Monday, December 26, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
🎶I'll skype home for Christmas, you can count on me 🎵
Holy cow, Oregon has infinitely more snow than Grenoble right now... 还没下雪
We've had a crazy week! (And so have you, from the sound of it) Taught some good lessons and the highlight was Multi-Zone Conference in Lyon on Thursday. We had a visit from Elder and Sister Sabin of the Europe Area Presidency and it was soooo good. Their talks were really fast-paced and jumped around a bit, but everything that was said was exactly what I needed to hear. I was really captivated and took a ton of notes! Tell you more about it when I skype this Sunday for Christmas ;)
Grenoble is going to be baptizing a bunch next week, just so you know. Shoot some prayers this way to make sure all the amis will be ready and be able to resist those last minute temptations that Satan loves to throw at them!
Also instead of whatever Disney movie we wanted to watch on Christmas this year, President said we could watch Finding Dory once during the Christmas season. Joanna (Chinese recent convert) was visiting Grenoble today so we and the other Elders watched it with her at the church. SO GOOD and so feelsy. We almost cried. Maybe that's just because we haven't seen a movie in a year....
I'd like to finish with a short message about Christ (the Reason for the Season, as you know), borrowed from the Book of Mormon.
"And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye--for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words." (2 Nephi 33:10-11)
Christmas is the time for giving, and I'm so grateful for the gift of the Book of Mormon. I love He Bible and the Book of Mormon, as they are both the words of Christ. I know that this is true! As you read and pray about them, you can come to know that as well, and you'll be ever so grateful you did :)
Joyeux Noël everyone! See you when I see you :)
️
☃️
⚜️🇨🇳🇺🇸🇫🇷🇨🇦🇲🇨🇨🇭
Elder Jensen
江长老
We've had a crazy week! (And so have you, from the sound of it) Taught some good lessons and the highlight was Multi-Zone Conference in Lyon on Thursday. We had a visit from Elder and Sister Sabin of the Europe Area Presidency and it was soooo good. Their talks were really fast-paced and jumped around a bit, but everything that was said was exactly what I needed to hear. I was really captivated and took a ton of notes! Tell you more about it when I skype this Sunday for Christmas ;)
Grenoble is going to be baptizing a bunch next week, just so you know. Shoot some prayers this way to make sure all the amis will be ready and be able to resist those last minute temptations that Satan loves to throw at them!
Also instead of whatever Disney movie we wanted to watch on Christmas this year, President said we could watch Finding Dory once during the Christmas season. Joanna (Chinese recent convert) was visiting Grenoble today so we and the other Elders watched it with her at the church. SO GOOD and so feelsy. We almost cried. Maybe that's just because we haven't seen a movie in a year....
I'd like to finish with a short message about Christ (the Reason for the Season, as you know), borrowed from the Book of Mormon.
"And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye--for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words." (2 Nephi 33:10-11)
Christmas is the time for giving, and I'm so grateful for the gift of the Book of Mormon. I love He Bible and the Book of Mormon, as they are both the words of Christ. I know that this is true! As you read and pray about them, you can come to know that as well, and you'll be ever so grateful you did :)
Joyeux Noël everyone! See you when I see you :)
Elder Jensen
江长老
Monday, December 12, 2016
Bare tretten dager igjen til Julen kommer til Blåfjell 🇳🇴🎄🏔
No avoiding it people, I'm old. I passed my 18 month mark a couple
days ago and all the sisters I entered the MTC with are either already
home or heading that way this week. I'm so glad I'm serving 2 years
though because I'm nowhere near experienced enough to be a "returned
missionary!" I still have so many memories left to make and so much
work to do, I don't know how the sisters cram it all into a year and a
half.
Last week was pretty cool, Tuesday night it was freezing cold outside
but we talked to a super cool guy who was out jogging, he has family
in Montreal and listened to the whole message of the Restoration!
Lemme tell you, speaking French bien comme il faut is really difficult
when your face is so cold it feels like it's going to fall off. In the
end he wasn't interested, but he took a card so maybe we'll see him
again. Right after that we went and got poutine again! We went with
the non-member son of the old Italian member, some of his friends, and
a couple JA (jeunes adultes), both of whom served missions in
Montreal. Had a great time, got to talk about what it's like to be on
a mission, why we're here, and talk about temples! :)
Wednesday was the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I acknowledged it.
That night we went with a member to try and visit a less active
Chinese family, but they didn't answer. We left a note in their
mailbox and some gifts on the gate and a lot of prayer in our hearts.
Part two of this story is that Elder Alvarenga was able to get ahold
of them when we were doing calls yesterday. He did a great job
testifying in a blend of French and Chinese, but to little avail. God
has a plan for them!
This next week we'll have a conference with Elder Sabin from the
Seventy and we've been challenged to teach as many lessons in the
presence of a member as possible before that time. It's been going
really well! This past week we managed to have all our lessons be in
the presence, the members here are so willing to help and they help so
much with encouraging our amis. Definitely going to keep this up the
rest of my mission, it works soooo much better! The last lesson we
taught this past week was because we went out contacting with a member
and found this really cool girl, we shared with her the Eclairez Le
Monde video and had a good discussion.
One of the greatest things about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is its
simplicity! Just know that God exists. He loves you and wants you to
be happy. Life can be hard, but don't stop going to church, reading
the scriptures, and regularly praying and everything will be fine.
It's true it's true it's true I promise! Don't forget that, you'll be
sooo much happier!
Love you! Que Dieu vous bénisse!
Elder Jensen
江长老
days ago and all the sisters I entered the MTC with are either already
home or heading that way this week. I'm so glad I'm serving 2 years
though because I'm nowhere near experienced enough to be a "returned
missionary!" I still have so many memories left to make and so much
work to do, I don't know how the sisters cram it all into a year and a
half.
Last week was pretty cool, Tuesday night it was freezing cold outside
but we talked to a super cool guy who was out jogging, he has family
in Montreal and listened to the whole message of the Restoration!
Lemme tell you, speaking French bien comme il faut is really difficult
when your face is so cold it feels like it's going to fall off. In the
end he wasn't interested, but he took a card so maybe we'll see him
again. Right after that we went and got poutine again! We went with
the non-member son of the old Italian member, some of his friends, and
a couple JA (jeunes adultes), both of whom served missions in
Montreal. Had a great time, got to talk about what it's like to be on
a mission, why we're here, and talk about temples! :)
Wednesday was the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I acknowledged it.
That night we went with a member to try and visit a less active
Chinese family, but they didn't answer. We left a note in their
mailbox and some gifts on the gate and a lot of prayer in our hearts.
Part two of this story is that Elder Alvarenga was able to get ahold
of them when we were doing calls yesterday. He did a great job
testifying in a blend of French and Chinese, but to little avail. God
has a plan for them!
This next week we'll have a conference with Elder Sabin from the
Seventy and we've been challenged to teach as many lessons in the
presence of a member as possible before that time. It's been going
really well! This past week we managed to have all our lessons be in
the presence, the members here are so willing to help and they help so
much with encouraging our amis. Definitely going to keep this up the
rest of my mission, it works soooo much better! The last lesson we
taught this past week was because we went out contacting with a member
and found this really cool girl, we shared with her the Eclairez Le
Monde video and had a good discussion.
One of the greatest things about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is its
simplicity! Just know that God exists. He loves you and wants you to
be happy. Life can be hard, but don't stop going to church, reading
the scriptures, and regularly praying and everything will be fine.
It's true it's true it's true I promise! Don't forget that, you'll be
sooo much happier!
Love you! Que Dieu vous bénisse!
Elder Jensen
江长老
Poutine
Proverb in a little chocolate truc
Chinese-speaking JA and one of our favorite members,
we hung out with him on p-day
Monday, December 5, 2016
More pictures & videos
We saw a Hummer!
The Paris Temple President was driving us to his house in the
mountains and I saw some Christmas cheer.
Us doing 12 weeks
I burned the rice today (dishonor on my family) so I put it out on the
windowsill to smoke for a while. It's actually still there.
Self-explanatory
Also self-explanatory
"What if"s are for fools
For a couple reasons: when referring to the past, "what if" does no good because le passé est passé. When talking about the future, you have to be careful because saying "what if" might actually make it come true. For example, transfers! We made a lot of jokes about Elder Eberhard going to Corse (Corsica) but we never actually meant it. Lo and behold he's been shipped off to Ajaccio, which is indeed on Corsica. Lucky duck with his Corsican Christmas, but he was honestly so sad to leave Grenoble, he loved it here because it's the best.
Yes we're staying :) my 6th time staying at least two transfers with a companion! How do you like that. Elder Alvarenga and I are here for another six weeks with the rock-solid members, beautiful mountains, and frigid temperatures (though mysterious lack of snow...). I hope you've all been able to go on Mormon.org and get started becoming more Christlike this Christmas season! If not, go there right now and Éclairez le Monde!
This past week, it was December 1st and the focus was on helping bear other people's burdens. Thus, we found ourselves helping the Harding family empty out their apartment in preparation for their move back to the States. They went back yesterday morning, church wasn't the same without them :( oh well, Brother Harding told us to keep in touch so it's not the last I've seen of them!
Saturday I was on exchange with Elder Mason. He's a SoCal boy and really good at French, especially for his third transfer. He's also staying, so we get another transfer together in the apartment eating spicy pasta every day (Elder Alvarenga's favorite, he loves sriracha).
We got transfer calls at the home of an older Italian member (the one who knows Elder Alvarenga's family) who lives up in the mountains, we were doing service for him and it was freezing cold. He had a bunch of angels and swords and paintings (that he painted) in his house and he cooks like a pro. His food was so so so good. His son hasn't been baptized, so we shared a spiritual thought with them and found out that the son is so nice and so cool, so we're planning to go get poutine with him and some other bros this week :)
Remember everyone: Jesus loves you! Our Heavenly Father loves you! No matter how fallen you think you might be, before you were born you chose to come here and learn and grow. Despite all your imperfections, God knows you're worth saving :) that's why Christ came down and paid the price for your sins. He didn't do it for fun, that's for sure. He did it for you! Trust Him :)
Yes we're staying :) my 6th time staying at least two transfers with a companion! How do you like that. Elder Alvarenga and I are here for another six weeks with the rock-solid members, beautiful mountains, and frigid temperatures (though mysterious lack of snow...). I hope you've all been able to go on Mormon.org and get started becoming more Christlike this Christmas season! If not, go there right now and Éclairez le Monde!
This past week, it was December 1st and the focus was on helping bear other people's burdens. Thus, we found ourselves helping the Harding family empty out their apartment in preparation for their move back to the States. They went back yesterday morning, church wasn't the same without them :( oh well, Brother Harding told us to keep in touch so it's not the last I've seen of them!
Saturday I was on exchange with Elder Mason. He's a SoCal boy and really good at French, especially for his third transfer. He's also staying, so we get another transfer together in the apartment eating spicy pasta every day (Elder Alvarenga's favorite, he loves sriracha).
We got transfer calls at the home of an older Italian member (the one who knows Elder Alvarenga's family) who lives up in the mountains, we were doing service for him and it was freezing cold. He had a bunch of angels and swords and paintings (that he painted) in his house and he cooks like a pro. His food was so so so good. His son hasn't been baptized, so we shared a spiritual thought with them and found out that the son is so nice and so cool, so we're planning to go get poutine with him and some other bros this week :)
Remember everyone: Jesus loves you! Our Heavenly Father loves you! No matter how fallen you think you might be, before you were born you chose to come here and learn and grow. Despite all your imperfections, God knows you're worth saving :) that's why Christ came down and paid the price for your sins. He didn't do it for fun, that's for sure. He did it for you! Trust Him :)
Thanksgiving dinner
Us over Grenoble
Artsy shot
江长老
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