Flippin Greenie Stud...for 15 pushups

Elder Wells and Elder Jensen

Hello again! This has been a pretty great week. It started off with New Missionary Training, which was fun because I got to see all the missionaries that came out with me again, and we got to catch up a little. One of the big messages that we got at the training though was that we need to be using family history more often as a finding and retaining tool than we have been before. It makes sense. People don't always like talking about religion, but just about everybody loves to talk about their family. That was actually the case with a guy we talked to this week. We walked up to him and just started a conversation, and when we tried to turn it to religion, he clammed up and told us that he was a man of science and did not believe in religion. So, we pulled out a family history pass-along card, and that opened him right back up, and he got talking to us then. Family history, it works!

Something also this week, we decided as a zone, that we needed to improve ourselves. Things like keeping our shoes shined, dressing more properly, really trying to find new investigators, and probably the biggest change is using more professional language. That is something I am struggling with, just because I am still used to using some words that don't mean much outside of a mission, but we need to watch out here. Here is a list of the words that came up as ones we should avoid using:

-Greenie
-Son
-Dying
-Pross
-Disso
-Apostate
-Crap
-Flip
-Fetch
-District Monkey
-Stud
-Father
-Son
-Uncle
-Freak
-Lamborfeetie(I honestly have no idea what this is)
-Ripe
-Guy
-Guys

We decided that whenever we use one of these words, we have to do 5 push-ups. The most I have done this week is 35. But hey, it is not the worst. Another Elder had to do around 70 earlier this week. We also call each other each night to follow up on how we are doing on these things, and we sing "Have I Done Any Good?" each night. I think I have that song memorized now.

My organizational skills were tested this week. At the place we give service, Habitat for Humanity Restore (just Restore is what we call it out here), they asked us to organize all of the curtains/blinds that they have, and that took a good 3 or 4 hours to do because of how messed up they were and how much junk was with them. I am glad that I had some work gloves on me then.

I also went on exchanges again this week with Elder King, and we had a great time. That night, we had dinner with a family that loves Brandon Sanderson, and we had such a great time talking about his books together. I liked it a lot.

The next day was basically moving people. We did two moves, the first one was a new member that moved into the area, and he was just getting his stuff into a storage locker until he could find a house. That took awhile because it was only him, us, and the Elders Quorum president. Nobody else showed up to help, which is kind of sad. After that move though, we went to Elder King's apartment, and while we were studying, we looked up and saw a U-Haul pull up, and two guys start unloading it. We looked at each other, threw on some non-proselyting cloths (jeans and t-shirts), and got back to work. They were really happy to have us out there to help.

On Sunday, we saw a less active, recent convert, at church, which was awesome! We saw her earlier in the week, and invited her back to church because she hadn't been in awhile. It was great to see her. We took her into the one family history class, and she liked it a lot. We got her a fellow-shipper so that she can continue her research for names that she can take to the temple. I was glad too because I got to be in the class and learn a little on how I can use Family Search, which was helpful because I had no idea what I was doing. I might go back next week so that I can learn more.

Also, I found out that if you sing loud in church, people for some reason think that you are good. The music leader in primary asked Elder Wells and I to come to primary the third hour to sing the first verse of "America the Beautiful" and "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" with the primary, to members who have served in the military in our ward. That was an awesome experience!

That night, I was thankful that I served as a primary teacher before I came out on my mission. We had dinner at a members home, and for the lesson, they have a tradition. Missionaries do not prepare a lesson before hand, but are given 3 minutes to go to a toy box, pull out a few toys, and come up with an object lesson for the kids. That was a lot of fun to do, and we pulled it off. I used a pink bag with a yellow rubber dress in it to teach a lesson on faith, and how through two or more witnesses we can know the truth. The family really enjoyed that one.

Also that night, we got a new investigator. He was the guy that we helped jump his car last week and invited him to church. He was unable to come, but we stopped by and talked to him last night, and had a really good talk on the Book of Mormon. He really liked it, and committed to read it, and he wants to come to church next week! That was really exciting. Well, that was this week for you. I can't wait to hear about your week! I love you Mom!

Elder Jensen

You know the glass bottle milk you guys have? Well, they have glass bottom juice out here, and it is good stuff!

Yeah, I broke my bike.

Thank goodness we had an extra bike so we could steal the pedals off of it to fix that problem.

 Lunch with Elder King! It was good stuff.