July 8, 2013



Dear Family and Friends                                Monday, July 8, 2013 at 12:27 PM (EDT)

Monday was pretty awesome. We went to dinner with the relief society president, Sister Larsen, she took us to the Stonegrill in Morrisville, it was pretty good. We then taught Brother Emerson. We had a good lesson with him.

Tuesday we went to Bakersfield. We helped a member of the ward, Brother Bussell shovel some dirt onto a food storage, shelter he is building. After that we planted a garden for a lady named Rosalie. We had dinner at the Bussells house and then taught Morgan.

Wednesday we had exchanges. Elder Walker went to St. Albans with Elder Keller, and Elder Caserio came with me to hang out in Lamoille. It was pretty good. It was a super hot and muggy day, and we walked a lot. We tried to contact some former investigators but no one was home. We stopped by Denise's but she dodged into her house before we could talk to her. We found out later that she was tired and didn't want to talk to us. She thought we couldn't see her so she snuck back into the house. It has been kind of weird with her lately. I think she is a little bi-polar because one day she wants to learn more about the gospel, the next day she doesn't even want to talk with us. Wednesday evening we taught Morgan. We went with the Elders quorum president, Brother Worthington. It was a good lesson. We talked about the Holy Ghost and read Alma Chapter 32.

Thursday we had district meeting in Essex Jct. after that we went to Waterville to contact some former investigators. Elder Walker parked the truck near the side of the road. It had been raining, so the bank fell off and put the truck into the ditch. We had to get someone to pull us out. After that we only had time to go to a dinner with some members up in Montgomery.

Friday we did some service for Mike. He is an interesting man. When Elder Walker was here two years ago he used the Elders for service a lot, and he never wanted to learn about the gospel. That would be all fine and dandy if he wasn't so demanding with us doing service. He is a perfectionist and if we don't do something right he gets real mad and starts yelling at us, not fun at all. We will be finishing up the project we are doing up there and then we are going to be finished with doing service for him. After that we stopped by Denise. She explained to us why she ducked into her house on Wednesday.

Saturday we met our new mission president.  I was a little nervous about getting a new mission president, especially since our other Mission President was so great, but it was just like the new mission President's first councilor, President Goodrich said, that you can definitely see the mantle on the new mission President's shoulders and I look forward to serving with him in this amazing mission. We had a pretty good meeting with him. I wasn't able to get a picture with him because we got a ride from Brother Emerson and he was ready to go. After the meeting he took us on a detour to see Starfire, his horse. He had us there for about an hour, so we were late to our next appointment, which was Adam and Faith. We helped Adam set up a trampoline in his back yard and then taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. They enjoyed that a lot.

Sunday we had church. A baby got blessed. Her name is Hephzibah, its a bible name that means someone who evokes delight, or the protected one. The meanings cool, but I cant imagine why anyone would name their daughter that. I met a man last week at church that is from Santaquin Utah. His name is Martinez and he is up here for a while building a sanitation plant. He said that he has a cousin that lives in Montrose named Martinez. He said he lives a little South of Montrose behind Wal Mart, so maybe around the Ruggles house. After church we went and saw Denise and then Ken, we stopped by our landlords, the Jennisons, who are members and talked to them for a bit before having dinner. It was a pretty good day.

Elder Walker and I have been doing really well here in Lamoille. We have a good relationship between us which really affects our teaching in a good way. He goes home at the end of the month, July 31, so I get to "kill" him off. In the mission wherever you are trained is where you are "born" and wherever you end off you "die," so Elder Walker was born and is going to die in Lamoille. For a last farewell missionaries used to burn a white shirt or a suit, but our mission president put an end to that, there is no more burning shirts in the mission, instead Elder Walker will just bear his testimony at his last transfer meeting.

Well I hope everything is going well at home,

Elder CW Jensen