The Stripling Sons and "getting over" our Hardships

Hola mis amigos y amigas!

Wow, I know you just heard from me on Sunday, but the past couple days have been pretty amazing, SO I decided to write another email jajaja.

On Monday, I woke up VERY early in the morning, and my amazing father drove me to the Eugene airport in enough time to catch my 6 am flight (what a champ🙌). After two hours of flight, I was in SLC and off to my appointment at the Mexican Consulate! I met probably 15 other elders there who were also all getting their VISA's approved at various times that day, so I wasn't alone! The VISA process itself took all of maybe 3 minutes, but I was still waiting an hour after my scheduled appointment time before I was able to complete the process jaja. Anyhow, I got it all finished, and Elder Babcock and I, an Elder I met just starting HIS training at his house in Washington, walked up to the Salt Lake City Temple and explored the various buildings and sights around temple square until we had to catch our planes back home. We got to the airport with just enough time to grab some lunch with a couple more Elders before we each flew home! I then proceeded to not take a nap for the rest of the day for some unknown reason, but that's definitely on me jaja. All in all, a pretty crazy, but super fun day!

Tuesday I'm not even gonna bother telling you what I did in the morning cause I just want to share what we talked about in our devotional last night! Wow! Let me tell you, the spirit was so strong last night. I am continually amazed at the power and spirit that each of my district companions has. They are truly amazing, and I know they are going to bless so many people's lives in the coming months. We watched a devotional given by Elder Holland and Elder Ballard, two apostles and prophets who lead and guide the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and they basically just did a Q&A with some questions they had been asked. Just one point that hit home for me that I wanted to share: Elder Holland was talking about how we will each experience trials on our missions (and you can apply this as trials in your lives), we will each have days that are just hard and we don't feel like we can do it, or maybe we just simply don't want to. Anyhow, he said boldly "Get over it". And at first I was a little taken aback, I thought "how am I just supposed to get over it? I don't have the strength for that." And then he continued and said, and I'm paraphrasing here jaja "Now I don't just mean get over it on your own, no, you get over it on your knees". My friends, family, acquaintances, whatever your relationship with me, this comes straight from my heart to you, no MATTER the trials, hardships, WHATEVER you are going through right now, God is always there to listen to and answer your prayers. He is your loving Heavenly Father. He wants to bless you. Just ask Him to. He will bless you in ways you can't even think of. Often He will bless you SPECIFICALLY in those ways because He knows that the sort of blessing you are seeking at that moment is not the best blessing you could receive, but know that He does and will bless you if you ask. I have seen Him work wonderful things for me all throughout my life, and I won't list them all here because that would be an incredibly long email, but I know with assurety that God, my Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father, hears and answers our prayers. He loves me. He loves you. He knows you. He knows what you need. Just ask Him for it.

Also in my studies this week, I was reading about the Stripling Warriors in the Book of Mormon. For those of you who don't have any idea what I'm referring to, I'll invite you to read the Book of Mormon😉 Anyhow, the Stripling Warriors, or "Helaman's Sons", are amazing examples of courage, faith in Jesus Christ, and trust in God, and they have always been somewhat of heroes to me, the kind of man I would hope to be one day. And as I was reading about them just a little bit more, I read the part where it says that they went to battle and after the battle, not a single one of them had perished in the fight, despite their small number and relative youth compared to their foes. And I focused in on this phrase "yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds". Before, this phrase, to me, had always just signified that each of them had not gone unscathed from the battle, but when I read it this time, I just thought of how each of our lives in a way, is our own battlefield, and we will all fight our fights, and we will all come through receiving "many wounds", but what's so glorious is that no matter what those wounds are, Christ will heal them. Through their exceeding faith in Christ, those stripling warriors did not lose their lives in battle, but came away with merely cuts and scrapes and bruises that yes, left them tired, worn out, maybe even led them perilously close to the end, but did not leave them without breath and without life. Our own faith can do just this for us in our own lives. We will acquire many MANY spiritual wounds throughout our lives, and even if we maintain our faith in Christ, we may be left tired, worn out, and may have even come perilously close to losing it, but we did not. And we will not. Because through Christ, we can see those wounds healed. Through Christ, we can experience true change and true happiness. And that is a wonderful thing indeed.

I love you all, and I hope you each have a wonderful week!

Élder Kyle Jensen