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!