Ain't no Baptism Like a Spanish Baptism 'Cause a Spanish Baptism Don't Stop


This was a good week! 
Tuesday, I got to have my first interview with the president. He was very impressed with my optimism and attitude. It was a nice meeting. Fast forward to 4:30 the next morning when I woke up to catch a train leaving for Seville for the zone conference. Fun fact: Our zone conferences here are technically tri-zone conferences since everyone is so spread out. I took two pictures on the train, but I didn't think to take any at the conference. Sorry about that. I'll take some next time. Two Elders and two Hermanas from my MTC group are in my tri-zone area, one of which was Elder Newman! It was fun to see him again. He's currently serving in Dos Hermanas right next to Seville and I do not envy him. Seville is HOT. And it isn't even summer heat there yet. It literally is the oven of Spain. The zone conference was very informative on the new area plan on involving members, why this year's change of schedule is a good thing (I completely agree), what is appropriate for missionaries to wear (fun fact: I'm 90% sure we can wear sombreros), how to maintain a quality comp study, and other things. It was primarily in Spanish and I followed along very well! But it was a little difficult because it was very easy to start to fall asleep. President Andersen made an interesting point on how drinking energy drinks shows that you are relying on the power of man over the power of God. It makes sense. We need to rely on Him for our strength, especially those serving as his representatives. 

Throughout this week, we were able to make some good progress with our main investigators. Meaning, we were actually able to meet with our main investigators! Unfortunately, it's most likely that I won't be able to see the baptism of Juan because he has months of community service to complete before he can be completely worthy. But he's making more progress! We're having him focus on reading the Book of Mormon. We're doing that because he doesn't have a testimony of the BoM. We know that he doesn't have a testimony because he told us himself. But alongside that, he said that he knows that he needs to read it to gain a testimony and he wants to! So we have goal sheets and a little progress calendar to help him have a daily commitment to read and pray! He's getting easier to understand, which is awesome because he had one of the more difficult accents.

Every month we're given roughly 140 U.S. dollars. I spend just under 20€ on food every Monday for the week. The rest is divided into Fast offerings, hygiene/supplies, miscellaneous purchases, and savings.

Things are going well with Elder Garrard. We're kind of getting into a better idea of how we work individually and together. However, he is a utensil biter. Forks amd spoons. That's something I guess I'll have to suffer through for now :P It's normally enough that I have to put on a conference talk or turn up the hymns before I go off, haha! But I believe everything is pretty much great in the companionship!

My finger is still there! I can feel all of it, and the only visible damage has been isolated to a bruise on the side of my fingernail, and some slight scarring.

Abraham's baptism.

It was my birthday! And it was a really good one! It was the same day as the baptism of an 11 year old investigator named Abraham who has been taught by the other SF Elders. It was a very good experience. The elders, including me, even sang the primary song "El Bautismo" as a musical number.
Elder Anderson at the piano.

 Spanish people go hard with baptism refreshments. It was crazy! There were cakes, pastries, we made Brownies, somehow a tortilla and fish sandwiches were thrown into the mix, it was like a birthday party! And everyone went berserk when they learned it was my birthday. It was fun. There were a lot of members and a few even brought non-member friends. Also, on Sunday, the other Elders were nice enough to return our glass pan to us that they borrowed for brownies. Except, the glass pan was full of a peanut butter white chocolate casserole thing and sang "Happy birthday!" so that was outrageously nice of them. So it was a very good first birthday away from home!



Lunch in Chiclana with a majority of the zone.

I'll have more pictures next week! I forgot to bring my camera to the chapel. Whoops :P

Keep writing! I'll talk to you all later,

Elder Jensen :)

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