My new companion is a potato farmer from Idaho!

May 21, 2018

My new companion is a potato farmer from Idaho!

Elder Hollist and I

Hello Everyone!

Here we are at the beginning of another Transfer, and what fun this week had been! My new companion, Elder Hollist, is probably one of the goofiest companions that I have had, besides Elder Faimalo. He is awesome! So, he is from Shelly, Idaho, and he is a potato farmer. He is also 6'4", so I have another tall companion. Tuesday was the day I got him. Elder Parkinson and I drove to the Stake Center super early, and we hung out there for a long time until Elder Hollist showed up. If you didn't know, Elder Parkinson is now the District Leader in Naper 1, basically what I just was. Kind of funny how that stuff works out. But, after we all got our new companions, we drove back up here and we got to shopping. We then sat down to do personal study, but we got a call from Sister Cripen, and she wanted to talk with us about the Atonement, since she will be giving a talk on it here in a few Sundays. It was a pretty good conversation though. We went to check on a few people after that, and we actually got into contact with Jose again, which was pretty cool. We got his right phone number now, so it should be easier to talk with him now. The rest of that day was just running by and meeting people.

Wednesday, we had a pretty good District Meeting. We got together and set a goal of 7 baptisms for this Transfer, which is going to be interesting to hit, but I think that it is possible. After that we went up to Itasca for a little bit, but nobody really wanted to talk with us up there. We were there until about dinner, and then after that we went out to Addison, and that was about the same as our finding earlier. We got a call from the Spanish Elders after that, and they had some important news for us. We had to take our Subaru into the dealership to get fixed, and while that was going on, we had to drive to the Mission Office to pick up a loaner car until that was fixed. So, we got the paperwork from them, and then turned in for the night.

Thursday, we were constantly on the move. It started off with a blessing for Sister Crippen, who ended up in the hospital again. Then we got picked up by the YSA Edlers, and they drove us to Naperville to get our loaner car. It is basically the same as any mission vehicle, the only difference is that there is no Tiwi in it. Man, it has been so nice to drive around, and not hear her condescending voice! We drove that back, and we ran by Patrick and Marvin's. We have decided that with them, we are just going to read the scriptures with them for now. With their jobs, they are just super tired all the time, and all they really want to do is sleep. So, we are going to do this until a time where their drive is more up, or we just drop them. We then went and we talked with Yanni. He is not technically new, I had just never me him before. He is going through a ton of financial problems right now, and he really just doesn't know what to do. So, we talked with him. We ended up teaching him the Restoration, and talking about why God allows us to have trials and hardships in this life. You could see in his eyes that he was touched by our words. We then came back to our place to start some Weekly Planning. We had to take the Subaru up to Schaumburg to get fixed. We tried to see Dorthy when we went to Addison, but she ended up not being home, even though she confirm that she would be there. That happens a lot to us. We had dinner with the Korbel's shortly after, and we had a really good talk with them about the Plan of Salvation. Man, Ashley is so ready! All she really had to do is get time off of work to come to church, and she will be good. The final lesson of the night was at the Calderon's, and we had another really good talk about family scripture study, prayer, and strengthening the family. That helped them a lot. We also got them thinking about baptizing their daughter, who is nearly 9. I think that point is something that is going to really drive them to coming to church more and more frequently.

Friday was good. We started out in Carol Stream. We then had lunch, and had to go up to Schaumburg to get a Bible since we couldn't find one in our apartment, and then to Roselle to teach John. He is a Bible referral, and he was a really fun guy to talk to. A lot of his knowledge about us comes from the Book of Mormon Play(which is not that good of a resource to be honest)and he was pretty excited to learn more about what we believe. He also liked to share a lot about what he knew, so our conversation went all over the place. We ended the lesson as pretty good friends though, and he now has a Book of Mormon also, and he seemed pretty down to read it. Also, right at the end of the lesson(we were meeting outside)I looked up to one of the windows, and I found that somebody was taking pictures of us with their phone. So, I smiled, but they took the phone out of sight pretty quickly after that. Oh well. We then went to go an see Brother Carr after that, and we helped him out with a little bit of yard work. It was some fun stuff. We also went and had another pretty decent talk with him, and I think that we are building up his confidence little by little. It may take him a little bit, but we will see him to the temple.

Saturday was a long day. It began for us at about 9:30 in the morning, when we went to help a family from Schaumburg 2 to move out. well, we had 10 missionaries, and at least 6-7 members of the Elder Quorum there, and we were there for 6 or 6 1/2, and we did not finish. The problems that we were having was that the family had packed absolutely nothing beforehand, the house was super dirty, and there was just way too many unnecessary things that they were trying to pack. It is bad. We had to leave a little early because we had a lesson, but I was not complaining. The lesson that we had was with Rollie, but that one got cut kind of short because he had unforeseen things that he had to do. Oh well. We ended up meandering around for a bit, and then we ended up at the Medano's house and we got to share a message with them, which was pretty cool.

Sunday was a good day. We got to teach about Missionary Work in Gospel Principles, which was pretty easy (I mean, I do it every day). We did some studies after church, but I may have fallen asleep again. Oops. we did have a pretty solid lesson with Keontae at dinner though, and I think it got him thinking a little. Especially since he asked about a friend who felt like he was beyond the help of Christ, and we had a really deep talk about the Atonement with him. We then actually got to sit down with Rollie and talk with him some more, and we basically went over Alam 32 with him (which talks a lot about faith and how we can develop it) and he was super intrigued by it. We also gave him a picture of Jesus with the 10 Lepers, and he was super excited to have it. Our final stop for the evening was back to the dirty house. The Schaumburg 2 Elders called us in again because there was still a ton of stuff in the house that had to be out by the next day. So, our whole District got together, and we basically threw out everything in sight, and packed up a few more things. We were having way too much fun with it (Elder Lund may have ripped a door off of its hinges). As nasty as it was in that house, I was super happy to be working there with the other Elders.

So, that is my week for ya! I am super excited that I still get to serve here in Boomingdale, and I am super stoked to be able to serve with Elder Hollist. I know that God has each of us where we are for a reason, and if we find out what that is, He will bless us so much for fulfilling His purpose, and fulfilling our. I love my Father in Heaven, and I love the work that He has called me to do. I hope that y'all have a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen