Week 20: All I Got Are The Clothes On My Back. Literally

 Well this was a crazy week for me! Full of things I didn't expect but just had to roll with. I hope you had a great week and felt God's love for you!


On Monday night we finally moved into our actual apartment and no longer had to sleep with the ZLs, or as my comp Elder Palhua calle them, "payasos," which is "clowns." The apartment is pretty nice. It has a small balcony just big enough for me to exercise on and a soft computer chair to read on. We still have to use a bunk bed and I have to sleep on top because there's no ladder and my comp can't climb up. And there's a little jut out in the ceiling for some reason so I've hit my head on the ceiling a few times already. I have a nice space in a separate room for my clothes with some extra shelves. The showers are freezing, though, even if the bathrooms are nice.

I finished "Jesus the Christ" and loved it. It made my respect and love for our Lord and Savior grow even more and I recommend it to everyone who hasn't read it. One of my favorite parts was how it explained the temptations of Christ, His coming to terms with his Messiahship, and His human side. Thinking about those things has made the hymn "I Stand All Amazed" even more meaningful for me.

For some reason the water in our apartment was shut off from Wednesday night to Friday morning. So that was fun not being able to shower and do other things that require water. I was careful with my tiny amount of water. I don't know why it was shut off, I just know we suffered the effects.

Then on Saturday we went downstairs to grab our lunch which was being dropped off by out pensionista. We left the door open and all our stuff in because we'd only be gone for a minute or two. But when I was climbing the stairs I could hear the door start to creak. Sensing the imminent danger I sprinted up the stairs but it was too late. The door slammed shut with all our stuff inside, including the keys and phone. We set the food down and went to exit the building, but the front door needs a key too! We knocked on all the doors in the apartment but no one was home. Finally someone answered on the last door and they were able to buzz us out. We made our way to the Hermana's apartment and borrowed their phone to call the mission office. We got a taxi over and spent the rest of our day at the mission home because there was nothing else we could do.

I searched through the closet and picked up the copy of "Our Heritage: Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" again. I finished it Sunday morning. I guess one good thing that came out of this is that one paragraph in the book mentions the story of Zera Pulsipher when talking about dedicated missionaries. I recognized the name from when I was studying about his grandfather, David Pulsipher, who was killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill, during my time at the CCM on FamilySearch. I quickly hopped onto a computer and pulled up family search where I found out the person in the story is my great great great great great grandfather! Although FamilySearch spells it "Zerah," so I don't know which one is correct. But he's the person who convertido and baptized Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of our church! How cool is that? Family history is such a blessing and I'm thankful for the tools we can use to find names to take to the temple.

So I kinda just sat there on a couch for 5 or 6 hours reading until we got the news that our mission had reached 70 baptisms this month so I got to participate in a short celebration video and scream "setenta" with the elders into a phone. Elder Ewell did a cartwheel and a backflip before the rest of the elders and a bunch of members who were there cheered for the video. It was pretty fun, especially since I wasn't supposed to be there. I also got to attend a baptism because I was there for Alejandro. It was great to listen to his testimony and feel the spirit. That night I didn't get to bed until 11:30 when we went to one of the office elders' apartment.

On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting but there was nothing we could really do afterwards without areabook, the phone, or our supplies. We returned to the mission home where I returned my book and "checked out" "Our Search for Happiness" by M Russell Ballard which I almost finished. We just went to a different office elders' apartment afterward like the homeless elders we were. They had a small keyboard I tinkered around on and a dart board so I could practice my dart skills. I did get to take a shower with a temperature I could adjust, so that was nice. Another set of elders who live in that apartment came and we had a really intense game of jenga. Afterwards we played hide and seek in the dark. Come to think of it I don't know why we did that. We had to sleep there tonight and didn't get to bed until midnight because I didn't know what was going on. We had to hang around this whole time making too many phone calle to our pensionista and the lady who own the apartment building. Finally at 2 today they got a guy to come and drill a hole in the door to open the lock for us because the lady didn't have an extra key. Darn wind.

Anyways I got an oreo mcflurry with the office elders so I guess that was a decent reward for having to wear and sleep in the same clothes and not brush my teeth or shave for 2 full days. 

Also Elder D Todd Christoffersen is in Perú right now and gave a devotional in Lima for all the missionaries serving in Lima and is going to Iquitos to do one there too. So it kinda sucks I won't be able to hear from him since I think those are the only missions he's visiting.

Well that was my very strange and eventful week! I really hope I can get to understand what's going on and have more spiritual experiences this week. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1. A view from my apt.
2. Some delicious papá reinos I had for dinner
3. 6 elders crammed into a car (pic from last week)
4. At a lesson






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