The Continuing Adventures of Elder Jensen: A Week in the Life of a Spanish Speaking Missionary in the Houston Texas South Mission

Elder Jensen has been SUPER busy in this new area and has not had time to write a group email for two weeks now. He has been emailing me so I thought I would include his letter to me this week. I asked him how he was doing and to tell me all about his week. He wrote back with a day-by-day in the life of a Houston Texas South Spanish speaking missionary!: (and lots of pictures too!)

Hey Mommy!

Okay so sorry last week was so crazy, it was a nuts weeks because of all the temple stuff but it all worked out in the end :) First to start, I really am okay :) There's ups and downs but for these last four weeks I've been really good. It's a lot more fast paced but fortunately I love that! We're more than halfway through this transfer and it feels like we just started! So long story short: I'm doing really well :) It's been an uncomfortable experience but I've grown! As the saying goes, "there's no growth in comfort and no comfort in growth." I really am learning that SO much and I love it :) I love seeing the person I was 6 months ago (spiritually speaking) and I have changed for the better. It's great, it really is. I can see why serving a mission is a priesthood duty for men- because it really prepares you to be a father and that's so very important. Anyway for this week I'll just go day by day :)

Monday: No P-day because we wanted to go to the temple with Emily so we went and did some quick monday chores: shopped, bought medicine for Elder Sharp and took Carlos to grab a suit then we saw the 2nd counselor's (a member of the ward) family and had catfish and shrimp with them (by the way I have become 100000X less picky, I'm not even picky anymore aren't you proud? :)...) then after we went to go try and find some new investigators, saw these kind of not going anywhere investigators that promised they would come to church (and didn't again...:(...) and that was pretty much it!

Tuesday: We went to go see this lady named Joyce who Elders Sharp and Escobar found and she's already in Mosiah 29!!! So we went over to clean her lawn and pass her off to the English Elders in the area. Then we realized Emily's endowment session was at 10AM and we would have no time to email so we ran to the library super fast and finished emailing! Then after we went to go see the Penillas (best family ever) and they bought us panda express (which I LOVE now for some reason) then we had to go to this JustServe stake committee meeting because we're a part of it! The Church wants us doing more service so we go to this stake committee meeting to coordinate and it was good! Not much happened, just talked about what JustServe is, offered our help, etc... it was good :)

Wednesday: WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! WOOHOO! It was my second time going but first going to do endowments. We woke up on time, got ready and we're at the church where Emily and her escort (a lady in the ward) were going to be but LONG, LONG story short the lady ditched us and we were super bummed :( but as said in 2nd Nephi we are saved by grace after all we can do :) so we called! And called, and called and found a RM that was visiting and he took us! Saved the day! But then we missed the endowment session by 5 minutes BUT then the Temple Matron (I came here with them on the plane so the temple president and matron and I are tight it's pretty sweet it's got great benefits :)...) and so we explained the situation and she of course couldn't stop the session but could let us do an ordinance then go to the Celestial Room to wait to see Emily! So we did and then she let us into the Celestial Room! Coolest experience of my life. We studied by ourselves in silence for an hour. I learned so much and received a lot of revelation- absolutely the coolest experience of my life. Then we went and learned how to teach English and had a training for the class we're starting next week. Then we went to meet one of our investigators Levy and had a great lesson on the BoM.

Thursday: Elder Sharp got really sick and was throwing up so the English Elders came a picked me up and I went with them to District meeting, we had a great meeting about the BoM and how important it is. Then President came and interviewed one of our candidates for baptism named Hassan- he's the son of a family in our ward they've been working with for 6 months! Then we organized and studied at home as Elder Sharp slept. That was about it!

Friday: We taught an English class, we saw a few recent converts and saw a family that fed us dinner it was a pretty normal day of finding, teaching, etc.

Saturday : Same thing, that's our day to work because we have no planned meetings so we visit a lot of people, just saw some families, taught some new people we'll see how they go!

Sunday: We had ward counsel at 7AM and church at 9AM, then after church we went to go see Alex, the husband of the girl that was baptized my first week here (Lydia)! We're working with him before he goes back to Guatamala too! Then at 5 was Hassan's baptism, it was a great service :) then afterwards we went to a new member devotional where we talked a lot about the importance of the BoM. Then we had to get home super fast and call tons of people and submit the zone's numbers for the week.

And that's the week in my life :) About as crazy as all weeks. It's super fun and I love it a ton. I'm glad you guys had a great week! I love you all and miss you tons, how are YOU? :)

Love you lots mom!

Elder Jensen

*JustServe.org is a website still in development that coordinates service opportunities in local communities and connects them with people who want to volunteer. Some areas, like ours, have a well developed resource- I can type in my zip code and find loads of service opportunities for me and my family. Other zip codes are still being built. Elder Jensen is helping build the Houston area.

PICTURES!

Celebrating Elder Escobar's birthday: