Week 13

Area: Chanute, KS
Companion: Elder Hansen

 

Answers to Questions

-I am not sure what my favorite thing is to teach. Elder Holland said that any time you rehearse the First Vision the spirit will enter the room and unless you have a hardened heart you cannot deny the feeling of the spirit.
-I am not sure what part of Conference was my favorite. There were a lot of talks about Temples and Humility, so those are things that stuck out to me that I could work on.
-We usually clean our apartment everyday
-I do wash my sheets... every week
- Yes as missionaries we do pay fast offerings but not tithing
- We got a really big storm and it was going to be cool and awesome and then it barely missed us :(

My Week
We had a high councilor over missionary work in the stake come down and he told us to give as much service as we can and to be known as the "free laborers" in Chanute. So that is what we have been focusing on the past couple of weeks. Its really interesting to see people who you can just tell they're not interested react when you ask if we can do any form of service for them. If there is any tension or bad feeling they just seem to go away. I have learned that you cant hate someone you serve and its really hard to hate someone who is serving you.

That said we helped the Pattons who are remodeling a house. We put up sheetrock and insulation and removed a water heater from the attic and a whole bunch of stuff. Then we helped a family who joined the church about a year ago paint this super old shed because he cant and its awesome. It actually gives him missionary opportunities because some of his neighbors asked him " who were those guys painting your barn?" I have also seen that new members are probably the best member missionaries. They just have a sense of vigor in knowing the truth that older members seem to forget.

We knocked on a door that some guy on the street said to try and a lady opened it and was very much not interested. But we offered service and everything changed about how she talked to us. She asked her husband if we could do anything but he said no. We drove around the corner to try someone else and this dude chased us down in his car and said  " hey I changed my mind - can you come tomorrow morning?" and so we agreed and went there in the morning but they didn't answer... it seems pretty sketchy so we might go back if we are feeling adventurous.

We ate at this members house who when they bought it it was just a single story house but he dropped the ceiling and made the attic a second story. The ceiling was about 6 ft 4 in - me and Elder Hansen are about 6 ft 3in so anything like doorways and ceiling fans or lights or anything really attacked us... they always go straight for the head.  And everything in their house, out of their house and just generally about their house was pink and purple. I mean everything - toilets, cabinets, couches.... they had two fridges that were bright pink from like the 50s. It was definitely an experience I will remember.

Then we watched General conference at a couple different members homes and at the church. It was awesome. There is so much more I have to learn.

So me and Elder Hansen like talking about doctrine and he knows a ton more than I do. So if you ever have questions go ahead and ask and we will try to figure it out and answer you next week.

Also we found a deep doctrine junkie in the ward and he gave us the Journal of discourses in a PDF file ...but they are unapproved here so I will have to read them when I get home.

Well that was my week. Thank you for all your support and help. A mission is really hard but its mostly psychological. And totally worth it. Nathan is on date for this Sunday. I will update you next week.
 

Thanks

Elder Jensen

The background is part of the Tulsa mission.