Hey guys! It was another slow but eventful week here in Granada Hills! Monday's are like Christmas for us! We get to rest a little bit and do some fun stuff. We're always exhausted by Monday and I don't know how we'd survive without P-day's!
We had a lot of success with our progressing investigators and we also had a lot of success with our knockouts. Knockout is pretty rough if I'm honest because you get like 50 doors slammed in your face, a few really nice old lady's that offer you water and candy, a few bible bashers, and if you're lucky you get one new investigator. Well we got a little of all of that this week. During knockout we picked up a new investigator named Mike. He's 55 years old and has been investigating religion for quite some time. He has always been drawn to the Mormon religion because we have solid values and he can tell it has all the truths that the Bible talks about. He's really studied up on the Bible and is excited to read the Book of Mormon. He really wants to take the lessons but here is the catch...he is drunk basically 24/7 and can't really comprehend what we say or feel the spirit our message has. We were just lucky enough to run into him when he was sober. We have been keeping an eye on him and occasionally find him passed out on park or street benches. We sit down with him and wake him up and chat for a little while, then slowly walk him home and he talks about how much he loves his wife and kids and talks about how he wants to "clean up". He's always super appreciative and calls us his friends which is pretty cool. Elder Anderson and I are really learning to be patient and help people work through challenges. It gets aggravating and challenging but we're learning a lot and growing from our experiences.
This week we also met with Anna Maria. She's a less active member of our ward and hasn't been to church in a couple years. She's a Brazilian Model and she is the Girlfriend of one of the LA Galaxy players. I haven't figured out which player it is yet but I'm planning on asking her next time So I'll keep you updated. Anyways she's interested in coming back but she's really struggling with the word of wisdom. That's kind of the trend out here if you haven't noticed! It's really hard to show people the benefits that come from leaving all that behind when they enjoy it so much. We honestly don't know how to help sometimes but we're not going to quit. I know we'll get her back to church eventually it's just a matter of time.
Carla Salinas called us this Tuesday and moved her baptismal date back a ways. Now her whole family is interested and they want to all get baptized together which is awesome! Hopefully We're both still here to see it happen but if not that's ok..sometimes you just plant the seeds in
missionary work and there's nothing wrong with that.
We had transfer calls this Saturday and Anderson and I were so worried we were going to get split up. We got a call from the AP's and were so sad because when they call you you're usually moved but they just called to make him a District Leader! We were pretty stoked with that haha. Our new district is Elder Anderson and I and six sister missionaries.....we're the only guys....pray for us! Haha just kidding we'll be fine! We have a lot more on our plate now and will be even busier than we already were but we're not worried about it.
Also I ran into Elder Olivas this week at operation gratitude! He played for East's men's soccer team and he's still so mad about the state finals hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! To all my Skyline men's soccer friends...good work! We talked about how they should have won and how we were so lucky. But at the end of the day we still won!! Missed Brig, Sheldon, Will, Dallin, and Lil' Mitch a ton after that conversation. I attached a picture of us in the email.
Message of the week: General Conference was this week! We call it Missionary holiday because it's the only day we sort of get off. Anyway there were some pretty awesome talks!! Elder Uchtdorf's Saturday morning talk was one of my favorites. One thing he said that I really liked was "Tell a man there's a trillion stars in the sky and he'll believe you. Tell him there's wet paint on the wall and he'll touch it just to be sure." I'm sure we're all like this man sometimes and look for physical proof or evidence that something is true. Sometimes we want rock solid evidence or proof that the gospel is true and we fail to see that it's right in front of us. The spirit is always there to assure us of its truthfulness if we just look hard enough. People tell us our church is false every day and we always ask if they have read the book of Mormon and went to church. The answer is always no. You can't decide something isn't true or not if you haven't even checked for yourself. I challenge all of you to check for yourself and get the proof you need to strengthen your testimony.
I love you guys and hope life is treating you all well!!
Elder Jensen
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| I ran into Elder Olivas this week at operation gratitude! He played for East's men's soccer team and he's still so mad about the state finals hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! To all my Skyline men's soccer friends...good work! We talked about how they should have won and how we were so lucky. But at the end of the day we still won haha!! Missed Brig, Sheldon, Will, Dallin, and Lil' Mitch a ton after that conversation. |
