The Errand of Angles: Week 29 Now Is Your Time and God Will Help You

Hello Everyone!

How are you?! My week was GREAT!!!

Funny of the Week: Sister Bush and I were driving on the freeway. She said kind of shocked like "its a monkey..." I looked over and sure enough. There was a monkey sitting in the suburban next to us, wearing a pink shirt, with its arm resting on the windowsill, with hair blowing in the wind. It looked kind of relaxed at us and looked back forward. Yup, it was a monkey. Too bad they were speeding or else we might have been able to take a picture. It was so funny.

Talk of the Week: If you did not get a chance to watch the missionary fireside/training from yesterday, please do so! Do so for family night or any other possible time. The fireside was amazing and so inspired! I know this work is moving forward and members are key! Plus, the Florida Tampa Mission (and the Stake I was previously serving in) was highlighted in it! Didn't I tell you that this is the best mission?! ;) Watch it here: http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/a-new-vision?cid=HPL1P01W01031&lang=eng

Tender Mercy/Miracle of the Week: Our Deaf investigator is an astounding man. He has been walking or taking the bus to the church building for our appointments and for Sunday meetings. He has also gone to a baptism and a single adult activity. What I love about Barry is that he is willing to sacrifice. He travels to church on his own, sits for the full three hours in severe pain from problems with his feet and liver. He can't communicate with many people, especially during Elder's Quorum, when I am not there to interpret, but he sits there and just enjoys the Spirit and tries to pick up as much as possible. We are still working on the branch learning ASL, and it is nice that we have Deaf woman, but for now he appreciates people just saying hi or sitting by him. Many people in the branch say hi to him though. Lots of people also volunteer to give him rides home, which he appreciates. I am grateful for him because of his sacrifice. I have heard many excuses to not go to church or not keep different commandments. I can promise you, if God has asked us to do it, He will always provide a way. Think to yourself, if you were saying this excuse to God, how might He respond? Well, obviously first of all out of LOVE. Second of all, I think He would encourage us. Tell us that He has prepared a way for us to do something. Let us do the same with ourselves or others. 1. Love. 2. Encourage. 3. Testify that it is possible. I know God loves you and that He has provided a way!

Other Highlights of the Week: It seemed that in beautiful preparation for the missionary fireside, our members were very involved in our lessons this week. They came to members homes with us, they taught at the church with us, they gave investigators rides, and they showed friendship and love. I am so grateful for all the members who have sacrficed. We have members who donated food to investigators when they realized they didn't have any, who are calling doctors (well, for our Deaf investigator since he can't), who are helping clean people's houses, and who are helping people with cooking. The branch is stepping up with the social side of things. They are providing their testimonies and their love. They are choosing to do all these extra things on their own... they are volunteering! Good job, Gulfport! You will be blessed indeed!!

Picture: Sister Bush and I with President and Sister Summerhays. They are going home next week. I love them and have learned so much from them! Especially how to 1. love, 2. strive to be exactly obedient, 3. always have faith and trust in the Lord. I am so grateful for them! I have been praying for them and our new mission president, President and Sister Cusick. Welcome soon to Florida!
 
Invitation: 1. Watch the missionary fireside! 2. Write down a list of five people you want to see in the temple (or church). They could be returning members or non-members. 3. Make a game plan on how you can help invite them and how you can involve the missionaries. Your responsibility is to find, invite and friendship. God will help you with this!

You are all so great!!

Love, Sister Jenkins

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

The Errand of Angels: Week 27 Bicycle Helmets in the Bathtub

Hi Everyone!

So Sister Bush and I had a great week! And a funny week and rather an exciting week! It is officially hurricane season here in Florida. Even though Tornado season is over, hurricane season also means possible tornadoes and water spouts. Well, we had a couple tornado warnings and watches Thursday this weekwith Tropical Storm Andrea. Its wonderful that Sister Bush and I are so witty and like to have fun in all situations. One was at 4:00 AM. So at 4:00 AM we hopped in the bathtub with our bicycle helmets (mission rule and actually very smart indeed) and a camera, and ended up having a blast. We created a show called "Bicycle Helmets in the Bathtub." In the show we both talk in British accents. We give great advice on what you should do in a storm, even though its actually really bad advice. Picture me with a bicycle helmet on, sitting in the bathtub, speaking in a British accent, "In the event of a tornado eat all of the food in your 72 hour kit as quickly as possible. The heavier you are the less likely are to get blown away." (Please don't really do this). I have to admit, its pretty funny. We had a blast with it all day Thursday as we jumped in and out of the tub during various warnings. Do not worry, we are safe and sound. We did have a tornado hit Gulfport though, which downed some trees and a single mailbox (woo!). It was really cool though. The tornado started at the beach and went straight up the street toward our church building. The tornado turned west right before hitting the building and totally avoided. Can anyone say, God protects His Church? We obviously didn't see this because we were inside the whole day on lock down from the storm. I totally had cabin fever.

Studying in the bathtub: Sister Bush hogging the pillows

4 A.M. Sillies

Destruction: So there was hardly any damage down besides a couple of downed trees. One sign was damaged, a mailbox was down, a couple cars were damaged from trees. But not much. So on all the papers here they have a picture of this building (a tree fell on it). This is really the only damage. Which is sad, but just seems funny when you see it on the top of newspapers "Devastation of Andrea" with a picture of the corner of this building. I heard the owners are super nice. And that the food is delicious. I do feel bad. I guess I'm just really grateful not much happened.

After Andrea

Other highlights from the week:

Dad, I met someone who was in the Utah State Prison the same time as you... as you were working there ;) He knew you from the Cell Study program. He really liked the program and would send men to it all the time. He cried when he talked about the education he received in Utah and in prison. His mother is a very pleasant woman and a wonderful cook. We are trying to encourage her to take the lessons and come back to church.

Our Deaf investigator has a baptismal date! And we just set a date with another investigator, which leaves us at a total of 5. I am so humbled at this. Many of these people have some things that they will need to overcome, but the date set will give them a glorious thing to work towards. Ooo! Our lesson with our Deaf investigaor was in ASL. That was the first time I had taught the first lesson in sign language. That was so cool. Its amazing to see the gift of tongues, with me communicating with him and my companion actually followed along very well. I don't know if I shared last time, but we are now doing language study a couple days a week in ASL. She is picking up quickly. The lesson pamphlet DVDs are helping amazingly, thanks Mom! Its so cool. Heavenly Father is really blessing us and I'm so grateful He is blessing Sister Bush.

We had a couple investigators come to church again! We have been working extra hard at this, probably the last month. It is so nice. Like many things in life, you might not see the fruits of your labors right away, but you will see them. And I love with missionary work, and with God, no effort is ever wasted.

We were over at the home of a family we teach. They told a story about how they were watching a movie and a picture of Christ was in it. Their 4-year old daughter ran and grabbed The Book of Mormon and flipped to the page with a picture of Christ. I don't think we ever told the girl that the picture was of Christ. Its beautiful how in tune children are :)

One other highlight was finding a super prepared new investigator yesterday. Its amazing the strange things people think about Mormons. He had heard lots of things, but let us pray with him. He was then open to talking and asking questions. We corrected a lot of misunderstandings. He said that the message really made sense and went along with how he knew and understood the Bible and how the Holy Ghost works. It was amazing. He saw the need for a second witness, The Book of Mormon. I feel so blessed.

I this work. It is great. It is wonderful. It is fun. It is exciting. It is hard. It is rewarding. It was just beautiful. I love being a missionary.

My invitation to you this week is to: 1. Check out Mormon.org. It is a great website to explain the Church's stance on issues and how to answer questions, plus for those who aren't Mormon, you can read about what we really believe, and look at profiles of Mormons (mine is on there!). 2. Check out this talk I lovehttps://www.lds.org/youth/article/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng Its called "His Grace is Sufficient." Its about Christ. One of my favorites. Great read for families, especially those with youth. I love it and read it often.

Have a wonderful day!

Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels: Week 26 Gotta Love ASL

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all are well! Happy end of school for many of you!! Woot!! Summer time is here and what a perfect time to share the gospel with people!! I guess its always a perfect time to share the gospel with people ;)

But remember, I want to hear about your missionary experiences! They are so encouraging to me!

So this week was very good! Funny moment of the week... well, we had a man open the door with only only his boxers on. Eh, I started sharing the gospel anyways. We asked if we could pray with him and teach him more. His response, "right now really isn't a good time. I'm in my underware." Yes, I realize this. I wanted to say, well we could wait while you put on some pants. But oh well. I don't remember our response, but... we gave away three Book of Mormons right afterwards. That was really cool. BTW, just a reminder, we study from both The Bible and The Book of Mormon. Just want to make sure you know that.

So on better news, we had three investigators at church today!! This is our record thus far in Gulfport A! One was a man that was a referral from a member in the stake. We don't know who referred him and we just had a name, address and phone number. We almost gave up on contacting him, but found he was Deaf! So we left one more note. He texted us! Came to the ASL class, came to church and is meeting with us twice this week. It was so awesome! Its such beautiful timing too. We have a good number of consistent individuals that come to our weekly ASL class and we have a deaf woman in the Branch. God is so amazing. Plus, I am really being pushed to work on my ASL skills even more! Wow. Such a blessing. 

One of the other amazing experiences this week was with one of our baptismal dates (btw, his soon-to-be wife just set her own baptismal date!). We met with him last night and he just raved about how the gospel made him so happy and how he was so excited to be baptized. How awesome is that?! Guess what?! The gospel does make people happy! Its so wonderful! I love it! He is so excited for the temple and for the Celestial Kingdom and he wants to do everything he can to get himself there. Yes indeed, the work is beautiful and I love it!

I love this work. I LOVE THIS AREA! I was a little worried coming to Gulfport. I had heard this and that, but I was determined to work my hardest and serve the people my best. Heavenly Father has worked miracles since Sister Bush and I have been here. It was so humbling yesterday to have three investigators at church, two who had never been in an LDS building before. Our Deaf guy, and one that was found through peace and blessings. It was beautiful to see two women who had taught with us recently bear their testimony, one on how much she appreciated teaching with us. It was beautiful that people came up and talked to our investigators and made them feel welcome. The work is moving forward. Neither myself or Sister Bush are perfect, but we are striving. God is rewarding us so sweetly. I am just so grateful. I feel like we have tapped into a greater power here and more miracles than I have ever before seen. Sister Bush and I are working so hard and our unity brings us power. The adversary tries really hard to break it up (like last night), but when that happens, we pray, we talk, we pray, we ask for repentance as a companionship, we forgive each other, we trust in God's forgiveness. It has honestly been an amazing experience. I love Gulfport A so much. I love the mission so much. God is so good. 

Your invitation for the week is to write down a talent you have, and pray and ask God how you can use it to share the gospel!

I love you all! 

Love, Sister Jenkins

The Errand of Angels: Week 24 Truly, Blessed in All Things

Hi Everyone!

Hello!! How are you?! 

Missionaries are awesome. Wow, I sure do love being  a missionary. I love that Heavenly Father trusts me to labor in His vineyard. He trusts all His children. All members of the Church have a responsibility to share the gospel. God will help them in this effort.

You know, obedience is so key to the work, but more so, love for our Heavenly Father is so key. When we love Him, we love His Son, when we love Christ, we love others, when we love others, we are willing to sacrifice everything for their souls and eternal happiness. At that point, obedience just falls into place. Mosiah 28:3 is a motto of mine.

Gulfport is getting a little toasty. I am sweating up a storm. But people still meet with us. Another way to tell the gospel is true :) We are so lucky and blessed to have the breeze from the ocean though. The ocean. I am so lucky to be serving in Florida on the coast. Wow, I love my mission.

This last week I really felt endowed with power from the Atonement. There were so many times that Sister Bush and I did prayers that ended in tears from those we were praying for and others present. When we are obedient the Spirit is there and when we trust God we say what the Spirit directs to our mind. As we do that, miracles happen. I love this work so much. Sister Bush is so amazing and trying so hard to channel the amazingly strong love she has for Heavenly Father into the work. She really has the Spirit and strives to follow it. I have always strove for obedience but am truly striving on a different level. I'm not perfect, but I sure do strive.

We had exchanges this week. We had some really powerful experiences throughout the 24-hours and I am grateful for Sister Turley helping me out in some interesting situations that I haven't really been up against before (anti- anti- religion people). It was beautiful how Heavenly Father controlled our schedule that day and how He did the entire week.

Just a quick prayer miracle. We were at the home of a returning member that we have been meeting with over the last couple weeks. Had some powerful experiences, but the sister has never joined (another returning member). Duirng exchanges she sat on the computer during the lesson. Her son asked us to pray for her. All of a sudden she opened up to us when I asked if there was anyting else. We did a prayer. She cried. The inspiration that came was so humbling for me. I could not be more grateful to Heavenly Father for trusting me with such promptings and such a precious child on His. She will be meeting with us this coming week.

This Church is true and I love telling people about it!

Oh! I taught my first ASL class this week. God is so good. So so good. I am tearing up just thinking about it. When I first got my mission call I was a little disappointed.... or a lot. I literally cried for hours afterwards (hopefully none of y'all could hear that on the conference call)... I really wanted to go on an ASL mission. I felt like part of the reason I was learning ASL was to use it on my mission. I didn't understand, but I did trust in God and gained a firm testimony within a week that I was very much so needed in Florida. I would have never said "no" to the call because I knew it was from God, but I was grateful that He gave me some good insight and a much better attitude. Before I came out I knew that Heavenly Father would bless me to remember my ASL when I returned home. He has blessed me so much on this mission to not only remember ASL but to use it to move forward His work: meeting Deaf people and teaching them, interpreting in church for a Deaf woman, helping a family to learn ASL so they could communicate with their son with down syndrome better, praying in ASL (I pray twice a day in ASL), and now teaching an ASL class so that the branch can better support their Deaf member. I am so grateful. And will be eternally grateful for choosing to trust in Heavenly Father and His plan for me.

Oh!! This week was so good. An investigator I taught in December, who moved areas so we stopped teaching him, just got baptized!! I talked to him this week. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to start the teaching process with him. Wow, such a tender mercy to have heard from him and to hear of the joy he has found in the gospel :) He was so ready for the gospel. I mean, we found him in sacrament meeting. So ready.

One other tender mercy. A member who said she was done with the church entirely changed her attitude. She is coming back!! So happy!!

My invitation to you this week: Take a copy of The Book of Mormon (or Bible for those who aren't LDS... well, I guess you could still give away a Book of Mormon) and 10 pass along cards with you on your next family vacation. Pray (and if possible, fast) for the opportunity to give it away. Then do. It helps to also have your testimony in The Book of Mormon (Bible). You will be blessed with sweet opportunities.

Have a great day!

Love, Sister Jenkins

How do you think the mailmen feel with all these "different" mailboxes?

P.S. Wanted to include the letter from my Mission President, President Summerhays:

Shortly before I embarked on this wonderful missionary journey, a sports announcer asked my son-in-law, “ why would he (me) give up all of this (the competitive golf world) to do missionary work?” Why would I? Why would you? Why would a collegiate basketball player or football player leave his university career for two years? Why would a filmmaker leave his passion to serve and not even watch a movie for two years? Why would we leave our fathers and mothers, our school or our work, our friends and family and other things that we cherish? We all give up a lot that is dear to us. It is a good thing for us to pause and remember why we were willing to give up all to serve our Lord.

As missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we need to place our whole confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. We face many challenges and much stress and anxiety every day. As we live His teachings and look to Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life in all phases of our lives, we receive help for our anxiety about the future and our ability to handle these challenges. The fundamental principle of our religion is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement is a principle that requires action and delivers power. Faith in Him is more than mere acknowledgement that He lives. It is more than professing belief. Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him. He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties. Always seek to learn so that you can apply. Make this your motto: “When the Lord commands, do it, and if possible, do it today.” Do not procrastinate. Delay will rob you of the Spirit that you could enjoy today. Repent and immediately will the power of the Spirit come. The Power that will come immediately through the Spirit is the Power of peace. The Power of strength, the Power of happiness; the Power of Love; indeed any Power that we need to accomplish the purposes of the Lord in our lives. I testify this Power will come immediately upon our repentance or our commitment to change. Consider these truths:

“..harden not your hearts any longer; for…now is the time and the day…therefore repent and…immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you…do not procrastinate the day of your repentance…for this day is given us to prepare for eternity…” Alma 36:31,33.

“…do as He hath commanded you; for which if ye do He doth immediately bless you…” Mosiah 2:24

“When obedience ceases to become an irritant and becomes our quest, IN THAT MOMENT, God will endow us with Power.”

Now is the time for us to improve. Today is the day to act on the things we have been prompted to do. Let us not miss out today on the happiness and peace that will come immediately upon our demonstration of faith by our improvement.

The Errand of Angels: Week 25 God is good! Happy 6 Months!

Hi Everyone!!

  

Happy Memorial Day! I am so grateful for all those who have fought and given their lives (whether on the battle field or on the political field) to give us religious freedom in this country. Thank you! I have also been so grateful recently for my pioneer ancestors and all others that sacrificed everything for the gospel. They left everything and gave everything for, as Moroni called it, the "cause of Christians." They gave everything to have the blessings of the temple. Of eternal life. I love them for all that they did. I am so grateful for their faith and example.

I am trying to live the law of consecration as a missionary, like they did, and give everything to God. Sister Bush is striving to do this as well. As we are putting God first in our lives, I have truly seen some of the most beautiful miracles of my mission. I could not be more grateful. Its amazing though, as I have seen these miracles I have also had some of the greatest struggles of my mission. Sister Bush and I truly strive to overcome all our struggles and work together to overcome them. Even though there are a lot, it is beautiful how easy we can overcome each hurdle as each of us is focusing on God first and foremost.

I love this area. It is amazing and humbling to see the goodness of God and how the area has changed over the last 6 weeks. Wow. This is truly God's work and not our own. As Sister Bush and I have been striving more fully to become like Christ, we have seen miracle after miracle this week. Just to name a few:

We had experiences with praying for others that were so exactly what was needed that people got a little freaked out, but they came more to believe we were sent from God. One person said she had the exact same prayer (basically word-for-word) written down in her journal and she reads it every morning. Only through exact obedience could we have qualified for such a tender experience. God is so good. This is His church. I am so humble to be His servant at this time. It is amazing and the words just flow as you move forward with faith and say them as they come to mind.

Two other times that the words just flowed: 1. We were meeting with a returning member and had planned a lesson, but got into it and really didn't know what to teach or what to say (originally he had slammed the door on us, then called us a couple weeks later and apologized. he said he wanted to meet with us and share his concerns about the Church). It was a tender mercy that we had the appointment. Then I just trusted God will fill my mouth and went forward. He did. He also filled Sister Bush's mouth. The first 20 mins or so of the lesson were so powerful of God's love, the joy of repentance, the hope because of the gospel, and the blessings from obedience. It just happened. Then we were able to hear his concerns and address them. He is now taking the lessons from us and will be coming back to church. 2. Sister Bush and I were having some struggles. For some reason we bring out the best and worst in each other. We were having a inventory talk and both had things to say but we have been striving to emulate God in all our conversations. I took a min to pray and then opened my mouth, and it was filled. I was not planning on it, but for a couple minutes I just told her all the things I was grateful for that she did/does. Then I lovingly stated what I needed/wanted to say. God can be in all parts of our lives. Both Sister Bush and I are trying to become like Him and have Him in our conversations. She is SO good at this and I am ever so grateful to her. As we do, things are easily overcome and we just grow in greater love and trust. We have a beautiful companionship. It is because we are striving to do all for God and put Him first. Great lesson to learn for future relationships. I really needed to see that experience. It was really powerful for both of us.

There are so many miracles from this week that I couldn't possibly hope to write them all down. But I will try... QUICKLY! And go...

First, God is good. He is SO good. He loves people so much.

Earlier this week we were trying to find someone. Couldn't find someone, so we prayed. Knocked on some doors. No success. Prayed again. Felt like we should knock on two more doors. We knocked on door that a lady said she had just been praying that morning. By the end of the peace and blessings prayer she knew we were sent from God for her. We said things that were inspired afterwards and she KNEW we were from God. Initially she was hesitant about taking The Book of Mormon, but then said she knew we were from God, so she would take it. We are so excited to teach her. She wants us to come over multiple times in the week.

We have been teaching a part-member returning member family. The wife has a baptismal date. This Sunday she came to church, which was a miracle to many in itself. Then, he husband walked in the door. I could not have been more happy right then. It was one of the most beautiful experiences to see this couple sitting together in church. God is so good. He is working His miralces. He is so good. The wife is getting baptized in two weeks by her husband. I am so excited! She is so excited!

This week we also set two more baptismal dates. Family and friends, the field is white already to harvest. Now is the time. God is preparing the hearts of the people. As we have faith and do our part, blessings just pour down. Wow! One of the date sets is a man who was taught by missionaries in 2005. The Spanish sisters found him while tracting. I am so grateful for all the efforts of other missionaries. They may not realize, but this man still remembers their names. They had a profound influence on his life and this baptismal date.

Sister Bush plays the violin. We were going to visit some people and play. We visited one lady who has not been to church for many years because of health issues. We played for her and her son listened in (which he didn't last time). Afterwards he asked us to say a prayer with him. We did a peace and blessings prayer. This man, in his 50s, cried before, during and afterwards. We will begin teaching him the lessons this week. God is good. He is SO good.

I am just so eternally grateful. The blessings were tremendous this week. There were so many tender mercies of God each day that I could not thank Him enough. We prayed and prayed and prayed thanks to Him. He is so good. Wow. I love being a missionary and love this work so dearly. The hearts of the people in this area, members and non, are being opened. God's work is going forth. He is amazing and wonderful and truly loves these people. The members are now teaching more with us! One lady wrote her testimony in almost 10 copies of The Book of Mormon, and taught with us for hours even though she has her own health issues.

Oh, and other tender mercies. One investigator is now praying about baptism (we were going to drop her because she didn't seem to be open), and another one just found out The Book of Mormon is true through prayer. This is God's work!!

Invitation: 1. This week write down 3 tender mercies from the Lord every day. If you are not seeing them, then pray to see them. Share them with others. 2. Pray/write down something you can do to put God first more in your life, make a plan, and then do it! 3. Go teaching with the missionaries. They will love you for it!

Thank you for all you do!

Sister Jenkins 

The Errand of Angels: Week 23 God's Schedule

Hi Everyone!

How are you?! How was Mother's Day?! Did all you women get treated well?

This week was absolutely amazing! Its spectacular what can happen when we strive to dedicate every moment to serving God and putting our faith fully in Him.

Our number of lessons increased dramatically over the last week. God blessed us tremendously as we followed the Holy Ghost on how to find. Saturday almost every moment was inspired. I feel so blessed and humbled. God's hand is in this work. I know that there will be hard weeks in the future... no doubts about that one ;) but I also have no doubt that this is God's work. He is watching out for us. As we strive to put all our focus on Him, He will allow us to do His work His way. Wow, do I ever love being a missionary.

I am still going through my Refiner's fire, but striving my best to learn and find joy. It is exciting to become more Christ-like.

Oh, and we invite everyone to be baptized in the first lesson. We have not had a "no" yet!! Everyone says yes to either soft commit (after you find out this is true...) or hard commit (on a certain date). Now, we have just 1 date set because some of those people disappear, but the beautiful thing is that we invite! Man, I love being a missionary. There is something so powerful about the message of the Restoration that rings true to all that hear and moves them to act on that truth and desire to be baptized. This is not a shy work at all.

So, highlights of the week:

Skyping with my parents for Mother's Day (obvious highlight)

Seeing dolphins in the wild

Eating a frog leg (yes, I did that)

AND:

Heavenly Father truly controlling every step of our schedule!! There are way to many highlights to share about this, but here is an example:

Saturday, 11 May:

Had studies/meeting go late, but only had a few established appointments.

Headed over to a recent convert. Stopped when we didn't feel right about it. Prayed, and decided to head to our first appointment early and talk to everyone along the way and see who Heavenly Father wanted us to find. The first person in our path (who we wouldn't have met if we weren't heading to the recent convert) prayed with us, opened up about her son with addictions, gave us a referral for him, and wanted us to come back.

Got to our appt on time. They weren't there. Left some info. Went to a potentialinv across the street. Not home. Prayed. Was going to leave but felt like should knock on a door across the street. Very not receptive. The potential inv came back home right then and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and have a quick lesson.

Left for the recent convert again. Felt like we should go back and knock on the one neighbor. Did. Not receptive. Before we left the person we had the first appointment with came back. Was able to talk to her and her mom. Awesome.

Was biking away and felt like we should stop by another potential inv. Did. Prayed with her. Biked to the recent convert (nursing home). Had never been there. Felt inspired to use a bike path that we had never used. Met a lady in an electric wheelchair. She knew the recent convert. Very receptive to gospel. She traveled with us to the nursing home. The recent convert was walking into the main area right as we came in. Had a lesson with both of them. The security guard listened in to the entire thing. It was an awesome lesson.

Got a steak dinner. Had a spectacular lesson with a part-member family.

Then felt like we should visit another potential inv. Went on a street that we only go on to visit them. Met a lady, taught her, soft committed her to baptism.

Yeah, that is kind of what happens when you follow the Spirit. Things are awesome. I love it when God controls our missionary work.

One more highlight:

Yesterday we felt like we should change our plans at night and visit a returning member. Went there. Not home. One the way back felt like we should tract a street, but only like 5 minutes before we had to head home. Knocked two doors. No time now. Felt like we needed to knock one more. We can only get home after 9:00 if we are in a lesson. Prayed and moved forward with faith that the door would turn into a lesson. It did, and a new investigator. It was awesome. I love how the tiniest promptings from the Holy Ghost can lead to such amazing blessings.

Your invitation: Compliment someone who looks like they are having a bad day. It goes a long way.

Have a great week!

Sister Jenkins