BAPTISM!...and a surprise visit.

Picture from the Baptism. (from left) Elder Smith, Elder Fry, Celeste, President Coombs, Elder Figgins, Me, Elder Gordon

Hello Everyone!

    This week was pretty cool. Tuesday was pretty uneventful, mostly just contacting that day, which did not give much. Let me tell you, contacting has to be one of the hardest things out here on my mission so far. But, I suppose that I just need to take the advice of the great and wise Daniel Bolin, and remember that, "Every 'no' is a step closer to getting a 'yes'. I challenge you to get 50 'no's' in a row, and I bet you will never get that". I find that to be sound advice from my vegetarian friend.

District Meeting meeting on Wednesday was most excellent. We had a talk on trying to change the culture of the mission, and let me tell you, that is something that is needed here. Something that really hit me was that we really need to understand how lucky we are to get called on a mission, because there are some that apply to be missionaries, and they either are told to reapply in a year, or they are told that they won't need to resend in their papers, because they are not going to be called on a mission, and they can go and continue on with their lives. That hit me like a bucket of cold water to the face, and it made me really think more on why I was called out, and I feel so blessed that I am able to be out here serving.

After District Meeting, the Spanish Zone Leaders blessed us with a crock pot, rice cooker, plates, a spatula, measuring cups, and a toaster. That brought a tear to my eye. We promised to buy them lunch, and then went out to teach Joan. That had to be about the coolest lesson that I had been in so far! So, we were helping her sort through a bunch of old records that she had, because she was trying to see if she could sell them. We were also teaching her the Restoration throughout all of this, and get this, SHE WAS TAKING NOTES! She  is one of my most favorite investigators. She was also asking a ton of fantastic questions, and that lead to talking about several other points of doctrine that she pretty much agreed with, which was very nice. We are going to try and have her on date soon, and maybe for this month. We spent that evening though setting up the program for Celeste's baptism, and we went and talked with her about it too. She was super excited!

Thursday was kind of unproductive, and I blame it on the car share. So, we do studies and planing, then we drive out to the Spanish Elders apartment, and we meet up with or District Leader also to exchange. We decided that would be the time to take them out to lunch though, since we were already all together, and we had a good time with them. However, they had to go to a meeting, and they did not have time to drop us off back home, so we had to go with them, which ate up a bunch of time.

Then they dropped us off at our appointment that we barely made, but we had a great time with Robert. He was very interested in the temple, so we talked about it with him a bit. He really wants to go there, and we reminded him that he has to be baptized first, and I think that may have had an impact on him. We will see as we go on with him. Then, we had to walk home because we had no car, and no bikes. It was fun though. The only thing that stunk was that there was nobody else out walking, so no contacts out of that.

So we did dinner there and set more things in place for the baptism, and then got on our bikes, and did a pretty decent bike ride. It was 7.6 miles, and we did it in about 40 minutes(both ways). what made it even more fun was we were doing it at night, and neither of us have good bike lights. But, the Lord was protecting us, and Elder Figgins only ate it once when we came to a chain that was low to the ground that neither of us could see.

We talked with Gary, and it was kind of the same deal with him. I tried talking with him and seeing if I could get anything from him on how we can help him progress, but his answer was still the same. He says that he was only prompted by the Spirit to read the Book of Mormon, and it was a powerful  pull, and nothing else. We have invited him out to so many things, and not just church, but get togethers for the ward, and even the baptism to see what it looked like, but his answer is always that stubbornness that he will do nothing unless the spirit basically round house kicks him in the face and commands him to act in faith (that isn't what he said, but I think the illustration is accurate).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can help him progress? I of course will be trying to study on this, but please, if anyone has any suggestions or past experiences in this area, please shoot me an email, because the advice would be greatly appreciated. We did have him read Ether 12, and he liked it, but I am not sure just how much he got out of it.

Friday welcomed in December, and we got to start it off with breakfast at IHOP with Brother Bayne, and that was most excellent! The main purpose of that was to give us the programs that his wife had made for us, and the breakfast was a very nice bonus. Then we got to our studies, and then we went over to Ray's house to do some cleaning. Man, I am proud of the work I did there. I spent 2 hours cleaning off a small coffee table, and then wiping it down with disinfectant (yes, 2 hours. I was amazed at how much stuff he managed to fit on that table). I was very proud of my work though. Now, it just needs to stay that way.

We did a little work after that, did some work to our area book, then did another 40 minute ride to our dinner for that evening, in which Elder Figgins crashed again. I am thinking that a pattern is starting to arise. The dinner was great though, and when the members saw our bikes afterwards, they loaded them into their van, and drove us home, which was very nice of them.

Then came Saturday, that most excellent day. 'Twas the day of the baptism for Celeste! The Spanish Elders picked us up at our apartment in the morning, and drove us to the church, and they also stayed to help set things up, which was super nice of them. We had a slight problem with the font not filling up, but we just stuffed some plastic bags in the drain, and that worked (totally not ghetto). The baptism itself was fantastic, as a bunch of the missionaries that taught her were there, and Celeste had her whole family there! We met her husband for the first time there, and that was pretty cool.

We hung around after the baptism because we had to clean up, and we needed to get the car from the other Elders, and man, it was so nice to sit in the Subaru again. We went back and did daily and weekly planning after that, so we were down for awhile. But during Weekly planning, we actually put our heads together, and planned out what we were going to do for #LightTheWorld this week, and do we have a few things planned. I am super excited to do this! I encourage all to go an participate in this initiative this year, and if you have no idea what I am talking about, it is all over my Facebook, and you can visit mormon.org/christmas to get more details.

After that we did some calls and finding, and then we went over to the Bateman's house to meet with them, and two very special guests. Wanna guess who they were? It was my aunt Marnie and her husband Spencer! Ahhhhh!!! It was so cool to see them again! They were just in town visiting the Bateman's and I just so happened to be in this area at the time they were planning on visiting. We had a right good time with them.

Sunday was also a most excellent day. Celeste and Meka were at church, but not the rest of the family this time, but we will work on that. Then she got confirmed, and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Elder Figgins and I got to participate in the circle, and man, that Spirit was super strong there. And it being Fast and Testimony meeting, Celeste once again bore her testimony, and talked about how she wanted to be the best member she old be, and how she wanted to serve everyone as much as she could. That was awesome. Later on the meeting, I also got up and bore my testimony, due to a spiritual prompting I had (and an aunt who texted us and said that I should do it). I was glad I did though, and I know that the words I spoke touched someone. and, we got Celeste to stay for the second hour of church, which was awesome because she had never done that before. She loved Gospel Principles, and told us afterwards that we had a ton of knowledge. I guess we are a little different in that setting.

After church, we wandered around to do some finding, but nothing came out of that unfortunately. Then we had some excellent Asian food with the Chinin's, and the we got to watch the Christmas Devotional with Dan, Ray, and John. That was super awesome, and if you haven't seen it, I highly encourage you to watch it. It is a great way to usher in the Christmas season. Well, that is about all for this one. I hope that y'all are having a good time wherever you are at, and that y'all stay awesome!

Elder Jensen

I got to see my Aunt!  Uncle Spencer, Aunt Marnie, Me, Elder Figgins

Aunt Marnie and me

The Chinins had a very fun dessert for us!

Watching a most fantastic Christmas Devotional

Us and the Chinins.  We used this photo for #LightTheWorld day 3

Some cool Christmas lights we found