Hey All!!! I am alive and well in Argentina. The Work goes on! It is really cool to see how the Spirit can work here in me and in the people that we teach. Every day i am striving to learn more and more how it works and how to keep it with me so it can work more and more.
We visited Julia on Tuesday afternoon. It was incredible to see the change she had had! On Saturday, she told us she had thought about killing her self and even had the knife out (i missed that part.. elder valencia filled me in on that on Tuesday) and that her family life was miserable and her daughter hated her and all this stuff. Then when we were there on Tuesday, her family was all there packing and they were going out to the campo together! We were a bit bummed because she is ready for a baptismal date, but we were a bit shocked and very pleased to see her family is coming back together. Her daughter even made her a cup of coffee while we were there! We´ll take it. But her countenance was way different and she was smiling and happy and we knew it was because of church and because she met some awesome people there who immediately became her friends and she wanted to go to enrichment but was going to be in the campo but she gets back tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well. We were stoked!
So last week we set some incredibly high goals for our companionship. Way higher than anything elder valencia has ever done before. And we accomplished most of them! We had a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!! Day on Wednesday. We contacted 65 people, got 10 new investigators, and taught 35 other lessons. Those easily were the biggest numbers of the week in the mission. It was so easy—we just talked to everyone we saw. It was almost like a game- we´d cross the street to talk to people, we´d be smiling and bubbly and talk to people, and we found some good people. We have been trying to follow up with the people and its been tough. Some of them gave us fake addresses, some werent there but we taught...4 i think in the past 2 days and they have been pretty good. One was kinda a nut and didnt really accept what we were saying, but we´re going back with our elders quorum president this week to talk to him. We had 2 ladies who were very nice and receptive, and one family who was AWESOME but werent that interested. This family was probably the first normal family i´ve met here, including members. People here are nuts. Weird. I love it though!
We only had 1 investigator in church this week, and it was the 9 year old friend of a member, so it was a pretty weak one to count for us. We were bummed. We had spent a lot of time talking church up and getting people excited for church, but no one came. We are going to have to work harder this week. Its been fun seeing how things change here. Sometimes i kinda question who is the trainer in our companionship. There are so many ways we can become better missionaries that every night during companion planning i kinda throw out an idea- hey why dont we focus on this tomorrow? Why dont we study this and put it in practice tomorrow? And so far it has really changed how successful we are and how much work we get done. I had a fun experience with it Saturday that i want to share too—
We have a part member family that we are working with. The boyfriend is an ex missionary and his girlfriend is an AWESOME lady. They have a daughter together and 2 kids from previous marriages. We just found out this week that the hubby has been drinking and thats been causing a lot of problems with their ´marriage´ and the vanessa just left the house and got a new place this weekend. We are DEVASTATED because they are stinkin AWESOME! Weve been trying to figure out what to say to them that will help them. WE were walking back from a Noche de Hogar (FHE) and e valencia was asking me about movies and my favorites and stuff and i was kinda annoyed because he always wants to talk about that kinda stuff and in the MTC we NEVER did because we were trying to focus and stuff, but here i havent really put my foot down and told him i didnt want to yet. I had wanted to stop talking about it and talk about stuff that would bring the Spirit but didnt ´man up´ and do it yet. Then along comes vanessa down this random street. We had really really wanted to see her that day because we had talked to Ariel, the boyfriend, and really wanted to talk to her too. So she comes and tells us all this stuff thats going on and we really didnt know what to say. Afterwards, Elder valencia was like man! Why didnt i know what to say!? Why didnt the spirit tell me? And i was just like Its because we were talking about movies. We werent ready for it. We hadnt prepared ourselves. It kinda sunk in a little bit, but he always wants stories from my life and stuff still. I just need to tell him to forget it! Haha. We´re missionaries, not story tellers! I felt guilty, almost reprimanded for not being ready to act. I am not letting that happen again.
Now a bit on trelew. Everyone here is obsessed with the US election and they all hate Boosh (bush) (it cracks me up how they say it) and they all assume e. Valencia is black (hes a light brown) and that because of that he voted obama, and because im white i voted mccain. Sometimes we mix it up and say i voted obama and he voted mccain. Its fun. But i´ll be glad when people stop thinking were spies and eleccion counters and who knows what else.
Our apartment is pretty nice. We have carpet! I think were the only ones. We also have a nice balcony and e valencia and i like to eat a bowl of cereal every night out there to relax and decompress. We eat cereal for breakfast, eat with members most every lunch (lunches are HUGE!) and then cereal for dinner. Its great. Cereal here just isnt the same though. Feel free to send Chex, Honey bunches of Oats, or Crispix. I like those!
What else.... i just bought a ping pong paddle. Every chapel here has a table, and we play that and basketball and soccer every pday! I love my life here. This place was made for me! The work is going on. We worked our bums off this week. One day we walked 25000 steps (!) thats ridiculous. But its all good.
On the very end of our area, we have a new neighborhood. Its great because they open one block of 30 houses every week, so this week we had the first batch! And we beat the jehovah´s witnesses there! Ha! (there are a lot of testigos de jeovah here) but we have about 10 more blocks that will open in teh coming months. Its great! We have had a few member families move in and its sweet because they are really nice dirt cheap houses that only families can move into. Its prime! We are heading back over there tomorrow morning to open the next block. I love it! I hope this week we can keep working hard, keep being diligent, and get some good investigators! I am starving and my hour is about up, so i will try and stick on some pics, but i dont think it´ll work on this comp. We´ll see.
I love you all, thank you so much for your love and support. I got 3 dear elders that were sent while i was in the MTC last week and that was fun, but none this week. I hear its about a 3 or 4 week delay ish. I hope its not too bad! I love you all! Be strong and smile at someone.
Elder Jensen
We visited Julia on Tuesday afternoon. It was incredible to see the change she had had! On Saturday, she told us she had thought about killing her self and even had the knife out (i missed that part.. elder valencia filled me in on that on Tuesday) and that her family life was miserable and her daughter hated her and all this stuff. Then when we were there on Tuesday, her family was all there packing and they were going out to the campo together! We were a bit bummed because she is ready for a baptismal date, but we were a bit shocked and very pleased to see her family is coming back together. Her daughter even made her a cup of coffee while we were there! We´ll take it. But her countenance was way different and she was smiling and happy and we knew it was because of church and because she met some awesome people there who immediately became her friends and she wanted to go to enrichment but was going to be in the campo but she gets back tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well. We were stoked!
So last week we set some incredibly high goals for our companionship. Way higher than anything elder valencia has ever done before. And we accomplished most of them! We had a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!! Day on Wednesday. We contacted 65 people, got 10 new investigators, and taught 35 other lessons. Those easily were the biggest numbers of the week in the mission. It was so easy—we just talked to everyone we saw. It was almost like a game- we´d cross the street to talk to people, we´d be smiling and bubbly and talk to people, and we found some good people. We have been trying to follow up with the people and its been tough. Some of them gave us fake addresses, some werent there but we taught...4 i think in the past 2 days and they have been pretty good. One was kinda a nut and didnt really accept what we were saying, but we´re going back with our elders quorum president this week to talk to him. We had 2 ladies who were very nice and receptive, and one family who was AWESOME but werent that interested. This family was probably the first normal family i´ve met here, including members. People here are nuts. Weird. I love it though!
We only had 1 investigator in church this week, and it was the 9 year old friend of a member, so it was a pretty weak one to count for us. We were bummed. We had spent a lot of time talking church up and getting people excited for church, but no one came. We are going to have to work harder this week. Its been fun seeing how things change here. Sometimes i kinda question who is the trainer in our companionship. There are so many ways we can become better missionaries that every night during companion planning i kinda throw out an idea- hey why dont we focus on this tomorrow? Why dont we study this and put it in practice tomorrow? And so far it has really changed how successful we are and how much work we get done. I had a fun experience with it Saturday that i want to share too—
We have a part member family that we are working with. The boyfriend is an ex missionary and his girlfriend is an AWESOME lady. They have a daughter together and 2 kids from previous marriages. We just found out this week that the hubby has been drinking and thats been causing a lot of problems with their ´marriage´ and the vanessa just left the house and got a new place this weekend. We are DEVASTATED because they are stinkin AWESOME! Weve been trying to figure out what to say to them that will help them. WE were walking back from a Noche de Hogar (FHE) and e valencia was asking me about movies and my favorites and stuff and i was kinda annoyed because he always wants to talk about that kinda stuff and in the MTC we NEVER did because we were trying to focus and stuff, but here i havent really put my foot down and told him i didnt want to yet. I had wanted to stop talking about it and talk about stuff that would bring the Spirit but didnt ´man up´ and do it yet. Then along comes vanessa down this random street. We had really really wanted to see her that day because we had talked to Ariel, the boyfriend, and really wanted to talk to her too. So she comes and tells us all this stuff thats going on and we really didnt know what to say. Afterwards, Elder valencia was like man! Why didnt i know what to say!? Why didnt the spirit tell me? And i was just like Its because we were talking about movies. We werent ready for it. We hadnt prepared ourselves. It kinda sunk in a little bit, but he always wants stories from my life and stuff still. I just need to tell him to forget it! Haha. We´re missionaries, not story tellers! I felt guilty, almost reprimanded for not being ready to act. I am not letting that happen again.
Now a bit on trelew. Everyone here is obsessed with the US election and they all hate Boosh (bush) (it cracks me up how they say it) and they all assume e. Valencia is black (hes a light brown) and that because of that he voted obama, and because im white i voted mccain. Sometimes we mix it up and say i voted obama and he voted mccain. Its fun. But i´ll be glad when people stop thinking were spies and eleccion counters and who knows what else.
Our apartment is pretty nice. We have carpet! I think were the only ones. We also have a nice balcony and e valencia and i like to eat a bowl of cereal every night out there to relax and decompress. We eat cereal for breakfast, eat with members most every lunch (lunches are HUGE!) and then cereal for dinner. Its great. Cereal here just isnt the same though. Feel free to send Chex, Honey bunches of Oats, or Crispix. I like those!
What else.... i just bought a ping pong paddle. Every chapel here has a table, and we play that and basketball and soccer every pday! I love my life here. This place was made for me! The work is going on. We worked our bums off this week. One day we walked 25000 steps (!) thats ridiculous. But its all good.
On the very end of our area, we have a new neighborhood. Its great because they open one block of 30 houses every week, so this week we had the first batch! And we beat the jehovah´s witnesses there! Ha! (there are a lot of testigos de jeovah here) but we have about 10 more blocks that will open in teh coming months. Its great! We have had a few member families move in and its sweet because they are really nice dirt cheap houses that only families can move into. Its prime! We are heading back over there tomorrow morning to open the next block. I love it! I hope this week we can keep working hard, keep being diligent, and get some good investigators! I am starving and my hour is about up, so i will try and stick on some pics, but i dont think it´ll work on this comp. We´ll see.
I love you all, thank you so much for your love and support. I got 3 dear elders that were sent while i was in the MTC last week and that was fun, but none this week. I hear its about a 3 or 4 week delay ish. I hope its not too bad! I love you all! Be strong and smile at someone.
Elder Jensen
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