Tarzan 3: The one where we adopt a newy Elder (or should I say an Elder Newby?)

Dearest amigos y familia,

Yes my Spanglish is still way terrible- I can't control when I speak English or Spanish, and the city of Houston has decided to take a winter vacation in the 40 degree range, while navigating the Texas forest Elder Palacios and I ran into a baby and adopted it as our own, and the Houston Texas South Mission is still the greatest mission in the world :)

So in the last 13 weeks I've gotten half decent with Spanish. Six weeks only speaking Spanish with a Peruvian native really helped a lot! But see herein lies the problem: when to use which? It's difficult because we're still in the States but everyone around us speaks Spanish! So most of our days are an 80-20 mix of Spanish to English. So we were sitting in the lounge area talking to some members of our ward (ballpark estimate 40% of them speak English so odds are when you talk to them in English they'll understand) and I wasn't thinking and just start talking in English to Noe, one of the members. Elder Jensen continues talking for literally 5 minutes about his day, what he learned, typical annoying Elder Jensen stuff, right? So I look up at him after 5 minutes of silence and he's looking at me with this blank stare. Then I remember he doesn't speak a word of English and I spent the last 5 minutes talking to him and all he understood is that Elder Jensen is insane. Then I walk down the hall, confidently in Spanish mode and start talking to this kid in the English ward in Spanish. Moral of the story: Elder Jensen is a crazy person.

Better, more happier story of the week: Elder Palacios and I were both assigned to train a new baby missionary fresh de la fabrica :) And get this...his name is Elder Newby. Every member of our ward has a good laugh with that one, poor kid. But he's awesome! It was quite funny the parallels between receiving a baby missionary and taking care of a baby in real life. After receiving the call from President we celebrated a little, then called MY trainer-dad and told him he was a grandpa, had a lunch together to celebrate, then Elder Palacios and I spent the entire day sanitizing our apartment from the last 6 weeks, deciding what language he would speak, which parent would talk to him in what language, when we were going to let him take the car out for a spin, how early we were going to get up and take him out to exercise every morning and all the fun things that come with growing up. 

Our week was a blast, we received so many blessings and help so many people. We served at a local care facility and helped low-income kids keep their smiles, we went downtown and handed out food, and decided that the world is just great. A few weeks back I talked about not being like Lot's wife and regretting our mistakes in life but to look not behind us. But I want to add something to that. I think it's such a good lesson to learn but it is missing a key point: It's not enough just to not look behind us, we have to look forward too! There's a prophet in the Book of Mormon named Alma who says we need to keep an "eye of faith and look forward". We can't just not look behind us, we have to have faith and hope and keep moving (and looking) forward. 

Miss you all lots!

Elder Jensen

Highlight Reel: January 1-January 19 in Elder Jensen's Mission

Hello friends and family!

In light of the fact that we ran out of time to email last week, I figured we could get this done real fast with a highlight reel of the last two weeks- two weeks that have been filled with various adventures in Downtown Houston involving a man relieving himself on the pavement next to me during the closing prayer, a homeless guy named Max that told us he knows the church is true and then taught us about how the Harmonic Resonance of the Earth is the exact same as our feet when they feel cool air and how there's a cult of devil worshipers that live under the ground where we were standing or something another, and various other bizarre stories that made our week a weird one. We also managed to contact every person on our part of the ward list and now have a set list of everyone in our area which has taken the last 13 weeks to finish but is finally done!

The last story of the week happened as we were contacting people on the street. We met this guy named Onorario who was carrying a huge case of beer back to his house but stopped us on the road and started asking who we were. We explained how we were missionaries and we help people to change their lives through Jesus Christ and he was super interested. So he tells us to come back to his house for a lesson. We follow him to the back of the complex which is weird because there were no more houses. 

Then he walked over to a wall, leaned against it, and just started bawling. We asked him what was wrong and he said that he isn't able to stop drinking and smoking and he feels abandoned by everyone. So we taught him a lesson about the hope Christ can provide for us and he looked us straight in the eye and said "Quiero cambiar" (I want to change).  He then took out his cigarettes and lighter and told me to throw them in the trash can, which was more or less 15 feet from where we were standing, so I took them and chucked them as hard as I could, made it, and then turned around beaming (because it's always been one of my dreams to do that).

So a lot of adrenaline is rushing through Elder Jensen at this point and there's still this case of beer right next to him. He looks at me, I look at him, then at the case of beer, and he looks me in the eye and says "Hagalo" (Do it). So Elder Jensen cackles and with the energy of a 4-year old maniac child hefts the case of beer as hard as he can toward the trash can. Little did Elder Jensen know that adrenaline actually makes you kind of way excited and crazy so when he throws it with all his might, watching the case sail into the dumpster...he just flat out misses. Elder Jensen threw the beer so hard it missed the dumpster, the compound wall, AND the 10 feet of ground between the complex and a canal. The case of beer rolls straight into the canal and Elder Jensen and his companions had to spent the next hour trying to fish it out because littering is bad for the environment. So that happened.

I know that people can change. I know that because I see people all the time that change. I've changed! In just three short months on my mission, I've become the person I've always wanted to be. But it wasn't instant...I think sometimes I expect miracles to happen and for changes to come immediately. As I've been out on my mission I have learned that it takes patience, because life stinks sometimes and sometimes we feel like darkness is all around us and have no idea where we are and can't help but wonder why God abandoned us, why all these stinky things happen to us and at times I think it's because we expect instant change. 

One of the leaders of our church, Elder Bednar, compares it to a sunrise. Change is slow, gradual. Sometimes relief doesn't come immediately, but slowly one step at a time until before we know it, we're out of the darkness and into the light. When we're down, sad, and hopeless I encourage y'all to just have faith! It all work out, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but someday it will all be better and I know that's true. In times of darkness and sadness have faith and just keep moving forward :)

Love,

Elder Jensen

Here's the link to the short video by Elder Bednar that Elder Jensen referenced:

"Light" by Elder Bednar

Elder Jensen (R) and Elder P (C)  pose with their new trainee Elder N (L). And the beer case. :)

Les Miserable 2: the one where Hermano Mejia, Elder Jensen, and Elder Fails try and teach a Primary class

Dearest family and friends,

I hope that you all had a great holiday season and a happy new year! This time of year is so good for starting anew and in the spirit of that I would like to begin today with an apology addressed to all of the teachers and parents (including my own) who I might have terrorized from the ages of 3-4 (but really up until 18) years of age. I have a new appreciation for what you do and realize I was truly a difficult child to teach. Thank you for those that stuck with me through my terrible 18's- you guys are the best :) The best and funniest part of this week was yesterday when Elder Fails and I had the opportunity to teach the 3-4 year old class with one of the guys in our ward. In the church we have something called "Primary" where the kids who are ages 3-11 attend and it's a chance for them to learn, grow, and go absolutely crazy as a group of similar aged kids. There's also a rule that no adult can teach the class by themselves, so thus Elder Fails and Elder Jensen were called in as backup to help Hno. Mejia teach his lesson. What unfolded next was a drama equal only to the great French literary masterpiece. We walked in to a war scene:  two kids wrestling in the corner, three little girls playing hide-and-go-seek, and the rest of the class doesn't know it's hide-and-seek so they're all just playing tag and it was crazy. After 10 minutes of calming them all down the class started...this weeks topic was "Haz Lo Justo" ("Choose the Right"). 

Apparently little kids are the same, doesn't matter in Spanish or English because we spent the first ten minutes of class listening to one girl tell a story (in one breath) about one time she punched her brother but because he stole her toy first she still "Haz Lo Justo" (apparently we didn't teach what H.L.J. stands for very well). We spent the next few minutes laughing because everyone thought that was very funny. After 30 more minutes of fighting for the attention of the class Hno. Mejia found some treats and we managed to teach a 5 minute lesson as they quietly ate mouthfuls of chocolate. Moral of the story is: I now have a new appreciation for teachers everywhere so if you're a teacher or ever were a teacher- thank you for your service. 

Other than that the week was filled with downtown adventures, trying to find more members that live in our area, and working with our new but not new investigator Maria. She's so awesome! Last week there was a fire in our area that burned down half of a complex. Maria was an old investigator that lived there so we went to check on her and make sure she was okay, turns out she was! She was going to get baptized about a year ago but somehow the paper was thrown into the binder full of old investigators so she's super prepared and ready for baptism! The only problem is she lives with "the father of her child" which she hates, but has to live with because he won't let her find work and every time she's ready to leave him, she can't because she doesn't think she can have a life of her own. 

This is the lesson that I learned this week: the past is the past and it only has relevance if we turn around and look at it. It's like the story of Lot's wife. So Lot lives in Sodom and Gomorrah which are crazy wicked cities where everyone is so evil that God just decides he's going to destroy the whole thing. Lot and his family are righteous so God gives them a chance and sends some angels their way to say that the city is going to be destroyed and that if they want to live they only have to follow one commandment...this is found is Genesis 19:17 : "look not behind thee". So Lot and his family escape and the Lord and his angels start raining fire and brimstone down on the city. For whatever reason, the wife of Lot "looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." How sad is that? When I was younger I really didn't understand why that was in the scriptures..I mean that seems so sad. But every story in the Bible has a reason for being there right? And I think this one is direct counsel to us. 

We all have things that have happened, we all have trials and at times we make mistakes. I've made a whole bunch of mistakes in my life. When we're sad and down and depressed, 90% of the time is because we're stuck in the past...something didn't go well, we think about mistakes we've made and that's the reason we're sad. That's why we have Jesus Christ, he made it so we don't have to look back. That's the lesson we taught to Maria and one that I use every day of my mission. The past is the past, every day is a new day and also the start of a new year in your life so wake up and decide that today is going to be the day you forget about everything that happened in the past and start over. Don't look behind you just keep looking forward, because if you keep looking forward, you'll keep moving forward :)

Mucho amor,

Elder Jensen