Thursday, June 23, 2016

Week 33 - Apache Junction AZ

Hey so sorry last week I was super lame! I'm going to be better at
emailing, but let's see what's happened recently... So I didn't know
they sent you an email when we were called to be district leaders or
whatever! Hahah that's funny. I was trying to add it to my list of
secrets in the mission;) just kidding. Hahaha um, so like half of our
English ward is in an old trailer park. Hahha and we were standing on
one of their yards and they were yelling at us to go away and one of
the ladies was like wait! And so she was like ok I will listen if I
can punch you as hard as I can in your stomach.. Hahaha she was really
big biker lady that probably could've beat me up.. Looking back on it
I should've said yes. Hahaha. Let's see... It's so hot! But I think
I'm getting used to just being sweaty and smelly. Oh a while ago we
helped this one lady clean out her parrot cages and stuff and I held
snakes... Sooo cool! It was awesome! I want to get a snake! Apparently
they are super low maintenance and pretty cheap!


Hahaha what else... Oh I went with Elder Moreno on an exchange to the
Reservation! Hahah it was like a 3 hour drive from our house! And the
church over there has like bulletproof glass and a fence around it. So
I've been to like the furthest part of the mission! I got to give an
awesome baptismal interview to a kid that's like 14 years old! It was
so amazing to see how he is so ready to accept the gospel! I asked "So
why do you want to get baptized?" And he was like well I just can't
wait to feel my sins washed away!" Hahahha good reason. I was like
what 14 year old is that prepared!? Wow! Such a good kid!


We also have been taking the priest aged kids out with us a lot and
they're loving it! They all say how they're excited to serve missions
next year! They're such awesome and good kids! But we found some solid
people! We found someone who said he would be baptized! But he can't
read, so we'll just have to read to him. And some one who said she
wants to come to church cause her daughter wants to learn about God
more! So awesome!


Last week, I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with one of the
AP's Elder Green, Such a good Elder! He taught me a lot. He was in my
first apartment out here! But he taught me a lot about the doctrine of
Christ! He included the doctrine of Christ in all of our teaching and
we found tons of people and we told them about baptism and just
focused it around all the lessons and it was so much more successful!
I love 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus Christ comes to the Americas and I just
want to share a couple scriptures from there!


37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little
child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these
things.


38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my
name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the
kingdom of God.


39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso
buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against them.


I would just like to share my testimony that if we stop holding onto
our problems or our challenges or our sins we will feel better! It's
not rocket science! The lord wants to forgive us! We just need to have
that hope and that love for God more than our fear of man. I know this
to be true, I have felt it so much in my mission, the atonement of
Jesus Christ is so real. We just have to believe and eat our pride and
become as a little child! Humility is key! And if we are humble we
will be made whole through Christ! I love this topic. Hahaha I have a
pretty strong opinion and I just know this to be true. I love you
family! Sorry I haven't been good at replying to emails! I will get
better! I love you all! Please be safe!


Jordy James



Dang... Week 33?? Hahahha that's crazy! That means I'm close to 1/3
done with my mission... What? Hahah where did the time go? Has it gone
by fast or slow for you or the family?:) yes! Hahaha it's like an un
real Hot! It's horrible! If I was on Bike I would be roasting right
now! But for me it's like bad, but then we just hop into our nice air
conditioned car:) yeah we still go out! We just bring extra water! A
lot of Elders are on Bikes! They just are baking in the sun. Hahaha.
So who knows hopefully I'll stay in a car for right now! I feel bad, I
should cherish that I have a family to write because some people don't
:( so please continue to send me emails! I will just plan ahead for
the time!:) if you sent me a questionnaire that would actually be
perfect! Yikes! Hahah I couldn't imagine that! I actually haven't been
burned since coming out here! So there's a blessing! I also haven't
been super sick, just like d_________ once. Sorry TMI haha.


I love you guys so much! I can't believe I'm so blessed with you all!
Sometimes I miss you a lot, but the time is flying like you said!
Before you know it the run will be at an end! Love you so much!:)

Jord!




Week 32 - Apache Junction, AZ

Hey everybody! I wanna start out by writing something cool at
happened, so Elder Green wanted to do splits with me and I haven't
seen him like at all since my first six weeks because he's been doing
AP things, so I went with him and learned so much!! Wow it was so
good, hahaha like what I've been doing forever is inviting people to
read the Book of Mormon on the first visit, but with him he just
stated how our purpose was to invite others to be baptized to receive
remission of our sins and he invited 3 people that night and they
didn't accept but still, hahah the boldness was insane! I'm totally
going to apply that into my work! I want to share how important Jesus
Christ is to me! I want to center my life around him more and I love
that we can always have someone with us and he can help us through any
challenge that we have! It was crazy superweek was very very good!
Last P day was super crazy! We helped some other Elders move all their
stuff. Hahah one elder had like 2 bows and an Ax and just a bunch of
crazy weird stuff. Hahha Elder Parra is living with us now and he is
from Chile. Hahaha he's so funny! He loves to practice his English and
he's so great! Also a less active had a BBQ and invited all these non
members and we taught the restoration and  one of them came church!
Sorry this one is short and I will be better! You should send me a
letter early to remind me! I love you all so much!


Elder Jensen

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Week 31 - Apache Junction, AZ

Hahah Yeah it was transfers! Thanks for catching on because I always
forget to warn you.  The mountains were so green in the picture of
Conner! Hahaha I haven't seen that in a while. I also had to spend
some money this week on a soccer ball and some weights hahah I bought
some but they aren't heavy enough now ;) Mom, want to hear something
interesting? So lately even though it got up to 118 degrees I just
wore a long sleeved shirt and I feel like I stayed cooler... Because
down here, you step out side and you can feel the skin peelin off of
your body because it's roasting in the freaking desert. Haha. So when
you wear the long sleeve it kinda protects it I guess? And it's a lot
better way to make sure I don't get skin cancer again. Hahaha granted
it feels like my garments are under amour because the sweat suction
cups it to my body lol, but I think I want to try wearing long sleeves
to see if it helps me. Thanks for all the cereal you sent me this last
time! And always putting a little extra to buy weights and stuff,
You're the BEST! Hahaha I cannot believe those kids are that big! What
the heck!! Love you mom! I love you and my appreciation for you grows
daily!:) hahaha I'm getting sick of writing weekly emails, also make
me write in my journal because I'm slacking

Tu hijo

Weekly:

Well this week was really good! Tori sent me a thing called Purifying
ourselves! And it's just like something we can do to powerfully
testify and have the spirit with us to teach better! And it talks
about not doing the things that set us apart from the spirit. Like
ANYTHING. and to do a fast from it, anytime we do that thing you ask
for forgiveness and pray for help to overcome the next time that
temptation comes! And wow it's super powerful! I felt it change me
just like throughout my week and I feel a lot happier now! And I can't
wait to see how much more it changes me! Let's see as investigators
goes we've been finding some and dropping some but I'll share an
experience we had with one of them! They were a Referalls from a
family in our ward and it was heir neighbors, we passed by a couple of
times and they told us to come back because it was a good time, but we
went back and finally we were able to teach the restoration and wow it
was so good! Jason, the 18 year old really had some good questions!
He's more interested in the historical side but his dad was so into
it! As we shared the first vision the spirit filled the room and it
was dead silent. They totally felt the spirit and they accepted the
invitation to read the intro and pray! They want to go over the
restoration again so we are going to the Braddocks (members) and we
are going to teach them there! Jason was excited to read it at college
and it was just so cool to see how they were prepared from the Lord.
I'm so excited to see how the gospel can change their lives! Other
than that we had transfers, the Elders that shared Adobe got
transferred out and some new ones came in. It's so hot. Gosh it's the
worst. I never thought I would be thankful when it 'dips' below 100. I
just wanna share my testimony that even if our testimonies aren't the
strongest, we can always make them stronger. I wanted to have a better
understanding and testimony of Joseph smith and after reading Joseph
Smith History I can tell you it strengthened my testimony, if we pray
for specific things we will receive some pretty specific answers. It's
kind of the best!

Much Love, Elder Jensen

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Week 30 Apache Junction, AZ

Haha the weeks are flying by! I didn't even realize may was over until
I saw that it was May 30th! Hahah what the heck! So last Sunday I
forgot to mention we meet the Butler's. Hahah oh the Butlers! They're
the first black people I've taught. But anyways they're super cool!
Hahaha he was like "Ay man someday your gonna come right on ova here
and we gonna eat some So Foo (Soul Food)" hahhaha and I asked him I
was like what the heck is So foo? Is that Chinese? Hahaha but no I
then learned that it's something different. We're also teaching a less
active member, her name is Brenda. She's super cool! She has 3 kids,
ones 8,3,2 and the 3 year old was born with some kidney problems.
Invitation for a District VB tourney.  Bring it on!
She's single, she just finished her GED and is finishing up her
internship as a Medical Assistant. Wow. If there's anyone that has an
excuse to read scriptures it's her. Hahaha. But no one does! It's
amazing to think that how someone like her who has more on her plate
than most people can still take time out of her day and read the
scriptures with us. And whenever we pass by her house she's always so
happy to see us! It's just nice to go by someone's house and have
someone be like absolutely happy to see us! We taught a Mexican family
the restoration this week! It was soooo good! The spirit was so strong
and like you could just see it in their eyes! But then the father was
like just talking about a lot of doubts they had and stuff and it was
sad cause the spirit left and then they just went off about a lot of
doubts they have. We also got a lot of Referalls from members and we
have been visiting and some people have let us in to teach! Nothing
crazy but we taught a family with a set of triplets and they were so
nice! They would be great members! This week was a little tough just
because a lot of stress from the areas just like got to me. Then we
read in preach my gospel about how our main focus is to find, teach,
baptize. And we decided to  change how we were doing missionary work!
We were helping out the English ward with a lot of less-active work,
but we just have too much to do!!! And it kinda helped me realize that
the Lord will always be happy with my 
Check out the white peacocks.
work. I shouldn't be focused on pleasing other people.  I am only accountable to the Lord. As long as I am trying my hardest. I love you all! Thanks for everything you help me through! I love you all so much! I am so grateful that we have The sacrifice of Jesus Christ to help us in our life. And I love the peace that comes from the Knowledge that Christ Lives and he died for us. I
can feel it in my heart. He lives!!! And because he Lives so will we!!! Love you family! I try to pray for you all everyday!:)


Elder Jensen

Week 29 - Apache Junction, AZ

How was Conner's Birthday?? Did he have lots of fun?? Haha I loved the
pics Beck sent! How's Good Ole Wisconsin!? Is it Hot and Muggy?? If
it's noticeable, you should send pics of the Fireflies!

This week was alright, We had tons of meetings so we didn't get to
spend tons of time out working but it was still super fun! So we were trying to split the time up in the wards and accidentally just got sucked into doing a lot of work in the English Ward and we actually found a couple of families that are kind of interested! Super Cool!


So me and Elder Parrella went on exchanges and since the Spanish branch we serve in covers from AJ out to the rest of our mission we had to go out to Superior and Kearny (two little tiny mining towns) to go see if there was any work! Hahha there wasn't. But the drive was super cool! We tried Fried Oreos... Oh snap. So Good!

Also this week I got a surprise call from Elder Fairholm saying that Isidro wanted me to baptize him! So I was super blessed to be able to do that for him!
Wow I am learning a lot of patience! Haha a lot of patience with the
people I am working with, the investigators, and the missionaries.
Haha whenever I get frustrated or mad I just think... I wouldn't yell
at my kids so I won't yell at them. Sorry this email is lame. Hahaha I

just don't know what else to say

Good to hear you made it safely there in PDC! Send pics! Hahaha I'm
sure that drive was... Fun.  I was so surprised to baptize Isidro! But
I was so happy!:) um... He hike took like 1.5 to get to the top. (It
wasn't much compared to Baer Canyon) hahaha no it was good but nothing
compared to that. Ok I'll use it all! Thanks mom! Love ya! Make sure
to tell Grandma that I send my love! Tell her I miss her!

Week 28 - Apache Junction, AZ









Wow this week was great! Elder Vo helps me and inspires me to talk
with everyone! Haha he was like "Elder, I wanna get a door slammed in
my face" hahaha we did btw. But it was so great to talk with everyone,
even white people! Haha I have always been good with talking with
Mexicans cause they are usually nicer and more humble but I love
talking with everyone! Even the white people. Hahaha.

We street contacted this guy and we were just talking with him and I
saw 2 corn hole tables! So I was like let's play! Hahah we made a deal
that if I won he would listen to us... I prayed and played with
faith.... But I got destroyed. Hahaha turns out that's how he kind of
makes his living... He owns a roofing company but then he goes to Corn
Hole tournaments and wins like 60,000 dollars. Hahahha I was expecting
it to be like a crazy story where I won then he listened then he got
baptized.... Sike! Hahha but he did say we could come back to play.




We hiked Flat-Iron today! It was super tiring but it was my first hike
in a while! I'll send pictures. It looks over the whole valley.

Lately it's been on my mind talking about humility. And I love Mosiah
4:11-12! I love knowing that we always have our Heavenly Father

watching over me! And how humbling it is to realize how blessed we
are. Hahah I can't even type how I'm feeling but it's just something
that I love! Everything starts with humility! When we are humble, we
can know of great things to come to pass! Love you all! Have a great
week! Be safe!
Elder Jensen