8/26/13

This was a better week. I have received many blessings, and I have been able to acknowledge the Lord's hand in my life. My companionship has been gradually improving, and we have been able to become more engaged in the work. It has not been easy, but I have been making progress. I suppose it never was meant to be easy though.

Summer is about over. The schools in Las Vegas opened up today. I had the opportunity to participate in giving a few different father's blessings for students returning to school. 

It is odd that it has been dry there because this last week has been really overcast here. We have gotten as low as the 80's several times and it has even rained a few times. Last night it rained a lot and the wash was full of water (the wash is the giant storm drain that I sent you a picture of last week). The wash turned into a river and my companion wanted to jump in and float down it in an inner tube. 

(I told him about the three service activities that we did in the ward this summer and shared with him the experiences that our family had with it)

I am impressed by the missionaries in your ward. It sounds like they are really working hard and doing a good job at working with the members of the ward. Those kinds of activities rarely turn out as great as the one portrayed in The District DVDs. But I think that God acknowledges all of your efforts and that He is pleased with them. I have no doubt that the Lord will bless your ward with more missionary opportunities because if nothing else, that experience strengthened the relationship between the ward and the missionaries and earned the trust of God. I'm grateful that you shared your missionary experience and for the example that you have set for me. It has strengthened my own faith that I can do more to serve my ward.

I have learned that the members of the ward are so much better at finding and converting investigators than missionaries are. I am more and more convinced as my mission has gone on that missionaries are called to assist the members of the ward rather than the ward assisting the missionaries. 

Sincerely, Elder Jensen