Sept 21, 2015

Querida familia,

This week was super cool and super fun! We went to the aquarium last P-day and watched an amazing dolphin show. I also fed some sting rays, pet a shark, and chilled in the ocean breeze. It was absolutely beautiful. I'll send some pictures in separate emails. Also just wondering, do you get the emails I send from the camera? It says they go through but I'm still not sure if you're getting them. We have had a slow week with the missionary work, but we've done a lot of fun things with the other missionaries. There are a lot of amazing Elders and Hermanas in my area, I love them all! We got to eat with the new second councilor, Brother Hoffheins yesterday out on port Aransas. It was an absolutely beautiful area! It's about 40 mins away from the bluff, but it is an incredible area and the marina was full of cool boats and animals. We saw sea turtles and crabs, tons of fishermen, and even some dolphins. I hope we can all come visit as a family, it's a beautiful place.

We should have our real first baptism on the 27th of this month, so we hope everything goes well with him. He is an older man named James, about 65 yrs old, but he really wants to become a Mormon. He found us and called us out a few weeks ago asking how he could join our church. Sometimes you don't even have to search for the elect of God's children, they will find you! Right now he is our only investigator, but he's doing awesome and progressing well. He has some unique struggles that sometimes turn people away, but we love him a lot. I hope our ward will be good for him and fellowship him well. He deserves a good ward family, he's a super great guy.

We also had a super cool story about meeting a man named Robert this week. We were following street referrals having kind of a slow day and got to a nice blue house. A woman answered the door, her name was Jenny, and she was very kind, but uninterested. She had taken the lessons with the missionaries a little bit before and decided not to continue them. As we were leaving she asked us if we wanted the spare silverware she was getting rid of on her porch. It was a pretty nice looking set and we knew members who were in need of silverware, so we agreed to take it. She left to go pick her kids up from school and we packed up the silverware to take it home with us. After about a minute of her being gone, a shirtless man covered in tattoos come out on the front porch and started screaming at us. Apparently he had just woken up and was concerned at why we were on his porch. He was hardcore cussing at us, many F-words and the like to display is displeasure at us being there. We were surprised and quickly tried to get off his property. Just before we left he paused and asked," are y'all Mormons?" We stopped and said yes, and he then proceeded to invite us in for water and a donut. It the blink of an eye his demeanor changed and he apologized for treating us so harshly. After a few minutes of talking to him he just started to open up to us and tell us how he was having a lot of family problems at the time and was really trying to make changes in his life. He wanted to be a better husband and feel forgiven of his past. We explained to him about our church and what Christ can do to help him with his desires, and he accepted being baptized the 11th of that month.

It was a super crazy contrast from what we expected on the front porch. They are very sweet people, and right now we're waiting for them to contact us for lessons. I hope we will be able to keep teaching them and help them have the gospel in their lives. That was a super fun day. It's always nice to have those funny little moments when things don't go quite how you expect them to.

I'm super excited for Brandon's marathon, he will feel the pain! It's tons of fun, but no training=no Bueno. He's just lucky that he has mom to guide him through the race. That is the only thing that kept me and Russell going! I hope Brandon and Cristian are doing well. I haven't heard to much from them since I've gotten on the mission, but I'm sure they're living up the bachelor life!

Our first transfers are tomorrow, and we'll find out later tonight who's staying and who's leaving! It's going to be super exciting. We'll get a new zone leader because Elder Nielson just died(went home) this week, and we might lose a couple of the other Corpus elders and sisters. I'm pretty sure Elder Robinson and I will stay on the bluff this transfer, but who knows.

I heard about the flood from a member this week! The members we had menudo with also fed us cactus and eggs, and while we were eating with them the Colorado city story came on the news. I was worried about you guys a little bit, but it sounds like you guys missed the big brunt of it. Please stay safe please, I love you guys!

Con Amor, El Elder Jenson