Week #45

Brody sounded a little rushed today. I think he was off of his schedule. It was later than usual before we heard from him. He reported that he is burning up. Things are going good. He has met some new folks and seems to be keeping busy. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. 

                                                                                                                                                                     
Well this past week was pretty eventful I guess. So first of all we got to go to the temple today in Fresno. It was a lot of fun and the whole zone went. Yesterday we had a zone conference and it was good to see some elders that I hadn't seen in a while. We also received many trainings from the assistants and President Clark. Sister Clark gave a training on nutrition and pretty much told us all that we eat too much and we are all fat haha. She even named off how much we should all weigh according to our height. Other than that zone conference was good. I went on two exchanges this past week, one was with the zone leaders and one with Elder Lybbert. It was a lot of fun, with the zone leaders we played some basketball with some non members. I haven't played in so long so it was fun to play for a little while. I was wearing my Steph Curry shirt and everyone was trying to give me crap about the warriors haha! This past week I almost died... we were in a neighborhood and a HUGE german shepherd was outside. I told Elder Pugh that if we got on our bikes the dog would chase us so that we just needed to walk slowly. We started walking and the dog ran up by me and starting growling and trying to bite my leg, I used my bike as a  shield and avoided it. We luckily got out of there, the dog was huge and super mean. Right after that another dog chased us on our bikes so I grabbed my big U lock that is metal and held it in my hand and when the dog got close I whacked it upside the head. Haha I now ride my bike holding my lock so I can whack the dogs that chase us. Haha there are a lot of dogs when we ride our bikes down the alleys. This past week we also found a couple new investigators, they are cholos which means gangsters here. Haha so we have been teaching some pretty sketchy people in some sketchy parts of the city. that is about it from this past week. I love and miss you all! have a good week and stay safe!
Elder Jensen

Elder Jensen's friends/homies 

View from the mountains 

Little boy from Marshall Islands with Elder Jensen 

Goshen! :)

Week #44

Brody seemed good today. He has made some friends in Lindsay. Even though the work is slow, he seems to like the people he has met there. It sounds like his highlight was going to the thrift shop. He met a couple guys there that he said were pretty crazy but he liked them. They are in the other photos that he sent. He is looking forward to his opportunities to go on splits this week. It is crazy to me that he is giving training lessons in spanish. The language must be starting to click. Thanks for all of your support for Brody. 

Well this past week was a really really slow week. Our area is not seeing too much success. We have had to drop a lot of investigators and pretty much start from scratch. We are trying a lot of former investigators and part member families to find our new investigators as of now. Another reason why our area has been slow this week is that we were out of our area multiple times. I went on an exchange with Elder Noffal, he is from Mexico City and we had a good time together! We went to the local thrift shop and did some service. We were trying on all of the crazy clothes and we had so much fun. There are tons of thrift shops here in California! While I was with Elder Noffal I got to know two of the members in Porterville. They are pretty crazy and weird but they were a lot of fun to be around. I will send a picture of me and them. This past week we also had district meeting.... our district meetings are in Spanish because all of the missionaries are Spanish speaking. I gave a training on the role of the holy ghost in conversion. It was my first time doing a training in spanish but it went really well, at least I think it did haha. There was a day this past week that Elder Pugh had to go to Fresno for a meeting so I stayed with Elder Lybbert and his companion. We had a lot of fun together! Tripanionships are the best! I guess the biggest event this past week is that we had Stake Conference. They reorganized the stake presidency and there were two 70's there. one of them was Elder Carlson, he was a 4 star general and he was absolutely amazing. the other was Elder Sabin, he is an area 70 and he also was awesome to listen to! They had great spiritual experiences and as they talked everything just flowed together so neatly and they were speaking straight from the spirit. President Clark, the temple president, and many others were also there for the stake conference. This next week should be a more productive one. I will be going on  an exchange with Elder Lybbert. I hope you are all doing well and I love and miss you all. 

Elder Jensen 

Elder Jensen and Elder Noffal 

Elder Jensen and Elder Noffal

Week #43

We were able to Skype with Brody yesterday for mothers day. He seemed in good spirits. He was funny yet sincere when answering our questions. He told us that he likes being in Lindsay. He said the work is tough but the people are nice to he and his companion. We discussed a lot of things going on in his life, but it wasn't until today that we found out about his baptism this past week. I asked him why he didn't tell us during the Skype  and he simply said, "it didn't come up. Hahaha." Amie and I went to Salt Lake Saturday night and met Charlie. Charlie is the recent convert that was cutting Brody's hair in the church bathroom a couple of weeks ago. His friend told us that if Brody tilts his head just right, it looks like a pretty good haircut. Charlie is also keeping Brody apprised of things going on in the world of sports. He drives Brody and his companion around almost every day. Brody asked about several of you and how you are all doing. He sent the pictures in this email as well as a few more. They will be posted to his blog. Thanks for all of your prayers and support for Elder Jensen. 

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I hope that you all had a great Mother's Day and an awesome week. Things here were busy and it was a pretty good week! Especially because I got to skype yesterday! One thing that I have learned is that there are a lot of crazy people here in California in the central valley!! One day we went to Burger King for lunch and a lady called us over and wanted to talk to us. She talked to us about religion for a little bit then she just went nuts! She was 80 years old and she gave us her life story then told us how blessed she is because of the good Lord. She explained to us that she can still do the splits and jump really high in her high heels because of the lord. But just telling us wasn't enough apparently because she insisted on showing us right there in the middle of Burger King. So everyone was watching us talk to this lady while she was doing the splits, jumping in her heels, and dancing! She was something else! Then we told her we had to go and she wanted to give my companion and I a hug but my companion resisted and we got out of there and quick as we could!! Hahaha this past week we also got to do a lot of service in the community, we helped the coordinating council gather food for the needy. One day this past week there were some punk kids in the street and they wanted to play some football with us. So we changed and played a little bit of street football! We made a bet with them that if we won they had to come to church! If we lost we would have had to buy them McDonald's. It was a good game but we ended up winning after we won I said "church starts at 10, we will see you there." Haha it was fun but they didn't show for church so we are gonna go and hunt them down! Lately we have been working with a less active family, it is the Delgado family. They are awesome, they always feed us and give us pan dulce with leche. They have a nine year old daughter and we have been trying to work with her and the parents to get her baptized. Last Tuesday we invited her to be baptized at the end of the month but the mom said she wanted it sooner. So we held a baptism this past Saturday for Alesandra Delgado. It was a really cool experience and the family has been reactivating. That is about all for this past week. I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all. Have a good week. 

Elder Jensen

Alesandra Delgado's baptism 

Lindsey Apartment Pictures

Skyping with Brody

Skyping with Elder Brody Jensen on Mother's Day. He's doing great! 

Week #42

Brody has settled into Lindsay. He is not getting transferred. He did say that his next transfer will determine rather or not he stays in the Fresno Mission or gets transferred to the new Modesto Mission. He is afraid the new mission will be "super ghetto and sketchy." We can't wait to see him this Sunday. He told me to ask his brothers and sisters to think of some questions. He is afraid we will set there in silence. I'm pretty sure that’s not happening. Thanks for your support. Oh ya, one other thing, Brody had already heard and was pretty excited that Curry won the MVP. Those of you that know Brody, know that he has been his favorite player for a long time. 

                                                                                                                                                                      

Well hello everyone,
How is everyone doing back at home? This past week was pretty busy. So last monday we had a Family Home Evening with a family in the ward and it went really well! We had a lot of fun doing that! also last monday was a little scary because I let a recent convert, Charlie cut my hair. He claimed that he had cut hair before but then about half way through he told me that he had never done it before. And oh boy I could tell because my hair was looking super bad. I was worried, I am sure most of you know how much i care about my hair. Haha I guess him being bald should have given me a clue that he had no idea what he was doing. It took an hour and we had to call back up and the ward mission leader came and helped. We had fun with it and it turned out alright. Charlie is a recent convert from like 6 months ago and he is awesome! He always hangs out with us and takes us to lunch. We even went and did some service with him. We went to a dog shelter and cleaned their cages. There were so many dang dogs and they kept escaping so we had to catch them and put them back in the cages. I believe we are gonna be doing that once a week now. elder pugh and i have been riding our bikes a lot in the heat! It is already up in the 90's here! So one day I saw a bunch of teenagers playing basketball and I stopped and set up a time to come back and play with them, so I am looking forward to that! like I said before our week has been super busy yesterday we had 3 dinners and I didn't think I was gonna be able to handle it! Today we found black mold or something inside of our dishwasher which we hadn't opened forever haha. So hopefully I am still alive next week. And we got our investigator to church again with his son. They came over to a members after and ate and we taught a lesson in a members home. It went really well. On Saturday we got our transfer calls and Elder Pugh and I are both staying here together. I love and miss you all! Have a good week!
 Elder Jensen

Haircut in the church bathroom

Uh oh!