Duck, Duck, Duck....GOOSE!!

What happens in the Mission when it gets cold? You go out and work, because that's what you are supposed to do.

Hello everyone!

It is coming to that time of the year again. Temperatures are dropping, but the work is still moving forward. Tuesday, we had two main lessons. Our first was with Nahrina, and we kind of got her to really look at baptism in a new light when we explained priesthood authority. That seemed like a new concept to her, but we think that she has accepted it, in the fact that she told us that she wanted to think about baptism for a little bit. We just need to pray that she can see the importance of coming to church, and get the time off of her job so that she can come to church (Mariano's has a tight hold on her).

We also got in with Robert Hall, a former investigator that has been meeting with missionaries for many years. He knows it's right, and wants to join, he just won't follow through with his commitments. We saw a ton of progress though from this visit with him, and we are hoping to get him to Celeste's baptism as that he can feel the Spirit there. We are hoping that will be the driving point to get him into the waters of baptism.

For District meeting on Wednesday, we gave a training on finding new investigators because our Zone has seen a considerable lack of new people investigating the church for a very long time now. It is a difficult thing to find few people to teach, but you just have to get out there and do it, otherwise you won't ever find anyone. We also had doughnuts to go with our training, so that kept everyone's attention.

We had to drive two Elders back to their apartment afterwards, and that took up a lot of time because they did not live close. We also checked out their apartment because you don't get to see too many of the apartments that missionaries use, and that was a bad idea. Elder Figgins ended up leaving there with a big cut on his thumb from one of the other Elders knives. It was a cool one to be cut by though, if I do say so myself. It had a knife that came out of each end, and it had dragon designs on each blade. It was also very sharp (for very obvious reasons).

{insert from Mom's letter} What the heck with the huge knife?!  Why does he have a fancy knife on his mission?  Poor Elder Figgins...was it a real accident or does he just not know how to handle knives very well? {answer by Elder Jensen} And yeah, the knife..... That was actually really stupid. Elder Figgins and Elder Dorminy were fighting over some Pixie Stix, and Elder Dorminy had the knife in his hand, and he "accidentally" got him with it.

I also spent an hour at our apartment trying out fix our phone, because it bugged out and stopped getting texts, which is not very helpful. The T-mobile people were very nice though, and got things fixed right up for us.

Thursday sucked. Elder Figgins has been getting these huge headaches to go along with his other stuff (we figured out this week that he has a sinus infection, and it is just messing him up)so he did not wake up for a really long time. We eventually got out to do some weekly planning, but that was about it from that day. Except, something else did happen that day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!! Just saying, she is the best Mom in the world.

Friday was a very cold day, just like there rest of the week to be honest, but what made the stand out was that it was snowing all day. It was a super light snow, and none of it stuck, but it was snow, and I liked it! Snow is just awesome! It is also funny to look out your window as you drive by the lake, and see all of the Geese WALKING across the lake. It kind of reminds me of someone, but I just can't put my finger on it.....oh yeah! Jesus!

But Friday kind of made up for Thursday a little, because we were all over our area. We were going ham on finding, and we actually found a single return appointment, and we were so happy about that! She was a former investigator that was at the top of our Smart Sort list, and we just knocked on her door, and she came right out and started setting up an appointment with her. That was awesome! We then ended our day on a most excellent lesson with Neri. She is such a sweet lady, and I can see her getting baptized here pretty soon if we do things right, and the Spirit really is in our lessons with her.

Saturday morning, we helped Sister Riismaa set up for a Relief Society activity, where they had a big breakfast together and made bunch of Christmas decorations. It looked like it was a lot of fun! Then we did more finding throughout the day, but not much to report on there. We also got to talk with Audrey again, which is always super fun .She gets to go home next week, and we are super excited for her!

We also received some sad news on Saturday. Celeste has been really sick these past couple of days, and she had to go to the ER the other night. And this sickness really stinks, not only in the fact that it makes her feel terrible, but she also has been unable to have an interview for baptism because of it, and we are going to have to move her baptismal date again because of it. It stinks, but it's a natural part of life, so we roll with it.

And there is not much to report on for Sunday. It kind of snowed again, but not really, and church was fantastic as it always is. Man, let me just say that going to church is awesome! What better place to go when you want to learn, or if you are just feeling down. The Spirit there is just so amazing, and I just feel great every time I go there, and after I leave as well. I mean, what is the point of going to church if you are just going to forget about what happened there right? Going to church with the right attitude makes all the difference, I can testify to that. I think that is about all for this week. I hope that everyone out there has had a blessed week!

Elder Jensen

....duck...

GOOSE! 

 (You knew that would come eventually, with all of the ducks I have been sending) So, I almost got this goose to come right up to me. This is as close as he got, and then it just gave me a bunch of weird looks. You may be wondering why there are so many geese here. Well, there are two species of geese in Illinois. There are the smart ones that fly South for the winter. Then you have the stupid lazy ones that just hang out here all year round. I will never understand these birds. They are so privileged in this state, and they know it. They cold stop traffic on a highway for an hour because they are a "protected species" out here, and they know it. I stopped my car two inches from one once, and it didn't even flinch. It just backed up a little, and gave me a look that said, "What are you gonna do, huh? That's right, nothing." I need to go hunting with Dad when I get back, so that I can finally shoot one of these dumb birds.

And here is a most fantastic dinner Elder Figgins prepared for us one evening.

Elder Figgins enjoying his meal.