Elder Chase Jensen: 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