Mi Hijo!

Elder M.! He is super awesome!
He is called "mi hijo" or my son because he is a
brand new missionary and I get to show him the ropes.

I really loved my time with Elder B.

Dear Family,

Wow! This week probably has to be one of the most memorable weeks of my mission. So many things have happened I can´t believe it was only seven days!

This week my companion Elder B. finished his mission. He really had given so much to the mission that he felt a little bit scared about the normal life.  But we had great times talking about life and how awesome his life will be. The big highlight however, was that I am now training a new missionary! Elder M. is ¨mi hijo¨as we say in the mission or ¨my son! ¨ I was super happy to get the chance to train a new missionary and especially to be with Elder M.! He is from Mexico City, Mexico and we have really got along super well! I really like being around new missionaries because they have so much energy! We have really seen some great miracles together. 

Another amazing thing that I have seen is that the Lord really is helping me become an even better missionary and an even more effective tool in his hands. As I have made my way through the mission all my skills have been improving. This week the Lord really helped me a lot in being able to just really love talking to people and becoming a really outgoing missionary! I have been able to have more confidence with everyone and I am starting to love every single person here so much more! It is so, so cool to see the Lord using me to my potential and helping me even increase it! I am also learning a lot about listening to the Spirit about where to go and what to do in every moment of the day. It is incredible how many prepared people the Lord puts in our path and how many times we are in the perfect place in the perfect moment!

I have also seen that the Lord really prepares amazing people to receive the restored gospel. A few weeks ago an awesome young member in the ward named C. brought his friend to church. We got to meet him and had the chance to teach him. I can´t tell you how prepared C.´s friend was! We began to teach him about Jesus Christ and how the Savior can help him be clean of his sins and really become worthy of eternal life. The spirit was very strong and C’s friend recognized that because in the first lesson with him he accepted a baptismal date and since then it has been so cool to see his progress and the help of his member friend. This past Saturday he was baptized! I felt so blessed by the Lord and I know that both of them will be blessed as well. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to meet such amazing member of Christ´s church and see their incredible testimonies and their desire to share the gospel with everyone!

C. getting ready to bapitze his friend.

The rain here is a litte bit ridiculous some times. The streets literally turn into rivers! I think if I wanted to I could make my way around town just fine if I had a little raft and I rode the rivers on the streets! I am just glad to have some nice boots

I have been praying a lot to be able have opportunities to learn to have Christ-like love and charity. This week I sure got an answer to that prayer. Elder M. has started to have some bad problems with his knees and it hasn´t been easy for him. It is such an amazing experience to be able to be companions with him and be there with him in all his times of trial and difficulty. It makes me think about my baptism covenant that is found in Mosiah 18. I have felt the Spirit so strong as I do my best to comfort others in their hard times. We´ll just see what else is in store and what my next awesome experiences will be!

Love,

Elder Jensen

A noche de cine that we did at the chapel.
We had to keep taking out chairs because so many people came!

El Día de Las Madres

Talking with you all!

Dear Family,

How fun it was to talk to you all this Sunday! I was just about beside myself for how happy I was to see you! The cool thing is that each time I get to talk to you guys I feel so much more motivated to work hard and be dedicated. I like to think that you guys believe that I`m the best missionary in the world so I try to go out and make that the truth! Not to mention it was fun to see how much different everybody sounds (including me)!

I am so glad that the Lord blesses those who really pray with all their heart and then they get up and work to fulfill their prayers. We continue to be blessed with wonderful people to teach that have almost just come to us because we have been diligent and obedient. Also I had a really big achievement for me this week. About a week ago I was studying a lot about opening our mouths in every moment to share the gospel. As a human (and a pretty shy human) it is tough sometimes to have the courage to open my mouth in every moment. Last week I built my faith a lot on the blessings of opening my mouth and I talked to a lot of people on the buses (we take a bus for 7 or 8 minutes from Santo Domingo to Mazate). I got to talk to some really amazing people. One morning this week we had some appointments that had fallen and we started to ask ourselves where we should go. I remembered somebody that I had talked to on the bus and that we were in the neighborhood he had told me. I looked at his address I had written down and his last name but the bus was so bumpy when I wrote it that I almost couldn`t read it. I basically guessed what it said and we started asking everyone where he lived (saying the name incorrectly the whole time). We kept going until I finally was able to make out my writing and remember what the name was. Right after

Elder B. and I at the Las Flores chapel

that we asked someone and they took us right to him and we found and taught him a great lesson and he went to church with us this Sunday! His name is L. and I am so glad the Lord put me in his path that day in the bus and helped me find him that morning so that he can continue to learn about the restored gospel and be able to have so many blessings! And what a great testimony builder about opening the mouth in every moment! The Lord really does put prepared people in our path!

We are really hoping that we can have some more baptisms this Saturday. A sister named C. and her daughter M. came to church again with their member friend. They were the ones who showed up to church my miracle last Sunday. We have had wonderful lessons with them this week and they are really feeling the conversion of the Spirit. We will continue to teach them this week and help them accept a date for baptism. Also we are teaching another amazing youth named C. who is another friend of a member. We taught him about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the lasting comfort that He gives us, C. really lit up and felt a huge desire to have that comforter at his side at all times. He also wants to be baptized this week. There will be a lot of prayers for that. We are also teaching a couple named L. and R. They have been married for 30 years and have children who have already moved out. When they first heard the message of the Restoration of the Gospel they were really touched by the Spirit. I am very excited for this week and really hope to have some great experiences to tell you next week!

I`ve been just a little bit anxious about these changes this week. I am almost sure that a new missionary will be coming and that means I`m in for some amazing and unforgettable experiences. I will do my best to be an amazing example and help someone through a change that`s sometimes really tough but very worthwhile. I will also be relying a whole lot on the Spirit to magnify our callings so that we are guided to the exact spot where we need to be and we can teach exactly what the Lord wants us to teach. Not to mention that I will get to talk with this guy about all the fun little culture notes of Guatemala.

One great thing I am learning to do is to keep people very interested in the gospel. Sometimes it takes a little bit of creativeness but people love to have fun as they learn more about the church. We have had some Fireside nights here in Santo Domingo that have been so so fun and so very spiritual also. We, the missionaries, acted out some really funny skits from the scriptures about when Nephi broke his bow and when Abraham took us son up to be sacrificed. People were just dying from laughing and when we talked about the stories after everyone wanted to participate and learn and everyone felt the Spirit for sure! I loved it so much and really felt a great love for everyone there! It is just so special to be part of experiences like that!

I am so glad that the Lord lets normal people like me be his missionaries. It really is the greatest thing that I can do and I feel like it almost isn`t fair for all the amazing blessings that the Lord gives me. I know that as long as we continue to show the Lord the love we have for him, he will always take care of us and show us his love as well!

Love,
Elder Jensen

Zipping around Santo Domingo

 We went to a place in Mazate with paintball and ziplining.
It was really fun, this was after finishing the zipline (you can see it in the back).

Dear Family,

I am basically convinced that there is nothing quite like being a missionary, getting to put every ounce of energy in bringing people to Christ and really changing lives for generations! It is just so so cool!

The Lord really gave us some great blessings this week. This past Saturday the Lord blessed us with two more baptisms! Our good friend B., who is sixteen, was baptized this Saturday. He has been progressing really fast in the gospel and has even talked about being a missionary some day. The cool thing with him is that his dad is actually a less active member right now but has started to catch interest as well as the rest of his family. We will see what miracles come from that! The other great blessing was that of L., a single mom who the Elders were teaching for over a month, chose to be baptized this past Saturday. She hadn`t decided about a date to be baptized and was pretty apprehensive over the past weeks but she finally took the huge step in asking Heavenly Father what she should do and she felt the Spirit telling her that it was the right thing to do. Her older son, A. was baptized last month and he had the great chance to see his mom be baptized as well. I am so glad that the Lord fulfills his promises that we make to his children that if they ask the Lord in faith, he will respond through his Spirit.

This week I also had some really cool experiences working with the Ward Leadership her in our ward, The Las Flores Ward. There is a really cool vision to have a chapel one day in Santo Domingo but we have to find 25 priesthood holders to have a ward. It was cool to see everyone so excited to help us and make this vision a reality. I hope to keep up the great relationship with the ward because that is how we are going to be able to have more success and really find prepared people who will be able to endure to the end. I hope to soon find a complete family to bring to the gospel and see gospel take root in their home.

This past Sunday at church we were a little bit scared because we had passed by a lot of our investigators before the meeting (in a tuk tuk) and we hadn`t found anyone who could go. We went to the meeting a little sad when we noticed that a sister from Santo Domingo had brought two friends to the meeting! We got to meet them both and they really enjoyed the experience. Later that day we went to visit them with the member and we had a great visit with the whole family. My testimony of the need for member missionary work will never cease to grow! Also I really think that was a huge blessing for just being obedient and doing our best and the Lord does the rest!

I realized that I have kind of forgotten everybody`s birthdays since I got here in the mission so I want to wish a Happy Birthday to everyone that I forgot to say it to. Yeah, it sounds kind of lame but I just can`t seem to remember everyone`s birthday!

My companion and I had a fun experience this week trying to get the font water to go from green to blue. You can find little packs of water coloring in the paper and book stores here and we started throwing that stuff in the water hoping to turn it blue because it was a pretty ugly green. The problem was that if a little speck of that powder gets on something it starts to grow and make a little stain so our shirts looked a little interesting but we were able to get it all out and have a bluish green font, but everything went great!

I am a little sad as my companions days in the mission grow short but I really am grateful for the time I`ve had with him and for the great blessings we have seen together. I know that the Lord really answers our prayers and knows the desires of our hearts because he helps me out each day. I have a lot of weaknesses but the Savior helps me make up the difference and bring even more people to him and find the joy that comes in having a new start over and over again!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Santo Domingo living quarters

Kitchen

Changing Tires and Changing Lives

Changing the tire before going to the baptism.

Dear Family,

What a great week! I think I really am starting to enjoy more and more each week that goes by as I learn to love these people even more and more!

This past week I had the amazing opportunity to be part of two more baptisms! J. and J. were baptized this past Saturday! It was pretty much a huge blessing from the Lord because they have cousins and aunts and uncles who are members of our congregation and one Sunday they just showed up in the Sacrament Meeting. We got to meet them a couple weeks ago and started to teach them and saw that they both have such a special spirit and desire to follow Christ the best they can. They want to keep the commandments the best they can and they really enjoyed their baptism (me too!). I just really love the people here in my new area. It seems like so many people have been prepared by the Lord and they really are so willing to listen to what the Lord tells them and follow their Savior the best they can. I really hope that I get to be here for a good amount of time and help as many people as I can to have their lives changed forever as they make promises with their Heavenly Father and follow Christ.

The baptism itself was also a miracle because as I mentioned, Santo Domingo is a little separated from everything. There is one member who is a recent convert (actually almost all the members are recent converts) who has a truck but as he came to pick us all up to go to the chapel for the baptism, his tire popped. Luckily in Santo Domingo there is a gas station so we stopped there (the truck barely made it) and the member and the two of us missionaries had to change the tire. It was actually pretty fun despite the little bit of stress. The good thing was that we had told everyone an hour early for the service because everyone shows up late to everything and with that extra hour we got where we needed on time with the spare tire and everything! It was a pretty cool blessing!

For a little interesting side note this week I found some cool stuff in one of the Megapacas. The paca´s are basically just goodwill shops that are all over the place but there are a couple that are really big and like a Goodwill store in the states. I have already bought really nice Ecco shoes at one of these stors and today I found some cool stuff that I didn´t buy but I enjoyed. We elders always look for ties and today at the Megapaca there was a BYU tie and also U of U tie right next to each other! The other fun thing was a big plaque to hang up on the wall to do a Family Home Evening! It had Song, Prayer, Scripture, Lesson, Activity, Refreshments and all that stuff on it! Also there were some church CDs and some CTR ties. Who knows what you can find in those places!?

I am really enjoying my time here in my new area. Also my companion, Elder Banegas is really helping me to learn a lot. He has had some so many awesome experiences and has amazing advice to help me really get more out of this experience and really work closer with the Lord. Recently we have been doing something really awesome. We have been pleading with the Lord each day that he will guide us to a family that we can teach. A father, mother, and children that we can teach and a family that can one day be sealed in the temple and be together after this life. We are asking for this almost in every prayer and doing our best to act in faith and show the Lord through our works that we really want this amazing blessing to teach a family. The Lord is really helping me to have this goal in my mind and not have fear in talking to whatever family that we see or meet and offer them the greatest blessings that the Lord has for his children. It really is such a cool thing to plead to the Lord and know that if we have faith, show the Lord this desire with our works, and search for his guidance, that this miracle can really happen and a family can be sealed in the temple one day. I really am learning more and more how I must not do this all on my own, but seek the Lord´s guidance in all that I do and let him do the work as I am his hands.

I am excited for another week in the Lords work! This week we will have another baptism of a 16 year old youth named B. We have been teaching him for these couple weeks and he really asks us amazing questions and is really learning and living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He even wants to be a missionary some day! I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord and learning so much about how he loves each one of us!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Making tortillas! I love doing this!
The tortillas here are all by hand and
they are eaten at all times, with every meal.

A enourmous dead worm we found on the ground.

The department of Suchitepequez is known as the Land of Deer.
I think they´ve all been hunted but I found a few in a sanctuary.

Ch...Ch...Ch...Changes!

Santo Domingo

 Dear Family,

Well, I have some interesting news! I was transferred this week from San Felipe! I am now in Santo Domingo! That was pretty much the furthest thought from my mind! 

I got a call Wednesday night from one of the missionaries and it was a little bit ominous because they were talking to my companion and he told me that they wanted to talk to me. They broke me the news and I didn`t know what to think! I had to get all my stuff packed up that night.  But Elder J. and I made a good time out of it (even if I was super tired the next day). I`m kind of getting expert at having stuff ready to leave at any moment. The next morning the Assistants came in their pickup and dropped me off in Mazate. I was at the change meeting when I saw that they had created this area that I am now in. I with an awesome Elder named Elder B. from Honduras (his family actually lives a couple blocks away from Elder C.'s family, my first companion). He is a super awesome missionary and is a super happy guy. He was the Assistant to the President when I came in the mission so I always looked up to him so I feel pretty lucky to get to be with him for his last month in the mission. 

Santo Domingo is a really cool place! It is a town that is kind of separated from Mazate. You have to take a bus for about 15 minutes through the jungle and then you get to Santo Domingo. Mazate is one of the hotter places in the mission and they say that Santo Domingo is one of the hottest in Mazate! Should be pretty fun! Just walking around I can feel a lot of energy for the work and I am so excited to see the miracles that will come from our hard work. There haven’t been missionaries assigned to Santo Domingo for many years and Elder B. opened up the area a couple months ago. There have been a lot of miracles and we hope to see more! Almost all the members there have recently joined the church and are so excited to share this new happiness and joy with their friends and family! I just feel so blessed to be here!

I know that the Lord has some really great blessings in store for me. I was pretty sad to leave San Felipe because I really grew to love the people as I saw them have a new light in their life and really grow closer to their Savior. I will never be able to thank the Lord for how much he helped me there and how much he taught me through experience. I know that the Lord will keep blessing those people and that their testimonies in the Savior and his atonement will continue to grow. Both young men that I baptized should both be getting the priesthood soon!

I had some interesting experiences this week with getting along with what we have as missionaries. There are a couple little problems with the new house so this week I bathed on the roof, boiled water for food in a frying pan, and used bags of water to wash my hands! I am actually getting pretty good at taking care of normal conveniences with whatever I have. I guess you pretty much learn it all as a missionary. But not to worry, I`ve got everything I need.

The bus that takes us to church.

Here in Santo Domingo we live like 15 minutes from the chapel. What we do is we rent a really big bus and everyone meets up and gets in the bus Sunday morning. It was really fun to see the Santo Domingo members all get together and head to church together in the bus. Everyone just seems really happy! I just know that one day Santo Domingo will get its own chapel. We just have to find the people who will fill it up! We may have a few baptisms this week as we move towards that goal!

We were able to see a video from the church`s `Because of Him` (or in Spanish, `Gracias a El`). How blessed we are to have a Savior who loves us so much that he has freed us from every one of our mistakes and weaknesses. If we let him, he can give us new starts and help us change our hearts. We will live again because of him and what a blessing it is to wear his name and bring people unto him each day. I love him so much and know that through him I will be able to return to my Heavenly Father`s presence.

I am doing great and am so grateful for all the amazing prayers and support of everyone!

Love,

Elder Jensen

Crossing a street that flooded with rain. We put little stools in the water to cross.

I have no idea what I just ate!

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.

General Conference

Elder P. and I. Our zone had these shirts made before we were companions and it turned out that we both had the same number 6.

Dear Family,

Hopefully I can find enough time to share all my many experiences this week. The internet was misbehaving so we`ll see if I can fit everything in!

This week was really cool because we got to go to conference. It was a really great experience! The only low note was that the English feed of the conference wasn`t working so the only session I got to watch in English was the last one. I was still able to learn a lot but it is a little bit harder to focus as I was trying to understand the Spanish and also the message. I am also so grateful I will get to study the talks soon when we get the Liahona.   President Ruiz came to San Felipe and encouraged us all to do our best to bring as many people as we could to conference so we were trying really, really hard to bring a lot of people. In between each session we were just searching for people to bring and I was walking around with our house phone doing my best to get people there. Not as people came as I wanted but I really felt like I did my best!

I really felt during conference a huge amount of gratitude for being part of the restored church. As I listened to the prophet and the apostles I was just filled with a feeling that the Church of Jesus Christ really has been restored to the earth and that it is guided by a prophet who really does receive revelation. I felt the spirit so strong as I listened to the messages and I knew without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not made my any man, but is Christ`s church here on the earth.

This week we had the chance to continue teaching three very special people. One of which is the sister of K., named H., who really wants to be baptized. The other is the wife of a less active member. Her name is C. and her husband, E., is a member. She was actually a reference from a member and when we went to visit she instantly recognized us as servants of the Lord and had the desire to be baptized. We had the blessing to see them both in church last Sunday and C. went to conference this Sunday. I really am praying hard for them and really trying to help them understand the importance of living the Lord`s commandments and having a family within the restored gospel. I really hope to see them one day at the temple! I will be working hard for them and also praying for them. 

The other person that we had in conference is a friend of a member and his name is J. He is 12 years old and really wants to be baptized. Yesterday we were able to go to his house and we found both parents and began to talk with them and teach them. We found that they were very, very nice and we had a very powerful lesson about the restoration. I felt the spirit so strong and they really had the desire to pray and know that the message was true and that God has really restored his gospel to the earth. The dad expressed to us that he has felt lost recently and that he really feels far from God. He says that he has been searching for something and I really knew in that moment that he has been prepared and that the Lord really led us there. We also talked to them about J`s desire to be baptized and they gave us permission! That whole lesson was a miracle and I hope to see even more miracles with that family! If everything goes well J. may be baptized this Saturday and hopefully his family afterwards!

I also received a new companion this week. Elder P. headed for his home in Nicaragua and it was hard to see him leave and we had some great last moments with our converts. My new companion is Elder J. He is from Utah (between Provo and Salt Lake). The cool thing is that he is actually half Dominican because his mom is from the Dominican Republic and his dad is from Utah. He could actually understand and speak a little bit of Spanish before the mission so he has really good Spanish. Also he was a gymnast at the University of Nebraska so he is super strong! I have really enjoyed our few days together and I think that we will do some great things here in our area. He has ten months in the mission and I think I will be able to learn a lot from him (just like from my other companions too). 

I can never thank the Lord enough for all the wonderful blessings and experiences that he gives me each and every week. I know that he is watching out for me and also using me as his hands. My testimony of the gospel is always increasing and my love and appreciation of the Savior and his atonement never ceases to grow!

Love,
Elder Jensen