Almost 100 Days!!! Full Trunkee

Well I've been out for 3 months.. almost 2 in the field.. almost 100 days!!! fulll trunkee hahaha..

It's been good this week. We had a lot more success in finding and connecting with our investigators which was cool..  We had a tour of the chapel with one them se llama Guillermo.. he has bastante potencial and is progressing a lot..  but he didn't come to church after expressing his desires to be baptized and go to the temple.. super frustrating!  We called him the morning of like an hour before and he didn't answer.. idk que paso..  

 

Today was a fun pday.. we met up with our zone and had a water balloon fight!  At one point all the elders ganged up on me and tackled me, then the rest pored buckets of water on me.. super fun and we got to ride back to cayambe wet!! haha.. soo ya a really fun day.. 

Thanksgiving was this week.. and we did absolutely nothing.. just a normal day..  I took a pic of the food I ate that day.. the usual.. rice, meat, some vegetable, and moooore rice..  pretty much I hate rice now..  I thought I'd begin to like it , but they just pile it on the plate for every meal and give us a tiny piece of meat..  

These last two weeks have gone by very fast!  and I think this week will too.. on friday we have a 4 zone conference in Otavalo to meet with Elder Montoya, an area 70..  That should be fun.. This last week we had one with the same four zones in Ibarra to prep for this conf.. so that was fun, always fun to meet new missionaries and speak english a lil bit..  Turns out the group that is just ahead of us, who's finished their training 2 weeks ago, well 5 of them are trainers now!! E Morton, who's one of them, told me he thinks this is goin to be a new thing with Pres Murphy..  E Aliaga keeps telling me I'm gonna be a trainer or a district leader, and I'm like...  what..  haha.. Hoping my spanish progresses..  I don't think I'm gonna be anything this next transfer, but this training program is designed to make the next group ready to be trainers, soo if I get called I hope I can do my best..  buutttt I still have 4 weeks until this..  

Our last pday of this change, we're climbing the Nevado Cayambe.. The other elders in our district are planning, basically we take a truck up to the base and hike like an hour to the point of the snow, soo I'm excited for that..  it's super expensive, so we're planning out a group of like 10 missionaries.. But basically this month of december should be full rapido.. we have a lot of things planned out, like a Christmas dinner in Quito with our mission pres.. each zone goes for one night so we'll find out when we go this friday!! 

Well that's my week basically..  Hoping for more success.. especially with guillermo.. Please pray for him.. we really want to baptize him this transfer, but if not we hope, well that he'll be baptized in any transfer..  

muchas gracias por las cartas electronicos

  hasta luego

Elder Jensen

My Thanksgiving Dinner - Rice and more Rice

 

Short and Sweet!

Hello everyone!!
 

Well I'm in my next transfer and this week was really hard!! We have all these investigators and none of them really want to progress?  So that's been pretty tough..  pretty uneventful week this week.. we've been shut down a lot and a lot of our lessons haven't worked out so lots of rescheduling and rescheduling.. 

We have hope for one but idk en verdad.. 

I ate a chicken foot from the street and that was kinda weird, but not bad.. 
that was probably the most eventful thing of the week!

Been enjoying my studies everyday..  it's been nice to read the B of M and really think about it, cause hey its actually pretty cool!  I've said this before, but this was probably the first time I've read it with real intent, and really enjoyed it!!  I started it over again last transfer and I'm in Mosiah..  Only been reading a little bit each day cause I've been using my study time to study P my G as well which is really helpful!!

Well that's all I've really done this week, kinda frustrating..  really hoping for a better week! I'm progressing with the language, little by little, hoping to be sufficient after this change, but we'll see!

Listo pues, I really love hearing from people so write me!! Thanks!

Love

Elder Jensen

I have pics, but I can't send them cause this is a dumb computer so I'll be sure to send them next week!

 

 

Photos from Ecuador Quito North facebook page - Mini Zone Conference for Ibarra, Imbabura, Imbaya and Otavalo Zones

 

 

I Survived... First Transfer and CUI

Hello all

Well it's official..  I've made it through one transfer here in Ecuador..  6 Weeks!!!!!   Basically 3 months in so far... that means I'm almost done right?  Only 14 transfers more... or 21 months...  hahaha..  nah it's been pretty good..  

This last week we had 3 intercambios (when we switch with the other elders in our district for a day).. that was really awesome..  Tuesday I was with Elder Sejas..  and Friday with Elder Molina..  I really enjoy those opportunities because it's really nice to see how other missionaries work..  In my training I've basically only seen how one elder operates, so these types of opportunities are awesome and I really learned a lot in those days..  Wednesday, we did intercambios with our zone leaders, so Elder Aliaga went to Otavalo to work with Elder Fierro and I stayed in our sector with Elder Purtill..  Yep I got to speak English for a day 😎  haha..  no that actually helped a lot because I could ask a lot of questions about words and other things that I can't really get across in Spanish to the other elders..  so ya that was a 24 hour change and the others were 12 hours..  being here in our sector meant I had the opportunity to lead us through it basically and take the initiative every time which I think really helped me so ya that was really awesome..  

This last week, teniamos bastante lluvia aqui en Cayambe!  the other day, it rained soo much.. and the drops were massive!!! then like 10 min into it, it started to hail a lot! pretty big too so that was pretty cool..  

 

Hail Stones on the Street

Well remember last Saturday when I said we were hoping for a really productive Sunday? Well it actually was pretty bad since none of them showed.. we called everyone of them and they all had an excuse which sucked..   but this last Sunday, erik inlago came which was awesome!  We're really hoping for a baptism this transfer..  on Saturday, the other elders baptized a family that has been receiving the lessons for like 3 transfers so 4 1/2 months!  but that was really cool to see.. We were asked to give a talk on enduring to the end...   I had all this stuff prepared and then they cut me off like 3 min into it...  so that was pretty funny  actually..   Well que mas....  we have a new investigator who is progressing.. his name is guillermo... pero the huge problem with him is that he works like basically every other Sunday so it's really hard to get his schedule clear for church.. he has some desires to progress and is really interested but that's his big problem..  also he has a pretty bad speech impediment so as a white boy who can barely understand clear Spanish, its flippin tough, but hey I'm getting there.. I've been told that he speaks like the people in the coast, but not on purpose..  apparently the ppl at the coast speak with speech impediments on purpose basically..  just the culture there, its really sloppy Spanish and here and at Quito it's pretty clear.  so kinda glad I'm here to learn, and hoping to make a lot of progress this transfer..  

Ok, well today, we ate cui...  yep, guinea pig..   I was pretty excited but it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be..  it's really salty and super tough to eat, plus filled with the little bones which makes it tough to eat but definitely not bad..    well that's basically it for these last 9 days..  



CUI (Guinea Pig)

 

oh and we have pday from now on Monday..  It's not changing back to Saturday soo I'll talk to you all next Monday.

Love 

Elder Jensen

Uno Mes en ECUADOR

Hey everyone

Soo  this week has gone by pretty quick! We've been pretty busy with lessons this week with our investigators as well as the flippin tons of menos activos here..  if we had all the menos activos here come to church we'd probably be a ward.. or even 2.. its pretty crazy, but hey that's all of south america as I've been told.. 

 

Basically this week the biggest struggle has been the language..  I feel like I know a lot of words and talking with Elder Aliaga I can get my point across and we can communicate pretty well.. but with other people, they either choose not to understand me cause I'm white, or really can't understand me.. I think it's both.. I understand my accent is a problem right now soo that's a major part of it..  it's pretty frustrating in lessons when I'll say something and they'll just stare at me and look at Aliaga who says the exact same thing and they can understand him but hey I guess that's just part of the learning process..  

 

We've found a few new investigators, hopefully with potential! Uno de ellos es se llama Alexandra Cuadros.. We met her last saturday after our pday at a ward activity..  we've taught her like 3 - 4 times and she it really receptive.. the problem is they are moving soon and she doesn't know where, so there's a good chance she could move into the other elders sector, and we'll have to transfer her but hey as long as she gets baptised haha

the other is ericka inlago.. she as well has been very receptive so were hoping to have a productive sabbath tmrw with lots of asistencias..  

 

Starting to realize how beautiful ecuador is.. we have that sweet volcano cayambe that's visible basically everywhere and it's always covered in snow.. we're gonna try to climb it next pday if we can make it over there.  the mountains are really awesome and we have a lot of the fields here in caymabe soo its really green every where

 

 

This last week was the dis de los muertos... so we didn't have all that much success the last few days cause everyone is in the cemetaries paying their respects to their family members.. something special about this time of year is the food.. they make this thing called colada morada which is.. well idk how to explain it.. it's not bad, and it's a warm drink, but the thing is sooo flippin sweet and they give like 2 big cups of it everywhere for free soo we have to drink and I just feel like crap after..  look it up.. one cup is really good!!   also look up pan de guagua   another specialty for this time of year.

 

Pan De Gagua
Ecuadorian Bread Babies - It is a traditional Ecuadorian custom to have these breads, along with a purple corn and fruit drink called Colada Morada, on November 2nd for the Day of the Deceased.  The holiday is meant to honor the memory of relatives and friends who have passed away

Well that's been about it this week.. we went to otavalo today to play futbol with some other elders in our zone and the zone imbaya.. so that was pretty fun!  well next week we don't have a Saturday pday so I'll be writing on Monday in like 9 days..  

Thanks for all the emails this week tambien!!

Love Elder Jensen