Week #6

This is the last email Brody will be sending while at the MTC. His 6 weeks are up. I am sure his companion is as happy as Brody. I was able to message back and forth today for about 2 hours. He was able to play basketball with Daniel and Brody Adams today. He said it was a pretty good day. He also mentioned that one of Daniels bags is lost somewhere at the MTC, and just our lack it had some of Brody's stuff in it. He was hoping to find it today before he left. He is looking forward to getting back to the united states and buying a real american burger. I asked him about his talk and they basically go to church with a talk prepared and they call a few elders out of the congregation to speak. I have some pictures I will forward in separate emails. Thanks for all of your support this past 6 weeks. It means a lot to Brody. His next email should probably be Monday from Fresno. 

Hello everyone. Well this past week has been pretty eventful. To start off I will tell you why our district had to meet with the MTC president. Haha. So a couple of weeks ago we got chosen by another district to receive a book that has been passed down 65 times and it has stories in it from other peoples experiences at the MTC. No one knew about it except for the two districts that hand it down and receive it. the way you hand it down is you hang a flash light from the ceiling around 10 at night. then you turn all the lights off and have a ritual and hand the book down. but just with our luck two teachers saw us and emailed the president. after 65 times we are the ones that get caught. our teachers were pretty mad at us but the president thought it was kind of cool. So he let us pass it down and continue the tradition, but not in the

 dark. he said that people could be kissing in the dark haha. there is also a sweater that the district leader has to wear the next day, it has never been washed and its been worn 65 times. President Pratt was pretty cool about it surprisingly, look him up. he reminds me of the old turtle on kung fu panda. haha and he usually gives me the chills. the next event is that I had to give a talk on sunday in sacrament meeting in spanish! I spoke and personal revelation. My Spanish is not good at all but I'm ready to get to California. i leave tomorrow at 2 in the morning. its been a long six weeks and I'm ready to leave. another thing that happened this past week is that I got to see my buddy Daniel Reno.

Elder Reno and Elder Jensen

he seems to be doing pretty well. its always good to see my friends and people from back at home. It's crazy to think that i will be in the field tomorrow! i am hoping it will be a good adjustment. this past week I found out that my companion is deathly afraid of spiders haha. i had him standing on the toilet with the door locked because I was guiding a spider around the room with the fly swatter haha. he probably doesn't like me but it was way funny and he was screaming at me almost crying! Oh and today I got my haircut... I will send a picture of it! Let's just say that the lady missed a couple of spots so i had to go do some touch up work with my scissors in my room haha. i want all of you guys to know that I couldn't do this without you.  your support and help keeps me going and it motivates me. I'm always thinking and praying about all of you back at home. I hope you're all doing well. have a great week... and be safe! i love and miss you guys so much!

Love, Elder Jensen

Haircut 

Elder Jensen's Testimony in Spanish

Week #5

As you can see Brody is somewhat himself this week. He has gone from threatening to punch his companion to directly  splitting their open their lip. I am glad that his companions in his district still love him enough to give him a nickname Hahaha. Brody told us that he received his flight information. He leaves Mexico next Wednesday at 7:00 am. He can hardly wait. Seth left Monday for the mission field. Brody told us that he and Seth were able to spend some time together on Sunday Night. He told us how that experience went down.  I am so thankful they realize how important each one of them was to the other. Thanks for all of your letters to Brody and your prayers in his behalf this past week. 

Hello everyone, I'm now starting my last week here at the MTC. It seems like I've been here forever. I'm ready to get to California and see what its like out there. this past week has been another regular week, except i accidentally made a kid have to get stitches in his mouth while playing basketball. my district has also gave me a name it is, "sunshine" because I'm always so happy and positive haha not. i finished reading the book of mormon this past week, its actually the most entertaining thing to do here because we are always speaking spanish and i love when i get to read something in english. before my mission i always looked at prayer as something i was just suppose to do and i never prayed with my feelings and faith. but

now that I'm out here i know that i need prayer to feel comforted and i make my prayers more meaningful. this past sunday we watched a talk by one of the most motivational speakers i have ever listened to, it was Jeffrey R. Holland, his talk was about peter talking to jesus. in the story jesus told peter to leave his boat and to stop fishing. jesus asked peter if he loved him... Peter replied and said yes. Jesus asked Peter two more times if he loved him and on the third time peter said, "Yes i love you more than anything." Jesus then said, then leave your boat and gather my sheep. And it hit me, I started asking myself if I love Jesus. and I do, Jesus suffered for me and every other person on this earth. the least i can do is sacrifice 2 years of my life for him when he sacrificed everything for me. 2 years seems like a long time now but compared to eternity its literately nothing. We also watched a movie on Joseph Smith and the restoration. Joseph Smith was an incredible prophet and he always had faith in the lord. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and the

determination he had to do the Lord's work. the hardest thing for me this past week was saying goodbye to Elder Colby on Sunday night. he was such a blessing to have here. and to be honest, i don't know where i would be without him. He helped me get this far and i couldn't have done it without him. he's the little bit of home that i had left and I'm gonna miss that kid. I'm always thinking and praying about all of you guys at home. I miss you all like crazy and love you more than anything. I hope you all have fun starting school Haha. I'll see you all soon. 

Love Always, Elder Jensen

Week #4

Brody seems to be settled in and going through the motions. He can't wait to get out of Mexico. He wants us to send some spray and wash as well as a sweater with Daniel. He was hoping that he would't have to get a haircut while at the MTC but they require one right before you leave. He sent some pictures that I will forward in a separate email. He says it continues to rain everyday. He is with his companion from minnesota as well as one from kansas, orem, bountiful, redding california, bingham, and oregon. He really likes the kids from bountiful and california. He is going to send a picture next week of all of them. Only two more weeks in the MTC. Thanks for all of your prayers this past week for Brody. 

This past week hasn't been too eventful. everyday is pretty much the same here. the only thing that has really happened is that there is a virus going around, it was here the week before i got here and now its back. people call it fiahrea, you can probably guess why its called that. one day there were around 80 missionaries in the infirmary. we are not aloud to shake hands or anything. luckily i have not got the virus so far, you get put on bed rest if you get it. its super contagious. I'm getting ready to get out of this place haha the other elders and teachers drive me crazy sometimes. me and my companion have been doing

 alright this past week other than when i have to tell him to not sing so loud. during this next week i will hit the one month mark, its been a super long month and i hope the next months are faster and better. my spanish is probably about the same as it was last week. when i first opened my call i was hoping to go to some crazy country, now i am happy i am not. I'm so happy that i get to come back to the states and have normal food. some of the food here consists of... breakfast burritos with just mashed potatoes in them, some funky meat that i don't know what it is, and weird baked eggs with spinach in them. american food is way better. thats why tuesdays are the best because we get pizza from Costco. so a regular day here is waking up at 6:20 then we have to study in the class until 7:30. after that we get breakfast then study until 9. at 9 our first teacher comes and teaches us a lesson and we do progressing investigator in spanish. we teach until 12 at which point we go to lunch. after lunch we have gym time from 1.30 to 2;30. we then have class again with our second teacher from 3 to 6. we have dinner at 6. then after dinner we go do a language

program on the computer called TALL. after tall we have personal and language study from 8 to 9:30. we then go back to our rooms and get ready to do it all again the next day. its exhausting and boring... but I'm on the home stretch at the MTC. i hope you are all doing well and having a good end to the summer. I'm always thinking and praying about all of you guys back at home. ill talk to you next week. i love you all and I'll see you soon. 

Love, Elder Jensen

Week #3

As you can see Brody has found someone to antagonize besides his siblings. He doesn’t even sound like the same kid that arrived in Mexico 3 short weeks ago. Brody told me that he gets to play basketball, volleyball, or kickball for an hour everyday after lunch.  He was able to go to the temple and visit but not go in because it is still closed. I will send some pictures. He told us that he spends 7 hours a day in classes and then has to study from 7:00-9:30 every night with the others in his dorm. He is looking forward to another payson boy arriving tomorrow. Brody Adams is headed to Mexico tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your prayers in Brody's behalf. 

Hello family and friends. i hope you are all doing well and everything is good back at home. its been another long week here at the MTC. My Spanish still sucks but I can bare my testimony somewhat and pray in spanish. its going to take a long time to get the language down but its whatever... I'm half way through the MTC. i am both nervous and excited to go in the field because I think that it will be a lot better than this place but I'm nervous about teaching real investigators in spanish. I feel like I could talk about any topic all day in English but but thats not what I have been called to do. my spanish can only improve and I hope I can be able to get to the point where i can also talk about any topic in spanish. besides the language this past week hasn't been too bad. ive entertained myself by making my companion angry. haha he claims that he has received personal revelation that his future wife is here at the mtc. I won't let him hear the end of it and he gets super mad. haha he is from Minnesota and the thing that makes him the most mad is when I tell him that utah has the most righteous mormons. he tells me to never say that and he gets so mad. i laugh so hard when he gets really mad. one thing that helps me when im having a rough time is seeing and talking to kids that live back in payson like me. I don't think it was a coincidence that me and elder seth colby are here at the same time. becuase there have been times where I have needed to talk to him. I think we were sent here to help eachother out and get through this place together. im always thinking about all of the stuff you guys are doing back at home and i miss you all like crazy. one thing that helps me out here is knowing that i can be with my family forever. and thats exactly what i want to help other families with. knowing that i can be wiht my loved ones forever brings me everlasting happiness and i want others to know and feel of that happiness. sacraficing two years of my life is worth helping families become eternal. If i didnt have the knowledge about eternal families I would be so grateful if someone taught me how I could have never ending happiness with my family. im out here because i want people to have the joy and happiness that the gospel has brought me. I hope youre all doing well and I'll talk to you soon. I love you guys. I'll see you soon.

Love, Elder Jensen