I'm Not Sick, But I'm Not Well...

...Well actually, yeah. I am sick. Woo.

This was a week of good stuff, if I properly recall. Monday was The Day of Police and there was a whole free museum thing set up. It was pretty cool! There were vehicles, equipment, confiscated weapons, various examples of where people have tried to hide drugs, etc. It was also a little funny having different Policia Nacional come up to and trying their English out on us. Speaking of which, the three levels of law enforcement I've seen so far are the Policia Local, Policia Nacional, y La Guardia Civil. This was definitely more aimed at the national ones. I'll be sending pictures.

Gun sword thing.

Confiscated improvised weapons.

Tuesday and Wednesday weren't too busy, but we did get to celebrate Elder Cobbley's birthday with Pte. Silva's family, so that was fun. Elder Van Moos and I got him a Jonas Brothers mug and a little green tractor from a chino. We got the tractor is because he's from Illinois, and the corn jokes are endless. The Jonas Brothers mug...well I don't have an explanation for that one, but it made everyone laugh sooo, worth it!

Thursday was an adventure. We had our interviews with President Andersen in Seville, so we took the 9:00 bus (not the usual 6:45, thank goodness) down and waited in the chapel until it was time. I didn't get in until about 3:15, I want to say, and I was the last one from Badajoz to go. We hadn't had lunch yet, Elder Van Moos has a bus card with a miraculous amount of money on it, and there's a Costco in Seville...🤔...😮...😎. We bussed ourselves on over to that little slice of America in bulk, stormed right up to that food counter, and I ordered myself a chicken basket (Yeah. They have a chicken basket.), and that old familiar Kirtland Signature Brand 1/4 Hot Dog with everything--refillable soft drink included--all costing me about 5€ in a country where 5€ at a restaurant will normally get you a non-refillable, 250 ml bottle of juice and a piece of toast. Gosh I love my country! Probs the most satisfying lunch I've bought here. We got back to the bus station in time, then the bus left at 6:30. We had zero time left in the day after our return. 

On Friday, a few things occurred. We had weekly planning for the second Friday in a row in the morning, and then I got permission from Pres. Andersen on Thursday to have all four of the Badajoz elders eat at Ytala and Borja's house. On a side note, the members keep asking to feed all four of us at the same time when they sign up on the calendar, but that's something that you have to ask the president to do every time and it should really be something that doesn't happen very often but they keep doing it and insisting on it and I'm normally the only one that mans up to actually make the call for permission and that's already happened like four times in this area which is plainly too much and I just want to punch something. *ahem* Moving on. So we had lunch and it was a good time! She made a really good salad, this potato-egg cake thing, and chicken fillets. I got to hear their story about how they met. It was cute. We shared a message on Ether 12:4 and talked a little bit about conference también. Briana showed us a couple more dog tricks, then we were on our way. Such a nice little family. In the evening, we had a lesson with Fátima (accompanied by two YSA) and taught the Plan of Salvation and answered some of her questions about the BoM. They were really good questions. I think it went really well! She also went to two sessions of general conference yesterday. I'm hopeful that she'll keep progressing this well.

Saturday marked the beginning of my companion's sickness and since I have to be with the guy 24/7, it marked the beginning of my sickness. We were working on the other side of the bridge in the morning, finding no one at home until we had lunch with Milena and Pte. Silva's family was also there. She made a huge dish of mussels that we topped with an olive oil pico de gallo thing then followed that up with a huge dome of arroz chaufa. Cecilia (Pte's wife) made a huge thing of banana bread. We ate well, and I was still staying pretty strong health-wise. 

 Milena is a licensed acupuncturist. She showed us what it's like! 

I did not do it in my forehead. 

I'm good with leaving my third eye closed. 

(The red on my hand is a stamp from her daughter.)

After an hour of study, we went to the chapel to watch the Saturday morning session of conference. We watched it upstairs in English. I really liked a the talks (claro), especially Sister Oscarson and Elder Holland's talks. And Elder Christofferson's. They were all good, alright? Our night pretty much ended after Conference because the bug hit Elder Van Moos and I BAD. We went to bed quite early. 

I didn't have the greatest sleep, and I woke up even worse Sunday. I was able to drug and citrus juice up myself enough to get through Saturday afternoon session (in Spanish) in the morning. Then we ate lunch, then on the way back to watch conference, we were asked to give a blessing to someone in the hospital, which after a whole fiasco that I dont have the energy to write down, ended up getting pushed back to later this week, so I missed like two thirds of priesthood session and got the rest in Spanish. Then we watched the Sunday Morning session at 6 (in English this time) and we ended our day with writing President Andersen and heading home early to hit the sack.

I slept much better Sunday night. Then we slept in today which felt really weird because I haven't done that in over six months. Sickness. Woo. I'll be sending photos over the next little bit. 

Have a good one,

Elder Jensen :)

P.S. I'll have more to say about conference after I've watched it all in English with a clear head. I still haven't even seen the Sunday afternoon session.