Happy Halloween!-Cole

Hello everyone and Happy Halloween! This week was absolutely amazing! I don't even know where to start! Well I guess Ill start with the stuff you guys know more about than me! The UW game sounded pretty crazy! The cowboys sound better and better each week! Id say I wish I was there but...... I was having a BAPTISM!!!!! Hearing about the game just makes my last Saturday probably the greatest day of my life! Other updates this week involving me are slim! It is getting a little cooler here! I think it froze once but I feel like it  will get real cold pretty soon! I'm loving it for now though!

On to the good part! My miracles and investigator updates! So this Saturday I was able to witness my first baptism of one of the people I teach. I know we were expecting Kristen to as well but with all the stress of her wedding and moving soon (they will be moving to Ireland on Thursday) she had another cigarette. We got that news last Monday after I emailed. It was really sad but she promised us that she will be baptized within a month in Ireland! But now back to Ross, we had his interview on Thursday and he came out of that with the biggest smile on his face. The first words out of his mouth were "Now wheres my I'm a Mormon T-shirt?" He was so excited to be baptized it was so great to see someone that excited for it! The baptism went amazing even though it did not start out that way. We had planned it for 1:00 on Saturday and we were so excited for that day all week. We did our best to prepare for it, inviting everyone and just doing our best to get everyone ready. We showed up to the church to fill up the fount and waited. Ross and his family arrived at 12:30 as they were supposed to and we waited with them and got him ready and took pictures. We then waited till 12:50 and there was still not a single ward member at the church. We were confused because the original plan was for the baptism to be at 3:00 but we had to change it to fit the wards schedule better. We waited till 12:55 and finally our Ward Mission Leader arrived but  still no one else. Elder Miller and I were just about frantic at this point and we went to the library to print off some things for the baptism and just wondering where everyone was. As we opened the door to the library it was exactly 1:00 and every single chair was filled with just about 75% of the active ward. It was a miracle! I don't know how it happened but it happened. The baptisty was packed! We proceeded with the baptism and Ross wanted one of the ward member that is a recent convert to baptize him. It was absolutely beautiful! It was the perfect day! Making eye contact with Ross with the biggest smile ever as he in in the waters of baptism. Lots of tears were shed and the spirit was so strong! It was one of the greatest moments of my life! This work is so amazing and it brings so much joy and happiness to myself. I am the one that is blessed the most from my service! I was also able to participate in his confirmation the next day at church. He also got the priesthood that same day so it was a huge weekend for him! It was really just an amazing week capped of by the baptism of an amazing guy!

Id just like to close with my testimony of this church and gospel. I know that it is true and I know that because the Holy Ghost has made that known to me through my reading of the book of Mormon. This has been the greatest time of my life! I know Ive only been out a few months but I know it is the Best Two years! I'm so glad I chose to serve. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

GO POKES!!

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Elder Cole Jensen

I never knew what busy actually was-Kameron

This week is a blur. It feels like I got here three weeks ago but it hasn't. So much happened. 

Picking up the new missionaries was a blast! It was a really small group of five, two elders and three sisters but the two elders and one sister are Tongan. So it was so fun to get to speak Tongan with them. They all wanted to go to the lake hood ward so bad. We had a lot of orientation to do for them. Actual transfers went pretty well, flights to Kodiak, and from white horse and Skagway were canceled so some poor elders and to take super long ferry rides to make their connecting flights the next day. But besides that it went well. Taking the missionaries to the airport for them to go home, a lot of my favorite missionaries and the ounces I looked up to a lot were in that group. The departing testimony meeting was so powerful, very different than the incoming missionaries testimony meeting. I was really emotional for me as I sat there next to Elder Naa. I love that man. As well Elder Jesperson and Pace and Timmons along with a couple other very powerful missionaries and sisters. That was a unique group of missionaries for sure. We took them to dinner that night at about 11 so they could get in their red eye flights back home. I think it took Elder Naa two days of traveling to get home but now I imagine him sitting on a beautiful Tongan beach somewhere eating mangos and drinking coconuts. He deserves it. I was so tired the next morning, and emotionally and spiritually drained. The next day we planned all of our 8 exchanges and booked flights for us to Juneau and Fairbanks and then all the flights for the mission presidency and the ZLs to come in for MLC. The next day I went on exchanges with Elder Judd in Wasilla. That was great, we tracted a lot in the snow, and had one good lesson. We also did service at Sarah Palins neighbors house so we had to get a selfie at Sarah Palins house. We had a chilli cook off and we were the judges. There were lots of chillis and Ben our investigator came to that. As well as to church. It is kind of a small ward. When I started it was smaller than the branch in Craig but it filled in some. There just seems to be a lot of youth and not a lot of adults. And Sunday night we had a really good spiritual thought with a bunch of members and one non member, about God being our father. That's my week in a nut shell. Hopefully that will do!

Me and Elder Judd at Sarah Palins

Family-Cole

Sorry this will have to be short. I don't have much else to share. I hope East can make a run in the playoffs! Also Wyoming got a vote in the coaches poll! That like the first time since Ive been alive and I cant even watch them! But I'm doing better things! Kam never sent me his letter when he went AP so I had no clue! Sucks to be him now he doesn't get to do any missionary work! But it shows he is a great missionary and a great example! We talk quite a bit now. His mission is like way disobedient compared to mine! My mission has come a long way with the past few mission presidents and is now very obedient which is good! There are only like 3 elders here that are bad and one just went home! We are seeing many miracles over here in Michigan and t is great to be a part of! Mom did you get Kristens facebook messages? She prays for you guys every time we visit!  I love you guys and hope you have a great week! Oh and your sister missionary emailed me. She said you guys are awesome! You should have done that earlier so I could sent out referrals like crazy! I stuck them on Val for me! 

Transfer #2-Cole

Well this week was transfers again which means I'm no longer a trainee! I still feel very new though! So for this transfer I will be staying with Elder Miller in Sterling Heights North!! I'm excited for that for sure! I get to watch Kristen and Ross's baptism now and finish teaching them! But just because I didn't get transferred doesn't mean things didn't change. Actually not much did change because my whole district stayed here which is weird but I'm fine with it! The big change for us is we moved into a new apartment! It is so much nicer than our old one the only problem is its 3 miles out of our area! Good thing we have a car now! My new address is:

42264 Parkside Circle apt. #104

Sterling Heights, MI 48314

So you can send any mail for me to that address for at least the next six weeks! I loved hearing from all of you this week! It was a good week for me as well! Well I guess that is just me being really positive, it wasn't a terrible week we just had to spent wayyy to much time in the apartment packing and cleaning and moving and unpacking. It was kinda annoying, I just wanted to go out and find and teach people! I'm glad that is done with now though! So that wasn't as fun as I wanted it to be! The weather here continues to be amazing! I love it so much! We might get our first freeze sometime this week. I kinda doubt it though! Its way too warm for that! That's about it for my own updates so now to the good part! My investigators!

Although we had to spend a lot of our time in the apartment we were still able to see many miracles this week! We had an awesome experience with Kristen and Ross! So we have been trying to help Kristen stop smoking for months and she just hasn't been able to do it and hasn't really had a huge desire. Last Friday we got there and found out she started again after promising to stop. So we went outside with her now husband (Ross and her got married on Saturday!) took the Cigarettes and hid them (with the intent of giving them back) We were trying to prove a point to her that it was all her choice and we wanted her to know we will help her with the choice she makes. She came out looking for them and when she realized what happened she got mad and told us to give them back. We asked if she wanted to get baptized. She said Yes. She then said she still wanted them back. Then I asked her Why she wanted to get baptized. She stopped talking looked down and stormed in the house. So we went in after her. We told her we will give them back, but it is her choice and if she wants to be baptized she could not do it anymore. She decided she wanted them back. So we grabbed them and wrote on the pack "don't do it" and "We love you" We put them back where they were before said goodbye and we love you and left praying that she would make the right choice. An hour later she texted us that she just threw away the last cigarettes and is keeping the box to remember. She realized why we were here to help. It wasn't that we hadn't told her that we love her before and that's why we were there, but I think she was able to feel the spirit and knew that God loves her as she realized why we were here. So that was a good experience. :) Thay have been awesome to teach and they were super excited to hear we are staying! Their baptism is this Saturday and I'm so excited! We also taught one of our old neighbors and picked them up as new investigators! We had two very spiritual lessons with them and they told us the basically know the what we taught is true. The are a young Aerobic family and it has been awesome to be able to teach them! The only problem is the husband (sal) is in the military and is getting deployed on Halloween so we wont get to teach him for 6 months! But he told us he would bring his Book of Mormon and read it every night! They have a ton of potential here in the future!

Well that's about all for this week. I thank everyone again for keeping me updated with their lives! I love reading all about you guys! A scripture I really liked this week is Mormon chapter 7. This is probably one of the most powerful chapters in the Book of Mormon and it literally talks about everything! I loved it so much! I just love that book more and more every time I read it. Another thought id like to share is about how real and powerful the Atonement is! It is such a blessing to have access to that power through the restored Gospel! We have such a blessing that we NEED to share with all of our brothers and sisters around us! I love you all and have a great week!

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This is my district... we are all staying here

And of course the Dream Companionship!

-- 

Elder Cole Jensen

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Sunday after church

• This is us...you remember.  We had a great stake conference today. All about temples since the ft collins temple was dedicated last week.  Miss you guys

  
  

  
  

  Wyatt got his hair braded by abby during the cowboys game

  
  

  
  

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Transferred-Kameron

So I got transferred on Friday, about a week early. My new area is the very bottom of Anchorage. It is beautiful, along the turnagain arm, and with that it is ritzy. I feel like I'm in Jackson or Park City. All the houses are on mountain sides and huge, and nice. The most common car is a Mercedes, it's a different world. My first dinner here on Friday was awkward because it was so formal. But my companion promises most of the members are super cool. And since then most of them I have met are cool. We had stake conference Saturday night and Sunday, and got a new stake president who happens to live in my new ward, and he had already signed up to feed us on Sunday so on Sunday night we had dinner there, and the General authority assigned to call him was there for dinner too. That was a fun dinner, he has a cool assignment in Jerusalem this week with Elder Holland and Cook. Really I am so busy with transfers this week I don't have time to write. I'm not sure that I will ever have much write them next few transfers. But I don't know that for sure. This next week there is a ton going on. We have to pick up and take care of all the new missionaries and then the out going missionaries and make sure all the logistics for the transfer happen as planned. It is insanity, with people being transferred from Barrow to Prince of Whales Island and everywhere in between, but it will all go well I am sure. It is the Lords work. Also we have to report to the brethren the programs and methods we use for transfers. They want to know if other missions should use it. It is going to be a fun week. Hopefully I get a chance to say more but for now this will do.

Pictures- Cole

I had to send two its before and after we tried that Aloe Vera water stuff...It was so weird lol

-- 

Elder Cole Jensen

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Weekly update- Cole

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had as great of a week as I did! This week was so great! I saw so many miracles happen right before my eyes! First I just wanted to say that Michigan in the Fall is heaven I'm pretty sure. It is so lovely here! The leaves are all starting to change and they are all different colors and its just beautiful! I love it so much and then when you add on all of the miracles from missionary work its just too good! I'm not sure what else to update on so Ill just move on to my weekly miracles and investigator updates.

Kristen and Ross are doing amazing! They are getting married this Saturday and baptized the next week. The only problem with that is transfers are next Tuesday so I might not even get to teach them the last week before they are baptized. I have a feeling I'm going to stay another transfer but you never know! So with that if you were planning on sending me anything in the next 2 weeks you should probably wait till I know if I'm staying or leaving. But back to Kristen and Ross, we taught them 4 times this week which is kinda crazy. We took them to a baptism so they could see what they were about to do for themselves and that was so awesome! They felt the spirit a whole lot and got really excited to be baptized. I guess it true when thy say 80% of investigators that attend a baptism end up getting baptized. After the baptism they took us out to IHOP which was super cool! They feel that family at this point I love them so much.  Kristen has been having trouble quitting smoking so I told her if she would give smoking up then I would give up Oreos, because I eat way too many of them. I guess this gave her enough motivation to keep trying so it was worth it...I'm not sure what Ill do without my Oreos though! We have been picking up a lot more investigators lately as well and it has been so exciting to see all our finding efforts really coming through now. One miracle we had this week was in Walmart of all places. I swear Walmart gets a bad wrap, it really is a place of miracles! Anyway this miracle happened in the candy isle, where dreams are made. We have been continuing to work on talking to everyone but it gets really hard to just find something to talk about with everyone. The only person in this isle was an older woman and Elder Miller and I both prayed and looked hard for something to talk about with her. Just as we were walking by  neither of us had anything to say but just as we passed we saw a huge pumpkin on the back of her shirt and just went for it and boy I'm so glad we did. Turns out this older woman had been doing her own investigation of the church online and was literally just about to order a Book of Mormon that night. She told us she was disappointed when we just walked by and didn't say anything to her because she really did want to talk to us. Turns out she loves the church and we are now teaching her. This all happened from a pumpkin on a shirt in the candy isle of Walmart. God works in mysterious ways for sure.

There are many other stories that I wish I had the time to share with you all but just know I am loving my mission so much and there is nothing I would rather be doing than serving my God. This is the happiest time of my life and its weird because I'm not even focused on myself. Serving others will bring you closer to God and bring my joy to yourself than anything else. I am truly blessed for this opportunity to share with the world that the heavens are open and God continues to speak to his children and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. The only way people can return to live with God is back on the Earth and I have it with me! What a blessing that is, I am truly grateful for that gift. One thing that Ive always known but it really just clicked with me lately that strengthens my testimony of this church is this. When Jesus Christ established his church when he was alive, he called 12 apostles. therefore Christs true church must have 12 apostles... Hmm I don't know about you guys but the only church on the Earth today that I know of that claims to have 12 apostles is the LDS church. Not to be prideful or anything but it is literally so simple. Not only do we have that but we have the Book of Mormon which if anyone reads and asks God if its true He will let you know yes it is. There are just so many examples that I wish I could just share with everyone so Ill just start with all of you. I love you all and I hope you all have great weeks! Thank you for all the updates and support I truly do love it. Make sure you all read the Book of Mormon this week and just ask God if its true. Even if you've done it before He will answer you again and strengthen your own testimony! Have a great week!

-- 

Elder Cole Jensen

Why do they even give you a caption?-Cole

Hey everyone! I hope you all had as good of a week as I did! I love getting all the updates and I'm so grateful for all the support I get from you all. This week was awesome! I'm glad to hear the Cowboys are actually somewhat good this year! There is a member of my ward here that keeps me updated and sends me a text after every game. He likes watching them for me and he gets me all hyped up whenever they get a win! This was probably one of my favorite weeks yet. First of all the weather, oh the weather! It is perfect over here! Its always sunny with a cool breeze and in the low 60's. Its so perfect! Its finally getting cool and the leaves are really starting to change. It is absolutely perfect over here right now! On top pf that the work just keeps getting better and better. Our investigators are all progressing so well and we keep picking up new ones. This was just a solid week all the way around and the ward is starting to help out a lot more too! They are starting to feel like family just like my home ward (Don't worry, they will never replace my home ward) but they are awesome and really starting to open up and work with us! Missionary work goes so much smoother when you have the members on your side helping you out in any way they can.

So funny story for the week just happened this morning.  So this morning after studies, it was literally like an hour ago Elder Miller and I were playing some football just waiting for the other Elders to go email. Elder Miller threw me the ball and my uncoordinated self tripped on the side walk curb and fell and some how my watch got from my wrist to having its face on my palm so I landed right on my watch face and completely shattered it. I guess that could have been a miracle because I have no clue how it got to be in my palm and I fell pretty hard so maybe the Lord was just watching out for me there. But anyway, now I have a shattered watch, it still keeps time though! (Don't worry Dad its not the expensive one)

Alright but now on to the miracles of this week. So yesterday was just an amazing day. It was fast and testimony meeting and Kristen and Ross attended. Towards the end of the meeting, Ross got up and started walking to the pulpit. This threw me off a little because I didn't even dream of one of my investigators bearing his testimony before he is even baptized! This was probably one of the coolest and most fulfilling experiences Ive ever had in my life. When someone you teach gets up and bears his testimony for the first time of how the Holy Ghost has made it known to him hat what I have taught is true. It was such a neat experience and he said to the whole congregation that he knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, it brought tears to my eyes. Then later that night we wet over and taught his fiancé Kristen who has been atheist her whole life and she told us that she now knows God is there and cant wait to be baptized with Ross! Those two are so solid and I love them so much! Also on Sunday we met a new guy named Byron. He is an older Chinese guy that was super excited to talk to us. We taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went very well. He was excited to read the Book of Mormon. He is honestly one of the nicest guys Ive ever met! It was really awesome to meet him.

Also this week I got an MDM ring (Michigan Detroit Mission) a member makes them for the missionaries and it is sweet! I love it so much!

I'm so grateful that I have this chance to be out here serving the Lord and bringing others closer to him. I'm loving my mission more that I ever dreamed I could have. Every day I continue to get the desire to work harder and harder because my knowledge of the gospel increases and that just makes me want to share it more. Ive been so blessed to be able to be out here and just experience the blessing that come when you just put all your trust in God as you serve him. It is really amazing how much he loves us and what's just as amazing is how much Christ loves us. My testimony of the Atonement has grown so much since Ive been out here. I'm so grateful for the Plan of Happiness that has been prepared for all of us and I'm excited to share this plan with others. I love you all and hope you have a great week! Remember to read your scriptures a especially the Book of Mormon and pray daily!

-- 

Elder Cole Jensen

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