Elda Elder

This week was a doHOOzy!

Starting off with Monday, we just wrote emails and played Risk in the chapel because Elder Van Moos was leaving in the afternoon to start his trip to Málaga. It was kind of weird saying goodbye to him. He traveled a lot when I was with him, so it felt like the usual, but it wasn't. On a positive note, I finally won my first game of Risk! I guess all you need to do to win, is take Braeden out of the equation! It's infinitely easier that way, haha.

Goodbye Selfie (he caught me)

In the evening, I and the other Badajoz elders went to a FHE with Herles' family one last time.  It was a good time. Herles is going to send me a "I♡Badajoz" shirt. The rest of the evening, I made preparations to pack.

Ex-Pres. Herles and his wonderful family.

I will miss them.

I packed for as much of Tuesday morning as I could before we had district meeting. For whatever reason I was directing the meeting in the place of Elder Van Moos. After lunch (Santi invited us all to a Spanish cafe), I went back to my apartment and finished packing. 

This was a really nice view to have...

At 6:10, I boarded a bus headed to Seville, And the zone leaders picked me up there at 9:20. We bussed back to their apartment, and hit the hay.

We woke up at 6:00 Wednesday morning and bussed over to the train station, where I was traveling with the missionaries going home. We rode the train from 8:05 to 10ish. I sat with Elders Ramirez and Anderson (different Anderson). There weren't many going home in the zone, only two elders and two sisters, but when we got to the train station, the small group of hermanas steadily grew to a teeming mass of suitcases and squeals. Four elders are leaving this transfer and 11 hermanas are going home. I kept Elder Anderson company for a while because hermanas kept going this way and that for lunch and things as they waited to be picked up by the office elders and someone had to watch the bags. When it was time for them to head out, I met up with a bunch of missionaries heading to my new region of the mission. We ate lunch at Taco Bell; I ate what was probably the best made crunchwrap I've had in my life. And I've had a lot of crunchwraps in my time. We boarded a bus at 1:15pm going to Murcia. When I sat down, I heard a surprised "¿Élder Jensen?" I turned to see Hermana Aguilar sitting down right in front of me! We spent a lot of the time catching up. I've been with her since the MTC and it's been cool to see the progress I've made in being able to understand and communicate with her. Spanish is a crazy thing. The mission is a crazy thing. We had a half-hour stop in Granada where I got to meet some buddies from my old zone, and arrived in Murcia at 7:08pm. I emphasize 7:08pm because my bus going to Elche was leaving at 7:15 and I was able to grab all of my bags and cross the station just in the nick of time. I arrived in Elche, met the elders in the Elche wards, then got in the car with Elder Hansen and drove to Elda. 

Yay, new comp!

There was quite a bit of sitting around. It rained on and off the whole time. Things are very green and mountainy toward the South.

 I was able to meet up with Elders Gergov (not present), Romano, and Anderson. Elder Romano worked in Cadiz, Elder Anderson in San Fernando, and Elder Gergov is in my group.

On Thursday we had weekly planning rearranged some furniture, lunch, studies, I was able to grab some needed hygiene and supplies, and we visited a member named Inma. She is a very strong member who lives with her divorced husband (also a strong member) and their adopted son (not a strong member, if a member at all). I guess they were married, then divorced, then money was tight for the both of them so they're back in the same apartment co-existing or something like that. They're nice and fun and fed us, which I was not expecting. A lot of the Elda members are fun and sarcastic. At least the ones I've met so far. There are about a dozen members in Elda and we attend The 2nd Elche ward.

Friday, I was able to meet our #1 investigator named Ivan. He is a really good and sincere man. His mindset and life vision fit perfectly with the Gospel. He's now been taught the first three lessons and things are going pretty dang good. He's had a baptismal date set in January since before I arrived. We met another older member couple whose names are Roberto and María Jesús. They are both very sassy, and María Jesús is very particular with everything ("shut the door when you enter a room", "the chair has to be scooted in this much when you get up from the table", etc.). We also had the chance to meet another investigator named Rodolfo. He's an older Spaniard who the missionaries have been visiting since August. He's very introvertive and was an atheist, so the plan is pretty slow with him. The missionaries come and read in the Book of Mormon with him every week, and he reads daily at his own pace. He's looking for an answer from God. We'll do what we can to help him recognize one.

On Saturday, I met Rosana. She is one of the louder ones here, but her Spanish is super clear and she's very funny. She served a mission in Madrid. She bought us churros con chocolate. Afterward, we visited an investigator named Liliana with Carlos, a counselor in the bishopric. We taught the Plan of Salvation and that was another really good discussion. I just landed in a huge heap of people to teach. I've never taught this many consecutive lessons before in a single week, let alone my whole mission. I'm also leading the lessons. Which is even crazier! Anyway, we had two citas fail us, but there was a priesthood meeting going on in Elche that we were invited to, so we went to that instead. It was a presentation of sorts by the stake president on not letting today's distractions get in the way of having a strong family, and specifically, after the young men left, cracking down on keeping the law of chastity. It was pretty awesome. He's a very energetic and young guy. Afterward, I was able to meet some more members.

Sunday turned out to be quite the adventure. Church was cool. I learned that Hermana Brinkman from my group, and my flying buddy from Washington, is working in the other ward! I think there are 5 companionships for the Elche wards. My district consists of one set of hermanas and two sets of elders. Elder Hansen and I are stranded out in Elda, hence the car. Anywho, the attendance was actually pretty similar to Badajoz on a good day, just with more priesthood. We ate lunch at Inma's with Rosana and a recent convert named Ivan (a lot of Ivans, right?). He's a young, big, bearded Spaniard with a lot of energy. He reaches a year as a member in early January.

I'm going to stop here and put a revised president letter quote:

"I've spent the last few days meeting with members and investigators of this new area. Elder Hansen has really been on top of setting up appointments this whole time. He doesn't have many reservations on calling people and it's awesome to see him already have the courage to speak up. His Spanish is a little trough at times, but he's always willing to speak, learn, and improve. So far I've lead teaching The Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ to investigators and a few messages to leave with members. They've all gone really well and I'm surprising myself at how much I've been able to teach and say. I have not had too many opportunities in my mission to teach the lessons so far, but somehow it all flows through my mind when I'm teaching. It might help that I've been earnestly and unceasingly praying for guidance and the gift of tongues ever since I was assigned to this area and the circumstances that accompany it. This area has quite the foothold established and I'm excited to join in the effort to keep the work moving here.

It's interesting being in a driving area and not having the chapel nearby. I'm sure you are already aware of this, but today we were driving to a place with WiFi to write you, when Elder Hansen accidentally hit a curb coming out of a roundabout in such a way that both tires on the right side were punctured and flattened. This incident happened to lead to our miracle of the week: We are parked in a shopping center right next to a repair shop!"

Sooo yeah. Elder Hansen successfully and efficiently disabled our 2017 Toyota Auris only after 5 days of driving, haha! Getting everything figured out with the office and filling out the damage report and what not took up pretty much the rest of the evening. We walked home in about 25 minutes and had just enough time left in the day to do our studies. But that's ok! Because today, we got ready, then walked back to the car and got it all fixed up at the shop. We were planning on doing some winter prep shopping at the shopping complex in Elche, but that will have to wait till next time. It's getting pretty cold now. The past couple days have reached below freezing for a bit, and the wind is pretty chilling. It's not strong, but boy does it pierce you to your very soul.

This region is cool. The terrain is a lot more rugged and there's some mountains here and there. The people seem pretty much the same so far. By the looks of it, they might be a little more open in regards to the theme of religion, but who knows?

I'm happy to say that I have yet to have a dull day in Elda!

Elder Jensen :)

Oh! Last Thursday, I thought I'd treat myself and make some fry bread. 

The very next day, Santi came by and dropped off all of these baked goods from a panadería.

So much fried bread.