Dan Jensen - My 40 Years

Click on the pictures above to get the enlarged version.

The first family picture, taken in 1997, includes, from left to right, Andrea, her husband, Jason, Dan, Michael, Beverly, Brian, Esther (our 'daughter in heart'), and Angel.  As of May, 2001, all the kids are married.

The second family photo and the couple photo was taken in November, 2009. 

My story...

I have to admit that despite the many trials I have gone through, as I look back on these thirty years (I still can’t believe it’s been 30 years), my life has been filled with happiness and joy. I certainly haven’t led a life of ‘bliss’ – there have been innumerable struggles, but that’s what life is made of, isn’t it? I think the key for me has been to keep my eye on a North Star of sorts, and keep on placing one foot in front of the other.

After graduating in 1970 with all of you, I had my sights set on three goals: 1) start college as an engineering major, 2) serve a 2 year mission for my church – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), and 3) after my mission to find my eternal companion.

I started Clark College in the fall of ’70 and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. I made a few new friends along the way, one of which I’m sad to say was killed in an auto accident a year later. While attending Clark, I continued working at McDonald’s on Highway 99 as a shift manager, all the while preparing and saving for a call to serve a mission.

In 1971, I finished my first year at Clark and submitted my papers to serve a mission. The mission call arrived in late fall – I would serve for two years in the Rome Italy mission. Boy, was I excited…

I went to the mission-training center in Provo for 8 weeks of intensive training starting in early January, 1972. After those wonderful (but very hard) eight weeks, I could speak passable Italian with a lot of effort and concentration, and jumped on my flight to Rome. In the Rome mission, there were about 160 other ‘Elders’ like me, all 19 to 24 years old and a few ‘Sisters’ between 21 and 25 years old, going door-to-door and teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. (In 1972, there were about 25,000 missionaries worldwide. Today there are 60,000.) It was an experience that would become the foundation for my adult life – an invaluable experience where I learned so much about myself, what I could do when I was stretched and had a divine power to help, about other people and how great people are, in general. I learned to live with a new companion every few months – 24 hours a day. Sometimes it was easy and fun, while at other times it was a labor of monumental proportions. I learned a little about being a leader, about self-discipline, and most of all, about a loving Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. God and his plan of happiness became my ‘North Star’, my anchor, my hope and strength. (I’m not trying to sound ‘preachy’, but just trying to express how I feel about it). It was an incredible two years – an experience for which I will be forever grateful.

Returning home in early 1974, I went to work again for McDonald’s (I love hamburgers). It just so happened that there was this cute and petite young girl named Beverly Church who worked there, too. She was a member of the Church, too, so we had much in common. On April 9^th, we had our first date. On June 9^th, I clumsily proposed to her in my car (she thought we were going to break up until I popped the question!). On August 19^th, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple for time and eternity. In the Mormon Church, when we marry in the temple, it’s the ‘full meal deal’ – time AND eternity, not ‘till death do you part’. We believe in the eternal nature of the family – that families can be eternal when sealed together by the restored power of the apostolic priesthood. So, it’s a commitment beyond life. While there are some temple marriages that end in divorce, fortunately, it is rare. We just celebrated our 25^th anniversary last August and continue to remain deeply in love.

After our August wedding, I went to BYU for a year, continuing my engineering education. With the financial pressures of life, however, we had to postpone my education for a while because of work and a new child on the way. Somehow, along the way, during the ‘postponement’, I discovered computers. In 1976, I went to work selling computers for a firm in Salt Lake. I read everything I could get my hands on. I taught myself to program, how they work, and learned about how businesses operate. I learned a little about accounting, even. It became apparent that my engineering career was now history – computers were where the action was! I did all right that year, but felt the need to move back to Vancouver to be with our families and have our son and daughter, Brian and Andrea, see their grandparents.

We moved back to Vancouver in 1978, starting a computer consulting practice in October of that year. Somehow, I was led to a few clients that became the seeds for a prospering business. In 1982, we incorporated and started selling computer services to multi-level marketing companies to handle their commissions and the tracking of who sponsored who into their business. Much to our delight, it was very successful. We kept hiring new people and the business kept growing. Jenkon grew to about 85 people in 1990 before we had some serious reversals in store.

That year, we laid off most of our staff, trimming down to 26 people at our lowest levels. It was so very painful letting go many of the people who had become ‘family’ to me. But the market was changing dramatically and we had to re-engineer our software to stay competitive.  It was either downsize or close the business and let everybody go.  Somehow we survived the next few years and started growing again in 1994. We lived on the verge of bankruptcy for several years and used up all of our savings and then some to make ends meet. Those were both the darkest years of my life, as well as the most faith promoting, for I learned that the powers of heaven can intervene, can help and support us in our greatest trials. I saw the hand of God keep us afloat, in many cases through seemingly miraculous means. I was later told that only one out of 100 companies survived what we went through.

In 1995, Jenkon went public trading on NASDAQ under the symbol, "JNKN".  In 1999, we did a reverse merger with an Israeli software company, changed the ticker symbol to MKID, and then did a buy-back of the original part of the company I founded.  Now, Jenkon is private and I am once again one of the larger shareholders in the company and serving as its Chairman.   I continue to work with and support Jenkon’s management team and spend a lot of my time working in software design.  I love the work and keep myself very busy with work, family, and church work.

Back to my family… Bev and I have had four wonderful children – Brian, Andrea, Michael, and Angel.  We also adopted (informally) a wonderful young girl as a foster daughter along the way – Esther York.  They are all incredible kids who we love deeper than life, itself. Brian and Michael both became Eagle Scouts during their teenage years (the church has a wonderful scouting program). Andrea, Angel and Esther earned their ‘Young Womanhood Medallion’, which is a church award similar in nature to the boys’ Eagle Scout achievement. Brian served a 2-year mission in Austria, speaking German. Michael returned form his mission in Arizona in June of 2000 and will be married in August in the Salt Lake Temple to a wonderful young lady, Jani Brown, who has been waiting for his return with as much excitement as the rest of us. Andrea received her two year Associates degree at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, and met a wonderful young man, Jason Sherwood while there. They were married in the LDS Portland Temple in 1997. Brian met his sweetheart, Loralei Haws while in Provo, and they were married in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple (between Provo and Salt Lake City) in 1998.  Esther married Jeremy Ogden from Idaho in 1998 in the Portland Temple.  They have a wonderful little boy named Zachary (our first grandchild!).   Angel is now attending BYU and loving it. She’s been dating a number of young men, most of whom have also served their 2 year missions and seem to be pretty impressive fellows.

Beverly and I grow a bit older every year, but still feel like we’re 21 or so. We go out on a date with each other at least once a week and take vacations a couple times a year. Now that the kids are gone, the house seems a little empty, though Brian and Laralei are living in our upstairs apartment. But seeing our kids, that their lives are going well despite their little bumps and bruises, brings great joy to us. Bev and I are now preparing to serve a mission together, probably leaving in 2001. We don’t know where they’ll send us, but trust that a loving Heavenly Father has figured that out already, so all we have to do is get ready. I imagine we’ll leave in the summer of 2001 for a couple years and try to make a positive difference in the lives of a few people somewhere in the world. Couple missionaries don’t have quite the same intensity of work that the younger missionaries have. They don’t go door-to-door, and they don’t work 12-13 hours a day like the young Elders and Sisters usually do. So, we’ll see what’s in store for us and look forward to whatever adventure lies ahead. I’m sure we’ll eventually serve more than one mission, but most of all, look forward to watching our grandchildren-to-be grow and develop into wonderful people.

As I now watch our five wonderful kids, I have come to realize that as we were teaching them as they grew up, we were, in an indirect way, also raising our future grandchildren. Our greatest desire is that all of our descendants can lead happy and productive lives, staying true to their faith and the legacy that we have tried to leave them. Much like our pioneer forefathers, each of us will leave a legacy of some sort, I believe. For most, the legacy will live in our children. For others not blessed with children, the legacy will be left in the countless lives they touch along the way. For surely, the joy of life isn’t in the end, but along the journey, as we uplift the hearts of others we meet. For our family, that has been our goal – to touch as many hearts as possible, lifting them, serving them, and helping them along their journey as we travel along ours.

Dan Jensen
July, 2000

Update – May, 2001

We received our call to serve our mission in Padova, Italy, starting in July, for 3 years!  We are very excited, of course.  We’ll have responsibility to watch over 140 young missionaries assigned to the mission as well as several thousand Italian church members.  Our mission area covers many of the famous cities including Florence, Pisa, Sienna, Verona, Venice, Trieste, Modena, and others.  We’re now busily studying Italian and preparing to move our belongings.  We’ll sell our home and other possessions we cannot take and start over when we return.

Our youngest daughter, Angel, is engaged to be married in May, the last of the ‘gang’.  We are so very blessed to have such wonderful kids.  We’ll miss them on our mission, but we’re grateful for email and the telephone.

You can visit my family web site and see some pictures at www.daniel-jensen.com

 Update - April, 2008

We have been back from our mission in Italy for almost 4 years, now (returned July, 2004) and am busier than ever.  I have a consulting business that keeps me flying around the world and working with some great people.  I am a specialist in sales force compensation strategies for network marketing and direct selling companies.  I work with both new startup companies and established companies with sales forces numbering in the hundreds of thousands of people.  I often teach a training seminar and the continue coaching each client toward an improved compensation approach for the sales force.

We are now up to 10 grandkids scattered around the western USA.  We're healthy, happy, and grateful to be so very well blessed.

We live in our new house in Mt. Vista, just outside of Vancouver, Washington.

Update - August, 2010