Homeless in Bloomington

April 9, 2012

Good morning Jared,

The kids are back in school after a week of Spring Break. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Thursday and came back on Sunday night. Dad went fishing Friday and then Saturday he and Taylor helped Grandpa put a new liner in their irrigation pond. The boys enjoyed the service project and Grandpa was super grateful for the help.

Grandpa sold his 1946 Chevy last week. It is a little bit sad, but he's become really partial to 1929 Fords. he had to thin down his fleet to devote more to the Model A's.

While we were out there, it snowed five inches in Bountiful. But by the time we got home on Sunday there wasn't a trace left.

Road trips are a fight now, because both Taylor and Mikayla want to drive. Taylor HATES not being in the drivers seat and Mikayla thinks it's not fair that he always gets to drive and she wants her turn...they are driving me CRAZY! :)

We got your camera in the mail. We'll hang on to it and I'll get your memory card back to you. Did you get the package that we sent? Hallie was sure mad at me when she found out that I sent you the pictures. She picked them all out and SHE wanted to send them in a letter so that they were from her. Oh well, I rarely do anything right.

Do you remember Clairae Heap? She is Carl's mother. We were in their ward for the first half of your life. Anyway, she passed away this week. She suffered from Alzheimer's and it finally got the best of her, but is is a good thing. She has suffered long enough. The funeral is this week.

I don't think I told you that Austen got his mission call a couple of weeks ago. He leaves May 23rd for Ventura California.

We are all doing well. I hope you are too. Have an awesome week.

I love you!

Mom


Hey,

I got the package you guys sent. Thanks so much! I really enjoyed the pictures.

We had a good week. On Tuesday, we volunteered at a local soup kitchen here. I love doing service there. The people are really funny. Here are some choice quotes....

"Elder Santy: Hey sir, would you like some corn?

Homeless guy: Of course I want corn, I'm homeless!"

"Lewis: What are we having today?
Me: Bologna sandwiches.
Lewis: Bologna? That's for poor people!"

Haha. It's always a good time volunteering there. It's really busy there all the time. Bloomington has a large population of homeless people. I've heard that it's ranked 4th per capita.

Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Collins at our apartment. One of us was talking with President Collins in the bedroom while the other was with Sister Collins, who was showing us how to clean our apartment. It was great. I always enjoy talking with President and Sister Collins.

Easter Sunday was great. We had a great church service. The choir sang and it was amazing. This ward is the best that I've ever heard. After church we had a lesson with Nikki and Josh. We finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation and we comitted them to be baptized on June 9th and they accepted! They're doing really well! We had a great Easter dinner and overall, a fantastic week. We even caught a little bunny. (There's a picture on the SD card I sent.)

Love you!


Jared

General Conference

April 2, 2012

Hi Jared,

Well, Taylor finally had his day in court. He did a great job and didn't seem nervous at all. He was sworn in, and took the witness stand. He had to go and draw the accident on a white board and tell every little detail of what happened. I was proud of him for being so brave.  Taylor got to skip school, PLUS he got paid a whopping $16 for his time.  We actually felt sorry for the other guy. He was a middle aged Hispanic man who seemed like a good guy who just didn't understand what happened. He used a translator. I thought how horrible it would be if you were in another country and had to be in court, not understanding the language or the procedures. When all was said and done, the City (and Taylor) won. The other guy had to pay a $160 fine.

The whole experience was a good thing. We had to wait more than an hour for our turn. While we were waiting, there were a lot of cases before us. I think that every single one of them were drug or alcohol related. There was even a man in a striped jail outfit wearing shackles who came before the judge. It is a good reminder for all of us why it is so important to obey the Word of Wisdom. It's always amazing for me to see real life application of why we are given commandments. Keeping the commandments sure does simplify life and make it more enjoyable.

Although we missed having you here on April Fool's Day, Hallie more than made up for in practical jokes. First thing, I went to the kitchen to make beeakfast and all the silverware was missing. There was just a note..."April fools". Then, I grabbed my iPad so I could listen to conference and something just wasn't right. She had switched cases on mine and Dads and it totally confused me. She had several more lined up throughout the day for us. She was a lot of fun. Were you up to your old Tom Foolery yesterday?

Last, but certainly not least, we enjoyed General Conference. I thought there were some really amazing talks. I really enjoyed Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Jeffrey R. Holland's talks. There were some really good one liner's too. "Stop it", "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you",
‎"There is enough heartache & sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness & resentment." These things are plastered all over the Internet, especially on Facebook.

But my very favorite part, that really made me emotional, is when I saw all the missionaries from the MTC singing during the Saturday session. Wow! That choked me up. They did a beautiful job and even had a little help from David Archuletta. and they sang one of my favorite songs, "Called to Serve". I still remember the feeling I had in the MTC all those years ago when we would sing that song. It can be so powerful.

This week is Spring Break. I think we will go to Vernal for a few days. We haven't been there since last summer. Dad is wanting to go fishing.

Have a fantastic week.

I love you!

Mom



Hello,

Not much to report on this week. It's been pretty normal here. General Conference  was great. I learned a lot from it that I can apply to missionary work. Josh and Nikki are doing pretty well. They watched conference this week and they enjoyed it. I don't know how much they got out of it because they have four wild little girls, but we'll hope some of it stuck.

I had a good day on Wednesday when I went on exchanges with Elder Wilson, one of my Zone Leaders. We worked in his area, which is the Indiana University campus. It was a huge change from what I'm used to. It was a little weird talking to people my own age. Most of the people we talked to were really open so we got a lot of return appointments set. We also had two lessons that day. One of them was with a girl named Stacy. She's roommates with two members from Fort Wayne and they're a really good example for her. We had a very spiritual lesson and she's excited to learn more. It was pretty weird to see people from past areas I've served in.

Well, that's pretty much all that's new.

Love you,

Jared

So much for Spring!

Hello Jared, 

So much for Spring. Saturday was perfect, I went for my first bike ride of the year. It was amazing. Yesterday was beautiful and warm, the sun was shining and we ate dinner outside. Even this morning when I went swimming, it was t-shirt weather. About fifteen minutes ago, the wind started blowing like crazy, temperatures dropped and now we are in the middle of a crazy wind, rain and SNOW storm. So weird. It's one of those days I wish I could stay home all day. Who wants to go outside in the middle of a blizzard? It is miserable outside.

I didn't tell you about our ward activity a couple of weeks ago. The Young Women did a service auction to raise money for girls camp. People donated all kinds of services, like lawn care, gardening, tilling, babysitting, etc.  Mikayla auctioned off "sing at your funeral". It was pretty funny. Dennis bid on it and got it for around $20. Your dad auctioned off a smoked dinner, which went for fifty something and finally ended in a three way tie...? So we are doing dinner for three families. We bought a three layer cake from Josh Sims which I figure I can use for your dads 50th birthday this year. But the funniest of all....(you do remember that it's mustache march, right? ) the rights to Topher's mustache...the highest bidder gets to determine the fate of his 'stache. Taylor and Brad chipped in on it and paid $24 for it. Natalie was hilarious, she was wanting to know what their intentions were. She, of course, wants it shaved off. He looks like Mario with his long, curly caterpillar. They have yet to take action on his furry friend. We are all anxiously waiting to see the fate of Topher's face. Stay tuned...

Tim and Steffi came over for lunch on Saturday. Your dad did ribs and chicken, and of course, they were amazing. Then they went to Mikayla's voice recital with us. She did a good job. I'm always proud of her when she sings. She has a pretty voice. Tim was harassing her and telling her how painful it was, she took the teasing well, in the end when he hugged her goodbye, he told her she really did do a good job. That made her feel so great.

Saturday night was the General Young Women Broadcast. We served dinner beforehand to all the YW, their mothers and leaders. That made a really busy day for me, but the broadcast was really nice. We had a pretty good turnout, although not as many as we were planning on.

There is a man in our ward who is a military man, he has post traumatic stress disorder and uses a service dog for comfort. Yesterday in Sunday School, the dog had loud, VERY stinky GAS! Everyone around them was so disgusted and sickened by the smell, but no one dared to do anything for fear of offending. I guess it was pretty miserable. Luckily, I followed the spirit and sat in the hall because I was late going to class. Hahaha lucky me. At dinner last night, Laura was saying she could still smell it and telling us how awful it was. I think she now has PTS disorder. Haha

I love to hear your stories and experiences. I am glad you're enjoying your time in Indiana. Keep the faith and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Well, the storm has passed. It's eerily quiet and calm. The chickens have come back outside of the coop. There's barely a breeze now and now the sun is starting to peek out. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.

I love you, Jared!

Mom



Hey,

We have had one of the best weeks in a long time here. The weather has been great, almost summer weather. which means we've had lots of opportunities for service. We were able to help Lindy, a member in our ward with some projects around her house. We were going to help her on Friday night at 7:30. Right before that we were at dinner with a really neat family in our ward. She's from Italy so as you can imagine the meal was fantastic. lots of amazing pasta and a salad topped with olive oil crushed from her parent's house in Italy. So good! While we were eating the weather got really crazy. Out of nowhere it started hailing really hard and the tornado sirens were going off. We were worried we weren't going to be able to help her. By the time dinner was over though the sky was clear and we were able to help. We went over there and helped her transplant some bushes and haul some old broken up concrete from her garage. She was so grateful for the help. 

This week the first move of the year happened. The Clark's, a really cool family in the ward moved out this week. There will be many more following. It's a little bit sad. 

I found a few more cool connections to home this week. When we were having dinner with families this week I found someone in the ward that is cousins with a friend from school, and I found out that the bishop's wife is from Moses Lake, Washington, which is where Jared Jensen moved to Utah from. She said there are some Jensen's in her parents ward so there might be a connection there. It's funny how small the world is. 

We also were able to get two of our investigators to church yesterday! 

Hope you have a good week!

Love you,


Jared

P.S. Send me pictures of Topher's mustache. I miss it.

The Beginning of Spring Marks the Half Way Point!

Good morning Jared,

This week is the first week of Spring!

Saturday night we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and ran into Cadence and Ian. They both work there. They asked about you and wanted to know how you were doing. They said to tell you hi. Ian said that his Aunt fed you dinner awhile back. It's a small world.

The speakers in the Sacrament program were the members of the Elders Quorum; Mike Johnson, Topher Maxwell and Ryan Davis. I thought Topher did a great job and spoke directly to the youth. I noticed Taylor gave him his undivided attention. Ryan stood up and said, "The last time I spoke in Sacrament meeting was about a year ago when Jared Wise left on a mission". It caught me off guard and choked me up a little bit. I had forgotten that he spoke with you.

Wednesday night was the South Davis Orchestra. Mikayla and Hallie both did very well. They are getting pretty good. After hearing them practice solo for so long it was neat to hear them with the full orchestra. It was beautiful.

Tim is in town. He came over this week to visit. He hasn't changed much, he still likes to tease an have a good time. It was fun to see him. He and Steffi will come back this week and cook us a German meal.

I went to our caucus meeting Thursday night. I'm trying to be a little more politically involved. It was interesting how things work but I was a bit annoyed how unprofessionally things were run. We voted for people who wanted to be delegates, but because there was such a huge turnout, they ran out of ballots. They were just using pieces of paper, so there was no way to know if people voted more than once or even if people who weren't supposed to vote were voting. After I came home it bugged me even more. Oh well...what can you do? That reminds me, are you going to vote this year? If so, we need to get you and absentee ballot. Let me know.

Taylor is still on his fixing spree. He got the snow blower going. Yeah! Maybe next year it will snow. A working snowmobile and a working snowblower and no snow this year. Weird!

Have an amazing week. I sure love you!

Mom

 

Hey,

This week may be the first day of Spring, but it feels like summer here. It's already pretty hot and humid. We've been biking all over the place in the heat. We're not the only ones though. Next month is the "Little 500" bike race. It sounds like it's a pretty big deal. There's even a movie about it called "Breaking Away". 

It has been Spring break here this week, so we didn't get many teaching appointments. We spent a lot of time finding people to teach. We also helped a lot of people with yard work which was a nice change. We had a pretty cool miracle happen this week. We were walking down a street trying by a few potentials and I felt like we should knock on a door down the street. We knocked on the house and they guy wasn't interested at all. As we were walking away Elder Santy said he thought we should knock on the neighbor's house too. That's where we found Elnora, an old widow that needed help with yard work. She said she had been praying that someone that could help her clean up her yard would come along. We went back the next day to help her pick up some branches in her yard. We had a big blessing come from this service. While we were working Elnora's neighbor came over. We introduced ourselves to her and turns out she's a member that's not on our ward list. She hasn't been to church in a long time. She says she's not interested in coming back right now, but we said we wanted to help her with some yard work she lightened up a little. She said we might even get a church visit out of her.

We had a good lesson with Nikki and Josh this week. After the lesson Nikki told us some friends of hers told her not to listen to us, but Nikki said that everything we are saying makes sense. They're on the right track and doing well. 

Love you,

Jared

Staying in the Same Apartment

Good morning, Jared!

Did you get into your apartment yet, or are you still with the other Elders? We enjoyed watching the video you sent of those two. That was fun. I'm guessing they went home, so two others replaced them. Tell us about them.

Austen sent in his papers. He should find out in a couple of weeks where he will be going. Fun times.

Last week I went to book club. Sister Pollock works at the library, so each month she checks out 15 copies of next months book and passes them out so we all have a copy. She tried to hand one to Sister Casper (who I think is about 95) and she rejected it. She said, "If it's not a church book, I'm not reading it. I don't have time. I have to cram for my final exam!" hahaha I thought that was so cute. Funny Sister Casper.

Steffi, Tim's girlfriend, is here from Germany. She has come to visit a couple of times. Saturday she came over and made German cheesecake for us. It was yummy! Tim will be here on Thursday. He will stay for a couple of weeks with her before they go back. We really want to go to Germany and see them and the country.  Maybe in a couple of years we can make it happen.

It has finally felt like Spring the last couple of days. I worked out in the yard on Saturday and it felt so nice. It's good to be outside after being cooped up all winter.

Dad and Taylor are still working on the garage. There is a lot of work left, but it feels good to see progress. I am so excited about the whole project.

Enjoy your week. We'll put a special mark on the calendar this Thursday for you! Keep up the good work.

Love you tons!

Mom



Hey,

Plans have changed for the apartment. We are staying in the one we're in right now. It's a lot more convinient for us since it's right next door to the church. The other elders will be taking the new apartment. They should be moving out tomorrow. The new set of missionaries living with us are Elder Thomas (from Pocatello) and Elder Wilson (from Tooele). They're both pretty cool. Elder Wilson has been to a lot of the same concerts I've been to, and he knows Mirranda.

We've had a good week. We didn't have many meals this week so a really cool family in our ward had us over for dinner twice. We had pancakes, eggs, and bacon the first night and german pancakes the second night. haha.

We didn't get many lessons this week. We're teaching two Mennonites and we've had some great lessons, but this week they weren't there when we knocked on the door. Kind of a bummer. It seems like most of our other lessons also fell through. It's alright though because we found a few great potentials to start teaching.

Sunday was a little weird. IU's Spring break plus daylight savings time made for the smallest sacrament meeting attendance I've been to on my mission. There was hardly anybody there. Sunday afternoon the weather was perfect and we were able to have a BBQ with Nikki and Josh, who we're teaching. It was a lot of fun.

Well, that's about all for this week.

Love you,

Jared

Safe from Tornadoes

Hello Jared,

You can't begin to imagine how anxious I am to hear from you this morning. We have watched the news and it looks like a couple of cities in Indiana have been completely wiped off the map. We are hoping that "no news is good news" applies in your case. I was ready to contact the mission home on Saturday night but decided that everything was fine because we hadn't heard anything. Please tell us all about it and how it affected you.

I loved your story about Nathan. Did you happen to get the name of the family from Vernal? There's a pretty good chance that grandma and grandma know them. I'd be curious to know who it was. 

Last week Taylor put the car back together after he cleaned every single part under the hood. Then he gutted the inside, cleaned all the pieces in the bathtub and then put it back together. He amazes me. When he was done with that, he helped me refinish an old table I bought off of KSL. When he finished that, he tore apart the snow blower. I came home Saturday night and he had torn apart the old barstools and was reassembling them so they weren't rickety. What a guy! He's soon going to have the whole place working and in pristine shape. I just hope we can afford to keep him busy with projects!

Mikayla made the school play this year. She is really excited about it. She'll do great because she loves to be on stage. I'm pretty excited for her.

You never did tell us if you got an apartment or if you are still with the other elders. 

Did you get the package Grandma sent? 

Thank you for being awesome. I love you so much. I can't wait to hear from you!

Love,

Mom




Hello,

We were safe here in Bloomington. The tornadoes never got near here. We got some dark skies and wind, but that was it. I think the damage really happened a lot further south of us. The tornado sirens didn't even go off here.

The member that told us to stop by was actually from Provo. I think he was just near Vernal for a few days while that event was going on.

We still don't have our own apartment, but hopefully we'll get it this week. I got Grandma's package. It was great. Elder Santy and I loved the cookies.

We're doing well this week. We were able to have some great lessons with Nikki & Josh, and Kaleem & Charity. They're really progressing well. Nikki & Josh told us they really want to come to church next Sunday. They're great. Josh has been reading the Book of Mormon and loving it. He read a few chapters and was really able to relate them to things he's been going through. He already has the concept of likening the scriptures down. 

Transfer calls happened today. I can't believe it's already been six weeks in Bloomington. Elder Santy and I are staying together though. It's a little weird though. We had Ward Council yesterday and they were going through the war roster naming off all the families that are moving out in the next few months. It's a bit of a bummer. 

I'm glad we're staying though. 

Hope you have a good week.

Love you,

Jared

What a Blessing!

Hi Jared,

This week was exciting! Masen came home on Friday. We went to the airport to video the event for Ensign's. It was so much fun. He looks amazing. He just has this unbelievable glow about him and he was smiling so cute. It was fun to see everyone's reaction. He spoke on Sunday and did a great job. The best part was when he bore his testimony. He said that normally missionaries share their testimony in the language they learned, she he said he'd do his in "Okey". "I want y'all to know I have a testimony...I'm fixin' to endure to the end...etc. it was pretty cute. It got a good chuckle from the crowd.

Did I tell you that Mikayla got her learners permit? She's loving it! And she's getting pretty good. It just doesn't seem possible that she is old enough to be driving.

Well, I am off to the Seminary to do a few missionary haircuts for missionary week. Mikayla has been a sister missionary for two weeks and  has been amazing doing it.  No tv, no radio, dresses every day, scripture study daily, early to bed and early to rise. Wow! It's been fun to watch her transform. She'd be a fantastic missionary.

Love you lots!

Mom


Hello,

We had a great week this week. We got a referral this week to give a blessing to a nine year old boy named Nathan. He has brain cancer and he's staying in Bloomington to receive treatment. About a year ago Nathan was able to go to Utah through the Make a Wish Foundation and take part in a dinosaur excavation near Vernal. The family became good friends with someone there and he asked if he could send some missionaries to give a blessing. We happened to be those missionaries. I was able to give Nathan a blessing and it was such a powerful experience. He's such an amazing boy.

We also got to go to Zone Conference this week in Indianapolis. Zone Conferences are great. I love going there and getting new ideas about missionary work. It always inspires me on how I can improve. 

Things are going better with new investigators as well. We were able to find three people to teach this week. 

Love you,


Jared