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" :) )