Not a recent picture of Jenson, but one that his first companion in the mission field posted on Facebook. I love to see how much he as grown and developed this past year and half
Dear All,
So this week was pretty cool. We only worked in our area for
like 3 days in total because of all the meetings and conferences and stuff, but
we ended up having equal or better numbers than most of the zone, so that
either says a lot about how we are working or how the rest are working haha.
But yeah this was a week of miracles. I'll do my best to remember them all.
One, we have an investigator here (I still don't know who
she is) but my companion told me that she is super chosen, but she got cancer a
few weeks ago and is in the hospital getting chemo right now. So anyway we went
to the hospital to see her and give her a blessing and stuff, and to get into
hospitals it is kind of hard here (maybe it is the US too but I can honestly
say I have never tried to get into a hospital in the US so I don't really
know.) But we had to pass by two security guards. The first one we just pulled
a Mission Impossible and walked by confidently and he just assumed we knew what
we were doing. The second one wasn't so easy. She asked us for our passes,
which we defintely didn't have. So we back off a little and try calling the
investigator, who hadn't answered all day. As we call, a nurse comes up to us
and says "Hey, Elders what are you doing here?" and we explained that
we wanted to go give a blessing to the person. She asked us what bed she was
in, which we didn't know. BUT in that very moment the investigator's husband
answered the phone. We asked him right then and there what bed she was in, and
told the nurse. She takes us over to security #2 and tells her that we are
representatives of Jesus Christ and we won't be longer than 10 minutes. Not
sure how it happened, but we got in. She told us which elevator to go up, where
to go, and everything. And then she was like "Yeah I'm an RM". Woah
cool. So we went up, and the lady wasn't there, but we left a note on her bed.
When we came back down, friendly nurse wasn't there anymore, and neither was
the security guard. You can take that as you will.
Another was that I almost, but didn't, get arrested
hardcore. But before I tell that story, here's another one.
My companion has some converts here in this ward who were
going to move. We tried all week to visit them, but because of already
mentioned meetings we just couldn't until Friday, which was they day that they
were going to leave. So we get to their house, knock, and no one comes out. We
were like dang, looks like they already left. My comp was pretty sad. But then
as we turn to leave, we decided to knock the house next door, where the mom of
this family lived. So we knock, and boom, there comes the convert family. They
told us that we came in the exact right moment, cause they were about to leave
like 15 minutes later. It was a pretty sweet moment.
Ok yeah now I'll tell you about how I got arrested.
So on Wednesday, we had a meeting with all of the Zone
Leaders in the mission, which means that those from Mexicali and San Louis Rio
Colorado have to come in the night before because the buses can't get them to
Tijuana early enough in the morning. So we were expecting a companionship to
come from Mexicali Tuesday night. And that day was kinda crazy, we had to go
back to the house in the middle of the day and fill out a progress report for
that night.
So we came back to the house to get that report, and when we
left, I thought my companion had the keys. He must have thought that I had the
keys, but neither one of us said anything. So the point is that they keys were
in the house, and we had no idea until we got there that night, with another
companionship. So we were straight up locked out. The first thing we tried was
climbing up on the roof, letting ourselves down on the other side, and seeing
if the back door was unlocked. It wasn't. So the only option we had was break or
cut the lock on the front gate. Let me describe the house real quick. Its one
story, blue and has a space in front for a car or patio or something. The point
is that there is a metal fence that serves as a garage door pretty much, and
then like 20 feet behind it is the front door. So we had to break the padlock
that we put on the fence to get in. The fence doesn't swing or anything. it
slides back and forth. So the next thing we tried was pulling on the fence to
see if the lock would just break open. On like the third try, we noticed that
the fence was getting pulled out of the walls and bringing a solid chunk of
wall with it. That seemed a little bit more expensive than a lock to replace,
so we put a stop to that. We knocked on the neighbor's door, and he gave us a
hammer. We tried hitting it, but just couldn't get a good shot. Then the
neighbor come out with a hack saw. Boom. I grabbed that sucker and started
cutting away. I'm like halfway through the lock, and hey look over there a cop
car coming this way. He sees us, turns his lights on. and as he passes sounds
his siren. Keep in mind, from the looks of things we are breaking into this
house. And I was the one with the tools in my hand. These were my thoughts, in
Spanish:
"No invente. Ya valí. Me voy a dormir en el bote."
I was convinced that I was gonna sleep in a freaking mexican
prison. That would be a sweet mission story, right, but I don't thing Pres.
Garcia would like that too much. It would probably be one night in prison and
the next in Cumming. My whole life flashed in front of my eyes.
But then the cop car just passed right along. I don't know
how or why it happened, but I about had to change my drawers. That was really a
miracle.
So yeah. Pretty interesting week. Having an American
companion is the funnest thing ever.
Keep being cool, read your scriptures every day, and
remember that this church is true and the only one that is led by a living
Christ.
Los quiero mucho,
Elder Rawlings
PS since I was the one sawing, I didn't take any pictures,
but they will be sent to me by next week.
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