Do you speak Spanish? No I speak Redneck.

We went over to a members house this week and she had a paused show and it was in Spanish so we asked her and that was her response! She is the best! 

This week was really good! We are now teaching 3 families and Flo-Town is doing so SO good! We are re-teaching someone that Sister Sanders taught when she was here so that is pretty cool! He is awesome and is so ready to be baptized! 

Well, transfers are tomorrow and I am being white-washed again and I am pretty sad but I know the Lord needs me in Congaree, so I am pretty excited! 

We went to another festival this week and this time it was the Tobacco Festival and it had nothing to do with tobacco. There was a lot of food and people and we went around with a youth member in our ward and talked to some of the people she knew, so it turned out to be a pretty good! 

That’s about all folks. 

This week read the talk "Learn From Alma and Amulek", by Dieter F Uchtdorf. 

Also, don't forget to #LighttheWorld

Well, I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Jensen  

If you're a child of a king what are you?A servant :)

This was said during young women's and I just thought it was so funny!! 

This week was so good! We are working with super promising people and I am so exited! One of them is named “S” and he ordered a Book of Mormon and we went to his house and gave it to him and he asked us to come back when his family was home so they can all learn together! Then while we were leaving, he asked if he could pray for us. It was so cool! 

We also met TT. She is a younger girl and she seems really cool! At first she kinda seemed weird out by us (as most people do) but then she warmed up and we are going to meet with her!

We had a person we were previously teaching end up in the hospital and we ended up giving a couple of the nurses pamphlets and they seemed really interested! I love being a missionary and sharing the gospel. 

Halloween was really fun! We went over to the Harvey's and got to hand out candy and talk to some of the parents that came there. One of President Harvey's kid had a Michael Myers mask on and pretended to be a statue and would just scare kids…it was so funny! :)

There was a pecan festival this week and there was so many people there! We got to talk to a lot of people! When we first showed up we saw a couple kids doing double-dutch so we went over and talked to them. I talked to them then asked if I could try and they were like yeah…so, I did it and actually could jump! I did it on one foot and even some spins it was pretty legit. The kids were even shocked. After that an older lady came up to me and asked if my name was Lauren, I said no. Then she kept saying how the kids over there thought I was a famous Instagram person and wanted a picture of me…I was flattered. 

Temple trip was today and I LOVE the temple! The Columbia temple is so small but it is the cutest temple ever. It now holds a very special place in my heart. <3

Thank you so much Grandpa Jeff and Grandpa Davis for the packages! They really mean a lot to me! Thank you to everyone who sends me letters it makes me super happy to be able to read them! 

So the past couple emails I had to end in a change so today is not different. Pday will be on Wednesday next week because Transfers are on Thursday! Can you believe I have been in Florence for 6 weeks because I can’t! 

This week read the end of 3 Nephi because they are pretty dope. 

I love y'all and hope y'all have a good week!

Love,

Sister Jensen 

Elder/ Sister Jensen???

This week was our ward Halloween party and Sister Tucker and I dressed up like Elders and our ward thought it was pretty funny so that was good! 

Tuesday was the BEST day so far because we had Elder Bednar come and speak to us as an entire mission! It was like a questions and answer and not like a conference talk! It was really cool to see how an apostle is outside of conference and how funny Elder Bednar is! A lot of what was said was we need to be focusing on what is not said and what is heard by the spirit! Then we got to shake his hand and...LET ME TELL YOU it was kinda terrifying to shake his hand! He looked me in the eyes and I felt like he knew everything about me and it was a scary thought but a really cool feeling! 

This week we worked a lot with our investigators to do some of their family history! It was pretty fun to do! We had one lady bring her husband and they were both really interested and we were able to help her find her grandpa and she got so excited! Another girl said that the next time we meet she is going to being her sister and her fiancé so that they can know where they came from! Family history is such an awesome tool that we have to use and it really helps people come closer to their family and come closer to Christ! 

We went finding the other day and we met a guy named KP and he was really cool! We were walking and he was playing his saxophone so we just started to talk to him and he was really nice! He asked us a ton of questions and we talked to him for like an hour straight. The main thing that he wants is he proof that there is a God without using faith, so it's a weird concept to try and help him learn. At the end of us talking he told us he has asked a lot of other religions this same type of questions and they didn't answer it as gracefully as we did! I just wanted to tell him that it is because it's the truth. He is going to come to Book of Mormon class so it should be pretty interesting! 

The ward party was a lot of fun and it was so nice to meet a lot of the members! The kids were a little crazy and just wanted us to chase them but we got them under control! Sunday was pretty good because it was actually 3 hours, the past couple of weeks it has only been an hour due to hurricane cleanup! I didn't think I would miss all three hours of church but I did! We have been helping  a member set up their Halloween decorations and they have a TON of things to set up so it was nice to help them out! 

Next week p-day will be on Thursday because we are going to the temple!

A song to listen to this week is Carrie Underwood Nearer my God to Thee! It is a good, good song! 

Well I love y'all and I hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

Big Green Tractor

This week was a week full of service and finding which was awesome! We had service projects for people in our ward, stores around Florence, and hurricane cleanup! 

We rode our bikes a lot this week, which in this cooler weather feels really nice! We have meet a lot of people from riding bikes and they all seem really cool so hopefully we start teaching a lot of them! 

We had a family history booth at the library and a lot of people were super interested and wanted to learn more, so we are meeting with them all this week! 

I guess to talk about the title of my email, when we were doing service we were pulling trees out of yards so a member brought his tractor to make the work go faster and to cause less injuries to us. After, we were walking to the church to go to our next appointment and he asked if we wanted a ride (is that even a question:)) so we jumped into the bucket and rode to the church! It was so much fun and I got to cross something of my bucket list so that was a great thing! 

I had my first real southern meal and it was so so good! He made us sweet potatoes , which I have never liked, but they were so good! I did not think I would eat that many sweet potatoes! He also made banana pudding and I had so much of that, it was great and so yummy! 

We had exchanges this week and I stayed in Florence and I learned a lot from Sister Callahan. It was super fun! Dad you'll like this, her family has a blue grass band and she plays the mandolin! 

A  good talk for this week to read is "Ask in Faith" by David Bednar! 

Well I love y'all and I hope you have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

*Photo overload to make up for last week :)

Gotta Catch Them All

This week was kind of a weird week. 

Monday, we had FHE with the bishop and his wife. There was a bon-fire and we made homemade ice cream and it was so much fun! It was a really good way to get to know and meet more people! They are doing it again this week.

On Wednesday we had lock down staring at 8pm and then went into the next day due to Hurricane Michael. When it hit us, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm so #blessing! 

During the lock down, Sister Tucker taught me how to play Pokemon and it was more fun than I thought it would be! Call it beginners luck but I won! During a lock down, if you are ever wondering, it is just a lot of sleeping, studying, coloring, eating, and game playing! Thank you Mom for all the Halloween coloring things because we had a lot of fun with those! 

After lock down we went to a lot of members houses’ and we started talking about having a “Welcome Sunday”! A “Welcome Sunday” is where we get the ward to invite their non-member friends and then we have sacrament about a topic that everyone understands and that is not too deep and we sing songs that are uplifting. During third hour we have a social type event where we all get together and mingle and the people who came have also have an opportunity to talk to others and make friends, so when they come again they will know a lot more people! It will be super dope when it happens. 

We drove to the Conway area and had interviews with our mission president and it went really good! We then stayed there with our STL's and went to a stake Women’s conference the next day. Sister Heidi Swenten (To the Rescue author) spoke! It was such a good devotional about how we need to start seeing the Heavens open and the blessing pour out upon us! After we talked to her and her husband a lot! They are so sweet! 

Sunday was good. Meetings were only an hour then we watched some of the general women's conference with a recent convert! She loved it and it was great! That same day, to save miles, we rode bikes to President Harvey's house and did a lesson with them! They are so funny! He collects Halloween decorations and then he sang to us on his karaoke machine. His wife just laughed and said he does performances all the time for her! 

This week was super good! We found out that Elder Bednar is coming and speaking to our stake so hopefully we get to go! 

A good talk to read this week is Be Meek and Lowly of Heart. 

Well I love y'all and have a blessed week! 

Love,

Sister Jensen 

Flo-Town

Well, I am officially in Florence and I love it! The area is REALLY big, it’s like one of the biggest areas in the mission! Like I said, I love it! 

It was a kinda a weird week because there was a lot of saying goodbye and a lot of new hellos! The people that I have meet so far here in Florence are really nice! Members have feed us a lot this week. I know it’s not about food but it’s also nice! 

Well, my new companion is Sister Tucker and she is SO cool! She is from Dewyville Utah and went to Utah State! We are the same year but we have none of the same friends, so that’s crazy! She is the only person so far that knows Fantastic Mr.Fox, so brownie points right there! It’s kinda crazy to see all the things we have in common! It is so amazing and I have already learned a ton from being with her! She loves random Japanese things and she is going to try and teach me Pokemon, so we will see how that goes!

We had a lesson with a recent convert B”” and she is SO amazing and loved talking about her baptism. It was really sweet! We also meet with a less active member “L” and she is so, SO cute! She has had a lot of health issues and she is just the sweetest! She loves to have people over and hear messages and her love for the gospel is amazing! We also had a lesson with a member and it went really good! 

Saturday we were up bright and early to go and help with The Church’s Helping Hands (lol I don't know what they will change the name of that to)! It was so cool and such a great experience. We were able to go help people that had been affected by the Hurricane Florence and I feel blessed just seeing how much they appreciated the work that we were able to do! We also got a lot of contacts and they want us to come back to chat so that will be a good thing! 

Then it was conference! Holy Hannah there is a lot of changes coming to the church and it will be bomb! I think that having a strong focus in the home will help families become stronger in the gospel and be more fully converted! Also, 12 new temples is pretty bomb and it’s so exciting to see the work growing! 

A fun thing was that Grandma Julie sent a box of candy from Japan so everyone in the chapel (only missionaries and Tom, a new convert) tried the candy and it was fun to see reactions on some of the food! 

I guess if you didn't have the chance to watch Women's Conference, watch it! It was really good and President Nelson had some challenges that I think we should all try and complete! I know that if we do that our conversion will be deeper! 

Well, I love y'all stay safe and have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

Transfers are among us and...

This week was just a weird week but it was also really good! This email will probably be a short one just because honestly, nothing much happened!

I guess one of the major things that is happening is that transfers are TOMORROW! Both Sister Sanders and I are leaving Orangeburg! It is becoming an all Elders area, so that’s interesting! Sister Sanders is going to Walterboro and I am going to Florence! Which is really cool because that is where Sister Sanders trained so I already have a list of people to go and see! It is weird knowing that Sister Sanders and I wont be companions any more but we will be homies for life! We have a lot of trips planned! 

Another big thing that we found out this week is that we are going to have a special mission conference on the 23rd with a GENERAL AUTHORITY!!! We don't know who yet but it is going to be fire! 

A miracle that happened is that "R" came to church this week!!!! She told us she really enjoyed it and we talked about what general conference is and she wants to watch, so hopefully she does!! 

A funny story is that we went to this ladies house and did a Bible study with her and she asked us a lot of weird questions. She also asked us what we believe and we told her. Then, while reading the Bible she pulls out all of these religion books and the Book of Mormon was there. We talked about that and she seemed really interested and we got a return appointment to read the Bible and Book of Mormon with her. So not even 2 hours later we got a text from this girl saying that she can't meet with us anymore because we are Mormon’s and she doesn't believe what we believe! Crazy. I think Sister Sanders and I set a new record for fastest person that we are teaching dropped! 

A good chapter to read this week is Matthew 5! 

Get ready for conference because it is going to be straight fire!! 

I love y'all so much and I hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

I figured out a place worse than Wyoming...Hell

During our district council this week, an Elder said this to a couple of other Elders from Wyoming. It was pretty funny but super savage! 

This week was pretty good! We really didn't have a lot of clean up or a lot damage done to Orangeburg from the hurricane, so that alone is a blessing! 

We spent a lot of our time finding and contacting people to try and meet with them. It is going pretty good! 

On Tuesday we went over to a members house just to visit her and while we were there she kept saying how grateful that she was that we made the trip down to see her. So, she made us dinner it was just so sweet and yummy (Chicken Sandwiches!). 

Wednesday we got a new investigator! His name is Michael Myers and he is not scary at all! The first thing I saw when I read the name is Dad scaring us with the mask, but he is just so nice! He was a Bible referral and while we were there we talked about the Book of Mormon. He enjoyed what we said and we were able to give him a copy. We have another appointment with him this week! 

On Thursday we went to a less active and part members house. When we got there, one of the first things we did was start a fire. Everyone in the South burns their trash and he asked if we wanted to help. So, I lit a giant fire and it was so much fun! They are having us back this week to teach us how to cook chicken taquitos and to get to know them better! I am super excited! 

We are planning a virtual church tour so that more people will feel comfortable coming to church; we are hoping that will be good! 

This week was overall good. If you want to read something good read the conference talk “Hope, an Anchor of the Soul” by James E. Faust.

Well, I love y'all and hope y'all have a blessed week! 

Love,

Sister Jensen 

That was an experience

This week was super weird and didn't feel like real life!! Leading up to the hurricane, we were told to prepare and to stock up because our power would go out.  We were told that we would need food and we would need to fill up our bathtubs with water so we could force flush our toilets, so that was an experience. Every story that we went to was out of bread, milk, juice, eggs, water, and meat (I don't know why you would want to buy meat if your power went out but I guess I can't judge). The few days before the storm, everyone was  prepping or they went up state to avoid the rain, so they were not home. We did meet one new person though (“W”). We talked about religion, why we are serving, and gave him a Book of Mormon. When we were leaving he asked us to come back when his wife and daughters would be home so we could talk to them, so that will be dope when that happens! 

Wednesday night we got a call from our mission president asking us how we felt about staying in Orangeburg and we told him we were great and that we had a lot of members lined up who would help us if we needed it, so he said that was good and he felt good about it too. Thursday afternoon we got another call from him saying that he felt like it would be best if we evacuated and went and stayed in Columbia during lockdown, so we packed in two hours and went to Columbia! President Innes also told us that he had gotten a call from Elder Stevenson saying the first presidency prayed for us in the temple! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!! While we were on lockdown we had to stay inside and it was really boring. We tried contacting people but most of our days were spent eating, sleeping, playing games, and studying! It was honestly terrible because you just stop feeling like a missionary, so we are so glad to be back and working to share this amazing gospel! 

I am so glad that the hurricane did not hit us as hard as they thought but I am saddened to hear all of the damage that it cause to North Carolina. Please keep them in y'alls prayer still! 

A good read for the week is Alma 34 and also Elder Uchtdorf's talk “Point of Safe Return”. 

Well, I love y'all and I hope y'alls week is blessed!

Love, 

Sister Jensen

My name is Melvin but my friends call me Stud

Melvin is an older guy at the flea market who just talks and talks to us. He says that we are some of the nicest people he knows and he can tell we care about him (which is true!).

This week was super good! We had the traveling sisters (travel around and train other sisters on new things that our mission president is trying out) with us for two days. It was a lot to learn and work on but super fun!

We are teaching two new people and one super promising guy. 

We found a girl named “E” who is in high school and she is just the sweetest thing. The only issue is that we need to get parent permission because she is 17, but hopefully they will say yes! 

The other person we met is “P”! She is a nurse and super cool. She was talking about how heaven is for real and she said how she felt the spirit and knew it was real. I told her to watch “The Cokeville Miracle” if she wanted to really feel the spirit strong. She loved the Book of Mormon and said she wants to learn more, so score! 

We met another super promising guy named "D" who totally dadded us but was really interested. We have questions we ask people when we are at the flea market and then we talk about the question they like so we did that with him. We introduced the Book of Mormon and read about Alma and Amulek and the people in the fire (super intense story to share). He said he liked the story and could relate to it! So he accepted the Book of Mormon and wanted to take us to lunch to talk more. We got a text later that night about how he answered the questions and how he has a lot more questions now and how he is excited to meet with us. He then told us neighborhoods we should avoid and he is just super nice!

We had zone conference this week and it was super cool and really spiritual! We talked a lot about aligning preisthood keys and how we can help the alignment and I learned a lot more about preisthood. 

I guess I'll talk about hurricane Florence. Right now we are far enough inland that we shouldn't be affected by it. It should hit Thursday and then we will be on lockdown. We are safe and nothing bad is happening. The areas that will be hit more harshly are being evacuated and we might get more sisters with us. If we need to evacuate we will go to Columbia. We are prepared and ready for whatever happens! 

A good read this week would be the Saint’s book! I haven't finished all of it but what I have read of it is super good!

Well, I love y'all stay safe and have a blessed week!

Love, 

Sister Jensen 

Are you on this list?

At the flea market a Baptist preacher had this sign that had a list of things that are sins (liar, shed innocent blood, and so on) then on the bottom of the sign it said, “God isn't happy with you”. He was one super intense guy but he had free cold soda so we got some :)

This week was another slow week but that's okay! We had a lot of our teaching appointments fall through again but, on the bright side, all of the ones with members didn't so we are getting super close to them and it's so much fun! While we were leaving a members house their super cute little boy started to cry and went up to his mom and said, “Mom, I don't want the sisters to leave!”. It was so cute! Also, during the entire lesson he wanted me to put his hair in a side ponytail, so that was fun.

Everyday we go finding like crazy and it's been going pretty well. We have meet a lot of less active members and they all are super willing to have us back, so hopefully that will be good! 

I am on my phone writing this because the library was closed for Labor Day, so this is a bit shorter than usual but it was a slow week, so it’s all good. 

A good read this week is Ammon and King Lamoni! It shows how service and love can soften hearts! 

Well, I love y'all and hope your week is blessed!

Love,

Sister Jensen