The Errand of Angels: Week 28 Baptism, Blessings, and Stolen Bicycles

Hi Everyone!

How are you?! I love you so much! Wow, isn't missionary work awesome?! It is such a blast and just so beautiful and so rewarding to have an opportunity to see/feel a portion of God's love for people!

Ready for a really long email?! This will make up for last week's short one! I am going to try out a new email format today. We will see how it works!

Funny of the Week: Well, I think the title might give this one away. Semi-funny, semi-devastating... both our bicycles got stolen this week! Yeah, did I mention part of our area is the "ghetto" or "hood" as some people call it. We just weren't as smart as we should have been. But we learned a few valuable lessons! 1. Do not use the chain that comes with your U-lock to lock up your bikes; even though the U-lock needs to be sawed, the chain can actually be broken in seconds by a metal cutter. 2. When the Spirit gives you hesitation, two low tires, and stops your speech during your lesson, you should probably a. pray before you even get there if that is the right thing to do, and b. when your speech is stopped, end the lesson and go outside. 3. The scriptures prophesy that our treasures will become "slippery" in the last days. Yes, folks, it is the last days! 4. Having your bike stolen is a great way to get members to join you in lessons! (Our members are great so they do this anyways :) 5. There is some humor in this, right? Anyways, moral of the story, if you listen to the Spirit, you are SO much better off!! But its beautiful, God loves me so much, that when I was praying about this (and fasting), I got the answer "Be still and know that I am God." I trust and promise that God will work everything out. I don't know how, but I do have the most powerful being in the universe on my side. Why should I fear?

Talk of the Week: I love reading General Conference/Ensign talks. Wow! I usually read at least a couple a week. Isn't it beautiful that we have the opportunity to hear from modern Prophets and Apostles. I think its so cool! Talk of the week: "Nine Principles for a Successful Marriage and Family" (http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/06/nine-principles-for-a-successful-marriage-and-family?lang=eng). So good! I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families! I would definitely suggest reading it! Also, I would suggest the talk from obedience in my "Christ-like Attribute" section.

Tender Mercy/Miracle of the Week: The biggest tender mercy/miracle of the week was the baptism of Sister Dawn Sloat. She is stellar! Wow, I just adore this woman her family. She has been taking the discussions from missionaries on and off for at least 9 years. She has known this is all true, but has had an obstacle here and there to overcome. She has done it. She has moved forward with faith. Her husband (a member) called us right after we were transferred to the area. On our second lesson with her we set a baptismal date and calendar. She was so excited and so prepared! There are so many people prepared from God. He just loves His children so much and works so many mighty miracles to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Sister Sloat was baptized this week. Some of the plans were made last minute, but Heavenly Father worked every single thing out. Her husband found baptismal clothes large enough for him (6'9"), she lived (almost got hit by other cars 5 different times), many from the Gulfport Branch came to support her, and her friends made it to the baptism after previously thinking that they weren't going to, oh! and our landlord and his family came (we have the same landlord as the Sloat family). Tender mercies and miracles?! Yes indeed! What are the chances?! 100%! It was beautiful and I am so grateful! Oh, and we had an investigator come to the baptism, our Deaf investigator, that also stayed for a single adult dance afterwards. Her blessing for receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost was positively amazing. She is so happy. You can tell how important baptism is to someone when they are standing in cold water (I guess the building didn't have warm water for some reason), and waiting to get baptized for the second time (her elbow didn't go under the first time), she is smiling from ear to ear. Sister Dawn Sloat is such a great example and I love her so dearly. Great job!

Other Highlights of the Week:

This week was just awesome. Wow, I loved it. This Church is true! God loves everyone! He definitely loves and blesses His missionaries and anyone or strives to follow Him! :)

Later in the day after we finished police calls for our bikes, we needed to go to our ASL class, but had the smallest of promptings to take an umbrella back to an investigator on the way there. We almost didn't because it seemed a bit inconvenient, but decided, oh well, we already have the umbrella, we can take an extra 5-10 minutes. So we dropped it by, said hi, and left. When we walked out the house, the neighbor of this investigator called us over. Around a month ago we said a peace and blessing prayer with her and her son, but they didn't seem super interested and so we had only seen them about once since then. Earlier that day this woman had been praying and praying to God. She then felt the need to go outside, and right when she did she saw us. She knew that we were the answer to her prayers. This Church is true. The message we share is from God to the world. This is not an uncommon experience. God knows this is what people need. Yeah, missionaries are great, but its the message that we share that will bring a perfect brightness of hope to the lives of individuals and eternal joy. It was a wonderful experience.

The other huge blessing of this week was helping a family with their reception. The wife is an absolutely amazing individual. She is so sweet and has so much faith and trust in God. Her husband isn't a member, but is a fantastic man and treats her so well. We were able to go do service a couple times this week to help with the reception. I loved getting to know their friends and family members. When you are serving others you are serving God (Mosiah 2:17http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/2.17?lang=eng). This is so true. But also when you are serving others its like Christ serving them. That is what I felt like. I felt like Christ. Not that I can compare myself to the Savior of the World, but I was doing the work He would be doing. I was serving, and talking to others, friendshipping them, and it was great. It brought about so many doors for missionary work, and it was so beautiful to gain those friendships. It was so wonderful. We also got to stop by the reception briefly right after the baptism. I am so grateful for this family and especially this marvelous woman.

We are doing the Addiction Recovery Program with a returning member. Yesterday she said that she is going to be begin praying, which she hasn't done consistently in a very long time. I am so proud of her! It is beautiful to see the progress in her testimony and coming to know of her goodness.

Wow! Go righteous women! I feel like that was definitely the theme of this week!

One other highlight, we had a Specialized Training for our Zone. President and Sister Summerhays head out the first part of the July and we get a new Mission President. I am sad to see them go, but know that God has called the new one and I will support Him just as I supported President Summerhays. That is how the Keys of the Kingdom go! (Priesthood Keys). The training was absolutely wonderful! There was a great talk about an Indian legend. Each of us have a white wolf and a black wolf fighting within us. The one who wins is the one we feed. Do not feed the bad. Do not feed the critic. That is not from God. He loves us how we are, but loves us enough to not let us stay that way. He sees our deeper-self. The son or daughter of God that we truly are. I have been so grateful to yield the sword of truth for the Savior alongside President and Sister Summerhays!

Pictures:

1. Sister and Brother Sloat right before her baptism.

  

Christ-like Attribute of the Month: Obedience So every month the mission has been studying a different Christ-like attribute. I would love to share my thoughts each week on this attribute. This month is obedience. Wow, do I ever love obedience! It is so absolutely wonderful! The thought for the week is this:

1. The commandments are a road map for our eternal happiness:

"A useful way to think about the commandments is they are loving counsel from a wise, all-knowing Heavenly Father. His goal is our eternal happiness, and His commandments are the road map He has given us to return to Him, which is the only way we will be eternally happy. How significant are the home and the family to our eternal happiness? On page 141 of my little brown book, it states, “Indeed our heaven is little more than a projection of our homes into eternity.” - Elder L. Tom Perry ("Obedience to Law is Liberty" http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/obedience-to-law-is-liberty?lang=eng)

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." (Mosiah 2:41 http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/2.41?lang=eng)

Invitation: Find someone to serve this week and do it! If you pray, God will put someone in your path every day you can be of service to - everything from a smile and wave to helping someone move. God knows who needs you.

Closing Notes: I love this work. I really love this work! Gulfport is great. This last week had some set backs (bikes being stolen), but that will not stop the work from progressing. "No unhallowed hand" can stop the work. I know that is true. Rain or shine, bike or walking, this work will move forward. What a tender mercy to know that. The tender mercies of the Lord are all over us and those in Gulfport A.

One last thing, the Gospel is true! The Church is true! This is Christ's Church. I am so grateful that God trusts us enough to let us enough to use us, to forgive us when we come to Him daily, and then to use us again. It is so beautiful! We have lots still to do and have things to still work on, but as we strive, God will continue to pour out blessings. I love this work! I love being a servant of the Lord! All of you can be a servant of Him in your daily lives as well. Wow, God loves His children!

Have a great day!

Sister Jenkins