LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • October 10th, 2011

Hey mom who is my dearest beautiful mom =)

Well transfers came up and I will actually be staying here. The funny thing is though is that I will be training a new elder again but the Elder hurt him self in the mtc so now I will have to wait a week to receive my new companion. So for the next few days I will be in a trio companionship until next Monday. Also they are doing a new training program for missionaries so I will probably be in this area another 12 weeks. Unless god feels like throwing another curve ball at me.

Rich and Donna and Bruce are doing very well. They all came to general conference and Donna loved it... The other 2... well... they had a harder time trying to stay awake. But hey I was proud of them all for making it to 3 sessions of general conference. I'm sure they watched more of the conference then most of the members here. Most of the members that I talked to said "oh no we haven't watched it yet. We just saved it on our tvo so that we can watch it later." That tvo is a great blessing. But I can see it being a huge stumbling block to allot of the Church members. Because now it allows members to do what Lucifer would want them to do. And that would be too procrastinate there time of hearing or listening to a prophet or apostles of the lord. "Oh, I will watch it later when I have time" a member will say. However they will keep procrastinating there time until they only listen to a few talks here and there and at some point life goes on and slowly they give no thought on watching it and allow the world to take control. Now I'm not saying that all the members do this. But I have seen many fall into this procrastination of watching general conference. But I do have to say. I loved all of general conference. I know that they say not to have favorites but I do love Elder Uchtdorf... He's always the one that answers my prayers. Also during this general conference I have grown to love our beloved prophet so much more. He has such a wonderful sense of humor. I feel like he's changed allot from when he was first called to be a prophet. He just seems so much more relaxed. =)

Well I have a fun story to tell this time. So right after district meeting me and my companion were on our way to get some lunch down one of our main roads here. On our way we passed by this guy smoking a cigaret. When we passed him my companion told me he felt like we should go back. So we did. We started to peddle our bikes and stopped him in this small tiny parking lot. We both shook his hand and he told us his name was Cody. We then started to tell him a little about the church and about how there would be a prophet speaking to us this Saturday and Sunday. He surprisingly started to sound a little interested. I started to think wow this might be one of our new investigators. When suddenly I see this black figure at the corner of my left eye walking towards us. And to my surprise it was a police officer dressed in black. I then started to think "oh great is he going to get mad at us because were in the middle of a small parking lot?" He then said in a commanding voice "Put out your cigaret Cody." He then again said "Put out your" He then quickly grabbed Cody's arm and tries to twist it around him. But Cody was to fast. Cody then quickly twisted back ward and threw the cop on the ground. (this cop was big too.) Suddenly another undercover cop car comes out of no where and pulls right up by us and tried to get out of the car but barely missed him! Cody was flying like the wind down the streets (He was fast.. clearly he had practice.) The cops were quickly right behind him and slowly disappeared in the distance. We were then there by our selves with our bikes and a couple of running cop cars with no one inside of them. We sat there for a little while still trying to recollect what just happened. Then looked at each other... and just busted out laughing. But in other high lights... We helped chase down a dog.

Well I'm out of time. Beautiful mother I love you and miss you.

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • September 26th, 2011

Hey mom who is so beautiful. Its me your one curly haired son. =)

More miracles have happen this week. God is still alive. What a surprise! =)

But first I want to start off on how happy I was on Tuesday this week. We went to a fire side with Rich and Danna who will both be getting baptized soon. But before the fire side We were talking with Donna and she kept having all these questions about the Book of Mormon and baptisms for the dead. Well we already got done answering allot of her questions and we then asked her to come to a fire side on Tuesday. When we asked her I felt prompted to promise her and promised her that if she prayed and asked God the questions she wanted to answered that it would be answered at the fire side (Which was for investigators and recent converts). I was a little hesitant at first to promise this because the fire side was going to be on the restoration and the Book of Mormon. And I knew that her question was going to be on the baptisms for the dead. But I felt prompted to say it so I did. Well we went to the fire side and the spirit there was great. We had another quorum of the 70 come down to our mission. (Our mission has been a hot spot lately.) But slowly after awhile the time kept going by and by and no answer or explanation was going on about baptisms for the dead. I was sitting in my chair starting to get worried and started thinking to my self "man why did I promise that... now she's going to start wondering if our promises even come true. What am I going to say after this?" Then he decided to do a question and answer section for everyone to ask him questions but there was only 20 minutes left. Question after question was coming up and no one was talking about baptisms for the dead. The 20 minutes went by very quickly and there was one final question and then he was going to be done. This lady raises her hand... She got the micro phone and asked..... " doesn't the bible say there should be nothing added to it? Doesn't the Book of Mormon count as adding to the bible?" Noooo! my promise was false. I then began to start thinking about what I would say to her. What should I do... Should I tell her "Well Donna... clearly I wasn't speaking from the spirit... or maybe I could say Blah blah blah! I had no idea what I was going to do." Finally he got done answering that question. But... All of a sudden he allowed one more lady to ask a question. The microphone got to the lady and she asked "Why is it that your church does baptisms for the dead?" Yesss! Thank you. A huge relief went over me. I had to thank God for teasing me and acting like he wasn't going to answer my prayer. The Elder explained it in such away that Donna was finally able to get over that hurdle and decided to move forward with her baptism.

A couple of days ago we taught Rich about The Word of Wisdom. We were a little scared about bringing it up because we knew that he liked to smoke allot. But we learned that he has tried to quit multiple times and has never been able too. And he told us that he would love to try and quit again. After we promised him that he would be able to quit. I told him "Rich if you do this stop smoking program that we have and you follow all the steps I promise you as being a Representative of Jesus Christ that this addiction will go away." He looked at us and he said he would do it. We then asked him if we could give him a priesthood blessing and we explained to him what it was. We then proceeded to give him the blessing and after words on the drive home he said. "You know I really felt something during that blessing. I had so much on my shoulders during the time and during the blessing it felt like all of my burdens were taken off of my shoulders. I'm not sure what it really was" We then explained to him that it was the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is so real its beautiful. =) I feel like I finally some what understand the feeling of the Holy Ghost. When it comes it allows me to speak boldly. It allows me to speak things that I wouldn't normally say to people. It allows me to feel if someone is bearing a true testimony or not. ( Which I'm not going to lie it helped allot this week. I will have to tell you some more stories when I get home.)

Also I want to mention that after the fire side I got to see some of the people that I taught in Moran Perry (My second area) I saw Sosa there as well as Linda. But as I was talking to them I felt a little tap on the back of my shoulder. I turned around and it was Mark Johnson! (The greatest black man in Spokane) I Was so happy to see him. He gave me big hug and really just made my whole day being able to see him and hear about him and Vickie's baptism. Even before that I got to see Susan this other lady I taught when I was in Moran Perry. She is the gal in one of my my videos on the 2nd SD card I believe before I was sent to Moscow. It was so great being able to see them all again. I was also able to see Elder Smith and Elder Bernard and other great friends that I love. It felt like a piece of heaven and it gave me a reminder of why I was out here. If I was that happy to see them I cant imagine how happy I will be when I see you guys.

Well the time has come to close again. Just know that I am doing well and that I love you. I hope things are going well back home. I miss and love you. I saw one of the young men picking on their mom at church and it made me miss you. I thought to myself " Oh I remember the good times that I got to hug and pick on my mom" So just know that right now you get a short break. When I get back I will be picking on you again. I love you so much.

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • September 19th, 2011

Dear Beautiful Mom that is mine.

We have had a couple miracles this week so I would call this week a pretty good week. =) We are also probably going to be having a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Danna Zietlow and the reason I say that she will "probably" be baptized is because she has been very sick for the past few days and also she has been having alot of hearing problems. But that's also one of the miracles that has happened this week. She asked us to give her a blessing after church yesterday so of course we did so. But during the blessing we told her to be healed according to her faith. When this happen she said that all of a sudden her ears starting cracking inside and her ears were cleared and she was able to hear normally again. After the blessing she was just smiling not really sure of what to say. It was great testimony builder for all of us of the priesthood power of God.

We will also be teaching a couple of new high schoolers this week as well. There names are Robb (boy) and Taylor (girl) that are dating each other. Taylor is a member that is having some trouble with her testimony right now and Robb is not a member but is willing to listen. Well we met the two kids at dinner yesterday at the Welch's and after dinner we usually have a 5-10 minute thought and leave. But not after this dinner... Sister Welch decided that she wanted to do the spiritual thought that day (Which is no problem at all unless they start doing what I'm about to tell that she did.) So we all sit down in this living room and watch this 8 minute video that was made probably "25 years ago" on the plan of salvation. I felt so sorry for Robb. I just wanted to scream and tell him " No Robb are church is not that cheesy and we don't watch these old movies any more" So the whole movie I was just praying that the holy ghost would still be there and that he might feel something. After the video she decided that she wanted to share the whole plan of salvation. So she grabbed a marker board and started to draw Pre- Earth life and started talking about the counsels in heaven in very deep detail. We would try to put a word in every now and then but there was no hope. She was on the loose and she was going to be doing the teaching. She then started talking about a heavenly father and a heavenly mother. After that she started talking about the Law of Chastity with everyone around. I was just praying that god would keep the spirit there over and over again. Each time we would try to keep the lesson on course or change it she would just cut us off over and over again. I honestly don't know how she did it but some how she started talking about the 9 different levels of heaven and how that if you are at the very bottom you can progress up wards. And that if you want to make babies you will be in the Celestial kingdom but if you don't that's ok because god has these other levels where you will just be single. I tried to tell her that that was false doctrine but each time I spat out a word she would go louder and louder. (She was on a rage of some sort. There was nothing stopping this woman.) So I just had to sit quit. She then started talking about how we can become Gods and that we can create worlds and that his baptism didn't count. After that I think she fit in a 30 second story of the first vision. Then some how back to the word of wisdom. The only thing that wasn't mentioned in that whole lesson was the Holy Ghost. ( I think the holy ghost made sure he wasn't apart of any of this.) So instead of trying to explain to him all of the things that she went over I just decided to ask them to come to one of our lessons on Wednesday. Surprisingly they said yes. After something like that I didn't think that could happen. =)

Rich Fraley will also be getting baptized on October 15th. We met him from street contacting a couple of weeks ago and I cant remember if I told you a little about him or not. But he is doing great right now. He went to his first Sunday yesterday and he liked it alot. (Even though they talked about baptisms for the dead and family history + temple work at the very end which made him have some questions) But a couple days ago we decided to ask him why he was being so open/accepting with everything. Reason we asked was because when you usually tell anybody about the Plan of salvation they either have problems with The pre-Earth life or the 3 kingdoms of heaven. But as we taught him he would always tell us " hmmm Well that makes sense." or he would say "ya I believe that to" So we finally asked him " Well Rich... Why do you keep coming to these lessons?" He looked at us and said " I had a friend a couple years ago who I have always looked up too. He never went to anyone's church at all but he would always study the bible and knew it very well. One day I asked him what he thought about the LDS church and when I asked that he told me... Rich that church has a key to heaven. Out of all of the churches in the world that church is the most correct. If you ever get a chance to speak with them make sure you give them a chance and listen to them." So about 10 years later we saw him on the side of the street and started to speak with him about the church and asked if we could take him on a church tour and it just went on from there. Its amazing how god works. His friend moved away though but I wish we could speak with him as well.

Well that's how things are going on here. I love you most beautiful mom =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • August 29th, 2011

Dear Mom who I still love and will always love.

Things here in my new area are going great. Its always a little more stressful trying to learn everyone's names again but I feel like I'm getting really good at that by now. I still haven't seen the lake here yet but maybe I will go see it today for P-day and see what it looks like. I hear the lake here is very beautiful. So if its good enough maybe will have to come visit up here some time. Will see though

My new companions name is Elder Pierson. (not Kierson) The zone leaders told me the wrong name last time. He has broken about 8 different things on his bike since I have been here. Its has been pretty funny. We have been working hard though. This last week we have been helping a lot of people move so just so you know when I get back I am pretty much a licensed mover now with all the people that I have had to help move since I have been out.

Well we are living in a pretty nice apartment. Its the biggest apartment that I have stayed in so far so it has been very nice. We have no AC again though so I always have to be next to a fan or I just start to swim in my own sweat. And thank you for that birthday money. It actually was spent to fix up a part of my bike. So I have been living off of peanut butter and eggs and reeses for the past week. I no longer like eggs or reeses any more. Its ok though we are finally getting our next payment on Wednesday so that I can start eating something more healthy. I have been getting lots of protein though so I think that's good. Man I love my mission.

Well hopefully this week we will have more people that we will be committing to baptism. Its so weird how different each area feels. I love so many families here already though. I feel like this is going to be a really good area.

Well I love you my most beautiful mom

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • August 20th, 2011

Dear way beautiful mom still.

So you know how I get move around a lot? Well that still hasn't changed. Transfers came up again and I will now be going to Cour d'elane. I think my purpose here is to travel and explore the whole mission. I've now been in Moses lake, South Spokane, Moscow, North Spokane, Lewiston, and now Cour d'elane. I still haven't been in an area longer then 12 weeks. I really thought this time I was going to last longer but who am I kidding. So I will be moving tomorrow at around 3:15.

Well I had to so good bye to Yire (G-ray) Last night and I'm not going to lie it was very hard for both of us. I will be keeping in contact with her through my mission but it was still very hard. She will also be going back to Mexico on September 14 so I wont be having a chance to ever see her again while I'm on my mission. She is such a strong member though. We have been going through a lot of questions and answers with her lately to try and prepare her when she goes and sees her family again. Her whole family is going to sit around and listen to her about the gospel. So I guess will see what happens.

Things in this area have been so wonderful. A couple less actives have started coming to church. Have 2 people that will be getting baptized soon here. And the lady that we tracted into is going to be baptized. (She just doesn't know it yet) Its so weird how fast you can be attached to new people. It feels like just a couple of days ago I got here. This mission stuff goes by fast. Well I guess the next area I'm going too is one of the biggest anti place's in our mission. So I might have a lot more stories to tell you guys in the next few weeks until I get transferred again in a couple of weeks.

Well sadly this week one of the guys (Don Russel) that we have been teaching the temple classes too, to prepare him to go to the temple went into the hospital because of breathing problems. We were able to finish all the temple lessons with him before he went in though. I will have to be saying goodbye to him today as well.

Suzzet in my last area seems to be doing very well lately. She was asked by the stake president to give her testimony in church a couple of days ago and she is also now a secretary in her ward.

I have also found out that mark and Vickie in south hill that we were teaching also got married and then baptized in the church and just a couple of weeks ago he got the Aaronic priest hood. Also I cant remember is I told you already but the Blest family that we were teaching there also got baptized.

I also cant remember if I told you this one either (sorry) but I found out that also Chris Jones in my very first area(The person we found tracting) also got baptized when he turned 18 because his parents wouldn't let him until he was an adult and he will also be serving a mission in about a year.

Man I love my mission. I'm so glad that god sent me to the greatest mission in the world. Our talk here with Elder Tom Perry of the twelve and also Elder Clayton of the seventies was also a great testimony experience Watching apostles on TV doesn't even come close the power you feel when you are near them. When Elder Tom Perry spoke I knew that this man had authority

from god. Any one there could feel it. It was also a great experience to shake his hand. (By the way Elder Tom Perry is a huge guy. I have never realized how big he actually is)

Well things here are going great. My mission has been going great as well. Well great besides I lost my camera when we went and saw Elder Tom Perry. I have been pretty sad that I have now lost my last 4 transfers of pictures. I have searched every where for it and I haven't been able to find it any where. I'm praying that someone will bring it to me soon. All I really want is that SD card. But other that that everything here is going great. This area was amazing and We will have to come visit here again some time soon when I get back. I love you my most beautiful mom. Oh and did I mention we have the greatest family in the world? I love you =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • August 1st, 2011

I just want to begin and say my 20th birthday was amazing. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful family that takes care of me. I loved everything I got. I'm actually wearing one of the new light blue shirts that I got right now. And then I used some of the lemon head candy's to bribe the little kids at church to like me. I feel like I'm back in the 1st stages with Brooklynn back in the day when I was home. I'm glad Brooklynn taught me how to bribe little kids to like me because now I got the little ones giving my high five's when I go to church. So little Brooky... thanks =) I don't know what I'm going to do when I get home when there is going to be a complete other family of little people running around. But that's not a bad thing. Its actually a very good thing because our family is so awesome and I'm sure God feels that way to so he trusts us with more of his little ones. Not only that but he also trusts us with the way cute one's.

So this week has been pretty exciting. We finally got in to the juvenile correction center that has been trying to meet missionary's for 9 months. I have been tying to get in there for 8 weeks so pretty much the moment I got here. I have been finding all these members of our church trying to get them to talk to the religious coordinator there and nothing was working. So God decided to help me out and led us randomly into the middle of nowhere with tree's and mountains everywhere. So we knocked on this guys house and he happen to be one of the main managers of the facility and now we are actually really good friends with him. So he gave us the hook ups that we needed and we finally ended up making it there to the kid that wanted to speak with us. It was quit an amazing experience how God just made everything work. Terry Lewis is the guy that we tracted to and God really did just soften his heart for us so that he didn't make us do fingure prints or anything to get in. He told us "You know I havent really ever done this but... I understand that you missionaries get transferred about every 6 weeks so I talked with the boss and asked if it was ok for you guys to come in every Wednesday to speak with this kid with out the prints" So his boss told him it was ok so we are now meeting with him every Wednesday. Not going to lie though... It was a little scary when we were in there. They had 3 body guards around us almost the whole time. =)

well i have to go. I love you so much. =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 25th, 2011

Beautiful mom. I have survived another week in this crazy jungle. =)

Yire will be calling you soon. They called me yesterday for the house number. So I gave them your number and the home phone.

This last week we got a miracle phone call. A less active lady that hasn't been to church for 7 years called us up on Monday night. Recently in her life she has been having a very hard time and hasn't known what to do. She has been praying and asking God what she should do and she got the answer that she should try and talk with the missionaries. Suddenly as she was praying she looked out the window and saw us both riding on our bikes. In her mind she knew that was her answer. She tried running outside to stop us but didn't reach us in time. Little later on she was thinking to her self on what she should do. She was wishing that somehow she had our number so that she could call us. As she was picking up the phone not knowing who to call.. Again suddenly she sees us ridding by on our bikes. She again didn't have time to come out and stop us. She was starting to feel a little hopeless but still she knew that her answer from god was that she needed to speak to us. At this time she had no idea who to call or know how to get a hold of us. So the day went on and she had no idea what she should. Then the very next day she goes to one of her friends house and see's a picture of Christ on the table. Hydie then asked her friend "where did you get that picture from." Her friend then replied " Oh, I got it from some of the Mormon boys that came by awhile ago." Hydie then asked "Does it have a number on the back of it?" Her friend looked at the card and said "I'm not sure I havent really looked at it. Why do you ask any ways?" Hydie then reached over and flipped over the card... and to her relief she see's a cell phone number on the back. God answered her prayers and guided her to us. God used something like a simple card to answer her. She later on that night called us and asked if she could speak with us. We then went over and learned what had happen and that she wanted to start coming back to church. We are now teaching her and her boyfriend and trying to help them over come some of there addictions. Its amazing how God is always watching over his children.

I love you beautiful mom. =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 18th, 2011

Dear best mom.

I'm glad to hear that everyone got to meet Sosa. She is a wonderful lady and has taken very good care of me. Also I'm not sure if you have heard but Yire (Pronounced "G-ray") the lady that I baptized here in Lewiston has been trying to get a hold of you. She wants to meet the whole family very badly and she went down to Salt Lake a couple weeks ago kept calling the home phone and left messages but no one picked up or called back. I told them it might have been because you were very busy taking care of dad. However she is going down to Salt Lake again this week on Tuesday and she wants to meet the whole family very badly because they are not sure when they are going to ask her to go back to Mexico. So please look for her call sometime soon this week. She is one of the most spiritual girls that I have met. I know that you will love her. And this will be the last person to come and visit you from my mission for a while I promise. =)

But things here have been going great. Mission life is just one of a kind. One moment your tracting doors then the next moment your chasing animal... Who knows whats going to happen on one of your days on the mission.

So in my email today I just want to share why I love my mission. One of the reasons is all the random stuff that happens. For example a couple of days ago we went out tracting doors and we ran in to this older guy with a sweet handle bar mustache. As we were talking with him we hear some older lady across the road yell "Help! My goat is loose!" So us being courageous missionary's over their with our suit and ties chasing around a goat for 20 minutes around her garden. Finally it was caught and we tied a rope around its neck and brought it back in the cage. We asked if we could give the lady a card but she said "no that's ok" and walked off. Right after she started walking off another guy came to us and asked if we could help him pour some gas in his moving truck. During that time we were already late for dinner with one of our members but us being kind missionaries not knowing how to say no to someone said "Yes we can help you out." So for half an hour we tried pouring gas in side his truck through a man made funnel that he created. During the time we taught him the restoration and he said that we could come back and share more some time. Right after that we had to run to our bikes and we booked it to the members home that was cooking us some dinner and also some of our investigators. But when we showed up we were just drenched in sweat and we just smelt like we went swimming in gasoline. But we had a nice dinner with the families and taught them about faith with faith paper and then it was about time to go home. All of that happen in about 3 hours time. Sometimes the mission is just to much fun. =) Just a couple days again I was having problems with my bike and we ended up pulling up on the side of the road. No longer then 5 minutes with us on the road a cop pulls up. In my head I was like " Oh, great now this cop is going to think we have been up to something because we were standing right next to a burnt down Grace Harvest Church. But when the cop pulled up I soon realized that it was Bro. Reese in our first ward. So we ended up talking with him for a couple minutes and randomly another family shows up that was walking by named the Godfree's. We pretty soon had a whole group of Mormons talking about there missions. After that the Godfree's went and grabbed there truck and pulled it over to throw our bikes in. Then the police officer led us to his home so that I could borrow his bike for a time. We then through his bike in the back of the truck and they took us home. In that moment I realized how much I love this church. Members are willing to sacrifice so much sometimes. I really feel like this church is just one big happy family. So just know that I am getting taken care of out here. =)

Well I wish I could write more but I have to get going.

I love you so very much mom. =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 11th, 2011

Dear dang amazing mom. =)

Miracles have been happening a ton here lately.

Miracle # 1 is that I am actually staying here. My new companions name is Elder Walker so will see how things go with him.

Miracle # 2 This area has been blessed so much by God. Every night for the past few weeks I have been praying that he would make me so busy with people to see that I would be overwhelmed and that I wouldn't know what to do with my time. Well he's been answering my prayer.. We have been cutting down our lunches and dinners and some days we don't even eat dinner till we get home at 9:00-9:30 And the hardest rule for us to keep right now is being in before 9:30 with how much work is going on. We have been seeing so many people the past few weeks. We found 8 new investigators last week. 6 new investigators this week. Have had a couple less active families starting to come back to church. Have been having plenty of lessons to teach to people. Started bringing the youth out with us and they now love to come out so they have actually been setting weekly times that they can go tracting with us. (I love the youth of our church by the way) We have been having a ton of investigators and less actives coming to play basket ball with us on Mondays. Its been amazing with how many things are going on in this area. I'm loving it. I can honestly tell you I almost have no time to really even think by my self with all of the phone calls and getting lessons ready etc... I've been so grateful for how busy the lord has been making us.

Miracle # 3 I really do just love my mission. Last night we were tracting with one of the youth and he looks at me and says " Man every time i have gone tracting I have never gotten in to one of the houses. We have just always talked on the door step." So I looked at him and said " Well we are going to get one today then" A couple houses down we knock on this ladies door. She is probably in her late 50's I would say but she answers the door and says "Guys I'm Lutheran and there's no way that I'm going to join your church." So I smiled and said " Well I promise we don't try to take away from your faith at all. We really just go around and try to strengthen others faith in Christ in these hard times." She looks at me and replied " Oh I already have a very strong faith in Christ and I'm doing just fine. Well I'm going to have to go put away these dogs. Thank you for stopping by." after that I hurried and finished another sentence saying " Well can we give you a pamphlet to read?" She replied quickly and said "Nope." So i looked at her again and asked "Well can we give you a card?" She looked at me again and gave the same repeating answer. So I looked around at her yard and then asked well is there any service we can do for you? She then gave the amazing same answer. "No thanks I'm doing great.I did hurt my arm a little while ago though." She was slowly starting to lighten up to us a little bit after that. I was about to give up and just head off so I said " Well can we just give you are number and if you ever need help with your yard or anything you can just give us a call." She looked at me and finally decided to say sure I'll take your number" So I smiled and said great. After that I started to pull out a card and she stopped me and said " You know what..... You guys can just come in." Wow!! her whole countenance just changed in a blink of an eye. We got on there and just started talking with her and she opened up to us very fast. If there is one thing I have learned from that lesson was that "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." I know that she could feel the love we had for her. At the end of us speaking with her we found out that her husband was the one that broke her arm and that she was going through alot of other things during the time. Then at the very end she took the Book a Mormon. After that I promised her that each time she was feeling alone or burdened that if she would pick up the Book of Mormon she would be able to feel it all be lifted up. and that would be her witness that the Book of Mormon is true.

Well i got to go. I love you. =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • May 31st, 2011

Dear mom who is way beautiful to me. =)

This week has been a little crazy. Elder Smith and I had to help some other missionary's with there companion ship inventory because of how bad they wanted to kill each other. So we ended up staying up till 1:00 trying to help them out. There is so many things that happen to you on a mission its quit funny. =)

The baptism went great. It was picture perfect the way everything went. There were a ton of families that came to support Suzette from the ward and also Audrey's baptism. I don't know if i told you but we were also teaching an inactive family that is now coming back to church and there daughter got baptized with Suzette. It was so cute how Audrey treated Suzette. She gave her the biggest hug and said to her " We are like sisters now." My experience with confirming her was amazing. Yes it was my second time confirming someone but this one was so much stronger. I got up to confirm her a member of the church and I wasn't really scared at all. But as I was giving the blessing and as i said "Receive the Holy Ghost" My whole body started to shake. It was amazing how everything was going through my mind. It really was blank and I felt like God helped me with every single word to say. I guess I can just say I wish you were there. But by the time I said Amen my whole body completely stopped shaking. It has been by far the strongest time I have ever felt the spirit during a blessing.

The ward has been going so wonderful. It is now actually one of the top teaching lessons in the mission. Also the highest finding. God has been blessing this area tremendously. The wards 1 year anniversary is today so we had the first baptism in this ward which was really amazing to us. I was grateful to be here.

But..... sadly once again..... I will be the one leaving again. I will be leaving to Idaho and going to Lewiston Tuesday morning. I'm going to be baby sitting an Elder so will see how it goes. I really didn't want to leave this area though. I still don't know why I'm always the one leaving. Elder Smith this whole week kept telling everyone that he was leaving and so he started saying good bye to everyone. So it gave me some hope that I might actually be staying. Then I started to joke around with others and saying "watch it will be the complete opposite and I will be the one leaving." A couple days ago Elder Smith asked me "Why don't you ever learn the street names?" I looked at him and said " Oh you will see why" He knew what I meant when I said that when I got the transfer call a couple days later. The whole ward was shocked that I was the one leaving and they put it all over face-book. I started to laugh when I heard that. I guess I'm just an area hopper. =) Things were so wonderful here though. I got a call last night from Suzette and she was just balling on the phone when she heard I was leaving. It was a hard phone call. She will be an amazing member though. Well hopefully one day I will understand why I get moved around so much. But until then I will just keep moving forward with confusion in my eye's. =)

Also I thought I would tell you that the letters that you sent to Suzette not only helped her but also touched her mothers heart when she read them and she is now sitting in on the lessons. So I thought I would just tell you guys that you did some missionary work by just sending those letters. Its astonishing how God works in so many different ways.

Well next time I will be emailing you I will be in Lewiston so I will be sure to tell you how I'm doing. I love you so so so much Mom and your still the very best mom ever made. =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • April 11th, 2011

Dear favorite mom.

I'm glad Baby Creed was blessed last Sunday and that so many family members showed up. =) Its amazing what God blesses us with isn't it?

Well alot has happened this week. But I feel like I should write a little bit what happen a couple weeks ago. I didn't want to share it before but now that I have been seeing gods hands in things that have happen I feel like I should share whats going on. Alright a couple weeks ago I had a very hard time with some of the things that were going on and things are going to sound a little dark when I say them at first but in the end you see gods hands come into play. It was a beautiful day outside at about 5:00 Sunday. We decided that we were going to go and see this lady named Tina who hasn't gone to church for a couple years. We have had a couple other appointments with her before but none like this one. So we knock on her door and her son lets us in and we meet her older son and older daughter for this first time and everything was going well. They then went down stairs and we started to talk with Tina a little bit about her patriartical blessing because we had an ex-patriarch with us. But as we were talking I kept hearing all this noise coming from down stairs. (Such as banging against the wall, glass breaking and the F word 100 times) I finally couldn't handle it anymore and said Tina I think you should make sure everything is going OK downstairs? (I guess she couldn't really hear anything but I'm still not sure if she was acting like it.) So she went down stairs and we just started to hear all this yelling and a couple other words. Finally the daughter came back upstairs and went into her room and Tina came in a little up set. I stood up and looked at straight in the eye's and asked if everything was OK. She looked at me and was nodding yes but then started to get teary eyed. So we all set back down and she started to talk to us a little bit again and we could tell that her son was being abusive by that time because of how she was acting and I started to ask if this stuff happen all the time and she just said it did sometimes. We then started to hear more crying and could tell that the son was by her daughter again and the daughter kept whispering please stop, please stop you have to be quite. The son continued to be angry and outraged. The patriarch was totally calm during this time and I'm not sure if it was because of his old age or what and then out of the blue the patriarch asked "Well Tina is there a time that we can set that we can come back" And oh man was I mad! Right when he said that I cut him off and said "No! Tina are you OK right now?" and continued to talk with her and was just mad that the patriarchs biggest worry right then was another appointment. . . A few seconds later we heard another glass break and Tina said I'll be right back and walked off again. I felt like he was being abusive to the daughter again and I couldn't handle it anymore. My heart started to pump my blood started to flow my hand started to squeeze tighter and tighter. . . That's when I stood up and said " I'm sick of this." I was going to kill the kid. I started to walk around the table (My companion later on told me that my chest was pumped way out too) and I started to walk towards the door when I heard the most piercing "ELDER!" that I have ever heard on my mission. I heard it so strong that I literally stopped right where I was and looked back thinking my companion said that but when I looked back at him he looked all puzzled like as if to say "Why did you stop? Lets go kill this guy." Then I looked at the patriarch and he was just moving up and down on his rocking chair so I know he didn't say it. I then sat back down wanting so badly to go get that guy. A little bit later she came out and I asked if I could go talk with her and she told me no not right now. So we left and it was just in my mind all day. I didn't know what to do. I felt like this biggest wimp and felt like I did the wrong things. I kept thinking why did I not go and stop this. I later on asked my companion why he yelled at me and told me to stop when he said "Elder" To my surprise he said that he never said anything. He then told me a little on his view and he said that he was confused when I turned around like I did. But he never heard anyone say "Elder!" I feel like now that the Holy Ghost for what ever reason didn't want me to go over there. But your never going to believe what happen in a few weeks =)

Part 2. A few weeks later we decided to go back again and to our surprise Tina was very very happy. We started to talk with her and she said that her prayers were answered. (So were ours) But she told us that her son moved out because he finally was able to get a job as being a chef and her daughter moved out to her new apartment. So now its just her and her 10 year old son and they are just loving life and we are now able to have lessons with her when ever we want. God pretty much just said " OK here you go. I took them out so that they will now be able to be taught." We are always able to feel the spirit there every time we go. We love those guys =) It took me so long to get over what happen too. I felt like for so long that I made the wrong choice by not going and stopping them. I don't know what would have happen. But after hearing this things went so much better for me. I wish I could have gone into more detail but I have to go.

I love you my mom =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • April 4th, 2011

Dear Mom who is way beautiful.

Things are going fantastic here. Me and Elder Smith are just having a great time. I feel like I'm with one of my best friends here so its making things fly by right now. General conference was amazing! I cant believe I would ever sleep some times while watching it. General conference is our Christmas time on our mission. The priesthood session help me out so much too. All I can say is Elder Ucthdorf answered my prayers. However if there is one thing that I learned from general conference from the priesthood session and the last session of conference is that I am doomed and will be getting some Dear John letters soon. Man after the prophet finished his talk in priesthood I turned to my companion and said " Man I'm on a mission and if i was home... I would probably marry the first girl I saw after that talk."

Well things here are still booming and we are still finding a lot of new investigators. The other missionaries here don't like us very much though because of how well we are doing. Its actually kind of funny we are loving it. God has been blessing us so much with so many people to teach. =)

So mom remember how I was never really good at following the rules and I would always like to do random crazy things? Well I still haven't changed from that very much. Its not that I'm doing anything really bad its just that I like to have fun out here while I work. And its the same way with Elder Smith and that's why we get along so well. Anyways... Last night we got home and there is this bible study class that we always ride our bikes past. Well a great idea came into my mind that maybe we should go into that bible study class and pick out certain points that talks about the book of Mormon and our church. For example; "Prophets and Apostles and other sheep that I have" So I turned to Elder Smith and told him of my master plan. After a little time past he agreed that it would be a lot of fun and that we might find some new investigators this way. (Because there's always around 15 people that are in these bible study classes.) So we started to change out of our church cloths and put on our Levi's and bling bling and went out the door. Shortly after as we started walking to our destination and we noticed that there were a lot of people starting to leave the building. So we started to walk up to the front door (Looking like a pair of college kids) and walked right in. The people there looked at us a little puzzled and just stood there looking at us for a bit. I looked at the guy that looked like the leader and said " Hey, we have always seen all these people come in this building and have always wondered what it was" We then saw all there faces light up with a smile and they said " Oh, Well we have been waiting for you..." At that point I thought they caught us and knew that we were LDS Missionaries. (Because we would ride our bikes past there building at least 6 times a day) So I smiled at them and said " Oh really?" They replied " Ya, every one here is welcome and we just come here playing games and stuff here and hang out. (We knew they were lying because we new for a fact that they do bible studies.) So Elder Smith said " Well do you guys do Bible study? Because I see some scriptures up on that board." They all of a sudden got really tense and not knowing what to say because they didn't want to scare us off by saying they did Bible studies. finally after a short time they told us that they did but it wasn't all the time and it was just for fun. We then started to act really interested in the Bible study and there whole motive changed and they said "Oh ya we do Bible studies all the time and people get to ask any questions they want to help them understand the Bible. It doesn't really matter if you guys don't know very much because we will help you out. We really just have an open discussion with everyone. And doesn't matter if you guys aren't very smart." Wow! now look how fast he judged us for not being very smart and not knowing anything! So we smiled and said " Wow that sounds fantastic. We would love to come and do a Bible study sometime with you guys." We continued to talk a little bit and asked them a few more questions. But then they started to ask us some question's... You have to remember that we didn't want them to know that we were Mormons yet and not only that but that we were also missionaries. So they asked what we did down here. In my mind I was like (Ah flip!) I tried to hurry and think of something and the first thing that came out was "Ummm uhhhh We just left High School and were not going to school right now because we just felt like school wasn't for us. (And I wasn't lying mom just in case you were wondering. Because school wasn't for us. The mission was.) They then asked ah did you guys go to Shadle High School. The same thing went through my mind again. (Ah Flip!) I wasn't going to lie to them so I said " No, no we didn't go to Shadle High School." (Hoping that they would drop it from there but they didn't) They then looked at me again and asked "Oh then what high school?" Gah! Why couldn't they just leave it alone! I looked at the lady that asked and tried to think fast and said "Oh, ummmm Copper Hills, ya Copper Hills" They looked at me with a confused look and said "hmmm Copper Hills? I don't think I have ever heard of it before... Where is it at?" Ah man they were killing me I was trying to do everything I could with out telling them that I was from Utah so I answered while nodding my head up and down "Oh, its in South Jordan" Hoping that this time they would stop asking... but that hope was in vain when they asked "South Jordan? Where is that? " We then decided that things were starting to get too risky." Its in Utah. But ummmm we got to go but we would love to come to one of your guys bible studies." They replied " Ya that would be great. Well do you guys go to a church at all?" Ah flip I had no idea what to say there! So its great that Elder Smith answered "Ya we go to a Christian church" They all nodded as if to say "Ah, OK" Luckily for us they didn't go any further then that. So in the end they still don't know that were Mormon but in due time we will tell them. I will be sure to tell you what happens next week or the week after. =)

But things here really are going great and the members are taking care of us. Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much. We get fed by our investigators almost everyday now too and randomly people will just buy us food and give it to us. God has been watching over us in so many ways. Testimony of the church grows more and more everyday.

I love you so much my beautiful mother. I'm so grateful for all of your wonderful letters and prayers. Thank you so much for everything you do and have done for me. I'm so grateful for all of the ways you had taken care of me growing up. You always stayed strong to the faith even when no one else was. The one thing that sticks out to me most that you have taught me was to "Endure to the end" Thank you so much mom. You have truly given me strength. Also Since I have been out here I have realized that I'm a lot more like dad then I realized. I don't know if you ever noticed that but it just hit me this week that I'm really just "chill" you could say like dad. I realized how much I love him and you so much more. I really do look up to both of you so much and I could never ask for any other parents. Thank you so much for everything you have taught me.

I love you. =)

-Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • March 7th, 2011

Dearest Beautiful Mom-

Well remember how I said in my last letter that I didn't want to get transferred? Well what do you think happen? I'm sure you can guess.... I'm getting transferred "again." I have been transferred so much. This will be my fourth area in 6 months... That Isn't normal at all. Elder Young one of my MTC buddies here is getting transferred to his 2nd area finally. I didn't want to leave this place so badly. I was actually praying during sacrament that I would not get transferred.. That's how much I wanted to stay. Things here were going so well. We were starting to have so many lessons and set appointments then from when I first got here. Also me and this kid named Ryan who was 17 were great friends. He wasn't planning on serving a mission or anything but he and I really just became great friends that he was always wanting to come out to lessons with us when ever we had them. I started playing basket ball with him too every Monday and he was actually inviting all of his friends to listen to the missionary lessons. We were having so many great things starting. I honestly feel like this was not a right decision to move me out of here. But if I believe this church is true then that means I should have trust in my mission president but still... I really really wanted to stay. But really fast before I have to get off and pack I just want to say that I have a testimony that the Holy Ghost really does give you the things that you need to say when you need to say it. We were teaching this guy named John who has been going to church for 2 years but wont get baptized. When we were talking with him he would always go off topic and talk about something else. Well last time as we were talking with him he started to talk about his students and how they were all different. He started to talk about this student he had that would always come to school but was always really lazy with the homework. He started to ask us why do the young men come to school and not do everything they are asked so that they can get good grades? There the ones that signed them selves up for it. So I looked at John and asked him " Well can"t that go both ways? Why would you keep some of the commandments of God and not all of them like being baptized?" He started to think about it and tried to reply back but then just stopped and said " Well... honestly I don't know. I'll get back to you on that question later." It keeps going on from there but I don't have much time. Mom, I really do love you and I hope things keep going great back home. I'm glad to hear that your going to be a lead teacher soon too. Oh, I almost forgot to say that I'm getting transferred back to Spokane but now I'll be in North Spokane instead and my new companions name is going to be Elder Smith. I'll be sure to tell you how he is next week and how my new area is.

Love you gorgeous mom of all moms.

-Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • February 21, 2011

Dear greatest Mother of Elder Jensen.

I am so over joyed right now with the way things are going at home right now. Truly I am. I have heard so many things are going so great back at home. So much so that i'm not sure if all of what you and others have been telling me the full truth. It just sounds to good to be true.

The baptism went great and this family is just so amazing. They will be receiving the Holy Ghost next Sunday since they were out of town for some rugby games. The work here is still moving on and is going wonderfully. I had the greatest lunch ever this week too. No joke i have never been so full in my life! We brought Mike Jones with us to one of our members house named Brigham Young and Issac Young( They both live up to there name too.) We had the biggest Texas dinner/ Thanks giving dinner possible. I have not eaten that good for so so long. After that we were able to have a wonderful testimony meeting with Mike Jones. We had that lunch at 3:30 though and I forgot that we had a member dinner at 5:00 so right after we had lunch we went tracting for a little bit and had to go eat again. And I can tell you that never before have I prayed to God so much to eat my food for me. I was literally begging my Father In Heaven that he would help me eat this food that was placed before my stuffed face. Each and every single bite I had to drink a cup of water so that I would be able to keep it down. And of course I was smiling and saying how good it was tasting. But the important part is that I made it and I was able to finish it all ( Even though I was the last one done.) But no hard feelings were hurt so all was well. =) We have started getting alot of set appointments now too. Alright so this next part I'm going to tell you is part of the fulfillment of my Patriarchal Blessing. Truly my testimony has grown alot after this week. Being able to see things come to pass. I'm not going to lie since I have been out God has taught me so so much. I remember in my blessing it said I was going to be a great teacher for I had a great capacity to teach. During the time I didn't even know anything about teaching and I always felt very dumb and weak in everything that I did. But these last few weeks I have been able to see how much the Lord has been teaching me and helping me. My ward missionary leader came to me and said we need to start seeing more members while we still have you here because you have a great capacity to teach. He almost said it word for word on what my patriarchal blessing said. Mom the Lord really has been helping me and teaching me so much. I have been able to do things that I have never been able to even think I would be able to do. I was also able to bare my testimony during church. It was fast and testimony meeting and no one would go up. So my companion told me to go up. Of course I had to say "If you go I'll go." So he stood up and bore his testimony and came back down. So I felt like great well now I have to go up. But I understand now when my blessing said I would be able to stand up and bare testimony of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Mom, I felt the Spirit so strong when I went up and I know that the Lord was telling me the things that I needed to say. I was pretty much telling my story how I went away from the church but at age 18 and came back because of my brothers testimony and how strongly I felt the Holy Ghost again. Then started bearing my testimony that people change and don't ever give up hope. After I sat down members started to flood the pulp-pet and started to bear testimony on how there were still members in the family that they have been trying to help come back and so on. After words a couple families came and talked with me just saying how much they needed that. Mom, I know that the Lord gave me the things that I needed to say. I'm so blessed to have a family like I have that has been able to help me receive this testimony of the Savior that I have. That night I got a call from the mission president and of course I was scared to answer. "Hello this is Elder Jensen" President:" Elder Jensen this is President Palmer how are you doing Elder? Me: "Ah, I'm doing great president" Thinking inside oh crap what have I done this time. President:" Elder I just got out of one my meetings with all the stake presidents and president Pennington said that you gave one of the most beautiful testimony's that has helped him out so much at this time in his life. Elder Jensen I cant tell you how happy that makes a president to hear something like that from one of his missionary's. We talked a little more after that and man was I happy. I am so grateful that the Holy Ghost was able to bare witness of what I was saying was true because I felt like I was speaking pretty weak. But as the scriptures say " I will make your weak things become strong" So this is my miracle of the week. But this is not the only miracle that has happen. The other miracle is how well everyone is doing back home. You have no idea on how grateful that makes me. God has been blessing us so very much. So please in your prayers have a prayer of gratitude to our wonderful loving Father In Heaven. I love you the best mom in the world. And I am sorry I was not able to write yesterday. It was a holiday and well we work the most on those days. =) So if I dont ever write you its because its a holiday.

-Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • February 14th, 2011

Dear most gracious and marvelous mom.

Things have been going great but I know I say that all the time but they are! We had a baptism this Sunday with the Ribble family and the place was packed! Everyone was so supportive for them and they are going to make great Mormons. Alright so miracle of the week. Last Monday after I emailed you guys we had a lesson with a guy named Mike Jones. This guy looks just like the red headed Ron guy on Harry Potter. Well anyways we had our third lesson with him and we were going to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. As we were talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ we started to talk about the Holy ghost. So I looked at Mike and asked him " Do you love Jesus Christ?" He looked at me and said "Yes I do."... " Do you want to come closer to him?"... " Ya I do." I then looked at him in the eyes and asked " Then what do you have against being baptized by someone holding that priesthood authority of God?" He sat there and started to think for a minute and replied " I'm not really sure that you guys have that authority." After that we started to answer some of his questions and bore our testimony's and asked him a second time if he would be baptized and we got that same repeating answer... "No"... I could feel the spirit there and I couldn't understand why he just wouldn't say yes. So I decided to ask him some more questions. "Mike do you believe there is God?" "yes" " Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" " Yes" " Do you believe that He is able to answer your prayers?" He sat there and started to think for a moment and said " Yes I believe he does answer my prayers." I then leaned up in my chair and said " Then Mike, if this church is true and that if there really is a God, and that if this really is his true church on the earth today then there is nothing stopping us right now from kneeling and praying to ask God if this church is really his church. And that if the book of Mormon was truly written by a prophet of God. So will you right now kneel down and pray and ask God of these things?"

He sat there and started to ponder for a moment. A few seconds later he asked if we would give him a minute to think. We nodded and gave him a little time. We waited on our knees while he was there thinking on what to say and ask in the prayer. He then knelt down with us and asked the things that were in his heart. And asked all the questions we told him to ask. And he then closed in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen. We sat there for at least 40 seconds in silence after that prayer. He finally spoke up and said he feels like there's something pulling on his heart and chest. He tried to explain what he was feeling but you already know how impossible that is. =) We then asked. " Well Mike... For the last time... Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding that authority of God?" He sat there and started to ponder about everything that just happened and looked back up at us and said.... " Yes." And he smiled. Oh man it was the most beautiful yes in the world! He then said "Man my grandfather and grandmother are going to love me.... But my parents are going to kill me!" We all started to burst out laughing... Well his baptism date is set for the 5th of March so we'll see what happens.

=) Happy Valentines day Most wonderful mom. I love you so very much.

-Elder Jensen (your huge son)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • February 7th, 2011

Dear best mom ever made by the hands of the almighty. =)

I just found out how to us these cartoon stamps in my text so I will probably use them for awhile just for fun. And tell crystal that she can send me some CD's if she wants. I will listen to it on P-Day as long as it doesn't swear. Tell Sosa thank you for all of the many things she has helped with.

Well things here have been going great and I am learning more and more everyday. How ever this new area i have been bible bashing a lot more. We actually have set appointments to bible bash with a couple people almost everyday. These New Saint Andrew's guys feed us breakfast every Saturday and we bash at the same time. So at least we get something out of it. They said they would like us to come to one of there church services. So we probably will if they come to ours. We will also be teaching another group of New Saint Andrews fellows Thursday. These guys don't like to talk religion with us though they just like to hang out with us and they said that they would like to come to one of our services.

Alright so Miracle of the week. We were tracting some houses clear out in the middle of no where. ( By the way my new area is beautiful with all these rolling hills every where. I hope I'm here for the spring.) Anyways we were knocking on a bunch of houses and no one would answer there doors. So we started to walk back to the car and I got a small feeling to just knock on this last door on the corner before we left. So we walked back to the house and knocked on the door. The door slowly opened and the blast of the smell of smoke hit us a second later. Then a man came out from behind the door and was just filed with tattoos from head to toe. So being a little happy missionary I smiled at him and said " Hey were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ and are trying to help others strengthen there faith in Jesus Christ. Do you have any faith in Christ?" And the conversation went on from there and I asked if it was OK if we could come in and share a little bit more. Surprisingly he said yes. We walked in and pretty much started to get to know him and learned that his fiance left him on Christmas day and has been feeling really down lately. He then told us that he was looking for a church to go back to. After that we started to share about the restoration and about our church. OK and this next part that happens makes me laugh all the time. So after we told him about our church elder Hardesty started to talk about the church a little bit more. Then out of no where he looked at his tattoos and said "the people there wont even judge you for all your tattoos." I literally face palmed it right there. He then looked at us and asked " Whats wrong with my tattoos?" After that I had to come in and started to explain our body being a temple and stuff. Man I was so embarrassed during that moment ha ha. How ever in the end he said he would like to try out our church and said he would like to come. Later on that day we went to one of the young women's classes and taught a lesson to 10 12 year olds about how to teach a lesson and become a better teacher for family home evening. After words they had to make there own and we had to approve it for them. So they all came up with these lessons and at the very end they asked who had the best lesson and elder Hardesty goes. " We did" He wasn't joking either. I was so so embarrassed. The young woman's leader looked at us all funny not sure of what to really say. So I hurried and told them " No, no there is no such thing as a best lesson. Everyone has different needs then others so there is never a best lesson." Man there are so many other things that have happen since I have been here that have been so embarrassing. But I'm not going to lie because I actually love my companion. He makes me laugh with all these things he says. He keeps me on my toes. I hope we are companions for another transfer. Things have been going great though and I am still learning so so much. And also the church is still true. Ill be having a baptism this Sunday also. There names our Aaron and Marie. They are so funny and full of energy for the church. Aaron is actually the rugby coach for the college here so maybe after he joins he will be like the coach on "Forever Strong." But yes things here are going wonderful and I hope things keep going well for you. I cant wait for you to start teaching all those 5 year olds either. I can already see them loving you out of there mind. And about you wanting me to make the weather better down there for you... All I can say is good luck. And Courtney said she will be going to sweet hearts. Make sure dad and Brett and Josh talk to the boy. Just so that he knows if he even thinks about kissing or hugging Courtney he can just leave right there. Well mom I love you so much and we really do have the best family ever. I love you all so much.

-Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • January 31st, 2011

Alright so my new area here is pretty good. The members are great (They always are) Our apartment isn't too nice and it smells a little funny. Tell you the truth it smells kinda funny and I'm not sure where the smell is coming from. Its been lots of fun though. We have a part time car that we share so that's pretty nice as well. I wish I had more stuff that has happened but right now I'm having a hard time learning the new area.

Well remember how I would always joke with my friends about being called to the "North Idaho mission"? Well ya, God thought it would be pretty funny too. . . =) So I'm right by the University of Idaho. We do the family wards but we tract into a ton of college kids.

Alright and for the small miracle of the week is going to sound kind of funny but it really did happen. Ok... So the GPS that Josh sent me has helped me out so so much in my new area. My new comp has no idea where he is going so it has saved as plenty of times. Anyways for some reason it started to not work for some reason.(The screen wouldn't turn at all) I really tried to do everything. I tried to turn it on and off. I plugged it in to the power cord all over the apartment and car. I left in for an hour and blew on the power cord and nothing would work. I had no idea why. But that morning as I was doing my study I came to a scripture in Mormon. Saying have faith in Jesus Christ and pray unto me and I will give you what so ever you asketh. So I decided if that were possible that god would do that for anything even this very small thing like a GPS. So that's what I did. I said a prayer having faith that he would do it.... And guess what.... Bloop!!! It came right on! I was actually laughing out loud! I know that it sounds so cheesy but that's really what happen. And if it didn't we wouldn't have made it to any of our appointments that day.

But if god would do such a small thing like that just think about what bigger things he will do for us if we just pray to him with faith believing that we will receive. That was really one of my first prayers believing that I would receive.

But that's my small miracle for you. I will probably have more stories to tell you next week. My step training is going alright too so don't worry. =)

I love you my best mom ever =)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • January 24th, 2011

Dear Great mom of all moms. =)

I got good news and bad news this time. Really I guess it can go either way but I guess we'lll have to see. Anyways. . . Sadly I am getting moved out of here tomorrow to Palluse, Paradise Park. And I will be step training Elder Hogesty( I think his name is). So I am a little scared to train but hey I'm all up for it. I will have to tell you how things go. One of the Elders in my district told me its a way sweet area and the people there are great. He said I will be talking to alot of college kids there and I will be doing a ton of street contacting. I'm pretty excited. =) but sad to leave all the wonderful people here. They really are so so great and I really do love them. (And I'm not just saying it) I will be visiting this place again after my mission.

Well to tell you of some of the great things that have happen to me here. Yesterday we had such a great visit with the Clemitsons and we watched the Restoration video with them. The spirit really was there so strong that time when I watched it. I knew for a fact they one of them had to be feeling it. And Amilia was. She told us after this movie she had calm feeling inside of comfort and she told us that she didn't wanted it to end and the she wanted to have more of what happen to Joseph and wanted to have us come back soon for dinner. So I told them we would bring more next time and that we will go more into detail. She said that when she was young that she always had a Catholic Priest come over every time she was feeling sick and would pray for her and help her. But she said that she never felt good about him for some reason. Then she looked at us and said " But I feel different about you guys. I feel... Good every time you come over" So I know for a fact that she feels the spirit. She will probably be getting baptized real soon. Sadly I wont be there.

Also do you remember that lady that I was teaching in Moses Lake that was a Jehovah witness? She was the one who was going through all the divorce problems and had her kids taken away from her. Well anyways I heard she got baptized recently. One of the members went over to her house and pretty much just called her out and said " I know that you know this church is true" And she just started crying and said " Yes, I know its true." Its just neat to see how God still works even when your not there. =)

We also had a very neat experience here yesterday. We decided yesterday that we should go pass the high way and tract down there in the hood. (since we never went down there.) So we go down there and none of the houses were letting us in and I really was just having a bad attitude about everything. Finally as we were walking I decided to have faith in God that he would guide us in the right direction and that I needed to have faith. The next house we knocked on some Indian answered the door. Believe or not he let us in. So we sat down and started to talk with him and he told us that it was funny that we showed up at the door because him and his wife were just talking about what church they thought they should go too when we knocked on the door. So now him and his wife and he will be bringing all of his friends to our church next Sunday. He was very prepared by the lord. It was amazing. =) I wish I could be here next Sunday but I guess I meant to be somewhere else.

Things here have really been so great. There have also been other great things that have happen but I just don't have enough time to write them all down. I love you so much mom and hope things keep going well. =)

Love-

Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • January 18th, 2011

Dear wonderful great mother of mine. =)

Sorry I wasn't able to write you on Monday. We had our P-day on Tuesday since yesterday was a holiday. We celebrate holidays here by knocking on doors. ;) Anyways can you send me some of our ancestor stuff in your next email? Ever since I have been out I kind of want to know about how we got here. You don't have to go way into detail but I would like something. =) This week has been really good and we are keeping busy. Nothing way amazing has happen to us just knocking on doors and having our normal lessons. Slipping on ice and all that good stuff. All the snow has melted which is really great because I decided as a missionary snow is your arch enemy and it just gets in the way of everything. All the families here are just wonderful too. I'm sure I wrote that in my other letter but I'm telling you they are all so great! Brother Estock is our ward missionary and this guy is just awesome. He's someone that I will come back and visit after my mission. Our transfers are coming up this next week so I might be going some where new soon. Also lost my first name tag. It was sad to because I was joking about me losing half an hour before I really lost it. No joke. I said to my companion " Elder Robb I bet you I'm going to lose this name tag today. Watch now its really going to happen. Ha ha ya that would be so funny..." Then it really happen and we spent half an hour trying to find it. Mom we have so many families that we our teaching right now. I cant really write what were teaching them but it has been wonderful. So many our coming back to church and so many are listening to us. The lord has been helping us so very much. Mark and Vickie are doing great and are thinking of baptism and so is the Blest family who has come to church 3 times now. Also Susan's husband is starting to come to church now and Jared Teel is being alot more open with us and we are able to see him alot more. Sister Walker is starting to come to church every Sunday and has started doing family home evening every Monday. Michel Bowswer is also trying to quit smoking still and she's doing better and better every week. There are just so many families. I'm hoping I don't get transferred though. I would like to keep talking with these families. =) Also we have this 12 year old Vashon Jackson who comes out with us alot. This kid is so cool. He is going to be the greatest missionary ever if he stays well in the church. He's very mature for his age to and he will just randomly call and ask if he can come out knocking doors with us. His family doesn't go to church at all though so he just goes with brother Duer who is his grandfather. Bro. Duer is also a wonderful member here too. This guy just loves to say Buh buh alot every time he sees us. Whats up Buh buh! One of the bus drivers here knows us very well also. His name is dean and he's a gangster. He knows some of our beliefs also so when some Young guys got on the bus and started to swearing a little bit and dean asked them " Hey you like ridding the bus? Better keep your mouth shut." As we leave he calls us his biblical brothers. " Alright my biblical brother take care" Ha ha there are just so many great people here. =) Ill tell you about all the not so nice people when I get home though. But don't worry about me. Things are just going fantastic. I love you beautiful best mom. =)
-Elder Jensen.

LETTER: Elder Jensen • December 5th, 2010

Hello beautiful mom. =) Yes things are going great still. Next week is are next transfers so I guess will see if I take of the area or not. I hope not though. Elder Soderberg is a great companion. I also have lots of new pictures and videos that I will try to get to you by christmas but im not making any promises. And Jordan is going to get baptized this saturday so I cant wait for that either. She is wonderful! =) Anyways our week went pretty great and we went to a couple churches yesterday. It was very very interesting. We first got up and went to the cathlic mass at 8:00. I felt like everyone was looking at us that whole time it was wierd. Well anyways we walk into the building and were the only ones dressed with a suit and tie so that was pretty much a dead give away there that that was our first time. Then everyone starts to go into the chapel and starts sitting down. We walked right in and sat down on one of the back benches of the room. The room was kinda like a U shape and everyone could see each other. So everyone was kinda looking at us as we just walked in and sat down. A few seconds later we notice others walking passed us and kneeling by the bench before they walked in and sat down. And they also did the cross thing with there hands when they entered the room. But hey how were we suppose to know that we had to do all that. Then after awhile the thing started and everyone started to go up for the sacrament but we weren't baptized so we had to move out of everyones way so that they could get passed us. So we had a full line of people walking passed us as we just stood there in the back having everyone taking turns looking at us. And man some of the things they teach there are just wierd. The priest gets up and starts doing is christmas talk. And he starts to talk about family and friends and so forth. " My brothers and sisters. Christmas times is coming around and it is a time Etc... And you dont have to love your friends. And you dont have to love your family. You dont even have to like them. You just have to respect them and be gentle with them..." Where in the world did you get that doctrine from priest man??! I can see why it is so important for this work to move on alot more after going to all these diffrent churches that day. We also went to some spiritual church right after and one of the parts we did some meditation. So during our awsome meditation with everyone in there being perfectly silent you could hear a pin drop. Our phone alarm started to go off... And hey they couldn't be mad at us we were the new guys. =) After being there a little while longer we had to leave so that we could make it to the next church meeting so we had to stand up from the front of the room and walk passed everyone to get out. I wish I could have gone invisable. But sadly the holy ghost didn't give me that power. So we then went to some christian church and that one was ok. It was a little bit more normal then all the other ones haha. But there was one thing in common from all of those churches that suprised me though. Everysingle one of them had Coffee and donuts at the end of church. I have now found out the way of there succses. Coffee and donuts! So we decided that our church should do the same thing, except were going to have some amizing hot chocolate and donutes. Will see how it works ;) But ya i'm running out of time now but things are going great mom and i'm glad brooklying and kambrea and the new comer Creed are doing so well and cute =) I will be calling creed "Jr." for now on though. I love you most greatest strongest mom in the world. =)