Pretty dang tired of getting blind-sided...

June 25, 2018

This week has been pretty unexpectedly awful, haha! 

Everything was fine and dandy on Monday and Tuesday, but when I woke up on Wednesday I had a huge headache (I don't ever get headaches) and some major stomach problems. The day was spent inside. I took medication, stayed as hydrated as my body would allow me, and slept a lot. Pretty much the rest of the week was spent doing that routine. The nights were a little merciless where a lot of time was quite frankly spent reading the Book of Mormon on the toilet. On Thursday things didn't really improve despite the continued medication and rest, but they didn't worsen; I was able to go out for the weekly activities we hold at the chapel on Thursday evenings. On Friday the headache lessened, the bowel issues persisted, but then I started sweating with any level of physical activity more strenuous than getting up or sitting down. My forehead was dripping just from the effort it took to eat a very small bowl of cereal. I felt pretty pathetic. On Saturday, things were somewhat lessened overall besides an acute pain in my abdomen that lingered on. I received a blessing from the other elders of my district, hoping that would carry me onward. Sunday was a little more merciful (accidentally slept-in 2 for hours, but it was needed) and I kept on improving throughout the day and here I am now pretty much recovered. I even went on hikes and stuff today!

Enough about me, and on to the things actually related to missionary work that happened throughout the week. On Tuesday Elder Clark and I had a visit with Andrea and Jesús (I believe it was the food that I was given there that has caused my soul such suffering and anguish) that went pretty normal. They're in a pretty difficult situation right now. One is an active member who is breaking a couple vital commandments, and the other is practically a member who didn't know how he could know which church was true until just last week...after years of meeting with missionaries. We're trying to get them to read daily in the scriptures, more specifically, the Book of Mormon. On Friday morning our district got all of the new boundaries figured out for the big area change next transfer. Saturday was the day of Ygor's baptism! It was a well-attended service where everything smoothly. Elder Clark was asked to baptize him and he did it--which is impressive because Ygor is a tall and large man, and Elder Clark is not, haha! He has a strong testimony and will be a great addition to the ward with his Portuguese-Spanish hybrid accent.

The World Cup is going on, so that's normally a go-to topic with people when conversations grow stale. When Spain is playing, the whole place is a ghost town. It's a fun energy. 

Transfer News:

- There will only be two companionships instead of three. The sisters and us.

- My area is going to be bigger, and it was pretty huge before. We now have essentially the northwest half of the whole city.

- Elder Clark is heading out to Elche to be with my MTC comp Elder Newman.

- Elder Burnard from my current district will be my new companion. Should be a memorable experience, to say the least.

- The Spain Málaga Mission will officially be consolidated in just a couple days, and I will then be a part of the Spain Barcelona Mission.

- aaand that might be all.

Anywho! There were some ups, some definite downs, and some interesting and surprising news thrown into the mix to make for one very unexpected week.

Welp! I hope all is going well for y'alls, and I'll be writing real soon.

Elder Jensen :)

(My letter of encouragement back to Jacob was titled, "From the Queen of Getting Blind-Sided.")