I'm going to head down to Woodland Hills this transfer and be a Zone Leader

April 10, 2017

Hello everyone!
It's been an awesome and crazy last week here in Stevenson Ranch! It was the week of transfers so between transfer planning and planning Austen's baptism it was quite hectic. But being busy makes time fly by which is nice.

So transfers came (well we planned them so we already knew) and I'm going to head down to Woodland Hills this transfer and be a zone leader with Elder Martin! My Trainee!!! We cover Woodland Hills and Calabasas where Drake and Adele and a bunch of famous people live in Hidden Hills. I'm stoked!! My new address is:

22111 Calvert St  #C214
Woodland Hills CA, 91367

 Austen was out of town at the beginning of the week, so we had to finish the lessons in one day (we were almost done), and then do the interview. Austen is a super bright kid so he understood and remembered the last lesson and a half even though we didn't have much time to teach it. We weren't able to go to the interview because we had the departing temple trip to go to so we had the Castaic sisters go to the interview with him (they helped teach him) and he passed! So this last Saturday we had a baptism! It's been a really long time since the assistants area had a baptism but we set a goal to change that and God helped us reach that goal! It was a really nice service and a lot of his non-member family came too! So that truly was amazing. Now his Step-dad Mitch wants to learn more too and he wants to join the church because he felt the spirit so strong at the baptism. So there will be another baptism coming soon. :) These are just the blessings of inviting investigators to baptismal services. There's just such a good spirit at them.

Let's see...well the Airds went camping so we weren't able to have a lesson with them, but that's okay because they still came to church! And they loved it! So that was pretty awesome.We had a few awesome miracles! So one night, we were at the office working on transfers, and we all of a sudden feel this impression that we needed to call a potential investigator we have named Sonya. So we call and...no answer. Nothing happens. So we're like...hmm okay... and we keep on working away on transfers. 20 Minutes later... Sonya calls! She starts talking to us and just venting about life and then stops and says, "wait..elders are you close? If so, just come over right now and we will talk about God!" So we dropped everything and booked it to Sonya's house and we had an awesome lesson with her! Usually, she is a major talker so we can never teach much, but this time we really were able to get some doctrine in and help her understand our purpose as missionaries. So yeah that was pretty awesome!

Then, we got to go to the temple as well with all of the departing missionaries! It was a lot of fun! So we took the giant mission van down to LA and had a great time at the temple! It was a ton of fun! My ex-comp Elder Deyholos was there too! So that was a lot of fun! Until traffic took us like 2 hours to get back...But hey it's all good!

Other than that, we had a good time preparing Austen for baptism and seeing the fruits from our labours!

Well that's pretty much all that happened this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Jensen

Temple Trip!

Bro Green and the BYU tie he gave me since I'm going to the U.

Austens baptism!

We have been seeing so many miracles lately

April 3, 2017

Hey there everyone! It's been another great week over here in Stevenson Ranch! There's been lots of work going on! We've been so busy juggling the office work and our area, but it has definitely been worth it because we have been seeing so many miracles lately.

So let's see...Well we've been able to teach Austen more! We went over to his house for the first time (since we had been teaching him at a member's home) and we were able to talk to his whole family there again. We brought girl scout cookies to explain tithing but haha he's so smart he already understood it. What was even crazier is that Mitch (his mom's boyfriend who also is not a member) understood tithing too! He was testifying of it to Austen and telling him how important it is to follow God's commandments. Haha Elder Nielsen and I looked at each other and pretty much said, "wow...this guy is gold." So that was awesome! Sadly, he went out of town this last weekend so we weren't able to teach him more, BUT! His baptism is this Saturday! We're so excited for him but his baptism definitely is not the end goal...next we need to get him sealed to his family. So pray that Austen can make it!

We also were able to see the Airds for a brief visit as well! Craig has been super busy....he has a lot of hard projects for work (he translates things into German for many different companies in Germany) but we were able to teach and testify of the importance of always doing our scripture study and always choosing to follow God's commandments! We told them about General Conference and they were able to watch Elder Uchtdorf speak which was really special for Sandy since they are both from the same place in Germany.

We had some cool exchanges too. I was able to go with my homie Elder Martin for the day! Just like the good ol' days! We had a super cool knock out where we found a new investigator named Diane. When she first opened her door she was really rude and uninterested but through some inspired questions we were able to get her to open up about how her mother was passing away. We testified of the Plan of Salvation and how she could come to know that there is more after this life and that she will see her mother again. We prayed with her and she began to cry. Right when we said Amen she tried to hug both of us and we just looked at each other in paranoia haha. I immediately squatted  down and picked up her dog that was outside and handed it to her. Hahahaha as soon as she closed the door we started laughing and just couldn't stop! Elder Martin and I always have such good times. It was a great exchange and it was awesome to see how much he has progressed since his first 6 weeks in the mission that I was with him. Oh and Since we were in Valencia, we hit Café Rio for dinner ;) it's always a good night when you have Cafe Rio.

We also had a church tour with Ragi, the father of the Egyptian family we are teaching! We met at the church and brought an awesome member to help us out. We taught the Restoration and our member testified of how the church and Gospel blesses families so much! At the end Ragi said..."My family would love this. I feel comfortable bringing them here." So pray that Ragi will be able to get Sundays off so he can bring his family to church!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Con Amor
Elder Jensen

General conference with the Valencia Zone Leaders (Wade and Hale).

Healthy snack with E. Martin.

Elder Martin and I chillin at Conference.

Brother Weatherford bought us all lunch!

Conference Brunch at the Green.

Wrecking Joseph Green in ping-pong real quick.

Surprise talk in Sacrament meeting this week!

March 28, 2017

Hey Everyone!

It's been another great week with Elder Nielsen here in Stevenson Ranch! Things slowed down with our other assistant duties this week, so we were left with quite a bit of time to work in our area! So we went out and started working like crazy!  We have been so blessed with investigators lately. We found 4 new investigators this week.

We had an awesome lesson with Austin this week and He's progressing super well and just loves our visits! He seems super excited to be baptized still! We were actually able to start teaching his Moms Fiance as well! We taught about the commandments and how they are huge blessings that protect us from the things that can restrict us and harm us in this life. Mitch (the fiance) really liked our view of the commandments and said he would be at church that Sunday! The whole family showed up and loved it. We have a temple visitors center trip with them coming up soon!

We started teaching Gabe Carson this week as well. He's 13 and his mom was baptized a few years ago. We just got to know him and talked a lot about what he's interested in. He said that the missionaries in the past had kinda forced him to listen to their message but that we weren't like that and he thought that was really cool. So he asked us to share a message with him since he felt like we were his friends. We talked about the 2000 stripling warriors and how they trusted in god and were blessed for listening to what their mothers taught them about God. We talked about the battles they were in and he asked where he could find the story in the Book of Mormon because he wanted to go and read it himself! Then he asked us to come back and teach him next Friday. Sister Carson was so happy and blown away that his son wanted to be taught again. It was definitely an answer to her prayers.

Alright, so fun story: So on Sunday, Elder Jensen and I were just sitting there, chilling in ward counsel, waiting to give our part about missionary work. The Bishop was going through the Sacrament meeting agenda, announcing the speakers, and he gets to the last one, who was Brother Ostergard. He looks at Sister Ostergard (The Relief Society President) and says, "Oh you're husband is speaking! That'll be a good talk!  "She responds, with wide eyes, "Bishop...my husband is out of town...he's not going to be able to talk!" The room went dead silent...everyone was just stunned. Bishop looked like he froze! Then, a very loving Young Men's leader spoke up and said, "Ya know... in my mission whenever speakers fell through, we would just have the missionaries speak! It's a great experience for them!" Suddenly, the room unfreezes and Bishop says, "That's a great idea! Elders! you'll each give a 7 minute talk today!"......To put that in perspective, this conversation happened 15 minutes before sacrament meeting...haha so that's the story of why I spoke in church on Sunday! But hey it went pretty well and the ward loved our talks! So our dinner calendar filled up completely for this week and next week! So the Lord blesses you in all! ;) To make things better, we had 3 investigators at church! The Aird family came AND Austen and his step-dad came too!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Jensen

Froyo with Elder Hale and Wade

Foggy morning in Stevenson Ranch

Valencia Zone

Elders Hale, Wade and Nielsen about to go knock doors.

Taco Tuesday with the Haws.

Serving at "Operation Gratitude"

Service at Operation Gratitude, March 2017.

It's amazing how guided you are as a missionary.

March 20, 2017

Hey everyone!
Another week down in SoCal! Stevenson Ranch is probably the best ward I have ever served in. Everyone is so willing to help you out and it's so easy to bring investigators to church and find good friends for them. Loving it here!

Fun Fact of the week: There is a missionary serving in my home ward named Elder Hunter Bartley. I had dinner with his family a few weeks ago and he had dinner with my family last night. It's a small world isn't it.

We had dinner with Sandy and Craig this Saturday at Bishops house and they absolutely loved it. They love how strong and unified families are inside the church and they want the same for their family. They have so many friends and so much support from others now and it is changing their life. They felt so alone when they moved to the United States and that opened them up to the Gospel. It's amazing to see how our trials and challenges humble us and turn us towards God. They came to church this Sunday and stayed all 3 hours! Sandy loved Relief society and Craig loved Elders quorum as well. Craig texted us this week and said "Elders I just read Moroni 10:4...I'm praying to know the truth! I have a desire to believe!" He is progressing so much and so is the rest of the family. Their kids love to pray now and they love participating in primary. It's just such an amazing change to see.

Austin also came to church with his mom! It was a little hard for them to start coming to the Stevenson Ranch ward since they had been to the Caustic ward a few times but once they met the members they loved it. A good ward changes everything!! So far Austin is still set to be baptized on April 8th! And hopefully this experience will reactivate his mom as well.

We were knocking the other day and we knocked into a woman named Tracy. She was so surprised to have missionaries knock on her door for the second time that week! She went on to tell us that she recently met someone at work who is a member and has been asking him tons of questions about the church and what we believe. The week before we knocked into her her friend had her read the 13 Articles of Faith (or our basic beliefs) and it really caught her attention. Then, right after she met him, she started seeing missionaries everywhere! She said her friend told her that is wasn't a coincidence and she didn't think it was either so she decided to let us share our message with her. She asked TONS of questions and agreed with us on a lot of things. We have a return appointment in a week and a half when she gets back in town. It's amazing how guided you are as a missionary. So many things played into us knocking on her door that day. We couldn't get to our other knock out spot because the gate was shut and no one could let us in. Everything happens for a reason!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jensen

Opperation Grattitude with Elder Nielsen, Hale, and Wade.

Me and my boy Elder Martin.

At a pass off lesson with Austin!

Got everyone on that penguin tie game.

Jamba for breakfast.

Elder Bartley (left) from Santa Clarita-Stevenson Ranch,  and Elder Lyon at my home March 19, 2017.

Bringing the gospel into homes that didn't have it before is such a privilege and blessing.

March 6, 2016

Hey everyone! The first week of the transfer has been great. It's always a bit stressful getting things under control after transfers but it's finally starting to settle down a bit here in Stevenson Ranch. We've already been on two exchanges and we've been hitting our area hard this week just trying to leave it better than we found it.

We had an awesome Lesson with our German family this week. We were able to bring out a lot of their concerns questions. Sandy is still struggling with her faith in God and Jesus Christ. She was never raised religious so this is totally new for her. We talked a lot about The Book of Mormon and how it's another testament of God and Christ. They committed to read it as a family and we even brought them a Book of Mormon story book for their kids! On Wednesday we ran to the church for a meeting and Sandy was there at the Relief Society activity having a great time! They also came to church on Sunday and Johnny ran up to us in the parking lot and said "Guys look what I drew!" It was a picture of Nephi on a boat. They've been reading together and they're learning from the stories! Jack and Johnny love the story book and they read it almost every night! Nothing brings as much joy as missionary work does. Bringing the gospel into homes that didn't have it before is such a privilege and blessing. I'm so glad we have been able to teach this family. It's so cool to see the ward just bring them into the family and love them all.

We were able to teach Sonja this week and she's awesome. She called us up the day after the lesson and asked for us to come and help her mom move out of their apartment and have another lesson as we moved them. She's seriously had the biggest change of heart. She's so excited for her son to come home and meet us in a few weeks. We're working to get her to church this next week. She has some member friends that are working with her too.

I had to drive the van this past week! Driving to the airport at 5 in the morning was so stressful haha! 13 missionaries all trying to get home and if I crash they miss their flight. We made it though so it was all good :) Elder Nielsen is a little scared to take on the job when I leave haha. Bless his heart.

All of my trainees Elder Horito, Silva and Martin are all zone leaders #posterity. So proud of all those guys. It's been really cool to be able to go on exchanges with all of them and serve with them again! Got to go with elder Horito this week and reminisce good ole times in Encino.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Jensen

Stevenson Ranch!

Elder Deyholos's driving gets a little sketchy!

Johnny's picture.

Exchanges with elder Myers.

Exchanges with Elder Horito.

Time just flies by in the mission field!

February 27, 2017

Can you believe that it has already been another transfer?! I can't believe it...they just get faster and faster every time. Time just flies by in the mission field. Only 4 transfers left.
Well transfer calls came and I'll be staying as an assistant for the next transfer! Elder Deyholos will be heading back out as a zone leader for his last transfer in the mission and I'll be with Elder Nielsen training him as the new assistant to the President! He was my zone leader when I was in Burbank with Elder Martin and we lived in the same apartment for a transfer so I already know we'll get along great.

We were able to teach the Ayers family this week! We brought bishops Wife and she was perfect for Sandy. They really connected on the mother to mother level and talked a lot about how the gospel blesses kids lives and families in general which was really helpful. Then we taught the plan of salvation with German pamphlets and they could really relate when we talked about challenges and how the experiences we have in this life are there to help us grow and become better people. They have really gone through a lot and they have just been taking it all on their shoulders...so we testified about the atonement and read a few scriptures in German to help Sandy understand. After the lesson they asked where they should start reading the Book of Mormon. They started from the beginning as a family this week :) So cool to see them really striving to learn and apply the gospel in their lives. Craig said something really cool. He said "My mom is always so happy and I just know that's because she has a testimony of the gospel....how can we get that too? How can we know?" They are so prepared. His mothers example has had an impact on him throughout the years.

We went to the temple this week as well. Santa Monica is so beautiful! California is really starting to grow on me...I could get used to this no snow and sunny skies every day thing. Never thought I'd say that!

Well I love you all! We have to go and get things ready for transfers tomorrow! Sorry for the short email.

Elder Jensen

Temple trip pics

Matching ties at the temple.

Hollywood sign from the temple.

Dinner at the Richards.

Maybe trying to swipe their IPAD!

Our homie Joseph in the ward.