Week #37

Brody is now living in Lindsey, Ca. He has a new companion from Blanding named Elder Pugh. He is sad that there are no other elders there. He did mention that the people are nice to him in the new area. He mentioned how hot it is starting to get. As you will read in his email, he is stating to change colors. We have been trying to get him to send a picture of himself with his helmet on…no such luck. He did however send some photos of some of his friends in Winton. You can check them out on his blog. Thanks for your support. 

Hello everyone, well this past week has been pretty eventful. So on Monday and Tuesday I said goodbye to everyone in my last area. I then came down here to Lindsay. Lindsay is another small town and we speak spanish about 80 % of the time. The members are really nice here and I am starting to understand spanish a lot better. Yesterday I bore my testimony in church in Spanish and in English. I was more nervous to do it in English for some reason. We have two sacrament meetings here, one in english and one in Spanish! I feel like the people here are a lot more humble and nice. I haven't had one person be mean to me when I say something to them on the street. They are all pretty friendly, of course we have run into a couple of crazies but other than that it has been good. It is really starting to heat up here in California. I am in an all biking area once again, so I am getting roasted. Hopefully I will be black in not too long and don't even ask for a picture of me with my goofy helmet. So this past week we did a service project with another church believe it or not. We gave away food to the community and for the poor. It is crazy how grateful and humble the people are here when they have nothing. most of them don't have a lot and they are willing to share everything they have. I don't think we all realize how blessed we are with the things we have. It has been a huge eye opener on my mission!! So here is a crazy story for you.... so my first night here we went and visited a guy that lives by a dark alley. We went in and his wife said that something was wrong with him. He was trying to talk but he couldn't. It was the weirdest thing, he was like screaming but super quiet. He was grabbing his heart and saying "mi alma" which means my soul. Then we tried to give him a blessing and he threw our hands off about half way through. He kept saying "mi alma" so his wife asked what about it. And he said "mi alma, me salio" which means my soul left me. We then looked in his backpack and there was a huge 8 ball. He was doing some type of witchcraft I guess! it was crazy. But the next day he was better. that is about all that happened this past week. I love and miss you all! 

Elder Jensen

Week #36

Well we got to have a good conversation with Brody today. He sounded really good. It's kind of weird that he can spend over 7 months in one location and then get transferred after only 6 weeks in another location. He is actually very excited for the move. I asked him what Elder Ballard said to him once he was in front of the other elders. Brody said, "he told me to get my hands out of my pockets." I asked why he said that and Brody said, "Because my hands were in my pockets haha." One of our good family friends, Tayge Bascom, gets home today. Nice job Tayge. We can't wait to see you and hear all about it. Brody sent a bunch of pictures that Rachel will put on his blog. elderjenseninfresno.blogspot.com Thanks for everyones support in Brody's behalf. 

                                                                                                                                                                       

Hola mis amigos,   
So how are you all doing? I hope you are all doing great! This past week here was super busy! So on tuesday we went to the airplane place and got to watch a new airplane come in! There were a lot of people there and it was pretty cool! Throughout the week we didn't get to teach a lot of lessons, we played soccer one night for an activity with the ward and then rugby the next day! The biggest news is that on Saturday Elder M. Russel Ballard came! It was a really cool experience. He was a lot of fun to listen to and he has a sense of humor as well! We all had to stand when he came in because he is a Prophet, and when he came in he told us all to sit down and cracked a joke haha. We then all got to go and shake his hand and also Elder Hallstrom from the 70 was there. Elder Ballard talked about how we can work more effectively with members and that our numbers and success rate will sky rocket if we work with members more! It was cool to be in the same room as him, at the end he opened it up to some questions. And of course my companion is the first to ask one.... so I was sitting in the back and my companion was sitting in the front because he was in the choir. My companion asked how we can get the support of the branch and the branch council. He looked at him and said "fix it" haha. Then he said, "Where is your companion?" So I stood up in the back and Elder Ballard told me to come up and stand by my companion for a second. So I started walking up there in front of the whole mission and I am sure that I was red as a tomato and I was soooooooo nervous. I then got up there and he talked to us two for about 3 minutes and it was pretty intimidating to be talking to him in front of the whole mission! Haha but it all went well. On Saturday we also had transfer calls... and they are combining Winton with another area... so my companion and I are both leaving! I am going way back down South to Lindsay which is close to Porterville. It is almost as south as the mission goes. I will be with Elder Pew. That is all the news from this week! I love and miss you all!! have a good week! 

Elder Jensen

Week #35

Brody seemed a little down this week because there is very little progress with the work. He said that not a lot has changed since last week. He did get his care package that Brother Wilcox hand delivered to him all the way from Payson. He opened it up and shared Amies homemade cookies with the other elders. He said they were gone real fast. He said that the temperature was in the high 70s. I asked him why no pictures, and he said because his face looks fat. I said, welcome to my world. Thanks for all of you support. 

Well this past week was pretty slow. On Saturday morning we invited a bunch of members and investigators to play rugby. It was a lot of fun and we had a pretty good turn out. The only problem is rugby is a lot more appealing than coming to church for some haha. This past week we also had our district meeting and that is always fun to get together with all of the missionaries. We had a family home evening with a less active family and we watched Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. We took popcorn, all hispanics love spicy stuff. So I looked over and they poured their spicy sauce in all the popcorn. It was different for sure haha. That is like all the big news from this past week. This upcoming week we have Elder Ballard coming and i am super excited! We also have transfer calls on Saturday! I love and miss you all! Sorry for the short email! 

Elder Jensen

Week #34

Brody told us that the area he is in is very difficult. He said that they have had less success in Winton than in Coalinga over the past year. However, He shared with us that he likes it better because of the fact that he lives close to so many other elders and is able to get out and do some service. He is enjoying being able to play some sports during his down time. He mentions some of those activities in his email. He was going to go bowling today when he was finished with us. This is an email I will save for sure. He actually says, "I love doing service." who would have thought? We were able to meet Brother Wilcox this past week. He lives in Atwater and has a brother here in Payson. Brother Wilcox brought Brody's temple pants home so that his mother could let them out. He said he was going on a diet. haha. We were able to send the pants back with them to California along with a care package on Sunday night. Thanks for all of your support.

                                                                                                                                                                      

Well this past week wasn't too eventful... so it will be another short email. Our area has only about 8 members and we do not have a lot of investigators. We did not teach a lot of lessons this past week and it can be frustrating. We don't have any solid investigators so we try to spend most of our time with less active members. The church here is really small, we have about 30 or so come to sacrament meeting. They are all really nice but they don't know how to do missionary work. One thing that the members do really well is they feed us!! Haha we eat so much food and it is really good. So this past week we had a zone conference! It was pretty good, President's wife gave a training on etiquette. It was kind of ridiculous, she is really strict when it comes to stuff like that. She said when you are with hispanics you don't have to have etiquette haha. I also got to see Elder Jones at the zone conference, it is always good to see a bunch of missionaries. The zone conference went all day long, we learned a lot of stuff. This past week we also had a couple of activities.. we played soccer friday night inside of the gym and it was good! On Saturday morning we got to play rugby and we also did a lot of service. Playing rugby was a lot of fun! On Saturday we were so busy with service and everything else that we didn't even get into our proselyting clothes until 8 o clock at night. It was a fun day and I love doing service as a missionary! The work is really slow in Winton but doing service is a good way to fill the time. This past week we also found out which Apostle is coming to the mission on the 21st. It is going to be Elder Ballard! I am really excited to hear from him, it will be a cool experience. That is about all that happened this past week! I love and miss you all! Have a good week.
Elder Jensen

Week #33

Something was seriously wrong with my email today. I didn't get a chance to chat back and forth with Brody like I have in the past. He did chat with his mother a little bit. He seems to be doing fine. A member there in the area has a brother here in Payson. He is coming up next weekend and said that he would take anything back to Brody that we could fit in an orange box. So let us know. This is a pretty short email, but should make Uncle Bret proud. Thanks for all of your support. I will have some pictures posted on his blog. 

Well this past week wasn't too eventful so it will probably be a pretty short email. So last Monday, Elder Mo'o, Elder Lord, and I came to Merced to play some basketball. It was a lot of fun! They can dunk so I was throwing up alley oops haha. They are awesome but Elder Lord actually got transferred last week! One other thing that happened this past week is that one night all of us got together in an apartment and wrestled. haha I wrestled them all and they under estimated this little white boy... haha I pinned them all, I have a bunch of carpet burns but it was fun. we recorded them all as well! this past week we also had a zone meeting... it went pretty well. We are always busy with meetings out here. we still do two hours of service everyday and they actually gave us a plane to be the crew over it. One thing that our mission is doing away with is knocking doors, knocking doors is considered to be ineffective, the stats say that one out of every thousand doors knocked is a baptism. So it is a no no to knock doors, they want us to work through members and less active members which is good with me because i don't like knocking doors at all!! So we have been seeing a lot of less actives this past week, it is interesting to see why people are inactive. All I can say is that the people of the church are not perfect but the church is perfect. We are trying to get everyone back at church. haha one other thing about the spanish branch is that NO ONE sings in sacrament meeting. it is really weird, none of them like to sing. Yesterday we went to dinner with a member and it was really good, he lives out in the country and has a bunch of chickens. he was pulling roosters out and having them fight, hahaha it was funny and he had his own little farm. that is about all that happened this past week. I love you all and hope you have a good week. 

Love, Elder Jensen

Elder Jensen, Elder Lord and Elder Mo'o

The district in a plane