WEEK 44 - La Merced, Peru 07/17/17

July 17, 2017 -  07/17/17

Hey! 

This week was great!  We have some really cool investigators that have sooooo much potential! For some reason, Hermana Rodriguez and I have been finding a ton of young guys to teach haha, not sure why.  This week, we got to teach our good friend Frank again. Frank is the awesome contact we had that had a ton of questions about the restoration. But now when we teach him, the guy does not talk!!  He is so quiet!!!  We asked him what he hoped from our visits and he said NOTHING. And because hermana Rodriguez and I are stubborn, neither did we haha. We sat in silence for like literally 15 minutes. I guess I am learning patience because I really wanted to talk SO bad. Then his drunk uncle came in and interrupted the silence. Anyways, he is super cool though and when he does choose to talk, he has really good question and lots of doubts. 

This week one of the great members here, Diana, opened up her mission call! She is going to Colombia medellin! We are happy because she's not leaving until November so she can keep coming with us to our appointments. 

This week we also taught our investigator Rosalia and she is pretty Baptist, but she is really interested in our message and has a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, and what happens after we die. The plan of salvation is so amazing and I love how it all just connects. The gospel is truly amazing and it can help us get through any trial we have. The atonement is  for everybody! and any situation! I know that Christ lives, and that He loves us, and that we have access to His infinite power. 

I love you all!

Hermana Jensen

Sorry no pics.  Wating for a new phone charger.  :(

Attachments area

WEEK 43 - La Merced, Peru

July 10th, 2017

Hey!! 

So sorry guys that it has been so long since I could email. They did not let me email for some reason last week because of the transfer, but whateverrr..  I had 35 emails to read this week haha so it has been a little overwhelming to read and go through them all. But I feel so grateful for how much support and love everyone has given me! 

Last week in Huanuco, Diego got baptized!  It was such an awesome experience, and cool just to see how much progress he had made and how sure he was about his decision to be baptized despite not a lot of support from his family. 

Monday I traveled to the famous Cerro de Pasco. It actually wasn't too cold, but my lungs felt a little weird and it was hard to breathe because of the altitude (14,000 ft). After that we traveled to Tarms, and then to La Merced!! This area is absolutely gorgeous.  My comp is hermana Rodriguez from Trujillo, Peru. She is super sweet and I feel really excited to be with her!  Our pension is super amazing but the offices have been kind of bugging us about changing because she lives far and we have to spend a lot to get there. But I don't want to change!  

This week, we had a couple of really cool experiences. We have gotten to know some amazing members and I really do feel a lot of love for them. People show their love through food here, so it probably means weight gain for me haha. We contacted this really awesome guy named Fran this week, and he is this young guy who is like 24 years old, and he just started asking a ton of questions, like "why are there so many churches?? &  How do I know which church is true??"  We just started talking about the restoration and it was just so awesome, because we could answer all of them!! Later we had another lesson with him, and he asked us about baptism, and we asked him if he would be willing to be baptized and he said yes!  We are going to keep working and praying for him, because we can tell there are a lot of things that have been tormenting him that he just doesn't feel quite ready to share with us yet.  

This week I wanted to share my testimony of the sacrament.  On Sunday, I was feeling really stressed out and kind of down, and just trying to figure out how I could use the atonement more in my life. When the sacrament got passed around and I took it, I felt a very strong peace come over me. I felt the Savior's love so much for me, and that He was going to be with me, helping me.   I know that the sacrament is important and when we partake of it, we have the marvelous opportunity to renew our covenants and are able to have the spirit with us always. It is an amazing gift and truly the reason that we go to church every week. 

I love you all so muchh!!

Love, Hermana Jensen

My new companion - hermana Rodriguez 

A view from our apartment of La Merced

back in Huanuco at Diego's baptism

Hermana Rodriguez and I

Week 42 - Transfer from Huanuco to La Merced

July 3rd, 2017

No letter this week because of transfers.   Here are a few pictures & a map off of the internet of La Merced, where Charlotte is serving.  Looks like a beautiful place!

Week 41 - Huanuco

June 26th, 2017

Hola,

This week I was blessed with lots of little miracles. My comp (hermana Schmid) went to Huancayo for a couple days for a leadership meeting and I stayed with an Hermana Jordan from Ecuador.  She is incredibly humble and has basically come from nothing. Her whole ward helped pay for her mission. She told me she showered in a bucket and used her clothes as a pillow. I also had to help her use the Internet last week because she doesn't know how.  We proselyted for a day, and she told me it was a day that she would never forget and that she loved me very much!   It made me feel good. We also watched Meet the Mormons, which she had never seen, and she loved it SO much. She has not watched very many movies in her life either.  

One day, we were in a lesson and I was feeling especially anxious, we came home for a second to go to the bathroom, and while my comp was in the bathroom, I opened my Book of Mormon to read a scripture to see if it would help. I opened to Moroni 8:2, that says "The Lord is mindful of you.." That phrase hit me very strongly, and I felt a warm peace come over me and that the Lord truly cared about me and was watching over me. It gave me the strength to push forward for the rest of the day. 

On another day, we were walking and we get a phone call from the elders from my first area in Mariscal Castilla. They told me that my investigator that I had taught there - Maria Isabel had her baptism that day!  She said that she was about to change and her one request was that she could call me right before her baptism! I got to talk to her on the phone and she sounded so happy! She thanked me for teaching her and loving her and for all that I had done to help her to be baptized. It was such a special moment to me and a confirmation that we do not always see those blessings of our labors right away. 

I am doing good, thank you for your prayers and support.  I know the mission is not easy, but I do my best to keep a good attitude and trust that the Lord will help me in every moment. Next week, we have changes, and President mentioned to me that I will probably be transferring so if I type late that will be why. I love you all so much. 

Love, Hermana Jensen

Tingo Maria

Hermana Schmid and I

Week 40 - Huanuco

June 19, 2017

Hey everyone!

This week was great and also a little hard.  We just had the hardest time finding people to teach. We seemed to just walk  and walk, knock and nobody wanted to let us in or they were not home. It was tough, but we got to have some really amazing opportunities. 

Our new investigator Ana is SO amazing. She is so sweet and she just has such a strong desire to know about the gospel. We had given her a book of Mormon the week before and she said she just opened it one day to see if she could get an answer to one of her questions even before we had to explain the Book of Mormon!  So cool! She told us she just feels so much peace when we are with her, and absolutely loves the church. She is seriously gold people. Hermana Schmid one day was like where the heck did she come from???? Planet prepared?? haha 

We got to teach Diego on Friday, and had another super great spiritual lesson with him. His testimony has grown so much. We actually got to teach him twice.  On Tuesday he had his cousin and her boyfriend over to listen as well. They started contending a little bit with us, but Diego just ended up being the missionary and like totally defending the gospel and being a rock.   I felt kind of like a proud mom in that moment haha.  He is officially getting baptized next Saturday!  Diego and Ana both came to church on Sunday, and we ended up talking about the law of chastity in gospel principles class.  It was semi awkward because they are both single parents.  It actually was super great, and they both enjoyed the class. As for our other investigators, it has been hard to find and help people progress. We seem to find a new investigator, but then they are just not super interested or do not complete with their commitments and it is just been kind of tough. 

I have been fasting every single week and it has been helping me so much. I feel like I have grown closer to my Savior these past few weeks because of it.  On Friday we did an activity with our district where we went to the park and shined shoes for free and contacted. It was super cool!   There was these crazy preachers that came up to hermana Schmid and I and  started trying to contend with us and asking why we worshipped images(which we don't.., they just thought our contact card with a picture of Jesus on it was an image we worshipped haha). We ended up walking away because we did not want to contend but they ended up walking over to our shoe shining area and started screaming and preaching about how horrible the Mormons are. They pointed to hermana Schmid and I and were like THE LIARS AND ADULTERERS FROM THE UNITED STATES!  DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!! hahaha and they were like JOSPEH SMITH DIDN'T SUFFER FOR YOUR SINS! YOU SHOULDN'T CUT YOUR HAIR OR WEAR TIES! MORMONS WEAR TIES... AND THEY CUT THEIR HAIR! They did this for like two hours straight people. It was pretty crazy haha. Anyways, it was a great, fun filled week and I love you all! 

I know that our Savior lives and that He loves us all. He cares for us each individually and every sadness that we go through, He can help us overcome. I know that if we trust and rely more on Him, we will start to understand just how loving and merciful He is with us. He understands our weaknesses, and He knows how to make them strengths, if we humble ourselves before Him. The gospel is true!!

Love, Hermana Jensen

Free shoe shine!

Hanging up fliers for our English class

Ultimate Frizbee with a football

Week 39 - Huanuco, Peru official hump week (9 months)

June 12, 2017

Hey everybody!

This week was really great!  On Monday night we got a call from the sisters that are serving in Cayhuayna and they told us they had a super awesome reference for us!  We ended up contacting her that night and setting up an appointment for on Tuesday. Her ex-boyfriend is a less active in the ward over there and apparently he was a jerk, so she dumped him and came to live back with her mom in our area!  She has an adorable little 2 month old baby and is really really ready for the gospel. She accepted a date for her baptism and came to church this Sunday!  She really loved it, and had a lot of super great questions. Diego did not come which frustrated me.  He hasn't been consistent.  He is super awesome.  Sometimes I just wish he could make a bigger effort to come to church consistently every week.  But yeahhh people have their agency, and conversion is a process! I am hoping that he will still be able to make it to his baptism in the next couple weeks. 

On Wednesday we had a multi zone meeting and Thursday we had interviews and practices. A practice means we pretend to teach investigators aka other missionaries. I don't know why, but it makes me way nervous.  I feel that the zone leaders just sit there and judge you but heyyy it is all good haha. 

Friday my comp was not feeling good, so we headed to the clinic.  The doctor did like nothing to help her so that was pretty dumb. I really have about zero confidence in Peruvian doctors. 

Friday night we got to teach English class and it was super fun! Our investigator, Alex came who knows a ton of English and we taught people different ways to say hello, greet and say goodbye. 

Something super funny that happened this week.  We went to go see this couple named Bibiana and Fabio and showed them some of the Meet the Mormons movie. They are kind of an older couple and the part came up where the football coach is receiving some trophy or something from Obama in the white house. She just goes ahhh the sala sacramental.  Basically saying that she thought the football coach was in the sacrament meeting room receiving an award from his bishop. hahaha!  We laughed pretty hard over that one. 

I have been learning about and studying this week about grace. I think my biggest struggle I have faced on the mission is being a perfectionist. I have this desire to be a perfect missionary and if I don't do something right or if I don't have sufficient contacts or we don't have baptisms, I just beat myself up sooo much for it. I've realized that beating ourselves up for our weaknesses does nothing but bring us sadness. All that God asks of us is to try!  Perfection is not for this life.  Jesus Christ really makes up for the rest. If we do our part, if we try our best, if we repent, Christ makes up for what we lack. I am learning to trust more in Him, to love the weaknesses that I have, because those are the things that cause us to rely more on Him.   We truly can not make it through this life alone. I know that our Savior lives and I know that this is His church on earth. 

Love you all!!

Your favorite Peruvian missionary

Hermana Jensen

ps  Also this week we took a recent convert to the family history temple and helped him print off the name for his mom to take to the temple!  He is going in the next couple weeks to the temple for the first time and is taking his moms name to the temple :)

Oreo no bake cookies with Marcia, our pensions daughter

Also made pizza!

No bake oreo cookies

Watching church videos and playing Monopoly

Ana and her 3 month old baby

Multi zone meeting

Official hump day (9 months along - haha)

Week 38 - Huanuco, Peru

June 5, 2017

Hola!

Another good week out here in Ala Meda!  This week we had the chance to go out to Tingo Maria again, which is in the jungle, and visit and go on divisions with the hermanas there.  It was way fun!  We proselytized and it was flipping hot haha.  They eat soooo much food in the jungle, so I came back feeling very, very full. They also eat a ton of bananas, including boiled bananas which I think are disgusting but hey it is all good haha. 

This week, something I had been trying to work on is not letting discouragement get to me. These last couple transfers I have been working especially hard, just doing what I can to contact, help people, and find new people to teach.  Honestly we haven't been seeing a ton of results, and I have put a lot of the blame on myself.  When we get discouraged, a lot of times it weakens our faith! But we should not do this!!  We have to push forward, and trust in the Lord and His blessings. 

Up until Saturday we could not find  any new people to teach, and we were just standing in the street after all our plans had fallen through. This is the point, where I pray and ask Heavenly Father where we need to go. I looked through my old planner to see some old contacts that we could maybe go see and one name popped out at me. We stopped by their house and low and behold they let us in and we taught them and their whole dang family!  It was definitely a miracle. After that we got to see our investigator Diego, and you could feel the spirit soooo strong in the lesson. He is preparing for baptism.  He opened up to us a lot about the fears he has about failing God and wanting to make the right decision. Something I felt very strongly to talk to him about was the need to go to church because it is something he has n't done consistently.  I was just like "you need to go to church Diego!"  I know you are praying and you are reading, but if you go to church I KNOW that you will feel peace and the fear will leave you about your baptism. We all got to testify about the importance of doing those little things like praying, reading and going to church and how those things are what will sustain us to endure to the end!  It really is those 3 main things! If you dont' do that then yeahh satan creeps in with the doubts and the spirit will not be with you as much, and before you know it, you are not doing any of those three things. Hold to the iron rod!! Anyways he came to church Sunday!  The elders gave him a blessing and then he told us he felt a lot more at peace. 

This week we are planning on bringing a bunch of recent converts and some members who are preparing to go to the temple this month to the family history center to help them get into it.  I am super excited for that! 

We visited a recent convert named Kelly this week, who lives in this humble, tiny little room alone, and we sat on her bed and it broke!  We felt very bad and kinda fat haha. Luckily a member who is AWESOME, helped us out because he is a carpenter and fixed her bed! Go Luis! 

One day we had a bunch of appointments fall through, so we decided to make more contacts but go all the way up one of our hills haha. We climbed alllll the way up it and it was super beautiful and made some really cool contacts up there.

I know that God really cares about us and loves each and every single one of us. Last Sunday, yes we only had Diego come to church, but I felt a ton of peace because I knew and felt that God was proud of the work I had done that week.

 I don't know where I heard this but there is a quote that's like "missionary work is about the one lost sheep". And maybe we won't have a million people flocking to the baptismal font but we are helping people come to Christ, one soul at a time! I feel that if we do all that we can, and we try our best, that God will be proud of that. Some people get upset in the gospel because they always feel like they are falling short or not good enough. We are imperfect people!! The gospel is not meant for perfect people, it is meant for people like you and me who are just trying to do our best in life. 

I love all of you and hope you have a great week! PRAY, READ YOUR SCRIPTURES, GO TO CHURCH :)

Loveeeee,

Hermana Jensen

church building in Tingo Maria

Hermana Schmid and I in Tingo Maria