Hey Everyone,
I am here in New Jersey.. That sounds weird.. :)
I'm in the southern part of NJ. My area is Medford, Marlton, Mount Holly
and some other cities. I'm still trying to get used to the area. It is a lot
different then PG. All of the streets here are tiny. One weird thing that
i've noticed, is everyone puts all of their leaves into a pile on the side
of the road. I guess someone comes and collects all of the leaves or
something. So there are piles of leaves everywhere. The weather has been
really good so far. I flew in from Utah on Tuesday. We flew from SLC to
Atlanta, then to Philly. It was my first time flying, it was interesting
and cool. Got free drinks and snacks :) When we flew into Philly it was
dark and rainy. We met the Mission Pres., his wife and his AP's and service
Elders. As we were meeting him he said, you've grown! I was confused. He
said my mission papers said i was only 5 ft 1 in. So they were expecting
someone really short. I was like oh well im 5' 11" so a 1 must of got cut
off or something. The rest of the night as i met people they would make
some kind of comment about how i'm not as short as they were expecting. But
we got to the mission home around 6:30. They had dinner ready. We had
Philly Cheese steaks from a local restaurant. They were pretty good. We
went over some rules etc. and met with the Mission President. President had
an iPad! While he was interviewing me he was taking notes on it. We talked
about iPads and that stuff for a little. He said he thinks all missionaries
will eventually have access to iPads or something like them.
We slept at the Mission Home, they had nice beds. The next day (Wed) we had
a meeting at 9 at a church. With the Pres, AP's and the new trainers. We
went over some more rules etc and learned more about President and his wife.
I guess the meeting went a lot longer then it was supposed to because it went
til about 4:30. And was supposed to end around 1:30. But we met our new
trainers. And went to our areas. It was kind of sad leaving all the elders
from the MTC. because we were all pretty good friends. And now i don't really
know anyone and it's just me and my companion. But its getting better, i'm
meeting more people. The first night we had one appointment with some less
actives, it went pretty well. We have to do a lot of planning and goal
setting, which will take a little to get used to. It's really tiring.
During the MTC i wasn't really homesick or stressed at all. It was pretty
easy for me. But out here the first few days i was really stressed and
missed home a little and the MTC. Just because it is so different out here
then in the MTC. And i don't really know anyone. So one thing that is going
to take a really long time for me to get used to is eating. We only eat
TWICE a day, and they are tiny meals cause we don't have very much food. We
only have breakfast and lunch. They said it just works better that way..
Doesn't really make sense to me. I'm soo used to eating a ton at the MTC. I
would always grab like 2 plates of food. and now i have a bowl of cereal
and like some pasta for lunch. And i'm always constantly hungry. and i'm
running out of stuff to snack on, and i mostly just have candy. We don't eat
with members that often :( maybe like once a week or sometimes two. But
tonight we are having dinner with the Hawkins :)
Oh.. Thanksgiving. It went well we ate with two families. We first ate with
a less active family. That went good and was a little interesting, then the
second family was a member from the ward. They have a huge nice house. And
lots of people over. They were sooo nice and really cool. They fed us
really well (we were stuffed) We had a lot of fun at their house. The
Father played football for BYU. And A lot of the people their were from
Utah or had been there. One person knew about the purple turtle, i told
them i worked there. haha there have been two people so far that have known
about Purple Turtle. But we had a good time over there, and shared a short
message. The first family we ate with also gave us some left overs, so that
was nice of them.
Friday was like my first full normal day. And it didnt go very well. All of
our appointments canceled etc. and no one would answer their door or phone.
So that night we decided to go visit potential investigators- people who
have talked to missionaries in the past and have showed some interest. So
we finally got into someones house. It was a guy that was LDS but hasnt
really ever gone to church because his wife is Catholic etc. But we had a
really good conversation with him for a while. He was very friendly and we
were able to set up another appointment. The rest of the night we did some
tracting... We had a lot of people turn us down and tell us that they were
catholic. And some people acted like they were afraid of us. and they would
hide behind there screen door and and hold the handle like we were going to
come in or something. It was kind of funny.
But the next day was awesome we had a lot of good luck. We had an old guy
from our ward pick us up and drive us around all day. I guess he helps the
missionaries out a lot and drives us around. He was really cool, he came to
our lessons and even paid for our lunch. But at first the day wasnt going
so well and no one was home etc. and i thought it would just be another
repeat of the day before. We had knocked on a few people's doors, but no
one was answering. So we went to lunch, and while we were there the member
that was with us got a phone call. It was a lady that had seen us come to
her house but she was over at her neighbors house. But she wanted us to
come back. My companion was surprised, because she used to be an
investigator with a baptism date but she dropped the missionaries. So we
went over after lunch. She had recently lost some family members and
important people in her life, and she was really down and depressed. So we
shared a really good message with her about trials etc. and a little bit
about the Plan of Salvation. It went really good. And we got her come to
church the next day. And we have another appointment with her. Later that day
we taught a guy that the missionaries have been teaching for a while. We
had a good lesson on 3rd Nephi 27. We talked about repentance, baptism,
holy ghost, and enduring to the end. I got him to commit to baptism.. YES
but he wouldnt commit to a date yet. But next time we will get him to.
Later that night we were going to go visit a potential investigator and on
our way there (walking) we met a lady on a bike. There was a car stopped at
a light and they were asking why we were wearing suits. So i yelled back
that we were missionaries. And a lady on a bike by us said Mormons? and i
said yes! so we ran over to her and talked for a little. Turns out she has
some family members that are mormon, back where she is from in some other
country. She said she loves mormons and has been looking for our church. So
we talked to her and got her info. We asked her if she wanted to come to
church and she said yes. She wasnt able to end up coming, but were excited
to teach her.
Ok one last story.
So last night we had an awesome lesson. With an older lady and her
daughter,  the older lady had been lds her whole life but hadnt really ever
gone because her husband wasn't lds. Well her husband died earlier this year,
so she started to come again. Her daughter who is in her 50's is living
with her. But we had a really good lesson about repentance, life, baptism
that kind of stuff. And it went sooo well. The daughter expressed how she
has been wanting to be baptized etc. But she said she is waiting for
someone  or some church to do it the right way. That was cool when she said
that cause we told her that we do it the way its supposed to be done, the
same way Jesus was baptized. We were able to commit her to baptism but we
did not bring up a date cause that would probably be a shock to her. But
after we teach the restoration to her next time im sure we will have a
baptism date set.. hopefully.

So everything is going good so far. oh they dont call new missionaries
greenies here they call them goldens... which is kind of weird sounding to
me. But im having fun. I would love to hear back from my friends how
everything is going. So write me! :)

love, Elder Jeremy Jensen