Week #28

Brody is continuing to have a better outlook. He is really sad that Gurvinder is gone. That was the highlight each day for him. He expressed that he wants to be transferred to an all spanish speaking area in his mission. 

He was really bugged at the idea that his buddy seth is in Nebraska ice fishing. He told us that he has grown an inch and weighs 170. Must be the altitude. Anyway, thanks for your support. 

Hello everyone, 

How are you all doing? This past week was pretty crazy. We had a couple of things that happened. So last Tuesday I had an exchange and it went pretty well. I was with an Elder that served here in Coalinga over a year ago. We had a good time and he knew everyone in the area. On Thursday we had a zone conference with President Clark, he had a slide show of all of his cars. I didn't know that my mission was a multi billionaire. I think that he should just buy us all iPads haha. Anyways we had

Zone Leaders with Elder Jensen and Elder Falslev

a good zone conference. After that I went on exchanges again with the zone leaders. I went with one of them  to a baptismal interview. The interview was really long but it ended with a baptism the next day. On saturday I went and did service for a lady in Hanford with the zone leaders. Elder Falslev and I then came back to Coalinga. It was a pretty rough week because Gurvinder left Coalinga for good. He is gone now and it sucked to see him leave. I have been teaching him for about 5 months every single night. We became pretty good friends and now we have no one to see at night. My favorite part of the day was meeting with him. Right now we are still struggling with finding people to teach. Coalinga is starting to get pretty boring. On saturday we saw the Reyes family and had dinner with them. ohh and we got to watch an arguement.. one of our investigators is going through a divorce and while we were there his wife showed up and thought our car was another girl. Which that could be the reason why we ended up with a flat tire. haha well I hope you all have a good week. I love and miss you all.

Elder Jensen

Week #27

Brody is getting to use his spanish a little more. He has found some investigators that speak spanish only.  The tone of his email was rather positive. He was harassing his little brother about his haircut and basketball. Brody says that he has grown a little over an inch since he arrived in California. All of us, except Brennan, are hoping for a little more upwards growth. Brody sent some pictures that I will post to his blog. 

elderjenseninfresno.blogspot.com 

Thanks for your support. 

Hello everyone, 

So this past week was actually a pretty crazy one. So Elder Falslev had a meeting in Fresno and I went to Lemoore for 2 days in a tripanionship. It was actually pretty fun to be with two other elders but the hard part was that we didn't have enough bikes so we walked the whole day. This past week we have also had a lot of service. We go and help all of the widows out. It is weird to be doing yard work in the middle of January haha. This past week we were at dinner and I was not quite sure what I was eating. It tasted really weird and had a weird texture. I told the family to not tell me what it was until we were done eating haha. Come to find out it was pig skin soaked in garlic... it was pretty nasty!! But as a missionary it's not an option to not eat the members food. So my favorite part about this past week was on Saturday night. We had a family home evening with The Reyes family and the Ponces came as well. We taught about why we keep the commandments and choose the right. It was in Spanish and it went really well. We had snacks, played a game, and I gave all of the kids "has lo justo" rings. Which are CTR rings. They all loved them and showed up the next day at church with them on. I have a picture with them and the kids are showing their rings in the picture. They are a super cool family, the only thing holding them back is that they aren't legally married. They are getting married at the start of February then hopefully they will all get baptized. I really hope that they will. We invited them to have family prayer every night and they have been doing it for the past week. They say that they have seen a huge change and can feel the Spirit in their home! Yesterday we had another family home evening in Avenal, the topic was temples and the blessings that we receive by going to the temple and being sealed for all time and eternity as families. I will also send a picture of that! Yesterday we had 5 investigators at church, we had the Reyes family and Gurvinder. Gurvinder is still about the same and he claims he is leaving Coalinga this week to go somewhere else for college. I love and miss you all! Have a good week and stay safe! 

Elder Jensen

Avenal Family Home Evening

The Reyes Family 

6 Months

Brody hits his 6-month mark this week. Things are still pretty slow for him in Coalinga. It sounds like he is having some interesting experiences. I told him that I heard it stunk in Coalinga. He said that he either didn't notice or he has been there so long that he has the same odor on him. Thanks for your support. He sent a couple pictures that will be posted on his blog. 

Hello everyone, how are you all doing? Things are pretty much the same here. We had an odd week. So one night we were outside of the gas station waiting for Gurvinder and 4 drunk guys walked up to us and called us the God Mob. They were so drunk and falling on the ground. Then one of them told us to hold his cigarette, we told him no and he got pretty mad. So after they went in the gas station we got out of that area as fast as we could. Another thing that we did was we did some service for a 95 year old women. I will send a picture of her and me. The biggest thing that happened was we had to help out with a funeral on Saturday. It was at the church but it wasn't an LDS funeral. It was a 27-year-old guy. All of the people that came were a rough looking bunch. The funeral was sad because a priest from the Church of England spoke and the after life that he explained was not happy at all. He was in his robes and it was something that you won't see very often in an LDS church haha. After he spoke the 2nd counselor in the bishopric spoke and he even brought up the Book of Mormon...the priest was so mad. I think the chapel needs to be rededicated because of all the clapping that went on and I also noticed that everyone had their own little flask. They would pull it out when they thought that no one was looking and take a hit. Everyone there had probably never stepped inside of a church building. After it was over Elder Falslev and I spent about a half an hour cleaning up the cigarettes in the parking lot. It was ridiculous. That's all that happened this past week. I love you all.

-Elder Jensen

Week #25

Brody has had an ok week. He went out for pizza one night and the Ohio State vs Alabama game just happened to be on the TV. He was pretty happy about that. He was in fairly good spirits as we chatted today. Thanks for your support. 

Hello everyone,

How did new years eve go back at home? It was super lame here, we had to be inside of our apartment by 6:00. We just sat around talking about how boring it is to sit in our apartment for new years eve. Elder Falslev asked if I wanted to watch a video and I told him no because I am so sick of the church videos and i could quote them all by now. So we just sat in the apartment and heard a couple of gun shots. speaking of gun shots...we were in Huron teaching a lady on her porch at an apartment complex. When we finished the lesson we headed back to coalinga and found out that a couple hours after we left in the same apartment complex there was a guy that got shot by 3 gangsters. the guy they shot was another one of our investigators friends. Our investigator used to be a gangster and did like 12 years in prison over the years. he always tells us gang stories. this past week we also found a new investigator that is kind of a goober. We left him 3 pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. The next time we went he had them all marked up and had so many questions about them. he studies the bible for 6 hours a day and annotates it. We went on a church tour with him and one of the ward members, it went really well. he has already read the pearl of great price in the past and believes it to be true. He said that he has a 7 year old daughter that turns 8 next month, when he said that Elder Falslev and I looked at eachother and smiled. We also taught a lesson to Gurvinder's brother Harvinder... and yes that is his real name. Gurvinder plans on leaving Coalinga soon and heading up north for college. Right now we don't have a lot of people to teach. Have a good week I love and miss you all! 

Elder Jensen

Elder Jensen, Elder Falslev and Gurvinder