We made a Groot Shrine in their room.

November 06, 2017

We made a Groot Shrine in their room.

Hello Everyone!

This week was an alright one. So, Tuesday was Halloween, and that was a good day. We got up, planned, and then Elder Figgins came down with a huge headache, and slept on the couch for a very long time. I got to talk to Celeste during the morning, and that was a super cool experience. She was kind of doubtful about her date to be baptized, and she didn't know what to do. So, I gave her the simple answer. Pray about it. She got super excited about it, and said that she would "take it to silent prayer and meditation that evening." That was cool.

The next day, November 1st, I do not think Elder Figgins even got up before noon. That kind of stunk, because we didn't go anywhere, again. The good news is, I got to finish "Jesus the Christ", which is a most amazing book. It full of a bunch of deep doctrine stuff that just blows your mind, but it is super cool!

Thursday we got out and did Weekly Planning, which was great because we got out of the apartment. We even got to wander around and do some finding. We had to call it early, but we were working, so that is good.

Friday was amazing! We got to go to Zone Conference, and that was just as amazing as it always is. The main message from President was we need to become instruments (or tools) in the hand of the Lord. It was a really cool talk.

Also, super exciting! We got rid of our dinosaur phone, and we got a new phone. Introducing, the Smart Phone! Man, it feels so weird to be using one of those again. No, it is not a personal phone, it is just an area phone, but missionaries starting January 2018 will be coming out with their own Smart phone, instead of a tablet. So, the age of tablets is coming to a close. This is going to be interesting, let name tell you. I do have the option to buy my own phone to use out here, but I don't think I will. Come January, a lot of missionaries will already have one, so I can just use the area phone in each area that I go to. There would have to be a really good reason for me to get a phone, if I was to get one.

That evening, we also had an....interesting lesson with Gary. It was actually pretty good. We brought Brother and Sister Schneidau with us, who were both once Catholic and then converted and became LDS, and man, did they talk. They basically explained everything about the church to Gary and his friend basically without taking a breath. That was crazy. The good thing was after they left, Gary and his friend brought up a bunch of questions, and we finally got some of his concerns, which is progress!

Saturday, we got deep in cleaning out Ray's place. We basically finished his garage, and now we are in the house, the real project. That is going to take time, but we are glad we can get in there and just help make Ray's house a place where the Spirit can better reside. We also got to see the house that Dan is remodeling, and we might get to help him out with that. I am really excited, because doing that kind of stuff around a house just seems really cool to me.

Dinner that night was interesting. A scout troop in the area borrowed our gym to host a spaghetti dinner, and we were invited to go as "payment" for using the building. It was some good stuff, and I liked it. Then we had a most amazing lesson with Celeste and Meka! Man, we got so much stuff to them, and we answered a ton of there questions. Celeste also decided on a very firm baptismal date of November 18th! We are so excited for her. We are also excited for Meka. She has not committed to baptism yet, but she is asking a ton of questions on how the church works and other things, and she says that she wants to be baptized, she just needs a little more time. She is so close! Then that evening, we went to the church to type up an update email for the Ward Council. Let me tell you, I have a little bit of fun with these. Here is what I typed this Saturday:

"Hello hello! We have here once again the Missionary Roport for the Schaumburg 2nd area.

Celeste -Everyone! Super important! Celeste has committed to a hard date of November 18th! This is most fantastic! The last thing that we need to do is teach the final lesson with here, and then get her an interview and she will be good. So, it is super imperative that she receives support from members. Several members have done this(yes, that is a shout out) but we continue to encourage all to really get to know her. Especially if you are into family history. Celeste has shown great interest in doing this, and we think that this would be great for her, and we will be able to get her to the temple quicker to do baptisms, which would be an awesome experience for her. So, continue to fellowship her, and I think she will very likely remain active. Oh! And she has also expressed to us that she would like to bring family into this church as well, so be on the look out for other members of her family, if she brings them any time soon.

Meka -Let me just say, she is progressing a lot more than she has in the past. She has told us that she would like to join this church as well, but she has some things she wants to make sure that she understands first. Y'all have met her though, and know that she is great, so we are going to continue to work with her until she decides when she wants to be baptized. Oh, and major stuff here! She is bringing her two primary aged kids with her tomorrow for church, so Primary, prepare for two new kids! They are in the 7-9 range. Their names are Diamond and Duane.(we are pretty sure). We think what will help her most though is that she just continues to feel comfortable when she comes to church.

Gary -And here we have our Catholic investigator. We brought Brother and Sister Schneidau with us to our previous lesson(thank you so much for that again). So, I think we said this before, but his deal is that he does not want to do anything else except for read the Book of Mormon, and then decide what to do UNLESS he receives a very strong spiritual prompting that he should join our church before then. So, we really need help getting him to feel the Spirit. I think something that might help, is getting him to church. But you must be thinking, "But Elder, did you not just say that he does not want to do anything but read the book? How the krunk are you going to get him to church?" Well I am glad you asked. Firstly, we are going to try and get him to Celeste's baptism. If we can get him there, we are going to introduce him around, and people, he needs to know that we are not weird. He needs to get that we are normal people, and how we would LOVE to see him at church if he gets the chance. If we can't get him to that, then we need a list of social events that we are going to have here for the next little bit so we can get him into the church building, and then he can poke his nose around a little, and maybe we can(or y'all can) explain sone things to him so that he can gain a better understanding of us. We must be sneaky! He does also have a concern about us using water instead of wine for the Sacrament, but we will try and address that. Our main goal with him though, is that we need to help him feel the Spirit strong enough, it is like he just got a roundhouse kick to the face. We will update you on Gary as we see more progress from him.

Thank you for all that you do! Keep being a most excellent Ward Council, and let's baptize!

Elders Jensen&Figgins

So yeah, I try to have a little bit of fun. And Sunday was AWESOME! We had 6 people at church! That would be Dan, Ray, Celeste, Meka, Diamond, and Duane(these last two are Meka's kids). Man, and this Sunday was testimony meeting, and it was most excellent. There were a ton of testimonies on missionary work, and how people found the church. I was having so many "BINK!" moments during that meeting, it was just so amazing. And, Celeste said that next week, she would bring her other daughter(Meka's sister), and maybe even her husband, who I haven't even met yet. That is going to be awesme!! Well, that is about all for this week. I hope that y'all are having a most fantastic time wherever you are at!!!

Elder Jensen