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