Elder Ryker Jensen: Coolest Mission in the World.

Hey everybody, I'd just like to start off by letting you all know that I am currently serving in the coolest mission in the world. No arguments allowed.

This week went fairly well as far as the work goes. We actually got dogged a lot, meaning a lot of people just weren't there for the time that we had scheduled with them. It really kills our program when that happens. I think one of my favorite families that we are teaching right now is the family of a man named John de Dieu. We teach him with his son Eli and his son's wife Erika, all of whom are preparing for baptism right now. John has been coming to church for the last little month or two, but his son has been really stubborn about it. He basically just has always had something better to do. This week we tried a different approach. Instead of asking him to come to church, we taught them a lesson about why they should want to come to church. We talked about how God has given us one day a week as a gift. Sometimes in life we just get so preoccupied with things of the world that we start to feel as though there is a huge weight on our shoulders. Our loving Heavenly Father has given us one day out of every week, 52 days a year, to leave all of those cares and stresses behind and rest. That one really hit ol' Eli. He said that he has felt that weight for a very long time and and that he just didn't know how to get rid of it. On sunday morning, John de Dieu, Eli and Erika all came to church together. For Eli, it was the first time in more than 5 years he had been to any sort of organized church.

In my studies this week I spent a day studying an article written in a Liahona about Integrity. It was written by President Russell M. Nelson and it is really good. Integrity is the foundation for all Christlike attributes. It means recognizing and trusting in The Lord, and placing him above all other things. Sometimes in life we are tempted to bend the commandments to fit them into our lives. We actually get that a lot out here. Everyone always says that they will come to church "If it's God's will." They think that if he wants them at church he will send them himself, that he will make the path blatantly obvious. Their boss will miraculously give them the day off of work "If it's God's will." But the thing is is that isn't how it works. God has set the commandments for us. They are laws placed by Him to help us. It's not our place to try to change and bend them to fit in with our lives. Our job is to change and shape our own lives in order to fit them in to commandments that He gave to us. That's integrity. Doing what's right even when it's not what's popular. Love you all so much.

Elder Jensen

Scripture of the week: Job 31: 6 but the entire Story of Job is good