wednesday we helped a member rake his leaves. I had never done it before and I didn't realize that it is kinda physically demanding. I didn't really realize it until later that night but I was really tired. I made it through nightly planning, no doubt with the help of the Lord, but then in our prayer to close planning I totally fell asleep. Then I guess Elder Cox just left me there. About 15 min later we were sitting in our chairs writing in our journals and Elder Cox started talking to me and I fell asleep again. So then I just gave up and went to bed.

Thursday for Thanksgiving we were invited to a family's dinner in Lane, Kansas - a town that might have 100 people in it. But it was pretty cool and awkward at the same time because they are the only members in their family so everyone else had no idea who we were, but they were extremely nice and the food was good.

The rest of the week was just trying to contact people and trying to find new investigators. No luck yet but we are doing well with less active members, we had some cool lessons this week as well.

Thank you all for all you do. It is really quite amazing the amount that I have been able to experience. I couldn't trade it for anything.

Elder Jensen

This was a good purchase 

Elder Cox didn't believe me that I could sleep in a bath tub, so I did.

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

This week has been fun, it was a little bit of a slower week but still good. Not much happened at the beginning of this week, just talked to a lot of people who weren't interested in the gospel, yet. We learned that both Elder Cox and I are staying in Ottawa for another transfer. And this transfer has both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that's gonna be exciting. Both Elder Cox and I gave talks on Sunday again. His was on Faith so I talked about Hope. Hopefully it was alright. 

We have decided to try to visit more active people and to ask for more referrals. We haven't seen any fruit from it yet but hopefully this will increase the number of solid people we find.  

We didn't have too many people sign up on our dinner calendar this week and it gets dark so soon now. What we have been doing is making active member visits around dinner time and it usually only takes 2 maybe 3 houses before someone offers us dinner in exchange for a message. So we are still getting in and sharing the spirit with others!

It was rather interesting though, I think we might have become marriage counselors or something. There is a couple in the ward that is struggling and we actually helped her move out (super awkward by the way) but bishop had asked us to try to stop by both of them separately and see how they were doing. We hadn't been able to get a hold of the husband but on Wednesday he actually texted us and asked if he could receive a blessing. Then later she asked us to come over and they were both there and we gave her a blessing as well. It was a very sweet experience and an example to me that real people have real life problems. I think they are handling their situation in the most adult and mature way possible, and that is what will probably save their marriage. 

We have been given many service opportunities and been able to give many blessings this week and it has been amazing. 

There is a less active member that the missionaries have been visiting every week for probably years now, but he is finally coming back to church. He seems to like it and he's been back for about 3 weeks now, and the ward is talking about giving him a calling! 

Anyway, that is my life in a nutshell. Work hard, have fun, the gospel is true everywhere, God loves all of us.

Thank you for all that you do.

Elder Jensen

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

This week has been good. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Merrill in the Heritage Park ward. We had dinner with a family whose son just entered the mission field. So they had lots of questions and they basically adopted the missionaries as their proxy sons. They made really good food. It was about 7:00 and pitch black outside but we didn't have anything else to do so we knocked on the door of a potential and a guy hurriedly opened the door and then he looked confused and turned to someone else and said "oh it's not her". Then there was kinda an awkward silence and Elder Merrill said "sorry we're not her" then he basically told us to go away.  

I have had problems with my iPad. The software that the church uses to control the ipads unenrolled itself. So we got a call from Salt Lake saying that I had to fix it. Which ultimately led to me having to completely wipe my iPad and starting it again. So since I didn't have the passcode to do that, I had to just enter my passcode wrong so many times and it wiped it for me. But it took a couple of days to be able to do it because of exchanges. So we got a call on Wednesday and the guy from Salt Lake said I had to do it soon or they would "have to.... take action". So I figured I better do it. And it took so flippin long, like 4 hours. 

President Boyack (the stake president) went out on a team up with us, it was awesome. We just sat back and listened and learned about eternal life. It was super cool.

Saturday we drove all around the middle of nowhere with our ward mission leader, who was sick. Now I might be getting sick, but all is well.

Today we went out to literally nowhere and somewhere, I'll send some pictures.

Thanks for all the support you guys send. You are awesome. Make it a good week.

Elder Jensen

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

This week has been full of miracles and fun times. Monday we got to go down to Chanute (my first area) and see some sweet people. It was a ton of fun and it was awesome to see people again. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures. 

On Tuesday the Gardner Elder's water line broke so they slept over at our apartment. That was fun. I will say the result of that night was a squirrel hide, some funny videos, an assortment of flavored chicken (including grape jelly) and a LOT of ice cream. 

We also got to do some service putting up plastic sheeting on a super old house from the 1800s. I had catfish for the first time, which was super good and I carved a pumpkin.

We street contacted someone who apparently is a former investigator and is super friendly toward missionaries and is having us over next week. Then I found someone who used to live in Rigby! Small world.

The wards chili cook off was Saturday and it was super good. There was buffalo chili and chili with cinnamon and I had chili with ghost peppers in it. Basically every redneck, hillbilly thing you could think of, it was probably there. And there were lots of non-members there, some of them were actually pretty interested, so that will be cool. I also got to eat squirrel. Kansas man.

Sunday I was really focused on getting a solid new investigator, and I fasted and prayed. Then right after church we got a text from our zone leaders who said "there is a member whose son just moved to Ottawa with his non-member girlfriend". So we went and met them. The address was right but the name was wrong, but they let us in anyway. They were really nice and willing to have us come back! Prayers are answered.

 

Anyway, this week has been pretty awesome. I am loving it out here. It's a lot of work, but the reward of helping someone is incomprehensible. Thank you for all your support. Keep moving forward.

Elder Jensen

I asked for pictures that included his face since he hasn't sent any for a few weeks - and this is what he sent.....