The Blind Side

May 14, 2018

If you think this week's tale will be about an inspiring story about a kid with no home, working his way up to the NFL through the love and support of an adopted family, you're horribly mistaken. But we'll learn a little more about that later! I'll just get right to the week.

A side note before we begin: I mention the notable things that happen throughout the week. These aren't the only things I do, but the ones that have a little more of a "wow" factor. It can be assumed that a fair majority of my downtime is spent walking around town, having people say "no" to me, and funny-in-the-moment conversations around the apartment.

Monday: I bought a watch. I'm a fan.

Shopping.

Very.

Sports in the park.

Tuesday: Pretty normal. We had district meeting, ate, studied, did Area Book stuff, then hit the streets, talking to people and exploring as we went.

Wednesday: More contacting/exploring, lunch with nice, elderly neighbors, language studies with Johnny who is studying to be a Spanish teacher, ward soccer game.

Thursday: Not much going on here beyond...José's baptismal interview!!! And he's all worthy and good to go. I'm so glad that that's been taken care of. Good guy. He's getting baptized on Saturday.

Friday: We decided to knock a really rich-looking neighborhood to feel like missionaries in the U.S. Things turned out pretty much the same, but we were able to find one person who invited us back later, so we'll see how that goes. We took a trip to Torredonjimeno to visit an older guy who we were considering letting go. 

After the visit we figured out that he has plenty of potential. We'll keep doing what we can with him. After that, we visited Chari and she's doing well. She has a very strong testimony, and she's working hard to come back to church and live the commandments. She was actually one of the first members here. 

Saturday: There was a ward barbecue thing that was well-attended. It wasn't very much of a barbecue though; we had hot dogs from this giant "ACME Can o' Dogs" and a lot of bread. The food wasn't of the highest quality per se, essentially mystery meat cylinders that melted to mush in your mouth. The company was definitely the better part of the evening. As I made jokes and had pleasant conversation with the members I was thinking about how glad I was that I could be here and was looking forward to the very likely 6 weeks more of being in Jaén.

That was when it happened.

I was cutting across the field, no one in sight upfield and my left side looked clear; but as I turned my head the right I was mercilessly flattened--blind sided--by the 6'5, 280lb linebacker named Sunday morning transfer calls. 

I am going to Cartagena! So I'm excited, but also a little sad, but I'll get over it. I'll have more info on that next week.

Sunday: Received that call, church went well, had my MOTHER'S DAY CALL, talked with the Fam, they're all good and fine, then visited a member before bed.

I gotta go, but I would just like to say that I am grateful for my mom and that she is awesome. 

That is all.

Elder Jensen :)