It's been another crazy week in the City of LA. We've met some more weird people, mean people and had some more miracles too. But there were definitely some discouraging moments as well. Also we are still mirrorless. I could get a huge ticket at any time. Pray for us.
Some people here are pretty awesome when we knock on their door. Everyone's fruit trees are just loaded with fruit so they'll usually turn down our message but then offer us a bag of oranges, limes, lemons, or grapefruits! It's pretty cool.
We had five or six member present lessons planned throughout the week and they all rescheduled or didn't show. So that was pretty discouraging. But my main man Gem is still doing good! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and as we were talking about the pre-earth life he just cut in and literally took the words out of our mouths and started teaching us about being in heaven with God. He said "I just remembered that. It just came to my mind!" I know that the Holy Ghost testifies of truth and brings things to our remembrance. Without the Holy Ghost none of our investigators would want to make changes and follow Jesus Christ. Gem called us this week and was just going off about how he could relate his life to the story of Nephi and his brothers and the challenges they went through in The Book of Mormon! He is still reading and it makes me so happy to see him getting into it and applying what he reads to him life so he can learn more. He's just an awesome guy and I hope he continues investigating the gospel. The hardest thing for him right now is that he is going at this alone. His wife doesn't have an interest in anything church related and it's hard on him. I've really learned how important it is to be unified in the Gospel as a family...it makes a huge difference and doesn't put too much stress on one person.
We were planning our lesson Wednesday morning for Brother Pain and we were inspired to watch a Conference talk with him. It was an old General Conference talk by Jeffery R. Holland called "Safety For the Soul". Such a sick talk! Now here's the cool part, Elder Silva and I had no idea what this talk was like other than it talked about the Book of Mormon, but it just felt right so we went with it. Well after we watched it with him he said that that talk answered all the questions, concerns, and doubts that he had about The Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. It built his testimony and mine as well. Living Apostles are such a blessing to all of us! Brother Pain came to church for the first time in months this week as well.
We finally got Michael to sit through a lesson and he actually learned! We figured out that he really likes to participate and do fun activities. (Duh...took us long enough to figure out that he's just like every other 8 year old. Man we are dumb.) So anyway, we taught him about the Atonement and had a fun object lesson. We filled a bowl with water and had him dump some salt into the water to represent all the good things we do in life. Then we had him dump pepper into the water to represent all the mistakes we make in life. The water was really dirty and you couldn't see to the bottom. Then we explained the atonement and talked about how it can push all our mistakes to the side and make us clean again. So we put a drop of dish soap on Michael's finger and told him to touch the middle of the water. The pepper all shot to the sides and you could see the clear water again. He loved it and wanted us to do it over and over again! Then at church he came up to us and was telling us about how much he loved our lesson and how he won't forget what the Atonement is now. I love that little guy. Now we just need to get him baptized!
Message of the week: If you want an instant testimony boost check out the talk we shared with Brother Pain, "Safety for the Soul". I promise it will change your whole outlook if you have doubts of the book of mormon/joseph smith. I'll attatch a link here.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng
Funny story of the week: I went on an exchange this week with our District Leader. He's in Spanish work and we taught two lessons to people who spoke no English! I can understand a little and say a few things but man, I was so lost! The investigator asked if I was a mute because I wasn't talking hahaha!
Well that's just a little bit about our week. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Elder Jensen
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| Elder Flores and I on our Exchange. Bike Patrol. |
