The Final Call

May 4, 2015

"Hey Fam,

This week flew by!!  The last couple weeks of this transfer will go by just as fast!  Every week we have either a leadership meeting or MLC in München and tausches.  It's so much fun being able to travel so much and work with so many different people, but sometimes it can get difficult  being so long away from our own area.  It's important that we set the standard for the Zone and Mission, Elder Kearon told us a few MLC's ago - we have to set the example beyond average or even beyond sufficiant!

So this week we helped a member move just about all day on Wednesday, then on Thursday we had a tausch with the Offenburg Elders, I stayed here in Singen with Elder Hadfield.  On Friday we had a baptism of a youth in our Branch then that night we had the 'dance night' and we helped set up for that.  Saturday we got to go to the Temple!  That's right the Lee's took us to the Temple in Bern, my first time in almost 2 years.  Man I missed it so much!  

Alright the main things to talk about...

Tausch:

Our tausch..first time it happened to me here in Singen, we had 3 appointments fall through, but we still made it productive and went dooring a little and talked to people on the streets.  We were able to find some people.  We met with Br. Luu as well and talked about our goal of him getting the Priesthood so that he can baptize Eduard.  Afterwards we met with Eduard and the gang later that night and read in the Book of Mormon together.  Elder Hadfield asked me a lot of questions as we worked together.  We had some good conversations, I love the opportunities to work and teach other missionaries through actually working with them on tausch!

Eduard:

Eduard is one of my good friends, great friends.  I love him and we get a long really well.  We have a great relationship , but know that when we come to a lesson, it's "business."  He listens to what we have to teach and applies it.  He's made so much progress the last three weeks.  He has become great friends with a lot of the members, and the members enjoy him.  All the youth as well.  Br. Luu also loves him, they are best friends and always together.  

Br. Luu:

Br. Luu hurt his wrist this last week biking.  He is as happy as ever, loves all kids.  He brings little bonbons to Church and is in charge of opening and closing the doors during Sacrament meeting, and he gives all the little kids candy as they come in haha.

Temple:

Wow, that's all I can say!  I love the Temple and have been temple trunky through out my mission.  It was great to be able to go, the Lee's are amazing!  The session was in English as well, the new video is great - so much emotion.  You can learn a lot there, and I had some deeper questions come through my head through out the session (I'm excited to study them out more after the mission).  

This next week we have a tausch with MLC on the  weekend.  I mean the time goes by so fast!  When you enjoy it is when it goes by the fastest.  I love you all and hope you have a great week, see you all on Sunday - Mother's day face time!  Pray we can continue to find some new solid people.

Love Elder Jensen"

                   Moving Help

      

                                                                                                                        Br. Luu and his hurt wrists

lesson with the "gang"

 Bern Temple visit with the Lee's

some of the beautiful surrounding scenery

Never Settle (Notes from Elder Jensen)

These are some of Gabe's notes he took from their meeting with Elder Bednar.  We wanted to share because he has some great insights and words of wisdom!

"Be ye therefore Perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is Perfect." (Math. 5:48) 

*see also 3 Nephi 12:48

"Now for the longest time I always thought that this scripture meant that we must strive to be Perfect, without flaw or sin, which is still to a point true.  We should always strive to be perfectly clean, but it is still impossible here on this world (Romans 3:23).  The other day Elder Bednar said something and it 'clicked' - of course it is still clicking because it is a continual process.  But he pointed out how there is a difference between "Perfect without Error" and "Perfect in Becoming Complete."  This scripture is asking us to strive to become 'complete' or 'fully developed' or reaching the potential that our Father in Heaven sees and wants of us..and that is POSSIBLE here on this world.  In the end we will all come short of the Glory of God and will rely on the Atonement from our Savior to save us -- but what we should do and are actually commanded to do, is to become a little better every day, become "more complete" in the course of time, gain experiences each and every day.  The potential within us is incomprehensible.  It doesn't happen overnight, it's a giant work of progress - here a little, there a little.  SO above all we must NEVER SETTLE, continue moving forward.  "Wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected" (D&C 67:13).  We must constantly be striving to become a better us, day in and day out - always strive to become more complete. Repentance is a continual process with this, look where you can become better (doesn't always have to be where you've done wrong or made a mistake, but simply where you can improve) make a change, then DO IT continually!  Like I've quoted so often "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become" (Elder Oaks).  Does that mean to become successful?  Yes.  I think our Father in Heaven wants us to become successful in all that we do - in his Gospel as well as in this Life (they should go hand in hand).  Becoming successful however does not mean becoming 'rich' and receiving 'praise from man,' don't forget the Lord said, "For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).  Always remember also, unto our own strength we are weak, we are nothing..but in God's strength, we can do ALL things (Alma 26:12).  So I plea for myself that I will never settle for who I am or who I am becoming.  That doesn't mean I will be negative, unthankful, ungrateful, self-centered, over do things (Mosiah 4:27), or caught up in 'perfection' BUT that I will continue in patience day in and day out, always trying to be a little better, do a little more, striving to become more fully complete.  Becoming what I can become, reaching the potential the Lord and my Heavenly Father see in me."

*Here are some quotes I have found from talks I have read throughout my mission that go with these thoughts:

"We must expect that it will take the help of God and TIME to polish us for Eternal Life, to live with our Father." (Pres. Eyring)

"If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?" (Elder Perry)

"When selfless service eliminates selfish striving, the Power of God brings to pass his Purpose" (Pres. Monson)

"Do your duty, that is best, leave unto the Lord the rest" (Pres. Monson)

"With every step we take folllowing the Son of God, we may be reminded that we are not perfect yet..." (Pres. Uchtdorf) 

"Serving God and our fellowmen will challenge us and transform us into something greater than we ever thought possible" (Pres. Uchtdorf)

"We show our Love for the Savior by doing the many small acts of faith, devotion and kindness to others, that define our character" (Pres. Faust)

Elder Bednar's meeting

Never Settle

April 27, 2015

"Hallo Family...what a week!!!

First off, wow, Elder Bednar!  So on Saturday the whole mission met in Munich to listen to Elder Bednar, Pres. Teixeira (European President) and Elder Allen (in charge of the Mission Forces of the Church).  I'm so blessed.  I was on the front row and right by where Elder Bednar and them walk in, every time Elder Allen walked in or left the room he would give me a gut check haha.  But the meeting went for 6 hours and it flew by!!  It was an open conversation with Elder Bednar pretty much.  He asked a question and we talked about it as a mission.  It honestly was over before we knew it.  He has so much wisdom, was quoting scriptures and articles back and forth, and just brought the Spirit so strong.  Hearing talks from him are a special treat but just seeing him lead our conversation and give insights was amazing!  I have the most respect for all the General Authorities of the Church.  (A reason of why they came was because the mission is getting ipads, but the meeting wasn't really about the ipads). 

Now what I love about Bednar is he always starts out telling us to not take so many notes and just listen to the Spirit and write down thoughts that come to our head (revelation).  He also greeted us in German, he served in this mission and actually spent some of his mission in good ol' Augsburg.  That place is special I'm telling you, that is where my LIFE changed, not just mission.  Here at this meeting I also got to see everyone in my group who is still out, so that was cool!  Lots of new missionaries that none of us know really, but they know us.

On the way to the meeting in Munich there were a lot of missionaries traveling on the train.  I sat on the end of a big group of them so I was outside of a lot of the conversation.  There was a lady who was looking at all of us (we kind of stand out), so I leaned over to her and started a conversation with her.  This conversation ended up lasting the whole 2 hours!!!  It was amazing, I ended up teaching her the fundamentals of our religion - the gospel of Christ and how we are the restored Church here on the world today!  She was interested.  She said she saw all the missionaries and the funny name tags with everyones first name "Elder" and tried looking the Church's name up on the internet but her phone wasn't working.  She said that we 'stood' out not just because of our suits and ties, but that we had a special glow to us, as if a type of happiness was reflecting off of us!  Turns out this lady is a pretty big judge in Stuttgart!  It doesn't happen very often that people show interest.  We even talked a little bit about career paths and she told me a little bit about her life.  We gave each other our information, I told her I would like to talk more about what I do as a missionary and what not and she said PLEASE do.  She'd like to ask some questions and would gladly talk!

What a week!  Anyways, other than that, Eduard is continuing to make progress.  A lot of progress this last week actually.  We also had quite a few people come to Church!

I don't know how many times I've said this on my mission, but I've been blessed.  I've never got trunky at all on my mission.  For most of all my mission my mind as well as heart have been in the 'mission zone' and the purpose!  I've been able to literally give myself to the mission so to say.  Elder Bednar brought me right back up to this spiritual high, being caught up in this higher purpose.

I love you all!

Love, Elder Jensen"

 Elder Dewey, Elder Jensen and Elder Oviatt reunited!

       Hiking on P-Day

Im laufe der zeit

April 20, 2015

"Hallo Family,

Well I have no clue how much time I have left on my mission or how long I have been on my mission even.  One of my brother-in-laws gave me that advice right before I came out "never count the days."  So I haven't my whole mission!  Of course it's weird seeing my friends coming home from their missions, I wish we could ALL just stay out and then all at once step off that flugzeug.  But zum glück I still have time on my clock as a full time worker in the vineyard of the Lord!  And I honestly doubt everyday more and more that there could be a more prettier part of the Lord's vineyard to work in than my mission!

This last week flew by, starting to feel like I say that every week.  We had zone training on Tuesday, which seemed to go good.  I urged people to remember how important it is to be yourself on the mission.  Too many missionaries trying to be somewhere they are not, or stressing about expectations to meet that they make by viewing other missionaries or stories.  That's when it becomes hard to enjoy your mission and I think that's when your mission is the hardest.  I shared a quote that I have tried using while on my mission, "Become a Better You, but still be YOU."  That night we went to Zürich for our meeting with the Stake President, Pres. Blaser.  I sure appreciate him and all that he does for the Church, I've learned to appreciate church callings a lot more on my mission and witness how much time and efforts they give to the Lord.  Zürich's a pretty city, expensive city.  I always laugh when I buy McDonalds or Burger King after our meeting on the way back to the train station and it costs 18 franks for a little meal.  On the way back Sister Smiley and I talked about Markus and Alexa and Augsburg.  She is the new Sister Training leader!  

Wednesday we had Branch council, where we planned for the Invitation month of June.

Then on Saturday we had interviews and training with President.  In between all those set meetings we were able to still meet with people and teach them.  Eduard's baptism date is now the 23rd of May.  He comes to all three hours of Church in his suit with Br. Luu and Schw. Wiest.  He has become great friends with a lot of the members and has become quite involved.  He and Br. Luu are a part of the choir and he helps another member with family history.

Other than that just everyday missionary life - running from one bus to the other, going to meetings, meeting with people in between meetings, having first lessons with people we find in earlier weeks, and walking the streets of the inner city and talking with everyone about the Gospel!  We have to remember that this mission is still a "finding mission."  The key is to find out what the Lord wants and follow every little prompting.

This next week we travel to München on Friday for a special meeting!  Oh and tonight we are going to play pool with the YSA and eat all you can eat ribs.  We have three young single adults in our ward and all three are going on missions.  Elder Meilsøe and I became really good friends with all three.  We always made sure to let them know how awesome the mission can be!

Love Elder Jensen"

 Gabe's Zone

Jeffrey - a member friend

Goodbyes bring Hallos

April 13, 2015

"GUTEN TAG FAM!

So I will keep this email short and packed with information.  We have Zone training tomorrow, not even a week into the transfer and we got new Sister training leaders.  Busy!  

So the week...Monday was Easter Monday here.  We traveled to the Trenchs with Benji (GML), his wife, daughter and Andreas.  We ate some amazing salmon!   Andreas has a lot of potential and the ball is in his court.

Tuesday we spent at distrikt meeting with various lessons.  Had a little bit of an awkward situation at the YSA institute!

On Wednesday it was abmeld for Elder Meilsøe in the city, then we had a lesson with Eduard at lunch.  After that we all went to Schw. Wiest with Br. Luu too and had a lesson there with dinner.  When we were done there we came home and packed up Elder Meilsøe..his final night on the mission, it was weird!

On Thursday, said goodbye to Elder Meilsøe in the morning at Bahnhof, then drove off to Stuttgart where Elder Caldwell would be coming in later that day from Austria.  While a bunch of us were waiting for other missionaries/new companions, we went finding around Stuttgart. I got to go finding with Elder Griffey, my 'golden!'  Together we saw a lot of success, found 6 people or so in just a couple hours.  Also while I was in Stuttgart Elder Meilsøe called me from München to say our final goodbyes, that was cool!  Later that day Elder Caldwell got in and we headed back to Singen.

The rest of the week went good.  We were able to see a lot of success and work hard.  Non stop going!  Br. Luu and Eduard have become best friends and have helped each other.  Eduard got Br. Luu to come to church on Sunday after he slept in from a late night.  After church we all had an amazing lesson together with Benji there, and we set a date with Eduard for the 16th of May.  We took pictures together outside in our suits.  Got to love those two!

The work will get going even more.  Elder Caldwell is a great missionary, a little more quiet but we work good together.

Hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Jensen"

Elder Caldwell

Eduard and Br. Luu

Because He Lives!

April 6, 2015

"Hey Fam,

Sorry I have to keep this email short this week.  My Z's and Y's are going to be mixed up, I'm writing from an English laptop this week.  So this morning we gave the Lee's car back because we had it last week.  Elder Meilsøe has his license and we visited some random dorfs with the car.  We had a street display in Uberlingen, the little town on the Bodensee.  It was rainy but Elder Meilsøe and I had fun with it, we were dancing in the rain while our GML sung songs, and we handed out candy and 'Because He Lives' cards to everyone.  We even drew some pictures and wrote some church messages with chalk.  

Some of the little dorfs we got to see while we were using the car were beautiful!  One of them came down this hill and we could see the Alps in the background with Bodensee also in the background, and green fields and small barns.  We drove through some Swiss villages as well.

We will have to watch General Conference again, the internet connection was pretty bad.  We listened on the radio to the last session.  We had two investigators come - Andreas and Eduard.  Eduard is a deep thinker, but they both seemed to enjoy it.  Br. Luu was there for all the sessions!!  He got a hair cut as well and looks sharp!

So Elder Meilsøe goes home this Thursday...my new companion will be Elder Caldwell.  I don't know him but I think we go home at the same time now because I'm staying a little bit longer.  

I apologize I don't have much time this week, we have been trying to track some Elders down and "help" them out you could say.  The work is going fine.  I loved General Conference (from what I got to hear) and I sure learned a lot from it.  I loved the Priesthood session, one of the best sessions I've been too.  I went in with 3 questions and found answers to all of them.

I love you all and I'll let you know about my new companion once I get him.

Elder Jensen"

Swiss village

Through the Vineyards

March 23, 2015

"What up Fam!

I am writing you today from Basel, it's outside the Zone, but we had to make a quick trip.  It's pretty here!  This last week was good, as always.

Monday we ended our P-day short to go visit some people and teach some people.  

This last week we had a tausch, I stayed here in Singen and worked with the DL here.  We went to the Bodensee in the evening thinking there would be lots of people to talk to because the weather was so nice - I was wrong, there was no one sadly.

We also met with Br. Luu this week and had some good lessons with him.  We eat at this one members every week with him.  He is making progress and making good friends in the Branch.

We also met with this one fam, the Seamon family.  They live in Ludwigshafen on Bodensee and have a house that looks over all of Bodensee and you can see the Alps too in the distance.  The husband is German and the wife is from Peru and they have two kids.  We played with the kids and shared a spiritual thought and ate dinner.  They want their kids to grow up strong in a Christian faith.  We will meet with them again next week.  It's a lot of fun to teach a family and doesn't happen much at all here sadly.
The highlight of this week though was going back to Offenburg!  The couple in Offenburg is going home in a week and they know this all you can eat schnitzle restaurant there (three hours away).  They invited us to come eat with them for their last time - also for my birthday! So nice of them.  Well we get to Offenburg, Elder Howarth and I (ending another tausch), and the other Elders found out we were going to eat with this couple, so they all ended up getting invited to come eat as well!  We had to take the bus out to the most random village where this restaurant is, but the bus decides to stop a whole bus stop short for no reason..so we had to get off and jog to the next village.  Up a hill and down through these huge vineyards on a little dirt road, it was probably close to 3 miles.  Haha, it was so fun, all us Elders jogging together!  Luckily we didn't have to jog the whole way, Elder Meilsøe asked this older man working in the vineyards if he could give us a ride in his work truck.  He said No, but then 10 minutes later down the road he comes and tells us to get in!  I rode in front with him and everyone else hopped in back.  We had a nice conversation as we drove along.  Anyways we made it to the restaurant and it was really good!!  So much Schnitzle!  After dinner we ride a bus back to Offenburg but it was pretty late so we ended up crashing at the Elders apartment and then got up early the next morning to head back to Singen.  
The life of a missionary is fun, stressful sometimes, but fun!  

Much love,
Elder Jensen"