No we just walked in the water to church....President Hall says swimming is against mission rules but says it's only swimming if you move your arms :)

Hey mommy!!!

First of all, tell Lizzy and Kate that I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!!! That's great I'm sure they did a great job :) Also thank you for the bag!! Also are nonny and lee still there? Tell them I love and miss them very much!! :) Thank you for your spiritual thought, they are always exactly what I need. You are the best in the world thank you for being such an amazing mom :)

My week was pretty crazy!!! 5/6 days out of the week we were serving and 6/6 days it rained this week!! The worst damage was on Monday but we are all actually pretty okay :) Our apartment is about 4 feet above street level so although our street was underwater we were okay! Most of the damage in concentrated in the Northern part of Houston, overall our mission was pretty alright. More news to come on that! The city is still assessing damage in the North and President Hall says we might have some organized service up there come the next few weeks! For now, everyone is good and damage to our mission was pretty low :) It was a crazy week though! We only taught like 2 or 3 lessons a day because pretty much everyday we were working at our Bishop's apartment complex. They are at street level, and in a valley-like area so the damage there was pretty bad. It was good though we got the whole district in on it and got some 100 something hours of service combined, it was a great week :) made me really grateful for working with Brother Pratt because a lot of the work was taking our floors which is what I did for a good couple of weeks :) Rather than that a pretty normal week haha! Once again I am super grateful that everything on me is waterproof so getting rained on is a pretty normal thing now :) 

It was a great week just to be able to serve. It's really need to see how ingrained we are to the community here. The city and President Hall worked together this whole week because they know he has an army of bilingual young adults literally jumping for joy for the opportunity to serve. It was so neat to be able to walk around Bishop's complex and see that people KNOW who we are. They wave us down to come help because the yellow shirts have become such a common sight. We also teach an english class to kids inside a school! We are a part of the community here and it's so great. We meet so many different people and have so many opportunities to stop what we're doing, forget about our problems and just help others around us. Best experience of my life, I am so grateful to be in Houston at this time, I have learned so much and am sure I will continue learning until the end of my mission. Thank you for everything you do for me and for the great and wonderful example you are to me. I love you lots!! :)

Elder Jensen

The Second Reign of Elderes Jensen and Sharp

Hello friends and family!

This week was awesome, we had a lot of great experiences but sadly enough Elder Sharp and I have bid farewell to our other companion, Elder Escobar who is moving areas to be with 2 new companions. The good news is that we're staying! We have a great area and we're really happy to stay, the members are great and make serving a mission so much fun. We also said goodbye to Hermana Wood, a missionary who has now returned home to Utah because she finished her mission! So overall a week with lots of goodbyes but with a lot of good as well!

This week's good again came as a result of the refugee kids that we teach. The lesson this week revolved around our families and what they mean to us. Then we broke into small groups and got to hear the stories of these kids and their families. They were amazing. Filled with so much sadness but to hear how strong they were astounded me. One boy named Thaer is from Iraq and when he was 10 years old his father was killed in front of him because he was accused of working with the Americans. One year later he's set the goal to become a doctor and is already working towards it. Then we heard a story from Francis, our 16 year old from Sudan, he told of how his mother passed away from cancer and maltreatment and how he and his brothers were left alone with their father. His goal is to grow up and play for the American national team. It had been so amazing to hear these kids stories and to see how strong they are. It's really impressive because these kids have been through so much yet still press forward and work to become the best they can be. I know that if we trust in God and keep moving forward, everything will work out in our lives. Get out and serve others and everything will be alright in the end :)

Love you all lots!

Elder Jensen

Last selfie with the original Houston 8th group (ft. Trina as the English Class Coordinator)

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (and Elder Jensen, Escobar, and Sharp)

Buenos dias familia y amigos! Los quiero mucho!

I hope this letter finds all of you happy and having a great life! I do have to apologize, it's been a crazy couple of weeks! It seems like we never have time to email and I never have time to write everyone! But alas, I am alive, happy, and well :)

These last couple weeks have primarily been crazy because we have helped a member of our area prepare to serve a mission, just like us! So that involved going to the temple, and that messed with our preparation days. Anyway, it was an awesome experience, our dear friend Emily is now training in the Utah Missionary Training Center, just like I was some 7 months ago! It was really exciting to get to go through that adventure with another missionary. Overall things have been good, we have a few investigators that we've been consistently working with and the work is moving along!

The best part of this last week though, was a new class that we have begun teaching in the local elementary schools. All Spanish missionaries in Houston are certified to teach English because it takes up a large chunk of our service time so thus each set of missionaries has 1-3 English  classes that we run, and they're always super fun! There has also been a huge influx of members f our class because of the large amount of refugees that are arriving from African nations. One of the biggest and hardest problems in the Greater Houston area School District has been making space for the refugee children, many of whom have never had formal schooling and come from backgrounds with very different cultural practices then our own. A few weeks ago the school board met and asked anyone if they knew where to find the LDS missionaries. 

Coincidentally enough, our English class coordinator is a member and sits on the council sometimes so she decidedly volunteered us to become English teachers for the school! It's been a few crazy weeks of coordinating but we finally have begun teaching in the school! :) It's such an awesome experience! We get to teach 6-16 old boys and girls from Africa how to speak English! It has been a humbling and awesome experience to be able to work with them. They are all so sweet and kind and treat us so nicely. Though they have suffered abuse and many of them have been damaged emotionally and physically but they are still the most loving people on the planet.​I have been so blessed to work with them and they have changed my life forever. I know no matter our backgrounds, who we are, we can always find hope as long as we keep moving forward! I hope y'all have an amazing week!

With much love,

Elder Jensen

The Houston 8th Ward Missionary Squad with Emily