October 27, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,                            Monday, October 27, 2014

Well this last week was pretty awesome. I cant believe I only have 3 months left. This time has been so great. I have had many awesome spiritual experiences. I should share more with you, but the best stories just happen to be the random people that frustrate me.

Funny story of the week. Well not really funny a little more like frustrating. We ran into a gentleman. I wont tell you which faith he was from but he was carrying a cross down the street. Just like the guy in Montrose. So I had to talk to him and tell him that he reminded me of home. All I was going to tell him was thanks for doing that and that he brought a little home to me. He didnt even let me say that much. He cut me off and began talking about this and that. He was practically yelling religious stuff at us. He talked about how the world is getting and preaching at us (I purposely say 'at' instead of 'to') Most of it went right over my head because he was yelling it. I told him that we believed in everything he was saying and that we were out sharing the same message. We told him that we were Christians and that we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ. He looked at our nametags and said, "Oh you guys are Mormons. You arent Christians. You are a cult." I began saying, Yes, we are Christians, we believe in Jes-" He then cut me off and said, "No you arent. You are not truly Christians, you do not believe in Jesus Christ." The whole time he was still yelling at us. Well aside from being extremely offended I also got extremely frustrated with him and it was all I could do to keep myself from clocking this guy in the face. The whole time we were calm and listened to him, but as soon as we told him we were Christians as well he just jumped down our throats. I continued to keep calm, but it was tough. I just dont understand some people sometimes. 

We are doing really well with working with the members here in the Bedford Ward. What we have been doing recently is going to members houses for dinner. We take a picture with them and help them upload it to facebook with the hashtags #ldsmissionary #socialmediasplit #lds. When they do that it enables them to share the gospel online. I would like everyone back home to do something like that. Maybe invite the missionaries over for dinner and take a picture with them. Maybe put a picture of me on facebook and do the same. On the weekend of November 6-9 we are doing a social media split. On those days we are going to have members teaching with us all day. Each member uploads a status to social media with a hashtag on it. So if you follow those hashtags, especially #socialmediasplit you are sure to see a few pictures of me with members. Already we have gotten 5 or 6 families to do it. Another thing we are doing is really trying to build up the ward with members they already have. Most of my mission I just have hit the pavement and found new investigators. Here we are really working with the members to bring back people that have already been baptized. That is a first for me. In each of my areas I have done less active work, but it is usually just going through the ward list and knocking the doors. Now we are asking members who they know that they would like to see back at church. We then go visit them with them. It has been huge with gaining member trust. I think a lot of the members are realizing more that we are here to help them. I would really suggest that you do that back home. Take the missionaries to visit your home teaching families even if they are active. Take them to see someone that we know that hasnt been for a while. 
 
CWJensen