Monday, March
18, 2013 1:27 p.m. (EDT)
Letter for Everyone
This last couple of days have
been by far my hardest. I know what type of missionary I want to be but no
matter how much I try I cannot achieve it. I feel that I am gaining great trust
from some ward members, but losing much trust with other ward members because
of little things like forgetting to call them. Last week we got our truck stuck
in a snow covered ditch. We were stuck for about 2 hours. We eventually got a
member to pull us out. We called all the members in the area. One of which was
Brother Cornelius. He started driving his car out. We got out before he got
there but we didnt have cell service to call him back. We forgot about it until
later that night. He was pretty upset we didnt call him back.
Another story is
Sister Baker. She is studying at Johnson College and she has a 10 year old
son. The other night we stopped by around 8:00. Her son answered the
door. He said his mom was busy at the moment and would be right out. He started
talking to us about Star Wars and wanted us to fight him with his light sabers.
We talked to him for about 10 or 15 minutes, when Sister Baker came to the
door, told her son to go to bed and yelled at us for stopping by so late. She
sent an email to the Relief Society president of the Ward, Sister Larsen.
Sister Larsen told us and about the whole ward that Sister Baker was really
upset at us. I felt terrible about that because we didn't realize it was so late
and her son said she would be right out to talk to us.
Elder Smith and I are doing
great with teaching investigators, but it has been really hard and stressful
for me. The highlight from doing the 12 week missionary program has been
watching The District. In The District they film missionaries while
they are out serving. I really learn a lot from them because by watching
other missionaries I gain confidence in myself that I can do that too. (The District can be found at https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/the-district)
A miracle we experienced this
week was when we taught Tucker. We got Brother Worthington to come with us
because he connects with Tucker. We were able to get through the whole Plan of
Salvation with him, which had been nearly impossible previously because he had
so many intellectual questions. Brother Worthington has a real forceful
personality which was surprisingly perfect for Tucker because whenever
Tucker had a weird question, Brother Worthington would say "We'll get to
that later... this is what is important."
It is really good to hear about
everyone. This last week has been tough, I think I'm getting homesick. It sure
is pretty out here but it is no where near as good as Montrose. Hearing about
Casey makes me wish I was in his shoes again. It was so good to spend time with
him right before I left.
St Patrick's was interesting. We
were walking the streets of Johnson. Johnson's a college town so there were a
lot of drunk people on the street. We knocked on a potential investigators door
and it was right in the middle of a party.
It was interesting.
It is hard to get member
meals. We are so limited on miles (about
1300 a month) and we cant visit very many members. We have dinner about once a
week at the Weeds house because we are teaching their son in law. Its
funny his last name is Beaver, so we teach a family of Beavers in a house full
of weeds.
Also we found out how to talk
about the gospel out here. We talk about Snowmobiles and Salvation, (Dairy)
Cows and Christ, Birds and Baptism, and Mapleing and Missionary Work.
Our members give us a lot of
food to take home though, so we are blessed in that aspect. I am the DD until
Elder Smith leaves at least. It depends on who gets trasfered in, but as long
as it is Elder Smith and me, I will be the DD. We leave the apartment at around
11 or 12 depends on when we have lunch, and we get back at 9.
I hope next week goes better.
Elder C. Jensen