Exotic Fruit

Getting mandarin oranges off of a tree of a church member. He has so many types of fruits in his back yard and I think they only exist in his yard because they are so wierd and awesome! Guatemala has so many wierd fruits and everything grows!

Dear Family,

I am never going to be able to thank the Lord for all the many wonderful experiences I have and the amazing blessings I see him pour out upon me and the people who I get to meet each day!

This week we were so blessed to be a part of another baptism! J. was baptized. J. is such a great person and I really am so blessed to have met him. We found him because he is very good friends with a family in the ward. The Family´s name is L. and they have a lot of kids. One day we met him as we were visiting with the L. family and we found out that J. is always with that family. We started to teach him and we saw that he had a really great desire to be baptized just like his friends were. But later people started to tell us that we would never get permission from J.`s parents because missionaries had already tried in the past. One day we came and had the blessing to teach J.´s parents. The Spirit accompanied Elder J. and I very strongly and we taught a very powerful lesson about the Restoration of the gospel. The heart of both parents was softened deeply and they actually felt a strong desire to ask Heavenly Father if the message was true. J.`s dad, T., told us in a later visit that he felt something that he had never felt before. He says that some days in his work he feels very sad and lost and lonely but that he began to pray and ask the Lord for help and he described to us the Spirit and that the Spirit had not only given him an answer about the Restoration, but that it began to accompany him during the day and helped him have positive thoughts and see the world in a new way. After that, both parents began to support J. and help him attend church and eventually be baptized and confirmed. J. even told me that when he prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true that he felt something very special that he won`t forget. He is anxious to have the priesthood as well as F., our other convert. I felt once again a huge amount of gratitude to the Lord for having been a part of that miracle. It`s almost like we didn`t do anything but just be willing to follow the Spirit and do our best and the Lord led us to him and softened the heart of his family. What a wonderful experience!

I have found that my love for the people is starting to grow more and more each day. I think that it is a huge answer to prayer and something that is helping me so so much! My companion, Elder J., is showing me a whole new way to find and work with people. We do our best to talk to people that are outside of their homes and that have been put on our path to listen to the gospel. We take time to get to know them and really show them that we are the Lord`s representatives. We become friends with everyone we talk to and we really start to feel more love for them. It helps me to focus more on the people we are talking to then on how many lessons I am teaching but really who I am teaching and how the restored gospel can really change their life and bring them to the Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that the Lord trusts me enough to talk to his prepared children and have the chance to invite them to have lives full of happiness and hope. 

We also were able to see the Spirit helping K.`s sister H. K. was baptized two weeks ago and has seen so many great blessings and has a testimony that just keeps growing. She introduced us to her little sister H. a few weeks ago and she has been helping her sister to be able to receive that Spirit that has testified so much to K. We had a lesson this week with both of them where we invited H. to be baptized. I felt that the lesson wasn´t going to great but in that moment the Spirit bore testimony to H. so strongly that she began to cry and really feel and know that this is what the Lord wants her to do so that she can be happy and follow the example of the Savior. It just really showed me that the Spirit is so powerful and so important in this work because it is not the words that we speak that change the hearts of the people, but the Spirit that bears testimony so strongly that that impression can never be forgotten and nothing can separate us from that knowledge and testimony that it gives us.

Just as a side note I think Guatemala has to have some of the best fruit I have ever tasted! It is definitely the promised land because if any sort of seed falls on the ground it will basically just spring out as a tree without any worries! There are like ten types of mangos here and they are all so delicious and not to mention all the other types of fruits that don´t even exist in the states. I think I will be bored with just apples and oranges when I get back.

I know that the Lord is there preparing the hearts of his children to find this happiness that he freely offers us. I know that this work really isn´t the work of the missionaries or the ward but it is the Lord´s work and he directs it. I am so grateful for the testimony I have of the Savior and all that he has done for me. It just makes me want to serve him that much better. 

Thank you for all the amazing support!

Love,

Elder Jensen

I couldn´t tell you what this fruit is called. I guess its used to make chocolate or something

Elder L., my CCM companion, got moved to the San Felipe zone! He is in Mulua! We still really hit it off!

Tierra Colorada. This is on the way from San Felipe to Calahuache. It is kind of cool because the houses are on top of each other and the highway runs through the town.