Week 100: The Imperfect Harvest

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

On Monday after pday we had our new missionary training and did some contacts.

On Tuesday we planned to have a lesson in the afternoon with hermano James to prepare him for his baptism on Saturday. He finally had finished his exams so we thought he's have more time, but he told us right then that now he's working from 2pm to 11pm everyday. We quickly tried to work out a call lesson that day but it didn't work out. We had exchanges with Central 2 and I stayed in Chan Chan with Elder Jensen and Elder Salas went there with Elder Estebes. When I was in Central 18 months we taught a kid named Paulo who ended up not getting baptized. The Elders have but him on date again, this time for January so we'll see what happens. Elder Johnsen has great Spanish for just 3 months in the mission and I loved his enthusiasm. Pretty much all of our lessons fell but he stayed positive and we still had a great day!

On Wednesday we finished our exchange early to go to the mission home for a Christmas party! We went as a zone and had a talent show. As one of the 2 dying missionaries in the zone, I was asked to say the opening prayer. I played the same version of "Angels We Have Heard on High" that I played last year. Luckily I'm the only guy who in Zona Esperanza a year ago so no one else had heard it. Last year I had practiced every pday for 2 months in preparation for that moment, but this time I only practiced it 2 times after having not played it for a year. Luckily the muscle memory kicked in and it turned out just fine. The rest of the zone had some awesome talents and then all the missionaries from Chan Chan sang Silent Night but with our tongues put up behind our lips so it sounded funny. We got to see the house and then we had lunch. We were told that the food would be small, but they fed us a full on meal with picarones for dessert! We also had a small Christmas presentation where we read the scriptures and sang. At the end we got some Christmas cookies. We had a call lesson with James in the house of President at 1 because it was the only time we could do it. I was worried that we wouldn't have time to teach everything and was especially worried about if he believed that Russell M Nelson is a prophet, since he had expressed doubts about it before. But luckily, he had watched the Christmas Devotional on Sunday and felt the spirit a lot when President Nelson spoke! He now believes that he is a prophet of God! That afternoon we didn't have much éxito while finding. We had a small lesson with Jeanpierre about prophets and then visited hermana Esther and hermana Noemi! She hadn't read in the Book of Mormon so we read the first 17 verses of 3 Nefi 11 with her and testified of Christ. It was a good lesson and she promised to come to church!

On Thursday we had district council. My last district council. After that we had another stressed call lesson with James at 1pm and we went over the baptismal interview questions. He passed them well! After that we rushed over to the APs house to start our exchange with them. This time I went to Villa del Mar with Elder Cárdenas. We talked a lot about what we can do to help the mission and what I've learned in my 2 years. Elder Cárdenas is really cool and we had a lesson in the temple with one of their friends, William, who's preparing for baptism, since the temple is in their area. I saw hermana Marquina from Pueblo Libre while there in the temple as well as President Rodriguez. That night we had a small lesson with a family they're teaching that I met. We also had a lesson with a different family and I made the mistake of asking the dude (he's a member of a different church) how he knows that God loves him. About 25 minutes later he finished his monologue and we left. We had wings for dinner and I had mine ceviche flavored.

We went to the offices early on Friday where we had personal study and then finished the exchange. We had breakfast and tried looking for baptismal clothes for the hermanas of Central, who were going to baptize a family of 4. For some reason the offices have almost no good baptismal clothes. Elder Salas and Elder Cuff had a miracle with Hermana Mirian. She had a date for this Saturday too, but she was never home during the week so we didn't have anything planned. But luckily the found her that day and went over the baptismal interview questions and set a time for her baptism. After we finished the exchange we went to California with boxes of pamphlets and BoMs and baptismal clothes for the rehearsal for our special musical number for the multizone conference with Elder Becerra. We got it passable by the end. We had weekly planning and then went to Mirian to make sure she had her interview. James passed his in the morning and Mirian passed hers just fine. We planned the baptism and then went to the chapel for the noche misional. We didn't have the key to the sacrament room so we got scared for a second but we found one eventually. We prepared it all and we saw Jhonatan, Kiara, Estefano, Andrea, Jose, and Mariana come! After Elder Salas and I gave a message hermana Merly told me to go downstairs to get some paper towels, which I assumed were for the whiteboard to play some game with it. But I was bamboozled. I came up the stairs and doubled over in embarrassment when I saw they were throwing a farewell party for me! They had drawn a bunch of farewell drawings on the whiteboard and asked me to share a few words. Afterwards we played some games and everyone participated! After that we had the refreshment as some members gave me some sending off words. Andrea and Jose painted some pictures for me they are amazing! I wasn't expecting any of that but I'm grateful for all the love barrio Chan Chan has given me!

On Saturday we woke up early and went to the chapel to fill up the font and clean up for James' baptism at 9. Hermano Juan Cabrera performed the ordinance. It was beautiful and at the end James gave a powerful testimony. He explained how he started out viewing everything logically but now is permitting that his faith guide him. We returned for lunch and quickly went to the bishop's apartment where the secretaries gave us the baptismal clothes for Mirian. We rushed back to our area for a quick lesson with a woman named Pamela we contacted with last week. Then we went to the chapel had prepared for Mirian's baptism. It went well and hermana Marily and her mom came and they cared a lot for Mirian. She asked me to baptize her. She gave a great testimony afterwards too. After the baptism we dropped off our stuff and had a lesson with Walter and Elena. We talked about marriage and they promised to talk about a date for start of next year. We visited hermana Andrea and Jose and then invited everyone to church.

On Sunday we picked up Andrea and Jose and went to church 10/11 recent converts came! Mirian and James got confirmed and we also saw Isabel, Mariana, Walter, and Elena come! It was the primary program, and both Valentino and Estefano had parts! They were so awesome. In Elders Quorum I was asked to give a final testimony, which I was happy to do. Jose also got the Aaronic Priesthood! Afterwards we tried to submit James' and Mirian's fichas but the internet was down -_- After lunch we had a call with the high counselor and talked about things we can do to help the zone and the stake. We went to a lesson with Esther and Noemi, who had gone to Primavera for church because Noemi's boyfriend, who's an investigator, lives there. We taught Esther about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized this month. She said yes very enthusiastically, but will be busy most Saturdays for the rest of the year, so we put her on date for the 6th of January! The Lord once again has guided us to the elect. We passed by Elena and Walter but Walter had just been injured playing soccer so we gave him a blessing of health instead. We visited an inactive member named Milagros and then had a lesson with Valentino and Genesis. That night during the weekly mission zoom call the gringos who are going home to give their last counsels to the mission. I spoke about grace, studying for our investigators, and accepting that the mission won't be perfect.

For my last pday we went to the house of Andrea, the pensionista in California, and we got KFC as a district. Afterwards I visited Hermana Gladys and hermano Anthony Díaz in Pueblo Libre!

Wow, I'll probably send one more email next week to describe my last half week in the mission. My mission has not been perfect, but that was never its' purpose. It hasn't been perfect, but it's exactly what the Lord wanted me to do and experience. The Lord has perfected my humble offering.

Elder Jensen

1. Bautismo de James

2. Último consejo de distrito

3/8. Bautismo de Mirian

4. Torta para el último consejo

5. Untitled

6/9/10. Fiesta navideña en la misión!

7/12. Noche misional/despedida de Elder Jensen

11. Killing Elder Jensen and Elder Castillo

13. Hermano Días!

14. Los muertos de la zona Central