Week 37

Dear Family,

Man the weeks are going by really fast. This week was definitely  full of lots of excitement. 

First off our zone accomplished our goal of 40 baptisms for the month with 8 men and as a zone we baptized 41 with 8 men!  It was a great month and our whole zone is suppper excited. Today we are going to have a giant party as a zone which should be a good time.  Goals are a really cool thing, they can help us with every thing that we need, they give us the pressure that we need to accomplish hard things and they show our desires to the Lord.  Its really cool to make our goal and to see the whole zone progressing. Elder Machado and I have baptized for 6 weeks in a row now and we are really working well together.

So its official the entire Santos family is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I couldn’t be more proud of all them, this family is so legit.Sunday after church the mother of the family, Nataly, was baptized it was a really great service and we had a ton of people there.  The coolest part was when Eduson, the father, bore his testimony.  He talked about how even though he fell away from the church he has always known it was true and that he is so happy that his family can be members of the same church and he’s very excited.  It was a really good testimony and he even cried, it was really powerful and it was probably one of my happiest moments on my mission that day when he thanked me and elder Machado for helping him come back to church and baptizing his family.  It was so great. 

Tuesday we did splits my zone leaders who are obsessed with splits.  Its so GREAT, and I was in charge of the area with elder Barbosa who is this Brazilian from the north who is like the same size as David.  He is 18 and this is his first transfer and he is a great missionary. It was cool , my ZL are trying to train me to be ready to be a senior comp so they are giving me time to act as a senior comp. It was a good day.  I learned a lot but its definitely going to be hard to be on my own and especially if I am with an African who cant speak Portuguese haha but I am excited.

Wednesday we went to the TEMPLE yeah first time in 6th months I have gone.  It was really great we have this really awesome older couple in our ward that go every week and they invited us to go so we just went we got there at 7 and it was a really great time.  It was really nice to just relax in the spirit and think alittle bit about life.  I did the session in Portuguese and I understood alot and learned alot of things. It was pretty awesome.

Friday we baptized a cousin of the Santos family, her name is Helen.  She is 20 and really cool. One day when we were teaching her she told us “I never thought that I would be a church girl but this church has something different.”  it was great.

Saturday we went to the sister’s area to do a interview of this kid named Michele.  Hes 20 and also way dope.  After the interview he asked me to baptize him since I had baptized his little brother a couple of weeks ago. It was also a cool experience.

Wow Thanks for sending me Davids talk.  This is a really good talk. I really like it and I actually learned alot thanks! Glad that Boons is growing up and becoming a great young man. Dad you should be proud that you have 4 young men that are trying to be worthy and strong in the church love you and thanks

So a very cool week we had 3 days in a row with baptisms and went to the temple and it was Pascoa or Easter so yeah very spiritual week!

love you all

ELDER JENSEN

Picture of Aaron with the Santos Family

Week 36

Dear family,

Well this week went so fast I feel like I didnt even do anything

Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the Zone leaders area and did splits.  I dont really like splits because it makes it hard to get work done in my area but it was a good experience. I always learn a lot when I go out with the zone leaders so yeah its cool. I was with elder Felex for both the days and he’s definitely a really good missionary and its always cool to see new teaching styles.  So both of the days i was there we taught these 2 girls...... they both are 16 and they entered the water of baptism on Saturday after I went back to my area.

Thursday we had a mission conference in Sao Paulo which was really awesome.  It started at 8:00am and went until about 5:30 so it was basically the whole day.

It was a really awesome experience and I definitely felt the spirit so strong.  Elder Cruz, the Area 70 over our mission was there and he did most of the teaching because President Ferrin is still struggling with Portuguese but it was way tight. Our mission is really challenged to baptize complete families so Elder Cruz pretty much was really harsh with us. It was pretty awesome he was really intense with us like Elder Holland. His main point was that we need to be teaching and baptizing men and families so that our stakes can split and our mission can progress.  

After he talked he showed the video with President Eyring and elder Holland when they talk about why a mission has to be so hard.  Its a really dope video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y 

If you havent seen it whatch it NOW.  It will change how you think about the challenges of your life.  its a super powerfull video.  As I watched this video I cried like a baby.  I thought about the difficult times of my mission and I thought about the parts of my mission when I was defeated by laziness, when I gave up and didnt do every thing I could do.  I feel as if I must give 100 percent of myself for the rest of my mission.  I have often asked the same questions that elder Holland asks.  I have struggled to understand why people dont understand why cant we have more success.  But as Elder Holland says, “this life, my mission, any callings that we have, any thing that we do in this life will never be easy because if it were not easy for Jesus Christ, why would it every be easy for us as men.

This video has really change the way I have think and feel about my mission and I am really greatful for my chance to be a missionary, to have the chance I have to work my butt of until my mission ends.  

At the end of the conference President Ferrin gave time for a testimony meeting and it was amazing.  My favorite part was a single phase an american elder taught.  He shared a quote that his dad always used to tell him, “Son you will have 2 years to be a missionary, to do the will of the lord and to teach and baptize as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will have the rest of ETERNITY to think about those 2 years.”  I have honestly decidee to give the rest of my mission 100 percent of myself and I have never been more excited to work as a servant of the lord.

 The rest of the week went pretty well.  The mother of the santos family that we are teaching right now did not get baptized yesterday because she got sick but I have alot of faith that this week she will be ready to be baptized

On Friday night we had a family night it was super tight, there was like 4 families; 3 from our ward and the santos family. I gave a really good message on the Book of Mormon and how the scriptures can help us with any problem that we have.  Through personal revelation we can find the answers to all of our problems in the scriptures.  It was really cool and then wee played Karioke which was tight hahaha we had tons of fun.

I love you all

ELDER JENSEN

 This is a picture of me and 4 of the 6 American Elders that entered the CTM with me at our mission conference we had.

Week 35

Congratulations Joe Watanabe! Sapporo, Japan!  Well that was the mission I also wanted hahahah but yeah he will have fun trying to teach people that god even exsits haha while I am here in Brasil baptizing every week haha.  Only jealous and bitter a little.

Dad I got and liked your scripture of the week, keep them coming.

Well this week was really cool, we baptized the children of the family that we have been teaching and the Mom came and watched the baptism it was awesome!  The dad was there as well and it was his first time back to church in 21 years so yeah pretty special Sunday.  It was stake conference here and it was pretty cool. 

President and sister Ferrin where there and both spoke which was really great.  Sister Ferrin is so great, bless her heart haha they have been in the mission for the same amount of  time as me but sister Ferrin is still really struggling with the portuguese but she’s trying really hard.  When she was up at the pulpit I just kept picturing mom in japan trying to give a talk in broken japonese haha just trying not to pass out because of the 600 people that were listening.  It was pretty great and then afteward dad getting up and saying some joke that isnt even funny.  They are both really great. Since we had stake conference our zone baptized all together in one baptism.  it was soooooo legit.  We had 20 people in white: 12 baptisms and 8 elders to baptize it was really spiritual and there were 100 people watching.  The water was reallllllly cold and the weather that day was rather nippy for Brasil so when the people were coming out of the water it was so awesome like a new life literally!  I love baptizing people in freezing water- its the greatest part about the mission.  I baptized Nyckolous and a man the sisters taught named Weliton.  It was really cool and I am really getting good at laying people in the water haha but no matter how many times I baptize I still get the same feeling.  Its really awesome how strong the spirit is when you get ready to baptize and your are all in white its the best feeling on earth.  I feel sorry for the sisters because they dont get to enter the water.

On Saturday night the dad of the family we are teaching bore a really strong testimony about how he really wants to have his whole family strong in the church because he knows that its a good church for his family and that its the true organization of the Church of Jesus Christ.  It was really tight but his wife wasnt there to hear it! But she is liking everything so I think we should have another interesting week.

Almost forgot Patrick, my friend from sao jose dos campos, my last area came out and visited us for the weekend.  Hes doing really good and he just got ordained as an elder and is really growing in his faith really strong. Hes such an awesome guy and will be a amazing missionary.

I love you all and hope things are good

Elder Jensen

Mom-I am not sick from the river of Shiz.  I am fine and yes i finally got the package. thanks i loved the pics and I am pumped to make curry obviously it will be way lousy because idk how to cook but it will be better then nothing.

Week 34

Whats up in the crib of Littleton?

Well this week was pretty interesting.  

We really focused on this family that we found in the favela (Ghetto).  We went to their house every night, it was tight.  The family is reaalllly cool ,super nice and very receptive.  So on Tuesday at about 6pm it started to poooor rain, like a lot! And we were going over to this family’s house.  They live in the favela and the streets there are dirt. But the street they live on is like at the bottom of a valley, pretty much like 2 huge hills on each side. So with the rain their street turns into a river-like straight up-it was like brown and nasty and we had to cross this river to get to their house.  So by this time we were already soaking wet because of the rain so we just went for it and started to walk though this river but this river was sooo nasty like full of garbage and smelt like crap.  Elder Machado said "Oh great now we get to walk though the river of shiz!”  hahah sooo funny. It was crazy and the current was super strong.  I took 5 steps and then the water got knee deep and it was so strong that I fell over and seriously floated down the street like a straight up noob.  It was so funny I was just like laughing the whole time.  Luckily I wasn’t walking with my camera that day or it would have been toast.  So when we got to the members house I was drenched and super dirty and nasty because I just took a bath in the local favela sewage bath. but yeah, so they gave me a towel and I taught this family like super wet.  But wait it gets better because the next day when I woke up I was totally sick. awesome with a really gnarly cold. But I didn’t let it slow me down. so yeah the week was pretty good.  We taught this family like every day and they are really progressing pretty well.  This week the children will be baptized and they are both pretty excited so thats cool.  The mom is a little bit more difficult because she like to get her drank on with the girls.  What a great mom but the dad is really helping her and he is getting really in to the livor de Mormon (Book of Mormon) so thats cool.  He’s in jaco already! 

We also worked with another young man this week and he was baptized on Saturday.  He was supposed to get baptized with Welson but he had to spend the weekend with his dad so we pushed his date back one more week.  He is also really tight and way stoked to be a member.  He has already way good friends with the other deacons because like half of them showed up for his baptism.  It help that we bribed them with brownies!  hahah  But after sacrament meeting he asked me when he will get the priesthood and I said well lets talk to the bishop.  So we went and talked to the Bishop and Eduardo and the bishop had a interview right then and next week he will become a deacon awesome! He’s such a stud and I know he will be a good example to his family and help his mom stay strong in the church.

Love

Elder Jensen 

Dad you are the dopest dad that ever lived hahaha you are only missing a mustache! I love you  (WE forwarded a picture of Chris wearing a long sleeved polyester shirt with an Eagle on it from Uncle Rico

Photos!

Week 32

Hello family

Well tis march....... and pretty much all I want to do is grow a fat mustache. Is that really to much to ask for?  I want some good mustache photos:

NAY, PETE, ALEX, MATT, CON, BEN, DAD AND ALL OTHERS WHO ARE DOPE ENOUGH TO SPORT A STASH.  Dad if you grow a mustache for all of March I will give you any thing you want. ANYTHING

 Sorry for not writing last week, things were hectic that day because Elder Machado thought he was going to get transferred so we only spent only 30 mins in the Alan house and then we just visited people like all day. it was pretty tight.  Everyone was giving us tons of food and it was just a good time.  But at 9 oclock at night we found out that he would stay another transfer here with me so… No I dont have a new comp after all.  Pretty much our zone stayed the same but we got a new sister and yes she’s 19! So awesome to see hew new sisters.

 Every thing is good here in Bela vista, I am loving the mission HAHAH so this week went pretty well.  We focused on this kid named Welson.  He is 12 and his older sister is a member and is thinking about serving a mission so first she wants to try to help her family which I think is supper dope.  Welson is super chill he got baptized on saturda y night and confimed on sunday every thing went super cool and super strong and already has tons of friends in the ward.  The great part of his story was on Friday we went to his house to check in on him and go over the baptismal interview questions with him. When we got there his sister and mom told us that he was sick in bed and that we should come back the next day.  When in for or a little so we talked to him and he was really bad, he couldn’t even talk.  He has an illness called dengue fever when you just ache really bad and get a fever.   He also had a really bad sore throat and he was spiting out blood and could barely talk.  It was pretty sad and it was even worse because he was crying because he was worried that he wasn’t going to be able to get baptized.  Hes such a stud, so so we asked him if he had faith that god could heal him and he said yes so we gave him a blessing.  After the blessing we said goodbye and wished him well.  The next day at 6 oclock when we got to his house to take him to his baptism we see him out in the street playing soccer. it was so cool and the best part is he sees us from afar and when he is running to us he yells, “the blessing worked! God healed me!” it was a really cool story for me and really strengthened my testimony on the power of blessings and the power of faith of people.  He choose me to baptize him so that was also cool that I got to enter the water again.  Funny part, my companion turned the font on before we went to his house and by the time we had gotten back to the chapel the font  was like overfilling  and the ground outside the chapel was all wet.  Hahah--only a little bit.  It wasnt a big deal  because its tile but when I baptized Welson the water was at his shoulder level  so it was like the easiest baptism ever.  I just like pushed his head under a little bit.  Good times.

We have been teaching alot of good people lately as normal so we have been super busy as normal. So the work is really good in other words.  We found this family that is super tight.  The dad is already a member. He was baptized when he was like 17 and after he fell away because he played a lot of soccer on Sunday.  (Don’t play sports on Sunday kids!)  but he says that he just forgot about the church and he says that he wants to return and that he likes the family aspect of the church. So the Dad and his daughter and son both came to church with us this Sunday.  Unfortunately, the mom didn’t come but I think she will next week so we are really excited for this new family that we have found and we are going to definitely work really hard to baptize them.

We also have been teaching a less active sister’s son whose name is Eduardo and he is like a genius. I swear he’s super tight. He’s going to get baptized this Sunday and he is way excited and committed.  His mom is also coming back to church so that cool. On Sunday night last week we had a family night at their house with a ward family that knows her.  It was really fun we played Charades.  It was a blast but impossible for me because I dont have the vocab for it yet.  It made me think of the good times in the Breck house with the Holmes: Andrew and Carolann and I just poowwning every one and mom giving answers out like candy to other teams to be nice. hahah Not going to lie I got a little trunky.  After the game we made brownies and they were so good. Then we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ  to the less active lady’s sister who was there too and she accepted to be baptized as well!!  So it was a really good night.

Things are really good. I am loving life and just chilling it up here in Brazil.

Love

Elder Jensen

More Pictures!

Week 21

First off I didn’t get transferred.  I was just trolling (joking) hahaha just wanted mom to freak out just for fun hahaha.  I am horrible I know it!  So all is good. 

(Maternal Interjection here.  I was totally freaked out and worried and YES I will get him back for Trolling me)

Glad to hear you guys are having fun in Denver.  Thats cool that boons (David)  is Dads  home teaching comp as a 13 year old hahaha I miss him tons.  Glad its snowing. I was starting to think that this global warming stuff was real and that snow wouldn’t ever fall when I got back to the states!

So this week was pretty normal I guess. On pday we flew kites which was awesome fun.  Every boy in brazil over the age of 4 has a kite and all day every day thats all they do is fly kites. So elder Payne and I decided to fly kites on Pday It was pretty fun and cost a total of 1 real per kite so like 50 cents so it was a good activity. We went down to the park and we started to fly but apparently its actually kindof hard so it took us awhile to get ok at it and then I totally got my kite wrapped around a telephone wire but then I just bought a knew one. We flew kites like all day and elder Payne got super sunburned on his neck, Iit was great. 

Tuesday we had transfers and our whole district stayed in the same place it was pretty unexciting day.  

Both of are possible baptisms for this week  both decided that they didn’t want to be baptized so that was kinda dissapointing but I guess sometimes people are just really stubborn and don’t have faith.  

We started to teach a member Cassias cousin this week. Her name is Gabriela and shes soooo cool, she’s 18 and really nice and just really interested in learning about the church its really cool. We taught her the first lesson at the chapel with Cassia and it was just really a super good lesson.  Then the next day we were teaching her in this park after she got off work down in the city. We were teaching the plan of salvation and it was a really good lesson again. She pays attention and asks like the best questions, for example, “ So umm how do I go to the celestial kingdom?” or “You mean I can live with my family for ever?”  Shes great but after the lesson we were talking about the book of mormon and about her prayers and she responds that she didn’t really get any answers yet and then this homeless dude comes up to us, he is like supper wasted and just starts preaching about God and Jesus and the devil haha it was great.  We were all laughing are heads off but then he started singing some song about how Jesus loves us and believes in us. It was great and after like 10 minutes of trying to get this guy to leave us alone he finally leaves and Gabi is just like I don’t really know how to put this but that homeless guy just gave me an answer to my prayers and I know the book of mormon is true!  Elder Payne just starts laughing cuz hes a noob but I just looked at her and said, “thats awesome Gabi so will you go to church with us this week and be baptized next Sunday”?  Without hesitation she replied “Yes I will!”  It was sooo cool and made the phase God works in mysterious ways way more true.  It was like a super cool experience. So on Sunday she went to church and really liked it and said she just felt really different there. I love when people say that hahah its the best!  She is like really firm on getting baptized this Sunday. 

Thursday and Friday it rained a lot which really stinks.  It just isn’t very fun to walk in the rain all day, but it does feel good to not be in 40C weather which is like 104F so yeah its way to hot here.

We are teaching this old guy named José who is super cool he is pretty short little guy who has the coolest accent ever.  He says random words like suppppper high pitched voice. its so funny.  He wants to get baptized but he keeps bailing out on church so its kindof annoying and impossible to baptize him. Friday we taught him the word of wisdom and he said the he drank about 4 cups of coffee every day and how it makes sense why we don’t drink it because he knows he’s addicted to it. Every time we teach the word of wisdom the investigator always says the word addiction before we do.  Its really cool to see that people understand that these things are bad for them. José said he would quit drinking coffee but we will see how that goes. 

Pretty much every thing is going good here. I cant wait to talk to you guys over Christmas 

LOVE, Elder Jensen

Pictures of a baptism from last week and the Thanksgiving Dinner I made with Elder Payne

Week 30

Dear Family

 Well this week went realllllllly fast. It feels like I just wrote you a letter yesterday.

So first off I got Sarah’s wedding invitation this week which was really nice. Just like to say congrats to her and David and I am sure they will be great together and only a little sad that I was the only big cousin who wasn’t there but I guess that’s a mission.

So when all of you were shredding the gnar (skiing and snowboarding) this week I was here in brazil melting of heat exhaustion. This week it was like 40 c everyday at least which is like 105 F until about 5 o’clock and then it just pours fat rain all night long and by the time we get to the house we are just like drenched!  its super tight!  This week went pretty well. On Tuesday we went the sister’s area and made contacts all day to help them find some new people, it was a pretty cool day actually.  We went to the biggest favella (ghetto) in their area and just started teaching every one.  After  3 hours these 6 big dudes came up to us and asked us “what was up” and we explained that we were missionaries and stuff.   The leader was like “oooooo alright I thought you boys were from the police and we was about to pop you all” speaking in the most ghetto Portuguese I have ever heard in my life.  It was sooo intense but then he said “but you guys are from the church?” and I was like yeah we just want to teach about Jesus and this guy who is like the king of the favella said “you know what? you guys need to baptize every one in this place!” so he told us to hold on and he left and came back in  10 mins with 30 people and we straight up taught a sermon to all these people.  It was sooo cool and it was only alittle bit scary.  Haha but way tight story!

So the rest of the week my comp was really pumped to teach poor people in the favellas so it was an interesting week. In the favellas it is really easy to teach people because the people have nothing but they are really lazy and have a lot of problems so I have mixed feelings about teaching a lot there.  So the area we are working in is pretty compacted, which is tight because we get to teach a lot more. We are teaching a ton of people its going really good.  We have a girl in our ward who is 19 and she is getting ready to serve a mission and she has decided to try to teach and baptize the rest of her family before she leaves on her mission. So we have been going over to her house a lot to work with her family and teach.  Its pretty cool,  Her parents are stubborn but she has a lot of brothers so we are going to baptize 2 of them this week which should be tight and hopefully the parents will come and watch. ummmm  I really cant think today so I am just going to end, my mind is fried from the heat but I I love you all

I hope all is well. 

AARON GABRIEL JENSEN

When people ask me what my first name is I tell them Gabriel because no one can say Aaron hahaha its so funny so that’s my new name.

This is a picture of a part of our area called Cabuçu, its really pretty but way far away.  There are about 50 members that live out there so we are trying to start a branch out there which is pretty exciting. I think it would be tight to have another 2 elders in our ward to work out in that area so we could really get this branch started.

Thanks for the photos of you skiing on Presidents Day! Does Connor have a mustache!!!!!! super jelly (very jealous) man that looks sooo great not going to lie I really want to ride right now but instead its been about 110 degrees here for the last week. So its tight

Translation:  tight is great and horrible, just a universal adjective like fetch.

Week 29

Dear Family 

Well this week was a little bit less dope that my last few weeks.

Its Carnival here in brazil which is like Mardi Gras but way more intense. Pretty much it is NOT GOOOOOOD FOR MISSIONARY WORK.  It was a hard week because everyone was either traveling our just partying.  So remember how we live on like a super sketchy street?  Well this week every night there were like tons of people in the street dancing to samba and funk ALL NIGHT.  It made it really hard to sleep as you could imagine. hahah On Saturday night I literally didn’t sleep at all. It was dooooope! but as dad says sleep is for the weak so its all good. I am fine just kinda zombie like. But this week we still managed to pull out a baptism and we meet some pretty cool people. 

On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Ferrin and man was it awesome. I talked to him for about 40 mins and I learned a lot and I am really glad he is my mission president.  He is teaching us all about obedience and about being excited when we work and having a smile. It was cool. I really have learned how to be more enthusiastic about my work here with elder Machado and I really think it makes a big difference in our teaching. The obedience part of being a missionary is a never ending effort.  There is always something that you can do better. I would say that elder Machado really understand the correlation between how obedient we are and how much the Lord helps us in our work so its pretty cool.  And we astrive to keep even the littlest of rules.  When we were waiting to be interviewed on Wednesday the Assistants gave us a really cool training on trusting in our Mission president because he was called of God. Our assistants our really cool and I really look up to them.  It was a really great training I learned a lot. 

This week we got a reference for this lady who is about 35 and is way cool we started to talk to her about life just to try to get to know her and she pretty much just like tells us her life story.  It was crazy she has been smoking, drinking and using drugs like addicted to all of them for 20 years.  She started when she was about 15 and how now she really wants to stop because she is loosing her children because she cant take care of them. Its crazy her oldest child is 17 and he is super tight. Hes like really straight edge and pretty much takes care of his mom. This lady told us that she has been sober for 3 days and that she was praying for help so we taught her the word of wisdom and it went really well and on Sunday she came to church and she really liked it.  But shes kinda crazy so idk how things will go with her.  So I am excited to really teach this family and help this mom a change her life and keep her family together. I know that this gospel can really change her life and really help this family. 

Today we went to a street called the 25 of May in downtown Sao Paulo which is just like a huge market.  It was pretty cool and I bought a new pair of shoes. So I had to take out some money.

But yeah this week was all right but I have faith that this next week will be better. I love you and hope all is well 

ELDER JENSEN 

This is a picture of our Assistants, Elder Toala from Samoa.  He goes home in a month. Tell Carson Crawford he is interested.  We traded ties so we took a photo. hes super dope! 

Elder Machado has gained 45 pounds on his mission!  Haha I am scared for my well being

Im the only Elder in my Zone that speaks English! Help Me!!! JK

Week 28

Hello family 

This week was great! Elder Machado and I are really starting to work really well together and things are going awesome here.  To start off we had a baptism this week and it was cool.  We baptized this girl named Mariana who has been going to church for 2 years with her older sister who is a member but Mariana wasn’t baptized because her mom never had let her.  But the story is super cool.  So the first day we went over to her house her mom was hesitant to let us in to teach but we got in and taught the first lesson and it went really well. The mom really liked us but she wasnt really interested in the message but we gained her trust and then we focused on Mariana and really pushed her for baptism. It was tight  because we taught her  all week and she memorized every thing and except for the first lesson her mom wasn’t home, it was just us and her and her grandma and her older sister who are both members.  So it was a really good teaching environment.  On Friday before the interview we did a review lesson with Mariana and her mom was there and it was awesome.  We asked her all these questions and she remembered everything and it really showed her mom that Mariana was ready and serious about baptism. Her uncle baptized her so it was really cool and the best part was that her mom actually came to church so now we are going to see how she feels about the gospel and really try to baptize her as well.  

Last Sunday a missionary opened up his call during sacrament meeting to Cutatiba Brasil and it was really cool.  His whole family was there including his grandparents who are not members but have been going to church for about a year.  The grandpa cried during the service and apparently has been debating getting baptized for a long time but now he is sure that he wants to so it was super cool for him.  He and his "wife" aren’t married legally so we are going to help them get married first and then baptize them together so that will be really cool. 

We are teaching 3 other families as well.  One is a family with a mom and 3 kids 8, 10 and 12.  The kids have come to church with us 2 times now and they all want to get baptized but we really want to try to help all of them get baptized together.  We might have to do it separately and have the baptism of the kids be a motivation for the mom to go to church and then baptize her the next Sunday But the family is super tight, like really funny and really nice.  We watched the restoration movie with them last night and I really think it touched the mom.  She is just really busy with work and life.  She works from 9 to 7 everyday except Sunday and she is a single mom, she’s a really hard worker and I know that she wants the best for her children.  This morning we went over to their house  and helped them clean their house and I laid tile in their bathroom which was just cement floor.  It was actually pretty good and I am pretty proud of my work, looks way better.  It was fun to lay some tile and help their family but I really could have used good old Seth Reardon to help me out! hahaa. 

The second family is like a straight up fevela family hahah  We were walking through this super poor area and this lady called at us from her window and said she wanted us to teach her it was pretty cool actually.  We taught them but only the daughter came to church with us so we will see. 

And the third family is a JAPONESA family its soooo cool!  I KNEW I would get the chance to teach some Japanese people and this family is super cool.  They are a dad, a mom and 3 kids ages 17, 15 and 6.  The 2 older kids came to church with us and want to get baptized but the parents are a little bit more hesitant. The dad is actually Buddhist????? no one is Buddhist in Brazil but he is Japanese so i guess it makes sense.  haha  The family has known the missionaries for a while now but this week when the older boy came to church so we are seeing some improvement. The struggles of their family is that the dad is hardly ever home so its hard to teach them and the marriage is kinda falling apart but I know that the gospels can really help this family and I have faith that with the help of the lord we can really unite this family and get them all baptized and eventually sealed in the temple.   That would be sooooo cool like literally my dream because I am pretty sure I was sent to this mission to help this family.  There has got to be some way I can connect with the people of my land (Japan) haha I am really trying to get the mom to invite us over so I can eat Japanese food. I miss it sooo much!  Mom you should send me Japanese food--what ever you can maybe even curry mix..... idk but I am really excited about the work here and I really want to help these families.

So we started teaching English on Tuesday nights at the chapel and man is it hard to teach.   I really stink at it.  We had about 12 people show up and it was a wreck so I am not very excited about tomorrow but I have been planning and really thinking about what I am going to teach.  Butit will be fun i hope hahah. 

This week 3 people have came up to us in the street and just randomly have told us that Jesus loves us. So cool and every time it really makes me happy to be a missionary and to be able to serve the lord its great! 

Well got to go but love you all and miss you tons hope all is well.

ELDER JENSEN 

Week 27

 Well i got transferred to Guarulhos, a big city outside of Sao Paolo and its really tight.  my new comp is elder Machado he is from Argentina and he is super cool.  He has been out for a year and 4 months and hes a cool guy.  Our area is pretty much way sicker then my last area it has a lot more people its pretty cool.  We live on rua 13,  which is like the Federal of Denver haha like drugs all over the place and lotsssss of funk Brazilian music blasting right in front of our house.  Every night this dude blasts music like all night until 3 in the morning but it actually makes me sleep really well hahah  Our house is pretty cool we live on the upper story of a supermarket and it is pretty nice and we have a pretty cool view from the deck.  The house is much nicer then my other house so its cool but yeehaw in our house I live with 3 elders and none of them speak a lick of english...... so I haven’t said 1 word in English for the last 7 days. I would say my Portuguese is getting way better so its really tight.  I am pretty much talking easily but have definitely been praying for the dom de liguas or  gift of tongues a lot this week

The other elders in our house are really crazy and we get along really well. so things are really good here in BELA VISTA. Te ward is sooo cool its like double the size of my old ward and there are tons of really great families. Im not going to lie I am kinda stressing because I don’t know this area yet so I have a lot of people to meet and stuff to do here but man I am so excited to work this area is sooo legit.  Way more people in the street to talk to and the people are really open and chill. On Saturday we had this ward activity where 16 war members went out and did contacts with the us it was sooo sick!  We got 27 addresses and it was only an hour long!!!!! So we have soo many people to teach its crazy. Elder Machado’s old comp was a bit of a slaker and didn’t really do much work so when I arrived  here we pretty much started from 0.  It was kinda slow the first couple of days but now things are going awesome and I am really liking Guarulhos.  

All is good, I don’t have much time and got to go 

love you 

Elder Jensen

Tell the Jensen lassies they are awesome and congrats from me and that I want to see them dance.

Way dope picture of the Jensen boys first day of skiing!

I love you dad and wish I could be there to shred and play with you guys o yeah about boons I told david that he can have my stump jumpper bike just make sure he takes good care of it and that he rides every day in the summer with you cuz i want to ride with my old man when I get home  

This is a picture of my companion.  We are addicted to maté its soooo guuuuud 

Week 26

Dear Family,

First off I am super pumped for Nathan Jensen, that’s probably like the coolest most prefect call I could think of for him! I can just imagine him walking the streets in Taiwan just towering over everyone like a giant in his white shirt and tie with his mouth moving a million miles a minute and having Mandarin Chinese coming out of it all while he is holding a blue book in his hand. Its going to be a great 2 years for him and I know he is going to be a super great missionary. I have no doubt about it. 

This week has been pretty alright.  Monday we went to the sisters area and worked with them to try to get them out of a dry spot they are in.  They have a tendency to teach older men who just drink all day and aren’t really getting anywhere with their investigators.  So elder Payne and I went over and just went to a ton of members houses and asked for references and made contacts with young people like all day to try to get them some new people to teach.   It was pretty successful for the most part and it was pretty fun until we got rained on like a ton. haha  It rained soooo hard and we got soaked from  head to toe but that is an everyday activity here now so I am used to it I guess. When it was raining we saw this telephone pole about 10 yeards from us get struck by lightning and the power box on it exploded, it was so crazy. It was just like this super bright flash of light and then a big bang but it was tight and only scared us alot. So on Wednesday it rained all day again, it was pretty crappy so we were wet like the whole day again and we didnt really get that much stuff done. 

Thursday we taught Alisandra with our friend Patrick which was pretty good. When we knocked the door she was like you can only come in for 15 mins and we were ok cool and then we ended up talking for 1 hour and a half it was great but she felt like she is not ready to get baptized yet because she is a perfectionist.  Patrick a recent convert in our ward bore his testimony and man it was really cool he talked about how she needed to act on the feeling she is having and get baptized.  It was cool he shared a scripture that was really bold andd after he stopped talking Alisandra said “I felt something when you were talking” but she still wanted more time to think and pray before she gets baptized.  The members can be so powerful. 

We were dry this week (in terms of baptisms) unfortunatly and ended this trasfer kinda weak.  But on Saturday we went out to the boonies of our area to teach a member’s friend which was pretty cool.  We taught this lady named Erica and her mom the first lesson.  Their house was all cement and thats it and was lit by candles.  It felt like I was in a cave and they were both really excited to get a book a Mormon and to read it.  So I feel good about them but they cant go to church until next week. 

Saturday night we went out to the sushi place again and stuffed are faces it was great fun we had a good group of people go, like a going away party. I still might stay here, we still don’t no until tonight. 

Sunday we had a good service and this American dude showed up who speaks no Portuguese.  It was fun to speak English to him but he was just there for the week on a trip.  After church we chilled with Patrick because he is going up to Fortaleza to visit Elder De Oliviera, my old comp for a month.  Im  kinda jealous of him.  So yesterday will probably be the last time I see Patrick for a while so we took him to the bus station and said good byes. Sunday night we went over to josys house  for dinner and family night.  Elder payne and I made waffles and it was fun. 

A pretty good week but I am ready to leave this area and meet some new investigators but who knows maybe I will stay another transfer here.   This week I got alot of letters and your package mom so thanks for making me fat, but the steak strips are sooooo good love them.  I got a lot of letters, including Drew’s emails and man are they great!  He is such a good example to me and I cant believe he is a DL and training already.  His letters give me a lot of confidence and I have learned a lot from reading them so please keep sending them. 

I love you all

ok well peace out 

all is goood 

ELDER JENSEN 

Week 25

ear Family

This week went pretty good.  Unfortunately though when 3 of our investigators talked to their parents this week about baptism and their parents said  that if they were baptized they would all be living on the streets the next week so we only had 1 of are 4 baptisms.  But at least we still had one. Her name was Carol, she is the older sister of Gabi the girl we baptized a few weeks ago and she is just as cool as Gabi. 

This week it was really cold for brazil actually which means about 60 degrees, so it was pretty cool, but it was also really rainy so I was soaking wet every day.  When we got back to the house it was great! Love it.  So yesterday when we had our baptism it was pretty cold and the water in the font is like only cold water so it was already bad enough with those two elements but apparently the elders in are zone baptized in our church last Sunday night and all of are  baptism jumpsuits were still wet from the week before.  So carol had to put on a cold wet jump suit and then go in to the cold water to get baptized.  It was so bad but elder Payne baptized her and I witnessed and her face when she came out of the water was priceless, she was just like shocked, like mom’s face when she jumps off cliffs in lake Powell.  I thought she was going to do one of those wicked screams like Mom.  It was great and it was a pretty cool service and she was totally excited about it.  Gabi spoke about how happy she was that her sister was getting baptized and man the spirit was super strong. 

That was definitely the best part of the week. Today for Pday we got a tons of youth from our ward and went to the city park and had a picnic and slaked lined like all day and played soccer and great dow (the card game) it was really fun.  It was mostly all of our recent converts so it was  a really good time. It was kinda sad though because this might be my last Pday in this area because transfers are next week. SO I guess we will see.  I would be fine with staying here, its a really good area and elder Payne and I are starting to really get the hang of things.  We teach like crazy and try to get as many people to come to church with us which makes the weeks really go fast.  We  only have time to think on Sunday and Monday. 

On Tuesday our ZL came to our area and we did splits with him it was fun. Three Americans just teaching like fools!.  This week we focused on this mom and her daughter to prep them to be baptized next week.  I think they are pretty excited and I  hope they dont have any problems  but I guess thats just part of it.  It makes it more fun when you get to really help change people’s lives instead of just telling people things and they accept them.  

So funny story we went to Josés house this older guy like 65 and talked to him alittle to find out why he didnt go to church last week.  It turns out he went to church he just didn’t enter.  He lives kinda far and is a little bit old so when he got there he said he was like super sweaty and he felt like he could not go inside all sweaty so he just turned around and went home.  He was laughing his head off when he told us the story.  He is great and really funny. 

I want to make a shout out to my little brother Nathan.  I am so proud of him for his choice to serve a mission and I know without a doubt he will be a killer missionary and will help tons of people wherever he is sent.  Nathan has always been an example to me being that he was always super obedient it made me feel bad when I did stupid things in front of him haha!  But I am just glad to have a brother as sick as Nathan, the sexy 6.4 blondy haha.  I  miss him tons and wish him a good mission.

I love you all 

Elder Jensen

Answers to your questions:  

there are no zones in brasil that rides bikes, its just to dangerous cuz people eat it to much 

I dont need any other clothes right now

and I am stoked for Aya 

Pictures

We played soccer in this dome

This is one of our great members of our ward

Week 24

Apparently “tight” has replaced "sick" as the adjective of the week

Well this week was awesome. 

Elder Payne and I are really starting to get the hang of it and we should have alot of success in the next couple of weeks here in Jardim Paulista. 

Monday for PDay we went over to Deigos house and ate lunch with him and played great dow like all day. It was super fun.  I was speaking really great Portuguese finally so that made it tight.  Deigo lives with his cousin Denis who is super cool and we just like chilled with him. Denis is really busy so we didn’t get to teach him but he said that next week he would come to church with us so thats tight!  It was a really good Pday We slaked lined for a little bit too.  This kid in the park just had one set up and I just walked the whole thing the first time it felt really nice to slack again, wish I had one out here it would be a good Pday activity but too heavy to carry around.  

New Years stuff not really a big deal.  Brazilians do the same thing for all their holidays which consists of drinking alot of beer and blasting funk that music I sent you for Christmas for like 24 hours straight.  It gets pretty annoying and eating chuhasco which is like Brazilian BBQ.  Bit it was pretty much a normal night for us we just stayed in and ate ice cream and got up on the top of our house and watched fire works and then went to bed or tried to but the music in the streets made it hard. I wish I could have been there for the family Japanese food party.  I really miss Japanese food here so much, but they do have yakults here so I drink them sometimes but thats pretty much the only Asian food I really eat, kind of sad.  It sounds like you guys had a fun break, wish I could have been there. The blind karaoke game they got from me, we used to play that at BYU all the time. I love it !

This week we were really hitting on all 4 cylinders, just teaching really well and working really great as a companionship and I have really started to get a lot more out of my personal study time with the new goals I set for myself.  This week we have been teaching Gabi’s younger sister Carol who is 19 and is super cool just like Gabi.  We watched the restoration video with her one night and afterward were talking about how she felt about it all.  Her response was really cool.  She said that the questions that Joseph Smith was asking were like the same questions she had and she felt really good about this church!  It was tight so she went to church with us and I definitely think she will get baptized this Sunday!  Saturday night we went over to Carols and Gabi’s house with 3 more  investigators and we taught a really great lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It went really well and after the lesson elder Payne made brownies and the girls Gabi and Carol were just like making tons of food.

We are also teaching these 4 girls that live on Joyses street, the lady we had Christmas with, and all of them want to get baptized to, so thats really too cool.  We taught them the word of wisdom on Friday and one of them told us that she had given up coffee 2 days earlier because she found out about the word of wisdom online and felt bad cuz she was drinking 3 cups of coffee every day.  Elder Payne and I were just like sooo stoked when she told us!  I was like running around the house just like yeeeeesssss!  One of them had to take a big test this Sunday but the other 3 went to church with us so we should have 4 baptism this Sunday if everything goes right.  So right now we are really focused on these 4 investigators to get them baptized this week but we also have a lot of other investigators who have a lot of potential this random girl from Rio came to our ward this week and she brought a friend who lives in our area and is a nonmember and is interested in hearing the lessons so thats cool.  We also have a couple of families who seen pretty cool  but honestly this week is going to be really good and really busy so I am really excited to teach and work this week.  Hopefully everything will go as planed and we can finish this transfer off strong and with some baptisms. 

Glad to hear that all of you are having fun and well 

love you 

Elder Jensn  (thats how people here say it haha so funny)

Week 23 - New Years!

Hello & Happy New Year 

This week was really great to talk to all of you! it was definitely a really weird experience and i am stilll freaking out how much david has already changed holy cow he is like a different person already. so this week we pretty much lived at the Andrade families house because we went there on Monday night for Christmas eve, went there on Christmas like the whole day and then on Wednesday we had lunch with them, it was great and we are teaching like a lot of there friends so its super tight. 

but ok so first off i officially gained 4 pounds this week because like all we did this week was eaaaaaaat.  It was great fun but now i am pretty much like going crazy dieting so i can lose it because i dont want to be fat hahah. 

This week the missionary work was a little delayed but it definitely happened.  On Wednesday we were feeling really lazy so we just decided to work our butts off and really try to get a ton of new people it was cool we went out with Josy the mom of the andrade family and talked to like 4 families on their street it was super cool and we taught some really good lessons. and this is pretty much how like the whole week went were just worked really hard, talked to every one and just really wanted to bring like every one to church. 

Sunday came around and we and like 17 people that said the were going to come to church and we were like really stoked but of course only 1 of them actually came hahah but whatever I guess at least we had some at church with us. but church was really good elder Payne and i talked in sacrament meeting!!!!!!  We were the only speakers so i was pretty nervous and only peed my pants a tiny bit  we both talked on missionary work and how members need to bring people to church and really be missionaries it was a pretty good sacrament meeting and I only cried for like 30 secs  when I was bearing my testimony it was sooo cool just to look down at the congregation at my recent baptisms. The best part of church tho was afterward our investigator this 65 year old guy named Jose came up to me and said  i like it and am definitely coming back next week it was pretty sick hahah he said he didnt want to get baptized yet because he want to get his wife to come  and be baptized with him so we will see how it goes. 

Sunday night we had a family night with the andrade family and it was awesome, 8 investigators ended up coming and the spirit was really strong and after we played some fun games the best part tho was when Gabi the girl we baptized this last week and confirmed yesterday bore her testimony. Man it was sick she brought her older sister and it was crazy she talked about how much her life changed now that she is a member of this church and how she thinks so much differently about her life and just how much happy she is know that she has this purpose in her life. it was so cool when she was talking i was just like so happy to be a missionary and to know that I am actually helping people change and bring happiness to people's lives it was really cool experience. 

so today being the last day of 2012 I have being  thinking of how i can improve and change.  How I can be a better missionary a better comp and a better Representative of Jesus Christ.  It is  a new year and a great chance for us to change ourselves for the better.  I wish you all a happy new year and hope that you can all make at least one goal that will push you to be a better person and a better member a better example or whatever 

I love You

Elder JENSEN