Saturday, November 21, 2015

100 degree weather in the middle of October.

October 19, 2015

Well We made it another week! It's super weird to have 100 degree weather in the middle of October...I'm still getting used to that. And the weirdest part is that people here are starting to wear jackets and coats and I'm still sweating to death! I'll never understand it! We have been crazy busy as usual and I have never been more exhausted! I didn't believe people when they said you'd fall asleep on your knees fully dressed frequently on your mission until it happened twice this week!  Lets just say we're glad it's Monday and my comp and I plan on catching up on some sleep.

We had a rough time with knock out this week. We haven't been getting much success with it lately but we just keep going. On Thursday we were ready to just quit and go home because we had been knocking for almost 2 hours and we had only gotten 13 people to open their doors. But we decided to finish out the street. When we got to the end of the street we ran into Amber, one of our former investigators, and she said she had been thinking about us a lot lately and that she really wanted us to come back and start the lessons again. It just goes to show you that there's always a blessing at the end of hard experiences or challenges. Thanks for all the prayers coming our way! We really appreciate it and can definitely tell a difference! 

Something super funny happened this week! We had District meeting on Thursday and we went a little early to set up chairs. Well we opened the door to the church and started walking down the hall towards the class we usually set up in and the alarm went off! We FREAKED out!! We were so worried that cops were going to come and handcuff us!  Picture two missionaries sprinting up and down every hallway trying to find the alarm key pad, then finally finding it and realizing they don't know the code. That was us. We called our stake president and he gave us the code and told us to wait for the police and explain the situation but luckily police never came! It feels like something funny and unfortunate happens to us every week but that's ok with me! More stories to tell.

We are still working with all of our investigators and are helping them progress slowly but surely. Sometimes we don't think they'll end up accepting the gospel because of their addictions or other issues but a friend of mine said that you have to picture every person like a 20 dollar bill. Even if you saw a crumpled 20 dollar bill on the street you'd still pick it up because it has value! When we talk to people we can't always be looking for that crisp 20 dollar bill. Everyone has the same value whether they're crumpled a little or in perfect condition. We just have to be humble enough to realize that.

Message of the week: Lately we have been struggling with the ward in our area. They had a bad experience with former missionaries in the area and have been taking it out on us. They won't come to lessons with us and they feed us like 2 times a week on average which really stinks. But we decided to fix the problem by being charitable towards them rather than complaining about it. We spent most of our week helping members with things and asking people for service opportunities. We mowed a lawn, cleaned up a yard, etc.... Well this Sunday they had done a total 180 and saw that we were just there to help them! They saw that we were totally different than missionaries they had in the past and now they love us! Always look for ways to help others even if they aren't doing the same for you. It can fix more situations than you may believe!

Love you guys and miss SLC a lot this week. I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Jensen