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