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Hey there everyone!
Oh man did Elder Searcy and I have a great week this week. There were so many wonderful blessing, miracles, and answers to prayers through the the course of these last few days. And the work is FINALLY starting to pick up after almost 3 months of being here.
On Wednesday we headed down to Winston, Oregon for a meeting with the trainers and the trainees from around the mission. It was great to see some old friends and learn how I can become a better trainer.
There's this program we used called The First Twelve Weeks (any missionary who served fairly recently should remember it) and our Assistants dissected everything inside it. It was extremely helpful and really got us focused on the core principles we need to work on to get our investigators to progress in the gospel.
We had a few really amazing lessons this week. I've mentioned Dave Jones a few times previously, but this week we were able to finally sit down and have a discussion with him. The spirit was very strong and we asked him what it would mean for him if the Book of Mormon was true. He said that if the spirit told him it was, he'd start coming to church no problem. We testified that the Book of Mormon is indeed scripture and committed him to read and sincerely pray about it. We're excited to see where that goes.
So, fun story time. We're out doing the whole door knocking thing we do one day and decide to start knocking this street with a trailer park on it. As we start to tract it out, we run into a man who was trying to convince us that we worship a "failed Jesus" (?), another man who actually gave US a pass along card, and a lady who after she shut us down, just kinda stared at us on her porch for a while.
We weren't feeling pretty good about this area, so we were thinking about just turning back and trying somewhere else, but we decided to knock a few more doors. Mumbling Onward Christian Soldiers to ourselves, we walk up the steps to a trailer, knock on the door, and out pops this guy named Spencer. Spencer was actually SUPER excited to see us, gladly took a Book of Mormon, and invited us back to teach him! It was truly an answer to a prayer I had the night earlier to find someone in Philomath that was actually interested in our message. God really does answer our prayers, no matter how silly we might feel asking him.
We also had a few lessons with Mark and Brian, both who are starting to progress a little bit better.
I think one of the best lessons we had this week was Sunday night with Kay. We took Brother and Sister Josi, the ward mission leader and his wife, to go and help us teach. We were able to finish up the restoration lesson with her and committed her to read the Book of Mormon, which she was pumped to do. Immediately after leaving, we started talking with some less active members who are Kay's neighbors and had a fantastic discussion with them.
All in all, this week has really helped me grow my testimony of patience and relying on the Lord's timing. We don't always see the full picture, rarely do we even see parts of it, but when we put our trust in Heavenly Father, he'll turn our smallest sincere efforts and use them for good. Sometime it takes far longer than you expect, but he really does bless us with what we need, because he loves us. It's been awesome to see that happen and in excited to see it continue forward!
Also, I'm still super bad at emailing back, so if you're waiting on a message from me, send me a "Still Waiting" and I'll get back to you.
I love you all so much and I'm continually grateful for everything that's gotten me here; all the friendships, advice, love, prayers, support, and all of your help. Thank you all so much, and may God bless you.
Don't be a square,
Elder Jensen
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| Elder Best goes home this transfer. I'm very sad. |
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| Welcome to CorVegas! (I was trying to run into the picture after a self timer . . . I'm not very good at it) |
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| Elder Hallam, Elder Thurgdood and Elder Jensen at the trainer's meeting (ft. Little Debbie cupcakes) |
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