Tuesday, November 8, 2016

We are the first Elders in the Young Single Adult ward in 6 years!

November 7, 2016

Hello Everyone!!
Some crazy things happened this week and history was made, so get ready for today's email. First off, the stake's ward boundaries were redone and everything got messed up. Our ward combined with the Canyon Country 2nd ward and became one big ward. So since we combined wards there were 6 missionaries in a ward that was definitely not big enough for 6 missionaries. We had a feeling that one set was going to have to get moved into a different area and we were pretty stressed about it haha. So anyway the Mission President decided to put Elder Silva and I in the Young Single Adult ward that covers the entire valley which has been Elder Silva's dream area his whole mission. The cool part is that we are the first Elders in theYoung Single Adult ward in 6+ years! The sad part is that we can't teach James and Shannon's family, Jim, Dennis, or any of our other investigators that we've been working with :( So sad about that.  Also this week we had a mission leadership meeting where we got to see the new Christmas initiative that we will be using this year which is sooo good! We can't wait to start using it later this month!

But here's a quick update on how they are all doing:

James and Shannon are still doing good! Shannon has really stepped up her game lately. She has been reading and praying every day for the past week and it's made such a difference in her personality and everything about her! This week also started off with a really cool experience with Shannon and her mom. We got a call from Shannon saying her mom was in the hospital and said that her mom wanted us to call her, so we did. She was so sweet and was very grateful we called. We set up a time the following morning to come by and give her a blessing. We went to her hospital that we had to get permission for because it was in the other valley way out of our area and we ended up giving her the blessing after talking with her about what we do as missionaries and taught her about the Priesthood. When we left, Shannon called us later that night and told us that when her mom had called her the first time the first thought her mother had was to ask for the missionaries that are teaching her. Her mom had also called her Priest (she is catholic) but the priest didn't come but we did. The mom was overwhelmed and so appreciative that we could come and give her a blessing. She will start coming to church with Shannon and her family shortly! Such a miracle.

Jim is still doing great. His job has really been busy lately and it's been tough to see him but he's reading out of the Book of Mormon a ton and he has frequent meetings with the Bishop which is so cool. Hopefully he can really connect with the sisters who teach him.

Dennis is on date for December 3rd!! We've been working hard with that guy and he's really made progress! Hopefully I'll be able to come back and see him join that ward family soon.

Well that's our week in a quick update. Sorry about no pictures this week. We dropped the ball on that one!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jensen