Elder Chase Jensen: Week 2

Hey Everyone!

The people of Roseburg are all very humble (and kinda scary looking) but some of the nicest and most sincere people I've ever met. There are a lot of homeless people here. I think that I've taught as many people without houses as those with houses. It was weird to get used to, but I've loved talking to everyone. There are like 50 different churches in the Roseburg area, so lots of the people we teach kinda jump from church to church sometimes. That's been really helpful in teaching because we can share that Joseph Smith was doing the same thing and looking for the truth.

The first day that we were in the city, we walked over to the public library where a bunch of homeless people hang out. (Which is super illegal but ehh who cares) We talked to this woman who was sitting down on the steps. She said she was Christian and when we said that we were LDS, she said "Are you those crazy Mormons? My preacher said not to talk to you and you weren't Christian." So we buckled down and talked to her about our beliefs. She came out of the conversation with a better knowledge of our religion and questions about the church, which was awesome!

We had this cracked out guy come and knock on our door at like 10 o'clock at night asking for a Book of Mormon. After we gave it to him, he just went off on how Roseburg is an ancient Indian burial ground, how the surrounding cities made a pentagram, how he'd punch a 7 foot tall black man if he was insulting a woman, and a variety of other topics. He took off his shirt, had us call his "grandma", threw the Book of Mormon halfway across the parking lot, picked it back up and then gave Elder Redding a hat. We locked all the windows that night.

It's been fun being here. The saints are all super strong in their testimonies of the Gospel! I love all the time that I've had so far to get to know everyone and the people around me.

Elder Jensen

Oregon Eugene Mission