Vucetich -- Week 2: Lots of Baptisms -- Email from 2 November 2015

This week we worked really hard, and we had three of the four baptisms. So that is sick :) I will send you a picture. Adrian, Stephany, and Anthony all were baptized! I will send you a couple of pictures. 

Our zone is getting motivated too! We baptized 5 as a zone, and it was 20 percent of the baptisms of the mission! Hooray! We are still working hard, and leaving personal commitments with the elders to work harder, and find more people to reach the goals of the month as a zone. We are going to work really hard this week as well to fix the baptism of Porfiria and to find new investigators so that we can keep baptizing this transfer. I hope that we can keep doing it. Pray for miracles here in the zone.

My favorite part of my area is always seeing horses haha. There are a ton of horses. I really want to ride a horse to my area every day, but it’s not allowed :(

It’s alright if you all meet me in the Denver airport. Wow, I can’t believe that the whole family is going to come out to Colorado to see me when I come home. 

The time doesn’t change here. So that’s good. And it would be a good idea to go ahead and apply at CSU for me again.  I hope that you all are looking for my car also :) A cool jeep wrangler or something like that!

Elder Jensen

Vucetich Semana 2 -- Email from 26 October 2015

Hey,

The location of Matt's new area.  Vucetich, J.C. Paz, Buenos Aires

This week was really good. I get along really well with my new companion and he is a beast. Like a really good missionary. We are working really hard together and this next week we should have four baptisms. This area is huge, nothing like my older area. It’s like this size of a small town, and everything is spread out. It is really poor. Like really poor. Many people live in one room houses, and pretty much everyone is outside all of the time. All of the streets are of dirt. It’s like 40 minutes from Pacheco my first area, more in the other direction from capital. One of our investigators that we are teaching her is named Porfiria (Por-fid-eya), and she is from Paraguay. She is like 40 and all of her kids are already members and she is excited to get baptized this next Sunday. Here’s the kicker. She can’t read. We are teaching her to read and teaching her the gospel. It’s like two birds with one stone haha. And then we have a family named the family Fernandez. In the family there are Oscar and Sarah, the mom and dad. They are going to get married in the first week of December, and are going to get baptized that first week, but there three kids, Stefani, Anthony and Adrian are going to get baptized this Sunday as well. We are also working with a couple other possibilities. But this week was really good. I’m exhausted.

On another note, we started to do a ton of exercise and we are eating really healthy. I’m going to try and bulk up a ton and then cut off all of the fat for when I get done with the mission in 10 months. You should send a couple of boxes of protein bars and some money if you can for Christmas. AND I NEED GUMMY VITAMINS, LIKE TWO THINGS TO LAST ME TO THE END OF THE MISSION. And FOUR MORE RAZOR HEADS. Other than that, be creative and surprise me! :) If you have any questions let me know!

Elder Jensen


***************************************************
I thought it would be cool to see the different locations Matt has served in.  Here is a map with his stops. 

New Area and New Responsibilities -- Email from 20 October 2015

Hey all!

This was a good week! We worked hard in La Boca, and we ended up bringing a lady to church whose name is Adela. She is like 50 years old, and is going to get baptized in two weeks. Really I’m glad to have got to know her, and I felt good leaving la Boca with someone who is going to get baptized in two weeks with Elder Moura so that his kid already has an investigator. Then yesterday came and I had to go around and say sorry to all of the people that I worked with in the Boca. It was a sad day, but I sure hope that I gave them energy to keep going and progressing in the gospel. 

 

Then in the afternoon I got a call from president and he asked if I would be willing to serve as a zone leader. It was pretty cool, and I was moved today as a zone leader in Vucetich. My companion is Elder Gomez from Chile. He is a beast and I’m glad that I have the opportunity to serve with him. We are going to see a lot of miracles here this transfer. I’m excited for the chance I have to serve the elders of this zone. Our zone has 12 Elders in it. Here is a picture of my companion and me! 

Love you all

Elder Jensen

PS -- here are some cool pictures he also sent today....

At the Train.

 

The Obelisk

 Peruvian Dinner with Hermana Julie

 Investigator Katy

Focusing on What Matters -- Email from 12 October 2015

Hey mom,

 

Thanks for the email. I really liked it. I need to see pictures of the hotel and of the cowboy boots that you have now. I will be headed to my 4th area. I'm one of the seasoned missionaries. Elder Moura is going to train! And also Elder Santos is going to train. At this point in the mission i am one of the oldest missionaries in the zone. My shoes are holding up good. I still have two pairs to use afterwards too. I can't believe that we are already in the end of October. I bring my Laundry to the house of a sister that is member and she washes it and folds it. I go to the houses of members everyday and they cook the best food that they can for us. The members are awesome and I love them so much. I'm going to be sad when I go, but its about time that I am headed to a new area. 

Sorry to hear about your friend! I know that many people are starting to get bothered about that today. There is a publication of the diary of Joseph and he talks a lot about things that really the world isn't ready for. But I learned that in the end of his time as prophet he was accused by many people of being a fallen prophet. I don't believe it, but it could have happened. I'm not interested to know if he was a fallen prophet or not, because really all that matters for us is if he restored the Priesthood and the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. Which I know he did. So for me, even if he had a ton of wives and things like that, it doesn't have anything to do with my salvation and nothing to do with me. Joseph will answer to god for the same laws that we will, and its better to just focus us in the things are really important to us, like the fact that we can be sealed together in the temples or that we have the Book of Mormon or our own salvation. 

I'm headed to a new area, and will see you all this next Tuesday the 20th of October. I will send a lot of pictures. Tell the bishop thanks for the money. And its your house, so sell it if you want too. Thanks for everything. 

 

Love you all! 

Elder Jensen

Conference and Struggles -- Email from 5 October 2015

Hey,

Us with the assistants

Haircuts with Alejandro a member.

This week was a little hard.  We aren't having as much success as we had the last transfer but we are still working hard and looking for the miracles.  This week we working really hard, but I'm almost out of ideas with what we can do to find more people in our are here.  It's like 8 for 8 blocks and a little villa.  I feel like I have done a lot already to find people and I am struggling to find more people.  But we will find someone who is ready.  We have been finding a lot of people through the family of Laura and that is helping is so far. But we need to find more through them. Like someone who is ready to get baptized. We will see what happens this week! I'm going to work really hard and give it my all my last two weeks here in the La Boca. 

I had a couple of thoughts from the conference. The theme of this conference was Women. Mom I think that you would especially like the talk from Elder Holland. For me, the best talk of all of the conference was from Elder Hales. I really thought that his talk showed a lot of wisdom. I too, like mom was really surprised in the choice of the new apostles. Its a good thing that we aren't the prophets because we would have totally messed up to put more diverse people as apostles. In sometime I'm sure that it will happen. But that's about all.

 

Elder Jensen

 

Ice Cream!

Planning for the Future -- Email from 22 September 2015

Hey,

This week was good. We brought seven people to the chapel: 4 recent converts, 2 investigators and a less active; so I would say that it was a pretty successful week. We found a couple of new investigators in the church too, so that was a blessing that we needed here. This week president did divisions with us and it was pretty good, and he was impressed by our work that we have done in our area. And also he wanted to meet the family of Laura. So that was pretty stellar. This week was a little hard for us to find new investigators, but I’m sure that this next week will go real good. 

When is Brother Johnson going to come here?  You have to let me know with heads up so that I can prepare things to send home for you all.  How is everyone?  I hope that you all are feeling better now.  I was a little under the weather too, but today we entered into spring! So it should start heating up again and I won’t have to worry so much about getting sick because it’s cold. 

To answer your question mom, I’m really not sure who I’m going to live with when I get back. Michael has asked me if I want to live with him and also Brandon asked me if I want to live with him. I’m pretty sure that I am headed to CSU again, but I’m not sure where I’m going to live yet. I’ve already told my friends that if I live with them that we will have a house that’s quiet without parties. I’m planning on focusing on my schoolwork and myself. Maybe I will end up living at home ha-ha. We will see what happens. Well I’m headed out!

Love you lots.

Elder Jensen

Looking for More to Teach -- Email from 14 September 2015

Well, this week was pretty good. The four kids were confirmed members of the church Sunday, so that was pretty sweet. Now we are working pretty hard to find more investigators that are going to progress. We are teaching the sister of our recent convert Nahir, and she is named Nicole. We are going to see if she progresses. We are teaching a couple of others too, trying to find more people to teach through our recent converts and the members. We know that there is another family that is waiting for us to find them, we just need to do it. Hopefully that everything goes well this week.

If you have time to pray for us, pray that we can recognize the promptings of the spirit to find the people that are prepared for us in this time!

Thanks to all. If you have any questions let me know. 

Elder Jensen