Monday, August 1, 2016

It's amazing how God's timing works!

August 1, 2016

So much happened this week in Burbank!

First off...I'm being transferred away from Elder Martin. Super sad about that. I'm not going to be able to finish his training. He's an awesome friend and I'll hopefully serve around him again! I've been called to be a Zone Leader in Santa Clarita. It's a huge change of culture and surroundings but it's all part of the adventure for sure! And God knows where I need to be better than I do. My new companion is Elder Wade! My old district leader back when I was serving in Encino! It's gonna be an awesome transfer up in the other valley!

Here's my address:

27614 Susan Beth Way  Unit C
Santa Clarita, CA. 91350

There's been a huge fire just over the hill in Santa Clarita and the sky has just been full of smoke and ash lately. The smoke was so bad that the sun actually looked redish orange for a while. So far it's still out of control but we're not being affected to much anymore. But I'm going to Santa Clarita so that might change soon haha.

We visited with Manet, and she still wasn't done with the Book of Mormon, which was strange because she read to 3rd Nephi in a week, and then in the last two, hadn't read very much, so we asked her why. The reasoning? Because she rented books about our religion at the library and was reading them, and they're not written by Mormons. Not good for an investigator. So I asked her if it was okay if we borrowed them for 'study'. And by that, we meant they would stay in our trunk all week, that way she could focus on the Book of Mormon hahah. We also met with Manet on Sunday. We went to church and with it being the 5th Sunday, it was combined third hour. The lesson was on food storage. Talk about trying to stay awake! Manet didn't come which was a bummer but she said she still wanted to meet after church. Sister Andrus came, as well as another member, named Ryan. They connected instantly, which was perfect. Exactly what we want with members and our investigators. P.S. Manet asked us to take her books back for her..YES! We talked about the Kingdoms of Glory and usually that's a really hard piece of Doctrine for investigators to accept. But Manet told us that it made so much sense and that is the only way God could be a merciful and still a just God at the same time. She's so prepared! I'm going to miss her so much! Can't wait to come back and visit her!

Ashley Abrego is still doing amazing and is on track to be baptized on August 27th! We had another lesson with her this week and her mom is just loving the church. She's just sharing the Gospel with people left and right! Anyway, we talked about the Resurrection and Judgement and what we can do now to prepare for that day. Ashley is following in her mothers footsteps and is marking up her scriptures like crazy! It's so cool! I'll be back for that baptism soon as well!

We picked up a new investigator this week named Gary Bell. He is a former teacher at UCLA and has actually met with missionaries before. He almost got baptized in 2013 but couldn't understand the concept of faith and lost interest. So we talked about faith and read in Alma about faith being like a mustard seed. After our lesson he told us how badly he wants to know if this is all true. It's amazing how Gods timing works. This man dropped off the map for years and then two years later is ready to be taught again. Timing is everything.

We went back to the Wilson's this week. We found a way to motivate them to read the Book of Mormon. We bribe them with more hymns hahaha. If they read we sing an extra hymn and if they don't we sing one less hymn. So I'm wishing Elder Martin the best of luck on that one haha. I've never sung so many hymns in my life! I love them though...they remind me of my Grandparents and I just have a soft spot for oldies haha.

Well Sorry for the short email today. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jensen


Mangos with Elder Olivas

Studio City

The fire is killing the air quality