Medford 14: Spring? Summer? Both?

These last few days have been good. There's plenty of walking to do and lots of people we're talking to. I've been doing my best to try to break up the monotony and keep looking for ways to keep my head up. I've had a lot of really good experiences that have helped me as things have been winding down. I'm kinda understanding the whole "Enduring to the End" thing for sure 😉 But things have been good.

We've been really getting after it and seeing a lot of success. We've been trying to sort through our investigators and seeing who's really invested in, well, investigating! While it's been sad to let some people go, I know that it's for the benefit of the work.

We had good lessons with a few of our investigators like Ben and Anthony and a less active man named Tom who's SUPER great. He bought us lunch one day. It's been great to see as we've been getting out and about, there have been blessings coming from it.

Speaking of which, we found some swell new people to teach. We were walking around and we were both just DEAD tired, but we decided to make a final push before dinner. We were able to find two really solid investigators in about 2 minutes! Diligence pays off!

Small talk: the weather. The weather in Oregon has been just ridiculous lately. We went from 92 degrees one day to 35 a day later. One day drowning in sweat, the next, drowning in a torrential downpour. I've never experienced all four season in a week until I've been here. It was nutso.

I need to mention this before I forget again. This happened a week or two ago, but it's vital information. We saw a high school girl fight in the cemetery. I looked over and all of these teenagers congregated in a circle, phones out, and WHAMO. Hair pulling. Cut foreheads. I was completely in disbelief! I walked over there, weedwacker in hand, and told them all to break it up. We didn't really know what to do after that, so we went and got pizza.

Ok back to the week. This Sunday was incredible! The spirit was just super strong and the classes were great. It was just a really positive way to end a less than exciting week.

And last but not least, crazy Oregon story of the week! So we were walking down the street Sunday night and we see this couple hanging out of the side of the road. To paint a picture, this guy has no shoes, a big floppy hat, and is holding an vapor cigarette, so your typical Oregonian. He says something like "I want the two of you to feel the energy out in this situation and give me just one sentence. That's all I want. Huddle up!" So, we huddle up and talk amongst ourselves trying to figure out what the heck is going on. We decided on a quick message and said proudly: "Men are that they might have joy!" The man thinks for a second and says: "That's beautiful man. Bring it in." We proceed to hug it out. It was a good time.

Love, Elder Jensen

What season is it?

Zone Hike

Medford 13: Biking on the Sun

Hey there everyone!

This has been a good week. It's been getting hot over here in Oregon and we're feeling it. Walking and biking around in this weather has been quite the experience.

Speaking of, on Saturday (who needs chronological order anyway) we went biking eeeevvvveeerrryyywhere. Xavier, one of the people people that I was teaching in Springfield got baptized this weekend. In order to Skype in, we had to bike the whole six miles in the heat of the day through busy Medford traffic to the church so we could see it. It was quite the trip. We got a bit sunburned and Elder Green almost fell into a river. Good times.

We've been visiting Patrick and Southern a lot lately and they're doing really well. We've been reading from the Book of Mormon with them and they're coming out of their shell. We're hoping to get them comfortable enough to come to church. They're going to be a little bit of a project, but we're making lots of progress!

We also taught a few new people that we found and had a really good lesson with this lady named Cecilia. We taught her the Restoration for about 45 minutes and then she had a TON of questions for us afterwards. It was great. We feel like she could really make some progress.

Other than hifiving homeless guys, getting cussed out by a part member family, holding pigeons, and going on a hike in Ashland, not too much else has happened. We're just out and doing the work.

Have a great week everyone! Don't feed the wildlife.

Elder Jensen

Secret Passageways 

Don't worry, we looked out for trains

We found President Monson's pigeons

Splashland

Take a hike!

Medford 12: Walk This Way

This week was pretty good. It was super long. Definitely one of the longest weeks ever. But it was still good!

We did a ton of walking. So much walking. My feet are super done and my brown shoes are super full of holes. Good thing I've only got a few weeks left! 😅 BUT everything's still good.

My new companion is named Elder Green from Dallas Texas. He's actually from the Ward that Hailee Hendricks is serving in right now. Funny how things work huh? He's a good guy and we're getting along pretty well.

Things are really really slow. All is well though. Honestly, there isn't too much to write about.

We had some good lessons with a few of our investigators. We sat down with Patrick and Southern and read from the Book of Mormon with them. The spirit was really there and we're going to be working with them a lot.

We also went out to lunch with Tom our less active friend! It was super sweet. He's such a good guy. We're going to hopefully start teaching his non member wife here soon.

That's really about it. Man, emailing is super hard. Sorry for being lame. I love you guys so much!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Jensen

A couple of Oregon sunsets this week....

Medford 11: Easter 2K17

Hey everyone.

I hope you all had a Happy Easter. I know that we did here in Phoenix!

This week was pretty mellow. We did a lot of service and attempting to contact people that we were working with. It wasn't all too successful, but we still had a good time walking ourselves all over creation.

We were able to have some good lessons this week. We've been getting to know Patrick and Southern, the part member family we're teaching. They're super cool. We mowed their lawn with an old school rotating lawnmower. It was intense.

We had Zone Conference this week too. It was a great meeting and the spirit was super there! It was combined with the Klamath Falls and Central Point zones. It was really great to see so many friends from around the mission all the while being super spiritually uplifted.

Easter was so fantastic! This past week, I really did a lot of in depth study about the last week of the mortal life of the Savior. Study coupled with pondering really helped me to grow my testimony and appreciation for Him and the Easter season. I'm filled with so much gratitude for the sacrifice that He has made for us and for me. I really love Easter and wish that it was as big of a deal as other holidays, because it celebrates the most important event to ever happen. I'm so grateful for this gospel and all the blessings it's brought in to my life.

In other news, transfers have happened here in the good old OEM. Elder Davis is going up to Santa Clara, and my new companion is named Elder Green from Dallas Texas! He's fantastic and I love him already. This is going to be a great transfer and I'm super excited for the next few weeks here!

Thank you all for the love and support. Keep up the good work. Talk to you all soon!

Smooth Sailing,

Elder Jensen

The last pic of the First Ward Gang

Medford 10

Happy Easter week everyone!

I hope that this week finds everyone well. Things have been going really nicely down here in the Medford/Phoenix area. We've been getting back into business lately.

We did a ton of service this week for a bunch of different places. We did a lot of yard work for the local cemetery in Phoenix, more work at the pear farm, and helping an older sister in our ward. It was so great to be able to go and help others while we're out here.

There was a Zone Training Meeting this Friday that was really great. We talked a lot about the importance of using the Scriptures in our teaching and how to personally study them. It was a good meeting and I really got a lot out of it. We also got sushi afterwards, so that was tops.

We had a few lessons this week with some of the investigators we've found the last little while. We found a family to teach which is great! They're awesome and met with the elders a while ago. Hopefully they'll get going here pretty soon.

Super best part of the week; we went on exchanges with the elders in 6th ward! Me and Elder Zilles killing it, just like the good old MTC. It was so much fun. We all bought huge tubs of ice cream and knocked a lot of doors. It was a grand old time.

That's about it for this week. We have a zone conference and transfer calls, so we'll know what's going on.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you for all the love and support!

Godspeed,
Elder Jensen

Medford Something or Other...

Holla!

Hey everyone. It's Elder Jensen here in Phoenix.

Things have been going really well. This week was a lot slower than the last, but it's still been great.

A ton of people canceled on us this week, so there was a lot of walking and knocking with not a lot of people behind the doors. It was kind of disappointing, but we're working on keeping things going. We were still able to find a few people to teach. It was awesome.

The best part about this week definitely had to be general conference. Holy cow, this one was just PHENOMENAL. I swear that they get better and better as time goes on. This one was also super special because it's the last time I'll listen to conference before I go home.

We watched all the sessions at the church because all of our investigators flaked out. But it was such a spiritual experience nonetheless. Some personal favorites included her addresses given by Elder Renlund, President Uchtdorf, and our dear prophet President Monson. I took a whole slew of notes and was on a spiritual high for the next few hours.

That's honestly been the extent of the week. Hopefully this next one is better!

Love you all! Take care and don't be a square,

Elder Jensen

Medford 8: 9-9-9

Hey there everyone!

Oh man this week was fantastic. One of the best weeks of my mission for sure! I've gained a testimony of diligence over the past week, but I'll get to that in a minute.

There's a church welfare farm in Medford that we've started doing service at during the week. We've been hanging pheromones in the trees so that moths won't get into the pears and lay worms, because that's nasty. So pretty much it's been moth birth control on a stick. It's kinda hilarious.

We also taught some really swell lessons this week. We've gotten back in contact with Chris. He's doing pretty well, but still recovering from stuff. He's super excited for general conference this next week!

We also taught a lesson with Patrick and Southern inside their house. It was superb and the spirit was super strong.

Ricard is doing great! He's the funniest man I've ever met. After we taught him the restoration, he was super concerned why Brigham Young got a college named after him and Joseph Smith didn't. It was hilarious. We're moving his date back a little bit because he's smoking, but we're going to fix that!

So, the coolest thing happened this week. We decided to do a 12 hour tracting day on Saturday. 9 to 9 just straight knocking doors. 239 doors to be exact. We were out ALL DAY LONG. It was honestly one of the best experiences I've ever had on my mission. You wouldn't think that 12 hours of door knocking would be fun at all, but I had a blast! We found nine people to tech on Saturday and finished with 12 for the week! It really spoke to me that when we're turning our time over to the Lord, he'll take it from there. It was so great!

That's about it though! Have a great week everyone! Thanks for all the support!

Be nice,

Elder Jensen