Hey y'all!
This week was a pretty interesting one. On Monday, we spoke with Corbin, a nine-year old whose parents are inactive. They haven't gone to church in years, but they still want their son to be baptized. We've taught him most of the lessons, but we're having some trouble with his dad. We had set a baptismal date of November 28th with Corbin, but then we spoke with his dad on Monday, and his dad flat out refused to let Corbin be baptized until Corbin had proved that he was ready not to us, not to himself, not to the Bishop, not to God, but to his father. I don't think that'll happen for a while, since Corbin's dad is a strict military man who expects perfection from his children. Corbin's dad also asked us several questions about the new changes that have been made to the handbook. He told us to report back to him with the answers next time we come to teach Corbin. We researched the answers, but we decided to bring Bishop Teemant (the Bishop of
Corbin's ward) along with us as we teach tonight so that we can answer all of the questions presented to us.
There's so many Christmas lights up! One day as we were walking down the street, Elder Clark commented on it by starting sing, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...." I asked him when it starts to look like Thanksgiving. We discussed it, and we determined that it begins to look like Thanksgiving when only half the houses have Christmas lights up. After Thanksgiving, the rest of the houses put up their Christmas lights, and then it looks even more like Christmas (obviously)!
On Friday, we had our Zone Council, which is always a great experience. The only thing that I didn't like about it, was when we split up into pairs for a role-play, I got assigned to one of the
Assistants to the President! He only had ten days left in his mission which meant he's VERY experienced, he has baptized MANY people, and he himself is a convert, so he really knows if somebody's teaching has any flaws in it. Also, I was expected to critique HIM, which was super scary! Fortunately, it didn't go too badly. He told me about a little trick he had learned to do while teaching, and when we repracticed, it made my teaching so much better! All I did was switch
the phrase, "It's true that...... BUT....." to, "It's true that....AND....." Just that one little change of a word changed my teaching from "you're mostly right," to "you're right-let me tell you more."
Also, since the sugar cookies were such a hit at Katie's baptism, I brought some to Zone Council. They continued to be popular, and many of the sister missionaries asked me for the recipe.
We also found out that for Christmas, we'll have the option of calling our families on the phone or of using Skype. It's recommended that we call instead of Skype, but only for the sake of convenience. If we Skype for an hour, but bandwidth problems or something similar make us lag for thirty
minutes, we'll only get to speak with our family for a half hour. I haven't decided what I'll do, but it does help to have an answer to that question!
We heard about the terrible events in Paris. We've heard next to nothing about it other than a body count, but it still makes us really sad. In times like these when the world seems so dark and gloomy, the knowledge of the gospel gives me so much comfort, I don't even know how people without it can survive. I know that as terrible as these events are, that things will all work out in the end.
Hope y'all have a great week!
Elder Jensen.
P.S. I haven't really had access to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's website for the past few weeks, so I've just skipped doing the song of the week, joke of the week, etc. I've decided that until I get access to that again, I'm just going to replace the song of the week with a quote of the week. Who knows, the quote of the week may become permanent!
Quote of the week: Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.
Joke of the week: How many Germans does it take to screw in a light bulb? One: they're efficient and not very funny.
Scripture of the week: D&C 121: 7-8
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
My Zone!
Emilee asked me if I had bought any clothing on my mission, and I told her I would send her a picture of this tie, which is the only item of clothing I've bought so far
