The Errand of Angels: Week 16 The Army of God

Hello Everyone!

Happy Easter! What a wonderful opportunity we have at this time of year to reflect on Christ and all that He has done for us. Did you take my invitation to choose something to come closer to Christ this Easter? How is it going? If you haven't, will you?

I know that Christ is our Savior. I know He has paid the price for our sins, but also felt our sorrows, sicknesses, sadness and discouragements. He did all of that so He could know how to help and so that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven and our families again for the eternities. He overcame our spiritual death (separation from the presence of God) by His suffering for us and physical death by His resurrection. I am eternally grateful for gifts to us. One of my favorite scriptures about Christ is Alma 7:11-12 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/7.11-12?lang=eng#10). I love the word "succor" in these scriptures - to run to the help/aid. I know that if we turn to Christ, He will instantly come to our aid. He will help us. All of us. Always.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a great web page on Easter. Check it out here: http://www.lds.org/topics/easter?lang=eng and 

I also know that we again have prophets and apostles on earth today. Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and hear from an apostle of God, Elder Anderson. The world will have an opportunity to hear from living prophets and apostles next week on April 6 and 7. You can go to lds.org or a local meetinghouse to watch General Conference for yourself. I know that God speaks through prophets now, just as He did in times of old. See Amos 3:7 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/amos/3.7?lang=eng#6). I know that we can learn of the truth of modern prophets by listening to their word and praying about them. See John 7:17 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/7.17?lang=eng#16). 

Elder Anderson was out here to reorganize a stake presidency and was able to stay so that we could have a mission conference and here him speak... so, he visited my stake and I got to hear from him Saturday, Sunday and today! Woah. Talk about a spiritual weekend.

A few things I want to testify of: 

All missionary efforts truly are not wasted. I am fully in this war against sin and I will continue to fight to save the souls of men. My war cry is being heard by the people in the Carrollwood area. I have asked others to join the fight. I can live every moment to fight the enemy that much more... to cry to the people, invite others to join the fight, strike the enemy with my testimony and therefore the Spirit, to bring others back to our Father in Heaven. I desire to bring others to a greater knowledge and appreciation of Christ. I am here to serve the Lord. I am here to give my might, mind, and strength to His work. I hope and pray that I can always be His soldier fighting with all my might against the enemy for my Savior. I would like all of you to read the words of two profound songs having just read what I shared and try to picture the battle yourself and how you can join (Hope of Israel and Behold! A Royal Army). I know I am part of God's army and that the little things really do matter so much. 

Sister Larsen from  the Edgemont ward. She is here on a Spanish speaking mission.

My Mission President, President Summerhays talked this week about:

P prayer

R reading

O obedience
S service

in order to stay faithful forever (endure to the end). This is true. Plus, he made a joke about him being one of the "pros" which is also true... pro golfer.

I love being a missionary. Yes, it is hard. Yes, most days my body wants to take a nap. Yes, it is sometimes discouraging. BUT I know this is God's work. I know this is where I need to be. I know that NO EFFORT is wasted. And I know that as I develop greater faith and trust that I will be able to overcome the natural man tendencies, for in the Lord I can truly do all things.

This week was good. We have now met with two of our new investigators and realized how choice and truly prepared they are. There is a less active family that both parents have chosen to live the word of wisdom and are seeing the blessings of it. It is a beautiful, humbling experience to be a missionary. I love it. I am so humble and grateful that God has sent me to Tampa Florida at this time. By the way, if you have questions, like what is the word of wisdom? I would encourage you to look them up on mormon.org. 

Oh! My new mission president has been announced...  http://www.lds.org/church/news/print/nea-cn-mission-president-assignments-2013?lang=eng He begins this summer.

My invitation to you is to share your testimony of Christ with someone this week. Christians around the world need to unite in the battle for Christ against sin. It is our turn to stand up and join. Please, please do your best to defend Christ at all times, especially this Easter.

Have a great day! 

Sister Jenkins

NAME THE BIRD

Deba thinks this might be a flamingo because

 it is pink, but her mother thinks

 it has the wrong kind of beak

 and it's legs aren't long enough.

 What do you think? 

The Errand of Angels: Week 15 I love being a giddy missionary! I was almost a squirrel killer!

Hi Everyone!!!!

 

I hope you are all well!!

 

I always LOVE to hear about your missionary experiences so please send them my way if you would like!!

 

So, I decided that missionary work makes me giddy. Yes, giddy. I am sitting here with a giant grin on my face just about ready to burst into a fit of, well, giggles. Why? I am that happy. Haha. It's strange. But AWESOME!! Wow, I love being a giddy missionary. I feel like a little kid of Christmas with so many presents and just wanting to tell everyone about them!! And wanting to play with all of them but there are so many that its hard to decide want to touch first!! I think that is a good picture!! Giddy and happy and so overwhelmed with blessings.

 

I think some of my pictures will also represent the lighter side of missionary work. Missionary work is not only spiritually intense but also just fun. The picture I included with this email is of the last day of last transfer - Sister Foster, myself, Elder Woodard and Elder Hendly (the missionaries in our ward).

 

This week was quite excellent. It was one of those weeks that I knew I was truly a missionary. It ended last night and I realized that I was pretty exhausted. Truly and honestly, I just absolutely love weeks like that and love being a servant of the Lord!

Christ and the Atonement is truly the center of everything. I think one of the biggest takeaways from this week was knowing that I was doing the work that Christ would be doing if he was here and loving the people as such. I know I still can improve, but this week I felt as though I had a deeper sense of charity for everyone I saw.
Okay, so on to the highlights!!!

WOAH, so I have really felt the power of prayer this week and the authority of being a missionary. We were at a less active, part-member family home. During the lesson with the member, her non-member mother-in-law and her children, the mother-in-law started clutching her chest and having severe, sharp chest pains. We asked if we should call 911, but the member said no... so we asked if we could prayer. Siter Mikolajcik, the member, and I knelt in prayer. I prayed that she would feel relief. After the prayer she felt instant relief. Wow. The experience was a catalyst for strong faith and blessings to that family. The member has been telling all her family about it. Yes, that is the power of prayer and faith. The power to know that when you kneel and offer a prayer that God will answer, especially as you l

 

We have had a HUGE increase in support from the ward. Our ward has always been VERY supportive, but I feel it recently jumped even higher. We were able to do splits this week (my first time and it was great!!! One member said she knew she was alive now so that she could testify of something to one of our investigators. Woah.) and teach with members during almost every lesson with our progressing investigators (plus, even some new investigators!). That was really cool. People are also realizing even more so how much we are trying to help the ward with activation and serving leaders and are very grateful. Members have also been giving us rides many places and the Bishop has called some sister ward missionaries to teach with us at night. I think the bikes have helped a lot because people have pity on us. Bikes are great! 

So speaking of bikes. I really do love biking. We have had some really awesome experiences biking and following the Spirit. It's interesting... I feel like I don't necessarily realize the Spirit in every day "where to go" type situations, but I try hard to pray and follow whatever little promptings come. We have had some amazing experiences on who to talk to and where to go this week, especially yesterday.
Yesterday we were kind of rushing to an appointment, which I try to not deter me from talking to people. I know that Heavenly Father put people in our paths. As we got closer to the place I promised Heavenly Father that I would talk to the next person we came across. We met a woman at a bus stop. She needs prayers and God's help more in her life. She knew God sent us to her. We set up an appointment for peace and blessings prayer. We made it to our appointment right on time.
Later that night we were biking home. We were all set to be home on time, but we passed a woman who had a black-eye and I knew really needed Christ (I have a yearning for all I see and a realization of what the gospel can do for them, but her I just felt it stronger)... Sister Mikolajcik said she also realized that. We passed her... biked for a minute... then I stopped. Sister Mikolajcik and I decided to go back. Sister Mikolajcik biked so hard and when she reached her said something simple but divinely inspired words, essentially... "We felt like we should come talk to you. We are representatives of Jesus Christ here to tell you that God loves you." The woman broke down in tears. We then talked to her about her life... it was a rough one. We walked for a little bit with her. Sister Mikolajcik gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon. I added my testimony to hers. She is currently homeless and has no phone number, but has ours so she can contact us. I was so proud of Sister Mikolajcik because I knew all her words were inspired... I could feel it. Amazingly enough, we still made it home pretty close to 9:00. Oh! And I really felt the power of doing Christ's work at that moment.
Our time was very much stretched this week. We hit more lessons that I have ever before had as a missionary. It was awesome!!!!! During the day I put the number out of my head and didn't let myself count. I tried and prayed for my focus to be... who does God want us to talk to next and how can we help them come unto Christ. Essentially I have been trying to fully give my will to God and striving to listen to the Spirit. I am not perfect, but I love seeing the progression and enabling power of the Atonement working in my life and in the Carrollwood B area.
Oh, and we are trying to flood the mission with copies of The Book of Mormon. Yes, flood. Everyone should have a copy :) Along with The Bible (of course!!!) We are helping members and less active members give them to friends and non-member family members. We are giving them to those we meet on the street and testifying. Wow, its been pretty cool! Sister Mikolajcik and I try to have about 5-6 copies between the two of us when we leave so that we can give to all. Its been awesome. One girl we met (her parents weren't interested but said we could talk to her... she's probably 10), just ate up our message and hugged her copy of The Book of Mormon to her chest like it was a treasure (which it is). It was so touching.
A kind of humorous note... I ran over a squirrel with my bike... we think it was just the tail because it rain away hopefully unharmed. I didn't realize that was possible... we had a good laugh after we decided we didn't damage it too much. SO if you see two sister missionaries biking and laughing, you may know why...
I am grateful for all mission rules. We recently gave away our investigator with a baptismal date (Luis, the one that we set up the baptismal date with peace and blessings). We have taught his sister who has kids and his other sister is a new investigator of ours, who also has kids. Luckily the Spirit spoke this week and gave me the realization he is YSA (young single adult). It was initially hard but felt so good turning him over to who needed to teach him. Plus, he was SO excited about the YSA ward (it even works with his work schedule!!).
Well, it was a good week! Busy week!! Honestly, I loved it!!
Your invitation for the week: Write three tender mercies of God and decide on something you can do to come closer to Christ this Easter!

Have a great week!!

Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels: Week 14 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

 

Happy Day to you!! I hope that you and your children are getting a little taste and idea of how truly WONDERFUL missionary work is and how much HAPPINESS it can bring to your life!!

 

What a week! This week was absolutely epic!! TRULY, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! (Let's see if I can fit more ! in this email than last week's... :)

 

The picture is of me and my wonderful, new, lovely, powerful, epic, cute, fun, amazing 19-year old companion, Sister Mikolajcik!! She is truly great and I am so glad she decided to go on a mission at such a young age. Her story is awesome. She was praying about going on a mission even though it was 2 years away (previously women couldn't serve missions until age 21), and then the announcement in General Conference came of the age change... wow!! Talk about a miraculous answer to prayer. She is ready and awesome. She is so great and bold!

 

An overall feeling I had this week was one of power, confidence and accepting God's will for myself. I have been wanting to talk to everyone, but before I struggled sometimes having the confidence. This week I felt's God's power even more with me as I chose to just turn over my cares and worries to Him. I wanted to end every day knowing that Heavenly Father was absolutely pleased with my missionary work. Wanting to be a perfect (or as close to as possible) example to my new companion also really helped. I tried as much as possible to talk to everyone. At the end of the day I asked Heavenly Father, "is my work today acceptable to Thee?" Most times I felt yes and sometimes I felt as though there was something I could improve upon... then I told myself I would do better the next day. Then I did! Wow, this week was so awesome!!

This week I did not feel ashamed of my power as a missionary. When I testified, I did it with boldness. When I explained this to people, I did it with boldness. Sister Mikolajcik was a great example of me with bringing up "scarier" subjects and always bringing up baptism (she rocks, did I say that?!). Every investigator we have (well, progressing, new and some of the other) knows that we are here to help them come unto Christ through baptism and making other eternal covenants (promises with God). We have drawn the line and it is now their responsibility to decide if they will stand on God's side or not. This is a great feeling!!! I am hoping and praying so much people will come to God's side and I will do all I can, but I also feel al sense of relief knowing that they have the choice simply and boldly before them,.... its so cool!!

I want people so badly to experience the happiness, peace and blessings of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that families can be together forever (FOREVER... after death and for all eternity), and I know how to help families get there. How to prepare people to make those covenants (promises with God). I want everyone to have eternal joy. I feel like I am living up to my missionary scripture Mosiah 28:3 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/28.3?lang=eng#2) and desiring all to feel of the joy of the Gospel - to have salvation! The blessings of God are truly available to all as we follow Him!! (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/2.41?lang=eng#40). I know that as a representative of Jesus Christ I have been called of Him to share His Gospel with the people of Tampa. ALL the people. God wants EVERYONE to have this happiness. That means YOU and that means all around YOU. Wow, you also have a great work to do!!

Sister Mikolajcik is a stellar missionary and I am grateful to have her as my companion. We have things to learn, especially since she only had 12 days in the MTC... wow!!! But she is prepared! She is not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or her testimony! She is out here to be a missionary and she is awesome!!!!!!! Wow, I love her. Sister M. has some great insights and she teaches in a beautiful way. Oh, she really listens. That is a huge strong point of hers. She listens to the Spirit and to the investigator. Woah. It is powerful what inspired questions she has as she listens. I love it!!!!!

As we strived to be exactly obedient, work our hardest, be bold, listen to the Spirit, and talk to everyone, miracles happened, more so than maybe I have previously seen.

A couple highlights of the week:

We were doing a doorstep followup with one of our progressing investigators. He is very staunch of his beliefs. We met him about two months ago in inspired tracting - He had a copy of The Book of Mormon and asked us how he could know it was true. He has been caught up on the scriptural and logical side of things verses the spiritual. He has read The Book of Mormon extensively but has refused to come to church. Well, in our visit I asked if he really wanted an answer, what he was willing to do if he got that answer, and what he was willing to do to receive that answer. Then I told him that church was one of those ways to find out. He should be coming to church next week. Boldness is awesome.

Sister Mikolajcik was inspired to bring up the Word of Wisdom with an investigator of three months now. She has been struggling with some commitments but has a firm testimony of The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and now President Thomas S. Monson (This is a cool story in itself...). We had an inspired member with us who testified of the Word of Wisdom (originally Stella said there was no way she was going to live it), and she said she would try it for a week like John 7:17 says (try and see). Wow! Earlier in the lesson we helped her gain a testimony of President Thomas S. Monson. She knew Joseph Smith was a prophet, and so we explained how we still have a prophet on earth today and that he a successor of Joseph Smith, etc. We testified. We asked her if she knew President Thomas S. Monson was the current prophet, she said yes. Woah!!!!!!! Wow, I love it. I LOVE IT!

We contacted a referral from a past investigator. He expressed desires to become a better man and that he had been praying for it and to be cleansed. We did the Peace and Blessings prayer. We felt inspired to invite him to baptism on April 30 - he accepted!!!!!! We still need to set a calendar. But it was awesome!!! I have never felt prompted to invite someone to bapstism on the doorstep, but I felt strongly that we should!!!!! SO COOL!!!

We did inspired tracting and found a man that I had seen before and knew that we needed to/we would teach him. Before we approached the door Sis. M. was inspired that this would become an investigator of ours. He did. It was awesome!!! So cool. I love God's work!!!

Truly this week was great!!! We got lots of member present lessons, all inspired on who should be there and all a HUGE blessing that they were there. I expressed to Heavenly Father that I really wanted to use the members in lessons and how they should be used. Woah. He blessed us so much!! In fact, when I was thanking a member yesterday at church I could not hold back the tears. This is how God's work is meant to be done. Wow. We had a member call us Monday night and said she invited a friend over for dinner with us that she had given a copy of The Book of Mormon to. Woah!! We had been encouraging the family with missionary work and reaching out to them and this miracle happened. Other investigators made an instant connection with the member we felt inspired to have. Honestly, miracles happened right and left. Woah, woah, woah! We even had a member teach on her birthday evening (we didn't know) because she felt inspired to. And she was perfect for the lesson and inspired!! Her daughter taught with us later in the week and was perfect for that lesson! (She felt very inspired to come with us even though she was soo busy).

 

If the members are used right, I feel like they essentially teach the lessons. I have seen miracles this week when we had the right member there to bring social conversion, etc. but they happened to be able to calm all concerns about a committment that the investigator had. It was so cool!!

 

I am so proud of Sister Mikolajcik for working so hard! Because we worked hard. We talked to lots of people on our bikes (so awesome!!!). Sometimes I chickened out and didn't talk to someone then promised Heavenly Father I would talk to the next person. And then I did. And then we got great referrals for us and other missionaries! I am encouraging Sister M. to talk to others as well and she is doing great at it.

 

Anyways, it was a great week. I am exhausted but am so happy. Thank you, everyone!!  

Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels: Week 13 Excited/Trainer/Biker

Hello to all my wonderful friends!!

I am excited for the start of a new week. I always love starting the week again, not only because Preparation Day (we get 8 hours to prepare for the week by doing laundry, emails, cleaning, etc) is quite refreshing, but also because I love starting fresh and striving to reach new goals! I cannot express how exceptionally excited I am to see the work continue to progress and hasten in the coming months! 

So.... transfer week! I finished my 12-week new missionary training and will be training a new sister in and staying in my area (I am in Tampa btw, in case you were wondering). And I will be on car share!! Which means... I get to bike every other week!!!

I am so excited to train and to be on car share! I am so excited about car share because it will give us even more opportunities and encouragement for members to teach with us! Plus, you get to talk to everyone while at stop lights, etc.... AND get in better shape at the same time! Although, I am trying to run every morning on our noisy, screechy, yet still wonderful treadmill! I feel so blessed to have one at our apt complex gym!

I will miss Sister Foster - she was an AMAZING trainer and the right/perfect one for me! She is going down South to Venice. But what a great experience it will be to have the opportunity to take what I have learned from Heavenly Father, my leaders, Sister Foster, and others, during these past three months, and impart of it to another missionary! Yay! I have been praying a lot for her and the new sisters coming in :) And for my leaders in regard to receiving inspiration for the mission.

This week was really good (if you couldn't tell by all the explanation marks used in this email). I was not perfect and there are things I definitely learned that I could improve upon for this coming week, but I am so excited to do so! I There are blessings tied to every commandment from God. I love that blessings are tied to obedience, especially as a missionary. I am excited for this opportunity to have the Holy Ghost even greater in the work and to become more Christ-like and obedient :) I am so excited to lead by example with the new missionary and help her see how obedience brings blessings and how working hard brings a greater capacity to work, how talking to everyone allows Heavenly Father to work through you and to find those who are searching, how prayer brings inspiration, etc... Wow, I feel like I need to take a breather in my mind because of all the excitement! Haha...

Anyways, so a couple highlights from the week:

We invited one of our investigators to be baptized in a member present lesson (she was the one that went to the baptism a few weeks ago). She has been reading and praying about The Book and Mormon and has felt its true up until now, but doesn't feel like she has received an answer. When we first asked her to be baptized it was a pretty adamant, "No, I don't need to because I have already been baptized," which is a pretty common answer. Due to the Holy Ghost inspiring the member and us, the Spirit touched her heart and she went from being entirely against the idea to accepting the invitation to pray to know if its the right thing to the do. I felt as though having a member at the lesson and the right member was KEY! I am so grateful to Sister Foster, myself, and the member for listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

We finally were able to have a member present lesson with one of our investigators (we have been trying and trying to have one and it just hasn't gone through). She came to Bishop's house (followed us there) and had dessert with his family. She really opened up about her life and the trials and blessings. Wow! I now feel like working with members is so KEY to success as a missionary. I understand that it is not the only "key," but my eyes were really opening last week to how important members are and I am so excited to use them even more. Wow, really all I can say is "wow" and "hurrah for Israel!" Nothing can stop the work from progressing. We are on the winning team.

Today I read about the 58 new missions opening (http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/list-of-58-additional-missions-created) and then the article about "Members Key to Productivity of Extra Missionary Force (http://www.lds.org/church/news/members-are-key-to-effectiveness-of-increased-missionary-force?lang=eng)." My heart has been so touched by the blessing I have in my life to be a missionary now. A missionary at this time when the work is hastening. I am so proud of the Elders and Sisters choosing to serve... who were waiting so patiently and then jumped on the chance to serve a mission as soon as they could. I am a tad bit older than most missionaries out, but am so glad I waited to go on a mission until it was Heavenly Father's time. He knew that I needed to come now. And I always want to be a missionary NOW. A missionary at all times and in all things I do - a represent  and servant of Christ. I cannot thank Heavenly Father enough for being a missionary at this time preparing the way for a greater surge of missionaries. I love the work. I love my Savior. I love being His missionary.

We really need the member involvement in the work! So members, get to work! Share the gospel by your examples and by words! Invite people to come to church, activities, to read The Book of Mormon, to come to your home for FHE, for dinner with you and the missionaries, to be baptized... anything and everything! The works is hastening. The last days are here!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone!

My invitation to ALL of you is to make a family mission plan (FMP). Pray/fast about a goal date (for example, April 1 or General Conference (even better)) and then pray on how to do it, get local missionaries involved, and INVITE. 

A couple ideas are to write your testimony in a copy of The Book of Mormon or The Bible and to give it to someone or to have a less-active or non-member acquaintance of yours in your home with the missionaries for dinner, or FHE, and/or a lesson. You are key to investigators having a social experience at church and to be retained as members. Even if someone knows the gospel is true, it is sometimes hard for them to go to church if they don't have friends. I know that as you do this, you will be inspired how to. Heavenly Father will bless you in this effort!! I KNOW HE WILL! This is His work and He will open doors for you, help you know what to say (D&C 100:5-8http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/100?lang=eng), and will not let you fail. In order to harvest, first seeds need to be planted and nourished. You may be part of all or just one of these processes. 

You are all awesome! Keep up the good work!!!

Sister Jenkins
(Pictures will be added later in the week because Deba was having problems with her computer and I am away from home where the Flash Drive is with earlier pictures she sent, until the middle of the week.
Sister Jenkins Sr.)