Five Transfers = Six Months and Five Companions

Me and Elder Figgins. He has been really sick, so I let him sleep.

Hello everyone!

It is indeed my 5th transfer out in the Mission field, which means that I have now passed 6 months out here, which is kind of hard to believe. That means that I am a quarter of the way done. Time flies when you are serving the Lord. So yes, with another transfer, this time I got a new companion, Elder Figgins who hails from Layton, Utah. He is a very fun Elder, though it was hampered a little because he has been feeling really sick this week, and we are praying that he will get over it soon.

On Tuesday, I picked him up from the Naperville Stake Center, and I sent my last companion, Elder Smith up to DeKalb, IL. After we got done shopping and getting settled in out of the way, we went and found a potential investigator, and he seemed pretty solid. We are going to meet up with him next week, because he said that he wanted time to read the Book of Mormon that we gave him. We had to fix up our Area Book, and we ended up giving a blessing to someone, and sitting in on an Elders Quorum meeting, and got a big list of less-actives that we need to visit, which is something that we were looking for.

District Meeting was fun, especially since our District Leader was doing his very first District Meeting in his mission. He did a good job. Then we looked through our Area Book and got rid of a bunch of profiles that did not need to be in our book.  Then, we hit up an apartment complex, and I found a guy that I could add on Facebook to get into contact with him! That was super exciting that I was able to do that.

Thursday was a day of Weekly Planning again, and it took forever as usual, but it was good to go through. Also that day, we ran into a group of kids that were super funny. They stole my notepad and pen, and started writing "tickets" for a bunch of parked cars. They also stole my tablet, and I really had to convince them to give it back (it may have helped that one of the girls told her friend that she was going to be cursed for stealing a "church man's" stuff). Then, we went to contact another referral.

This one was weird. So, we knock on her door, and she cracks it and sticks her head in the gap. We ask her if she is who we are looking for, and we show her the Bible that she wanted, and she shook her head, and slowly closed and locked the door. Ok then. While we were in our car, figuring out our schedule, YSA pulls up behind us to contact the SAME PERSON. There attempt was about the same, except this time she shook her head through a window at them instead of a door. Oh well.

We then went to talk with Gary again, and we had another excellent time with him. We also got to meet his dogs finally, and they are awesome. The two that we personally met were really big schnauzers. Those were cool dogs.

Friday was kind of sluggish because Elder Figgins' sickness was hitting him a little harder that day. We did go and see Dan, Ray, and John. We cleaned out a big portion of Ray's garage with them. Man there was so many dusty and crusty things in there. I am glad that we got it out though. We then talked with Julian, and this lesson was pretty good for him. We cleared up a ton of misconceptions with him, and I think he felt a other more confident in his knowledge (as much as he could with his mother and a friend making snide comments about us and calling us lairs in their conversation that they were conveniently having in the same room). He is a good kid, and I like him.

Saturday was alright. We got to have lunch with the Bishop, and we discussed changes that are happening in our mission, as well as in others. The two things that I know of for sure are there is a new interview process for prospective missionaries, and missionaries are now being approved to use smartphones, and those will be replacing tablets. Now, as for our mission, we are going to be using smart phones, they have not been introduced to us yet though. There was a video on our mission page tough that showed us how to transfer our contacts to the new phones. This is super exciting! Again, another testament to the Lord hastening His work.

We then went to talk with the Taveras family. Man, Alejandro is crazy. I am pretty sure that he had more beers than he told us, but he was saying a bunch of word stuff, and just calling Elder Figgins a liar. We are more concerned for his wife and kids, who we are going to try and reach out to, and him if he shows more interest. It was fun though.

We then finally came into contact with a referral that I had been trying to get into contact with the entire transfer, last transfer. We managed to get a return appointment for the next day, which sadly fell trough. Then, the day's highlight was again taking with Audry. I just love her so much. She is in an actual hospital now because she has a bladder infection now. She is still just as happy and Christlike as ever. I always love going to visit her.

And that night, I hit a personal milestone, which may not seem like much to everyone, but the is big for me. I have finished filling up another journal! I have been journaling every day for the past 5 years now, and I am not stopping any time soon. I don't know, I just love writing things down in a journal. It is fun. This journal that I just finished contains just over the first 6 months of my mission, which is pretty good for a journal for me. Lots of memories to look back on there, good and bad.

Then Sunday came along, and this time, we had the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting. Man, I teared up a bit. I miss my Primary class up in Washington. Those were some good kids, but I know that Brother Whitaker is taking good care of them for me.

We had a rough day after church though. Elder Figgins got a lot worse after church (he won't admit it)and he fell asleep during studies. I kind of just let him rest, because honestly, he is pushing himself very hard, and it is not helping him recover any. He needed the rest. Unfortunately, with that, our drive went down, and finding that evening was not very good, because first we got lost and second our hearts were not really into it. Night finding is really hard, because people really don't want to be bothered, but really, it is the only time that they are home with their family, and we love to teach families. It is a hard conundrum to get over. Well, that is about it for this week! I hope that y'all are having a most excellent time out where ever you are!

Elder Jensen

Questions from Elder Jensen's mom:  You’re getting a smartphone?!  Is your mission president going to give one to everyone? or every companionship? Are we supposed to buy one? What do you do with your tablet?  Do you still get to use that?  So many questions!  😂😂

Answers (?) from Elder Jensen:  We still do not know all the details with them, or when we will be getting them, but missionaries will be coming out with those instead of tablets now. And I do think that we are keeping our tablets as well.

When your companion is sick...

...and falls asleep during personal study... 

...you have to take pictures!

A most delicious meal made by Elder Figgins

Dinner with Elder Figgins