Querida Familia,
Sounds like you all had a pretty crazy week! I love hearing about the kids, I miss seeing them and all you guys. There aren't too many little kids here on the bluff, so it's really special for me when I get to hear about them. Jacob, have a happy birthday tomorrow, and keep the family in check. I'm super excited for you to get the priesthood and I hope you are too. You are a very organized smart young man, and I know you'll understand the importance of working hard and serving your very best in the different priesthood callings you'll get. Keep up your good work with studying, and let me know how your nuclear reactor is coming along.
I did get to see the lunar eclipse and that made yesterday all that much greater! We had our first Baptism yesterday, and I like to call it the blood moon baptism because we saw the eclipse just after we got out of the Baptismal service. The guy that we baptized was a 66 yr old man named James Armstrong, and he is super awesome! He is the man that flagged us down on the side of the road and asked how he could become a Mormon. He is doing super awesome, and he told us this morning that he is excited for his new life and glad to be a Mormon. He already wants to serve a mission of his own in the future, and has been trying to help one of his friends, Margo, to learn about the gospel. I love visiting him, he is a super friendly old man, and he lives just down the street from us. His baptism was very special, and I'm really excited for him to get to know the people in the ward a little better.
I'm learning a lot about setting goals and making plans, and I'm really trying to implement those to things into my life right now. It's super important in making progress, and I want to make the best of this mission and my life. I feel like the Lord has blessed me with a good mind for organization, and I want to develop that in order to progress in all the other parts of my life and the work. Also, I'm using Brandon's workout program he left me for missionaries to help me grow physically. Thank him for me, it's been a huge help. I'm feeling very healthy and definitely getting stronger, and it's a lot easier to have motivation In the mornings when your workout is already planned for you. I will finish the set program in about 8 months, and then I will look like captain Moroni. More or less... After that, people will be too scared to refuse when we ask to teach them the gospel and get baptized. So yeah that's the plan! I also have a lot of other goals as far as my personal and language studies, as well as ways I can improve my obedience. So set goals. They're fun and you can see how you progress overtime.
I love you guys a lot, and I love seeing the pictures you sent with me in the folder. I was looking through them this morning and really wished I could come visit you for a week and then come back. Paciencia Elder Jenson. Paciencia. I hope you all have a great general conference this weekend and learn a lot! I'm more stoked for this conference than for any superbowl we ever had at the house. It's amazing that we can receive modern revelation from real prophets of God; especially when the world is going absolutely crazy. I'm very grateful for the gospel we have to keep our lives intact!
Con demasiado mucho amor...
El Elder Jenson
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Monday, September 21, 2015
Sept 21, 2015
Querida familia,
This week was super cool and super fun! We went to the aquarium last P-day and watched an amazing dolphin show. I also fed some sting rays, pet a shark, and chilled in the ocean breeze. It was absolutely beautiful. I'll send some pictures in separate emails. Also just wondering, do you get the emails I send from the camera? It says they go through but I'm still not sure if you're getting them. We have had a slow week with the missionary work, but we've done a lot of fun things with the other missionaries. There are a lot of amazing Elders and Hermanas in my area, I love them all! We got to eat with the new second councilor, Brother Hoffheins yesterday out on port Aransas. It was an absolutely beautiful area! It's about 40 mins away from the bluff, but it is an incredible area and the marina was full of cool boats and animals. We saw sea turtles and crabs, tons of fishermen, and even some dolphins. I hope we can all come visit as a family, it's a beautiful place.
We should have our real first baptism on the 27th of this month, so we hope everything goes well with him. He is an older man named James, about 65 yrs old, but he really wants to become a Mormon. He found us and called us out a few weeks ago asking how he could join our church. Sometimes you don't even have to search for the elect of God's children, they will find you! Right now he is our only investigator, but he's doing awesome and progressing well. He has some unique struggles that sometimes turn people away, but we love him a lot. I hope our ward will be good for him and fellowship him well. He deserves a good ward family, he's a super great guy.
We also had a super cool story about meeting a man named Robert this week. We were following street referrals having kind of a slow day and got to a nice blue house. A woman answered the door, her name was Jenny, and she was very kind, but uninterested. She had taken the lessons with the missionaries a little bit before and decided not to continue them. As we were leaving she asked us if we wanted the spare silverware she was getting rid of on her porch. It was a pretty nice looking set and we knew members who were in need of silverware, so we agreed to take it. She left to go pick her kids up from school and we packed up the silverware to take it home with us. After about a minute of her being gone, a shirtless man covered in tattoos come out on the front porch and started screaming at us. Apparently he had just woken up and was concerned at why we were on his porch. He was hardcore cussing at us, many F-words and the like to display is displeasure at us being there. We were surprised and quickly tried to get off his property. Just before we left he paused and asked," are y'all Mormons?" We stopped and said yes, and he then proceeded to invite us in for water and a donut. It the blink of an eye his demeanor changed and he apologized for treating us so harshly. After a few minutes of talking to him he just started to open up to us and tell us how he was having a lot of family problems at the time and was really trying to make changes in his life. He wanted to be a better husband and feel forgiven of his past. We explained to him about our church and what Christ can do to help him with his desires, and he accepted being baptized the 11th of that month.
It was a super crazy contrast from what we expected on the front porch. They are very sweet people, and right now we're waiting for them to contact us for lessons. I hope we will be able to keep teaching them and help them have the gospel in their lives. That was a super fun day. It's always nice to have those funny little moments when things don't go quite how you expect them to.
I'm super excited for Brandon's marathon, he will feel the pain! It's tons of fun, but no training=no Bueno. He's just lucky that he has mom to guide him through the race. That is the only thing that kept me and Russell going! I hope Brandon and Cristian are doing well. I haven't heard to much from them since I've gotten on the mission, but I'm sure they're living up the bachelor life!
Our first transfers are tomorrow, and we'll find out later tonight who's staying and who's leaving! It's going to be super exciting. We'll get a new zone leader because Elder Nielson just died(went home) this week, and we might lose a couple of the other Corpus elders and sisters. I'm pretty sure Elder Robinson and I will stay on the bluff this transfer, but who knows.
I heard about the flood from a member this week! The members we had menudo with also fed us cactus and eggs, and while we were eating with them the Colorado city story came on the news. I was worried about you guys a little bit, but it sounds like you guys missed the big brunt of it. Please stay safe please, I love you guys!
Con Amor, El Elder Jenson
This week was super cool and super fun! We went to the aquarium last P-day and watched an amazing dolphin show. I also fed some sting rays, pet a shark, and chilled in the ocean breeze. It was absolutely beautiful. I'll send some pictures in separate emails. Also just wondering, do you get the emails I send from the camera? It says they go through but I'm still not sure if you're getting them. We have had a slow week with the missionary work, but we've done a lot of fun things with the other missionaries. There are a lot of amazing Elders and Hermanas in my area, I love them all! We got to eat with the new second councilor, Brother Hoffheins yesterday out on port Aransas. It was an absolutely beautiful area! It's about 40 mins away from the bluff, but it is an incredible area and the marina was full of cool boats and animals. We saw sea turtles and crabs, tons of fishermen, and even some dolphins. I hope we can all come visit as a family, it's a beautiful place.
We should have our real first baptism on the 27th of this month, so we hope everything goes well with him. He is an older man named James, about 65 yrs old, but he really wants to become a Mormon. He found us and called us out a few weeks ago asking how he could join our church. Sometimes you don't even have to search for the elect of God's children, they will find you! Right now he is our only investigator, but he's doing awesome and progressing well. He has some unique struggles that sometimes turn people away, but we love him a lot. I hope our ward will be good for him and fellowship him well. He deserves a good ward family, he's a super great guy.
We also had a super cool story about meeting a man named Robert this week. We were following street referrals having kind of a slow day and got to a nice blue house. A woman answered the door, her name was Jenny, and she was very kind, but uninterested. She had taken the lessons with the missionaries a little bit before and decided not to continue them. As we were leaving she asked us if we wanted the spare silverware she was getting rid of on her porch. It was a pretty nice looking set and we knew members who were in need of silverware, so we agreed to take it. She left to go pick her kids up from school and we packed up the silverware to take it home with us. After about a minute of her being gone, a shirtless man covered in tattoos come out on the front porch and started screaming at us. Apparently he had just woken up and was concerned at why we were on his porch. He was hardcore cussing at us, many F-words and the like to display is displeasure at us being there. We were surprised and quickly tried to get off his property. Just before we left he paused and asked," are y'all Mormons?" We stopped and said yes, and he then proceeded to invite us in for water and a donut. It the blink of an eye his demeanor changed and he apologized for treating us so harshly. After a few minutes of talking to him he just started to open up to us and tell us how he was having a lot of family problems at the time and was really trying to make changes in his life. He wanted to be a better husband and feel forgiven of his past. We explained to him about our church and what Christ can do to help him with his desires, and he accepted being baptized the 11th of that month.
It was a super crazy contrast from what we expected on the front porch. They are very sweet people, and right now we're waiting for them to contact us for lessons. I hope we will be able to keep teaching them and help them have the gospel in their lives. That was a super fun day. It's always nice to have those funny little moments when things don't go quite how you expect them to.
I'm super excited for Brandon's marathon, he will feel the pain! It's tons of fun, but no training=no Bueno. He's just lucky that he has mom to guide him through the race. That is the only thing that kept me and Russell going! I hope Brandon and Cristian are doing well. I haven't heard to much from them since I've gotten on the mission, but I'm sure they're living up the bachelor life!
Our first transfers are tomorrow, and we'll find out later tonight who's staying and who's leaving! It's going to be super exciting. We'll get a new zone leader because Elder Nielson just died(went home) this week, and we might lose a couple of the other Corpus elders and sisters. I'm pretty sure Elder Robinson and I will stay on the bluff this transfer, but who knows.
I heard about the flood from a member this week! The members we had menudo with also fed us cactus and eggs, and while we were eating with them the Colorado city story came on the news. I was worried about you guys a little bit, but it sounds like you guys missed the big brunt of it. Please stay safe please, I love you guys!
Con Amor, El Elder Jenson
Monday, September 14, 2015
September 14, 2015
Also just wanted to let you know that I had my "baptism" in menudo this last week. It was a little strange, but it was acutally pretty good! That's all, I'm true mexican!
On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 12:07 PM, Derek Jenson <derek.jenson@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Querida familia,
Okay, sorry I wigged out on you last week. My computer was having some loading issues for the first little while, and I had a few extra people write me that I wanted to write back to. I hope Savannah had a very merry little birthday! I have a little letter/package I'll be sending home, but it'll be a few days before I get it out. I'm super glad to hear about Nate, I miss him a lot. I've been telling my companion all about you guys and about Nate too. I wish he could serve here on the bluff with us, everyone living here would be baptized if he was their missionary! Tell him I miss him please.
These past few weeks have been a little crazy. My baptism unfortunately didn't happen last week, it was the weirdest situation every. Our investigator, Wes, was completely prepared, as far as we knew, to be baptized. He passed his interview on Friday, and everything seemed fine...
(The investigator left town, not to return, kind of a tough story so we left out details at Elder Jenson's request)
It's been a pretty crazy deal, but things are getting back to normal. Anyway, we didn't get that baptism last week, and that's why. I was super sad about that. Our other super good investigator decided to drop us as well that week, so were trying to get things going again. We also got our bike lights stolen from us while we were in a lesson with one of the recent converts in one of the poorer parts of the bluff. We were frustrated at first, but that ended up being a pretty cool thing. I'll tell you the story another time, but it ended up being a great blessing for some people we met later that day.
Besides all that stuff, it has been super awesome here. I'd say that I've been very humbled, but I feel very close to my Savior. We had our first Zone Conference, and I learned a lot of things I am going to try and apply over the next few months. I'm starting to understand the importance of having good studies, and sincere prayers always. I'm really trying to give my spiritual preparation a lot of attention and be as obedient as I can. I've felt the spirit a lot this week, and I see the Lord's hand in everything a lot more. It's not that it wasn't there before, I'm just starting to be able to recognize it more. I'm reading the scriptures like I would a normal book right now because I've never really done that in the past. It's amazing how much better I can follow the stories, and it's actually very interesting when I read. I've always loved the book, but every time I read it my testimony grows a little bit more. The truthfulness of that book is something I can never deny. I feel like that is something I have always believed, but every new chapter I read I feel like the Lord gives me another little witness of it being his word. There are some things in the gospel I have a strong belief in, but I Know of a surety that the Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus Christ is real and is our Savior. God has given me countless personal witnesses and spiritual manifestations in those two things, and I cannot deny them.
I love you guys a lot. I miss seeing you and being able to talk to you, but I love it here as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week and will forgive me for missing last week. Also I just want to encourage you to have a food and water storage that will last a while. I don't know how much the prophets have recommended, but I feel it is very important, so please try to keep building one according to their teachings. Les amo mucho!
Con mucho amor, Elder Jenson
On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 12:07 PM, Derek Jenson <derek.jenson@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Querida familia,
Okay, sorry I wigged out on you last week. My computer was having some loading issues for the first little while, and I had a few extra people write me that I wanted to write back to. I hope Savannah had a very merry little birthday! I have a little letter/package I'll be sending home, but it'll be a few days before I get it out. I'm super glad to hear about Nate, I miss him a lot. I've been telling my companion all about you guys and about Nate too. I wish he could serve here on the bluff with us, everyone living here would be baptized if he was their missionary! Tell him I miss him please.
These past few weeks have been a little crazy. My baptism unfortunately didn't happen last week, it was the weirdest situation every. Our investigator, Wes, was completely prepared, as far as we knew, to be baptized. He passed his interview on Friday, and everything seemed fine...
(The investigator left town, not to return, kind of a tough story so we left out details at Elder Jenson's request)
It's been a pretty crazy deal, but things are getting back to normal. Anyway, we didn't get that baptism last week, and that's why. I was super sad about that. Our other super good investigator decided to drop us as well that week, so were trying to get things going again. We also got our bike lights stolen from us while we were in a lesson with one of the recent converts in one of the poorer parts of the bluff. We were frustrated at first, but that ended up being a pretty cool thing. I'll tell you the story another time, but it ended up being a great blessing for some people we met later that day.
Besides all that stuff, it has been super awesome here. I'd say that I've been very humbled, but I feel very close to my Savior. We had our first Zone Conference, and I learned a lot of things I am going to try and apply over the next few months. I'm starting to understand the importance of having good studies, and sincere prayers always. I'm really trying to give my spiritual preparation a lot of attention and be as obedient as I can. I've felt the spirit a lot this week, and I see the Lord's hand in everything a lot more. It's not that it wasn't there before, I'm just starting to be able to recognize it more. I'm reading the scriptures like I would a normal book right now because I've never really done that in the past. It's amazing how much better I can follow the stories, and it's actually very interesting when I read. I've always loved the book, but every time I read it my testimony grows a little bit more. The truthfulness of that book is something I can never deny. I feel like that is something I have always believed, but every new chapter I read I feel like the Lord gives me another little witness of it being his word. There are some things in the gospel I have a strong belief in, but I Know of a surety that the Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus Christ is real and is our Savior. God has given me countless personal witnesses and spiritual manifestations in those two things, and I cannot deny them.
I love you guys a lot. I miss seeing you and being able to talk to you, but I love it here as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week and will forgive me for missing last week. Also I just want to encourage you to have a food and water storage that will last a while. I don't know how much the prophets have recommended, but I feel it is very important, so please try to keep building one according to their teachings. Les amo mucho!
Con mucho amor, Elder Jenson
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