Monday, February 1, 2016

This life is the time for us to make changes

February 1, 2016

Hey Everyone! Another week down and I'm almost to the 6 month mark...weird. I can honestly say that I've learned more about myself and the gospel in these 6 months than I did in the 18 years before my mission. It's crazy how you learn more by focusing your time on others than by focusing it on yourself.

We taught Anne Lavad again this week. She is now committed to baptism! We're deciding a date next lesson. She has already heard the lessons once before and was so prepared to join the church but it didn't work out so hopefully this time she will be ready. She has a few things holding her back still but we are here to help her get past that. She has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and tears up every time we read the first vision so I know she knows it's true...we just need to work on her faith.

Brian Hernandez has been making awesome progress this week. He came to sacrament meeting and was all cleaned up and looked so fresh! I know the Lord sent us his way for a reason. His life has never been good and now he has a chance to make a 180 degree change thanks to the gospel. He's battling a bad addiction to drugs right now and we didn't know how to help him so we prayed and prayed for help. We felt inspired to introduce him to Brother Beauregard (a member we recently reactivated). We trusted in the Lord and introduced the two and it was perfect. Brother Beauregard had had similar trials in the past and they connected on a whole other level! Brian may be going into a rehab program that Brother Beauregard knows about which will be sad because I won't get to see my boy Brian till probably after my mission but it's the best thing for him. Brian was so worried about finding a job after he came out of rehab and Brother Beauregard offered him a job at his company right there. I was shocked and so was Elder Horito. After the lesson we asked Brother Beauregard why he did what he did and he said that he has been blessed with so much that it would be selfish for him to not give back a little of what God has blessed him with. He's a great man and he is an example to me.

Eddy Felix is excited for the 14th! He's been reading and praying a ton and he has come to the conclusion that this is the path he needs to be on for the rest of his life. He lost his mom when he was little and the plan of salvation has given him a new found hope of being with his family again. He's also been reading a church book called "Our Search For Happiness" That we gave him. He's a very logical guy and this book really mixes the logical with the spiritual. It's strengthened my testimony and if anyone is having trouble understanding or accepting the gospel I recommend you check it out.

We have been taking Lyric and Byron Garcia from the ward with us to lessons. They are 18 and 19 years old.   They were both unsure about going on a mission but now Byron is getting ready to submit his papers in the next few months and Lyric is actually considering on going which he wasn't before. That's been a cool experience to be a part of.

Pamela Spencer finally got back to us! She came to church and we introduced her to the relief society presidency which was awesome! She got along great with all of them and loves the "sisterhood" in the church. We have another lesson with her this week.

Funny story of the week: Elder Horito and I were going by some less actives in the ward and decided to stop by the Archibeques. We knocked on their door and they let us in which surprised us because they don't usually do that. Well they took us into the back yard and they were having a HUGE birthday party. There were bounce houses everywhere and I swear there were at least 30 little girls in frozen costumes. Plus they had all their family and friends there. We felt so out of place. Elder Horito sad "Well Elder it looks like we have successfully crashed a family event." We got weird looks the whole time (we're used to that but this time was more extreme than usual) We got good tacos and cupcakes out of it though!

Message of the week: Don't worry so much about making yourself comfortable in this life. That's not what this life is for. This life is the time for us to make changes and decisions that will lead us to where we want to be for the eternities after we die. Don't get caught up in the here and now. Brian has really taught me this. Changes are hard to make but they're necessary and essential.

Love you all.

Elder Jensen

Brian Hernandez

Brian Hernandez