Severin Jensen

This story was hand written by Inez Jensen Slighting on March 22, 1973 Many Many years ago in the far away country of Denmark in the little country town of Greno lived a tall blonde young man by the name of Severin Jensen in that same little town lived a very pretty young lady Andrea Thomsen. Serverin and Andrea met and fell in love and were married. To them were born six beautiful children (Elma, my mother) Mary, Carolyn, Karl, Andrew and a baby girl who died shortly after birth. Severin and Andrea were broken hearted over the death of their beautiful little baby. Andrea became very ill. She had arthritis. She was not able to do her housework or take care of her young children. Elma and Mary were very good to help their mother. One day Elma's mother asked her to take her little brother Karl out for a ride in his buggy. There were many beautiful ponds with tall trees around them in Greno. Birds built their nests in the trees and would come down from their nests and stand in the ponds. Elma loved to watch the birds so she took Karl over to the pond which was close to her home to watch the birds. One of the big birds became frightened of her and snapped at her and chased her around and around the pond, pushing the buggy with Karl in it. She lost control of the buggy and it toppled over into the pond. Karl fell out of the buggy into the water. He had on a heavy over coat. It became unbuttoned and spread out on top of the water and Karl just floated around on top of the water in his coat and didn't even get wet. Wasn't that a miracle. A man came along and went into the water and carried Karl out and put him in his buggy. Elma went straight home with Karl and when she told her mother what had happened she sure did punish her because she had been told many times not to go over to the pond. Andrea finally became better so she could do her housework and care for her young children. Now Elma and Mary went to work for the townspeople. They were very good workers and the townspeople paid them well for their work. One evening while Severin and his family were grouped around the kitchen stove a knock came at their door. Andrea said, "I wonder who is knocking at our door on this cold winter night"? Severin went to open the door and there stood two well dressed young men . They said, "We are missionaries, Elders from the church of Jesus Christ - of Latter Day Saints, and we have a wonderful message for you." Severin said, "Come in please". They were very glad to get in out of the cold for it was very cold. Denmark is very cold in the winter time and especially in Greno. There are m any ponds of water there. The Elders explained their wonderful Gospel to Severin and Andrea and gave them a Book of Mormon. They told them if they would ready the book with a prayerful heart they would understand the wonderful message it had for them. After the Elders had left Severin started to read the book, he read far into the night. He could not lay the book down. He did read the whole book with prayerful heart and the missionaries visited them several times. Severin and Andrea were converted and baptized and confirmed members of the L.D.S. Church. Elma and Mary loved to go to church with their parents. They loved to hear the talks given by the Elders and sing the beautiful L.D.S. hymns. Elma and Mary were converted, baptized and confirmed members of the L.D.S. Church. Severin wanted to emigrate to Utah. He had many friends in Utah, L.D.S. friends. Elma and Mary also had L.D.S. girl friends in Utah. They told them many L.D.S. families were in need of help in their homes. Elma and Mary decided to save their wages and emigrate to Utah where they knew they could get work and be with their L.D.S. friends. Their neighbors and former friends in Greno made fun of them for joining what they called that "crazy religion" and Elma and Mary were very unhappy about that. Soon they had saved enough to emigrate on. But there was a big problem facing them. They were too young to travel alone for Elma was just 16 years of age and Mary was 14 years of age, too young to travel alone. They went to see the President of the mission to ask him if he could help them. Two of the Elders were to be honorable released in the near future. Their wives were touring the Scandinavian countries and were planning to travel back to Utah with their husbands. So the President of the mission arranged for Elma and Mary to travel to Utah with them. Soon the Elders were ready to leave and Elma and Mary were on their way to Utah. When they arrived in Utah Elma went to work for a family who lived in Salem, Utah. The lady Elma went to work for was blind. So Elma had to do most of the work for her. She taught Elma to make bread, cakes and pies. In Denmark the people there bought most of their bakery goods. Elma learned to make delicious bread, cakes, pies and was a very good house keeper. Elma and Mary became very homesick. They longed to see their parents. Severin still wanted to emigrate to Utah. He worked in a tannery where he worked very hard and received a very small wage. He finally received a raise in wages. So now he was trying to save enough to emigrate on. Elma and Mary sent a part of their earnings to help their parents with their emigration. So now with his raise in wages and the help of his daughters Severin and Andrea, 3 young children, Carolyn, Karl, and Andrew were able to emigrate to Utah. They settled in Springville, Utah. Where Elma and Mary were reunited with their family the first Sunday after they arrived. Severin bought a home and a small farm in Provo, Utah. He raised vegetables and berries on his farm. He sold them to stores and housewifes. He received many orders for his produce. How he needed a way to deliver them. He bought a nice gentle horse and a small wagon just right for his horse. He named her Molly. Now he was ready for business. He received a large order from a lady who lived in the South East part of Provo, a long distance from where he lived in the South West of Provo. He loaded his wagon with the ladies orders the night before he was to leave the next a.m. with her order. He arose bright and early the next a.m. to deliver her order. Before he arrived at the ladies house it started to rain by the time he arrived there it was pouring down. Severin tied Molly to the hitching post but not very securely and went to tell the lady he had her order for her. On his way out to get her order he stood on the porch of the ladies house waiting for the rain to cease. When it finally did cease he went out to get her order and Molly and wagon were gone. He ran all over that neighborhood looking for Molly, but no Molly, so he decided to go home. He ran nearly all the way home scolding Molly all the way. When he arrived home there stood Molly in the back yard still hitched to the wagon, berries and vegetables still in the wagon. when Molly saw Severin she whinnied and whinnied. He patted her and said good good horse. Molly, she nudged his face with her snout which was her way of telling him she was glad to see him. Severin and Andrea jensen were veery good members of the provo 2nd ward for many years. Severin was very active in church work. On fast Sunday he always bore his testimony. Andrea became ill with arthritis again so was not able to attend meetings with Severin. She was quite crippled and died at the age of 65. Grandpa Severin lived to be 85 years of age.