God won't flood the earth again but yesterday I thought he was going to flood Illinois

What a lovely Tuesday this is! We switched Pday because Memorial Day is supposed to be a prime proselyting day or something, but Chicago got pounded with some gnarly rainstorms! I'm not exaggerating; there were some of the fattest puddles I've ever seen in my life. They weren't there before and you could actually go fishing in them or something. 

It was pretty funny, last week I got a rain jacket and that was a very good idea haha. Elder Dodson thought his was waterproof until we were in this one contact and I was talking to this dude and it just starts pouring like crazy. But the guy kept talking to us so I kept talking to him trying to explain why the Book of Mormon is amazing and how it can change his life and he's just chilling in the house because it's dry and I'm chilling in my raincoat surviving cause I put on the hood and it just keeps dumping buckets.

I could hardly hear the man now, but he said it sounds like he should read it but he doesn't want to learn more (what is that supposed to mean) so he wanted info to download it on his phone and we gave him a download card and then I turned around after the contact and Elder Dodson was soaked head to toe and just says, "It's not waterproof." So we had some pretty fun times trying to outrun the storm and talking to people whenever we got the chance! But we found an Indian Christian and those are pretty rare! They are always pretty interested in having us come back! So it was worth it!

Oh and on the rainy day there was this one door we knocked and nobody answered so as we were walking away in the best Pokémon voice I could muster I yelled, "Tracting in the rain on Memorial day! It's super effective!" Suddenly I realized the dude was standing right behind us I hate it when that happens! There was one time I was singing some Baptist choir song and the door was open and I didn't realize. I'm pretty sure all the ring bells have recorded me and hopefully they didn't see my tag and think we're Jehovah’s witnesses. 

Also some cool highlights of this week:

Lately Naperville has been getting a ton of people here doing summer sales, usually pest control.  A lot of them are RM's who are used to knocking doors and so we had a group of 5 of them at church on Sunday and they all went to Desert Hills High School! Two of them had my dad as a Seminary teacher and they all ran track so I had seen them before and we all recognized each other. It was pretty funny! I've never seen more Utah license plates in my life than right now! We've met several people from St. George here for summer sales but most of them went to Desert Hills. I haven't met anyone from Snow Canyon yet! It's pretty crazy though. It's a small world when you're a member of the church!  

Also our Nigerian friend, Biyi, came to church and loved it there. All the RM's went and talked to him and talked all about the African food they had in their missions and stuff, and none of them even served in Africa. It turns out Nigerians are hiding like everywhere around the world and they are the elect. So we gotta find them haha. 

This week we went on exchanges with the Assistants again and I went there and Elder Jensen came here and so some members here said "You're not Elder Jensen" and he was like "Yes I am!" And the jokes still continue! I was in the west Chicago YSA for the day and all the YSA  memories came back it was pretty awesome! 

Also something amazing happened! I ate salad twice this week and actually enjoyed it! I thought that was impossible but I guess not! What a great thing and miracle that I have seen for this week! 

We were also able to teach that African American family again but it was funny because we read the introduction with them and I put it so clearly that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the principles and doctrines for exaltation and they were all like "Amen, hallelujah" and then one of them was like "I don't wanna be bound by religion so I'm finna get Rollin on what I wanna talk about today."

So then she started talking about Genesis 1-3 and she was telling us how she had discovered that Adam and Eve didn't walk, they floated. Also she told us she was a prophet. I was like really?! We’re telling you that Christ's church has been restored today and the authority that shows the power of godliness truly is manifest is here on the earth to bind families for eternity, and all you can say is that Adam and eve floated?! And then everyone was like "Amen, praise God" and stuff like that haha. Whatever it's a work in progress. They freaked out when they heard about people in the Book of Mormon leaving the tower of babel so we'll get them haha. 

Also I've been reading lots of conference talks because these things are straight fire I didn't realize that the prophets and apostles have scriptures flowing from their lips like crazy! It’s so awesome! So here's a power quote from President Oaks:  

"The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God’s laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love." 

Like holy goodness if we love God we will keep his commandments. Can I get an Amen? If Jesus saved us let's do something about it and show we're grateful by doing things and repenting and become the person he wants us to become. 

Anyways hope everyone has an awesome week! Till next time! 

Elder Jensen 

Pics 

1: A street that is now a pond

2. Rainy time

3. My St. George brothers

4. Cool sunset

5. Biyi and Brother Whittington 

Opposition Miracles

So these last two weeks were awesome! The first of the last two weeks was pretty wild. We got more anti and bashy people in the span of a week than I have in my entire mission. The first guy was this atheist dude who came outside and told us how leaving Christianity was the greatest decision in his life, so we tried to convince him everything he hates about average Christianity is not what we were trying to offer. He wasn't having it haha.

He finally shut the door and Eder Dodson turns to me and says, "It looks like he hasn't brushed his teeth since he left Christianity!" (Two years ago). We were both dying and accidentally were not super charitable for God's children. We will try to be better. 

We had this one guy literally show us an anti-video on his front porch, but the dude in it was Christian and used Bible verses to prove the faith wrong. I've seen all these verses taken out of context about a million times. What a great Christian for trying to destroy faith of other Christians! 

And then last one we had this guy from our Elders Quorum, who's not very active and who is extremely opposed to the church, bring up some doctrine that is extremely false in church. Good thing all these RM homies doing summer sales threw down on their doctrine haha. 

Basically we got hit like that like 8 times throughout the week, but who cares! When you know what you know it's true, all it does is strengthen your faith. Like significantly. According to their standards all the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints are saved anyways. 

The Book of Mormon is the most amazing resource I've discovered time and time again. It's amazing how it's written specifically for our day. The prophecies are being fulfilled left and right. I'm grateful that we're able to have a direct connection to God through personal revelation and also a connection through prophetic revelation. We don't have to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine like everyone else that is currently still apostatized in the world. 

We invite others to read the Book of Mormon and they say, "I don't need to because 'I've researched it.'" And then they tell us that they haven't even read the Book of Mormon and so clearly they haven't done their research. All they've researched is why Joseph Smith had so many wives, and then they don't have the foundation to understand why. Basically I know that the Book of Mormon is true and soon after that we were able to find some ultra-prepared people who were willing to receive the restored truths of the gospel! Opposition requires faith, and faith creates MIRACLES! And I absolutely love seeing some miracles! 

Anyways after that week was over we decided to ride the train to Chicago, and ride our bikes around all the sights in the city! It was so fun and we rode all around where my first area was! We rode like 40 miles around the city looking at all the awesome things to see there and it was a super awesome p-day! Of course it wouldn't be Chicago if we didn't see some people getting arrested right in front of us haha. I really hope to be able to serve in a bike area in the city again, it was super awesome. 

So this week we had transfers and we are both staying here! (yay) I love my companion and we're having a really great time. But guess who is coming to the zone? My main man ELDER JARED B. JENSEN!! He’s going to be the new assistant so we get to do some of those gnarly exchanges! There is nothing better than doing an exchange with a past companion. 

Also this week we knocked this African American lady's door and we were talking and she told us she had this Bible study thing every Saturday, so we asked her if we should come and she said yes. We went there and like a TON of her extended family were there and so we got to teach like 10 new people and they all want us to come back! It was such a fun experience. And one of them came late and she was like "wait what is the Book of Mormon, what did I miss?" And the other were like "Y’all finna watch Joseph Smith Ask of God on YouTube and you'll be caught up!" It was probably the greatest thing of all time. 

Also we have this awesome family that just got married, they remind me of Janika and Brandon and they LOVE missionary work so they came to a few lessons with us and they are unstoppable! We took them to a lesson with our Nigerian buddy and he loved them haha. We went to the mission office and grabbed a book of Mormon in yoruba (that's the African language he speaks) and we gave it to him and he freaked out haha "THIS IS MY LANGUAGE! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" it was super awesome. 

We also got some Books of Mormon in Hindi because I swear literally half the population in our area is Hindu. Not going to lie I'm starting to get pretty good and getting their accent down. But they still just think that it’s another Bawagita. (I'm pretty sure that's what their holy book is called haha) so it's kinda fun to walk around with a Hindi Book of Mormon along with our English one. 

That's about it for the last two weeks! it's been a really good time. I have a great companion, a great zone, a great mission president (who goes home soon and is actually going to play racquetball with us today haha) and basically the greatest life of all time. The church is true. I have a lot of pictures and they're all worth a thousand words so I'll just send those. 

Have a great week!

The black in white Pic was of our district. The one in the middle Elder Harker literally comes from a polygamist family before his family left the culture and joined the church. We always still make the polygamist jokes with him though and so we took a picture of a "polygamist family" with two wives and 5 sons.  The sisters didn't totally approve of the idea but finally let us take the picture. The other pics are just from the city and our Nigerian friend with the bell family, and the standard works (including Hindi style). 

A Food Poisoned Swingset

What a legendary Monday this is! To be completely honest when it starts getting weekend time for a missionary two things happen: 1. You're super hyped because weekends like Saturdays and Sundays tend to be golden hours ALL DAY! That means they are the best days to find the elect ALL DAY! So we go crazy and talk to sooo many people on those days and try to fit our lessons in other days if possible. 2. Every time you are out and about and you walk past a basketball hoop, you want to ball SO BAD! It’s wild! Like I am not even very good at basketball but it just becomes a part of the missionary pday life! So when pday is just a few days away you're HYPED! Because you're finding the elect! But you also have a little basketball fever! So luckily the basketball fever isn't too powerful and we go so hard on those Saturdays and Sundays! 

This week we had a super awesome zone conference. Well probably it was all super awesome except for the zone leader training, those guys probably don't even know what they are talking about. Anyway, I'll keep it real. We talked about member missionary work and gave a training on that and I really hope that we did not melt the minds of the missionaries in the zone. We saw some missionaries nodding when we were teaching so I'm hoping that's a good sign haha. President Bingham talked a lot about REPENTANCE!!!! That is so awesome and necessary because we all need to REPENT! And also the people we are teaching need to understand repentance before baptism which is something we really touched on. It was super awesome. Like straight up revelation holy ghost fire just pouring into your heart and mind as you study and ponder it all out. The church is actually super true. Just gotta love the scriptures. 

So on a not very good note this week on zone conference day Elder Dodson was like "dang my head hurts" but we still had the spirit of revelation so we were all good but then that night right after we had a lesson my boy threw up everywhere in the grass! (not in their yard but some public grass so it's all good I think) and then right after that we had to go on an exchange because we had already planned one out. But my boy got some serious food poisoning this week and had some very gnarly symptoms. It was a rough few days but somehow we still managed to get just as many lessons and contacts in as usual with a sick boy and with zone conference. It was pretty wild. 

So we did the exchange anyway. I went to the Prestbury ward which is straight west of where we're at now. It is kind of like a mix of my last area and the one I'm in now. Half of it is large and sparse with little towns and the other half is the big city of Aurora. Aurora is the biggest city in Illinois right behind Chicago so 6 companionships cover different parts of it. So I went with Elder Powell and we found so pretty neat people and also drove out to some in the middle of nowhere places to go tracting and I had those lovely Indiana memories. It was a pretty neat experience! Illinois people who live out in the middle of nowhere are kinda like Indiana people who live out in the middle of nowhere, but a little less Duck Dynasty and a little more Go Cubsy. I mentioned to elder Powell how interesting these tiny little places were and he told me he's from an even tinier place called Jensen Utah which doesn't even have a gas station, but somehow since it's in Utah it still manages to have its own ward. It's amazing isn't it!? 

So after the exchange we did some food poisoning tracting and found some more cool Indian people, but we are almost done with the Indian neighborhoods in Naperville, so we'll probably go back to the catholic old people who don't actually even know what they believe. I'm sorry for sounding prideful but it's true! You ask, "How has attending St. (whatever the flip it is) helped you strengthen your faith in God?" They are like "Yes." Isn't it amazing the answers we receive when people are members of churches for the purpose of” just in case God exists?” Well even if they're roast-able they are some pretty nice people and I can't deny that haha. 

So last of all we were planning on having 5 people at church yesterday, which is pretty good. In Hebron we were getting like 5-8 pretty average but we haven't been able to do that well just yet. So we receive 4 lovely cancellation messages 30 minutes before church starts. The reason I bring this up is because I saw one of the weakest excuses I've seen yet! "I can't come because we have to build a swing set." What is that?! We offered to build it for them if they came to church but didn't exactly work out. We were able to see one of our Indian buddies Divya at church though! She lived here from India for a while now and is one of the few Indians who are Christian rather than Hindu. It was super awesome to have her come to church so that was fantastic! #countthoseblessings

Well that's about it for my week, it was a way good one and I hope everyone has a great week! 

Pics:

1. My homie 

2. The swingset excuse

3. A member in the car behind us so had to shoot him a text

4. My trainer meets the fam