Monday, March 4, 2013 at 3:39 p.m. EST
Letter for everyone:
This week has been pretty busy. On
Monday we drove down to Manchester. We picked up the Elders in Berre VT. They
have a walking area there. We stayed the night at the mission home and then had
training all day on Tuesday. It was pretty fun. All of the Elders and Sisters
from the MTC looked so different. I think the first week really changed a lot
of them. Their countenances just changed. It was pretty cool, you can tell they
have grown in the past little while.
On Wednesday we went to St Albans for District Meeting. That was pretty good. It started snowing snowflakes the size of 50 cent peices. We then had exchanges. I went on exchange with Elder Caserio. While we were in St Albans I got to try out new ways of doing missionary work. We went tracting and nobody answered their doors. One man yelled out his window. "Who is it!" "Missionaries" "Go Away!!" We had no luck all day until we were walking in the park before heading in for the day. We stopped and talked to a woman that got locked out by her boyfriend. We told her about our message and she said that we could come by and teach her and her boyfriend later. The next day we pretty much did the same thing, but with no luck whatsoever. We said hello to several people. One muslim lady told us "May Allah be with you and your false prophet." I thought that was nice of her [sarcastic]. Im glad we are not in a religion that tries to force feed our gospel to others. We just simply ask if they are interested in hearing a message that will change their lives and if they dont want to hear it we dont get mad at them.
On Saturday we went to Montgomery. Its pretty cool up there. Theres a lot more snowmobile trails up that way so I got to smell some good ol two stroke. Bishop Worthington and most of his extended family live up there. They live up in the mountains. They live basically on Burnt Mountain. (its called worthington mountain by ward members). Bishops Brother Travis lives up there too. In Vermont they set an elevation limit to where you can build your house. Travis lives right at that elevation. They all live up on Rushford Valley Rd. It is so pretty up there. They have a very large "sugar bush," a bunch of maple trees that are tapped. The sugaring season is upon us. It is really cool how they do their operation. They hook up a bunch of lines and use a vacuum to draw out the sap. Then they boil it. Basically its not sap they draw out but tree flavored water. They boil all the water out so that its just the sap left.
Yesterday was pretty cool. We saw something that Bryce and Grandpa might want to hear about. We got a referral for a dairy farmer above Morrisville. He has an automated milking machine. The whole operation is automated. Whenever the cow gets the urge to be milked she walks over to the machine. The machine uses lasers to locate the parts of the cow and then cleans her. Then a robotic arm brings the milkers up. The machine milks each cow 2 to 3 times a day, according to her own schedule. He also has an automated feeder that uses a robotic hook to bring hay to the cow. The system is very effective with a 60 head herd. It was pretty cool, and it amazed me that the cows would just walk up to it on their own to be milked.
We had some pretty cool experiences this past week. The best one was on Sunday. It was of course fast and testimony meeting and everyone was getting up and bearing their testimony. Carliee's (one of our investigators) daughter, Mara got up and bore her testimony. This is their 3rd Sunday at church. She said that she has seen miracles from the missionaries coming to her house. She said after we have begun teaching her that her and her mom have become closer. It was awesome. Carliee has also expressed that she likes us coming by because we always have a good spirit about us. That was really cool to hear.
Something else we noticed is how much Satan does not want us to do what is right and he will do all in his power to keep us off the right path. We have a less active family that we are teaching named the Fitzgeralds. We invited them to go to church again and they said they would. We told them Satan would try his darndest to keep them away. They said they would fight it. Well on Thursday one of their tenants that is renting their house hit a tree drunk driving. He is in serious condition and now the Fitzgeralds are in a financial mess because they were depending on his rent money. Well they didnt come to church because of that mess. I know that this church is true and that I am so glad to be a part of helping others come closer to Christ through the gospel.
On Wednesday we went to St Albans for District Meeting. That was pretty good. It started snowing snowflakes the size of 50 cent peices. We then had exchanges. I went on exchange with Elder Caserio. While we were in St Albans I got to try out new ways of doing missionary work. We went tracting and nobody answered their doors. One man yelled out his window. "Who is it!" "Missionaries" "Go Away!!" We had no luck all day until we were walking in the park before heading in for the day. We stopped and talked to a woman that got locked out by her boyfriend. We told her about our message and she said that we could come by and teach her and her boyfriend later. The next day we pretty much did the same thing, but with no luck whatsoever. We said hello to several people. One muslim lady told us "May Allah be with you and your false prophet." I thought that was nice of her [sarcastic]. Im glad we are not in a religion that tries to force feed our gospel to others. We just simply ask if they are interested in hearing a message that will change their lives and if they dont want to hear it we dont get mad at them.
On Saturday we went to Montgomery. Its pretty cool up there. Theres a lot more snowmobile trails up that way so I got to smell some good ol two stroke. Bishop Worthington and most of his extended family live up there. They live up in the mountains. They live basically on Burnt Mountain. (its called worthington mountain by ward members). Bishops Brother Travis lives up there too. In Vermont they set an elevation limit to where you can build your house. Travis lives right at that elevation. They all live up on Rushford Valley Rd. It is so pretty up there. They have a very large "sugar bush," a bunch of maple trees that are tapped. The sugaring season is upon us. It is really cool how they do their operation. They hook up a bunch of lines and use a vacuum to draw out the sap. Then they boil it. Basically its not sap they draw out but tree flavored water. They boil all the water out so that its just the sap left.
Yesterday was pretty cool. We saw something that Bryce and Grandpa might want to hear about. We got a referral for a dairy farmer above Morrisville. He has an automated milking machine. The whole operation is automated. Whenever the cow gets the urge to be milked she walks over to the machine. The machine uses lasers to locate the parts of the cow and then cleans her. Then a robotic arm brings the milkers up. The machine milks each cow 2 to 3 times a day, according to her own schedule. He also has an automated feeder that uses a robotic hook to bring hay to the cow. The system is very effective with a 60 head herd. It was pretty cool, and it amazed me that the cows would just walk up to it on their own to be milked.
We had some pretty cool experiences this past week. The best one was on Sunday. It was of course fast and testimony meeting and everyone was getting up and bearing their testimony. Carliee's (one of our investigators) daughter, Mara got up and bore her testimony. This is their 3rd Sunday at church. She said that she has seen miracles from the missionaries coming to her house. She said after we have begun teaching her that her and her mom have become closer. It was awesome. Carliee has also expressed that she likes us coming by because we always have a good spirit about us. That was really cool to hear.
Something else we noticed is how much Satan does not want us to do what is right and he will do all in his power to keep us off the right path. We have a less active family that we are teaching named the Fitzgeralds. We invited them to go to church again and they said they would. We told them Satan would try his darndest to keep them away. They said they would fight it. Well on Thursday one of their tenants that is renting their house hit a tree drunk driving. He is in serious condition and now the Fitzgeralds are in a financial mess because they were depending on his rent money. Well they didnt come to church because of that mess. I know that this church is true and that I am so glad to be a part of helping others come closer to Christ through the gospel.
Elder C. Jensen