Tarzan

Dear Megan, Lil' Jake, Brother Jacob, Whitney, Mother, Father, and other family and friends,
 
Good afternoon! Almost evening for you. It's a nice sunny day in South Auckland. This morning, as we were about to leave the flat, Elder Naicker pointed out to me that I had a couple of small holes in my pants, in the back. I honestly don't know how long I've been proselyting with those.... I got them all patched up though, thanks to Elder Naicker's iron-on patches. You want to know the beauty of missionary work? Everything you own seems to fall apart relatively quickly, and you don't get clothes dry cleaned for one to two years (still haven't). It's enjoyable. No really, it's good fun.
 
This week has been one of many miracles, especially the end of the week. The first half seemed to be going very slowly with not much happening, but I realized as I accounted to one of my leaders in mid-week accountability that I hadn't been doing what I'm supposed to. I was teaching and talking to everyone, but I wasn't inviting with as much boldness and faith as I should. The next day, Elder Naicker and I invited six people to be baptized! Heavenly Father then blessed us with all six accepting the invitation -- two set with a date -- and many investigators at church. In one of our wards (we cover two), there were many new faces, some of them our investigators and some visitors. Some people in the ward even approached us, excited about all the new people, and we think that this will really help the ward to get moving and help us with the work. They've had relatively few baptisms this year, so we think they were just discouraged. The work moves forward without the help of the members, but only at a fraction of the pace that it could with member involvement. Help out the missionaries! It brings blessings to them, to you, and to those you help to share the gospel with.
 
Earlier this week we found this part member family while talking to everyone on the street. They invited us over because the less-active guy, Anaru, wanted to get back into church, and his nonmember partner, Alex, was really interested in eternal families. We went and taught them and their niece, Ivory, on Friday and had a powerful Restoration lesson! As we were talking to them at the beginning, Ivory (17) said, "I want to get baptized!" Haha yes! We taught from the scriptures and testified of the truthfulness of Moroni's promise in chapter ten. You could see Alex and Ivory just glowing with the Spirit. We trusted in Heavenly Father and invited them to be bapized on the 20th of August. Ivory eagerly accepted with a huge smile, and Alex accepted more hesitantly, saying she'll have to pray and come to church and see how it is. The next day, we watched the Prophet of the Restoration (amazing movie!) and the Spirit was so thick I nearly passed out. Nah, but it was another powerful lesson. We taught nearly everything in the missionary lessons -- Restoration again, temples and the Spirit World, faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, Word of Wisdom, and Law of Chastity. Haha, I know, crazy huh? No way, because we followed the Spirit and did everything we could to prepare them for the trials ahead. Ivory just loved everything. Alex said she believed Joseph Smith was a prophet because she felt it. She described her feelings as warm and tingly. The Holy Ghost! We committed them for baptism again and they full-heartedly accepted. It was just a testimony strengthener.
 
Out of time. I'll be back soon in a few minutes to tell you the rest.
 
Elder Jensen
Much love