August 18, 2014

haha dont worry criss cross life goes on! but i will say im a little sad for you.  derek thats awesome im so glad to hear about your experience. and im sure i will be calling you elder derek a. jenson some day;) haha and why are my little siblings so big? savy is not even close to 30 why is she wearing make up? and i will say im a fan of the lime green socks jax, jordan is too cute, and jacob pretty much boss status on your work status!

well just gonna give you a quick run through of this week. first off we have had like three new families move into our ward and they all live really close together. its been fun getting to know them. one of them we got to know is named olga. and olga lives on the fifth floor of here building. and one day it was raining, and her bed frame was out side. so we went over and helped her take it upstairs. nothing makes you feel outta shape like hauling a wet wooden bed frame up 5 stories haha it was a great service project and i counted it for my exercise that day. 

also we have had a little rough patch with investigators. our beloved contact carolina just told us that she was going to have to wait about 2 years to get baptized. and it made me really sad. but at least i know she will have help and that the seed we planted was a good one. and its nice to know that the ex 70´s family lives in the next block and are good friends with her.

on the bright side well we have been working with members active and inactive. and its been going alright, we have had a little retention. so thats always  nice. 

this last week was the hermanas birthday and it was a fun little diversion. we ate some cake and sang to her. it went really well. and everyone there had fun!

hmmm highlight of studies this week has for sure been a movie about jesuscrist. its word for word the whole book of matthew. and its great to be able to see how he dealt with problems. im problably going to finish tomorrow. but so far thinking about the parables and how they apply to me and how i can apply some teachings better. 

that was basically my life, oh and we killed another rat last night it was kinda exciting. the hermana was scared so bad. but we got it done

love you guys lots and wish you all to have a great week! your the best love you all!

Well the second rat didnt fair much better this was last night

Aug 11, 2014

wow you guys had a fun week! so how is craiger doin in the mission? and dont worry about meddling with tinoco the people here struggle alot with testimonies, its so hard to see almost all of the wards have between 500 and 800 members but between 80 and 120 active members. any encouragement cant hurt to much.

also on the note of sports i think that is one of the biggest blessings that we can have becuase it teaches us so much. the problem comes when you let your children get into sports. thats not a good idea haha. but im thankfull for all i learned in sports. speaking of which have you had any contact with judd thompson?

alright well now to the week. it was a pretty good week. i finished the confrence ensign finally i had been reading two talks a day for the last few weeks and it was so great to hear some of the talks. and that helped me alot to keep myself focused on my purpose.

so this last tuesday one of the young men that is preparing to go on a mission did splits with us and it went great we contacted 5 people and had lessons with all of them, the problem came later when 3 wernt home, but thats fine we will catch them this week:) but anyways during these splits we worked hard. and they were fantastic. it really helped set the tone for the week. one of the biggest blessings was one of the people that we contacted. there is this big yellow house in the area with a lot of money and every time we had ever knocked no one answered. but i said that i wanted to go knock because we were in the street, and what would you guess. a young man of 13 years oppened the gate, and said his parents werent home but that we could try again the next day. so we passed by wednesday and his grandma came out and talked with us a little. and explained the boy was her grandson, and that he had cancer. and now after 3 years he was leaving to live with his parents. I know that the plan of salvation will be such a gift to her, and her family.   it went really well, and she wants to keep listening to us.

also guess who had to talk this last sunday... this guy! our second counselor told us about the talk saturday night. so pretty much rushed to put together a quick talk about the way to salvation. and i told the story of when our priest quorum hiked  in colorado. i went really well and as much as i dislike that hike and as dificult as it was im really greatful for the experince. thanks bishop:) after that we had a barbeque with some members and it went so well. of course it was barbeque mexican style haha we made tacos out of everything but it was great. i dont know if you got the pics one of the members sent you the pics from his phone. but it was pretty great. by far one of the best meals i have had in mexico!

 this week i learned alot about how to be happy that was one of my goals, to be happier. and i found a quote that helped me a ton. " your happiness depends more on the principles you choose to follow than on the external circumstances of your life" that quote has helped me so much i read it when we have a hard time working, or when im haveing just a hard time, and i know that its true. we have lots of choices everyday. and we have a lot of hard times pass, but it doesnt matter what they are if we can find a way to make it positve we can be happy in any situation. i think in the end that will be one of the biggest take aways i hope to have from my mission, is that i can find a way to live how i need to regardless of whats happening around me. and be happy and positive.

i love you guys tons hope you have a great last week of summer.  then you slackers can work work work instead of play play play! haha have a great week i will keep you in my prayers! love you

elder jenson

August 4, 2014

HEY JENSONS! well this week was a little bit better! but first off i wanna tell you how happy i am for everthing that is happening up there you guys are so awesome and have been a good example to reflect on when im having a hard time. so i guess thats blessing number one is knowing i have support back home from you guys! like i said this week was better. even though i got drenched. that was pretty funny and just so you know how great it was i will tell the story.

It all started when we went to visit a family of one of the older sisters. she recently had a stroke. so we go visit once or twice a week. we talked about priesthood and how great the blessings are. then when we finished it started raining. we thought it would pass by fast and so we left. they even let us borrow an umbrella. well about 100 yards on our way the torments came down from the heavens and it started hailing. so we had our next brilliant idea, close the umbrella and run to the next members house. it was only a quarter mile away. so we started running and then we just got soaked. and not just from above. we also got car splashed running on the sidewalk. it was pretty epic! by the time we got to the members house we were so wet it didnt matter any more not to mention the fact that crossing streets felt like a mexican version of the sweet water river crossing. haha. then we retreated to the peace of our house heated up some water and bathed ourselves. it was quite the afternoon.

also this week we had another talk with our beloved second counselor. i love talking to that guy because every time we do i feel inspired and i have a little more understanding of things in life. he thought we were looking a little down one day when we went to eat at there house, and sat us down after and asked if anyone had been bothering us. nobody had so we said no. afterwards he explained that there are some people that are members of the church that poison those around them and especially those who have what they want. be it callings, a happy family, como sea... and then he explained that these people seek power. and when they dont have it it causes them to lash out at those who are doing good things. it was quite interesting to analyze what he said. and even though that hadnt been the problem it made me think of how we should react to circumstances like that.

this week we talked with the woman in the wheelchair that got baptized the first week i was here. and guess what she read the whole book of mormon and in like 2 months! and not just read but understood and analyzed. she is an awesome lady and is waiting a surgery to see if she will walk again. but has a lot of faith and an interest in learning.

im grateful for my ward mission leader, ex 70, super great family we ate with them yesterday and it was so much fun the reminded me of eating back in utah. and i dont know how to explain it but when we eat there the have a little bit of culture of utah and its nice to be able to talk about home with someone that has been there and knows a little bit about the place!

im grateful for the lessons i have learned. yesterday we talked with and inactive ex missionary and he talked about all of the great experiences he had in his mission, a lot a lot of baptisms and success and fun experiences. but hes inactive i couldnt understand. and after joking around a bit we talked about utah and the way things are. he said who knows maybe if i woulda married in the church in the temple things would be different, maybe i would still be active. it was interesting to see his perspective,being off the mission for ten years.

really im happy to be here, things have been a little tough lately, but i know its good for me and will help me grow a lot more than having it easy and in the end i know these two years will pass no matter what i do, so i feel like i just need to buckle down and smile a little more jaja even though i know, "its not all about the fun, ya know"

once again glad for such an awesome family back home you guys are the best! i wish you all the best enjoy your summer while it lasts! then you have to go back to school. love the pictures thanks mom! ttfn ta ta for now!

love elder jenson

Ok luckiest day ever golden ticket and coke with my name on it!!

Of course, I'm sure someone else drank it!! ;)

July 28, 2014

wow thats awesome she shot a pimp and i thought i met cool people! it sounds like everything is going great up there and that you are doing better i miss salt lake. and dont worry about the email this is great.

well this week was slow. not sure how else to but it. i really just am hoping for a better next week. we did have two kinda funny contacts though this week. one my comp was getting back from a leadership training and the zone leaders were talking to this girl coming out of the metro. and so she leaves and we decided we should head back to our area a little while later, right before we left our zl tels us to contact her if we see here by our convi, so we walk over and guess who was sitting in the convi. yep her, so i sat by her and we talked about the book of mormon and the church, and she said we could come over and teach her and her family this week some time! she seemed pretty interested, and had some friends that had served missions so i think we can have some good talks. the second was friday, my comp and i were walking over to some less actives house, he told me, we have 10 minutes until the lesson lets go explore over there and contact some one, so we walked over to this dead end street and a lady that was on her way out from her house stopped the car and rolled down the window, and then she says you guys speak english right and of course we responded yes, then she told us that she would like to talk to us sometime and told us where she  lived.

well also got up to 4 km this week yeah im getting there. haha

i  love you guys tons have a great week! ttyl!