Early Christmas - Joram and Brittany's Visit

Our son (Joram) and daughter-in-law (Brittany) are in Uruguay for the marriage of her cousin. Brittany's father is from Uruguay and most of his family still lives in Uruguay.  Today they attended church with some other cousins and they live in the same ward that our son (Elder Jensen) is serving in. What a small world.  Below are some of the video's and pictures we got from their visit today:

Peeking into investigator class that Elder Jensen is in

Waiting for the investigator class to end

The greeting!!!

visiting after Sacrament meeting

Hola Mom

Elder Jensen headed back to work

Joram with Elder Jensen and the other Elders at a ward Christmas program. 

ward dinner!!!

[Dec 14, 2015 email]

"hello world! the sun says hello!" 

ya the sun has come, and it got super hot here! it hit like 96 ish and with a ton of humidity! but its not the walking in the heat or anything like that, that bugs me... its that it stays super hot during the night and between the 4 elders we just have 1 fan... so we have started getting in the shower with our pajamas on or just putting them in the freezer, its either that or sweat all night.  but even with the sun we have had a pretty good week and we have found a couple of new investigators but nobody is going to be progressing soon... so we are going to wait and see. but the work is going really well here in colón, me and elder padilla are working together and working hard! i really want to stay here in this ward! 

but like i said last week, we had our ward end of year dinner and it was awesome!! i love this ward here! we ate food, played some games and some of these people were going nuts over these games!! im talking about full grown men and women yelling over a trivia game! it was intense but super fun! then this week we have our mission wide christmas conference tomorrow! , and i am super excited! 

Love you all see you next week! 

Elder Jensen

this is what i´ve resorted to... putting clothes in the freezer....its hot here! 

ward dinner

gift from a recent convert.... i think they are trying to say something...

...not much... except christmas!!!

we this week was a pretty normal week, just a day shorter with the changes last week and we had to help with elder moss moving into our house, but it has been a pretty chill week this week.  then last thursday elder padilla got super sick out of no where! we were just walking in the street and then he suddenly stopped walking and almost passed out! we still don´t know what he got because he got better latter that night  but then the rest of the house now has got the cold... well we had the cold.  it was only like for a day, but ya it was really interesting how fast it came and went! but we are all just looking forward to the christmas activities in our ward and stake there are like 4 activities in the next 2 weeks so we are really looking forward to this! but i don´t have much to say this week, and besides i´ll talk to you all soon!! that and  im out of time :(  but love you all i hope you guys have a great week!!

Love elder Jensen

fotos del bautismo

me, solange, jamie, elder padilla, then our ward mission leader and his wife hno y hna perez.

changes!!! ....psych!!!

so yep we had changes this week, but there really weren´t any changes anywhere... only 2 elders in our zone are changing and i will be staying in colon with elder padilla for the hollidays! hopefully we can keep getting a long but we will have to wait and see!!

But this week was awesome! we had a baptism this saturday and it was super awesome and spiritual!!! so hermano jamie canals and his wife solange (they are an older couple) got baptised and they have such a strong testimony already it is amazing!! but this week before their baptism she told us her whole conversion story from start to begining and it is a super awesome story so i thought i would share it! but she was going to go to florida to go visit her son that lives there and while she was sitting down waiting to board the plane, a lady sat down next to her and they started to talk a little bit, and turns out they were going to be on the same flight, and the flight ended up being cancled due to the weather.  So the airline rented out a hotel and they ended up being put in the same room, so they got to know eachother pretty well and turns out that this other lady was a member of the church, and at some point they started to talk about the church and the member just happed to have a copy of the most recent liahona in her bag so she let Solange borrow the magazine for the flight and now they are best friends and because this member was willing to share a simple magazine, her and her husband were able to get baptized last week.  Honestly the story was a lot longer and better but i had to cut it down, but it is just a cool example of how "by means of small and simple things, great things come to pass". unfortunatly i didn´t bring my camera so i will send photos next week.  

But ya that was about it for the week.... i love you guys and have a great week!!!!

Elder Jensen

Testimony

Note: A member of our ward created a Christmas book with each missionary and their testimony. Here's Elder Jensen's from Nov 23rd:

honestly being out here thousands of miles from my home, family, and friends, trying to learn a language that i didn´t understand after 5 years of high school classes, and teaching the gospel has opened my eyes and stregthened my testimony in ways that i coudln´t have imagined before the mission.  When i look at all the problems that there are in the world and all the broken families, i have to recognize that the family that i have and the unitly between us is a blessing from our Heavanly Father. cause in this world it is nearnly impossible to have a family like we do, and i cannot deny that all the blessing i have been given come from this gospel.  I do not have a perfect testimony and there isn´t a missionary that has one, but that is why the Lord sends 19 year olds. to strength their faith.  and i know that only being here in uruguay i could have grown like i have.  now i can truly say that i know that this is the true church and there is no other way to reach eternal life. i am so greatful for the challenges and stuggles i have had and that i will have in the mission and in life in general, because that is the only way we grow.

Nov 23, 2015 Letter

Hey family!!!

First of all a huge apology for not writing last week, about half way through my hour of writing i got a huge headache and i couldn´t even think straight so i just finished early, sorry! but luckly not a ton has happened here! but we have been hearing a ton of what has been going on in france and all this crazy talk about "World war 3" but we are all chill down here in uruguay! 

Well first of all we are really doing good down here, me and my comp have settled things and for the last 5 or 6 days we haven´t had any problems! its like those "accident free"  counters in factories, and right now we are doing good.  and because of it the work has been getting a lot better and time is going by a lot faster! we are getting ready this week for a baptism of an older couple (named Jamie and solange) that we have been working with, and we havn´t had to do anything because they are so prepared for the gospel, like half their kids are mormon and they finally decided to listen to the missionaries. They are super excited for when they get baptized and when they can go to the temple! so i am super happy for them and it is going to be a great week! 

Then the other family that i told you about a couple weeks ago The family Costa-bleda are most likely going to be dropped which i am really sad about because they are super amazing people but they have a couple problems with almost all the commandments and they just told us this week that they are moving to a new area and don´t want other elders to go visit them, because they get a long great with us but they had a problem with another elder in our zone so they aren´t going to risk meeting new elders. so i was really sad to hear about that :(  but hopefully they will remember the things that we taught and someday make the changes they need to make. 

Other than that we don´t have any really solid investigators or any really exciting things happening right now... but changes are already coming next week and i can not believe how fast time is going now! that and it is already thanksgiving!!! Happy thanksgiving!!! we might buy some chicken or something but i don´t think we are going to do anything super exciting for it... but whatever! 

Sorry i don´t have any new photos this week, being gringo increases my chances a thousand fold of getting robbed so i never have my camera with me ;) but i will get some more this week! 

Love  Elder Jensen

October Transfer Video

Video from October Transfers with pictures of Jace at: 1:00, 2:36, 7:49,  and 8:00.

hello everybody!!!

[email from Nov 9, 2015]

well... where do i start.... honestly this week was kinda boring, nothing super exciting happened... we are working with a couple of different investigatores right now and they all have just something small that they have to change to get to be baptized so we are waiting and working to see who is going to make the changes and start progressing, but nothing super promising right now but they are all super awesome and we are really hoping that they all progress! 

But this week we had a zone conference with interviews with president and it was awesome!!! he talked about how we need to "Llegar a ser" (become) missionaries and not just walk around for 2 years with a plaque on our chest. it was realy good! then the assistants talked to us, which was kinda weird cause my old comp elder Oliveira is the assistant now and it was weird to see him again, but it was really good! then we got to hear from the mission couple Elder and hermana Burnett because they are going home after this change so this was their farewell testimonies to us and even though hermana burnett can´t talk great spanish she had an absolutly amazing testimony about the savior and elder burnett is just awesome! so it was kinda sad to say good bye to them, even though i don´t know them super well.  

But ya that was about this week... it has started getting really hot here!! but its just going to get worse!! haha no i am really glad that the cold is leaving and finally we have a little bit of heat! thanks for all the photos and the letters this week! love you all!!

Elder Jensen

Feliz Halloween!

[letter from Nov 2, 2015]

Happy halloween to everybody!!

we this week was pretty normal until we got to saturday night, when everyone started trick or treating! suprisingly they still celebrate halloween here and there was a ton of people in the streets!! but of course no one wants to talk to missionaries we everyone else is giving out free candy!! so we tried to find something to do those last couple hours but no one was home and no wanted to talk to the missionaries so that was kind of a interesting time of the day... but after we decided to celebrate halloween so we got on the roof and had another "toddy night" and watched the other side of heavan while sitting on the roof! it was pretty legit!!

But so before the trick or treating started elder padilla had to go do a bamptismal intervew in another area of the zone, and so we get on this bus that is going to a city called La Paz or the peace, but we get on and tell the bus driver that we are going to the paz and he asked us if we were from the church in the paz and so we said yes, thinking that he would know, cause we hadn´t ever been to this city, so we are standing in the aisle and he yells to us that we are supposed to get of on the next stop so we make our way to the front and then we get off the bus and we look around and we are in the middle of no where... then we turn around and see a giant church... Jehovah´s whitnesses.... he thought we were Jehovahs whitnesses!!! and he kicked us of the bus 2 km before the city in the middle of no where!! so that was the exciting moment of the week!!

But i am really starting to enjoy this area and absolutly love the members here!! the church is a lot more stronger here than back in my old area, and we don´t have to walk nearly as much! love you guys and hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Jensen

us sitting on the roof!

the family we were teaching in my old area

our bowls of toddy´s

a photo of the changes (e mora, e cerpa, e hunt, me, e peterson)

new area!!!

Well like i said last week, i am in a new area!! and i am absolutely loving it!! there is actually a decent amount of people here! it has defintly been a little bit of a shock moving from a tiny little city on the beach, to the city! but i am loving it here, i have met a few of the members (like brittany´s cousin!) and they are all awesome! and the bishop here is awesome!! but anyway i am here with elder Padilla from Colombia, he is from some small city with a really weird and long name so sorry i don´t know. but he is really short so people are always making fun of us cause i am way taller than everone here (almost everybody) and i am blond, and he is super short and super dark, so we look like polar opposites, but he is a super humble and loving guy! i am really looking forward to this change

Really not much has happened this week with the changes and everything, but i got here on wednesday night and we went and got to know a couple members and that was it, but really i haven´t done much in just 3 days or 4 i can´t remember... but anyway right now we are working with a family called the family Costa-Bleda and they have a ton of problems and if they get baptized it is going to be in like 3 months because they have to get married and then they have to quit smoking and a couple of others problems but they are super nice and starting to progress, and went to church this week!! so they are our main focus right now and then we just have a couple of random investigators who aren´t really progressing right now, but we will wait and see! 

but there was one really exciting thing that happened this week, we were just sitting eating lunch in our house one day (just 2 out of the 4 elderes in the house), and this mouse runs right in front of us and jumps under the couch we are sitting on, so naturally we jump up and grab the first thing next to us and i grab the broom and my comp grabs the kitchen knife, and we start our mouse hunt! we ended up pulling out the couch, the desks and the dressers in our house and after an hour and a half of hunting this mouse we finally killed it!! then we took it and put it on a plate and mad lunch with it for the other two elders!! i will try and sent a photo of the plate next week but it was awesome!!

But anyway that has been my week, I love you guys and hope that you have a great next week!!! 

Elder Jensen

Picture of Elder Jensen with 3 of his 4 companions

Brittany’s Cousin

(Post from Jace’s Dad)

We learned earlier in the week that Brittany’s cousin lives in Jace’s new area and then this morning we got a text with a picture of them together at Church.  How exciting!

¡¡por fin me voy!!

Well once again the changes have come and this time i actually have some exciting news!!! I will be leaving parque del plata!! i am going to be leaving to go to montevideo!! i won´t be directly in the city but just a little outside of it in an area called Colon! and i am super excited!! Both elder Hunt and Elder Cerpa were in this area so i have heard a lot about it and i am super excited to see how it goes!! But i am a little sad to be leaving this house with elder cerpa, this has been one of the best changes, if not the best!! but i am still glad to finally be leaving parque del plata!  but i actually forgot my new comps name, so i will let you know next week! but he is from colombia and i have really good things about him as well! so ya i am really excited for the next change!! but other than the changes, nothing much happened this week! But thank you all for your love support and emails or photos and just everything that you guys do for me!! i will send you some photos of my new comp and area next week!!

Love you guys so much!!

Elder Jensen

photo of a member family that i absolutly love!!

my favorite sign i found from this area "parque del plata, el paraíso del mundo"

El bautismo de Laura!

well this week was lauras baptism!! it was a super awesome service! But there was a lot of cool little spiritual experiences with her baptism and i wish i could write about every single little one but it would take to much time! Both elder moss and elder Cerpa (who have 3 and half years between the two of them in the mission) said that this was the most spiritual baptism that they have been to!  It was really cool to see the difference the gospel has made for laura.  After the service she gave a very powerful testimony of the book of mormon and of the church in general.  she actually finished the book of mormon 2 days before her baptism (she read the book in about a month!) and said that by 1 nephi chapter 2 she already new that the book of mormon was true, and she talked about how greatful she is to have recieved the gospel. it really was a very strong testimony builder for me! but ya that was a great day! 

Laura y Freddy

Unfortunatly we haven´t had much progress with our family that we are teaching, the mother got sick this weekend and they weren´t able to come to church, and they are a little desanimado (sorry i don´t remember the word in english!) but we are still working with them and really are hopeing that they can keep progressing!! 

Other than that it was a fairly basic week, that and we found american marshmellows (which don´t exist here) and so we decided to roast marshmellows!! but ya still loving working down here in parque del plata! (definitly glad i stayed!) thanks for all the letters and photos this week!! love you guys!!

Elder Jensen

Us roasting marshmellows! 

Zone activity last week! tacos!!

us trying to decide who was going to say the prayer .

Conference!!!

Well... where do i start? this was supposed to be the most like chill and spiritual weekend of the mission (and it was a very good weekend) but unfortunatly it had a couple of ups and downs (like everyweek!)  but we were all super pumped for the conference and getting ready and.... then i got sick... on thursday i started to get a headache during the last couple hours of prosyliting, and then in the morning i felt fine, but after the first hour of being outside in the morning i felt absolutly awful!! we went home, got permision from our leaders to let me rest and i slept until like 7 that night! i felt bad for elder Cerpa cause he just sat in our study room and listened to music, read, and looked at fotos for like 8 hours! So we were a little worried if i was going to be able to see the conference, but the saturday morning i felt super good! so we went (and watched it in spanish) then during the second conference session... the headach and the fever just sudenly came back and i was suddenly dying again! so missed a lot of that conference, and then after feeling better, and getting worse again, i finally feel better! but luckily i was able to enjoy the sunday sessions, healthily and in english.  But i had a cool experience with getting sick ( in the mission everything is a cool experience!)  but after the second session finished, literraly everyone in the church came to see how i was doing! and every single person had advice to give me, and it was so awesome to see the love these people have not only for the missionaries but for me individually, i have only known these people for like 4 months, and the investigators i have known for even less! and yet every single one of them treated me like a brother/son. and it was just super cool to see the love from these people! 

But anyway i was able to enjoy conference and learned a ton! i absolutly loved the 3 testimonies of the new apostles and the talk by elder Bednar to finish conference.  but the thing i really have learned from the last 2 conferences is how much i should have payed attention before the mission! i have learned so much from these talks and i took it for granted so much!! but the thing i took out of this conference was that we should stop critizing the commandments and just follow them!! like Elder Von G Keetch said," don´t be critical of the barrier, it is the only thing that is keeping you from being devoured"  and President Monson in preisthood," Bretheren i am going to be straight with you... Keep the Commandments" (i think thats how it goes.)  but ya i learned a ton!! Thanks for the love and support! sorry for lack of photos this week! 

Elder Jensen

This is "El Aguila" (the eagle) in atlantida, we went there for a zone activity

Milagros Elder, ¡Milagros!

Hello everyone!!

Man this week has been absolutly up and down! some of the best and worst days of the mission in this week! (okay not really bad days, but there were some days where we litterally walked for 6 hours looking for something to do, or trying to find some references we had recieved, but we just ended up walking like 15 Km  which is like 9 miles!) but luckily a lot more good than bad! Well to start off the week we found a family!!  It was last saturday night and one of our charlas had fallen through and it was like 8 30 at night and we didn´t have any more plans or people to visit so we just decided to knock some doors even thought it was already dark and i didn{t think we were going to be able to find anyone at that time, but we knock on this house and this guy comes out and is super nice but he already had some people at home and didn{t want to let us in, so we set a time to come back on sunday, so we went and again, he wouldn´t let us in again, so we decided to come back one last time on tuesday, so we go to stop by and i personally didn´t think he was going to let us in, but we clapped and he came out and the first thing he says to us is to come in! so we were just like oh okay! so we start talking to him and after a couple minutes his wife gets home with some of the kids and they all just come start talking to us! we didn{t have to ask them to join us or anything! even the 10 year old kid was listening to us! and so we shared a little a bit of the first lession but at this time we had to go home, so we set a time to come back on thursday, and since then we have had 2 charlas with them, one on thursday and then on saturday and then they came to church!! they are super amazing! they have been super prepared to recieve the gospel and really want to change their lifes! and when we went to church on sunday some of the members thought that this family were already members! thats how ready they are! but we have a lot more to teach and do to help them but we are super excited to be working with them!

So that was are super spiritual awesome excperience this week, now for the not as espiritual ;)  so to celibrate my 6 months, and the countdown for the last 100 days for elder moss, we had a "night of toddys".  so toddys are the only chocolate chip cookies that you can find in uruguay, so we spent like 850 pesos on cookies, brownies, ice cream, and junk food and ate it all on sunday night! so we are all feeling really sick now, but it was super awesome and so worth it!! (i will send photos)  But ya that was this week for us! 

Thank you all for the love, prayers, and support!

Love Elder Jensen

me and elder cerpa with the hamburgers from the conference the last week

another photo of us at los dedos

a bowl of toddys cereal, cookies, oreos, brownies, and ice cream!

toddy cereal! 

toddy night!!

Conferencia Multizona!

me at los dedos

Hello everyone!! This week was a really awesome week! Well to start off we had a really amazing multizone conference in maldonado which is one of the richest areas of uruguay and its so cool to go visit a real city outside of montevideo! during the conference we had these hamburgers that are famous in all of uruguay named Tortugones, they are HUGE! me and elder Cerpa had to split one, they are that big! and soo good! unfortunatly i don´t have any photos...but we had the conference and the after our van driver took us the los Dedos!! which is a statue of some fingers reaching out of the sand! and it is soooo cool!! so that was easily one of the funnest days of my mission so far! 

Then also we have finally fixed the baptismal date with laura!! thanks for all the prayers in getting this all fixed up. so she will be getting baptized the 10th which is really far away considering she already completes with all the requirements for baptism and we have already taught all the lessons, but i guess we will have to wait. the reason we have to wait is because we have had conferences every saturday for the last 2 weeks and then next week there is an activity all day in the church and then general conference the week after. (which is going to be awesome!) but ya we got that all sorted out! 

Than this sunday and saturday we had stake conference with Elder Viñas, who is one of the quorom of the 70, and he dropped some cane on the members here... it was awesome! he just came in and told them to start fufilling their callings and be better! after the conference i felt like i needed to go do some hometeaching or something cause it was pretty intense. but hopefully we can get some work done after this! 

Other than that it has been a pretty good week... not much else to say but it has been a good week =)  Thanks so much for all the photos and letters!! Love you guys!!

Elder Jensen!

p.s.  I am going to hit 6 months this week!!! holy cow!!!

me and elder cerpa at los dedos

Hello!

This week hasn´t been too crazy or exciting but it has been a good one... so ya i have a new comp now, Elder Cerpa from peru! its kinda interesting cause he has a different accent than the uruguayans and so for the first couple of days i couldn´t understand him very well at all! but ive gotten used to it by now but it is still a little hard to understand.  I am really enjoying working with him though! with elder hunt and elder oliveira i hardly ever talked during the lessons, because they talked a ton!! but now with elder cerpa he is a little bit quiter and doesn´t talk nearly as much so i have been talking in spanish a lot more now! so i think i am really going to like this change and i am going to learn a lot!

So this week we have been trying to prepare laura for baptism, and there have been so many problems! when we first put a baptismal date with here we were going to do it this coming weeked the 19th, but it turns out there is a conference that weekend, then we set it for the 26, and then we learned that there will be a youth activity and we might not be able to use the church. so we moved it to the 3rd of october, which as you may already know, is general conference... so now we aren´t even really sure when she is going to get baptized... and waiting until the 10th of october is just way to long of a wait.  So hopefully we can get all this sorted out before to long... but ya that is our biggest problem right now! But her and freddy are still doing really good and are patient with us moving the date so many times, im just worried that we may have changed it 1 to many times, and that patience is going to run out.  

Other than that it has been a pretty normal week... except we have found a couple spiders to many recently, and so we have been finding ways to get rid of them (see video) ;)

Thanks so much for the letters and everything!!

Love you guys!

the photo is of Elder Hunt, Elder Marley, Me, And Elder Cerpa.

Changes!!!

Hello everyone!!! and so the big news of the week... I ... AM ... Staying!!! yep i am staying in parque del plata for at least another 6 weeks! but there will be some changes, elder Oliveira is leaving to be a zone leader! so i will be working with elder Serpa (i think thats how you spell it...) but he is the trainer of elder hunt! and elder hunt told me he is pretty cool so i am kinda sad that elder oliveira is leaving but also excited to work with elder serpa! so yep! i am staying and that means i will be here for the baptism of laura! so i am excited about  that! I wasn´t sure how i felt about staying a nother six weeks here but i am glad that i at least get to be here to see laura get baptized.  i was a little disapointed that im not leaving just cause i want a change of scenery but either way....i am still excited to keep working here! 

So to celebrate the changes today we got to go to the temple and now we are in this huge mall and i feel like i am back in the states! we ate some mcdonalds and we are trying to enjoy our last p day together!! 

So this sunday was fast and testimony meeting and Freddy and Laura came (again!!!) and freddy was a member when he was 14 but for some crazy things that happened to him in his life he decided to leave the church.  But this sunday he got up to bear his testimony, and he was just like," i have waited 32 ish years to bear my testimony again, and i am so greatful for the missionaries and how God put them im my life" and it was such a great moment!!! it was so cool to see someone really change their life! and im so grateful for the chance i have had to see the changes! 

but ya that was my week this week and i hope you guys enjoy the following week! and byu football! 

Love Elder Jensen

we went to the temple this morning!! 

our zone

an investigator!!

Hello everyone!!!

Wow it has been an interesting week this week! and we have a progressing investigator!!!! during the last several weeks we havn´t had a real progressing investigator cause there are people here that are willing to listen to us but aren{t willing to do anything about it! but last sunday this less active member just showed up out of the blue with his non member daughter and they have started taking the lessons with us this week! we have already met with them like 4 times this week and they are awesome! she has accepted to be baptize and told us that she believe that she has recieved an answer and is reading the book of mormon! so me and elder oliveira are on top on the world right now!! We kinda learned that really the mission work is done by the lord, and not by the missionaries cause we have visited so many less actives and investigators and with no success, and now after almost 3 months we have an investigator that is progressing and even a less active that is returning to church!  now we just got to keep going and hope that she keeps completing with the invitations that we have given her! in other news (not so great news) one of the members passes away this week and it was really hard on the ward. he was one of the best members in this ward and one of my personal favorites, so ya that was a major downside to this week.

Then this week we had a ward activitie on tuesday and it was awesome! almost all of the members showed up and even some less actives and even some investigators! we ate hamburgers and played some soccer! but apparently the missionaries aren{t allowed to change out of their shirt and tie for ward activities so we had to play in our church clothes! but it was a blast! 

then a photo of exactly why i am gaining weight even while walking everyday... me eating a kilo of home made peanut butter during studies....i have no self control...

Just fyi changes are next week!! i don{t know how i feel about leaving or staying... but i guess we will find out next week!! love you all and thanks for all the letters and photos! Love you guys!!

Elder Jensen

Temple!!!

Hello everybody!!

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good! But we had a really good week this week here! the rain has stopped for now and we have been able to finally dry off all our clothes! but because its so humid everything molds here like crazy fast! i found 2 of my white shirts with mold in them already so i have to figure out how to get it out...so if you have any ideas that would be nice!

But like the subject says we got to go to the temple this week!!! it was such a great day! we got to spend the whole day with just our zone, the assistents, and president and sister cook! They gave some awesome lessons on being discouraged in the mission and how to be happy even when the mission is hard and it was just such a great spiritual day! then when we went to the temple i got to see carlos again! although we ddn´t get to talk very long cause i had to leave and we had already finished the session and were getting ready to leave.  but it was just an awesome moment to see him again!

In other random news i got invited to this little kids birthday party this week! He is going to turn 6 and he just a stud! his parents are less active and we have been working with them a lot and he absolutely love the missionaries!! every time we show up he is just yells "Elderes!!!" so this week he invited me and elder oliveira to his birthday party.

So ya that about sums up this week.... we just keep working and nothing else to exciting happens! =) but love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love Elder Jensen!

me with the birthday invite

Me and elder oliveira at the temple 

weekly letter!

Hello Everybody!!!

thanks for all the letters this week! i am glad to hear that everything is going well! We had quite the week this week! it absolutely poured like 3 or 4 days of the week and we can´t hang up our clothes outside to dry them off so we have clothes hanging on every little corner of our house! and we have been using are little space heater to dry off our clothes and it broke! so now we have no way to dry our clothes except by air drying!  But wednesday was Elder petersons birthday and it littlerally poured from when we woke up until we went to bed! and he was just like "that was the worst birthday ever..." i felt so bad for him! but ya there have been a lot of moments this week where we all just wanted to stay inside, but obviously we cant so we just go out into the rain! pero lo disfrutamos igual! 

Today i had to go and sign to become an official resident of Uruguay, and we got to go into 3 cruzes (which is in the captial of montevideo) and it was so cool! unfortunatly i couldn´t get any photos! =( but it was so cool to go see the city and we went to this big massive shoping mall there and i felt like i was back in america! we went to a nike store and some other cool little stores then we bought some Subway! even though it was super expensive it was totally worth it!  

But other than the rain and going to montevideo this week was just a regular week! we didn´t get to teach very many people this week because so many people are like deathly afraid of storms here! and some people obviously didn´t want us to come into their house and wouldn´t invite us inside (even some members!) and even when they did, we felt to bad to sit down on there couch so we ususally just ended up going back outside!

Sorry i don´t have any photos this week but i promise i will send you some next week! Love you guys!

Elder Jensen!!

Pictures from Elder Galeano

Jace forwarded several pictures from Elder Mateo Cecilio Galeano Villanueva. Here are some of the best pictures:

Hello!!!

Hello everybody!!

Well this week was a fun one!! it has been raining here a ton lately and when it rains here it pours! there are literally small lakes flooding the roads, just cause there is nowhere for the water to drain! luckily most of the time we are out working it hasn't been to bad! but we had one day when we were coming back from a zone meeting and so we are all wearing our suits and it just started pouring and we had to walk 20 mins in pouring rain! so all our suits got fairly wet! but such is life here in uruguay.  but in one of the other areas it was hailing on friday and the hail was a little bit bigger than golf balls!! so i am glad i wasn't there! But one night it started storming like crazy and there was lightning literally ever 2 seconds! so what did we do? we went outside to film it!! then we ran back in side before we all died! i tried to send the video but it is to big of an attachment so sorry!  

Then this week we decided to do some cleaning cause everything was a mess from 3 new elders, and while we were cleaning we found this super old gross box full of random stuff from the people that lived here before the missionaries, we found like photo albums and a bunch of cds and it is a really good thing we don't have a cd player cause there was some classic music in there! (Like 30 seconds to mars!!) but ya our house is clean again!

The other news of the week is that we started our english and portugues classes this week!! and it was really weird to try and teach english, cause i don't know how to teach it! but it was really good, on thursday we had like 8 members and 1 investigator show up! but the first day looked like the following photo... empty... 

but thats okay! so ya now im learning portuguese! which is a really weird language but apparently there are some parts of uruguay where a lot of people speak portuguese so i really hope at some point i can learn portugues while i am here to!

But nothing much happened this week... but ya it was a good crazy week of missionary work!

Love you guys!!

Elder Jensen

Cambios!!!!

Hey everybody!!!!

Well changes happened and man there was a lot of craziness with changes this time!  so like i said all 3 of the other missionaries left and i stayed with 3 more! so the 2 in the other area are both awesome!! one is brand new and just started his mission (elder Peterson) and the other is Elder Moss.  they are both studs!! then there is my comp.... And he is freaking stud!!!! His name is elder oliveira from brazil, so this means that he doesn´t speak english but when he tries it is super funny!! and he only knows how to say random phrases so he will just randomly yell at Elder Moss " hey elder moss... you face is ugly" and then he cracks up laughing! but he is such a nice guy and just a stud! He is like a big teddy bear! he is like 6 foot 2 and like 200 pounds or something and looks kinda intimidating, but is the greatest guy!  but because he can´t speak spanish there is definitly a small language barrier between us but i am realizing how much spanish i actually do know!  Still a lot of stuff left to learn but we can communicate just fine and so there isn´t like any problems with that! So ya i am super excited for this change cause these guys are all awesome! ( and im not just saying that, they really are!)

Other than that there isn´t much to write about this week! oh we are going to start teaching english and portugues classes tomorrow! so this ought to be interesting! i have no idea how to teach english but whatever! but ya a lot of the members are excited that we are doing this, so i think it will have some good results!!

Here are some photos of us as we left for changes (unfortunatly i don´t have any from the new elders yet)

And a photo with one of the familys that we are working with. they are the biggest nacional fans, so they gave elder hunt a team flag to say goodbye

Have a good week! 

Love Elder Jensen