Week 47: Eat Till You Can't Breath

 This was a fun week and I hope it was the same for you!

Monday night my new comps decided to take me to Buffalo for a "little" birthday dinner. I got some pig and fries and couldn't finish it. It was so much food. We never got our drinks but it was still good and just a ton. Elder Lumbre finished what I couldn't and then for some reason they decided to still go to the pensionista. Normally at this point we'd tell her we can't go because we're already so full. We arrive and get hamburgers set in front of us. I don't know how Elder Lumbre did it but after finishing my dinner he ate his half burger and mine. He looked like he was dying but he spared my life from having to eat the burger. 

I guess I turned 20 on Tuesday, too. Got in an awesome chest, shoulders, and triceps workout. We helped hermana Milagros move her stuff from her old room where she was evicted by the radical evangelists to a room above hermana Martha's house. We ended up packing everything into a taxi and holding her mattress down to the roof of the car with our hands. Hermana Milagros finally got a decent job and is looking more stable so it looks like we can finally move forward with her and make progression to the temple. We went to a party Hermano Díaz prepared for me at his house. We invited all missionaries in the district, which is only five of us. They fed us a bunch, with candy, burgers, and cake. Of course we had to wait for three hours after the burgers to eat the cake because Hermano Díaz can talk forever. But honestly it was fine because he's one of my favorite people here. They bought a chocolate cake for me of which after they got done singing I got my face slammed into by Elder Lumbre. I got frosting in my nostrils and I didn't take off my glasses so they got dirty too. We were already a little late to my second party at the house of Hermana Veronica. She invited a bunch of ward members and they went around the room giving their thanks to me and wishing me a happy birthday. She made us lasagna and another cake. Of course, once again, after they were done singing, I got my face slammed into it by Elder Lumbre. This time I made sure to take my glasses off first and got frosting in my ear. We played some games, la papa se quema y do you love your neighbor, which I don't recommend playing in a tiny, neatly decorated room. On the way back to the apartment we ran into hermano David and he wished me a happy birthday too. I talked with my family for a little bit and suffered from the pains of eating too much.

Wednesday the pensionista in Esperanza also bought a cake and fed us pollo la braza. Three birthday cakes are welcome by me. Now whenever I'm hungry I take my chocolate cake from the fridge and take some bites with a spoon because we don't have knives or plates.

We contacted a lot of people this week and found some people we think will progress. One's the grandchild of some members in our ward named Adrian. Another is an hermana named Claudina and her daughter Cielo who we found because I'm a gringo. All of them came to church on Sunday which is something we're still struggling with with our other friends. So we'll see where these go. On Thursday we had a noche misional for Esperanza. Before that I ended up going on a 4 hour long exchange with Elder Saboya because his comp Elder Kennedy was going to pick up his carnet. At the boche misional we did a reenactment of the story of Ammon and King Lamoni from the Book of Mormón. We changed it to make it a little funnier to "The Gringo and the Lamanites." Of course I was Ammon. The primary dressed up as sheep and I got to use a broom handle as a sword to cut off the arms of the young men. I may have hit too hard on one of them. Hermana Gamarra was King Lamoni's wife and even though we had practiced in the morning she still accidentally shouted, "Ammon! Ammon!" instead of "Lamoni" when she saw he had fallen to the earth. It was pretty funny.

Had zone council on Friday with the surprise guests of the APs and Presidente and Hermana Hiatt! We listened to him speak and continued on with the conference. Afterwards I was finally able to pick up my clothes from my pension. I guess that's one thing that sucks about this two area thing. Hermana Milagros found a room finally so I can finally wipe my brow clean from that issue. We helped her move her stuff and she told us she passed her interview for a temple recommend! I doubt we'll be able to go with her, but it's so cool she's about to complete her next step!

On Sunday I actually got bitten by a dog. It fit it's whole jaw around my knee. It was worse than the last one but still didn't penetrate my pants. Did have a little bit of pain for a little bit though. We tried to have a noche hogar with hermana Flor at the veterinarian, but it ended up just being us in an unthreatening bash with her uncle while she helped some of her friends. We eventually got around to talking with her friends, Angelo and Briget. We shared a message with them and have another lesson with them this week. After we left Angelo came riding up behind us in his mototaxi to warn us about a creepy man who had walked past the door of the veterinarian a couple times and looked at me. The second time he had put his hood on. It's nice to know people are out there looking out for us. We rode up to hermana Elva's house and watched the Christmas devotional with them.

For pday we went to the mall and were able to pull our monthly money. Got to talk to some other elders and had some KFC for lunch.

That's my week! Hopefully this week we can see some good things happen and see if some people are actually going to progress or not. I also ate so much food I really need to cut back. Have a nice week!

Elder Jensen