Elder Jensen's Mission: February 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Letter from the Mission President

Elder Jensen with President and Sister Bubert

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

One month down....

One month down 23 more to go it really has gone by super quick and it has been great so far. Thank you for sending out the bike I really appreciatte it and it will be nice to have something like that from home. More pictures would be awesome and that patriarchal blessing as well as any other documents you can copy and send them to my mom as well as me that way I have a hard copy back home in case I lose mine. In fact if you want to send me two copies of my blessing that would be great. Transfers are usually every 6 weeks just like Kyles but I will stay in this area for at least 2 as I go through a training program with Elder Ferris (just a program to help me learn to teach better). Elder Ferris is awesome though we get along great and have a good time working together which makes things a lot easier. He has been out a year as of a couple days ago and is a good missionary and a hard worker. One funny thing is that in the apartment below us there is a basset hound and when the owners are gone it howls and howls and howls and it drives Elder Ferris nuts which just makes me laugh. Also if you ever feel like sending random ties you find - feel free - ties are sweet. We have some investigators right now and they are all awesome great people but from what Elder Ferris has told me this area has a curse that investigators take all the lessons and come to church and believe its true but then never get baptized. They still come to church they just dont get baptized but we should have a couple baptisms soon which would be great. It's a hispanic family and they are super awesome and funny so hopefully they dont get the curse as well. Members of the ward are great and feed me tons of food and give us stuff. In fact I might actually be gaining some weight - we shall see. Anyways though I would love some letters from my punk sisters that I miss and love dearly! Thank you again for everything you guys have done for me - whether its my super awesome alliance buddy, or the pain in the buttox (you know who you are )I love you guys and miss you - but it will be good for me to be out here and a very humbling experience. Tell the extended family hello for me. I love you and look forward to hearing from you again soon and writing you next week - until then - adios!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Elder Jensen's Address

Here is the mailing address for Elder Jensen

Elder Jensen

6242 Warner Ave

apt #18E
Huntington Beach, CA. 92647

He would love to hear from you!!

Below is a short note we got from him last week.
So far Long Beach has been good it rained a couple days and I have a cold but I will live through that part no problem. It isn't as fancy and gorgeous as I expected so far I do not understand why people would pay as much as they do to live here but its whatevs I guess I am in huntington beach as my first area and my trainers name is Elder Ferris and so far we get a long just fine and hes pretty chill he also has really flat feet that make it hard for him to walk much or ride a bike so we drive every where ehich has its good side and its bad the good being we have a car the bad being we get everywhere fast so we go through everything we have to do quickly and then we end up not having much to do except knock doors which isn't really effective anymore because everyone knows about us or has talked to missionaries before and doesn't want to let us in. People here can be mean to we got yelled at already by some old guy which was kinda funny to me but still I also whatched a drunk guy chase a mail man around and cuss up a storm haha....... I am in a pretty good ward as well and we get fed most nights so we mostly only have to worry about breakfeast and lunch and I havent eaten anything to crazy yet but I did eat at one ladies house that was kinda weird she is older and on disability and has cats aka crazy cat lady but she was nice enough and there were only a few cat hairs in my food that I counted. Anyways though I am getting your emails here and also got a short one from Kyle which was awesome. I love you all and will write again next week.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Long Beach Here He Comes!

Elder Jensen made it safe and sound to Long Beach today. Jonell received a call from him from the aiport but unfortunately she was in an area without service and was unable to speak with him....so sad! She did speak to the wife of his Mission President this evening and got word that he made it safe and sound, and was able to have lunch today with his 2nd cousin who is also serving in Long Beach. She said Chris is fitting in well and should get his assignment tomorrow.

We will be sure to post his mailing address as soon as we get it.

He would really love to hear from everyone!

The MTC

We dropped Chris at the MTC on January 16. It was a great, yet sad, day for us all. Here a few pics from that morning.

I think they were trying to keep him from getting up and getting ready to leave.

Luggage is packed and ready!
Chris was pretty sick of us taking pictures by this point.

This suitcase was almost the size of his sister. What the heck is he taking with him?

We were so happy to be able to go to the MTC with the Jensens to drop Chris off. Since you can only take one car in we all piled into Ryan's truck and headed into the MTC. Everyone is happy now...but wait.

Morgie didn't want to miss out on the photo op!

Sorry these next few pics are so bad...the drop off process happens so fast its hard to get a good picture.

The tears begin. Happy and sad at the same time!

See ya later Elder!

One unhappy sister.

Two unhappy sisters.

Let the adventure begin!

Getting Set Apart

Chris (well, I guess its officially Elder Jensen)-- was called to the Long Beach, California mission and was set apart on January 15, 2013. We are all so proud of him :) By "WE" I mean his parents, Alan and Jonell, and his 2nd family - Ryan, Kathy, Madison, Morgan and Kyle (The Erdmann's). Ryan is Chris' biological father and Kathy is his 'logical stepmother' :) Madison, Morgan and Kyle are his siblings. We (The Erdmanns) feel so blessed that Chris contacted us 2 years ago and wanted to meet us. We were further blessed that he was able to come live with us for the past year and a half. We have loved getting to know him and the great young man he has become. A big THANK YOU to Alan and Jonell for sharing Chris with us -- we've loved every minute of it. The girls and Kyle were so excited to meet their new brother -- and Chris was a natural at being a big brother (as you'll see from some of the pics below). We are very proud of him and his decision to serve a mission! Here are pics taken right before he was set apart. We got quite a few -- which is no small miracle if you know Chris and his love of having his picture taken!

The reality that he's going to miss the 2nd Hobbit movie sets in!

Not really sure what he's doing here. Lost his mind perhaps??

OK -- Now I see where Chris gets his photogenic nature :)

Awwww....father and son. Nice picture!!

Its REALLY hard to keep Chris' attention for long!

Mother and son -- love this picture!

Chris has a hard time smiling for some reason.

What an amazing family!

The "biologicals" -- for those who don't know who we are (from l-r)
Kathy, Madison, Elder Jensen, Ryan, Morgan

Begging for forgiveness for something. For the house smelling like snake poop?
For the mountain dew can that was left out....again? Maybe he's begging me to send him cake balls while he's gone?

I don't even know what to say about this one.

Looks like Chris is trying to escape...

Third times a charm. Nice pic of the biologicals :)

Two very happy sisters who are grateful to have such an awesome big brother. They loved going to the zoo and aquarium with him - and even though they'll deny it -- they loved being teased by Chris. They are sure going to miss him!