Fotos

Man, this internet place is horrible. Either the internet is super slow or today, the computers just shut off. So, I dont have much time to write a long letter, but I did manage to send off some pictures. 

This week we had two baptisms... Andres Duran and Cristian Mendoza. Their families were less actives and we are helping to strengthen them, and they hadnt been baptized so we baptized them. Everything went really well. 

Everything is going really well. I have been able to see changes in myself as I continue on the mission. I have been able to learn how to listen to the Spirit. I have been able to learn about our Father in Heaven and how important it is that we be close to Him and His Son. I know that is how we can be happy- being close to Christ and following Him. 

This week, I taught the lesson in the District Meeting, and I prepared a lesson beforehand, but as I began to talk with the missionaries in my District, I felt the impression of the Holy Ghost telling me that we should talk about something else. I felt grateful as we talked and I learned a lot of things about working with the members and everything. 

I love you guys so much. I am so grateful that you are all my family and that you are all there for me, praying, reading the sprictures and thinking about me. I feel your love and I feel your support. I love you so much.

That is it for the week... Blame the crappy computer. We´ll go to a different internet place next week. So, that is good. 

I love you!

.Elder Jensen

Me and my group at Immigrations (getting visa renewed for six more months!)

The Loayza family at the Cochabamba Temple

The bill and coins...Bolivianos (they call them pesos too)

Hello from Santa Cruz

Hi there everyone. Just another day here in Howies... Santa Cruz just being a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ. This week went by really fast. 

We taught good lessons. 

One amazing experience happened this week for me. We were walking around from appointment to appointment, as everything that we had planned just failed. We had an appointment in 20 minutes, and I thought, let´s just go there early and teach them instead of just walking around. I looked at my agenda and started walking towards the appointment. But, suddenly, a name popped into my head. Katherin Vasguez. She is an investigator that we taught once, her dad died and she was hurting a lot. I turned around, and started going to her house, which wasn't too far away. 

We knocked on the door. She came out and we asked her if she had a minute. She said yes. We entered her house and started talking. We started teaching about the Plan of Salvation, and what happens after we die. As we spoke, I felt the importance of share about the eternal family... Not just share with her where we will go, but I felt that I had to just teach, and just pause and let what I just said sink in, that through obedience and through the restored gospel, we can be eternal families. We just sat there, as the Spirit bore testimony to her and to me. It was so great; I just felt like I should just be quiet and let her think. She loved it. She told us that it was something so new to her, but it gave her hope and happiness. In that moment, I felt like I was an instrument in the Lord´s hands.

The other gringo in our house and I both had to go to Immigrations this week, to be completely legal and everything. We went there and all my friends that I havent seen were there too... From the north mission and the south. We just sat there talking about things of the mission, and just doctrine. It was a bit sad too, because it will be the last time we all see each other in the mission. We said our good byes as we left. It was a bittersweet moment. 

Other than that, the week was just great. I am happy. I know I am here with doing what the Lord wants me to do. I know that I have been changed forever, thanks to the mission. I do not regret it for one minute. I know the Lord lives. I know He loves us. I know He has a plan for us to be happy, and maybe we have to give up our personal pride or our personal desires to follow that plan, but I know it is worth it in the end. I know God lives. I feel Him with me more and more as I follow what He wants, and as I learn of Him in the scriptures!

Until next week. 

-Elder Jensen

this week in santa cruz

Hello my family!

This week was good. We had a conference with President Willlard, we learned a lot, we found new people to teach and we are just doing good. 

The conference was with President Willard and Sister Willard was on Wednesday. We talked a lot about repentance and the joy that comes with it. We talked about how Satan is the king of thoughts, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the lord of actions. So, when we have a thought of doubt or fear, we need to replace it with an action of faith. I thought about my area where I am. I realized maybe I am not doubting things, but I am not acting with enough faith. So, I said a prayer to our Heavenly Father saying, ¨I dont know where the people are that are prepared to recieve the gospel. I dont know exactly what these people need to hear. I dont know what thou would have me do, but I am willing to act with faith and do whatever thou would have me do.¨ 

After the prayer, I felt my faith grow and I was super thankful to my president for teaching us that principle. 

We found a new family to teach, Miguel Angel and his wife Ana. They arent married, but Miguel is super good and ready to accept that gospel. His wife is a bit harder, but we are excited to see what happens. They went to a ward activity and they really liked it. Miguel participated and won a game. It was good to see that they have friends in the  ward now. 

We are also teaching the Duran family... Less actives for a long time. They are all coming back to church. The three moms (sisters) and their kids. Their husbands still dont want to hear the gospel, but we have faith that soon they will come around.  

I love you my family!

Until Next week!

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

Photos

          A picture of graffiti in my area. Just thought it was way cool so I took a picture of it. 

 A picture of the 6 of us before the changes with our pensionista... the lady that gives us lunch every day. Her name is Rosario Rivera. Her food is good, not great, but good. She loves us as her own kids. 



 A picture of the apartment building where I live. It is super high class compared to the other houses in the mission. I am super lucky to live here. 

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!

Photos of Carnaval

Hey everyone.

I hope everything is going well there for ya´ll. 

The weather is beginning to change here in Santa Cruz. It is a bit colder and windier. Which I love. 

My week was really good. I truly have a learned a lot of things. You can never stop learning new things and that is what I love about the gospel... There is always more. 

This week, we just worked our butts off to try and find new people. We honestly just asked everyone who they knew that could benefit from our message. We just talked to everyone. 

A couple new people that we are excited to teach are Lupe Costas. She is an 18 year old girl who lives alone, is super Catholic, but open to reading the Book of Mormon. We left her homework to read the pamphlet of the restoration and she read the entire thing, which is super rare here in Bolivia... They are not the most ¨book-reading¨ people. Mostly they love to just watch movies. Haha. 

Umm... There is also Ingrid and her 60 year old uncle, Julio. We met them yesterday and they just openly let us in their home and we taught them a bit about the gospel. They said that they really liked what we have to say, and they want to continue listening. 

I am sending a lot of pictures, so I hope it makes up for the fact that I dont have a lot of things to say.

I had another interview with President Willard. We talked more about how I am doing and how I can continue to trust in the Lord and walk with Him. I know the church is true. The Lord Jesus Christ lives. I have never seen Him, but I know Him. I know Him and I continually get to know Him more and more as I pray, as I study the scriptures and as I continue faithfully in His work. He has rescued me. He has poured out his eternal light in my life. I love Him and I honestly don't know how I can ever repay Him for what He has done for me and for our family. 

I love you all so much! Bye!

-Elder Jensen

                                               Us up on the roof throwing water balloons at passerbys. It was fun. 

                             
This is what the Bolivians do during the three days of Carnaval.. They get in groups and go around throwing water balloons full of whatever they can find (paint, water, oil, mud, dog poo, hot sauce... Anything and everything) It looks super fun when it is just water and paint, but super gross when it is other stuff. 

Us up on the roof throwing water balloons at passerbys. It was fun. 
During carnaval, I borrowed the keyboard from the ward. I taught myself how to play the piano a bit. I can play a couple hymns, but just with my right hand. I want to keep learning and play really well after the mission. 

Elder Ure, Elder Torrez, Elder Woolf, Elder Castro, Elder Revolorio y yo, Elder Jensen

                                     All the elders together during carnaval. We ordered pizza. It was great. Haha. 

                                        
Haha, I had a lot of time on my hands during Carnaval, so I thought I would send a picture of my elbows... That I am still a freak and I think it is getting worse. Haha. 

A new sport I learned. During carnaval, the stake president (who lives in the apartment right next to us) asked permission from the mission president if we could go play with him. We went to a place nearby and learned this new sport... Fronton. It is super fun. It is like tennis, except you play with the wall in front. I want to play it in the states.