This week has been a rough one!
We didn't have much luck with many of our investigators, everyone was either busy or out of town so we only taught a few lessons. It's really disappointing when you work super hard and not much comes from it. It's definitely taught me to be patient and humble! I'm loving it out here and continue to learn so much!! I'm really growing as a person which is awesome. I miss home a ton but it's just something you have to deal with and try to ignore.
So here's a little about our week. We taught three lessons, our first one was to Carla Salinas. She hasn't been making a ton of progress and has been having a hard time understanding the Book of Mormon because the wording is a little tricky. We just taught her a Book of Mormon Lesson, which is where we just read a chapter with her and explain the things she doesn't understand. This has really helped her better understand the wording and has made her more confidant that she can continue reading on her own. She's still set on being baptized on October 11th which is awesome!! I just hope Elder Anderson doesn't get transferred out before then! Also Carla's younger sister has started to sit in on the lessons. Before we started coming over she wasn't interested at all but now she's showing interest and said she wants to learn more!! It really goes to show how important big siblings examples are...they have such an impact through their actions.
Our next lesson was with Aaron (the Jewish man). He was really set on being baptized last week but then his sister came and visited with him. We don't know exactly what she said but he did a complete 180. He no longer thinks he needs to be baptized and doesn't think he needs to quit smoking (even though he coughs up a lung every time we go over there). We taught him more about the word of wisdom and he just pushed it aside and said he was doing ok. We left and we were both just crushed because we tried our best but it wasn't enough...he still wants us to come back though so I guess it could be worse. He's had a really rough life and has struggles with drug addiction, war injuries, and deaths in his family. I have so much Christ like love for him and just wish he could see how happy the gospel could make him, how it could fix all the problems in his life, and how it could reunite him with his family some day. We're not giving up so we'll see how the next few weeks go.
Our last lesson was with Danial. He's 14 and loves golf and soccer and is really shy so it's nice that we have common interests to talk about to relieve some of his stress. He's always wondered about religion and kind of has a Joseph smith story of his own. He checked out a lot of churches and none of them felt right, something was missing. They always told him not to look into the Mormons so he decided he would. He referred himself to the missionaries and now we're teaching him! He loves it and even at 14 he can recognize all the truths of the gospel have been restored to the earth. He has a baptismal date of October 25th.
Stake conference was also this week!! On our way there we pulled up next to a big Samoan in a Subaru WRX and started revving our engine and he did the same. We were going to have a little drag race 😎 which probably wasn't a good idea but missionaries need to have fun too! He looked over at us and got a super scared look on his face which really confused us We didn't know people were that scared of Mormon missionaries!! The light turned green and we peeled off the line and he didn't even move. Elder Anderson and I just looked at each other and then it hit us...he thought we were cops!!! We're driving a ford fusion and we're both in suits, white shirts, and ties hahaha. It's a common mistake here in California!
Knock out was good this week! We knocked about 600 doors, 120 answered, and 6 were interested. I know that sounds depressing but the worth of every soul is great in the eyes of god. Thanks for all the prayers coming our way!
Also my companions parents are hanging out with my parents? They went to dinner last week and talk all the time apparently! I thought that was kind of cool! I miss you all and hope everything is going good for all of you!!
Elder Jensen
