Week 76

Area: Tiffany Springs, MOCompanion: Elder Fowlks and Elder Nielsen

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  

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

Alright so this week was pretty exciting. On Monday we went and met with a member named Gary and his roommate, Richard. Richard was interested in the church and wanted to learn more. So we went and taught the first lesson. The Spirit filled the room as we testified of the Savior, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Richard accepted a baptismal date for July 15th.

On Tuesday we found out that Elder Fowlks was going to be transferred so we spent a good amount of Wednesday packing and saying goodbye to people. He was here for 6 months so we had a lot of people to see. 

Thursday we had breakfast at the ward mission leader's house and then left for transfers. Elder Fowlks was transferred to the Cedar Creek Ward in Lenexa. My new companion is Elder Nielsen. He is from Tucson, Arizona and has been out for 20 months. He has served in Leavenworth and Chanute, two of my past areas! So we have had a good amount to talk about. It has been pretty fun the past couple of days. 

We have a spicy BBQ sauce in our fridge called Devil's Butt and Elder Nielsen wanted to try it. So we sat down to have lunch and we said a prayer and as soon as we closed the prayer. He popped up and said "I have to grab the Devil's Butt!" without realizing what he had said.

A member here works for Chrysler and they provide him a car so he has a really nice 2017 Dodge Challenger that he took us out in and drove us around a little. It was sweet. 

The past couple of days we have had some pretty crazy storms. There were a few tornados about 20 minutes north of us, but not too much damage was done. And we are safe Mom. It was kinda funny though we called one of our investigators Saturday night to make sure he was coming to church and he said he was driving home and his phone said there was a tornado that was within 5 miles of him, but he said that he would make it to church. I made a joke and told him that if he didn't make it to church it had better be because he got caught in a tornado... He didn't come, so we will make sure that he is alright.

But overall it was a really good week, I am grateful for my family and especially for my Father. He has been an amazing example for me and others to look towards. I hope to grow into the man that he expects me to be. Thank you Dad, I love you.

Elder Jensen

When the heat index is 111 degrees and your water is super hot

Week 75

Area: Tiffany Springs, MO
Companion: Elder Fowlks

This week has been amazing. It started off by teaching a part member family who has a 9 year old named Shane who is not baptized. We taught them the restoration and committed him to be baptized on June 24th!  Since he is a kid I knew I could be straight up with him. We started by asking him what he thinks missionaries do. He said "teach the Gospel" and I said "Yes, we teach people so that they can get baptized. Is that something you want to do?" and Shane said yes. The spirit flooded the room and we were able to start teaching the 1st lesson, it was amazing.

Tuesday we had a Zone Conference, it was a spiritual feast. It was amazing to hear from our President one more time before he heads home. Although it was still a 6 hour meeting...

On Thursday our ward mission leader was driving us up to a town way in the north part of our area for a lesson. As we were driving up our WML told us that there was a family in this town that needed help moving some furniture. So we went over and found that they were moving a piano out of their house and putting a new one in. So that was fun. They also were replacing a bed and their couches. We asked them what they were going to do with their old couch and they said they were going to donate it. Then they offered to give it to us if we wanted it. We gladly accepted because our couch was very broken on the bottom and if you sat in the right spot you were basically just sitting on the floor. So a new couch has been very nice.

The fireflies are finally out this year. It looks so amazing to see a whole wheat field that glows and sparkles at night. Also as you drive if you hit any of them they leave little specks of glowing light on your windshield.

We did service for the Millers this week (she was baptized 2 weeks ago and their daughter is getting baptized this week!) We helped them cut up some branches and then burn them in a barrel. We went until the barrel was full of coals and we couldn't fit anymore in. Then we helped another family in our ward on their home garden, mostly just weeding but she made us a lunch that was amazing!

This last Sunday was Stake Conference and Elder Weatherford T. Clayton came and presided. In the middle of the meeting he asked all of the full time missionaries in the congregation to come up to the front and then we sang "I am a child of God". Then he asked several of us to bear our testimonies. Afterwards we got to talk with Elder Clayton. It was an amazing experience, he told us "your grandchildren are so happy that you have decided to serve a mission. There is a lot more to heaven than we can see." It was super cool.

We have been able to see some amazing miracles recently and my testimony has grown so much from this last week and the last 17 months! Thank you all so much for the support you give. It is always great to hear from you.

Elder Jensen

Area: Tiffany Springs, MOCompanion: Elder Fowlks
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050

Well this week has been full of small miracles. To start off we were walking out of the library one day and right as we were leaving one of our investigators was walking into the library. It was really great because he had been out of town for a week or so and it had been hard to contact him. So we talked for a little bit and we are going to meet with him this week.

I was on exchanges with Elder Martinson who was assigned as an American Sign Language speaking missionary. So we knocked on a door and the lady who answered saw that he knew ASL and said that she had taught at a school helping the kids who were hard of hearing or deaf. It was amazing to see the Lord guide us this week. It seemed like we were just at the right place at the right time. 

The big news for this week is that Mia was baptized! Mia is the daughter of Echo, the lady that was baptized about 3 weeks ago. It was great to see Chris, her step father, be able to baptize her. Elder Fowlks was able to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. 

Also exciting - the Guerreras were able to come to church this week! It was great to see them there and the ward really seemed to welcome them in. 

Since we had stake conference last week, this week we had fast and testimony meeting.  A mother stood up to bear her testimony and she had a two year old little girl in her arms. The mother talked about how she had been having a rough week before and one day she was really thinking about if she was a good mother or not. And one of her boys spoke up and said "You're the best mom ever!"  And she said that that experience had really touched her. But then as she was telling the story the little girl in her arms said "but you are the best mom ever!" It was a sweet testimony that I'm sure touched the hearts of those who attended.

So we had a baptism which was awesome, but not a whole lot else. We had a couple really good lessons with the Millers (Echo and Mia) and with the Guerreras and we have a good week coming up. This week is transfer week. We should know by tomorrow night if one of us is leaving or we are both staying.

Thank you all so much for what you do!

Elder Jensen

This is for you Dad

Area: Tiffany Springs, MO Companion: Elder Fowlks   Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net     Mailing Address: Elder Kenneth Jensen Missouri Independence Mission 517 W Walnut St Independence, MO 64050 Alright, so to get the week started we went to Hobby Lobby on Monday to try and find a little picture book thing. We walked in and I immediately realized that the only people that go to Hobby Lobby (at least in Missouri ) are young Moms who are trying to be all crafty. So we stuck out a little bit, we got a lot of stares. We ended up just going to Walmart where we weren't the weirdest people in the room. If you remember the pictures "the people of Walmart" I'm pretty sure that the majority of those pictures where taken in Missouri or Kansas. We had a couple of really awesome lessons with people this week, it has been amazing to share the sweet spiritual experiences that come from learning and pondering the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We helped Carlos, who is a super cool guy, move a lot of dirt and paint part of his house so that was fun. We also helped a few people move out of the ward... sad :( I went on exchanges this week with Elder Zuccato. It was super fun. We did a lot of finding and street contacting which always comes with meeting interesting people and just funny random experiences.  The past couple of weeks our District and Zone have really been struggling in finding new people to teach, so we set a Zone goal to find 7 new people and a District goal of 4. Well, the district was able to find 8 and the Zone found 12 new people this week. It was an amazing miracle and a great improvement from our previous weeks.  The Lord is with us and is guiding us where we should go and what we should do. It is incredible to be a part of this glorious gospel. I know that Jesus lives and that through him we may all live again. Thank you all so much for the love and support you have given me.  Fun Fact: missionaries actually melt and fall into a deep trance every weekly planning   Click here to Reply or Forward 10.18 GB (67%) of 15 GB used Manage Terms - Privacy Last account activity: in 1 minute Details