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)

Letter 16

So Conference was super bomb this week! So many good talks and on top of that it's like missionary vacation!  It was a busy week though with zone conferences the day before but I had a really good time listening to all the talks.

 

I really wish I paid more attention to Conference before coming out here because it is amazing. If you didn't watch Conference you should at least watch some of the talks because they were all super good. Also, members feed you really well over Conference so that is just a plus.

The beginning of the week involved a lot more finding and unfortunately dropping. Hopefully we will find someone who is ready for the message of the gospel and not just ready for a one time lesson or a two hour service everyday. We did find a lot more new investigators though so that was good. Unfortunately I have no pictures his week so sorry for that but it was a really good week for us still and my companions really like to work hard which is very good.

I hope you all watch Conference if you haven't all ready and appreciate the messages we are given. I took Conference for granted before my mission and now I realize that these messages are super important because they came from prophets and apostles. Who knew that these are prophets in our day? 

It's amazing but sometimes we forget that but I promise as you watch with a specific question or concern in mind, Heavenly Father will answer it. I hope you all have a good week and keep working hard to be your best!

Letter 15

I finally got to try a little bit of Armenian food this week. Well, kinda. I'm sure you could find it anywhere you go but I'm gonna say it's Armenian nonetheless.  So this week I can't actually remember anything that happened. Wow I know something had to have happened this week.

Oh yeah, so we found a Parska-hai (Persian Armenian) family. Armenians from Iran. They are super awesome and the family consists of a young girl about 12 years old, her mom, her uncle, and her grandma. We are super excited to teach them but the uncle isn't home often so that makes it hard for us to schedule a time to go. Luckily, we have trio power and therefore and go into peoples homes now even when there isn't a male present.

As for the unfortunate turn of events, they speak western Armenian with a Persian (Parskastansy) accent. We have a difficult time understanding a lot but thank goodness Elder Meppen is a little more capable than us.  It would still be a good idea to bring some Farsi members because that's the only language they can read and so they probably speak that one the best. They are amazing and we are super excited to keep teaching them.

Most of our investigators right now aren't even full Armenians they are either part Russian or Persian. We keep getting referrals or finding people who speak Russian and Persian and we are over here just like, "these aren't even the same language why does this keep happening."

I love it though. We've gotten very good at using resources. So pretty much that's about it. Sorry not much this week but I do have a few pictures.

Elder Meppin with a praying mantis. Me eating Gatan. A comp pic. And then me before drinking Tan (also known as drinkable yogurt). Gatan is super good and everyone should try it. Tan... is not very good but try it anyway. It's disgusting.

Letter 14

Wow I am super pumped right now! I love Glendale, even though people here are super weird, and we all agree we should move more of the Armenian work to Burbank area. They are younger and more receptive so hopefully we will be able to go out there often to work. As for weird Glendale people, we were doing service for a recent convert of the zone leaders and before we started, he introduced us to his friend mike. Mike is a light bulb. The recent convert is planning on reincarnating him with an invention he made. Awesome. So there is that fun stuff. Weird stuff like that pretty much happens on at least a weekly basis. 

Anyway, things were pretty normal this week and nothing different really happened but we did pick up a new investigator (sort of) named Vestanik. He is awesome but speaks no English so we have to always have members there to help us. We also finally got a hold of Artur and met with him! So we had a pretty good week.

Now for the best part, I came in the middle of the transfer and so transfers were this week. Of course I'm training and so Elder Stucki and I were pretty sure we weren't moving. That is until we got a call from the zone leaders. We had the phone on speaker when Elder Stucki answered and they asked for me. It was still on speaker and they said "hey Elder Jensen, you will be picking up your New companion tomorrow." Elder Stucki got really nervous right there it was super funny.

Fortunately, Elder Stucki isn't leaving. We will be in a trio and our new companion is Elder Meppin. We are super pumped to have him back because he has been in English work for the last six months and he is glad to be back as well. Also now we have a companion who is a little more fluent In the language which will be a huge asset. Anyway, I will try to get a picture with them but there is a lot going on today so it might not come until next week. Hope you all continue being awesome and working hard. Remember that the church is true and there are miracles everyday, you just have to look for them! Have a good week!