This week has been crazy. It feels even shorter than last week! Anyway, so on Monday for the rest of our P Day we went and spent it with one of the best member families ever! The Christiansens. We followed them on the military base (great idea on getting my I.D. renewed dad; came in handy) and got to eat pizza while watching their son play t-ball. It was the first baseball field my companion has seen his whole mission! He loved it hah. We were having a great time and I ate so much pizza! Elder Wilcox made me laugh so hard I threw up my root beer.. WHILE laughing the whole time and it was so gross and Sister Christiansen started laughing histerically! It was the weirdest feeling ever.. But it made a funny memory! After that we drove home and saw a sign for 'Lackford Lakes' and we swerved to go check it out. It was so beautiful out there! And we walked around and went into these hides where we could hide and bird watch. It was the coolest thing. We took lots of pictures and stuck around til the sun set. It was great to slow down and appreciate all the things God has created for us and we had a good discussion about Mother Nature and growing closer to God. Tuesday we met with this awesome new investigator of ours. Apparently we're not suppose to name our investigators? So he's our science guy. Hah he is studying to be a biochemist or something and we had a looong discussion about the nature of God. He was a previous investigator so he knew a lot and he has felt the Spirit before. He's a fun bloke to talk to and he accepted the invitation to come to church. Wednesday I had the WORST case of hayfever. We went and did garden work for a nice sister and I could not stop sneezing! It lasted for almost all day and then we finally got home and it decided to go away. But now every morning I feel my allergies acting up but it's not too bad. Thursday we went to Colchester to have a training from President Jordan and his wife and get interviews with him. It was really cool and we learned a lot about staying happy and always be smiling. We also got to practice oyming with other companionships and I learned SO much. We also witnessed a tiny miracle! We were out contacting 'Lost Sheep' who aren't active and we knocked a few times on this one families door and never got a good answer. As we walked back to the car we met a nice lady and it turned out it was the person we were trying to contact! She loved talking to us and we were able to finally set up an appointment to go visit. On Friday Elder Wilcox and I went to Cambridge to watch a baptism. It was pretty cool and afterwards on the way home we stopped at this kebab place and Elder Wilcox 'kebabtized' me in the name of the Lamb, and the Chicken, and the Grease. It was pretty funny hah. Saturday we went to go tracting by the church because we had three appointments later in the day there. We stopped by to drop some stuff off and it turns out they were having a birthday party there for one of the children! It was a huge surprise and we were going to have appointments there! Hah our appointments ended up cancelling and we got some free food and were able to meet and talk with a few of the non members that were there. Sunday we experienced another small miracle! We were out tracting and decided to go try, yet again, to contact a less active family. We hadn't ever been able to meet the husband and never got to set a time where we could visit and get to know them. As we were walking to their house, dark clouds started forming.... And then as we got on their steps, it started to sprinkle. Elder Wilcox said "God's going to get us an appointment right now". As we knocked; it started pouring hard. They opened the door and we said hi and they said come on in for a minute! Right when we got in the house, it stopped raining haha but we were able to talk to them and make a time to visit more! It was the first time Elder Wilcox had seen them and he's been here for two transfers so it was a great little miracle. This morning we had a conference call with President Jordan and he told us about how missionaries are going to be able to use the internet and things more for hastening the work! It will be such a great tool that we can use. We've already had a few people comment on us not being able to use facebook or anything and apparently people ask all the time if we have facebook so it'll be great to branch out. It's been a really good week and on Saturday we have our first baptism! I can't wait. I'm so grateful for all the support I've been getting, you're all great -Elder Jespersen
So this week has been super crazy. It's flown by so fast! It feels like it was just P day yesterday! Anyway. The reason it flew by so fast was because the days feel like hours! And I had two work overs this week. A work over is where I go to another area and we trade companions for a day. I went and worked in Colchester with our zone leader Elder Lingam on Wednesday! It was awesome! He only has one transfer left before he "dies" (goes home). We switched in Cambridge after our district meeting which my district leader companion so kindly had me teach a lesson in because he forgot until the night before to assign someone to do a training. And because I was around he chose me hah but it turned out a lot better than I expected. The work over was great and I got to witness a miracle. We went and visited with a less active family (an old couple) and we learned that the wife had terminal cancer. We went on to teach/practice teaching lesson one about how God loves us and he blesses our families. Right in the middle of the lesson, the Bishop of that ward knocked on the door and popped in to say hello. He said he felt inspired to come by and see how they were doing and such and just told her how much God loves her. She then told us all how she had been thinking about ending her life that past weekend and had prayed to know if God was really there and if He was she wanted Him to send someone to tell her He loves her. It was an amazing miracle that testifies how much God does love each and every one of us and He knows exactly what we're going through and what we need. My second work over I went and worked with Elder Tam (from Hong Kong) in Cambridge. He's an elder in my district. It was pretty good and we got to teach a few interesting people. It was interesting because before this work over we've always had a car to work in. Elder Tam and his companion use bikes. So we had to use bikes. They were such rubbish. I ended up on a tiny bike with a flat tyre that we had to use to get clear across town. It was the first time I've sweat here. It was insane! But it was the best workout too hah and it was actually pretty fun talking with Elder Tam and learning his tecnique and everything. Saturday we played football with some members again and this time we played a fun game where there's a goalie and every one is trying to shoot goals themselves but you can't touch the ball twice in a row or you're goalie. And you can't miss the shot or you're goalie. And if the goalie catches/stops it you're goalie. And if you're goalie and you miss it three times everyone gets to punch you. It was the best game ever!! Haha everyone ended up trying to get three goals so we could punch people and making long shots for fun and such. It was awesome. That afternoon we talked to one of our investigators that the missionaries have been working with for about a year. She isn't all there; she had a mental problem but she does learn. We just have to teach very simply. But the past two times we met with her she's been asking about baptism. As long as someone is accountable and wants to be baptized, we baptize them so for a while we've been making sure she's accountable and then during our appointment that day, we explained a little more about baptism and asked if she wanted to be baptized and so we set a date just June 29th. It'll be great, she loves coming to church and she wants to be baptized so bad. Yesterday (Sunday) our new investigator Patricia (crazy cat lady fits her well, she's awesome hah) came to church and was having really bad problems sitting for so long. She broke her back a while ago. So after sacrament we asked if she wanted a priesthood blessing and she said sure so after we gave her a blessing she felt better right away! It was amazing! And she was so happy and even though she didn't understand much of what the speakers said, she still felt the spirit and loves coming to church. It's great to see all the little miracles in missionary life. I love being out here serving the Lord. It's been the best decision I've ever made. Pictures from the MTC Ya alright mate? It's been crazy here. We're always rushing around! So much has happened. On Friday, we had an AP (President's assistant) exchange. It's where an AP comes and spends the day with you and reports back to the President how it's going. It was so much fun! We had Elder Murri. It's his last transfer and so he is like a pro at everything. It was funny though because when we went tracting, he had "forgotten" how to and it was fun because I got a lot of inspiration when people opened their doors! He's great at just starting conversations with anybody. While we're walking to an appointment, he'll see someone and just start talking to them! It was good to have him with us because it gave me a little more confidence to talk to people while OYMing. On Saturday, we got to play football! It was wonderful to be able to get out and kick the ball around with the members. We're trying to make it a weekly thing so that the members can invite their friends and we can bring investigators along. So far it's doing well! OH! I forgot, on Thursday, we had a dinner appointment in Stowupland (our farthest village/town/whatever in our area) and we showed up early so we went tracting and ran into this lovely old lady! Her name is Patricia, she's turning 80 this year and she is the best! She met with missionaries when she was 23 and stopped because she was attracted to them haha and she had some concerns. It was great though because the Lord has really prepared her to recieve the gospel. She's been through a ton of life experiences that really testify of the truths we teach so it's easy to get her to understand the doctrine. She's amazing haha and one of the funniest things is that she is so blunt and up front about everyting and always cracking jokes. We've been able to meet with her twice and she accepts everything we teach and wants to know more. I can't wait to keep working with her! I love how I can see how much the Lord helps me in everything we're doing. He's everywhere! It's the best feeling to know that we are all on the Lords side and he'll help us through anything we're going through. I love the work we're doing here. The time really is flying and it'll be over before I know it. I know if I give my all, I'll be satisfied at the end. One of my favorite things we've taught is the draw your testimony lesson. We have everyone draw their testimonies and then explain them. We then challenge them to wear their testimonies in their hearts and let people know, by their example and by sharing it, that they have a testimony of the gospel. I know that by sharing my testimony I can help people come to know the truth for themselves. I love it.
Hello everybody, So it turns out the here in the field, our p days are on Mondays instead of Wednesdays. It's been a crazy couple of days since I got sent out here. I'm serving in the Bury St. Edmunds area. We cover West to New Market, East to Stowmarket, and South the Sudbury. It's a pretty spread out area. My companion/trainer's name is Elder Wilcox (no relation to Brad Wilcox...) and he's really cool! On Wednesday we all met our trainers in London and then travelled to our areas. We didn't get back to our flat until half midnight! (12:30.. They say half 4 for 4:30, half 7 for 7:30 and so on) It was crazy! We took the tubes to a train station and then spent a couple hours on the train to Bury. We have a car so we drove to our flat and went to bed pretty quick. The next morning, we were up, studied,.... and then took a train to Cambridge... The trains kinda make me sick, which is weird because I never got motion sick before.. But anyway, we went to a district meeting in Cambridge and then travelled back and that took our whole morning away. Then we went OYMing in town centre... OYM stands for open your mouth. We walked around town centre and tried to stop people and start talking about the gospel. It's been really difficult for me to be able to do it just because I'm nervous about what to say and such but I'm slowly getting better. We've done it twice since I think. Besides that, we went tracting for the first time. First door we knocked ( 1 Peacockles Street in Sudbury) they didn't answer haha but we've been tracting a bit more and I like it better than OYMing. We've had dinner appointments just about every night with members and it's been great because it's mostly American food. We're near a military base so a lot of the members are American and eat food I'm used to. It feels kinda like home just because of the food and people. The only differences are the roads, the houses, and the stores. I'm sure my next area will be way different. We haven't had too many opportunities to teach but we have had a couple appointments. They've been pretty good and I've gotten better at being comfortable enough to talk and testify of what we're saying. In fact, we taught at a YSA fireside last night and Elder Wilcox completely strayed from our plan of who would talk when and just stared at me until I explained the gospel principle hah it was pretty funny. In fact, the first time we tracted, he told the lady I was going to sing a song for her! But she was a grumpy old lady and slammed her door on us. It's pretty fun to joke around in between doors and talk about stuff that we could do. To end, for all those who want to send letters, my flat address is: 16 Durham Close Bury St. Edmunds IP32 6TH The end of this transfer is July 10th so stop sending letters to that address about July 1st because I might be moving and they wouldn't forward them to my new address. If you send letters to the South Kensington address, I won't get them until Zone meetings which happen just about monthly. We do have one tomorrow luckily but still. Anyway, the work is great! I'm so happy to be out here serving the Lord, I hope I can learn quickly to just throw myself into the service and become a tool in His hands. I miss you all, I love hearing from you. Emailing is fine, we have an hour and a half each week. Love you all. -Elder Jespersen
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