Earthquakes and Typhoons are just regular occurrences now so I should probably stop making them the title 👾

Welcome back to the missionary adventures of your very own Sister Jensen! I'll make this one quick. 

Tuesday, we had district council and then that night we had a lesson/dinner with our friend Ben! He is English speaking, so I taught most of it. It was good, and kind of refreshing to teach when I actually understand what is going on haha. We are trying to see if he is actually interested so we can pass him off to the English Ward Elders! 

Wednesday, we had a Sister Conference which was great! A therapist came and talked about communication which I think was really good. We also made Perivida bracelets and Christmas wreath things (we actually made these ahead of time and just helped with them) and there were some great trainings! It was good! We had a tour that night, and our English group, but nobody came :( it's all good though!

Thursday, we had interviews with President which was great! President is so funny. He basically tells us everything that will happen for transfers. He also showed me some of the finished Christmas concert pictures which was cool! They look good!  Thursday we also had exchanges, and Li Jiemei (the Xinan one not my companion one) joined us. It was good! I taught them how to do some Facebook finding, and we did the English Challenge and a lesson that night (where the guy asked lots of fun church history questions that I didn't really know how to answer). Another thing that's kinda funny, we have this guy at our church building sometimes who is kind of interesting and has a thing for foreign sisters, and during the lesson he walked in and set a small flashlight on the table and wouldn't leave until I took it haha. So that was fun! The next day he was asking the other sisters if I was there so...nice...

Anyway, Friday we finished our exchange and had weekly planning! Saturday, we had a practice for the Christmas concert which was better than last week! All of the songs are so high though and I'm in like 8 or 9 (we practiced for a good few hours) so my voice was a little dead after haha. Later we had two temple tours! 

Sunday, we had a lesson with a friend and set him on date to be baptized in December yayayyy! He's so ready. We've got a bunch of friends on date but most aren't getting baptized until like February, so this is great! Please pray for him! His name is 黃羿碩 (Huang Yi Shuo). We had another lesson that night with another friend! 

That's about it for this week! Also, congrats to my brother and his wife for having baby Eli! So excited to have him in the family :) 

Spiritual thought for the week: This week was my one-year endowment-iversary! I already did a Facebook post about it so I'll just copy what I said :) One year ago today was the day I went through the temple for the first time and received my endowment. It was a very significant day in my life, as it was a day, I made sacred promises with God that I would dedicate my life to Him. Since that point my faith in Heavenly Father and His divine temples has only grown. I know that through His holy houses, we can be closer to Him than anywhere else on earth. The temple is God's goal for us here on earth, because it allows both us and those who have passed to return to live with Him after this life.

I love the temple! Go to the temple or prepare to go to the temple! It is the place God wants us to be. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week and a lovely Halloween! 

 

$600 Dinner

Welcome back to another week of your favorite missionary here in the baby island of Taiwan (your answer better be Sister Jensen or else you're fired)! This was a busy week, so I'll get into it! 

Monday we had a member meal at TGI Fridays (the most expensive restaurant I have ever been to) (with a member who wasn't even ours) and he made us get all five courses and to give you an idea of how much an entree was, one of the steaks was 1200 kuai. Yeah. It hurt my soul to be doing this but he told us we could eat or leave. And afterward he took us to an American store and gave us a bunch of American food brands which was awesome! But pricey. You wanna know how much he spent on us that night? More than 600 dollars in American money. It hurt my soul but it was fun! 

Tuesday we had a big group temple tour with 35 people! We even had tour guide microphones and everything. This was a history tour, and I learned my words all that morning Exciting! It actually went okay though so that's a blessing! They asked me to share my experience about coming to Taiwan and we were all able to testify about Jesus Christ which was really great. We ended up getting like 14 referrals from the tour!!! Blessings! 

Wednesday was zone conference which was awesome, and then we had the English Group that night. Thursday we went to TGI Fridays again with another member! What can I say, I'm an expensive missionary! Friday we helped with a ward Halloween activity for another ward and we had a friend come! It was super fun! Saturday we had a choir practice for the Christmas concert and then we watched a devotional by Elder Uchtdorf that he gave to the Asia members! It was good! And Sunday wasn't too eventful, but it is always nice and refreshing.

Spiritual thought for the week: At zone conference we learned about a "damper." It is a very heavy and large thing that is used to stabilize buildings during earthquakes and recenter them. We were invited to consider if we have a damper in our own lives, and what is it? Do we have something we are built on that allows us to stay strong during struggles and recenters us during our personal earthquakes? I would like to invite you all to read Helaman 5:12 and consider how Jesus Christ has helped recenter you in your life, and what makes Him the best damper. He is always the ultimate foundation and can help us become recentered. 

       

 

Nativity pics, birthdays, earthquakes, and all that fun stuff

大家好！How are all of you? I hope everyone had the most lovely and fantastic week! Mine was good and busy. Let's get into it:

Last Monday we had a member dinner at this cute little European place, and I tried escargot! It wasn't bad, I'll take it over pig stomach :) after that we had another lesson too!

Tuesday we had district council and that's about it, and Wednesday we took the pictures for the Christmas concert! I played Mary, which was fun, we were there for a long time and then had a meeting about the Christmas concert songs afterward. Exciting! I can attach some pictures from it. Then we had our GECG! 

Thursday we had exchanges, I stayed in Jinhua with Zhang Jiemei and both my comps went to Danshui! It was a little stressful because I was leading the exchange and have been here for two weeks, but it was good! That evening we went to the library and put cards and flyers in a bunch of the books, which felt super illegal haha. It was fun though! 

Friday was my birthday! 20 now...so old! That morning we got a call from one of the elders not in our zone who said that they would be teaching a friend who would be going back to China in a few days, and they wanted her baptized tomorrow, and asked us to come help teach the last 3 lessons. So we went to the church, and then my comps who were still in Danshui called and were like "Hey one of our potentials wants a temple tour right now" and so we ended up calling the Xinan sisters to have them help with the lesson (which actually took 6 hours) and we did the temple tour. Luckily Zhang Jiemei used to serve in Jinhua haha. Then we also had a surprise lesson with an RC after which was fun! Then we had weekly planning, and the sisters in my apartment surprised me by taking me to a lasagna place for my birthday and also surprised me with a cake later! So that was super sweet of them. Then we had another temple tour and that was it for the day! 

Saturday we had lots of temple tours! I don't remember what else happened. Then Sunday we helped with an FHE activity which was fun! A speaker came and talked about organization and cleaning haha. Good times! 

Spiritual thought for the week: Isn't the temple just amazing? I was thinking about the temple and ordinances for the dead, and there is absolutely no way temples would exist if this church was not run by God himself. It just would not make sense, because doing ordinances for those who have passed away doesn't make any temporal difference for us. It would be pointless unless we believe what we do, that this is God's church and through His sealing power our relationships can last beyond this life. Through His priesthood we can offer an invitation of love and give others the choice to accept the grace of Jesus Christ. What a privilege, one that would not make sense if this is not His church. 

 

General Conference 🔥🔥🔥

So General Conference was fire. Am I right or am I right? For those of you who are wondering about why I'm mentioning it this week, general conference was this weekend for Taiwan ;) and we got to watch it at President's house! Pros of being right next to the mission office :) Anyway...

Monday, we played games and such and that was a grand old time! Tuesday, we had district council and some other stuff which was good! I'm the EUL (English Unit Leader) again this transfer, which is fun, but I have to do my trainings in Chinese now so that will be an adventure. 

Wednesday, we had MLC which was great! For our zone vision we are going to be having a Bingo sheet with different goals and things to help make it fun for our zone. It'll be a good time! After that we had our English conversation group, which was pretty good, we oversee the parent child group and had a little boy who was all over the place and climbing on everything and it was all around a little chaotic but an adventure! My comps have it pretty much down to a science so it's all good. OH OH also we had a temple tour with our friend Barry (林弟兄) and set him on date! It was literally the easiest date set ever!! YAYYY BARRY. Then we had a meeting about the Christmas concert! I'm excited! 

Thursday, we had a temple tour for some missionaries in Taichung and then we had a (supposedly pass of but he's not actually interested) lesson with the Xinan sisters. The guy was really funny but spoke so fast and kind of yelled the whole time, so I got absolutely none of it haha. We love those. 

Friday, we had zone council, weekly planning, and ate hot pot with a member! It was good :) 

Saturday and Sunday we had General Conference! We also had a dinner with some members last night who are super sweet. It was good!

Spiritual thought for the week: One of my favorite talks in general conference was Elder Holland's.  In it he stated, "It is one of the most powerful paradoxes of the Crucifixion that the arms of the Savior were stretched wide open and then nailed there, unwittingly but accurately portraying that every man, woman, and child in the entire human family is not only welcome but invited into His redeeming, exalting embrace." What does it mean to you personally to know that the Savior's arms are always stretched out toward you, and always ready to embrace you? That He invites all to come and experience His rest? He is speaking this to YOU. Not to someone else, not to a family member or friend, but YOU. If He was here, He would let you feel His hands and feet. He would hold your face in those hands where the reminder of His love for you will forever be imprinted. And He would gently assure you that He did indeed do it for you and invite you to be healed through repentance.  Is His invitation to you more meaningful to you than whatever could possibly get in the way? And if not, why not?