Week 80: More Blessed Are Ye

 Hey everyone! How was your week?

On Tuesday we had a great lesson with hermano José Valera, an inactive member, about the sacrament. Later that day we met hermana Angelica, a PF who's been taught in the past. I hope she can progress. In the afternoon we helped the son of a member study for seminary and we had a quick lesson with Miguel because we bumped into him on the street. 

On Wednesday we had district council and man Elder McCullough killed it! I wish I could say my first district council went like that. Afterwards I went on exchanges with Elder McCullough in Casagrande. We went out to a few lessons that fell and did some ward member list finding with hermano Brayan. That night we had a noche de hogar with a family and the girlfriend of the oldest son, who's not a member. We taught the restoration. After that they fed us a sandwich and more ecco, which I couldn't eat because I was feeling a little sick, and because Ai was tried of drinking echo since that's literally all their pension serves.

Thursday morning we finished the exchange and had a mission leader study over zoom. I learned a lot and felt great afterwards. We then had a good lesson with our friend Alex, who already is trying to get rid of the natural man in his life. After lunch I got a pretty big headache that lasted the entire day, which made it hard to focus, but I know the Lord helped me through it. We had some good lessons with hermano Angel in his mototaxi and immediately after we saw Miguel walking around so we invited him over and had a quick chat. He says he wants to be baptized but all of our lessons fall with him. So his baptismal date fell, but we're going to keep working very slowly with him. After that we went to hermano Kevin and had another spiritual lesson. He's begun to believe in God a bit more and has seen some changes in his life because of it. We later met with hermana Monica and her son Cristian. Then we went over to have a lesson with Joysse. We both felt that morning while we planned to reteach her the Plan of Salvation and now we see why. She didn't remember much of it and had lots of questions. That night we went over to hermano Carlos, Suguey, and Tiago. Hermano Carlos has been very sick recently with an unknown disease and he's visible lost weight. We put off our lesson and decided to give him a blessing of health. I anointed and Elder Cordova gave the blessing and promised him that he would be healed, and that this would be a demostration of God's power and evidence to him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church of God on earth today. I felt that impression come to my mind too. I know that the trial that they are facing right now are go help them come to God, and I have to see them suffer. I hope with this blessing and the other things we've taught them that they will humbling themselves enough to accepted God's help.

On Friday we asked how hermano Carlos was and he said he was doing much better. We headed out to Cartavio for another exchange. This time I stayed in Cartavio with Elder Thomas. We spent the morning talking and getting to know each other better. After lunch we went out to knock member doors. I still had a pretty bad headache. We met with a few recent converts and taught one of them how to start her family tree on FamilySearch. We had a noche hogar planned that fell through. In the noche hogar we were going to get to know a PF who was practically baptized 30 years ago but her hand kept coming out of the water so it didn't count and then she decided to quit. We decided to visit her anyway. We shared a quick message and I felt prompted to talk with her about the Holy Ghost. It's what she needed to hear and I know she'll start to progress with Elder Thomas and Elder Yanqui. That night we visited an inactive family that have 2 children that aren't baptized. They hadn't been to church in 5 years for very sensitive reasons which I won't get into here. But they've been passing through a difficult trial now with the health of their daughter, and from what Elder Thomas told me about other members of the branch, I know the Lord is trying to heal the branch right now, even if it takes a trial to do it. We putboff our lesson and talked with them about the Plan of Salvation, and man Elder Thomas can invite the spirit and isn't afraid to be real with them. We had a very spiritual lesson in which we could see their hearts softening. The father, Julio, was touched and promised to come to church for the first time in 5 years. The mother, Janet, still had her doubts and fears, but we felt it was a place to start. The gospel really is what gives people peace and joy. I'm just sad how often people have to pass through trial to realize it. Nonetheless, I can see the hand of the Lord working in that family and in the Cartavio branch, and I know Elder Thomas and Elder Yanqui have been prepared to help. That night the pensión delivered us our of ramen noodles. Something funny is that cup o' noodles in the US is one of the cheapest meals you can buy but here it's literally a delicacy.

Saturday morning we woke up and Elder Thomas likes to go running so he lent me a pair of his shoes and we went. It was actually kind of refreshing, even though I know my siblings would totally kill me now. We ended up getting back to Casa Grande quite a bit later than we planned, (it's about a 35 minute drive), so we just stayed together and talked for he morning. It was fun catching up with Elder Yanqui, who I know in the CCM. It turns out they put hermana Angelica on date for baptism for the 19th of August! After lunch we started to teach hermano Kevin the restoration. Then we went to hermana Lourdes, who is the grandaughter of hermana Pepa, the woman we helped move out of the house when she was convulsing a few weeks ago. Lourdes is an inactive member, but her pareja Anthony isn't a member, and this was our 2nd lesson with them. We taught one of my favorite lessons, how the gospel blesses families. They were so interested and had great answers to the questions we posed. They also had great questions and I'm excited to keep teaching them. We gave them both Book of Mormons. That night we had a lesson with hermano Enzo about the priesthood, which went really well.

Sunday was rouge in that still not a single investigador came to church even though many promised they would and we went to get them. But I know we're working. But it was still great because hermana Joysse came and is going strong now. Hermano Angel came after a long time of not coming. And hermano Enzo received the Aaronic priesthood! Oh what joy! We had a very long ward council afterwards. That afternoon we had a tarde hogar with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric and his family. Afterwards they gave us some picarones too. That night we heard the testimonies of all the new missionaries and heard a good message from Presidente Hiatt about chapter 2 in PMG.

Today for pday we went on a hike up to the top of a hill. Man it felt good to do something outside again!

That's all for me! This mission has been really hard but I know the Lord has a plan for me in all of this. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1. Cuy head! (I didn't eat it because it wasn't mine but I wanted a photo with it)

2/3/4. Pday