Jan. 4, 2016

Querida familia,

Thanks for fasting for me boys! The Lord is keeping me safe here for sure. I may have needed your fasts because we had some rough weather the last few days so riding in the street has been a bit dangerous. Everything is alright though, and the weather is great again! I love hearing about your missionary experiences, we love it when members sacrifice to come out with us; they are way more important in the lessons than the missionaries are for many different reasons. The most being that the missionaries are temporary and the members are permanent residents. Fellowship is much better with the help of the members. Keep it up! I'm also glad Cristian found a good girl. I've been praying for him and for Brandon to find girls that are as amazing as they are. Right now I'm serving with an Elder named Elder Galloso and he reminds me a lot of Cristian. He was badly burned as a child and as a result has only one full arm and the hand he has the fingers are burned off. He has many physical struggles, but he has the heart of a lion just like Cristian.

I've got an interesting adventure for you this week. Last Monday night we stopped by a Less active for a family night and they ended up not being there. We were a little put off for that, but as we were leaving their house I saw something in the road a little ways off. Upon further inspection, I found that it was a nice fat snake sitting there. I thought it was alive but the head ended up being crushed. I pointed it out to Elder Faris, and somehow we came up with the great idea of bringing it home with us. We crossed the street to contact a referral. He wasn't interested, but he gave us a plastic grocery bag so we could carry the snake home; we didn't tell him why we wanted it... Anyway, we picked that 4' long sucker up and carried it around with us the rest of the night to all of our appointments.

Then we got home and put it in the fridge to prank Elder Galloso and Elder Johnson. They didn't open the fridge for a while that night and Elder Faris and I were dying trying not to laugh and give it away. Finally Elder Galloso went to open the fridge, stuck his face right in there and froze. All he said was," Oh freak..." And just stood there blank faced. Elder Faris and I died laughing and the other guys enjoyed the joke. We left it in a pan in the fridge for 3 days and then we finally found some time to cut it up. We wanted to make the skin into a leather hide for our planners.

Elder Faris took out all the intestines and stuff while I studied Spanish, then pinned up the hide to dry. After that we had the grand idea to cook it up and see what it tasted like, so we did it. Surprisingly it tasted almost exactly like chicken. It was pretty bony like a fish but the taste was still good. Today the hide finished drying and we sprayed clear acrylic on it to seal it up and harden it. It turned out super cool and I think we're going to frame it instead of using it for planners, and post some of the "surgery" pictures with it. That's about it. My first meal of roadkill and my first meal of snake. Viva Tex-Mex mission life!

Regarding the missionary work here, things are going pretty well. The people here are absolutely great; they have great hearts, but very few people will come to church with us. This week we're going to focus on teaching the importance of the Sabbath day. I hope that helps fix the problem. People can't enjoy the blessings of coming to church if they don't come. We also have a unique problem with trying to help less active members get to the temple. (Deleted--"no man's land")

I'm loving life and having a blast with these guys. I had a few days in my first two transfers that were really hard emotionally; I've had many times like that throughout my life. However, these last few months I haven't even had one. As I've focused on serving others, my worries and problems have been disappearing and life just becomes great. I still have hard days, but I still enjoy them and they don't drag me down like they did before. One huge blessing of the gospel for me right there. I can't tell you how great it is to be out here. Life is simple, the missionaries are great, and I get to watch the Lord's hand work in other people's lives every day. What more could anyone ask for!? Happy New Years, and have a great first week of school everyone! I love you all and I'm praying for you always!

Con amor,
El Elder Jenson