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/
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
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