Transfer week

A ton happened this week. I will try to get everything but I already
have the feeling I'm going to forget a lot, anyways here it goes.
Highlights of the week.
To start a couple of weeks ago Elder Mattice and I played a small
pranks on some elders in our zone, we switched their stuff, like their
matrices, their study stuff, their cereal, ect. And we thought it'd be
a good laugh. We soon released their errors of our ways as we
remembered that one of those missionaries is a notorious pranker and
teaser in this mission and at home, and like he has no boundaries at
all. So the whole last few weeks we've been wondering when he was
going to get us, and I turned out to be when we got him from pday. The
video below should explain it fine.

We ended up taking it back their apartment that night while they were still out and left it in their bathroom. Tuesday we got a call from president saying that one of the missionaries was going home that evening, so we had coordinate and figure all of that out and hiscompanion has been staying with us since then. I really dislike being in a tripanionship, it's probably be fine normally but the conditions are just all wrong for this poor guy. I'm sure all of us haven't had the best time, we all annoy each other, and Elder Mattice and I are good friends so it always seems like it is us verse him and I hate it because I'm not that kind of person and I understand what he wants and why so I just feel bad and am annoyed by the circumstance a lot and by him some too. Anyway it will all be fixed on Wednesdayso only two more days of it. But we taught quite a few lessons, none were that great because our flow and unity is none existent in our current threesome, but there was some spirit there. We also met with the stake president, he is very very pleased with how the missionary work is going in the zone, that made me feel good. We have a pretty good zone. On Friday president had us over for dinner so he could feed us some of that halibut, it was of course really good. And we were hoping he'd just tell us our transfer calls there but he didn't. We were all disappointed, we also had Elder Mattice's exit interview that night. But anyway present called us later and gave us our transfer calls. I am getting Elder Sandau! I am really excited, I served around him in the Tongan ward and wewere good friends. He is a great missionary, he is one transfer younger than me on the mission. I've told him every pday this transfer he would be my new comp and now it happened. I'm excited! And Elder Cox who has made us a trio this weekis going to Kbeach! I'm am so jealous, I am still a little salty about having toleave Kbeach. And elder Reynolds is coming to anchorage so I'll get to see that guy, man I love him. And last but not least, the spiritual highlight. One Saturday we got to help with the Baptism of the Shoops family. It was the coolest baptism I've been to. 5 of the 8 got baptized, the ones that were old enough, it was very spiritual and uplifting. I was able to interview a few of them and we've helped them with service and what not so we knew them pretty well. They are a super cool family and will be a great addition to the church. It was crazy to see how many people were just a small part of them joining the church and how they had been put in their life to influence the, for good. I really hope I can find a family some day to baptize. Anyways I'm out of time so if I remember I'll include the rest of the stuff nextweek, but probably a ton will happen next week too, so it'll get forgotten.
Ofa lahi at

Cole's 1st letter... Hello Everyone!

I cannot believe its already been a week! So much has happened and itll be hard to try and tell all of it in this short time I get to email! The MTC is sooo awesome! I love it here so much! you can constantly feel the spirit and it is just amazing here! I have learned so much here in just a week! But before I get into all the details...

FIRST: My P days will be on Wednesday during my time in the MTC and I leave for Detroit on August 1st so I will only have one more P day here but just plan on getting emails sometime next Wednesday.

SECOND: I only get 1 hour to email each week and I dont even get to read them till P Day so if you really wanted to get ahold of me send my a paper letter or you can look up "Dear Elder" online and send mail to me in unit 31. Im not sure how it works exactly but Im sure you could figure it out and I get that mail every day and will write you a letter back! That only works while im in the MTC though. Also if you want my mailing address please ask my mom at wyomingerica@yahoo.com she has it.

So now to get in to my week summary. So i flew in a day early so I was like the only new missionary there for a night so they just threw me in with all the foreign missionaries which was a pretty cool experience! They were so cool! Flying for my first time was so awesome! I loved it! I was pretty nervous to begin but people were put on my path by the Lord to help me out! It was so hard to leave my family and everyone for about 20 minutes but after that I was just super excited! Like I said the first night was pretty weird but as soon as everyone else came in on wednesday it was awesome! My companion was assigned to be district leader so that basically means I do the same thing. My companion is so awesome! He is Elder Shumway from Orem Utah so he lives like right down the street from the MTC. I love him so much we work so well together and it is just awesome! Our whole district is just amazing! most of us are all serving in Detroit so we are all super close! we do everything together! We have only been together for a week and they already feel like family. Ive learned so much here in just a week! It is so much to take in and can be stressful and tiring at times but it is still just awesome!My teachers are amazing and helping me learn how to teach through the spirit and I am getting so much better! On sunday we had a big devotional and because there was a huge group of missionaries that came in this week they had us watch "The Character of Christ" by David A Bednar because it is probably the greatest talk ever and I would strongly encourage everyone yo watch it because you can learn so much. After the video David A Bednar just walked into the devotional with over 2000 missionaries and surprised everyone! I learned so much from him about how to be more Christ-like and that will help me so much on my mission! It was so amazing, it was probably the most spiritual experience of my entire life. So Id say it was pretty good hearing from an Prophet of God. We got our first actual investigators on monday and have taught them twice.They are Brulio and Alise. I love them both so much! Brulio is so awesome and my companion and I can always feel the spirit so well when we teach him. Alise is the same way! I just love being a missionary for God! You can feel of his love for you and everyone else and it just makes you love everyone you meet! The gospel is so amazing and just brings so much happiness. I know I am here to do God's work and he is blessing me and my family so much for it!The blessings that come from being a set apart missionary for God are just amazing! This is the happiest time of my life and Ive only been here a week! My testimony has grown so much especially of the book of mormom. You can get so much relelation from literally any verse in the book of mormon if you just have the spirit with you and pray and really ponder it.I got to go to the temple this morning with my whole district and it so comforting and just takes away all your stress! I loved it! I am constantly trying to learn and be strictly obedient and my companion  and we do a good job of that! My companion is just so amazing and he brings the spirit in and we just work so well together. Me and him and so similar, we would have been like BFF's in high school. He helps me out so much and it is just awesome. Everything here is just awesome,I cant ever begin to explain it especially in this short time im given to email so for real, WRITE ME! So much goes on every day that Id just love to share with everyone and Im not given time to do it! 
I love you all and thank you for all the prayers! I pray for many of you every night as well! Dont ever underestimate the power of prayer. God is there and He loves us and he wants to help all of our concerns. Always remember to be like Christ and follow his is example!

Love, 
Elder Jensen

PS: Mom I love you a little bit more and please get this out to everyone who wants it


Letter to Mom and Dad

Thank you so much for everything Mom and Dad. I love you guys so much! Thnak you for helping me make a mission a priority in my life! Im going to have my companion send his email to you guys too cause we do everything together so maybe he shared some things I didnt. There are some things I want you to send me.. I need a camera, really bad cause my mission doesnt have ipads and they might not get them back because too many were stolen!! Also send me some wyoming T shirts and another pair of jeans.. Im going to send back my old scritures and my temples clothes because Missionaries rent them for free and its too much of a hassle. I love you guys so much and my hour is up so please do that for me! I pray for you guys every night! I love you!

Elder Jensen

Week Six

This week is the last full week for my companion. It is also the last
full week of this transfer. So we get transfer calls probably on
Friday night. And since President Robinson took my halibut charter he
is having us over for dinner on that night to feed us some halibut he
owes me.This last week was quite good. We were able to meet with Laura
at bishops house. There were lots of members there but it was still a
good lesson. Last lesson we left Laura with the invitation to pray
about about a baptismal day and she did, and so she put herself on
date for August 27. Which just happens to be perfect because it's a
Saturday. After that we taught her the first part of the Commandments
lesson. She of course is super elect so she's already living this and
she already knows importance of prayer and scripture study and keeping
the Sabbath day holy and is doing her best to live it. However, she is
going to Fairbanks for the next two weeks for science camp so we won't
really be able to meet with her. That was probably the spiritual
highlight of this week. The other one was that we were able to give a
baptismal interview to a family of five that the sisters are teaching.
That was really cool to see whole family get interviews, one by one,
we don't get that too much up here. Our ward is fasting here next to
Sunday so that we can find a family for us to teach and I've been
praying for for a long time and really hoping that we can find a whole
family to baptize to be way cool. Earlier in the week I want exchanges
with Elder Vue he is a new missionary and he's getting trained in the
Hmong branch. He is a really good guy. I like him, it was fun taking
him on exchanges.

Also earlier in the week I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting by
brother Garrett. The subject that I was given was strengthening
others. I forgot to prepare the talk until pretty late in the week,
like Saturday night but I was able to give a really good talk from
what everybody told me and I thought it was pretty good. I was the
last person to speak and I had been left with 25 mins to talk, and I
was only planning on 10. But some how I was very poised and calm and
took all the time, I don't know how it happen, it was very spiritual
for me and quite a few other people, I had lots of complements
afterword. One, was a lady we had never met who hadn't been to church
in 3 years and this was her first time back and she was very thankful
for what I had said, it was what she needed to hear. I was able to
tell some cool stories from my mission about strengthening others. It
also really helped me realize my duty to minister to others and to
strengthen and build up others and all that I do and say. And that it
is a promise we make when we are baptized. I am grateful I had that
opportunity, I learned so much.

I guess the last thing I'd like to mention is that earlier in the week
Elder Mattice and I were able to do some service for family. We're
helping them move some stuff so that they can move down to Montana.
They're really cool family, they are both from Walla Walla. So it's
fun to talk about the little Tucanon and the Tri-Cities and stuff with
them. but they also had some cool racks, we saw them at thought wed
take some pictures. Those Moose antlers weigh so much, I think I
throughout my back trying to put them above my head posing for a
picture. But it was is pretty cool to see and hear his stories about

those hunts. It made me want to go hunting.

Kam to his Mama

I'm doing pretty well, the zone is doing well, but the neighboring
zone is constantly flirting with our sisters and it is annoying as
heck, luckily elder Modlik is the zl in that zone so we call him up
and he puts the hammer down on them, it's pretty funny. He's a really
good guy. Yeah I'm doing well with the ward now. How much junk is Cole
bringing? If I could do it over again I'd bring like two suits, three
slacks, four or five shirts and lots of ties and shoes. And get ,roe
as I needed it on my mission. It's not that I'm writing more
necessarily, just sometimes I forget to reply if they email in the
middle of the week, or I just don't have time to reply is more common.
It's going to be really a lot quieter with out Cole and I. Man, 49
weeks isn't very long at all, my companion is going to have as many
days as I have months here pretty soon.

Off to Detroit via Salt Lake for 3 weeks!

We are officially part to the 800 club

Cole and Ashley

the squad

Temple Day

the whole crew!

good friends

the new blocks!

Farewell...until we meet again!

Email probably like 55?

This week has been interesting for sure. On pday we went down to
Anchorage and got my companion some costly apparel, so we spent a lot
of the day shopping. After that we went and played some football and
after that basketball. We had dinner with the assistants and with one
of the Samoan wards, they are in a trio because Elder Hinkley is going
home.

That night we finished preparing our training for MLC. Tuesday was MLC, and it was all day long, it was really long, but pretty good. It helped me better understand what we are doing and our responsibilities and there were some good trainings.

After that we all went out for dinner, and Elder Dickson showed up! He surprised everybody there, he has been at home for like 4 months, he was my zl when I was serving in the Tongan ward. It was crazy to see him there, and it is just him to show up to something like that. Then on Wednesday we had to run to the mission office and Elder Bradshaw showed up...he's been at home for like 4 weeks is all, he was my district leader in the Tongan ward. It was weird to see him too. 

Thursday we had a crazy awesome day, we got a new investigator, her name is Laura, she has redefined what I think of a golden or elect investigator. She has figured it out all on her own and has been lead by the spirit all the way to coming to church on her own and gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon before she even met with us! It's insane. She is going to Fairbanks for a few weeks but it is so cool to be a part of this. And we went and met her parents with the Bishop and they are completely supportive of her. She came to church and the ward just took her right away and did their job. It was great.

Friday was zone meeting, that went really well. The spirit was strong there. We gave trainings about working with ward councils, and not being trunky/ home sick, our zone is struggling with that. And the sisters have a really good training about the power of prayer. It was fun, but it really hit my companion hard at the end. 

 Saturday we there was a big festival in town so we spent a lot of time there being seen and talking to people. And one day there was a porcupine that walked right by the window while I was studying. 

4th of July

Today is the 4th of July, they did fireworks at like midnight last
night I guess. We didn't hear or see anything we are in a rural area
with a pretty good view but still didn't see anything, there was low
clouds, but I'm sure it couldn't be that great because it's still
bright at midnight. I don't know maybe it's just because I'm on a
mission but it sure doesn't seem to be as big of a holiday up here as
it is in the lower 48, which is weird because a lot of people seem
pretty patriotic up here. We don't even have a dinner tonight, it's
disappointing, someone could just invite us to their bbq, but maybe
they aren't having any. Feed your missionaries! We are looking really
sparse for this month. This week was a good week. President Robinson
came to our district meeting. He spent the whole time bragging to me
about the halibut Charter I had set up with brother brown. He ended up
taking my charger because I got transferred out. At least he said he
would invite us over and feed us some. We went on exchanges on
Tuesday, I went to the Chugach foothills area in Anchorage with Elder
Brown. He is a good guy and we had a good time. We had a great lesson
with a less active on base, and then we had a lesson with an
investigator. We also did two hours of service for a less active, it
was a mess and really gross but we got a ton done. Elder brown knows
how to work hard. The next day we went to the temple. That was great,
I did an endowment session. It was great, it went by really fast it
felt like. There were a bunch of Russians with us though, I wonder
where they came from.
Here is a picture from that.

I have three now so I should be set for the rest of my mission. If I need more I will let you know. No I won't get a greeny, Zone leaders don't train, I would have got one in k beach if I didn't get transfered to Bear Mountain. Yes I got made zl a lot earlier than most, Elder Judd is the only one younger than me and he came out a month after me. We became Zone leaders at the same time. But we are a lot younger mission wise than all the other ones, I mean my comp goes home in three weeks. Sister missionaries are always poaching, teaching people out of their area, and they  make all the elders crazy, especially right now because we have most all the cute sisters in the mission in our zone right now, so it's just too much haha. But our zone has been handling it pretty well, have pretty solid elders. And for some reason they just annoy my companion like crazy. I'm fine with them though, I think the are fun and hard working, I understand why he feels that way but I'm not going to be that way to them. They are doing pretty well. Brett's mission seems really hard. He's been in the rural part the whole time I think. Jordan is in Memphis right now. Actually the ward he is serving in the bishop in Kbeach  was in that ward not too long ago. He is a District leader, and having a good time. Grant is doing really well, but I don't talk to him I am just on his email list. Rhett seems to be doing pretty well. Megan from college is engaged, which is crazy. She's probably my best friend, she won't be soon, because she is getting married in a few months, but she has written me every week with out fail and I really appreciate that. Emily from college is just finishing up her mission papers. Baylee from college has dengue fever in Peru and was extremely sick but never told her family, but she has been a sister training leader forever and is a great missionary, as I figured she would be. Elder Na'a has been a zone leader for a couple transfers and is really stressed out. Elder Modlik has really become a nice guy and feels super guilty for being a jerk when he trained me, which is true but it didn't offended me or anything. Elder Meade is in North Pole as a district Leader, and Elder Reynolds is still in Kbeach.