Monday After General Conference

Good morning to everyone where ever they are!

This week was great. We got to hear the words of the Lord through His authorized servants. I absolutely loved general conference and the feelings that I felt. This was, obviously, my 4th and last general conference as a missionary, and I had a lot of questions that I wanted answered about my future and about my life and as I sat there listening with a couple other american missionaries, I felt the power of the Spirit of the Lord testify to me that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of the Lord in these days. The Lord, through the inspired talks that we heard, answered all of my questions, and that is another amazing miracle that I saw this week as a missionary of the Lord.

I loved the talks by Elders David A. Bednar and Dieter F. Uchtdorf. They are my two favorite apostles.

I think that was my main highlight of my week. Listening to General Conference in a tiny room in a chapel here in Bermejo with 2 other American Missionaries and 2 American Sister Missionaries. We got to watch all the sessions in English and I loved it. Honestly, the fact that we are members of the only true church of the Lord Jesus Christ just blows my mind. I know this is true and I know the Lord lives and He speaks with His prophet and I know He is guiding the church and us all.

I loved the 3 talks that talked about the prophet and how we need not to worry whether or not the prophet is going to lead us in the right way, because it´s the Lord´s church and if the prophet tries to lead us away from the truth, he will be removed from the position and someone else will be put as prophet. I know this to be true.

I also really liked the 2 talks on helping the poor and needy, giving and serving them, as well as through the law of the fast. I know the Lord wants us to serve these people, and that we have the obligation to help them. I know this to be true.

I love you all so much. I know that the Lord lives and that He is truly aware of us in every moment and every day.

Talk to you next week!

Love, 

Elder Jensen

Wonderful Week

Hi there! I loved this week, so powerful and the Lord truly did bless me this week. Here is why. 

We have received a lot of new information and training from Elder C. Scott Grow, Councilor in the Area Presidency. He told us to trust in God and to learn how to teach and find people and just receive more personal revelation. We have set super high goals and we are working harder than ever before to achieve them... especially finding families to teach. 

This week we haven’t so much found families, but we are finding that the Lord has people that are prepared for us. For example this week, we found and taught two new people that are just so ready for the gospel... Javier Herera and Miguel Angel Walda. Miguel Angel especially is so great. We’ve only taught him once, but for the first time in my mission, a Bolivian man told us that his biggest desire in life is for his family to be happy and to follow God. It was so great. We have an appointment with him on Wednesday so we will see more of what happens to him. 

General Conference was particularly inspiring. I have always heard that we can make a list of questions and while listening to conference, the Lord will give us the answers, but I had never done it. Saturday morning before the conference I just had a strong desire to do it and to put God to the test. I made my list of questions, and I prayed to the Lord so He would know my desires. I went to conference (we as North Americans all went upstairs in the stake center and watched it in English). It was so great. I loved it and all my questions were answered, most by the words of the prophets and apostles, but also, from the things the Lord told me through the Holy Ghost. I know that the prophet is the prophet of God and he told us so many things that the Lord wants us to know and to do. I have set goals so as to follow the Lord’s will. 

The Lord wanted me to know of His love for me. As I sat in the micro on our way home from the conference, I just thought to myself about some things. I felt happy and grateful and I felt the promptings of the spirit as a feeling of love came into my heart and just a feeling a peace. I felt like the Lord was happy with me, like He was telling me that He is my God, and that I am His representative. Maybe I am not perfect, but He will help with in this work, and that He will be here with me. I want so much more to trust in God and to be a man that God can trust in. 

I love studying the Lord’s word every day. I am studying every day in Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon. Lately, after mom wrote me about her studying about the Lord Jesus Christ, I felt like for me to trust more in the Lord, I need to know Him more, so I have been studying a lot about Him; who He was, is and will be for us when He comes. I testify He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is everything for us and compared to Him, we are nothing. But to the Lord, we are everything. I know He lives and I know He loves us. I love you, my family more than anything else. You guys are just great. 

Until next week!

A recent convert who baptized his son

-Elder Jensen

Watching General Conference in English

Growth

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone is good there. This week has been cloudy and cold, especially at night. I really like it when it is Spring here. In the morning, it is perfect. In the day, it warms up a bit and at night, again it is a bit nippy. I like it.

This week... Just like all the others... passed super fast. Good things happened, but it just passed super fast. We are almost in April and General Conference weekend, then comes Mothers Day and the phone call... And then a couple months later I end my time as a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. I love my time as a missionary. It is the best thing ever. I have come to know my Lord Jesus Christ more and I have learned even more, the importance of obedience and of the church in general.

So, this week

-The biggest thing that happened this week was on Friday, Elder C. Scott Grow (2nd Counselor in the Area Presidency) came to Santa Cruz and we were with him the entire day. We learned a lot from him about the Lord’s way of working in The Work of Salvation and about the personal revelation. He shared with us that we have to have more faith and more patience, and if we depend on Christ, the Lord will help us know the goals to set, the plans to do, and the words to say in this grand work. It was seriously so great.

I realized a lot of the time, I need to have more faith and more trust in the Lord that He will help ME... I know He will help all of us, but I need more faith and more trust that the Lord will bless ME specifically with what He wants me to do. It was really helpful and I learned a lot.

Another thing, we had the opportunity to have a question and answer with Elder Grow. One elder asked him what the difference, or what does it mean to be a special witness. Elder Grow explain that he had been set apart to testify that 1- Joseph Smith is a prophet of God 2- The Prophets and Apostles of today are truly prophets, seers and revelators and 3- of the Lord Jesus Christ. He then went on to bear his testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. The most powerful testimony I have ever heard in my life. I wish I might be able to have a stronger testimony like him.

It was one of my favorite conferences in my mission. I loved the entire thing. The spirit was so strong and we just sat there for hours, listening and learning from the servant of the Lord.

Another thing that has happened this week... The mission is changing. It is a different mission from when I started. New rules, new way of working, and now... Even the leaders are changing. The transfer is this Wednesday, but when we were all together, President Willard announced who would be the new assistant... The new assistant is a newbie in the mission, with just 6 months in the mission. Never been a District Leader nor a Zone Leader. That is the huge news in the mission right now... President says that a lot of changes are coming... That this is the transfer when everything changes. It is exciting to see the changes.

We are working with a Less Active family... Angelo and Tamara Gutierrez. They have been less active for 5 years, but now we are teaching them and they want to come back. When we taught them the first time, I felt like it was super important to talk about the temple and the eternal family. They loved it and the spirit was there, testifying of our words. They have put the goal to go to the temple and to put their lives in order. It will be a struggle, since he smokes and has other bad habits, but through Jesus Christ, anyone can change.

I hope you liked all the photos. I will send a couple more.

Pictures:

My jersey that we had made in my last zone. Just thought you would all like to see me… Haha.

A drink they make here in Bolivia. It is called Mocochinchi.

it is just a dried peach with cinnamon and other stuff, and water. It has a weird flavor, I didn’t like it when i got here, but I love it now. It is always just super cold.

I love you all so much!

Until next week!

General Conference Weekend!

Hello everybody!

Oh my, this week was so great. I may not have had much success with our investigators (since they dont wait to really change their lives) but we did hear the words of the living prophets of God and that was enough for me.

This week, we had more changes in the mission. We are no longer going to focus on knocking doors, but rather on working with the members and references. That was a great relief. Now to just help the members get going. It is like President Monson said: ¨Now is the time for missionaries and members to work together to bring more people into the vineyard of the Lord¨ It will be tough here in Bolivia, but we must start to change things.

As for conference, they have satellites in the stake centers, so we went to the stake center and all the ¨gringos¨ were given a little room and a smallish TV to watch it in English. Oh, how much I loved the conference. I loved Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk and also, Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk too; so much power and passion and truth. It was great.

Today officially marks 11 months for me in the mission. And for Chase, this is his last full week as a missionary. For me, it has been tough, and when I look back, it has gone by so fast. I cant believe I am 12 days away from being 20. I still feel super young. I know that I have to be here in Bolivia and to help these people progress. This first year was amazing, but I am really excited for what is to come in this second year.

As for the work, we are still having little success finding new people that want to progress. We have a couple people that tell us in our lessons that they will keep their commitments but when we leave they just don’t, or his friends tempt them to get drunk, like our teenage friend, Julio Cesar. We are still looking, but facing a little rough patch right now in the area.

The weeks have passed fast; it is already the end of another transfer cycle. We are betting that one of the two of us (my companion or I) will get transferred on Wednesday… I don’t mind either way if I stay or go. I have made great friends with the members here in the ward, but the area is pretty tough, so whatever God has in mind with me is fine with me.

 I know with my entire soul that this is the church of Jesus Christ. I have no doubt about it. I know that God loves each and every one of us, so it makes sense that he would give us a church to help us along the way to return to Him. I know that we can be even more happy then we are now if we live the teachings of Christ. Maybe we will still have tough times, but hey, that is life. We have to have tough times so that we learn and progress. I love this gospel and I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that even though we aren’t perfect, He still wants us to come unto Him and keep on going. It is like Dory says ¨Keep On Swimming¨ maybe that means swimming in dark waters sometimes, but we must always do our best and rely on Christ.

I love you my family and friends. The greatest blessing that God gave me is you all. I honestly love you and I have been praying for you a lot lately, that God will guide your steps and keep you safe.

Until next week!

Elder Jensen

April Already?!

I cant believe that is it April already. Or that I now have 5 months in the mission. 5 months!!! What is the world? It feels like forever but at the same time, so short. I have no clue how that is possible, but it is. 

Conference was amazing. I didnt get a whole ton out of it, since it was all in Spanish and the translation was boring to listen to and sometimes I zoned out, but how crazy is it that we have Prophets and Apostles like in the times of old. And how blessed we are. Sheesh. 

So, this week was so so. We had a few hard days not finding anyone to teach and just contacting all day, and then we had a few small successes, like when we brought Christian Claros to the chapel to watch conference. It has been raining here a ton and the streets are super muddy, of course. So, we went to get him at his house, arriving late there because I slipped and fell in the mud... My long jacket thing took all of it, so I was okay. Anyway, we walked in at the last 10 minutes of Elder Holland´s talk, and I so wish we couldve seen all of it, because after when we asked Christian which he liked best, it was Elder Holland´s last 10 minutes. 

Unlike Chase, we werent in jail for Holy Week. It isnt super crazy here like Elder Chub tells me it is there. The Catholics just all got in a parade and followed the cross to the local church. As we left, our house, the parade passed by, and we had to walk fast through the parade, they smiled and laughed at us, as if to say, look at us, we are so much bigger than you. You are just two young kids, what can you two do. 

Little do they know that we have the truth and we have Christ on our side. 

I just realized I might have told you this story already, but whatever. 

Umm... I am definitely so happy. My zone leader just barely gave me my package mom. I hope nothing was taken out. But thank you!!!

I am definitely improving with Spanish and with the gospel. I can actually feel my faith and my testimony. It feels like a firm brick wall that I know will always be there in my life. 

I have experienced a new way of looking at the church. Here in Bolivia, the church is still relatively new and with the old Catholic lifestyle of the members, a ton of them are lazy and still need to have a conversion of heart, for example, I have seen how a member and a ward should be, like the example of the 4th ward, and how it shouldnt be, like the ward here in Guabira. We are having problems working with the members and the bishop, but we will still press on, even with this problems. 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this mission and for the millions of things I have learned and improved in these short 5 months. We must press on always, being followers of our Lord and Christ. 

In the words of Yoda, which I need to actually apply:

Do or do not, there is no try.

WE NEED TO ACT:

I need to act, and it is what I am learning right now.

Until next week!
Elder Jensen