Sad Mission News

This is from the Benton's Blog:

"God... grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
This weekend, we had to tell two of our missionaries, Elder Wall and Elder Fish the very sad news that each one of them had suffered the loss of one of their parents, as both parents had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in Utah during the weekend. Elder Wall lost his father on Saturday, and Elder Fish lost his mother on Sunday morning. Both parents were only 48 years old.
These unfortunate tragedies were beyond our control, but, after telling them the distressing news about their parents, we were able to bring Elder Wall (on the right) and Elder Fish (on the left) to the Mission Home, where we spent a Sunday afternoon with them, along with their Missionary Companions, and our Missionary Assistants. We were finally able to coax a brief a smile from each of these missionaries, after expressing love to them, crying with them, praying with them, counseling with them, reading scriptures with them, walking with them, and feeding them a delicious lunch topped off with homemade brownies, ice cream and strawberries.
We are all profoundly grateful for our knowledge of the Gospel, its principles and ordinances, and for the Atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, as Elder Fish and Elder Wall return to their missionary work, and their mourning process, we send them on with our great love and some encouraging, comforting words from prophets of old:
From the "Book of Mormon", the elderly prophet and righteous King Benjamin, at the end of his life, as he delivers departing words of wisdom to his beloved people says:
"Believe in God; believe that He is, and that He created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."
(Mosiah 4:9)
The Prophet Nephi, writing in the "Book of Mormon":
"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men." (2 Nephi 31: 19)
As the Prophet Joseph Smith states, "indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul---We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely,or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." (13th Article of Faith)
Finally, we hope Elder Wall and Elder Fish will carry President Benton's refrain in their hearts with them as they go on:
"Adelante con fe y esperanza!" (Go forward with faith and hope!)
We love you Elder Fish and Elder Wall, as if you are our own sons!
P.S. We are all looking forward to tomorrow, because tomorrow, an Apostle of the Lord, Elder Russell M. Nelson, will be here in Buenos Aires to speak to us! We know that Elder Wall and Elder Fish will be blessed and comforted by Elder Nelson's visit.

Come What May-- And Love It!

An Argentina soccer shirt for Davy!

Davy wearing his soccer shirt from his mission serving Aunt Stacey!

An Argentine mailing label

and paper money

along with favorite treats!

Oct. 7, 2008

YEA! Ím so glad you already got my package… I thought it would arrive around Thanksgiving, but gee… lots sooner. Did you like the tretas? The package only cost me around 15 dollars to fill and about 20 to send to you. I thought it would be a fun surprise for you all. Glad you liked it.
Ím trying to take pictures of lots of stuff, I think Ím going to bite the bullet and send off some cds with all the pix soon, but Ím still thinking about it, yeah, Íll probably send them off next p day or the one after that. I want you to have pictures, and it really takes so much time to attach them with the emails, so yeah, Ím going to get on that.
What is going on in Utah? People keep stopping me and telling me "how sad…" or something and Ím totally like "what, what is going on there?" The other day someone told me that there had been a shooting in a university and I didńt know if the story was legit or totally bogus. I assume that yoúd tell me about anything that crazy, but you never know…
Did you all know that I turned 5 months old in the mission today? Yep, Ím 5 months old! Ím navigating the area and accidentally had us get off the colective a stop or two early once so we had to walk like 6 blocks more, but I learned a lesson and didńt repeat the mistake the next time!
Daddy – I totally hear you about "you cańt get any wetter." I haveńt quite been totally soaked yet, but definitely my feet… oh, it was super cold and I was caught without my cool boots. I hope we get to go to a BCS bowl, even though that would mean wéd probably lose it, right? Maybe not. Too bad the cougs areńt playing that well, but it does my heart good to hear that at least they are winning. Yes, we were able to stay for the second session of Sunday conference because Rolando Destito, one of my first baptisms (he got baptized August 9th with Azucena Rodríguez) stayed and so yeah… It was INCREDIBLE! You are right… Tears fell from my eyes when that seventy said that we often think we need to have this incredible experience to have a testimony, but that it is not true. I TOTALLY needed to hear it and it was really an answer to my prayers… for 5 months... I had been needing to hear it, and it was truly a special experience.
We watched the 2 morning sessions sitting next to Raul (so in Castellano) and the 2 afternoon sessions in the special English room for the missionaries who have less than a year. I got more out of the sessions in English, but was still quite edified by the sessions in a foreign language. It was really interesting because I realized that everyone sitting next to us in the stake center (which was our chapel… and SUPER convenient for us because we were able to go out and work between sessions) didńt understand the hymns that were being sung because they were in English.
I just loved conference… it was definitely the best general conference of my life! "come what may and love it" (venga lo que venga, y disfrútelo) and Elder Holland's talk about angels. I decided that I will dedicate the rest of my life to becoming an angel! I also got a kick out of the sister that talked about missionary work and reminded people to write the missionaries! When she said that, I hoped that I would be getting a ton of mail in the next few weeks. Hehe!
Interesting thing about Argentina… yes, there is a WalMart, but not in any of the sister areas. We have a big mall just outside our area and we go there once or twice a transfer, but mostly we do all our shopping in the little stores in the streets. There isńt really one-stop shopping here. In stead, every thing has it's own little store. Therés a fruit and vegetable store, therés a shoe repair store, the dry-cleaners, the laundromat, the toy shop, the costume shop, the little school supply store, a place where you buy cleaning supplies, the Internet shops, the locutorios… where we make calls and pay for them… (we have been out of minutes on our cell phone for 10 days and it makes things INCREDIBLY complicated… mainly because when we try to call certain people, their phones dońt accept calls from locutorios… for example… Gabriela, the mom with the 7 kids that we are desperately trying to have daily contact with her, but it's practically impossible. But luckily, next month we will get our minutes doubled and we will have 500, which I think should not run out if we are careful. But yeah, 250 ran out in about 2 weeks. LAME!
Speaking of her… shés still just afraid to commit to a baptismal date because she might be getting back together with the father of her kids… Pray for her to just accept what she already knows she needs to do, and GET BAPTIZED this transfer… Íll just die if I have to leave the area with this family unbaptzied… I just cańt bear to leave without seeing the fruits our labors…
Luckily… Ím becoming the missionary 24/7. It's good because Ïm really losing myself in the work, but it's bad because it's starting to cost me my sleep because I think about the people and how to help them until I fall asleep and when I wake up in the middle of the night, I think about them again, all morning and all through study I rack my brain for ways to help them see and progress… I confess it's kind of stressful and Ím trying to not let it affect my physically. But it's really like more than I can explain… it's the missionary life. Luckily there is also a lot of happiness like planning Rauĺs baptismal service. He will be baptized this Saturday and I am so excited! Íll send pictures. He is incredible…He made my whole mission worth it. Even if I dońt baptize one single more person, it was worth if for Raul Antonio Cappanna.
Guess what… on the 13th of October Russell M. Nelson is coming to speak to the Buenos Aires West and North Missions and I am singing in a choir of 8 missionaries in this meeting! Wish me luck, we only have the chance to practice once altogether right before the meeting. Pray for me to have a good voice and know my part! (Tell me which part is mine and which part is yours)... remember that song? Íll let you know how it goes.
Wow, another hour gone. Thanks for your letters, your love, your advice, your updates, your support, your prayers, all you do!
Thanks for the new shirts… I trust that you found the best of the best. I look forward to it and thank you all for your efforts, your sacrifices, and your dedication to take care of me.
I pray for you all daily, especially little Davy!
I miss you, but in like 13 months wéll be together again!
Wubba,
Hermana Stacey Jensen

Still In Castelar....And Ready To See The Miracles!

Standard of Excellence Newsletter

Hermana Torres and Jensen top right - for having 4 Key Indicators

Family!

Oh how I love to write you and hear from you. When I think of you all I feel true joy.I miss you tons, but know that you are being protected and blessed and that you know how much I love you. I love reading about your day to day activities and projects and everything. I have a few mini moms here in the mission that I know I can turn to if I need something. One such member is Hermana Quiroga, she is the RS Pres. And she washes our clothes for us!
GO COUGARS! President Benton pulled me aside after the transfer meeting and told me that BYU is number 7 in the polls! How he knows that I´m such a fan, I´m not sure. Maybe I said it in one of my interviews, but he has 150 some odd missionaries and the fact that he remembered my team was really impressive!
The phone numbers here are super long and hard to remember. They are 8 digits if they are landlines and 10 digits if they are cellular. It´s amazing that one more digit (meaning 8 instead of 7) is practically impossible to remember! I learned in college that the average adult can only hold 7 things in their short term memory and that´s why our phone numbers are 7 digits. I guess South America never did that study-experiment so they don´t know better.
Ants are HUGE! I can look down and see them moving and carrying leaves and follow the trail and line of them for like 20 feet. They are literally gigantic! It´s fun to watch them move and I always wonder what they´re doing or what they´re going to build with the little leaves.
About the temple… we only get to go every 2 transfers (every 3 months) so I´ll get to go 4 or 5 times more.This past week we had a ward talent show and my comp and I did that skit where you have people behind you being your arms and you use your arms to be your feet… savvy? Hope so. Anyways, I was preparing the table before hand and another table fell on my heels and scraped one of them up pretty nice. It hurt so much I could only gasp and breathe through the pain for a full minute. It scared my comp to death who came running to lift the table off my feet. It was an adventure and now my heels are even more battered than normal, but it´s JUST A BONUS! The skit was way too unprepared, but the members laughed. I recorded it. We can watch it when I get back!
Fatigue is starting to set in. I wake up in the morning and roll to my knees and after our prayers I stumble to the bathroom and feel like I don´t have much energy to give. The soles of my feet are hard and I feel like I could probably cross the street barefoot without knowing that I´m barefoot. It´s amazing what so much walking can do.
It´s getting hot here. I got a sunburn one day and then caught in the rain the next without my boots or my rain coat or an umbrella. I was soaked and my shoes and nylons were all wet and it was cold. We stopped at a members house who gave me more knee highs and we dried my shoes for a few minutes then we worked some more and eventually went to another members house for an FHE and I spent the whole time shoeless as I waited for them to dry again. It was kind of funny. Sun burn one day, soaking wet and cold the next. Go Argentina!
We live in an apartment on the second floor. It´s a nice apartment. I sleep on the bottom bunk and couldn´t be much happier. However, the shower is a problem… you have to wait for the water to heat up and then ration it. But it comes out scalding hot and burns you and then you try to add a little cold water… and it comes out way cold...you get the drift. But soon it´ll be summer and I´ll want cold showers anyway. We´ll see.
TRANSFERS! The date of the transfer is today- Sept. 30, 2008
My new comp is Hermana Brittany Johns from Idaho! An American! I´m so happy! She is very sweet and has 8 months in the mission. We´ve been together almost 2 hours and I can already tell that she is a hard worker, diligent, faithful and obedient. We are going to get along great and have much success together--and even if all that weren´t true, I´d still be excited because after the transfer meeting, President Benton approached me and with tears in his eyes told me that there were many prayers offered and personal revelations received with respect to our new companionship. With tears in my eyes, I thanked him and knew that it was true. We are together because the Lord wants us together. This transfer is going to be awesome! But it was sad to say goodbye to Hermana Torres who is training again in a different area. How hard that is going to be…
Well, we all met up and had the transfer meeting and unfortunately it about broke my heart when they announced that the mission only had 66 baptisms the last transfer (remember the goal was 163). We had 2 of those 66. I don´t know what went wrong. But President Benton didn´t blame us or berate us, he just said that we can do better, we will do better, and that there is ALWAYS a trial before a miracle. We weren't even given a number of the goal for this transfer but he talked about the promise President Hinckley gave that we can "double" our convert baptisms. I guess we are going to try to double it.
The APs compiled statistics for the "Standards of Excellence" program and reported which companionships had the 5 best numbers in various categories. Those numbers correspond with a key indicator from our missionary work. There are 10 references per week, 10 people in sacrament meeting per week, 8 lessons taught to less actives and recent converts per week, 20 other lessons (lessons to investigators but without a member) per week, 10 lessons with a member present (those are the hardest to get), 10 new investigators every week, and 140 contacts per week… I think that´s all of them. Anyway, each one of those is a key indicator and if you get them perfect every week the entire transfer you get your picture in that newsletter you just received...so it shows Sister Torres and myself with 4 indicadores claves (4 key indicators) because that transfer we had 20 other lessons, 8 to recent converts and less actives, 10 new investigators, and 140 contacts… every week… all 6 weeks of the transfer. We also reached our baptismal goal of 2. Savvy? You have to be perfect in them all 6 weeks to get them. And it starts over every transfer. This past transfer we won the same 4 key indicators as the last transfer, but didn´t reach our baptismal goal, so we'll be a little lower on the page. So back to the things the APs reported. They reported the 5 most successful companionships in some of the key indicators and we scored 3rd out of all the missionaries in the mission for the entire transfer in the key indicator of 'street contacts.' There are like 75 companionships, and oh by the way there are 16 sister missionaries now.
President Benton changed the policy and we can now watch all the Saturday sessions of Conference, and the morning session on Sunday, but if we want to watch the second session on Sunday, we have to bring an investigator, recent convert, or less active. I think we can manage though. I´m so excited for General Conference! And on the 13th Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming to speak to our mission and the Buenos Aires North mission! We´re so excited!
Raul is doing great and is excited for conference and his baptism which is the following Saturday the 11th of October.We also have an awesome investigator with a baptismal date of the 25th of October. He was a reference from the Argentina MTC missionaries who came to practice a couple of Saturdays in our area. We have 5 other people with baptismal dates, but they will probably need more time. There are too many complications for them right now, but Raul and Fernando are set and will be baptized this transfer! I´m sure of it!
I think that is about all for this week. Gotta go, this transfer is going to be great! Pray for us to find families in Castelar that are already married… because we don´t need a 5th couple that is waiting for their divorce to come through....don't get me going on Argentina and their slow divorces!
Gotta go, love you tons!The gospel is amazing and perfect!
Hermana Jensen – still in Castelar and ready to see the miracles!

Advice To Live By - Elder Busche

"Unleashing the Dormant Spirit"
by F. Enzio Busche, who was a member of the First Quorum
of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
when this devotional address was given at
Brigham Young University on May 14, 1996

**********************************************************
I want to share with you a vehicle, an instrument, which I have developed some time ago for myself and for my family. It can assist us to reach our focus as we read the suggested vision of true discipleship as a Latter-day Saint. It helps when we from time to time, ponder and seek identification with the following thoughts:
* Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks. The covenant with God to which you are true, enables you to become enlightened by him, and nothing is impossible for you.
* When you are physically sick, tired, or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, towards God.
* In your life, there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But you make the decision of which road you take.
* First and foremost, you are a spirit child of God. If you neglect to feed your spirit, you will reap unhappiness. Don't permit anything to detract you from this awareness.
* You cannot communicate with God unless you have first sacrificed your self-oriented natural man, and have brought yourself into the lower levels of meekness, to become acceptable for the Light of Christ.
* Put all frustrations, hurt feelings, and grumblings into the perspective of your eternal hope. Light will flow into your soul.
* Pause to ponder the suffering Christ felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the awareness of the depth of gratitude for him, you appreciate every opportunity to show your love for him by diligently serving in his Church.
* God knows that you are not perfect. As you suffer about your imperfections, he will give you comfort and suggestions of where to improve.
* God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us and everything will fall into its place.
* Avoid any fear like your worst enemy, but magnify your fear about the consequences of sin.
* When you cannot love someone, look into that person's eyes long enough to find the hidden rudiments of the child of God in him.
* Never judge anyone. When you accept this, you will be freed. In the case of your own children or subordinates, where you have the responsibility to judge, help them to become their own judges.
* If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive, and you will be free again.
* Avoid at all cost any pessimistic, negative, or criticizing thoughts. If you cannot cut them out, they will do you harm. On the road toward salvation, let questions arise but never doubts. If something is wrong, God will give you clarity but never doubts.
* Avoid rush and haste and uncontrolled words. Divine light develops in places of peace and quiet. Be aware of that as you enter places of worship.
* Be not so much concerned about what you do, but what you do, do with all your heart, might, and strength. In thoroughness is satisfaction.
* You want to be good and to do good. That is commendable. But the greatest achievement that can be reached in our lives is to be under the complete influence of the Holy Ghost. Then he will teach us what is really good and necessary to do.
* The pain of sacrifice lasts only one moment. It is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes you hesitate to do it.
* Be grateful for every opportunity to serve. It helps you more than those you serve.
* And finally, when you are compelled to give up something or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now. But know also that, as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better.
I think at this time it seems appropriate to ask the question "Do I really think it's possible for us, as human beings, to be always, in a complete way, under the influence of the Holy Spirit?" My answer is without hesitation, "No, it is not." It is not given to us to live in this world and to be without sin. Created by God in a spiritual body, but living with a body of flesh and bone in this un-exalted and fallen state, we become polluted. We will not always be able to understand and comprehend the sinister plans of the adversary in his fight to destroy us and to make us as miserable as he is. But when we are constantly aware of this fight and we let the Light of Christ help us stand in our responsibilities, we may be able to stay on this narrow path where we will see, with clarity, that we are lost without the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although it is not possible to be perfect as long as we are in this earthly state, we still have to be perfect in keeping the commandments of our covenants. We are assisted in this situation by our living prophets, who suggest to us to have, at least once a year, an interview with our bishop. During this interview we can establish that we are in harmony with the covenants we have made with the living God. When we are in such a way perfected and are eligible to go in his holy house, the temple, we have the promise that Jesus Christ will take upon him the rest and we can rejoice in being cleansed through his redeeming blood every day of our lives. Our soul will sing to the praise of his name, and our hearts will be so full that we cannot be quiet but will share and testify of the reality of this work and the power in it.
Thus, we prepare all the days of our lives, and, as we grow, death loses its sting, hell loses its power, and we look forward to that day with anticipation and joy when he will come in his glory.

Hermanas: Torres and Jensen

Buenos Aires Temple

Rocio and Ayelen (center)

Sept 16 Tenny sent me a dearelder letter and likened the time of a mission to how many Fast Sundays I have left. I liked it--I think I have 13! It is so weird to think of the mission in that way...like how many more; trips to the temple, transfers, interviews with the president, areas, companions... and of course, baptisms. Speaking of BAPTISMS... Rocio and Ayelen were baptized and confirmed this past weekend and it was a really great experience.
The transfer ends on the 28th and there is talk that I might get a mini missionary companion-- which means a 20 year old Argentine woman who would serve with me, but not as a real missionary. In case you were wondering, that prospect scares me to death. Ím so not ready to be senior companion and definitely not ready to more or less train. Holy Cow, Ím hoping for an American senior companion so that I can enjoy 6 blessed weeks of being understood, there is just nothing like being able to default to your native language when you need to resolve something important like who is going to confirm somebody, in what ward, and who is going to fill out all the paper work and to whom they have to be turned in to and stuff like that.

I have the hardest time navigating in this country because there are no mountains. I would give anything to have, like this perfect inner compass that would direct me like the Liahona-- not only to where our appointments are, but to the elect at the same time!
Ím grinning because Air Supply, "Ím all our of love" is playing in the Locutorio here and it reminds me of being in Monticello belting Air Supply with Shauna. I miss her, but I got a letter from her this week!

The people here dońt know what gravy is. But my companion got a packet in a care package from one of her earlier American companions and today we are going to have mashed potatoes and gravy! She is excited to taste it, but I wouldńt be one bit surprised if she doesńt like it... hehe, more for me...

I eat lots of mandarinas (I guess that would be mandarin oranges) and theýre dirt cheap here. I can get about four and a half pounds of mandarinas for a little over a U.S. dollar. Can you believe that?

Ziploc bags are super hard to find here and so expensive! Daddy - VAMOS PUMAS! (Go Cougs!) I cannot even explain how proud I am that we shut out the Bruins (or whatever, my sports lingo is slipping... much to my chagrin) I would have given my Coco Alfajor to have seen that game. I cańt believe that this is the same team that I drove all the was to CA to watch the Cougars lose to last summer. But what matters is that this time we got it done. 59- zip... MAN! That is my team!

We can only listen to hymns, primary songs, and the mission cds. The mission has 3 cds now with EFY (Especially for Youth) songs that have been approved and Motab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir). So about 8 of the 35 albums I have on my ipod are kosher, but it is way better than nothing!
This is funny: when we stop by to teach people instead of saying they have company they say "estoy con gente" which translates to "Ím with people" it just makes me laugh because it sounds so brazen to me, but to them it's nothing. But every time I hear them say this I almost laugh.

We have a new investigator, but this time hés for real! He reminds me of Grandpa Olson and I think he's great. His name is Raul. He looks and talks just like him. He has read the entire Book of Mormon and said that this is the last religion he had to investigate. We contacted him in his yard and he tried to reject us, but my companion persisted and before you know it we were teaching the restoration, we came back two days later, taught again, committed him to come to church the next day, he showed up in a suit with a tie and stayed for all 3 hours and commented in classes. I almost cried during Sacrament. We taught him again the next day and committed him to be baptized on the 18th of October. His wife is depressed and kind of bed-ridden, but wére going back tomorrow and hopefully we will teach her too. He was so ready, he said he knew we were going to ask him to be baptized and he said "yeah, therés no problem with that" meaning getting baptized! Can you believe that? Finally... I can see the vision. I came to find these people. Where are all the Rauls in the world? Ím here to find them! He is so awesome, for our last appointment he was waiting for us in his front yard with the dogs already locked up, the keys in his hand, and the chairs placed in the living room for us! He is incredible and I cannot wait to watch him progress week by week until he is baptized and then continue progressing. He is a doctrinal connoisseur... and reminds me so much of my dear Grandpa Olson. I just know that they will be friends in the eternities! Íll introduce them!

Gotta go, I cańt believe how quickly an hour of internet flies by. Pray for me to always have the Spirit, it is what I want more than anything!
Hermana Jensen
=========

Sept 23, 2008

I was almost run over by a colectivo today… literally, not hit, run over. I was standing in the street right next to the curb because we were going to cross, but then we didn´t. Suddenly my comp said “careful!” and I stepped back up onto the curb and continued backing up onto the sidewalk as I watched a giant colectivo whose back tires jumped the curb and turned right and drove exactly over the place I had just been standing! Wow…

We have transfer meeting next Monday, so you´ll find out in the next email who my new comp is and all that jazz. Please pray for me to accept whatever comes. I sure am!

Raul is amazing! We gave him a March Ensign… the one with Christ and the velum cover and he read the entire thing in 24 hours and even looked up the scripture references! He´s so excited to get his triplet that we already bought him and he´s just going to love the D&C (Doctrine and Covenants), also he was progressing so much that we moved his baptismal date forward a week, so now he´s getting baptized the 11th of October. The Mission President changed the rule about assistance for baptism and now it´s 3 times minimum for everybody (before it was 4 times for individuals and 2 times for families) I´m way happy and hope that we can bring more people to baptism!

I love you and miss you and pray for you every day. Ím glad you all are studying within your companionships every day and I promise you that you will be blessed for doing so!
I love you tons!

Hermana Jensen

Hermana Jensen's Testimony

LA IGLESIA DE

JESUCRISTO

DE LOS SANTOS

DE LOS ULTIMOS DIAS

MISION ARGENTINA

BUENOS AIRES OESTE

Ballesteros 1076

1704 Ramos Mejia

Buenos Aires - Argentina

1 agosto 2008

Mis Queridos Padres,

I simply cannot find the words in English or in Spanish to express the joy that I feel. I am so blessed to have the incredible opportunity to serve as a missionary. There is such power in this work. We need help, we pray for guidance, and we literally see miracles. The Lord loves His missionaries and I feel His love more so now than I have ever felt in my entire life.

I could try to tell you how happy I am, but for the most beautiful gifts and blessings we receive sometimes words just aren't enough. Please remember now and always that I know my Savior lives. He lifts me up and carries me when I feel like I can't take one more step. He is here, right by my side - even though I can't see Him...I can feel His love.

My love for my family is more than I can contain. Every time I see something new, every time I taste something delicious, I wish that I could share it with you. I feel like this must be how Lehi felt when he saw the tree of life. I want to share this mission with you. I know that I am here because of the things you taught me and because of the example you set for me. It's easy to choose the right when you know it's what your parents would do.

My goal is to make you proud...my earthly parents, and also my Heavenly Parents...to make them proud so that one day I will be able to return and live with Them and you forever!

I know with all my heart and soul that Jesus is the Christ. He redeemed me and you. He is the way, the truth, and the life. I will serve Him all my days!

Love,

Hermana Stacey Jensen

Argentine Commuters Torch Trains

Here is Stacey's response to my question of whether she ever feels unsafe. The timing was great in light of the recent riot in Castelar:

Do I ever feel unsafe? Actually yes, but never to the point that Ím really scared. I know the Lord will protect us and warn us if we need to get out of where we are. As a matter of fact He did this week. Íll explain in a sec, but as far as when I feel unsafe... it's when we run into or pass by men who are drinking, but dońt worry, we are really careful and walk with a purpose... meaning we try not to look like targets.
As far as the adventure and us being "warned" this week, you should see if you can find some info in English on the internet about the riot that took place in my area! Riot in Castellano is alboroto and what happened was that there was a problem with the train either in Merlo or somewhere, but by the time it arrived to Castelar (where we board), the people were so angry because they were all 2 hours late for work, and they started throwing rocks at the train and broke all the windows and then they set it on fire! That will surely accomplish something... now we have one fewer train to take! Anyway, what happened was, I was waiting ever so patiently for Hermana Munos (we were on divisions and I stayed in Castelar with another companion) and she had to gather her stuff and it was taking a long time. I was worried because we were supposed to have walked out the door about 7 minutes earlier, but it turned out to be a miracle because at 10:40 ish we got an urgent call from our Zone Leaders exclaiming, "dońt leave the pension!" We thought they were joking, but then Elder Lopez told us that there was a riot at the train station about 8 or 10 blocks from where we live. The funny thing is if we had left when we were supposed to - we wouldńt have known NOT to go to the train station as planned to switch back to our regular companionships in Haedo and we would have been caught up in it. The Lord protected us and we did get the call, rearranged the division and walked to Moron where we reunited with our companions. If you can find anything about the riot, I would actually be interested to know, because we just got bits and pieces of details... I think some teenagers cut the wires of the train or set a pretend bomb off or something... Íd probably know more if I spoke the language, but all I know is that something went wrong and they burned the train.

BBC News - Commuters in Argentina have set fire to two trains amid anger over delays.
Passengers torched the trains at stations outside Buenos Aires, saying the delay was costing them a day's pay. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protests, which the government said had been planned by militant members of the Workers Party.
The party rejected this, saying officials were trying to minimise legitimate protests over problems with public transport. The trouble erupted after a train broke down on the line.
Angry commuters at the station of Merlo, in the western outskirts of the capital, set fire to several train carriages. At another station, Castelar, a crowd set fire to another train, damaging a carriage. Protesters also threw stones at the ticket office and blocked the lines.
Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez said the faulty train had been sabotaged and left-wing activists had started the violence. "This was planned, it was premeditated," Mr Fernandez said.
About a dozen people were arrested. Argentina's railway network suffers frequent delays and commuters' anger has led to violence before.

Baptismal Program

It's a party!

Life is so good!

"Called to Serve" video link

This is very touching to all and especially to those with missionaries who have served or are serving at this time...

http://www.byub.org/calledtoserve/

Featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and

Orchestra at Temple Square

Umbrellas and Cracked Heels

Family!

First off, thanks for answering all my questions and sending me the conversion charts for Celsius vs. Fahrenheit and kilos vs. pounds.

No I have not gotten the package... you´d know if I had! I´d be thanking you left and right. I´ll let you know when it arrives.

Go BYU, but for heaven´s sake, make me proud--winning isn´t so grand if it wasn´t a victory that we earned by playing hard.

Nata - remember all those clapping contests we had? Well, it´s finally paying off because I can clap so loud! It´s great because that´s how you "knock doors" here. Everything is gated and fenced and locked and so the way you get people to come to the door is to stand outside it and clap. I think I already explained all of this , but yeah, it´s great that my big sis motivated me to learn to clap well!

Also, thanks for the dearelder letter you sent me about my birthday and being in a different country. You´re right... I´m beginning to feel so proud to be bi-cultural, but I haven´t got it down just right yet. I almost had a panic attack buying food today because I didn´t understand that "para llevar" meant "to go" ... luckily my companion helped me out. LOL!

I would like to let you all know that my heels are becoming what seems to be permanently black. They started out kind of bloody and red, but now they are definitely black. The skin is hard and almost calloused and cracked and not that pretty, but it proves that I walk a lot! Also the soles of my feet are so hard... they don´t crack, but I feel like I´m wearing shoes when I´m walking around our pension barefoot. It´s trippy.

Sadly, Lorenzo is struggling. His current church told him that there couldn´t be any more scripture, so he threw his Book of Mormon away! I was so sad. When he told us about it during a lesson my companion was well prepared. First she had him read 6 different scriptures in the Bible that talk about scriptures and books and other things the Bible doesn't have to help him see that there have been many scriptures lost and that more was written. Then we went to 2 Nephi 29 and read the entire chapter out loud and explained the point about, "a bible, we´ve already got a bible and we need no more Bible", and how it isn't true because we are still His children and He remembers all of the nations of the earth. Because of this we will receive more of His word, and that just because He has spoken one word doesn't mean He cannot speak another, that His work with us isn't done. I was so grateful that she was so quick and ready. Then we told him about "other sheep" just like in John and I found the same reference that clarifies that the other sheep are the people in the Book of Mormon, and we read 3 Nephi 15:17,21. It felt good that we were able to help him understand. It ended with him being quite open to the idea that the Book of Mormon could also be the word of God and he told us that he wanted another one and that he wouldn´t throw it away.

And, we do have hope of finding a family to teach! One day we did a street contact with an 18 year old girl while we were waiting for the colective in the rain. We talked to her on the colective and we all got off at the same station and her umbrella wouldn´t open. So we all huddled under my giant umbrella (which I LOVE), and finally got hers opened. We stopped by her house a few days later and taught her, her mom, and her 2 little sisters. We set up a return appointment for 2 days later and taught her, her mom, and her older sister (her 2 younger sisters were at school), we set up another appointment for tomorrow and we hope to set up a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) in which we can meet the dad and teach the entire family! They had already been contacted by the sister missionaries here about 9 months ago. They already had a Book of Mormon, but hadn´t ever progressed. Hopefully now is their time. Family Sandes... I´d love to tell the story of the family that we found because we were doing contacts in the rain and her umbrella wouldn't open!

I carry one of the BYU family pictures, and the one you sent me that you took on the grass the day Davy was blessed and show them to members whenever they ask about my family. They are all way impressed with the thick and beautiful grass in the latter picture... the grass here is not like that at all. You can´t even sit on it because you´d get dirt all over your clothes because the grass it is so thin!

Okay, gotta run...I love you all so much!

Chao,

Hermana Jensen

The Five M’s of Missionary Work

Thomas S. Monson

16th President of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

New Era, March 2007, 42–45

Understanding these aspects of missionary life will contribute to a missionary’s success.

I’d like to speak about “Five M’s of Missionary Work.”

1. The Message
The message is divine. I think our keynote was sounded by our Lord and our Savior, who stands at the head of the great army of missionaries worldwide. After His Resurrection, He appeared to His 11 disciples. He could have given them any counsel, any expression, any warning that He chose to give. But what did He say? It’s recorded in Matthew 28:18–20. He said as follows:
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
What a promise! If we respond affirmatively to that sacred call, that binding authority, “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world.” I can’t think of a greater promise.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said simply this:
“After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel” (History of the Church, 2:478).
What is the gospel? It is the message we take, a message that declares that an angel flew in the midst of heaven and that the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. If we’ll remember that and the other elements of the message missionaries bear, we’ll be effective. In that message is the Book of Mormon, which is part and parcel of every missionary’s library—internal, what he knows, and external, what he teaches.
The Book of Mormon, the true nature of the Godhead—the world hungers for this message. It’s part of that which missionaries will take to the people.
Another element that I have found very important is that the Church is based on a foundation of Apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (see Ephesians 2:20). And we emphasize a “living” prophet today. I testify that President Hinckley is such a living prophet—the prophet, seer, and revelator of the Church.
If I could put my finger on that portion of the gospel which seems to penetrate a broader range of people and penetrate more deeply their hearts and their souls and move them to action, it’s the plan of salvation, or our Heavenly Father’s plan—where we came from, why we’re here, where we go when we leave mortality.
It’s been my observation that the stumbling block for investigators is not the Word of Wisdom. It isn’t Sabbath day observance. It’s a testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. It’s very important that we declare that message. The message is divine. Remember that.

2. The Missionary
The second M: the missionary, the desire of a lifetime.
One of the Brethren went to a conference and brought back to me a very simple note from a missionary.
“Dear President Monson, You shook hands with me when I was 17. You told me to go on a mission. I’m here in Seattle on my mission. Thank you.” Think of it—the influence of a handshake.
Missionaries are marvelous. They’re called of God by prophecy. Only those who are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators make the suggested call to a missionary, and they’re called by the prophet of God. They represent the fruits of all that is good within the Latter-day Saint family.

3. The Member
Let’s talk just a little bit about the member.
When I was a mission president in Toronto, Canada, we knew that investigators worry about the changes that are going to come into their lives. We had a practice of supplying teams of members to help the missionaries. For example, the missionaries were working with a Catholic family (and that was the majority faith in our area). About midway through the set of discussions they could call on Brother and Sister Anthony Belfiglio. They had been Catholics. They’d joined the Church and were a great help to the missionaries. When the missionaries had borne their testimony, Brother and Sister Belfiglio would say, “We know what you’re going through. We were in the same position, but when we heard the truth and realized that a prophet was on the earth at this time, there was no question what we must do, and we never looked back and we’ve never been sorry.” It buttressed the testimony of the missionaries.
Brother Stoneman from up in the north area had been a member of the United Church of Canada. He’d been employed by the United Church of Canada. He was their printer. He lost his job. He found another, better one. He and his wife would go to the investigator who has been a member of the United Church of Canada and bear their testimony. He said, “I lost my job. I lost many of my friends, but I found a wealth of new friends, and I found the truth. You will not regret it.”
We had others who had been members of the Anglican Church. In fact, we had three teams in every area where missionaries were laboring. And what did it do for those new members? It strengthened them. What did it do for the investigator? It helped convince him. It was a proselyting method; it was a fellowshipping method. It worked both ways.

4. The Mission
Now, a word about the mission itself. Build an esprit de corps in your mission. It doesn’t matter which one it is or where it is. We were in Canada. I didn’t know anything about Canada, but I did a little reading. I found out that Canada was the only place the Prophet Joseph Smith ever went outside of his own country. That’s also where the early elders of the Church went to prepare for their mission to Great Britain. I let our missionaries know that. Sister Monson pointed out that Brigham Young went to Kingston, Ontario, and labored 30 days, walking through snow hip deep, and converted and baptized 40 people. I made sure our missionaries knew that. Parley P. Pratt, in answer to a referral, finding a man from England named John Taylor no more than 20 miles from Toronto, brought him into the Church, and he became the third President of the Church. All of those things we would weave into the history, the goals and the objectives of our missionaries.

5. The Mission President
Now, a word about mission presidents. Their philosophy is that of a teacher who says, “No one fails in my class.” They’re responsible for the missionaries’ success. Every missionary wants success, and the mission president shows him how to achieve success.
He helps each missionary to work, but more significant yet, he helps each one to work effectively so that the kingdom of God will grow under his inspired direction.
Remember: “I am with you always,” said the Lord (Matthew 28:20). In addition, the great promise found in the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants is yours: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (v. 88).
See True to the Faith, pp. 104–6, or online at the Gospel Library on http://www.lds.org/.

[photo] Photograph by Welden Andersen

Elder Ballard Encourages Use of Internet to Share the Gospel

Elder Ballard spoke at the BYU-Hawaii graduation (12/15/07) and urged graduates to use the Internet to share the Gospel. He mentioned blogging, podcasts, Facebook, video-sharing sites, and “people using … search engines to hunt for topics about the Church.” Here are selected portions:

The emergence of New Media is facilitating a world-wide conversation on almost every subject including religion, and nearly everyone can participate.…Conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches.…The challenge is that there are too many people participating in conversation about the Church for our Church personnel to converse with and respond to individually. We cannot answer every question, satisfy every inquiry, and respond to every inaccuracy that exists. …some who seek answers want them to come directly from a member of the Church, like each one of you.…May I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet, particularly the New Media, to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration. Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true. You can download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including Newsroom at LDS.org, and send them to your friends. You can write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church, and voice your views as to the accuracy of the reports.…Others have recorded and posted their testimonies of the Restoration, the teachings of the Book of Mormon, and other gospel subjects on popular video-sharing sites. You, too, can tell your story to nonmembers in this way.…Use stories and words that they will understand.