Elevator meetings?

Baptism of A.

Dear Family,

I think Guatemala has taught me so much to enjoy the small conveniences in life. These past weeks we started washing our clothes with a member that has a washing machine and dryer and it is fantastic! Fresh smelling clothes out of a dryer! Who knew?

My companion and I had a small bonding moment this week. as we were going down the elevator in the church to start our weekly planning we realized that the door wasn´t opening. A few seconds later it opened but just the first set of doors. The second set of doors were still shut and they wouldn´t move! We were stuck in the elevator! Sadly both of us had to use the bathroom and it was a tough half hour.  On the positive side we had all our things to start planning and we got to plan a little bit in the elevator. We were going to make a small video to you all just in case we never made it out but one of the church leaders came and saved us with his key. I don´t think I will step foot in that thing again while I am here in Malacatán.

I love Guatemalan people so much but sometimes they don´t have the best memory. A few weeks ago we had member of the church give us the reference of his uncle who used to visit with the missionaries. He decided to go ahead and take us to meet his uncle. Well, after finding out that the uncle did not want to see us we were a little confused and the member was confused too why his uncle had been so negative. But then he remembered that his uncle who was interested in the church had died about 5 years ago and that he took us to the wrong uncle! We had a few good laughs with him because of that.

We also saw a lot of Heavenly Father´s hand in the work this week. The first big miracle was that A. was baptized this week! She is such an amazing person and despite all the doubts that she had when we first met her she has been able to receive answers from God about her doubts and she has a strong testimony of the church. She even got up after her baptism to share her testimony and I felt the Sprit so strong. I know there are thousands of prepared people just like her! Also the member who took us to meet her bore his testimony. He is an older man and very humble but the Lord used him to help us find A. and he was very happy for that. Now A. is helping us to teach her Granddaughter (J.) so that she can also be baptized this next week.

This week I had another really awesome experience. A while back my companion and I started talking to one of the tuc-tuc drivers that was taking us down to our area. We got to talking and we started to talk to him about the church. We found out that he had attended the church a few times in the states but right now he and his family had stopped going to any church for a long time. He invited us to come to his house and meet his family but we always had trouble finding him in his house. Well, Saturday night we had the blessing to find him and his family all at home. His name is Á. and his wife is C. and they also have two children. We had a really cool lesson with them using the Jenga tower to explain about how Christ´s church is on the earth once again. They really felt the Spirit and accepted the invitation to come to church the next day. Well, as the meeting started and went on we didn´t see them and we were a little sad. But, about halfway through the meeting I felt a pat on the back and it was Á. with his family! I felt so much joy as we sat with them and I knew that this was a huge miracle. This is why I know the Lord wants us to open our mouths to share is gospel always, even in a tuc tuc.

Well, it has been a fantastic week. I also found out that pig legs and feet are really not that gross. Despite the fact that it is just pure fat around a ton of joint bones, it still tastes all right.  Also we had some more fun today as we tried on some silly cow costumes at a thrift store. I just couldn´t resist the temptation, The owner of the store just died laughing and I think we really made her day!  I really am enjoying every minute of my missionary service and I know we will see many more miracles in the weeks to come!

¡Viva Guatemala!

Love,

Elder Jensen 

Eating an awesome granizada.