8/4/14

"It's been super hot! But fortunately we've had a couple days this month that rained. It was so weird to see clouds in the sky (I actually felt like I might need to put a jacket on even though it was still in the 90's). Last night it rained a little as we got home. Elder Adams was bummed that we had to miss most of it while we planned. Speaking of Elder Adams, he is getting transferred tomorrow! It's crazy he's been here for only 6 weeks and now he's going to serve in the Warm Springs Stake (that's where I was before I came here). Initially he was really mad because he really loved this ward because it was full of "rednecks" like the guys on duck dynasty (that's everyone's favorite show here - if we don't catch it on their tv in their house then we hear about it in fast and testimony meeting). He was already making plans for us to go fishing on P-Day next month and for members to take us to The Bass Pro Shop. He also requested elk and deer from half of the ward for dinner so we''ll probably get a lot of that this transfer (even though he won't be here to eat it). But he was happy because one member gave him some frozen deer to take with him. Despite the part about him having to leave this area, he is excited because he is going to get a car in his next area (he will be covering two wards). In the 18 months he's been out he has biked his whole mission! My next companion is going to be Elder Balif - he's only been out for 6 weeks so I get to finish Training him! I'm really excited for that experience, I've wanted to train my whole mission and I was beginning to believe it wasn't going to happen. Also, we are going to be covering the Heritage ward in addition to the ward we have now (Newport) so the work should really pick up - especially since the sister missionaries who were serving there are really good missionaries. I'm excited for this transfer, I think it will be really fun even though it will also be challenging.

This Weekend the Lake Mead Stake had an activity called "Camp Preach My Gospel" where 50 young men and women in the stake over the age of 16 came out with the full time missionaries for a whole day (6:30 am until 9:30 pm). It was really fun to participate in that experience and help inspire the young men to serve missions. We saw so many miracles when we had them out with us - The Lord was really working to make it a good experience for them. Towards the end of the day on Saturday, the Spirit testified strongly to me that I was going to have the opportunity to train on my mission. A voice inside me said "I can do this" - and I realized that this experience was what I needed to confirm to me that whatever challenges I may face next transfer I will be able to overcome them if I rely on The Lord. About 5 minutes after I got this impression, we got our transfer doctrine and I was informed that I had been assigned to be a trainer. It was really neat."

Elder Kyle Jensen

7/28/14

This week was Elder Adams' 18 month mark so he set fire to a pair of old pants (missionaries have a weird tradition where they burn a tie at 6 months, a shirt at 12, pants at 18, and a suit at the end of the mission - I don't participate in these wicked traditions but it was fun to watch). We video taped him lighting the pants on fire in the desert so we'll have lots of memories of this historic event. He also picked up the pants after they cooled off and they had turned into a puddle of plastic melted to a bunch of rocks (it kind of looks like Texas). Then he brought it home and pinned it to the apartment wall and labeled it "The Remains of Elder Adams' 18 month mark". It is now on display in our hallway for future missionaries to discover.

It got up to 116 degrees in the shade at one point this week. The summer has been brutal - but the ward has been very good to us. Our Stake President lives in our ward and we stopped by one day and discovered that they have a soft serve ice cream machine in their house! I have a feeling we will be visiting them more frequently now...

Yesterday we got a break from the heat. It started raining for about 10 minutes and we got a ton of lightning! I've never seen such cool thunder storms before my mission. A lot of people saw us walking and offered us rides but Elder Adams kept insisting that he wanted to walk in the rain. I didn't blame him - it felt so good to get rained on even if it really doesn't compare to home.

As you may have noticed, I mentioned we were walking. That is because earlier this week I finally wore all of the way through my bike tire. It started to fall apart and then on Friday night it finally exploded! It sounded like a gun shot. It was a little frustrating because I had to patch up a new record of 5 flat tires in 1 week leading up to the event. So when it finally exploded I felt like I had finally lost the battle. There was no choice but to walk. I'm planning on buying new tires today so I'll probably just have to use the debit card to do that.

We saw some success this week from a part member family. We started teaching Erin, Michael Green's girlfriend. Michael Green is a less active member who I've been working with since my first week here. He is probably one of the weirdest people that I ever met, but he is very friendly so we keep going back. This week he asked us to give his girlfriend a priesthood blessing which led to us teaching her the first two lessons. We realized that Michael really does have a testimony of The Gospel even though he may not be keeping the commandments. His girlfriend actually turned out to be very interested in our message and I have a lot of hopes for her. She said she is going to make a commandments jar for Michael that requires him to put money in each time he breaks a commandment. She'll probably put it next to the profanity jar she made for him. Unfortunately he is missing the concept of it since he's been prepaying ahead of time for the words he intends to use. Hopefully he won't apply the same principle to the commandments jar.

Elder Kyle Jensen

Happy Pioneer Day 7/21/14

First- two weeks ago we had a BIG rainstorm. Although it only lasted a few minutes, it was really intense and it caused some damage to my scriptures (even though I wrapped them in a plastic bag). It was almost as crazy as the storm last pioneer day. There was lightning everywhere and the roads instantly became rivers. The sidewalks were under inches of water and as we biked through it water sprayed all around us. Yep, we biked through it. We just kept on working through the storm and surprisingly people were not any kinder to us (they just made remarks like "looking a little soggy - keep on biking" as we approached them)! Some people took pictures of us, but we still couldn't get anyone to talk to us (we looked ridiculous drenched in water). I'm a little tired of the way that many people treat us here. But I suppose it has helped me to really appreciate the few people who don't reject us so much more. I have never felt so much love for a people before in my life. I really desire to help them. These last few weeks I believe my prayers have been more for these individuals than they have for myself. That is perhaps the greatest miracle.

This week was probably the first week this transfer that neither my companion or I have had a flat tire. Instead, as we biked Elder Adams lost his whole pedal! The whole thing just fell off right before dinner. Fortunately Elder Farr had a similar experience in North Las Vegas so we knew exactly what to do about it. Elder Adams took a clothes hangar from the closet of the family we had dinner with and he bent the metal wire around the single pedal so that he wrap it around his foot. Then he biked with one leg for the rest of the night! Actually, he only went a block down the road to a different member and we borrowed his allen wrench to put the pedal back on. But it was hilarious to watch him pedal with one leg even for a few minutes. Missionaries do the dumbest things.

We saw a bee this week the size of a humming bird. It was called a taranchula(incorrect spelling?) wasp. It lays eggs on tranchulas and the babies eat it. It was really scary so Elder Adams stepped on it three times (it wouldn't die because it was so big). I didn't realize that missionary work could be so dangerous!

I made it through week 4 of the companionship (I don't know if you've noticed the trend, but usually about this time I start to really get irritated by my companions). But we made it through the week by working on our communication skills (it's always so hard). There are still some challenges in my companionship but The Lord is teaching me how to work with Elder Adams.

Our ward mission leader fed us peanut butter and pickle sandwiches yesterday. They were surprisingly good. But then again there is a spiritual gift that I invented called "the gift of not being picky about the food you are fed as a starving missionary" and I think that this gift helped to mask the flavor a little bit (I don't know if I would recommend the recipe to non-missionaries). Also, I made Top Ramen Stir Fry this week and it was super delicious! I even used some leftover chicken from a previous dinner. I am going to become a Top Ramen chef when I return from my mission.