March 28th Message

This past week has been mostly spent getting us oriented and organized.  We have organized the member list of the Brockport Ward where we have been assigned to serve.  There are over 400 members on the membership list but only about 100-125 attend meetings regularly.  That means there are about 300 members who are less active or not active at all.  Our predecessors, Elder and Sister Yost did a great job getting started on meeting the inactive members; and left us notes and information about most of the ones they contacted.  The members live in about 19 cities, towns, villages, or hamlets.  Those are the terms they use to name the various areas where the people live.  We have made a list of the members according to the areas in which they live so we can be more organized in contacting those in the same area before going to the next area.  One of the members told me the reason for all the various names of the area is for tax collection purposes.  The Bishop of the Ward and the Ward Council met yesterday and gave us the names of some families they would like us to visit with and try to help return to activity in the church so we will be meeting with them this week.  Plus we have some other families we need to follow up to make visits, who Elder and Sister Yost asked us to visit. 

We also have responsibility for the apartments the Elders and Sisters live in to insure they are safe and properly taken care of.  We have about 40 apartments we are responsible for; and the help of two other couples to assist us with inspecting them each month; so that makes 13 or 14 apartments for each couple.  Both couples are great help to us.  We have a few apartments we need to take care of some issues with tomorrow.

Last Thursday we attended a Mission Leadership Training meeting which was held at the Peter Whitmer Home in Fayette, and also in the chapel next to the home.  It was an awesome experience to be in the Peter Whitmer Home for a new missionary training meeting for about 30 minutes.  The ropes which prevent vistiors from being in part of the home were moved so we could stand where the Prophet Joseph Smith stood on April 6, 1830 the day the church was officially organized.  We also went upstairs where the translation of the Book of Mormon was finished, and also in this home there were 20 of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenats revealed.  Also the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in the upstairs room.  Also just outside the home there was a barn just West of the home in which Mary Whitmer saw the Angel Moroni and also the Gold Plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated.  There were other special events that occured here in this area during the time of the restoration.  There is a powerful spiritual feeling in these places. President Christianson and his first Counselor Brother Robinson gave some excellent training and instruction from about 10 am to 4pm with a break for lunch.  This was a a very spiritually strengthening day.  Then on Saturday evening there was an Open House held at the E B Grandin Press Visitors Center commemorating the 181st year since the day the Book of Mormon was first printed and went on sale at the Grandin Press Building.  The visitors site missionaries dressed in the clothes of the 1830's period and reinacted the negotiaions between Joseph, Martin Harris and Mr Grandin to print the Book of Mormon.  They also demonstrated the process of the printing and binding of the book.  Also one of the missionaries dressed as Moroni and told parts of the Book of Mormon story.  These were awesome experiences and gave us the chance to feel the power of the Spirit in that area.  We arrived early and also drove to the Hill Cumorah, the Palmyra Temple, and the Jospeh Smith home and the Sacred Grove.  We took some pictures; we will try to get them put on the blog this week.  We are grateful for the opportunity to be in this mission where the events of the restoration ocurred.  As President Christianson said we are in the area where the events of the restoration took place of which all the the other missionaries in the church teach and tesify about.  We know the Church is restored, Jospeh Smith was the prophet of the restoration, the Book of Mormon is true and can change our life if we will read it and pray about it.  We look forward to next weekend to hear living prophets, apostles, and other general authorities teach us what the Lord wants us to learn.  We love all of you and pray for you and your welfare, both temporal and spiritual.

With all our Love,
Elder & Sister Jensen, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa.

Greetings from Brockport NY

We now have internet access here in Brockport so we can begin sharing mission experiences.  We had a wonderful week at the MTC getting trained to do what we will need to do on our mission.  It would be good for everyone in the church to go through that experience so they could be better member missionaries.  We started our journey to NY on Saturday the 12th of March.  We arrived in Cheyenne WY and spent Saturday night there. We attended a Sacrament meeting at a ward in Cheyenne and then headed accross Nebraska.  We only made it to Kearney before a bad snow storm stopped us, so we spent the night at Kearney.  Monday morning we took off again and drove through a lot of fog most of the day and made it to Princeton, Illinois and spent the night there.  Then Tuesday we started off again and drove through rain all day and made it to Mentor, Ohio (just North of Kirtland) and spent the night there.  Wednesday morning we got cleaned up and put on our missionary attire and made it to the Mission President's (President Jack Christianson (pronounced Christensen)) home.  Sister Christianson visited with us while we waited for President Christianson and his daughter Emily to return from the ariport to pick up another daughter Rebecca.  Sister Chirstianson and her two daughters fixed dinner for us all while the President talked with us and explained more about our assignments.  The President had heart sugery on Saturday (the day we left) and had some heart artery blockages removed and one stent inserted.  He has been greatly blessed by the Lord and is doing remarkably well but he is still recovering and gets tired and has naps as needed.  After dinner the President and his wife and daughters led us to our aprtment here in Brockport, which is about a 35 minute drive from the President's home.  We spent all day Thursday getting everything put a way and organized and got food and other things we needed.  Friday about 11 am we got internet set up and then spent the afternoon trying to find our way to the places we need to know about; we have a good GPS (Molly) to help us find our way to places we spell correctly, she is remarkably good at getting us to the right places.

While we were talking with the President in his home we learned from him why our calling came so quickly.  He was planning missionary transfers for Monday March 7th and came up with one assignment not being filled.  The President asked his AP's what they were missing and the President also wondered and asked what he needed to repent of so he could get the answer.  He came up with an alternate plan but knew it was not right.  We called the Mission Office while we were in the MTC to try and find out where we were supposed to report because we had never received any information from the Mission Office. After receiving our phone call the Mission Office staff talked with the President and they disovered that our assignment was to do Member and Leader Support (MLS not master of library science), which really means proselyting. When they discovered this, Sister Christianson called and apologized for not communicating with us sooner, they had assumed we had been assigned to the visitor center sites.  When the President knew we would be doing MLS, he knew why the transfer had not worked out right; we were the missing piece of the transfers.  The Lord knew we were needed at this very time and He coordinated through inspiration to the right people including the Apostle who was assigned to make mission assignments on the day our names were considered. We are assigned to provide MLS for the Brockport Ward; in addition we will be coordinating with two other couples to check the missionary appartments as needed, usuallly at transfer times.  In addition the President would like us to help with some Mission Office assignments which we will learn more about on Monday at the Mission Office staff meeting.  We spent last night going through the Brockport ward membership lists which were left for us by the previous missionary couple Elder and Sister Yost.  We are hoping to get to meet with the Bishop tomorrow and have him help us with some information about some of the names on the member list.  We can then begin meeting with the inactive members who still need to be contacted and also help in any other way the Bishop would like us to help.

The Lord truly is in the details of accomplishing His work, we hope we can follow the Spirit and do what He wants us to do and not get in the way of doing what He wants done.

Love, Elder and Sister Jensen (Mom & Dad/Gramdma and Grandpa)

 dad and mom arrived at the mission presidents home about 3pm on Wednesday. They are also in there new place and it was all furnished so they did not have to stress about finding furniture.  Dad says he will keep us posted when they get the internet up and going.  There address is now different.
The new one is: 189 Viking Way  Brockport, NY 14420