Oh my
goodness gracious. This has absolutely been one of the most eventful weeks in
my entire mission.
My new area: the Hyde
Park ward. Now there are 4 sets of missionaries in the Hyde Park ward. I'm
convinced this is one of the highest baptizing wards in the United States. My
new companion and I cover an area called Englewood.
Englewood is like the Promised
Land. You occasionally hear gunshots in the distance, see people peel out of
nowhere trying to run from the homicide they just committed, you know the usual
haha. There are cops like everywhere. We're like the only people who are white
and now when you see a white person you're like "that guy looks ridiculous
what is he even doing here." However this area is extremely busy, and it's
because the missionaries have found an extremely high concentration of
Nigerians in this area.
Nigerians are
generally the most elect people you'll ever find -- humble and open-minded,
ready to receive the gospel. In our area there is one building, we call it the
Lowe building. It is so big and probably has 1000 people living in it, 800 of
which are Nigerians. It's absolutely phenomenal. The missionaries here got one
referral from that building (it's a building with security so you couldn't just
walk in) and then they asked them if they know any friends, and then they asked
them if they'd have any friends and on and on. There have been like 20 converts
in this one building.
This week we had
literally 7 baptisms, from that one building. The Hyde Park ward has so many
baptisms that they only do a baptismal service once a month so that ward
members can come and support! It’s insane. So although my new area might be
super sketchy it's really not because we are actually in this building teaching
Nigerian people all day. They are some of the most amazing people I've ever
gotten to meet!
So this week I got to
learn a ton about the African culture! Our ward has had so many Nigerians
joining in the last year, that at this point it’s probably 15% Nigerian. Our
missionaries are now able to travel slightly outside of the area to nearer
wards to teach Nigerians. There are so many Nigerians in the ward that we were
able to get general authority approval to do it! So this week the ward had a
super awesome event called Nigeria night! They had plenty of different African
dishes, African dancing African clothes, etc. One of the people we were
teaching gave me a Kampala so we were walking into Nigeria night looking extra
fly. It was super awesome!
So the two families
who got baptized this weekend are absolutely amazing. I was really only able to
help teach the last couple lessons to help prepare them for baptism, but it was
super exciting! one is a single mom named precious, who has like 5 kids. They
have some pretty gnarly African names like "Goodluck," "Goodness,"
and "Goodnews." They are some of the most prepared and elect people
I've ever seen! Another family was a couple with their son, named Segun,
Victoria, and Nifemi. They are also super elect! We’ve been able to find some
more elect this week because the Nigerians are so good at giving us referrals! The
missionary work excitement is spreading like wildfire throughout the ward and
this single building is seriously probably going to be like 50% members of the
church within 2 years. However people move in an out constantly as well which
means more people to find and teach!
We also teach a few
African American people, some living in the building and others living outside
the building. They excessively use the word finna and it's pretty
legendary.
My new companion is
named Elder Van Tassell and he's pretty much a Santa Clara Gubler boy, the rancher, farmer, wrestler, fisher with a
toothpick always in his mouth sorta guy. The man exercises like crazy in the
morning and I swear he has like infinite energy. It's super hard to keep up
with him haha! He wakes up early to exercise and goes to bed as late as he can
to study. He says that a missionary who gets more than 8 hours of sleep isn't
doing it right. The man is a flipping beast!
Oh! And I finally saw
Elder Avery schmutz at transfers! He was just getting ready to get headed home!
But it was pretty cool to see someone from the home ward!
I'd say that's about
it for my week! This place is the Promised Land! I've never been more tired
than now but I've never been happier either! Hope everyone has an amazing
week!
Elder Jensen
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