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 

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