Monday, November 13, 2017

Week 96

Area: Raytown Ward 
Companion: Elder Martinez

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 crazy busy, but a great week.

Mon - We were able to contact several people and set up return appointments. A man approached us at Walmart and invited us to his bible study.

Tue - Halloween was a good day. We had to do some administrative stuff. We had dinner with a family from Tonga and they fed us forever. It was awesome. We got a referral for a less active member who wanted to get back into church and meet with missionaries. We knocked on his door but he wasn’t there, so we tracted around his house and ran into these two really cool ladies. One is a young mother and one is an older lady. They both asked us to come back on Thursday. 

Wed - We had a meeting with all the Zone leaders and we got the new phones. Every companionship in the mission is going to get a galaxy J3. They are pretty nice, but super weird to get used to. We are also on Facebook now, also really weird to see everyone’s posts. I am excited though for the new technology it should improve the work in the area.

Thurs - We went back to the two ladies we found on Tuesday. The first one came to the door and was really excited to meet with us. She had looked in the Book of Mormon a little. So we taught the restoration and invited her to be baptized on Dec 2nd. It was a great lesson and our team up was a young man who is about to go out on his mission. He did great testifying. She asked if we could come back. It was sweet. As we were teaching, a random guy walked 12

Fri - We went on exchanges with the assistants. So Elder Merrill (my last companion) and I were working around Raytown, just like the good ol’ days.... 4 weeks ago. It was pretty fun though.

Sat - Today was awesome and crazy. We had a bit more administrative stuff to do like figuring out the miles missionaries can drive. We set up for interviews with our mission president. We had a great lesson with a less active member who really wants to come back to church and his wife and kids to be baptized so hopefully things get rolling with them.  Then we went to a bible study, that same guy (Diamond) who invited us on Monday. When we showed up he said that they were in the middle of their service so we caught the last half of the service. Everything was Korean but they spoke English. The only Korean person there was the preacher. It was was really interesting, but is was good. They taught pretty good principles but not completely the truth. Then we had a bible study with them, it was also good and we are going to go back and try to invite Diamond to the visitors center. It was definitely an experience to remember.

Sun - We had stake conference and it was awesome! Elder Hintze from the Quorum of the 70 came. It was a good day.

Thank you all for the love and support, I’m loving it out here in Missouri. The Lord loves you and will help you.
 
Elder Jensen
 

Week 95

Area: Raytown Ward 
Companion: Elder Martinez

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 boring, not going to lie. It has been a lot of meetings and administrative stuff. 

Although on Monday it was 8:55 pm and we were on our way home and decided to try one more person. We met a cool guy who is a member of the ward, but doesn't come very often. He was pretty welcoming and said we could come back this week!

Tue - We took a young man out with us. He was just ordained an Elder and put in his mission papers. It was cool to answer his questions and talk with him.

Wed. - We went to 4 different meetings :) The mission is getting Facebook, so we got to log in and make some changes to our profile... it is super weird. I still have no idea what the rules are but I'm assuming I can friend people, I just can't chat through out the week, but still really exciting. We also get smart phones next Wednesday!

Thurs - We did our weekly planning and took Brother Murphy to a scripture study class at the Visitor's Center. It was a great class and a lot of people showed up. It has definitely been getting colder here. So Bro Murphy is in a wheelchair and as we were about to push him outside he asked if it was cold outside. We replied "no, its not to bad". Murphy grabbed his beanie then we headed out. As soon as the wind hit him he almost yelled "This is white mans weather! I'm cold" Then the whole rest of the ride he talked about how black people are built for the cold. It was pretty funny. 

Fri - I went on exchanges to the Hill Park area with E. Hamblin. Hill Park is the area with the Visitor Center, the Community of Christ Temple and conference center, it has downtown Independence, and it has the Temple Lot where Joseph Smith dedicated the ground for the Independence temple. So a pretty cool area. We were out contacting people and we sat down for a little break. Elder Hamblin said he wasn't feeling super good so we went inside to rest for maybe 30 min, it was about 4:00. So I took a nap then about 40 minutes later I heard him in the bathroom throwing up, poor guy. There was nothing I could do for him so I went back to sleep... So we stayed inside the rest of the night. I got to read and watch church videos.

Sat - The ward had a big campfire activity. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and then Bishop Searls gave a message all about missionary work. It was a great activity. We got to go early and set up for the event, so I got to chop wood and do a little manual labor for a change. :)

Sun - The whole church service was focused on missionary work. It was awesome! I am so pumped for the ward to catch a hold of the spirit of missionary work. It is going to be great.

Thank you all for the support. I love being a missionary and I know it is a short time that I have to serve the Lord. I have been impressed recently of the power of the Book of Mormon. If you read it every day, you will never fall away. I know this to be true and I ask all of you, including myself, to make a more dedicated effort to read the Book of Mormon. Make it the Most Important part of your day. 

Thank you, love you all.
 
Elder Jensen

Week 94

Area: Raytown Ward & Riverview Branch (Kansas City, MO)
Companions: Elders Horne & Martinson & Martinez

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net 

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

Alright, this week had a ton of changes. New companion, almost a whole new Zone, but same ward. Transfers were this week. Elder Horne got transferred to Olathe, as a 6 week trainer and he is whitewashing, what a champ! And I returned to Raytown fulltime.

Monday - We had dinner with a Marshallese family, one of the daughters had a non-member boyfriend over. So we were able to teach the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon, it was a good night.

Tue - So for the past week I had been catching a cold and it was just getting worse and worse so finally I broke down and went to the doctor. She told me that I had a sinus infection, an ear infection, and bronchitis.  So I guess I had good reason to feel sick. She gave me some medicine and told me good luck. For most of the rest of the day we rested and I tried to recover.  We had dinner with an investigator family, they were the cutest little Mexican family. They made some amazing homemade Mexican food, it was awesome. 

Wed - I was still recovering, so the other Elders prepped their apartment for transfers. They are sharing with a new companionship in their apartment so they had to move a bunch of things around. 

Thurs - Transfer day! My new companion is Elder Martinez, he is from Moses Lake, Washington. I am super excited. I have served around E Martinez a bit before. We came back to Raytown and unpacked then tried a few people. We meet the fiancĂ© of a less active member who seems really promising. We had dinner with our WML and then took Brother Murphy to a scripture study class at the Visitor's center. He is so funny, we just laugh the whole time. 

Fri. - We mostly did weekly planning and running around collecting things that missionaries forgot at transfers. We had dinner at Steak & Shake, then had a lesson with Bro Bruce. He is doing really well. He is almost at full activity, and he accepted the assignment to speak in Sacrament meeting! 

Sat - We had correlation with our WML, which included chocolate chip pancakes :) We were able to contact a few people and had a lesson with our High Priest Group leader. 

Sun - We had church, it was nice to be back in Raytown. We tried to find some new people, had dinner with the Clarks (who are from South Africa and moved here because...it's Zion). They are super cool. 

It was a pretty fun week, I am feeling much better now. There were a lot of changes in the zone, only one companionship stayed the same and out of the 17 companionships 11 are training new missionaries.  It should be a good transfer. I am so happy that I get to be a missionary in the Lord's Kingdom on the earth. It is a huge privilege and I get the feeling that I need to make the most of it. Thank you all so much, you are amazing examples. Thank you!

Elder Jensen


I was very sick and trying to do my laundry. I came upstairs and went to fold my laundry and apparently fell asleep.


We found a Frog on top of our car.


 
 

Week 93


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 really and seems to have flown by.

Mon - We had a choir rehearsal to prepare for a musical number in Zone Conference.
It was 4 sets of Elders, some sang English, some Spanish, some in American Sign Language.  I had never conducted a rehearsal, so that was a first.

Tue - We had Zone Conference for most of the day. Elder and Sister Echo Hawk came to the conference. Elder Echo Hawk is a member of the 70. It was amazing to get to hear from him. Then we had MLC right after where he talked with a smaller group of us.

 
Wed - We went to the second round of zone conference. Since my zone is the biggest, we had to split the zone in half. So I got to go to both meetings. I met with the Stake Presidency to talk about the missionary work in the stake, those are always cool meetings.

 
Thurs - We did our weekly planning which was weird since I'm am in a trio, but the only one representing Raytown. So I did weekly planning by myself, which is much different than normal. We also had our Book of Mormon study class that happens every Thursday. We had a member of a restoration branch come. He had a Book of Mormon that was very well marked up and he knew it very well. It was really cool. I don't think he is particularly interested in joining our church but likes the class.

Fri - We had a few people from Salt Lake come and observe our mission. The mission is getting smart phones and Facebook, so we were the experiment. They had to see what the mission is like before the phones and stuff.  We did our daily planning at the church building and he basically watched us plan, study, and proselyte. It was a little weird but fun.  And both of my companions got trainer calls!! So E. Horne is going to be a 6 week trainer! I'm probably more excited than they are.

Sat - We got to do some sweet service setting up for a kids Halloween enchanted forest. It was way fun, we got to move hay bails, set up tarp walls in the trees, and all sorts of stuff. I got to spend about an hour with Elder Pauley, who is deaf. We were suppose to hang these camouflaged tarps in the woods with ropes. Pretty logistical stuff and we couldn't really talk to each other, but we worked pretty well with the little sign language I know.

Sunday was another great day in the service of the Lord. We mostly tried to contact people and get back in contact with old investigators. 
 
Thank you all so much for the support, it is always great to hear from you!

Elder Jensen



 

Week 92

Area: Raytown Ward & Riverview Branch (Kansas City, MO)
Companions: Elder Merrill, Elders Horne & Martinson

Email address:  kenneth.jensen@myldsmail.net 

Mailing Address:
Elder Kenneth Jensen
Missouri Independence Mission
517 W Walnut St
Independence, MO 64050
 
Hey everyone, this week has been crazy and busy. I will try to give details but my brain is pretty fried now.

Tue - We actually did some proselytizing and had a great lesson with Brother Bruce.

Wed - We had meetings literally all day :)

Thursday - Elder Merrill got a call to be an assistant to the President. So he was emergency transferred to be in a trio with the assistants.

Fri - We tried a few people and packed and we were asked to help set up for a big service project for tomorrow. We were supposed to be there for maybe 20 minutes but it turned into more like  3 1/2 hours. 

Saturday - We went and helped at the actual service project. It was held at the Community of Christ (RLDS) auditorium. It is basically the equivalent of the conference center for us. It was a huge project to help the needy and homeless. So there were companies offering free services like hair cuts, job resumes, and medical check ups. Our job was to guide people around. The ward made care packages with towels, toothpaste and copies of the Book of Mormon.  I don't have the pictures of the event right now, but hopefully I will get them soon.  Afterwards we exchanged, E. Merrill went with the APs and I went with the Riverview Elders (Horne and Martinson.) So now we are double covering. The Riverview area has downtown KC MO. Its kinda sketchy, but its been a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to Riverview for church, it is a small branch with about 40 people, its pretty fun.

Anyway, sorry this week has been kinda short. They have kinda thrown me into the fire and I'm trying to get everything done that I need to. Thank you for all the emails this week, it was great to hear from you all!
 
 
Elder Jensen
 
This keeps us warm at night.

Week 91

Area: Raytown, MO
Companion: Elder Merrill

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 lot of fun and kinda weird at the same time. 

Mon was awesome. We had a lesson with a member who is returning to full activity. We had planned on reading out of the Book of Mormon with him. The ward also wanted us to talk with him about preparing to receive the priesthood. So we get there and visit for a minute and Brother Bruce says "Well why don't we read out of the Book of Mormon" he flips open to a random page and says "Lets read this one, Alma 13" which as we came to find out was the perfect chapter on the priesthood and some of the responsibilities that come with it. It was divine intervention for sure.

Tuesday was full of administrative stuff but we were able to talk to some very nice people and we will hopefully get in contact with them this week. I also met the epitome of a grumpy old man that told us to go away, it was pretty funny and I just had to take a minute to laugh. 

Wednesday we went to several district meetings and then had dinner. Then we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency and our Mission President. Afterwards we felt impressed to try a family who use to investigate the church about a month ago but all of the sudden they turned a 180 and completely turned away from us. So we went and knocked right as they were pulling into the driveway, they were trapped! Luckily they were happy to see us again and we are going to start meeting with them again! It was surely the Lord leading us.

Thursday we talked to a couple people at McDonalds, no takers but it was fun. Then we went on exchanges with the Riverview Elders. The Riverview branch covers Downtown KC MO. So it was a lot of fun.

Friday we saw some really cool miracles, people who just let us right in and share a message with them. We saw a house that had a business sign that said "Da Candy House" so naturally we stopped to see what it was, really hoping it wasn't a drug house. As we walked up there was a family sitting outside. We were able to talk with them and learned that the man's wife had passed away at the beginning of September and he was really looking for peace. The Spirit put into my mind the scriptures to share with him and we had a tender moment. He said that he would like us to come back. Sadly, Da Candy House was not open at the moment but we knew we had found what we were looking for.

Saturday and Sunday were awesome, General Conference was amazing. I really enjoyed Elder Rasband's talk about how there are no coincidences. The Lord knows us and loves us. He would not deprive you of the opportunity to serve those around you and be a light unto the nations. Stay strong and push forward. 

Also, there are a TON of Polynesian people in Independence so we were fed well in between sessions. And everywhere we went people would see us and either give us the food in their hands saying "Elders, please eat" or "You still look hungry, go get some food" and they would usually make sure we got some. It was great, I think I found my people.

Thank you for all of the love and support, it is great to hear from you! Missions are the best, I am loving it out here in Missouri. #ZION


Elder Jensen