9/29/14

Elder Haddon is my best friend. He is the funniest companion that I've had my whole mission, I need to write and tell you some of my stories with him. Yesterday at church he forgot his name tag so he borrowed another missionary's tag and then he was asked to give the opening prayer - and since he is new nobody really knew his name - and they introduced him as Elder Shaw to the ward. It was pretty funny (there was a lot of confusion yesterday). 

We have been seeing a lot of progress in our missionary work lately, but we still don't have anyone committed to baptism on a specific date. We've also really struggled with getting people to church. I love the people we are teaching so much, but it can be so frustrating sometimes when they fail to do the things that they know they should do (over and over again despite our efforts to help them). I often have to go through the same challenges as my investigators, and I feel that I am experiencing that right now - I don't know how to explain it but I just feel worn out. I often lack the hope and motivation to change - I lack faith in myself to change and faith in others to change. My testimony of the gospel is firm, but I just feel like a less active - I just want a break (the "I just am not cut out for this" fallacy) I hate when I feel like I make it past a road block and then it comes back - again and again.

8/4/14

"It's been super hot! But fortunately we've had a couple days this month that rained. It was so weird to see clouds in the sky (I actually felt like I might need to put a jacket on even though it was still in the 90's). Last night it rained a little as we got home. Elder Adams was bummed that we had to miss most of it while we planned. Speaking of Elder Adams, he is getting transferred tomorrow! It's crazy he's been here for only 6 weeks and now he's going to serve in the Warm Springs Stake (that's where I was before I came here). Initially he was really mad because he really loved this ward because it was full of "rednecks" like the guys on duck dynasty (that's everyone's favorite show here - if we don't catch it on their tv in their house then we hear about it in fast and testimony meeting). He was already making plans for us to go fishing on P-Day next month and for members to take us to The Bass Pro Shop. He also requested elk and deer from half of the ward for dinner so we''ll probably get a lot of that this transfer (even though he won't be here to eat it). But he was happy because one member gave him some frozen deer to take with him. Despite the part about him having to leave this area, he is excited because he is going to get a car in his next area (he will be covering two wards). In the 18 months he's been out he has biked his whole mission! My next companion is going to be Elder Balif - he's only been out for 6 weeks so I get to finish Training him! I'm really excited for that experience, I've wanted to train my whole mission and I was beginning to believe it wasn't going to happen. Also, we are going to be covering the Heritage ward in addition to the ward we have now (Newport) so the work should really pick up - especially since the sister missionaries who were serving there are really good missionaries. I'm excited for this transfer, I think it will be really fun even though it will also be challenging.

This Weekend the Lake Mead Stake had an activity called "Camp Preach My Gospel" where 50 young men and women in the stake over the age of 16 came out with the full time missionaries for a whole day (6:30 am until 9:30 pm). It was really fun to participate in that experience and help inspire the young men to serve missions. We saw so many miracles when we had them out with us - The Lord was really working to make it a good experience for them. Towards the end of the day on Saturday, the Spirit testified strongly to me that I was going to have the opportunity to train on my mission. A voice inside me said "I can do this" - and I realized that this experience was what I needed to confirm to me that whatever challenges I may face next transfer I will be able to overcome them if I rely on The Lord. About 5 minutes after I got this impression, we got our transfer doctrine and I was informed that I had been assigned to be a trainer. It was really neat."

Elder Kyle Jensen

7/28/14

This week was Elder Adams' 18 month mark so he set fire to a pair of old pants (missionaries have a weird tradition where they burn a tie at 6 months, a shirt at 12, pants at 18, and a suit at the end of the mission - I don't participate in these wicked traditions but it was fun to watch). We video taped him lighting the pants on fire in the desert so we'll have lots of memories of this historic event. He also picked up the pants after they cooled off and they had turned into a puddle of plastic melted to a bunch of rocks (it kind of looks like Texas). Then he brought it home and pinned it to the apartment wall and labeled it "The Remains of Elder Adams' 18 month mark". It is now on display in our hallway for future missionaries to discover.

It got up to 116 degrees in the shade at one point this week. The summer has been brutal - but the ward has been very good to us. Our Stake President lives in our ward and we stopped by one day and discovered that they have a soft serve ice cream machine in their house! I have a feeling we will be visiting them more frequently now...

Yesterday we got a break from the heat. It started raining for about 10 minutes and we got a ton of lightning! I've never seen such cool thunder storms before my mission. A lot of people saw us walking and offered us rides but Elder Adams kept insisting that he wanted to walk in the rain. I didn't blame him - it felt so good to get rained on even if it really doesn't compare to home.

As you may have noticed, I mentioned we were walking. That is because earlier this week I finally wore all of the way through my bike tire. It started to fall apart and then on Friday night it finally exploded! It sounded like a gun shot. It was a little frustrating because I had to patch up a new record of 5 flat tires in 1 week leading up to the event. So when it finally exploded I felt like I had finally lost the battle. There was no choice but to walk. I'm planning on buying new tires today so I'll probably just have to use the debit card to do that.

We saw some success this week from a part member family. We started teaching Erin, Michael Green's girlfriend. Michael Green is a less active member who I've been working with since my first week here. He is probably one of the weirdest people that I ever met, but he is very friendly so we keep going back. This week he asked us to give his girlfriend a priesthood blessing which led to us teaching her the first two lessons. We realized that Michael really does have a testimony of The Gospel even though he may not be keeping the commandments. His girlfriend actually turned out to be very interested in our message and I have a lot of hopes for her. She said she is going to make a commandments jar for Michael that requires him to put money in each time he breaks a commandment. She'll probably put it next to the profanity jar she made for him. Unfortunately he is missing the concept of it since he's been prepaying ahead of time for the words he intends to use. Hopefully he won't apply the same principle to the commandments jar.

Elder Kyle Jensen

Happy Pioneer Day 7/21/14

First- two weeks ago we had a BIG rainstorm. Although it only lasted a few minutes, it was really intense and it caused some damage to my scriptures (even though I wrapped them in a plastic bag). It was almost as crazy as the storm last pioneer day. There was lightning everywhere and the roads instantly became rivers. The sidewalks were under inches of water and as we biked through it water sprayed all around us. Yep, we biked through it. We just kept on working through the storm and surprisingly people were not any kinder to us (they just made remarks like "looking a little soggy - keep on biking" as we approached them)! Some people took pictures of us, but we still couldn't get anyone to talk to us (we looked ridiculous drenched in water). I'm a little tired of the way that many people treat us here. But I suppose it has helped me to really appreciate the few people who don't reject us so much more. I have never felt so much love for a people before in my life. I really desire to help them. These last few weeks I believe my prayers have been more for these individuals than they have for myself. That is perhaps the greatest miracle.

This week was probably the first week this transfer that neither my companion or I have had a flat tire. Instead, as we biked Elder Adams lost his whole pedal! The whole thing just fell off right before dinner. Fortunately Elder Farr had a similar experience in North Las Vegas so we knew exactly what to do about it. Elder Adams took a clothes hangar from the closet of the family we had dinner with and he bent the metal wire around the single pedal so that he wrap it around his foot. Then he biked with one leg for the rest of the night! Actually, he only went a block down the road to a different member and we borrowed his allen wrench to put the pedal back on. But it was hilarious to watch him pedal with one leg even for a few minutes. Missionaries do the dumbest things.

We saw a bee this week the size of a humming bird. It was called a taranchula(incorrect spelling?) wasp. It lays eggs on tranchulas and the babies eat it. It was really scary so Elder Adams stepped on it three times (it wouldn't die because it was so big). I didn't realize that missionary work could be so dangerous!

I made it through week 4 of the companionship (I don't know if you've noticed the trend, but usually about this time I start to really get irritated by my companions). But we made it through the week by working on our communication skills (it's always so hard). There are still some challenges in my companionship but The Lord is teaching me how to work with Elder Adams.

Our ward mission leader fed us peanut butter and pickle sandwiches yesterday. They were surprisingly good. But then again there is a spiritual gift that I invented called "the gift of not being picky about the food you are fed as a starving missionary" and I think that this gift helped to mask the flavor a little bit (I don't know if I would recommend the recipe to non-missionaries). Also, I made Top Ramen Stir Fry this week and it was super delicious! I even used some leftover chicken from a previous dinner. I am going to become a Top Ramen chef when I return from my mission. 

Update 5/5/14

I get my transfer call on Saturday and I'm pretty sure that I'll be leaving to a new area next week since I've been here for 6 months and with Elder Farr for 4 and a half months.

 We've continued to work really hard at finding more people to teach. We gave a blessing to Carolyn (who we had to stop teaching for a few weeks due to her getting shingles) and we hope to resume teaching her this week. We've picked up a few more investigators through our efforts and it will be sad that I won't be around to teach them (once again I'm pretty set on leaving - I could really use some change). I want to build up this area as much as I possibly can before I leave so that the ward will have a lot of enthusiasm when the next missionary comes in (unlike when I came in and everyone kept wishing Elder Smith had stayed - one kid even told me "you'll never replace Elder Smith" - that kind of sentiment always makes it hard on a new missionary). It is always hard to leave behind a ward when you develop friendships - and it is hard to leave those behind to enter a new ward where you have no friends (especially when your companion isn't even your friend). So I hope that I can prepare this area so that it will be a good experience for whoever follows me here. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a baptism in the Shadow Creek ward for Patience McCarty (Craig's daughter that he got custody of before I left). It was so nice to be able to see the McCarty family and many of the other ward members as well. Brother Keser was especially happy to see me - his wife exclaimed "there's the one that never talks!" as they greeted all of the missionaries in attendance. Then Brother Keser came up and said "welcome back Smiley!" (that was what he nicknamed me some time ago).

Also, we had interviews with President and Sister Neider this week. They made it very clear to everyone that they felt that I had changed so much. They are so proud of me :) - President Neider even told me he thinks I'm finally ready to be a senior companion (that's good news I think). Sister Neider exclaimed, "you don't even look the same - you've grown up"  - they might just be confusing me with Elder Jenkins or something, sometime I'll tell you the story behind that one). One way or another, my perceived improvement these last few months are clearly not just in my head. Other people are noticing it too, so I figure that must be physical evidence of The Atonement in my life.

Rumors about the coming iPads were dissolved by President Neider at our interviews. Although the leadership have been mentioning that they are coming soon - he explained that soon meant sometime this year (probably not for a few more transfers). He said that out of the 21 missions in our area, we were the highest baptizing one. Which means that we are in the top 5 highest baptizing missions in the United States. That means that when the church implements changes - like iPads - we are also going to be in the last 5 missions to get them. I'm excited to see how they change things (supposedly I'll get to email on a personal iPad instead of these computers - which would mean I might get to send pictures?). 

Elder Kyle Jensen

ONE YEAR MARK!

April 21, 2014

Last week I reached my one year anniversary since I started my mission.  It feels really strange saying that.  In addition to that, I’m approaching six months in the area that I’m currently serving in (by area I mean ward - every ward in this mission currently has at least one companionship of missionaries).  I’ve been with Elder Farr for about four and a half months out of those six, so I don’t really feel like I’ve seen much change lately.  This is my second zone but based on what I’ve seen throughout the mission-the biggest change is probably dependent more upon your companion than your area here in Las Vegas.  Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot about getting along with different people - that definitely encompasses that most important and difficult lessons that I’ve learned on my mission.  

Here the standard of excellence is one baptism per ward per month.  So far I’ve been able to meet that for the most part.  (I think I’m at 11 if you include today’s baptism).

My mission has been a series of lessons on gaining new perspectives when really not much changes around you.   I've had to learn how to become the one who make change happen.  Las Vegas is really a pretty boring place when you are a missionary.  What I mean is, that not many exciting things happen unless you really work to make them happen.  It is a big city and it is a desert.  It’s the ugliest and the most unfavorable place I’ve ever been (in terms of the weather and scenery).  But when you begin to develop the capacity to see the good around you, it can become a beautiful place.  The key to that is in the people (as I am sure that you have found on your own mission).  I love these people so much, It’s such a blessing that I get to serve them.  It really doesn’t matter where I am when I get to spend my time serving those around me.  The spirit of the Lords strives even in Las Vegas, the city of SIN!  It is such a blessing to be able to fell that spirit so strongly every day.

One of the hardest things about serving in the area that I’m in now is that it is so hard to find people to teach.  Nearly every investigator that I have taught more than two lessons to has been baptized.  We just haven’t taught many people.  Here are some reasons:

• Everyone has excused before we even confront them (they’re already familiar with missionaries and the church)
• They’re all to wealthy and on’t think they need, God, or think they already have found Him.
• They all drive cars-you can only find people in garages.
• They keep to themselves-they’re as anti-social and cautious as I am!  No, they aren’t going to allow strangers into their house!
• They are catholic -that seems to be a popular excuse…I just want to say, “it’s all right you can repent!”

I could go on but I won’t, nothing gets done when I make excuses.  I’ve been working really hard to improve my street contacting as well as my finding through members.  Although I have seen little success come from my efforts, the Lord has helped me to find peace and joy from the small success that I find each day that I serve with my whole heart, might, and strength.  Today I talked to every single person that I saw (even the people who were talking on their cell phone) and I still only talked to twenty people.  (We literally spent an entire day just knocking on doors and talking to people-only one person let us in).  Today was a really good day, we have had much worse days than today (normally talking to everyone means talking to 5 people).  Out of all of those people, they had all spoken to missionaries recently, they know who we were, and all of them declined our offer to even say a prayer with them (or accept a pass along card). Despite our lack of success in finding people to teach (anyone-not just solid investigators) I was filled with the Spirit and the Lord blessed me with a positive attitude as well as an abundance of energy throughout the day.  Those are blessings that I have often missed out on in my life.  I am so grateful that the Lord has given me a chance to serve a mission.  I am so grateful that He has trusted me to work in His vineyard for a season.  Even though I have remained a junior companion my whole mission, I often feel inadequate even for the assignment.  I am grateful that the Lord is more patient with me than I am with myself.

I often call Las Vegas the “Furnace of Affliction”(alluding to Isaiah)  because it truly is the place that has changed me the most in my life while at the same time it has caused me to sweat more than anywhere else (seriously 120˚ weather with 0-5% humidity is just ridiculous).

Elder Kyle Jensen

Patching Flat Tires

I feel impressed to take a moment to share a sacred experience that I had this last week.  There are some days when you wake up and you just know that it is going to be a long day-days when “all the elements combine to hedge up the way”(D&C 122:7).  It seems as though I have had a lot of days like that lately.  However, there is one day last week which stands out more than the others.  If I were to analyze my week and present it in the form of a line graph(it might look something like the stock market) then, I would label this particular day as the valley or in other words, the lowest point.  This low point helped me to learn many valuable lessons.  the lesson that I wish to share is that although the Lord does occasionally lead us into “the valley of the shadow of death,”  He always leads us back out(Psalms 23).  We must always remember that it is a valley, there is more than one direction.  If the Lord leads us down a path of hardship, then it is only because that difficult path is the same one that will lead us to salvation and exaltation or in other words, a greater sense of happiness and joy (is that not the path we begged Him to lead us down in the first place?)

This week not only did my bike break and Elder Farr’s bike break, burt even the missionary that accompanied me on exchanges broke his bike (they popped/punctured their tires-but it always seems a lot more significant at the time seeing that flat tire can result in hours and hours of time being lost depending on the circumstances-such as preparation, location, availability of bike patches, etc).  And it was during this exchange that my capacities to endure were truly tested.  As we walked about a mile or so back to the apartment to drop off our now useless bikes, I was overwhelmed by a storm of unpleasant thoughts.  I was sick of talking to the terrible people who we had seen that day (I’ve never had so many people cuss me out in one day-not one person would have anything to do with us-I’ve never felt so rejected).  I wanted to just return to the apartment and give up-I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to be a missionary anymore.  As we walked up that painful hill in silence (I’m not making this up, it really was a hill-which conveniently matches this poetic theme) I began to readjust my thoughts.  I stopped Elder Christensen (the unfortunate missionary on exchanges with me) and attempted to pump up his bike tire (although I didn’t expect it to work, I decided to try it anyways).   It became apparent that it did not matter how much air I gave the tire, it simply was not able to receive it.  The leak was too fast to allow the tire to maintain it’s shape.  My efforts were simply not enough, we needed to patch up the damaged tire before we would be able to make any more progress.  So we continued up the hill towards our apartment.  Along the walk, I felt a whole lot like that flat bike tire.  It wasn’t making it very far, and I certainly wasn’t going anywhere at a reasonable pace.  In fact, I had a few neglected spiritual punctures of my own that needed mending.   As we walked I remember recognizing that I was frowning.  “Why am I upset?”  I asked myself.  “Who am I upset with?”  Was my next question.  “I’m not upset with Elder Christensen- it is not his fault”.  I reasoned.  “I’m not even upset with the people who were rude to us-I wouldn’t want to talk with strangers in Las Vegas, who approached me with the topic of religion, either.”  I continued.  “If not them, who is it?  Surely I’m not upset with God!”  Came the startling realization.  Then I began to correct myself by thinking of all of the blessings I had received.  “How could I be mad at God, He woke me up this morning!”  Came the voice of Augustine Johnson.  I began to smile, for I wan’t upset anymore, I was at peace.  Then I began to talk to Elder Christensen.  I got to know him better, I believe that I helped him endure his own trials as I made an effort to address his own concerns.  I found out later that he himself had been experiencing spiritual punctures.  His health problems were dragging him down and so were the events of that day.  My silence was not helping the situation.  He very much needed a friend-a companion who would hare his burden.  Together we returned to the apartment and patched up his tire (he was a new missionary and didn’t know exactly how to, so I patched it up for him).  Afterwards I gave him a few extra patches for future flat tires.  Then we went out and continued working(despite our weariness).  The conditions did not change much, and I do not believe that we were anymore successful in our missionary efforts that evening.  However, I was at peace because the Spirit of the Lord was with me.  As we ended exchanges that evening, we met outside the mission office.  Just as we were finishing, President Neider walked out and greeted us.  He turned to his friend who was visiting him and said, “These are our best missionaries”, and introduced us (similar to the way that Dad tells everyone that they are his favorite child).   Then he embraced each of us and said, “good night”.  I truly felt the spirit testify to me that evening that the Lord was pleased with my efforts.  Looking back on this experience, I now recognize that I never would have made it very far on my own spiritual flat tires.  I needed the Grace of God to help me recognize my need for repentance and improvement.  I needed the Grace of God to help me repair my flat tires before I could increase my capacities as a missionary.  I never would have been able to receive anymore air in my tires if the holes had not been mended.  It fills my heart with gratitude to think that the God of the Heavens and the Earth would reach out to me through such an experience-one that would allow me to recognize without a doubt that He loves me (The Mission President becomes somewhat of a father-figure to missionaries-one who represents the Lord in presiding over the mission field).

This experience filled up my tires for the remainder of the week.  All I needed was to know that the Lord was pleased with my efforts.  That evening, I wrote down the scripture reference Alma 26:27 in my planner.  “Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.”   I don’t know of a better way to describe my experience that day than by this scripture.  Just as Ammon and his brethren found success, we did as well.  Within the week we gained 6 new investigators, and in the following week we committed one of them to baptism on March 15th (I also find it funny that all of those investigators were hispanic-meaning that they were probably descendants of the Lamanites-we may have taken the scripture a little to literally).

~Elder Kyle Jensen~