boom outta here

September 21, 2009

 

September 21, 2009

 

´m outta here!

Welp, its time to head ´em up and roll ´em out. Elder Jensen is out.

We'll start from the beginning of this week. We had a baptism lined up for Saturday, so we were going standard from the beginning. We started out having 3 member present lessons on Monday. That was incredible—its HARD to teach 3 lessons Monday because you only have 3 hours working. But, things were falling in place as they always do standard week. That was just a sign of the great week.

Tuesday we had a crazy morning. At 7:40, Gonzalo came over looking for breakfast (he's addicted to the German pancakes I make), so if threw one in the oven. Then, at 7:57, the Assistants called me to tell us that they and President were coming to our district meeting that day. Oh no! Got to make it good! At 8:07 hno. Oñate came to visit us on his way to work and we talked for about 5 minutes about home teaching or something. Oh no—it was a talk he was supposed to give on Sunday that he wanted help with. He left and I started planning our District Meeting again. Gonzalo ate with us and then stayed and did personal study with us till 9 when he left to go to seminary. Good man. At 8:40 the assistants called again to tell us that they had a problem and weren't coming. Blast. 8:46 Gladys (another member of the ward) comes over to drop off a letter to send to another missionary). At 9:17 the assistants called to say they were coming. We then missed the bus and the hermanas did too, so we had the assistants pick us up on their way over to Roca. It was quite the morning. But we had a GREAT district meeting. I think they came because our district had an average of 175 contacts that past week. WOW. That is INCREDIBLE, and president was really proud of our district.

I did divisions down in Roca that day and we taught 4 more w- member and a pair of others. I has having my comp practice navigating our area for the doubt that I was leaving. He did alright.

We had a normal standard week and all, and we just have such an awesome area. We ended the week with 15 with member. That's my highest total ever. We also ended with 15 other lessons—totaling 30 on the week. It was an incredible week. I am so happy here. The whole week I was with anguish trying to figure out if I was out or no. It was killing me—I don't want to leave at all. I have way too many investigators here! Way too many awesome converts!

We had a great comp study on Friday morning. I basically gave my comp a sermon. It was really good, and I felt the spirit really strongly guiding me and saying things I needed to say to him. It was a really powerful chat, and it helped my comp a lot. He has what I had the first week of my mission X1000. It kills him everyday and is a huge fight to keep the adversary from putting thoughts into his mind and telling him he's not worthy and stuff like that. I gave him a strong chat from all the things that have helped me—letter from dad, a huge chain of scriptures, a few things from PME. It was great. I just started rolling; he took out a paper and just started writing. It was probably the closest thing I'm ever going to have to my own book in the bible—1st Jensalonians. It was a really powerful spiritual experience, and helped me understand a bit of why I am training him.

Baptism day rolls around and we go have an interview for our baptism for next Saturday the 26th. He passed, and we're excited for his baptism. We started filling the font and it was going great. We then went back to the church an hour before the baptism and they had cut the water in that part of Allen (it happens all the time…they cut it once a week ish) and we were stuck. Christian would have had to lay down and have my comp sitting on him to get him all the way under. It was a mess. We decided something must be done. We ran over to the fire station a block away and hired a truck to come fill our font with water. It was great… the truck pulled up right to the door of the church and put the hose in and let loose. The only problem—the water was not very clean! We had greenish brownish water to baptize in!! It was the closest I'm ever coming to a river baptism, I guess. But after fixing that whole problem, we settled in and had a very nice baptism. It was a very very tender moment for me and my companion. He has been so nervous and so worried if he should be here or is worthy or what not and has just been going crazy (he goes into frenzies sometimes). I saw he was getting anxious and pulled him aside before the baptism, gave him a hug, put our heads touching and gave him a pep chat. It was very tender thing, and I really felt the spirit, and I think I have finally found out why I am his trainer. I literally have taken him under my arm and led him, and its something that I wont forget. It's something that hasn't been easy, but I know that I have had a lasting effect on him and his mission and the way he views himself.

I stood on the stairs to watch the baptism. He said the prayer SLOWLY, and deliberately. It was great. Such determination to baptize our buddy. He nailed it. It was perfect, and I just felt the spirit so strong. I haven't been that happy in a long time. This baptism was really special; just because of all the struggles my comp has been through. After the baptism ended, I cornered my comp and gave him a huge hug. It lasted probably 2 or 3 minutes. It was something really special. I know that I feel cheesy saying it, but I really feel proud of him like a dad feels proud of his son when his son overcomes something or does something special. It's something that I'm not going to forget—the joy I saw on his face knowing he had just done something and overcome the challenges that are in his life.

The rest of the night was spent making sure that all of our people were coming to church and being nervous about the transfer calls. I had been thinking the whole day I was leaving, then staying, then leaving then staying. It was a mess. But---HERES THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I¨M OUT! to JUNIN DE LOS ANDES!!!!!! The craziest part of it all—my comp is coming with me! We're whitewashing the area, and they are closing our area. Now the hermanas have all of Allen. I was devastated. We have a lot of missionaries that are leaving and very few coming, so they had to take missionaries out of areas where there are more than one set in a ward. I thought they were going to bump the hermanas because we had all these fechas and baptisms, but nope. We called up president for his thoughts and he said Junín has struggled and so has san martin de los Andes. Now they're white washing it to get it back up and for me to be District Leader and get San martin working better too. He said it's going to be a big challenge over there, but after coming to District meeting, he has no doubts. Welp, I'll go and do what the Lord commands. We were pretty stunned, and began trying to figure it all out. I then looked up on the wall where my comp had written ´trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding (proverbs 3:5) ´ well, I don't understand it at all, but we'll go to work. We were supposed to leave today at 9 in the morning, but we called and got it changed to Wednesday so we can clean our house up and pack and introduce the hermanas to all our investigators. Its a BIG load what they have now, and I just hope that our investigators can make the switch. The members were devastated. They always tell us they love the hermanas, but they like our spirits and smiles and energy. I just hope that our fechas can keep going and get baptized, and we don't lose anyone in the switch. We'll pray for the best.

Church was interesting. I had to give a talk for said Oñate, who went to see the missionary who baptized him (who is going home now), so I had the talk. It was charity and amor. I was sitting in sacrament meeting and turned around and saw hermana. Marquez and Tamara and I started getting choked up. Then it was my turn to talk. I made the announcement we were leaving and everyone was like ´what!?´ I then told them I love onions, and eat them a lot and so if they see tears, it's because of that and not because I'm sad I'm leaving. I read my first scripture in Moroni 7 and started choking up. Then I went to ether 12 and was reading another one and the tears started. I just then shut my scriptures and went into my goodbye speech, giving my testimony, testifying of Gods love for us, and just sharing the things that mean the most to me. I talked about the love I've seen and felt in the ward. The whole time my eyes are just running. At one point I took a pause to kinda gather my self and just said ´darn onions´ haha. It was an emotional day—a lot of the hermanas in the church were crying, then Christian and his brother were real real sad and crying in the bathroom and so was Victor Panero. We've made a big impact in this ward. I know that I was supposed to come here, and I walk away with an incredible amount of memories and really sacred spiritual experiences that I haven't shared in emails. It is really hard for me to leave here, and I pray that my boys stay active. I've heard a lot of my Trelew boys have fallen already. I just pray that I've put enough of a support system in here to keep these people active. This has been a really great place for me and has pushed me hard. Now it's time to pack up and roll out. I look forward to the challenges that lay in front of me, and I leave here knowing that these people have strong testimonies and are going to keep growing strong. I love this place and all the things its done for me. I leave behind a ton of great friends that I'll connect with again on facebook. I know that I'm not done eating onions, but I hope I can make it out of here without crying too much.

PS.   The box made it on time and had the perfect amount of shirts and ties to give to my people. THANKS SO MUCH IT MAKES SUCH A DIFFERENCE!!! The people here need that kind of stuff.

I love you all so much
TJ