But if you couldn't tell...I survived the experience

June 12, 2018

But if you couldn't tell...I survived the experience

Final photo with President and Sister Griffin

Hello Everyone!

We had ourselves a pretty good week this week. You probably have noticed that this is being sent to you on Tuesday, so you probably know what that means. Yep, we are going to the temple today! I will be sure to send a picture of that later on in the day, but now, for the good stuff!

Tuesday we got together with a less-active family that we had been trying to get with for awhile, which was good. The conversation was a little awkward, but I think that if we get a member in there with us, things will go a lot smoother. We also met up with Lester for a little bit, but a doctor's appointment came up, so that lesson kind of got cut short. So, we went to go and see Brother Carr. He wanted to start reading the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and we did, but we may try and do something else. It is a really good book, don't get me wrong, but there is just a lot of stuff in there that might distract him. We then went and did another Baptism talk with Jeremy, and he seemed to be warming up more to the idea of getting baptized, which is huge progress with him. Now we just have to get him to consistently come to church. We then went to see the Cerezo's. Ok, this family just became one of my favorites. They talked about missionary work the whole time, and they wanted us to get them a less-active list for their surrounding area, so that they could start working on reactivating them. That is amazing! That is one family that this ward needs. We ended that night with a few stop-bys.

Wednesday began with our customary District Meeting. We then went off to Arlington Heights for Exchanges. That was fun. I started off with Elder Kish, and we just did a bunch of finding around their area. When I went with Elder Glines later, we had some fun. So, one of their service activities is going to a Lutheran church, and working there serving a free meal to anyone that comes in. We had a lot of fun just talking to a lot of people, and having some good food. we then had two lessons that night. One was with an investigator that is close to being on date for baptism. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and we talked a lot about the Atonement. The Spirit was super strong there. We also went and talked with one of their less-actives, and he is just struggling with feeling like he belongs in the Elders Quorum. We had a long talk with him, and I feel that he felt a bit better once we left there.

Thursday, we finished up our exchange, and headed back to our area. We got on our Weekly Planning. That one took a really long time, because we were trying to figure out where everyone lived, so that we could get a list up for the Cerezo's. We did my first Split of the Mission that day to. For those who think that is a weird term, that just means that my companion and I split up, and we each went with a member from the Ward, so that we could cover more ground. I went with Brother Filio to see Bother Carr. We had a pretty good talk with him, and we just had a good time. When we came back, we had a good heart-to-heart while we waited for my companion to get back. It was some good stuff.

Friday was an easy day. We mostly just did some finding in the morning, and sent out a couple of referrals. Then lunch and more finding. That led to kind of a funny, but good experience. We went to check up on a potential investigator, and when we knocked on her door, she shouted, "Come in!". Elder Hollist and I were in shock, but we weren't about to pass up that opportunity. So, we came in, and you could tell from the surprise on her face that she was not expecting to see us. But, she let us stay, and we ended up teaching her about the Book of Mormon, and giving her one. That was cool. The rest of that day was trying to find some people to teach.

Saturday we went to the Food Pantry again, and I got to climb around the top shelf a lot and organize things. The shelf kept making popping noises and scaring me, but, if you couldn't tell, I survived the experience. We went home to get changed, and then we went ad saw Dorthy again. She is the one that we gave the blessing to on the steps of a Lutheran church. We had a really solid Plan of Salvation lesson with her. Now we just have to get her to commit to come to church. She would probably be a lot more solid then. We then went and we saw Barbara with Brother Filio, and that was good stuff. We ran some stop Bys worth him after that, and that ended our night.

Sunday was nice. We had a few people eat church, and that is always good. It was a pretty good service(as per usual)this week, so I know they all had a good experience. We had an early dinner with the Lehndorfer's that night, and we ended talking a lot about Brandon Sanderson with them. That would be one of my most favorite authors right there. We tried some stop bys after that, but they all feel through, so went and had MCM with Brother Filio, and set a bunch of goals.

Monday was great. We went to Zone Conference, and that was just super awesome! This one was the last one that President and Sister Griffin are going to be at that I am at. They had a lot of really good talks about unifying quickly with our new Mission President, and the missionaries form that mission. They also had some pretty bomber testimonies to share, and that was awesome. We also took a ton of pictures with President Griffin and his wife. After that, we went to help move a couch and other things for a member, and then we ate some dinner and taught the Restoration to her mother, who is not a member. That was pretty cool. One of the better Restoration lessons that I have been in.

So, that is about all for me. I have to get going here pretty quick, but I just want to say that the mission so far has been such an experience. There have been ups and downs, but I know that the things that I am doing out here are repairing me for the rest of what life has in store for me. I hope that y'all have a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

A temple experience shared from Elder Jensen's letter to his mom. (I sent him a family name card and he took to the temple with him today!)

Elder Jensen
I did get the name! Thank you so much! I did have a cool experience. I was sitting in the Celestial Room, and I was just thinking about what I needed to do to really help myself out when I really need help. And get down on myself. That is when the song "A Child's Prayer" just played through my head loud and clear, and I think that I got the message. I really need to start using prayer to help myself out. There is another message in that song though that I just thought about. It is one of becoming humble like a child. That is one thing I need to fix when it comes to making sure that I am doing alright. And that is a cool story about the name. Maybe he was helping me out when it came to that.

Elder Jensen's Mom
The interesting thing is, the name that I sent you...Sebastian Gagg...is the one that showed up in your gmail inbox near the beginning of your mission from familysearch.org! That name helped me find almost 50 other names over the last year! He was meant to be done by you, so I'm excited you get to do his work! He is a distant relative through my Grandpa Strasser's line. Our common ancestor is 10 people up the line from you and that person was born in 1704!)