Update from Honduras

Sam was short on time this week so he asked me to piece together from emails he sent to us.  So, it may be a little choppy and all, but we love to hear about the experiences he is having.

So, last week we had an area conference with Elder Alonso who is the area authority for the church in Central America.  It was great.  Elder Alonso taught me a lot even though I couldn't understand all of it.  He spoke about teaching with the spirit, and the role of the spirit in our lessons.  I am really trying to apply what he said, and it has already helped in lessons.

Last Friday night, we got called to give blessing to a less active sister who had had an operation and wasn't feeling very well. We had no idea where she lived so first we had to track down her house, and it was on this path down behind a pulpería in the really poor part of our área called El Bordo. We walked in and talked to her for a little while and the whole time I was thinking, I don't know if I will be able to give an adequate blessing in Spanish. Then we asked her which part she wanted each of us to do. I was chosen for the sealing and the blessing, and leading right up to before I had to start speaking, I was praying, Heavenly Father, Please help me to be able to give a blessing to this Sister. I know my Spanish isn't great, but I have faith that I can be helped in this thing. Then, right after I started the blessing an overpowering sense of calm and peace came over me. My Spanish wasn't perfect, but I was able to say the things the spirit wanted me to say, and what the Sister needed from the blessing. It was amazing. I was so full of energy right after we were done, which was weird because it was 8oclock at night after a super long day.
 

Our investigators are coming along well.  Pretty certain we will have a baptism this week, but we had to push the other one back a week because he couldn't make it to church, and he was out of town a lot this week.  Another investigator is difficult to teach because his work schedule isn't fixed, so we don't get to teach him as much as we need to.  My favorite thing on my mission is that I get to teach people and see the way the gospel of Jesus Christ helps them in their lives.  The hardest thing to do is street contact.  If you could pray to help me learn how to communicate better, that would be great.
My trainer and I are going to the hospital sometime this week to get some results back.  He has been so sick, but is doing a little better this week.  If there is any way he can stay, he will. 

Our day consists of walking and sweating a lot.  We go from appointment to appointment a lot, with street contacting in between.  Also, president gave our zone permission to go to Puerto Cortes today. It is a beach and it is super cool, but pretty dirty. I had a whole fried fish and it was good. Also, last Thursday I was super sick, I could only work till 2, then we had to go back because my stomach hurt so bad and I was sick to my stomach every 30 minutes. That night, I threw up 3 times and had some diarrhea. But I was better by 12 on friday. I don't know what happened, but it was terrible.

At home we mainly eat rice, beans, platanos, and sometimes eggs.  No tortillas yet, but I am in the process of getting you guys an awesome refried beans recipe.  (I had asked him if he had mastered the art of homemade tortillas yet.)  Maggie, no gross foods this week.  My least favorite juice is nanza juice. 
My ward is great.  They are really helpful.  Most of the time we have about 140 people at church. 
I hope you all have a really good week. This past week has been super good for me.

Nos Vemos,
Elder Jensen