3-28-11

Hey Everyone,
Well I have a couple cool experiences from this week.
Well, we were going to an appointment but the person we needed to teach wasn´t there so we left. And as we were walking away from the building we saw this couple with a young daughter. So, we contacted them and they are Brazilian and Catholic. So we asked a little but about them and then I asked if he believed that God talks to people today. He said yes. Then Elder Marlor asked how does he think God talks to people today. He said prayer. And he said that when he was younger he really didn´t believe in God. But as he got older, every once in awhile he would pray and what he asked for he would get, whether sooner or later. So, his wife was pregnant with their little girl, and they went to the doctor to get a checkup, and the doctor found something wrong with the baby and the mom, which was life threatening. So, he and his wife were very worried, but he told his wife if we pray God will answer and everything will be fine. So the did that, and the next week they went back to the doctor and they did the same test and they both were fine. And while he was telling us the story the Spirit was so strong. He stopped and held up his arm and said can you see how I am feeling right now, and he had goosebumps all over his arms. It was an awesome story and almost made me cry. Then, Elder Marlor asked how it felt the first time he held his daughter and he said he didn´t remember because he was so worried about his wife. But he said that he gets an awesome feeling whenever he sees his little girl walk or whenever she calls him papa. It was a really cool experience.
And last night we went over to a member´s house to eat. They are the perfect family. His name is Pedro, his wife is Claudia and their little boy is Levi. They are all incredibly goodlooking and active in the church. They´re rich and Pedro is a RM. So we were giving them the lesson and their little boy interrupted when we were talking about prayer and missionary work. He was like stop stop I wanna say something. So we let him. He said something like when you pray you get a good feeling in your heart that God puts there haha It was the most awesome thing ever haha. But it´s true haha he was right.
But their family is way funny and last night was a blast. The members make the missionaries eat so much food I was going to explode haha. But I like it because we are poor.
Well there are a few things that happened this week. I love and miss you guys.
Love,
Elder Spencer Jensen
ps watch this talk from Jeffrey R. Holland
http://lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng&query=safety+soul

3-21-11

hey everyone,
How is everyone doing? Im glad to hear that Cassie found a house and now has to have Levi cut out of her haha Hope everything else is ok.
Well things here have been pretty normal missionary stuff. We are going and always trying to find people to teach. Our favorite thing to get are references from mebers because they are the people that are really interested and that stay in the church. so if you have any friends that you know are even a little interested about us, send the missionaries. we love to get references haha. And when you do, go and teach with them. that makes the Spirit a whole lot stringer. and there is no greater feeling than seeing the Spirit witness to someone the truth of our message.
And if you are scared of embarassed to ask a friend just do it anyways. We have a message that changes peoples live, a message that has changed the world. We get so much peace and happiness from this message, why not share it? Just tell them that this message has brought you so much peace and happiness in your life that you love that person adn that you want them to have that same peace and happiness too. No one can turn that down. Give them a Book of Mormon or a pass a long card. It will make a difference in your life and in theirs.
well there is my sermon for this week haha
i love and miss all of you guys
love
elder spencer jensen

3-14-11

hey everyone,
what is up? not much has been going on here. just trying to always find more people to teach. we have contacted a lot of people this week and some of them were really cool and some not so much haha. but hey thats the way it goes. we have been contacting a lot of muslims lately. which we arent supposed to teach them i dont think because if they convert they can be killed. but thats all the really interesting stuff. we have seen a bunch of drunk people and one guy was drunk and walking aroung the park singing about a bull and a bull fighter haha it was pretty funny.
we did have a lesson with this woman who we found knocking doors. and she had two grnadson and they were running around the house then one of them comes into the room we were in, looks at me and says "eu gosto dele!!!" which means i like him hahah and he ran up and gave me a hug haha it was really awkward and weird but it made me laugh hahah.
well thats about it for this week. i love and miss you guys. keep writing me and ill do my best to write back. and send lots of pictures.
oh and good luck Cassie!!!!!!~
love
elder spencer jensen

3-7-11

well hey everyone how is it going? everythign here is going great. me and my new comp elder marlor have been working really hard here in Leiria to improve this area and to get some people for us to baptize. it is way cool to be a issionary. we get to see things everyday taht a normal person doesnt haha it is coolt o see how much the Lord loves his missionaries and all the little things he does to help us and all the little mriacles that happen everyday.
one tool we ahve to find people is called Olhos da Fé or eyes of faith. what you do is you pray to have the Lord put into your mind the image of someone he had prepared for you that day. so you pray about what they look like where they will be what time and what will they need to hear. so me and elder marlor did this and i came up witha brown man in a jacket levis with a shoulder bag and he would be in the central park but i didnt get far enough to know what he would need to hear. so we get up and we decide to walk across the bridge on the riveer and we cross over and the first guy we see is a brazilian guy sitting ion a bench with all the things i saw. so we go up and talk to him and he want interested but we tried to leave him a book of mormon but he said no but then e was like but my aunt would. so he sadi he would give her the book and he gave us her adress and a number so we could go talk to him. haha it was a really cool experience and helps my testinmony that the savior is helping me do this work.
we got this new invesigator a member brought her to church. her name is augosta and she is probably 70 or 80 years old and catholic. she has had a lot of bad things happen in her life. one husband left her the other died and none of her reletives except her 13 year old grandson will talk to her, she lives alone and hasnt had enough money to have running water since 2008 and barely has enough money to eat. i feel so bad for her but the best thing we can do is baptize her and she can find peace through the gospel. she is a really nice lady but seems to dwell on the past a little too much. but we decided to teach her the plan of salvation first and she really liked it and we said this is how you can gain peace in this life by following this plan god has created for us and we asked her when she knows these things are true if she will be baptized and she said yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so next time we are going to give her a date to be baptized. im just grateful that we were the ones to find her and she is humle enough to accept the gospel.
well i love you guys and write me letters and ill try to write back. i love and miss you all.
love
elder spencer jensen