Sunday, December 27, 2015

Week 73-December 25, 2015

Week 73-December 25, 2015
Christmas
No email this week since we got to Skype on Christmas.  What a blessing to get to see and talk with both Ashley and Taylor!!!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Week 72-December 15, 2015

Week 72-December 15, 2015
thanks for changing my facebook :) and ya i think its best if we just use skype and maybe its better the 26th? ill ask around. just give me an hour and ill find a place. you said like 5 or 6 my time would work?
so this week silvia got baptized. she was so happy and it was the most beautiful service ive ever been to. the other woman who got baptized is the mom of one of the members who ALWAYS helps us. she is like our mom here. she even brings us jackets when its cold and accompanys us all the time. anyway her mom is like 90 years old and she never thought she could get baptized because she couldnt remember the stuff but she learned everything with the elders and got baptised. she was also a miracle....
the members helped us and silvia shared how she felt a peace and a heat that didnt leave her even after the baptism.
it was awesome :)
tomorrow i get a new companion, a greenie :) that will be fun. ill send pics next week. cant talk much more this week cuz i gotta do my despidida photo and such but hope the pictures make up for it :)
The Best Christmas present ever...


Sunday, December 13, 2015

Week 71-December 8, 2015

Week 71-December 8, 2015

anyway, im doing fantastic. we walked around a lot this week in the sun, it got HOT this week ... we are using tons of sunscreen and asking for water in every contact :P then we ask for the bathroom knocking doors to get in :P its  a perfect technique. also sometimes i ask for the bathroom just to be able to sit down for a sec..haha
but we have seen so many miracles again this week. i feel like all of the things i dreamed of in my mission are happening now, in the end. God wanted me to learn patience or something.. haha but Yesenia and her kids came to church sunday and we taught her the law of chastity and she said she is going to propose to her husband because she has already waited like 5 years :P haha but she is seriously awsesome. and for the first time in my whole mission , the husband is also willing and suporting her. he is a great guy. hope we get to plan their wedding :P it would make up for all the weddings i have had to miss while im here ..also her youngest kid is named benjamin and is 2, haha but anyway fransisca is also thinking about baptism, maybe this saturday. we will see what happens. and ariel passed his interview but still doesnt feel ready so he hasnt gotten baptized yet but its just a matter of time. also silvia STOPPED SMOKING!!!! we called her last night and she said the ¨blessing worked¨¨! and that she hasnt smoked since!! we were so happy my companion made a cake :P she is an expert chef and ive tried all kinds of peruvian foods and today she is going to make me leche asada cuz i requested it :P shes the best. my goal is learn to cook stuff from every comp and in the end i will be able to cook food from all the countries and so far ive been able to do it :)
also i bought stuff and chocolate and letters to send you guys but then the post office was going to take FOREVER so i couldnt sent it. sorrry haha but know that i thought of you guys while i ate the chocolate i was going to send :P
i will try to send a picture of the card i made mom. hopefully she can read it...
love and miss you all!!!
mom: did you get a chance to change my facebook? i need to put it on my despididas here so let me know what it is... thanks! love you mom have a fantastic birthday!!!
also thanks for the christmas tree and lights and advent calendar and evrything!!!!! love it!!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Week 70-December 1, 2015

Week 70-December 1, 2015

haha hey everyone, glad to hear everyone had a great thanksgiving! we didnt do anything special but the next day we had a meeting with president and in the end we had a yummy lunch of turkey and mashed potatoes! :P this week was a great one. ariel didnt get baptized because he was EXHAUSTED sunday but we will continue working with him to help him get baptized pronto. also silvia came to church after saying she couldnt cause she was sick! miracle! and raquel and fransisca and yesenia and her husband and three kids!!! that was a real miracle. now we just have to marry them :P they are awesome,. the littlest kid is named benjamin and is 2 years old..
it got super hot this week. we got burned like every day :P  and sunday ariel gave us each a bottle of sunscreen because he was worried about us :P im finally learning the value of sunscreen... haha mom would be so happy.
also we had divisions this week with our hermana leader (hermana harden, who in from my group), which was fun. she asked me what my favorite part of the mission was and i realized that one of my favorite parts is when the people tell us they can feel the Spirit through us. i love it when people make comments like ¨when you guys visit, you always leave a peace in our house¨or all kinds of other comments describing chills or light or when they start crying whhen we are testifying that God loves them. i love thinking that even if we dont have all the success we want or maybe we arent the perfect missionary, God can still use us to help His children and can testify of our words. my goal is to always be ready to listent o the Spirit and be able to help those around me and be the answer to their prayers. 
anyway,
love you all and have a great week! 
hermana jensen

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Week 69-November 24, 2015

Week 69-November 24, 2015

sounds like everyone is doing great!!! and that everyone is excited for christmas!!! me too!!! :)
thanks for the letters and package!!!!!  i will try to send letters and stuff for christmas if i can haha  the package i got is for christmas? should i open it?
this week was great. ariel gets baptized sunday! but we still have to teach a ton so its kinda crazy. but we are excited :)
silvia is still quitting smoking, and raquel and fransisca came sunday but guess what?! raquel is already a member :P oh chile..haha but hey its all good because fransisca can get baptized and her husband too! :P so we will keep working with them. anyway we had a meeting this week with pres and it was super good. it made me really think about how God blesses us when we are obedient and cant when we decide not to be obedient. i feel like in my life like taylor said our family has been SOOOOO blessed its almost crazy. i decided 99 percent of the blessings i have received and enjoyed personally come from the obedience of mo m and dad. seriously. i feel like their faith and testimonies and sacrifices literally have made all the difference in our lives and it makes me scared to move away or such because im not as good as mom and dad and wont receive the same blessings :P haha i think ill just keep living in the house forever and never move out or get married :P what do you think dad?   but seriously i realized one of the big reasons i wanted to serve a mission was so tht i could become a little more like mom. i told that to an investigator who is pregnant this week and she started crying lol  i feel like i have so many flaws but Christ literally promises to change us, thats the purpose of life, literally cchange our desires and ideas and everything about us. hopefully we will die a completely different person from who we were when we were 10, or 18, etc. the goal is become who God wants us to be, not who we want to be. but we have tendencies and are rebelious and lack faith and such and so we need lots of grace... hopefully God has made me a little more like mom in these last 15 months...:P 
oh and funny fact, sunday we ate patitas de serda for lunch...cows feet. it was actually pretty good...
oh and mom can you send me the recipe for lasagna?
fav scripture of the week. 2 nephi 2:6-9
love and miss you all!! have a fantastic week!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Week 68-November 17, 2015

Week 68-November 17, 2015

oh my gosh i almost had a hard attack when i read that first sentence.. wow its crazy to think about seeing you guys. and you guys coming to chile. its a lot to think about. im just going to go back to knocking doors because it stresses me out to think about the real world....haha 
also keep in mind its going to be SUPER HOT when you guys come. wow ok im going to keep thinking about all this....

ya benjamin!!! sounds like everyone is kicking butt playing soccer!!

ok so i kind of lost track of the emails but here is my email for this week¨:
this week was awesome!
 question, dad who is manual mercado and victor?
this week rachel and fransisca accepted the baptism date of the 28th of november and ariel and silvia too!! we have the 4 for that weekend. all kinds of miracles. and the four of them came to church and juan, rachels husband too!!!! we really want to find him when he isnt working and teach him too because he is super receptive and wants to find his faith again. 
we also found a few news this week who are super awesome. also the members here are fantastic. they all want to help us and accompany us and we are finally not having problems with obedience because they have been helping us leave lunch in less than an hour and its been great. anyway, i spent all my time today reading and copying pictures from my camera so i cant write more but i love you all tons and have a great week! 
i dont know if i already send it but my fav scripture this week is moroni 9:6.,...

Week 67-November 10, 2015

Week 67-November 10, 2015

haha ya i put about half my mission on a pen drive but after that i havent done it..ill do it next week. and ya i sent pics of danielas baptism too...? anyway i dont have the camera cord today but next week ill send them again and such. right now im in Olimpo, which is in the city Maipu. you can google map it if you search OHiggins with Teniente Bello (where we live) or the street Cuatro Poniente with Nueva San Martin (our sector) ..both are in Maipu, like 15 min in auto from the plaza of Maipu. the church we go to is in German Garces with Barros Luco, but those are smaller streets so not sure if you will be able to find it. its in the sector of the elders, not ours, and yes its warm here now. pretty hot actually. using lots of sunscreen this year because i have like a million new wrinkles under my eyes from last year..the sun here is SUPER strong because there is no ozone over Chile . and no i havent gotten a package from the primary kids yet but i decided to tough out the blisters and wear the Toms and other shoes you sent and they are working :) thanks a ton. also sounds like you guys had a good week! and that the YW lesson was great and the Primary program was fantastic. but im a little confused as to why you guys are always crying, during the primary program, in lessons, etc?.. either my family got like hyper spiritual while ive been gone or mom is getting older and her daughters are exactly the same...haha :P just kidding.
crazy to hear that natalie is my height now! woo hoo!! twins!! also ive noticed that in almost every picture of her she is wearing something of mine ..;) glad to know my clothes are going to good use..:P
anyway, i am doing fantastic. its been a great week, FULL of miracles. the biggest miracle of all was sunday, when we had 4 investigators in church!!! RacheL and fransisca, tamara and her son Vicente(3 years old), and Ariel (who even came in a suit!!) it was awesome. the members helped us go around in auto and pick them all up and greeted them with tons of love afterwards. it was great... and the crazy thing was that none of them answered the phone in the morning when we called to wake them up and such so i thought they were all sleeping and we almost didnt go pick them up but we decided to go and see and they were all ready and waiting. it was amazing. also nicolas and isidora (our recent converts) were there. anyway, rachel and fransisca are awesome and rachel, the mom, is just looking for an answer from God to know if this is the right path for her family. she has cancer and it has made even her husband (theyre married!!! its a miracle!!!!) , who had kind of lost his faith, super receptive. also Ariel is progressing and the members have been great accompanying us and such to visit him because he lives alone. and tamara has tons of questions and is great too :) second miracle of the day sunday, we were knocking doors and decided to go look for an old investigator whose name was in our area book and we found a woman named Silvia. she let us in, cried as she toldus about her feelings for God and her doubts and we invited her to baptism and she said yes. we invited her to prepare for the 28th and she said yes. the next day we taught lesson 1 and invited her to read and pray and come to church. she said yes, of course!. and to keep preparing for baptism, and she said yes. haha even the member with us starting laughing at how willing and excited she was. she is seriously a miracle. and she seperated from her pareja (husband she wasnt married to) like 2 months ago, so now she can be baptized! woo hoo! 
anyway, that was our week. we are doing great, being blessed like crazy. love and miss you all!
hermana jensen

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Week 66-November 3, 2015

Week 66-November 3, 2015

so my week was aweome. super crazy but liek mom said, i love to have lots to do. saturday we were literally running everywhere, from the temple to one baptism to the next, we barely ate lunch but it was awesome. Daniela finally got baptized in Rinconada and it was a beautiful baptism. also Farack got baptized in los heroes! she was also a miracle. cool story, the day of her interview we visited her and she said she didnt really want to be baptized so we talked a lot and then we told her to pray and ask if she should be bapttized. she prayed there with us , asking if she should be mormon, and then waiting afterwards with her eyes closed. then she said she would keep thinking and go to the interview that night and let us know.we left and then returned that night and she walked out of her house and said that she had thought about it and that she was going to be baptized! haha it was seriously a miracle. we didnt do anything at all. she passed her interview great and her mom and sister and neighbor came to her baptism. one of the priests from the ward baptized her and then her boyfriend came sunday for her confirmation :) unfortunately hermano bustos didnt pass his interview because he is still smoking and drinking coffee and then he told us he doesnt want to keep participating... it was a little weird, but maybe he will be ready later on.
anyway, we did baptisms for the dead on halloween with nicolas and karina from rinconada and bastian, another friend of nicolas. pretty ironic :P then we handed out glowsticks (thanks mom!) all night and found a new family to teach! :) 
changes are tomorrow and im staying here but hna galeano is leaving and hna harden will go back to her sector with a new comp.
love and miss you all and have a fantastic week!!!


Add caption

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Week 65--October 27, 2015

Week 65--October 27, 2015
 so i only have like 20 min to write today and the most important to me was to read your emails so i cant write much at all butits been a good week. its super fun working in two secotors in a trio, lots of work!! running all the time. but we have possibly 3 baptisms this saturday :) Farack and Eliu in los heroes and Daniela in Rinconada (a investigator of lots of time that finally made the decision to get baptized and is way excited :)) 
anyway, i will send pics next week and hope you are all welll. love you tons!!! enjoy your halloween!!!!
also i had to buy a new retainer too because my top one broke. but its a new plastic version thats way better and only cost like 45 dollars (instead of 180 at home!!)
anyway, ill write more next week. haev a great weeek!!
hermana jensen

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Week 64--October 20, 2015

Week 64--October 20, 2015
hey mom! and everyone! 
sounds like a good YW activity! and ya england has got to be an expensive mission.. and ya chile is actually surprisingly expensive too for south america. all the food and everything is more expensive here and supposedly its expensive to live in general. but i think thats comparing it to peru and argentina and such. 
eduardo is an investigator, 29 years old, pretty awesome and alice and her family are the investigators who came to general conf and want to be baptized but are passing through all kinds of trials right now, cancer, divorce, etc she is super strong though and even her kids think we arrived for a reason to help them in this time :)
also another miracle happened this week and the elders found a man named eliu in our sector and we called him at 9 in the morning sundayand he came to church!!! (same thing that happened with GC...so many people said they would come and didnt make it but the one random person came :P) he liked it and we taught him that night for the first time and he said he would be baptized the 31!! after the elders taught him, he even got another job to be able to pay tithing!!! he is seriously a miracle he has been reading 5 pages a day and is now quitting smoking so that he can be baptized  :))) the only problem is that his mom is a jehovahs witness and so we cant teach him in his house... he is 42 and single and we are way excited for his baptism. this week tons of stuff happened. Hna lasley had to go home so we are now in a trio with hna harden, who arrived with me in the CCM. she is awesome but we have had to really practice teaching and such with three people because its way different. also we are working in two different sectors and in two different wards so thats been a little crazy but has been super fun since it means way more people to teach and lots of work to do :) we have also seen all kinds of miracles. another funny story. we have been trying to help our recent convert nicolas invite his friends to church but he always says they wont want to come because they are athiest, or catholic, or drink, or something but the other day we passed by and he was outside with his friend who is also a member and two friends who arent members (supposedly athiests) and we invited them all to share with us. we watched a video for 2 min then testified about baptism and invited nicolas and his friend who is member to teach them to pray and talk about their baptisms and then we invited the two friends to be baptized and they both said yes and accepted the 7th of november as the date. let me tell you, the look on nicolas`s face was PRICELESS. he was so shocked and excited. it was awesome. anyway, they both live in other sectors and wards but commited to asist with nicolas and his friend sunday
oh also they started the construction of the temple in Concepcion this week!!! we got to see the dedication on tv. 
anyway, this week was crazy. 
thank you guys for all the letters you sent me!!!!! i LOVE getting your letters. ihavent gotten the package yet but we get mail every 2 weeks so maybe next week. :)
love you all!!! 

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Week 63-October 13, 2015

Week 63-October 13, 2015
hi family!!! sounds like everyone is doing great and kicking butt in soccer and dance and school and everything like always :) 
just a question..i havent been getting taylors emails, could you forward them to me? thanks
also thanks for all the letters!!!! thanks for the leters from san fransisco and the bracelet from lydia and such :)) you guys are the best. 
also it would be fantastic if mom could send me grandma and grandpa schramms info (address, names email address).. there is a family of members here that are applying for a visa to go live and study in canada and they asked my help to translate the forms and such from immigration and turns out it could help them a lot if they have some reference in canada, some member or person they know there. i offered grandma and grandpa maybe. im pretty sure nothing will happen, but if they call them they can just say they have a granddaughter who knows them and says theyre great :P  thanks!
anyway, i am doing well. it was a little bit of a stressful week but its all good.  my companion had a panick attack in a taxi and so that was interesting. i learned how to not stress out when someone is crying loudly because of pain and freaking out. maybe someday i will actually be able to be a doctor :P just kidding. it was crazy. also another hermana in our house had a panic attack this week. we are all way to stressed out i think. we were talking the other day and i realized missionary work has been the most stressful thing ive ever done in my life, even more than organic chemistry...haha

anyway eduardo and alice and her daughter came to church so that was awesome. we are going to teach them aain this week so that will be fun. we taught the entire family last week and it was awesome. they all understood everything and one of the sons said the prayer in the end and prayed to know if it was all true and commited his family to pray and the Spirit was there. so that was cool
then yesterday we were walking around ALL DAY until we finally got to have a lesson with a Jew we met the other day. so that was super legit. we learned a ton abut what they believe. they are super orthodox jews and the son, who we taught, speaks hebrew and everything. their house was like a temple, with special clothes  and lots of light and lots of white. pretty crazy. anyway, we talked about the book of mormon and how it was written to convince the jews and gentiles of Christ and he showed us how his bible that was translated from hebrew to spanish is more accurate than the one we have and we realized we should all really learn hebrew, or at least the prophets haha he is christian but had a lot of confusion regarding the plan of salvation, reincarnation and such. we taught a ton and learned a ton and testified a ton. we left way more certain that the Book of Mor mon is true and that we have tons in common with the Jews but they just need to read the book of mormon :P anyway, it helped us have a lot more encouragement to keep working and we fulfilled our mission to leave a book of mor mon in his house and he said he would read it :P maybe the entire house of Jews will feel the power of the BoM and be mormon :)
but ya so that was basically my week, im doing well and glad to hear you are all happy and well :)
love you tons!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Week 62--October 6, 2015

Week 62--October 6, 2015
anyway heres my weekly email :P
hey everyone!! sounds like everyone is doing awesome, super busy like always. haha  
i am doing great. this week was a wild mix of emotions but i learned a lot. i learned for the thousandth time in the mission that this isnt my work, in fact i really have nothing to do with it. haha we only do what we can and try to be obedient and God puts the people in our path who need us and the people decide if they want to accept or no, we just try to help them. our investigator with a baptism date for saturday didnt come to conference and so her date fell and she wouldnt answer the phone or anything and then when we passed by her house yesterday she was just super sad looking and wouldnt give any explanation. we are pretty worried about her but we have dont everything we can and just have to wait and see what she decides. thats the hardest part. to let someone use their agency when you love them and want the best. president said its even worse when you have kids :P haha 
conference was awesome. loved it! we had like 10 investigators who said they would come and turned out that not a single one of them came but we ended up meeting and mom and her daughter in the street saturday and they came sunday. haha super ironic. we hadnt even had a lesson with them yet :P but they are super prepared and already understand our goal of baptism and have listened to missionaries before and such so finding them was a miracle. they are also from peru and make delicious food :P 
also monday we had interviews with pres but this time him and his wife and the assistants came to our house to do it. it was super weird to have them there and we cleaned like crazy all week. haha but it all went super well and i learned a ton from president. 
and to answer dads question, ya we live with another companionship and we live in their sector, so we have to take colectivos (like taxis) to our sector everyday. which makes things interesting with $$, another reason i have no money left in my bank account..haha but its all good its way more fun to live with other sisters. even if we have to share one shower :P 
anyway, i am doing well and hope you all have a fantastic week :) love you tons!

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Week 61--Sept. 29, 2015

Week 61--Sept. 29, 2015

yes i do speak in the wards sometimes. like every time we get changed and such. 
and i think i will get the package tomorrow.
sounds like it was a good week! weird to think its so hot there... but its starting spring here so its actually pretty hot here too.
and no i didnt see the broadcast because its too late for us here, they will record it and we will probably see it this weekend or something..hopefully. i never saw the last one haha
so excited for general conference!!
i sent pictures so now i dont have much time to write but hopefully you enjoy them. it was a good week. we had changes last week but we are staying where we are. but a new missionary came to live with us and its fun to have someone new to the mission in the house, although now we have to translate stuff to english sometimes :P 
Ricy is progressing awesome and Farack came to church again. spiritual experience of the week, when we taught Ricy, we had planned on teaching the word of wisdom again but she started talking about some problems and stress shes been having from her studies and such and  when we said the first prayer the scripture ether 12:27 came to my mind and we shared it with her and it ended up being suepr spiritual and seemed like it helped her a ton. i love the feeling the God can use me to help others feel His love. 
anywaylove you all and have a fantastic week!
hermana jensen
in the street on 18 (independence day)
and at night when we made cookies..
i tried to send a picture of
carrot tea but it wont let me now...we drink so many herbal teas here..sometimes one in every house when its raining. i hated them before but now im addicted :P

​my boots again....haha they only lasted like two months! but its ok winter is finally ending :P

​isidora one of the recent converts we visit :)

after a day of rain...

​asado chileno :)

at the ward bbq


Sunday, September 27, 2015

Week 60-September 22, 2015

Week 60-September 22, 2015

wow sounds like the funeral went super well. and ya i know i need to figure stuff out. ill ask pres today. 
and no i didnt get sick this week, thank goodness haha we ate TONS of empanadas. also we spent all our money on Herbalife, a smoothie thing everyone uses to loose weight and we start tomorrow so we spent the week enjoying our last onces (dinner things) with everyone and telling them they cant give us more food after that :P we will see how well it works. but it was a fun week. we were a little worried because its always hard during holidays because everyone is busy or goes out of town but we fasted last week and saw the blessings. we found a few new investigators that are awesome and our investigator Valentina who has been an investigator for a while came to church! on saturday, we went to help the elders in their sector and ended up meeting a lady who was going to be hospitalized the next day for cancer and who told us we had arrived in Ć«l momento preciso`^^and that is was a miracle that we had found her. we said a prayer with her and testified and such and she was so grateful for the comfort before her surgery and such. also this is the third cancer she has had and she is still alive! she shared with us her testimony of God and it was awesome to hear. anyway, we may not ever see her again but it was a blessing to be able to meet her. we also found an investigator named Tamara knocking doors in our sector the same night and the Spirit was so strong in the lesson. she also said in her prayer at the end that we had arrived in the perfect moment. crazy to see miracles like that. God must really love us. anyway, it was a good week. lots of temblores after the earthquake. (little earthquakes?) like 3 every day. we havent slept a whole night without interruption for a few days :P but its ok they are pretty fun. 
anyway, glad all is well there and hope you all have a fantastic week!
love you tons!
hermana jensen

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Week 59--Sept.15, 2015

Week 59--Sept.15, 2015

hey everyone!! glad to hear everyone is doing well!! a little sad about grandma tanner but im sure she is happy where she is now :) las families puedan ser eternas! 
this week was a good one:) our investigator Ricy came to church finally and set her our baptism date for the 3rd of Octoberbut its general conference, so we had to change it to the 10th but she is awesome and super firm. we are super excited for her ! also we found a new investigator saturday, a teenager named Farack and she came to church with us too and liked it! so that was super fun :) it was a good sunday! we are excited about the investigators we have. this week is 18 de septiembre, the independence day of chile and they celebrate allll week. lots and lots of chilean bbqs and empanadas and mote con huesillos and completos and such. we are going to get fat :/ haha no but its fun. the only hard part is everyone is busy so we might be knocking lots of doors, but its ok, we will find all kinds of new people! oh also this week was 11 de septiembre, which is the day the goverment was taken over years ago so its a day of protests and fights and we had to be in the house early so we made deep fried oreos and had a family night together:P so that was fun. 
anyway, have a fantastic week everyone!!!!! love you all!

family night

Ashley's birthday!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Week 58--September 8, 2105

Week 58--September 8, 2105

hey mom :) love you!  glad you are doing well . a few legistics, i went to the dentist and im going to have to do like 300 dollars of cavities (7), 3 of which were the ones that i could feel. i will do those three monday so if you dont want me to do the rest for some reason you can tell me next tuesday but he says its better to do all of them now or they are just going to keep getting worse and more expensive. hes an ex bishop i think and such so i trust him. also i saw the ex rays. also the truth is im probably going to need nose surgery after the mish too but thats another problem haha how great it is that im only 21 and can still use your insurance:P haha but ya also if you love me i have a huge favor to ask...can you just send me black toms (or any variety similar) and the little socks for flats? thanks im desperate. this week i almost broke down crying in the street two times because of shoes. its seriously one of the hardest parts of my mission haha never could have predicted that..haha
about coming home i just know i will get pretty frustrated at home for 3 months but i dont want to come home either because i want to finish. im going to ask president..
for mybirthday the other sisters sang to me and we had cake and a little party and then we had a zone meeting and they sang too :P unfortunatly im new in this sector so none of the members, etc knew so it was just a normal day other than that. haha but its all good :) it was a good birthday. thanks a ton for the package :) love the skirt and all the chocolate and such was delicious and thanks for the diet hot chocolate!! this week was a good one but a little more difficult. lots of walking, in sun in rain with wet feet and bleeding feet and all kinds of adventures :P haha but we are doing well and fasting works and doctrine and covenants always gives me answers. also i was studying and trying to develop humilty last week and i feel like Gods helping me out :P haha this last week we also had lunch in the presidents house to celebrate one year in the mission. it was fun to see my whole group again. we get lunch in the presidents house when we arrive to the mission, at one year, and before going home. when i got here the presidents house seemed normal, pretty but normal, but this time it was like another world. the entire neighborhood is like park city and his house is like a mansion ! everything seemed super rich. haha then i realized i had been in the other side of the city where the houses are small and such for a year and thats why.  president lives like 2 hours from the mission. but it was fun to have lunch and see everyone. anyway, that was my week. hope everyone is doing well! love you all!


Sunday, September 6, 2015

Week 57-September 1, 2015

Week 57-September 1, 2015

hey everyone!! i am doing great. it was a good week. all of a sudden it got super sunny and pretty hot so now we feel like its summer. also we found lots of new investigators this week and one of them even came to church! all three hours! solo! haha he is awesome. his name is eduardo. then there was a YSA activity in the evening and we went with him and valentina, another investigator and so that was fun, although we felt suepr weird to be at a YSA activity and be missionaries..haha what an adventure. also spiritual experience of the week is that i went to the temple last tuesday and went with the question of what i else i needed to do to be the best missionary possible for my last 6 months and felt strongly that i needed to study more and really develop the christlike attributes in PMG. so last week i studied humility and learned a ton. one of the things ive really learned in the mission is to appreciate the small miracles every day and let them strengthen your testimony. also this week is Charity and i learned this morning in 1 corinthians 13 than even if we serve all our life and even give everything for others, if we dont do it with charity, it doesnt mean anything. also that charity is even more important than faith and hope. haha pretty crazy. but i have definitely felt more love for everyone and i am much more patient now. :P its a lifelong process. we are excited about this week because we have some activities with the ward this week and nicole and ignacio are going to be able to come to church this week and such. its going to be great .) anyway thanks for all the birthday wishes and the package (that i havent opened yet) and love you all!!!

Monday, August 31, 2015

Week 56-August 25, 2015

Week 56-August 25, 2015
hi everyone!! good to hear everyone is ready for school to start again and doing great! im dong well, we went to the temple this morning and that was awesome and im starting to really know my new sector and the members (its easier every change because my spanish is better) haha. 
i have a mission for mom or dad, i need to know the story of conversion of our family. who was the first member of our ancestors? how did they join the church and such... 
also do we have any relation with the john tanner of the D&C videos? haha just curious..
this week we found lots of new people and got to work in some other sectors looking for new investigators and found lots! lots of miracles in finding.. knocking lots of doors. haha one example, last night i was getting kinda frustrating of knocking doors all day and so i was praying in my mind for help to find people and have pacience and after like 5 doors we ffound a pregnant mom who let us in and we taught lesson 1 and she started crying in the end and said she was happy. she had been wanting to start going to a church with her family and we had stopped by. she wants her famiy to be forever. the only challenge is that she is living with her husband but they arent actually married. but miracles happen :P just gotta have faith haha thats something i struggle with sometimes (i tend to overthink things instead of just trust God) but i am getting better. also its a miracle in the mission how God gives us the faith to be excited and have hope in everyone even after so many people have decided not to accept the message. its all worth it for the one person who accepts. also the seed theory is true. ive been able to see that with my first sector, i was always frustrated because i felt like we werent accomplishing much in the way of investigators but now a few of the people we found have gotten baptized and the sector is doing great :) the key is to just keep working hard and trying your best and God will do His part. its His work, not ours. anyway i learn new things every day... :P 
anyway i am doing well and learning how to cook food from argentina and such :P also trying to lose weight ..:P haha i love living with other hermanas, even when we have one shower for 4 hermanas. 
love you all and have a great week!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Week 55-August 18, 2015

Week 55-August 18, 2015

haha great job with all your missionary work! 
glad you guys saw the picture from Blake cuz i havent had a chance to take any haha he promised he would make sure everyone sees it :P lol but i didnt see the pic.. :/
it was super fun to see him but weird at the same time to see a friend from the other side of the world all of a sudden here in chile haha  he came to pick up his brother and they came to our change meeting and such. 
but as for the changes, im in the cityish again, in maipu. im in the stake Olimpo in the sector Los Heroes 2. im here with Hermana Galeano from Argentina who was in my first zone :) she is awesome. i prayed for another latina companion and God answered again :P haha  the sector is great but a LOT more wealthy than my last sector, which makes finding people who are receptive a Little more harder but its ok and im excited to be here. i think we will be visiting more members and looking for refereces more because we will finish knocking ALL the doors this week..haha its a lot smaller of a sector too. we have a family of super awesome investigators who came to church sunday and are excited to be baptized! the Ward is super united here and they have a lot more activities and energy to do missionary work and such so that is fun :) 
also guess what?! almost everyone understands me!!! haha i was so scared for changes because last time nobody was used to my accent and noone understood me. but turns out hermana arangos efforts worked! ive even been asked like 3 times if im from argentina or chile. :P and hermana Galeano said i dont talk like a gringa, i have a french accent or something. i probably have the weirdest blend of columbian and honduras and peru accent. haha yay for less gringo accent!!!
we live with two other gringas, so that is fun. 
anyway, im doing great and hope you all are doing well too!
sounds like the california trip was a blast!! enjoy the last couple weeks of summer! when does school star?
have a great week!love you all!
Ashley with friend, Blake Cowan from BYU (visiting to get brother) and new companion, Hermana Galeano

Facebook message from Blake: "I don't know you, but I do know that my mom loves getting pictures of her babies out on their missions. Haha! Ashley and I were in the same ward at BYU when she lived at liberty square. I just saw her yesterday as I was picking up my brother from his mission there and she's doing great! "

"The world is so small or as the Latinos say, "El mundo es un paƱuelo." That is her new companion! They had transfer meeting on Wednesday and their president made a LOT of changes to their mission. I'm sure she'll tell you all about that so I won't steal her thunder. Just know that you won't get an email till Tuesday cause their pday has been changed. Yeah, Ashley and I had talked about serving with my brother before she left on her mission. Also, her mission president had us over for desert the other night and he said that your daughter is one of their hardest working sisters in the mission"

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Week 54-August 10, 2015

Week 54-August 10, 2015
just so you know, thanks a TON for your loyalty and efforts to send me so many packages and mail. you guys are seriously the best. makes my week every time. love you guys tons :)
sorry cant write much, spent all my time transferring photos and such :P
anyway, it was a good week :)
Vicente got baptized and lots of his family could come even though it was raining! his parents felt the spirit and bore their testimonies and so that was awesome! hopefully it will help them stay motivated to go back to the temple..
lots of rain and mud this week. 
i gave a talk this week and hermana arango said everyone could understand me, which was a miracle because even in english no one can understand me when im nervous and talk fast :P
they changed our pday and everything and announced that we have changes tomorrow. im leaving and will have to tell you guys next week were i end up :P
gotta go but love you all and have a great week!!! enjoy your vacation and send pictures!​
The member who taught us to cook

our zone

​im making an effort to take more pictures
this was the baptism of vicente! finally!!

​the mountains with snow now..im literally in love with these mountains

​zone tshirts

Fernanda

Fernanda and caurie and Jared:)

Week 53-August 3, 2015

Week 53-August 3, 2015
so this week was crazy. lots of stuff happened. basically its impĆ³ssible to tell all the stories in email but i will try to give the short version...
first thing. we went to the temple finally with jorge!!!! its was AWESOME. it was kind of crazy at first because we messed up some stuff submitting the name of his grandpa to the temple so that was a little stressful because the priesthood doing the baptisms had to wait but after we got it figured out and we went to do the ordinance it all went awesome. Nothing important works out perfectly. Ever. haha the Spirit was so strong in the temple. i love the temple. its a tangible peace when you enter. he did the baptisms for his grandpa and other names from the temple and then they had a little meeting for all the people doing baptisms for the first time that night. the temple president spoke and it was awesome. jorge knew all the answers to his questions :P then we just sat in the little room in the temple for a few minutes afterwards and talked with him and there was so much peace. we could all feel it. he didnt want to leave. he thanked us for bringing him and said he was going to keep going strong in the church and he wants his endowment and to get married in the temple (our next mission; find a wife :P) . His mom came with us and a convert of the elders juan carlos who is awesome but didnt want to do baptisms yet. he is waiting to go with his dad for the first time. so they waited outside the temple. afterwards jorge told his mom about how he felt inside and said he was going to be an addict to the temple. :P basically it was awesome. so grateful to be part of it.
sunday jenny and her daughters came to church!! it was super fun to have them there and turns out they knew a few of the members so they felt comfortable and seemed to enjoy it. 
Then yesterday was one of the craziest nights of my time here. we were looking for new people, contacting with a member accompanying us. It was something called a cosechon when all of the zone came to our ward to work in our sector and help us find new people so we had members with us and we had a few companionships of elders in the sector working. basically we passed by for a contact we had talked to a few times now and we asked her how she was and she started crying. turns out her  husband who doesnt live with her anymore because he is alcoholic had stopped by and broke into her house, breaking down her door. she lives in the toma, the super poor part where the houses are practically shacks of random wood. basically we started working and rescrewed her door in and then we started talked inside her house. during all this her husband showed up again but was waiting outside because we were there with her. she has a daughter and a little boy. anyway, while we were inside he decided to come in. the daughter was so scared she was crying and hiding this whole time. the moment he was outside the door coming in i was pretty dang freaked out. the wife was so nervous she was shaking and we had no idea what to do. he was totally drunk and drugged. anyway, he came in and we invited him to listen to our message. we sang i am a child of god, all of us shaking with nervousness not knowing what to do. long story short, he tried to argue with us a few times and got mad at one point but didnt do anything because we were there. we couldnt leave though and our cell phone was dead so we couldnt call anyone or the elders so they all waited for us, not knowing what was happened. we finally got him to leave and called the police on the phone of the member with us and finally left at like 9:15pm. the elders were waiting and worried and we ended up having to run to make it to the house in time. crazy night. but the mom and daughter accepted a baptism date and are super excited :P
also we learned how to make pizza and crepes from a chef today. 
anyway it was a good week.  love and miss you all!
Temple doing baptisms with Jorge and Hermana Arango

Temple doors

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Week 52-July 27, 2015

Week 52-July 27, 2015
good to hear that singing in the rain went so well and that benjamin is rocking it in soccer and that mandy is enjoying gymnastics :)
this week was interesting. President is super stressed out all the time and basically we are scared of him all the time and his meetings and lately he has been pretty mad about some things so this week at the last minute he said we couldnt go to the temple with the stake and that instead we had to go to a 7 hour training meeting with him. we were pretty devastated to be honest. basically long story short, ive cried more becasue of stuff the leaders have said or president than any other thing in the mission and hermana arango is even more sensitive than me...basically i had to pray for a ton of humilty and patience this week and surprised myself with how much better ive gotten since when i left :P  but anyway, we couldnt go to the temple and so jorge didnt go and victoria didnt go but fernanda went, so that was awesome. also we finally got permission to go this saturday with jorge instead and hopefully victoria can come :) the training meeting ended up being super good. President is an awesome guy, super faithful and its obvious that he seeks and receives tons of revelation. his job is super hard, im so glad i will never have to be a mission president.... haha
funny stories this week. a drunk man in the street tried to bite hermana arango and i had to intervene and argue with him about how she was mine and then he thought we were lesbian and we had to explain that no, we are definitely not lesbians and such. lol basically the poor guy is pretty frustrated with his wife and the whole thing ended up being super funny. 
Vicente was going to be baptized this week but his family didnt come to church again so now he cant be baptized yet. it was pretty disappointing.we even threw rocks at their window sunday to wake them up. there are just so many people who think they can live the gospel in their house but it doesnt work like that. we need the sacrament and we need to serve others for our own salvation. President said something interesting this week. he said if we dont serve, we cant enter the kingdom of God. if we dont do our visits (home teaching, visiting teaching) we cant enter. period. it really hit me because its true. there are so many people who need help that if we arent willing to help, how can we expect to be with God some day? also hna arango and i have decided that every morning in studies we learn about how hard salvation really is. the Atonement has to be pretty strong because there are so many things to do and so many mistakes we make basically the Jehovah witnesses are right and we will all be in the terrestial kingdom. we always joke that our goal is to make it to the 'toma' of the celestial kingdom (the poorest part of our sector, where the people just go and build there own houses because the land doesnt belong to anyone). forget about mansions there, i just want a shack in the corner :P also hna arango said something interesting the other day. i was confused about how there are so many people who know the commandments and the bible inside and out but dont really know God. she said its like sopaipillas, someone can see them and study them and know their texture and color and everything about them, but until they actually taste them they cant enjoy them. until we actually decide to live the commandments, we will never really know if they are good. we have to trust God like taylor says and live it to know and really get to know God. 
 anyway, love and miss you all. 
hermana jensen
ps ill send a pic of my boots right now. i finally bought new ones today :P 


after glueing them like 3 times...







Sunday, July 26, 2015

Week 51-July 20, 2015

Week 51-July 20, 2015

so didnt hear from mom or receive taylors email :( bummer
but glad to hear the reunion was awesome and see the pictures! also thanks for the package!!!!!!!!!! you guys are the best :)))))) it was super fun to get it and completely a surprise. also it had lots of stuff i needed and we laughed about how mom seems a little conflicted between sending me my favorite foods and helping me lose weight ;)  but seriously thanks a ton.
this week was awesome for a few reasons. first and most important, 
Fernanda is getting married to our ward mission leader!!! he took her to the temple grounds for her first time and proposed. she was so so so happy and him too. also they are going to get married in september so that we can come :))))))) 
we were so excited about that. one of my dreams is that i can help investigators get married and help with their wedding and be there and this is pretty dang close :) and it will be in the temple :) 
also this same day we got into a house of menos activos that we have never been able to visit in all my 6 months here. that was cool.
also i ate octopus :)) its super yummy. haha
also cool story, our investigators connie and meri told us that meri had had dreams about going to a big church that is just like our capilla and that the both felt like God was pushing them to listen to us..interesting. 
we go to the temple as a stake this week (friday) and jorge got his recommend yesterday!! yay!! and came in a while dress shirt for the first time!! and sat with members and arranged with his comp to do his home teaching. :) we were like proud parents. :P
anyway  it was a good week :) 
scripture of the week:
mosiah 5:15. and extra challenge, have dad read it in spanish :P its better that way ;)
love and miss you all! have a fantastic week!

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Week 50-July 13, 2015

Week 50-July 13, 2015
hey sounds like the familyreunion is going awesome!! :) say hi to everyone for me!! 
i am doing great :) this week we saw lots of miracles with finding people and really realizing that we as missionaries dont do anything. nothing at all. we walk into houses, sing and say a prayer, bring the Spirit, and the people learn. haha its actually pretty funny to watch it happen. sometimes the people just feel the Spirit and it tells them something that has nothing to do with what we are talking about. ive learned to just go with it :P its actually super comforting, because its scary as a missionary to think that you dont always have to right words or the launguage or the perfect scripture, but if the Spirit is there and the people WANT to feel it, they will learn all kinds of stuff by themselves. we have one lesson where we were looking for inactive members in our list of directions and knocked on a door and the woman let us in. we sat down, said a prayer and we started telling us literally her whole life story and that of all of her family, including super personal stuff that had happened to her and her daughter and such. she talked nonstop for about an hour and we literally just sat and listened. she also cried a lot. then we opened our books of mormon to share a scripture and she got excited and read the scripture. we asked her what she thought of it and she applied it and understood it in a way we never would of thought of and that almost didnt make sense but it was obvious that the Spirit was working. then she cried some more, talked some more, commited herself to come to church sunday, and thanked us for coming and we left. lol it was super funny for us because we literally hadnt dont anything"! we didnt even extend the committment!!! but anyway, it was a reminder that God puts us where He needs us and we are really just instruments in His hands, or at least that is the goal :)
also sunday we went with one of the stake presidents counselors to visit Jorge and we ended up teaching both his parents too (we hadnt even talked to his dad really before!!). they are super catholic and never were super interested but his dad ended up telling us all about his experiences with God and that he feels like he is far from God and needs to get closer. it was an awesome lesson. walking around all day in the rain was totally worth it for that lesson. it rained supppper hard this weekend, so much that half the people didnt come to church becasue all the streets were flooded and such. turns out when it rains, everyone feels sorry for us and invites us into their houses to feed us sweets and fried stuff. we ended up having to eat so much food that we were up vomiting last night again. haha too much love for the missionaries:P  
but we are doing awesome and it was a great week :)
love and miss you all!!

happy birthday BJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!