Elder Jeremy Jensen: Sept. 4th, 2012, Susquehanna River, Autumn's Baptism

Waz up?? 4 Sept. 2012

Well we had a great week, had some really cool things happen this past week. I will start at the beginning like usual. So Monday night we had our 2nd lesson appointment with Leslie. We went over with Brother House, and when we walked through the door she showed us a list of questions that she had written down while reading the Restoration pamphlet. Which for me was a good sign and made me pretty happy. So we taught the 2nd half of the Restoration and answered her questions as the lesson went on. We gave her a Book of Mormon last time, and she had read the introduction and witnesses and started the beginning of 1 Nephi. She already knew about the Lamanites and Nephites and Moroni without us telling her about them. (Someone did her homework;) So it was pretty awesome. She's been telling us that she wants to make things right with her Maker as she gets older, and to build stronger faith. So we tied it all together and told her the way to do all of that was by living the gospel and being baptized. So.... we were able to set her with a Baptism date of November 4th. Which I realized after the lesson is the day that I got baptized, so that’s kind of cool. We were super happy after the lesson. She is also very anxious to come to our church. She doesn't really want to come alone, but she said she would if she had to. She's trying to get her sister to come with her. So to help her out, we offered to give her a church tour later in the week to show her around the building while its empty, and she liked that idea. Tuesday morning we found a new investigator named Gary in Quakertown. He's retired military, were seeing him on Wednesday so I will let you know how that goes. Then we saw Kathy she's the Less Active Recent Convert I’ve mentioned before. We taught her about the Book of Mormon, what it is and why it’s important to read. I think it went pretty well, and we were able to have her pick a Sunday in September that she would come back to church again. That night we went and saw the Kelly Family with Brother House. It went well; a little frustrating cause Sister Kelly just wants the "Good family message" that we share without the commitments or rules. Brother Kelly is a little different and he's finally starting to accept everything. He said, "you know these Mormons know what they are doing, I think they are right" :) We are going back over tonight and were going to show them the Family Proclamation, so we will see how that goes. Wednesday was our Zone Conference up to Harmony, PA (now Oakland, PA) I'm just copy and pasting what I wrote from my journal about the day: "Today was really cool. We had our Zone Conference at the Aaronic Priesthood site up @ Susquehanna. We had to wake up at 5:15AM to be ready in time. We were pretty rushed to make it there by 7:00. I was going fast on the freeway ;) but we got there in time. Turns out they told everyone 7 to be safe. The Bus didn't show up until 8... So we waited around in the parking lot and talked to other missionaries. The bus finally got there and we started the ride up. They had us study a little bit. The ride was about 2 hrs. All we saw was trees the whole way. We got there about 10:00. Pulled up to the place, we walked out of the bus and shook Presidents hand. First thing we did was all gather in front of the statue and get a group picture. Then we gathered around a grass mound in a circle. I guess the mound was where Joseph & Emma's house was. This is where he translated most of the Book of Mormon. So that was pretty cool to be standing around that and know what happened right in front of us. We sang a song and recited D&C 4. Then we walked across the street where the Hale home was (Emma's parents). There wasn't an actual house, but there was a big fence around the area, and they had started to uncover the foundation of the house. Then we walked to the back of the property, and they had a big tent set up with buckets to sit on. We first heard from Sister Schaefermeyer she talked to us about Emma. Then president had us read part of the Joseph Smith history, and we discussed what happened here. Then we had lunch, most of our MTC group was there so we all ate together. Then we finished JSH. And President gave us some free time to go take pictures of everything and look around. So we had an hour to do that. I got a picture by the Restoration Site sign and the statue. After we had free time, we loaded on the bus and drove down the street just a little and parked. Then we had to walk down a path down to the river. It was pretty cool to actually be at The Susquehanna River. And even cooler, if you look at the picture in the back of your triple combination of the Susquehanna River, we were in that exact spot! Pretty cool beans. So we had some time to walk around and take pictures and talk etc. Then they had us gather around and sing a song, and then they had the departing missionaries bare their testimonies. Then we all walked back to the bus and got on, and started heading back home. I was super tired. Then we got back to the Whitehall chapel around 7:00ish. We then went over to the Hillmans, because they needed some help moving. There were a lot of people there to help so it went pretty fast.

So yeah it was pretty awesome to go and see all of that. Thursday we had District Meeting. We were supposed to see Leslie that night. But her son that is serving in the Military was home for a few days and she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. So we had to reschedule her appointment. But we had dinner with the Waters - the new couple from Utah that just moved in. They are really cool, we like them a lot. Friday - nothing to exciting happened, just stopped by a lot of people and did a lot of driving. Then we had dinner with the Cubbage family. Brother Cubbage is the new Branch 2nd counselor.
Ok now Saturday was the best day of the week. In the morning we went and helped Brother Seguine clean his garage out again then had lunch with him and his wife. Saturday was the Best day cause Autumn M. was baptized (My recent Convert - Kevin M. daughter) And I was able to go!! I just asked President and he said I could. So me and my companion drove 20 miles to Doylestown, and met up with Brother Reeve from Medford, and he drove us the rest of the way to Medford, NJ!! I got to see a ton of people from my last ward, and my 2nd companion Elder Fredrickson who is still in that area. (He goes home next week!!) President Schaefermeyer (Mission President), Pres. Corbitt (Stake President) and Pres. Vai Sikahemma (Stake Presidency) were all there!! She had a ton of support from the youth of the Stake and Ward members!! We had to use the Chapel for her baptism, and then move to the Relief Society room to watch her get baptized. It was sooooooooo cool!! Autumn really had no interest in the church or God about a month 1/2 ago. But she has changed so much in the last few weeks. And it was soo cool to see her sitting on the front row in white smiling!! It was a great night, and I got to visit with Kevin’s family and past ward members. We got a ton of pictures!!
Ok now Sunday nothing super exciting again :) But we had church, and it was Fast Sunday. We had a really good sacrament meeting. We had two Less Actives that hadn’t been to church in a long time, get up and bear there testimony and both said they really want to get back to church, etc. So that was cool! Then we had dinner with the Keay's - Less Active older couple. Were going to teach the Quit Smoking Program to them soon.
That was about all for the week!! Oh I also was talking to Kyra M. on Sunday and Monday, and she decided she is going to get Baptized on Oct. 7th. For real this time... hahaha. Because she changed her mind a couple of months ago. Also Dawn M. is very close to getting baptized, probably in the next 1-2 months! So I might be going to Medford a couple times. Oh and a kid I taught in Medford is getting baptized on Sunday! Of course this all happens once I leave! ;)
Have a great week! Hope everyone had a good Labor day! School just started this week here! I can tell summer is almost over because I can kind of tell the leaves are changing a little bit. :( Which makes me sad because I really don’t like winter, especially as a missionary.
Oh and Sunday was my 10 Month mark, forgot to mention that!!!! Cool Beans!
Love,
Elder Jeremy Jensen