Week 4, Transfer 8, goes too fast.

Dear everybody,

Things are still great here on the other side of the world. I am sorry I'm late but we went on a little 7 hour nature walk this morning. It was brutal. Other than that things have been pretty calm around here. Just another week in paradise.

So the work week went really well. We have been having a lot of success here and caught most all of our goals this week. We even have 4 baptisms scheduled for the 30th and about 10 more for august!! One of my favorite investigators at the moment is a guy named Egson. Elder Coleman and I tracked into his family about 2 months ago. He wasn't even there for the first lesson. We taught his family but they were very stuck in their Lutheran faith. We went back for a second lesson and he was there for that one. His wife politely asked us after the lesson to never come back. Ever. I mean like never ever ever never. She didn't like our stuff much. I guess he did because he ran us down at the gate and set up another appointment with us. Ever since then we have either learned in his kid's bedroom or his office because the wife won't even let us into the house. Yes though, I did say office. He is a very well off guy. He is also sitting on the Lutheran Council of Fort Dauphin. However, at this point he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet to the point that he gets mad at us when we ask him. He told us yesterday that he knows he needs to get baptized it's just way hard for him to leave his church because it's all he's ever known. He's praying about it though, hopefully he'll get an answer soon. Hopefully really soon. Missions are short, and I'm not getting any younger you know!!

Studies this week were good. I spent a lot of time reading in Alma. I especially like where they teach King Lamoni and his father. Ammon and Aaron do such a good job of teaching the gospel and especially of teaching it in a way that it can be understood. It was just a bit of a lesson on slowing things down and making sure that we teach simply and understandably so that the spirit can bear witness of the message.

In other news I went on a hike this morning!! Not a real hike, we just spent about 3 1/2 hours walking on a beach so that we could see the sun rise. It was way pretty but I am just exhausted at this point. Also got some good pictures but the cyber cafe here is very crappy so I am just going to wait to send them and save me some time.

Love you all so much,

Elder Jensen

Scripture of the Week; Alma 20:23, Alma 22:15

Madagascar

Dear everybody,

Life is still good here on the big island. We had some successes this week, and President Foote came down for a visit. We have a lot of investigators progressing really well and all in all it was just great.

As far as work things are going well. We are still finding a lot of success and actually have been working a lot more with part member families. We actually have 2 or 3 less active members returning to activity because their families are becoming involved in the Gospel now and it's a way cool thing to see. So things are still great as far as that goes.

Studies this week have been a little bit different. I didn't actually spend a lot of time in the scriptures but I spent the week in the area book. That has kind of become a forgotten thing here in Mada, but I got sick of tracking so lately we have been spending time looking for less actives and part member families, and then trying to get referrals from them and also involve them in the teach. It has been working way, way better.

As far as crazy things to happen this week, President Foote showed up!! We at least knew he was coming this time so we had a little bit of time to prepare. It was great having him down again though, and we even made him dinner at our house so it was a great weekend.

Love you all,             

Elder Jensen,

Scripture of the week; Mosiah 4;19

July 5, 2016- Just Another Day in Paradise

Hey everybody!!

I am sitting in this very nice and overly priced cyber cafe right now watching the rain and trying to come up with a reason to not have to walk out in it. Things are still great here in Fort D though. We had a very, very average week. Nothing big really happened it just kind of went. 

We have been having a lot of success lately with maybe 5 or 6 families. The problem is that other than those 5 or 6 families, we don't really have anyone to teach. We tried tracting which of course never really works much. It was a lot of knocking on doors and a lot of people let us in, it just wasn't the right people. We kept finding people who were very prepared to listen to a white guy speak Malagasy, just not ready to accept the gospel. Finally we gave up on that and I went back to the Finding New People section in the Preach My Gospel. By the way anybody getting ready for a mission should read that book cover to cover because it is great. It talked a lot about working with members for referrals and new ways of contacting people. I went back through the Area book for the last couple of years and found the member that seemed to have been the most prepared to receive the gospel. It turned out to be the first councilor in the branch presidency, Odilon. He has been a member for 3 years, got married in the temple and is just a major powerhouse now. We set up a time with them and went over for a visit. Basically we just asked them to tell us their conversion stories and what led them to the church and I am now way excited to get out and try the things we came up with. 

Studies this week haven't really been anything super deep or special, just a whole lot of preach my gospel stuff. I will have something better to write about it next week.

Love you all so much.