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