Today Good Things Are Happening. Today I know God Loves Me.

Back to the basics.

I think it was President Uchtdorf in conference that shared the story about Vince Lombardi coaching. He would show his players the pigskin and say "this is a football. You throw it, kick it, and get it into the end zone to get points." Then he would show them the gridlines and say "this is the field, it`s 100 yards rectangular etc." I`m translating from what I heard in Spanish. But the point was true excellence comes not in mastering isolated complex aspects of concepts. Excellence is true mastery of the basics. I think the Karate kid does a good job of illustrating that too.

Sounds like the cougars went back to the basics, and it paid off.

For those of you who don`t know what`s going on in the mission field right now, there are a lot of changes with the 8 lessons. These aren`t given to us to replace Preach my Gospel. Preach my Gospel is divinely inspired and contains all the principles we need to become the successful servants the Lord wants us to be. The problem is it`s easy to get caught up in isolated aspects of Preach my Gospel, where true excellence in missionary work only comes after mastering the basics. Thus we have received 8 simplified lessons that teach us our priorities. Like the Doctrine of Christ and our missionary purpose. The role of the Spirit in conversion. Revelation through prayer, the Book of Mormon, and Church attendance. As servants of the Lord, we must have the basics down.

I saw that as an answer to my many prayers of how I could help my investigators better progress. I saw a big change in the way I taught this week as opposed to last week. The biggest change came from a focus on baptism. Nearly all of my lessons last week related to baptism in some way or another. I saw big changes in people as they considered making a covenant with God. It`s just a better way to teach. Why keep people in the dark where you can let them know your goals up front.

I had some personally uplifting experiences this week. Luis unfortunately has in a lot of ways dropped off the map. He works a lot more now, and the smoking hasn`t gotten better. It`s unfortunate. Additionally Veronica didn`t make it to church yesterday. She was going to get baptized next week, but postponed again to the 23rd. Unfortunately, if everything turns out the way I'm thinking it will I`ll be leaving here on the next transfer date, the 20th. I know that the important thing is Veronica getting baptized, but it`s a baptism I really do want to see... I have faith that everything just has a way of working out the way it`s supposed to. And if I`m transferred out of here before I can see Veronica baptized it will be for a reason.

7 months is a long time to be in an area.

This has been an introspective week for me. As I`m probably leaving here in the next week. I won`t be emailing you until the 20th as the transfer has been placed in the middle of the week for various reasons. So you`ll know my fate the next time I write to you. It`s bizarre to think about living somewhere else in the mission. I know this area better than I know my neighborhood back at home. I have every street within 30 blocks memorized. I`ve had a lot of time to think about it.

After so much time here, it`s led me to think about what I’ve contributed. What my legacy in Adroguè will be. Truth be told, I’m not sure. I went through a little rough spot where I wasn`t sure exactly what I`d done here, or if I had done enough to help the area and my companion. There were two experiences this week that really stood out to me and helped me with that.

The other day we had intercambios with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Hall from California. I had been walking down a street the day prior with Elder Martindale in a bit of a hurry, and upon seeing the houses said to him "we need to come back and clap here some other time." (In Argentina, doorbells are rare, and every house has a gate around it. It`s very impolite to jump the gate. You stand out front and clap your hands then the people come out. Thus we say "clap houses" instead of "knock houses.") I made plans to do that with our intercambio. The following day Elder Hall and I went by and met some rejections, until we arrived at a humbler looking home. We clapped and the woman came out, introducing herself as Norma. After a short door approach we asked if we could come in and say a prayer with her and share a message. Elder Hall added that it would only be about 10 minutes. With some persuasion she let us in.

Norma informed us that she had been too many churches. She had listened to missionaries years ago, but didn`t remember that much. At the present time she was studying the bible with the Jehovah’s witnesses. We started to explain, and Norma had many fantastic questions. Such good questions that our 10 minutes turned into over an hour. She was especially impressed by the first vision, that someone could see God, and that he was a real personage. We told her that she could pray and know it was true. She was really surprised when we told her she could pray, as her current bible study group taught her that she had to know a certain amount of study to offer prayers. We explained that God loves all His children and wants to hear their thoughts and feelings. She began to cry as we talked and said something that filled me with joy.

"This has been the most wonderful 10 minutes in a long time," she wept and laughed. "It`s been a hard couple of weeks, but today, today good things are happening. Today I know that God loves me."

She offered a beautiful prayer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the spirit filled the room. It was one of my favorite finding appointments of my mission.

The other day we went to Diego and Yesica, the couple that came to general conference. It was just Yesica there and we had a good charla. She had read a lot in the Book of Mormon, about to the end of 2 Nephi. It was impressive, and we challenged her to solidify that knowledge she already had with prayer. She told us that she didn`t feel like she had to ask God, she just felt it was true. We encouraged her anyway to kneel down and receive the spiritual witness. As we finished up, she stopped to thank us. Telling us she had been meaning to tell us how grateful she was that we had found her family. That her marriage was better and she felt the spirit when we came. She thanked us for all the blessings she had received in the past months, and it made me turn around and thank God. I love to see gratitude in the investigators. It gives me motivation for the bad days. When we`re out in the street getting rejected, when people are slamming the doors or refusing to listen. It`s all worth it to find the one. "Thank you for what you do. I`m happier now than I was before."

May the words of Norma forever echo in the rainy days of my soul. "Today good things are happening. Today I know God loves me."

I love you all, and thank you

Conference

Isn`t it ironic that the first BYU loss to Utah State in over a decade has to happen when I`m obligated to live within sight and sound of a cougar hating aggie fan 24 hours a day 7 days a week? Gary Crowton... I mean Bronco Mendenhall needs to "rebuild" his coaching approach and "raise the bar" a little higher than "The Quest for 2 Wins on the Season"

You can imagine that the emails received alongside my gleeful aggie companion have heavily influenced the start of this email. But in the words of President Uchtdorf "all of God`s children wear the same jersey." It`ll be a good chance for me to put some prophetic council in practice and tear down my pride.

Speaking of general conference, it`s always a chance for me to think a little about home. Not in a trunky way. More of an impressed way. Impressed at the miracle that general conference is. We`re thousands of miles apart, yet we`re watching the same transmission at the same time. We had a good turnout of investigators at the conference so I was watching most of the sessions in Spanish translating back to English. It was amazing how much I understood. They use unfamiliar words, and some of the translators were from Central America, and one from Spain. That darn lisp sure trips up my translation.

Saturday afternoon we had Diego Yesica and their entire family there. They marveled at the counsel received by living prophets. They were astounded by the angelic music, and couldn`t believe that every one of the members of the choir was from the same church, as they still assumed that the church we had was the only one. As the final note sounded on the closing hymn Diego shook his head with a big thumbs up and said the Spanish equivalent of "wow, good call Jensen." They left much edified.

My personal testimony of the modern prophets and apostles was increased as well. As I looked at all those men who I had testified of so much, I couldn`t help but think of it as the difference between our church and the rest. It`s one fantastic display of modern revelation. How blessed we are to sit at the feet of a modern day prophet. This conference more than ever I saw a special unity between the talks. So many focused on the strategies of the devil, the dangers of the natural man, the essential nature of agency and the consequences of our choices.

On Saturday night we got a rare treat. Missionaries from our mission never see the priesthood session live, let alone in English. But with special permission from the mission president, and Elder Jones, the senior couple accompanying us, we were able to stay up and watch it live in English in the offices. When Elder Nelson asked the full time missionaries to stand up, we all stood up with the whole body of the Lord, knowing that thousands of others across the world were shoulder to shoulder with us. I felt the camaraderie of my missionary brothers across the globe and a greater sense of appreciation for those who are making this sacrifice. I know this is the Lord`s work. Elder Jones drove us home that night, and we all felt like it had decisively been the best priesthood session we had ever witnessed. (The seventy from South Africa sounded like Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild. He even talked about scorpions and stuff ha-ha! Amazing talk!!!)

Earlier this week, we had training for all the mission leaders. District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Trainers. It was a great opportunity to learn from President Stapley. From Tuesday to Friday we had lessons from 10:30 to 4:00 in the afternoon. We`re learning the 8 new missionary lessons. They basically help us take PMG and simplify the basic principles for application in our work. Like President Uchtdorf explained in the Saturday session, we have to master the basics before we can master the complicated stuff. I felt renewed as a missionary, and a greater desire to apply all these principles.

Unfortunately my time is gone. It was a lot of info this week. Luis and Veronica were left to cool down a little bit, but we got them by the end of the week and things are back to normal. Maria Eva, our baptismal date, was able to attend conference. She loved it. `We`re very excited for her.

Well, yet again, gotta run. Time just went out from under me. I love you all, and hope to hear from you soon. I know the church has been restored. Thomas S. Monson is a true Prophet along with his counselors and the twelve apostles. They are all men of God. Jesus Christ is the head of this church. He is our Savior and Redeemer.

Les amo a todos!

I`ve gotten to know a lot about endurance on the mission. The majority of these thoughts have led me to realize that even if all we can say for ourselves is that we walked out the door in the morning, it`s still saying a lot.

This week I was pondering a lot about what mission success is. What I want to get out of my mission. What I have accomplished thus far, and what I want to accomplish in the coming months. And perhaps more important than "the what" of my mission is "the why." Why did I want to accomplish the things I have accomplished, and why do I want to accomplish my goals for the remainder of the fleeting time that has been left to me. I have discovered on the mission that the "why" is infinitely more important than the "what." It doesn`t matter if we accomplish miracles. Choice are the words of the apostle Paul, "without charity, I am nothing."

This week we moved pensions from my air conditioned paradise, my home for over a fourth of my mission, and went down the street to a brand new apartment. It was fun to have a new place, but the settling in had some undesirable effects on the work. Elder Martindale and I ended up running errands and resolving a lot of temporal matters, like getting our water filter working, and making sure we had a squeegee. By the end of the week we were essentially settled in completely, but there are still the occasional growing pains that accompany the change.

The biggest blow to this week was Luis hitting rock bottom. It had been a long day filled with miscellaneous errands in the morning, and rejections in the evening. Investigators talking about their previous evangelist baptisms and the saving grace of Christ. People just seemed especially disinterested. It was a relief to have Luis and Veronica at the end of the night.

We were trying to teach about 2 Ne 4 and using the strength of the Lord to overcome our difficulties. Luis finally snapped. After nearly 5 months of teaching them, a marriage, and dozen other commitments later, the brick wall of smoking never seemed more insurmountable. Luis protested that nobody in the church is perfect. And he was a lot more righteous than a lot of people. "So why can`t I be baptized? Nobody`s perfect! Just because I smoke doesn`t mean I can`t be baptized. I thought baptism was to clean us. This isn`t what Jesus taught." And then he continued, "If you want to tell me how to live my life, you can stay outside. But this is my choice and my life." Etc. etc. etc.

It was late, I couldn`t feel the spirit. To say that I went back to the apartment discouraged would be an understatement. It was a big setback. Combined with the present circumstances in the area, it was easy to ask God why. Why is missionary work so hard? The heavy burden of the salvation of these persons, not resting upon, but at the very least influenced by the decisions of a couple of teenage boys. I got angry at myself. Why did God let me teach the wrong thing? Why wasn`t I inspired to say other words, or give the lessons in a different order? Or if I was and didn`t listen, why was I given this responsibility in the first place? I knew that I could give myself the answers, but at the same time, I struggled. I feel that I know all of you, the readers well enough, and trust you enough to express to you these personal thoughts and trials of mission work.

My thoughts for the better portion of the weekend, as I reflected on that moment with Luis, were generally reflected in that direction.

I guess in a strange way, I didn`t get a solid answer until yesterday afternoon. As I was walking down the street talking to people. We had a few moderately successful contacts, when I saw an older lady leave from her door to see her son off to work. I complimented her on her beautiful house and began to talk. It wasn`t long into the conversation that I felt something within me, a deep love for the simplicity of her words and the concern for her family I could feel. Naturally, not forced, I offered her the gospel as a solution, and she let us in to offer a prayer with a little persuasion. We had a sweet conversation about the love of God, and the restoration before we left her with a word of prayer. As we walked away, tears filled my eyes as I realized something profound.

"I love her." I said to my companion. "I was able to find that woman, because I can honestly say that I love her."

And suddenly, I realized something deep within me. That I had perhaps looked for over a year for ways to become a successful missionary. I had nearly destroyed myself trying to squeeze out success like the parched juices of an under ripe orange. I might have done successful things, but perhaps not for a successful reason. "The what" was always more important to me than "the why." But last night, I realized something more important than my hair splitting questions and inadequacy from the week before. I realized that I was capable of loving these people, my companion, and this work with all my heart. And that`s the only thing that really matters anyway.