Hello...

Hola,

I hope that things are continuing to go well back in the US of A.  We've continued to have quite a bit of rain, sun, and lot's of heat.  Back in Utah they can predict the weather by the day, but in the DR I think it's by the hour, haha.  One minute it's blazing hot, and then the next minute it's pouring rain.  Makes me laugh pretty hard!  But, I'm glad that life is busy and we're all keeping busy.

So life in the Domincan Republic has been moving along (Just like all the water, haha.)  We've continued contacting as many of the referrals from the open house that we can.  We found an AWESOME couple who I'm praying will start progressing.  We found there house one day and just sat down and starting talking with them.  The man, Paulo, said he really likes what he sees of the Mormon religion.  He likes the church, the manner of missionaries, our basic beliefs from the Articles of Faith, and so on!  He said he's heard Jehovah's witnesses, Evengelists, and doesn't really like them all that much.  But, he said we're pretty cool young "Muchachos."  We broke the ice right away and we were already laughing with each other.  The wife, Alexandra, is a little timid, but she's cool too!  However, when we started talking about Joseph Smith, Paulo said, "that's a little far fetched."  But, he agreed with us that he can't shut it down until he prays and asks God if Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet.  Anyways, really neat family and I hope that he can gain a testimony of Prophets in our days.

We've continued trying to work with our other investigators.  Libby still can't make up her mind and get baptized.  My companion and I are just scratching our heads on this one... Dori is continuing to progress slowly, but her husband doesn't seem very interested in our message.  We've also found some other young single adults to teach as well.  However, there are all women.  That's great that they're interested in the gospel, but when there's no guy around to be present it's a little difficult.  Where are all the families??

So yesterday had a excellent Zone Meeting with President Douglas.  He talked about the mission culture.  He said every kind of organization has a culture.  Apple, IBM, Google, etc. all have different types of cultures that seperate them for the rest.  He then talked about the Mission Culture of the DR Santiago mission.  It was really good!!  It made me start thinking about different cultures in my life: like my family, school, work, city, country, things like that.  But, the culture of the family is something really special.  Each family has a special culture from the rest.  As I've thought about the culture I hope to create for my family one day, I've thought alot about my family culture.  As I ponder the culture of the "Larry and Angela Jensen" Family I think of two words: Memories and Friendship.  Throughout all the years in my family we've built some incredible memories and lasting friendships with each other.  I'm grateful for the sacrifice of my parents to build this culture and the love that they show us as kids.  From dinner conversations to Disney World,  I'm grateful for the culture my family has established on lasting friendship as a family and the memories that we'll always cherish together.  I hope that each one of us can think of the kind of culture we are building or will build in our families.  As we center our homes on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love he has for us, we'll find ourselves with a unique, life-saving culture that will help us one day return to our Heavenly Father in our Eternal Families.  God Lives and we all belong to the culture of our Heavenly Father.  I'm so grateful for my family and the love and support they continue to give me.  As we put god and family first and we'll always be happy.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

Have and excellent week!!  I love you all so much!!

Love,
Elder Jensen