Transfer Travels

Elder Sanchez, who had me and my comp as zone leaders (in our room).

Dear Family,

It is super funny to see people´s expressions when I tell them that I have more than 2 years in the mission. The funniest is with the members or with the nonmembers that know we are only here for 2 years.

The big moment of the week was the visit of Elder José Alonso of the Seventy. He asked have a leaders council with all of the leaders in the mission on Tuesday and boy was it amazing! I guess this visit had President Ruiz pretty stressed but we were able to help out as we prepared an evaluation of the whole mission and some goals for the year during the leaders council. After getting ourselves prepared we actually were able to find some good solutions in the meeting and Elder Alonso was pretty pleased with everything we presented and talked about. One thing I really took away from his visit was how vital it is to submerse ourselves in the scriptures. He shared a few stories from the New Testament and was able to show us that in each one there was symbolism to the atonement and the plan of salvation. It was amazing!! One thig that I loved was his explanation that we shouldn´t have any fear at all to share this message with everyone in every moment, the people will be the ones that will have fear at times to accept it but we should never ever have fear or doubt in sharing it with others.

 

Where all the  zone leader training and leaders councils happen.

After that my companion and I have a challenge going on. We have decided that in every single tuc we get in we are going to boldly invite each driver to be baptized in the church and also invite everyone who we ask for directions (which we do a ton since we are in a ton of random places we don´t know each week). We have actually had some very spiritual experiences so far doing that and we are able to continue ministering to the people even though we aren´t in our area that much.

Another interesting note from the weed were out 2 emergency change adventures. First, on Tuesday we got to leave at 6am to take a couple of Elders to their new areas in San Marcos (3 hours away). The most memorable moments were somehow getting our poor pickup to start up in a gas station after many failed attempts, asking a ton of directions in the mountains since my comp and I have never been there (and many of the first attempts at asking directions were members of the church that helped us tons). Once we got up to the mountains we were able to talk to both of the zones.  We showed a cool video from Elder Christofferson about daily bread. We talked about that we can't just not study and hope that the Lord is going to make everything go okay, we have to humble ourselves and remember him each day like the Israelites did with the manna. It was fun.

Today we also worked with another round of emergency changes. This time my companion didn't make the same mistake as he did Tuesday (on Tuesday, after doing an experiment of sleeping on our tile floor he woke up at 2:30AM thinking that it was time to go and got ready to leave and discovered that it was still 2:30AM). But we still got up early to go to a place called La Blanca (a town just above a beach called Tilapa). It was another fun journey and we enjoyed listening to some Christmas music (since there is no Halloween or Thanksgiving in Guatemala we thought we would jump ahead) and also some cool CES devotionals. It was a fun day and we were able to come across some amazing Betty Crocker brownie and cookie mix so we are excited!

Riding a bike in La Blanca.

Getting to the house in La Blanca, a place close to a beach called Tilapa below Pajapita.

So much more has happened but my mind just can´t find all of the details. I am just so glad for the change of heart I have been able to find serving the Lord. I was thinking a lot on the scripture in Mosiah 5:2 that talks about not wanting to do bad things ever again and I am working make that change 100% in my heart for the rest of my life!

Love,

Elder Jensen

First house ever seen with CARPET.

Cookies

On the street with one of Elder Walton's old backpacks.

Dear Family,

Usually I am able to do a good description of the week because I write certain events in my missionary planner but I lost it on a bus today! We will see how good I can remember all the stuff that happened this week.

My companion and I have had a great time together. There is nothing better to have a companion that also loves the work with all his heart. We were working super hard on Tuesday and Wednesday because we had to train all of the zone leaders, district leaders, and all the news and their trainers in just 2 days. But, somehow we did it, and were able to get some awesome food for everyone. I always enjoy getting the chance to talk to all of the leaders in the mission and help them feel a bit more capable and excited to go out and get the mission doing the best it can.

Delicious dinner!

We also had a really inspired leader’s council on Tuesday with President and all of the zone leaders where we came to the conclusion that there is a small issue with pride right now in the mission. We decided that the whole mission needed to study the Elder Benson talk called Beware of Pride. We have actually seen some awesome results (personally as well) because after that talk we were able to find out that many companionships haven't been studying together because they think their own abilities and skills are enough to help them succeed even if they haven't studied in the morning. President was able to figure all of this out after visiting a few zones and it has been cool to see things improve and get the whole mission back on its studies.

I have really enjoyed being back in the area here in Reu again because I have been able to return back and visit the investigators that my companions and I had found and taught back in July. We actually had an amazing experience with a husband named C. and his wife J. Elder Merrill and I had found them back in July but I never heard anything new about them. Well, we returned and found that they were very excited to see us again and we are helping them right now get ready to be married so that they can be baptized (Hopefully before I leave!!). It has been a great experience and a testimony that God really does prepare the hearts of the people to receive his word with joy!

My companion in a tricky situation.

Some fun things that happened this week (let’s see if I can remember):

   We met a guy whose last name was 'makepeace" , in Spanish pronounced makaypeyacay. Not sure where that last name came from.

   We also met a tuc driver whose name was "Evil". He actually had a pretty good story about how he got it. I guess his mom found a biblical book that was written in English. Knowing that the book was biblical she decided to pick out any word from the book and give that to her son. Well, it turns out she picked the work evil and assuming that it was some righteous word she named her kid "Evil". He is scared to ever go to the states because they will make a lot of fun of him there.

  

   We managed to find some Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix and enjoyed many many many cookies. Hopefully this week we can try some brownies!

I am so grateful for the chance to represent the Lord and help in his work. I have learned a lot in the past few days how essential it is to have the Spirit to make important decisions and I am trying my hardest to maintain that Spirit each day to loosen my tongue and help Gods children in all parts of the mission.

Love,

Elder Jensen

The Final Transfer

The 2 new elders that I was on divisions with a ton,
(I guess i could be considered their dad since I don´t have ´sons´in the mission)
Elder Adams from Arizona and Elder Sanchez from Honduras.

Aloha!

My new companion is from Hawaii so I am trying to get into the culture. Well, you guessed it, I got changed this week. I am back in the office as the assistant to president helping take care of the mission! It has been an adjustment but at least I already had the experience and I have loved getting to know and be with my new comp, Elder Kanahele, he is super awesome.

 

Saying goodbye to a cool member family.

Despite the fact I was only a short time in San Felipe I really grew to love a lot of the people and families that I had gotten to teach. I am so glad I got that chance to be there and learn. This week I got to remember how ´fun´ it is to travel on the buses again. We actually got to sit right behind this super fun baby who was about 2 years old. By the end of the ride on the bus we were able to get him dancing to the music on the bus so we got a kick out of that.

One of the harder parts of the week was seeing the group of missionaries that I started with leave. It has been so fun to serve with them until this point and grow together. But then again, I feel there is a little more for me to give in the coming weeks. During the good-bye meal with them L. (president´s granddaughter) decided to turn into a zombie and was trying to bite me in the leg. She failed but later got revenge when she bit me on the shoulder. That was pretty silly.

My favorite part of the week was getting to return to visit Mazate. The zone was having some struggles so we got to go visit and work with them. The fun part was that I was able to eat lunch with A. (who was baptized in April) and his family and also get to see a few other converts there in the center and many of them are going strong in the church.

 I was sad to see M. (who was baptized in June) very sick in his bed. When he was baptized he just had a jump in his step and so excited to be a new member of the church but he has gotten very sick but I know he will get better and back to church soon. It is hard to express how much I have gotten to love these people I was able to teach and to see them change their lives.

I love asking questions to older Guatemalan people. In Mazate I was able to go help some missionaries with an older investigator that they were teaching. After talking to him I was pretty surprised by how young he looked and how old he really was. I asked how he managed to look so young and healthy. He gave me an unexpected answer, ¨Don´t drink cold things¨. I was astonished, I have no idea how science backs up this amazing piece of advice but maybe I better try it!

There was a point this week that we were in the office waiting on President to arrive to meet with him. We got a little board and started throwing up skittles in the air and catching them in our mouth. My companion got pretty creative and managed to do an amazing trick shot that I just can´t get over. With his back to the wall (sitting down in an office rolling chair) he threw the skittle behind his back bouncing it off the wall and then off the ceiling and right into his mouth! It was insane!

Well, it has been a great week and I hope to have some fun adventures for you all next week. I am just so glad to continue on the Lord´s errand and find joy and make eternal friends along the way!

Love,

Elder Jensen