July 15, 2013


Dear Family and Friends,                           Monday, July 15, 2013 at 11:42 a.m. (EDT)

 So this last week was pretty good

Monday we went hiking on Prospect Rock. There are some really awesome views from up there. It is a giant rock up on the mountain above the church. It is nice because there are so many trees here that usually you cant see out over the valley but once youre up on this rock you can. After that we hung around the apartment and went shopping. Then we taught Brother Emerson and Jay.

Tuesday is our day that we get to go on mormon.org so that is always fun. We tried to teach Jaime but she wasnt home. We went to her friends house that said that she might be interested. Her husband came out and told us that they werent interested in us stopping by. Then we drive up to Bakersfield. They are doing road construction between Jeffersonville and Bakersfield and it is terrible. Vermont has to be environmentally friendly when they do construction so it takes forever to do anything. This road isnt going to be done until October and they have been working on it since I got here. We did some service for someone in Bakersfield named Rosalie. We planted a garden for her. She runs a food shelf up there. After that we taught a less active member named Cathy. She is always giving us Whoopie pies which are pretty much like ding dongs. After that we met the St Albans Elders for an exchange. Elder Walker went to St. Albans with Elder Caserio, while Elder Keller came to Lamoille with me.

Wednesday was an interesting day. In the morning me and Elder Keller knocked on some potential investigator's houses. Then we did some service at the municipal building. They had us taking the old tax records and had us take the staples out and prepare them to make scans of them. That was a lot of fun... After that we went to Ken's house. We followed up with him to see if he was reading the Book of Mormon. Then we went to see Jason, one of Jeremy's friends. Jason is a pretty cool guy. He used to have the missionaries over there teaching him, but some of the Elders were a little pushy, and he didnt like that, but he likes me and Elder Walker. After we saw Jason we went with Travis to see Kirby and Wendy. Wendy is a member but Kirby was never baptized. I was always told that he was just a less active member. Back in December the missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon and he finished it last week, so we taught him about the Restoration of the gospel and about Joseph Smith and where the Book of Mormon comes from. It was pretty good. Afterwards Travis showed them a bunch of Indian tools and weapons that he had made. He had a couple of handmade bows and arrows, and a bunch of stuff made out of deer hide. It was really cool. After that he took us to see Morgan and we taught her a little about Faith. It went well. He wanted to take us out to eat, so he took us to Wicked Wings. Before we went in he locked his Indian artifacts in the truck so no one would steal them. Wicked Wings was a pretty good place and we had a really good conversation with him. Afterwards we realized that he locked his keys in his truck, so we tried to find a metal hanger so he could pull up the lock. He told us to go home and finish our things for the night and that he would be just fine. He called us at about 11:30 and told us that he finally got in. He and some college kid used a skateboard to pry open the door.

Thursday we had District Meeting. The Polls were finally able to be there. I like Elder Poll because I can talk about Snowmobiles with him. He said that he could hook me up with a good job with Polaris, but he told me I would have to convert from Arctic Cat first. After District meeting we went to Waterville. On our way we got a flat tire. The road construction in Cambridge is just brutal because they use this sharp rock on the sides of the road that is always giving us flat tires. This is the second one and our vehicle coordinator wasnt too happy. We contacted a few former investigators in Waterville. We then stopped by Brother Wells. He is kind of funny. He knows that drinking beer and smoking is against the Word of Wisdom, but he does it anyhow, and thinks that we dont know. One time we went over to his house and suprised him. He threw his cigarette away really quick. There was smoke everywhere so he told us that he burned his toast. Even though the smoke clearly smelled like tobbacco so that was funny. After that we taught a lady named Alice. Her daughter is a member and she has been going to church with her. When we got there the first thing she did is tell us that she wasnt getting baptized. On Sunday Bob got up behind the pulpit and told her that she was going to get baptized eventually. She thought that he was calling her out and she asked if she could still go to church even if she didnt get baptized. We told her of course.

Friday we got our flat tire repaired. We went to the dealer first because that is where the mission wants us to go, but they were busy so we took it to a local tire shop. The guy gave us a great deal and he was a lot nicer to us than the dealer. He has been in that shop for about 6 months and I was pretty impressed with the service he gave us. I guess he knows he can get some return business from us. After that we went to Eden and talked to some people there.

 Saturday we stayed in Johnson. We went up to the Baker's house. Their son Addison was baptized 2 years ago and he is 11 now. He really likes the missionaries, and he has a great imagination. Last time we were over there he had us play star wars with him. This time it was pokemon. It was great. After that we went to the Elmers for dinner. They gave us Navajo tacos which were pretty good, especially for New England, no one knows how to cook mexican food up here. They also gave us goat milk, which was a first for me. It was alright but I still like cow milk better.


Sunday was good. We taught Adam and Faith. It was a great lesson. Jim came with us and they are really starting to like him. We talked about a modern day prophet and about following the commandments. It went really well. In church Cleve told us that Vermont mountains are no different than Mountains out west and that they have the same vertical. So I researched it with the maps mom and dad sent me. I took the elevation of Burlington, the lowest point in the state. It is 200 feet. The tallest mountain in Vermont is Mt. Mansfield which is 4393 feet tall. So that is a vertical of about 4193 feet. Montrose is at 5806 feet and Mt.Sneffels is at 14309. So that is a vertical of 8503, so in all reality our mountains are twice as big as theirs.

Also I was wondering if dad could send me the populations of the towns out here. Montgomery, Enosburg, Enosburg Falls, Fletcher, Cambridge, Underhill, Johnson, Waterville, Belvidere, Eden, Wolcott, Craftsbury, Hyde Park, Morristown, Stowe, Elmore, Hardwick, Essex Jct, and St Albans. If you could do that it would be great.

Well I guess that is it for this week.

Elder CWJensen