Beachin'

Monday- After we emailed we went to the Shoobridge's house to play some card game with Josh and then we did some service for them by helping with their shed and some other yard work. Then we had some delicious stuffed zucchini for dinner! Twas a pretty good day!

Tuesday- We finally got money on our church card and so we went and did our grocery shopping and bought heaps of groceries to stock up the flat! Then we went back to the Shoobridges house to help with more service and after that we went to the Parker's house to do more service them! We helped to clean up the yard and build an aviary! I am learning a lot of cool little things here like how to build heaps of different stuff, yard work, and concreting! Look out world lol! Then we had dinner at the Parker's house and we shared a mormon message called Refiners Fire and it was really good go watch it!

Wednesday- We went to Bega to visit some less actives and man we had no luck hahaha everyone has either moved or they are not interested in the church anymore! We did tract around a couple houses around the Less active's houses and we got a potential that we will follow up on next week! Then we went to discuss having a sit down with one of our investigators Atika who is 15 and her mom so we can discuss our goals for her and invite her to be baptized. Her mom is a member of the church and her and her 3 foster kids come every week. The other two have been baptized but Atika has not yet been so we want to make that happen! Then we went and helped Josh for a little again that night then we had some pizza that Elder Cherrington's dad ordered for us from America! It was so good! Then we did some more studies to end the night since after like 8 here there isn't anything for us to do unless we are at a member appointment.

Thursday- Since our area is so massive and we only have so many k's we can use for the month with our car we can only go to some parts of our area like once a month and so we went to Quaama to visit a less active who used to be a mission presidents wife! She remarried a new guy who is in the Anglican Church! She seemed like she still had strong faith and that she still loves the church! She said that she loves the light that she see's from us, after we shared our message with her! So Quaama is really close to an area called Narooma which is in the south coast zone and its where the Senior Couple missionaries the Jensens are serving and they have been wanting us to come up for dinner for awhile. There was two people that are getting baptized in Narooma and they needed to be interviewed and so Elder Jensen got permission to have Elder Cherrington and I give the interviews so we got to go up to Narooma and see all the cool sites to see there with the Jensens then we went to give the interviews which was so cool to do for the first time! It is great to see the light in the eyes of those who are ready to make that covenant with our Heavenly Father! I love this gospel and the power it has to change lives! It is so true!! So then we went back to the Jensens for a massive feed with them and the sister missionaries in Narooma and their Branch President and his wife! Then we drove home which took like an hour and fifteen minutes so not too bad! 

Friday- We called into DTM in the morning/afternoon time and listened to the training. Kinda hard to hear it all haha. Then we went and did some service for the Walkers and after that we went home and showered super fast and drove out to Wyndham to have dinner with the Wrights! They are the parents of the branch president, and they are from England. We had a delicious traditional English meal with all the veggies, meat, yorkshire pudding, and sticky date pudding! It was so good!! Then we played a nice game of Rummiking! It was way fun I like that game! Then we shared a message with her and her husband who is less active! Great day and better night! 

Saturday- Went to the Shoobridge's to do some more service for them. We worked on the shed for like two hours and got all the bracing screwed in! Then we went home and made some food. Then we went to one of the many Parker's kids house and did service for Sam and Mandy! We helped clean up the yard and move some stuff off the side of the house so that there was no where for snakes to live in haha the snake they saw in their yard not too long ago was a way poisonous one so we were very careful not running into that haha luckily we never saw it. We did catch some lizards though so that was fun! Then after working in the yard until the sun went down we made some dinner! After that we sat down and discussed missionary work with them. They are prime examples of members helping the missionaries with the work! They have a list of people they want to share the Gospel with and thy are setting up ways that we can meet them! 

Sunday- We had church which went really good. After church we met with Atika and her mom to discuss what our plan and goals are for her. We set a baptismal date with her for April 9th! We are hoping that it can be bumped up a little closer but we are so excited about setting her on a date! The Lord has really helped prepare her and The Spirit was so strong when she accepted the invitation to be baptized! Then we went and took the sacrament around to the elderly sisters that can't make it to church. After that we tried to do some LA visits but we had no luck! Then we went home and broke our fast with a delicious meal that was ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, all over rice with peas on top! Then we did some studies after dinner and called it a night!

My spiritual thought for the week is Alma 37:37, Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

 we must have constant communication with our Father in Heaven morning and night. As we do the Spirit will be with us and we will have direction from the Lord. The Lord wants to hear from us, he misses us and loves to hear our voices when we pray to him. 

Love you all have a good week!

Love, Elder Jenson

 Cool rocks in Bermagui which is in our area

da gang

they have a new gang sign... they're the coolest

"camel rock" it looks more like "dragon rock" if you ask me.

Big Majestic mountain

Mystery Bay

Where they baptize in Narooma

LOOK! It's a seal

Cute lil' guy

Australia Rock

View from Jensen's Flat

the drive home

almost got punched in the face... by a kangaroo

This has been a good week and a busy one! I will give yous the rundown!

Monday- We were still in Canberra so we emailed at the Australian National Library so that was pretty sick! Then after that we went to the chapel and played games with the whole zone! It was a good time haha all the elders got pretty competitive, go figure hahaha! So after that we went to Costco with an Elder who has a Costco card and got American shredded cheese, Krusteese pancake mix, and skippy peanut butter! The cheese here sucks so it was nice to get some good cheese :) Then we stayed one more night in Canberra because President didn't want us driving home so late.

Tuesday- We went and helped the Woden elders with some service that morning. After we did some service we packed up and started driving back home. When we got back we went to the Shoobridge's house to do some service for them. We helped to build a massive shed for them, it isn't done yet so we have a project to work on for a little now! Then we had dinner with them and shared a message about how much our earthly and Heavenly parents love us! 

Wednesday- We went back to the Shoobridge's home and worked on the shed some more and then we talked with him for a little! Then we went home and showered and had some dinner! After that we went to one of our investigators house and we talked to them for a little. They were too tired for a message but it was good to talk with them for a little! Then we went to the game night again and talked to everyone there! They all enjoy us coming around and it is good exposure for us because they are all non members! 

Thursday- We went and volunteered at Potaroo Palace which is like a zoo and we just raked leaves to make the paths look better for people to walk on! Inside the zoo they have kangaroos jumping around freely so I got to pet a kangaroo and it was hectic!! I was so scared hahaha but I guess these ones are harmless so they wouldn't attack me so that was good! There was also some Dingoes, owls, flying foxes, wallabies, Koala, and wombats there! Then we did weekly planning adn went to a PEC meeting with the branch presidency!

Friday- We had to call in to listen to ZTM  and we did a nice workout while we listened to the training! Then we went home and had some lunch, visited our neighbors Tom and Ian who are non members and then we went to the Branch activity at the park for some snags on the barbie and a game of footy! I didn't truck any by standers this time thankfully! Some of the kids in the Branch are Less active and Elder Laga'aia is so good at talking with everyone and he is always so happy that he can get them to talk and pen up so that was awesome to see! 

Saturday- We went to the branch activity at the lake where all the primary was there and they invited some of their non member friends which is a great time for us missionaries to establish a good friendship with them and show them that we are just normal humans :) So we walked like 500 meters from the lake to the beach with some of the guys from the branch to watch them do some boogie board surfing and the waves were so big! They have been big because of the Cyclone that hit Fiji! So that was a fun time to mingle with members and nonmembers all day! Then that night on of the members took us to an Indian restaurant and I have never had Indian food before but it was really good! Mine was pretty spicy so I sweat a lot while eating and drank a lot of water but it was good! 

Sunday- We had a special broadcast for the pacific stakes only and we got to hear from some auxiliary leaders and general authorities! My favorite talks were by Elder Cook and the general president of Sunday School! They both talked on using Scripture study, prayer, and church attendance as a way to fight temptation that comes our way and how if we do those three things that we will keep our faith nourished and we will stay strong in the church! Then after church we had a slow basic day, we did some studies, met with Tom and Ian and planned out our week a little more!

My spiritual thought for the week is on the three basic gospel principles that we need to do everyday and every week. Prayer, scripture study, and weekly church attendance! I know that if we have fervent morning and night prayers with our Father in Heaven we will have his Spirit with us and we will have the guidance that we need and also the strength we need to get through the day! Scripture study WITH prayer is another huge thing for us! As we read and ponder the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon we will connect with the Heavens and draw closer to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ! Last but not least Church attendance is what caps it all off! That is where we get to dedicate 3 hours of our time to learning of Jesus Christ and His Gospel and it is where we get to renew our covenants with our Father in Heaven by partaking of the Sacrament! We have the Lord's promise that as we partake of the sacrament worthily and keep his commandments that we will ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us! I know these 3 things can keep us all strong during the days and weeks and even years! I know that by doing these things that our faith will increase and we will never have to worry about falling away from this Gospel! I know these things help and that they have so much power to change us and make us who our Heavenly Father wants us to be! I love you all have a good week and let me know if you ever need anything or if you have any questions shoot me an email! 

Love,

Elder Jenson

plate spinners

blurry plate spinners

The national library

da boyz on P-day

who knew Cam was capable of building things? Not me

UFC workouts are pretty intense?

kangarooooooooos

Look at the look the kangaroo is giving Cam haha. He was a little nervous if you couldn't tell

the lake

da trio at the lake

Kangaroos don't attack humans....

Hey everyone here is the weekly update from down under! 

Monday- we had a normal P day, emailed, shopped, and got some haircuts for my comps. Then we went to a member's home for dinner and service! After we did both of those we went on a little bush walk with them to a place called moon beach! It was so sick! There were some kangaroos hopping around when we were walking back down and I was so sketched out haha I was scared we were going to get kicked in the face, but apparently they don't really attack people and if they do then you just climb a tree :)

Tuesday- We drove to a part of our area called Eden. While we were there we also drove to the border of Victoria and New South Wales which is where our area ends haha. Then we tried to visit a less active family in the ward but they weren't home and after that we just did some tracting. After that we went to a members home to help them with service then we had dinner with them and shared a message!

Wednesday- We went to to family history center to visit some non members who come there to do their family history. Then we went and did some service for a less active family where we just mowed the lawn which was huge and then we vacuumed there walls which had spider webs all over them! Then we went to teach some kids from a member family and the oldest one who is 14 isn't baptized so we are trying to work with her to get baptized! So we taught them then we went to this fish n chips shop where two of our 4 investigators and a guy from our branch president go to for a game night every Wednesday! They play games with miniatures which is a way complicated game haha so we just interact with a lot of non members there and talk to them!

Thursday- We had some stuff dropped off to our flat by senior missionary couple and then they took us out to lunch which was sweet! Then we went back to the flat and packed all of our stuff for the weekend because we were traveling up to Canberra for the weekend for Stake Conference and Zone Conference. So basically this whole day was just driving to Canberra haha nothing too exciting.

Friday- We had an amazing zone conference with Pres and Sis Back! We had really good trainings and we learned a lot! I felt so edified and pumped up at the end of the whole thing! Then after Zone Conference I went on trade offs with my main man Elder Yardley in his area! We did some less active visits and we taught 2 lessons that night which was nice for a change since we don't get as many lessons in Merimbula! Then we went home and learned some cool card magic tricks haha.

Saturday- We did some more treade offs and I was with Elder Sirithananon who is from Thailand! He is a tailor back at home and he knows how to dry clean suits and change ties into skinny ties! He is literally the man! So we went and did some less active visits and we ended up teaching one lesson about the truthfulness of the Book Of Mormon to a less active! Then we went to the adult session of Stake conference. We had Elder Liota of the seventy there for it and man he gave a powerful talk! Between him and the testimonies given by recent converts, man the Spirit was so strong and everyone could feel it! Investigators there could feel the truthfulness of what was being spoke! We also got to hear from Pres and Sis Back again and it is always such a pleasure to hear from them! 

Sunday- We had Stake conference that morning and once again the Spirit was so strong in there! Elder Liota gave another POWERFUL talk! I loved it all, he really just draws you in when he gives a talk! Then after that we ate lunch with some members from our branch that traveled up for conference! Then we did trade offs with Elder Tuitubo and Elder Tafengatoto but sadly all the appointments we had fell through haha so nothing too much happened.

My Spiritual thought for the week is the Standard of Truth, 

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

― Joseph Smith Jr.

This work is moving on no matter what! Nothing can stop it! I know this is the Lord's work and I am so grateful to be apart of it! I know this church is true! I love you all have a good week!!!

Love, Elder Jenson

Yep... I'm not going to visit.

Fast forward 5 years.... 

Hiking to moon bay with the shoobridges 

what up playaaaaa.. He's in Eden

cuz this is real life

Lets just go hang out on the beach for P day... 

In case we forgot who he was... its ELDER JENSON

He went to Victoria

BYU or Oregon? 

Not real life... 

HELLLLPPPP

the trio

Cuties

LOOK its Elder Yardley. He looks happy to be with cam haha

KANGAROOS MAAAAATE (also, 6 months down)

Alright so my first week in Merimbula has been pretty good! It is a beach town where a lot of people come for vacation and where old people retire haha! It is a beautiful place! The work is pretty slow here but we are hopefully going to change that! haha I love my companions I really lucked out with them! There are some great members here as well that treat us really well so that is a blessing. Here is my week!

Monday- Spent the whole day driving from Sutherland all the way down to Merimbula. It was about 7 hours of traveling for the day! Then we got here and went and did some service for a family here and had some dinner with them!

Tuesday- P day! We had service in the morning where we helped wheel burrow some concrete for a family in the branch! After that we went and got some food and emailed! After emailing we went to some awesome view points and some really cool beaches! After that we went and did service for another family in the branch and had dinner with them!

Wednesday- We went to go to the Family history center to help out and see one of our investigators but no one was there! So we went to the old flat that the missionaries lived in last transfer and grabbed the last of the stuff that needed to be moved to our new flat. We got some lunch then we went home and organized our stuff! Then we went and visited with a non member that used to be an investigator that likes having missionaries around and his cousin who lives with him who is one of our investigators! They ended up having us over for dinner so that was cool! 

Thursday- We went and cleaned the old flat and made it look good for inspections! Then we grabbed some lunch and we did some GQing around the shops in town. Then we went and visited one of our investigators at her work! We haven't been able to get in contact with her but she said she wants to meet with us again so that was good! Then we did some grocery shopping for some food in the flat and we did our weekly planning. Pretty slow day.

Friday- We had to listen to DTM over the phone hahaha so that was fun! Then we went and met up with two of the senior couples in the mission and got a new mattress from them for Elder Cherrington and we finished pulling out all of the stuff from the old flat and moving it to the new flat. After that we went to the Branch activity at the park and ate some snags (sausages) from the barbie and played some footy (rugby). While playing footy I ended up trucking a little kid that I did not see when I was running, he wasn't part of the branch activity it was just a random by stander. One of the ladies with him was getting mad at me even after I was apologetic and I felt way bad haha but luckily she backed off. Then later that night when we were leaving this lady was giving a piggy back to a kid she was with and she was racing the two other adults she was with and she tripped while running and smashed her face into the ground and spilled her beer hahaha it was pretty funny to see. Oh and on a good note the kid that I trucked ended up being just fine and the mom wasn't mad at all and she was way cool about it when I went over and talked to them again and said sorry :) Then after the activity we went and helped mow a massive backyard! Also Elder Cherrington and I hit our 6 month mark so we burned a tie in our backyard of our flat haha.

Saturday- We had to put a new door on the old flat and we had a non member that lives right next door to us, who is friends with the missionaries, help us out. After we were done with that we went back to this guys house and had a chat with him. He said a funny quote to his sister in law that was there, "If you want to join a religion, you could do a lot worse than the mormons! They're good blokes." hahaha he is so awesome! Then after that we got some food and got some mormon messages from the computer and we went home for the night!

Sunday- My first time going to a branch instead of a ward! I counted 11 total adults in the congregation and the rest were kids hahaha and our meeting house is just a small little building right next to a fish n chips shop! Then after church we had branch council, then we went home for a later lunch. After lunch we had to drive to Bega which is like 40 k's away to deliver the sacrament to two elderly ladies. After that went home and organized our flat and cleaned it up, and had some dinner.

My spiritual thought for the week is on letting our light shine! "A sacred light comes to our eyes and countenances when we have a personal bond with our loving Heavenly Father and His Son." Elder James E Faust. We must always strive to keep the commandments and do what the Lord asks us to do so that we can show an example to others and so that we can let our light shine. As we do this we will create a bond with our Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ! Love you all! Have a good week :)

 

The church meeting house

I want YOU

I mean... Australia can be pretty rough this time of year.

yeah... definitely rough

This is fake...Pambula beach (look it up)

Oh.. another beach..

pretty bird... pretty bird. A member in their area made them balloon animals

real ugly...

Glad I'm not there...

a little more country than his last area

Just the beach behind their house.. NBD

are those deer in the front yard? nope.. kangaroos, mate

Elder Cherrington and Elder Jenson before the 6 month tie burning

SIX MONTHS DOWN, BABY! that's a quarter of the way done..