Week #32

Brody sounds pretty positive about his new area. Check out the pictures of the grasshoppers he had to eat. Who would have thought?!? He is living in Atwater and has to ride his bike into Winton everyday to his area. He emailed us a little earlier today and we weren't prepared for it. We didn't get to chat for very long. He was on his way to Merced to do some shopping. Thanks for your support. 



Hello everyone, how are you all doing? This past week was alright. Winton is a pretty small town and we bike to it everyday. We don't have a lot of investigators as of now but we are hoping to find some more. We are trying to work with less actives. The branch President is a really nice old man and he is always smiling. So this past week we had a family home evening with one of the families that is investigating and they are awesome. It is the Cortez family. They love the missionaries and we have a good time with them. Also this past week we had a chilli cook off with some other wards, the missionaries were the judges and some of the chilli was so dang spicy. But I have been told that the more spicy food you eat, the faster you will learn spanish haha. My favorite thing that happened this past week was that I got to go on an exchange with my District Leader. His name is Elder Mo'o, he is awesome! He is from Syracuse, Utah and played for their football team. We had a lot of fun together! Everyday out here we go and do two hours of service for a navial airforce museum thing, it is nice. We get to polish old war plains and do many different service activities. So being the new Elder in the area I got asked to speak on Sunday of course, haha I was pretty nervous to speak in Spanish but it was alright. I had one of the Hispanic elders help me write my talk! The branch is about the same size as the Coalinga ward so it isn't too different, other than the Spanish. One crazy thing that happened this past week is that I ate grasshoppers at dinner. The food is definitely different here as compared to Coalinga. The grasshoppers were pretty nasty. The big news that we found out about is that on March 21 an Apostle is coming to our mission and is gonna talk with us!!!!!!!!!! We don't know which one yet but it will be awesome!! That's about all that happened this past week. I want to thank everyone that sent me a card for my birthday!! I love and miss you all! Have a good week!! Elder Jensen

  

A member sent this picture and a message saying: "Elder Jensen came and ate dinner with us tonight. He is doing well and smiling bright. He sends his love." 

7 Months

Well, we finally heard from Brody today. He is obviously enjoying being with other missionaries. As you can see by the picture attached, he was able to get his first baptism on his 19th birthday. He baptized the youngest girl in the picture. We are thankful that a good member agreed to drive him 2 hours from Winton down to Coalinga to perform the ordinance. The picture is attached to this email. Brody sent several other pictures this time and they will be posted to his blog. Thanks for all of your support. 

Well it has been a pretty crazy and busy week. I am now in Atwater and my area is Winton. We have to bike there everyday and it is a couple miles away. We only have a car 2 days a week. My favorite part of Winton is that we live next to two other companionships. One of them is Elder Pasmino, and he is awesome! We get along so well and have a lot of fun. Winton is another small town but it is all

Spanish. I have met most of the members from the branch and they are really nice. My companion, Elder Jensen is a little bit of an odd ball but it is alright. He has been out for a year and a half. The

other elders are from Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Mexico. So I hear a lot of Spanish and they talk so dang fast it's not even funny. Today we got to go to the temple in Fresno with the zone. The big news from this past week is that the Reyes family got baptized in Coalinga. I didn't find a ride until the night before, I am so lucky that I got to go down there for the baptism. We left at 8 in the morning and got back at 5 at night because we went to church in Coalinga. It was weird to go back to church there. The ride to Coalinga was about 2 hours there and 2 hours back. I have got to eat with some of the members here and they are all really nice. I have some pictures to send. this week is gonna be a short email, but I love and miss you all more than anything. I hope you have a good week. 

Elder Jensen

Reyes Family Baptism 

Spicy Peppers 

Sword

Elder Jensen with Coalinga members and investigators: 

Week #30

So it has been an interesting day today. In our messaging back and forth with Brody we felt that he is doing pretty good. We also had the opportunity to go to dinner tonight with Gurvinder, Brody's investigator. I can totally see why he and Brody became such good friends. Gurvinder filled us in on how Brody has been doing in the mission field. It was great to hear his stories. We all laughed because Gurvinder was dead on with Brody's mannerisms, personality traits, and yes, his bossy attitude. As you can tell by Brody's email, two big things have finally happened for him. Thanks for all of your support. I have a couple of pictures that I will have put on his blog. 

How are you all doing? This past week was alright. On Tuesday we had district meeting and I had to give a training on The role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. It all went really well after that we did exchanges again. I came to Coalinga with Elder Morrow. We had a pretty good time and we both got burritos de lengua which is burritos with cow tongue. It was alright but regular meat is probably better. the next day we exchanged back and Elder Falslev and I saw a couple of people. We also did some service for a lady in the ward by cleaning up her shed, we were killing black widows like crazy. On Saturday and Sunday met with The Reyes family and they are solid to be baptized next sunday! I understand most of the lesson in Spanish, it is frustrating when I don't know what is going on though, but hispanics are really nice and they are so happy when you are trying to learn their language. They always tell us how grateful they are that we are trying to learn Spanish. Now for the big news of the week... we got transfer calls saturday night. And after 6 months in Coalinga, I am going to a town called Winton. It is up past Fresno and by Merced. I am going to be in a Spanish branch which I am somewhat nervous about but hopefully everything will go well and my Spanish will pick up because Coalinga is pretty much an english area. My new companion's name is Elder Jensen, we are gonna get told that we have the same first and last name so many times, because everyone thinks our first name is Elder. I am hoping to make it back to Coalinga next Sunday for the Reyes family baptism because Sophia asked me to baptize her. The only problem is that it will be almost 2 hours away, but hopefully we can make it. I hope you all have a good week. I love and miss you all. 

Elder Jensen

District Picture

Elder Jensen with the Auguyo girls

Week #29

Brody seems to have had a good week. He has been having some pretty cool experiences. He sent our entire family a letter this past week indicating how things have started to change for him. He is working hard. He spends a lot of his time doing yard work. When asked if they had any riding lawn mowers, his answer was no. we mostly just move weeds and leaves. It sounds like he is having some success with his new investigators. 

Thanks for your love and support for Brody. 

Hello family and friends, 

This past week has been pretty busy. So on Tuesday we had a district meeting in Hanford. After that I stayed in Hanford for an exchange with Elder Torres. He came out at the same time that I did, he has also stayed in his first area for 4 transfers. While I was there we were on bikes, biking was alright because we saw more people that way on the streets. We taught a homeless guy and he asked me if I thought that he was crazy Haha. On Wednesday we exchanged back and I came back out to Coalinga. One thing about Coalinga is that we are 45 minutes away from other missionaries. So we don't get to see them very often. This past week we have been doing a lot of service, the mission is really pushing service right now. It feels good to get out of the shirt and tie every once in a while. On a night this past week we had dinner with a member and she is going through a rough time. She asked me to give her a blessing and I did, at the end of the blessing she was bawling. Then the next day she bore her testimony at church and said she heard exactly what she needed to hear in the blessing. It was a neat experience because nothing that was said really stuck out to me... it was just a simple blessing, but it showed me that Heavenly Father knows what we all need. He is aware of us at all times and knows how to comfort us. Yesterday we had lunch with a less active and they had a super bowl party going on. we just sat in the other room and tried to resist watching it. Haha Also last night we had dinner with The Reyes family. We invited them to be baptized and the mom and the 2 daughters are gonna be baptized on the 15th of February! This week we find out about transfers, either way I hope that I will get to attend the baptism. I love and miss you all! Have a good week!

Elder Jensen

Zone Conference