Well hello there fellow blogians. This is Taylor's dear brother Andrew. Over the course of the next two years i will be providing narration to the pictures and letters Taylor will be sending us. So i proudly present to you the first pictures of the mission: entering the MTC.
These are my lovely parents with Taylor before he entered the MTC. They spent the night in Provo before taking Taylor in and returned the following night. Taylor will write soon to fill in the details but I (my mom) thought you'd like to see the pictures.

See ya in two years!!

Friends, romans, countrymen, americans, citymen, and whoever else: i am leaving on my two year mission today. you all will be dearly missed, and i hope to hear from you over the next two years. My mama is going to keep the ol' blog running with pictures and such, so check in every now and then and write me some letters!

Hey friends! As many of you probably know, i am serving a two year mission for my church. I will be in Neuquen Argentina, which is the southern 1/3 of Argentina. Its the second largest mission in the world! The area goes through the Patagonia area and down to Tierra Del Fuego. My work there will include serving other people, teaching people about my church, and serving the people some more. I'm not going to have a phone or computer or anything, but once a week i should be able to get to an internet cafe, so i would like to put together an email list so that i can email you guys while i am there! what will happen is i'll write a group email for everyone on the list to read and i'll give some updates on what i am doing and some experience i'll be having. Hopefully i'll be able to get one out on a weekly basis. if not, at least once everyother week or so. (hopefully!) You wont be able to email me back, so... If you would like to write me back (and i'd LOVE it if you did!) you can do it in one of three ways: 1. EASIEST. go to DearElder.com and click the Pouch (FREE) button on the lefthand side. Then click the toolbar and select the Argentina Neuquen Mission. Simple. my profile page is www.dearelder.com/taylorjensen and the site to get me at is http://www.dearelder.com/index/inc_name/mission_selection/ 2. send a letter through the pouch system. this can be better (or worse) than the 1st option because you can color me pictures or handwrite it and make it more personal! this is a service because argentina mail isnt that good or something. If you do this option, you need to have it be a single sheet folded into thirds and a single piece of tape on the top (no envelopes). you then mail that to: Elder Taylor Alan Jensen Argentina Neuquen Mission POB 30150 Salt Lake City, UT, 84130-0150 3. Send letters/PACKAGES to Argentina: I've heard the mail down there may not be the best, so dont send perishable stuff! Elder Taylor Alan Jensen Argentina Neuquen Mission Zapla 24 8300 Neuquen Neuquen ARGENTINA Before i go to argentina, i'll be in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. If you want to hit me up there, you can use DearElder.com again and just click the Provo MTC instead of the pouch and then type in Argentina Neuquen in address thing. you can also send me letters/packages/food: Elder Taylor Alan Jensen Argentina Neuquen Mission Provo Missionary Training Center 2005 N 900 E Provo, UT, 84604 http://www.dearelder.com/index/inc_name/letter_sender/mission/Provo%20MTC/ I'll be in the MTC for 6-8 weeks, so i'll have putz put the day i leave up here so you'll know when to switch addresses. SO after all that info, i'd like your email address and street address! if you are comfortable leaving it on the wall here, thats great. if not, you can message me on facebook or email it to me at tajensen8@gmail.com. I leave August 20th and will need this stuff by about the 16th, so dont delay!!

Contact Info

Email:
Website:	http://www.mormon.org http://www.dearelder.com
Location:	Send me letters when i'm in Neuquén, Argentina

Can life as a missionary be as stressful as the two weeks leading up to it?

here are some twists we've had this past week:

Mama orders 6 long sleeve shirts from brooks brothers that should be delivered on friday. We had nothing by monday, so mama calls and they havent shipped them and they only have 5 in the store, so dad goes to pick them up.

Mama goes to about 500 different stores looking for short sleeve white shirts (i need a slim/athletic fit because i have big shoulders, and no one makes them/they never fit me) and finally finds a nice one, so she orders 6. the packages shows up and there is only 1 in the box. 5 more are being overnighted now.

I get my suits and stuff in the mail from Mr. Mac on monday and try them on, only to realize one of them is real big. we took both of them to the tailor to have them slimmed down (see slim fit issues above) and we find out one of my suits is the wrong size. Mr. Mac overnighted a new one to us and we got it this morning and have to go get it tailored asap.

I'm sure we'll have some more issues in the coming days. hopefully i'll make it onto my mission! haha.

Not to sound like i'm going off the shallow end here, but...

this is my first ditch effort at writing this post. so. here is the story. Amber begins this whole thing on cliches and improperly used ones, then we both butcher one in the same week. I said separating hairs and i forget which one she messed up. So then it turned into 'lets see how many we can butcher!' now, 150+ butchered cliches later (oh the probabilities are endless on cliches), comes the epic story:

I woke up that morning, happy as an oyster to be alive. I wasnt always the sharpest tool in the barn, but if you cant beat 'em, stick with 'em, right? anyways, we're just separating hairs. I went downstairs for breakfast--the usual bowl of cereal for me. It was a good thing too because i got the last bit of milk! You know what they say- the early bird gets the slug. Me, cereal, and milk go together like three peas in a pod. I even went the whole 8 yards and put my dishes in the dish washer! my mom was on cloud 10. We're not always on the same airwave when it comes to cleaning up and spitting on the spots. Sometimes i get into a cucumber because i want to go hang out but my room isnt clean. Not happening today.

Anyway, i was just putting on my shoes to go outside but just then it started pouring cats and geese! I tried not to get my underwear in a heap about it, but i figured every cloud has a golden lining. i went to find putzer to see what he was doing. He was sleeping. Of course. He is always late to bed, late to rise. I hate to throw him under the taxi, but he looks dead as a doorknob when he is sleeping. I guess every rose has its leaf.

"Putzer! Putzer get up! lets go do something." He is hard as thumbtacks to wake up. "Putzerrrrrrr come on." This is getting out of foot. "Putz. i am going to tickle you till you get up!" no movement. i sat on him and tickled him and said "you going to come hang out with me now? huh? huh?" he mumbled something. "Speak now or forever hold your pee!" he couldnt get a word in side-ways, so i let him up.

"Tbone i feel a bit under the storm" he muttered. I may not be my brother's guard, but i'll bet my top dollar he just wanted to hit the case again.

"You dont stand a choice against me. come now, get out of bed. what do you wantto go do? shoot the air in the basement? go head over to K-Rogers?"

"Quit bustin my chips Tbone i want to just hit the straw" I was stale out of ideas. something caught my attention right quick.

"WOAH PUTZER!" I cried. "DID YOU JUST SLICE THE CHEESE?!" He was laughing like a jackal. He really caught me on guard with that one. He gave me the duckbumps with that one. I hate it when people pull the carpet out from under me like that.

"Better keep your fingers curled that i'll ever hang out with you again after that one" I know he's got a heart of silver inside. "This aint over till the fat guy sings!!." mama heard my yelling through the paper thick walls and came fast as thunder to see what the commotion was.

"andrew out of bed. T will go to the library with you." Me? go to the library? that was below the buckle, but thats the way the muffin crumbles.

I usually protest when i have to read, but my hands were bound. today i felt like going above and below the call of duty. I should have nipped it in the stem and said i couldnt read and sat around at hue, but i didnt want to be a bump on the stick all day. I decided to go become a booksnake and find something to read. we raced to the car "last one there is a rotten apple!" we jumped in the car--the thing can turn on a quarter--and drove to the library

I looked at all the books and couldnt decide what to read! I guess the grass really is greener on this side, under your own feet! everyone knows you cant judge a book by its pagenumbers, so i had to read a few pages from all of them. Needless to say, none of them were my cup of drink. i went to find putzer and found him picking a cartiledge with the librarian.

"Tbone i need two bucks!"

"you ripped a nasty one on me this morning. i'm not giving you two bucks."

"But Tbone my book is two days late and i'm two dollars short!"

"better never than late" muttered the librarian amidst our argument.

"put a top on it, lady." we both said. i guess great minds to think twice.

"and dont speak until your spoken for" putz went on.

"i'm just trying to make ends meat here." she quipped.

"anyways, Tbone, thats just water under the road." i went out on a stick on this one and gave him the two bucks. I always have money on me because i never get caught up the creek with a paddle.

"you better pay me back or else i'll throw my cap in the ring and get you back." hey, a dollar saved is only a penny spent!

on our way out, Putzer said

"she doesnt sit a chance making ends meet as a librarian."

"well arent you the coolest thing since sliced tomatoes."

"I'll keep garbage talking if i please" he said.

"Youre going down a slippery soap with that attitude. the stars are the limit for you, putz. Just bloom where you landed and you'll be a foot in to be rich one day."

"You think so?" he asked.

"Easy as cake. piece of pie. i'll let you pick my mind about it later. we've got go get home now."


To be continued....

(for my sisters account of our cliche saga, click here)

The Conversion Process

Just like people, it can happen to blogs too. My blog realized it was missing something in its life--a tight title bar and some reconfiguration to colors/fonts-- and so it sought help. Now it has found joy in looking pretty sweet.

I also figured out that i can email my blog and it will post it automatically, so i will include my blog in my big email list so it will be updated along with my friends. sounds great, huh?




12 days. Ps. its 8/8/08.