"Small Things Can Lead To Great Things"

Elder Jenson "Hosting" the new Missionary's Wednesday arrivals!



Elder Jenson had the privilege of "Hosting" Elder Baum who's going to Ukraine on his mission and will be speaking Russian.

July 20, 2012

Hey Fam and friends!

How is everyone? I've been so good here. Thank you so much for all of your letters and love! I love reading every single night about the days you are having traveling the US with Taylor and his successes he's having.

Highlights of my week:

Hearing that people love hearing from me. Please thank Paul Redd, Nana, Grandpa and Grandma etc for all their thoughts they said about the blog and that you forwarded on to me.

Getting a letter from Coburn (Elder Jenson's USU golf teammate who's entering the MTC August 1, 2012 for the Boston, Mass Mission) asking me advice on how he can prepare for his MTC experience.

Tarryn's letter!

Yutaka drawning by Tarryn, Tallyn, Lauren and Will!

Seeing my friends and roommates from USU-Kimoto, Doug, Devin Wright, Andrew Paulson, Sam Merril etc.


Usually I go day by day and tell you about my week. I think you now have a feel of what I do every single day. This week I want to share my feelings about everything because I don't know if I share enough of that in my letters home. This weeks letter will be a little different and I hope you like it!

Saturday I met up with Jonathan in the TRC like I usually do. We talked about his week and how he was doing for awhile. He said that he was able to talk to his brother and his mom in Santiago! Jonathan told me that they know I'm coming. Jonathan informed them of our conversations and they are excited for my arrival. They want to make it a whole fiesta with food and the whole deal! Jonathan's mom doesn't live in the city of Santiago but said she could come over to the mission boundaries to listen to the message we have for them! Jonathan's brother gave him the address of where they are going to be. I just need to call Jonathan's brother when I get to Santiago and he will know everything and share with me the information. It seems like everything is falling into place. This story has such potential to be a great converion story! After Jonathan shared this with me, I felt full of the Spirit and felt prompted to share my testimony with him that in missionary work, there are no coincidences. I also felt promted to share with him that I know I met him for a reason. I started to get pretty emotional as I was sharing my testimony with him. I know that Jonathan was feeling the Spirit and confirmed to him that what I was saying was true. Now, I know that that doesn't necessarily mean that Jonathan's family is going to get baptized, but I know that it was for a reason Jonathan and I met and I'm excited. I told Jonathan that I would do everything in my power to help his family to Come Unto Christ and take the necessary steps that they need to take to be able to return to live with their Father in Heaven and be an eternal family.  Jonathan doesn't want anything more than to have an eternal family and he told me that he knows that it will happen someday. Jonathan has really been praying to have his family receive the gospel. I can't even wait to get to Santiago and hopfully President Essig (my Mission President) will let me go into the area of the Farias family!

Tuesday night we had a great Devotional given by Vaughn J. Featherstone: Emeritus Seventy. I just love all of these Devotionals because they are such spiritual feasts! He talked about how he has traveled around the world being with missionaries in over a hundred missions. He is a very experienced person, that's for sure. I'm grateful for the promptings that I was able to receive during his talk. One of the great promptings that I received was when he shared a story about when something so small turned into something so great.I just felt like I needed to write down that it's the little things that you do on your mission that are going to make a huge impact. Knocking on that last door, never missing appointments no matter what the weather is, always having a smile on my face and never taking no for an answer because I know how great this gospel is in our lives and I want everyone to know that too.  The person that you're talking to could be the one that is looking for the gospel. I need to put some effort into it and just share how important the gospel really is! If I knock on that last door when I'm dead tired, that could be the family that is ready to hear my message. If  I wasn't feeling on knocking on that last door that day, that family would not be able to hear the message we had for them that woud have changed their lives forever. I wrote down that I need to always be worthy of the Spirit even though Elder Featherstone didn't say that. Without the Spirit, I can't teach anyone. You might be able to convert people to you, but not to the Lord. One great quote that Elder Featherstone said was that "no amount of talent exceeds spirituality"-Bruce R. McConkie. I think that's great. Elder Featherstone said that I need to bear my testimony wherever I go, even if others are not wanting to hear my message. My testimony can make an impact on everyone. After our Devotional, we had our District meeting like usual. I shared my testimony with my District about how small things can lead to great things. I felt the Spirit so strong! I am so glad for these experiences here in the MTC. They are strengthening my testimony of this gospel that's on the earth today. I know that the gospel is true and I want everyone to know that. There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank Heavenly Father for all that I have and for the knowledge and blessing that I have the gospel in my life.

So let's talk about my travel plans!!!!! I just got them last night. My plane leaves on July 30th at 12:50pm. I have to meet at the travel office in the MTC at 8am and then they will drive me to the airport. I have a layover in another airport before I board my final plane for a direct 14 hour flight to Santiago. I get to Sanitago Chile the next day at 8:10 in the morning! Crazy! I'm excited to be able to call you during my layovers and to hear everyone's voices and catch up live on how everyone's doing. In my travel group there are 6 people in my first District I had in the MTC before I moved up to Intermediate and then me! So we have 7 total in our flight plan. It should be a pretty exhausting but fun trip! I'm so excited to get to Sanitago I can't even see straight! I know I have 10 more days in the MTC so I'm going to focus on those ten days and finish strong. This is such an exciting time for me!

That concludes my weekly email for this week. I hope all is well and that Tay plays well!!!!

Love you Worlds!

Tan