At this point we had to cancel our lesson because there was no way we'd make it, and we were going to play Santa Claus and bring some Nigerian members some gifts donated by the ward members. We had to have the other elders drop us off at the Lowe building, with flat bikes. We stored the gifts at Darlene's house so the kids wouldn't be able to find them, and grabbed them on Christmas Eve and dropped them off at about 9:00 pm when they were all asleep so they wouldn't see that it was us. Then we had to book it home to try and make it home on time with flat bikes, we just stuffed them on the bus and tried to get home -- super cool Christmas Eve.
I don't think I'd ever imagine myself in the middle of the Southside of Chicago, with flat bikes and listening to the few Christmas jams I have on my phone waiting to get home. I literally have never been happier. It was an awesome night! Elder Heffner and I got home and went to sleep, woke up early on Christmas morning to go on a morning jog to the other elder’s apartment to borrow some tubes and patches to get through the day. Luckily the weather was awesome those two days! Christmas Eve was actually crazy! Lots of people were out and about and there were sirens like all night. There must have been lots of wild stuff going on! Either way it was the best Christmas Eve of all time!
On Christmas day we fixed our bikes and rode to the bishop’s house for a breakfast and then to the church for district council. All the elders got together and went to the Lowe building and sang to a few recent converts and they loved it even though we sounded awful haha!
That evening Elder Heffner and I went to a recent convert’s house named Virgie, and she made us a Christmas feast! She made Greens, dressing, (I guess that's what African American people call stuffing) ham, Sweet potato pie, red velvet cake, and she insisted we eat all of it. We were stuffed full after and then had to jet to another appointment like 6 miles away. We rode there super-fast and it was awesome. But when we walked in, the Nigerian family we were visiting who is in our ward, put a massive ice chest full of rice on the table and said that all of the elders were not leaving until we had finished it. Elder Heffner and I were already stuffed and could not contribute more than a couple spoonfuls of rice, and the other elders there on their own haha.
When we were all about to burst and had no hope left, we realized we had probably only eaten 1/8 of the rice given to us, we ran out to the car, grabbed a big garbage bag and hid it on our laps. We put probably 3 pounds of rice into this garbage bag and stuffed it in my massive bag pack when nobody was looking haha! AND THEY STILL GAVE US A MASSIVE PLATTER TO GO! Good thing I'm in a bike area or else I would literally be huge. The portion sizes are unreal haha. It was pretty good though.
That night we started an exchange with a district leader Elder Noble and I went to south shore with him which is a super sick place and they do a lot of contacting right by this African store so we hit that place up and got some new Nigerian people to teach which was sick! It was a super good day with lots of good finding.
The next day it was good to be back with Elder Heffner in our area, and it turns out while on the exchange they had gotten two more flat tires so I think we were having some major bad luck. One investigator in our teaching pool said we could come by and he offered us some food! So naturally we said yes even though we had just eaten lunch and biked and drank tons of water. He made white rice and chicken with pepper stew. This pepper stew officially broke the record for the hottest thing I have eaten in my time here, and in my entire life. It was so hot we were sweating, coughing, snotting up and we're even crying if we shut our mouth haha. We were breathing heavy this stuff was HOT! But we were able to put it all down and teach the lesson with red faces.
The funniest part was when we hopped on the elevator after; we went down one floor before Elder Heffner grabbed my arm and pulled me off, and the proceeded to throw up everywhere on floor 19. One of our formers we were teaching saw us and let us use his bathroom to clean up and stuff, but poor Elder Heffner is still trying to adjust to the spice haha! Good times.
On Saturday night one of my old companions Elder Dodson came to visit the mission and took us out to grab some Giordano’s pizza which was legendary! His mom was a little paranoid to be on the south side at night, but I had no fears in the world as we were right by the church in Hyde Park, the nicest part of our ward boundaries. It is actually in the sister’s area because it's so nice! Then the people next to us proceeded to start screaming at each other and beating each other up until the manager screamed at them and chased them out, and called the police. It was pretty sad that my past comps family had to feel endangered, but at least they got to experience the south side! And it was great pizza!
That's about it for our week, we got another flat on Sunday on the way to church but we're able to make it. Got soaked on the bike and I've been loving every minute of it!
Hope everyone has an absolutely amazing week!
Elder Jensen
PICS:
Virgie feast
Hood hotel 
Edibo family presents and tree
Being Santa on Christmas Eve
Christmas morning jog
Infinite Jolloff Rice
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