Spring is in the air here. It´s a nice balmy 70 degrees here with a cool breeze. We postponed p-day to Wednesday for the entire zone so that the office Elders could participate in the zone activity. Kind of ironic they decided to do that AFTER I was out of the offices. We played Fútbol and basketball. Then we ate an Asado. (The equivalent of the Argentine Barbecue. Basically big stakes on the grill.) But it was poorly planned and we didn´t have any bread, potatoes, salad, or anything. Just meat and soda. Further evidence that this work is inspired as we see the result of leaving even the smallest tasks up to rambunctious 19 year olds.

Congratulations to Elder Lauritzen who has returned with honor. I await your email anxiously and expect a full report of what´s going on.

Apart from that, thank you to all those who wrote me emails this week. James, Grandma Jensen, and Jonathan, mom, and dad. It made my day. If I didn´t get an email back to you I´m sorry. You’re still in my thoughts and prayers.

This week has been one of the best weeks in a while. We´ve seen progress in many of our investigators, and managed to integrate a few new faces. The big news is Luis and Veronica are getting married on Friday! We have moved their fecha to the 18th. It gives them a little time to get everything in order. I don´t want to say that I pick favorite investigators, but it´s hard not to. Luis and Veronica are a beautiful young couple that will contribute immensely to the ward here in Adrogue. They came to church last Sunday, and loved it. Especially Veronica, who gave her testimony in relief society. Several of the Hermanas came up to me afterward commenting on how impressed they were with her. This is going to be one of the most special baptisms of my mission. All of them are meaningful, but there´s something meaningful about baptizing a family. Seeing Luis and Veronica make the changes to get married has been a joy. I know that they are going to be a more united family here on Earth, but most importantly they are going to be an eternal family. I can´t express my joy in seeing their progression in the gospel.

Enrique has been progressing as well. We lost track of him a little bit last week, but thankfully he is back on track. On Sunday he came to fast and testimony meeting and really enjoyed it. We´ll get the full story when we go to his house tonight for our appointment. We´re still working on getting his absolute baptismal date. That has been a bit of a challenge. With Enrique it will just be a matter of time.

The biggest new face this past week was Carlos. Carlos was found by Elder Martindale while we did exchanges about two weeks ago. He and Elder Mortensen were able to make the inspired find. Carlos is about 50 years old and lives on a sketchy street in the villa. You have to walk down a long passage behind a closed door to arrive at a few humble houses out back. His is a small room with the stove awkwardly placed at the doorway and a spare room divided by a curtain where his bed is placed. That´s where Carlos is. At first entry, the bad smell of alcohol with the dirty plates makes you cringe a bit. But Carlos makes the small place hospitable. My relationship with Carlos has taught me a lot of things, made me change my thoughts.

Carlos knows he has problems with alcoholism. He wants to stop. It doesn´t take long talking to him to realize that. What´s more, he recognized the missionaries immediately as messengers from God. As a matter of fact, he refers to us as his angels sent from God. Carlos has a sad story that has gotten sadder and sadder as the teaching goes. Last visit, on Monday, he talked about his wife and about his children. He used to work as a high end car painter. Painting for Audi and Lexus. You may be wondering what a luxury vehicle artist like this is doing in a hole in the wall like that. "Now look at me” Carlos says "surrounded by drug dealers. Wondering if I´ll eat tomorrow. Wondering if I´ll wake up in the morning." I didn´t need to ask him what happened. He already told me.

"I drank. I drank a lot. And I can´t stop now. I can´t stop because the devil has me on his chain. And where he tells me to go, I´ll go. I don´t have a choice anymore. The devil has bound me down. And when I want to go to work, he says, ´no Carlos, you have money. Just a little drink won´t hurt.´ And the Devil pulls the chain and that´s where I go. I lost my family. My children can´t stand to look at me. You have to help me!" He wept through tears of shame, "you have to help me. Please help me! Take the chains away. Take the devil off my shoulder."

His story broke my heart. We have already testified to Carlos about the power of the atonement. We told him that he didn´t have the power in himself to stop his natural tendencies. We also told him that these tendencies might have been natural for him. But a quick read in Mosiah 3:19 revealed to Carlos what he had to do. It didn´t take a lot of brain storming for Carlos to think of the blessings he was missing out on because of his addiction. His family. His job. We testified of the power of Christ to liberate us from our bonds. That as he trusted in the power of "him who is mighty to save and cleanse from all unrighteousness" he would undoubtedly be able to focus on a new future. Instead of focusing on the things he was missing, we had Carlos focus on the blessings he would receive. That he had the power to decide, and in the strength of the Lord he could "put off the natural man."

Seeing Carlos there, helpless and enslaved and hopeless. The shadow of a family man. The former success now slathered and saturated in alcoholism. And his testimony of the Devil. It was an accurate depiction of things I had read about in the Book of Mormon for my entire life. "For the time is at hand that all men shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been—if they have been righteous they shall reap the salvation of their souls, according to the power and deliverance of Jesus Christ; and if they have been evil they shall reap the damnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil, (Alma 9:28)," "and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell."

Carlos told us that the devil had found him in his time of prosperity and abandoned him in his time of misery. I testify of the reality of this lesson. I have seen the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments. I have also seen painfully time and time again that wickedness never ever was happiness. I don´t tell this story to put Carlos in a bad light. I´m sure if he could talk to each of you, he´d say something similar.

Avoid the chains of the adversary. He rewardeth you no good thing. If you feel like Carlos feels, pulled about by the will of the powers of darkness, trust in the Savior, and let Him give you the strength to overcome the adversary. Trust in the merits of he who is mighty to save. I know that happiness, peace, and the promised blessings of prophets both ancient and modern await you.

Thanks to family and friends for all the emails this week. Thanks additionally to dad for the very erudite discourse from Sacrament meeting.

You may be wondering why I couldn`t write last week. We usually used the office computers, but unfortunately, I forgot, I am no longer technically an office Elder, even if I am in the same Pension, the same area, teaching the same investigators and going to the same church. It was mildly frustrating, leaving myself and Elder Martindale searching for an internet cafe. When we finally found one close to the pench, there was only 30 minutes of email time left, and only one computer available. I of course, gave the opportunity to my hijo, whose family was undoubtedly more needing of an email update. Elder Martindale had switched areas, trainers, and everything. As for myself, I`m just a washed up Elder two months past the year mark. I assume that you all know that I`m ok if one of my emails falls through the cracks.

Speaking of time, it`s been 14 months now. I`m not usually one to point that out, but this week marks one year living outside of the United States. Wow. That went FAST. Time is relentless.

So about what happened.

About a week and a half ago I was sitting in the offices thinking about the changes in the mission. Pondering the prospects of me being transferred out of the office early. Considering that I was district leader here in Adrogué, and that there was no feasible way in my mind that I could be removed from the office, I declared to Hna Jones that I was "indispensable" at that time in the offices and she didn`t have to worry about me leaving until the transfer date as planned.

A few hours later, we ordered the flight for a trainer in the mission to return home unexpectedly, and suddenly, the situation became different. As I sat on the couch eating Gobstoppers on my P-Day and watching the newly released DVD`s of "The District" from Preach my Gospel, Hna Jones marched in announcing that President had gone into a meeting with the Assistants to decide the fate of the Trainee now left trainer less, Elder Martindale. She pointed a finger at me "and your head is on the chopping block Mr. Indispensable."

I was fully expecting to receive the call looking down the throat of an emergency transfer to Luis Guillon. Sure enough, the President`s voice was on the phone in a matter of minutes. "I`ve got a special assignment for you Elder Jensen. Are you ready to be a trainer?"

"I think so President. When`s it going to happen?" I asked indignantly.

"We`ll send the assistants over tonight with the truck. Your assignment will no longer be the offices, primarily you will be proselyting."

I assumed that I understood the president clearly. I thought I was leaving Adrogue, and I only had an hour or so to say goodbye to all the investigators. I contemplated leaving Adrogué so suddenly, and it hurt to think about. Only after President talked to Elder Boyer was it clarified.

"Wait a minute!" Cried Elder Boyer, "Elder Jensen’s not leaving. I`m leaving!"

And so it was. I was going to be training exactly where I was at in Adrogué. No moving. No rushed goodbyes. Suddenly the clouds lifted.

Roll the clock forward a few hours.

Suddenly the assistants walk into the chapel late, with a bright red head straight out of Price Utah. There was an instant amistad, as I took over the training like a good step father. It was a very strange situation, but Elder Martindale was up to the task. He was clearly starved with the desire to work.

The next morning, it was the nicest day of the year to date in Buenos Aires. A balmy 70 degrees with clear skies. We left, and talked with everything that moved. EVERYTHING. It felt amazing after being in the offices for so long to get out and thrust the old sickle in for a full day. Elder Martindale kept up just fine.

This past week and a half has been full of ups and downs. Ups because we`re working hard. Downs because we have encountered some adversity as always. I know, thankfully, that the Lord is in charge. And we have been led to some elect people as fruits of our finding efforts.

Brief investigator updates as my time is nearly gone.

-Last night Damian announced that he would be moving to Monte Grande. The town over from Adrogué. About the equivalent from Sandy to Draper. He had a severe fight with his father, and now has decided he can`t stand it anymore. It`s a complicated situation. We began teaching, ironically, his parents at the same time, so the family will keep listening to the charlas... hopefully.

-Luis and Veronica were scheduled to be baptized on the 11th of September. Unfortunately, Luis couldn`t make it to church yesterday for some various, legitimate excuses. The bad news is he hasn`t been for over a month now. We`re seriously thinking about postponing that date so that he can be better prepared.

-Enrique the man that we found with Elder Boyer was progressing on fire to baptism. He came to church and everything last Sunday. Due to some complicated situations with his kids, he was forced to do a few odd jobs fixing up their houses. We couldn`t get hold of him all last week, but found him at the end of the night last night. So all is not lost. We have an appointment tonight and we should be able to get hold of him.

-Xavier has disappeared in his exams again, and unfortunately hasn`t been reading or praying as a result of school. We`re seriously considering dropping him if we can`t find him this week.

-Diego and Yesica have been progressing a lot more with reading and praying. They missed church again yesterday which is unfortunate because church is what got them in contact with us in the first place. We`re looking to see some more progression with them this week hoping that they can read and pray.

-A GOOD FIND: We found a man named Rodolfo last week who was clinically depressed after the death of his father 2 years ago. We taught him the plan of salvation, and he loved it! Amazing spirit.

ANOTHER GOOD FIND: We found a man named Sergue from St. Petersburg Russia. He worked on a nuclear submarine during the cold war. Definitely one of the coolest finds of my mission. He said the closing prayer in Russian.

No time to say anything else. The work here is amazing. Thank you for all your support. I`ll try to write a bit more next week.

To frame the context of this email, I´d like to share an experience that happened to me the other day.

As Elder Boyer and I were walking down the street on a crisp winter morning (just about spring now) we saw a man washing his car in his driveway. Especially motivated to talk to everyone, we struck up a conversation. He was surprisingly willing to talk to us, but surprisingly unwilling to accept any of our message.

"God is on vacation," he ranted, "and he´s not coming back."

His cynicism radiated off of him like cheap axe and alcohol. Before I was too quick to judge, I asked an explanation.

"Like I told you," he grumbled as he scrubbed his car down with a rag, "God is on vacation. You take three steps into the villa, and you´ll see. Those kids starving in the street. They´re destined to be pives y chorros, and those the ones that can survive. What has God done for any of them?" He paused methodically to throw his rag over his shoulder and stared me down. "God is on vacation."

I thought about my calling as a missionary. How I was set apart to declare "glad tidings." The Gospel. I looked the cynic in the eyes and said "He does live. I know He lives. And we´re His hands. If we want to change the world, it starts right here."

The man gazed at me condescendingly and began to laugh. "Vos pensás que podés cambiar el mundo?" or "You actually think that you can change the world?"

I was taken aback by the question. In my time in Argentina had I really changed anything? I wasn´t sure what I was going to say to this skeptic, and trusted that the words would come.

"I know the world can change, because I know that people can change. I´ve seen them change. It may happen slowly, but there are good people out there who will stand up for what they believe."

It sounded cliché to me. But I believed it now. As we kept walking down the street, I thought about my life before the mission. How pessimistic I was. How I was generally prone to think the worst of people and society. A glass half empty man. The greatest irony is, that in this past year, if I didn´t have a testimony of God, I would have an even greater abundance of fuel to throw into the cynical flame. There are hundreds of people we talk to. Why were we not baptizing by the hundreds and thousands? Why is the church so small compared to the rest of the world? Why are there so many inactive members? Why?

I learned something about optimism. Because amongst all the doubts, there are certain rays of glorious light that make all the hardships worthwhile.

Like the other day when we went to the follow up cita for a man who we had found the previous week. Enrique. He had listened to the missionaries many years back but had never actually taken their invitations. He had a good finding appointment, but it wasn´t spectacular, and we weren´t sure what to expect. As the older man let us into his house, we had our reservations. To our surprise, he did read in the book of Mormon. "I thought to myself the entire time I was reading," he started with a voice nearly choking with tears "Is this the truth? Is this what I´ve been looking for in my life" I bore my testimony that I knew the Book of Mormon was true, and that he had found his answer. "I know I have too," replied Enrique.

There was another experience on Sunday. Diego and Jessica who had missed church two weeks ago had fallen out of contact with us. We gave them a call on Thursday to ask how they were doing. "I read in the book" said Jessica "and I love going to church. We want to go on Sunday." They did go on Sunday. We had our doubts, but they showed up. Diego stayed for all the meetings and had many good questions about the Book of Mormon, which he had been reading steadily.

We made a good street contact with a man who accepted a Book of Mormon on Saturday. We rarely if ever give out Book of Mormons in street contacts, but the man loved the message so much and insisted so that he could read it. His name was Jorge. Jorge wanted us to come back at an hour that we were normally in the offices. With how busy we have been lately, it was difficult to make the decision and leave. Especially because our first instinct told us that it was extremely rare to get a return cita on a contact. If you don´t enter in the door on the first try here, you probably won´t get in. We put aside our doubts on Monday, and went to the appointment. Jorge was there waiting for us. We went in and found him and his Sister. He had read the part and was especially impressed that Jesus Christ had come to the Americas, something that just made sense to him. "Why wouldn´t Jesus come to the Americas if God loves all his children?" At the end of our appointment he prayed to know if the book was true. The spirit was incredibly strong.

I tell these stories because even though in bulk orders the Lord´s promised blessings aren´t manifest, it´s through the small and simple things. Optimism is the faith that keeps us going in spite of what our natural circumstance indicates. Because we have to believe that God knows what His children need. There is a sacred thing about people who defy their instinctive dispositions to do the wrong thing, and "become as Saints through the atonement of Christ."

Thirty seconds ago, when I was writing the above paragraph, I got a call from President. One of the trainers that recently got a new missionary is for one reason or another, going home tomorrow. President had a special assignment for me. I was going to continue the training of Elder Martindale. More news on this as it develops. I thought I was going to get emergency transferred out of Adrogué. As it turns out, I´m staying right here. But as a proselyting Elder. Not as an office Elder. Which, if I could have had an ideal scenario for my situation, it would have been that. I love this area. I love these investigators.

I know this is a lot of information in a little bit of time, but I´ll keep you informed. My P-day will now be on Monday again. So you can go back to sending my emails on Sunday night.

I love you all! This church is true! God loves us!

I don`t want to say we had a flat week last week, but it was a bit flat. To start off, the Wednesday P-day thing threw the entire system off. We were walking zombies that morning and were scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel of energy to get ourselves excited to work. Then we had to work in an intercambio with San Jose to do a baptismal interview. I left my newbie in Adroguè and switched places to go with Elder Mortensen. His comp, also a newbie, Elder Gaffney worked with my Newbie. It turned both literally and figuratively into the perfect storm as the clouds came in at the end of a beautiful week and started pouring rain.

To make matters even more interesting, the other Elders here in Adroguè are experiencing flooding in their Pension. As a result, all three of them have moved temporarily into our pension for the week. It has meant a lot of Elders in a very confined living space. We have to find creative ways to keep ourselves studying on time etc. Just another crazy brick in the mission wall. Nothing surprises me anymore.

The transfer ended this weekend, and I was a little worried that I would leave Adroguè. After all 4 transfers is the normal amount for a missionary of my time to be in an area. But President decided to let me stay and finish my training. Which was a pleasant surprise, as it would have been a shame to have to leave Elder Martindale behind after 4 short weeks together. We`re looking forward to at least another transfer more. What`s more, now I get to see the baptism of Luis and Veronica. I`ve been in Adroguè for six months now. That`s hard to think about. To put things in perspective, last general conference was my second week in this area. I`ll see general conference again here, and have another month. It`s almost for certain I`ll leave after that. But it really will be a shame when that day comes. Adroguè is my home. I feel like I really have a ward, friends, family etc. One out of every four days of my mission will be spent in Adroguè. Crazy to think about right?

The good news is that Luis and Veronica were set for their baptismal date on Saturday. They got married on Friday!!! They showed up at church bright and early on Sunday and everything. We announced the baptism in sacrament meeting, and everything was just a big bowl of baptizable peaches.

The bad news is that after church the president of the Elders Quorum, who lives in front of them, explained to me that that morning he had seen Luis smoking...

*Elder Jensen slaps hand directly on face

Now we face the dilemma of postponing the baptism, which is funny because the entire ward is incredibly excited. It`s not every day you get a young energetic marriage baptized into the church. Many people had already told us that they had invited friends, family etc. If I told you I knew what to do, I`d be lying. To make matters worse, my mission cell phone is now out of credit, crippling my ability to communicate. So time will tell. I`m praying that the spirit can show me the right course of action whether or not to go through with the baptism. We always encounter adversity when we are coming close to doing the right thing. If we have to wait on the baptism it won`t be the end of the world. The important thing is that they get baptized, and that they`re ready. Everyone within reach of this email PRAY FOR LUIS! He has to completely let go of smoking to take this step in his life.

The progression of investigators has been a difficult thing the past week as well. Conflicting schedules, work changes, have caused some problems. Which leaves us with a lot of people we`re only visiting once a week. Unfortunately once a week isn`t going to yield what we need to see baptisms. So we`re looking for more consistency in our investigators. It`s motivating me to be a better teacher. It seems like everyone has so many doubts, it`s hard sometimes. I feel the pressure. Then I remember that it`s the Lord who is directing this work and if I feel that way it`s because I`m trying to do things by myself. Maybe I can`t convince the people here to change but the spirit can. Teaching by the spirit and relying on God has been a big focus for me the past few weeks. We`re clearly being led to people, but just finding people to teach isn`t enough. It`s the progression that matters.

Enrique has reverted almost completely to "my original baptism was good enough" and is now at a brick wall. To make matters worse, he probably won`t be able to meet with us this week as he has a lot of family coming to visit him. It`s frustrating to feel like we`re taking backsteps, especially from someone who was coming to church and told us he knew the Book of Mormon was true. Every appointment we have with him has been less and less successful, until now he has missed church and can`t see us. We`re fairly concerned for him.

A success this last week was a good find of a man named Anibal and his wife Carmen. She has been sick and bedridden for over a year, so we teach both of them sitting at her bedside. Last time we taught about the restoration and they agreed to come to church. Anibal has been truly humbled by his afflictions, and is willing to accept the gospel. I`ll keep you updated on his progress.

Carlos has unfortunately taken a little step back as well. Having the normal troubles with smoking and drinking. He explained to us over again that he was first and foremost evangelist, but he did want us to keep passing by. He just wasn`t sure about going to church. We defined with him that he definitely wanted to get out of his circumstance, and then invited him to do the basics we were offering and see the difference in his life. Read. Pray. Go to church. He wouldn`t be able to really know if the things would help him unless he did them. So we got at the end a firm invitation to recommit.

My time is running short as always. The work in the area continues. After every hard week comes a better week. I know that the Lord directs this work and He has power to bring about the changes in these people`s lives. I love you all. Thanks for your prayers and support.