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