Week 20-Oct. 22, 2018

Hey fam and friends!!!

This week was CRAZY! So many things happened!

Tuesday We did a service project in a different area with about 30 other missionaries! We thought we were gonna help disabled people take a tour of this famous place, but ended up basically just high-fiving and saying goodbye to elderly people as they got on the bus. It was super fun! They were so happy so we were so happy! We would sometimes catch them taking sneaky pictures of us foreigners and a couple just came up and asked for a picture with us! It was so funny! 

Wednesday, we had Zone Conference! SO GOOD! I love President Peterson and his wife so much! They are so awesome! President basically went through all the conference talks and related them to our missionary work and it was so good! He really emphasized making Personal study the most important part of the day. I've definitely seen how when I have a focused, Spirit-led personal study, I am able to take that faith, energy, and hope with me throughout the day as opposed to feeling discouraged or exhausted. It's just like filling our lamps with oil each day. When we take care of our own spiritual well-being, we can better help others do the same. He also emphasized bringing fellowshippers to every lesson to help and support our friends making big changes in their lives! Also, our district did a musical number (thanks to sis larsen for pushing us all) Nearer my God to Thee and Come Thou Fount. It went so well!

Thursday, we had interviews with President! He had me say the opening prayer in Chinese, but the rest was in English, thank goodness! He didn't say anything about my Chinese or my tones (which I've heard is really good! haha)! Also, when i told him I think he gave me the best trainer in the mission, he just kinda nodded and was like "yeah, I did. There's a sister chen down in taidong who's pretty good, but yeah, you've got the best!" Haha I was just like "yeah, you're right!" 

Saturday, we had another ward board game activity and met a new friend there! We also went to Neihu for a stake relief society activity! Then we had Wendy's baptism! She is so awesome! I love her so much! She shared the story of how she had reached a point in her life where she felt super down and depressed all the time and then met missionaries on the street and started meeting with them! She met a couple times, but then got too busy and had a big test to prepare for, etc. so had to stop. Then after awhile she started feeling depressed again and couldn't figure out why, but then Sis. Larsen and Sis. Austad called her to see if she would be interested in meeting again and she said yes! 4 or so months later, here she is and her mom and sister came to the baptism too! So happy!

Yesterday we did comp study by the Keelung river and it was sooo nice! Perfect weather! A little bit of nature! Lots of people on the bike path! Gorgeous!

Then today we had our first practice for the Christmas program! I'm so excited! We went to lunch with a bunch of missionaries afterwards (we were all in Jinhua by the temple for practice) and then Sister Trouble took us to a mango bing place! So good!

Scripture of the week:

D&C 6:33-34 "Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward. Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail." I love how Christ calls us His "little flock" in these verses. It just shows how much love and tenderness He feels towards all of Heavenly Father's children! And it's so comforting to know that when we let Christ be our foundation and build upon His strength and His word, we can do anything! Satan can't touch us when we have the Savior of the world by our side! So keep on "doing good"! You are all amazing and precious children of God with infinite potential! Keep spreading God's love and making the world a better place!

Sending prayers and hugs!

Sister Jensen 

Week 19-Oct. 15, 2018

India?!

Hey fambam!

I am currently sitting in a random park near our house rediscovering the fact that Taibei truly never sleeps! Our firealarm went off at 5 am and so we got up and checked everything and it was all fine so we went back to bed and right as our heads hit the pillow it went off again! it's legit so loud! I think waking someone up that early is very exposing of your true character Haha Sis Larsen was thinking about who to call and where to go and what to bring and all I was thinking of was all the different ways I could smash, dunk, smother, etc. that indestructible little noise maker. After turning it off just to have it go off again like 10 times (you can't remove the batteries, we tried ;) ) we decided to go to the park and do emails until the rest of the mission world woke up at 7. When we walked outside, I was shocked! There are still tons of cars and mopeds and people at restaurants and old people doing their strange exercises at the park and others at 7-11! The city never sleeps!

This week was so good because GENERAL CONFERENCE! Need I say more? ;) All the questions I wrote down before were answered literally in like the first 30 minutes! And then answered again in later sessions! I am so grateful for our truly inspired living prophet and our Savior, Jesus Christ who leads and guides this church through him. 

Between sessions on Sunday, the ward provided lunch and all we did was stand in the chapel while people handed us food! We just went down to say hi but everyone wouldn't stop giving us food! I have to say, that's definitely the first time I've eaten corn in a chapel! I love Asian wards! They give the missionaries bags of food every Sunday!

This week was a little rough. A couple of the people we are teaching stopped responding or dropped us and Sis. Larsen is getting a little sick and I still don't know what's going on or who is who. BUT Conference was such a miraculous way to finish the week, and we had exchanges with the STLs which was SO GOOD! I went with Sis. Hurst! She's super funny, spunky, outgoing, and is the definition of friendly and talks to literally everyone! She gives everyone Hi-fives all the time, too! I love her so much! She gave me so much hope for learning Chinese because it seems like everyone I talk to (and she validated that this is true) had some connection or experience with Chinese before coming to Taiwan (for example, Sis. Larsen lived in Shanghai so she could already read the Book of Mormon in characters a couple months into her mission). But Sis. Hurst is just like me and started from the bottom! Haha we bonded a lot over the struggle of never knowing what's happening and not being able to remember any members names, etc. And she gave me so much hope that I will eventually be able to be an effective instrument in the Lord's hands if I am patient and never give up! I can't remember if I told you this already, but I have a goal to finish Book A (all gospel terms) and take the test before Thanksgiving! Its gonna be hard, but I have faith!  

Funny things: Someone this week told sis. Hurst that I look like I'm from India! What?! 

On Saturday night, we visited a less active family and when I was halfway through the first vision, I totally blanked! Just gone! I had to look at sis Larsen for help and still after she got me started again I like stumbled a lot but finally got through it... Luckily they were a less active family, not a new person, and they were very forgiving and complimented my Chinese a lot as we left (completely out of the kindness of their hearts) and sis Larsen said you have to mess up the first vision at least once so now it's out of my system  We also played Spot it with them because it was an FHE thing and the elders from our ward came too.

We put up Christmas decorations we found in the closet from past sisters and have been singing some Christmas songs, so it was such a funny moment when we were headed home after visiting someone and it was raining and we randomly started singing Silver Bells (because I thought "city sidewalks, busy sidewalks" or whatever the words are) and we sang like the whole song duet-style while biking through Taibei at 9:30pm in the rain in the middle of October  I love missionary life! Haha

Sister Trouble (she chose that English name, shes so funny, shes the one that always sends random pics to mom over FB messenger) thought I was hilarious on Wednesday because we had a meeting about the Halloween party and then went to get dinner before English class and it was pouring rain so everytime we would get to an uncovered part of the sidewalk, like crossing the street, I would say "yi, er, san!!!" (1,2,3) and then we would run to the other side! Sis. trouble would laugh so hard (probably cuz my Chinese sounded so funny) and her laugh is like a cackle it's so funny. 

Scripture of the week: John 15:12-13

12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I love these verses so much and I love how so many talks in conference were about leaning on the Savior through our difficult times and turning outwards makes our own struggles easier. I know this is true from experience. One of my favorite conference quotes was "The wounded who nurse the wounds of others are God's angels on earth," from Elder Anderson. I feel like I have so often been the recipient of help and service from amazing people, angels, who were going through so much more than I was but they selflessly turned outward and made my burdens lighter. I hope those of you going through your individual Gethsemane experiences may find peace and pasture in our dear Savior and Shepherd this week. 

Sending hugs and prayers!

Love and miss you all bunches!

Sis. Jensen

Some of the beautiful artwork from Conference 

Some funny delivery bikes!

My first time trying mango bing! So so good! (it's like mangos and sticky rice but on fluffy ice!)

Us at 5am in the park

Us with our fire alarm in a pot of water (the STLs gave us permission to destroy it) 

Week 18-Oct. 8, 2018

Nihao fam and friends!

When we meet people, sis larsen usually has them guess where we are from and no one ever says America, it's like they think we would be embarrassed or offended if they said that first, or if they said that and they weren't from there...but we've gotten Russia, Israel, Europe, England, and a lot of Canada. So interesting!

This week was awesome! 

Weird things: I really dislike eating squishy things (never been a fan of gummy bears or jello) but like everyone hear loves squishy things and its killin me. I'm luckily kinda getting over it little by little, I like zhen zhu (boba things) now, but there's so many more oddly sweet but mostly tasteless squishy things I've eaten this week. I also ate squid twice this week, but that was yummy because it was like deep fried. ;) Also, we sat in a 3 story McDonald's this week while we drank Wintermelon tea with zhen zhu. We also have dragon fruit a lot which every member will warn you about before no matter how many times you've had it before because it turns your pee bright pink... So those are my weird food stories of the week Haha

Other stories: We were walking down the street and this guy on a bike rides past holding an umbrella and on his shoulder was a CAT! just like draped over his shoulder like no big deal! No problem! He's just biking with his umbrella and his big orange cats just chillin! A lot of people also have dogs that ride on their mopeds between their feet- so well behaved! 

We killed 3 cockroaches this week... We screamed so loud I'm surprised no one called the cops (our neighbors can hear everything) but now our kitchen smells like Raid even though today we did some deep cleaning. At the end of the night we always role play a contact, so sis larsen was pretending to be a person on the bus and I was contacting her when she just all of a sudden screams cuz this huge cockroach dashed across the floor. so funny so funny. 

We sat next to a lady in a 7-11 and I tried to start a conversation by saying I liked her dress but I totally butchered saying dress but luckily my charades worked and then she replied "dress?" in English and I was like yeah! Haha luckily sis larsen took it from there and the lady set up an appt with us! She ended up canceling but it was fun to feel like I was a part of helping us get an appointment, even though I only said one sentence not even all in chinese! Haha

English class went so well this week! We talked about occupations and practiced mock interviews and then the spiritual share was about using our skills to help others and sis larson's kids class came and sang I am a child of God for us to share their talents! So cute!

One of the highlights of my mission so far was last night at my first recent convert fireside! Not only did I get to see some dear friends I hadn't gotten to see since the MTC, but I sang a medley of Savior Redeemer of my soul and Called to Serve with sis larsen and another sister (trio) and it was soooooo awesome to be a part of! The Spirit was so so strong and everyone could feel it, whether or not they knew english! My heart was just bursting with love for my Savior and I felt so deeply dedicated to His work and proud to wear His name! I was feeling pretty nervous before because of everyone there (including President Peterson) but as soon as the piano started, the Spirit filled the room, and we sang as one. I love singing because I feel like it in a way purifies my heart and expresses my testimony with eloquence I never have when just speaking words. :) 

Robert got baptized on Saturday! So happy! His parents aren't members, but his older brother was baptized too and they dont oppose the church. They actually really appreciated the change they saw in their older son so they would send Robert to his aunts house (bishops wife) every weekend to take lessons from us and attend church! We are really hoping they will be willing to meet with us or come to an activity or church with their sons soon!

Wendy unfortunately got sick and so her baptism is postponed until 10/20. 

Today we got to go with a member to Jiufen, a popular tourist site where there used to be a big gold mine (I think run by the Japanese or something). I'll attach some pics :)

Scripture of the week:

3 Nephi 9:13 "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" I just like the end of this scripture because I like to think about repentance as a healing process, a joyful process. It's kinda daunting thinking about all the things I need to repent of, but when I think if it as just letting Christ heal me, one thing at a time, it is so much easier to begin. Of course, repentance requires a lot of faith and work to change, but I know that Christ can make us so much better than we are on our own and I am happy to try to become what He wants me to become as long as He's by my side. Invitation: Hand something over to the Lord this week and try your best to feel the healing power of the Atonement. I'll be trying with you! :)

Love you all so much!

Sending prayers and hugs!

Have a fantastic week!

Sis. Jensen

Week 17-Oct. 1, 2018

Noodles, noodles, and more noodles...

Hey fambam! 

We eat so many noodles, I had a dream about noodles... but in my dream i chose to eat the watermelon because i was so done with noodles Haha. Luckily there are a lot of different things you can do with noodles! Also they have peanut butter burgers here which are actually so good! and people eat them for breakfast, not dinner! I got a sesame mcflurry at McDonald's! It was so yummy! It tasted kinda like reeses pieces! Tofay for zone preparation day we went to a DELICIOUS kaorou place which is just like Korean BBQ and it was a buffet and they also had COLD STONE ICE CEAM! We never see ice cream! So good! And it was so fun to meet all the missionaries in my zone! Ok, enough about food sorry... :P 

I got to teach English class for the first time this week! It was so fun! I teach the advanced class cuz then I dont have to speak any Chinese haha I wasnt as prepared as I should have been though so I let them go like 15 min early but got to talk to two of the students and almost set up with one to learn more about family history! "Set up" just means make an appointment. I just got his contact info but he declined meeting with us. English class is SO GOOD though. We get so many more people interested in English class on the street than like anything gospel related, but then the last half hour of English class we always do a "spiritual share" related to the topic of the day. So good! we do it wednesdays 7-8:30pm. 

Dads questions: We do all our studies (except personal) in shops so we can be out, people see us, we meet people, we're alert, etc. I love it! Sometimes I felt a little cabin fever in Wyoming, but never here! (also, my guilty pleasure is often the shop is playing music of some kind that makes things like language study and dailycontacting go by a little faster ;P) President has us while we are training do 2 hours of comp study with a ton of role playing and 1 1/2 of language study. He says it may be a sacrifice to the work, but it's a gift to the kingdom. Needless to say, my Chinese definitely needs it. We dont really eat at members homes, everyone here eats out cuz it's so cheap, so when we teach Robert, the bishops wife usually pays for our dinner after at some random place, but that's it. So funny, people here dont talk while they eat, so I felt so awkward the first time. there weren't any like get to know you questions or anything Haha just slurping noodles with chopsticks and a spoon sometimes! I always make such a mess Haha one time I literally dropped noodles in my lap... I'm getting better at the chopstick thing though! As for my bike, the church ordered them made for us and we paid for them when we got here. They're really nice and the front says "missionary " in Chinese, and the sides say "no amount of success can compensate for failure in the home" and my full name. I really not sure why people here love that quote so much but it's legit on everything.

Miracles:

Last week, a lady stopped us during comp study and told us in English "I like your song", it was so cute! We always sing a hymn at the beginning of comp study and we got to have a long conversation with her because of it! We invited her to English class and told her about the Book of Mormon. 

Wendy passed her baptismal interview yesterday! And Robert has his scheduled for Friday! :D They are so awesome, I love them so much!

We went took the MRT to the area where the temple is for a pass off lesson/chapel tour with a potential new friend, but she cancelled last minute so instead we went to the mission office (right across the street ) and got two of the shiny new translation Book of Mormons! They are so much thinner than the old ones and the characters are written like we read, left to right in rows instead of down in columns right to left! I guess more people read like that now, even in characters. As we were walking back to the MRT, a sweet lady from japan walked up behind us and stopped us and explained she has a friend in Japan who is a Chinese exchange student learning about the gospel and asked if we could bear our testimonies in Chinese so she could send it to her. We of course were more than happy to and she added us to a chat with the Japanese elders teaching her and said if she had any questions, we could help clarify things in Chinese! It was super cool and a testimony that God is orchestrating everything and there was a reason we needed to be there that morning! Also, technology is so awesome and is truly helping the work progress like crazy! Wendy's baptismal interview was through Skype!

Funnyz:

I accidentally called someone on the phone "[last name] trainer" instead of "mister" Haha that was a little embarrassing.  But then we laughed so hard about it, the people in the mcdonalds gave us weird looks. and I accidentally snorted... :P

Someone on the MRT (subway) told my trainer she thought I was native American......

Turns out riding a bike in a skirt isn't too bad, it's just getting on and off that's a struggle. I've almost fallen so many times this week, its hilarious! Soon I will be as smooth and flawless about it as Sis. Larsen though! Just takes a little practice ;)

Scripture of the week!!!

In light of general conference this week, here is an awesome quote from Elder Uchtdorf's talk "Three Sisters", "You have the spiritual DNA of God. You have unique gifts that originated in your spiritual creation and that were developed during the vast span of your premortal life. You are the child of our merciful and everlasting Father in Heaven, the Lord of Hosts, the One who created the universe, spread the spinning stars across the vast expanse of space, and placed the planets in their appointed orbits. You are in His hands. Very good hands. Loving hands. Caring hands." 

Ah! So good! I just love that so much! I k own it is true that we are all children of God and that He loves us and will guide our lives if we let Him. He will put us where we need to be and when we need to be there. He will guide our footsteps so long as we have the faith to start walking. :) 

Think of some questions this week for conference and write them down! Pray and search for answers with me! I promise there is so much out there to learn and understand and God will teach us so much if we seek it! I'd love to hear about what you discovered next week!

Have a FANTASTIC week!!!

Love you all so much and God loves you even more!

Sending prayers and hugs!

Sister Jensen 

pics:

Our rain ponchos!

Vegetarian buffet and my cute trainer!

What Taiwan people think of America...

Zone kaorou!