Happy Wednesday...

Hola everyone,

Wow, it's weird to see how fast the weeks seem to go by.  The days might drag on sometimes, but the weeks pass by like days.  Time is a really weird thing...

So last Sunday was the world wide training meeting on missionary work.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  I felt the spirit so strong!  I thought is was interesting that Elder Perry said that the time of knocking doors is ending; I have to agree because we really don't have success just knocking anymore.  However, he said that the church is hoping to use more social media and technology to spread the gospel.  I think missionaries will see a lot more success through tout the world, however, I'm not sure how we'll use it in my mission.  Alot of people here don't have Internet in their houses and use facebook only at Internet centers.   But, I'm sure that President Douglas and the Area Presidency will figure out the best way to incorporate this new contacting technique in the Caribbean.  Overall, the broadcast was really great and I learned alot.  Now, my companion and I are planning to show it to the leaders in the branch because nobody else came and watched it.  To tell you the truth, I feel it was honestly more for members then missionaries.  So I strongly encourage everyone to watch it.  You won't be disappointed...

Things in our area are slowly moving along.  My companion and I are focusing on our part and trusting that the lord will make up where we can't with the members.  We really hope that they can feel the joy of missionary work and the spirit of sharing the gospel like the stories in the Training meeting.  Members are the most important part of missionary work!

We continue to see some progress with our investigators.  We visited with Libby last week with a member.  He asked her what stopped her from being baptized.  She honestly didn't know the answer.  So we then helped her that it was the time to take a stand and make a decision.  She agreed that the time is now or never and that she needs to decide.  We have another visit with her this Friday and I hope, really hope that she gets baptized before I leave the area.  She has a testimony and I know she'll be a strong leader that Fantino needs.  She is our most progressing investigator at the time, but we're meeting some really cool new people.  So hopefully soon we'll have more.

I'm continuing my studies in the book of Alma and I've made it to the war chapters.  Captain Moroni is a stud!  In Alma 48:17 we learn that if all men could be steadfast like Moroni, Satan would have no more power over the hearts of men.  I want to be like Captain Moroni!  I think we should all learn from his example and stand up and defend our beliefs, families, and god!  Let us all be like Moroni, shall we?  

Have an excellent week everyone!!

Love, 

Elder Jensen

Hey...

Hola Everyone,

 

Things seem to be growing great in Utah and the family seems to be doing great.  It's a little wierd to think that in a couple more weeks I'll have another brother-in-law.  Kind of a wierd thought, but hey, I'm excited for Shawn and Megan!  It seems like it's getting alot hotter in Utah, but my mind still thinks its cold, and snowy.  Things are heating up in the Dominican Republic as well and we're continuing to have alot of rain.  But, I did buy a new umbrella, so I'm ready to conquer the world (or Fantino that is).

 

So this past week has been a really, really slow week.  We've walked alot, taught a few lessons, met a few people, and walked alittle bit more.  We continue to teach our investigators and haven't really found anyone new this past week.  The sad news is the awesome couple (Alexandra and Paulo) we found isn't going to progress.  Why?  Well, Paulo is headed to live in Italy on Saturday and he isn't planning on coming back any time soon.  I was very sad, but he gave us his contact information so the missionaries can visit him over there, so all hope is not lost!!  Libby, is good but still no baptism date yet.  Dori is slowing progressing, but we're trying hard to work with her husband too!  Miguel is very interested in our message and wants to change, but he works Sundays in the morning, so that's been a little difficult.  But all in all, we have found some good people to teach and so we're working hard to help them come unto Christ and be baptized.

 

I've continued learning alot of things from reading the scriptures.  I recently studied the chapter on Faith in Alma 32.  It's such a good "Devotional" about how we can receive eternal life.  I love how he talked about that all things start with a seed and if we exercise faith and act on that seed, we'll eventually see it grow into the Tree of Eternal life.  However, like all seeds, it needs a good heart (soil), The living water (Water), Sunlight (God's love), and a good gardener to constantly care for it.  I know that if we continue to nurish our seeds of faith, and do all we can to help it grow; one day we'll find that is has grown into a giant tree that we give us eternal life.  It won't happen over night, but if we continue is patience, we'll see it grow into something good.  I know that faith is important and we all need faith is our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  I know this church is true and that god lives!  Missionary work is awesome and I love serving my Heavenly Father!

 

Have an excellent week everyone!!

 

Love,

Elder Jensen

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

Buenos Dias...

Hola Everyone!

I hope that everyone has a good week and that all is well back in Utah!  Things continue to move along here in Fantino and especially the weather!  It's weird how in one minute it's blazing hot, and then five minutes later it's pooring rain.  Yep, kind of like Utah weather, only without snow.

Anyways, this past week was a really fun week with some new excitement.  Last Saturday we had our Open House of the church.  It went really well!!  My companion and I ended up making a recording to be played throughout Fantino on loud speakers annoucing the Open House because a member didn't do it.  So yeah, I had my day of fame preaching to a whole town last Saturday, haha.  So, the open house started at 3pm.  Well, 4 o'clock rolled around without anyone showing up.  So, Pres. Castaño (Branch President) gathered us all together to pray.  After the prayer, Hermano Gomez (2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency), suggested we go out to the street and welcome the people in as they come.  Well, the other missionaries and members interpreted that to mean "Stop everyone and bring them in."  Seriously, it was awesome!  People started coming in off the street, cars, motorcycles, scooters,  etc.  The missionaries had no fear and just starting getting everyone to come in.  Over the next 5 hours we ended up have around 200 people come and tour the chapel.  Out of the 200, 42 filled out little contact cards because they wanted to know more.  I feel like this activity was a big success!!  The members really liked it, we got some new people to teach, and the people had fun!  Now, I just hope that a few of these 42 people will soon be investigators and eventually members.  We put in a lot of work, and the Lord blessed us with alot of success.  I know that if we do our part and trust in the lord, he'll always deliver on his end.  It was a really good day!

Well, after that I don't know what else can top that.  Today was transfers and Elder Montes de Oca and I sticking together taking on the world in Fantino.  I look forward to serving with him again and trying to fulfill my purpose here in Fantino!  I love being a missionary and I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission.  We are continuing to teach our investigators and we're hoping that Libby gets baptized soon.  Also, we hope that Dori and her husband can continue taking the lessons!  I know this church is true and that Jesus Christ lives!  This is his gospel and I'm one of his missionaries! 

Have an excellent week everyone!! 

Love,

Elder Jensen

Happy Memorial Day...

Hola Everyone!

It sounds like things are going great back home!  Megan is getting ready for her marriage, Kimberly is working lots, Nicole is finishing up school, Holli is finishing up school too, and Mom and Dad are busy trying to keep track of us all running around in different directions.  I'm happy that things are going really well back at home!

So this past week has been no different from the last couple of weeks.  It seems like my family is just driving down the fast lane and I'm just trucking along doing my thing, haha.  We've continued contacting alot.  And I mean alot!  I couldn't even guess how many people we've met over the past few weeks and how my doors we've knocked.  I'm hoping that all our efforts are paying off and we'll find some new, progressing investigators soon!  We've met some really cool people, and they seem to have some interest to learn more; however, our biggest struggle is finding a good time when they're home to visit with us.  But, if they put forth the effort, I'm sure we'll see them progress!

We've found a new investigator named Dori.  We found her contacting and she said we could pass by her house some time.  So we did, and the surprising fact was: she was actually there!  We've starting teaching her, and she likes and believes what we are sharing.  We invited her to church and she attend too!  She told us she just loved church and wants to keep coming back!  She is really nice, and has a true desire to find God and follow our Savior.  She has a husband (not married) and 3 little kids.  We have alot of hope for her, and we're trying to focus alot on her husband too who is always working!  I'm excited to see what the lord has in store for Dori.  

So we've been spending alot of time as well preparing the "Open House" of the church.  We've planned how to do it, who will do what, and who we want to invite.  We've printed about 1000 invitations, and my companion, members, and I are all giving to who ever we find.  We are really hoping to have alot of people come and see what is inside that big, pretty, always closed building used by the Mormons.  Alot of people seem interested in coming, so we'll see what happens.  I really hope it'll be a big success!  Wish us luck!

Things continue to push forward in Fantino.  We may not being seeing alot of fruits from our labors right now, but I'm sure the harvest will be ready soon!  I love being a missionary and I'm grateful to serve my Heavenly Father as a full-time missionary!   Have a good week everyone and remember that we should never stop telling the world of this beautiful message!!

Love,

Elder Jensen

More Rain...

Hola everyone!

This past week has been full of ups and downs here in Fantino.  The end of last week didn't have a great ending, but the beginning of this week has been excellent.  As we depend more fully on the lord, I've learned that he helps us out.

So the last 3 days of last week weren't so great for me and my companion.  We spent alot of time walking, and contacting and nobody wanted to listen.  Seriously, we walked the whole day without anyone wanting to listen.  Then, for the lessons of our investigators, things didn't go so great either.  Libby told us that she doesn't feel ready to be baptized on the 25th, and she doesn't really have a reason why.  Yeah, the end of last week was just not for us!

However, don't worry; these last couple of days have been excellent.  We've been contacting alot, but have found alot of new people to teach!  The lord is helping open up the hearts of the people to at least let us listen to our message.  Now, we just need to help them have a desire to continue listening and make commitments.  We also had a really good Family night with Libby, and some members last night too!  We had a convert share a little bit about how she took along time to finally get baptized and how she regrets all the blessings she lost because of her unwillingness.  It was really good!  I'm hoping it gave Libby something to think about!

The members are starting to do a little bit better in their responsiblities too!  We've been working really hard to help them get excited about the big Open House we're planning to do at the end of this month.  They really are looking forward to show Fantino what the "Mormons" really do and what's inside our big, nice building.  So I'm really looking forward to seeing the success from this.

As few of you guys have asked what my companion and I do everyday in Fantino.  So here is a little idea....  We leave everyday at 3pm and start teaching or contacting trying to find people to teach.  We walk anywhere and everywhere trying to find families and people who are ready to teach.  We just keep on swimming along until 9-9:30 at night and then come home and plan and get ready for bed.  In the mornings we either have meetings, or we leave and try to find some service to do.  Overall, we spend alot of time on the street meeting who ever we can.

I've been thinking alot this past week on our reliance on the lord.  We, as humans, tend to find ourselves in the Pride Cycle found in the Book of Mormon.  When things are going great, we kind of slack off a little bit in our gratitude to our Heavenly Father.  Then, things get alittle rough for a while.  Then, finding ourselves low, we need to repent and rely more on the lord.  We continuously repeat this cycle everyday of our lives.  So the question is, how do we avoid it?  If we follow the counsel of the prophets and continually express our love, and gratefulness in sincere prayer, I know that'll we will receive the strength and reliance on the lord we need to avoid those "Pit falls." of the pride cycle.  I hope we can work to make our prayers a little more sincere and show a little more gratitude to our Heavenly Fathers for the things we have and not worry about what we don't have!  I know that if we do this, our relationship will grow and we'll find ourselves more happy in our lives.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Have an excellent week everyone!!

Love,
Elder Jensen

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