Happy Wednesday...

Hola everyone!

I hope everyone had an excellent Mother's Day!  I know I sure did!  It was so good to see and talk to the family and "re-meet" my sister's fiancee, Shawn.  I had a really good time talking with them and just sharing a couple of hours through Skype.  I am so grateful for modern technology!

So we've starting seeing some changes in Fantino this past week.  The members have realized that things are looking a little down and that the branch is really struggling.  They've met, planned, and are continuing trying to encourage members to fulfill their responsibilities.  The biggest problem is that we find here: the members are all talk and don't have action to back them up.  So now, they're really trying to find the actions to back up their words.  We've set new goals of attendance, baptisms, and retaining less-actives with the leaders of the branch.  We, as missionaries, are here to help the branch, so we're trying any and all kind of new ideas we can think of the help the members get kicked into action and find the joy of serving our father-in-heaven.  So I hope to see some progress soon!

So yesterday we had Zone Conferences with Pres. and Sis. Douglas.  It was really good!  Sis Douglas talked about our new focus of the mission: Service!  She said that service with affect and build our areas faster than any kind of contacting we could ever do!  Finding service, especially the small acts, we show the world that we follow and strive to live like our savior, Jesus Christ. She then revealed a new statue from that artist who does the statues at Thanksgiving point.  The artist made a statue specifically for our Mission.  It's Christ was Peter's feet.  It looks amazing!  She encouraged all of us to find at least 3 hours of service a week and strive to find the little acts of service that Christ would do!  I encourage all of us to find the same little acts of service.  It may be helping our spouses, siblings, parents, and friends in something as simple as a hug; or as big cleaning the house.  Whatever it is, we'll find ourselves happier as we serve our fellow man.  As Mosiah 2:17 states, "When we serve our neighbors, we are only serving God."  I know that the best example of the savior we can be is serving others without any hope of return!  Let us all try to be examples of service!  En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Have and excellent week!  Que vaya con Dios!

Love,
Elder Jensen