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Dear everybody,

Life has been great here in Antsirabe. It has been a great visit. It was awesome to come back and see all of the amazing people that I met back in my time serving here. We had a great week. I don't really have any investigators to talk about because the whole week was just splits so I don't really have my own area. Even with that we had a great week and it was an awesome time. Love you all so much but I'm short on time this week. I will add some pictures to make up for my weak email writing skills. Love you all so much,

 

Elder Jensen

 

Scripture of the Week: Ether 12:27

 

Changes - Happy Birthday Ryker

Dear family,

So some big changes this week, which I will explain in a minute. For now it's enough to just say that I am not in Ambohimanarina anymore. Yay for emergency transfers!!

So it all started on Tuesday. Elder Bassett and I had a split with the Elders in Ankorondrano, about an hour away by bus, so we woke up at like 5 in order to go out and meet up with them and still be home in time for studies. I spent the day with Elder Sweeten. He is one transfer ahead of me and we have lived together a couple of times so we are old friends and it was great to get to work with him again. Anyways, about halfway through studies the phone rang. It was President Foote, looking for me. He told me he had a new assignment for me! That unfortunately meant having to leave Ambohimanarina. I was super sad to have to leave so many great people that I have met along the way, But Elder Bassett is an amazing missionary and I know that he can take care of business. Wednesday went by in a blur of goodbyes.

Wednesday night I was picked up at my apartment, and after helping with a zone conference thursday, President Foote, Elder Walker and I headed out Friday morning. Elder Walker is my new comp and is also the oldest missionary in the mission. He has about three weeks left, and we are going to spend them together. Right now we are in Antsirabe, and yes, that is the same Antsirabe I was trained in. It has been a great couple of days of reunions and old friends and I have loved every second of it. Elder Walker and I are here until Nov. 22, and then we will be off again. We are going to spend the week going on splits with different companionships, fixing problems, doing training, finding as many new investigators as possible, and basically just blowing up the city with missionary work. It's going to be a great time and I am way excited to be out working here again. Yesterday I was on a split with Elder Baggs, who is currently in his second transfer being trained in the same area I was trained in. We gave their whole program to Elder Walker and Elder Baggs' comp, and the two of us went out tracking. Despite a mad dash to the church bathroom due to the long lasting effects of a deworming pill (not mine, Elder Baggs') we managed to tract in to 5 times. One of those was actually really special.

We were walking back from the bathroom in an area far from where we had been tracting when we passed a young married couple just leaving their house. They just looked so happy that I couldn't help but stop and talk to them. They agreed to give us a few minutes to share the message, and we taught them a great lesson on the restoration! It was so awesome! After that Elder Baggs and I had a great talk about just how much our Heavenly Father makes sure we are in the right place at the right time. Who would think that the fact that he had gotten worms would have put us in a place to find such an awesome family!! The Lord works in mysterious ways I guess.

So due to all of the traveling and just the all-around tight schedule, I really haven't had much of a chance to study. Even with that, I sure learned a lot this week. Only our Heavenly Father can make weak things become strong. Without him we are nothing. Love you all so much! I will talk to you next week!

Elder Jensen

Scripture of the Week: Ether 12:27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween

 



Dear everybody,

Happy Halloween!! No, we do not celebrate Halloween here in Madagascar. I feel like most of the people here would just think we were super weird. This week was great! We had a lot of successes and a lot of great things.

So today I would like to tell you about my friend Salim and his family. Elder Bassett and I were tracking a couple of weeks ago when some random dude leaned out his window to talk to us. He said that we could come in! The problem was that the window was on the back of the house and there was no way in unless we went all the way out to the main road and back in a different path, which would involve losing sight of the house. Well this was a big house and it looks very different from the other side. To be honest we still haven't found it yet, but that's ok.
As we were looking we found a house that looked like it might be it so we knocked. And knocked. And knocked. And no one came. I don't know why (well I do now but I didn't then) but we both just really felt like we needed to talk to these people. So what do two young, stupid, rude, and extremely hard headed Mormon missionaries do? Well, we opened the door, walked through the living room and up the stairs! Not something that I would recommend to anyone. At the top of the stairs we found one of the biggest Malagasies that I have ever seen in my life, and in the deepest voice I have ever heard he politely asked what the heck we were doing in his house. We told him we were missionaries and we had a message about Jesus Christ. He responded that he was Muslim. Time to run right? Nope we just told him we also had a message that would help his family. At this point he called his wife over and allowed us to come in. We sat down and Elder Bassett looked at me and asked how we were supposed to do this. I told him I had no idea. Well, 45 minutes later we finished one of the most powerful lessons on the Restoration that I can remember being a part of, and invited them to pray and that we would love to come back Thursday. Salim told us he had to work, so we said we would just come back in a week. Then Wednesday night Elder Bassett answered a call from an unknown number. It was Salim and he wanted us to come back the next day!! We were a little bit shocked to say the least. When we got there, we were even more shocked. Salim runs a trucking company, and he had a truck broken down about halfway to nowhere in the middle of some very dangerous territory, but he had felt that rather than going to save it, he should learn from the white dudes first. In the next lesson they readily accepted a bap date. On Sunday Salim walked in to a Christian church for the first time in his life, and I am just in awe of how much the Lord guided us to this awesome family. I will keep you posted on their progress.

Today in my studies I learned a lot about studying. I don't know if that makes sense or not. I learned how studying actually works. We don't just read the books and learn. No man knoweth save it is revealed to him by the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost it is all knowledge is given. Sure we read the words, but the Holy Ghost confirms to our hearts the truth of all things. He guides our thoughts and teaches us new things, things that might not even be written. It's a great gift that we all have, that we are able to learn by this power and come to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Love you all so much,

Elder Jensen

Scripture of the week: Jacob 4:8