Nigerian Spice With a Side of Baptisms

This week was just as miraculous if not more miraculous than last week. 

For those of you don't know me, I am paranoid. Especially the week before baptisms. I legit have seen too many people fall away in that last week before a baptism. It is a stressful week. But it all worked out this week! 

We had one of our last lessons with Darlene the day before her baptism, and she was just sitting in front of the window when we walked in, saying that she was "reflecting on her spiritual journey." She told us some personal things that she had been struggling with, including anorexia and depression. She had come from 350 pounds to 100 in like a year and every time she looked in the mirror she said she saw her 350 pound self. Every time we'd meet with her we'd check her fridge and convince her to eat more and more. On Saturday at her baptism she came up out of the water crying and said "I'm free." She gave Brother Clarke one of her main fellow shippers who was baptizing her a huge hug.

We came back the next day after her confirmation and talked with her and she wrote her testimony down which she is so excited to share in church next week and also she wrote and page that talks about how she'd been free from bondage. She said now she looks in the mirror and says "that girl needs a full course meal!" She told us how the gospel had taken her out of a haze and a disorder she didn't know she was in. Every single lesson the first 10 min are: "I'm just so grateful my 3 elders showed me this amazing gospel...." haha you get the point. If there is anyone who I've been able to teach on my mission who understands the gospel and has changed MY life, it's her. Also she met a new friend at church and they're starting to get a little flirty haha. 

Our first lesson after she was baptized she started doing the "I'm grateful" rang and somehow mentioned how John the beloved died peacefully, so naturally we had to show her doctrine and covenants 7 and the end of John where it mentions he doesn't die until Christ comes, and talk about the 3 Nephites... "Oh my goodness there is so much I still don't know! I can't wait to read it all!" She probably has the greatest study ability of anyone I've ever met. 

With Martins we found him on the elevator at the building that we're always in. Said hello in Yoruba their language, he was so hyped that we spoke some of his language, and he was at church that next week and loved it. The dude was also super prepared and absolutely loves going to church! it was a miracle because there was a Nigerian man named Ibukun who got baptized just a little under a year ago and he leads the music every Sunday, and martins recognized him when he came to church. Turns out they grew up together in Nigeria and it was the first time they'd seen each other in years and they both just happened to be at Chicago. Ibukun was able to baptize Martins and it was probably the greatest thing of all time. He dunked him forwards, put his hand to his back halfway through the prayer, and said amen as he was raising him out of the water instead of before he went into the water haha. But the ordinance was done, the prayer was correct, and Martins was immersed. 

Before the baptism I reminded the ward mission leader that it might be good to remind everyone to not film, but it was literally like right before the baptism. So as soon as martins got in the water, his friend Kudi (who were also teaching) got up and started filming it *sigh/facepalm*

After the confirmation, Kudi was on it again haha! So it's possible that Martins posted confirmation pics on FB he was so hyped haha. 

With so many Nigerians at church it definitely makes it a very unique ward! But I love it so much. Lots of simple things that wouldn't be done in a regular Utah ward. One came up to give a talk and said a prayer before his talk, one sang a song and all the Nigerians in the congregation clapped after haha. Utah bishops would flip out. It's OK were slowly getting there. 

Had some of our friends come to church, one of my fav homies is named Kenny, every time you'll ask him how his day was he says, "I am too blessed to be stressed!" Basically it’s the coolest motto of all time. 

Last of all I think we had a wild experience; we were blessed to find another Nigerian family in our favorite building. Pretty devout to their church but from my experience if you can get them in the church at least once they are in -- maybe because it's true or something. But they had us over and were cooking so what do they do? Offer the food! And what do we do? We accept! (Glad my companion is learning haha) but they made these mashed potatoes with what they call Jamaican peppers. I have had plenty of soups with these peppers and they are extremely hot, but this "porridge" was loaded with them. It's hard to smile and say you loved their food when legit you're sweating more than when you play basketball on Mondays. Dead serious. It was obvious haha. So much sweat. From eating peppers. But we ate it all and it was actually super delicious besides the fact that I was on fire! 

I think that's about it for us! It’s been a legendary week and I cannot wait for another one! hope everybody has an amazing week! 

Elder Jensen 

Well, It's Been a Year!

This week has been amazing, phenomenal, and full of miracles and funny moments!

We had an amazing miracle as we were teaching Darlene this week. She has been using a crutch for the last 5 years and was especially in quite a lot of pain one of the times we saw her this past week because of the weather and how it affected her arthritis. She had told us she didn't want us to come by since she was in a lot of pain but she felt the need to have us over. Well that day we had just happened to be teaching her about the priesthood and what it means and so we explained blessings and asked if she would like a blessing of healing. She accepted and so Elder Bodily anointed her with the oil and I gave her a blessing.

During the blessing she gasped and was shaking a little bit so in my head I was like (oh please no don't tell me my hands are too heavy or something, cause I thought they were super light!) Well, after the blessing she looked at us, stood up and grabbed my arm without her crutch and said "let's walk." So she walked out the door and down the hallway holding on to my arm saying "oh wow! It doesn't hurt anymore! Oh wow!" We came back and sat down and she said, "can I do it again?" So this time she grabs Elder Bodily's arm and walks down the hallway and at the very end he says "alright I'm going to let go!" and he let go and she walked on her own for the first time in 5 years. I was standing there at the end of the hallway and she burst into tears and gave me a hug. She was sobbing as she whispered "thank you."

I was shocked and amazed to witness a miracle performed by the priesthood that Elder Bodily and I hold. What a blessing to be able to experience. We made sure to have her write down the experience in her journal so she could always remember it! Finally on this Saturday the Hyde Park ward will be holding a baptismal service and she'll be able to make a covenant with God that she's been waiting to make.

Another absolutely hilarious experience (horrifying for my comp, funny for me), we went to our good friend Martins’ house. Martins is a Nigerian man and is on date for the 24th as well. He was cooking some food when we walked in, so naturally I went and asked about the food that he was making and what it was and he says in his booming voice: "may I offer you some food!" Of course I say yes, because that is what you must do. He made us a plate of fried yam and stew (an extremely spicy stew that was spicy sauce and very rubbery fatty beef) and I began to eat. Now I cannot say that I like Nigerian food, but it's not really hard for me to eat it anymore. I'm able to pound it now.

He turns to Elder Bodily and says: "It is for you too! Go and eat your food!" Poor Elder Bodily did not heed my warnings and said, "No thank you." If I could face palm that is exactly what I would do. Martins turned to him slowly and fiercely and said with his voice raising every syllable: "You do not accept my food? WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO POISON YOU?! YOU ALWAYS ACCEPT FOOD WHEN WE OFFER YOU! IF NOT YOU ARE AN EVIL SPIRIT! YOU DO NOT SAY NO!" Elder Bodily was absolutely horrified. I was trying so hard to hide my laughter so naturally I started to film. So Elder Bodily started eating the yam. Yam basically just tastes like tough potatoes. He's like "this isn't that bad!" Ding dong, didn't even touch the stew yet. I eat all the spicy sauce, and a whole piece of beef and point to the other one and say to him "that one is yours." He refused. So I ate all the fat on the beef for him. And then I told him that was all I was doing for him.

Martins at this point says, "he will not always be there to eat your food! You must finish it or I will not be baptized on the 24th!" Of course he was messing with him, but that made him finish up the food really fast haha. I will probably never stop making fun of him for this and I thought I was the picky eater. It's OK, when salvation is on the line I'll literally eat anything.

This week was the ONE YEAR! I just happened to go on exchanges with Elder Bell, my MTC buddy on that day. He burned a shirt, I decided I'd keep mine for wearing haha. We went into our journals and read the entry from our first day in the mission. It was pretty funny I cannot lie. We went ham  and he told me it might be a good time to broaden our horizons and start trying to find people outside the one building we have because we've just about talked to everyone in there. So we decided to start doing the hood contacting. We walk around the streets on the Southside and see all these families who are just chilling on their porch. They'll pretty much always let you teach them, but very often you'll never see them again so it's a risk. But it's been really fun. A lot more dangerous areas and a lot of people are like "oh don't go that way there was a shooting just like 2 hours ago" and we are like” thank yo, do you want a message from God” And it's pretty gnarly! So we had a lot of fun and probably was the unhealthiest day of my life since we had a lot of Oreos.

Last off a couple nights ago we were in our fav building stopping by with a few more people to end the night and we stopped by this one dude we were teaching named Tayo. As we were talking to him we hear a loud "BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM" I'm like "why are people doing fireworks in the building?" But also this building has a butt load of crazies, Nigerians and then a bunch of hood drug dealers who all love us. So anyways we get on the elevator to go to our car and it was stopping like every floor and everyone was getting on looking severely stressed. We discovered from the conversation that there had been a shooting right in front of the building just barely and everyone was going to see what had happened and if their cars / friends were all OK. There was a drive by and definitely some cars got shot and someone was shot and most likely killed. Cops were everywhere instantly. It sufficeth me to say we dipped from the scene haha. We always park on the side so our car was OK but it was insane! The next day everyone had acted like nothing had happened. #southside

The cool thing is we literally never feel scared. But don't worry we're not stupid haha. These terrible things happening are signs of even more people being prepared for the gospel. There are so many prepared people in this sad place. It's hell for everyone who lives here, but it's missionary heaven. 

Well, last night we had some more Nigerian food and my comp got wrecked again and I ate tons of Nigerian food. It was pretty funky not going to lie. Tons of fish and I hate fish (I'm still winning the bet against Broden Lund) but the lord is my strength and I ate it all. My companion luckily got an Americanized Nigerian so she let him take it to go haha.

I LOVE THIS PLACE! I hope everyone has an amazing week and is doing well! Have a good one!

Elder Jensen 

 Elder Bell

Darlene

Benjamin and Febisola 

The Greenie in the City

Oh my goodness this week has been super crazy busy. It started legendary with last pday, our main man Elder English (who is actually a Spanish speaking missionary) was about to go home so we had to go hit the beach for an early morning sunrise. It was sick. We had a super tight district and I absolutely love being here with my brothers. We definitely had a drink that may have had caffeine and I was going nuts again. Ultra hype. Then we stopped by pretty much everyone so Elder Van Tassell could say goodbye to everyone. He will definitely be missed. All these Nigerians might protest against the mission office haha.

Also Elder Van Tassell and I needed a haircut super bad so we were like "yo any of you missionaries down?" None of them had a haircutting kit! So we decided to stop by one of those little hole in the wall places to get a haircut. Anyways she cuts my hair and lets me see it and is like "how does it look?" It literally looked like I had a chocolate brick on my head. So I was like "yeah could you maybe go a little rounder and shorten it a bit?" Wrong thing to say. She literally cut my hair so short that I officially looked like buzz lightyear. Not good haha. The first thing my new comp sees is Elder Buzz racing to meet him literally with hype from infinity and beyond. 

The real craziness started on Tuesday with transfers. We went out west to Naperville (old area baby) and I was literally able to drive though these gnarly Indian neighborhoods I used to knock haha. They had a big council for all the trainers to discuss the needs for those we will be training, etc. They then introduced us to the new missionaries! Thank goodness I got a total stud named Elder Bodily! I can only imagine the amazing missionary he is going to become! He's way bold, talks to everyone he comes in contact which I love cause I was not good at that at the beginning.

So that began our adventures of having meetings just about every day this week. New missionary/trainer meeting on Tuesday, district council on Wednesday, MLC was on Thursday, and we had a big meeting on Friday as a whole zone because president Shumway is making some changes and he left the zone leaders in charge of it. It was a stressful week haha. Being a zone leader and trainer at the same time is wild. 

So MLC was sick. President Shumway is an amazing mission president and he is making some inspired changes! It's been super exciting to be a part of it and he's giving all of us quite a bit of responsibility. He is training us to be A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST! What a legend.

So this week I was able to show the young one the south side of Chicago. Pretty sure my man was very stressed that he was going to die, but he's relaxed quite a bit. I will tell you something that stressed me though, first thing he mentioned is that he's an extremely picky eater, and as we all know Nigerians will be waaayyyy offended if you do not eat all their food. My man had some Moimoi this week and it's basically like a meatloaf, except it's filled with fish, egg, peppers, and a bunch of mystery meat/breaded stuff. He only had the heart to eat one loaf and made me pound like 3. Yeah that was stressful. Also he hates Nigerian soda which is understandable because it tastes like spaghettio's but soda. We survived the ordeal thank goodness and found a new person in the process!

So I'll tell you a little more about my man. He's from Preston ID which is where Napolean Dynamite was filmed! How cool is that! He's like a BMX biker and stuff. And he loves St. George and said he might go to Dixie one day!

This is a hype time for missionary work! We have recently baptized like 3 families from this one building, and now we've been stopping by and continuing to teach those in the building. However we've talked to almost everybody there and by the next baptismal service we'll have 2 more people from that building: Darlene and Martins. So we might switch off going there every day and hitting a different part of the area, something my new companion suggested. We'll see how it works! We’re going to start talking to more of those in the hood! Should be exciting! 

I think that's mostly about it for the week! I hope everyone is doing amazing and has a legendary week! 

Last Week of the Transfer

Good morning and happy Monday! This was the last week of the transfer and we made the most of it but we were sad to hear our transfer news last night! Elder Van Tassell is going to Griffith Indiana and I'll be staying here as a split zone leader with the Spanish zone, and I'll also be training! Should be some super exciting times!

This week was pretty great! We had a, phenomenal district council and one of the missionaries going home gave a training that was legendary. It was sick. Like almost on president’s level!

I got to go on exchanges with my buddy Elder Bell's trainee and his name is Elder Bennion. He's a stud and it was a pretty good time!

Also they took our car to go to New Missionary Training so we were on bikes for the day! It was super fun and I didn't biff it hard like I did in the past.

Saw some miracles this week - were teaching this guy from Nigeria named Martins, he's super awesome. He invited his roommate, Kudi, to come to church and she came. She came and we told her about Martin’s baptism that's coming up on the 24th and she said she wants to be baptized the next month after Martins! It was super exciting!

Our friend Darlene is still reading the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price like crazy. Every single time we come to a lesson she always says "I didn't know what I didn't know until you showed me what I didn't know! Why don't more people listen to you!" She also told us that when she had moved from Wisconsin she left an extremely nice bible behind and was so sad she had lost her nice Bible. She prayed that God would provide another Bible that was nicer than the one she had. She mentioned she was so excited to have a complete new record of Jesus Christ and it was better than anything she had ever imagined! We're so excited for her to be baptized on the 24th! She's so prepared.

Oh and last thing that was crazy! We went to one of our investigator’s houses and her daughter was out in the front twerking like a crazy person and we were like "whatever it's the Southside, stuff like this happens all the time." So we walk up to the door and she looks at Elder Van Tassell and she says "I'm going to marry you." And she jumps on Elder Van Tassell and gives him a hug and literally raps her legs around him. My man literally screamed and pushed her away. Anyway she was laughing and walked into the house and we peeked in and our investigator we were teaching invited us in so we went and taught her, and her crazy daughter kept making suggestive movements toward Elder Van Tassell and invited him to come to the back room with her. We decided to cut the study short and flee like Joseph in Egypt haha. As we were running away she yelled "once you go black you never go back!" Anyways, that was pretty wild haha. 

I'm going to keep it short this week, but I hope everyone has an amazing week!

Elder Jensen