What a Wonderful Life!

Feliz Navidad friends and family!

Despite the severe heat warning, the people of Houston have made it through the summer without any major loss in life. Oh wait ,it's Christmas you tell me? Elder Jensen was confused because this week was 85 degrees with 100% humidity and it felt like summer to him. But all has been righted! It rained last night and it was 35 degrees waking up this morning. I really don't think anyone truly understands the weather in Texas. 

Besides that, Christmas was awesome! We caroled so hard we were sweating (had nothing to do with the 85 degree weather, only our singing abilities), we ate tons and tons of food, got to Skype our families on Friday, and got to watch Inside Out at our Christmas Mission conference. So really? Best week ever. The worst kept secret of missionary work is that it's super hard sometimes. Especially when you have to spend it away from family. Yet there were so many times when I just wanted to give up and then something awesome would happen. We have one member who hasn't been active for 10 years and we'd been trying to visit him and he was never home and we were super frustrated. But, we decided to bring some presents and carol with the rest of the district and he randomly happened to be home! He was smiling ear to ear and had a few tears in his eyes because I guess his Christmas was hard because all of his family lives in Guatemala. When we have tough times in our lives, I've learned that sometimes it's because we're looking for the big miracles and we miss all the small ones. When we look for the small miracles and keep moving forward they come! I love and miss you all! 

Con amor,

Elder Jensen

This is my little friend that stole my Christmas hat and told me she wouldn't give it back till I took a picture. (She said I can't share with anyone so try to keep this on the down low.)

Extreme Home Makeover: The Christmas Elder Edition

Que onda familia y amigos?

"Onda" is your Spanish vocabulary word for the day. For those of you that try and translate that  it won't work because apparently only punks from Guatemala use that phrase. It's pretty sweet, it directly translates to "what's slinging?". Seeing as Elder Jensen is a punk sometimes and definitely from Guatemala he uses it a lot :) 

Anyway, reporting live from the land of eternal rain and the only state in the United States where the state flag can be higher than the American flag, I'm Elder Jensen and this is a chronology of my adventures in the happiest place on Earth...Houston, Texas! I hope you all are having a very merry Holiday season because I can assure you that the Christmas Spirit has descended on Texas...the tow truck drivers all wear Santa Hats and smile as they latch your car on the back of their "big boy trucks". It makes for a pretty oddly comically sad experience when you walk out of lesson and notice your nice Chevy Cruz latched onto that said "big boy truck". Alas, Elder Jensen did indeed get towed this week, the final count of this car rounding to an even 5 times in the last 6 months. 

To tell the truth, missions have ups and downs and the last week was sort of a down and I didn't really have any funny or cool stories because it was a stinky week. All of our investigators decided to play that fun game where they pretend they aren't home when we stop by to visit and our ward went from it's high of 200 members back down to a low of 50. We were all kinda struggling to figure out what went wrong, and were all pretty bummed out. 

Then service came around and my whole week changed. We did our normal service at the food bank, but also had the opportunity to help the English ward Elders with a service project. There's a member of the ward who's a hoarder and their house is full of boxes, trash, roaches, and it wasn't really livable anymore. So we undertook the project- 10 Elders and Sisters and 5 Relief Society members took the challenge to clean it inside and out. It was hard and at times, kind of gross, but we knew what we were working for and we managed to get it done before they got home. It completely changed around my week. Seeing others give so selflessly motivated me to look for more opportunities to serve every single day! Whether pushing a car to the side of the road, helping people load their groceries, I noticed that as I served more and more my attitude improved more and more. By the end of the week I was so very happy and I know that came because of those opportunities to serve. There's this poem I like, I have no idea who it's by but it goes a little something like this "Christmas is not a day or a season, but a condition of heart and mind. If we love our neighbors as ourselves; If in our riches we are poor in spirit and in our poverty we are rich in grace. If when our brother asks for a loaf we give ourselves instead; if each day dawns in opportunity and sets in achievement however small- then every day is Christ's day and Christmas is always near". I invite all of you to get out there and serve. You guys rock and I hope you have the best Navidad in the history of Navidads! Don't give up and keep moving forward :) 

Love you all lots!

Elder Jensen

Catch us on the next episode of EHM!!

The Fast and Furious 8: This Time It Won't Be Either...

Feliz navidad familia y amigos!

After a very short one-week-long fall, the Christmas season has finally come...and I couldn't be happier! This week has indeed been eventful...and freezing cold, as demonstrated by my newest companion and I attempting to capture our journey across the frozen wonderland that is Houston Texas...

Yes I have a new companion! This is Elder Palacios he's from Peru and he is absolutely awesome. He loves to sing, and laugh, and tell jokes...in 15 different languages...yes 15 languages! He speaks Spanish, Russian, French, and Chinese fluently and can speak in 11 others. But something's missing...yeah, the one language he hasn't learned yet is English...but we're working on it! Needless to say, Elder Jensen's Spanish skills have definitely improved this week!

The other thing that's improved? Driving abilities. Since Elder Palacios only has a Peruvian license that means Elder Jensen gets to be designated driver. Ever since receiving his license Elder Jensen has always thought he was a pretty decent driver...others may attempt to convince you  differently.  Elder Jensen scraped by with only 1 speeding ticket- but 5 hours of online class and 1 headache for mom and dad later it was taken care of! Enter Texas, the land where drivers prefer to use the highway signs like: I-59, FM 107.9, and I-77 Katy Freeway as their speed gauges (as opposed to posted speed limits). It's been an exciting week to say the least...I've even witnessed the famous "Texas-dive" turning-from-3-lanes-over phenomenon 3 times already. BUT, not to worry mother...I am being super safe and thus far we've only had a handful of close calls. We've had our fair share of adventures though...ask Tiwi (our automated assistant that reminds us to slow down) about our little accidental adventure into the Houston East Mission, or the one time I learned about the anatomy of one way streets and how they do indeed only go one-way. 

In other news I SCORED A GOAL IN SOCCER THIS WEEK! WITH MY HEAD!!! Not sure if it was luck or a little bit of divine intervention but those that know Elder Jensen's less-than-adequate "hand-eye" coordination skills know it was probably a little bit of both. 

Overall, it was an awesome week. Elder Palacios and I are working hard to make this area strong! We visit close to 50 people a week and we're slowly whittling our ward list down to who is actually still living in Houston. We've had so many special experiences this week but my favorite was with a family in our ward. They've been struggling with their marriage and the mother and father hadn't been talking and while counseling really isn't in our purview, Opisbo asked us to go with him to teach a Family Home Evening Lesson. We taught about the power that Jesus Christ has to heal our wounds and fix our problems and showed them this video:

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/purpose-of-a-savior

It was such a neat experience to see the change that has come over their family this week. The spirit in the home completely changed. They have more joy, they've been more kind to each other and while they're not perfect, they're changing everyday to become more loving and to have more joy in their home. It's so neat to see the power the gospel has to change the lives of those it touches. It's such a blessing to watch how the Savior can fix families, take the torn, bitter, feelings of sadness...and change them into feelings of happiness, joy, and peace. Sometimes we don't know what lies ahead but if we trust that our Savior is there for us and keep moving forward, everything is going to be okay :) love you all!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Jensen

Atlantis 3: Elder Jensen's Journey

Hello dearest friends and family!

So I have an announcement: Elder Jensen has discovered Atlantis...or at least re-discovered it. This week was marked with more cold and more rain (which you would think would make snow right? But no, Texas is very confused when it comes to it's weather) which has turned the city into something only comparable to the lost city of Atlantis. From the state where there's more firearms than people, and when the rain falls about as often as we are passed by a truck three times the size of our Chevy Cruz- merry holidays from the greatest city in the world!

This week was so great! It was filled with Thanksgiving dinners, awesome lessons and lots and lots of fun! We had our annual Ward Thanksgiving party, and our ward Houston Temple trip as well. (Pictured below is me featuring my coat that has earned me a new name in our ward...Elder Bombon or Elder Marshmallow...because evidently this coat makes me appear like a marshmallow)

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We've knocked on a lot of doors this week. And I don't mean a lot like "the amount of times Elder Jensen talks about himself in the 3rd person while telling stories"- I mean I lost count after 100 in one day. We went hunting for people we'd talked to on the street, old contacts in the area, and less-active families in an attempt to clean up our now 600 strong ward list and find new investigators. See Houston has a problem (Get it?)... we have a ton of investigators, but none of them are ever home, or live in apartment #101 (which is impossible seeing as the apartment only houses up to #100) so we've been focusing on finding families we had never talked to. The amount of investigators we had after 100+ doors? 0. Then came the little miracle of the week. We were tired, frustrated, and a little bit sad...it was 8:30 and we just really all wanted to go home. But we decided to try one more house- it was of a guy who was excommunicated out of the church. We hadn't made much progress with him, he couldn't stop drinking and that was affecting every aspect of his life. But as we walked in this time, he was sitting on the floor, playing piano music from his speaker system, and eating a bowl of ramen on the empty floor of his tiny apartment. He looked at us, smiled, and said that he feels better then he's ever felt before.

The contrast between his old self and the guy we talked to that evening was stark. He was changed; more happy, more peaceful, and full of love. He told us about how his daughter (who he never sees) passed away a couple months ago. He told us how he came to a realization: she's living with God right now...she's made it to the finish, done her work. Now his new goal is to live with her again. That means he has to put in the work to make himself someone that's worthy to live with her again. It was a sweet moment and left Elder Jensen sweating from his eyes real bad.

 Sometimes we have days that stink, ones that we just want to give up, flop ourselves into bed, and quit. Those are the days when we learn the most about ourselves and most about Christ. There's a new website called "christmas.mormon.org" with a set of really neat videos called "A Savior is Born" and "Why We Need A Savior" and I would invite anyone and everyone that's having one of those bad days to go watch it. I know that sometimes life is difficult but when we confide and trust in Christ, everything will be okay! You just have to keep moving forward :)

Love, 

Elder Jensen

The Day After the Day After Tomorrow

Alegrante dias familia y amigos!

Who knew that in one day Houston, Texas could go from a warm subtropical climate, to a cold bitter frozen snow-less tundra that reminds me of a scene from one of the greatest disaster movies of all time? Evidently, the answer is: everyone but Elder Jensen. This week was marked by the first freeze, which was evident in the 50 degree drop in temperature between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. This made for a couple of under-dressed missionary Popsicles. It is now cold in Texas. Finally, after more than a month of waiting, we have entered the Texan "fall season" -which really only lasts until next week and the start of winter. 

I learned a lot of things this week! Firstly, that waking up early for service makes Elder Jensen tired and second, that putting foil in the microwave does actually light it on fire. One smoke alarm and burning pile of cream cheese later, I have learned that valuable lesson.

Also, I learned how awesome service can be. Yesterday, the local food bank that has been the scene of oh so many funny stories and odd experiences had their annual Thanksgiving meal for the homeless! It of course featured lots of food, lots of games, and the local 92.0 radio DJ and Pastor participating in an "off-the-chain" rap battle. 8 hours and more than a thousand plates of food later, we all left feeling so grateful for everything we have. 

Service is hard sometimes! It typically involves getting up early, maybe burning some cream cheese to a crisp in the microwave, and working...hard. Yet, it remains to me personally as one of the most rewarding experiences we can have. The chance to set aside all that we have and help others is one that is truly special. As we serve we come closer to Christ and closer to who we want to be, it brings out the best in us! 

Now. As we draw nearer to the Thanksgiving and Christmas season I issue to all of you that read this far down into my letters a challenge, to go and serve someone. It can be something easy, something like helping a neighbor with groceries, or sending a thank you text to someone you care about, or helping your local food bank, whatever it is...go and do it. I promise that as you go out and serve others and lose yourself in service, the more that you'll discover about yourself. Then, I want to hear about it! Send pictures, stories, I'd love to hear about all the great things you all have the capacity to do! 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a great talk called "Be Grateful in Any Circumstance" and there's a quote I really like. It reads: 

"Some might say, 'What do I have to be grateful for when my world is falling apart?...Could I suggest we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be...True gratitude is an expression of hope and testimony. It comes from acknowledging that we do not always understand the trials of life but trusting that one day we will." 

I know that as we serve others, we can find the hope to conquer life's challenges and keep moving forward. So get our there and do it!

"Don't be a turkey...get out there, serve,  and go ham" -Elder Jensen and McKinley

CSI: Houston (Elder Jensen edition)

Buenas felices dias!

Another week has passed in the strangest, most redneck, and happiest place on Earth! Another week of clear skies and rain (those happen at the same time here) and quite a plethora of oddly entertaining stories. The highlight of this week was the one time that Elder Montierth and Elder Jensen discovered the apartment we were living in had an "Ultimate Juicer" and we decided to play a few rounds of "Will it juice?"- which ended with a lot of laughs and a huge mess of Cran-apple-grapefruit-lemon-lime juice all over the kitchen. 

That or the handful times we hung out with the Houston Police department this week. 

Before anyone starts filling out bail forms don't worry it wasn't anything we did, they just happen to always show up at places we are! Every Wednesday we have the opportunity to work at the local  food bank and this week was definitely interesting. We had a couple fights, a couple of people get angry because we ran out of peaches (which necessitated restraining orders), and a lady fake death twice too...in a matter of 4 hours we talked with the Houston Police departments 4 times or so...just another day in Houston,Texas! It's a lot of fun to work at the Food Bank, we always have interesting stories afterwards.

Elder Jensen and his companions have also gone full swing detective mode this week. We've been working hard to narrow down our 600-strong list of members to figure out who still lives in this area and who doesn't. We've had a lot of success and actually ran into old investigators that wanted to get the lessons again! Other than that, this week was full of meetings, lessons, and a lot of new investigators. Our area is finally picking up speed and having success, and we're all really excited about that! 

The absolute best part of this week though was yesterday. This is A: (sorry A and her brother are super super cute but I am always uneasy posting pics of other people's kids without permission!!)

A is one of the first friends I met here and is also the newest member of our ward! 

Typically, in our church we baptize kids when they turn 8 years old. However, A's family was inactive a year ago and missed her baptism...so the Sister Missionaries have been teaching her and she finally had the chance to be baptized! When asked she claimed that she wanted "Elder Gigante" (Giant) to do it so I had the privilege to be the one to baptize her yesterday. It was such an neat experience and to see her afterwards, smiling from ear-to-ear and the happiest I've ever seen her was so awesome. 

 I love my mission and love the people I've been called to serve and I can't imagine life any better. I know that I was called here right now for a specific purpose and every time I get sad or down that thought pushes me forward. Whenever you just want to give up, remember that nothing is impossible, don't look backward, and just keep moving forward!

Con amor,

Elder Jensen

So you think you can play soccer? (Formerly "So you think you're better at soccer than a 5th grader?" - which was changed because it would involve Elder Jensen telling an embarrassing story about himself)

If you're Elder Jensen and playing against a bunch of tiny Guatemalan mini-Messi's who can simultaneously scorpion kick the ball and score a goal before you can even turn around, the answer to both of those questions is a resounding no. Let's just say that Elder Jensen tripped over himself more times then he kicked the ball and that he landed on his face more times then he scored a goal. Story of this week: Guatemalans are good at soccer and Elder Jensen is not. 

One of the really cool events we've started doing during the week is investigator soccer, where all 10 missionaries in the ward bring investigators and proceed to get our butts kicked by a bunch of Fifa All-Stars. 

Our goal this week was to get more people to church and we noticed that weirdly enough more people were available when we said the word "futbol" as opposed to "leccion". So thus our "that one time our investigator and ward member soccer team demolished 10 gringo missionaries" program was born. 

And it worked! Though it's STILL raining (two weeks later) and freezing cold, we had nearly 200 people show up to church on Sunday, about quadruple what we had last week! It was such a neat experience to see all the families we visited and invited to church, show up and stay for all 3 hours! Another neat thing was that we actually had more investigators than missionaries for the first time in this area in a long time. All 10 of us are working as hard as we can and we're definitely seeing the blessing from that. We've had so many opportunities to serve.  We work at the food bank every Tuesday and every other Friday help to do vision tests for kids that can't afford them. We're seeing really awesome miracles in this community and it's so amazing. 

Spiritual experience of the week: we have the opportunity to teach a member of our ward that was excommunicated. It's a delicate and often difficult situation, but overall it's been a life-changing one. He has a testimony and knows the church is true, just has problems in his life that we're working to get over. But the lesson I've learned most of all through this process is that the Atonement and love of Jesus Christ are available to all who seek it. It doesn't matter what our past is, what experiences we've had- Jesus Christ is always there to help, lead, and guide us. My favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon is in Alma 7:11-12.  It talks about how Christ suffered for each of our sins, but also our pains, afflictions, and infirmities...and the reason he did that was so that he would know "by the flesh how to succor (or help) his people".

"11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

More than anything, I've come to such a realization of that this week that Christ loves each of us, knows exactly what we go through and in times of sadness, loneliness, and hopelessness he is there for us. In fact, that's when he's closest with us. I know that's true and that he only asks that we turn to him and we'll receive happiness, love, and hope. "And no matter what you do...keep moving forward!" 

Con mucho amor,

Elder "Coach" Jensen

(Andrew's mom here....I asked him what missionaries do on Halloween and this was his reply:)

Also for Halloween I dressed up as a self proclaimed "tall missionary" (I had a nametag!) because according to a kid at the trunk or treat that how I am distinguished :) 

(Imagine that...he's known as the "tall missionary" :) )

The Quantum Mechanics of Houston Texas Weather

NOVA or Bill Nye should really do an exposition on the only place in the world where one can simultaneously stand in the sun and be rained on.... or where I can kick around some dirt in the sun and then trudge ankle-deep in flood waters in the rain on the same day. Yes, this place is exists people. It's real, it's free, it's called Texas, and in a sentence: I love it.

 The story of the week: I arrived in Houston! After six-weeks in the Missionary Training Center and waking up at 4 AM for a 3-hour plane ride I arrived in my home for the next 1.9 years, the great Lone Star State. First thoughts: it's green, humid, and really stinky...but I already love it! After a much needed home-cooked meal and a good nights rest, we were whisked into a church building and given our areas. For the next six weeks I've been assigned to be in the Houston 1st Ward, right smack dab in the middle of the city! 

It's an awesome ward, with 10 missionaries and a ward list of over 600 members. Needless to say I was so excited and a little overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to learn the names of 600 people. But when Sunday rolled around, my companions Elder Fails, Elder Valentine and I were excited to meet everyone, only to find 3 families and the bishop present. It turns out this area has an active ward of only about 50 people, which means there's a lot of work to be done :) 

The area is pretty great as well, I take in almost all of the Southern part of downtown and extend down to the Guatemalan and Hispanic areas on the outskirts of the city. We go from teaching in skyscraper apartments to teaching in run-down shacks in the same day. The only difficult part has been the rain. It rains a lot here...today was my FIRST time seeing sunshine since arriving in Houston! With that much rain, the streets were quickly flooded and my companions and I have spent the last three days trudging through ankle deep water. 

I have to admit that when I was called on my mission to the United States I didn't think that someday I would be sitting in a powerless church building, next to a Honduran family I met only moments before, trying to sing louder then the sirens outside, with flood water seeping into the building as we sang. That was a surprise to me on Sunday. I never expected it, but I also never expected to love it so much. I know that though it's hard, every footstep is absolutely worth it. When I get sad because I'm tired, wet, and homesick, I remember the people that we're doing this for. Those people that have nothing of physical value and need help, to teach to those that feel they have no purpose in life, and to be a friend to those who need a friend. No matter how alone you feel, you are never alone, you just have to keep moving forward. 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Jensen

Here's that one time I was supposed to be taking a selfie with my companions but they got in the car and I had no idea. Yeah funny joke guys....

Saying Adios to the MTC and Bienvenudos to Houston Texas South Mission!

Saying goodbye to District 21-F and to super fun Sister Doman

Arrived to Houston Texas South Mission with President and Sister Hall

The Hunt for a Red-leafed October

¡Buenas Dias!

Hello family and friends! Reporting live from sunny Provo (where the weather is actually so cold I had to wear multiple layers of clothing more than I care to admit this week, welcome to Elder Jensen's weekly email podcast! The first story of this week...ITS FALL! For those who don't know me (yet somehow ended up on my email list) I am from Arizona. And Arizona and Utah have about a -50 degree difference. (That's an exaggeration, but still its so cold). Yet also, Utah is so cool because the leaves are all changing color! So yesterday of course the only thing Elder Babbel and I could think of was to have a cute leaf photo shoot. Here's the result:

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(We'll be back in two years for any one that wants to hire us as professional models)

Anyway, so this is my last week in the MTC! It's been 6 weeks of fun, tons of spiritual moments, and just an amazing experience. My next email will be live from Houston, Texas next next Monday. Thank you so much to everyone that's emailed, helped, and supported me through the MTC I love you all muchos!

Funny story of the week: So our teacher (the one that suffers 6 hours a day with us) served in California and met a friend that used to live in the Districto Federal in Mexico. For those of you that don't know Spanish, D.F. is weird. Anyway, some of the things they say don't make sense. So anyway he's teaching me one on one and tells me in D.F. they say "Que estufas?" which in D.F. means "What's up?". It makes no sense to anyone except people in D.F. So ANYWAY, Elder Jensen likes this phrase and starts to use it literally ALL THE TIME. My favorite is "Que estufas con ese?" or "What's up with that?". One day though I walk down the hall to chat with our Zone Resource Trainer (aka Hefe) and he only speaks Spanish. So he tries to explain Passive Voice in Spanish and I'm not really understanding so I blurt out "Que estufas con ese?!" really loud and kind angrily. Hermano Hefe just looks and me oddly for a solid minute and then starts laughing harder then I've ever seen a human laugh. As it turns out he's not from D.F. Mexico and when you translate the sentence directly it means "How stoves is that?!". So now he thinks when things get hard for me, my first response is to curse stoves. Moral of the story: Elder Jensen's Spanish skills still need work. 

Other than that it was a fun week, not too many crazy stunts but we did have some really neat spiritual experiences. One that happened last week was with our first investigator, Maribel. We had our last lesson with her and we were all really sad, walking in though Maribel was in tears too. As it turns out her best friend's son had been kidnapped in Texas that afternoon and she had just heard about it. Elder Babbel and I had a lesson prepared on the Word of Wisdom, but we looked over at each other and immediately dropped everything we had planned and began talking about how she was feeling. It was awesome! We had no lesson planned, no scriptures ready, yet somehow we were able to comfort her with words in Spanish I didn't even know. I would be talking and not have any idea what I was saying but she understood perfectly! Our lesson was centered around Jesus Christ and how though we're simply 18 year old kids wearing white shirts and ties and we don't understand exactly what she's going through, there is someone that does. He's the One that's always with us no matter what and the One that suffered the pains of the world to save us. We testified that Jesus Christ is our Savior and understands and comprehends everything we go through in our lives. In Alma 7:11-12 count how many times the words "sins" is mentioned. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins but also for all of our experiences, pain, weakness, illness, everything. He is the only person that truly knows everything we go though.

Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y sufrio por todos personas en el mundo porque El tiene amor por todos. Yo se que mediante y porque Jesuscristo es posible que nosotros podemos vulver a vivir con Deus. Yo tengo amor para mi Salvador y por todos las personas en mi vida. Muchos amor,

Elder Jeñseñ

A Brief History of Sync'N: The Story of the MTC's First Boy-Band (formally known as "A funny thing happened on the way to the BYU Health Center")

¡Buenas días amigos y familia!

Once upon a time, there was an MTC and a group of 5 Elder and 2 Sisters. One day, after a 2 sessions of General Conference it was announced that the famous BYU a cappella group "Vocal Point" would be the stars of Sunday devotional. As Sister missionaries tried their best to "fan-girl" within missionary and Sunday reverence standards, Elder Jensen and the boys began to talk. What if WE made our OWN a capella group? We could begin as missionaries and reach One-Direction status by the time we were home. Brilliant eh?! We thought it was, and we were dedicated to making our group, dubbed "Sync'N" (any relation to any band, living or dead, is purely coincidental and should be taken as such) the best mission approved boy band a capella group in the history of the world! The rest of Conference weekend was filled with amazing messages and much excitement for the future of Sync'N. However, as all good things must eventually come to an end so had the end of Sync'N come about by the end of the weekend. So as they were walking back from the bathroom Elder Babbel and Elder Jensen were engaged in a particularly rousing chorus of "We Are All Enlisted" in Spanish, we turned the corner only to find that the devotional that we were supposed to be attending had already begun and that it was engaged in a particularly rousing prayer. Quite embarrassed, we took our seats amidst giggles and laughter from all the Elder and Sister missionaries around us. After the prayer, Elder Babbel and I agreed that an end to Sync'N (Also known as "Quarter Elder" for all you Psych fans out there) was dead. So moral of the week: before you walk into a crowded group of your peers singing Spanish hymns at the top of your lungs, ensure that it is not completely silent and reverent before rounding the corner :) Here's our band: 

Anyway! This week was absolutely fantastic, we had so many great experiences with General Conference and had the pleasure of hearing the Relief Society General President speak to us on Sunday. Spanish gets easier every day and this place becomes more like my home everyday. 4 weeks has FLOWN by and I'm so grateful that I got to have such an amazing experience at the MTC. 4 weeks down 100 to go :) 

Crazy and spiritual story of this week: so Elder Babbel, Fullmer and I got to take a field trip off the MTC campus and were headed down to the BYU Health Center to fill a prescription for Elder Fullmer. The trip went perfectly, no accidents, not very much wait time, and it was relatively painless. As were walking our of the Health Center though I turn to the left just in time to see a minivan drive straight into a large garbage collector. My ears hadn't even had time to hear the crash before I was heading at full sprint towards the accident. A terrified mother pulled herself from the driver's side obviously hurt and started trying to yank the door open. Horrified, I realized she was hysterical because her young daughter was trapped in the car. Fearing the worst we yanked the door open to find the girl perfectly safe, only crying because she was obviously scared. The dazed driver of the garbage truck walked over and started yelling about her not looking where she was going, and in that moment we realized the whole time she hadn't been speaking English. The woman it turns out, was from Chile and had only arrived in the U.S. six months ago. She spoke zero English and could only speak Spanish. Suddenly I realized we had been speaking fluent Spanish the whole time, and after a moment of dumb-strucked-ness, quickly told her we were there to help. We talked, made sure she wasn't hurt, calmed her down, and eventually got her story of what had happened. The Police showed up and we were acted as translators until a Police officer that spoke Spanish showed up. In the end, everything was fine. The garbage truck wasn't even dented and though the car was missing it's front half, the woman and child were perfectly fine. It was a neat experience though, because we knew that we had been walking down that tiny street at just the right time to be able to help some people in need. I have no doubt that we had all been prompted to go to the Health Center at the time so that we would be in the right place at the right time to help that woman. Moral of the story: if we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, we will always be at the right place at the right time. I loved the conference talk about putting Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, I know that sometimes in life when were buffeted by the tempests and whirlwinds of life it easy to lose our foundation and focus but if we are built upon a foundation of faith that Jesus is our Savior we will can never fail. We can fall yes, but the most important thing is that after we fall, we get back up and keep moving forward :)

Muchos amor por todos,

Elder Jensen

A MTC Christmas Story

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the dorms 

Not a missionary was stirring, not even the Russian-speaking ones

¡Feliz Navidad amigos y familia!

For all you non-Spanish speakers out there, Merry Christmas! This week was filled to the brim with holiday spirit as Spanish Zone 21 celebrated the monthly Christmas-versary on September 25th. Once upon a time, a long long time ago in a dorm room not so far away, an Elder in Spanish Zone 21 was saddened at the prospect of missing Christmas in the MTC because that usually means that a General Authority comes to speak, so he decided to fill his pit of despair with the tradition of a monthly Christmas celebration on the 25th of each month, and today we now know this tradition as Christmas-versary. It lives on 8 months later and this week my district and I had the opportunity to spread the Christmas spirit to everyone on campus. Activities included: chalkboard drawing competitions, randomly bursting into the Christmas-hymn-singing version of Elder Jensen during class, dressing in our best Christmas ties, caroling to the Asia-bound missionaries on the first floor, and buying every caramel apple sucker the MTC store had in stock (around 50) and handing them out to everyone we saw during the day as long as the said missionary promised to spread Christmas joy to all others around them. Many of the new missionaries were scared at our over-enthusiasm for a fake holiday, but they came around by the end of the 25th. 

Feliz Navidad from District 21-F!

The funny story for the week: Spanish. Because all funny things that happen to Elder Jensen seem to only happen in the Spanish language. We've continued teaching our TRC investigator Maribel and we love her so much. She's very patient with us and never gets angry because we're so slow at talking at this point in time. But this week we had an interesting experience with her, there are some Spanish words that sound VERY similar...for instance:

pesado=heavy

pasado=past 

pescado=fish

pecado=sin

So when Elder Jensen is trying to say "Jesus Christ paid for your sins" it often comes out as "Jesus Christ paid for your fishes" which tends to confuse investigators. So there's those problems, and then Elder Jensen's problem of sometimes just saying words completely wrong. This week we were teaching Maribel and I attempted to say that Jesus Christ had "sheep in other fields" and those people he was talking about were the people in the Americas. Well the Spanish word for sheep is "ovejas" (oh-vey-has) but when I attemped to say the word it it came out like "oh-ve-nas" which is a non-existent word in the Spanish language. So when Maribel looks at me with a worried/questioning gaze my immediate fight-or-flight instinct is to say "You know...like BAHHHHH" at an unhealthy decibel level. So Maribel starts laughing as hard as I've ever seen someone laugh and my companions on the floor laughing and I'm sitting in my chair trying to understand what just happened. As in turns out, the walls in the TRC rooms are paper thin, so everyone in my entire district and zone heard my sheep impressions and it's something that almost a week later, I have yet to live down.

Anyway, moving away from Elder Jensen's hopeless Spanish mistakes, our spiritual moment this week came from ANOTHER investigator we're now teaching. His name is Julio and he has a pretty rough past of illness in his life and after two lessons Elder Babble and I were ready to give up. He was angry at God, and we tried everything to help him understand how much love God has for him, but he refused to believe any of it. So Elder Babble and I prayed together one night and next day during the lesson we had the distinct impression to show him "Mountains to Climb" (if you haven't seen that video watch it, it is SO good!). After watching the Mormon message, word can not express how strong the spirit was in that room. Elder Babble and I remained silent for almost 3 minutes, and Julio just sat there and cried. It was such a testament that no matter where we are with God, the love from God and Jesus Christ is always accessible. He only asks that we exercise a particle of faith and in return blesses us with help and comfort and peace. No matter where we are in our lives, no matter how alone we feel, no matter what we're going through we will NEVER walk alone because Jesus has walked that path before and knows EXACTLY how it feels. No matter how bad times get we just have to keep moving forward :) 

Muchos amor, 

Elder Jensen

Fotos y otros stories

I also got a leadership position this week! Self-appointed of course, but one nonetheless. I like to refer to myself as Emperoric Over-lord of Making-Our-Class-Be-Friends and the Spanish language but everyone else just calls me Unity Coordinator (and by everyone I mean no one because it's not TECHNICALLY recognized as an actual position). My duties include making sure (forcing) our unit plays volleyball together during gym time, making sure that we have mandatory 3 minute laughing break every hour by saying something completely ridiculous, or instituting what I like to call "Espanol Jueves" or Spanish Thursday for all you non-Spanish speakers out there. Basically the idea of Espanol Jueves is that we speak Spanish all day and for every word said in English you have to do 5 push ups to make up for it. As it turns out, Espanol Jueves was actually my bane. I ended up with around 120 push-ups last Thursday, because Elder Jensen often forgets that he's a Spanish-speaking missionary. Here's a picture for your entertainment.

( we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to bring you some unfortunate news: Elder Jensen's pictures didn't load!!! As soon as possible we will see if he can send them again...carry on...)

Other locations of my push-ups include: the classroom, gym, walkways, cafeteria, bathroom, and a couple other strange places. Overall it was a successful week, I created a new word in the Spanish language

(see above)

Got kicked out of personal study time because I "distracted" the class by making a joke about utter destruction. (Just kidding mom don't worry I just really wanted to take this picture). 

(see above)

And overall just had a great week. 

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (for Elder Jensen's Spanish-speaking skills)

Buenos dias amigos!

As you can see reflected in my e-mail subject line, a large majority of my day-dreaming time here in the MTC is spent wondering how great that new Star Wars movie will be. But nevertheless the overwhelmingly great thing that happened this week is I learned how to speak Spanish goodly! Trying to learn the first week in Spanish can only be equated to attempting to drink water from a fire hose (which in fact, is something I tried once and was exceedingly difficult). Now that I'm a hardened 2-week veteran of missionary training I feel so much more comfortable with Spanish and life in general. Though it is in some part true that days are the same (wake up, eat, class, eat, class, gym, eat, class, sleep) I will attempt to talk about unique experiences each week.

This week, as I said was a huge step for my Spanish skills! But not because I all of a sudden I got good, but closer to a prueba de fuego (trial by fire). Elder Babble and I are teaching a real investigator now....IN SPANISH! So we're kinda forced to get good at Spanish because English is tabooed in our meeting room. Yet, it wasn't actually that hard because our investigator is AMAZING. Her name is Maribel and she's a grandmotherly lady that Elder B and I love teaching, because she's always so sweet to us (and also because she bakes us treats every time we meet and Elder Babble and Elder Jensen LOOOVE treats). It's a part of a really cool opportunity we have in the MTC called Teaching Resource Committee or TRC, where local investigators come and listen to brand-spanking new missionaries like struggle to give lessons in some hybrid form of Portu-Spanglish where only like every 3rd word makes any sense. But I love it, she's really receptive to the gospel and already wants to get baptized so Elder Babble and I are very happy :) 

On a serious note, we had the General Primary President give a devotional this Sunday and it was AMAZING. She gave a talk about how when we're down or worried we can't turn inward and complain about how miserable we are, but instead we ​have to turn outward like Christ did and show love and serve others. She talked of how after having 3 of his apostles fall asleep on him he told them not to worry, after being betrayed by one of his own he was concerned about one of the Romans, and how that after he hung on the cross he told his Father to forgive them. It was such a powerful lesson because sometimes days in the MTC are super duper hard, but we get through them by stopping feelings of worry, sadness, and fear, and in the immortal words of a great Disney classic, we have to keep moving forward :)   

I love you all muchos!! 

Elder Jensen

Elder Jensen's MTC Adventure Episode I: "Como se dice (insert some obvious Spanish word that all the other native speakers in my class know but I don't)?"

For all you non-Spanish speakers like me, the title above translates to: "How do you say (Spanish word)?" and poll says that is the most commonly used sentence this week. 

For those who don't know what the MTC is, it stands for Missionary Training Center and it's a sweet hybrid between a Shaolin Monastery, Camp Rock, and the hardest school day of all time. Each day starts with breakfast, then 3 hours of Spanish class, followed by lunch, then 3 more hours of class, then dinner, then 4 MORE hours of Spanish class. So you could say I'm getting pretty decent at Spanish. It's so great here though! It was intimidating at first, because we were escorted to our room, then immediately to our first class where a teacher only spoke Spanish and we had to help each other understand. My class (or district as we call ourselves) is so great. It's composed of Elder Babble and I, two more sets of Elders, and a set of Hermanas (sister missionaries). They're all so awesome and so much fun, but they all speak fluent Spanish and as many of you know, Elder Jensen does NOT :) But, it's coming back! After speaking 10 hours a day, you have no choice but to learn some Spanish here and there.

 Other than class-time, we use the rest of our 5 hours for personal study, practicing Spanish, and having nerf wars in our dormitories. After classes we have 45 minutes in our dorms before quiet-time and the activities range from spike-ball to yes, enormous Spanish-speaking Spaniards versus Russian-speaking Russian nerf wars that take the full 45 minutes before bedtime. You could say that the MTC is the greatest place on the entire planet!

Attached I've included a picture of my companero, Elder Babble!!

Also, thank you to everybody who's sent letters and gifts you guys are the best :) 

My current address is: 

(Please email Amy Jensen at amyjaneway@cox.net if you would like his address!)

Last but not least, my branch president has a motto that I really love that I though I'd share

Querer es Poder (To want to do be able to)

Buenas dias!

Elder Jensen