Journal Entry-May 15th, 2013 This Journal Entry Describes what most days have been like for us this week. (This is one of the better days). Things went downhill afterwards.

Note:

According to the map, we biked about 90 miles.  

It has become apparent that our map key is incorrect.  I have no idea how much we are actually biking. 

Today we labored to the extent of our capacities.  We visited dozens of homes belonging to less active members.  The majority of the houses had gates in front of the doors blocking us from reaching them.  My companion refers to them as salvation blockers.  Out of the few homes that did not have gates, nobody answered the door.  After spending three hours biking in temperatures over one hundred degrees, having emptied the water bottles that I brought with me (only to realized that I probably should have brought twice as much water and applied sunscreen), we notices a couple of benches residing in the shade provided by a few small trees.  As I reflect back on this experience, it occurs to me that this may have been the only shade (sufficient to sit under) within miles of the area.  Palm trees and Cacti don’t offer much protection from the penetrating sun)  Almost immediately after resting on these benches(to plan our next course of action of course).  A man pulled up a and stepped out of his car.  He approached us and welcomed us into his house (which was directly behind where we were sitting).   It turned out that him and his wife were members, and that they happened to be the only active members in the entire neighborhood.  This type of event is what Nephi would call a “tender mercy of the Lord”.    These members gave us a chance to regain our strength and energy and they helped to lift our spirits at a time when I was physically worn out.  Afterwards, the day continued as it had started-Hot, dry & tiresome. 

We were not any more successful that afternoon.  After dinner, we returned to the same neighborhood.  As we rode through the street a gang of 7 year old children surrounded.   They closed in and begin asking me if I had anything for them.   Trying not to panic (noticing that my companion had escaped) I asked “Like what?”  

“Do you have any God cards” a particularly precocious child responded.  

Relieved by their request, (initially I had thought that they wanted money) I began distributing mormon.org cards to them (which they collected from me as if they were Pokemon trading cards).  At this point Elder Hearne had turned around and come back to where the children had cornered me.  We bid them a good day and then dismissed ourselves.  

Note: People never answer the door(unless children open it).  They don’t talk/w their neighbors-or know anything about them and they never come outside because it is so hot.

At the first home we arrived at this evening the door was answered by a child (who was scolded by their parents).  A man about 26 years old came out and began to talk with us.  After looking at the state that we were in (sunburned, dripping w/sweat), he offered us some water and invited us into him house.  We learned that this man was living with his parents, who were the less-active members in our ward. Note: His parents may be active members attending the Spanish ward-we just haven’t figured this our yet. After conversing with him a short while, his wife came downstairs and joined in our conversation.  Initially we discussed our lives.  We learned that this man worked at a golf course and that one of his co-workers had served a mission for the church in South America.  We learned that he had two children.  We learned of his respect for the members of our church and for the missionaries.  However, he then began to express to us that he believed that he didn’t need religion and that he simply wasn’t meant for the type of lifestyle we lived(he felt that he had found how he could be happy that we had found what makes us happy-which were defined as two separate lifestyles).  However, just when it seemed that we would not be able to make any progress with these people, the man turned to his wife and said, “You should talk to them about religion.”  Before his wife had a chance to express her irritation at her husband and dismiss this teaching/learning opportunity, we jumped in and began digging deeper.  She expressed that she had many questions about religion and that although she believed that there could be a God, she didn’t understand religion.  Through our discussion we identified that she felt that there was too much confusion regarding religion, and that she felt that having a religion was somewhat pointless.   She expressed her feeling that there wasn’t really a need for her to join a religion.  She said that she lived a good life, and made good choices and that she was happy.  As we answered her questions we were able to teach her the first lesson from Preach My Gospel.  It became clear to me that her questions were the questions of the soul-the questions ingrained in everyone’s mind-resulting from the absence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  This need for the Atonement was made evident through the questions that she had, and it became my focus to help this woman recognize the emptiness in her life.  Recognize the possibility of something missing.  She expressed her sense of fulfillment in life, and then expressed her belief that she would be fine after this life.  I agreed with her.   I told her that her happiness in this life would carry over to the next life.   I explained that when we die our mindset does not change.  But then I said something that I believe had a profound impact on her.  I said, “But is there a greater happiness than what we already have?  Is the question that we must all ask ourselves.” We discussed many thing this evening, but in the end the biggest message that came from our discussion was: Life is constantly changing, however, God and His Church doesn’t change.  They had reached a critical point in their life and had began to wonder if there was anything more to life (they saw something in the two teenage boys speaking to them-who seemed to know much more than they should-They couldn’t believe we were 18 and 19)

Perhaps there is something valuable in religion.

At the end of our discussion, they desired to schedule another time to meet with us (really without us even asking-the husband tends to volunteer his wife and put her on the spot).  Although there may be alot of work for us to do before we make progress with this family(if they truly are ready at this point in their lives to accept Christ), I look forward to meeting with them again.  They were fun people that I came to this desert to meet.  In comparison to the happiness that finding them brought to me, the miserable days leading up to this moment were a small price to pay.  I wish that I could adequately express the joy that came to me from this experience.

~Kyle Jensen~

Journal Entry May 12, 2013-Here is a journal entry that describes Jamari-Our investigator. (we have 2 progressing investigators, but Melissa isn’t progressing very fast.

Today was Mother’s Day-I realized that it can be a huge distraction from the work when you Skype your family. I taught a lesson to our investigator Jamari-afterwards, and it was hard to focus on the work at hand. We committed him to baptism, and I knew that he was ready for it. He should have joined the church long ago-its just that nobody ever asked him. Some of the members in the ward even thought that he was a member. The Deacon’s quorum president even asked him to be his 2nd counselor at the same time he invited him to be baptized. He went as far as saying, “I hope you will become the next deacons quorum president.” Jamari already knows the lessons and he probably reads The Book of Mormon more than most members. Jamari will become a wonderful and faithful member of the church. He will set an example for his family and for many others. When the Lord says that the field is white and ready to harvest, he means it. Jamari was about as ready as they come. It wasn’t hard to picture him in the baptismal font dressed in white. His countenance is pure and his heart is strong.

Last week my companion crashed into a stop sign while riding on his bike. Since then I have thought of that image every time I see that stop sign (which is multiple times a day). Tonight I made the mistake of mentioning it to Elder Hearne-to mock him a little-and immediately afterwards I slipped off the sidewalk and lost my balance on my own bike-resulting in a somewhat humbling experience. I suppose you might call this Karma-but I suspect that it was the Lord giving me a reminder of my role as a missionary. After all, I did pray to be humbled last night.

~Kyle Jensen~

Well, these last few days have been pretty crazy.
A few things to mention:

We went to the Temple. It’s a beautiful temple and it was nice to do a session again. This is the longest that I have gone w/out visiting the Temple since I received my endowment. I will send a picture through e-mail. (I forgot my camera, so I will just have to get a picture from my companion). I didn’t realize that temples have cafeterias. Missionaries receive a discounted rate, so it was the best $3 meal I have ever eaten.

One of the members in the ward prayed that we would have a good time on our missions(during a dinner appointment) It reminded me of Tyler. It was a three year old girl named Phoebe-she had a pet chick and a baby duck, which I thought was pretty cool. I should have taken a picture(Caitlyn and Tyler would have loved to see them playing around in a cardboard box in their kitchen) I’ve had some interesting biking experiences and I had a flat tire last week. (We do a ton of biking and there is broken glass everywhere) My tires might not be very good(my companion says that bikes come w/bad tires usually). In one of my crashes one of my pairs of pants got a little beat up-But I’m going to keep wearing them anyways(they aren’t too bad) Don’t tell Remington. Fortunately I changed out of my suit before this happened, so it could have been much worse.

Apparently there are only five “certified organists” in the valley-according to a man I met last week(who prided himself as one of them)Sister Neider is going to utilize my talents.

I am going to be sending a lot more letters because there are so many people that use the computers on P-Day, and some of them will spend hours(and I like to spend time practicing the organ too) on the computers.

Weird event: Yesterday we were biking home and three people on motorcycles drove past us. They were wearing only Basketball shorts and T-shirts and they were driving the wrong side of the road(w/out helmets). We had to move off the road so that they didn’t hit us. If you don’t want these random letters than ask me specific questions so I know what you want to hear about.




~Kyle Jensen~

E-Mail 5/27/13

Jamari is going to be baptized on June 8th.
We have not had many teaching experiences so far. We have found a few potential investigators through having lessons with members, however, we haven't been able to schedule very many lessons. That is our biggest challenge right now - finding people to teach. Apparently President Neider has instructed the missionaries not to tract. I believe most of the baptisms have come through member referrals. This week we have a few appointments scheduled with potential investigators. However, in past weeks, most of our appointments have fallen through. It is a lot of work to find people, and so far our efforts haven't seemed to be paying off. On a positive note, President Neider gave Elder Hearne and I a car a couple of days ago (we were spending the majority of our time biking). Hopefully things will begin to pick up speed soon.
Yes we are teaching Melissa, but I can't remember what I said about her in my letter. We have mainly been joining the Dahl family's scripture reading twice a week with Melissa up until this week. This week we did some yard work for Melissa (she has been sick and she may have cancer and she keeps herself busy - basically she wasn't able to mow her lawn or take care of the yard for a while) and we invited her to start coming to church again (she has a long history of working with the missionaries). She came to church yesterday, which was wonderful.

My schedule is consistently inconsistent. However, here is the basic outline:
Wake up at 6:30 (unless we decide to attend morning sports in which case we get up at 5:40)
Prepare for the day (eat breakfast, shower, etc)
Studies from 8-10 am
The 12 week program at 11 am
Lunch 12 pm
Then we visit members of the ward from 1 - 5 pm (we go off of a less-active and part member family list that the bishopric put together)
Dinner around 5 pm

Then we probably just return to the list until 8:30 - 9 pm
We return home around 9 pm and then plan for the next day (I usually get to bed around 10:30 pm)
(We had really hoped to have more people to teach at this point to fill in our schedule, however, for now we are just going to try and get to know the ward better)

I have found that there are a ton of inactive members in this ward, but the members that attend church regularly are very strong families who are actively engaged in missionary work. We have found that they really have been doing all that they can to help out their missionaries. This will be an easy ward for fellow-shipping investigators and new converts.
We have been fed nearly every night since we have been here (with the exception of the first week or so due to the impression that the last missionaries left). Occasionally members will cancel dinner appointments on us, however, as we have gotten to know the families better, we have found people who are always stepping in to help us out when members cancel. One family invited us over tonight to join their barbecue since our original appointment failed. It is the same family where we skyped from a few weeks ago. Also, there is another family that fed us twice last week that cooked us two of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time (they believed that if they fed us well then their daughter who was also serving a mission would be fed well).

My companion is a lot like Tyler - he wanted to do the same thing the other day - he said that he wanted to catch one of the jack rabbits here and bring it back to the apartment as a pet. I pointed out that we couldn't keep pets and he resolved that he would just catch one and then cook it into a stew. I guess he isn't as friendly as Tyler.
That is funny that you would say "keep being obedient and you will be blessed" because yesterday my companion and I had to teach the Elders quorum lesson and the talk we used was Thomas S Monson's talk "Obedience Brings Blessings" from this last conference.

Life as a Missionary 5/27/13

Jamari is going to be baptized on June 8th. 

We have not had many teaching experiences so far. We have found a few potential investigators through having lessons with members, however, we haven't been able to schedule very many lessons. That is our biggest challenge right now - finding people to teach. Apparently President Neider has instructed the missionaries not to tract. I believe most of the baptisms have come through member referrals. This week we have a few appointments scheduled with potential investigators. However, in past weeks, most of our appointments have fallen through. It is a lot of work to find people, and so far our efforts haven't seemed to be paying off. On a positive note, President Neider gave Elder Hearne and I a car a couple of days ago (we were spending the majority of our time biking). Hopefully things will begin to pick up speed soon. 

Yes we are teaching Melissa, but I can't remember what I said about her in my letter. We have mainly been joining the Dahl family's scripture reading twice a week with Melissa up until this week. This week we did some yard work for Melissa (she has been sick and she may have cancer and she keeps herself busy - basically she wasn't able to mow her lawn or take care of the yard for a while) and we invited her to start coming to church again (she has a long history of working with the missionaries). She came to church yesterday, which was wonderful.

My schedule is consistently inconsistent. However, here is the basic outline:

Wake up at 6:30 (unless we decide to attend morning sports in which case we get up at 5:40)

Prepare for the day (eat breakfast, shower, etc)

Studies from 8-10 am

The 12 week program at 11 am

Lunch 12 pm

Then we visit members of the ward from 1 - 5 pm (we go off of a less-active and part member family list that the bishopric put together)

Dinner around 5 pm

Then we probably just return to the list until 8:30 - 9 pm

We return home around 9 pm and then plan for the next day (I usually get to bed around 10:30 pm)

(We had really hoped to have more people to teach at this point to fill in our schedule, however, for now we are just going to try and get to know the ward better)

We have not been attending ward council, however, we have been attending the beginning of P.E.C. every week.

I have found that there are a ton of inactive members in this ward, but the members that attend church regularly are very strong families who are actively engaged in missionary work. We have found that they really have been doing all that they can to help out their missionaries. This will be an easy ward for fellow-shipping investigators and new converts. 

We have been fed nearly every night since we have been here (with the exception of the first week or so due to the impression that the last missionaries left). Occasionally members will cancel dinner appointments on us, however, as we have gotten to know the families better, we have found people who are always stepping in to help us out when members cancel. One family invited us over tonight to join their barbecue since our original appointment failed. It is the same family where we skyped from a few weeks ago. Also, there is another family that fed us twice last week that cooked us two of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time (they believed that if they fed us well then their daughter who was also serving a mission would be fed well).

My companion is a lot like Tyler - he wanted to do the same thing the other day - he said that he wanted to catch one of the jack rabbits here and bring it back to the apartment as a pet. I pointed out that we couldn't keep pets and he resolved that he would just catch one and then cook it into a stew. I guess he isn't as friendly as Tyler. 

That is funny that you would say "keep being obedient and you will be blessed" because yesterday my companion and I had to teach the Elders quorum lesson and the talk we used was Thomas S Monson's talk "Obedience Brings Blessings" from this last conference.

May 2, 2013 First Letter From Las Vegas

Hello,

I just want to send you a quick letter to tell you about my experiences in the mission field so far.  My last letter was a BIG one so don’t expect all of them to be that informative.  My new companion’s name is Elder Hearne, and he is from Alabama.  Everyone seems to think very highly of him so I am looking forward to the next few months.  I was instructed to do everything that he said, so I certainly nope that everyone is right about him.  Currently we are going through what is called a “double transfer”-which means two Elders moved out of our apartment at the same time that both of us moved in.   The problem is that neither of us are familiar with the area, and the two Elders that moved out completely trashed and raided the apartment (they should have left us with toilet paper, cleaning supplies, food, etc.).  They also left us with only 2 contacts and virtually no information about them.  It appears that they were not exactly “anxiously engaged” in the work.  As a result, the last two days have mainly been cleaning, training, and preparation days for us.  Yesterday we tried finding a grocery store, but the only one that we were able to find was a 99¢).  We were able to find some cereal and milk there and water, but they didn’t have a whole lot of stuff.  It’s kind of hard when neither of us know where anything is.  Apparently the water here isn’t drinkable (unless you want kidney stones).  So we had to find a water filter at Walmart today.  This morning I spent most of the day at a training meeting in Southern Las Vegas (We are in Northern Las Vegas right now).   To get there we had to trade our bikes to the zone leaders so that we could take their car (apparently neither of the zone leaders have their own bikes).  So basically other missionaries have ridden my bike more than I have.  Fortunately our bikes weren’t broken or stolen, and we shouldn’t have to lend them out agin any time soon.  On our first night here, we discovered that there was only one roll of toilet paper in the apartment (between two bathrooms).  My senior companion/trainer, Elder Hearne, decided that we would have to wait until Thursday to buy more toilet paper.  Then somehow in my clumsiness, I dropped the only roll into the toilet.  Wen I told him what I did, he handled it pretty well, so it is pretty clear that he has enough patience to train me.  Hopefully we will be able to figure out where everything is, get in contact with people, and start working soon.

Note 1:  Apparently this is a high baptizing mission-the president said about 1 baptism a week per companionship is possible and to achieve this goal we are supposed to get 1 new investigator a day.  Also, we are supposed to teach 20 lessons a week, so I will be busy.

Note 2:  I will only receive mail on Mondays from now on.

Note 3:  Please send me recipes(Alfredo, chicken spread, etc.)

Note 4:  Also, it would be nice to have a calendar of some kind(can just be one of the free ones that come in the mail).

Note 5:  On Mothers Day I am allowed to Skype you.  Expect me to call sometime after 4p.m. (PST).

~Kyle Jensen~

I am happy to inform you that Elder Jensen arrived in Las Vegas with a smile on his face and a wonderful spirit.

Michael A. Neider, President

NEVADA LAS VEGAS MISSION