Oh Rejection!

Working the Streets!

Okay first off, the good news--at least the good news of the week for me. I think that fall has come! Literally the temperature has dropped 15-25 degrees over the past few days and I am loving it, but, at the same time, I was getting pretty used to just sweating all of the time. So actually, from what I have heard, this summer we just got through was the hottest summer that Korea has had since 1994. Yeah baby! I caught the big one! Seriously, though, I loved this summer--hot and sweaty and absolutely lovely.

This past week was weird. Although the temperature was more inviting, I actually felt the least amount of acceptance in my entire time as a missionary! I literally don't think I have ever been rejected so much. It was insane and wayyy hard, but after some time I just found some comedy in it. I didn't really know how to deal with it except for being myself! So yeah, hard week. But if there weren't some hard ones, how would we know how an easy and nice one feels? Right?

It is tiring being a Greenie

This past week we also met with our main man Harry! Harry is this 88-year-old man who LOVES English more than any Korean I have met. He is such a funny character, so our visit was really interesting and comical. He did let us share a little message with him, and the cool thing was, I think that old man felt the Spirit of God. Sick!

Something that really hit me this week came yesterday, at the end of a hard and long week. We were sitting in Sacrament and were singing the opening hymn. Seongnam Ward was sitting at their usual 25 in attendance, and I was seated clear in the back so that I could translate. As we were singing, I was kind of just reflecting for a second, thinking about the week we had had. Sort of depressing, seeing that there wasn't hardly any success that came of the week. Honestly, I was just feeling pretty beat up. And, on top of that, I was looking across the Seongnam few and just feeling so empty. Only 5 years ago, the congregation had 60. Now we are at 25 on a good week. I was just feeling soo much weight. But the funny thing is, as I kept looking at those few members, I received the STRONGEST feeling that God loves each and every one of them that were there. And that He loves and knows each and every one of those people I tried talking to this week. And that He loves YOU and that He loves ME. And honestly I couldn't hold the tears back. He truly is aware of us. He cares so much about us. And He is here! Right next to us! I sure love Him. Although sometimes we might feel like God isn't there, I can testify from my experience yesterday that He is!

I love you all, and I hope you have an awesome week. Remember that even if it does get hard, there is someone you can turn to, and He will be by your side the whole way.

Elder Jenkins!

Learning about Pizza at Pizza School!

TACO BELL Baby!!!

NOT Taco Bell!