I want to be a missionary Now

Katherine had some pretty hard weeks but she wrote to me that she knows that being a on mission is the right thing for her right now. 

She wrote "Lots of missionaries do go home from my mission, but even with all the (hard things) I've never even thought about that as a possibility. I know anything can happen, but I really do trust the Lord. :) And I know that Heavenly Father will help me to do this, because it's His will for me to serve a mission. :) And even when things are hard, I'm happier here than I would be anywhere else, because this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. :) (Also, it turns out that the missionary schedule helps me a lot. Sleep and exercise are pretty helpful, it seems. :) )

I know that all of us truly are known to God. :) He knows us, and He is so aware of us. :) He is doing everything He can to help us. :)

Speaking of wonderful weeks, we had 7 investigators come to church yesterday!!!! That was an absolute miracle. :) The work is amazing in this area, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. :)"

   

Hermana Jensen making missionary name tags for little friends.

It's getting chilly in the Valley. We get lots of photos of Hermana Jensen eating soup.

Some pictures

Hermana Jensen hasn't written a general letter in the past few weeks so I thought I'd send some pictures. 

​It's getting dark earlier: fall is coming!

Hermana Penaranda, Bishop, and Hermana Jensen

Cozy fall afternoons, missionary style. :)

Knock Out

Every day in the Great California San Fernando Mission, the missionaries participate in something called "Knock Out". For two hours, all of the missionaries in the entire mission knock on doors to try to find people who are seeking to find the truth. Before they start, wherever they are in the mission, the missionaries say a prayer. It's powerful to think of all of these faithful missionaries united in prayer each and every day.

Hermana Jensen invited us to pray with her at Knock Out time. We set a timer on my phone and now we stop to pray at that time as well. We have witnessed our faith grow and missionary opportunities expand as we participate in Knock Out with our Hermana. Here is an excerpt of a letter she sent us about Knock Out:

Thank you for always praying for us during knock out. :) We've been having a lot of success during Knock Out lately, and I know that it's because of the faith and prayers of everyone around us. :) Just this week, we had an absolutely incredible experience. I think it was Thursday- we started knocking doors at a specific intersection we had planned, and it just kept feeling wrong. We tried going in several different directions, and finally we walked towards an apartment complex that we had tried opening, but was locked. Just as we got there, someone came out, and we were able to go in! We taught the message of the Restoration to every person we talked to except for one, and we set several return appointments with interested people. The most amazing thing, though, is that at the very last door, we found a family! First, we were just talking with them, and the mom was asking us questions about how our church is different from the Catholic church. We asked if we could come in and explain it, and we sat down with her and taught her the restoration, and committed her to read and pray about it and to learn more! At the end, she gathered all of her kids together, and we had a family prayer with them. :) We're teaching them tonight, and I'll tell you how it goes!

I love you all! 

Love,
Hermana Jensen :)

Faith to conquer fear

This letter is from October 3rd. We were gone so I wasn't able to update.

Hello, again! I love you all!

This week, following our pattern of knocking like Paul, Hermana and I found 6 new investigators! The ones we're most excited about, however, are actually a referral from a ward member.

He invited his sister-in-law to church, and the next week, we set an appointment with him to go teach her. When we got there, we found out that his wife isn't a member, either! We taught them all the message of the restoration, and invited them to be baptized. They're not ready to commit yet, but they will keep meeting with us to try to learn more!

As I testified to them of the restored gospel, I felt such a strong witness of the Spirit. I knew, then, that all of this is absolutely true. More than true, it's the most important thing anyone can ever know or participate in. This gospel is real, and it changes lives.

I love you all!

Knocking like Paul

Hello, all! My trainee, Hermana Penaranda (Pen-ya-ran-da), is amazing. :) We're working hard, and loving life, and seeing so many miracles in this area!

​We love this little walkway. :)

Last week, we felt a bit discouraged about our finding efforts. It felt that we were struggling to testify boldly of the restored gospel, and as a result, we were just turned down at every door.

I read in the book of Acts this week, about the bravery and diligence of Paul. Truly, he's an amazing missionary, and as I read I though about what he would do as he knocked doors. Hermana and I set a goal to knock doors like the apostle Paul!

It was a little scary at first, but as we testified boldly and talked to everyone, we were able to find 4 new people to teach! I know that God's hand truly is in this work! I love all of you!

Gilberto's Baptism!!!

Hello, all! I have the most exciting news ever for this week:

Gilberto was baptized!!!!!!!!

He's an incredible person, with so much faith. The hermanas before me found him during Knock Out, and he wasn't interested, so they gave him a pass-along card and left. But a few weeks later, he called the number on the back asking for a Book of Mormon! He's been reading the Book of Mormon ever since, and actually finished it two weeks ago. And he comes to church every week, even though the first week the missionaries didn't know who he was. :) 

They committed him to be baptized before I came, but when I got here he still felt very unsure about it. He just wanted to make sure he know enough before making this decision. :) We prayed for him a lot, and talked a lot with each other and with him about how to know if he's ready to be baptized. And just two weeks ago, after so many times of telling us he wasn't ready, he told us that he thought he was ready to be baptized on the 10th!!!!!

Next, the biggest obstacle was the water. He's deathly afraid of water, but he knew it was necessary to be baptized by immersion, so he had the faith to go through with it. :) To make matters worse, though, he had surgery on his foot a few weeks ago and it still isn't healed. He's not allowed to get it wet at all, or it'll be infected. :/

So.... we called our mission president, and made sure it was alright, and then made preparations to wrap his foot with a bag for the baptism. We had a pretty exciting trial run: 

But.... It worked! And on Saturday, he had the faith to wrap his foot in a bag and go down into the waters of baptism. :)

He's pretty nervous in these pictures, but afterwards he just couldn't stop smiling. :) 

I'm so, so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this. :) I love this gospel, and I love being able to help other people receive the wonderful joy it brings into our lives. :) I know that this is the true church, and I'm so excited to continue sharing it with the people here! I love you all!!!

Love,

Hermana Jensen :)

Ps. Exciting news: I'm going to be a trainer!!!!! I meet my new companion tomorrow, so I'll send pictures next week. :) Until then!

Cyber Pictures

This has not been a good month for technology in the Jensen family. Katherine lost her camera memory card (with all of her pictures) and our computer died. We are all finally back up and running. Here are a few pictures:

Katherine is the driver in her companionship! We all laugh because she couldn't find her way around our small city and here she is driving in LA traffic! According to Katherine, her companion, Hermana Velasquez is apparently an excellent co-pilot and has really helped her to navigate the city.

Someone sent me this photo of Katherine with her first two companions- Hermana Barfuss and Hermana Warren.

Crazy huge bugs!

Hermana Velasquez convinced Katherine to get her eyebrows threaded at a Flea Market.

Katherine's Mission District