INSTRUMENTS

[Sept 26, 2016 email]

Hey everybody!!!! 

I think this week can only be summed up by a scripture in alma 26.

"And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work" 

this week we have had several experiences where all we could say was wow.. God is doing a great work here.. we have been seeing miracle after miracle and they just keep coming! one of the biggest things that happened this week, is on tuesday we were walking looking for a future investigator that we had and we knocked a house looking for them and on the other side of the street, there was a group of like 6 people from the ages of 30 to 50 and they yelled out to us asking for a bible, and at first we honestly thought it was just a joke, then they yelled again and we went, explained the book of mormon, had a lesson with all six of them on wednesday, then another one on sunday and several of them are very seriously interested!! 

then another experience that we had, we were visting a family that is less active and as we got there we found that they weren`t home, so we decided to knock the house of the neighors and we found a less active who we didn`t know, and she told us that she had decided to return to church and to quite smoking so she picked up her phone to look for a place where she could get help to quite smoking, and then we knocked.  God sent her the missionaries as an answer. 

I wish i had more time to write all of the miracles that we have seen in our area, but i can`t, all i can say is that the great blessing that is beeing bestowed upon us is that this week we have been made instruments in the hands of God and we have seen part of His great work.  This has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission and we are praying that it can keep going like this, because there are a lot of things we have to do here and im so excited for the progress of these peaple that we are teaching. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week. 

Elder Jensen

BELLONI!!

[Sept 19, 2016 email]

well it has now been 6 days since i got here and man it has been some crazy days!!! wednesday we just left to go work, and then thursday we had a conference with all the missionaries in montevideo with Elder Texiera who is one of the area 70`s here in south america and it was soooooo good!!! he talked about several things that our mission needs to improve and there was a little bit of cane in there but it was really edifying and the missionaries left the conference super excited to work! then on friday we had a leadership meeting with president and Elder Texiera for all the ZLs in the mission and we talked a lot of the same things that we need to change in the mission and i really feel like this mission is just one the bubble of exploding! there are several things that need to change first, some old habits that we have as missionaries and president is really expecting us to change.  but there is just an excitement in the mission that i didn`t see before and it is getting ready to just take off and i couldn`t have a better comp to be with! we are just going to work our butts off this change and we really want to have a lot of success this change! but honestly Elder Xavier is such a stud! we are going to have a blast because we don`t have to spend any time getting to know eachother, because we already lived with eachother for 3 changes in the offices and now all we have to do is work! 

Then on sunday i we had church and it was quite a change! from rio branco with 40 people to this ward that has about 110 and very work orriented members, i was blown away! at the end of church all the leaders get to gether to see who didn`t come to church and decide who is going to visit them! this ward is awesome! 

there isn`t really much else to say other than we are all good, alive, excited, and slightly tired, but enjoying life! oh and wish us luck we got our first zone conference tomorrow and we are going to see how it turns out!  I hope you guys have a great week and i will talk to you next week! 

Love elder Jensen

The big Announcement!

[Sept 13, 2016 email #2]

Hey everybody!!! Before reading WATCH THE VIDEO!! 

but yes there is a very big suprise! well we all thought that i was going to be with elder poulson for another change to finish training.... but nope.... on Sunday night we got a suprise phone call from President Eddy with the news that sadly i am going to leave Rio Branco and i will be returning to montevideo once again :(  I am going to be in "Belloni" with Elder xavier!!! which i am super excited about cause he was a financer while i was in the offices and he is such a great misionary and we are going to have a blast! but it has been a really hard time saying goodbye to the people here in rio branco, even though it only has been 3 months, this has been my favorite area of my mission and unfortunatly i won`t be here to see the rest of the progress of the investigatores that we have.  

Yesterday we went around to visit a couple of investigators to get some photos with them and when we met up with Claudio he told us that on sunday night some of his friends offered him some alcohol and he fell into his addicciones again.  and due to that, his girlfriend feels like she needs to seperate from him for some time.  which he is super sad about, and i feel really bad for him but i have no doubt that this is really a miracle from the lord cause she wasn`t progressing and didn`t want much from the church and hasn`t been a great influence in his life, and so now that they are going to be seperated we can really focus on his needs and he is going to get baptized!!! but unfortunatly i won`t be here :( but its amazing how the lord works :)

well that is about all the news that i have for this week... im nervous for the new changes, sad im not in rio branco anymore, and looking forward to the next adventure!!

Love you guys!!! 

Elder Jensen

us with Maria, she is also progressing towards her baptism in a month but she just needs some time!! 

Hermana Katerine and her son Cristian and she is one of the most amazing members i have ever met in my life.

and the familia Rodriguez who made us pizza last night!! so good! 

WATCH FIRST!!!

[Sept 13, 2016 email]

we have a BIG anouncment!!

Miracles!!!

[Sept 5, 2016 email]

Well this has been a great week and i have some really exciting news!!! Claudio came to church and he has stopped smoking!!!! oh he is such a stud!!! so on tuesday we set some goals and plans with him and we decided to set saturday as the last that he was going to smoke, and we also decided that we were going to fast with him from friday afternoon to saturday afternoon to help him.  so we called him friday and we started the fast.  we show up on saturday and the first thing he says to us is,"oh you finally got here... im so hungry!!!"  haha he went the whole 24 hours without anything! so we broke the fast with him (we bought some really good hamburgers!) and we talked to him about how he felt and he is really starting to be happier and to just live a better life.  He came on sunday and he told that he has lost all the desires to smoke and is really progressing!!! ugh this was like the best weekend ever!!! 

Then we also had the "oro" conference on friday and we went to montevideo to have a conference with all the trainers and the new missionaries and it was really awesome. president eddy talked about the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ and why we share it. and it was super good! but the other exciting thing that happened this last week was that i had an intercambio with elder Padilla! he was my comp when we did the christmas call, and it was so awesome to work with him again, and its sad to think that due to pride we didn`t get a long very well until the last 3 or 4 weeks together, and now he is a great friend, but he wanted me to say hi to you guys and to thank joram again for the shoes!! he loves them! 

but ya we are all doing good! i hope you guys have a great week and i will see you next week!! Love you guys! 

Elder Jensen

the piano "guy"

[Aug 29, 2016 email #3]

So when we were in montevideo we went to Tres Cruces to take buses home and in the middle of the station, there was a piano... so we forced elder peterson to play the piano and he got a group of like 100 people to stop and listen to him!! we were able to talk to a couple people and it was probably one of the coolest moments of my mission, cause it was just something so simple as playing the piano, but it touched the life of 100s of people!

the  first video is him playing pirates of the carribbean with a decent size group but even more people started coming after! 

BEST DAY EVER!!!

[Aug 29, 2016 email #2]

..... after much time in the mission one learns to appreciate the little things... 

like fake cheap legos

What a week!!!

[Aug 29, 2016 email]

well this was a crazy week and a ton of stuff happened!! we had a training meeting with president this week and me and elder Drennan traveled on wednesday night at midnight got to montevideo at 6 in the morning, had the meeting and took a bus for 6 hours home and we got there at midnight! it was a long day! but it was an amazing meeting!  we talked about a lot of stuff, but we learned so much! 

 then on last monday, we went to the "free Shops" here in rio branco where they just have a ton of random crap for super cheap! (because its usually from brazil) and we found legos!!! and... a lightsaber!!! i now don`t have  any money but it was totally worth it!!! haha just kidding mom i still have food :) 

on the spiritual side, we have been able to have a couple more charlas with some investigators that would be progressing, but their still not going to church.... yesterday rained a lot :(  but claudio is doing a lot better and is really understanding but he is just having a hard time with smoking, but last time we took all of his cigarettes from him! so we are going to see how this week goes.  But ya things are really looking up, my comp and i are getting along really well and he is getting really used the mission, a lot faster than i did, and he has taught me alot! we are hoping for some big miracles this week!!  

Thanks so much for everything and i hope you all have a great week! 

love elder Jensen!  

#LEGOSareLIFE

What a week!!!

[Aug 29, 2016 email]

well this was a crazy week and a ton of stuff happened!! we had a training meeting with president this week and me and elder Drennan traveled on wednesday night at midnight got to montevideo at 6 in the morning, had the meeting and took a bus for 6 hours home and we got there at midnight! it was a long day! but it was an amazing meeting!  we talked about a lot of stuff, but we learned so much! 

 then on last monday, we went to the "free Shops" here in rio branco where they just have a ton of random crap for super cheap! (because its usually from brazil) and we found legos!!! and... a lightsaber!!! i now don`t have  any money but it was totally worth it!!! haha just kidding mom i still have food :) 

on the spiritual side, we have been able to have a couple more charlas with some investigators that would be progressing, but their still not going to church.... yesterday rained a lot :(  but claudio is doing a lot better and is really understanding but he is just having a hard time with smoking, but last time we took all of his cigarettes from him! so we are going to see how this week goes.  But ya things are really looking up, my comp and i are getting along really well and he is getting really used the mission, a lot faster than i did, and he has taught me alot! we are hoping for some big miracles this week!!  

Thanks so much for everything and i hope you all have a great week! 

love elder Jensen!  

#LEGOSareLIFE