Happy Halloween to the world! This week we had some spooky
experiences, but Chicago pretty much always has those. Like I saw some dude
dancing around a tree and screaming at it so I figured he probably wasn't
interested in the gospel. Probably a good call on my part.
This week was good, but a lot of the people were teaching
we weren't totally able to get in contact with so we had a lot more time open
to go finding on the campuses than usual! Probably that's how it'll be this
week too!
On Tuesday we had new missionary training and I got to
see my MTC homies for the last time unless I ever serve in the same area as any
of them again. Love those guys they are truly the coolest and I really hope I
get to serve with them again!
Also, this weekend was the legendary holiday of
Halloween. Halloween is actually kinda a slower day for missionaries because
all those YSA's in Chicago probably want to go party instead of learning from
the missionaries. Chicago is a party place that I've discovered, kinda like Vegas
is a party place ya know? So you have some pretty funny experiences haha.
We were able to visit one member who went inactive for a
while but got in contact with the missionaries because he wanted the gospel
back in his life. He's awesome and is disabled so he's in a wheelchair but has
been coming back to church and always let's us know how much he loves it. He's
the coolest. His name is Walter and on Halloween we went and visited him where
he's staying and he dressed up and gave us some candy.
Also on Halloween we had a district meeting and some of
the senior missionaries serving here gave us a heckin ton of candy. So
basically I had a little (not so little) stash of chocolate. And that night, I
may have dived into it a little bit. DON'T DO THIS!! Let's just say I was
stumbling around the apartment that night begging my companions to hurry up and
pray with me so I could go to bed haha! I pretty much had a real life chocolate
fever and my companions claim that this has happened like 4 times but I just
ran it off the next morning and pretty much only ate spinach for breakfast to
balance out my life.
OK. Chicago is so cool, because this week we had like 3
dinners with members and people were teaching that were all super not American.
Chicago is such a melting pot of a bunch of different cultures. It's super cool
cause like all of our recent converts in this area are from around the world.
One is from Albania, one is from Peru, one is from China, and one is from
Illinois of course. But this week I got to try some pretty unique food. I had
some like super spicy Indian food and I am weak when it comes to spiciness.
Like I ate BBQ wings and I was sweating. So I ate Indian food and I didn't want
to look disrespectful but I'm pretty sure that I was crying, and sweating and
everyone probably thought I was weak. Indians use like this yogurt stuff to
cancel out the spiciness but I didn't use it because I didn't want to be weak!
but honestly I'm pretty sure I was crying haha. Also we had some Peruvian food
that was way good and some African food that was also way good. It's super cool
to be able to experience a little bit of all these different cultures.
The African food was given to us by that African family
who I've talked a little bit about! They are so cool and I love them all! I
swear every time we visit there is a new family member who we get to teach and
meet and they are all so nice! They invited us to a birthday party that they're
having for one of their kids this Sunday that we might stop by. They have the
cutest little kids and there's this one who's eyes go huge whenever we walk in,
he's seriously the cutest kid on the planet. It's sad because they probably
shouldn't be taught by YSA elders because if they take the lessons they should
really take it as a family, so we're trying to set up a lesson where we can
help them get to know the elders from the family ward and then they can
continue their lessons with them. It'll be pretty sad though because it's been
really fun teaching them! They have seven kids in their family ages ranging
from 15-28 and the older ones have kids. It's just super cool to see such a
happy family because you don't really see a whole lot of that often!
We met some people on the college campus named Christina
and Cecilia who both work there and one of them has had elders teach them
before so she offered to take us to lunch! They were so nice and it was really
awesome to get to know them.
This week we had some time to find on campus and so we
talked to some new people and one of the things I've noticed that Elder Bolton
does is compliment somebody on something and then bam they talk. I've noticed
that whenever I see someone who has like Harry Potter or Avatar stuff I can
talk to them easier. So take that, Dad, you always told me my Harry Potter
knowledge was useless, it's almost proving to be just as valuable as my
scriptural knowledge.
This week I've noticed once again the power of the Book
of Mormon in life. I've been really putting an effort to sincerely study it in
my personal studies and I've been reading the Book of Ether. Maybe I'm biased
because that book says "Jared" like 12 times but I've been loving
this opportunity to read about the ancient record of the brother of Jared! I'm
so grateful for the Book of Mormon and I've been trying to strengthen my
testimony of it every day. I pray to know if it's true every day. We are so
blessed to be able to have the restored gospel in our lives! It's such a
blessing to be able to share this knowledge that brings so much peace to
others.
I think that's about it for my week, but thanks for the
support and love. I love all of you keep up the good work!
Elder Jared D. Jensen
Also P.S.
My companions claim they get no love cause their so old
so if you have time
Cole.bolton@myldsmail.net
Ryan.dorminey@myldsmail.net
Pictures:
Baby Joe my best friend
Walter the man
Christina and Cecilia
An average hospital patient
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