A New Hope

May 28, 2018

A New Hope

Hello Everyone!

Elder Hollist and I had a pretty decent week this week! Tuesday Morning we had to wake up a bit early to get our loaner car back to the Mission Office. We then came back to finish getting ready for the day. We were going to teach Yanni, but he fell through because of other things that he is falling with right now. So instead of that, we went back up to the nasty house to help some more. That was a fun day. We got to break a lot of things, and throw them into the dumpster. It is pretty good therapy, if I do say so myself. It was also quite the workout, and that is something that I need. We then went and had a pretty decent lesson with Jeremy, and he is now on date for baptism July 7th. We just now have to make sure that he is ready for it. We tried to teach Maritza after him, but she was busy. We did get to talk to her husband though, and he is a really nice guy. That day ended with talking with the Scott's, a less-active family in our ward. He was a pretty nice guy, he just doesn't feel the need to come to church now. He wants to in the future though, so at least that desire is there.

Wednesday started off with District Meeting of course. We had it combined with the other District, and we talked a lot about setting goals and having more unified companionships. We had a pretty short lesson with Mario after that, then we went and finished up the house project with Elder Lake and Elder McCormick. That was just a lot of getting the last small things into the dumpster. The guy who bought the house was there, and he was really appreciative of our help, so he took us to lunch at Sonic. That was nice of him. The rest of that day was mostly stop-by's.

Thursday was good. We had a really good Weekly Planning session, in which we erased everything on our whiteboards, and put a lot of stuff about our investigators up. It is nice to be able to see it all like it is. We then had interviews with President. Those were most excellent, as per usual. He shared a super cool scripture with me there. It was Moroni 7:41, which says: "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Take what you will from that one. We had to rush to pick up dinner and get to a lesson when we finished there. We were teaching Geraldine with Brother Filio, and we got her on date for baptism as well! That was pretty cool. We then went and found a new person to teach with Brother Filio to end the night.

Friday was an easy day. The morning was just some finding, and then we came back to do a bit of Comp Study. We then went to see Brother Carr, and we had a Barbecue with him. That was pretty fun. We also had a pretty cool talk about Patriarchal Blessings with him. I feel that is what is going to push him to the temple now. We then went out to Addison to do bit of finding. And then dinner. We also saw Richard that evening. That lesson was an official drop lesson. His desire is just gone, and he kind of jumped off the deep end when it comes to religion. He isn't against it, he just is doing a ton of things that seem extra. Oh well, if it makes him happy. Hopefully we will get to teach him again in the future.

Saturday we went and did some service with the YSA Elders. We finally found a recurring service that we can do, and it is fun. It is at a food pantry up in Itasca. We did a lot of sorting through various food items, seeing if they were good or not. After that, we played some pick up football with people there. That was pretty fun. Then, they loaded us up with a bunch of food, and sent us on or way. That is going to help a lot. We went and had lunch with a member family. We were going to teach Diana with Brother Filio after that, but that fell through, which ended up being really good for us. A member that moved in recently called us up, and told us that we really need to go talk to her son (he is 53). He has a ton of stress on him right now, and it is getting him super depressed. We spent about 2 hours with him, just talking. We also shared a lot of stuff out of the Book of Mormon with him, and I feel that it touched him where it needed to. He is a great guy, he just needs some help. We then went to the church to pic up a few tacos, and then came home and made a few phone calls. Those ended up going a lot longer than we though, and basically took us to the end of our night.

Sunday was a pretty easy day. We had a very nice Sacrament service in the morning. We went to see Joenil after church, and we just kind of talked with her. She is getting pretty busy it sounds like, so it might get harder to meet with her in the future. We went to dinner after that, and then we tried to see Rollie, but he was not feeling very well. So, we went to MCM, and had a pretty good meeting with Brother Filio.

Well, that is about it for me. I just want to say though, hope is a really cool thing. If you have hope, things in this life are a lot easier to go through. That was something that I have been trying to work on a lot more this week, and it has been a pretty cool experience. I think the best kind of hope is the hope in the promise that our Father has given us. That promise is that He will provide a way for us to be able to overcome sin and death. Knowing that He has promised this to us, and that He is willing to help us along the way, is just super awesome! Well, I hope that y'all are having a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

Excerpt from Elder Jensen's letter to his parents,

Next thing. I don't know why I didn't include this in my weekly, but oh well. So, Elder Hollist had the great idea to have me work out before I go to sleep, the idea being that my body would be so tired, that it would have to fall asleep. (Did it work? A little bit, but not really. That is not the focus of this story though.) I was doing some triceps push-ups, and I was on the last set of 10. I got all the way through 9, and my body just collapse on the ground. I felt stupid weak, and I didn't think that I was going to be able to get back up. Elder Hollist was giving me encouragement, but my body was not having it. I was there for probably only 45 seconds, but it felt like a really long time. I then felt a determination growing in me. I wanted to finish the set. It was the last one, and I did not want to go out on failure. I tried pushing up, but it was not working. I then forced as much will as I could into myself, and I PUSHED. I got up, and then I proceeded to sit very hard in my chair, and not move. That is when Elder Hollist said something pretty profound to me. He told me, that he could see that there was no physical way that I should have been able to get up. However, I was able to put enough mental effort into it, that it did not matter what my body felt like, it was forced up. He told me that it takes a ton of mental fortitude to be able to do that. He told me to remember that push-up. It showed that I had enough mental capacity to be able to force my will over that of my body's will. He told me that I can apply that to anything that I am ever going to struggle with. That was really cool. I told President about that experience, and he said: "I like the concept of pushing ourselves when we think we cannot do something. It is so true and not only is it a mind over matter concept but also a spiritual over temporal (natural man) concept as well. We continue to build our character as we go beyond where we think is the limit. Keep on pushing forward. You are progressing very well right now. This is your time."