Week 33: My Fist Hungers for Righteousness🐼

 ¡Buenas días! ¿Como esta? I hope you're doing well.

One thing our pensionista feels us is fried bananas. Not even the normal plátano, but después fried banana slices. They don't taste like much but they're okay. 

On our way to district council we were stopped by another evangelical who we just listened to for 30 minutes. He claimed he was a doctor and on his way to work, but was drinking a can of beer so I don't really know how that's supposed to work. After district council this week we all went over to the bishop's house in Esperanza for lunch we had some delicious empanadas but not much else. Just a little bit of noodles so that was kind of sad. And we may or may not have watched a bit of Kung Fu Panda 2 in their house. That was pretty fun even though we shouldn't have done it. The Spanish dubbing wasn't as good as the English voices though. I'll turn it into a spiritual thought to make it ok. In Kung Fu Panda 2 Po is trying to learn how to master inner peace. Shifu says that Oogway mastered it by sitting in a cave for years without food or water. While we don't have to do exactly what Oogway to obtain inner peace, we can start by fasting often. The Lord has told us to obey the law of the fast and one of the major reasons we fast is to gain wisdom. Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness before he started His ministry. By doing so he received spiritual strength and wisdom while suffering physical pain. We can also receive much wisdom and a spiritual increase every time we fast because it's a humbling experience that brings us closer to God. This will allow us to feel the presence of God and peace in our lives. Wisdom, peace, and a spiritual increase? Fasting sounds great. That's what Oogway did to feel peace, and I know we can do the same. This next week is fast Sunday so I encourage everyone to begin fasting with a question so through your efforts to grow closer to God, you can gain wisdom and feel peace.

(Funny enough the message I chose to share from a movie about a fat kung fu fighting panda who loves food is about fasting)

This week we went on exchanges with the district leader. I went with Elder Gerber, an American who's been here for three weeks. It was fun going with two gringos and since we're both semi-decent at Spanish it was quite fun. I learned quite a lot and I hope to improve myself as a missionary in the coming weeks. We met with Hugo almost everyday this week and asked him to be baptized again. Elder Gerber and I met with him and I felt the spirit strongly as I reviewed with him the plan of salvation and Elder Gerber shared an experience he had about the Hola Ghost. We got on our knees to prayers for him and to ask If he was ready for baptism. We all felt the spirit strongly, including Hugo, but still said he can't do it. He tells us that he feels baptism is right and that he understands, but still thinks he can't do it because of his condition. He's worried about the bathroom I think. We're going to take a break from pushing baptism on him for a moment and focus on teaching other parts of the gospel for a while and hopefully in a few weeks he'll feel more ready. I know that your prayers will help him to understand he can, even with his condition! (He only has one leg and is in a wheelchair)

We met with one member who's elderly and comes to church, but he doesn't believe in Joseph Smith, modern prophets, or the Book of Mormon. He agrees with everything we teach about Jesus Christ, but I guess that's the only reason he's a member. We're going to meet with him and hopefully help him to understand the truth. His son is a famous singer and he invited us to go over next saturday to join his son and his friends for a party where his son's going to be drinking. We aren't allowed to go to activities with alcohol, so we had to turn him down. But it was kind of hard to focus when he didn't bother to turn off the TV before we started talking because it's difficult to pay attention when there's a movie playing in the back with Dwayne Johnson beating people up with a stick, even if you're not directly watching it. He gave us a little cup of flan and some orange cracker thing with some jelly in it. It was old and stale so I didn't eat very much.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6 to get some exercise in before we walked to the capilla in Jerusalén to help clean it. I cleaned all the white boards with a spray bottle that leaked out the bottom of the nossle when I sprayed it more than out the front. I also got into a little fencing match with Elder Castro. I'll just tell you that pvc pipes are too light to use and will likely end up flying all over the air. Definitely was reminded of the classic pain of getting your fingers hit with a toy lightsaber when you're out play fighting with your siblings and cousin in the fall and winter.

After a delicious dinner of pancakes from our pensionista, (down here they eat pancakes by spreading a carmel sauce and then rolling it. I have to consider this a cheat meal whenever we have it because there's no way I'm going to waste it with only 2-3 pancakes) we went up the hill to hermana Elva's family for a meeting, but it just turned into a hang out and talk because they were painting their living room and putting in their first ever wooden door into one of their bedrooms so they don't have to use blankets anymore. It was fun and I talked with her 10 year old for a while. I'm feeling pretty good about my Spanish now that I can understand most of what they're saying. I said high to their rabbits again, and it turns out, only 2 of them actually have names, being Max and Ruby! They let me name the other one Big Chungus and Bunnicula. Their little 5 year old sometimes would just come up and punch me in the behind for no reason. They're quickly becoming one of my favorite families to visit. Of course for whatever reason my comp doesn't want to come up here again but we agreed to have a noche de hogar with them next week. He says he doesn't want to go up there because it's dangerous, but I haven't seen anything weird and I don't think that should stop us from visiting a family unless it's clearly dangerous. I just think it's because he doesn't like to walk up hills. But he's cool and we get along just fine.

Sunday morning I was a little disappointed because we started the sacrament and none of the people we invited showed up. But then one of our investigators, Dante, and his two young daughters came. That perked me up and we set up our first lesson with him this week. We were also invited to have a second lunch with hermana Veronica. I couldn't say no, and my stomach paid the price. And my self esteem. All this exercise I do and they keep feeding me so much so that it doesn't do anything. So my stomach had a weird mix of fish and potatoes with spaghetti and really sugary lemonade. Later that night we contacted with an old family that was taught a while ago and they are for people who all had baptismal dates. We only talked with the mother, but we have another lesson with them this week. With the Lord on our side we can turn this into an awesome experience!

I guess not much happened this week but I feel we laid some ground work for these next few to be amazing! Thank you for your prayers and I hope that you have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

(Sorry there aren't many photos. I'll do better next week)

1. Funny zona Esperanza (Plus I got demoted from my selfish talking posición because I'm no longer the tallest)

2. Zona Esperanza 

3. Walking up the hills