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:

​

(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

A MTC Christmas Story

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the dorms 

Not a missionary was stirring, not even the Russian-speaking ones

¡Feliz Navidad amigos y familia!

For all you non-Spanish speakers out there, Merry Christmas! This week was filled to the brim with holiday spirit as Spanish Zone 21 celebrated the monthly Christmas-versary on September 25th. Once upon a time, a long long time ago in a dorm room not so far away, an Elder in Spanish Zone 21 was saddened at the prospect of missing Christmas in the MTC because that usually means that a General Authority comes to speak, so he decided to fill his pit of despair with the tradition of a monthly Christmas celebration on the 25th of each month, and today we now know this tradition as Christmas-versary. It lives on 8 months later and this week my district and I had the opportunity to spread the Christmas spirit to everyone on campus. Activities included: chalkboard drawing competitions, randomly bursting into the Christmas-hymn-singing version of Elder Jensen during class, dressing in our best Christmas ties, caroling to the Asia-bound missionaries on the first floor, and buying every caramel apple sucker the MTC store had in stock (around 50) and handing them out to everyone we saw during the day as long as the said missionary promised to spread Christmas joy to all others around them. Many of the new missionaries were scared at our over-enthusiasm for a fake holiday, but they came around by the end of the 25th. 

Feliz Navidad from District 21-F!

The funny story for the week: Spanish. Because all funny things that happen to Elder Jensen seem to only happen in the Spanish language. We've continued teaching our TRC investigator Maribel and we love her so much. She's very patient with us and never gets angry because we're so slow at talking at this point in time. But this week we had an interesting experience with her, there are some Spanish words that sound VERY similar...for instance:

pesado=heavy

pasado=past 

pescado=fish

pecado=sin

So when Elder Jensen is trying to say "Jesus Christ paid for your sins" it often comes out as "Jesus Christ paid for your fishes" which tends to confuse investigators. So there's those problems, and then Elder Jensen's problem of sometimes just saying words completely wrong. This week we were teaching Maribel and I attempted to say that Jesus Christ had "sheep in other fields" and those people he was talking about were the people in the Americas. Well the Spanish word for sheep is "ovejas" (oh-vey-has) but when I attemped to say the word it it came out like "oh-ve-nas" which is a non-existent word in the Spanish language. So when Maribel looks at me with a worried/questioning gaze my immediate fight-or-flight instinct is to say "You know...like BAHHHHH" at an unhealthy decibel level. So Maribel starts laughing as hard as I've ever seen someone laugh and my companions on the floor laughing and I'm sitting in my chair trying to understand what just happened. As in turns out, the walls in the TRC rooms are paper thin, so everyone in my entire district and zone heard my sheep impressions and it's something that almost a week later, I have yet to live down.

Anyway, moving away from Elder Jensen's hopeless Spanish mistakes, our spiritual moment this week came from ANOTHER investigator we're now teaching. His name is Julio and he has a pretty rough past of illness in his life and after two lessons Elder Babble and I were ready to give up. He was angry at God, and we tried everything to help him understand how much love God has for him, but he refused to believe any of it. So Elder Babble and I prayed together one night and next day during the lesson we had the distinct impression to show him "Mountains to Climb" (if you haven't seen that video watch it, it is SO good!). After watching the Mormon message, word can not express how strong the spirit was in that room. Elder Babble and I remained silent for almost 3 minutes, and Julio just sat there and cried. It was such a testament that no matter where we are with God, the love from God and Jesus Christ is always accessible. He only asks that we exercise a particle of faith and in return blesses us with help and comfort and peace. No matter where we are in our lives, no matter how alone we feel, no matter what we're going through we will NEVER walk alone because Jesus has walked that path before and knows EXACTLY how it feels. No matter how bad times get we just have to keep moving forward :) 

Muchos amor, 

Elder Jensen

Fotos y otros stories

I also got a leadership position this week! Self-appointed of course, but one nonetheless. I like to refer to myself as Emperoric Over-lord of Making-Our-Class-Be-Friends and the Spanish language but everyone else just calls me Unity Coordinator (and by everyone I mean no one because it's not TECHNICALLY recognized as an actual position). My duties include making sure (forcing) our unit plays volleyball together during gym time, making sure that we have mandatory 3 minute laughing break every hour by saying something completely ridiculous, or instituting what I like to call "Espanol Jueves" or Spanish Thursday for all you non-Spanish speakers out there. Basically the idea of Espanol Jueves is that we speak Spanish all day and for every word said in English you have to do 5 push ups to make up for it. As it turns out, Espanol Jueves was actually my bane. I ended up with around 120 push-ups last Thursday, because Elder Jensen often forgets that he's a Spanish-speaking missionary. Here's a picture for your entertainment.

( we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to bring you some unfortunate news: Elder Jensen's pictures didn't load!!! As soon as possible we will see if he can send them again...carry on...)

Other locations of my push-ups include: the classroom, gym, walkways, cafeteria, bathroom, and a couple other strange places. Overall it was a successful week, I created a new word in the Spanish language

(see above)

Got kicked out of personal study time because I "distracted" the class by making a joke about utter destruction. (Just kidding mom don't worry I just really wanted to take this picture). 

(see above)

And overall just had a great week. 

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (for Elder Jensen's Spanish-speaking skills)

Buenos dias amigos!

As you can see reflected in my e-mail subject line, a large majority of my day-dreaming time here in the MTC is spent wondering how great that new Star Wars movie will be. But nevertheless the overwhelmingly great thing that happened this week is I learned how to speak Spanish goodly! Trying to learn the first week in Spanish can only be equated to attempting to drink water from a fire hose (which in fact, is something I tried once and was exceedingly difficult). Now that I'm a hardened 2-week veteran of missionary training I feel so much more comfortable with Spanish and life in general. Though it is in some part true that days are the same (wake up, eat, class, eat, class, gym, eat, class, sleep) I will attempt to talk about unique experiences each week.

This week, as I said was a huge step for my Spanish skills! But not because I all of a sudden I got good, but closer to a prueba de fuego (trial by fire). Elder Babble and I are teaching a real investigator now....IN SPANISH! So we're kinda forced to get good at Spanish because English is tabooed in our meeting room. Yet, it wasn't actually that hard because our investigator is AMAZING. Her name is Maribel and she's a grandmotherly lady that Elder B and I love teaching, because she's always so sweet to us (and also because she bakes us treats every time we meet and Elder Babble and Elder Jensen LOOOVE treats). It's a part of a really cool opportunity we have in the MTC called Teaching Resource Committee or TRC, where local investigators come and listen to brand-spanking new missionaries like struggle to give lessons in some hybrid form of Portu-Spanglish where only like every 3rd word makes any sense. But I love it, she's really receptive to the gospel and already wants to get baptized so Elder Babble and I are very happy :) 

On a serious note, we had the General Primary President give a devotional this Sunday and it was AMAZING. She gave a talk about how when we're down or worried we can't turn inward and complain about how miserable we are, but instead we ​have to turn outward like Christ did and show love and serve others. She talked of how after having 3 of his apostles fall asleep on him he told them not to worry, after being betrayed by one of his own he was concerned about one of the Romans, and how that after he hung on the cross he told his Father to forgive them. It was such a powerful lesson because sometimes days in the MTC are super duper hard, but we get through them by stopping feelings of worry, sadness, and fear, and in the immortal words of a great Disney classic, we have to keep moving forward :)   

I love you all muchos!! 

Elder Jensen