I always need to remain faithful and will always be a Disciple of Christ

Hello everyone! It's been another hot week in Cali!

 So after emailing last week, we played flag football. Exciting, right? Elder Martin was so excited to play because he played football in high school so I just sat on the sideline and watched. Well it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And this week, it happened to be Elder Martin. As he was pulling the flag from someone, they spun, and his hand went with them, and all I heard was "POP" and he turned to Elder Olivas and said "I broke my wrist". We thought he was fine but it was literally just dangling there. Elder Andersen made a make-shift splint for him out of socks and sticks haha. The Eagle scout really came out of him! So Elder Martin joined me on the sideline.  Pre x-ray, was nerve damage and sprained wrist. Post x-ray, in the doctors words "Snapped wrist and minor nerve damage". So now, here's Elder Martin with a broken wrist in a splint, and me...broken elbow, also in a splint and a sling. I bet that's the first time President Henrie has heard of companions both being broken at once hahaha.

Since we were both in splints this week we couldn't drive and we couldn't bike...so we ended up walking everywhere. It was terrible!!! It was in the 100's all week and we were just dripping with sweat. We'd talk to people on the street and they'd say "stay cool today!" And we'd just chuckle and then definitely not keep cool. But here's an update on my elbow. So last week I got x-rays and the doctors said it was fractured. There was a distinct crack on the first x-ray, and blood filling the joint.  So I got a Priesthood blessing from Elder Olivas and just had faith that everything was gonna work out how it needed to. So this week we went in for a follow up at the Orthopedic Surgery Clinic. They took more x-rays and the doctors couldn't find the fracture anymore! It had just disappeared. The doctors couldn't believe it and the mission nurse, Sister Farrimond, said it was gonna go down as her "mission miracle!" haha. So I'm currently out of the split and sling doing some stretches every day to get my range of motion back. We have the car back and I can drive. The Priesthood is real!!

We met with Manet twice this week and she is still amazing. She finished the Book of Mormon last night and is following the council in Moroni 10:3-5 tonight before she goes to bed. We talked about 3 Nephi chapter 8 where it talks about the last days and she was just amazed at how much is coming to pass. That was definitely a big testimony builder for her. She knows this book has so much validity she just needs that spiritual witness now. We went through the first three baptismal questions with her and she believes that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. She said "Why would anyone lie about this? It's too beautiful!", said in an Armenian accent haha! She's so awesome. She calls us her Grandsons and wants us to tell our mothers that she is our Nanna while we are away from home! So mom...I'm being taken care of by a sweet Armenian woman...no need to worry haha! Keep her in your prayers this week.

We also met with Ashley and Diana this week! Ashley is still so excited to join her mother as a member of the church! We taught about the Plan of Salvation and how they could be together as a family forever! They are seriously best friends and Ashley loves her mom more than anything in the whole world. Her face just lit up when we testified about eternal families and how death doesn't separate us. She's found the missing piece to her life that she never knew was gone and you can just see that she is so happy.

We finally got in contact with a less active member that has been off the radar for so long! He just got back from his mission in Milan in February and has only been to church a hand full of times since. Recently he hasn't been at all. He called us the other night and was so sad on the phone. He asked us to meet him ASAP so we told him we'd be right there.  He said "Elders...I'm less active. I never would have guessed that it would be me. I served a mission and never thought it would be me!" We read together in John 21 and talked about how the Apostles returned to fishing after Christ died and how Christ told them that Disciples never die...they are always Disciples and they are always supposed to share his Gospel. The Spirit was so strong and Elder Martin and I were basically crying haha. He was so thankful for our message and he said "I'm coming back. This Sunday I'm coming back!" Such a special experience and a huge reminder that I always need to remain faithful and that I will forever be a Disciple of Christ!

Well those are the highlights of our week! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Dumb and Dumber!

Another year mark ceremony!

Burbank

Dang it!

I broke my arm.. but we got a car out of it!

July 18, 2016

Hello everyone! This was another sick week here in California!

Last Monday after emailing, a couple of us Elder's, got together and went to Universal, to go to City Walk and to be honest, it was a big let down at City Walk. Besides a couple Universal themed stores, so we didn't stay long, just long enough to take pictures.  Afterwards, we went to play kickball and it was Sand Lot (mission edition) because elder Martin kicked the ball over the fence and it popped so we couldn't "play no more" hahaha.

When Elder Silva and I were companions, a few months ago, we knocked into Daniel and he was immediately receptive to the message we shared. He was so prepared through his experiences and trials he faced during his transition from the Philippines to the United States. Daniel had been searching for a way to get closer to God and feel his support and guidance more fully in his life. Well this week I got to go back to Van Nuys and see Daniel Noora get baptized! I'm so happy for him and I know that the gift of the Holy Ghost and this Gospel will fill that gap that he has been trying to fill his whole life. I'm so happy for him and I can't wait for his family to see his example.  It was an awesome day for both of us seeing someone we found and taught together getting baptized.

We met with Diana Del Mundo this week to teach her a recent convert lesson and she brought her daughter! So we decided to teach the Restoration so her daughter could hear our special message! Well the Spirit was so strong and the daughter was loving everything we taught. At the end of the lesson we committed her to be baptized on August 27th and Diana was almost in tears! She has been praying that her daughter would gain interest in the church and her prayers were answered. It was such a cool experience!

"On Friday's, we have district workout in the mornings, so we play games as a district. The sister missionaries always come up with games for us to play (usually turn out a disappointment). So this week, we played "Sharks and Minos". And in every group, school, mission, fun, whatever, there is always that one person, who thinks it's the Olympics and takes it too serious. Well, this particular Elder, was in the middle, and hadn't tagged anyone yet. Elder Jensen was near the end, and this Elder decides to dive for him, and he took his legs out. Elder Jensen put his hands on the wall to stop himself, and hurt his wrist, and had pretty bad bruises on his knees. So we left right away, and we called the mission nurse. After I hung up, I decided that my elbow had started hurting. So I called the nurse back, and she showed up about an hour later and took me to the doctors. Turns out, Elder Jensen has a Radial-head fracture in his elbow. But we got a car out of it!" - I asked elder Martin to type that all up because I am too slow with one hand haha. So yeah I am now in a sling for a while! I'll keep you all updated on what happens!

Manet couldn't meet this week. More updates coming next week!

We met with Peter Roses this week! A huge miracle happened. He had always told us that he wasn't getting baptized because he needed to figure out some personal things first but it just didn't feel right. So on Friday we figured it all out! Elder Martin was coming in clutch with some inspired questions and we found out that he doesn't have a testimony of the Priesthood. He believes everything else but he can't understand the need for that authority. So now that we know what he needs we are feeling a lot better about helping him progress.

Funny story of the week: Elder Martin is the pickiest eater that has ever walked the planet hahaha! Man I love this kid. So we go to the Mathov's for dinner. She is Philippino, so she cooked a Philippino dish. Well Elder Martin was struggling to get it down hahaha. He leaned over and whispered, "Elder...I'm about to throw up." As he gagged a little hahaha. All I could tell him to do was to drink water hahaha. Poor kid is still adjusting to the mission life!

Well my hand hurts at this point so I think I'm gonna call it quits for the day. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Universal Studios!

Candid with my boy Daniel.

City Walk with Elder Anderson and Elder Olivas.

Burbank

Daniel's Baptism

Daniel's Baptism.

Sand Lot -mission edition.

I know this Gospel is true. I know that this Church is true.

July 11, 2016

This week was sooo sick!

So Manet is golden and you will see why in a second. This week we invited her to church and she said she would come and check it out. Well she showed up 10 minutes early and sat with us and some awesome members. She loved Sacrament and the speakers were on point which was an added bonus. Sister Andru's came up to her after Sacrament and they just hit it off! They went to all the classes together and it was an answer to my prayers. I was so worried Manet would feel alone and out of place but the members here are just awesome. We met with her later Sunday night and asked her how she liked church and she said it was the best church she had ever been to. She told us how the Relief Society program was an answer to her prayers because she always wanted to be able to help people more and get more involved in a woman's service group. Bringing investigators to church makes a huge impact on them! On Sunday we also followed up on her Book of Mormon reading. We had asked her to start from the beginning rather than pick random chapters the Sunday before so we were a little confused why she was reading in 3 Nephi. Well we asked her about it and she said "I did start from the beginning! I read 3 hours every night and now I'm almost finished! I couldn't put it down!" So she literally read all the way to 3 Nephi in one week....that's unheard of hahaha! We talked about the Plan of Salvation as well and she loved it. She is still praying to know if she needs to be baptized and the thing that is holding her up is the fact that she was already baptized twice in two different church's when she was little. So keep a prayer in your heart for Manet! She is just such a prepared investigator. The Lord placed all of us in the right path at the right time and this is exactly what she needs right now.

We also picked up a new investigator named Nick during K.O! Hes a cancer survivor and really related to elder Martin because his mom was a cancer survivor as well. Elder Martin killed it in this lesson. He immediately started to bare his testimony about the Plan of Salvation and how the gospel helped get him through those hard times. The Spirit really hit Nick and he asked to hear more. At the end of the lesson we committed him to a baptismal date of September 10th! Right there on his door! Straight up miracle!

Diana was confirmed this week as well which was so cool to be a part of. We had a lesson with her in the Palilla's home

Well sorry this weeks email is so short. We were super short on time today. But I want you to know that I know this Gospel is true. I know that this church is true. I have seen too many miracles happen to think otherwise, and I have felt the Spirit work through my companion and I countless times. This is the way back to our Father in Heaven, the only way.

I love you all so much! Have a great week!

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures! We were too busy dying on our bikes to take any!

The Lord ALWAYS answers our prayers.

July 5, 2016

Hello Everyone!
This week has been another busy, hot week here in Burbank. Elder Martin and I are starting to get real tan thanks to these bikes.

Diana got baptized this Saturday! She was interviewed by our Zone Leaders on Thursday and was so excited the whole time. She is usually really shy and quiet but she kept expressing to us how excited she was and how happy she felt. She even told us that she wants us to come and teach her daughter so she can get baptized as well. Diana is just another perfect example of how prayers are answered. She has had some really tough times recently and had been praying to Heavenly Father for guidance. Well a few weeks later the missionaries were doing their laundry at the same laundromat she goes to and they told her they felt they needed to talk with her. She instantly knew that this was the answer to her prayers. The Lord ALWAYS answers our prayers. We just need to have faith and recognize the answer when it comes. Everyone in the Burbank 3rd ward is so friendly so I know Diana will have no problem joining the new family she just received. Elder Agamata came back and baptized her. He is the one who found her and began to teach her. The program was awesome and lots of ward members came and supported. She was really moved by one of the Stake Presidency members talk on baptism and afterwards asked him to confirm her on Sunday! Such a cool experience. Oh and a funny story about the baptism...the water heater broke so it was ice cold hahahaha! They got out as fast as possible!

We taught Mannet ( the woman who pulled over to talk to us) this week as well. Holy Cow she is SO prepared!! We got to know her a little better before the lesson and she told us how she had been to many churches, but she left all of them because she didn't think they were right. So we jumped right into the restoration and talked about the Priesthood and how it's permission from God to baptize etc...and she opened up her Book of Mormon ( which was all marked up and had notes) and started reading a scripture to us from 3rd Nephi that explained the priesthood perfectly. I was pretty mind blown that she knew the Book of Mormon so well so I asked her what she thought about it and she gave the most sincere answer I have ever heard. She said " The Book of Mormon makes the bible even sweeter. It's so detailed and I just understand everything Christ did for me even clearer. I love it. I love this book." Said in an Armenian accent haha. She was still struggling with the English though so we gave her an Armenian Book of Mormon and she was so happy! I've never had an investigator who was more excited to receive a Book of Mormon. She committed to baptism and has been praying for an answer about Joseph Smith being a Prophet so please pray that she will receive an answer!

We got in touch with a former investigator named Byron this week! He backed out of his baptism a few days before it was supposed to happen so we went to find out why. Well turns out that his family all loves the missionaries and after he called off his baptism the missionaries just stopped going by. So they asked us to please come back and visit tomorrow! It was a super cool experience to find them and see how interested they still were in the Gospel!

Funny story of the week: We were tracting in a park and I was looking around for people to talk to. Anyway, I turned to the left and everyone was staring at us cause it was the 4th of July and we were just walking around in white shirts and ties...so I turn back around and run right into a pole hahaha. I bruised my nose super bad! Everyone kept staring at us the rest of the time we were there hahaha.

Another funny story...I threw a one year mark party for Elder Olivas hahaha. It was so funny! We had a Ceremony and everything. I conducted the ceremony.

Well I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Jensen

One year celebration ceremony for Elder Olivas.

If we have a prompting come to our mind and it's good...we can trust that it is from the Spirit.

June 27, 2016

Hey Everyone,
Well this week I had to leave Elder Silva. He has been such an amazing companion and friend. Hopefully we will serve next to each other sometime soon. We had so many good times together and so many miracles happened in Van Nuys. I know he'll do a killer job keeping that area going. I got my new trainee on Tuesday! His Name is Elder Martin. He's from Kaysville Utah and graduated a year ago so we are the same age. He's a really athletic guy which is nice. We went to the gym on Friday for our morning work out and as we were shooting hoops he just dunked like it was no big deal hahaha. So he can dunk! He's starting to get the hang of things and is adjusting really easily.

New missionaries from the MTC.  My companion is Elder Martin in the middle.  

So last week I totally forgot to send the address for our new apartment. Here it is..

Elder Andrew Jensen
1800 Grismer Ave #316
Burbank, CA 91504

So here's an update on our week. We visited a lot of members and got to know the ward. It seems like 70% of our ward works in the movie industry so they give us updates on movies that are coming out soon! The Coach in High School Musical, Bart Johnson,  is in our ward and he married Blake Lively's sister Robyn, so apparently Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds show up at the ward sometimes for primary programs and stuff like that. But anyway, the ward is awesome and there are lots of cool families that I'm sure we will get close with.

Bart Johnson with his wife Robyn Lively and thier kids who are in our Burbank 3rd ward.

We helped out with an eagle project this week. We had to move 75 tons of rocks into a river that was too deep at Johnny Carson Park. So that was a rough day full of manual labor and then biking for the rest of the day. Haha.

We came into the area with a baptismal date a few weeks away. Diana Del Mundo is from the Philippines and has been meeting with the missionaries for the last month and a half or so. She is so prepared! She has been looking for the joy this gospel brings for a long time now. We had a lesson with her at the park this week and at the beginning of our lesson a man walked up to us and asked if he could join in on our lesson. We said sure and started to explain how we were missionaries and told him what our purpose is. He said "I know. I used to be one." So he taught and testified with us about the Commandments and how they are there to bless us and help us be happy. After the lesson we stayed and talked with him for a while. He explained how he served in Uruguay and had left the Church shortly after his mission. He also said how amazing it was to have a spiritual missionary experience teaching like that because he hadn't had one in such a long time. God always places us in peoples path every day! It's so amazing how everything just falls into place perfectly! Oh and the guy told us that he was in the movie "Just Let Go" About Chris Williams and his family in Utah! He played the roll of the drunk driver. It was a super cool experience. I told him about how my Mom and brother and sister were also in that movie and we talked about that for a while!

We had another awesome miracle happen to us this week! We were visiting some less active members in the lower half of our area after knock out when the prompting came that we should bike all the way to the top of our area and visit this investigator that we were trying to meet. So we listened and started the 30 minute bike ride up the steep hills haha. Well we finally got to Pete Roses house. We talked to his daughter and she said he wasn't home but that he would be back in an hour or so. So we had a little time to kill. We remembered that Brother Sweat had told us to go visit a part member family, the Kalama's, at the bottom of the hills...so we biked there and she wasn't home. So we were just confused as to why we were led up to the top of our area...it felt like it was for nothing. So we sat down on the curb and started to plan our bike ride back to Pete's house. As we were sitting there a woman pulls her car over directly across the street from us. She walked over to us and said "I think you're Mormons." We told her that was us! Then she told us how a missionary had knocked on her door 18 years ago and gave her a Book of Mormon. She hadn't even touched it until a few weeks ago. Mannet said, "I've been reading that book and I am having a hard time understanding it. I really want to know what you all believe and I want you to come and teach me." Elder Martin was just sitting there with his jaw touching the ground hahaha. We got her address and phone number and went through the Restoration with her right there on the sidewalk! But that's not the end of it. We biked back to Peter Roses house and he was home! He let us in and said "Where have you guys been! I miss having the missionaries come over!" So we sat down and really connected with him. Peter is a football and basketball coach and loves talking sports. Elder Marin is a living sports encyclopedia so they are a perfect match for each other! He asked us to send him a scripture every day and meet with him once or twice a week! He is such a cool guy...He said he would be baptized by now but he just has some things he is trying to overcome. Can't wait to work with him these next couple of months! I have really learned the importance of listening to the Spirit. As missionaries we are useless servants if we aren't humble and allow the Lord to work through us.

Funny story of the week: Our first night on bikes was a little sketchy. The only way into the bottom of our area is across this bridge that has multiple freeway entrances and exits. So we were riding home and we realized that we didn't have any bike lights. Well we decided to just go for it. So we were crossing this bridge in the pitch black with cars flying by us and I looked back and Elder Martin was screaming and peddling his heart out trying to get to the other side hahaha. We almost got hit by cars...California drivers are just crazy!

Message of the week: Listen to the promptings you receive. We often struggle with trying to decide whether a prompting is from the Spirit or if it's just our own minds putting that thought or feeling there. This week I found the answer to that question. In Moroni 7: 13, 16-17 it tells us that every good thought or action is from God. Gordon B. Hinckley said "That's the test, when all is said and done. Does it persuade one to do good, to rise, to stand tall, to do the right thing, to be kind, to be generous? Then it is of the Spirit of God..." So if we have a prompting come to our mind and it's good...we can trust that it is from the Spirit. Never ignore those thoughts or feelings because they are always put there to bless us or others in some way!

Well I love you all! I hope you have a great week of summer!

Elder Jensen

P.S. we will be emailing on July 5th rather than July 4th next week.

Elder Olivas and I.

Posterity in a picture. My trainer...my trainees..and elder Silva's trainee.

Elder Silva and I with Sister Solis for our Last "Hawaiian" Supper before I transferred to Burbank.

Last "Hawaiian" Supper with the sister missionaries and the Solis family before I transferred to Burbank.

Elder Silva and I and Brother Solis packing heat?

I don't even know what to say about this one.  Haha.

The area.

Long day for Elder Martin.

Skinny guy on a bike.