Turkey Trot!

Elder Jensen with his 5k Turkey Trot medal

Hello everyone!

This week has been a pretty good one. It started out with an Exchange with Elder Miner and Elder Hanks. It was a lot of fun. I started off that day working with Elder Miner, and we did a bunch of stop-by's. It was kind of funny, because a lot of people that we visited never had opened their door before, and most of them actually opened up, and we had a good talk with them. One person we stopped at was kind of (She most certainly was) crazy. She was nice though, and she told Elder Miner and I that she sensed that we have really good, strong spirits. I'll take that.

Then we went to go and pick up a package for Elder Miner because we were around the area to get it. It should have only take us 10 minutes to do, but it took a hour because we couldn't find the dumb place to get it. If there are any parents to missionaries reading this, Please send packages to the Mission office, so that they can be forwarded to you missionary, because this really stunk. Also, they usually require that we provide a proof of address, and we move around so often, that we don't usually have something that can do that, and we may not even get the package.

So, when that was finally over with, we ate dinner, and then switched. I did more drop-ins with Elder Hanks, but I don't know if he was tired or something, but it didn't feel like he was all that motivated to do anything. I kind of had to push him a little, which was weird because I haven't really had to do that ever. Oh well. We did get a return appointment though with an investigator that we were pretty sure was just going to yell at us to go away. It was kind of funny, we were walking down her driveway, and she drove up, and we talked to her and got that all squared away. That is the Spirit working there, having us in the right place at the right time.

On Wednesday, our Zone got together, and we kind of got thrown down on by Elder Ghram. Bascally, the gist of it was that we need to be more motivated in the work, and get things done! They left us with three invitations:

1.Pick something that you aren't doing, and DO IT!
2.Remove sarcasm and negativity from our Zone(I am going to struggle with that one, and I know that I am not the only one)
3.Start up a gratitude journal

After that though, they had cooked up a mini Thanksgiving dinner for us, and we all ate it together and had a good time. Then we drove Elder Dorminy and Elder Brimhall home (we didn't go into their apartment this time, we learned our lesson.) and then we tried to figure out our day. We ended up giving a blessing to someone, and then ending the night with personal study because we did not get a chance to do it in the morning.

Thursday, as you all know, was Thanksgiving! Let me say, that was a great day, filled with food. That morning though, the Ward invited us to to their Turkey Bowl, and that was a ton of fun. We got invited to our first dinner of that day there, with the Bateman's and the Neilson's. They are the two younger couples in our ward, and they are awesome! Elder Figgins and I had a great time talking with them, and eating a ton of fantastic food! They are just a bunch of awesome members, and they are always so willing to help us out. Then we went out to our second dinner with the Bishop's family, and had a lot more great food. We also had a good time there, and we able to get to know two of their sons a little better (who are not all that active at the moment). Then ,we went to our third stop, which we set up during our first dinner, the Bohman's. We just had pie them, because we were already too full from other dinner's. We mostly just talked with them though, and talked a lot about the things that we were grateful for.

So what am I thankful for? I am thankful for my awesome family, and all of the love and support that they show me. I am thankful for a most excellent Mission President and Mission Mom and the wonderful leadership that they provide out her in the Illinois Chicago West Mission. I am thankful for my companion, Elder Figgins, who is a hard working Elder, and knows how to make the work fun. I am thankful for the temple, and for all those who go there to help unite their families for eternity. And I am most thankful for my Savior, and all that He has done for me, that I may one day return to his presence. So, I made a picture to go along with this (and I am proud of it )so I put it at the bottom for y'all. Enjoy!

Friday, we were on bikes, but that didn't stop us! We went and finally met with our referral from Colorado, and man, she is golden! I think I said it last time, but her son just got baptized, and she has noticed a change in him, that he has become a lot more happy since being baptized, and she wants to feel that happiness also. Luckily, we are experts in that area, and we're happy to help. She is super prepared for baptism though, and we just need to buzz through the lessons real quick, and she can probably get baptized next month if we do this right/by the Spirit.

After that, we helped Brother Mason move some stuff out of his yard so he could mow it (we are not allowed to use lawn mowers because an Elder nearly chopped off his toes with one once. Not sure how he managed that, but oh well.) and then we went and did Weekly Planning, since we did not have time the day before. Then, after dinner, we went and talked with Celeste and Meka. We had finished the lessons with Celeste on Monday, and we were just kind of there to answer their questions. It was cool, and we got some things off the table. Meka still has to have the last lesson, but she is right there!

Then, Saturday comes along. Man, that was a most excellent day. The Ward Mission leader from the Bloomingdale ward set it up so that we could participate in the Turkey Trot, which was a 5k and a half-marathon. I ran the 5k with Elders Taggert, Dorminy, King, and Brimhall. Oh man, it had been so long since I had been in a race, and I loved it! I did not do as well as I wanted to, but looking at the overall results afterwards, I wasn't even mad about how I did. I finished 33rd (out of 1380), with a time of 21:13.4, and I was 12th for my age group. I was happy with that. We also had three Elders, Elders Ghram, Miner, and Adams ran the half-marathon, and man, that just bolsters my respect for them.They are a bunch of beasts, and the first two Elders finished just under 2 hours, and Elder Adam same in just over 2 hours. They are freaking awesome though, and I am around here next year, I think I will give it a try.

After everyone was finished, we went with the guy who set everything up, to lunch. He is super funny, and I like him a lot. Then we went to help out with a super unorganized move. Man, what basically happened was we were moving a hoarder, and it was just not good. We managed to get a lot of stuff to their house, but when we tried to get things into a storage locker, the locker that they paid for already had a lock on it, and it was after hours so there was no one that we could contact to get help. We had to leave though because the other Elders had to leave, and we couldn't stay because it was in their area, and if they weren't there, we couldn't be. I then proceeded to crash because I was so tired.

Sunday though was awesome! Celeste, Meka, and Joan made it to church, and Celeste had her baptismal interview, and she passed! Hooray! She is going to be baptized this coming Saturday, and we are super excited for her. After church and lunch, we did some stop-by's, but not much came out of it. Then our last one of the night, with Lissett, gave us a new investigator! She had met with missionaries before, but dropped off because she was going through some crazy stuff. But, we talked with her Sunday night, and we had a really good conversation with her, and we think that she is ready to start up the lesson again. It was great! Well, this one is a bit long, but I hope that y'all are having a fantastic time wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

1. Here we all are after the Turkey trot. The order of person's is up above where I talked about it(yes, I am that lazy)

2.Here is the picture that goes along with the Gratitude stuff.

Here we all are after the Turkey Bowl

Here is my Zone!
(Front row) Sister Hatch, Sister Cope, Sister Ward, Sister Grey, Sister Young, Sister Jardine
(Middle row 1) Elder Brimhall, Me, Elder King, Elder Mateski,
(Middle 2) Elder Tu'avou, Elder Figgins, Elder Taggert, Elder Dorminy, Elder Adams
(Back row) Elder Hanks(he is kind of creeping back there behind Elder Tu'avou), Elder Ghram, Elder Miner, Elder Adams, Elder Clinger

Elder Figgins and I

This was after we got haircuts.

Tons of pictures of us at the Turkey Trot. The orange medals we were for the 5k, and the yellow ones were for the half-marathon. Elder Figgins did not run, he volunteered (passed out water, directed people).