Nov 18, 2013

ha ha im starting to think like you  i woke up this morning stressing about my new (assignment?) and all the challenges of training. i love my mission i love spanish and i love my old ward and new area. i had some awesome experiences in the last week.

This week we had a lesson with felipe on monday. and talked about his baptism. i gave some words of encouragement and explained how it would bless his family  in the future. he seemed to feel the spirit and under stand a little better he got baptized last friday.

tuesday was a difficult day for me because i found out  i really had changes and not just to the other side of my area. i didnt really get to say good bye to jonathan and the family of amelia before we had changes. so we got our new companions  and elder chacon told me that jonathan was out side and wanted to say good bye. it was a little emotional for me. after a short goodbye i went to my new house. we didnt get there till 8 in the night and didnt have a cell phone so president told us to stay home. we shortly found out that we didnt have a map either. so that has been a little bit of a trial. and we have a huge area. we are in the indios verdes rama. }

Wednesday was a little slow. we had a zone meeting and after that we looked for members. thursday was the same. slow and we walked a ton. i was so tired.

Friday was awesome. we had a training for all of the trainers and their children. and i was by the temple. and i saw logan lefevre he is doing great other than he just got his back pack stolen. but other than that. great. we talked for a while and had a good time. that night felipe had his baptism and for some reason he told the people who interviewed him that he wouldnt get baptized unless i did it so that night i baptized him it was good but he was a little confused because it was so fast. so after i explained the symbolism and the covenant he made and he seemed alot more content. it finished late so i stayed the night in vergel. i talked with elder chacon a lot about training everything is good between us we left on good terms and i had a great night.

saturday was slow and sunday i gave my testimony en our branch about missionary work and how we can work together. they seemed excited to have new missionaries.

today i played soccer and got blisters but i scored a ton of goals and we beat the locals. my new zone is really cool and next week we are going bowling. i cant wait to get to work this week and i have learned that when i speak with confidence i can speak with the spirit. hope you guys have a great week love you a ton
 elder jenson

ps. i excercise every day. i think i will lose some weight in this area because we have a ton of hills.  sorry no photos i just dont use my camera because i live in areas where it might get taken but i will bring it to bowling next week.

November 11, 2013

Well this was one of those learning weeks. it started off with our investigator postponing the baptism until this week. Then i had an aweful week of searching houses for the new missionaries that are going to come to our area.  My companion and I struggled a bit that day. and so i got mad after a long day of searching the houses without success. It was a really hard day with only one lesson and a ton of walking. the next day was the same.  then our lider de zona left for home. so our other one elder Villalobos came and stayed with us for the last few days. he has been a good friend for me the last few days because I learned a lot from him we laughed a lot and i feel a lot more confident about everything. and i learned that i could speak spanish with an italian accent and it was so much fun.

Which is really good because i have been called to train and open an area. Im going to receive a new companion tomorrow how crazy is that! im super excited for  this opportunity and also a little scared but not like scared como tengo miedo mas como no siento preperado en mi español y tambien en mi enseñanzas(Not frightened, but inadequate because of my language progress and ability to teach). but im not that worried because i know that whatever i lack, if im diligent and try my hardest have the spirit in our companionship then he will learn what he is supposed to.

ok thats all the cool news i have for right now. but i want to share one more experience that i had this week. this thursday that passed i learned about prayer. first my companion lost all of his money for the month... yeah it was bad and we couldnt find it so i said a prayer and what do you know 15 minutes later i found the money in the book of mormon he was going to give away to an investigator. second. was the house... i hated looking for the house... and tuesday and wednesday we had no luck and we searched hard. and the same thursday we went to search again and i said wait we need to say a prayer ( this was after the money experience) my companion said ok what ever you want. and so i prayed that we could find a house. we found a new house to rent in thiry minutes. i know that these two experiences i had were to remind me that even when we have little problems if we ask with faith we with recieve help no problem is too small to ask for help with.

I love you guys so much and look forward to writing you guys every week. Its so great to hear about all of the blessings our family has and it was funny to hear about a dryer because no one down here has one. alot of the families dont have washing machines too. its wierd that washing clothes by hand isn't a strange concept for me anymore. this week our water heater for our water bucket broke so i had cold showers all week. cold showers in november my favorite ha ha but i cant complain too much because i never was tired this week. oh and Jonathans birthday was yesterday! thats all the fun stories i have for this week
cuidense mucho, les amo
Elder Jenson

Nov 4, 2013

wow things sound like they are going pretty great at home! so glad to hear that! derek its so great to hear about your piano keep being a great example. savy keep playing hard and listen to dad! jacob dont get discouraged if you dont score offense wins games but defense wins championships. jaxon good job on the hat trick! and jordan just keep pushing on i feel the same way you do when i play soccer here! ja ja

well family everything was pretty good this week i learned a ton about the mexican culture this week which in some ways is good and in others not so much. this week was the week of the dead  in mexico which means that the 31, the 1st and the 2nd are all holidays. and there was a fiesta every night! it was insane! and here is my recount of the week.

Tuesday. we taught 8 lessons how crazy is that and i got to teach one in english wich was awesome! The lady i taught it to was a single mother of about 23 and we watched the movie about the scorpion that stung the guy from the seventy it started as a lesson of forgive ness but turned into a lesson of encouragement for here to raise her kid the spirit was so strong in the room.

wednesday. we did so many service projects this day and it was a great day too. we had a fhe with Jonathan and his mom it went great and  it was the first one they had done as a family its so great to watch Jonathan grow in the church!.

halloween... well this was one of those days that i learned somthing. we went to this new investigators house and he invited us to eat cake. so being polite we ate the cake. it was really good. and we talked to him about the traditions in mexico for the days of the dead because neither of us are from mexico. he explained all about it and we had a good time talking with him. after we got done talking we went to mutual with jonathan and some of our investigators and my companion felt really wierd.. so we asked jonathan what this type of cake had in it. it turns out that this cake... "derompope" the cake has alcohol. my companion was so wierd the whole night he was laughing about the dumbest things and then in the night he had a huge headache. it didnt really affect me but it was one of those ooops! moments. we didnt eat any more cake for the rest of the week.

friday. we had an awesome capacitation about how we can work with members better our mision president taught it. he falls  me well ha ha things in spanish are so wierd to say in english. but anyways yeah it was a good day. we were late to everything and my companion had some small after affects from the day before.

saturday. well we had a pretty good day nothing really cool happened saturday. other than it was the last day of parties. we went back to our house early and all was good.

sunday. we had a good fast sunday. and it was my first time ever bearing my testimony completely in spanish. i couldn´t talk very well for some reason but i felt the spirit so strong. so i got up and bore my testimony. and after we had two lessons before comida it was terrible. but for some reason when i teach i'm never hungry in the night we had a fhe with the familia fuentes and the familia de jonathan. it was awesome. we watched john tanner and talked about the law of consecration. it was good!

today.. well we had an activity of our zone and we got together and played some games it was a blast. ilove being with all of our zone they are bien padre... mexican for really cool... sothat was my week

hope you guys have a good week your always inmy prayers. i love you guys so much.
cuidense mucho :P te amo
elder jenson

Oct 28, 2013

Sorry to hear about your dad mom. but im proud that you dealt with it all so well. Its so wierd that these things happen because i can picture them. but i dont really feel all the emotions because im not there.

ok well alittle about my week. We have another investigator who will be baptized in two weeks. im stoked! his name is felipe and he is a great investigator. he can probably answer the baptism questions better than i can.we also got another new investigator that is a single mom with two kids. and she is so excited about the church because it will teach her kids about Jesus and their Heavenly Father. she told us that these kids have cousins that are atheists. and that she didnt want her kids to go through life not knowing God.  its incredible how Heavenly Father prepares people to accept his gospel.
ha ha it was another crazy week of work but everyday goes by so fast i feel like sleeping takes for ever!!! and all of my dreams are in spanish right now its really weird. but hey i learn spanish twice as fast so its fine with me:) This week was kind of boring but here is a quick run down tuesday. we had a lesson with a lady that was less active and her kids there was absolute chaos as we tried to explain the importance of reading scriptures, praying everyday and going to church. we used an object lesson and the kids loved it they were a little rowdie and it reminded me of the little boys ha ah .

wednesday.we had a family home evening planned with one of our investigators in the house of the bishop. she stood us up so we had to teach the lesson of the restauracion to the bishop the patriarch and another high priest and their wives. it went really well actually and all in the end we gave our testimonies and talked about how we knew that this was how the church was restored to this earth. we asked for references and got three!! and they were all excited about the lesson so they told us they wanted to do this with all the less active families if we can. our ward is starting to get excited about the missionary work its really cool!

thursday.we took an investigator and her kids to mutual an they absoulutely loved it. the kids learned some new primary songs and she had a good lesson with the relief society. all was good. and we had a little time after  before we needed to go home so we went and got tacos with a less active family. i get so much free food from people here... its really bad i have put on 20 pounds.... oh well fat and friendly its a really inviting image.:)

friday. i taught one of our investigators sons english this day. it was fun until they started asking me what all the swear words were... but the mother was thankful for our time and we taught the restauracion when we finished so it was really good. then we had the lesson with filipe and when we asked him if he would be baptized he said yes it was a great day!.

saturday.we helped a recent convert plan his lesson for church it was great his name is arturo. you might have seen the picture with me and all the food he told me he was going to post on facebook. ha ha and i wonder why im getting fat... but it was really good then we taught johnathan and his family about the plan of salvation and where it explains all of the little details. his mom knows the bible like the back of her hand she is awesome to bring to lessons.

sunday. yesterday was good nobody was home so we talked to caren and amelia and a few other recent converts. they are like my family here. and they talked to us about our homes and gave us some food and we explained to them why we fast. it was a good day.

and today. every monday we have tiangies like two blocks from our house and its awesome its like a huge grocery store/ black market with everything you could ever want. and we met a family that was lds that sold fruit and salads. they asked us if we wanted a little food. so we ate a cup of fruit with chilies and sugar. its really weird to eat candy or fruit with chili. but i ate it all. and i was thinking hmm this is a good snack its healthy good job elder jenson. then they gave us fried bananas with sweetened condensed milk and some type of cream and jam. not so healthy. but it tasted amazing!

that was a little update about my week hope you guys are doing ok i love you all so much. and i pray for you guys every night!. spanish is good except that all of the people try and teach me all of the slang in mexico now and if you thought kanab had a problem with slang you have no idea. but its all fun to learn. the weather is great down here. it was a little cold like 60 degrees this week. im having a goood time and lovin it cuidense mucho!
te amo

elder jenson

Oct 21, 2013

Ok family here is the down low on my week. we have two families that we are teaching  with a single mother and their children. they are progressing well and both went to church this was the first week in like 4 weeks that we had investigadores in the capilla and we had 4 it was awesome! and also my english is starting to get a little bad when i talk to the north americans its either in spanish or every other word is in english ha ha its terrible i have only been gone for 3 1/2 months. im not going to speak english when i get back! but thats fine because i am lovin it down here. its hard but its really fun i feel like i have had a blessing in the last week because we worked hard and finally got to see the benifit of our works sunday.

ok new things this week well i had divisiones with the district leader and it was a little rough but i learned some new things and that was really good. second i went to polanco again i wish it was in our mission it is so pretty. ha ha and we played soccer today and ate biscuts and gravy, and no bake cookies! so good to have some food that was familiar. we found a park close to our house that we can work out in and that has been great this week.

I had a lot of good experiences and i learned alot thanks for being a good example always padres mios and it sounds like you guys are having a good time back at home tell the family high for me. jaxon jacob and jordan good job in soccer thats awesome. savy keep working and listen to dad he will teach you good things. derek thats awesome you will be a great blessing to the people when you go on your mission.! thanks for the update its good to hear about you guys how is kanab football going?  well have a good week love you family
Te amo Elder Jenson

OK otro experiencia yo tuve esta semana. a noche tuvimos un noche de hogar. lofue muy bien. la leccion fue sobre perdon. traemos una investigadora y su hija ella tiene 31 años y su hija tienes 5. cuando yo y elder chacon fuimos en camino ella nos dijo que ella ha bebido un poco antes. entonces ella fue boracha todo de la lección. durante la lección yo puedo ver los affectos de la alchol. sus palabras fue un poco  lento y sus pensimientos no fue muy claro. por el fin de noche su cara mire como toda de la inteligencia se va. dispues de la fhe caminamos a la casa de ella y ella no puede caminar en un lino derecho fue bien feyo y su hija fue caminando con nosotros. cuando estuvimos en su calle ella nos dijo porque caminar bien rappido? y ella cae en la calle. su hija gritado mama mama! con suerte nosotros tomar ella a su casa pero fue una momento yo nunca voy a ovidado.  thanks for never letting alcohol be in our house i didnt want the kids to read this story so i wrote it in spanish  tell me if you dont understand it. love you guys so much !

Oct 14, 2013

eso es todo!!! ha  ha thats the funniest thing i have heard in a long time. jacob your awesome!

this was a good week but at the same time it was a little hard. we worked like crazy to find new people to teach. and we had a little success but not a ton. which was a little discouraging but im not to worried about it because i know that if we keep working hard we will help all  the people we are supposed to. and its funny because one of our neighbor hoods is a little ugly at night because there are a lot of drunk people. one night we were with an investigator and his wife said to him "go with the missionaries because its a little dangerous. i looked at her and smiled and said dont worry hermana we have a curfew at 9 as long as its before 9 i know im safe becuse i am being obedient.  dont worry at home i know that im blessed when i follow the rules of the mission becuase of d&c 130:20  21

well this was a week of a lot of firsts ha ha. the first first was this week on tuesday we had a lesson with a woman who is baptist and she really didnt want to hear what we had to say but thats ok becuase on of her sons was a little interested. so the lesson went ok. we finished the lesson and the funniest thing happened. in mexico the women give the people a kiss on the cheek when they leave from a house. well this woman didnt think twice about it with me ha ha i went for a hand shake and she tried to pull me in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. i had a mini spaz attack and thank goodness that mexicans are short because i was able to avoid it barely. she looked a little confused and i said still in a little panick "im sorry i cant " she was like no im sorry in my church we like contact its a good thing. i laughed and said hermana me too before my mission and i will after my mission but right now i cant. she said ok and looked at my like i was the wierdest person on earth.( i dont want anyresponse to that from home.) we left and me and my companion laughed so hard!. then i left the keys in the house ha opps we had to take the window out of the door it was really funny cause we were scared our land lady was going to planchar nos and i got to make salsa this week it was really fun!
love you guys take care!
Elder Jenson

October 7, 2013

ok mom your officially awesome! like super woman but a little more modest! ha ha

ok a little update from mexico. well spanish is coming along great i love being able to talk to the people and understand their problems doubts and questions!!! i never thought the day would come when i started feeling comfortable. my spanish is good enought that the people understand what im saying but i still have much work to do. good thing i still have 21 months right. haha i love mexico so much except the lack of greenery but other than that i love the people here. they are so good to me. my investigators are in wierd situations but they are all coming along and i hadnt had a new investigator in the last two weeks which was very frustrating. but this week my and my new companion worked like.... well we worked hard. ;) and this last thursday we were walking all over the area searching for new investigators. and we were tired it was like 7 in the afternoon and it was a hot day like 82 degrees. ( the weather here is great) but  we were a little discouraged and i looked at my companion and said " we are going to have a new investigator tonight im not sure how  but we will." and we had two more old references to look up. they were both not at home. well there went my idea. it was about 7 30 at this point and elder chacon and i had nothing more planned for the day so we went to the house of a reference that haddn´t ever been home... yeah she was there and we taught the first lesson to her. it was awesome!. she was my first new investigator in the last to weeks its been a little rough but like it says in ether 12:6 no miracles until after the trial of your faith.
my new companion is named elder Chacon he is built exactly like cristian like 5´2 and tiny but he is a good elder. we get a long great and he doesnt speak english very well so we talk in spanish all day. this is a huge blessing to my spanish. he is from guatamala! and he has been in the mission for 8 months.
ok how about confrence!! it was freaking amazing. i had so many questions for investigators answered. and it felt like to me the message was all about God and learning obedience. this is a problem i have noticed here is that a lot of people have wierd ideas about the nature of god. but  i also know that the only reason that we dont have really weird ideas is because we have men called of god that recieve revelation for us in this day. man what a blessing. im sure you all enjoyed it a ton and there were many things that you guys were able to take away if nothing else we learnded " not to look back" and that we should always "look up" ha ha
Savy write me a letter about basketball por favor! i wanna  hear what you think about it. jacob dont shoot your eye out. derek keep up the good work on the piano your talent will bless the lives of many on your mission. jaxon keep being great for mom and dad. and jordan STAY AWAY FROM THE LADIES!!! ha ha i love you guys so much and your always in my prayers
te amo
 Elder Jenson