I Fell into Fall for Sure

Hey there again!

So...I took forever to post again because I redesigned the blog. It took me a while to do, and I may still make a few little changes. But that's whatever. And sorry for the dumb post title. It has just been a long semester, and yeah.

before

after

I feel like I'm drowning a little bit, but at the same time, I have never been better with my classes. I am taking: Printmaking, Graphic Design, DNA, Communications (Interpersonal and Public Speaking), and my religion class (Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel). It's a lot, but it is so worth it. I once spent 15 hours in one week outside of class just working on one project for printmaking. And every Saturday from about 10:00 AM until midnight, I work on Graphic design (along with a few other hours during the week). That's just the start. On top of all that and the other homework that I have, I also work 20 hours a week developing online courses for BYU-Idaho. Honestly, it is pure luck when I have spare time during the week. I always leave my Sundays open though. I really need that time, and it has become even more valuable as my day of rest.

Anyway, beyond that the semester has been great! I have been blessed to have such great roommates! It has been so much fun to get to know all them. I honestly feel that I can always come home to a happy place, and that I can really trust these girls. From late night movie nights to fun photo shoots, I have loved spending time with them. And I'm not just saying this to be cute and sentimental, I really mean it.

Yeah, so as shown above, we all dressed like we were from the 90's for Halloween. Funny thing is, we were all born in the 90's. Most of my roommates were born in 1998, but Some of us were born earlier, like me. I was born in 1995, so I am "dyed in the blue" 90's. It was so fun to dress up like that!

Speaking of the 90's and when I was born, I just had my birthday since the last time I wrote. It was so fun because my mom and sisters came here to surprise me. I decided to stay at school over the summer to work, so I wasn't home for my birthday this year. Spending the weekend with them was so much fun!

I have been so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people! There is nothing better than filling your life with good influences. Something I have learned this semester as an art major at school, it is that we must constantly be learning new things, that we must surround ourselves with stimulus. I personally think that it would be so much better if the stimuli was good rather than trashy or immoral, so I am grateful to have such great people around me all the time. In the apartment or out, it is nice to know that I have people I can count on.

Yeah, it is pretty great. But, here's to more frequent posting, and to the best friends and family that anyone could ever ask for.

Time to Update!

So I feel terrible! Four months or so have flown by because of school and work, so this has been neglected. So, I'll give a quick summary of all the good stuff that has gone on for the last little bit. For starters, I finished up spring semester--my fourth semester at college. I can't believe how fast it is going, but I still have a long way to go.

AND QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT. Pretty soon, this blog is going to look pretty different because I'm going to redesign this summer, so get ready for that.

This semester was full of excitement. I LOVED my classes, and really learned a lot. It's great to be back at school learning again. I took courses in religion (of course), light and sound (physics, biology, and psycology), typography, drawing, and web design. It was a fun spread of classes, and I certainly learned a ton.

Aside from the academic perspective, there was lots of fun to be had. Seriously, lots of parties and fun times in our apartment.

 We also love just having people over to eat. What college kids don't like food? From Sunday dinners and Saturday breakfast to Friday night mocktail parties and Taco Tuesdays, we love to have a great time with great people.

We also had fun doing things like making silly videos in the midst of our fun and games. Those fun and games also became interesting to clean up sometimes. It all worked out though because we always had to much fun. Honestly, I have never had an experience like I did this semester, so it was a really fun experience for me. That doesn't mean that it was perfect, because it certainly wasn't. It does mean though, that we made the best of it. Like in this video, the clean up was rough. Our vacuum was broken, and after watching the video, you will see why that was so hard for us. It really was no fun to clean up after, but we would have been the last people to regret it.

We did lots of hiding out and playing silly games with each other, climbing all over things, and just doing our thing to have fun.

We have had fun adventures while road tripping, because sometimes you just need to get out of town and try something new.

And we just have fun being us, all the time. The selfie game got real, that's for sure.

I also went shooting for the first time. Needless to say, I have a lot to learn and will need a lot more practicing before I go too much further.

This one was fun. We have made so many good friends, that we had to leave a fun mess for them to clean up at the end of the semester. I will never forget all the wonderful friendships that I made. Each and every one of them is a little bit different, but no one is more valuable than another. Honestly, I know I am in the right place for me right now. It's not just because of how much fun I am having, but it's truly so much more. I am learning things that will last me a lifetime, and it's not just in class that I learn these things.

This semester, I really dedicated myself to my studies. I gave it my all to art, which has helped me to progress so much as I strive to be better every day.

It has been an amazing experience to see myself grow because truly, I have been pushing my limits artistically the past few months, and it is really starting to pay off.

Since I last posted, I also have found out a few things that have been making a huge difference for my health wise. I found out about a multitude of allergies that I have. Gluten and dairy just start off the list. Add just about every vegetable out there and a few more things, and then you get the idea of what my life has turned into. It has been a bit of a challenge, especially when eating out with friends, but I am learning more and more every day how to do it.

Let's just say, it's a little hard sometimes. Leaving Brazil hasn't been easy either, and often I miss it there so much, that just to make things a little better, I have to make brazillian food.

I even made some tapioca to celebrate the olympics, and well, the goodness of Brazil. Sadly though, I have since discovered that yucca (what tapioca is made of ) is yet another allergy of mine, so I have to kiss that goodbye. And let me tell you, that is one bitter goodbye.

That's enough food pictures for a while. Just kidding, there's drinks too. Soda to be exact. Rexburg's "Soda Vine" is just too cute to not put a picture up, and as a graphic design student, who could resist such a cool packaging design as this sparkling water.

I'm not sure what exactly I could add to all this. It was such a fun semester, and summer has been just as great. Here's to a great end of summer and better posting in the future.

I'm Back with Plenty of Adventures

Hey guys! So...I'm back stateside. I made it back from a wonderful experience in Brazil, from which I will carry memories, knowledge, experiences, and friendships that will last through all eternity. But please, be patient with any funny spelling or grammar mistakes--English is still a little funny sometimes. I did get to come back to a wonderful family though that was more than ready to take me out exploring around new places in the western United States.

So, practically as soon as I got back, we went to Spokane for the weekend--and it was so fun. I loved getting to see a few friends there, and to feel like I was in a place a little more like home for a bit. I got to see Emily again (super yay!) and that got us pumped up for our next adventure at school again here in a week.

After that quick trip, we went to California, and the sun treated us well! We stayed in the Sacramento area with my aunt, Amanda. But, fun stuff, we spent a day in San Francisco! And as my first time there, I LOVED it! Seriously one of the coolest cities ever! I took about 200 pictures, but I'll only humor you with a few, since the whole world probably doesn't need that many pictures all in one place. I'll just put up some of my favorites.

So we went to the Wharf, and it was so fun! The best stop of all when we were down there was definitely the classic "Boudin"s sourdough restaurant. The bread making part of it was so cool to see, not to mention that it is pretty darn famous.

Let me tell you about that tasty food that I ate there. Oh my goodness was it good! I had the New England Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Oh yum! And, better yet, I could eat it without getting sick (side note, I found out while in Brazil that I don't do too well with gluten). So, good news is that sourdough actually kills the gluten in the wheat, so gluten free people like me can eat it! Seriously, it's like the most dangerous trick ever to know. Especially when you're in San Francisco with heavenly sourdough bread. It was a great treat for me and then some.

So naturally, when you go to San Francisco, you can't help but see and go on the Golden Gate Bridge. It is just gorgeous! I tried to pick the best of my photos, I loved being able to see it up close at cool angles as well as from farther away. It truly is an all-American beauty. While in town still, we had lots of other fun adventures. We went to the Coit tower, Ghiradelli Square (where we had absolutely scrumptious ice cream sundaes), and drove around to see the classic downtown area. I loved it to say the least!

And of course, we had to see Lombard street, and I loved it. Like not just loved it, but freakin' loved it. Crookedest street in the world is just amazing, and definitely a site to see! It has the most quaint houses, well, not exactly quaint because some are actually quite large, but they are all gorgeous.

And that was truly just the first part of our trip. Wowie zowie! And I've got more than enough photos to prove it. While we were in California, I ate at In-n-Out for the first time. My dad has been a fan for years and brought my brothers into it as soon as possible. All those years, they would go to In-n-Out and the girls would go to Chick-fil-a whenever we did that on our travels (which was about once every two years). So, finally it was my time to try. When I was in Brazil, my mom and sisters had their first taste of In-n-Out, so that left just me. This time couldn't wait. I went, and had my protein style, animal style In-n-Out burger with fries. And it was good. I won't kill myself to get another, but since that first I have had two more, so I guess I like it. And you can't help but love the prices and fun atmosphere. It's definitely a win all the way around.



So I guess that tops of the second travel--California. After that, we went right back up so Oregon (my new home). While there, we did a little "stay-cation" over at the Oregon Coast for an evening with my mom and sisters. And I made some fun rookie beach-goer mistakes in the water. It was so fun though.

That's haystack rock behind us, I guess it's pretty well known, so we got a picture with it. It really was a fun day at the beach, and sorry that most of the rest of the pictures are just of my feet, but it actually shows my rookie mistake pretty darn well.

So, I have loved my new Birkenstocks, and it was so good to be back at the beach in sandals, and then to take them off and feel that sand between my toes. It was so good to feel that, and I just loved it.

The water was a little cold, but it wasn't bad enough that I couldn't stand to be in it. I played in the little waves all the time we were there. My feet got plenty of water time, which led to my rookie beach-goer mistake.

Luckily because I was taking pictures, I got my mistake on camera at the perfect moment. I was naive enough to not realize that the waves can get you wet and they don't always just lap at your feet like cute little lake waves. This next pic was truly seconds after the previous, and shows that I learned my lesson pretty fast.

Oops! I got a little bit wet! Needless to say, my sisters were laughing and I was a little bit more careful after that. It was still fun though, and worth being a little cold for the rest of the night. And the yummy fish and chips on the coast was so fun too. And sadly, it took me years to want to go to the coast. I had another opportunity, but I threw a fit and didn't think it would be cool, but I appreciate it now. It was really fun to be there in the evening on the beach with the girls.

Loved it! After that, I just had an itty-bitty little bit of time to get ready to go off to school. We packed everything up, and headed to Utah (through Boise), and now up to Wyoming to finish up seeing family before I get busy with my studies again. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with blog when I am studying here. Love you all, and we'll see you soon!

Última Semana da Missão February 29, 2016

Hey there,

So...I can't believe that I'm already on my last week here on the mission! Things are going crazy here! We had lots of miracles and blessings this last week in Franca.

So, we had three baptisms on Saturday. Two were the two youngest kids of Maria and José, Juliana and Wagner. That was a fun thing that we fought for, and their family is really progressing. They invited all of their older sibling with their spouses and children to go to the baptism, and so their entire family was there, which was really special. We also had the baptism of Ricardo, whose wife´s aunt is a member in our ward. It really was an amazing experience.

We also had some more miracles with Maria and José. José pulled Sister Lourenço aside after a family home evening with them last night, and he asked us about what Maria was saying about weddings. She had brought us earlier the pictures of their oldest kids' weddings to show us, and said that she always dreamed of having a wedding like that, but now she didn't thing that it was ever going to happen. We told him that that was what she said, and he told us that the next day, he was going to go and mark their wedding, and he wanted it to be a secret. Woohooo! We truly wanted to scream and shout and cry tears of joy when he told us this. Miracles are real, but we have to have faith and we cannot give up.

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. I came to Ribeirão Preto today to register my new visa that finally came through, but that's not too big of a deal.

I love you all, and...I'll see you in a week!

Love you!

Sister Jensen