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

WEEK 37 - Huanuco

May 29, 2017

Dearest familia and amigos,

This was a very great week, full of lots of little miracles!  I loved this week because I feel like I can truly testify that work is the best medicine to feel happy on the mission. Everyday we wake up, run and just stay busy working and studying until night. Usually I hit the bed, and don't even have time to think, I am sooo dang tired haha. 

I have made a new commitment to fast every week! I am hoping to gain a stronger testimony of fasting, and that it will help me become a better and stronger missionary. This week, we found a lot of news which was super great, but we really really wanted to get people to church.  Last transfer, we really struggled with getting people to come to church so I prayed and prayed that we would get someone to come. One of our investigators "Diego" who has been progressing really well and has come to church quite a few times told us he would come this Sunday so we were super pumped!  Also because he really wants to get baptized and is preparing for the 24th of June. When we got to Sunday, we did not see one investigator and Diego did not come either.  My heart broke, I felt so so sad.  I felt frustrated that we had put in so much effort, and everyone told us they would come and that no one showed up. I tried to just push through it and trust that if we just kept working, God would bless us and eventually we would get investigators at church.  During the intermediate hymn, we stood up and I turned around and in the very very back row in the corner, I see our investigator Querin!  He had come all by himself for the very first time ever. My heart was filled with so much joy!  I felt so grateful that God had heard our prayers and that Querin was able to come.  I could barely get the intermediate hymn out as tears began to swell up in my eyes, and I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards God.  I love this work, and I truly know that it is the work of God. All he asks is that we have a willing heart and he will lead us to the people he needs us to find. As for Diego, well we are just going to have to talk to him about the importance of sabbath day more this week!  

Last sunday, one of the recent converts we have been teaching got called to be second counselor in the young mens presidency!  It is so cool to see all the amazing changes he has made and how much happier he is in the gospel. He is preparing to go to the temple in June and we got to teach him about family history and temples and he got so excited!  I love the temple and I am so glad that he gets to go soon!  I also know that scripture study is so important. I read a really awesome article this week in the Liahona that talked about Lehis dream and the rod of iron which represents the word of God. It is so soooo crucial that we hold onto the scriptures continually as it says, if we truly want to stay strong and faithful all of our lives. Those who leave the church are those who don't keep reading!!!  Read the scriptures and pray to God everyday, don't just be that person who does it only in moments of crisis. Do that, and when the trials come, you will be able to be firm! 

I love you all and hope you have an ammmazzzinnngg weeekk!!!

Love 

Hermana Jensen

My new companion - hermana Schmid

Goodbye to hermana Pliler

Plan of Salvation sidewalk chalk

WEEK 36 - Huanuco, Peru

MAY 22nd, 2017

Hi!

So this week we had transfers and Hermana Pliler left me which made me very sad. :(  We had tons of fun together and honestly she is someone that I will keep in contact for the rest of my life. We would leave to work and say companionship prayer and we would just laugh and laugh and had to always calm ourselves down before prayers. 

I am staying here in Ala Meda and I am with hermana Schmid!  I am also very excited to work with her and another gringa haha!  I really hope that we can help this area out. I have been feeling very frustrated lately because I just feel like I haven't seen that much success here on my mission.  Last transfer we contacted and worked so hard, but we have just been struggling finding people to progress and who are ready for baptism. It has been way rough. Something I am going to start doing is fasting more often to increase my testimony of fasting and also to be able to see more miracles in my mission.  

Ohhh myyy goodness, Hermana Schmid told me that in my first area. my investigator Rossi that I had contacted and taught who was in a wheelchair is now coming to church every week! annddd her boyfriend is now getting the lessons and they have plans to get married this week or the next and soon be baptized. That just really was a testimony to me, that a lot of times we do not see miracles directly in our missions or the blessings. Lot of times we just have to push forward and have faith that we will be blessed for our obedience and service. I know that most of the blessings we will probably never see in our missions but we just have to be patient and trust in God. I know that if I put my all in, that I will leave with no regrets and that I will be able to see the results of what I have done. 

Hermana Jensen

My zone

Mother's day breakfast with hermana Maruja!

My neighbor after we bandaged up her hand

WEEK 34 - Huanuco

MAY 8th, 2017

Hey!

This week was good, not gonna lie,  but by the time Monday rolls around sometimes I forget a lot, but it really has been good. We went on divisions again with the hermanas that serve in Pedro Puelles and I was with hermana Carbajal from Trujille, Peru.  It was way fun!  We get along really well and have very similar personalities so that's awesome.

Hermana Pliler and I found this couple named Luz and Jim this week, and they are literally sooooo great. They were just so cute and so interested and we are just so excited to keep teaching them. Jim plays the trumpet in a band so he travels a lot but we just really hope we can help them progress. 

We're still running every morning and my endurance has built up so much. It's so awesome, cuz we will run and run and when I get back home, I just feel way good and not that tired!  

Saturday to Sunday we fasted and we broke the fast at a members house and ate this thing called causa. It is like a potato sandwich thing with chicken and vegetables. It is good, but when we are with members I feel obligated to eat it all, so I did. And then Pliler turns to me and she is like help me! I can't eat this all... So I did haha and started to feel pretty gross. We have sacrament meeting at 3 and the first hour I felt soooo overwhelmingly hot and gross. During second hour I started to feel dizzy so we went to go sit outside. I ended up throwing up like 3 times at church, and just threw up like all of my lunch... I know gross. At night, our pension Marujah gave me some stuff called mazamorra to eat cuz she said it was smooth and wouldn't harm my stomach but yep threw that all up. I was sick all night, and still feel pretty weak today, but hey that is the joys of being sick :) 

Anyways I love you all!  Hermana Pliler and I talk everyday about how grateful we are to have made the decision to come here on the mission. I just know that I have learned how to draw closer to God, and I am excited to see the changes within me by the time I come home. Although times are hard sometimes, I know they are for a reason and that is when we truly grow the most. 

Love you!!

Hermana Jensen

WEEK 33 - Huanuco

MAY 1, 2017

Hola!

Another great week filled with lots of growing and helping the people of Peru come unto Christ. :) This week we got the amazing opportunity to go to Tingo Maria to do divisions,.  It is right in the middle of the amazon jungle, and it was BEAUTIFUL. We went on a bus and the first part is just like dry mountains, and then there was this part where everything just gets supper foggy and all around is just pure white. And then after like 10 minutes the fog lifts and all around you is just GREEN. Just pure trees and jungle all around you. We did divisions with the hermanas there, and I was with a hermana named Hermana Matos. We contacted a bunch because they are opening an area, so they still do not have too many investigators. We knocked a bunch of doors and we met this guy who is from Belgium, and has lived all over the world, but moved to Peru to the jungle to relax. It was way cool. 

I've heard it is usually extremely hot tin Tingo Maria, but it was actually raining and cloudy when we went so the weather was pretty nice just kind of humid. At night, they did not have beds so Pliler and I slept on this tiny mat thing and they had the fan blowing super hard, and we didn;t have blankets so lets just say we barely got any sleep haha. We woke up though and we went on a walk/jog mostly just to explore the scenery a little more. There is this part by their house where you are literally just right next to the jungle. Like just take a few steps and you are in the amazon. 

The people in Tingo Maria are very happy and fun.  When we went to their pension she hugged us so hard, and was just like so happy to meet us haha. I really hope I get to serve there one day! :P 

Last week, President talked to us a lot about obedience and we have really been trying to get better at being exactly obedient and God has really been blessing us. We have really wanted to find news, and one day we got 6! It was such an amazing blessing, and that was just in one day! I know that the Lord really can work miracles with us, we just have to be willing and show our obedience so that He can then trust us to do His work. Anther miracle I saw this week, was last Tuesday after district meeting, I felt so so tired. I just had zero energy to go to lessons, and we also had to help the elders move and I just really wasn't feeling it. I decided to pray for energy, because I have been obedient about getting the amount of sleep and exercising because I knew that if I was doing my part God would help give me energy. When we went to help the Elders move, all of the tiredness I had was GONE. It ended up being one of the days I have felt the most energy in all of my mission. Another amazing thing that happened is our investigator Diego is most likely getting baptized next Saturday!  He is a single dad, and he has just been so willing to make changes in his life. This week has really great, and I know that this really is the true church on the earth. I know that prayer is very real, it has helped me so much, and I know that God listens and loves us. 

Love you all! God is Good!

Hermana Jensen

Hermana Pliler and me

Tingo Maria

Our sleeping mats