Week 26: 6 Meses! Que Rico

 How are you doing? I had a pretty good week and a lot of stuff happened. As of yesterday I've officially been a missionary for 6 months! It's gone by in a breeze and I've met so many great people and my understanding of the scriptures and the gospel has increased exponentially. I encourage everyone who's thinking about serving a mission to do it! It is so rewarding and I've seen the Lord bless my life and the lives of others more times than I can count in these short 6 months.

On Independence Day Elder Vilca and I got haircuts at a place called Cuba and were able to talk with the guy cutting our hair a little bit about the gospel. It didn't go anywhere, but it was nice practice. On the way over the air was really smokey because a pipe from a restaurant had caught fire. The fire department quickly came over and everyone around us were taking videos of it. I didn't get a photo of the fire, but I got one of the smoke from a distance. Afterwards we got some grilled cow heart for a 4th of July barbeque and it was sooooo good. It was so tender and tasted delicious. We then had a noche de hogar at the house of Hermana Janette with a lot of guests. I got to know Mateo a little more, who's an investigator in the Hermana's part of the area who's progressing extremely fast and already has a baptismal date for this Saturday.

This week on Tuesday we had a conference to meet President Hiatt and Hermana Hiatt, the new mission president and his wife. I didn't get to talk to them, but they seem like really cool people and I'm excited to see what they'll do here. I played the piano for a special musical number with Hermana Lefler singing. The song was "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." I played my part perfectly and felt great after, although I can only hope that everyone else felt the spirit or that they were even paying attention. I was the only one in the room who didn't know because the piano was facing the opposite direction, but a crazy lady had walked in during the middle of the son holding an orange and started waving her hands around. It's probably a good thing I didn't notice because that would've thrown me off. I'm pretty sure people were laughing at the ridiculousness of the scene. Once I sat down afterwards she started blabbering something about the family and the spirit until a set of hermanas recognized her and escorted her out. Hermana Hiatt spoke almost entirely in English since she doesn't know much Spanish yet, but she said the lady might have seen angels because of the song and followed them in. I don't know if that's true, but I guess I'll believe it is so I can tell myself the spirit was still there durong our performance.

Presidente Hiatt served his mission in Caracas, Venezuela but hasn't spoken Spanish in a while so he's getting back into it. He also has a crooked smile to the right. For lunch we had a really soggy piece of lasagna. It wasn't that great, even with all the latinos saying, "que rico!" everytime they took a bite. Maybe they don't know what a good lasagna tastes like. Elder Petersen and I also taught them that in the United States and Europe there are more than one kind of cheese. To them all cheese is just "queso." We celebrated all the July birthdays, including President Hiatt. He almost dropped the cake. Then everyone with a birthday this month tried slamming each other's heads into the cake when they leaned down to take a bite. Both the hermanas got each other.

Pretty much everyday this week we had an appointment with a member in the afternoon and another in the night along with the hermanas in our ward. We'd switch off on who teaches the lesson each time. One of the nights I led a lesson on perservering to the end that I think went perfectly. I asked great questions, used the Book of Mormon, and even had a new thought come to me in the middle of while I was teaching. I also think I spoke Spanish really well. Everyone else understood me, so I know the gift of tongues was at work. As usual, the family gave us some cake afterward, which I'll never turn down. During all of the lessons this week I could feel the spirit, and we got fed after all of them. Cake, soup, bread, etc. One lesson we had with a member named Paco and his brother Martín, who had their cousin Miguel who isn't a member come over. He had some questions,  especially about why on earth we would choose to serve a mission. He asked us each for our testimony. I think the gift of tongues was again at work with me because I had no idea what I was saying but it was all coming out well. I spoke about how important it is to gain a testimony for yourself and through doing this week can feel just how much God loves us individually. We can survive off someone else's testimony for a little bit, but it will fail eventually if you don't find your own and it will never allow you to feel just how powerful God's love for you is unless you find out for yourself. I think our testimonies helped him. He doesn't live in our area, but I hope hello be able to progress further. We were also fed pollo la braza afterwards! It was cold, but that was alright. I was given an Oro, which is another off brand Inca Kola along with Triple Kola. I still think Inca Kola is the best one.

This week a woman stopped me to tell me she liked my eyes. Thank you. After one lesson we were given some rice pudding, which is delicious. I also had some peanut M&Ms which makes me realize just how much I miss munching on them. I had a Snickers as well, which did not disappoint. I tried a Peruvian candy called a Glacita. It's just a cookie dipped in some toffee, but it grew on me and I like it a lot now. We visited our favorite bakery across the street again and I got another one of those cone shaped pasteries filled with caramel and a donut this time. The donut was a normal donut shape, but the sides were stuffed with caramel.

I had my first lesson over a phone call all by myself. My comp went into the bathroom for his daily 30 minute bathroom break so I called this one lady named Ana and gave a lesson on prayer. I extended an invitaion and set up another appoimtment! I felt great about my Spanidh after that. But then of course we find out she's not in our area and had to referente her to the Trujillo South mission. That's one thing that sucks about being in Central. All references that just put "Trujillo" as their location instead of something more specific get sent to us, so only about 1 in 5 of our references actually lives in our area. But even then they could live in the Hermana's side of our area. So we get a lot of people we end up sending to other missionaries in Trujillo. 

On Saturday we had exchanges with the Elders in California. Elder Vilca stayed in Central with Elder Zubiaga and I spent the day in California with Elder Sotomayor. All of our lessons got canceled, so we just helped clean up an activity at the church. We had lunch at Hermana Andrea's house, the California pensionista. I've been there before and she's a really cool lady. We had tacos and some red fanta. Then she gave us some ice cream, which I haven't had in a while. I don't know what it is, but the ice cream at her house is some of the best I've ever had. This time it was chocolate brownie flavored with brownie bits. The ice cream there is different, but so good. I don't really know how to describe it other than I definitely had too much. And of course since Elder Sorensen was in that area for a while I kept getting called Elder Sorensen on accident. One of the lessons we had got canceled, but the members we asked to help us came anyway so we got to talk with them. They are an American couple living here so they can learn Spanish. They served missions in the Birmingham England mission and Indiana. It was fun getting to talk to them in spanish and a little in English.

I think the highlight of the exchange, (yes, even more than the ice cream), was that we passed by a LEGO store! Well, at first we thought. With a closer look the name of the store was LE60 because it was full of knock offs with the most hilarious titles! Almost all of the "sets" in there were sets that actually exist in Lego or are retired, but none have the little LEGO logo written on each stud, so you know they're fake. And the box art was a little different. But the best part was how they chance the theme titles. Here are a few that I saw:

Star Wars became "Star Union," "Space Wars," and "Star Wvrs"

Harry Potter became "Justice Magician"

Batman became "Batleader"

Pirates of the Carribean became "Pirates of the Gamarry"

The Simpsons became "The Warm Family"

And there were some Squid Game and Dragon Ball Z sets which don't exist in LEGO. I should have taken more pictures, but I got a few of the crazy knock offs.

But it turns out that while I was in California, the Elders in Central extended the invitation to our friend Nayarah Alfaro to be baptized and she accepted! She's 11 and her family is inactive. Her date is for the 23rd of July, which is also the Noche Blanca, a date where we plan on having 80 baptisms in the mission. I got back to Central on Sunday morning. To our disappoimtment neither she nor her family attended church yesterday, but she's been once before so we still have a chance to baptize her on that date.

I played the piano in sacrament meeting, even though I didn't get any practice before hand. Luckily 2 out of the 3 songs were ones I had played before so I was able to do those ones well. The other I had to sight read, and I don't think it went horrible. Afterwards many of the members came up and thanked me for playing. Guess I'll need to be told what the hymns are earlier in the week so I can practice! That night we had a lesson with our friend Paullo Fernández, a 10 year old boy who's mother is a member. They have an extremely annoying dog named Pongo who won't stop attacking my companion and I and barking. I said a prayer for us to be able to pay attention and feel the spirit, and Pongo soon fell asleep for the majority of the lesson which allowed us to teach the best lesson on the Restoration that I've given. The spirit was at work! At the end we extended the invitation to be baptized on the 23rd, and he accepted! We now have a time limit on both Nayarah and Paullo, because although they accepted baptism, I don't know if either of them are 100% in it yet. We have more lessons with them this week and hopefully next week too before the 23rd, so if you could pray for them to be blessed with understanding, the spirit, and a true desire to be baptized I know that it will help them become stronger and they'll be able to feel the spirit and and feel immense joy and peace on the day of their baptisms. I really hope these can be the first baptisms I'll attend for people I've actually taught!

That was my week! It was full of exciting stuff and I really hope you'll pray with me for Nayarah and Paullo! Gracias and have a fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1. Cow heart kabobs

2. Soggy lasagna

3. Elderes de central

4. Misioneros en Trujillo con Presidente y Hermana Hiatt

5. Smoke

6-7. Knock off legos