Same Area But New Companion!

April 28, 2009

Well here we go with the letter of the week:
I really appreciated your letters this week... I love what Jason said about, "savor every minute with your Savior" and I was super impressed that Nata read the Book of Mormon in 3 weeks, and mom... studying Preach My Gospel like a good missionary mom! Daddy... I thought NC won. I hope you have a ton of success on the business trip and that it brings you a lot of growth as a company.

A mini missionary serves for a transfer and doesn´t have to pay a thing. She is thinking about serving a full time mission, but hasn´t gotten an answer yet. Boy do I remember that feeling. She would be an incredible missionary and I told her that frequently. I hope she chooses to serve, but I understand her desire to get married and have a family. It sounds so familiar and then I remember that they are the exact same words that I said for so many months. She now returns to her normal life of work and studying... she has a bunch of tests to take in July and after that she said she might put in her papers.

Mommy, I am pleased to announce that my Granuloma Ammulary is almost gone. I can´t see any on my ankles or feet and there is just a tiny bit on my left knee. It just gradually went away and I didn´t even notice it until you asked me about it and I examined my feet and thought "hmmph... it went away!"

Random stories:
For Easter the whole world here began revolving around chocolate eggs. All the Elders and Hermanas talk about them and buying them and how much they cost and every store offers chocolate eggs in all sizes. And I mean ALL sizes. I saw eggs as small as - well all the chocolate eggs in the states, but get this... I saw chocolate eggs as big as the tire on my (your) car. Not kidding. There are chocolate eggs so big that I couldn´t wrap my arms around it without putting pressure on it and crushing it. I swear - they take this chocolate egg thing to the EXTREME. And then they keep selling them after Easter - with no notable discount. I´m perplexed.

There is one sound that I will not miss after the mission and that is the deafening sound of a motorcycle that has one of those trumped up mufflers that makes so much noise that you can hear it 8 blocks away and all the while as it gets closer to you and the 8 blocks after it passes you. I swear... the teenagers and young men here will all be deaf before their time because of their motorcycles.

We live like 10 blocks away from the "comisería" and I can´t quite explain what that is. It´s not the court and it´s not juvenile detention, but it´s where a bunch of stuff happens and people go when they get robbed and they also bring the thieves there and they stay the night sometimes. It´s like a mini-jail. Kinda. It´s one block away from the chapel... funny, huh? We always invite people and say it´s a block away from the comisería and then they say "then I don´t want to go." Anyways... every once in a while we hear helicopters above us and in the area and we know that that means that a thief escaped the comisería and they´re searching for him. It´s a not-so-comforting sound, but it makes me laugh because I hear it and think "oh, another thief got away." But don´t worry... I tell you this so that you have another story to tell about all the adventures we face in Argentina.

It´s the norm: want to know what is normal here? Fanny packs. Yep... because people know that it´s harder for someone to rob your fanny pack. They look just as dorky when worn by Argentines but no one makes fun. Also they wear their backpacks in front like those pretend you´re pregnant packs. They also do this so that they don´t get attacked or robbed from behind. Again... it looks ridiculous, but you get used to it. Walking around looking like you are insanely paranoid... but hey, so is everyone else. I have yet to be robbed--that is robbed in person... they rob the packages you send me, but that just happens.

So I sent home my middle sized suitcase with a doctor named Thomas who lives in Arizona. His son, Chase, will be heading to BYU Provo in June and when he drives down - you will meet him somewhere and pick up my suitcase. Open it and remove the white shoe box which contains presents for you to have now...but don't touch anything else! It would totally spoil the surprise of it all. I´m sure you were already going to do this, but could you send him a thank-you card (and maybe a gift certificate to the Olive Garden or something for the gesture)? He was way nice and it was really cool for me to be able to get a bunch of stuff sent off. That will make the return home a little bit easier. Of course the day after he flew out with my suitcase I found in my closet the way worn out pair of Sketcher shoes that I wanted to bring home just to show you the soles of. I blew it... a perfect opportunity to send them off and I didn´t think of it. So... I´m going to keep carting them around and in 6 months if there is room in my suitcases, I will bring them home!

So I now need to buy another suitcase - but a soft one. Would you mind telling me what the girth is that is allowed for the middle suit case?

This week I got "bit" - nipped really, by a dog! It belongs to a less active we were visiting and it followed me nipping at my ankles and I thought to myself - "this dog is going to bite me. No, really, this dog is going to bite me" and then yep, "this dog bit me!" I yelled at it in "vos" (Spanish slang) and it left me alone. It didn´t penetrate the skin - thanks to the thick knee highs I was wearing. But did turn the skin white. I quickly washed it with my handy hand sanitizer and there was no harm done. I really barely felt it, but I can now say - " a dog bit me on the mission."

I kid you not... 20 minutes later we were walking down the street and from out of nowhere came this big dog charging at full speed right for us. With the sole motive of attacking us. I heard my companion scream and then she grabbed me and we were like hugging as it instantly was 3 feet away from us. I started yelling at it in "vos" again and the miracle that resulted was the obedience that the dog had, because in that second the owner called it and it left us alone and returned to the other side of the street and into the house. We were infinitely grateful! We were unharmed, but by now quite shaken by dogs. It was almost funny to me.

There is a law here that prohibits bread bakeries from selling bread on Monday because the bread-makers deserve a day off. It amazes me that they opted for Monday over Sunday. There really is very little respect for the Sabbath day here. All the panaderías (bread stores) and many of the heladerías (ice cream stores) are closed on Monday but work all Sunday long.

Well then... on Monday we had the transfer meeting and I waited quite anxiously to see what lie in store for me. We had 140 converts mission-wide this transfer which is great considering that it is the 2nd highest number the mission has ever had (last transfer we beat it with 179 – which is now the current mission record). I was glad to know that we are learning to maintain that kind of number and not just hit it once in a while. You may be thinking that we were 39 short and yes, that is significantly lower, but lots of times what happens is you have a transfer like 179 followed by a transfer of 63. So trust me, we were happy with 140.

As I said in the title – I´m still in Haedo 1 which was to be expected. My new companion is Hermana Mara DiStefano from Neuquen (now ken) Argentina and is about to hit 8 months. She came at the same time as Hermana Roy. I on the other hand will hit my year mark and 13 months this transfer and.... get to call home on Mother´s day! We don´t have any instructions about that yet, but I´ll keep you posted. You may expect basically the same deal – a conference call with the 4 of you for 40 minutes. I´m super excited for said phone call.

Hermana DiStefano is going to teach me a lot. Not only with Castellano and culture and stuff, but she is going to help me develop many other social skills. We both have really strong personalities and it was a surprise for everyone that we were put together because of that very reason. But I am determined to show everybody that 2 strong people can work together and get along and have a ton of success too. I´m excited and feel like we will do quite well together as long as we both go into this understanding this and how we need to compromise and stuff. We already had a talk about this and are determined to rock! It´s going to take some getting used to because I´m so “lights out at 10:30” and she´s a little more laid back. But she is willing to improve and I am willing to not demand perfection from her. However I need to continue to demand the most from myself. That is the key... that I don´t fall into pushing the rules. I´ll let you know how it goes. But I think that we will do quite well together. And even if it´s tough... it´s just 1 transfer because I´ll be hitting 6 months here and the President basically promised me that then I´m going elsewhere.

Pablo – didn´t show up to church this week and that was a big shock because he is a true man of his word. When he says he´s going to be there, he is... even when he is super sick. We will be finding out what happened soon. We tried to commit him to be baptized last Tuesday night, but he rejected the date.

Jose – we had kind of a charla franca ( frank talk... it doesn´t translate right. I know there´s a way to say this, but it´s not coming to me. It´s kind of like a DTR – define the relationship – but with investigating the church.) Anyways. He could be so close to getting it that I don´t want to give up on him. But at the same time, maybe he´ll just never see. It kills me because I have worked and struggled with him for 4 and a half months now and he has come so far.

Hugo and Carmen – are a couple we found the other day trying to visit their less active son. We are now teaching them. I feel really good about them. They came to the second and third hour of church on Sunday and we have an appointment with them tonight. Pray for them too.

We also found a great guy named Angel when I decided to knock a random door that had a no smoking sticker on it. He let us in, let us teach him and we are going to visit him and give him a Book of Mormon the next visit. He said that no book has ever filled the emptiness in him... this book will! I feel like he is a man that the Lord has sincerely prepared and that he led us to find. When I saw the sticker, I crossed the fence, went straight to the door and felt like the Spirit was pushing me to do it. It was cool. We have set a baptismal goal of 3 converts this transfer and I really want to reach it... and surpass it!

The Lotierzo boys aren´t progressing like I want them to. The youngest sat down in the Family Home Evening last night and listened... he had even read his pamphlet, but didn´t pray to know if it´s true. We challenged him to do that. The thing is that the gospel just doesn´t quite call them enough.

Anyways. Gotta run. We have nothing to eat and I´m hungry. I love you tons. Thanks for putting more money on my card. I bought you guys presents that you´re going to LOVE but I can´t tell you about them... it´s going to be a surprise for when I get back. I miss you, but know that we will be together again soon.

Oh what I have is called Rosasha (I have no idea how to spell it), but the mission doctor was at the meeting on Monday and he told me what it is and what cream I need to treat it with. He said I might have to do that for the rest of my life, but whatever... they said that about Granuloma too. I´m happy and I´ll get the cream today.

I love you sooo much.
Keep up all the great study and take care of your testimonies!

Hermana Jensen

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1 COMMENTS:

ajohns37 said...
Dear Familia Jensen, We love her fun descriptions. It helps bring Argentina and the mission alive. She has an amazing spirit and testimony. Hope all is well with you. Our favorite PMG chapter is #6 about developing Christlike attributes. We love and appreciate you and your little Hermana. Take care.
All our love, Familia Johns
APRIL 30, 2009 9:43 PM