Dear Family,
I'm guessing you haven't opened the attached pictures yet and I suppose you don't know what language that is in the subject line.... I'll give you a hint---"Kia orana" means "hello" in Cook Island Maori. Now open up one of the pictures.... Guess where I am in the picture.... It's not New Zealand. It takes about 45 minutes to drive around the entire landmass and the you have a view of the pristine beach nearly anywhere....
We went to the Cook Islands last week! They are a little group of islands in the Pacific. We stayed on the main island, Rarotonga. It is beautiful. As you know, I have never been to the islands before and I'll tell you what, Jake, it is just like the movies. It's pretty much a jungle, with many plantations that grow taro, kumara, and many other things. Coconut trees are rampant and papaya grows all over the island (You should never park your car or scooter under a coconut tree because you never know when a coconut will drop---it can break the glass). Chickens walk around everywhere and the roosters cock-a-doodle-do all through the church meetings. If you catch and kill a pig, it is yours for the devouring. The humidity is so great that paper almost feels wet. The minute we walked off the plane we were blast with moist heat, so we got to have our suitcoats off during our stay.
The purpose of the visit was to get all the members excited with two young elders coming to the island to work with the senior couples who were already out there. Together the three missionary couples along with Elder Lokotui and Elder Janson will be a district (the elders are both district leaders) and will be working with each other and with the members to grow the branches! The two young missionaries are both fantastic and will do a wonderful job. It was great to have the experience of being on tradeoff with them for a few days. They're both really looking forward to working on the island for the next half year. This is the first time young missionaries have been on the island since it was part of the Tahiti mission a couple of years ago. We had known that the elders were going over for quite some time before it happened but we didn't know that we would be going with them until a week before last Saturday! President told us over the phone that the elders had obtained their visas and would be heading over soon, then surprised with the good news!
The plane left Saturday morning at 9am and landed three and a half hours later in Rarotonga, at 2:55pm, Friday. We went back in time! For Friday and Saturday we split with the elders and visited key leaders in the branches and district and let them know how hard the elders were prepared to work. We told them we expected to baptize many people and help them with anything they needed. The members really loved us and were very excited to have new missionaries. The couples were a great help while we were there---the Scotts, the Taggs, and the Bates. The Bates are local and the Taggs work on a remote island called Aitutaki.
The Cook Islands have a very rich history with the church and will continue to grow in strength and numbers. We attended a district conference while were there and President Lekias had me come up and be his scribe for him (on the whiteboard). It was a huge blessing to be able to be amongst these amazing people and be in paradise for a few days. The church is the same now matter where you are! Only the gospel can unite us across the world. I am very blessed to have had this opportunity! I love being a missinoary and know the Lord loves us, whether we are on an island thousands of kilometres away from anything or in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I love you familia. Thank you for your prayers!
Love,
Elder Jensen
P.S. That's why I didn't email yesterday.
P.P.S. Elder Espino couldn't stop raving about the papaya and especially the bananas. The just melt in your mouth!
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