And The Roof Came Tumbling Down

May 07, 2018

And The Roof Came Tumbling Down

Elder Parkinson and I got a little wet.

Hello Everyone!

Well, I had another good week out here in Bloomingdale. We began with Tuesday, and we went and talked to Lester. He was going through kind of a rough time because his sister that ended up in the hospital actually did end up dying. So, we just talked with him for a bit. We also tried to help him fix his grandfather clock, but that did not work out, since what we needed to fix, we couldn't get to. Oh well. After that, we started an Exchange with Elder Glines and Elder Keller. That was pretty fun!

I started off with Elder Keller, and we went first to see Geraldine. Man, that had to have been one of the best lessons that we have ad yet! It was so focused, and we got a full Restoration in with her, without going of topic a lot. It was great. Then, we went to a music shop, and we just talked with the manager there, and played some of the instruments. We wanted to try a different kind of finding, and it kind of worked when we talked to the manager. I bet if missionaries go back there, they will probably be able to have a more in depth conversation with him. Then we got a call from Barbara, so we went to help her bring in a car load of groceries. We, tried to see Jeremy, but it did not work out. After that, we switched, and Elder Glines and I got together. We had dinner with Brother Filio, and then stopped by a few less-active members with him .Then we went and had a really good lesson with the Calderon's. I liked it!

Wednesday, we started off with the a great District Meeting. Then we got some lunch with Schaumburg 2 before we headed back to or area. Chick-fil-A is some good stuff. We did a little bit of studying after that, and then went out finding. We ran into Cynthia in Addison, and she was pretty cool. She met with missionaries back when she was living in Washington, and she liked what they had to say. We found her right by Barbara, so we went to talk with her a little too. After that, we were trying to decide where to go, and we get a text from Brother Filio. Man, that was crazy! The whole ceiling in his living room just collapsed! We went there right away. We started helping, but we had to leave to go to a dinner. We came right back afterwards, and helped finish cleaning. We also found the Momma raccoon and a bunch of babies that were living up there that Brother Filio had been trying to get rid of for a long time. Man, that was crazy!

Thursday was good. We chased a guy down the street to talk with him. Sadly, it didn't go anywhere, but it's the thought that counts. We did Weekly Planning after that, and I zonked during it again. Oops. We went out finding after that, and we got hit with some heavy rain. We got pretty wet. I had an awesome contact though! So, we talked to this lady, and she gave us the, "I have seen and talked with missionaries before, and I am just not interested." So, I whipped out the Family History contact, and she actually thought that it was super cool! Even her son who came to see what was up was really excited to try it out. Family History works! After that, we went into our car, and we decided to go through a bunch of formers in or Area Book, and just call them up and see how they were dong. It was more effective than we thought it would be! We set up at least 5 lessons dong that, and they all came out of a list of people that were labeled "Unable to Contact". That was really cool. We then ended the evening getting sushi with Brother Filio and the Diaz's.

Friday was a pretty easy day. We did a lot of finding in the morning. We also did more phone calling, and we got even more lessons set up. Then, we went to Roselle, which for us, is on the outer reaches of our area, so missionaries don't go there that often. We spent a good while walking around up there, and nothing came out of it. That kind of stunk. But, as we were leaving, we had a most amazing conversation with someone. His name was Art, and he is in the Army. He said he works in Retention, which means that he tries to keep people in the Army. It was super cool to talk with him though.We had a super long conversation with him about the gospel and church, and he was really getting into it. Something really cool happened when we left though. As I grab his hand, I felt the Spirit super strong. It was like an overwhelming wave of the Spirit that happened right there. Something really good is going to happen for Art, I know it! We went and got celebratory pies from McDonald's after that. They were much needed. We then went and tried to get Barbara's Family History account set up, but we just couldn't get it to work. We will get it though.

Saturday, we got to start off by going up to Schaumburg for a Baptismal interview. We were interviewing Diamond and Jay. Guess who they are???? Those are Meka's two kids/Celests' grandkids! It was so cool to see them all again! Their baptism is this coming Saturday, an I am going to try my darnedest to get up there for that. After that, we were going to have a pass off lesson with the Hermanas, but it fell through. So, instead, we went and got lunch with Brother Filio, since we were helping him with something later.

We went to this Vietnamese place, and man, do they have some good soup. That bowl was huge though, and there was no way that I was going to finish it. After that, we went and began our big service project for the day. Brother Filio wanted to plant flowers out in his front lawn. We spent about 3 hours doing that, and mowing the lawn. Oh, it was so much fun! I haven't done yard work like that in over a year, and it felt really good to do.

After we cleaned up that, we went out together to work. We got a plea for help though from a companionship in our District, that was hitting a rough patch together. So, we calmed them down, and we had dinner with them, and we split them up for the evening. I went with Elder Lake and Brother Filio, and we went looking for people on a really old investigator list form 5 years ago. We had two cool experiences while we were doing that. The first was Lois, the cat lady. She came out, telling guys that she liked what we did, but she was out going to go to church ever, or take the discussions with us. So, we just started talking with her, while Elder Lake played his Ukulele in the background (no, that is not a typo). We had a grand old time with her, and she was super appreciative that we came by. We also got her pretty interested in family history, so that was good. We will probably go back there in about a month to see how she is doing. The next was our last stop for the night. We were looking for some lady, but she did not live there anymore. The lady who answered the door was about to shut us out, but we hopped into a conversation with her, and she got into it. We basically just talked about life and family, and then swung it back into the gospel. She was pretty interested in what we had to say. So, we got her our contact info, and we hope to go back there withing the next week or two.

Sunday was a good day. We got to confer the Aaron Priesthood on Brother Carr, and ordain him a Priest, and that was a super cool experience to be apart of. Barbara taught Gospel Principles this time, and see did a most excellent job with it! We also had a really good lesson with Keontae. We basically told him that we can tell him about all this stuff that the gospel can do to bless his life, but it won't mean anything until he takes he steps to have those experiences himself. It brought tears to his eyes. Now, we just have to figure out how to get him to stop smoking weed. That'll come with time. We had an MCM with Brother Filio after that(we can't seem of get rid of this crazy Asian!)then we went out to contact a few more old formers. The one that we managed to meet was Gigi. She is a really short, but sweet lady. She also has a super good dog that is a Dalmation/Pitbull mix. That is a strong dog! She was excited to see us though, and we should be seeing her later this week.

Well well, I think that I have reached the end of this week. It was anther most excellent one, and I am excited to see what lies in store for the final week of this transfer. That's right, transfer calls are this coming Saturday, so we will be seeing then if I stay here, or if I move on. To end off here though, I just want to leave y'all with a scripture that I like from Philippians. It says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen the me." That is such a true statement there. Christ can help us through anything that we are going through. All we have to do, is reach for his outstretched hand. I hope that y'all are having a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

From Elder Jensen's letter to his mom:

This next transfer is the last one before the merge. It is getting crazy because so many areas are closing because we aren't getting any new missionaries. And basically yes, if I am not in Peoria this transfer, then I will probably go to Chicago. Fingers crossed! I am a little nervous though, because the missionaries in that mission aren't quite that obedient. It is kind of a wild mission. Hopefully we can change it up though. (I am going to get really mad if I get another companion that acts stupid. There will be strong words said.) President goes home July 1st. Also, if I go to Chicago, I will go through 2 transfers in a row, since they are on a different transfer schedule. That also means my going home date will be later in April, instead of the 19th. Oh well.