17 Miracles

This week was one of the best of my mission. 

On Monday we went camping with our ward. At least for the afternoon.. Then we had to go home! But  it was a ton of fun to get out of the city and go to the beach and a big field! While we were there we played a lot of frisbee and had a great time! 

Saturday night we watched 17 Miracles with a couple of our investigators! It was really great! But this week we had more than 17 miracles of our own. Every single day we went and met with 2 to 3 people which is a ton for here and each and every one of them made noticeable progress through the lessons! It was incredible! Everyone is reading the scriptures and starting to pray and learning how to repent and it has been a real blessing to be able to see it all happen. I can't explain how blessed I've felt this week.

We are teaching the commandments to several of our investigators now and they have been to church 2 or 3 times as well. It is looking like several of them will be prepared to be baptized in the coming weeks. 

Also we had one investigator pass his baptismal interview, but he is still not quite ready to be baptized. The last 2 times he did interviews in 2012 and 2013 his mom and daughter passed away. So now he is determined to wait until God tells him in a dream to be baptized to go through with it. We are doing our best to help him seek an answer through prayer and scripture study. He has already had some dreams that convinced him of the truthfulness of the church. He's so close!! 

I love it here. I shared my testimony in church yesterday of repentance, the Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ and His Atonement and I'll share it here as well. A few weeks ago at a mission conference I learned something I hadn't ever realized before. When Joseph Smith went into the grove he wasn't just curious about which church was true. He  wanted to know because he wanted to repent and have a remission of his sins. I love that. It helps me understand why he could be so sincere and seek with such great intent. I know that the church restored by him does allow us to find that remission of our sins. My favorite scripture is Ether 12:27 "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness..." When I got to the MTC this scripture became real. I quickly realized many of my weaknesses and mistakes. As I studied the Book of Mormon it felt like everything I read was telling me I needed to repent and be better. It was a somewhat painful experience.. But after weeks of praying and seeking that remission of sins that Joseph was seeking there came a time when the pain, guilt, and inadequacies faded and an enormous sense of peace and joy replaced them. I know that Jesus Christ atoned and died for us. I know that He lives and leads His church. I know that as we turn to Him we can find peace, joy, and power to change. I love Him. 

Have a great week. I love you all! 

Love, Elder Jensen

Pictures:

The beach

We stood  up an egg at noon on the day of the dragon boat festival (Good luck for the rest  of the year)

Movie night