I hope that you all had a great holiday season and a happy new year! This time of year is so good for starting anew and in the spirit of that I would like to begin today with an apology addressed to all of the teachers and parents (including my own) who I might have terrorized from the ages of 3-4 (but really up until 18) years of age. I have a new appreciation for what you do and realize I was truly a difficult child to teach. Thank you for those that stuck with me through my terrible 18's- you guys are the best :) The best and funniest part of this week was yesterday when Elder Fails and I had the opportunity to teach the 3-4 year old class with one of the guys in our ward. In the church we have something called "Primary" where the kids who are ages 3-11 attend and it's a chance for them to learn, grow, and go absolutely crazy as a group of similar aged kids. There's also a rule that no adult can teach the class by themselves, so thus Elder Fails and Elder Jensen were called in as backup to help Hno. Mejia teach his lesson. What unfolded next was a drama equal only to the great French literary masterpiece. We walked in to a war scene: two kids wrestling in the corner, three little girls playing hide-and-go-seek, and the rest of the class doesn't know it's hide-and-seek so they're all just playing tag and it was crazy. After 10 minutes of calming them all down the class started...this weeks topic was "Haz Lo Justo" ("Choose the Right").
Apparently little kids are the same, doesn't matter in Spanish or English because we spent the first ten minutes of class listening to one girl tell a story (in one breath) about one time she punched her brother but because he stole her toy first she still "Haz Lo Justo" (apparently we didn't teach what H.L.J. stands for very well). We spent the next few minutes laughing because everyone thought that was very funny. After 30 more minutes of fighting for the attention of the class Hno. Mejia found some treats and we managed to teach a 5 minute lesson as they quietly ate mouthfuls of chocolate. Moral of the story is: I now have a new appreciation for teachers everywhere so if you're a teacher or ever were a teacher- thank you for your service.
Other than that the week was filled with downtown adventures, trying to find more members that live in our area, and working with our new but not new investigator Maria. She's so awesome! Last week there was a fire in our area that burned down half of a complex. Maria was an old investigator that lived there so we went to check on her and make sure she was okay, turns out she was! She was going to get baptized about a year ago but somehow the paper was thrown into the binder full of old investigators so she's super prepared and ready for baptism! The only problem is she lives with "the father of her child" which she hates, but has to live with because he won't let her find work and every time she's ready to leave him, she can't because she doesn't think she can have a life of her own.
This is the lesson that I learned this week: the past is the past and it only has relevance if we turn around and look at it. It's like the story of Lot's wife. So Lot lives in Sodom and Gomorrah which are crazy wicked cities where everyone is so evil that God just decides he's going to destroy the whole thing. Lot and his family are righteous so God gives them a chance and sends some angels their way to say that the city is going to be destroyed and that if they want to live they only have to follow one commandment...this is found is Genesis 19:17 : "look not behind thee". So Lot and his family escape and the Lord and his angels start raining fire and brimstone down on the city. For whatever reason, the wife of Lot "looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." How sad is that? When I was younger I really didn't understand why that was in the scriptures..I mean that seems so sad. But every story in the Bible has a reason for being there right? And I think this one is direct counsel to us.
We all have things that have happened, we all have trials and at times we make mistakes. I've made a whole bunch of mistakes in my life. When we're sad and down and depressed, 90% of the time is because we're stuck in the past...something didn't go well, we think about mistakes we've made and that's the reason we're sad. That's why we have Jesus Christ, he made it so we don't have to look back. That's the lesson we taught to Maria and one that I use every day of my mission. The past is the past, every day is a new day and also the start of a new year in your life so wake up and decide that today is going to be the day you forget about everything that happened in the past and start over. Don't look behind you just keep looking forward, because if you keep looking forward, you'll keep moving forward :)
Mucho amor,
Elder Jensen
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