The Refiner's Fire June 20, 2016 Week Fifty-one

Hey y'all! 

 This week was definitely an interesting one. First off, Elder Hughes
turned twenty on Wednesday and I turned nineteen on Saturday. Yup.
Another year older. We each got a phone call from the Mission Office
telling (singing, actually) is happy birthday. Yup. Everybody in the
area found out it was our birthdays, but everybody was super busy, so
we got about a dozen meals dropped off to us. 

 You're probably wondering why this email is called the refiner's fire.
There's actually a couple of reasons why. Starting with the small
trial, (actually a double entendre on the word fire) it was HOT this
will. Killeen has always been super humid, but now it's pretty
intense. If we have a few hours open in our schedule, we usually just
try and walk around to try and visit some potential investigators
we've met in the past. The problem is, we'll walk around from 1
immediately after lunch time until it's time for dinner in 100+ degree
temperature with 100%+ humidity.....I might have been exaggerating
about the humidity, but it's still pretty bad (about 80-90%). It
wouldn't be too bad it we knew that this was the worst that it would
get, but this is nothing compared to August down
here......yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy........ Oh, well. I've gone through one
summer here, I can go through another. 

 The other reason for the title is something that taught me that
walking around in the hot sun isn't too much to handle at all. One of
our Investigators who was close to getting baptized told us this week
that that would probably be the last time we spoke with her. When we
asked why not, she told us that she was getting kicked out of her
house, which means she'll be living out on the streets.....and she
lives DEEP in the hood.......and she had the toes on her right foot
amputated.......and they're infected. Yeah, she's got it hard. We gave
her a blessing, and then we taught her about trials instead of what we
were planning on. God could easily provide a way for her to
immediately be healed and keep her house, but she feels like this is a
trial that God wants her to endure. It brings to mind a quote from
Joshua 14:12: Give me this mountain. God gives us all problems that
aren't fair at all, but He isn't necessarily punishing anyone- He's
giving us a burden to strengthen us and prepare us for greater things
in the future. While I pity Mary for being in the situation she is, I
wish that I also had the strength to say to God, "Give me this
mountain to climb." 

 Hope y'all have a great week! 

 Elder Jensen