Elder Sam Jensen

HEYOOOOOOO Alright things are going well here in Honduras. We had a super good Christmas. There are a few families here who are super good. They always give us food, and they let us use their computer/wifi to call the family. It was super good to talk. It made me want to be able to find more families that can have the same blessings from the gospel. This past week in the mission, we had a meeting with our zone San Pedro, and the zone Valle de Sula. It was about christmas, and how we can be more like Christ. Especially this time of year, we focus on Christ. It's always super good to evaluate where we are, and then try to better ourselves. We also had a bunch of Christmas songs from the missionaries here. I played piano for the meeting. It was Carol of the Bells, I was surprised I could still play it has been 5 months since I have practiced piano regularly. This week is the end of the transfer, so we will find out later tonight which of us is leaving the area. Right now it i...

THE LAST EMAIL BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!          Well, its been a good week here in Honduras. It was kind of a long week because a lot of our lessons fell through, but we still tried hard to contact and find some new people to teach. Our investigators are still going well, but we found out that Leyni Garcia has to move. She is moving to a town in the mission San Pedro Sula East, so we are hoping the Elders there can find her and be able to teach her more. She really wants to learn more, and she wants to follow Christ as closely as possible. This is technically the last week of the change, but we wont find out what is going on till the 28th. We have been teaching families here about the birth of Jesus Christ and what it means for us. Every time we teach people about the purpose of Christmas it is so spiritual and we can really feel the love that our Father in Heaven has for us. Yesterday we were having a lesson with a family in the ward, Familia Elvir, and w...

¿Que Tal? This week was a good one here in Honduras. The weather looks like it might change a little bit so that is good. This week we had stake conference, and it was really good. They really focused on doing the little things like reading and studying the scriptures, and praying sincerely every day. These are the things that build faith every day. Just something I got out of the Stake Conference. This week we had the Christmas party for the ward and it was super cool. The christmas music here is super different than back home. They have a lot of merengue (I think that is what they were calling it). Lots of the ward went. This week we also went to a house of one of our investigator families to paint their house. We painted almost their whole house just with brushes, it took forever. It was good though, they gave us baleadas and pastelitos. They are a super cool family, and we are hoping they will progress. Leyni is really good, she is almost done with ...

Alright, we had a pretty good week this week. Last week it was kind of starting to cool off, but this week was an oven. Sometimes more than an oven. We were almost dying. We taught more of the people that we had found. We are really working hard with 2 of them. One of them is Leyni Garcia. She is super cool, and really wants to learn more about the church. She came to church this past Sunday and had a ton of questions about it afterwards. The other one is named Manger, and he is super cool. When we cross the Bridge from El Roble to Castaños, we pass him. He is always selling Elotes, grilled corn. One day he called us over and we taught him a little bit. The second lesson he told us that he hadn't been selling hardly any corn. So, when he prayed, one of the first times he had ever prayed, he prayed to have success selling the corn. Whenever we pass him now, he is selling like crazy, and when he sees us he gives us a thumbs up and smiles. We are still working to get him to church, bu...

What up? Alright, the area of Castaños is doing good. We still are having a little bit of trouble getting in to the streets that have the gates on them. But, sometimes we tell the guards a name so he lets us in to the street. The funny part is that the person that we tell the guard that we are going to visit doesn´t exist. We dont always do this, just part of the time. But, we are doing really well at finding new people for us to teach. We have several new people that look like they are really interested. So, i started off the day of Thanksgiving kind of sad because I thought we probably weren´t going to have any kind of Thanksgiving dinner. But I went through the day like normal, and at 5 in the afternoon this family from this super nice neighborhood in the ward called us and said for us to meet them at this Grocery store in the area at around  7:15 . So, we all had no idea what was going on. Then we got there and the other missionaries from the ward were there too. The family p...

Well, I was transferred from my area. We were both really surprised that I was the one who was leaving. But I am still in the same zone, San Pedro Sula, so that is cool. My area now is called Castaños, and this area is going to be difficult. About 60% of the streets in the area have a gate thing that closes it and we have to have an invitation from someone in the street for the security guard to let us in. I am in a trio, but probably only for a little bit. One of them is from El Salvador and the other is from Ecuador. But, this area is also really good. People here are receptive when we are able to talk to them. We are starting almost completely from scratch in this area, so we have been really focusing on finding people for us to teach. But, the whole thing with the gates on the streets makes it a little hard. We have already found several investigators who seem promising. Our area is kind of like 2 different areas, because we have part of the area that has 2 "colonias", ba...

Well, i am officially done with training on Wednesday. Transfers are also that day, so I will probably get a new companion. It is most likely that I will stayin the area that i am in for at least 6 more weeks. This area is awesome,it is in the city,but it is pretty calm compared with other parts or San Pedro Sula that I have seen. The families here are awesome. This past week was pretty good. We almost baptized Lester Garcia this last week, but his friend was in a motorcylce accident so he was with him. We are hoping he will be able to this week, he is a really good guy, and he just wants to follow Christ and make his life better. Tomorrow all of the new missionaries that are coming get here. We get to go and work with them for the day so that will be fun. Looking back on the past 12 weeks, i realized that I have learned a lot. At the beginning walking down the street and talking to complete strangers was really hard for me,and now i hardly even think about it. I have learned a lot of ...

This week was really long, but it ended super well. Someone we were teaching got baptized! His name is Jose Armando Mejia, and he is one of the most converted people I have met. His friend who is a recent convert to the church was able to baptize him. They are both awesome people. His life story is crazy, I dont know how some of the people that I have met here would be able to turn their lives around from where they were without the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do know that with Jesus Christ, anyone can return to the right path in their lives. Because I couldn't go outside and work this week because of the whole surgery thing, I read a lot of scriptures, and I learned a lot about trials. I learned that when we have trials, we shouldnt expect or ask Heavenly Father to take our trials away, or to make it so the trial doesn't matter, or that the trial is just kind of there. We should pray to be able to handle the trial with strength, and to be able to bear the trial and learn from it...

Alright it was a great week this week. Really rainy, but really good. I think it rained every day which made all the roads here turn into rivers. But, this week was awesome even with all the rain. We worked a lot with less actives this week, because a lot of lessons fell through. We didn't get to contact much this week, because when it is raining, nobody does anything but stay inside on their couch and watch telenovelas. My birthday came and went, it felt weird away from home. We went to visit a member family with a less active dad, and it turned into us helping him make juice. Oh, the juice this family makes is the best juice I have ever tried. It doesn't matter what kind of juice, it is the best. This family is really awesome. They have a son in Brazil right now serving a mission, so they always help us out when they can. Lester Garcia is really progressing. He has such a great story, I am always amazed at how far he has come. We went and mowed a l...

Alright, great week this week. We had some lessons fall through but that is ok. We did so much contacting this week, trying to find some new people to teach. We ended up 10 short of the mission record, but we didnt know till yesterday. We have a lot of cool stories from the people here. Each one has a different story, lots of them are incredible.  Each person's life here is different and that is really what I have been trying to focus on, teaching the lessons to help them in their lives, not just saying words. Lester Garcia is our main focus this week, and he should get baptized this week if everything goes well. I really have learned a lot about prayer while I have been here in Honduras. One of my favorite scriptures is in 2 Nephi 32:9. It talks about praying always, and I have been trying to do that. I am always asking for help to know what to say, and how to say it. Anyways, we have been doing great here, and it is always raining here now. Funny S...

Ok. Super busy week. So this last week we had to move areas but we stayed in the same ward. The new area is called Smith 1 and it takes in the neighborhoods Barandillas and Barrio Smith. We found someone with a car to help us move everything so that was a big help. The new apartment is really good, it is a lot bigger than the old one. The only bad thing is that there are 3 dogs that are owned by the land lord. 1 of them is super chill, Sacha, and really awesome. The other two are little rat dogs named Chispa and Toto that never stop barking. The area has a lot more people just walking around, and it is a little bit nicer, so we will see how that plays out. We have 4 investigators who are progressing pretty well, Lester Garcia, Armando Martinez, and Jose and Esperanza. Lester is making progress slowly but surely, he has come to church a lot and is friends with several members. Armando has only come to church 1 time but always is asking questions about the church and is really intereste...

Well, those first 6 weeks went by fast. I am doing super good, and Spanish is still not where I want it to be, but it is getting better. So, my trainer and I are switching areas with the other elders in the ward, so I am moving to a new area. It is going to be a lot of work. Basically, because of my comps health, we are swapping areas.  My comp can't be in certain conditions that are in our current area but he doesn't have to go home. We had conference this past weekend, and it was really good.  We watched one of the sessions in Spanish on a projector, some on a tv at the stake center in english, and some on a computer in English.  I learned a lot about prayer. Most of our people we have been teaching for a little while are kind of stuck, and it is kind of hard because we dont know what to do next, so we are trying to figure out some other way to teach them more. But we have a bunch of new investigators that are really progressing quickly. One of ...

It was a really good week this week. We focused a lot on finding more people this week, and it paid off. We have 6 new investigators that we are teaching. One of them is super good, he is a barber. He was super receptive and was asking a lot of questions. Juan Ramon Fajardo told us he wanted some more time, so we are still working with him. We have been working a lot this week with less actives and those lessons are always really good.   My Spanish is making really big strides, the only thing that I am struggling with is when someone asks me a direct question. Street contacting is getting a lot easier. I have some funny stories this week. I had to give a talk at a baptism the other elders in our ward had. Everyone was nodding during it, so I think that means I was saying some good stuff. I was nervous beforehand but it was good. 1. On Wednesday, we stopped to help a guy change a tire on our way home from lunch. On Thursday, there was another person who needed...

Sam was short on time this week so he asked me to piece together from emails he sent to us.  So, it may be a little choppy and all, but we love to hear about the experiences he is having. So, last week we had an area conference with Elder Alonso who is the area authority for the church in Central America.  It was great.  Elder Alonso taught me a lot even though I couldn't understand all of it.  He spoke about teaching with the spirit, and the role of the spirit in our lessons.  I am really trying to apply what he said, and it has already helped in lessons. Last Friday night, we got called to give blessing to a less active sister who had had an operation and wasn't feeling very well. We had no idea where she lived so first we had to track down her house, and it was on this path down behind a pulpería in the really poor part of our área called El Bordo. We walked in and talked to her for a little while and the whole time I was thinking, I don'...

Well, it has only been three days since the last pday so, this will probably be a little short.  Elder Alonso, the area authority is coming Monday, so we had pday today.   Ok, we have 3 super good investigators we are teaching. The first one is Juan-Ramon Fajardo. He is super good, and he works in construction. When, we go over to teach him, he basically teaches the lesson himself. We were at church on Sunday, and in one of the classes he answered literally every question and all of answers were super good. He lives with his daughter who is a member of the church. The next one is Julio Cesar, and he is super awesome. He lives by himself, and he is a civil engineer. He always has really good questions about the Gospel. The only thing that is a struggle with teaching him is his job, his schedule is a little erratic, but this past week it has been a little harder because his son is sick. The other one is Lester Garcia, and he has really come a long way in life. He used ...

Alright. Super good week this week. Lots of lessons, lots of walking. church is always a little interesting because i have to play piano every week. We have three really good guys that we are teaching right now, and it is really cool to see their lives improve because of the gospel. We had to go to the hospital 3 times because my trainer has developed a bunch of allergies since being out here. Gluten, lactose, nuts, cherries, and garlic. I am always super tired, because we have to walk everywhere, unless we are going to the stake center or hospital. But, my shoes are still in pretty good shape. The other day, it was raining when we had to start walking home that night, and we were at the church building which is about a 20ish minute walk. It was pouring, and had been for a while. So we wait a couple minutes to see if it would let up, but it didnt so we just started walking. here there is no drainage system for the roads so when it rains, they turn into mini rivers. And i forgot any k...

Hola. I am here in Honduras finally! So the last day of the MTC was super boring. We just sat there and had a bunch of presentations. Funny story, the last day we were having to weigh bags to make sure they were good, and my companion was over by a total of 15 pounds. He had to leave a few things behind, but it was stuff like shampoo and mouthwash. Anyways, i had to leave the MTC at 3 in the morning to catch our flight to El Salvador, then we connected to San Pedro Sula. they were both about 40ish minutes long so it was really quick. When we first got here, the mission president was waiting for us to take us to the local stake center where we got a few talks about how everything works out here. Anyways after that, they sent us out in the city with one of the older missionaries to go talk to some people. I went out with Elder Lucha, and he is from El Salvador and doesnt speak any English. It was super funny trying to talk to him, and i am sure i sounded like a 2 year old....

Last pday in the MTC!!!!!!!!! It has been a really good experience here. I have learned so much and i can`t wait to go out into the field. I leave  Tuesday morning  for Honduras. I dont know what time yet but i am pretty sure it will be early. We had two videos on Sunday that were both really awesome. One was from Elder Holland and the other was from Elder Bednar.  They both really made me excited to go out to honduras and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In our rooms we have fans and this week everyone was stealing everyone elses fan. Everyone at one point had 2 other rooms fans, and some rooms had 0 fans.  My Spanish is continuing to make huge strides. I can express myself a lot more now.  I really like talking to all of the Latinos down here. They are all super funny. I can actually talk to them most of the time which is awesome. All of  my group of guys are ready to get out of here and actually start doing stuff. I am super excited to go to Ho...

So, it has been a super awesome week here in Guatemala City. The weather here has been kinda like Missouri. We just get a lot more rain, and it cools off more at night. Anyway, my Spanish has progressed the most it has since i have been here. It is super exciting. Sundays here are the best. We always have really good classes during the day. This last week we had a class about trials of faith. I really liked it because it applies to missionaries too. We have no idea how our mission is going to be, until we try our faith by starting it and continuing to do the right things. So remember last week how i said our teachers were going to change. We kept one and got a different one. The new one is a really good at teaching us Spanish, she is just a little strict. We also got a bunch of new missionaries this week. Most of them are from Utah, but of the ones i have talked to there are 3 from out east somewhere. The Utah kids had a funny experience on their way out here. Their pilot in SLC didnt ...

Well, this week has been awesome. I learned so much in a week, and not just in Spanish. We have been practicing lessons in spanish with other districts so much. It is crazy. I think they are changing our teachers today, which is kind of sad. I really liked both of my teachers. They are both from Guatemala, but they were super awesome. Well today, we got to go to Guatemala City Plaza, and it was super cool. We also walked through the oldest cathedral in Guatemala today. It was super big, but the outside was super dirty. We got to place books of mormon today, which kinda made me nervous, but it was super fun. People here are super friendly, and it was awesome talking to this one guy. We were talking to him for about 30 minutes. We found out he was from Quetzaltenango and he was visiting family. The other people we talked to were all super awesome. We also met a bunch of members today who were just walking around which was kinda weird. I bought this really cool tie in the market down ther...

Whats up everybody? Its awesome you guys are having so much fun. The MTC here is going super awesome, and I`m learning spanish as they say here, poco a poco. Im super excited to go out to Honduras already. These next 4 weeks will probably fly by though. We had one fake investigator last week, really our teacher we just had to pretend he was an investigator. We stopped teaching him, but bot 2 new ones. These two are definitely harder to teach than the last one. They both have more problems than the first one, and are less understanding i guess. A funny language mistake i made this last week was that i said to our teacher, who was pretending to be someone we were teaching at the time, that we were there to comer(eat) a message, instead of saying compartir(share) a message. He just kind of looked at me funny and then i realized what happened. My friend and i just started laughing then we corrected it and taught the restoration. My favorite scripture here so far has been Alma 26:12. I ...

So Wednesdays will be my pday. The first week here has been awesome, and I am so excited to be here. In my district there are 10 of us. 8 Elders and 2 hermanas. Our leader, Elder Pututau comitted to play linebacker at Utah, and he is really cool. He is a huuuugee Tongan. For the most part our classes here are all in Spanish, but our teachers are super good. We have an "investigator" he is really one of my teachers, that we have to teach a lesson to everyday, and the lessons have to be in Spanish. Its really hard, but im starting to get a hang of talking about church things in Spanish, i still am not very good at talking everyday Spanish to the Latinos here :), but im working on it. My companion is from Orem Utah, his name is Elder Maynes, and we`ve gotten along pretty well. Sorry if there are any typos in here, this keyboard is really weird, the shift key is about the size of a tictac. So far with our "investigator" we have gotten to the third lesson, and its going ...