Elder Sam Jensen

  How are you doing? This was a pretty good week! I hope that you also had a great week! Tuesday was Elder Cabrera's last day in the area so we went around to say goodbye to some of the members. We visited hermano Enrique, hermana Veronica y Hugo, and hermana Elva. At hermana Elva fed us some chicken and Perlita showed me how much the baby bunnies have grown. They actually have hair now and the white ones have red eyes, just like their mother. So now there are 4 or 5 vampire bunnies and not just one. They can be a little freaky to look at, when we can get them to open their eyes. We actually had to chase Ruby around the room because she escaped. Eventually we got her trapped behind a pallet and I was able to pick her up and put her back in the cage. We shared a message and said goodbye. It was actually a little sad for Cabrera. On Wednesday, Salome, the daughter of the pensionista's neighboring who is always in the house, was visibly sad because Elder Cabrera liked to tease her...

  Well this week was a jumble of some pretty great moments and a little disappointment. But of course next week is going to be great and I trust in the Lord and the spirit! On Wednesday we had our multizone conference. They had it split so half the zones met on Tuesday and the rest met on Wednesday. We listened to some great talks from President and Hermana Hiatt about the atonement of Jesus Christ. As representatives of Jesus Christ, we should be testifying of Him all the time. This is something I've been trying to do more in all of my interactions. The APs are suggesting we try to ask 2 people each week to be baptized. Planting seeds one week and then harvesting them over the next few. We got some kebabs for lunch and some rice pudding for dessert. I got to talk a lot to the Americans in our district, Elder Gerber and Elder Barlow, because we naturally seem to segregate when we're all together. We rode the bus home and got ready for our big family home evening with 3 investi...

  Hola mis amigos! This week had it's ups and downs, but I really think this next week can be amazing! On Tuesday we decided to gift the leftover buns, eggs, and oil from the pday barbeque to hermana Elva. We made the trek up just to find her getting into a mototaxi with her kids down the road from her house. She gave us her house key and left. So we went into her house and set the food down. Made some calls, looked at their animals, and stared at the mountains in the distance. I've never had animals in my house, so it was kind of weird to see a cat, a chicken, and a bunny huddled in a circle. I took a step outside to look at the mountains and piles of dirt and trash when I realized their chicken had escaped and was outside with me. It was a small chicken with half of the feathers gone off the back of the neck. I got into a goose chase with a chicken trying to pick it up and bring it back into the house. These things are freaking fast. We were running around a small hedge in ci...

 Hola todos! Que tal? I hope you're doing well. My comp and I are trucking through it all but I'm loving every second of it. On Tuesday we had a "full day" ward activity where we kind of just hung out at the chapel all day with all the ward members. We couldn't join in any of the activities because of mission rules, so we couldn't dance or play volleyball with the ward members (since it wasn't pday). So we kinda just bounced from hanging around the grill outside to the kitchen inside over and over. The food was great though. Finally had barbecue that was actually warm. We had chicken for lunch at 1, picarrones, which are kind of like donut scones dipped in honey, for a snack, and papa reinas for dinner. I did eat chicken feet for the first time. It's hard to eat. A lot of work for such little mest and flavor for a reward. One of our investigators, Dante, actually came for a little bit. He left early which was kind of sad, but honestly, I can't blam...

  ¡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 mast...

 ¡Hola! This was a good week and I'm hoping these next few weeks can continue going up! On Thursday I got to go to the Trujillo temple for the first time. It's such a beautiful building with incredible significance for us, and especially the people of this city. We went with all of zona Esperanza and zona Central, so it was nice seeing some of them again. In the distribution center I bought my own Spanish hymn book so I can have my own brand new one instead of using the old one I stole from the stake center in California. The temple is amazing and it's the first time I've seen carpet in a while. One of my favorito parts about going to the temple is admiring the artwork. The paintings of Jesus, but also the paintings of landscapes that remind me of everything God has created and also gives me an inkling of what the world might have looked like during the creation before man was put on the earth. It's such a refreshing and spriritual experience and I hope and encourag...

  This week went by both super fast and super slow. Hopefully it'll just speed it up from here! Welp it's transfer week and I'm getting transfered yet again. They seem to move people around in my mission a lot. Both Elder Vilca and I are getting transfered, which is kind of sad because we both liked each other and had some progressing investigators. But we had one final meeting with some ward members on Monday and it turns out it was their anniversary! So they bought so much pollo a la brasa and soda for us it was crazy! It was delicious and I felt like I was a pig but I justified it as a farewell meal too. On Tuesday we got all packed up and in the early afternoon we went to the mission home. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to central. Even though I was only there for 2 transfers, or about 3 months, I came to love the area and especially the ward members. I didn't get to saying bye to many of them but I guess that's part of the mission. I think I'll look back...