The Errand of Angels Week 52: Thankful for My Mission

Hello Everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving this coming week! Oh, and Happy One-Year Mark this Thanksgiving for me! I cannot think of a better day to have my one-year mark on!

Here are a couple reasons I am grateful for my mission:

-Seeing people's lives change

-Opportunities to testify

-Lots of time set apart to study the scriptures (two hours daily)

-Meeting great new friends (companions!)

-Working hard (and learning to work harder)

-Growing my relationship with God and Christ

-Learning to how become a better mother (in the future)

-Living simply (out of three suitcases)

-Learning to make good, quick judgements based on Holy Ghost, and sound reasoning

-Appreciating the blessings from God more.

There are so many more. I am truly grateful for my mission and for the opportunity to learn and grow.

Isn't the lizard cute?

Some of the blessings we saw this week:

Jeff and Mickey are wonderful! They have been reading all the assignments, and re-reading them. They gave a member (their neighbor) a ride to church, stayed for all three hours (even though Mickey's foot was swelling pretty bad), and received a Priesthood blessing after church. It has been so cool to see their transformation. They are happier and seem so in love. They feel like a burden has been lifted from their shoulders. Jeff is very excited to be baptized. Every time we go over to their house it is cleaner and more organized and smells less of smoke. It is awesome.

Sister Hewitt invited a friend over that we have been trying to meet with for quite some time. He became a new investigator in the first visit and wants to be baptized. He came to church. He could not possibly have a better fellowshipper in Sister Hewitt. She has been sharing the gospel with everyone and it is so exciting to see the fruits of her labors.

We have some young women who are learning the Sacrament prayers in ASL so that they can help interpret. That has been a cool service opportunity for me... it is helping them with their Young Women value projects. One is even teaching Sister Aussicker with us (she is the deaf woman), it is awesome! Sister Aussicker is so funny by the way! She makes us laugh every single visit. The members who are getting to know her love her and her sense of humor.

There are so many more blessings than that. We had so many times this week where it was 100% perfect timing, we had three investigators and three returning members at church. It is beautiful!

Ohhhhhh, Great Harvest Bread. What a treat.

And I am trying to give myself more to the Lord. I am here to give 100% of my self - thoughts, heart, actions. I want to come home knowing I did that.

My invitation to you: Write down ten things you are grateful for in your journal, and have a prayer of gratitude with your family for the many blessings of God. Not just a quick prayer over Thanksgiving dinner, but a prayer that comes after discussion from each of your family members about what you are grateful for.

Have a great week!

Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels Week 51: Baptismal Date Set

Time for new shoes

Maybe I should have buried these with honors

Hello Everyone!

Well, seeing as I hit my year mark next week, I think this week is 51. Wow! Yup, year mark is in 10 days. I hope you all miss me. Haha.

This week was really good with LOTS of blessings and miracles.

Funny of the Week: So, we had a good funny of the week to share. We were walking down the road and these two old men drive up on their bikes and and whistle at us and pat the back of the seats (signaling us to get on and go for a ride). Obviously there wasn't even a particle of a possibility that we would get on, but we about died laughing when a couple minutes later we thought of what the look would be on President Cusick's face if we was stopped at a light and we pulled up next to him on the back of motorcycles. Oh man, it was too funny! But don't worry, not a possibility AT ALL!

Miracles/Blessings/Highlights of the Week:

Last week we were at Costco getting lots of food (this week we don't have a car, so we have to stock up!) We were in line and about to check out with this woman comes up to us, introduces herself (as a member in Riverview) and says, "Today is my son's birthday. He has almost been out on his mission a year. He is missing home today. I really want to do this for you." And then buys $80 of groceries for us. We stood there in awe, thanked her, and teared up. We have been trying to be so good about our money and Heavenly Father has been pouring out the blessings on us. We had to thank Him so much for this one. 

CUTE, and only $20

We have been teaching a wonderful woman named Teresa. She does not have much experience with church throughout her life. It was been such a blessing to teach her. She says some of the most thought out prayers that I have ever heard and she is a great example to me. Every time she prays she says something, waits (to receive an answer from God), thinks about what to ask for, and then says something else, and repeats the silence. The first time she prayed if The Book of Mormon was true and what we were teaching was true she felt so much peace. Through prayer and the Holy Ghost we can know of any spiritual truth. It was powerful. After her prayer we invited her to be baptized January 11 and she accepted. We are so grateful and excited. Heidi and Legion (recent converts in this area) are excited to come join the lessons with her. She explained how the day that we met her while we were biking on the street she was having a really bad day. Her car wasn't working and that is why she was walking. She acknowledges though that everything happens for a reason. 

Our deaf sister

 

A cool miracle we saw was with lesson focus... which is sometimes out of our circle of influence, but we can still strive our best. We have been having a hard time keeping some lessons to the suggested 45 minute range or keeping them focused. We have many investigators who can literally talk for 30 minutes straight if they weren't continually interrupted. We know that there is a nice balance between listening and controlling the lesson. With two such investigators we had been praying, discussing, and planning all week long on how to do this. We had a lesson with them Saturday night; almost the entire lesson was focused and the discussion was led by the Spirit (and this was without the DVD that we were planning on showing). It was a beautiful witness to me of how important prayer, preparation, and faith are. 

Our deaf less active came to church yesterday. In the process, we discovered a man from the Brandon ward who is studying ASL that can help interpret, and two young women and a relief society sister who want to begin coming to the lessons and preparing to interpret for parts of church. This should take little time on our part to prepare them to help interpret. This was a huge blessing because we were worried about her feeling welcome, friendshipped, and being able to understand the lessons after I left.

I love my mission and I am so grateful to be here! It has been a huge blessing! Every moment of every day is so beautiful :) Even those that you just have to laugh at, like the biker guys.

Invitation: Try thinking a little extra about your prayers this week while you saw them.

Thanks Rachel for the Outback gift card. We ate the whole thing

Have a great day!

Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels Week 48: Tender Mercies and ASL

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all are well!

First and foremost, THANK YOU to all the Veteran's who have served this country... who have protected us and our rights, especially our rights for religious freedom. Thank you. Thank you to all those who are currently serving. Thank you, David, for all of your service! And thank you for being a great husband to my Sister. Thank you to your family.

This week was awesome!!! and hard at times... but mostly, awesome!!!

Guess what?! 

We have been trying to find less active members and this week we found one that is deaf!! What a blessing!! We have tried her so many times, but haven't knocked hard enough for her to know we were at the door. She is so sweet and wonderful and will hopefully be at church this next week. It was also a tender mercy to have a little bit of the gift of tongues, because in our first meeting of her I knew exactly almost everything she signed and I knew all the vocabulary to communicate back. Granted, I am fluent in ASL, but I am still not perfect and only typically use it twice a day for my morning and evening personal prayers. The next meeting we had with her wasn't as perfect, which was a great testimony that Heavenly Father did indeed bless me with the gift of tongues on that first visit. He has been pushing me to study ASL more, which is hard with our schedule, but I have been blessed to watch The Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we teach from in ASL here and there. It is a good reminder.

There were so many other tender mercies this week as well, especially with 100% perfect timing! Here you go (not in order):

Remember that lady that I mentioned that we prayed with on  Halloween and she started crying? We haven't been able to get in contact with her... doesn't have money for a phone, etc... well, this week God helped us see her at a bus stop at a totally different time than before. We were able to have a quick lesson with the Atonement with her... helped her see that her little children didn't need to be baptized yet until they could choose, but she wants us to help her prepare for baptism. I have faith we will see her again soon.

You have gotta love Florida. This was off a member's tree with 3 guavas off another tree.

We also were able to do a lot of service! Which we love :) We helped a Veteran who had just gotten surgery on both his feet, to saw some branches. He is a preacher and is awesome. 

He introduced us to his neighbor, a sweet woman in her 80s that works like an ox... she gave us a referral for another sweet, older woman, and we also got to help her with some cleaning that requires a lot of bending. This woman wakes up around 5 AM, cleans her house, and then serves people for the rest of the day. She gives homeless people and poor people rides to go get food. She is amazing. She is Baptist. I don't know if I have ever publicly thanked our Christian brothers and sisters for all the service they do. I really appreciate their dedication to Christ and their work towards the "cause of Christians." We need more people in the world who strive to live their testimonies of Christ.

So, I bring up service not to get popularity points, but because I am so grateful when people give us the opportunity to serve!! Also, because I feel humble doing it... as a missionary, I am a representative of Christ, and I want to model my life after Him. He did so much service, and I am grateful for any opportunity to do the same. I love it.

A really cool perfect planning miracle. In weekly planning we pencil planned to see a family Wednesday at 5, but the way our appointments worked and the fact that we were on bike, it just wasn't going to work, so we didn't call them to schedule for that day. Guess what?! They called us and scheduled to pick us up at 5 that day for dinner. I am so grateful and humble for perfect planning.

Mickey and Jeff are so wonderful! They came to church this Sunday. Jeff hasn't set foot in a church for about 15 years. He said it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders. They have multiple friends that are members. 

We also invited a homeless man to church, and he came! It was so exciting. He is super sweet. He said he will be back next week.

So anyways, today was mostly just sharing the tender mercies of the Lord, which I am so grateful for! I truly love this work. Every week brings a deeper testimony, a greater love for our Savior, and beautiful and sweet opportunities to serve.

Oh, and thank you for those who have been praying we will get fed. I don't know if you are, but we received over $45 in free groceries this week, plus more food in the mail. We really appreciated it. Thank you!

Invitation: Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. With The Book of Mormon musical coming up (we have it here for the next two weeks), many people are hearing false things about our church. If you don't have a testimony of its truth for yourself, read The Book of Mormon, pray, and find out. If you do have a testimony or if you don't know what Mormons believe, become more educated so you can educate others. Try out Mormon.org.

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Jenkins

A missionary pyramid

The Errand of Angels Week 47: BOLD

This week has been awesome and hard and heart wrenching all at the same time!

I have been studying boldness and trying to apply it this week. We met with a woman who has been struggling with scripture study. We had not planned on teaching this, but we talked about obedience and how we need to be exactly obedient to obtain God's miracles. Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. She is looking for miracles in her life. It was such a touching experience to be bold and have her accept the invite to read her scriptures every single day.

We had a wonderful recent convert that we have been meeting with. She has caught the spirit of missionary work! We have two new investigators from one of her referrals and had a great experience having dinner with and sharing a lesson with another friend of hers. She is fulfilling her member missionary efforts... and it is making her happier!

We have been trying to open our mouths more this week, as we are now back on bikes half time. We have had countless experiences of God placing people in our path. I can't imagine not talking to them... we would have missed out on so many opportunities to meet people so prepared. It makes it difficult to look at times I haven't opened my mouth. 

We met one lady that was walking with headphones in... we still stopped and talked to her. She began crying when we testified to her. The experience ended with tears and hugs. She knew that we were from God. We knew that God placed us in her path because He loves her. It is one of the sweetest experiences to be one of God's angels.

I want to give my full will to God. Every day I want this more. I am so grateful for what I am becoming and the perspective that I am gaining.

During this week I have had the opportunity to reflect upon the sacrifices made by our pioneer ancestors. I read stories in "Our Heritage" about those who were beaten, cast out, and even killed for what they knew to be true. They would not back down. I read the words of Moroni 1:2-3 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/1.2-3), which describe how we would not deny Christ, even though he was being hunted by unbelievers. I reflected on their sacrifices. I must be bold in what I know to be true, because I do know it, without a doubt, I know it. I wrote my own bold testimony this week about my own sacrifice:

I stand before you today having sacrificed much to come here. I left an excellent job, put school on hold, used every last penny of my savings, to come here for 18 months and to stand here and testify to you that this is true. I have missed seeing births of nieces and nephews and other life events. I will not see my family in person for 18 months, so I can stand here and tell you this is true. When I return home I will be jobless and penniless. In all honesty, this isn't much of a sacrifice. Why you might ask? Because I know I am about Christ's work. I am His representative. I love Him and I love my Father in Heaven. I know that the eternal salvation of the children of men is at stake. And I have been blessed to know how to find eternal happiness and salvation. I want nothing more at this time than to share that with you. I will never regret my decision. Many missionaries who went before me have sacrificed their lives and sealed their testimonies with their blood, because this is true. Would they make such a sacrifice if they didn't know, without a doubt, this was true? Would I come here and sacrifice if I didn't know myself? I declare to you that the message we share is true and that it is of greater worth than anything else in the eternities. If you turn this down, you turn away Christ, for this is truly His gospel.

Invitation: Be someone's angel this week. Follow the prompting to talk to someone.

Have a great week!

Sister Jenkins

Leftovers of Halloween

Missionary Pyramid

 

Halloween Dessert