So I have an announcement: Elder Jensen has discovered Atlantis...or at least re-discovered it. This week was marked with more cold and more rain (which you would think would make snow right? But no, Texas is very confused when it comes to it's weather) which has turned the city into something only comparable to the lost city of Atlantis. From the state where there's more firearms than people, and when the rain falls about as often as we are passed by a truck three times the size of our Chevy Cruz- merry holidays from the greatest city in the world!
This week was so great! It was filled with Thanksgiving dinners, awesome lessons and lots and lots of fun! We had our annual Ward Thanksgiving party, and our ward Houston Temple trip as well. (Pictured below is me featuring my coat that has earned me a new name in our ward...Elder Bombon or Elder Marshmallow...because evidently this coat makes me appear like a marshmallow)
We've knocked on a lot of doors this week. And I don't mean a lot like "the amount of times Elder Jensen talks about himself in the 3rd person while telling stories"- I mean I lost count after 100 in one day. We went hunting for people we'd talked to on the street, old contacts in the area, and less-active families in an attempt to clean up our now 600 strong ward list and find new investigators. See Houston has a problem (Get it?)... we have a ton of investigators, but none of them are ever home, or live in apartment #101 (which is impossible seeing as the apartment only houses up to #100) so we've been focusing on finding families we had never talked to. The amount of investigators we had after 100+ doors? 0. Then came the little miracle of the week. We were tired, frustrated, and a little bit sad...it was 8:30 and we just really all wanted to go home. But we decided to try one more house- it was of a guy who was excommunicated out of the church. We hadn't made much progress with him, he couldn't stop drinking and that was affecting every aspect of his life. But as we walked in this time, he was sitting on the floor, playing piano music from his speaker system, and eating a bowl of ramen on the empty floor of his tiny apartment. He looked at us, smiled, and said that he feels better then he's ever felt before.
The contrast between his old self and the guy we talked to that evening was stark. He was changed; more happy, more peaceful, and full of love. He told us about how his daughter (who he never sees) passed away a couple months ago. He told us how he came to a realization: she's living with God right now...she's made it to the finish, done her work. Now his new goal is to live with her again. That means he has to put in the work to make himself someone that's worthy to live with her again. It was a sweet moment and left Elder Jensen sweating from his eyes real bad.
Sometimes we have days that stink, ones that we just want to give up, flop ourselves into bed, and quit. Those are the days when we learn the most about ourselves and most about Christ. There's a new website called "christmas.mormon.org" with a set of really neat videos called "A Savior is Born" and "Why We Need A Savior" and I would invite anyone and everyone that's having one of those bad days to go watch it. I know that sometimes life is difficult but when we confide and trust in Christ, everything will be okay! You just have to keep moving forward :)
Love,
Elder Jensen
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