One super cool miracle
is there was an older African American lady who asked us if she could have a
free Bible! She lived in the building where just about all of our Nigerian
friends live so it was of no inconvenience. We dropped by and her name was
Darlene, we asked if we could share a message with her. We walked in her
apartment and there were literally pictures of Jesus everywhere, 3 huge study
bibles lying around. She loves Jesus and praying and reading the Bible. I
thought "OK this is either going to be really good or really bad." We
were able to give Darlene her Bible and teach her about the restoration. I kid
you not this lesson felt like it was in the district or something it was like a
perfect lesson! She was so engaged and when we mentioned the Book of Mormon her
eyes went super wide and she snatched that thing out of our hands super-fast!
We talked about the Book
of Mormon and what it is and she was freaking out and was so excited to read
it! We left her with the invitation to read it and came back a couple of days
later. When we came back she had these little decorations on her Book of Mormon
and she told us she had read 7 chapters, and had lots of questions. She told us
one of her main questions was why we were elders when we were so young! Then she
mentioned that she had asked God this question and found a picture of Jesus as
a 12 year old teaching soon after and felt like God had answered her questions.
She literally showed us her notes that she took while she was reading and I'm
pretty sure she knows how to study the Book of Mormon and seek revelation way
better than I do! She’s super awesome and it was a really awesome experience to
teach her! She also said she's going to make it to church this next week so
we're pumped!
Also we taught this
other lady named Virgie who is fluent in Ebonics and every time it says
"ye" in the Book of Mormon she changes it to "y’all." I was
trying so hard not to laugh during our lesson it was awesome haha. "And
when y’all receive these things are y’all finna ask God or what?" - Moroni
10 Virgie style
So there's this
religion on the Southside and they're called Hebrew Israelites. Naturally they
believe Jesus was black and that all African American people are the real
descendants of the Jews and that they are the only people who have the
privilege of being called the house of Israel. They stand on the corner of the
streets on the weekends in these long purple robes and yell through a megaphone
for like 3 hours. They also refuse to shake our hands, I'm not sure if it’s
because they don't like white people, or missionaries. But these people crack
me up.
One thing is for sure though;
they're definitely not the elect, so we generally try to avoid them. Besides
all they'll ask is like "what color is Jesus?" and of course they'll
pull out the scripture that says Christ's feet were like brass or something
like that. You just have to say "It doesn't matter if he was black brown
white or green as long as he's my Savior," and they pretty much lose their
minds and condemn you to hell. It’s one of those things where you're like
"wow bro I'm literally telling you that the authority from God to bind
families eternally has been restored, and all you have to offer is knowledge of
Christ's skin color."
We had our legendary
4th of July this week which was literally insane. Usually holidays are awful
but we were still able to have 7 lessons that day which I was pumped about.
That night there were so many fireworks (well I think they were fireworks) that
it sounded like we were in a battle zone or something.
We were able to meet
our new mission president this week president Shumway and his family. He's a
younger guy and has 4 kids, ones on a mission and the other 3 are still in
school! I really admire him and his family for coming out on a mission with all
the kids still in school. It'd be super crazy to take on that role of being a
mission president. He's a really awesome man and I'm excited to learn a lot
from him!
We went on exchanges
this week and I went to the Morgan Park ward with Elder west! We spent most of
our time in a neighborhood called Chatham (still on the Southside, the Southside
is huge, the city is huge!) but it's where Chance the rapper grew up, so that's
pretty cool. Of course Elder Dodson told me how easy it was to contact down
there because that's where he served so all I had to do was say to some
neighborhood homie walking around "Hey brother, did you get your daily
dose of the word?" And he just comes walking right over to me and we talk
about God and they all say the same things about God, "Well he woke me up
this morning man, every day is a blessing." Then you share a scripture and
pretty much always get their phone number and address, and there is a pretty
high chance you'll never see them again.
On the exchange we
contacted this one lady right outside her car and we were just talking about
how she was doing and she told us not so good and says "this happened last
night" and her car had tons of bullet holes in it and the windows were
shattered! Pretty crazy business happens after 11:00 it sounds like haha. I
honestly don't get why so many shootings happen here because like these are
some nice people. This place is fantastic! I must admit though I have never
seen so many cops in my life! It’s super crazy! I'm sure if anybody wants to be
a cop there are plenty of job openings on the Southside of Chicago!
There is a law of
opposition in all things. Chicago might be a super corrupt city, but there are
so many elect here on the Southside it's unreal. It's been an absolutely
amazing miracle and privilege to be able to be a part of it!
Hope everyone has and
awesome week!
Elder Jensen
Pics:
Exchanges
This is flippin
America
Black Jesus and Black Captain America -- this must be the Southside
For some reason all
the Nigerian kids love playing with my hair
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