Letter 24

Hey Everyone!

This week has been super crazy! First item of business, Lia was baptized! It was a super cool experience with 5 elders to help her be baptized because of her handicap. It was an amazing experience and hopefully I can get the pictures we have. It was perfect and we are so happy for her. It was a wonderful experience and she has so much faith and had enough faith to be baptized even with her handicap. This week was super stressful because we just did a baptism and we had another one that took a lot of preparation.

Our days this week have been full of super spiritual highs that by the end of the day changed into extreme lows. One for example was the day of Lia's baptism. It was a super good experience but after the baptism, we got rejected by every single person we talked to. Like no joke, every person. We didn't teach a single lesson at the end of the day and it really took a toll on us. We had a really hard time with all that rejection, especially when trying to move forward with the white Christmas theme. Our whole zone is having trouble, some of the greatest and most perfect investigators dropped us and the other missionaries too. It has been really hard but it has also been necessary.

I have learned so much about loving the people who I have the opportunity to teach and the importance of my calling. The closer we get to the white christmas, the more amazing the miracle will be that happens. I know that it will be a miracle that takes place for us and so I am excited for that moment. Take advantage of every opportunity and hardship you have because there is always something you can learn from it. Lastly, I would challenge you all to do the light the world program on mormon.org. Watch the video and make the commitment to follow the savior by doing little acts of service. It has new ideas and I know that it will open your eyes in the way you see others. I hope you all have a great week!

 

 

Letter 23

Hello Everyone!

This week was amazing! Our people on date for baptism ended up switching places so that Asal was on the 19th and Rosalia is on for the 26th. Asal's baptism was just so perfect. I have grown to love this family so much. They have been through a lot but they have finally made it to this stage where they can grow together as a family with the freedom of religion. Mosi baptized her and when she came up out of the water she was just so happy.

I will never forget the spirit that was felt there and the support that she had. Even President Villanueva and his family came. The room was packed and everyone was so excited for her. I can't wait for them to be sealed in the temple together. They still have many trials ahead of them but I know that they will be strong enough to face them.

As for the rest of our week, we worked really hard and had a good outcome. We have one person on date for December but I don't think he is willing to put in the work to make that date so we will need to keep finding people. We have found some great people but it has just been hard to meet with them all because of how busy they are. It is very late to set people on a date for December, but I think we can still do it if we meet often and if they are prepared.

I know that this gospel is true and that Heavenly Father cares about each and every one of us. He has watched over this family for sure and I know that he watches over each and every one of us as well with his angels round about. Do not doubt that there are angels everywhere to help you. I would also encourage you to do what you can this Christmas season to be an angel in someone else's life. There are many people who need love and comfort and so share that light with as many people as you can. I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

Oh, also we are allowed to listen to a little bit more music now and so we bought some super legit Armenian music. We got a children's CD where they sing about Christ and it is pretty great. Have a great week!

Elder Jensen

 

 Elder Stucki, Elder Jensen, Elder Meppen, Mosi, Ayla and Asal (getting baptized)

Letter 22

We got our car back! That makes everything so much better. Just for the record I love my companions. I just wanted to give him a hard time about the car thing. It doesn't matter that we have the car back, we just still have to give him a hard time, haha. Well, my camera broke so I might not have pictures for a while.

Anyway, we have found a lot of new investigators but we haven't been able to get follow up so as for now, both of our people we are working with are still on date and doing well!  Lia is progressing wonderfully and we will have her baptism this week and Asal is doing well also. Her baptism will be next week. Now we just need to find some people for our white Christmas this December. Hopefully we can find an Armenian to set with a date.

We had a super good week this week. Maybe it's because we didn't have the car. We have been doing a lot of less active work with the group leader just to see if people still want to be involved. Most of the Armenians either don't want to be involved with the church or don't live there anymore. Unfortunately it is not going so great as all of the Armenian people just like to kinda come when they feel like it. We have found a few however who are willing to come back and so we will try to grow the group bigger, that way our investigators feel more welcome.

Anyway, I am out of time so I hope you all have a wonderful week and continue to work hard! Invite all your friends to church! Most of the time, the people don't need missionaries, they need friends so share the gospel with everyone! Have a great week!
(11 pounds of Salmon -- recipe from home -- cooked by the Campanas family!) 

Letter 21: November 7, 2016 -- Car Accident

Hello everyone!

It was a pretty decent week for the most part. We had to move some dates but we are still looking at Asal and Lia being baptized in November so that's good. I have met a bunch more crazies this week so that was cool too. I just love Glendale so much. The people here are just amazing. I am definitely coming back to visit my mission and I am definitely taking friends and family to visit these people. They will just be so excited to meet these people I just know it.

The end of this week was rough though. I feel for all of my friends who are in walk only missions because we won't have our car this week (thanks to one of my wonderful companions who will remain nameless) which stinks. We have walked everywhere and I have been dying. It also means we are very limited on where we can work but it has also been very good for us because we have been able to talk to so many people. It has been really good but hopefully we can get the car back soon so that we can actually visit our investigators without abusing the members by always using them for their car. It has been good but I can't wait for the car again.

Photos:  One is the 4 Armenian Elders trying to recreate a photo and the other one is just a really bad district photo. That's what happens when that nameless companion mentioned above is also your district leader. One companionship was on exchanges too so that made it even better because one of the elders wasn't even in our district.

Letter 20

Hey Everyone! 

I feel like my emails are never super exciting because I always forget what happened. We did have transfers this week though and nothing happened in my companionship but we did have some changes in our district so that was cool. I really like changing things up to be honest and so I wouldn't mind working with different people every transfer which is funny because I am in Armenian work which means we rarely get changed.

Not gonna lie this week was pretty tough and we pretty much dropped everybody except for our miracle people with the baptismal dates Asal and Lia. Also trios can make it really hard to get along. We get along pretty well we just argue a lot about stupid stuff. It is also super hard to learn Armenian here. We aren't able to speak it like at all because we have no one to practice with except each other and on street contacts. On the bright side, I am getting pretty good at street contacting in Armenian. Except for sometimes when I approach people in Armenian and then they just look at me confused. That is always awkward but for the most part it works out.

Anyway, life is still good in the field and we did have a cool visitor in the Armenian class yesterday. A branch president named Rolland came to the class. He lives in North Ridge though so I don't think he will make it every time but he is super cool and I hope he can come more often because we need all the help we can get in the Armenian group. 

I also had a special visitor show up to church yesterday so that was pretty fun and totally crazy although I am not in the least bit surprised that he came because he works super close to us. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting too so that was fun. I am pretty much terrible at public speaking but it was alright because there were a lot of speakers so I only had to take a few minutes. That's pretty much it for this week so I hope you all continue in your personal lives with faith. I have realized that faith is super important if you want to be successful so if you don't have much faith then you better start to grow it! Read your scriptures everyday, pray, and go to church. If you do that then you are doing pretty good and your faith will grow so much. Have a good week!

Pictured: So there is this crazy guy named Minas who just kind of walks around the building and every time it is open he comes in and prays and eats if there is food. He even came in while we were having zone conference once. I am pretty sure he has no idea what is going on most of the time but I asked him to take a picture with us and so that was fun. I have no idea how old he is but he is just super funny. Sorry that is all the pictures I have. Hopefully I can get more next week.

 Elder Jensen with his "special visitor," Lance Douglas -- his Young Men's President from back home!!

Letter 19

So this week was pretty good for the most part. It's hard to find Armenian investigators but it is possible. We do have a couple but it has been hard because every time we find one they drop us early on. The one we have that is progressing right now is super awesome and we were able to help him come to church this week. The only problem is everything is in English because there are not enough people in the Armenian group. Even the Sunday school class was in English because the teacher wasn't there. I hope he was able to understand a little bit.

On the bright side, our English investigators are doing great! Lia wasn't able to come to church this week because the access van bailed on her. She was going to try to walk to church but we wouldn't let her because it was definitely too far for her electric chair. We will just have to push her date back again. 

Another great surprise is that Asal wants to be baptized. Her husband is a recent convert and they are from Iran. They speak Farsi but their English is good enough for us to teach them and Moosi (her husband) can help us translate. At first she didn't want to get baptized but I guess last week she went to church at her own church instead of ours like she normally does and she said she just felt like our church is where she is supposed to go. It was super amazing, this family has been through a lot and I have come to love them so much. I will have to get a picture. She has set a date for the 12th of November and we are super excited!

I hope you all keep up the good work with school and such. Don't worry you are already a fourth of the way through. That's super weird. Anyway, have a good week!

Pictured: sorry not a lot this week. Apparently they have a ton of peacocks in Arcadia just all over the place so I took some pictures. None with the feathers though sorry. 

Letter 18

Hello Everyone!

 

I just wrote to you a couple of days ago so there isn't really much to write but we do still have one investigator with a baptismal date so that is super awesome. We had a hard week this week but yesterday made up for it. We were able to get a lot of our investigators to church and it was a stressful meeting to figure out everything going on but we got it to work. It was the primary program so what a great time to have a bunch of investigators there. 

 

We were also able to pick up three new investigators yesterday which was super awesome. Things will keep looking up as long as we just keep finding and opening up to people! I am excited for how things are looking with the people we have found. Now we just need to find more Armenians specifically. One of those investigators from yesterday is Armenian so that is good and he is also a younger Armenian so I really hope he progresses. Anyway, that is about all for this week. Sorry but there just isn't much to write but I hope you all have a great week!

Pictured: The first two are just this tree we found with a huge hole in it. It was pretty cool so we took pictures with it although it was pretty much solely for the purpose of having pictures to send home. The third one is from today. We found this awesome bookstore that sells a ton of cool Armenian stuff. I was able to buy some good dictionaries and I can probably buy a bunch of souvenirs there later. Anyway, the picture is a brand new copy of the first Harry Potter book in Armenian. It hasn't been out for very long and I think it is super legit that they translated it into Armenian so I will definitely need to buy it later.

Letter 17

Hey everyone! Sorry for all the mix-up from this week. We had P-day today (Thursday) so that we could go to the temple on Monday. I am so grateful I am able to go to the temple in my mission. It was a super long week though because we didn't have P-day until today and we didn't find out about the change until the morning of.  To be honest, it was a ten day week so I can't actually remember anything that happened really but I did get to try some Armenian food and Iranian food. It is super good. 

We did pick up one new investigator this week who is now progressing so that is good. The hardest thing out here is just meeting with people multiple times a week. We have a hard time keeping steady appointments with people because they keep cancelling them. It is hard to find people who have time to listen to our message. Lia however, is progressing very well. We had a date set for October 29th but we will probably have to push it back because we have a hard time figuring out how to get her to church since she is completely wheelchair bound. Other than those two, we really don't have any investigators or at least not any with good potential. 

We are still trying to find an Armenian family or at this point, just an Armenian in general who goes further than the restoration. If we do get to teach people, they usually don't want to join our church they just think we share a good message. I am hoping we can just get more people to read from the book of Mormon. Sometimes that is the hardest thing but if they actually read it with the intent to know then they will find out its true. I think we are going to try and use the Book of Mormon in our teaching more this week. I hope you all continue working hard and have a great week!

Pictured: The first 5 pictures are all pictures of the food we got from a member named Anoush. She is awesome and the food was really good.The first picture is called Plav (rice in armenian) and they don't use utensils so what you do is you tear off some of the lavash (second picture, tortilla like bread) and pick up some of the rice using the lavash. It is super good. The other thing is called Lamajoon (sorry for the weird spelling, I have know idea how to spell this using English letters because of it's limited alphabet) and is also very good. The last picture was Iranian food we had with a Persian speaking family and that was also super amazing. 

(Letter to the Primary Kids from back home in response to a packet of letters sent out)

Dear Primary Kids,

I am glad so many of you want to serve missions like in Oregon, Australia, Taiwan, or Mexico. That is so cool! You never know where you will get called to serve though but no matter where you go, it will be the right place for you. I heard you had a wonderful primary program and it sounds like you all have wonderful testimonies of the gospel. I sure loved reading your letters! My mission has been hard because I am trying to learn Armenian but many people here speak different types of Armenian which makes it hard to learn. My mission has been really hard so far, but I know that the lord is preparing people for me to find.

It is a great experience to serve a mission and I hope you all have a desire to do so. It has helped me learn so much more about Jesus Christ and how much he loves me and others. Always do your best to serve the lord because then he will be able to bless you. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ that has been restored to the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet because I know that the Book of Mormon is true. If you have not read the Book of Mormon you should do it and you can know for yourself if it is true or not. I know that we can do all things through Jesus Christ, even learn a new language. Thank you for being awesome and don't forget to share the gospel with your friends! Ես սիրում եմ ձեզ! (I love you all!)

Երեց Ջենսեն (Elder Jensen)