Weekly email...

Hola everyone!

This past week has been a really kind of a Ground Hog week too!  I've continued studying and teaching the gospel.  We do alot of contacting, and walking.  We have 6 or 7 really good investigators, so we are spending our time on them helping them progress towards baptism.  All the days this week were filled with the same things: teaching and studying.  On Monday, we did have a zone meeting where we received instruction from the Zone Leaders given to them by the President.  I guess President Douglas wants to focus alot on less actives and helping them come back to the fold.  What's the point of baptizing the whole world, if half of those people don't stay inside the church?  That really got me thinking.  We spend so much time as missionaries concentrating on baptisms and investigators.  We as missionaries and as members need to focus on the people who already know the truth, but have just got lost somewhere along the way.  We need to find the people in our wards and help them come back and begin receiving the blessings of the gospel again.  So we have been starting to work on that too in my area! 

We have a young family named Melissa and Robinson.  We had a Noche Hogar (FHE) with another young couple in the ward on Monday night.  It was a huge success!!!!!  The spirit was there and it really began breaking the ice with the other members in the ward!  Melissa is very talkative and has alot of questions about missionaries (us) and about family nights, and just about the gospel.  She has an excellent attitude and wants to follow Christ.  I have so much hope and faith for this young family!!!!

This week I've been studying the beginning chapters of Helaman.  I like what Mom said about the cycle of things throughout the Book of Mormon.  People are humble before Christ, turn prideful, and then fall into transgression.  It happens in real life today too!  People begin to miss church for a week, then skip scripture study, and then pretty soon forget the gospel.  Then when dark times hit home, they are miserable and hate life.  They still have strength to push on, but they must rely on their own strength.  However, if we always remember Christ we can rely on his strength when those dark days come.  (Helaman 5:12)  I testify that Jesus is the Christ and we can always rely on him to carry us when we can't carry ourselves.  The gospel of Jesus Christ truly can bless all people if they will heed to the promptings of the Spirit telling them to listen.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!  I pray you will be blessed in your adventures.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

Que vaya con Dios!

Love,
Elder Jensen

Hello Everyone..

Hola!

Another week has already gone by!!  This week was pretty interesting because my companion had to go and help organize transfers.  So that being said, we spent 9 hours on Saturday, 6 hours on Sunday, and 4 hours on Monday working on organizing transfers and such.  Anyways, I've had a very busy week without a whole lot of teaching and walking.  But I definitely had some teaching and walking put in.  We taught a couple named Melissa and Robinson.  They are really progressing and we taught about afflictions and hardships in life.  They enjoyed the lesson and I really felt the spirit there!  One of the best experiences so far with that family.  I just felt the spirit flow through me and the Spanish just came.

Let's see hear, not much else happened this week, so I'll try to answer some more questions for you guys.  My companion is district leader, there is 6 members in my district, 24-ish missionaries in my zone, and 10 zones in the mission.  We have 5 really progressing investigators, and my ward has about 120 active members.  My area is so big, we can't make it to everywhere.  I'm doing really well out in the field and the language is coming really good.  I can have some basic communication with the people, and understand more or less of what they are trying to say.  So hopefully with time it will come all the way.

Sounds like everything is going pretty good at home, everyone seems to be staying busy!!!  Next week things should be back to normal, so I should have more things to say!  Thanks for all you do family and keep living life!!  Just remember Alma 48:17; and strive to be like Captain Moroni1

Que vaya con Dios!

Love,
Elder Jensen

Hello Everyone!

Hola mi familia!

Another week has already come and gone, can you believe it??  This past week has been pretty slow with a few interesting stories.  The first story is about this drunk guy we call the "prophet."  He is always drunk and thinks he is a prophet seeing visions and stuff.  He always trys to stop us and give us a blessing.  Can you say the word crazy??  This guy is completely nuts, my companion and I just get the biggest kick out of it.  I wish you could see how this guy acts, haha.  When he's sober he doesn't believe in God, but when he's drunk it's a different story.

Monday, we had a new missionary meeting with the President.  It was his first meeting too, so everyone was new.  Sister Douglas cooked us breakfast and lunch.  Oh my laws, that is the closest thing I've had to a home cooked meal in 3 months!!  It was soooo good, I actually made myself sick from eating so much!!  She even had chips & salsa, yummy!

We are continuing to teach our investigators and really making progress with a few.  My spanish is getting better, but I still have no clue what people are trying to tell me.  Compared to my first day in the MTC, I'm doing really well in Spanish.  My feet are getting better, so thanks to everyone who's been asking.  We continue to walk and sweat alot, and I'm happy to report I've lost about 20 pounds since I got to the field.  So by the end of 2 years, I oughta be in pretty good shape!  I'm learning alot and I really realizing that I can't do anything in my life without the Jesus Christ beside me!  Missionary work takes alot of work, and there is no way a person could do it without having divine help and intervention!  Its a really cool experience to run into our investigators and see smiles pop up on their faces an hear  them yell, "JENSEN!"  It makes me feel good knowing I can touch other peoples lives!  

I received the package today!!  Thanks for everything inside; the cookies are really yummy!!  I think somebody at customs ate a few because the bag was open with the cookies inside.  It must have been pretty expensive to send it so quickly, but thanks I really am grateful for it!!  Last week, haha, I bought chocolate!  It was expensive, but it's darn good!!

Sounds like things are going really well and home.  Busy, busy, busy.  Sounds really hot too!  I hope you guys get some rain!!  I hope the coming week is full of fun adventures!  I love you all and I'll talk to ya next week!

Love always,

Elder Jensen

PS. I'm sorry about no pictures, I've been slacking off, but I promise to take more!!

Happy 4th of July...

Hello again!

Can you believe another week has already gone by??  It seems like just a couple days ago I was in here writing a letter!  Things here are really coming along.  To answer a few more questions, bugs in my area really aren't a problem.  I don't live by any major water sources, so bugs aren't too bad.  In other areas, however, there are a ton!  So we'll see what comes about with that in time.  Also, my feet are doing better for the most part.  Kimberly calls herself a nurse and she couldn't even take a few
blisters on her brother's foot, good gravy!  The heat here is really brutal some days, but the humidity is what kills ya!  I don't think I've ever sweat so much, but I just get used to that "wet" feeling.  The good thing about the humidity though, is that it helps for getting sunburned.  The moisture helps from just frying your skin!  The food situation is going pretty good, we kinda just live off a college diet.  However, today I'm going to be using my card because I need to buy some stuff at Pricemart. Like chocolate, candy, and a few other things too!  So Dad, don't be surprised!

I can't believe that the whole state is on fire!!  It is interesting how the weather seems confused these days!  Its really dry, or really wet! Since I got to Gurabo it has only rained once!  I thought it would be raining a lot more then it has!!  But knock on wood, haha!

This past week has been filled with many fun new adventures!  President Douglas and his wife attended church in the ward I'm assigned to last Sunday!  I was able to talk and visit with them for a little bit and see how things are going.  They are really nice, and very, very energetic about the work.  He's only been here 5 days, but he already seems like a veteran mission president.  It is a good feeling to know that I'm not the newest missionary in the field, haha!!  He speaks really good Spanish, but Hermana Douglas not so much, but she'll pick it up really quickly!  I love the new mission president and his wife!  They seem the perfect "perfect mission parents" for me!  The lord has a plan to enable the people who can help us most to serve with us!  I have a testimony that I'm suppose to be in the DR with President Douglas as my Mission President.  Missionaries are called by revelation!!

The work in my area is really progressing!  We have around 8 investigators who are really progressing!  They want to understand and come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ!  I hope that they will be baptized in the coming months.  One of the investigator's name is Johnny.  He is the brother of a recent convert.  At the beginning, he had no desire to talk to us.  He had his religion and we had ours.  But we convinced him to just listen in on a lesson on Jesucristo.  Pretty soon, he decided we weren't half bad, and he liked the message of the Restored Gospel!  His personal beliefs are in line with a lot of our beliefs too, and he really is embracing the gospel.  We asked him to read the introduction the the BOM and he ended up reading up to 1 Nep 4.  It is really cool to see him progress! Another investigator is Robin and Melissa.  They are a small family with a 6 month year old daughter!  They read and Melissa is super smart.  We gave them a plan of Salvation pamphlet and the next lesson she told us about it. She really knew it!  She was told us that we could go to 3 different kingdoms and named each one.  We were impressed!  "But wait there's more!" she said. And then she told us who inherited which kingdom the glory within each one!  Super Duper impressive! So this family is really cool to work with too!

That about wraps it up for this past week in Gurabo!  Good luck with the coming week and remember the church is still true!!

Love, Elder Jensen

Another week in the DR...

Hello Family!!!

So it sounds like Nicole and Gary had quite a bit of rain.  Let me tell how the rain went here in the DR.  So it started raining randomly one afternoon.  And rained and then poured.  Elder Teran and I had to make it back to our apartment because we left our windows open.  We walked through rivers instead of streets because the streets had about 3 to 4 inches of water on them.  Right in front of our apartment was a huge lake that went up to my knees!!!  Once we swam to our door, we went inside and found my bed, and puddles of water all over the floor.  So, we spent the next 2 hours cleaning up.  That my my tropical rainstorm story.  Pretty interesting.

So with mailing stuff, I found out a few different things that will help.  Like I said last week, sending letters to the florida PO box address is the best way for letters!  When you send packages, send them to the Mission with DHL or FedEx because if you do it through the postal mail system, the people will look through it when it gets here, and I might not end up getting it.  But make sure to keep the tracking number!  Also, the mission is moving offices, so if it'll be more then 2 or 3 weeks before you send it, please let me know!

So not much really happened this week, just the same old routine.  President Lee finishes on Friday and President Douglas arrives.  I really am excited to meet the new President, but I wish I could of had a little more time to serve with President Lee.  This week I'm trying to send alot of pictures, so thats why it's so short!  Enjoy!!

Love, Elder Jensen 

Another Week...

Hola everyone!

Sounds like the wedding went really well!!  I'm glad I was able to be there and be carried along, haha!  I hope Nicole and Gary are happy and that they are really enjoying Disney World!  She is the closed she'll be to me for 2 years!  Anyways, doesn't seem like much is going on at home right now.  But things are bound to change.  Sorry if my grammar and stuff isn't the best, but the keyboards here are different then US keyboards and everything is in Spanish, so....sorry.

Anyways, things here are going really good!!  I have a really good zone and awesome Elders in my district.  I work in an area called "Gurabo A" which is really big!  I've attached some pictures of my apartment as well as my view of the area from my house.  I'll definitely send more pictures as time goes on.  These first few weeks have just kind of been a big blur...Anyways, I attend a ward with the chapel right behind a casino.  It's funny when we give people directions and say "you know the casino grande?" they reply "Your church is in the casino?"  Haha, we reply back "no, its right next door."  I will say its pretty easy to give directions though.  I'm used to big wards with 300+ people and here in the DR we're lucky to get maybe 125+.  But the saints here are really strong and dedicated to their callings.  I continue to walk, and walk, and walk.  Then after a little more walking we make rest and walk some more.  I'm really getting to be a good walker, when I get home we can walk all day and I won't break a sweat, haha.  So maybe its time to tell you how I travel around my area and to different places.  We take what we call a ruta, which is kind of like a taxi route.  The cars are little honda civic like cars and all beat up the majority of the time.  We pay 20 pesos and get in.  We just ride along the route until its time to get off.  Did I mention that they fit up to 7 in the car?  That's the best part about it.  Driving down the road with 7 people in this little beater car:) I really am liking all these new experiences I'm having here in the DR.

I continue to eat rice, and chicken.  We tend to switch it up and have pasta sometimes.  I'm losing weight because of the sweating, walking, and just because I don't snack as much.  So that's good I guess!  We get money every 2 weeks for everyday expenses, but we definitely don't live a life a steak and luxury.  I had to use a little money to buy some personal items that wouldn't    count under my "apoyo" money.  I might buy a cookie sheet so I can make cookies throughout my mission, but after that I should buy a whole lot with it.  So I'll let you know if I do.

Running out of time, so just some things I want to address:  

First, mailing stuff to me.  The best way to LETTERS is through the FLORIDA address.  For PACKAGES send it directly to MISSION.  You pay more on your end, but I don't pay anything on my end.  But make sure to have a tracking number in case it gets lost...

 

Lastly, I want to start of Book of Mormon challenge within the family.  Read the entire Book of Mormon from the cover to Moroni 10, so the whole entire thing.  We'll all start this Sunday (June 24) and finish by April 4, 2013.  Each week we'll share what we learned and grow together as a family in the Book of Mormon.  Seems like a long period to read it, but be warned it'll come fast!!!  Will you all agree to do it?? Including Holli?  I look forward to hearing your response next week.

I love you all and thanks for everything you do!!  Keep up the good work!  THANKS FOR ALL YOU LOVE AND PRAYERS!  IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!!

Love,

Elder Jensen

 

Hola from Gurabo!...

Hola Everyone!

Things in the field are completely different from anything I've ever heard.  Missionary life out in the field is very different than I had thought!! I don't even know where to begin...Let's see.  Last Wednesday night we finally made it back to our apartment.  We essentially dropped our bags off and went out and walked around our area.  After meeting several people, we headed back home and went right to bed; I was so, so tired!  The next morning I unpacked and starting cleaning the apartment.  Let's just say it wasn't up to par on the Russell Scale.  I still have to finish cleaning today, but I should get it pretty clean.  My apartment is on the 4th floor of a really nice apartment building.  It has a living area, kitchen, and 3 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms.  The power and water goes out pretty regularly, so I've learned to just go with whatever works that day.  I'm high enough that I can see my area and I have a very pretty view of the mountains.  So that's kind of what my apartment is like.  It's pretty fun!!

Once we leave our apartment we go right to work.  I've only been here for a week, but I've met a ton of people!  We've taught quite a few lessons and contacted so many people.  My area has a lot of rich people, but also a lot of poor people too; so I have a pretty good variety of people here to teach.  The people are so, so nice and loving.  We walk up to their gate and yell, "Buenas!" and they usually come out and talk to us.  After introductions, they invite us to come in and sit down.  It's kind of weird that people here let random strangers inside and tell us missionaries their complete life story and how Jesus Christ had helped them.  The only problem is is trying to get them to commit to stuff or are home for the next meeting.  Some people are really cool and have interesting stories.  We were contacting and stopped at a guy's house.  He invited us in and we told him that we were missionaries with a message that can bless his life.  He said not 30 seconds before we showed up he post on a blog site something like "I'm stuck right now.  I don't know what to do with life or my family."  That really shows how the lord blesses and prepares the people for us to teach.  I just hope this man is prepared and ready to come unto Christ.  We've met some other people who also seem ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The food here is very different!  Rice, and lots of rice.  I get tired of rice.  The propane in our house is gone, so today we have to get our tank filled up.  Also, we really don't have a lot of food right now, so there is another thing we have to get done today.  Busy, busy, busy.  But we seem to get everything done. 

Walking.  Who knew that word could be something so hard?  I've never walked so much in my entire life.  I think we probably walk 8+ miles everyday.  My blisters have blisters.  The sun is brutal too, I don't think I've ever sweat so hard in my life too!  But I love being in the field.  I'd rather be out in the field then my apartment, because meeting people and staying busy is really keeping my spirits high!!  I've also lost a little more than 5 pounds in one week!  I'm gonna come home a tooth pick.

Love, Elder Jensen