November 5th 2013

When it rains, it rains for days and floods the streets.

Trying to stay dry!

                                                   
                                                                 Filtering our water

                                                             Just having some fun

                                                                 My comp Elder Topham

                                                                Parrots are everywhere

                                                 A baptism that I participated in my first week

                                       A giant centipede that we fished out of the church drain

                                                 Some of great treats that I have discovered

                                                     November 5th 2013

Well, I´m finally here!  And I´ve already fallen in love with this place!  The members here are incredible and every day seems to be an adventure.  My parents may have a tough time getting me to come home at this rate!  Of 

course it´s completely different than the states and some things will take some time to adjust to but I honestly love this place!  My new companion is Elder Topham and he´s from around the Spanish Fork area, so I´m not completely lost down here.  We are in a little area in the Buenos Aires province called Ramallo and cover two pueblos (small towns) with a branch of about 30 active members so there´s quite a bit of work to be done here.  I got here just in time to attend the baptism of 5 children, 2 of which were convert baptisms, and we have a couple who are going to be married this Friday and baptized on Saturday, so a lot of exciting stuff ahead.  A few fun cultural things about Argentina:

-In argentina they refer to Americans as Yankees (the pronounce it Shunkees) and that´s all we´re ever called. And because their accent uses a lot of the sh sound my name down here is elder Shensen.

-Down here they have stray animals everywhere, especially dogs.  That took a little getting used to, and they love to run along side bikers so they follow us around quite a bit.

-The food here is incredible, they have a cookie down here called an Alfojor and it´s by far one of the greatest things I think I´ve ever eaten

-The insects down here are huge!  I ended up fishing a giant centipede-like thing out of our Church´s draining system the other day.

-Argentine´s have a great sense of humor.  And so does my companion....  My second day in Ramallo we visited a family, and when we arrived the father started shouting at us telling us to go away and that he was tired.  My companion just kept on talking to him, and he ran inside the house and came out with a shotgun and started my direction.  Thought I was gonna die to say the least, but turns out it was all set up and planned.  I´ll have to get my companion back later.  Well I don´t have a whole lot of time to write much so that´s all I´ll say for now.  Hope everything is going well for you all, and everything has been going great down South. 

Elder Jensen

Tuesday October 29th 2013

Jake finally arrived in Argentina!!!!!

Jake with his mission president, his mission presidents wife, and his companion Elder Topham

                                Jake with all of the new missionaries that arrived in Rosario

                                               Jake with President and Sister Giuliani
                                               Either the are very short or he is very tall!