Service Aug. 20th, 2012

What up,                                                                                                          Aug. 20, 2012

So we had a pretty good past week. Good news, we haven't had any bed bugs for 3 1/2 weeks, and last Monday we bought vinyl mattress covers, so that should for sure take care of them. Lets see... Monday- after P Day was over we went and helped a family that used to be in the branch, get their stuff out of a storage unit. The unit was packed!!! It was kind of a mess, a lot of stuff was just thrown in. They had all this random stuff like a few sinks and lots of doorknobs, light fixtures etc.  So we helped them most of our night because they had to have all their stuff out by the next day.  Tuesday - we went and saw a less active recent convert. We have been meeting with her once a week for a few weeks. We've just been reading the Book of Mormon with her. After that we went and taught Jessie, (she's the girl in the picture I sent last week) She was baptized in the fall and were reviewing everything with her before she leaves to college this week. That night we had dinner with the Crawfords. Sister Crawford is a member but he is not. They are both super nice and we had a good time with them. They sent us home with lots of cookies and a full Angel Food cake! Which was sweet. Then we went and taught the Kelly's with Brother House. We taught the restoration, and even though the missionaries have taught them for almost a year, they didn't know what the word apostasy meant. So were going slow through the lessons to make sure they get all the key points. Wednesday - In the morning we went with Bruce to go work on the new school. We helped frame some walls with the metal studs, which is a lot easier and lighter then using wood. Were going to go back over this week and start doing sheetrock. That night we went over to the Seguines for dinner. Which was really good. Then we started teaching them the Plan of Salvation. After that we went next door to their neighbor - Leslie's house to have our first visit with her. We had Brother House come with us. She is Mennonite, which I hadn’t really heard of until I came over here. But I guess Mennonites are like the Amish people, but she's a less strict Mennonite I guess, because she uses all the Modern technology etc. all that stuff. So we told her about our church, and she actually believes a lot of stuff we do. I guess her church just got a new pastor and she doesn't really like the way he does things. So she's looking for a new church. Cool thing about our church is it’s the same no matter who the Bishop is. ;) She thought it was really cool/crazy that the leadership in our church isn't paid. But the visit went really well and she said she really wanted to come to our church to see what it was like, and she said she would bring her sister because she’s in the same situation. (She didn't come to church yesterday, she said she wasn't sure if she would come that soon but probably for sure this next Sunday).  Thursday -We had District Meeting. Then after that I went on exchange with Elder North in my area.  We went and helped an investigator weed his garden. Which was basically a weed garden, we made the biggest pile of weeds I’ve ever seen. Then we taught him. Then headed over to the Hillmans for dinner. Friday- me and Elder North went over to Danny's and helped him with painting his fence. Then we went over to Brother Hinkels, we helped him with his yard and replanted a tree. Then filled in a million holes in his lawn that bee's had dug, long story…  That night we went over to the Seguines and taught them. Saturday- was interesting. We were invited to go to a funeral. It was for a Less Active lady that had just died.  They wanted us to say the prayers. So we showed up early helped some of the members out. Then the husband showed up, with another member family of our ward. I figured the rest of the family were on the way from the cemetery...nope. The husband was the only member of the family at the memorial service, the rest of the family didn’t feel like coming. So it was like 6 members who were there to help with the food and program and the husband... So that was interesting. I was expecting a lot of family members. So it was a really small group and all of the people there were people from the branch. Then the rest of the night we stopped by some less actives and formers. We met with the Monroe Family and shared a message with them. Sunday - was a good day, church was good. We had a new young couple move into the Branch a few days ago from BYU. They are really cool!!! It was so cool to talk to people from Utah, and especially around the Utah county area. The Haws invited us and the new couple, (Mark and Isabella Waters) over for dinner. So we got to know them a little better. Turns out Marks Aunt is Diane, the lady mom works with at the Library! He knew what the Purple Turtle was! So that was pretty cool. Then after that we went over to the Adam's family’s house. They are a member family also.
So stuff in our Branch is about to change. Our Branch President just moved, our RS president is about to move, and we have another family moving. So the leadership is going to be changing soon.
Everything is going good in my area. We are on week 4 of this transfer (out of 6). Things are slowly picking up. Pretty soon I will hit my 10-month mark! Crazy stuff. I’m starting to finally feel like an experienced missionary. haha which sounds funny. But I now feel pretty confident with the lessons and being able to answer people’s questions etc. On August 29th we will be going up to Susquehanna (Harmony, PA) for Zone Conference!! So that will be really cool. I will take lots of pictures!
So that’s about it! I have a ton of letters to write back to people today. We also have to go do the emissions and inspection on our car today, because we just found out it expired last month... ;)
Have a great week. Thanks for everything!
-Elder Jeremy Jensen

Jessie