La PUERTA está ABIERTA

April 5, 2017

...Who left the door open?

This week has been pretty dang great! General Conference was very fulfilling. This was probably the best Priesthood session I've witnessed so far. We actually were able to watch both morning sessions live! So that was a nice thought. 

The studying has been going pretty great. I now have Su Objetivo, the baptismal invitation, the First Vision, and Moroni 10:4-5 memorized! Elder Newman and I also have our last lesson with our first investigator tomorrow. After that, we'll be assigned two more. I'm interested to see how that will work out. This regular schedule makes the days go by in a blink of an eye.

Jacob didn't send any photos this time so I borrowed these of the Madrid MTC from lds.org

Next week, the Russian missionaries are heading out, and 11(?) more missionaries will be arriving and they're ALL native Spanish speakers! I'm excited. Evidently, President Packer has asked Elder Newman and I to fellowship one of them who was described by his stake president as "the most timid person in the universe" or something like that. Another reason to be excited!

I borrowed this one from Barrios de Madrid, a tourist company. This is a popular tourist walking route in Madrid. For obvious reasons.

Last Saturday was another good day at the park. I was paired up with Elder Rigby, another Spanish learner. There was one conversation with an older Catholic man on a park bench (on a side note, Spring is practically in full bloom and it's gorgeous) that lasted about 40 minutes. He was very open to discussing and comparing our religions and I understood 98% of what he said! Even better, I whittled him down from "What's the difference between our churches?" to "How do I know which story is true?" Of course then I almost yelled, out of excitement, that he needed to sincerely pray about it! I bore a little testimony, and he wanted to study it out, so we went on our merry way. I don't know how much that interaction affected Francisco, but it definitely helped to solidify my testimony :) 

The Pit

The food here is terrific and a vast majority of it is food from the area. That being said, I think I've gotten trimmer. Elder Haffner, one of my roommates, and I do an increasing number of push-ups, jump squats, and triceps dips in our room almost every night. I'm also pretty active during our physical activities. Our physical activity time starts at 5pm. The sports either take us to the cultural hall on the base floor of the complex (the MTC is only three floors) or to The Cage or The Pit. I haven't gone to The Cage yet, but I've been to the pit almost every day. The Pit is something straight out of a book or a movie. It is about a two minute jog from the temple grounds. The Pit is a concrete soccer field with graffiti on every cement bleacher, in the middle of, you guessed it, a pit. When we show up, there usually is a couple kids of varying age waiting to play with us. The younger ones are okay, but the older guys aren't the greatest people to play with. Regardless, none of them can handle any level of physical contact and they hog the ball. So, you know, they're soccer players. It turns out I'm actually a really good goalie! That was a fun skill to discover. We play soccer in The Pit, except for one intense game of Ultimate Frisbee.

I don't have time to get into the details of my district, so I'll have to talk about it next week. We go to the mall today for P-Day, so that should be exciting. I don't have any pictures to send, since I haven't been in a situation where I have been allowed to take pictures, so I'll send some next week.

Thanks for emailing me! And if you didn't email me, please do! I enjoy it! 

jmjensen10@myldsmail.net

Have a good week!

Elder Jensen :)