New week...

Well hello again!!

Can't believe another week has already came and gone!  This past week was a very exciting week.  A hurricane, baptism, and transfers.  So I guess I'd better get started.

Since a lot of people were asking about the hurricane I guess I'll start with that one!  I'm doing great!  If that was a hurricane, I guess I was really blessed because it was just a lot of rain and some wind.  The storm didn't impact us from teaching and the baptism.  We just had loads of rain and quite a bit of wind at night!  But don't worry, I was fine and didn't have any problems.  Didn't even know there was going to be a hurricane until the day before it happened.  But anyways, no problems.

This past Saturday I had my first baptism I was able to be a part of.  It was our investigator David!  He was so excited and happy to finally get baptized!  I was just so happy seeing him get baptized and then confirmed the next day during church.  He has just a strong testimony of the church and loves studying his scriptures.  He is always calling and asking for scriptures and such.  He will be a very strong leader in the church.  But his baptism was really good!  Elder Teran and I spent Saturday morning cleaning up the font and the church to make is special for David.  Then, later that night, we were able have a wonderful baptism service with a very peaceful service.  It was a very good weekend and boosted up my spirits after all the rain!

Then today was transfers.  I am still in Gurabo, but I have a new companion.  Since Elder Teran finished his mission, I had to of course get a new companion.  My new companion is Elder Gomera.  His is a missionary from the Santo Dominigo in the Dominican Republic.  He seems really nice and speaks very little English, so I look forward to practicing my Spanish with him.  He has 7 members in his family and has been a member of the church his whole life!  He has 21 months in the mission, so he has 2 transfers left before he goes home.  It should be interesting to see what this transfer brings!  I look forward to getting a lot better on my Spanish and understanding people even better!

I know that this church is true and blesses people's lives.  I've been able to see the light of Christ enter people's lives as they turn towards him and follow his commandments.  The people in the DR are ready to listen and follow our Savior Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful for having the opportunity to serve the people here and come closer to my Father in Heaven.  Jesus Christ lives and is always willing to carry us and lead us along; we just need to ask!  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well that about wraps up this week!  Que vaya con Dios!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Hello...

Hello!

Things here in the Dominican Republic are going great!  I love being out here in the field and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ!  I'm learning alot about the gospel, living on my own, and having a companion 24/7.  Life is really good and I'm really happy I got called to the Dominican Republic to serve a mission.  It is quite the adventure being here on a mission and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

This past week has been pretty good!  We are working really hard with a guy named David to help him prepare for his baptism in a couple weeks.  He loves studying the scriptures and really wants to progress and follow Christ!  He has a testimony of the Church and just needs to continue living the gospel standards to be baptized.   But he is really doing well!!  Friday night we took President and Hermana Douglas to a lesson with David to help us answer some questions.  It was such a good experience!  President and Hermana Douglas are awesome!  He answered some questions and shared his conversion story.  He converted at 21 and then served a mission at 22.  Since then, he's been serving alot in the church.

The rest of the week has been a regular week.  We didn't have any major meetings or anything too out of the routine.  We continued teaching people and right now we are in the process of doing alot of contacting trying to find more investigators and people who want to hear the gospel.  Tomorrow is Zone Conferences, so it should be really, really fun!  First Zone Conference for me!  But that's pretty much how my week went.

I've studied alot in 3 Nephi this week during Christ's visit to the Americas.  Those chapters are really good chapters!  I really like Chapter 15 when Christ explains about John 10:16 about the other sheep of his fold.  He said the Jews didn't understand what he meant, so Heavenly Father commanded Jesus not to expound.  But, the Nephites were more prepared and faithful to understand it more, so Jesus expanded their view of other sheep currently in other folds.  This made me think about our day and all of Christ's creations.  Our earth is kind of like Jeruaselm.  We don't understand that there are other worlds out there, and Christ had to come to our earth so we would believe him, and then we killed our own savior.  I believe the other worlds were more believing like the Nephites and therefore Christ could rely on their faith alone.  Pretty interesting, I thought.  Scriptures always have more inside of the pages then people think...

I know this church is true and Jesus Christ is our savior!  He loves each and everyone of us and is ready to carry us when we can't carry ourselves.  The gospel can truly bless peoples lives, and I love seeing it bless the lives of the people in the Dominican Republic!  Keep on doing the little things like reading your scriptures, praying morning and night, and attending church.  Because when you do the small stuff, the big stuff doesn't seem quite so big!  Thank you all for your love and prayers and I love you all so much!  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love, 

Elder Jensen

Hello Everyone...

Hello everyone!

This past week has been a regular week without a whole ton of things going on.  We've spent alot of time trying to find more people to teach and trying to find the less-actives in the ward.  It's a lot of work, but it's worth it!  We've found 2 or 3 less-actives, who are starting to keep commits with church things again.

As far as investigators go, we have an investigator named David who is really progressing.  He has been meeting with missionaries for a long time now, the only problem is his job.  He works alot.  He invented a software that can detect who steals electricity.  So he's been traveling all over the country and nearby islands as well.  He is also contracting with a company in the US, so let's just say that in the near future he will be really rich!  But he is more excited of the spiritual richness that's coming into his life!  He told us that he knows the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  He is reading and praying everyday and wants to progress and finally get baptized.  He also made time to stop by and attend sacrament meeting last Sunday.  That made me way happy!!

Another investigator who is progressing really well is a man with 3 daughters named Beinviendo.  He shared with the missionaries about 8 years ago, and we just recently found him again.  He wants to share again, but the best part is his daughters want to know more about the gospel then he does.  So that's even better because he'll tag along with them.  He is a tailor and is trying to just make a living in life!  He and two of his daughters even attended church this past Sunday too.

On Friday was Elder Teran's birthday, so I planned with the office couple and we had a little party at the office.  A few Elders had to stop by, so it turned into a pretty fun little party.  We ordered food and just visited for a while, then of course we had cake!  It was really fun, and I think it really made Elder Teran's last birthday in the mission really something special.  But other then this small event nothing else took place this week.

Today, however, I went to the mission home and we saw some pretty interesting sculptures.  At thanksgiving point, there are a ton of sculptures from this artist named Angela Solsbury (I think) but anyways Megan probably knows what I'm talking about.  So we walk in and see these beautiful Christ sculptures and we start asking Sister Douglas about them.  Turns out she is really good friends with this artist, and so she has some of the few sculptures this lady creates.  They are absolutely amazing!!!  They look really cool!  I talked a lot with Sister Douglas and found out how cool of a lady she is.  She started this charity in Africa for leprasy and it's now a multi-million dollar charity with over 50,000 volunteers.  She has some really interesting stories and I just think she's awesome!

My spanish is coming along really good, and for the most part I can make out what people are saying.  Some people are still really hard, but my spanish is really coming along.  I just need to get the grammer down now.

The church is true and Jesus is the Christ!  I know that the lord can help us in all of our trials and can carry us when we aren't sure if we can carry ourselves!  Que vaya con dios!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Another week...

Hola everyone!

This past week has been pretty good! Not too many things going on right now, but all the same it's very exciting.  We spend the morning studying and then head out at about 10:30 to 12:00 to teach and visit with people.  From 12 to 3 is the time we get to spend at our apartment.  We have lunch, study, relax, and study some more.  Then at 3 to 9:30 we head out and teach and visit with members.  At 9:30 we come home and plan for the next day!  Then after planning I get ready for bed and pass out on my bed.  Yep, days are really, really busy here!

Melissa and Robinson are a young couple we contacted a few months ago, so they aren't members.  We have been working alot with them and they are slowly progressing.  I used to think you'd find people, teach them, and baptize them quickly.  But I've learned that is rarely the case.  Usually, a  particular missionary is only there for part of the journey.  At the beginning, middle, or end of a person's conversion.  The process to help someone come unto Christ and be converted doesn't just happen in a couple weeks.  Usually it takes time and a complete change in oneself before they get baptized.  So, we'll see what happens in the future.  We are working with a few investigators who have really progressed over the last few months, so we'll see what becomes of this!  I really hoping they are ready and will continue to prepare for baptism.

My spanish is coming along pretty good!  Of course, it depends on my attitude and willingness to listen.  I can get the majority of the idea of what people are saying, but it still is very hard with some people.  The people here talk super, duper fast and use terrible language.  For example, "todo esta bien?" turns into "to ta bien?"  So, it is definitely a work in progress!  But the lord gives be so much strength to continue trying to learn spanish.  So with time, it'll come fully.  Compared to my first day I'm fluent, haha!

This past week I came across Moroni 7:41 in my scripture study.  Moroni asks what is it we should hope for?  An he answers we should have faith in Christ and his Atonement.  This is so true!!  The Atonement is the basis of everything we have in the life.  If we believe Christ is our savior and he can help us become perfect, then everything else should fall into place.  Church, Temples, life, scriptures, everything.  The basis of our testimony of God's plan should be based on Jesus Christ.  So if you need something to hope for, hope that Jesus Christ lives!

Love, 

Elder Jensen

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!!