Week 68: Working with Patience and the Spirit

Hello everyone! Another week has gone by and I hope it was just as amazing for you as it was for me! This week on Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Larkin! I went over to his area, Bellavista, but I can tell you it's not a very bella vista😂 But it was fun reliving the days when we were comps and joking about old memories. The area is kinda dead so we did a lot of areabook cleaning and finding. We had a lesson with an old lady who cut us off during the first vision video and said she wasn't interested. Awww we hadn't even gotten to the best part yet. But we thanked her for her time and left. We found some cool people, Mairim and Jhonathan, too. But at night we went to the house of a man named Jorge. He isn't a member, but the rest of his family are. They're semi active. Jorge and his pareja (who's a member) aren't married. I shared the story of Abraham and Isaac and posed the question to them, "What are you willing to give up or do in order to follow the God you love even more?" We had a powerful lesson with that and Elder Larkin, man, he can testify. We popped the question for them and asked them if they were willing to follow God and be married. We didn't put them on date for marriage, but they both gave audibles yesses. Hermano Jorge also wants to be baptized so he can guide and bless his beginning family with the priesthood. We showed them some flyers for massive marriages, but ultimately it's up to them to decide when. We can preach all we want but they have agency. We all felt the spirit and afterwards Jorge thanked me for my council and gave Elder Larkin a full on bro hug. We may not have put him on date, but we made significant progress in his journey to becoming a faithful father in the church. Little by little. Our zone is doing a big effort on finding this week, so we dedicated Thursday to finding new people. We mainly just looked at the member list and knocked on all the doors of people who aren't active. If they are there, great, we can try to reactivate them and talk with any family or friends who aren't members. If they're not there, we just start a conversation with whoever answers. We found 3 new people that way this week, with a bunch more contacts. I also felt an where so slight impression to talk with a man sitting on a bench. His name's Victor, and we had a good talk about his job as a painter and other things as well. Then his wife, Aracely, (atleast I hope they're married), came over and we shared a lesson about the Book of Mormon. We'll see what happens with them. I think I'm getting better at recognizing the spirit and following promptings. Of course I'm still not perfect at it, but when I feel something, however small it may be, I can say that it's the spirit and I feel a great calm come over me and I know that the spirit is there. Sometimes I also get into the habit of when someone has a question or a doubt and I listen to them I think that I can say something big that can swade them or I think about what I say, but then I remember that all I need to to is put it all in the Lord’s hands and know that I will know exactly what to say. There's nothing I can say with all my intelect that'll help them understand, so I just say, "OK!" and listen and let the Lord fill my mouth with His words. This week we had some good lessons with hermana Nina. Hermana Ángela vino con nosotros y ellas hablaron muchisimo. They seem like they're already good friends😊 We gave her a blessing of health too. On Saturday we went again and talked about tithing and a little more of the plan of salvation. She started to express some worries about how long of a road the covenant path is but we were able to calm her fears. She complimented me on my patience with her😂 But then she said she wouldn't be able to come to church because she didn't have any gauze. She has breast cancer and bleeds a lot. Luckily, Elder Lopez had some in his backpack and saved the day. We're also teaching two older women who Elder Lopez contacted with, named Marta and Maria, and they're accepting what we teach them. Now we'll just see what we need to do to help them keep commitments. Man patience is such a necessary quality to have as a missionary. Things don't go our way all the time or even very often, and for that it is so important to not worry about things we can't control and instead focus on what we can. We have to see everyone as the people they can become, and that will give us patience to overcome difficulties. Of course that doesn't stop the disappointments and the feelings that come with that, but being able to bear that is a sign of spiritual maturity. On Sunday we called hermana Elis who we had planned to go and get this time to bring to church, even though it would be practically a 50 minute round trip, but she, *sigh*, once again said she was sick. We're at the point where we might drop her. The reason why we've held on so long is because she's done so well at the other commitments of reading, praying, and even watching general conference. We'll see what happens this week. But hermana Nina came (thanks to the gauze) as well as Nayeli. Yessenia and Erick also came, hopefully they can get married soon. But I had to talk some matters over with her so her children's baptismal records could be moved over from their last ward, Chan Chan. And Kahory is still going strong with them! Hermana Nina also wanted us to take a photo with her in front of the baptismal font and send it to her daughter to invite her to her baptism in May. She's just the sweetest. Later we went to San Francisco and met a woman named Erika. Her daughter is autistic and apparently her niece was baptized in our church recently. It's crazy how many people have a relative who's a member. The gospel really is sounding in every ear. Afterwards we came back and talked with a member, Gianmarco, about the mission and his crazy experiences and whether the devil has power here. Did some more finding and that was that. That's it for me for me! I hope you all have a great week and know that you're all in my prayers! Elder Jensen 
 1. Little chicken thingies hermana Aracely gave us after we contacted with her 
2/3. Nina at the chapel 
4. Ran into Deivi at the offices on Friday!💪 
5. This is a normal decoration to have in front of your house, right? 
6. With Elder Larkin in the house of Jorge








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