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)