"Te Amo Mi Amiguito! Eres Mi Angel!"

Jonathan's Farias's Family (L to R): Jordanna (Jonathan's cousin and her baby), Rommanet (Jonathan's sister), Elder Jenson, Elder Weigel and Isaac (Jonathan's brother)

President Essig was blown away by my Johnathan story. He said he'd never heard of something like that before. I got permission from President Essig to visit Jonathan's family this week! They live in downtown Santiago.  Elder Weigel and I met with Jonathan's brother Isaac, his sister Rommanet and Jonathan's cousin Jordanna and her little baby. We had a really powerful lesson about the Restoration of the Church and I was in tears by the end.  Isaac was in contact with Jonathan this past week. I just received this letter from Jonathan today about how he felt about me teaching his family. Really powerful...

Solo queria darte las gracias por haber visitado a mis hermanos en Santiago. Mi hermano Isaac me dijo que la visita fue ¨Terrific¨ y de verdad, que eso fue lo que yo precisamente queria que pasara. Yo estoy completamente seguro que tu tocaste lo mas profundo de sus corazones. Also, my sister Jordana told me that it was great the lesson and that she got very sensitive. She told me she wanted to hug you so bad cuz you were the last one to hug me, so she wanted a little of me. I love them with all my heart. They are my inspiration and the reason cuz I leave. I was praying exactly for this my friend. I prayed to my Heavenly Father for you to touch their hearts and my prayers were answered. I told about this experience last Saturday two sister missionaries and we felt the spirit so strong.

Now you know more why I go to the MTC. I strongly know that if I work hard in the Misional Work, God, my father, will open the way to be some day sealed with my family for the rest of this journey and the eternety. Tanner, I have a testimony from what the prophet Joseph Smith said: Despues de todo lo que que se ha dicho, lo mas importante es PREDICAD EL EVANGELIO. Predicad el evangelio, la unica y verdadera doctrica del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espiritu Santo como dijo Nefi, nos puede traer grandes bendiciones en nuestras vidas, si, los cielos se abren para nuestro favor.

Now, I have a roommate that is not LDS and he went to church with me today, it was great! This week I´m taking him to the MTC to be taught for the misionaries. Im pretty confidente that the Holy Ghost will touch his heart.

Gracias otra ves! I wanna leave you with my testimony. All Im is because this church. This gospel is true and its an eternal true that cant be changed. The Lord is the Savior of this world and it cant be changed. Joseph Smith was a prophet and he saw our Heavenly Father coming down from heaven. The Book of Mormon is true! I promised you that I know it. In my first month as a converse, I read it completly cuz its power cautivated me. At that time, I felt the spirit of the Lord all around in my room. These are trues that cant be changed in my heart. I invite you to always remember how you have felt those times when you have felt the spirit so stronge in your heart and I promise you that the difficoult times will fly away like nothing. You were my friend in the pre-existense and Im so happy that I found you here; you and me were with the Savior there and that is because was so easy to reconize each others here. I will be thankfull for ever to have meet you again. You inspire me so much. I thought I didnt have a testimony but I realized that my testimony about all this, but above all, about my Savior, is the same one I had in the pre-existense. In the name of the Savior, our Savior and creator, Amen.


Hey, dont even try to understand how much I love you lol. Te amo mi amiguito! Eres mi angel.

Tu amigo de la eternidad, Jonni







I'll answer all of your questions first and then write my highlights with the time I have left...



1. President Essig was blown away by the Jonathan story. He said he'd never heard of something like that before.

2. I gave the gifts to Jonathan's family he gave me in the MTC when we visited this week.

3. Church here is like a kids play place! There's so much ruccus going on I can hardly think (kids running all around, jumping up and down on the stage by the speaker... you name it, it's being done here in the Jose Miguel Infante Branch. There were 110 people that attended yesterday.

Alarcon Caballero Family who are awesome members in our Jose Miguel Infante Branch.

4. I do my email every week at an Internet Cafe. I pay about 75 cents for an hour and a half of internet.

5. Elder Weigel went to Arizona University and lives in Tuscon

6. I don't know the exact address of my house.

7. The ceiling in my casita is fine. When I walk up and down the stairs I have to duck a lot or I'll bang my head!

Elder Jenson in front of his casita in Renca, Chile

8. I've gotten dear elder letters up until Aug 5th.. Thanks!!! I also received two more packages ( with the bball and treats) Thank you!!!

9. I can't carry my camera where ever I go because it will get stolen.

10. Spanish and teaching are coming along really well.

11. Ideas of things to send (and some of the members want, like Hma Pino :) reeses, beef jerkey, swedish fish, any type of jolly ranchers, sour patch kids, lotion, hot choc packets.... you cant find these treats here in Chile! I know thats a lot, but I love you a lot so.... :)

Pino Familia 


12. The weather was really cold and rainy early in the week, but yesterday and today were really nice.

Probably in the 60s!

13. Elder Weigel has been here for a year, is a life member and has good family support.

14. Elder Weigel and I teach about 15 lessons a week. We're working a lot harder and should have at least 20 appointments this week! Members serve us lunch every day except P-day. We make our own dinner. I usually eat hamburgers, soup or cereal!

15.There are probably more pictures up on the mission site. We had Zone Conference this last Tuesday.

16. The best food I've eaten while in Chile are Empanadas. They're so good!

17. Elder Huaman and Elder Sozl are my Zone Leaders. They're great! Elder Sozl leaves to go home in 3 weeks!

Elder Jenson's District eating lunch together in Renca, Chile

18. My Mission Home is about 45 min by bus and train from Renca.

19. I took all my letters/pictures to Chile with me from the MTC!

20. Chileans have a lot of different sayings: vacan means cool, al tiro is right now and gua gua is a Chilean baby.

***Highlights from the week:

Getting a letter from Coach Johansen!


On Monday, Elder Weigel and I went downtown to Santiago for our P-day and saw a lot of really cool sites.

Elder Jenson on the top of Cerro in Santiago, Chile

Cerro San Cristóbal is a hill in northern Santiago, Chile. It rises 880 m AMSL and about 300 m above the rest of Santiago; the peak is the second highest point in the city, after Cerro Renca. Its original indigenous name was Tupahue. It was named by the Spanish conquistadors for St Christopher, in recognition of its use as a landmark.

Elder Jenson is front of La Moneda (Chilean White House) in Santiago, Chile

Palacio de La Moneda (Spanish: [paˈlasjo ðe la moˈneða], Mint Palace), or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secretariat of the Government. It occupies an entire block in downtown Santiago, in the area known as Civic District between Moneda (North Side), Morandé (East), Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins (South) and Teatinos street (West).

Elder Jenson on top of Cerro Lucia with the Andes Mountains in the background

Santa Lucía Hill (Spanish: Cerro Santa Lucía) is a small hill in the centre of Santiago, Chile. It borders on Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins in the south, Santa Lucía Street in the west and Victoria Subercaseaux on the east. An adjacent metro station is named for it. The hill has an altitude of 629 m and a height of 69 m over the surrounding area. The hill is the remnant of a volcano 15 million years old. The hill has a 65.300 square meters surface and it is adorned with ornate facades, stairways and fountains. Atop the hill, there is a viewpoint unsurpassed inside Santiago except by Cerro San Cristóbal. It is a frequent spot for tourists visiting the city.

Elder Jenson in front of Centro in Santiago where National Congressional meetings were held before they built a new Congressional building in Valparaiso, Chile

The National Congress (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) of Chile is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile. The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4, 1811. It is a bicameral legislature comprised by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), of 120 members and by the Senate (upper house), formed by 38 parliamentarians.

*The Old Congress building was moved to Valparaiso (140 km west) to encourage businesses and people to move outside the capital, as the majority of Chile lives in Santiago.

Elder Jenson in front of the Correo Central "Post Office" where he sends letters home! 

The Central Post Office Building (Spanish: Edificio del Correo Central) is a historic post office building on the northern edge of the Plaza de Armas, in Santiago, Chile.

"Nice" homes in Chile with Cerro Colorado in the background

Cerro Colorados is a mountain in the Andes about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Santiago in Chile. It has a height of 6,080 metres (19,950 ft).

4 "Normal" homes in Chile that are all connected together

On Tuesday, we had an appointment with Maria, our strongest and most spiritual Investigator. Elder Weigel and I dropped by her home and she came out with a sad face and told us that she didn't want to visit with us anymore. She said that her boyfriend told her that she can't visit with us anymore and that God is punishing her for investigating the Mormon church while she still continues to go to Catholic church on Sunday's. To give you a little more of a background on Maria...we had had about 4 appointments with her the previous 2 weeks and she cancelled all of them. Maria also hasn't come to Church the past two weeks and Elder Weigel and I have been in the dark and had no idea what was going on. Elder Weigel and I bore our testimonies right then and there through the fence to Maria and told her that we know she knows that this Church is true because she has felt the Sprit many times before. We powerfully told Maria of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that Christ has restored His Church back on the earth today. In the end, Maria agreed to make another appointment with us and we met this past Thursday, two days later, when her boyfriend wasn't home. On Thursday, we went to her home and taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She felt the spirit strongly. Elder Weigel and I asked Maria if she would be baptized again and shared with her the importance of it. She accepted another baptismal date of September 2nd. This Sunday she came to Church!!! It was so nice to see here there. Elder Weigel and I also had two inactive families at Church with us whom we have been visiting and working with. For my Intercambio this week I partnered up with Elder Gunther and did the exchange in his sector,Valle de Azapa.

Azapa Valley in Chile is a fertile and narrow oasis, framed between two sere hills and divided by the summer season-running "San Jose" river.  This jewel of the north has a unique climate that permits the farming of a great variety of fruits and vegetables throughout the year, in addition to the unique olives of Azapa, famous for their violet color and bitter flavor that also give birth to a strong-tasting oil.

Elder Gunther and I spent the day teaching 13 children in the Valley de Azapa area all about the Word of Wisdom

Elder Gunther and Elder Jenson with the children of Valley de Azapa

The week started off slow but ended up being really successful. I learned that if you don't give up hope, good things are going to happen! Have faith!! I'll tell you about a HUGE miracle that happened on Sunday as well next week because I'm out of time. I hope that you have a great week! Everything is so good here in Chile. I'm working really hard.

Love,

Tan