Dear Family and Friends, Monday,
December 09, 2013 at 11:36 a.m. (EDT)
This last week went really well! I am really enjoying my time here in
New Hampshire.
On Monday we had a really good Preparation day. Some things that I
forgot to tell you in my last email is that we have a less active member that
told us that he knows a nonmember that loves the Book of Mormon. He told him
that the Book of Mormon's thin pages are perfect for rolling joints! Also we
asked this same less active member how we could get people to come to church.
His suggestion was that we offer them beer after the meeting. After Preparation
day was over we taught the Word of Wisdom to Lu, CJ, Ethan, and Seth. It went
very well and we are going to teach CJ the stop smoking program tonight. Also
Lu is going to do it again. She quit smoking to be baptized but has picked it
up again. Never smoke, it is such an addiction.
On Tuesday we had a great lesson with Debra. We taught her the
Restoration again and showed her a video of Joseph Smith. She loved it. She
prayed about the Book of Mormon and discovered that it is true. She committed
to be baptized on February 22 2014 (I know, Dads birthday!) That was a really
fun lesson. After that we went over to the Jenkins. We taught a brief lesson
there and then helped them wash their dishes because they have been really busy
lately. We also stopped by Ben. He is a less active member that has agreed to
have us come over. He got offended by the branch president a few years back so
he doesnt want to come to church. After visiting with him we went to the
Bergeron's and had a lesson there. We go over there probablly 2-3 times a week.
That is something I really like about this area is that we can teach people
multiple times a week.
On Wednesday we had District Meeting. Colebrook missionaries ran their
car into a ditch so we had to drive up there and have District Meeting in their
apartment. After that we drove down to Gorham to have the oil changed on the
car. (I wish we could do it ourselves.) They had a cool sample paper that
showed the coloring of the fluids in our car. They took a drop of each fluid
and put it on some tissue paper type stuff. They took a sample of the brake
fluid and the transmission fluid. The lady said that our transmission fluid
could need replacing. ATF is red. Brake Fluid is clear. She pointed at the ATF
mark and said this is what your transmission fluid looks like, then she pointed
at the Brake fluid mark and said, this is what it is supposed to look like.
Tire and Lube shops are great... No one there knows a clue about cars... (I
hope that story made sense. I thought Casey and Carson would enjoy that!) After
getting our oil changed we drove to Lancaster. It ended up being a 160 mile day
for us.... pretty crazy. In Lancaster we had dinner with the Anthony's. He made
us a Sandwich for dinner... but not just any sandwich. Brother Anthony is a
professional chef, so he made the best sandwich I have ever had. This Wednesday
he is making us BBQ ribs. We will see if it is better than the little place in
Gunnison that me and Kreg liked to go to! While driving back to Berlin we saw
another moose. A cow this time. The stretch between Berlin and Groveton has
tons of moose.
On Thursday we got up early and got in our jeans and T-shirt. We did
service down in Twin Mountain. A lady down there needed a couple of cords of
wood. So Brother Jared Irwin picked us up (This is for Carson-> in his 2003
Toyota Tundra and we headed down there. I have always liked Toyotas, in
particular Tacoma's, but I had never thought of getting an older Tundra. On the
drive down I started to really debate it. Are the 6 cylinder Tundra's
pretty good? They seem to be very similar to the Tacoma's just a little more
roomy with a bigger bed.) We split wood from 8 until 3. It was a lot of fun. We
split a lot by hand and also used the wood splitter. New England has a lot of
hardwood trees that dont split well with an axe. So a lot of people use
hydraulic wood splitters. We dropped off the wood. The lady didnt even realize
that we were going to do that for her. She was at work at the time. So I can
only imagine the look on her face when she drives in the door yard (New England
term - door yard) and sees all that wood! After that we had a really good
conversation with Jared. He got into politics a little. As missionaries of
course we couldnt really talk about politics, but he knew we were both
Conservative. I think he just wanted to vent because there are so many Liberals
up here. I cant believe it sometimes. We were helping at a community meal the
other day and there was a 19 year old working with us. I asked him if he was in
highschool. He said he had dropped out. I asked if he was looking for a job. He
told me that he wasnt but instead he was trying to apply for welfare. He and
his girlfriend are getting married so that they can get more welfare benefits. Anyway we turned the conversation
to church topics and he told us how he wants to get his nonmember wife to
church. We told him to just have faith and patience and that it would happen
sometime, especially since she just had a baby. And Lo and Behold she came with
him to church on Sunday! After we got dropped off we showered and had dinner at
Ann's house with some members, the Savards and Sister Hawkins. It went
really well.
On Friday we had our weekly planning. That took a long time. We also
taught Jules and the Bergerons. It was a pretty good day.
On Saturday we helped with the community meal. That is a lot of fun to
help with that. We just set up tables and it is good when people see us over
there giving back to the community. We also taught Debra again. We taught her
the Plan of Salvation with Brother Bergeron. The lesson went really well. We
also taught Danny and his son Zach. We read a great story out of the Book of
Mormon. We read Alma 49. In the chapter an army comes to attack a city, but the
city has strong fortifications, so the army gets slaughtered. We talked about
strengthening our own weak places. After that we went and taught Lu CJ, Ethan
and Seth about modern prophets and watched a talk by Thomas S Monson.
Click this link to watch The Race of Life by Thomas S. Monson
Click this link to watch The Race of Life by Thomas S. Monson
We also watched a Christmas video: It is a really good one.
Click this link to watch the Christmas video
Sunday was a great day. I really enjoyed church. Debra came
which was
sweet! All the talks were really good. We do have an odd branch here. We
were
asking who could come teaching with us. We asked one of the men, a high
priest,
if he would be able to go teaching with us. He is older and retired so
we
figured he would have time to. He told us that he couldnt go teaching
with us
because he didnt have a testimony of the church or of Joseph Smith being
a
prophet and that he didnt agree with missionary work either. His
thoughts were
that if people wanted to join the church they could, but that we as
members
dont need to share our beliefs with others. This really surprised me
because he
is a very active member. It just goes to show that seemingly active
members are
less active and seemingly less active members are active. It reminds me
of
something Karli told me a couple of weeks ago... "Merely sitting in the
church doesnt make you an active member anymore than sitting in a garage
makes
you a nice truck!" As members we need to both go to church and be active
in it. We have to endure to the end. After church we taught CJ, Ethan
and Seth.
We read with Ethan and Seth out of the Childrens Book of Mormon and then
we
played soccer with them. After that we had lunch and then we contacted
some
people. We had some pretty good successes and we taught a lesson to Ben
later that night. So really good day! Also Debra really enjoyed church
and is
excited to be a member! Today we are going to drive to Wolfeboro and
have a
sleepover with the Elders there. Then me and Elder Holley who is serving
in
Wolfeboro are going to drive to Manchester for a Mission Leadership
Training
Meeting. That should be a lot of fun. I am excited for it. I like going
to
meetings because I can relax in them a little more. We have Monday's off
so we
can kind of relax, but I am still running around getting things prepared
for
the rest of the week, so Mondays are almost more stressful than the
other days
of the week. I have been really stressed out lately. It has been hard to
relieve it because usually I relieve it by hitting the throttle on a
dirtbike
or by going on a drive by myself, and going offroading and camping
things I
cant do as a missionary.
Elder CW Jensen