Crutches

My new post in the office.

Dear Family,

I got a huge curve ball thrown to me this week!

Right as I finished writing my email last week something crazy happened. As I was crossing the street I hopped up onto the curb. Well, I guess I didn´t step very good because my foot slipped off and I landed right on my ankle! I twisted it so bad that I just fell down on the road because of the pain. I knew something wasn´t right because it hurt so, so bad to walk and I had heard a little noise as I fell. When we got home it had swollen up so so huge! Almost the size of a tennis ball! (Ok maybe that is a little bit of an overreaction but it was so big!) That night we had 2 really important visits with F. and with J. (who both were going to be baptized that Saturday). Despite the pain I decided we needed to go.

J.´s house is very very deep into our area but we went all the way in a tuc tuc. We were able to teach her and help her be ready for her baptism Saturday. But we had one problem, I realized I couldn´t walk at all! It hurt so bad I couldn´t put any pressure on my foot. What did we decide to do with no tuc tucs near at all? Well, I hopped onto Elder Walton´s back and he piggy backed me! It was incredible! We had to go pretty far and I´m not sure how Elder Walton carried me all that way but we made it! We also gave some good laughs to all of the people who saw us go by (I´m sure that made their day to see 2 gringos doing something silly). We then took took a tuc tuc to F.´s house to talk with her and her mom so that she could give permission for her to be baptized. Well it was a great lesson and F. received the permission of her mom! I couldn´t pay any attention to the lesson because my ankle was hurting so much but I am so glad we went because it turns out that that was the last time I would see both of them.

The next day President Ruiz came to do interviews with our zone and he sent us to the hospital to get my ankle checked out and that when I got the news. I was going to need a cast! They put my cast on me and President got things ready for me to leave Malacatán the next day and head to the mission office. And now I´m here in the office of the mission!

Playing Jenga in the house before they came to get me (I had no crutches yet).

Sayting good-bye to the hermanas of the ward.

It is very different not being able to walk much. I have crutches to use but it is still a little tricky. The past few days I was getting pretty board and I really wanted to go work so I have gone out to work with my crutches. It is kind of funny because I used them so hard that I keep breaking all of the crutch grips that are on the bottom. I guess they weren´t made for missionaries.who go out and work a lot. The area here is very small but there are a lot of strong members of the church and I am looking forward to being here for a while. My work here will be to take care of all the equipment in the missionary homes (phones, stoves, beds, things like that) and also all the Book of Mormon´s and pamphlets, things like that. I also will do a lot with all the statistics of the mission (get them together and send them to president). I also am in charge of all of the baptismal records (putting them in to the church´s system). 

The best news I got was that both F. and J. were baptized 2 days ago and that made me super happy that I got to visit them Monday (even though it cost a lot of Elder Walton´s energy). I am so so grateful for my time in Malacatán and for all of the miracles that I was able to witness as a missionary. I know the Lord has a plan for me here in the Retalhuleu. I think this is a chance to submit my will to His and have patience as I pass through this small trial. I think that soon I will see what the Lord wants me to accomplish while I am here in Retalhuleu!

Love,

Elder Jensen