We Biked 35 Miles In One Day!

Elder Jensen with his companion (and trainer) Elder Wells and President and Sister Griffin (his mission president).

This has been a pretty great week honestly. We started to teach a new family this week (new to us actually. The last Elders were teaching them, but we just got in contact with them). They are a really happy family from West Africa, and I am always smiling when we go to teach them just because they are so happy! We did try to get them to come to church on Sunday, but they were unfortunately busy so they couldn't make it, but there is always next week.

I watched a really cool Mormon Message this week called Spiritual Whirlwinds (or something really close to that) and I liked it a lot. It talks about having a strong foundation in Christ so that when temptations do come your way, you will be able to withstand them. You guys should give it a watch and let me know what you think.

We taught Nick a few times this week also. We did some reading with him, talked about the Word of Wisdom, and most recently, rekindled his faith in actually wanting to be baptized. He started to go and look stuff up online (which never really turns out good unless you go to the right website) and he got really depressed at what he read and did not feel worthy to be baptized anymore. I'll tell you what though, Elder Wells saved it by talking about the conversion story of Alma the Younger, which really brought him peace of mind. It was really cool to watch, I also used that little drawing that you showed me that shows how much we have to do, and how much the grace of Christ makes up for us. He liked that a lot.

Oh, and Living Legends! That was a really awesome thing to go and see! We were there because the Elders were invited to help usher before the performance. Even before that though, we got to eat dinner with the dancers, and it was really cool to talk with them. They are really nice people. As for the performance itself, if anyone had the opportunity to go to a Living Legends show, I highly recommend it. What it is, is these students celebrate their heritage and preform Latin American, Native American, and Polynesian dances. If you pay close enough attention also, you can see that they are telling the story of the Book of Mormon throughout the whole show, which was really cool. Missionary work can be preformed in so many ways.

We got to work with a few of the members this week also. The first was Brother Charbuski, (aka, Captain Mike). He is a really cool man, and is a 10 year convert. He has a very strong testimony in lessons, and is not afraid to use it. He also got Elder Wells and I lunch at Golden Corral, which was amazing! I stuffed myself silly there, and I think Elder Wells went farther than that. I am just glad we had bikes that day so I could work something of it off. We also worked with the ward mission leader, Brother Price. He almost taught a whole lesson to Nick when we brought him over to that one, which is great because that is the fellowship ingredient in action right there.

We worked with Jaren, a priest which just got his mission call to Thailand. He is pretty excited to go, and Elder Wells and I are going  to try and get him in on as many lessons as possible to help prepare him. We had dinner every night this week, which was awesome. I think I my favorite one was with the Abbott' because the food was awesome, and they gave us leftovers, which meant lunch for the  next couple of days.

Oh, and we biked a ton this week. The most miles we did this week was 35 in a day, and each day we went above 10 miles. My legs are sore, but man is it a good workout.

And of course, the highlight of this week was being able to talk to you and the family. I had such a good time talking to you guys, and I'm so happy that I got to use Skype to see you guys as well. After the call was over, I was a little sad, knowing that the next call wouldn't be until Christmas. But you know what, I actually did not feel all that bad. It really made me more excited to go out there and work, because time goes by faster when you work.

Well, that was week for you in a nutshell. I am glad to be out here working, and I can't wait to see what is in store for me this coming week. I love you Mom!

-Elder Jensen

PS: Our meal calendar for this month is FULL!  We have dinner with members every night!

PPS: So, I forgot my camera at the house, so I won't be able to get you those pictures. I will try to remember next week though. Sorry. Here are a few that I took on my tablet though.

I got to Skype with my family for Mother's Day!

This is how you ride a bike with slacks, and I look fabulous!

I have learned that I am in great need of sunscreen.  And I just remembered that I forgot to buy aloe. 😭

This is a new Cliff bar flavor I found, and I like it a lot! I got a new flavor today too, but I have not tried it out yet, but I will let you know if it is good.

I got a haircut this week, and it was FREE!!

P-day basketball at the church.

 Found this mug in our apartment, and I thought that it was really funny.

 One of my teachers in the MTC sent these pictures to all of us. This was our last class with them.