From: "Taylor Jensen" <tajensen8@myldsmail.net>
To: <njensen@cinci.rr.com>; <kjensen@gaic.com>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 9:58 AM
Subject: Helloo!!!
Is it really almost Christmas? What happened to thanksgiving? and Snow?
someone told us it touched 30 something centigrade. It gets HOT down here!!!
i wish there was snow... but thats alright. Itll be a fun christmas walking
around sweating in my short sleeve shirt.
News this week... Well we had a Zone Conference on friday, then a saturday
night and sunday morning session of Stake conference. It was great. We had
Pres. Cook and his wife, the Temple President and his wife, and Elder Shayne
M Bowen of the 70. The three meetings were all very powerful and made me
realize changes i need to make. It was great. We werent able to have a
baptism because it is stake conference, but we got everything else in the
key indicators! Id call it a success. Elder bowen came up to me and elder
valencia and said ´just want to let you know, i was sitting with Pres. Cook
and he leaned over and pointed you out and said ´see those two elders? they
are obedient with exactitud and they are successful and they are baptizing.
They are an example for our missionaries´Thats what the Lord wants from you.
its what He expects from you. We both didnt really have anything to say
other than wow. Thanks. We are trying with all our might. It was a good
conversation to say the least!
One thing i learned twice (once in a testimony during zone conference and
again during elder bowens talk) is that every meeting, we need to learn
something. If we dont have something we remember weve learned or something
that we are going to change, we havent been listening to the meeting and
more importantly the Holy Ghost. Heavenly father is trying to teach us,
trying to have us learn something and if we dont come out of a meeting
having learned somethign new or changed something about us, the meeting
didnt have any value. I need to work on that, especially here in spanish
land! haha. (my spanish, ps, is getting a lot better. I am being pretty
diligent about learning and working on my vocab. I can do better, and i will
the coming weeks so that by the new year, i can be fine in any conversation.
We are getting there. WE being me and my spanish brain. haha.
Right now we are preparing for a big weekend... we had 4 baptisms lined up,
but Julia decided to go to the beach instead of church. Its really hard
sometimes teaching people the importance of church when it just hasnt been a
part of their life before. It is all too easy to find excuses for why not to
do something. And i dont have too much of a problem with her going to the
beach with her family. We just need to stress really strongly the importance
of coming to church in the morning and then heading off to the beach. We
have a cool new sheet that is kind of a path or map to baptism with all the
things you need to learn on it. its kind of like a check list type of thing.
We started that with her, and she was all ready to go to both sessions of
conference, but last second pulled out. It was a bit disheartening, and
showed us we just have to teach it more strongly, with more importance,
because it really is that important that we go to church.
Other people- We had a mother and daughter lined up for this weekend, but we
ran into a little problem with interviews, so hopefully that will get
settled out and they can get baptized this weekend. We´ll have to see. The
mother was really down yesterday afterwards, so we really hope we can get
this resolved so she doesnt build a wall in her head against the church.
Our last one is Brian, older brother of Ivan and son of Vanesa. We are
working really hard with him to get him baptized now because his family
situation is up in the air with where his mom is going to go and if they are
going with her. He is a good kid. He just needs some guidance. Thats what we
are here for, right? They as a family have been really fun to watch. For
years, they have struggled in family unity. Now, with the gospel, they are
saying prayers together over their meals (which are pretty sparing because
they dont have a fridge, stove, or anything besides a sink anymore) We are
just trying to get them reading as a family. Its interesting being a first
hand witness of the changes families make as a result of the gospel and of
the blessings those changes bring. By next week, we hope to have a lot of
change in terms of respect one towards another. This week, we are really
going to focus on helping them build una casa del espiritu. WEll see how it
goes.
Elsewhere, hmmm. the week hasnt had too too much going on. We are working
with the baptismal dates we had. We are working now on getting some new
people to teach. We are really going to work on using the members because
they are the key in getting good investigators. Our efforts contacting do
not work that well in getting solid investigators. The member references are
so much better. We really love setting up Noche De Hogars with people and
using that to get people teaching new investigators and such. Which leads me
to ask you, my fellow readers, What have you done to help the missionaries
this month?? Ill give you a couple of options-- Family home evenings (these
are key) Inviting them to a ward activity, or going on splits with the
missionaries. It is the Members responsibility to find, the missionaries to
teach and baptize, and the members to retain. And of course the members help
teach and baptize, and the missionaries help retain and find too. but it is
very effecient to have members giving solid references. Escecially now in
Christmas time, it is easy to work something in about Christ and His love
and the restored gospel. Go For it!!
I really dont have too much more to say this week... Onwards and upwards
always!! Its always so much fun realizing i have so much to learn and that i
can never hit a plateau on the things i am learning or on things like faith
and patience. I can always get better! (sometimes thats a little daunting
too). But the work is good here. We are happy, and excited for Christmas,
and excited to have a white christmas--baptism style!
i love you all, and i dont know exactly what our plans are for next week in
terms of christmas and such. I think christmas eve is a Pday, so i may get
on and write a bit after my phone call home. Ill let you know for sure in a
bit... i may have to get on and send a quick email later this week when we
find out for sure. I love you all, have a good winter break, and play in the
snow for me. But my white christmas is going to be more fun :)
With Love
Elder Taylor Jensen
PS. Big news. Hedwig had 2 eggs a couple weeks ago. One hatched halfway and
then disappeared, and hedwig was sad. We hadnt seen her for 2 weeks, so we
assumed the worst. We actually saw like 5 dead pigeons and every time we
were like áww hedwig! but big news! shes back, with another new egg, so we
have 2 again, and she and her husband, pidwigeon, are building a better nest
so their new babies cant escape. Its a joyous day for us! our friends are
back! the end.
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