Week 98: Preparing the Future Generation

 Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a great week!


On Monday after pday we did our training for the new missionaries and had a small lesson with Lilia. After that we did a contact with Mirian and Angel. We decided to push back Mirian's baptismal date a week so she could get baptized with her son if he comes to church this week. That night we got a call from Elder Castillo saying that we were going to the temple the next day! Of course I had put my suit pants in the wash the day before so I was going to have to use my tan pants -_-

On Tuesday we woke up at normal time even though our session started at 8. We literally wolfed down our breakfast and raced over. The session was great and I had some personal revelation! We visited the distribution center and took photos as a district! After that we had intercambios with Buenos Aires 2. I went there with Elder Moss and Elder Hadfield went to Chan Chan with Elder Salas. We had a lesson with a lady who wasn't understanding anything, no matter how simply we taught it. Afterwards though we had a great lesson with a lady named Margarita who came to church last week. She was reading the testimony of Joseph Smith right before we got there and had questions about the gold plates and the Angel Moroni. We ended up teaching the restoration again so she could keep reading the Book of Mormon with the right mindset. The spirit was strong and she's going to progress well. We did some contacting and then visited some members, since Elder Moss is new to the area and he wanted to get to know the leaders in the ward. I was impressed with his ability to work with them! That night I was able to talk with him about his leadership assignmenr as a DL and I just dumped out everything I've learned over the past 2 year. It's exactly what he wanted!

On Wednesday we finished the exchange and were a little late to district council because of that and because we thought ir started at 10:30 when it actually started at 10. It was a great district council though and we felt ready for the week. We did some contacts that all failed throughout the afternoon. At night we had a lesson with José. We had heard that he had expressed a little bit of fear of living up to expectations after baptism and that we was thinking about backing out a little bit. We shared with him Moroni 10:32-33 and talked with him about perfection and that the reason why we should be baptized not is that we'll be perfect immediately, but that we'll be perfection eventually through Christ. He felt better. I told him that I've seen a big change in him and that indeed he's ready for baptism. It's true, I have seen a big change in him. He's keeping commitments and when I first met him he wasn't interested at all! He was a little shocked when I said that I've seen a change in him, but I know he'll see it too soon. After that we went to the institute building. We had been asked together with Hna Garcia and Hna Strömsdörfer to teach the mission prep class about stress in the mission. We gave a totally unprepared lesson by reading in the norms and in the adjusting to missionary life book, but it went well!

On Thursday we had a small meeting with all our DLs and after lunch we did some calls and weekly planning. We had a lesson with hermano James. This time we specifically asked his dad, hermano Santiago, beforehand if he would join us. They let us inside the house! That was my first lesson inside their house. James is taking his final exams right now so he's pretty busy, but he's still separating time to meet with us. That's faith! We had sent him the word lf wisdom pamphlet the day before and he read it. He had some questions about coffee and tea. We were able to answer then and we could see his understanding click. His dad was also able to give a powerful testimony. After that lesson hermana Mirian canceled and told us that she'd talk to us when she's ready since she doesn't have much time. We knocked on the door of a yellow dot and ended up talking with her cousin, Luis. He seems pretty interested! As we were contacting we ran into Angel and he told us what's been going on. A big trial happened to them that day that was going to take a lot of time. We gave him encouragement and told him to tell his mom that we're going to help in every way possible, which there isn't much we can do. She later sent us a message and told us what's going on, so we know it didn't have anything to do with us, which was our fear.

On Friday we had exchanges with California 2. I went there with Elder Williams and Elder Castillo came to Chan Chan. After lunch we did some calls and then had a lesson with a man named Christian. He's a student and we met him in the park. We taught him about how to receive his answer that these things that he's learning are true. We talked about reading in the scriptures, praying, and going to church. He promised to be a bit more diligent in doing those things and told us that what we shared was exactly what he needed to hear! After that we street contacted a family of 3 with the Book of Mormon. We ended up eating dinner pretty early because of their pensionista's schedule. It was fun seeing hermana Andrea again and seeing her little dog, Canela. After dinner we visited some inactive members and showed them Elder Godoy's talk from the last conference. They felt it and promised to come back to church! They also had a friend over named Billy who's met with the missionaries before a few years ago and he was interested in learning again! It was a pretty good day and Elder Williams is the best! We had a great time talking ans I love his enthusiasm for the work. We stayed up late talking.

On Saturday we had pancakes for breakfast and I got to talk with hermana Andrea again! We finished the exchange and I bought some chips to share. Elder Castillo and I got the message with our schedule for our last week in the mission, so we know how it's all gonna go down now. We later had our meeting with the APs, which went great. After lunch we had a call with the High Counselour who's on charge of missionary work in the stake. We set goals and went over somethings we want to do better to work better with the stake. We also mentioned some problems that he can help us fix. It was very productive. We had another lesson with James, and this time we went with hermano Juan Cabrera, our Elders Quorum President. We taught the law of chastity. Hermano James had some questions and hermano Cabrera came in with the truth and invited the spirit very strongly. James understood it all and committed to live it! After that we had a quick member lesson and they referred us to an inactive family. We invited people to church and passed by hermana Mirian. She said she'd separate the time to go to church even with her trial.

On Sunday we saw Mirian come, but sadly Angel didn't, so we'll have to see what we're going to do now about their baptismal date. Hermana Elena and Hermano Walter also came. We had a small ministudy with Elder Bardales and Elder Allen, planned our training for the new missionaries, and did the technical stuff for the zone. In the afternoon we contacted with a mom and her son as they were on a walk and talked to them about the Restoration. We had a lesson with hermano Walter and hermano Miclok as well. Elena couldn't join us, but we had a spirit filled lesson about repentance and perservering to the end. It helped hermano Walter a lot and received answers to a lot of questions he's been having. We also invites him to talk openly with his wife about marriage so they can take the next step and progress towards baptism. He said he would. We also visited hermana Genesis and taught them a little bit about the Book of Mormon. That night we had the devotional and all was well. We learned that Elder Becerra of the seventy is coming to the mission and my conference with him will be the day before I go home!

Today we had snacks for hna Strömsdörfer's birthday and mine while we played card games.

That's all for me, but our friends Mirian, Angel, James, and José could really use your prayers! Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

1-5, 7, 8. Templo
6. Institute class










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