Elder Jensen update

May 6, 2010

 

Hi family! Greetings from my beloved Trelew. We've had a good gira so far. We started out last Saturday to come on down to Bariloche. We worked with the zone leaders in their area. Their area is a bit tough-- it's a really really rich area in Bariloche, so they don't teach and find nearly as much as other areas in the mission. We were really excited though-- on Saturday from 4-9, we found 5. Then Sunday elder Crandell and elder Hudnall found a few. Then Monday, together we found 5 more. It was a really successful weekend. Elder Argueta is one of those zone leaders in Bariloche, so it was fun to be able to work with him again. It was really good for both of us--he is really struggling with humbling himself and being a good companion, and I'm struggling with not being tired! So it was a good time for us to kinda drop the cane on each other and still love each other at the same time. The zone in Barilo is really struggling with unity. When we first got there for the conference, I was a bit frustrated because as the missionaries walked into the chapel; they formed 2 groups-- latins and north Americans. One group spoke English, the other Spanish. I was the only North American over with the latins, and it was just ugly and I know thats how it is on p-days and district meetings. So, luckily in these zone conferences, Elder Crandell and I do an obedience chat at the beginning. So in that, we dropped cane hard on speaking the language and exactly why it was a problem. It was perfect-- I used the being devastated tactics in doing it, asking some reflective questions that kinda made them understand. It went really well-- for the rest of the conference, Spanish was spoken and they didn't divide into groups. It was a great change, and we really needed that there. Also, the missionary we visited 2 weeks ago was smiling and just doing great. I was really happy. I talked to him for a bit and just expressed how happy he seemed and how much he had changed. He spoke some fun broken English back to me and told me he was reading the book of Mormon and that was helping him so much. It was really touching for me to see the drastic change that he had taken. A lot of times we think we are here just to change investigators when the reality is that we change ourselves more than anyone else.

 

We saw elder Bowen on Sunday. He gave a talk in stake conference about fasting, paying a generous fast offering, and paying a full tithing. I love hearing him speak because he drops it on everyone but does it in a really loving way and as he does it, everyone knows that he is exactly right. Mom- he told me to tell you hi. He's going to beat me back to the states by a transfer, but said `I'm sure we'll see you there! `

 

Matias got confirmed this last Sunday, and little Samuel is still anxious to get baptized. Elder Henrie and Elder Pederson in the office are taking care of our area for us this week, and so they get to set up the interview and everything. We are anxious to find out what happens with Ezequiel. He is still borderline if he is going to do it or not. I don't think he's going to get baptized on the 15th like we're planning. I'm hoping for a miracle from the missionaries that are passing by! He's a good guy; he's just a bit slow and is nervous about doing it.

 

I'm excited to talk to you on Sunday! Hopefully we get up there without problems or anything. Have some questions for me! and I'll try not to be a blabberbox this time and talk the whole time! I got my `trunky papers` this past Thursday. you get that when you are about 3.5 months out, and they are the papers that are your `sprint to the finish` thing and the data about where you are going to fly home to and such like that. I assume thats going to be cincy? We'll talk about that a touch on Sunday I think. Putz starts orientation the 27th? I will land on the 25th in the states, so it's going to be a crazy couple of days!

 

I'm excited to be here in Trelew right now-- they have stake conference this Sunday, so I get to see my whole ward!! wahoo! They've put a fecha with Noelia Azocar`s mom, so I'm really excited to talk to them and see how they're doing. This zone is taking off right now- they put 10 new fechas this past week. Some of my absolute favorite missionaries are here, so we're looking for some big things this transfer.

 

I love you family and I'm excited to talk to you this weekend!!

 

tbone