"...Holiday-whobity-whatty?"

December 25, 2017

Holy WEEK!

...wait, no that's in the spring. This was a heck of a week though. 

Tuesday: 

We had district meeting and started exchanges with Elder Williams and Elder Ord. Elder Williams is our district leader. He is about 5'6, from Texas, and probably one of the nicest, mother-like district leaders ever. Elder Ord is about 6'3, and a bear from California. He's a fun guy. I spent the evening with Elder Ord. We visited their number 1 investigators, which are a really nice Colombian couple, and explained what exactly the Book of Mormon is what how it ties into the gospel. It was a good visit! After that, we went to English group in the chapel with the hermanas (sisters). It was fun. We started with American history, somehow ended up talking about myths and legends, and ended with our national anthem. I miss having English. I really haven't had it since San Fernando. We also don't have it in Elda because we have no place to do it at the moment. Afterward, the hermanas asked us to give them blessings. It's always an uplifting and spiritual experience exercising priesthood authority. We ended the evening in piso because we still had studies to do. 

Wednesday:

In the morning, I went out with Elder Williams, but the first thing we did was visit a old member who is really sick and can't go to church or anything, so we just gave him some company for a bit. Afterward, we played a form of capture the flag but with contacting and getting future investigators (Elder Williams' invention). Our block was dead yo, so we went over to have our exchange inventory back at home base. On our way back, we got a call from the hermanas in distress. They were being followed, so we booked it across the city to member's house at which we decided to rendezvous. We found them, they were fine. The circumstances of the whole thing make it a little iffy on how serious it was, but we still walked them to their apartment because they were still a little shaken up. We just had our inventory on the walk back to piso. They had a lunch cita, so we had to leave in a bit of a rush, but it was a pretty good exchange overall! 

When we got back, we were able to set up a cita with Fabio, our evangelical investigator who also cuts hair. I haven't been able to actually sit down in a lesson scenario with him yet, so this was good. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was probably the most in-depth way I've taught it. I was using bible verses, discussing ordinances beyond baptism, the purpose of temples, agency, how we are saved from our sins and not in our sins, aaand a couple of other things. I have never explained those things before out loud all at once in any language, yet it worked out very well. Gift of Tongues, people. He's very evangelical, which also makes him very neutral in the idea of having one uniform faith. His prayers are more like football huddles than prayers. But hey, prayers. We also had a better visit with Rodolfo, our recovering atheist. We read the first chapter of Alma and talked a little bit about the nature of the Church's leadership and callings. At least he didn't say that he hated the Book of Mormon this time. 

Thursday: 

Weekly planning took up the morning. In the afternoon, we made little goody packages for the members and investigators in Elda, so we did a gift drop-off. We went to a recent-convert/very less-active member named Camilo who ended up being in the hospital, and we visited Cati. Cati is a lady from Honduras in her 20s who is a member, but lost the church when she moved here. I believe she's living with extended non-member family. So flashback to last week, Elder Hansen and Elder Tabilo ran into her in the street and she was excited to find members again and she got their number, but the way things ended, the elders didn't have her number nor her address. After our meeting in the park with Jhon last week, a lady stopped us and asked if we were Mormons, we said yes, she asked if we spoke Spanish, I said yes, and she took us to her apartment saying that her *I don't remember the relation* has been looking for the Church and members in Elda. She led us to Cati and Elder Hansen recognized her right when we saw her and she was happy to see us. We talked for a bit, then left pretty amazed with what had just happened. Fast-forward back to Thursday evening when we decided to pay Cati a visit. She was home alone, so we talked in the doorway. She was grateful for the little package, and then she proceeded to tell us essentially her whole story. She's been here for a little over a year. She has a very little daughter and she's still together with the father (at least I'm very sure he's the father. She just kept calling him her pareja) but not married. I don't think they even live together. Her family in Honduras are all members, she even has a brother on a mission right now, but she's a little estranged from her family due to certain life choices she's made. She still prays and fasts, she trusts the missionaries and has a huge respect for what they do, she even kinda bore her testimony to us as well, but she's working through some doubts she has with the church. She almost cried on numerous occasions. She actually was thinking about the missionaries (us) that morning. We did a lot of listening, understanding, and smiling as she sort of poured her heart out to us. We left her with a prayer and I sincerely let her know that we are here to help her with anything; that got her all teary-eyed again. That whole visit really impacted me on how much trust people have in the missionaries. Cati has only seen my face twice, but she knew that the calling I hold and the nametag on my chest made me a trustworthy representative of Jesus Christ, and in a way, no different than the other worthy young men with the exact same calling and nametag she'd seen as examples her whole life. We are here to serve and help in the capacities that we can. We really have nothing else to do. I aim to never breach that trust with anyone who knows the missionaries and what they do. 

Our night ended with visiting an older member and her brother. We talked about bread, a well-rounded diet, Colombia's climate, large produce, how to develop attributes of Christ, aaand finished back on large produce. Old people are fun.

Friday: 

In the morning, we visited Camilo in the hospital. I think he appreciated that. In the evening, an appointment with a future investigator failed, so the only thing left in the day was our ward Christmas dinner. It was fun! Though we ended up sitting at a secluded table with the Elda members we eat with every Sunday, so it wasn't too special.

Saturday: 

Just after finishing our daily planning, our daily planning was thrown down the pooper because the office elders made us a part of a gift delivery train spreading throughout the mission from the office. President Andersen wanted everyone to receive their Christmas packages just sitting in the office before Christmas. So in the morning, we bought our groceries for this week in case things were closed on Christmas, did some area book stuff, then drove to Elche. All of the driving missionaries pulled a flippin' pony express, so the elders in Murcia passed on the packages to the driving sisters and us in the Elche part of the mission and we drove to pueblos near us. Elder Hansen received a bunch of packages which is awesome because he didn't have anything yet for Christmas. The way things turned out, because Benidorm drove down to Elche as well, we only had one package to deliver in Alcoy. We made the drive to Alcoy and I immediately realized that I want to be in Alcoy. It's this isolated city built in the valley between two adjacent mountains with all of these cool bridges that go over the older parts of the city and all the signs aren't in Spanish, and gah! It was awesome. We just have one companionship there. The missionaries closest to them are about half an hour away in the Barcelona mission. The package was for Elder Hansen's MTC companion, so that was fun. 

Alcoy, Spain (internet image)

When we got back, we met with an inactive member that we've never met before. His name is Diego, he's from Colombia, he's 30 something years old, and he is super nice. We got to know him for a little bit and essentially he told us that he wants to come back to church again! He's planning on going the first Sunday in January because that's when his work schedule will allow it. That was very unexpected, but a very awesome experience. He said the opening prayer (because we had a little Christmas related message) and the closing one. You could see that he was on a spiritual high. 😁 

Sunday: 

We had church at 11 combined with two other wards and it was just sacrament meeting. The missionaries from both districts in Elx had lunch together. We had chili and baked potatoes. We had dinner with Inma and Aniorte where they fed us a looooot.

*sigh*This was a great week. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good week!

Elder Jensen :)

(I'M SO TOTALLY STOKED TO TALK WITH THE FAM)