wow i felt a little depressed about sunny... but its for the best. so i had an interesting week. with christmas and chrstmas eve and the 15 años with the mafia its been pretty exciting.
but we will start with tuesday.
tuesday. we had a christmas eve with the familia uribe. it was fun about half of the people there were lds like i said and we had a good time. i learned that christmas in mexico has the significance of party and then some. but we had to be in our house before 9 30 so it wasnt super crazy. but we broke piñatas and i ate this gross food that to me was like cat food and seaweed. it was bien feyo for lack of better words.
wednesday. chrstmas christmas time is here time for joy and time for cheer... i woke up christmas morning did all of our family rituals and had a good morning. i cant complain. we made lasagna for chrstmas it was so good. then we went and visited an hermana that is inactive and hasnt been to church for a long time. it was a great lesson all we talked about was the meaning of christmas but the spirit was there. we went back to the solanos house and they were watching the hobit. but not just watching it but watching it in 3D iresisted the temptation to put on the glasses but i listend to it while we talked with the family adn the little kids.
thursday. we had a really bad day for teaching lessons and it was really cold. at least cold for here. so we talked with some members after all of our apointments fell.
friday. we had lessons with members and a few less actives but it was another slow day.
saturday was crazy. we started the day off in tanque 2 and the family that i told you guys about invited us to a 15 años but in the night we told them we would stop by and eat a little food and then leave if we came and they said that was just fine. so we went to san isidro the other hill in my area. we talked with an hermano who was menos activo. and it went well after we went to search for our other less active lessons and they were going to the visitors center.. i figured that was a good enough excuse. so we went to the 15 años at 7 30 and ate what seemed like shredded pork tacos they were pretty good. then we talked with the family members that we knew and one of them the "gordito" said hey jenson you have to talk to my nices they speak english. they were from california, fresno. and thats about all i know because the music was loud and we left right after that. but it was a good experience to have i dont think i will go to another one on my mission but there are better places for missionaries to be.
sunday. we went to church and ate with the president after the block. it was fun to talk with him and his family. about half of them are less active. but he is a good guy and always invites us to talk to his family. we left and went and taught two other lessons it went great.
and today in the morning we went to the gym as a district and my arms are paying it i did a bunch of different bench excercises and tomorow i dont think i will be able to move my arms but thats fine.
well thats about all that happened thiss week it was great to talk to you guys and i hope that you all have a wonderful new year. love you all tons and i will write you in a week. !
Elder Jenson's experiences as a missionary in the Mexico City East Mission Please send all mail and packages to the mission home. Mission Home Address: Elder J. Brandon Jenson Mexico Mexico City East Mission Avenida 510 #90, Col. San Juan de Aragon Delegacion Gustavo A. Madero CP 07950, Distrito Federal Mexico
Monday, December 30, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
December 23, 2013
hey well it sounds like its been pretty hectic around there. jordan hijole be careful! and its great to hear about all of your great accomplishments. this was a week that i learned a lot from. and i had some wonderful experiences.
tuesday we went in divisions. i went with elder Ioane again and we worked our tails of in his area. we taught three lessons and we brought two other young men from the branch give them the opportunity to experience missionary work. we had an awesome night. i felt like i was with three brand new missionaries and really all four of us could be considered new missionaries. but we had the spirit with us while we taught. one of the lessons one young man shared his testimony of the atonement. and the other talked about the strength that preparing for a mission gave him. i know the less active miembros enjoyed our message. but what we gained more than anything in this night was that these two young men were excieted to go on a mission. derek if you have the opportunity to go with the missionaries before your mission GO! it was great i wish i had the opportunity to go before my mission. but that was tuesday,
miercoles. we finished divisions and i was back to walking up and down hills all day. we taught two lessons this day and the hermana solano had to go to the hospital because she had som hernias. it was a pretty good day.
thursday. we went to the top of both hills in our area this day to look for refrences. and you know what happend we didnt teach one lesson but asi es la vida if you know what i mean dad. we did find a new family to teach and i want you to look for there house. the live in a wood house at the end of the street tanque II. it was so cool to finaly find a full family to teach this will be my first one.! we also taught a lesson in the night with an investigator about the word of wisdom. and this woman from the time we started teaching her said im catholic and i was born that way, and i plan to die that way. This lesson her heart was softened. she explained feelings of joy of how the church had changed her childrens lives and that little by little she wanted to change. it was an awesome night and her daughter who was in the lesson with us was super excited when we talked with her after.
friday. WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!! and it was great im so glad i have been here for 4 months because i could understand everything. we had an activity after and had a talent show it was a riot! all of the fun ended at about 3 and we went to work after that. mainly inviting people to our christmas activity saturday which was great.
saturday. in the morning we went to tanque 2 and visited the family we had a good lesson on the restauration. and they were very excited with what we taught other than the whole no worshiping the virgin guadalupe. but after we talked for a little while they were ok with that too. after that we talked with a family that im pretty sure is like a mofia family. but i will explain mor about them when i know them better. and in the night we had our ward Christmas party. it was great fun and we had some investigators in the church.
sunday. we went to church. and after church we went caroling with the youth. everyone we visited cried becuse the spirit was there strong. i was so greatful for our chance to do service with the youth it was a blast and we visited like 8 families. 4 or 5 in tola and 3 or 4 in san juanico. my area.
hope that you guys have a great week again im going to try and call you with skype wednesday if you guys could have your emails open at around one that would be great so that if we have a problem we can work it out. love you all so much and thanks for the advice dad i know i need to do better at writing. have a wonderful christmas.!
elder jenson
tuesday we went in divisions. i went with elder Ioane again and we worked our tails of in his area. we taught three lessons and we brought two other young men from the branch give them the opportunity to experience missionary work. we had an awesome night. i felt like i was with three brand new missionaries and really all four of us could be considered new missionaries. but we had the spirit with us while we taught. one of the lessons one young man shared his testimony of the atonement. and the other talked about the strength that preparing for a mission gave him. i know the less active miembros enjoyed our message. but what we gained more than anything in this night was that these two young men were excieted to go on a mission. derek if you have the opportunity to go with the missionaries before your mission GO! it was great i wish i had the opportunity to go before my mission. but that was tuesday,
miercoles. we finished divisions and i was back to walking up and down hills all day. we taught two lessons this day and the hermana solano had to go to the hospital because she had som hernias. it was a pretty good day.
thursday. we went to the top of both hills in our area this day to look for refrences. and you know what happend we didnt teach one lesson but asi es la vida if you know what i mean dad. we did find a new family to teach and i want you to look for there house. the live in a wood house at the end of the street tanque II. it was so cool to finaly find a full family to teach this will be my first one.! we also taught a lesson in the night with an investigator about the word of wisdom. and this woman from the time we started teaching her said im catholic and i was born that way, and i plan to die that way. This lesson her heart was softened. she explained feelings of joy of how the church had changed her childrens lives and that little by little she wanted to change. it was an awesome night and her daughter who was in the lesson with us was super excited when we talked with her after.
friday. WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!! and it was great im so glad i have been here for 4 months because i could understand everything. we had an activity after and had a talent show it was a riot! all of the fun ended at about 3 and we went to work after that. mainly inviting people to our christmas activity saturday which was great.
saturday. in the morning we went to tanque 2 and visited the family we had a good lesson on the restauration. and they were very excited with what we taught other than the whole no worshiping the virgin guadalupe. but after we talked for a little while they were ok with that too. after that we talked with a family that im pretty sure is like a mofia family. but i will explain mor about them when i know them better. and in the night we had our ward Christmas party. it was great fun and we had some investigators in the church.
sunday. we went to church. and after church we went caroling with the youth. everyone we visited cried becuse the spirit was there strong. i was so greatful for our chance to do service with the youth it was a blast and we visited like 8 families. 4 or 5 in tola and 3 or 4 in san juanico. my area.
hope that you guys have a great week again im going to try and call you with skype wednesday if you guys could have your emails open at around one that would be great so that if we have a problem we can work it out. love you all so much and thanks for the advice dad i know i need to do better at writing. have a wonderful christmas.!
elder jenson
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| I think he forgot what country he was called to. |
Monday, December 16, 2013
December 16, 2013
ha ha thats so great. dont worry about savy she didnt walk home from the gym so she is not quite me yet ha ha but its good to hear that things are fun at home. i will admit i have had many thoughts of home sickness this week because i have been away for so long but still have a lot to go and i was frustrated because we had a bad week. but alot of fun things happened this week i think that added to my frustration. it was hard that i was having fun but we werent doing very well because it felt more like a vacation then i was on a mission and this week was really slow.
but i will give a quick update.
tuesday. we had a district class and if i remember right divisions were this day too. i was with elder ioane in the night of the virgin guadalupe. it was a good break to talk english and about football we talked for a long time that night and then in the morning we jammed out to songs sung by samoans it was a good division that ended short so we are going to do them again tomorrow. im really excited for them.
wednesday. i only remember walking a ton this day. we had like one lesson it was good but im not sure why but i felt a little off this week. we followed that up by looking for people to teach. and not having success oh the joyfulness in my heart from fallen appointments.
thursday we had a decent day. but it was the same story little succes and a lot of work.
friday. friday was a break we had the stake christmas party. and it was a blast i got to talk like a gringo in the skit we did. then we ate some good snacks at the end of the party.
saturday was ok it was just a little hard because it was the same story of one lesson. but we had a great talk with a less active sister to help her feel comfortable with coming back to the church. it was a good night. but a long day. oh and in the morning we smashed piñatas ha ha it was great!
sunday. we walked a ton after church and found a bunch of people to teach but i think the learning experience for me was that i was laying on my bed after we ate in the afternoon and felt like i just wanted to take a nap. i was just thinking why not im tired and we arent going to teach anyone and as soon as i thought that i was like i need to get out of bed and just work. we headed out to find someone to teach...we didnt teach one lesson....but we found 3 new people to teach. it was great to get a little insentive for getting out of bed and going to work.
today. well i made pancakes in the morning with a family it was a blast. then we went to the walmart to buy some stuff. it has been a good day.
well that was my week it was a good one just slow but dont worry i have pictures.
one quote i liked that our branch president had in his office was "el que no vive para sirvir no sirve para vivir" it made me laugh
hope you have a great week love you tons hasta luego!
but i will give a quick update.
tuesday. we had a district class and if i remember right divisions were this day too. i was with elder ioane in the night of the virgin guadalupe. it was a good break to talk english and about football we talked for a long time that night and then in the morning we jammed out to songs sung by samoans it was a good division that ended short so we are going to do them again tomorrow. im really excited for them.
wednesday. i only remember walking a ton this day. we had like one lesson it was good but im not sure why but i felt a little off this week. we followed that up by looking for people to teach. and not having success oh the joyfulness in my heart from fallen appointments.
thursday we had a decent day. but it was the same story little succes and a lot of work.
friday. friday was a break we had the stake christmas party. and it was a blast i got to talk like a gringo in the skit we did. then we ate some good snacks at the end of the party.
saturday was ok it was just a little hard because it was the same story of one lesson. but we had a great talk with a less active sister to help her feel comfortable with coming back to the church. it was a good night. but a long day. oh and in the morning we smashed piñatas ha ha it was great!
sunday. we walked a ton after church and found a bunch of people to teach but i think the learning experience for me was that i was laying on my bed after we ate in the afternoon and felt like i just wanted to take a nap. i was just thinking why not im tired and we arent going to teach anyone and as soon as i thought that i was like i need to get out of bed and just work. we headed out to find someone to teach...we didnt teach one lesson....but we found 3 new people to teach. it was great to get a little insentive for getting out of bed and going to work.
today. well i made pancakes in the morning with a family it was a blast. then we went to the walmart to buy some stuff. it has been a good day.
well that was my week it was a good one just slow but dont worry i have pictures.
one quote i liked that our branch president had in his office was "el que no vive para sirvir no sirve para vivir" it made me laugh
hope you have a great week love you tons hasta luego!
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
December 9, 2013
Las palabras finales de esa nota se centran en la obediencia a la ley de Dios: “Si desea regresar a sus seres queridos con la cabeza erguida… si usted desea vivir una vida abundante— entonces observe la ley de Dios. Al hacerlo, puede sumar a las valiosas libertades que usted se esfuerza por preservar, otra sobre la cual las demás podrían depender, la libertad del pecado; ya que en verdad, ‘la obediencia a la ley es libertad’”
del discourso de L. tom Perry "la obediencia a la ley es libertad"
dad i found this while i was reading in lds.org one day. it strikes me especially hard right now as im away from my family. i have had many challenges out here that were unexpected. right now training has pushed me to just about all of my limits as i try and guide my companion and be an example. opening the area has been dificult but i have learned a ton in my personal studies. i think the christlike attribute i have obtained most in the last two weeks is pacience. my companion laughs in our lessons when i struggle with my spanish. which when i began training made me mad, and i lost confidence when i talked. but over the last week i have learned to take another route to deal with this. when he laughs i wait for him to correct my grammar and say thank you. it helps me stay focused. and keep the spirit in the lessons. we have come in contact with some new investigators this week and after starting with nothing i have been especially greatful for every lesson we have.
I am especially greatful for my family. i have read alot from liahonas in the last week every night i prepare for bed by reading 4 or 5 stories from the liahona a lot have been about families and that they are ordained of god. one of them was in august of 2011 it talked about strenght of families.
ok well here is a quick up date. this week was a little bit better in my area. we have been visiting the less actives for the most part but we are starting to get more investigators which is a blessing because i dont get any references. i got to eat chicken foot soup this week. it was a little wierd because to eat the chicken foot you had to suck the skin off the toes. ha ha but it was really good.
this week we had a pretty normal routine everyday so nothing really great happened until the weekend.
Saturday. we had to teach mutual with the young mens and young womens group we taught about different traits of missionaries and in the end we did an example of the atonement of jesus christ. it was the one where one person does pushups and the rest get to eat chocolates. i did the pushups and in the end the total was around 195. i was dying. i cranked through the first 120 but the last sixty took all i had i was exahusted. i finished and sat back on the table as i tried to explain john 3:16-17 it was really a spiritual moment some of the leaders cried and i felt like we got the message across
sunday. well i woke up and im not sure if i have ever been so sore in my whole life. my whole upper body hurt from the pushups the day before. but when we got to the church we had two of the less active families that we visited in the church. it was so good. elder frica and i taught the lesson in principios del evangelio. it was so good and in the end one of the hermanos that we visited gave the final prayer and started crying later talking with him i found our that today was 7 years that his mom had died. he was over come with the spirit and felt the need to change to be a better dad. it was an incredible experience.
monday. well today we went to the centro the main square in mexico city. it was so nice to see some nice things. i love my area but its a little ghetto. we had a great dinner but i had to eat mushrooms you guys would be so proud of your little missionary eating all of his least favorite foods....
ok this is the past week. tuesday let me see i walked a ton because we couldnt find anyone else to teach. and we had a class of district and ate a ton of pizza it was so good. ( for mexican pizza they dont put tomato paste on their food how wierd ) but that was sweet.
wednesday i totally had a shadrac mishack and abendigo story. ok in the mornings we have to turn on the boiler to have hot water. so it was my turn. we have kind of a crappy boiler so sometimes it doesnt start right when i want it to. so i tried the first time and got it started but for some unknown reason it turned off. so i changed it back to pilot and started it up again. only this tim i was greeted by a fireball that engulfed my whole hand part of my arm and got close to my face. i jumped back more scared than in pain but i know that when you get burned your skin only hurts a little before the blisters form. I really didnt want to look at my hand but after about 40 seconds i forced myself to. miraculosly there was thothing there. no blisters no serious burns and not a single hair in sight hahaha. i said a quick prayer of thanks that i didnt have any injuries or serious burns. after that we worked a normal day. it was good.
thursday. we walked like normal i dont really remember very much about thursday. but it was a good normal missionary day.
friday. we had a zone confrence from elder benjamin de hoyos de la setenta it was great. he taught a little about how we can work better with members and how we can be better missionaries more or less. after we had divisions and i was with an elder whose name is elder frica. he is a negrito de dominican republic he is a riot to be with he is my district leader. it was good to have a break from training. we worked hard and testified well with each other.
saturday. this was one of those days where i realized two things. im not the smartest cookie sometimes when it comes to exercise. and second that my body is definately in missionary condition. in the morning i went running with elder frica i think it was like a mile and a half. and when i got back i was feeling really really good. so we had a good morning of studies and we got to work. we started by looking for the house in bolanos cacho #8.
THE STORY OF BOLAÑOS CACHO #8
in my area the low numbers are in the bottom of the hills. with this we can start our story.and they number their houses terribly here in mexico.
so i started looking for this house in the bottom of the hill we walked up the street and knocked on a door. a young woman opened the door and we asked if brian and kevin lived here. she said no so we asked if it was house number 8 she said yes it was but that in this street there are 2 number 8s ok. so we said thanks asked her if we could share a message with her and her family and she told us to come back next week thursday.
so elder frica and i started our journey to find the second number 8 in the street. we had to walk around a school and almost two thirds of the way up the mountain. panting we arrived at the second house. we knocked the door and a man answered i was overjoyed that he was in the house. so we started talking and we asked if brian and kevin were home they are like 16 and 14. he said that they didnt live here and asked what the address we had was. so i said number 8 of this street. he laughed and said here is the thing in this street there are 3 different number 8s and kindly told us that we could find the third one almost at the top of the hill. i said thankyou offered that we could come and share a message with him and he agreed and gave us his number. and we were on our way.
we found the third number 8 at the top of the hill just like he said we would. i was so tired. we got their and knocked on the door and what do you know it was the house of brian and kevin. but they werent there. oh how discouraging that was. we talked with a man in the house and he said we could comback another day and talk with him his family and brian and kevin. we walked back down the hill a little discouraged, and extremely tired. i ended up climbing to the top of the mountain 2 more times and when i got home my feet hurt bad. i will send you a picture that will explain why.
sunday was good i got to listen to the broadcast with a family we had a great night and watched the testiments with and investigator after.
and finally today. i played soccer and the gringos whooped the mexicans it was a great feeling (this because the gringos are underdogs... there should probably be an effort to integrate cultures rather than separate and compete against, but we'll see how the rest of the mission goes.). im deffinitely the best gringo but compared to the mexicans i look like a big lurpy white kid trying to play with all of th
e fast little black kids in vegas. it was really fun and we got to play a little basket ball to so i cant complain.
i had a good week. i love you guys and if you could send me the card with my patriarchal blessing it would be wonderful. i love you guys and hope you have a great week tty in a week!
with love and christmas spirit in great abundance
elder jenson
Monday, December 2, 2013
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