October 28, 2013

So, another week has come and gone.

Sorry about last week and the short letter. After I got done responding to the letters, my timer blinked zero here in this Internet cafe. The zone leaders didn’t tell us, but it was fine, because we gave up the last little part of Internet to do an activity.

This week has passed by really quickly. But, it was a good week. Here are some things that happened.

LUNES- For the first time of my mission, we did a zone activity that wasn’t just playing soccer. We went to a tourist place here in our area that is called ¨Los Lomos de Arena¨ Basically they are just sand dunes here close to Santa Cruz. It was cool because we were the first missionaries that went out there (last mission president forbade anyone from going).

It was more of a one-time thing, as there isn’t anything there, expect sand... And lots of it. We heard that there used to be a lake and stuff near by the dunes and boats and canoes and things, but I think it dried up or something because it wasn’t there. Haha.

We went to the dunes, took a lot of pictures, played around for 5 minutes (rolled down the sand mountain) and then packed up and went home to go shopping and stuff. We didn’t stay long since it started to rain and lightning. Pictures are attached of the ¨lomos de arena¨

MARTES- So, with these changes in the way that we are working here in Bolivia, it has been really nice. We are now focusing on ¨going to the rescue¨ as the prophet has asked us to do. That means we now focus on three groups of people, less actives, recent converts and investigators. We may not be having much success with investigators joining the church in my area, but we are ¨rescuing¨ (I don’t know if that is how it is spelled) an 18-year-old girl, named Selia. She has been inactive, even after going to the temple and doing baptisms for the dead for her mom. Something really cool that happened was, we were teaching the 5 missionary lessons to here again, and we were teaching lesson 2 - El Plan de Salvación. We ended up the lesson, talking about the three degrees of Glory. She told us that she didn’t believe that her mom would be there with her, since her mom wasn’t baptized here on earth.

We taught her that the Lord loves her and wants families to be eternal. That is why we have temples to do their work.. We told her that her mom would be there with her again.

She started crying. She told us that she didn’t really understand the baptisms for the dead when she went and did them. But, now she has hope and she is happy. It was a great experience.

WEDNESDAY- We had a zone conference with President Willard. We got more training on how to work with the ward and stake leaders here in Bolivia to get more references and things. It was great..

And we were given cell phones in every area and we were told that we can officially have cell phones with us all the time now in our mission. It was a great change that will help the work move forward.

THURSDAY- Nothing super special happened Thursday. Just the usual district meeting and everything.

FRIDAY- My companion and I talked about what we were going to change to help our ward. We decided that we would change the way that we ask for references or for the help of the members. Instead of just waiting and expecting the members to give us their friends names, we decided that we would visit more members and ask the way that Preach My Gospel tells us to ask ¨A quien conoce que pudiera interesarse en nuestro mensaje y beneficarse de el?¨ With empasis in asking ¨Who¨ not just a yes or no question. We have seen the fruits of the change, they are not much, but we are already seeing the difference.

SATURDAY- We did a service project to clean the chapel. We have never taken much of an interest in what we used to say ¨was the member’s jobs¨ But now, we are working together, the members and missionaries. So, the missionaries took the morning to clean, and we cleaned really well... The chapel is usually super dirty and gross. Cookies and food, dirt and bugs, and everything like that. So, we cleaned it really good. It was fun and great to see the difference.

DOMINGO- In my ward especially, we are still having problems with the ward council functioning properly. It is just the beginning of the changes here in Santa Cruz, so we have to be patient and everything. But, I know that even though now, not all the leaders come to their meetings or it turned into a war of types when someone doesn’t agree with something that someone else does, I still have hope that it will change with the Lord´s help. It will take time and effort on our part, but I am not going to lose hope.

Basically this week has passed fast. I want you all to know I thought of each and everyone of you on your birthdays. I was there with you all this week too. I love you all so much and I know the Lord is with us, He has not forgotten us, and he cannot.

This week, I just let everything go. I stopped being stressed about numbers and things and I am starting to learn how to have fun, and still working hard. I really love it so much better. I am happy and doing well out here.

Well, I hope this letter makes up for last week. Haha, I love you so much. And until next week, I guess.

-Elder Jensen