Wednesday, October 26, 2016

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. We have really been working with a lot of less active people and we have seen a lot of people this week.

So where we park our car is right under a couple huge maple trees and there are lots of birds in them and they like to poop on the car, but it's usually not too bad. But the other morning we went out and the car had like mountains of bird poop on it and the first thing Elder Cox said was "oh I didn't think that birds pooped when it was humid" so that was a good start to our day. 

A cool miracle that happened was that we tried to contact a lady who had gone online and ordered a Bible and we were delivering it for her. She wasn't there but her husband was and he wasn't really interested but he told us to go to his grandmother's house. So we did and it turns out that she is a member who was baptized several years ago in Paola. Finding the lost sheep!

Then Elder Cox convinced the whole district to do a "district breakfast" before district meeting. The night before it was decided that it would be a district lunch, but with breakfast food. Elder Cox volunteered us for pancakes. We went and bought two boxes of pancakes and two bags of chocolate chips then made probably 30ish Mancakes - they were huge. So that was fun.

A member made us pumpkin soup... it had chunks of pumpkin and peppers and other things I didn't ask about... I am glad that I have tried it but I probably wont try it again. 

A sister in the ward asked us to help her move and right before we get there Elder Cox is like "oh yeah, so she is moving out on her husband and I don't think he knows about it. So if he shows up its gonna be super awkward." Then sure enough as we and the high priest group leader were moving stuff out he showed up. Luckily I think the sister had told him but it was still super awkward as we were just moving stuff and putting it into a truck. Plus side is the high priest group leader took us out to lunch. 

So those are some of the highlights from this week. I learned lots and had some memorable experiences, it was fun. Thank you for all the support you guys give me. It means a lot. You're awesome!

Elder Jensen

Saturday, October 22, 2016

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 fun. Monday and Tuesday were spent trying to get in contact with people. One of the investigators was temporarily living in hotels in Ottawa, so we tried tracking him down. We asked hotel management for some personal information that we were pretty sure they weren't allowed to give us, but they gave it to us anyway. So that was sweet.

Wednesday we were helping a family clean out their garage and they had this monstrous desk that we couldn't move very well by ourselves. So we just got a sledge hammer and had a little bit of stress management practice on this desk, that was fun. Then we had dinner with a family  but the husband was sick. They usually come to the church and have dinner there, but since there wasn't another male we just set up a table in the parking lot and had dinner. It was a super windy day, but the food was really good so that was a plus. 

Thursday we had to drive to Olathe because we had to swap our car with another companionships car. As they were handing us the keys they told us everything that was wrong with the car which included two of the tires had small holes in them and we needed to fill up with air every couple of hours. So we drove to Olathe and they put new tires on and got it all fixed up.

Friday we had Zone Training and the Stake President came and trained for like 1 1/2 hours and expounded on many mysteries of the gospel and it was super cool. I loved it.

Saturday we had a baptism for Blake Taylor who is a 9-year old we have been working with. His grandpa is the 2nd counselor and was the one to baptize him. It was a very good service and everything actually went pretty smooth for a change.

We were asked to go visit a lady in the hospital. She was there, but we had to wait like 45 minutes to talk to her. We gave her a blessing which was cool.

We also found out that I am related to some of the members here. The Youngs and Benches. Sister Young and I share the same great-great grandpa - Lorenzo Jensen. Then Bro Young's Grandpa Denzel Jensen is my great grandpa Orland Jensen's brother. Small world.

Sunday I was able to participate in Blake's confirmation and an ordination to the priesthood for another recent convert. Then we were able to teach three RCLAs after church 

So that was pretty much it for this week. Thank you for your patience, you guys are awesome. Make it a good one.

Elder Jensen

Olathe Zone

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Area: Leavenworth, KS and Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Peterson and Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050
(We got an email this week that said all packages should be sent directly to the missionary now and not the mission office. If you would like his current address, just let me know. All letters should still go to the mission office. Mindy)

This week has been pretty interesting. Big news is that I have been transferred to the Ottawa Ward! It is the area directly over the Iola ward which was my first area! So that's super cool. I am still in Kansas... but because we are so close to my last area, we are going to try to stop and see some people which will be sweet!

 Ottawa is really cool though and it turns out that I very well might be related to some of the members here.  

So this week has kinda been a whirlwind and I don't really remember what happened the first part of the week. But, I did get to say goodbye to Herbert and got some sweet pictures. Then I came to Ottawa with Elder Cox, who is from Mesquite Nevada. He has been out for 13 months. He is awesome.

We met a couple of crazy rednecks out in the boonies, that was fun.

We do have a 9 -year old who is planning on getting baptized this Saturday. I got to milk a goat, I had Moroccan food, and I wrestled a mini horse. So that's been Ottawa so far.

I am sorry that this is a shorter one. I miss you guys.

Love ya
Elder Jensen

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Area: Leavenworth, KS and Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Peterson and Elder Cox
 
Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net  
 
Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050
(We got an email this week that said all packages should be sent directly to the missionary now and not the mission office. If you would like his current address, just let me know. All letters should still go to the mission office. Mindy)

This week has been pretty interesting. Big news is that I have been transferred to the Ottawa Ward! It is the area directly over the Iola ward which was my first area! So that's super cool. I am still in Kansas... but because we are so close to my last area, we are going to try to stop and see some people which will be sweet!

 Ottawa is really cool though and it turns out that I very well might be related to some of the members here.  

So this week has kinda been a whirlwind and I don't really remember what happened the first part of the week. But, I did get to say goodbye to Herbert and got some sweet pictures. Then I came to Ottawa with Elder Cox, who is from Mesquite Nevada. He has been out for 13 months. He is awesome.

We met a couple of crazy rednecks out in the boonies, that was fun.

We do have a 9 -year old who is planning on getting baptized this Saturday. I got to milk a goat, I had Moroccan food, and I wrestled a mini horse. So that's been Ottawa so far.

I am sorry that this is a shorter one. I miss you guys.

Love ya
Elder Jensen

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Area: Leavenworth, KSCompanion: Elder Peterson
 
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 kinda slow, so I will just share some of the highlights.

On Tuesday we had a man call us and said that he had talked to the Sister missionaries at the Independence Visitor's Center and they had given him our phone number. He was interested in our family history resources and wanted to know how to access them. So we told him that we have a family history center at the church building. They went and had a very good time and were very impressed by the church. We set up a time to go see him on Wednesday. We got to know them and invited them to learn more about what we believe and the restored gospel, but they were not interested in learning more. 

We had lunch with this lady from our ward who is 91 and still teaches music at her home. I got to play on a 110+ year old piano and she had a darbuka and a set of bongos and she taught us how to play the Spanish guitar, so that was super cool.

One of the investigators Elder Peterson taught up in Atchison was getting baptized this week so we were able to see that. It was really cool. It is just a branch up there so their baptismal font is a portable one and is basically a waist high 5x5 pool.

Then of course conference happened and it was amazing. We just watched it at the church building, but because we have a deaf family in our ward it was all on the ASL channel - which was very different. I definitely learned a lot more about sign language than I thought I would from conference.

Anyway that was my week. Thank you all for your support. You guys are awesome - thank you!


Elder Jensen