April 6, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,                   Monday, April 6, 2015

My companion is: Elder Dustin Winn
Elder Winn is from South Jordan, Utah.
He has been out for 8 months.
Elder Winn likes sports (football, basketball, volleyball, baseball). He likes watching sports and playing sports. Elder Winn and I get along great. We knew each other in the Vancouver East Zone, so we have lots to talk about. This transfer sounds like it is going to be awesome.

 How are the Woodland wards with helping the missionaries? 
Both wards are awesome with helping us. Ward councils here are all about missionary work. Both wards focus more on less actives than investigators though, which is good I guess because there is a lot of less actives here.

Feeding them?
We get feed by members every night.

Do members come with you to teach lessons?
Not as much as I would like. What we need is some way to organize it. The members love to help. We just need a list of who is available and when.

What is the weather like lately?
The weather here has been nice. It has been mostly sunny with a few scattered showers.

This weekend was general conference! We had a lot of funny experiences with general conference and all of them have to do with napping. We watched one session with Skip. He fell asleep 15 minutes into it and remained asleep until the end. At the end he woke up, and then told us that he hadn't been sleeping, but listening. It was pretty funny. We watched another session with the Shaws, an awesome old couple. Brother Shaw fell asleep for most of the session and was snoring like a bear. I can't blame them though, I fell asleep for at least a few minutes in every session. Elder Winn got pictures of me sleeping in every session.
Weekly outlook:

Monday: p-day. We stayed in Woodland because we did not have enough miles to go to Longview. We played some basketball. Tonight we taught and tried to show her a short video on Easter.

Tuesday: the day before transfers. Elder Smith said goodbye to a lot of people. We had a lesson. We had lessons tonight with families.

 Wednesday: transfers. Instead of going to the transfer meeting everyone in the Longview and Rainer Zones wait at the Longview stake center. We watched The District (missionary training videos) and ate donuts and had hot chocolate. Our companions finally showed up and a Elder Winn and I headed back to Woodland. We went shopping so Elder Winn could get some stuff. After that we had a lesson.

 Thursday: we started cleaning out the area book. We drive by former investigators and delete them out of the area book if the are not interested. We had several lessons. 

Friday: today we drove up to Kalama because we had a couple of appointments up there. They both ended up canceling. We did some weekly planning and had a Papa Murphy's pizza for lunch. We had a lesson. After dinner we had a 2nd Ward Easter social.

 Saturday: general conference. We watched the first session. He made us some breakfast, and then promptly feel asleep for basically all the session. After that we had a "lesson". We watched the other two sessions of conference with a couple of members.

 Sunday: we watched both sessions of conference with members. We had a huge dinner, but other than that nothing interesting happened besides it being Easter.

 Elder Jensen

March 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,                                 Monday, March 2, 2015

I can not see any of the mountains from here. They have large rolling hills here with lots of trees that block your view of the mountains. We are really close to Mt. St. Helens here, but I have never seen it. In Camas we could see Mt. Hood and the tip of Mt. St. Helens, but not here.

Weekly outlook:

Monday: p-day with basketball and nothing exciting. Tonight we taught a lesson and put her on date for baptism.

Tuesday: this morning we helped unload the bishops storehouse truck and helped deliver food to needy ward members. Today we interviewed an individual for baptism. Tonight we had a ton of lessons. Everyone around here is really friendly, so almost everyone will let you teach them a lesson, but people rarely follow commitments.

Wednesday: today we had our iPad conference. We got new iPads that we will be able to keep after our missions. We also got Facebook taken away for at least a few months  so that they can train us on how to properly use it. Tonight we taught a lady.

Thursday: today we did a lot of work in Kalama, a town a few miles up the freeway that is in 2nd ward. Tonight we taught a lady about some commandments. We then taught an individual about the priesthood.

Friday: this morning we taught a lady again. We taught her the rest of the commandments. Tonight we took an individual up to the Longview stake center to show him the baptismal font and give him a lesson. We taught about temples.

Saturday: the biggest thing that happened today is that we taught a lady. We taught her the plan of salvation. A gentleman came to the lesson.  He is the 16 year old who owns a bakery. 

Sunday: 6 hrs of church. 2nd ward PEC and ward council. We only had one investigator at church. That was pretty depressing. Tonight we taught a family.

 Elder Casey Jensen

February 23, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,                                 Monday, February 23, 2015 My companion is:  Elder Jared Smith   Elder Smith is from West Jordan, Utah He has been out for 4 1/2 months Has he been serving in this area? He has served in Woodland 1st for one transfer Elder Smith and I are co-senior companions (there is no such thing as senior companions in my mission unless you are being trained) My companion likes: music, tennis Wards Serving in: Woodland 1st and 2nd wards How many missionaries are serving in Woodland? We are the only missionaries in woodland. Last transfer there was sister missionaries in woodland 2nd, but this transfer they combined them. How many wards are in Woodland? 2 wards What Kind of Car? 2014 Chevy Cruze How many miles per month? We don't know yet really. I am assuming it will be somewhere from 1200 to 1600. Can you drive? Yes, Elder Smith and I drive every other day. District? Don't know much about the district yet. Our District leader is Elder Carpenter (Spanish speaking missionary) What is your address?  Elder and Sister Soper live in Woodland and work in the mission office. So they take our mail up here and drop it off at the church every day. So just sent me packages or letters to the mission office address. 2223 NW 99th St. Vancouver‎ WA‎ 98665 What is your apartment like? We live with members. I miss an apartment, but I think this is the best member living situation ever. We live with the Zumsteins. We live in a room behind the garage and we have our own bathroom. The Zumsteins have a teenage son that sometimes hangs out with us at night. We do laundry at the Zumsteins every Monday. What do you think about the weather?  It has been really warm and sunny most of the time up here. There has been little rain this winter.  Does it rain often? At least once a week. Any other interesting information... The Benjamin's live in our ward. Apparently they served in the New Hampshire Manchester mission and knew Carlton. So if you remember an Elder and Sister Benjamin, they live here in Woodland.    Daily report is going to be a little short since it has been a long email. Monday - Pday and pack for transfers Tuesday - transfers. Transfer meeting was at 2:00. Drove up to Longview to meet Elder Smith. Then we drove down to Woodland. Wednesday - had lessons almost all day. Thursday - we went on splits tonight because we were double booked for appointments. Elder Smith went with Brother Benjamin and I went with Robert Ahrens. Robert is 16 and owns his own bakery! Friday - we had a few lessons today, but they all canceled. Saturday - just a normal day Sunday - six hours of church and a ward council. Today was all kinds of fun! Btw, we have a mission iPad conference on Wednesday. We are getting our own iPads then. We may not be able to use Facebook for a while though. Elder Jensen

February 16, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,                   Monday, February 16, 2015 at 12:54 p.m.

First thing first, I am being transferred, tomorrow. Sorry for the poor heads up, but I am being transferred on the 17th. I am going to Woodland Washington and my new companion will be Elder Smith. Elder Williams is staying in Camas.

Do not send me any mail to any address in Camas! If you already have in the past few days, I am sure the Elders here will find some way to forward it to me. Please address any mail for me to the mission office until further notice.

The weather here has been sunny and warm with clear sky's. We have enjoyed the sunshine and awesome views of mt hood and mt St. Helens.

Monday - preparation day. Not much to tell, played basketball, etc.

Tuesday - had a lesson planned out today. They canceled last minute.

Wednesday - we had a lesson. We talked about who God is, the Book of Mormon, and coming to church. It was a really good lesson.

Thursday - we had a zone meeting this morning. We dropped by the an investigator later today. We talked about that and about their travel plans this summer. We also asked her why she first let the missionaries in. She told us that she normally would not have let them in, but she felt that she should. She said that God works in mysterious ways, and sent the missionaries to her door. We had a lesson with the later tonight. We taught the plan of salvation.

Friday - weekly planning day. The farewell dinner for the missionaries going home this transfer was held today. Elder Rothwell is going home and attended the dinner. So elder Morris came with us (elders Morris and Rothwell are companions). We went to a dinner in Fern Prairie ward. They invited some of their friends over. It was an awesome dinner. The whole dinner the nonmember friend was asking us tons of questions about our missions and what we believe. He basically asked for a Book of Mormon and said he would read it. It was pretty cool.

Saturday - had no lessons set up. Lots of Tracting and stopping by.

Sunday - pretty normal Sunday for having two wards. An investigator got interviewed for baptism today. His baptism got pushed back again to March 6th (for scheduling reasons). There was some sort of youth thing on the night we had planned it. We had a lesson today and talked about priesthood and missionary work. He is so awesome. He has had a pretty tough life.  He is ready for baptism.

Elder Casey Jensen