Mi have nuff change bretha bless up ☝

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Wow, what a week!? Well after a good days worth of flying on Tuesday we made it and so did all of our luggage! It was a group of 3 Elders and 2 Sisters. We walked out of the plane and it is no longer winter Kansas guys. I will say that there has been a lot of things that have made me grateful I have already had the chance to visit this beautiful island. So the humidity and heat change wasn't too surprising, but that wasn't the experience for a couple of the other new Jamaica missionaries. 

When we walked out of the airport it was 8:30 Jamaica time and we found another Elder that actually got there 5 hours earlier... poor guy. Apparently there was a miscommunication so no one knew he had got in so early. But not long after we got there our APs, Elders Beach and Brown, came running up and loaded our luggage into the mission van. We got to a hotel in Kingston and passed out after a day of traveling. The next morning we headed out of the hotel at 7:30 and was able to grab some breakfast before we got out. It was a pretty American breakfast, but the fruit was so much better! Dang the fruit is sooo good here. We went over to a church building in Kingston and all of the Elders I was with, headed off to their areas. My bus however, didn't leave until the next day at 2:30! 

So Elder Grant, my future ZL, got to hang with me for the rest of the day back at the hotel haha. We decided we didn't want to be bored so he took me out to go street contacting. Oh my gosh I love it here! I can barely understand half of what most people say but I think I am doing better. Just in 2 hours of walking we talked with a bunch of people and gave 5 short lessons and got their numbers. I have heard however that people here also just love to talk so hopefully they are actually interested in our message. 

Later that night more missionaries came in and my MTC companion, Elder Scoresby, actually flew in that day!!! I didn't see him 'til the next morning but it was fun to see and talk to him a little bit. Finally it was time for me to get on my bus with 2 other missionaries to go to my area! I was called to Junction, which is known as one of the bush areas in the mission. It was a 2.5 hour bus ride to Mandeville and then when we got there it was a 3 hour drive with the Mandeville Branch President to get all of the Elders to their apartments and then me to my apartment. I met my new companion, Elder Knight, and got to the apartment at 8:30 and passed out again haha. 

Finally after a very long time of not really doing much missionary work, Friday, I got to go work in my area! It is a big area and Elder Knight actually hasn't even been able to work in almost half of it because we would have to either walk 4 hours plus, or pay a lot to taxi. The area is a cooler one in the mission, temperature wise, so I am very grateful for that ... but taxiing such a big area is hard and even harder when the people you teach far away from the center of the area don't have cars or money to travel. Even the taximen don't work on Sundays, which sounds good but then people can't go to church. There are a few things like that that will make it hard work but President Odonkhor, my mission president, told me that the work is needed here. Our zone is the closest zone to becoming a stake and all we need is one more stake for Jamaica to get its temple! So the work may be hard but will be worth it! Saturday we ended up going to the very, very back country and walked through dirt hiking trails for 3-4 hours trying to find this one guys house. We did end up talking to a lot of other people but never found our guy. 

With all of these different things I still can't be anymore excited to serve here. It'll be hard and harder but even the people all the way in the middle of nowhere need to hear the gospel. I still have a lot to learn about being a missionary and now more on how to be  missionary in Jamaica but I am ready to continue to learn. 😁👍👍

Elda Jensen 

Hanging with some Elder's at the hotel

Got to meet our area seventy, Elder Kevin Brown, who served around and knows my Dad, and has a son on the mission as well!! Small world

Elder Scoresby!!!!

APs treated us to lunch before our bus to our zone

Just before we got on our bus to ride for the next 2.5 hours

Elder Grant and I chilling on the bus

Elder Knight (my new comp) and I

Ocean is so close but soooooo far

On top of a hill in a town called Tophill, lol

Town pic

1 Jamaican pig!

2 Jamaican pigs!!

Comments

  1. Connie WebbJanuary 27, 2022 at 5:48 AM

    Wow! that is so awesome!! now a different adventure begins, God be with you Elder Jensen

    ReplyDelete

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