Jan 27, 2014

hey family hows it going. I got your envelope!!!!! and before anything else there is something i feel compelled that i need to say... derek please get a haircut....  ok i feel much better now;) no really thanks a ton for the letters i cant wait to read about how my friends area doing in their adventures. and i have the card!  well this was quite a week let me tell you.

tuesday. we had divisions and it was a blast. i was with elder ioane in his area. we worked hard and found a new family to teach. then we talked with a señora that had some health problems about the plan of salvation. it was a great experience. then we went home in the end of the night and it was an all around good day.

wednesday. finished up divisions. and the first thing we did was teach Iyari one of our investigators who also had her baptism date set for yesterday we went over the interview questions and everything went bien. so the only thing that we needed was permission from her dad to be baptized. the problem was she didnt ask in the night... then we went for a tour in a taxi searching for a house of a less active member. it was ridiculously expensive. for a taxi here anyways.. and so frustrated and stressed that we couldnt find the house we went home defeated.

thursday. well we had some great lessons today. first off we went  to talk with margarita and adolfo. adolfo recently had a surgery so we went by his house to talk a little and he is doing great. then we went on another wild goose chase with a member. we didnt find them but we did find a family of menos activos. so we will teach them this week. then we had one of the most challenging lessons of my mission. so new investigator and he has more questions than jeopardy. which is great other than my companion started right of with the jehova is jesus and the brother asked where is the evidence of this in the bible. unfortunately this is one of the things i havent studied a ton and so it was a little hard to answer and i half answered the question with corinthians 10 1-4 but dont worry i studied more that night so i know how to explain these things now thank goodness for james talmage and the book of mormon.

friday. we walked zig-zags all day and it was brutal from san isidro to lomas like 3 times. but im still alive. we talked with iyari again and she still hasnt talked with her dad stressin a little because the interview is tomorrow.

saturday. in the morning iyari tells me she talked to her dad and that she is good to go! oh by the way she is 13 and absolutely tiny. but anyways we had the interview and she passed! all is well !

sunday i woke up at 5:30 in the morning. i had to be in the church at 7:20 to start the font and every  thing and so we get to the church and it starts iyari is  no where to be found. so we get about half way through the meeting im stressed and so my companion and i leave so we can check the font and when we come back, there she is i was so happy we finished church and had the baptism at 11 it was so cool like 30 people where there!

well that was my week it was pretty fun i had some great moments and these were just some im lovin it out here and everything is going great!

District at Indios Verdes

Iyari's Baptism

Iyari's Baptism

Jan 20, 2014

well this was quite a week. and it all started monday. i felt a little sick all night. we taught one lesson but i wasnt super focused. we went to the house a little early. i went to bed and ended up sleeping two hours.

i woke up at about 2 and didn't sleep more than ten minutes at a time the rest of the morning but at 6 30 i said a prayer and told my Heavenly Father that i was going to need a little bit more help this week and then i went and did exercise.  i prayed i little while later that he would help me to focus on my work here. and you know what that is what we did this week. we worked.

 tuesday i was in divisiones with my district leader and we did work and taught a young less active the importancia of the church for two hours going back and forth between scriptures and comments it was really a great talk. then we had to go home because it was late.

wednesday was equally chido elder preciado and i had like 5 lessons that day and i feel like he is starting to really grasp the importance of our work.

thursday one of the recent converts in the ward had to get a surgery this day so we went over to his house and talked to him about the ways the lord could help him heal fast and well it was a spiritual lesson and i felt really good about it. we also taught a new investigator who when he showed up to church sunday asked the president what he had to do to become a missionary. he is really excited about the church and has been a blessing of the week.

friday we had a fun day too, we tore down a house it was awesome that old wood house i was telling you about isnt there any more we took care of it with hammers crowbars and sheer man power... mostly on the part of elder ioane ha ha but we worked on it friday and saturday.

saturday we played soccer in our church clothes and it was a blast i tore my pants in the crotch. ooops it was a small tear so i can fix it. but we are teaching a family of less actives and one of the kids looks like my long lost brother. i need a picture with him so i can show you he is a little version of me big ears and all ;)

sunday. the blessings and happiness continue. we showed up at the church and 12 of the less actives we visited in the week showed up the attendance was around 70 and its amazing to see the blessings that we have recieved as missionaries in this rama. also i saw the last 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter of the seahawks game. i miss football so bad. but i know i need to focus right now.

today we had a zone activity and it went great. we had an obstacle course that was way sweet and then we played soccer my team lost once because we got worked by the hermanas but we had and amazing time and ate tacos. oh and our zone leaders bought us dp i was in heaven.

this was a huge growing week for me i still am not an amazing spanish speaker nor can i persuade people with the way i talk but i know that when i need help from my heavenly father he can make me a great tool in his hands. i was in a state of weakness to start the week but when i said a prayer and asked for understanding i understood the phrase be patient in tribulation and if you are and dont lose faith you will receive a reward. i saw a little bit of my reward this week in our work. but i know that the blessings i will receive after the mission i cannot see right now but i know they will be there.

im loving my mission wouldnt change my decision for anything right now love you guys so much and have a great week i mean might as well it is starting with MLK day and a day off from school !

con mucho amor elder Jenson

Jan 13, 2014

DyC 58:2-4

this week was an amazing week i had more lessons and i feel like a missionary again. im not going to go in to alot of detail but it was a great week i worked hard and sunday we had 12 inactive people in the church talk about a blessing. i also hit 6 months this week and it felt great it feels like 6 weeks but its been the fastest 6 months of my life. im loving my mission and everything about it. hope you guys have a great week and keep working to grow closer to the lord. love you all tons ttfn ta ta for now
elder jeson-

6 month tie burning ritual that appears too
much like Old Testament practices for our day.
Looks a bit pagan to me. but the mission  was
25% over for Elder Jenson on Jan 10

Jan 5, 2014

well it sounds like good old fun like  normal. we had a good week with members but it was another week of holidays so im excited for this week hopefully we can get a little more success.

but here is the story of the week. tuesday we hung out with the family uribe. nothing to crazy and we were home before 9 30 and asleep at 10 when we finished planning. but we put an alarm at 12 so we could call our district leader it was really funny. we woke up elder ioane and he was a little mad but it was a good joke.

wednesday. was another day with out a ton of lessons but we found a new family to teach and most of them are members but there is one kid who is 9 that we can teach. it was a fine day.

thursday we had divisiones. and ioane came to san juanico. it went well and we visited 3 families. i talked most of the time which is normal in divisiones but it went well. and elder ioane got a haircut it was a good night.

friday. we started with a lesson with an hermana who is less active. we taught her a little about the imortance of the church. and she came sunday wich was great because one of her daughters is an investigator it was the frist time in the last two months we had an investigator in the church.. hope that we have many more to come.

saturday. well elder preciado woke up and told me that he didnt feel great. i went and took a shower and when i got out he was still in bed so i asked him what was wrong and he told me that his stomache  didnt feel good but he would go take a shower so i started ironing and about 5 minutes later he came out and said i just threw up three times... so we called the doctor went and waited with the family solano until we could go to the offices and see the doctor at 12 we ate pambosos after the doctors but elder preciado couldn eat. our district leader gave him a hard time and it was kinda funny i will be honest. but he was pale all day and didnt feel great so that kinda slowed us down. but we had one good talk with some other menos activos and avoided going to tanque 2 which is a good thing in the night. then elder preciadowent and ate with the family solano something kinda like chicken noodle soup with the family solano.

sunday. we had two families in the church and it felt great. especially the first investigator in the church. we hope tohave more in the next few weeks. and im feeling good about my area. we ate with the branch president in the night and ate sopes. its like a tortilla withbeans and lettuce. then we went to tanque 2 and it went fine. we talked with the family sanchez and the showed us a new family of menos activos that are really excited about the gospel. we had a good lesson and a good day.

today. we hung out wiht the solanos all morning im feeling mas o menos right now so sorry for the lame letter but my heads not one hundred percent. tomorrow we get to go to the visitors center and its going to be great i will take some pics and send them next monday hope you have a great week and that everyone can stay out of the doctors office. love you guys losts

les quiero mucho bye bye
elder jenson