Week 10-Aug. 14, 2018

Loco Foco!!! (FOrt COllins ;) )

Ni hao fam and friends!!!!

This week has been so crazy but I'll try to summarize as best I can!

I'm serving in Riverton, Wyoming and I'm in a trio again! Sis. Fuge is training me and sis Penrod and shes been out for a year! Sis Penrod has been here a transfer (we actually went into the MTC at the same time so we joke that sis Fuge had twins on June 6th- i just stayed in the hospital a little longer- surprise child!;) ) Riverton is the promised land bc we cover a YSA ward, a family ward and the native American reservation!!! Unfortunately our area is huge and we get very limited miles on our car so we've only been to the res once this week. But the members here are legit sooo cool!!! They are so missionary minded and help us like nobody's business!!! We've gotten so many referrals and people are so willing to drop everything and go to lessons with us and give priesthood blessings and help out! They also feed us almost every night and once a week we get a free Dominos pizza, you can get a free pizza almost anywhere in the mission bc members rock! 

As predicted, there's not a single soul that speaks Chinese here (except a guy in our ward that served a Chinese mission) but i get language study time everyday so that's a tender mercy! 

Funny stories: everyone here has a personality as big as this state and it's hilarious (also everyone has a country accent, very few teeth, lots of free time to chat and doesn't really like California or BYU much haha) anyways, during our meeting with our ward mission leader, we were at dairy queen and my comp made a silly joke and we were laughing and the ward mission leader leans over and pours salt on her hand and says "I salted You! Not assaulted- salted!" We just about died! it was so random! 

Also, we were doing service in the yard of one of the people we are teachings yard, and we talked to her neighbor a little but he was a little too friendly so we gave him the elders number ;) this happens all too often...

One of the elders gave us a "referral" and when we called to follow up we were a little weirded out bc it was a Utah number, but didn't really question it until "Jessica" said she was a member and had a son serving in wyoming...lo and behold it was the elder who gave us the referral.. smooth one elder Thacker. 

A little about the people we are teaching: Kim is the sweetest person on earth and has a lot of health struggles and so she got a blessing yesterday and the Spirit was so strong! It was amazing. Justin is 6 foot 11 and seems pretty interested in the gospel but his dad always talks the whole lesson (about randon stuff) so we're going to try to see if we can have a lesson with just him. We met a young man named Koa at the gym bc we do service there bc the owner of the gym is a member and had mentioned that she wanted us to talk to him. Only problem was i had no idea how to start the conversation! He was just talking to some people working out and we were cleaning the equipment and for some reason the only thing i could think if to say to him was "so I heard you like boxing?" (Bc we had kinda already been introduced but didn't talk ANYWAYS, it was way awkward) and I could not for the life of me be smooth about it (welcome to being a missionary sis jensen) but I knew we should talk to someone so I talked to this random lady who turned out to be the gym owners mom and she introduced us again to Koa and suggested he take the lessons- i just have to say, members are SO helpful when it comes to missionary work! It's just so much more natural and comfortable! We had an awesome lesson with him that night about the Plan of Happiness (yes, we taught him in the gym front desk area). It was awesome. There are a few other great people we are teaching but I'm running out of time to email sorry!

I love it here so much and my companions are the best and I love the people! 

Scripture of the week: Alma 7:12 "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the band of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmitjes, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." I love this scripture because I know that Jesus Christ suffered everything we go through, our pains, our sorrows, everything and He knows exactly how to comfort us because He felt what we feel. I love my Savior so much and I know He loves each and every one of you.

Have a fantastic week!!!

Sending prayers and hugs!

Sis Jensen 

Btw, my address for the next 5 weeks is 

935 Sierra Dr

Riverton WY 82501-2424

Week 9-Aug 7, 2018

Fort Collins, Here I come!!!

Ni hao fam!!!

As you heard, I got my reassignment this week and I'll be flying out to Fort Collins, Colorado tomorrow morning!!! I am super duper excited!!! There is another sister I have never met that will be flying with me and two other elders from the mandarin Zone 2! 

A little about the Fort Collins mission, it includes most of Wyoming and just a little of the top of Colorado (part of me wishes I could have gone to denver and seen Jared, but it's all good). It has a beautiful temple that I will get to visit tomorrow! We will most likely be driving everywhere, so the biking (and losing MTC weight ;) ) will have to wait til Taiwan. 

This last week at the MTC was so great! Last night, Jenny Oaks Baker and her ADORABLE family came and performed at our Sunday Night Devotional! It was so sweet to hear her stories and testimony intermixed with beautiful arrangements of church songs. She played violin, her daughters played violin, cello, and piano, and her youngest son played the guitar. It was absolutely gorgeous! Go look up some of their videos on youtube if you've never listened to them before! So good!!!

Our last class was very bittersweet. We spent a long time reflecting and evaluating our time here at the MTC, our teachers, the activities we did, our goals and language study plans, and set a lot of goals for when we get out into the field to apply the things we have learned. We finished off by reading in the Book of Mormon together and sharing testimonies and thoughts. Sister Morgan left this morning at 4:45 am. Sister Liu and I walked with her to the travel office (i felt a little strange--i didn't realize so many people would be there so early in the morning and i was walking around with my retainer in, flip flops on, pjs, and no tag...it was pretty funny) but today has just not been the same since one of my dear companions has left. I love them so much and my district has truly become like my family. It's so sad but so exciting to part ways because I know there are so many more life-changing, growing experiences to come. 

One of the highlights of this week was getting to do international hosting on wednesday! I hosted the sweetest Samoan sister and we got to talk a lot between going to the health office, the BYU health center, then the missionary assistance office, travel office, etc. She was so nice and spoke really good english, but was a little shy so it was hilarious to watch some of the sweet ladies helping her talk to her like she didn't know english and doing a fantastic job of using charades and then we would walk out the door and she would start chatting away with me again! She also gave me the best chocolate ever after we were all done which was just so nice because i really didn't do anything but walk with her! It was awesome too though to see how the Church and the MTC really takes care of all the missionaries. They so generously supply all the international missionaries that come from places with so little and make sure they have everything they need to be comfortable and successful. 

Scripture of the week: Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." 

I know that God cares about each and every one of His children. I know that He knows our trials, our weaknesses, our joys and our strengths. I know that He answers our sincere prayers and only wants what is best for us. He knows so much more than we do and sometimes we have to go through hard times to become the person He knows and wants us to become. The more I rely on the Lord when I am struggling with something, the more miracles I see and the more my faith grows and grows. I love this gospel and I love our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Have a fantastic week!

Sending prayers and hugs!

Sis. Jensen

Tuesday, Aug 7th:  ARRIVED! I'm in Colorado! 😉

Today was quite the adventure. We left the MTC  at 9:15 and then rode a bus to the front runner, then took Trax to the airport. It was all a little crazy but we made it! So yeah, turns out there were a lot of English missionaries with us too so there was a total of 21 missionaries: four visa waiters (three mandarin, one Dutch sister) and 16 English and a hermana. The Dutch sister and I are kinda comps rn because we both are staying with a random companionship tonight because we've been assigned to the Nebraska area(her) and the Indian reservation area in Wyoming, riverton (me-Im pumped, prepare for some sweet stories ) so we have like a 6 hour car ride tomorrow. We are both gonna be in trios! I'm pretty excited! I'll meet my trainer tomorrow and her comp is on her second transfer of training. The president and his wife took us to the beautiful fort collins temple after the airport and then we went to the mission home and had like a little orientation thing and then got our assignments and trainers, etc. Our Pdays here are Tuesdays so I'll talk to you again then!!!

with Pres. and Sis McMurray

Week 8-July 30, 2018

Final countdown!!!

Nihao fam!!!

Soooooo, I still don't know where I am going.... my missionary portal still says Taiwan and none of the other Taiwan missionaries have heard anything yet either, so the waiting game continues... We haven't gotten any flight plans to Taiwan, so that must mean that our visas aren't through yet. I guess we're just waiting to get our reassignments! Still exciting though! haha it's like waiting for Christmas for two weeks! Every day I check my portal like 70 times- can't wait to find out!

Some highlights from this week were Sister Morgan's birthday!!!!!, our district's musical number in Sacrament Meeting, Christmas (for my companions and zone), and our growing quote wall!

Sister Morgan's birthday was AWESOME! Her mom is so on top of it and emailed me like two weeks ago to get our district leader's email to send him decorations and party stuff. The Canto sisters helped out a lot too and used my key while we were at studies to decorate our room! It was super cute and we ate a ton of brownies and cinnamon roles from the Provo bakery that week!

We convinced Sis. Morgan to play violin in sacrament meeting as well while our district sang in 3-part harmony (all the elders sang bass, i sang alto, and Sis. Liu sang soprano) for "Lead Kindly Light". I have to say, it turned out really well and it sounded beautiful all together. Music just makes me so happy ;)

Christmas was super fun because we found out when everyone is leaving! The Canto sisters going to Hong Kong leave at 3:30am on Monday (a week from today) and Sis. Morgan leaves at 4:45am for Canada Monday as well. Sis. Liu leaves for california at 11:30am Tuesday next week, etc. 

We have a quote wall that is awesome and growing every day. I'll send a pic next week before we have to take it down. So many good memories!

Also! Some super important government people from China came this week! All the supervisors and teachers were buzzing about it! We were told very little, and I don't know how much the story got embellished as it bounced around from missionary to missionary, but we heard that they were taking a tour of the MTC and they visited one of the other Chinese classes and that this visit was super important for our relationship with China... The other class had to have like an hour long discussion about how to introduce themselves differently and the missionaries learning Mandarin (spoken in mainland) but going to Hong Kong (where they speak Cantonese) said they were learning mandarin to speak with the business people there and such (people from mainland go to hong kong for a week to learn the gospel and be baptized). We were told to stay in our class for 30 min after we had technically finished just so that in case they walked by that hallway, there wouldn't be any obnoxious missionaries wandering around. Very exciting!!!

Scripture of the week is Alma 37:37 "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings and He will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie unto the Lord, that He may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." Just take life one day at a time and always be grateful for the life we have been given :)

Sending love and prayers!

Sis. Jensen

Thurs, Aug  2:

Flight plans!!!

The much anticipated flight plans have finally arrived! I’ve been

reassigned to Fort Collins, Colorado and will leave Tuesday at 9:15am!

I’ll be flying with two other elders from the other Mandarin zone to

Denver!

Christmas! 😄

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement! I love you all so

much! I’m 90% sure I’ll be speaking English but I’ll have language
study time every day! I’m excited and nervous to really learn the ins
and outs of how to teach, contact, and do the work well (in English)
before I jump into the unknown world of Chinese! Fort Collins is
actually mostly Wyoming farmland so I’m also assuming we’ll have a
car... more info to come Monday! ️️️

Week 7-July 23, 2018

Merry Christmas!!!

Nimen hao!!!

This week has been awesome! The days just fly by!!! Some highlights include:

- Last Monday, as we were walking back from our first Skype TRC (which was awesome!!! We talked to a lady from Australia about charity), this MTC worker came up to me from behind and said in broken english, "What language?" and pointed to my tag. I was like, "Oh, Mandarin!" And then he said something else but I couldn't really understand, but then he showed me his phone and he had FB messenger pulled up and the little circle had a picture of Ashley!!! I was like What?! You know my sister?!?! And he explained something about being from Chile, but then he moved here and he lives behind the MTC and he's learning English! He said that Ashley had just visited him the day before and that's why he knew to look for me! I just thought that was sooo cool!!! He took a picture and sent it her! It was so awesome to see someone Ashley had taught on her mission in Chile and see how the gospel can really bless people's lives in incredible ways! It was an awesome way to start the week and it gave me more motivation to learn Chinese and develop love for the people of Taiwan! 

- We started having mini culture lessons in class! This mostly just consists of us distracting our teacher, who served in Taiwan, Taichung, enough to pause the lesson and show us pictures of food and street parades and mountains and such instead of learning grammar. I have to say, I much prefer culture lessons to anything else! ;) The pirks of being here for 7 weeks :P your teachers are sometimes as done with grammar as we are haha

- I saw a couple friends that came to the MTC wednesday that I never expected/had forgotten I might overlap with!!! So fun! I saw Francis Aguilar and Leah Forsyth's cousin!

- I accidentally said "death" when trying to say "thoughts" in our lesson this week about the Law of Chastity lol... solid...

- We had an awesome devotional yesterday by Pres. and Sis. Ralph about the apostasy and restoration and it was so good! Also, a sister and elder from our branch sang a duet at the end of it in front of the whole MTC and they did a BEAUTIFUL job! The Spirit was so strong!

This week we're getting our flight plans (just an email) on thursday I think, hence the Merry Christmas! ;) We started singing Christmas hymns to begin class. It's not as exciting as next week though, because this week we just get our flight plans to Taiwan in case our visas come in time (chances are slim). But NEXT week, I hopefully will find out where I will be reassigned if my visa isn't here yet! That is what I am actually pumped for! Every reassignment goes through the prophet again and an inspired Apostle reassigns you, so no matter what, it'll be where the Lord wants me to go!

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not you heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Have a fantastic week!

Sending hugs and prayers!

Can't wait to hear all about Canada and Spain!!!

Sis. Jensen

Mission shirts at exercise time! Practicing our Asian squats! And wǒ
de tóngbàn 😉 sis morgan

Week 6-July 16, 2018

Chuanjiao mao!!!

Nihao fam!!!

So there's this random cat that just wanders around the MTC and it's super cute and looks super healthy and is not at all afraid of all the adoring attention it gets! No one has any idea where it came from or how it got here or what it eats or anything, but its adorable and it makes all the missionaries literally so overjoyed just to pet it!!! We named it chuanjiao mao ;) our little missionary cat--ill attach a pic!

Also, we got to watch part of Meet the Mormons 2 last night and it was so funny how sensitive we were to any sort of PDA (public displays of affection)! The movie talks about an Italian couple and how they like saved their marriage through service and the gospel and then the next story was about brand new parents and it was just funny how all us missionaries squirm even when they just like hold hands or anything. The last part we watched though was about a Japanese pop group called bless4 (look 'em up) and WOW!!! They were sooooo good!!! (yes, we heard a little bit of worldly music for a change... Jpop) but the youngest brother is serving in Los Angeles right now! And he got special permission to record "I am a child of God" with his siblings and a choir from Japan!!! Oh my goodness i died like seventy times! Their voices are so nice!!! If there's any way you can send that cover to me, that would be awesome ;) 

Other highlight of this week, my companions and I got randomly chosen to answer questions to a group taking a tour of the MTC! It was fun to see a little bit of the "real world" ;) And we got to skip a little bit of class too!

Saturday we had our last in person TRC! We didn't have much time to prepare, so we were pretty nervous going in, but both the people we talked to were soooo nice! One was a sister from Taiwan who served in Oregon (mandarin speaking) and she was super sweet! and the other was a Y-serve coordinator at BYU and served in Taiwan, Taipei! He was super cool and gave us a lot of compliments on our Chinese and the lesson and was just super happy the whole time! (We are pretty proud of the fact that in our evaluations we always get comments like "Thank you for smiling!" and "You sisters are so happy, it's contagious!" whereas the Elders who always teach after us sometimes get comments like "You could try smiling more" haha we always laugh about that--its a sister thing i guess! ;) 

Tonight we start our first Skype TRC! This is just when we have a discussion about the gospel of Jesus Christ for 25 minutes with a native Chinese speaker from one of our missions! We are guessing we will most likely Skype someone from Taiwan because that's where most of the volunteers come from, but it could be canada or california! This is a little more difficult because sometimes they don't know english at all and they speak faster and use different words than we are used to, but we are super excited! It's going to be awesome!

I feel so blessed this week because the Lord is truly with us and even though we aren't even out in our mission fields yet, I have felt so much help, support, and love from God. Every day I see things in myself that I need to change and improve and sometimes the feelings of inadequacy and all my flaws are overwhelming, but then I feel the Spirit testifying to me of God's love for His children and of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my Savior, His love, and for His endless mercy and grace. 

Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I have seen so many little miracles over the past week that have strengthened my faith and let me know that God is watching over us! I had zero time to prepare my talks for sunday (everyone prepares talks on the topic and they choose randomly) but i was fairly convinced i wouldn't get called because i've already spoken and there's a ton of missionaries who havent spoken yet and the branch president knows that we were super busy with interviews, service, and planning zone conference the night before and I was trying to be obedient so I went to bed without preparing my talk, and then we had branch presidency meeting in the morning so i couldn't do it then, but lo and behold, my name was called and I stood (my heart was racing at like fifty hundred mph) but through the grace of God I was able to give a talk about the Atonement and justice almost completely in Chinese. I would definitely say it was a miracle. Many others things like that have happened and its truly been amazing to see all the tender mercies and blessings from trying your best to do the Lord's will.

Have a fantastic week!

Sending love and hugs and prayers!

Sis. Jensen

1. The first pic is the zone coming back from cleaning the temple
(hence the shoes) trying to stand in the little shade of the pole cuz
it’s so hot
2. Sis Cruz and I have the same skirt! 😉
3. The district (HAPPY BDAY BEN!)
4. The cat❤️

Week 5- July 9, 2018

Week 5! MTC Half-way Day!

Nihao fam and friends!!!

This last week went by so fast!!! We got to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the 4th floor of the MTC classroom building! It was super cool because we actually saw like five different firework shows happening all across the valley! Stadium of Fire was the best though because they had people jumping from helicopters with parachutes and somehow fireworks with them! it was pretty insane! We also watched a little video presentation thing about religious freedom and the importance of it and had a good discussion!

One of the other memorable things about this week is we reached our MTC halfway point! Waaa-oohhh we're halfway theeerreeee! Waa-ohhh livin' on a prayer! (honestly, so true though, so true...) ;) haha it's been great! 

Saturday was probably the busiest day this week! We had "TRC"s which is when we get to have a gospel discussion with a member that speaks Chinese (often return missionaries that volunteer, but sometimes just random members) and our teacher sits in a different room and listens through the camera and writes an evaluation and then the people we teach write an evaluation for us too! it went really well and our teacher wrote some really encouraging things! I always enjoy TRC's more than practice lessons because you just have to think of some good questions and then the members do most of the Chinese speaking as they share spiritual experiences and all you have to do is focus on understanding them! They were all so nice! Saturday we also went to the field to play sand volleyball, and although it was hot, we had a ton of fun! We played with the other mandarin zone here and it's always so much fun getting to know them and talking to them! Sometimes my team has to remind me to pay attention to the game because I'm talking to the other team too much! Interviews saturday evening went really well too and all the new sisters are adjusting much better! Then we practiced our musical number for church sunday: Come Thou Fount transitioned into Nearer My God to Thee and it went super well! (A mini-miracle honestly) and then we planned zone conference with the Zone Leaders which was a blast! Finally, we had service (setting up chairs for devotional) and our group prayer outside because the fire alarm went off in our dorm building. 

This week I thought a lot about 2 Nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." I love this scripture because it fits so perfectly with our mission purpose! We are hear to invite others to come unto Christ because of our love for Him and for everyone! I also love "having a perfect brightness of hope" because hope and faith are so connected! When we have faith in Jesus Christ, we have hope that through His Atonement, all things will be made right! I love this gospel and I am so grateful to be a missionary of Christ!

Have a fantastic week!

Sis. Jensen

Week 4-July 2, 2018

New missionaries!!!!

Nihao family and friends!!!

The highlight of this week was getting 19 new missionaries into our zone! 5 sisters, 14 elders! Many of the elders already knew some Chinese so it was a little intimidating talking to them because their Chinese is already much better than mine, but it has been super fun showing them all around the MTC and helping them adjust to missionary life! I love all the sisters so much already, i feel like we've known each other for years! It was super fun having interviews with them and just getting to talk to them one-on-one about how their doing, their families, what they like to do, etc. They are all so sweet and so full of faith! It has also been fun having more people to play volleyball with at exercise time! 

This week the language has been a little harder for my district, and we had to take an assessment exam and such, but we all are determined to work harder, pray harder, and use every minute here wisely! I know the Lord will help us do His work as we are obedient and diligent! I love my companions and district so much and I love our Lord, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful and happy to be here despite all the surface level ups and downs, there is always an underlying joy and peace that comes from the gospel and from serving with all your heart. 

2 Nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: ye shall have eternal life."

Attached are a couple fun pictures from this week including a selfie with the new sisters at zone prayer and a homemade meme pc my companion sis morgan ;) 

Have a fantastic week!

Love you all!

Sister Jensen