August 26 first letter from Mexico!

ok where to even begin this is the craziest place on the planet. i flew in on monday night as you all know and found out what 20+ million people look like it was like driving in to vegas but way way way bigger. we arrived that night at 8 30 and stayed at the presidents home. all of us north americans were pretty tall over here. any ways we played basketball for a little on the cement court out back of the presidents house. i can stil throw it down. and also we talked with the president and he asked how our spanish was and how we were doing. it was good. after that we went and got our new companions. my companion is named elder figueroa. he also just got released as the assistant to the president on tuesday. he is an awesome trainer! and he has 24 years so he has a little age on me. after that we just  got put in an area that neither of us knew. we spent most of last week getting to know people and getting refferals for investigators. it was really good and crazilly at the begining of the week i had no idea what was going on in any of the lessons. when ever spanish was spoken i had no idea of what was going on. but little by little i have been picking things up last night i was able to have 2 or 3 decent conversations in spanish and i know what is going on for the most part in all of my lessons. so thats my update on language.

getting around with 20 million people... well first off i need to explain that they do have roads and stop lights and lanes and all the other good stuff.... the difference is they look at those things as a suggestion.. taxi rides are crazy, people cut each other off and drive on the wrong side of the road. but i haven't seen an accident the whole time i have been here. oh and the speed on most of the roads that would be like main street in kanab have a speed limit of 60 miles an hour. ha ha its a little fun to cross the street.but my favorite is the micros. they are kind of like a bus but smaller(hence the name) but you will have to have mom derek or savanah explain this but it is comparable to standing up in the indiana jones ride in disneyland... they are pretty fun. for the most part we walk everywhere. my companion somehow knows where we are going and he gets us where we need to be.

food... well its hot and makes you sweat when you eat it but its pretty good. ok first day in mexico and you will never guess what my meal was... in mexico its reffered to as panza. but as us north americans would refer to it, it would be called cow stomache. the taste it was GROSS... and the biggest problem i had with it was the texture. it was kind of like fat but you could chew it up a little. then you could see the linning of the stomache. when we got it i told elder figueroa not to tell me what it was until after i ate it. yea crazy food already this place is great!! but its also getting to the point where without spice food is a little bland. so im getting used to that too. also we only have one real meal called comida which takes place at about two in the afternoon. at nights we usually just have pan dulce and leche wich is amazing.

my house well i live in a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and a main room and a bedroom. we dont have any hot water. so while we are exercising in the morning we have to put water in a bucket and heat it up with an electric water heater and then dump the water on us in the shower. its sweet i feel like a more civilized version of ¨the other side of heaven¨ and on saturday i had a member call me collie pocki it was funny but seriously it is way different down here. i miss home when im not talking to people but when i talk to the people they are so nice to me and i can get my point across wich is nice. but i have been able to explain a lot of things to people about the church and we have a baptism lined up for this saturday.so excited!!!! well love you guys lots ttyl

August 18, 2013

Hey parents I thought I should let you know i will be leaving the mtc at 430 monday morning after which i will go over to the airport and fly out at 8 am. so excited any ways. we get laid over from like 12-4  in atlanta so i will call you around two if thats ok. if i can get a phone card. but i should be able to find one in the airport. so excited to talk to you guys!

Ok quick over view of the week. had a devotional tuesday  night and it was amazing. Elder Scott came and gave an amazing talk about prayer. it was extremely spiritual. he also gave us an apostelic blessing that all the missionaries who were learning a language would be able to recieve the gift of tounges thats a great thing to hear when you are a week away from being in a foreign country. when he left all three thousand missionaries stood in silence it was sweet. then while he was walking out he said "BE GOOD" it brought a lot of laughter to all of us that heard it. it was great to see that a man who was so quiet and humble was still able to have a good sense of humor. 

Wednesday was a pretty slow day until i got the opportunity to host a fellow kanabite... Elder Matthew Aldredge. it was so much fun seeing Matt and the rest of the family i felt bad i didnt give Sister aldredge a hug. but I have been here for too long. ha ha . that day went on pretty slowly after i finished hosting but i did see yanni later that day it was good to run into him. i have seen them a couple times since they got here and both seem like they are doing great!.

Thursday... in field orientation. this is a meeting from 8AM till 5 30 PM. it was awful. but we learned a ton about how to work with the ward in missionary work, how to plan weekly goals, and listen to a ton of speakers. one of the speakers talked  about a race that only the best athletes could participate in called an ultra marathon... the whole time i was thinking yeah my mom is awesome... he likened it to persevering to the end and told us a story about a guy that was 60 that ran it and not only did he finish but he set the world record for it. he ran through the nights when all the other runners would stop. and he won because he gave all that he had in that time. as missionaries we need to give all of my time to god and not take rests because 2 years isn't that long.

Friday we had a hand ball tournament which i took second in. i got a haircut. the barbers use a vacuum after they cut your hair and suction your whole head to pick up the extra hair it is the best thing ever... just sayin... wink wink nod nod cough* mom! cough* anyways we got done with that and went to classes just the same old stuff.

Hoy just finished my last class in the mtc and i cant wait to go when I get to mexico i will send you picks of my class and teachers. 

THis week we learned about reflexive and subjunctive both past and present my head only hurts a little so i can count that as a win! 

well hope you guys are having a good week hopefully i will talk to you on monday! love you muchly

Elder Jenson 

August 12, 2013

Hey family, well where to start with the week. I finished the book of Mormon on tuesday, which was really cool. When I finished I went to pray to know if it was true like Moroni instructs,then i remembered a talk given in a devotionional. the speaker said he went to pray to know it was true and realized he already knew.I  realized I knew that it was true. there was no need to pray about something i have already known. so i prayed that i would be able to focus more on little topics that could help me in my work and in my life in general. I then read over the course of the rest of the week king benjamins words to his people. i tried to focus alot on the versus around the scripturemasteries and i have learned so much from his words. if i had to have a king it would be king benjamin hands down.

 This week has been quite a learning experience for me we have talked alot about planning and organizing... you all know how much i love to plan stuff. but over the last few days i have  realized how great planning is i have filled out my planner completely, i have check lists and everything its a miracle in my mind because i am starting to like it better. it helps me stay focused on what i need to be studying and i have become alot more efficient with my time.

 People i have seen this week include brett weston which was great i got to talk to him last night for a few minutes and he said he was enjoying the mtc he has been here for 4 days. I have also seen a few kids from gha and I have been able to talk to them for a few minutes also. i really want to try and host for matt on wed but i dont know if I will be able to.

Spanish is going great. we had a two day english fast. nada palabras en ingles por dos dias.! if we did speak in english we had to do 5 pushups per word. which isnt too bad except a few guys ended up doing like 120 which was hilarious. i did like 60 facil as pastel! I am getting better at praying forsure. i can say almost everything i want to say. and this sunday i had to say the sacrament prayer and give a talk in spanish super divertido.

 Recreational activities of the week include dodgeball, beach volleyball, basketball, and the best of all hand tennis in the dorms. we seet up these courts in the hallways (which i found out is corredor en espanol... mi maestro dijo, " no correr en el corredor" muy chistoso) and we have sweet games of hand tennis everynight for about 20 minutes. the dementions of the game are 11 steps by 3 steps by 11 steps in any hall way long enough.

Well its my last week and  i am so ready to leave. im going to miss my zone really bad. which reminds me an elder named Cavazotti is going to the st g mission so if you guys see him stop and talk to him he is a pretty cool  kid. But i really am so excited to leave this week its going to be "sick" in the words of Craig. the mtc is a great place of learning. i have probably learned the equivalent of 3 years of spanish in here which is crazy in only 5 weeks. I think i leave on monday i will try and email you when i get my travel plans. love you guys so much you are the best!!

ok  final cool story of the week. so i went to the conselate on monday. and being in salt lake made me a little homesick for  some reason. I thought by some miracle i might see someone i knew. well i didnt see any one i knew but i got to go to mcdonalds so i wasnt completely let down. the next day i was still thinking about you guys at home and i was like im not going to see them for two years this is really depressing. we went out to the field for p.e. and had a sweet game of kickball. well our 50 minutes ended and we started heading back to get ready for tuesday night choir/ devotional. i was at the stop light before entering the mtc and this car came up to the curb and started yelling at us. I thought it was someone protesting, but it turns out the people in the car were one of the elders friends so they pulled up to the curb next to us and started talking. once again i was like im not going to see anyone from my family in forever. then I looked over as a car pulled up to the light and I was like i know that car... GRANDMA!!! grandma jenson was at the light at the exact time i was on a corner going in from gym the only day of the week i have it in the mid afternoon. what were the odds. it brightened up my whole day and it gave me a little bit of a boost after being a little homesick it was exactly what i needed. just another little way the lord was looking out for me.

well tty in a week when im leaving to MEXICO!!!!! love you guys a ton.

August 5, 2013

well those classes sound like what i'm going through so i totally feel for you mom! and jordan dang it get feeling better!! well i'm off to salt lake at 10 to go get my visa i'm so excited!! usually the missionaries don't get their visas till like the last week. mom you are doing great things in running and being a missionary! I'm so grateful for the great example you have set for me.

 well the new sport we play at the mtc is sand volleyball because its the only one you can dive in and have fun. we cant touch net or backboard or rim in basketball. but its fun to play with all the kids from up north. i am a tank at 160 on a heavy day... i have put on like no weight.  i'm trying to beef up so when i lose 20 pounds my first month in mexico i don't look like skeletor;)

 teaching keeps getting better!. we taught hermana link again and it went so much smoother. yesterday was the hardest fast i have ever done. we didn't eat til 5:30! but we had a testimony meeting, and i have never felt the need to bear my testimony like i did yesterday. i felt like my heart was going to explode and i got up and bore it in Spanish it was the best and most sincere testimony i have ever said. i love that part of Spanish you really have to mean what you say because i cant just go off with difficult language and an expansive testimony. its just simple and sincere. kinda like a little kid!

 i see Tanner like every day. but i haven't really talked to him much. last week i got to see Austin and James it was pretty cool i see Tyler a bunch still and i got to say good bye to stew the night before he left cause we were on the same floor. well i miss you guys like crazy and hope you guys survive all the craziness you are going through. Jordan I'm serious get feeling better! or i will beat your face;)

Te amo

Elder jenson.