Thursday, August 31, 2017

Week 85

Area: Tiffany Springs, MO
Companion: Elder Nielsen

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net 

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

Alright, a lot has happened this week so I will try to condense it.
Monday we had our first appointment with a lady named Celeste. It was a perfect setup and she listened intently. As we shared the restoration with her the Spirit flooded the room and she accepted to be baptized in September!

Tuesday we had an appointment with a part member family wayyyyy up in the north part of our area. We had a member take us all the way up there and they were not home... so we drove all the way back and that was pretty much our evening.

Wednesday we had a lesson with a lady named Ruth and her daughter, Princess. They are refugees from Liberia but have been in the States for about 8 years. They are awesome and use to meet with missionaries in Philadelphia but moved to Kansas City in July. They stopped us in a McDonald's parking lot and we got their info. We met with them later in the week and they accepted the challenge to be baptized as well!!

Thursday was full of mostly pulling weeds in a service project.

Fri - weekly planning and not much.

Sat - we went out and had a lesson with the Guerreras again (recent converts), they are awesome. I always love our lessons with them although a bird pooped on me as we were walking around :(

Sun - RUTH CAME TO CHURCH! It was awesome. There was also a ton of ward business, every presidency was changed except relief society and primary. We also got a new ward mission leader. I am sad to see Brother Untch get called to be the Elders Quorum President, but Bro Aiono (formerly in the bishopric) will do awesome.
Chris Miller (a family we have been working with a lot) also received the Melchizedek Priesthood and became an Elder. Then about an hour later he became the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency.  Great day!

Mon - Usually our P-day but it was switched due to a solar eclipse that came right through KC. We were invited to a less active member's house for a BBQ. She practices a Hebrew religion now and all of her church friends were there. So it was about 30 people from their church and then the mormon missionaries. But they seriously were some of the nicest people. It was a very interesting party though. Lots of horn playing, prayers in Hebrew and praising God. The eclipse was pretty cool even though it was pretty overcast and we couldn't see much. Everything did get very dark for a few minutes though and what we did see was beautiful. Right after it POURED rain. So much so that as we were driving we crossed a bridge where the water was at the edge of the lip. Then about 15 min later it had completely flooded and we got out and watched the flash flood happen with other people. It was strong enough to break the guard rails. Crazy day.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tue - We had a Zone Conference. We left at 7:30 and got home at 5:20, long meeting but it was amazing and inspiring. 
 


Anyway that was my crazy week. Thank you all for the love and support you have given me. Remember the Lord hears and answers every prayer.
 
Elder Jensen

Trip to the Kansas City Temple today
 

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Week 84

Area: Tiffany Springs, MOCompanion: Elder Nielsen

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  

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



This week was amazing but full of pretty normal missionary things. I will just hit some of the highlights.
On Tuesday we got a new car - a Nissan Altima :) and got to hang out with some past mission companions while we waited.

We found a few potential investigators and have return appointments with them for this coming week!

We went on an exchange and saw some great miracles.

We contacted a less active part member family that has taken the lessons before and got so close to baptism. We are going back to start teaching them the lessons again.

We got to do some awesome service cleaning up a yard. We had to clear a chain link fence from vines and trees that had overtaken it. It was fun, we moved A LOT of plants.

We went back to Dr. Hoyas to have my companion poked with acupuncture needles.

On Saturday we went out with our ward mission leader to visit some less active members. Most of the ones who answered turned out to not be the person we were looking for and they apparently have moved out. We made a list and record of all the LAs that no longer live at the address we have. Its about 1/4 of the ward! Its kinda crazy.

Sunday was probably the best day of the week. Echo Miller, a recent convert of about 2 months, gave a talk in sacrament meeting. You could tell she really dislikes getting up in front of people but she did great and the ward gave her so much support it was awesome! 

It has been a good week, I am doing well and loving the mission. We are working hard to find and teach new people and we have people in the works but nothing amazing has happened quite yet.

Thank you for all the support, you are awesome!

Elder Jensen

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Week 83

Area: Tiffany Springs, MOCompanion: Elder Nielsen

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 great. First, Mia - our recent convert was able to go with the youth group to Nauvoo. She learned so much about the church and was able to go and do baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. It was a great experience for her.

We received a referral for a man who had talked with a member of the church about Adam-Ondi-Ahman, which is in the mission. The man was very interested and wanted to meet with missionaries. So we were able to contact him and meet with him. His name is Edward. He lived all his life in West Virginia, then read an article that said all the righteous in the last days will flee the coasts and gather in the center of the United States... so that's what he did. He quit his job that he had for 20+ years and moved to Kansas City. We had a great lesson with him and he is very excited to learn more about the history and future of this great place where we live. I also want to know who wrote that article... he has something going on.

We also had a new member move into our ward. When we first went and met him I soon realized that he was from Paola, Kansas and that I had gone on exchanges in that area and was in that District when he got baptized! It was cool to finally sit down with him and we are excited that he is in our ward.

The weather has been so nice here recently, except for yesterday it rained like crazy! I love the rain, but it makes it hard to talk to people. I can just imagine people opening the door and seeing two completely drenched missionaries and thinking "what in the world are they doing?" But it was a fun storm with lots of lighting and thunder. 

Thank you all, I hope you have a good week!

It might be hard to see but there is so much corn here, it's ridiculous.