Week 46-April 22, 2019

Earthquake~ Don't worry!-Wed. April 17

Hello Fam! 

We just had a level 7 earthquake here in Taiwan so President asked us to let you all know that all the missionaries are okay! 

Thank you for your love!

Sister Jensen 

You Never Know (Oh I know)

Hey famBam!

Happy Easter! What a beautiful season of hope and new life and new opportunities and second chances! I love Come Follow Me and how it helps us study the Savior and His life and teachings on a new level. I also have really enjoyed our #透過基督 activity and we were able to take pictures with a lot of members and all the youth! (Through Christ)

As I draw closer to the Savior, I see more weaknesses in myself, but I also feel more hope and motivation to change and be better ever day ~ it's pretty amazing the power the Atonement has.

We saw a tender mercy today: we recently have been struggling to get street set ups, but today despite me looking like a wet dog and in preparation day attire, a lady I contacted at a stoplight agreed to pull over, exchange lines, and meet this Saturday to learn more about Christ! An answer to prayer. Hence the High School Musical subject line Haha because I definitely hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth to talk to her, but you never know! You just gotta try! Haha I like to think of We Bought a Zoo the movie~ 20 seconds of insane courage! ;) That's all it takes sometimes!

We also were able to help one of our friends set a baptismal date this week!  And we are super close with several of our other friends! Yay! 

Sorry I'm short on time this week, but invite of the week is to do something that will take 20 seconds of insane courage~ you never know until you try! 

Love you all so much!

Happy Easter! 

Sister Jensen 

Week 45- April 15, 2019

Jennifer Conference!

Hey FamBam! 

The highlight of this week was definitely general conference (Sister Yen always says "Jennifer conference" Haha I corrected her the first few times but it didn't really stick) General conference is always a perfect mix of comfort, motivation, correction, and inspiration! 

We had kinda a crazy morning and ran a little late because we stopped to help a girl whose motorcycle ran out of gas, but our angelic members brought two of our friends being taught with them to come watch with us! Thank goodness for members! Y'all are the best! Because goodness knows us 20 year old missionaries are far from perfect! 

Otherwise this week has been pretty average, and by average I mean AWESOME~ being a missionary and representing Christ 24/7 is a such an honor and privilege! 

Quote of the week: President M. Russell Ballard "Brothers and sisters, do the best you can do day after day, and before you know it, you will come to realize that your Heavenly Father knows you and that He loves you. And when you know that—really know it—your life will have real purpose and meaning and you will be filled with joy and peace." Aw, I love the beauty and simplicity of the gospel. This week, let's all do the best we can to be the best we can and rejoice in Heavenly Father preserving us from day to day and giving us breath! We can't be perfect, but we can be worthy and we can be trying. 

Love you all so much! 

Have a beautiful week!

Sister Jensen 

Dinner with the Zhang family 

comp pic 

Sister Yen is an amazing artist 

Funny English translations part 378

Week 44-April 8, 2019

See the line where the sky meets the sea! It calls me! 🌊

哈嘍Halou FamBam! 

Looks like spring break was a blast! What fun adventures in Zion! Some of our adventures in the work of Zion (hehe) this week was interviews, exchanges by the ocean, and a lot of member visits! 

Tuesday and Wednesday we got to go on exchanges in Danshui (so beautiful!) with Sister Johnson and Sister Spencer, our amazing sister training leaders! They are awesome examples of being urgent, talking to everyone, and showing love in every minute of every contact, lesson, etc. Their area also includes a couple sets of elders, so we all got to play ultimate frisbee in the morning during exercise time! We got a little muddy and wet, but it was so much fun! 

Interviews were good and President is so good at showing love, giving correction, and inspiring us to be better! Sister Yen and I will be staying together in Siyuan for one more transfer! 

Finally, we had some awesome member visits this week! Their testimonies are amazing and their faith is so apparent in the way they live! It is so easy to love these humble, sincere, generous people. 

Scripture of the week:

Doctrine and Covenants 31:3~5

"Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.

4 You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned.

5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live."

We are all missionaries and our hour has come. Thus, we can lift up our heads and rejoice! This is an amazing and joyful work, and our time on earth is so short ~ keep running! Just keep swimming! If we serve the Lord the best we can, our sins will be forgiven and our hearts will change and our efforts will be made enough through amazing grace. 

Love you all so so much! 

You are all in my prayers! 

Hope you have an AMAZING week!

Sister Jensen 

Lai JM and her daughter treated us to BBQ

Yen JM loves cats

Exchanges with Sister Johnson and Spencer

Cute Easter decor from Mom!

Biying 碧瑩 our friend turned 18!

Laser tag with Sister Lin and Delong (and some other missionaries)

Week 43-April 1, 2019

The Adventures of Sister Yen and Jensen

Hey fambam!

This week was full of unexpected adventures! 

Tuesday was my first district Council in Siyuan! It was definitely an interesting experience. We were running a little late so we hadn't eaten lunch yet and then the council itself was going to be about charity (I think) but it turned out to be mostly about how breaking up with a significant other is like dropping friends being taught (needless to say I had a hard time translating what was happening for Sister Yen...) Then on Wednesday we had an AWESOME English class! We did the first half hour regular, then the second half hour was a family home evening activity focused on family history, and then ice cream! We had a lot of people come and it turned out super well! But then when we went to go home and lock the church gate behind us, it was being super stubborn so we had to call the elders to come back and help us fix the gate. Luckily they were willing to bike back up the hill and fixed it pretty quick, but we were late getting home. To add to the thrill of Wednesday night, we ran into like 3 different obnoxiously bored dogs who thought we were pretty entertaining on the way home and had to backtrack a couple times. Fun times. Thursday my Line (means of contacting people in Taiwan) disappearred due to it being attached the my previous areas phone number so we spent all our meal time trying to figure out how to get contacts, chats, etc back. Friday was more chill~ we got to teach a cute member family how to make American cookies! They were shocked at the amount of sugar and insisted on making them less sweet Haha Saturday we got to teach a lady from Banqiao who used to be taught by the elders there and will be baptized soon! So fun! Mini road trip ;) Sunday we had two awesome miracles! Ziqi's parents gave her permission to be baptized! And Biying's boss randomly came up to her and said she could take a couple months off to focus on her tests coming up, which means she can come to church again, meet with us more regularly and hopefully also get baptized soon! 

Sorry for such a long email! I guess I just had more time this week.... Hope to hear from all of you too! 

Scripture of the week! 

Mosiah 24:13~15

13 "And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." 

I am so grateful for all the adventures and miracles we get to experience in our lives. In heaven, we shouted for joy when we saw our futures. We knew there would be ups and downs, but we said Look's fun! Let's do it! and jumped on the ride! Every day is a rollercoaster, but I sure am grateful for the ride and all I learn from every twist and turn! 

Hope you have an awesome week!

Sending hugs and prayers and all my love!

Sister Jensen 

Ice cream and family history trees!

Sis Yen says we are potatoes (Im tan on the outside white on the inside and she is a sweet potato ~ yellow on the inside)

American cookies with the Zhang fam!

Sister Yen taught me how to make Taiwanese curry 

Pday lunch with the sistas!

Week 42-March 25, 2019

Meetings and miracles

Hello FamBam!

This week was full of awesome meetings and even more awesome miracles! 

First was Zone Conference on Wednesday where Elder Evans, our area president, came and pumped us up with his words, example, and testimony, and we also got brownies! What a day.

Then Friday we went to Taipei again for Trainer Trainee follow up meeting which was also so spiritually uplifting~ I felt like i was at EFY or something this week, except in between the meetings we get to go tell everyone we see about it! What could be better?!

Some funny things from this week was I had two elderly ladies that we contacted on the street like randomly in the middle of our conversation pet my face! I was very much caught off guard by the first lady, but the second time it happened, it was so quick, it was almost a slap! Haha

Also, I accidentally broke my waterbottle on the MRT when standing up to talk to a lady, so we had to run off the MRT, throw it away, and then got back on and walked a few cars down, but found the lady again and she ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and said she would like to meet with missionaries! Miracle. 

Also, today two super sweet young Jehovah's witnesses from America came up and talked to us for about 20 minutes all about similarities and differences in our religions. It was a weird feeling being on the other side of a missionary contact Haha

Finally, the biggest miracle was on Sunday, it was raining all day and we are always tired after biking 45 minutes to and 45 minutes back from church, and that week we hadn't had much success on the streets. We were originally planning on going to a Starbucks for companion study, but it was full (due to the rain) so we prayed about where to go, and Sister Yen thought of a 7-eleven, so we followed her promoting and met a super cute high school girl with whom we shared about Jesus Christ and she wants to meet again Saturday! I know when we trust God and quickly obey promptings from the Spirit, He will guide us and we will see miracles! 

Our companionship song for this transfer is "When you believe" from prince of Egypt ~ not only do we relate a lot to that song, but we probably listen to it too much....

Scripture of the week:

Alma 37:40 "And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day." Just as the liahona guided Lehi's family, God will guide us through the Spirit, according to our faith, and we can also see miracles day by day! 

Love you all! 

Have a fantastic week!

Sister Jensen 

Taipei main station mall with Sister Oh, Li, and Yen

My first Ward coordination meeting in Siyuan

Our companionship theme "Have courage and be kind"

Zone conference 

Trainer Trainee follow up meeting