Springfield Episode 17: Three's a Crowd

This was a little bit of a different week in Springfield, but still a good one!

Being in a tripan has been a completely new adventure. It's a lot different trying to get stuff done when there's another person added in the mix. There have been a lot of cool things going on though.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Eugene with the Corvallis Zone. It was and awesome and really spirit filled meeting. We talked a whole lot about repentance and it's applications for us, as well as our investigators. I also got to see some mission pals, which is always a major blessing!

We also had some great lessons this week! A former investigator named David let us right in to his house and talk to him for a while. It was really swell.

We also had an awesome lesson with a new lady we found named Colleen. She's super prepared and very willing to meet with us! We taught her all about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she was really in to it.

Our normal lessons with Xavier and Ken also went very well. Xavier is probably not at the place right now to get baptized, but we're going to keep working with him until he is. Ken's ready to go though, and it's going to be marvelous.

Also, we played basketball with some kids at a park and got stuck on the bus going in to Eugene. Whoops.

Transfers are this week. We'll see how everything goes with that and if I'm out or not!

Thank you all for the love and support! Till next time.

Eat your veggies, but not the gross ones,

Elder Jensen

Springfield is so adamantly against dog poop it's hilarious 

SPF3

Springfield Episode 16: Missions are Weird Man

This transfer has been one of the weirdest experiences of my entire mission. I'll get to that more in an little bit.

This week was good. Lots of awesome things are going on in Springfield. We had a lesson with Ken Moxley this week where he told us that he's gained a testimony of the priesthood from his reading of the scriptures. We really think that he's going to make his baptism date for the 4th!

We also had a lesson with Xavier where we reviewed a lot of the restoration of the gospel. He's a sharp little 10 year old and remembers a lot more than you'd expect. I think as he started to remember more and more, he got a lot more excited to get baptized, which is happening on the 11th of February!!

Ken and Xavier both came to church too! It's such a blessing to be able to work with work many wonderful people here in this area.

ALSO, OUR MAIN LADY SISTER RYCKMAN CAME TO CHURCH TOO WOOT WOOT!! 

Anyway, on Saturday we went to a baptism for someone in Junction City he was working with. It was a great way to kind of revamp us into the spirit of missionary work.

Ok so here's the crazy stuff-we're in a tripanionship now. An elder down in Grants Pass went home, so his companion is with us now, his name is Elder Moser. He's been out as long as I have been, so it should be an adventure. Just another thing that makes missions super weird.

That's about it though. I hope that everyone has had a great week and takes care of themselves. Thank you all for the love and support. It means the world to me! Love you all!

Jacob 6:12 y'all,

Elder Jensen

Squatch Out y'all

This is a van. I took a picture in front of it.

Ken's got a supah sick bass

Springfield Episode 15: Icy White BS

Hey team! Elder Jensen here reporting live from Springfield Oregon.

Things are nice and cold and wet up here lately, but that doesn't mean that were slowing down for anything. This last week has honestly been one of, if not the best week of my entire mission. Holy cow, we found and taught SO many people this week! It was really a great blessing to see our hard work pay off, but also very humbling to see the Lord work through us. I know that we couldn't do anything out here without Him.

So for starters, this week was swamped with stuff to do. On Tuesday we had our MLC in Eugene which the district leaders were invited to. It was a great meeting, plus we saw president Russell rip his shirt off, so that was something else. (He had another one on under so it wasn't as weird as I made it sound.)

Thursday we had interviews which is always a great experience. I love to see just how much our Mission President loves all of us. He was able to really help me with some of the questions I had.

Rounding the week out was ZTM on Friday. We taught all about the Book of Mormon and how we can better use it our teaching efforts. It was great to be able to be back to teaching. I was very grateful for the opportunity.

When we didn't have meetings, we were out slipping and sliding around Springfield. The weather out here has just been the pits. The atmosphere can't decide if it wants to be in perpetual blizzard or rainstorm, so it went with both. But that didn't stop us from getting after it.

All of those lessons we scheduled last week? We ended up teaching nineteen and finding ten new people to teach. That's ridiculous considering that we usually find maybe two to three a week. Some of the most promising people are the Silence family, a man named Keith, and this lady named Delaina. We're super excited to see where they go!

We also had some great lesson with our usual peeps. We had an incredible lesson with Ken Moxley and actually invited him to be baptized on February 4th and he said YES! HE'S MAKIN STRIDES WATCH OUT WORLD! We're hopefully going to get Xavier on date here pretty soon too, so Second Ward is just going to be flooding in with the success. It's been Wonderful!

Crazy Oregonian Spotlight of the week goes to the guy that answered the door in a Teletubby costume 😂 What a man.

That's it for me this week. Stay tuned for a follow up.

Thank you for all the love and support! Have a great Week!

Eat your greens,

Elder Jensen

It was green earlier

It's not supposed to be doing this here 

Look at these missionaries. Good stuff!

This poor man froze himself to death. :(  RIP

Springfield Episode 14: 2017

Hey howdy everyone. Happy new year! Elder Gneiting and I had a pretty solid week in the Second Ward last year. (Get it? Funny jokes)

Anyway, it was really nice. Every Tuesday we help out with Meals on Wheels at the Willamalane facility. It's one of my favorite activities to be around the older generation and serve them. They're always so nice and appreciative of everything and that makes my little heart so happy.

We've been all around the area talking to as many people as we can. While we weren't able to have a lot of solid lessons, we set up a ton for next week. As I type this out, we've already got 12 appointments for next week. I'm so excited and so grateful for the Lord being able to work through us and our efforts. It's been such a testimony builder to me to see these people here be receptive to our message.

We go through a lot of contacting our former investigators. This week, three doors in a row we knocked on asking for people who didn't live there anymore, and we got return appointments for every one of those people. It's been great!

It wouldn't be a mission if there wasn't something out of the ordinary happening. Sunday night, we were walking around doing our thing when a car pulls up besides us. A woman leans over and says "Are you the Elders from Third Ward?" We say no, but ask what we can do. She goes on to tell us that she's been looking and calling for someone to give her father a blessing in the hospital with no luck. We followed her to the hospital and gave her father a blessing, to which she said "God really does answer prayers." It was a super cool moment that made me so grateful for the spirit and the priesthood in my life.

As the year has drawn to a close, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I can do to improve myself as a missionary and a person. I'm very grateful for the gospel in my life and a loving Heavenly Father that humbles me so I can become the best person that I can be. I'm excited for the next year and the last quarter of my mission. I know that it's going to be the best of it yet!

Among other things that happened: This guy we met named Santos said that his brother Elvis got deported in the most nonchalant way ever. We deep friend Oreos! Not too bad. We also had the most ridiculous dinner at Shari's with a bunch of members and non members. There were discussions about the historicity of the book of Omni, shooting video games, really bad jokes, and way too much food. It was awesome.

The crazy Oregon Spotlight of the week goes to Brother Luke, our ward mission leader. I don't think I've ever met someone who could talk without taking a breath. Missionary Correlation becomes missionary speculation about super deep doctrine. It's slightly frustrating and also pretty hilarious.

Coming up this week, we've got MLC, Interviews, ZTM and a TOOOOOON OF LESSONS. It should be a great week we're excited!

Here's to 2017 everyone! Love you all so much!

Don't be dumb.

Elder Jensen

Welcome to 2017!

Average Oregonian house 

Average PT Cruiser in Eugene (with censored bumper sticker)

Springfield Episode 13 I think? (I'm so bad at this): Holiday

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to everyone!

It's crazy to think that at the end of this week, I'll have gone the entirety of 2016 being in Oregon as a missionary. Time really flies. I know that the most important and best months of my mission are ahead of me, and I'm excited to see what happens!

This week was wonderful from pretty much everything but a proselyting standpoint. We had very few lessons, but the lessons that we were able to have were great. We read from the Book of Mormon with Ken and Sister Moxley, which was wonderful. They gave us a Christmas card which was signed "From Brother and Sister Moxley". He's SO close! We're going to get him there I swear. We were also able to find a few new faces to teach, so that was swell.

The holidays were super fun. We had a Bethlehem dinner with the Walkers, from the ward, and then went to a Zone Testimony meeting afterward. The spirit there was so sweet and I really appreciated everything that was said. We also read the night before Christmas, so that was fun.

Christmas Day was awesome. We woke up and partied with the First Ward Elders for a bit and then went to Sacrament Meeting. It was so special to have the opportunity to take the sacrament on the day of the Savior's birth. I'm so grateful for him and his atonement for me. The comfort to know that when I mess up, I can be forgiven and become better is the best gift ever given.

It was looking pretty sparse gator wise for a while even though we invited EVERYONE to church on Christmas. Just when all hope was lost, BAM Tim Goff comes in from out of nowhere and saves the day! Christmas miracles man.

Later that day, we spent some time at the mission home with President and Sister Russell, Skyped with our families, and had dinner with our Bishop's family. It was a great way to spend the day.

This week we don't have too much going on at all. Just back to normal proselyting for a bit. We're hoping the get back into the swing of things here, so look out!

THE OREGONIAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT THIS WEEK IS...

Crazy drunk homeless man!

We were just trying to start up a friendly conversation with this guy on the street. He wanted us to feed him, which we were unable to do. After conversations about costs, ladders, the Gospel (kinda), lack of teeth, him calling us gay several times, and cussing us out for being missionaries, we decided to leave. Good luck crazy homeless man.

That's a wrap folks! (Get it? Christmas.) I hope you all stay safe and enjoy the rest of this year. Thank you all for the prayers and thoughts, it really helps immensely. I love you all. Take care!

Don't say, "New Year, New Me", that's just silly,

Elder Jensen

Merry Christmas!

O Little Town

Away in a gingerbread manger 

Chaos

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and all the Mission 

The Sisters gave us a Santa Costume

HEY! I KNOW THEM!!

Springfield Episode 12: Ice Storm and a Gneit in Shining Armor

Merry Christmas everyone!

What a wonderful time to be celebrating the most wonderful time of the year. I hope that everyone's having a great Christmas season and enjoying the spirit that accompanies.

Oregon has been great these last few days. We've seen so much success and so many miracles that it'd be hard to write all of them down in an email, so I won't bore you with a travelogue or whatever. But it really is amazing that the Lord is able to work through us to accomplish His purposes. I feel so small sometimes in the scale of the world, but being a missionary really helps me to know that I'm making a difference in the lives of others.

Anywhosies, transfers happened on Monday and I have a new companion. His name is Elder Gneiting (pronounced Knight-ing) and oh man, he's just incredible. He's from Grant, Idaho and is the first companion that I've had that's taller than me, so that's cool. He's been on his mission for about 3 months, making me his first companion after his trainers. He's got spunk and a way with people that I really admire and appreciate. It's also SO SO SO nice to have someone to share the workload with. We get along super well and have been just tearing 2nd Ward apart. It's been a really blessing for sure.

So, ice storm. It doesn't really snow a lot in Oregon, but we do get freezing rain sometimes. And it came DOWN MAN. HOLY COW. We had trees and telephone poles and everything everywhere and the world was just frozen solid. It was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. I'll attach some favorite pics.

When people can't go out and do stuff, the likelihood of them being home increases drastically, so we made some great contacts. We found some people to teach and had some appointments set up for next week after the holiday, so it'll be awesome.

We were also able to have some really good lessons with some of our investigators. We FINALLY got in contact with Tim again! He's doing well, but he's getting BOTH knees replaced at the same time?! The crazy. He inquired about a blessing though, so he's still building his faith. We also taught Xavier some of the commandments which really went well. We're hoping to get his whole family to come to church on Christmas.

The coolest thing I'd say that happened this week was during sacrament meeting. We were sitting in our pew looking around for people we had invited to church with no luck. Just as all hope is lost, BAM in walks Ken all by himself to come to church, and he stayed for Sunday School too. It's a Christmas miracle

Over the past few weeks, we've had the opportunity to study about the Savior and how we can grow closer to him. I've really felt my love for Him and His sacrifice for us grow as we've approached the celebration of His birth. I love Him, and I know He lives. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing than serving Him as a missionary!

The Crazy Oregonian Spotlight for this week goes out to... Brother Perkins, our landlord. He's just the funniest guy that I've ever met in my entire life. We were having all sorts of technical issues at the trap house this week, so we called him up to help us out. This old guy just says he most off the wall stuff and it kills me! "I would have gone down there to fix the pipes myself, but doggone it if I get down that low I'd throw up everywhere and that wouldn't help anyone." 😂😂 He's a great guy though, and we really appreciate him looking out for us.

That's it for this week, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays! I'm so excited to talk to my wonderful family on Sunday, it'll be the best gift ever. Thank you all so much for the prayers and support. See you next week.

Don't eat the yellow snow,

Elder Jensen

You know you're serving in a rough area when .... 

I love Oregon!

Ice storm. Now imagine everything looks like this.

Chase vs Tree Part 2 ...

Chase won!

Springfield Episode 11: The Saga Continues

Hey everyone! How's everything going? Is everyone having a good holiday? I hope so! It's transfer week in the good old Willamette Valley, so you KNOW that things are happening. But I'll save that for later. I know, I'm evil. My bad.

We actually had a very nice week to finish the transfer out. Along with some really good lessons, we also were able to enjoy some more of the Christmas cheer. We were able to meet with a lot of our investigators and contact a lot of people. We had a great lesson with Xavier, where he remembered most of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That kid is pretty bright. We're really working to get around the obstacles that come with being a ten year old boy, and we hope we can get back into the baptismal discussion again.

We were also able to meet with Ken Moxley. It was a very spiritually led discussion. I asked Ken, "Ken, straight up what is your reservation about being baptized?" To which he said that he still wasn't quite sure if it was right or not. We were then able to discuss the small and simple things and recognizing the spirit. He is making good progress. He asked us for a priesthood blessing, which we feel was really beneficial to him. Once he gains his own personal testimony, he's going to be a rockstar member.

The ward Christmas party was this week. Let me tell you, the Second Ward knows what they're doing over here. They know how to have a party! I was a little unsure on the whole "Cowboy Christmas" theme that we were going for, but it turned out really nice. It was well attended and a whole lot of fun!

We also had the Stake Christmas concert on Sunday night. There was no devotional or anything, just good music. It was lovely.

And transfer news! So my transfer sixth sense was pretty accurate. Elder Wikan is shipping out to the Eugene 3rd Ward and my companion is now Elder Gneiting (pronounced night-ing) After just a few hours with the guy I'm already super excited for the transfer. He's only been out for 3 months, but he's incredible. We're going to do some amazing things here in Second Ward!

That's it for me though, I hope everything is going well for all of you. Thank you so much for everything and anything that you do, not only to help me, but also everyone around you. The world needs more of that!

Much love from Oregon!

Don't be dumb.

 Elder Jensen

We definitely did CHILL OUT because it was like -1500 degrees outside
(ok not that cold)

A nice field of Spring

LOOK AT THIS

WOWZA

DAS BOOT

The "Crazy Oregon Story of the Week" goes to.....
this picture of Organic Gatorade. Only in Oregon!