Friday, December 31, 2010

hello family,
i only have eleven more days at the MTC then i am heading out to Porto. i am so excited but nervous at the same time the language i think will be my biggest obstacle but it gets easier everyday. not much has happened here this week..... OH WAIT!!! for Christmas we had a special speaker come for the devotional and it was Russel M. Nelson of the quorum of the twelve apostles. he was such an amazing speaker. all he had was his scriptures and nothing also no notes of teleprompter. it was amazing he spoke so powerfully and he knows so much about the Hebrew language and everything it was amazing. and then he spoke to us again later that night in Christmas then the next day on Sunday we had a special priesthood meeting where he spoke to us about the Abrahamic Covenant and how my mission is helping fulfill that promise. and references to it are found all over the scriptures. but it was the best Christmas ever sorry family ha ha and i finally got my travel plans i fly out on Jan 11 from SLC to Denver then to Frankfurt Germany and then to Porto!!!!!!! yeah i can't wait to get out there and start teaching. well thanks all you guys for all you've done and for all the Christmas presents i am so thankful to have you and my family. i love you all so much and make sure the nieces and nephews don't forget about me. sorry i haven't been writing but I'm tired and i have 4 investigators plus studies plus my comp going to the doctor for his arm and all the other stuff i have to do but I'll try to write some today i love you guys so much.
love
elder Spencer Jensen

Friday, December 24, 2010

Olá,
Feliz Natal minha família. Como vão vossa Natal? well it isn't christmas yet but since i don't email tomorrow i'll email today. so far the first few days leading up to christmas have been a little hectic haha so yseterday my comp had to go tot the doc becuase his arm has been swollen for awhile and they wanted to see what was wrong so they did an ultrasound and found a blood clot. it turns out he has thoracic outlet syndrome. so the blood clot was right underneath his clavical. so the doctor wanted to take it out so that mean the would have to stay overnight. so in the meantime i went back to them MTC not knowing how my comp was doing. so he got back just like an hour ago blood clot free but he thinks he's going to get teh surgery where they remove his first rib or clavical to relieve the pressure so it doen't happen again which mean s he won't be going to porto on time. wehich kind of sucks because i know he wants to go so bad but it's whatever the Lord wants. and for the TRC this wekk we got a nice little surprise. we had to teach an investigator all in portuguese but he was a non-christian. and our investigator chose to be muslim... good thing i know a little bit about islam. but it was really interesting. the investigator we got we call Pai Doutrina (father doctrine) becuase he knows so much about the gospel and about other religions. and he speaks portuguese like a native (really Fluent) but the lesson went reaslly good we were kinda chocked that he was muslim but we handled it really well and the lesson went great and we taught him the first lessonwhich is the lesson of the Restoration of the church.
i love being here and i knoew this is the only place im supposed to be right now. i knwot he churtch ois true and tha t Jesus is my Savior and tha t heavenly father loves me. i've come to know that here better than any other place. i love you guys so much and keep semnding me letter and i will try my best to write back but i don't have much time to anymore we're crammed wioth studying for invstigators but i will try my best. thanks for all you've done and for all my presents i'll write next weel what i got. love you guys a lot.
feliz natal
Elder Spencer Jensen

Friday, December 10, 2010

hey everyone how's it going. i've been in the mtc for 4 weeks now. it's crazy to think that this much time has gone by. but i've really enjoyed my time here and i've felt the Spirit a lot since i've gotten here. i have been able to receive revelation fro the investigators that we've been teaching and it is a way awesome feeling. sorry that i don't write back as much as i should but i have so many things to do while i'm here. but i know that this is the place i'm supposed to be. Cassie the photos of ali londyn and meredith are so beautiful and i've been showing them off sicne i got them hahah and Lacey, Julia is such a beautiful name make sure you send me some photos of her. Aimee thank Eve Hannah tate and elijah for their letters and tell them thank you and i'll try writing back. Ashlee thanks for all the packages that you've sent me i really appreciate them a lot and they remind me of home. Marissa, thank you so much for the candy canes and the ornament i love them haha natalie still needs to send me photos of finn and hank please :) mom and dad thank you so much for allowing me to go on my mission. it has already blessed my life and i can't wait to see what portugal has in store for me. Grandma Stephens thanks for all the things you've done for me over the years and i really appreciate the support that you have given me over the years. Dan, thank you for helping with my photography addiction haha that is one hard thing about being here is that it's so beautiful but i can't just stpo what i'm doing and take a photo haha. but this is for everyone. the church is changing the way they do missionary work. they want the members to find and for the missionaries to teach. so this means you guys need to step it up for the work of the Lord. mormon.org is doing a thing where members go on the site and make a profile about their testimony and why they love the church and where you are located by region. i would like all of you guys to go on here and make a profile so nonmembers can look at how powerful our testimonies are of the restored gospel. please do this for the missionay work. and i would like it if you all wrote me a letter about how the Atonement has affected your lives. i have been studying the atonement and i wanna know how you guys feel about it :) thanks.
love elder jensen

Saturday, December 4, 2010

hey everyone, thank you all so much for your letters and packages. i~m loving it here nowe but i still wanna get out in the field. i~ve had such wonderful experiiences here and have learned so much about the gospel and the language is coming so well. here us on eof those experiences i had this week.
we do this teaching role play thing once a week called the TRC. it makes me really nervous but it is so awesome. this week we had to do the first part in portuguese and just get to know the investigator a little bit and that went ok. then we had the had the chance to actualy teach them a lesson. well when we knocked on the door she opened and we greted her in portuguese and she looked a little confused and answered back in spanish which made me confused then the lady at thhe desk laughed and said she didn't speak portuguese but that she was a last minute for replacement for our investigator. so we went in and got to knwo her a little bit. the scenario was that we were meeting her for the first time but the other missionariesd had taught her the first lesson already. so we started the lesson about the plan of salvation and i had these little visual aids to use. but even though it was fake you could still fell the spirit and my companion when we were studying found this scripture D&C76:51 which is about baptism. so we go throught the lesson and we focused on the Atonement and the Celestial kingdom and we would have her read sciptures and she would read them and think for a second and then smile. the spirit was so strong it was awesome and me and my companion were working together so well it was amazing. but we got towards the end of the lesson and my comp had her read that D&C scripture and she did and she asked like what every sentence in it meant and we explained it and she was smiling the whole time and my companion asked her if she would follow the example that the Savior had set and be baptized by one having authority and she thought for a second and i asked if she would be baptized in jan 9.... she thought for a second and then said................. YES!!!!!!! me and my companion sat there for a second dumbfounded then i said we'd keep teaching her lessons and get her ready and check on her everyday... it was amazing (even if it wasn't real it was still awesome) that is the best job i'd ever done teaching the lesson me and my companion worked so well together it was awesome. and our teacher said we did an awesome job. but that was the highlight of my week. we do this teaching role play thing once a week called the TRC. it makes me really nervous but it is so awesome. this week we had to do the first part in portuguese and just get to know the investigator a little bit and that went ok. then we had the had the chance to actualy teach them a lesson. well when we knocked on the door she opened and we greted her in portuguese and she looked a little confused and answered back in spanish which made me confused then the lady at thhe desk laughed and said she didn't speak portuguese but that she was a last minute for replacement for our investigator. so we went in and got to knwo her a little bit. the scenario was that we were meeting her for the first time but the other missionariesd had taught her the first lesson already. so we started the lesson about the plan of salvation and i had these little visual aids to use. but even though it was fake you could still fell the spirit and my companion when we were studying found this scripture D&C76:51 which is about baptism. so we go throught the lesson and we focused on the Atonement and the Celestial kingdom and we would have her read sciptures and she would read them and think for a second and then smile. the spirit was so strong it was awesome and me and my companion were working together so well it was amazing. but we got towards the end of the lesson and my comp had her read that D&C scripture and she did and she asked like what every sentence in it meant and we explained it and she was smiling the whole time and my companion asked her if she would follow the example that the Savior had set and be baptized by one having authority and she thought for a second and i asked if she would be baptized in jan 9.... she thought for a second and then said................. YES!!!!!!! me and my companion sat there for a second dumbfounded then i said we'd keep teaching her lessons and get her ready and check on her everyday... it was amazing (even if it wasn't real it was still awesome) that is the best job i'd ever done teaching the lesson me and my companion worked so well together it was awesome. and our teacher said we did an awesome job. but that was the highlight of my week.
love elder jensen