Filipino style Father's Day

June 18, 2018

Filipino style Father's Day

Finger lickin' good

Hello Everyone!

This one is gonna be slightly shorter. But we had a pretty decent week out here. We didn't have District Meeting this Wednesday, so we just went out looking for people to teach. We also did our Weekly Planning that day, since our Zone Leaders were going to come by for Exchanges on Thursday. After that, we just had a day of finding. Right at the end of the night, we actually found a guy named Jun. He was really nice to us, and he wants to talk to us, He just has a busy schedule. We are going to try and get back with him later this week.

Thursday was Exchange day. I worked with Elder Lund. Fun facts about him, we were in the MTC together, and he lives just north of where I live in Washington. He is a really good guy. Well, we went off finding to start in the morning, and we ran into a former investigator named Steve. He was really happy to see us, but he did not have time right then to meet us. He told us to come back later. When we did though, he wasn't there. Oh well. We went and taught Mario and Lester after that. With Mario, we had a short talk since he had people over. Lester though took some time. He went off on a bunch of random things, and after about 2 hours, he finally let us have a word, so we taught him a little bit. Then it was off to see Barbara for a few minutes, and then to the Calderon's. We taught them a part of the Plan of Salvation, and we got pretty into the Atonement. That was a pretty cool talk right there.

Friday was another one of those finding days. We stopped by Tony, one of our investigators, in the evening and he was about to send us away, but he changed his mind, and instead asked us to tell him about what our church believes in. We were happy to oblige, and we taught about the Restoration, and a little about Alma 32 and Mosiah 23 to help answer some of his questions. He told us that everything that we said made sense. When we asked when we could come back, he just said, "I know you will be back in the neighborhood next week. Just ring the doorbell". I will take that.

Saturday was hot and humid. Yes sir, that kind of weather is starting up again in Illiiois, and I am not too excited. But, we started back at the food pantry that morning, and got some good done there. We then swung by Joe's house, and he gave us a list of a lot of things that he needs help with around his house. We are really going to try and get the Ward involved on this one. It is really going to help in fellowshipping him. We also sat down and just talked with him for a bit. Building relationships is gonna be key here. We then dropped off some dinner to Sister Wells, since she is in really bad shape, and then had a good talk about missionary work with Brother Valero.

Sunday was a good day. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!!! Just saying, fathers are some of the coolest people around. I know that my Dad is awesome, and I love him a lot. He is a good man, and he raised me up right. We had our bumps in the road, as does anyone, but that doesn't change the fact that he is one of the best men that I know. So, if you couldn't tell, we had a lot of talks about Fathers in church, and I liked it. After that, we heard that one of our investigators was recently incarcerated for shooting a police officer. We tried to see if we could go visit him, but President said that we could not. Guess all we can do here is pray for him. We had a lesson with Joenil and Jia later in the afternoon, and it looks like they are not going to progress very well in the future. Their interest level went way down, and I feel that they are into the more social aspect of missionaries as opposed to actually having us teach them. We will keep trying though. Then, dinner. That was a ton of fun! Up to this point, you have probably been questioning the subject of this letter. We ate Filipino style that night. We put banana leaves down on the table, and then laid out the food on it. Then, we got to chow down with our hands. That was so much fun, and the food was so good! After that, we had our MCM, and we had a challenge revealed to us. Brother Filio has created a 5 week challenge for us to complete in this transfer, and the next transfer. The reward for doing so will be a day trip to Chicago on the last Preparation day of the next transfer. I am really excited! I just have to make sure that I am not transferred out of this area next week. Keep you fingers crossed!

Well, that is about it for me. I am super happy, and I just want to talk about the importance of building up our family relationships. I believe that the family unit is ordained of God, and that we are placed in the family that we are in for a reason. As we seek to build each other up in the home, and we love and care for each other, there will be love and happiness in our homes. I also know that having a family rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ will give the family the strength that it needs to be able to withstand all of the temptations and evils of these days. We truly are in the last days before the coming of our Savior, and we will need to be united and strong within our families, to be able to be prepared for that time. I hope that y'all have a most excellent week, wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

Here are the rest of the pictures of our dinner on Sunday with the Filio family.