GIVE ME THE WORD

"Jesus with Glasses" 

Familia & Friends,

It has been another solid week here in the Loo. It was a bummer saying goodbye to my man E. Schoenfeld but the trio life treated us well this week. Here in Waterloo, we split the ward with two Marshallese speaking Elders, Elders Loeak and Elder Balderston. So the entire week was full of constant running back and forth, in and out of our areas. It kept us super busy stopping by all our people, getting to all our appointments, and making sure we still had the balance of contacting new homies. There was little to none down time which always makes for the best weeks.

bye E. Schoenfeld

In the middle of the week, we spent the day up in another Elders’ area in a classic, run down, tiny little Iowa town called Fayette. We had three sets of Elders up there, ‘triple blitzing’ their area, helping them kick start the work up there. We all split up and I went with another Elder named E. Barney to , surprise, another tiny little town named Monona. We found a good place to start contacting and got to work. First person we contacted actually wasn’t too down on the message but what this lady did for us was super dope. After she respectfully turned us down, we were walking back down the porch when she hollered at us to stop. Sadly, it wasn’t a realization that what we had just told her would change her and her family’s lives forever, but what she did was almost as good…She said, “You know what, how can I not send two servants of the Lord back out there without giving them anything?” She then proceeded to welcome us in her home, introduced us to the whole fam, and gave us a nice early dinner. It was something I will never forget. An incredible example for all of us of simple, Christlike love.

Back in the Loo…Friday we were able to find just a little bit of time to go pound on some doors. After no luck at all, we finally had our man Theo open up his door. And let me tell you, this man is a stud. Just one of those picture-perfect experiences when you first meet someone. He was soaking it all up. Down for church. Down to learn more. He even said at first, “Y’all caught me at a bad time but I can already tell that this is a sign from God and I better listen up.” Just seemed too good to be true. Sunday rolls around and as we were going to stop by to see if he was coming, we were talking with each other that this is probably too good to be true and that Theo will probably just ghost us. We knocked on his door and without us having time to say anything he opened up and said, “Y’all ready to go or what?” Ugh. Blessings. Theo loved church. He was only able to stay for sacrament meeting but said he felt good, loved the environment, and that he’s bringing his brother next week. Buckets!

Another quick story. We were walking down the street when a wonderful black lady yelled over to us, “Hey you there! Come over here and GIVE ME THE WORD!” Gotta love it! We gladly did and turned out that our girl, Donna, has a cousin that’s a member, has been to church with her in the past. She told us, “It’s about time I get myself back to your church.” Yes, Donna, IT IS!

Love this work. The work is true. And if you don’t know for yourself, you better find out.

Lots of love,

Elder Christensen

Team Jesus Stays Winning