Pictures of the week

The Boys of Fall!

Cole made a pick recovery had

Much Better Week

This week was much much better. We were able to teach lots. Still lots
of canceled appointments but there weren't any grind days or many
grind hours. We have two awesome new investigators that I am really
excited about and two investigators accepted baptism. I am really
hopeful for them. This week was great in general. The bishop is all
guns blazing about Elder Modlik and I idea about making every member a
missionary. We are organizing the ward and making them teaching pools
of their friends and they have to progress them to meeting with us
missionaries. He is calling lots of good ward missionaries and we are
going to use them to organize the ward. We decided that this is what
it means to be a hastening missionary....to use the members instead of
tracking for hours. I am way excited for it.

We finally got the a okay to go to Prince of Whales. The branch
mission leader over there is awesome and has 9 appointments for us
already. Sadly he is a big BYU fan, but honestly that's better than
nothing because nobody here watches sports at all. It's disappointing,
every time I see a college sports logo on a car or house I talk to
them because it's a way I can talk to them and bridge to the gospel.
We have a place to stay and everything we just need to get over there
and do it. Elder Modlik is crazy about teaching the natives and so he
really really wants to go to Hydaburg, which is the Hyda tribe. But
there is evidently lots of work in Craig and Klawock

It has been raining hard all week, not just like drizzling all the
time but like down poor all the time. Everything I own is soaked. I
biffed it hard this morning. I slipped on like soaked muddy moss and I
have mud and water and moss all up my leg and side and arm now. Elder
Modlik was cracking up, but the funniest part was the other
missionaries were waiting for us in their car and I fell right in
front of them but neither noticed, to excited to go emailing I guess.

We are going zip lining today! I will try to take pictures but I'm not
sure if we can. It should be fun, it's something I've never done
before.

We meet two pastors this week, which is like the best testimony
builder there is out there. One tried to Bible bash with us and after
a few seconds it was evident he was not willing to have a logical
friendly discussion so we pointed out the fact that he in trying to
bash with us proved we need a prophet today and bore our testimony of
the Book of Mormon and how really it all comes down to if its true or
not and its up to him completely to find out if it's true. The other
one was supper friendly and nice which really took us off guard
because his congregation hates Mormons and he's the preacher so...any
way we talked about being missionaries and how it's life changing. He
wants to know what he can do to help his children and congregation
stay committed to Christ as they grow up, and invited us over for
dinner to discuss it again. I don't feel like it's a trap or anything
so we are looking forward to it. It's amazing how much more there is
to the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ that the whole world is missing!
How can so many people just not care or believe stuff with so many
holes in it? They just need to hear the whole truth! Ugh! There are so
many people that are like oh I believe in Jesus, or im saved already.
But none of them who are so sure in their beliefs are willing at all
to talk for 10 minutes about the man who has saved them from eternal
damnation and hell fire!?

I feel like when I send these letters I sound like a young ignorant 19
year old missionary, out having fun in Alaska, hunting down preachers
(even though we kinda did because his congregation was so anti) and
going zip lining and stuff, but i really am not, I just don't want to
bore everyone with, I taught this person and this person and this
person and all that stuff. I just try to include the stuff that sticks
out. I know I have lots to learn but I am already quite changed.

Oh and shout out to Cole! I miss the sound of pads popping and wish I
could be watching you! Miss you guys tons! Read the Book of Mormon! It
gives clarity that makes it so you can make correct choices and have
the peace of God in your life. Love y'all.

Rough Week

Every day this week was a grind, it seemed like every appointment
every day would cancel and our backups and our back ups to backups. So
Elder Modlik and I have been grinding hard each day, and it's not
easy. I don't even know what happened, or why it happened this week, I
think the Lord is testing us because last week was awesome. But we
stayed faithful and working hard each day despite what happened and a
couple times we were blessed with very powerful lessons right at the
end of the day. I'm am great fun for those lessons. We started
teaching two families this week! Which I am so excited for. I have
been praying for this opportunity.

I had a cool experience with the spirit this week, like the strongest
prompting I've ever had. So earlier in the week Elder Modlik and I
were in the check out line at the grocery store and I looked into the
other check out line and saw this young family. And BOOM. It hit me. I
HAD to go talk to them. It shocked me how strong it was and I was
frozen just staring at them. Like deer in the head lights. And they
were leaving and the cashier was going too slow and they were getting
away and then we ran and caught up to them in the parking lot. They
said we could come over but they don't live in our area, so I guess
the other elders get to teach them. I think they saw me staring at
them and were weirded out. I keep laughing about that when ever I
think of myself frozen like I was.

On Sunday one of our investigators came to church and brought our
other investigators little girls (they are half sisters).The girls sat
by me and wanted to play on my iPad but I don't have any games on it
or anything. The best thing I had was the pamphlets app, which is all
of the missionary pamphlets on an app, because it has pictures. And
the older sister who is six was just reading the words to her little
sister from the restoration pamphlet. They got bored after like two
minutes and wanted me to read it to them. So I ended up spending all
of sacrament meeting telling these little girls about the restoration
and the plan of salvation, and the stories to all the pictures they
had in there, like Noah and Adam, and so on. And they kept trying to
sit on my lap and stuff but we aren't aloud to hardly even be around
kids as missionaries. It was quit the sacrament meeting.


So last Monday we went to Crab fest at George Inlet Lodge. It was
awesome. The others Elders had to leave way early so they only got to
eat like three crabs. Elder Modlik and I did quit a bit of damage and
stacked our shells the highest. There was a competition for that. Then
we went to our dinner appointment which was turkey dinner. So that day
was awesome. Later in the week three of our dinner appointments
canceled some it was feast and famine week.

On Tuesday when we drove by the church we noticed a bear had gotten into the dumpster so Elder Modlik and I got to clean all the nasty cups with molten bread all over them all over the parking lot and all the other trash. They should really do something about all the Bears I'm getting tired of picking up all this trash.
We are going to hike Deer mountain today I think. We will see if it doesn't stop raining we won't. Oh and Elder Brätt's new trainee is pretty cool. He's a cowboy kid from Pima, Arizona. I like him. Well I am out of time so that is all I will say. But I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Love, Elder Jensen

Week in review/week before school starts!

Washington's smoke is keeping it hazy

Wyatt is growing out his hair,  it is big and curly

Kameron and Megan serving missions

Lots of extra laundry, Cole didn't have a good game, one fumble and a holding call on him.
Wyatt had a good game though.

Renton at a birthday party, Rocky's game

Cole's hurt! AC separation, he isn't going to the Dr.  He says " it is my Senior year I'm going to play"

New Transfers/ I only got half of Kam's letter Cole got the second half

Well on Wednesday night Elder Modlik and I got our transfer call from
President Robinson. We are both staying, no surprise, I still have a
transfer of training left, and you can tell if you are staying or
going based on what day you get called. You get called on Thursday if
you or your companion is leaving. So Elder Strong is leaving for
Palmer and Elder Bratt is training. They fly to Anchorage today, their
flight leaves at 5:00 and they don't get to Anchorage until 10:00
which really sucks, they probably have two stops. Elder Brätt has two
5 hour flights in two days, poor dude. There are two areas in
Ketchikan the North/Prince of Whales area and the South/Metlakatla
area. And both will be training areas. It is exciting but unusual I
guess. But I am excited to still be here and learn more from Elder
Modlik.

We had an awesome week this week. We had 32 lessons which is a record
for Elder Modlik, and myself obviously. A good week in Alaska is 18-20
lessons and an average week is probably 15. The average number of
baptisms for a missionary here is 4 which seems really low to me but
it is what it is and that isn't very high. I think it will pick up a
lot because of a cool fireside they broadcasted to the whole state to
all of the ward council and there spouses and pretty much called all
of them on missions. They said that the keys to missionary work are
actually held by the bishops and stake presidents and that they need
to be doing a lot more and they told them how. It was a very exciting
training to behold and now I need to repent and convert myself further
so I am able to help all these members in their own missionary
efforts.

One of the members in the ward is a recently returned Mission
President of the Winnipeg, Canada  Mission. They just got back in
July. This is the sign they would take pictures with all of the new
missionaries with. Elder Bingham did they do that when you got there?
Any way Elder Strong is the shortest one, he's leaving today. We all
live in the same apartment which kinda stinks because Elder Strong and
Brätt are super loud and rambunctious and distracting at night.

Latter today for lunch we are all going to an all you can eat crab feast at George Inlet Lodge. It's sounds amazing to me. You have like 2 hours to crack and eat all the crab you can eat haha. Elders Brätt and Strong are zip lining right now. They can only take 2 at a time so Elder Modlik and I will probably go next week for p-day. Elder Modlik and I spent all of today so far just cleaning the apartment so the Elder Brätt's trainee has a spotless apartment to come to...interesting that nobody did that for me. 

Last night was the musical fireside that Elder Modlik and I organized. I think it was a big success. The whole chapel was filled and after words I think we contacted all of the nonmembers that were there...which was the purpose of it. There is a lot of musical talent here. The only problem was that the narrators talked way too much, which I knew would happen but oh well. It was good. 

All of the summer YSA are starting to leave which is sad. There are probably 100 YSA working up here for the summer and they are a big help in missionary work because most are working on their papers or are RMs. They also have lots of activities that are nice to bring investigators to as well like institute and FHE, and then they befriend them and it is just a big help so I am sad to see them start to go. 

We invited one of our investigators, Peter, to be baptized. He is a very interesting hippie, Buddhist kinda guy, really "spiritual" guy. It's funny because he says he has to meditate pretty much all day and very rarely will he have an in lightening spiritual experience, but when he talks with us and we have him pray they are the most spiritual experiences of his life. He knows the church is true and that the spirit is here testifying of it but he has a hard time excepting that it would come from a Christian Church full of "squares" as he likes to put it. Which is true about so many of our members being square because they aren't truly converted themselves and don't have experiences that prove the reality of it to themselves. It is sad, and something everyone should work on.

I don't have much else to say, now that everything isn't so new and exciting I feel like it is all becoming old hat. I love you all and wish you all the best week. Until next time.

Last week of my 1st transfer

Not as much happened this week as last but it was still a good week.
The evenings here have been so tranquil and nice and it hasn't rained
much this week.

it's the last week of my first transfer, it's crazy to think it. The
past couple of days have been really good, and I am finally starting
to see myself make a lot of progress and our companionship make a lot
of progress. We are finally becoming good friends. We have been making
big changes and the lord has been blessing us with continual guidance
through the spirit and it is very humbling to be a part of, and very
exciting. I wish I had learned to recognize the spirit and trust it
promptings earlier so I could have used it in my normal life. The
spirit is constantly prompting if we are willing to listen and want to
be guided. I am loving it. I get so much out of my study of the
scriptures, I receive insights during study and think "that is
completely random, and great but I was studying for a different
reason" and with out fail sometime during that day an opportunity
shows up and I am prompted to share that random insight and it
completely changes that persons day. I am learning a lot more to just
completely trust the lord and not even think about doubting.

We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday, and I was super
excited for it. But after I sent my email last week some extremely
shocking things came out and long story short, that baptism will be on
hold for a long time. It is really sad, heart breaking really. I love
the dude with all my heart and hope he will stick it out to the end
because that is the only way the atonement can save him, and he needs
it. But we put another really promising investigator on date for
September 16th. During weekly planning we felt he needed to get on
date so Elder Modlik said either September 12 or 19th. I said lets
pray about it. So I prayed about it going into it wondering wether it
would be the 12th or 19th and during the prayer felt the 16th which is
like a Wednesday.  Afterwords he was looking back and forth between
the two calendars and then I said "do you have an answer?" He said
"yes" so I said "the 16th?" And he just started laughing and laughing
and was like "it never ceases to amaze me!" He had felt the 16th as
well and was trying. To figure out why he had felt that because it
didn't add up on the calendar but it's what we stuck with. Another
time we went to go see one of our investigators for he child's
birthday and we got there and nobody was home. We were like well now
what? I felt very strongly they were on the beach! So we drove down to
the beach and nobody was there. I was very confused and started
questioning myself and then Elder Modlik said we need to go knock on a
random house so we did and now we have a meeting tonight with her that
I m really excited for. If I hadn't had felt prompted to drive down
the beach we would have never gone down there and he wouldn't have
been prompted to knock on a that house and we probably would have
never met this lady. It's interesting sometimes how the Lord works.

Two nights ago at around 10:45 we heard a loud gun shot not far from
where we live, and I suspect the night crusading garbage bear is no
more. It's just a hunch for now though.

We have been meeting tons of people from POW and have been making a
big list of people to cost while we are there. We are going next
transfer sometime so the beach president can show us around the
island. It should be a very fruitful trip.

Last Tuesday was exchanges, I went with Elder Strong and we just ended
up doing a lot of tracting. Literally everyone cancelled on us , all
of our plans and back up plans and back up to the back up plans fell
through. But we stayed at it all day and tried all day and at the very
end of the day a Woman let us in and we had a good long discussion and
we set up a return appointment for the next day, which went well they
told me.

Monday we went and played ultimate frisbee at the football field with
a group that meets every week. It was a blast and it just felt good do
actually do some physical activity. It got pretty competitive and was
an intense game. It was one of the more fun things I've done since I
got here. I scored a few times.

The highlight of my week was giving a training with Elder Modlik for
Zone Meeting. Planning it was super cool because all of it was pure
revelation. The whole planning ended up being about Nephi 2:15 "And my
Father dwelt in a tent" we went on to explain that we as missionaries
have been called to live or dwell in Alaska and we can either have the
Nephi, Sam, Laman Or Lemual attitude about it. Laman and Lemual
believed the whole time they could just go back to Jerusalem, but they
were wrong, Jerusalem or home has been destroyed, there is no going
back we are in the wilderness and can either end our mission in the
promised land or a land cursed for our sake. And we can't dedicate
ourselves enough to our mission to truly receive the promised land if
our thoughts our continuously in Jerusalem. It was really cool and I
know it has helped a lot of people, including myself. Oh and we taught
the whole thing from a tent we set up outside to spice things up a
little bit.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully I will have more to say
next week, and more pictures.

Update from Kameron (5)

 On the way to Juneau...the plan was pretty much empty. they split all the Elders up so we can talk to more people but there wasn't anyone to talk too. The flight attendant was some nice Mormon lady form San Diego and she gave us a bunch of free snacks and orange juice. It was very appreciated.

 The Juneau Zone! The White Horse Elders have their Canadian pride. We only have one set of sisters, they are in Juneau, I didn't talk to them much, they are pretty quiet. The rest of companionships are pretty much by themselves in a little South East Alaskan town.

They loaded up tons of fish in Sitka during our layover...that's why it took so long.

Every week I say the time goes by too fast but I swear every week goes
by faster. This week was zone conference in Juneau. On Tuesday morning
Elder Bratt and Strong went salmon fishing for morning sports ( Elder
Modlik and I don't have licenses and can't go to a store to buy them
except on Monday) they caught over 10 salmon, most around 10 pounds
but 2 big ones, which they kept. They show up at the apartment at 7 in
the morning with two 25 pound king salmon and neither know how to
fillet it and there is no knife in there worthy of the title of
anything more than butter knife. So they try for a few minutes and
can't even get through the scales and decide "this was a dumb
decision" and want to go through them away. Which frustrates me quite
a bit that they would even keep these things given the above
circumstances and then that they just want to go drop them in a
dumpster. So I go out there and fillet them as best I can, and then
they don't even want them, they ask me if I want them or will take
them!!! I was pretty angry (I didn't show it though) so I washed the
fillets off and stuck them in the freezer. Maybe someone will spend
all the money on their card and be saved by the salmon in the freezer
or maybe I'll cook them one day. I doubt it thought, there isn't
anytime to cook, Elder Modlik and I are too busy with appointments
most days to have both lunch and dinner.

Anyway later that evening at 5:00 all us four missionaries in
Ketchikan packed a travel bag and drove down to the fairy to get to
the airport. Our flight was delayed over an hour but we made very good
use of the time talking to everyone in the airport and we placed a few
BOMs. We eventually we made it to Juneau around 10:30 so it was almost
dark and the missionaries there took us to some members house where we
would stay the next two nights. Them members were very kind and took
good care of us.

On Wednesday was zone conference! And it was wonderful. I feel like I
am in the coolest zone. How many mission zones in the world can you go
fishing at world famous Knudsen cove for morning sports then have a
regular day of lessons and service then get on a fairy to get to the
plain to fly to zone conference? The first meeting was like from 10:00
in the morning until 2:00. I learned so much I don't think I will be
able to apply all of it before the next Zone conference. Then we had
lunch and played basketball. It was fun being able to finally meet the
people we talk to over Skype every week for district meeting and meet
other missionaries. President Robinson joined in the games of
lightning and threatened whoever got him out with "outer darkness"
(Serving in Barrow for the winter). The other missionaries explained
why it is called outer darkness which I will explain later. We had
another couple hour training about the atonement which I enjoyed even
more. We had subway for dinner and then we watched Meet the Mormons
and played games until it was time to head back to the member homes
and go to bed.It was a very spiritual conference, and it was very
enjoyable and a good break from the everyday missionary work that I
love.

On Thursday it was back to the airport and back to home. I really
really like Juneau. It is of course beautiful but the thing that makes
it so unique is that the main valley has a huge glacier at the top of
it. So it looks like this giant wall of ice is sliding down through
the forest down the valley to come eat the town. We had an hour
layover in Sitka (which is beautiful) and were home at around 1:00 for
a quick lunch and then back to work. I was very tired and worn out all
of Thursday but we accomplished a lot and got two new investigators
with a lot of promise, one of which came to church yesterday.

Friday we taught Roger. He has been so prepared for the gospel and
joining the church I think the Lord wants him bad. In the past year he
has had experiences that changed to keeping all of the commandments
before he even knew they were commandments. I love him and I know he
will do big things for Metlakatla (the reservation).

Saturday was Blue Berry Festival so Elder Modlik and I went trying to
see some of our investigators and trying to make some contacts. But it
was so noisy and busy it didn't work out, and pretty much everyone
there was on a cruise ship. That is one of the hardest parts of
missionary work here is it is hard to find the people that actually
live here year round. But we did see like 5 of our investigators there
which was good. The other missionaries had a cool experience there
though. Elder Clarke of the Seventy evidently the head of the
missionary department was there on a Disney cruise and started talking
to them. He gave them a lot of really good and useful information and
techniques. It was funny to hear them tell the story about it because
they had no idea who he was until his wife told them. They now have a
huge fire lit under them with a zone conference and a talking to from
the head of the missionary department in one week.

All in all this was a good week. They all are but this one was
especially good. Elder Modlik and I have  planned a musical missionary
fireside for the 16th and it should be really good. We finished all we
can do for it on Sunday and now we just hope the performances are
good.

I am loving being on a mission. Sunday was testimony meeting so I got
up and bore my testimony. Everyone loved it and thanked me for it. I
told them how everyday the first thing I do is get on my knees and
thank God for the Opportunity to serve the people in Ketchikan,
Alaska. I let them know of my faith and knowledge and experience with
the atonement and the Book of Mormon and my testimony of it. I told
them how blessed they were to have this knowledge and that everyone
needed it to be truly happy. So I told them "Prepare yourselves and
prepare your friends." And I paused "No really prepare your friends."
and they were kinda chuckling then I said " We are coming for your
friends." The whole congregation was laughing but after church we got
five referrals from members so I think it worked.

Today I am going to get some water boots and then we are going on a
hike with Roger...because he's homeless for the time in Ketchikan and
he can't go back to Metlakatla.
Those were the highlights of my week that I can think of at the
moment. I hope you all hove wonderful weeks and remember that everyone
needs this gospel to truly be happy so don't keep it to yourself!