Monday, April 25, 2016

Always remember that you can pray to Heavenly Father and ask him to give you that knowledge, through the Holy Ghost, that something is true.

 April 25, 2016

Another extremely busy week in Van Nuys California! We were running from hospitals for blessings to appointments to dinners, etc. Just so much going on this week! We picked up 4 new investigators this week as well! We are definitely being blessed for our hard work.

We had a miracle with a man we met named Gem. He's from the Philippines and has a couple young kids. We ran into him during knockout one day and he told us how he felt like he had dark evil spirits around him all the time. As we were sharing our message he was trying to describe to us how he felt. He said "I feel so light. Like I feel at peace." We explained to him that it was the Spirit! Then he asked us to come back next week on his day off and teach him and his family. Then on Thursday he called us and asked us if we had a way we could get the bad spirits away from him. We told him we did and when we got to his house we taught him about the Priesthood and how it has been restored to the earth. We gave him a blessing and after he said "Wow...the Priesthood is so powerful!" We committed him to be baptized right then and there and he gladly accepted. We are super excited to work with him more.

We also taught Ben and his wife again and now a little old Hispanic Catholic woman that lives with them is listening to our lessons too! Last time she wouldn't come out of her room but she said after hearing the first lesson (through her door haha) she felt like listening to us couldn't hurt. That was pretty cool to hear.

The Mata's lesson on Friday was a little unusual.  It turned into a blessing and then a family council. But it ended up good in the end! We also got Michael to sit and listen and participate! That was a miracle! We focused on the Spirit and how in order to have the spirit with us we need to repent by taking the sacrament. (They hadn't been to church in weeks and that's scary for recent converts.) I guess the Spirit really opened their eyes and their hearts though because the whole family was at Church this Sunday!

Marius is still doing good and so are all of the other less actives we are working with! We got 3 of them to come to Church this week! One thing that we have both learned is that less actives need a friend before they feel comfortable to come back. So we have really been focusing on just being their friend and then slowly bringing up the Gospel. So, if you want to get someone to come back to church be their friend first!

Message of the Week: Elder Anderson came to the mission this week and said something really cool. "How do we bring things that are unseen and believed in by Faith, to the seen where they become knowledge." How do we turn Faith into knowledge? Well he bore his testimony about prayer and how through prayer we can feel the Spirit testify to us that something is true. We can actually Feel it! That allows us to turn Faith into a knowledge that this Church is true. I thought that was really cool. Always remember that you can pray to Heavenly Father and ask him to give you that knowledge, through the Holy Ghost, that something is true.

Funny Story of the Week: Just so you can kinda get an idea of the area we are in...we came out of our lesson with the Mata's at 9:00 on Friday night and our driver side mirror was stolen. Not smashed or broken but stolen. People seriously take anything and everything here! We called President Henrie and he just told us to drive with it for the rest of the week, so we have been taking back roads all week trying to not get pulled over haha!

I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Jensen

We were blessed this weekend to receive a visit from Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The mission received training and counsel from this special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every missionary shook his hand. We all heard his sacred testimony of the Savior. What a blessing!
Our car mirror got jacked while we were teaching a lesson at the Mata's this week.
My companion, Elder Silva, is Canadian...he made us take pics here because "Drake" is Canadian.



I was able to confirm Anne a member of the Church Sunday

 April 18, 2016

I got to confirm Anne a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this Sunday, April 17th as well! It was an amazing experience and when I finished the confirmation she couldn't stop crying. She hugged everyone and said "I can't wait to call my sister tonight and tell her I'm a member now!" She was so excited! Her sister lives in Florida and is also a member of the Church. When we all sat down Bishop Deakins started talking to Anne over the pulpit in French. Then he bore his testimony to her also in French. Such a cool experience. It really touched her heart. She is going to be an amazing member and I can't wait to come back and visit her soon. 

Elder Jensen