There and Back Again: An Elder's Tale

Cool sundial drinking fountain that is quite accurate.

Cool cotton candy pink clouds with a bright blue sky.
However, no camera could ever catch the raw color and beauty of it.

This week was full of travelling and walking. To start, we buckled down on contacting starting this week. Any time where we didn't have anything specifically planned and set up, we were contacting. It yielded little progress, but we were able to hand out some (a lot) cards and gain a couple potential investigators from it. Tuesday was contact heavy with only an eating cita with a member family and one lesson with a woman named Gladys. 

Wednesday, we organized a storage room and the family history center of the chapel with President Silva and the young men in the morning. In the afternoon, we went to Zafra (bus stop between Badajoz and Seville) because we had received a referral from church headquarters. We rode there, and looked for the address only to discover that it, in fact, does not exist. We had 15 minutes left until the next bus left the station (the one after that would come hours later) and we were 20 minutes walking distance away. We speed-walked, and made the bus just in time! (There can be miraclllees!) Our day was pretty much done after the ride back.

Thursday, we had exchanges with the elders in Cáceres. They were staying with us overnight, so the office just had them come to Badajoz that morning. I spent the morning with Elder Stephenson and the afternoon with Elder Rich. They are both hilarious, it's a shame they are both stranded in the far northern reaches of the mission. The whole day was spent contacting in different parts of The 'Joz. When we were considering what to do for lunch, Elder Nye got a call from a less-active member named Santi (Santiago). Santi is a youngish guy who owns his own business in social services. In short, he has money. With said money, he likes to take out the missionaries to eat for free every now and then. He hadn't called our companionship until that day. We asked if it was alright if he took all four of us, and he had no problem with it. He took us to a wok. But this one was sooo much better than the one in San Fernando. (WHEN YOU BELIEEEVE!) 

Friday, we woke up at 5:45, made the 6:45 bus, and rode on down to Seville. We got to the conference a tad late because there was no getting around it with waiting for a city bus and what not. It was a really good conference! A lot of it included segments from the most recent seminar for new mission presidents. The big topic was about refocusing studying on Preach My Gospel, specifically Chapter 3. That might seem like a big no brainer, but most missions have started focusing on the fundamentals of the First 12 Weeks program (which includes plenty of Preach My Gospel) more than the actual lessons and chapters within PMG. It was good. I was able to say hi to the San Fernando missionaries and the people from my MTC group. The numbers noticeably shrank this transfer. We got back at 9:45pm.

On Saturday, we finally had weekly planning. Then we ate with a member family and had our studies. After that, we helped a part-member family (the husband is our investigator) clean the chapel. The day finished with a game of soccer between us and a couple members, against some jovenes.

Sunday was good. We cooked and ate with President Silva. We were doing our reporting and what not until it was time for a noche misional. I don't remember if I said what that was, but it's essentially a branch FHE. It was very well attended. Presidente Silva was in charge of the spiritual message. As a part of that, he showed the Disney animated short called Piper. It was absolutely adorable and beautifully animated. Could someone please tell me what movie that short was attached to? That would be cool (At least, it looked like a Disney animated short).

Today was a little more relaxed. I'm happy the Yakima reception went well! I'm excited to see the pictures from it. I hope you got some with cardboard yours truly ;) 

Have a good week family, friends, and people who happen to see this email!

Elder Jensen :)

P.S. Almost forgot, we didn't have to cook for ourselves once this whole week. IT WAS AMAZING.

P.S.S. I got the socks! And the ridiculously awesome apron! Thanks :) I got a good laugh out of it.

"I Am Your Chef"

I got ma hur did! This is also the first time (besides various trips to the dentist) a man has taken various bladed tools to my head.

Goofy Elders.

So, uh, we found a tapestry on the street next to a dumpster last P-day, yadda-yadda-yadda,
we now have a sick tapestry highlighting our piso.