MMERRICCAAAAAAA!!!!

Elders Munos, Hollist, Kish, and Jensen

Hello Everyone!

    Really, the subject says it all. But, I guess I should also talk about some other things that happened during the week. So, here we go!

    Tuesday, we were out on Exchanges up in Arlington Heights. I was working with Elder Kish for the day, and we had a good time together. For the morning, we went and helped out at a church food pantry, and I had a really good time. We then went and studied, and then we had a Comp Study at Krispy Kream. I enjoyed that. We then pounded out some finding time, and we were able to get a Book of Mormon out to a pretty solid contact. Point for the missionaries! We came back to our area after that, and we did a little more finding, and ended our night watching a firework show that was going on at the golf course right by or apartment. We liked that a lot. I especially enjoyed it because I did not get to see any fireworks last year.

    Wednesday was fun. We went to a ward breakfast in the morning, and we had a good time interacting with all of the ward members, and even a few less active families that we invited showed up. That made me happy. We went and talked with Brother Carr after that. We talked about the General Conference talk, "Am I A Child of God?" , and he liked that one a lot. We then went out see Ollienna and Crew, and we got into a pretty deep discussion about the Plan of Salvation. Honestly, it was really cool. We were also able to put 3 of them on date, so that is even better! We then had to go to a dinner, and then pounded out some more finding. That night also ended with a firework show, because that was the 4th of July. "MMERRICCAAAAAAA!!!! Oh, it was so beautiful.

    Thursday was a bit of a long day. It started off awesome though! We met up with a referral that we got, Nancy, and we just talked with her for awhile and got to know her. She is just and awesome old lady, and when we got to talking about the Restoration, she got pretty interested, and she said that she was going to get her husband in on it. We like that. Then we took a little trip down to Naperville, because I am on orders to do that now, but on the bright side, I got to see my last companion, Elder Pakinson, and we went out to dinner with him and his companion. That was pretty fun! We then came back, had some dinner, and then went out on Splits. I worked with Brother Houl, and we  went to see Brother Carr again. We talked about another talk, but I really just let them talk to each other, and build up a relationship. That is really our goal there when we go on Splits with members, because if he gets more comfortable with members, he will probably be more likely to come to church.

    Friday, we had Zone Conference, and that is where we got to officially meet our new Mission President, President Bingham. That is a really good man right there. I had an interview with him right before Zone Conference, and it was just all good things. It was really weird though. Like, he walked into the room, and started talking with me, and I really felt like I had known him before. But, Zone Conference itself was super cool! We got into a lot of talk on making sure that we get unified as a mission, and of course, about baptizing. That is a huge focus of President Bingham. He also got really deep into some passages of scripture, and that stuff was mind blowing! He is going to be an excellent Mission President for us.

    Saturday, we went out and helped out at the food pantry to start off. Good stuff right there. We then did studies, and hit the pavement. We had some good finding. I also got a Book of Mormon to a Muslim guy, which I though was pretty cool. We tried to get him a paper back version of it, but he did not want to take it because in their religion, they hold religious books in high esteem, and have the upmost respect for them. He just wanted to make sure that if he took it, he did not want to accidentally have it get damaged some way. So, I asked him if he would like to download it onto his phone, and said that was a great idea! There is another point for the missionaries. We did a little more finding after that, and then we had to go back so we could make a bunch of phone calls and pound out an email to the ward council.

    Sunday was a good  day. Jeremy came to church again, which is fantastic! I feel like he is taking little steps of progression every time hat we meet with him. Really, we are just trying to help him live the Word of Wisdom right now, and once he stars doing that on his own, he is golden! Right after church, we got into a meeting with the leaders in the Elders Quorum and the Relief Society, and we all put our heads together in trying to figure out who was still living in our ward, and who would be good Ministers to them. It gave us a few people that we could stop by and check on, so I find that meeting effective. We then did our studies, and went to dinner at the Lehndorfer's. Seriously, that is one fun family right there. We then got a really long call from Sister Cripppen, a few studies in, and then we ended off with a lesson with the Santoyo's, which was really good.

    There you have it folks! A pretty good week, especially since we were celebrating the independence of this great nation. I can testify that this land is one that God set up for His people to be able to freely enjoy their right to worship Him, and I am grateful every day that I am able to have that right, and to be able to share what I have come to love with everyone around me. I hope that y'all have a most excellent week wherever you are at!

Elder Jensen

Fireworks outside our apartment

MURICA!

Slides from Zone Conference