The Errand of Angels:Week 18 General Conference Greatness!

Hello Everyone!  My week was really quite excellent (as always... I think it has something to do with me being a missionary... I don't know... just a thought ;) I will start out with a couple funny things that happened: I want on exchanges this week. I served with Hermana Judd (Spanish-speaking Sister) in her area. We had 1.5 lessons in Spanish (one person jumped between Spanish and English and all the rest of the lessons ended up being in English). I was so excited to eat some great Latin food (the Hermanas always have excellent leftovers of Latin food). Guess what I had for dinner with a member? A all-American hot dog. Well, except I had mayo on it. That was new. Oh well. We joined the Spanish ward for lunch between both General Conference sessions so I had some delicious Latin food then :)

Oh, and picture is of a lily pad pond I saw on exchanges. Really pretty. Gotta love Florida!!!!!!

We received a referral from Mormon.org. We went over to the house (turned out they were having a party). We of course knocked anyways ;) And asked for the person. She was 12. It was her birthday. She had lots of friends over. We explained who we were and that a friend of hers had asked that we come visit her. That friend was at the birthday party. We were able to come in and pray with all the younger birthday partiers (only the mom wanted to join from the adults). It was quite the new experience, but was also a wonderful experience. We turned the family over to the Hermanas to visit. The mother wanted missionaries to come back. So... if you ever want a spiritually uplifting birthday party for your 12-year old just call up the missionaries! They can help you :) On a more spiritual note, it was a really wonderful blessing that the friend was there and that it was her birthday. One family member originally said to "send them away and tell them we're atheists." The 12-year old girl combated that and said that she believed in God and the mother let us in after saying what friend referred. I am very, very grateful to her courageous friend for referring her to the missionaries. Non-funny experience of the week: Found out that ants here bite. We get mosquito bites all the time... you know, about 20 per limb on a pretty consistent basis... but I'm learning to wear bug spray more often :) But yeah, ants. Their bites hurt. I would take an ant bike over a gator bite any day though, so I'm still very well off :) Now the moment you have all been waiting for... highlights of the week!!: General Conference was this weekend. A chance to hear from living prophets and apostles. So yeah, this weekend was AWESOME. Did you get a chance to listen/watch General Conference? What was your highlight of it? One of my highlights of General Conference would have to be having two investigators watch it at the church building with us (one Sunday morning and another in the afternoon :) and doing church tours with each of them. One of our investigators especially LOVED General Conference. She said the talks spoke directly to her and that she could apply them. She sang along during the intermediate hymn. She loved the church tour and said it felt like "home." She is so excited to be on this journey. The family that referred and introduced her to us came along and joined us for the tour as well. It was a great experience. Of course the talks were marvelous themselves!! I am so excited to watch specific talks with investigators and members. One of the ones that I needed most was Elder Cook. I know that if I trust in God and His plan for me that I can be truly happy and feel His peace more. Times when I do this, I do feel that peace. I am working and really doing this. I can see the results. Elder Cook quoted someone else by saying "to believe in God is to know all the rules are fair and there will be wonderful surprises." One way that I ward off discouraging thoughts is to read Moses 1:13 (well, mostly to recite it in my head). God tells Moses many times in this chapter that he is a son of God. Satan then comes and says he is not. He tells him essentially that he has no worth. Moses responds, "Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?"http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/1.13?lang=eng You may want to check out the chapter. Its awesome. You are a child of God and He loves you very much! Elder Nelson asked everyone to "catch the wave," which I am so excited to use with members and then Elder Perry and President Monson spoke about the importance of obedience. I LOVED these. Obedience is so important. Every moment we are choosing to follow God or the adversary. I know that great blessings are available to those who trust and follow God with exact obedience. Especially as we have perfect trust in His promises. In fact, if you didn't get a chance to hear President Monson's talk, please watch it now: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2013/04?lang=eng&vid=2284596181001&cid=11 I know that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that his words will touch anyone and everyone who listens to them. Another highlight of this week was Tuesday. Let me explain this day to you: Had kind of a bummer morning, so I knew I needed to work hard to get out of thinking about myself. Left after lunch and talked to the first person I saw (Sister M and I take turns going first on bikes, and it was my turn). Turns out this woman's roommate is a member. She used to have a copy of The Book of Mormon. We prayed with her. She gave us four referrals. When we went back later this week she said she really saw the effects of her prayer. Next we ran into a recovering heroin addict. She was really receptive and excited to learn. We gave her over to the young single adult missionaries. Talked to a couple other people. Then had a lesson with a couple we have been meeting with for a while. After our lesson with them their neighbor talked to us (rarely to people beat us to the first word). Sister Foster and I had visited her apartment before and she was untested at the time. Now she was so nice to us and happy to see us. She said she would love to have us come back and pray with her family. Oh, and turns out she is a long-time less active member ;) Went over and tried to meet with two people who weren't home so met with another investigator of ours in the area. Just as he was leaving, a neighbor of his that we were also teaching came home (one of the ones we were trying to contact earlier). We were able to meet with her (haven't met with her for a month because her dad passed away and its been really tough for her). We are now meeting with her a couple times a week again. Following her we really wanted to go see the other person we dropped by and wasn't home, but we were late for an appointment. Well, she was outside. Set up an appointment with her (which, she later cancelled, BUT Heavenly Father really really wanted us to progress her just that bit more). Made it to our next appointment an hour late, BUT she thought it started an hour late. And she bought us dinner at Chipotle, which was great because we were eating on faith. On the way home we stopped and talked to a young man at a bus stop. Two months ago I had prayed with him and his girlfriend that live in the same complex as on of our investigators. He is Latino so the Spanish missionaries are over him. He is was so excited to see me again and knew that God was trying to tell him something (well, duh! haha. Sorry...). Prayed with him and sent his information over to the Spanish missionaries again. Wow. It's amazing how when you talk with everyone God truly trusts you and puts everyone in your path. When I was with Hermana Judd, we contacted 5 English people that were interested in learning more and gave their information over to the English missionaries in that area. I have realized that I don't mind giving other missionaries the people we find. Why? Because they are being taught by those that they should be taught by, and because they are being taught by missionaries and therefore I trust they are in good hands. Plus, I am being obedient :) This work is so much more than just the baptisms I personally get to see. This work is grand. It extends beyond this life. This is a fight for the souls of men. As I am exactly obedient and try my best to listen to the Spirit, I can have confidence that I am doing my part in God's majestic army. God's missionary army is growing. 65,000 full-time missionaries. 20,000 more with mission calls. 6,000 more with applications in. Please pray about joining His army. There could be nothing greater than being part of His work. If you can't go on a mission right now, then please oh please find ways to share the gospel with your friends. They will thank you some day.  My invitation to you is to 1. visit my blog: blessedinallthings.blogspot.com and comment on your highlights of General Conference as well as share your testimony 2. (Even more important) share General Conference on Facebook and other social media with a comment about your testimony and/or what your highlight was. Great happiness awaits you as you labor among God's children and bring souls back to Him :) Have a wonderful week!! Sister Jenkins