Orellana: EL Ultimo Paraiso

Hey everyone,

Well my time here in el Coca has come to an end! It's been super fun here and I've met a ton of great people but now I'm on to the next chapter of the mission. I received changes to a sector in Otavalo, full farm land!!!!  I'm going to be opening it and I will be training un nuevito!  I'm super excited for this!  Gonna be super fun and I feel super ready!  Buttttt in my new sector I'm going to be around tons of good ole indigenous Otavalan people, sooo quichua me va a tocar! Hope I can learn a little of that. But ya this will be a completely different experience than Cayambe.  Cayambe was like city, here is pure farm land. Soo I'll meet a lot of potatoes and pigs and not so many people.  But should be fun..

Sad to leave all of my great friends here in the rama orellana but the mission always continues to move.. My comp Elder Platt also has some unexpected changes and is going to Colombia again!  Soo 2 new missionaries are coming to open up my sector again, hope we left everything good for them. Oh ya and my good ole comp got that patada china! haha, We left for exchanges to Lago Agrio and when we got off the bus he's like, hey Elder do I have something in my eye, and it was suuuuuper red! kinda gross..   but ya, that's been fun..    

Thanksgiving was a good one, ish..  My comp woke up with pink eye in both eyes, when the night before it was just in the one and ya.. ate some rice and chorizo this time..  also went out with the elders to celebrate for a sec with some burgers..  Nothin like the states, but hey it was something.  So Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.. again.  Hope it was a good one!

After that, it was a normal week.. 

Sunday was spent saying bye to everyone! Really is hard to leave this place and the people.

Well I hope everyone can start prepping for the Light the World worldwide initiative.. Here in Otavalo it's gonna get lit...  get it, lit.. umm haha, but ya, I'm excited to work hard and serve people.. I know this will be an amazing Christmas Season!!

Love you all, have a good one

Elder Jensen

Ate some super good lasagna, better than the states. 

I ate soo much food on Sunday!

That's how people share here, with tons of food!

La Patada China?? (The Chinese Kick) y Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everyone

Welp, this has been a pretty interesting week, filled with cosas.  First off that chinese kick is in full swing here in the orient, it's an epidemic spreading called la patada china(the chinese kick) or as we know it back home, pink eye.  Never have seen something like this before, and its kind of gross, probably cause no one washes their hands here or idk, butt I haven't gotten it yet so we're good for now. but ya, fun.

Que mas, welp this week we got hit by a crazy storm!!!  Well it was at night luckily.  We were sleeping and at like midnight I heard this super loud thunder blast thing and my comp and I looked outside into what seemed world war 3.  The skies were like lit up constantly and the sound of the thunder was super close! Every 2 seconds it seemed a lighting bolt shot across the sky and the rain was crazy too..  That was pretty cool to see. Then the next night at like 10:30 the power went out in the whole city.  It was super dark, couldn't see like anything!  2 weird nights in a row.  

But ya this week was a pretty good one.  We found a lot of new investigators and ya we just worked hard.  Fun week.  We were going to have a baptism this Saturday but it'll have to be postponed because the kid didn't come to church with his mom.  Alexis the son of Mayra our recent convert didn't come.. actually neither of them did, which was super weird, so we couldn't announce a baptism and ya. But hopefully my comp will be able to get that done in the coming weeks.  Coca has done me good.  I'll miss it for sure and I'll definately have to come back to visit cause its the amazon jungle and I can't do anything cool here as a missionary with that.. but someday ;) Ya the work here has been fun,. ready for the cold. Hoping they send me to Ipiales, Colombia! We'll see this Saturday.

Well I hope all of you have a good Thanksgiving.  There's nothing like that here but I'll be imagining that turkey in my mind..  And probably will be eating chicken.. and rice, of course there isn't a meal without rice here in Ecuador, but ya.  I'm thankful for this gospel and for this opportunity to be sharing it as a missionary.  Even though there are challenges here, I really have been able to grow a deeper love for my Savior here.  Yo sé que vive mi Señor, y sé que él nos ama bastante! As we get closer to Christmas time once again we'll be ¨Lighting the World¨ with service, look for ways to serve others around you. Don't do it out of obligation but out of love. 

Love you guys and have a great thanksgiving!   

Cuidaránse vecinitos y comerán mucho pavo!

Elder Jensen

The missionaries here hosted a cool activity for the branch where we wrapped

Books of Mormon in wrapping paper to give out as gifts to friends. 

It was super cool.  Una idea no mas!

Interesting Week

Hey everyone!

Well this has been an interesting week.

To start off we have started like a new program thing to work with the members that the area presidency came out with and as a mission we received like 6,500 references from members, recent converts, and investigators!

 I know it sounds like a lot and maybe it worked in some parts of the area but for here, or at least in my sector, the references we received were like less actives, investigators that we are already teaching or people with 0 info to contact them.. Buttt a few of them have been working out and it's been amazing to see the support from the members.   Every Member a Missionary!  But ya hoping to see some good results from this!

Well time is winding down for me here in the orient.  Changes  are in 2 weeks and I'm grateful for the time I have had.  We celebrated a baptism this Saturday hno Jose Cuvi got baptized and it was a really awesome service! The hno is super excited to progress and learn more about the church and I'm super grateful to have been able to visit with him and help him along this path. His wife is a member since her childhood so I'm hoping they will progress and get sealed in the temple in a year.   My other converts here are doing great as well! The Lopez Sanchez family are still strong and goin to church every week and are trying to invite their family members to listen to us as well. Mayra Cabrera, who is the mom of our investigator with a baptismal date Alexis Garcia, is also doing well.. They've had some problems but she's been finding her way back to church and is progressing well with her son.  Blanca Jacome and her son Matias  have had some challenges, especially with the WoW. We taught them this principle quite a few times but they need help with it.. Please prey for them! But ya overall I've enjoyed my time here and am hoping to have one more baptism before I go. 

On the other side, we've been looking a lot recently for new investigators.. The other day we hit a block that was filled with die hard members of other churches who were kind of rude..  I had to keep my head cause I didn't want to say something rude back.  But I know that the lord directs this work and that if we work hard and sacrifice some things we'll find blessings.

Welp this week I ate crab for the first  time in my mission,  and well before the mish, I didn't like seafood and now I really do like it. But I saw the crab and was a little sketched out.. But I ate it.. they eat it super weird here, you have the whole body and just bite the leg and suck out the meat, spitting out crab shell like every 2 seconds.  Well that's at least what I did, let's just say a lil gringo from gilbert AZ doesn't know much about seafood, and lot of people stared and laughed at me while I ate.. haha but ya. Not gonna lie, I'm not a fan of this crab and it didn't do me well afterwards..  got pretty sick, sooo let's just leave it at that.

Everything is going well and I'm enjoying my time in Ecudaor, excited to see where the next few weeks will take me.  Have a good week and keep reading the BoM! Share a copy with your friends to show them how much it really means to you..  There's a gen conf talk from the 80s by President Benson who says the Book of Mormon is the greatest gift that we have received, so what better thing can you do than to gift it to someone that you care about. I know it is true and I know there are blessing for those who read it daily just like Pres Monson said back in April!

Love you guys!

y que le vaya muy bien, cuidaránse !

Elder Jensen 

uds son cubanos?

Well this week has been a good one.  This Saturday we will have a baptism!!!!  That will be super awesome!  Hno Jose Cuvi is all ready and is super excited as well.  It's been a pretty good week tbh. We went to Quito for a meeting with the area 70's Elder Falabella.  He had some really good trainings for us and I learned a lot. I'm excited to apply them into my life and to become a better disciple of  Christ.  Ummm well not much to write. We got hit by some rain and then we got hit by the heat and ya just the same as every week. Que mas.  Welp I've enjoyed my time here in the Orient and hope I can make the most of these next 33 weeks here before I head out.. We'll see what the changes bring us.  This week we did a service in the flippin jungle planting trees.  Yes, we planted trees in the jungle, amongst the millions of trees that are already there..  And yes there were spines and yes there were bugs but hey it was a fun time..  Just one of the hottest days I've had out here haha.. But ya it was fun and we got some interesting fruit out of it.. some huge papayas and  cacao.  Also we got some guava I think it's called.. That's the white fuzzy fruit.  Not too bad.  But ya that's been my week.. Hoping for another busy week.

que tengan una buena semana

Elder Jensen

 

Photos from Ecuador Quito North Mission

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Mission tour with Elder Falabella

November 2017