Week 17--Sept. 21, 2015

Week 17--Sept. 21, 2015

"19" by taylor swi-..jensen

FAM! do you get the title? feels like im 22... the song by taylor swift... whatever it was a stretch

I added graham and nick carrigan to this because they are on their missions and wanted to get my weekly emails. just a heads up. you all know graham and nick left after first semester to Sweden but was a really good friend of ours.

It was so weird to think of mom and dad off doing their things this week and lydia and natalie holding down the fort... when natalie said that lydia was driving everyone everywhere and she was getting everyone ready for school i just about questioned mom and dads sanity. then i remembered that lydia and natalie... you two arent the little girls who i used to jump on the tramp and play with! its clear you have grown up so much. honestly i think you have surpassed my maturity level already which is a little depressing

So fun to hear from Benjamin and mandy too, sounds like you had an awesome week. Benjamin keep those lizards alive!!! and mandy, thanks so much for offering to let me play your new ukelele when i get home! we can jam out together. mom- i wish that i had known great grandma Tanner better. but i am glad that one day i will! from what you say about her, she sounds a lot like you. Dad- thanks for the words of advice. how are things with Yiwei and his wife? anything new? have they come to church? sounds like a sweet time at the ucla byu game... can't believe we lost though... jack heer must have been so happy. sorry to hear about the drunk guy though, seems like there are people like that everywhere

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE BDAY STUFF! The package made my week mom thank you so so soso sosososossosososos much and i loved every single thing! you could seriously not have sent more perfect gifts. I have been wanting some american socks so badly.... its like you knew exactly what i wanted. and the ties?!!?!? They are SICK!!! Im sure you will see me wearing them in pictures in the future. your note made me laugh so hard mom :) and to the rest of you, thank you so much for the cards, each one of you. i felt so close to you all reading your notes. my birthday was great! it fell on the day of interviews with the president, funny enough! we played volleyball as a zone in the chapel for exercise that morning and the zone leaders elder leite and tinao (our flat buddies) left super early to "run" but really went a bought a cake. they surprised me with it and sang to me with the zone and it was really fun. Then during personal study, president jordan called me and him and sister stevens sang to me which was sweet of them. That day we went upstairs to the mission office before interviews to check the mail and the packages and sister williams who is just the funniest most hilarious woman ever had all the office missionaries sing for me wearing the bday stuff because elder wood told them even though i made him promise not to. the good thing was i got to hear elder williams' personal rendition of the birthday song which is legendary here in the mission and it was awesome. they insisted on taking a photo and she sent it to me so ill attach it. interviews went really well! you know, president stevens is a very good man, and very smart too. it was an honor to talk to him one on one for a little while. and sister stevens... wow she is really just the most amazing mission presidents wife. both her and sister jordan were incredible and both president jordan and stevens are also incredible and all in such different ways. it makes me realize that leadership in the church is always changing, but different people bring equally good things to the table. even though saying goodbye to one is very difficult, the next will be different and amazing in their own way. I feel very blessed to have met the Jordan's before they returned home. Sister STevens made brownies for interviews and they were so good...... nice bday treat. That evening we went to augusto's to do some service but didnt have time so just had dinner with him. he had made avocado and mango and shrimp (called prawn here) because they are all my favorite things. quick note about augusto. he showed me yesterday that he had gotten a temple recommend and is going to the temple with the ward this saturday for endowments, and is making such enormous progress. it is amazing to me and fills me with joy. i love him so much and would do anything for him... elder chronister and i feel so blessed to have been a part of his life and seen him come back to the gospel. that night while i did call-ins with the sisters in the district, elder wood made a carrot cake with cream cheese (i picked it out in honor of dad) frosting. he also gave me a tie that morning which was so nice of him to do. i couldn't ask for a better companion. he has made it a tradition to bake on the nights i do call-ins which has been making it so hard to fit into the right belt loops anymore. ill try to send some pics i took on my camera of the following night when we had time to put the banner up and balloons and had peanut butter oatmeal cookies (courtesy of Elder WOod of course) and used the candles. Thanks so much for those mom! 

So yea, that was my bday! it was wonderful and for a large part due to you guys, so thanks :) youre the best family ever.

Other than that, some interesting exciting things happened this week but ill just mention a few! to answer your questions mom, chris has gone missing, and being a trainer entails what it sounds like. basically i am now in charge of the area and what we do and we have an hour a day extra to study a program by the church to help new missionaries learn what and how to do things. its called 12 weeks and you do it the first 2 transfers of your mission, which means i get to do it all over again right away! maybe the Lord knew i wasnt always paying close attention the first time and gave me a second chance.. hahaha and being a district leader just means that i call the two pairs of sisters in the district (visitor's centre sisters) and go over their areas breifly and then report it all to elder leite(the zone leader) 3 nights a week. also, i organize a district meeting once a week and trainings for the 8 of us. It's been such a blessing! the district is incredible and we are all super super young. If you add up the time me, elder wood, and the four sisters have been on our missions...... elder leite has been out longer. hahahahaha so we are all fairly new which makes it a ton of fun! the sisters are super hardworking and really do such great work that its a privilege to serve with them and i learn a lot from them and their examples.its weird not doing calls with any elders cause i feel like im at home with all my real sisters and benjamin is elder wood...just 2 on 4 plus the zone leaders who are like mom and dad. ive always been outnumbered i suppose.

We were teaching a mother and her two sons (18 and 24) got in a huge fist fight and shouting match and it was really really tough because everyone was yelling at them to stop and for the older one to get off of the younger one but there are no other guys in the home so they couldnt do anything to stop it and we were in a different room and i got up and ran to the door because out of instinct i wanted to go try to break it up but then stopped just before opening the door and realized that maybe i shouldnt... i just stood there praying to know what to do and almost instantly they stopped and apparently the 18 year old just left the house and ran so that was that. i thought a lot about it since and i think it would have been very bad to get involved at all and probably against the white handbook too and just in general an ugly situation so i was so grateful that it broke up before i had done something

anyways thats all the time i have. Im only ONE YEAR AWAY FROM BEING 20 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a bit of an epiphany the night before my bday and realized it was my last time in my entire life of being 18 years old... ill never get that year back!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and keep being so amazing. you inspire me! ill send you some pics mom because they are on my ipad and im on the computer

Love

Elder Jensen

This is the beloved senior missionary crew in the mission office... They are something else! Sister Williams is the one between me and elder wood and elder Williams is the one to the left of Elder Wood. They are so much fun and I love going up to the office and seeing them. Elder and Sister Gale are really wonderful too, they just arrived recently and are on the outsides. Oh and I'm wearing the tie elder wood gave me! The light blue one.. I love it!

This is a photo taken at the conference with Klayton Christensen and his wife. They are on the stand he's the super tall one. This is the ELM! Im in the aisle on the right at the back with the short black elder. He's one of my friends from the MTC... I don't know if you'll be able to pick us out hahah but I'm wearing a brown tie.

This is the district! With president and his wife at interviews.