Right on the steps of a Lutheran church.

April 23, 2018

Right on the steps of a Lutheran church.

Yo. Bring All To Christ.

Hello Everyone!

Oh my gosh, this week! Man, it was just so jam packed full of things to do. Let me jump right in to that.

So, Tuesday, we went to go and see Lester again, and we helped him to bring his groceries in again. When we tried to talk with him, but he got a call from a family member telling him that his sister was in the hospital, so he had to go to that. We got a call right after that from Sister Crippen, and she was in the hospital too, so we went to give her a blessing and talk with her. After that, we went to teach Geraldine, and she was a super nice lady, with a ton of knowledge of the Bible. We were going on have a longer lesson with her, but she just got out of the hospital a day prior(notice a theme here)so we left her to get some rest. We went to see Jeremy after that, and we taught a pretty solid Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson with him. It was great. Then we rushed on over to see Brother Carr, and we read a chapter out of the Gospel Principles book with him, and talked more about the temple. He is super close! We just have to get him an interview and the Priesthood. We then went out with Michael, and a younger guy who is applying for his mission, and we talked with him about mission life and kind of what to expect. It was pretty fun.

Wednesday, we had a solid District Meeting on having a positive mental attitude. We also did a lot of role plays for contacting, which was nice. Elder Crockett also had made a million cinnamon rolls, and he got on a ton of missionaries good sides right there. The rest of this day though was a lot of finding, and not a whole lot to say there.

Thursday started off with a lesson with Marvin. Man, that lesson went really well. Brian was not going haywire, so the Spirit felt super present in that lesson. We got him to commit more firmly to coming to church this time, which was great. We also learned that he is trying to get a new job, which this one should help him with getting to church on Sunday. After his lesson we were going to begin Weekly Planning, but we got a call from Sister Crippen, and she wanted us to come and give a blessing to/teach a friend of hers.

So, we get there, and since we didn't have a third man, we had to meet outside. So, we gave her a blessing and taught her right on the steps of a Lutheran church. Her name is Dorthy, and she is a really nice lady. She is Southern Baptist, and is very sensitive to the Spirit. She really liked what we had to say, and even took a Book of Mormon! After that lesson, then we did our Weekly Planning. Then we had dinner, and then we went with Brother Filio to see some less actives. The family that we got in with was the Garcia's, and I had a bit of fun with them. I decide to pull off an Irish accent with them, and oh was it fun. That accent for me though is not as good as others I do, but it did the job for a little, and I got smiles all around. That should help with getting better relationships with that family, and they are all pretty sarcastic. Well, we were done for the day with that one, but we were wrong. We took a road home that we normally wouldn't take, and we were surprised to see the Hermana's outside of a house of a YSA member. We stop and talk, and it turns out that the person they were helping really wanted a blessing. Not minutes later, the YSA Elders show up, since they were called in to come, and we all gave her a blessing of comfort, since she was really in need of it. That was really cool.

Friday was a very warm day, and I was glad for it because Elder Parkinson and I did a lot of wandering around, trying to contact formers. Not much happened there. As we got back though, we had a pretty cool experience. So, we are always waving to our downstairs neighbors or talking to them as we pass by. They are just a really nice older couple. Well, the other day, the husband's brother died, and they were just feeling really down. So, we gave them a Book of Mormon, and invited them to read Alma 40, because we thought it would help them. The next day, Friday, we are walking by, and we wave to them, and she comes out and gives Elder Parkinson a hug. She really liked what was in the Book of Mormon, and was super grateful that we gave it to her.We are probably going to talk with them more this week. Yay! After that, we did a lot of driving around because we couldn't really decide where to go. We eventually went to see Barbra. We went in there, and we helped her clean up her place, since there were inspectors coming around to check up on the apartments that she was living in. Then, we made our way over to the Satoyo's home, and we got a really big couch out of their house. That thing nearly squished me! Thankfully, I am still alive and well.

Saturday was like National Move-In Day or something! So first, we went up to Arlington Heights so that Elder Parkinson could do a Baptismal interview. Right after we got back, we sat down for like 5 minues, and then we were out the door to help Brother Neilson move some stuff from a storage locker into the apartment that he and his family were going to live in. Right after that, another family only a building over came in and we started to help unload their truck.We had to get out early though because we had a lesson with Dorthy at the church. We gave her a church tour, and then really talked more about the Restoration. It was a super spiritual experience! We also put her on date for baptism in July! We think that she will be ready before that though. Then we went back to the move that we were helping with, but they had already finished. But, there was another family that was moving into the same building, so we helped them out, and they were really appreciative of that. We tried to do some Personal Study after that, but we got a call from Sister Santoyo, and she wanted help proving a different couch into her house. So we ran a little ever a mile to her house to put that in there. And then we had dinner. I threw on the Australian accent again, and Sister Medrano was convinced that I was from there. We had to tell her the truth though after she started taking pictures, saying that she was going to send them to her Australian friends. 😂😂😂

Sunday was pretty fun. We had Ward Conference, and the did a lot of talk about Ministering during church. It was pretty cool to listen to. Right after church, we went back to Arlington Heights to do another baptismal interview. Then we shot back to our area so that we could get to a lesson with Joenil, our Filipino investigator. We went there with Brother Filio, since he is also Filipino. We had a really cool/interesting lesson. During the first part of it, we were just teaching Jpenil, but her daughter came down and sat in on the lesson. She seemed more interested than Joenil, which was interesting. We then spent a bit of time out in their backyard, which had a lot of plants in it, and Joenil wanted to talk about all of them. Then we actually started having a Plan of Salvation lesson. We were kind of trying to wrap it up, but then Jia's(Joenil daughter)friend came in, and she us sat right down with us and started asking questions. So, we had to go back and do a bit of Restoration with her. While we were doing this, Joenil got up, and had cooked a small meal, a small meal, and wanted us all to eat together. We did that, and then Joenil broke out the Karaoke machine and started singing. We left before we got involved in that. We went straight to our dinner with the Santoyo's after that, and we talked about the Sacrament with Keontae. We got a pretty good church invite with him, so I am excited to see him next week!

Well, there is my week for you. Man, things are pretty crazy in this area, but I am super happy to be able to be apart of it all. I mean, it is when we are in the service of our fellow men that we are in the service of our God, so I will happily serve all around me that I can! I hope that y'all can find those ways to serve those around you. I also hope that y'all have a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen