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

Well, this week we weren't able to get a ton of work done. My companion is kinda going through some trials so we have relaxed the intensity of what we have been doing.

That being said on Friday we were swamped with service. It started with going to a retirement home to play games with the old ladies there. We all had mini pool noodles and hit a balloon around. Then when they got tired we played Sorry. Then we went with our Ward Mission Leader to a friends house and did a bunch of yard work. They told us that we would be cutting down bamboo but when we got there we saw that it was actually sorghum. Then we drove to the southern part of our area and moved some rose bushes and broke up some dirt with a ton of clay in it. 

On Saturday we went on exchanges. Elder Parker came to Ottawa with me and we got some good work done and visited some less actives that we haven't seen in a while.

The Fishers fed us dinner this Thursday and they fed us "water chicken" which tuned out to be frog legs. So that was fun. And then later in the week another family fed us gumbo. Also a new experience. They were both good, I would probably eat it again.

So a little while ago we got a referral for a lady that lives in a sorority, so we really didn't just want to knock on the door. We tried several different ways, but could not get a hold of her. So we just went and knocked. It was a little awkward because the girls had absolutely no idea how to act when religious people knock on their door. But the referral wasn't there at the time, so we left a card and will try again later. Knock on a giant sorority with a ton of girls living in it. Check.

That was pretty much my week. Thank you for all that you guys do, you are awesome!

Make it a good one,

Elder Jensen

Cool picture of Enos

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

This last week was transfer week and we found out that I am going to be staying in Ottawa for another transfer with Elder Timmreck. I will end up being in Ottawa for 6 months when I am done and members are already saying "wow, it feels like you've been here forever". So I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I am excited though, I love the ward and the area and am grateful to have the opportunity to serve here.

So this week Elder Timmreck was still getting over his cold and right as he was getting over his sickness he passed it on to me. So this week has consisted of mostly staying inside and trying not to be bored. I think we watched almost every video the church has produced. We eventually got bored enough that we just started telling each other improved stories and just seeing how creative we could make them. We (Elder Timmreck) came up with some good ones.

We did get to go proselyting for about 2 hours while we were both feeling well. We stopped at a guys house who we randomly knocked on and turns out he was a member. We went and tried to share a message with him and he was nice enough to talk to us but was clearly not interested in what we had to say. He didn't pay attention at all. Then his girlfriend came home and said hi then started breast feeding there 1 1/2 year old daughter and did not cover anything... at all. 

We did get to teach a solid lesson with Darrin this week and he is still planning on being baptized in March!

 

So yea, sorry there is not much to report on but for the most part we have been trying to get better. We are both feeling much better today though and are planning on getting back to work this week.

Thank you!

Elder Jensen

Area: Ottawa, KSCompanion: Elder Timmreck
 
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 a week full of changes. If you follow any other missionaries I'm sure they will be speaking of this as well.

 

We had a Zone Conference this week and we also had the world wide missionary broadcast where we learned how to be more effective teachers and better missionaries. They also made some schedule changes to our days. We have much more freedom. They basically say you need to do these things in the morning (work out, breakfast, get ready, personal study) and you have from 6:30 - 10:00 to do them. We have companion study sometime in the day (we get to choose when) and instead of nightly planning, we do our daily planning in the morning before we go out. They have also cut down on our numbers. We used to report on 9 different statistical numbers but now we only report on 4. The changes have been pretty nice and the mornings are way more relaxed. We have more time to do what we want so now I actually have time to become conscious before I do my work outs.  Elder Timmreck seems to like them too.

This Sunday we also got a new ward mission leader, which as a missionary changes a lot of things on just how everything is ran and your daily life and contact with the WML. It will be good though, our WML and his wife just got back from a mission in the Las Vegas mission.

Other than that we have had a pretty slow week. We did have some good contacts with people but nothing too noteworthy. Probably the highlight of the week was we had our second lesson with Darrin this week. It went super well and he seems to be doing good. Our member present was... interesting, but it was really good. Darrin made us bread :)

Thank you all for the prayers and for everything you guys do. You're amazing!

Make it a good one.

Elder Jensen