Whether to Go; Weather to Not

Being a foreigner in Korea, this week was really really interesting for me. So this was the hottest week in Korea since I have been here (I think like high 90's with suuuper high levels of humidity) and with the heat came a lot of challenges for missionary work. Korea just shut down in this weather! We could walk the streets and there was like no one. Last Friday, even we as missionaries weren't allowed to leave our houses until night time because I guess it was too hot. I can't say I was 100% obedient to that. To be honest, to me it was weird and frustrating. I didn't come here to sit in my house all day! The weird thing was, even the natives to this weather, the Koreans, were nowhere to be found. Sooo weird! And literally everyone we talk to just says "wow it is soo hot, and difficult, how can we do this??" haha gah! I hate this. So for Koreans, this was kind of just-take-it-easy week, and it really really tried my patience. No one could meet, and when we tried finding everyone gave us the excuse of it being too hot. So yeah, I was pretty frustrated. But what a great learning experience for me. Patience is so key in doing God's work. Waiting is truly one of the hardest parts for me, but learning patience is an awesome reward!

Additionally, because of the weather, church attendance proved to also be a "difficulty." We started sacrament meeting with 13 members and 4 missionaries, BUT did end with close to 30 total! Woo! 

Also this week some old lady passed us on the street and started to yell at us pretty aggressively, and the weird thing was that I actually understood her. Yeah! As I think I have said before, Korean people usually are either Very Very Christian or Buddhist, and this woman was Extreme Christian. She was just like going off on us not believing in Jesus and being a cult and all that good stuff. And then she even started to yell about us needing to believe, and that Jesus has appeared in Korea in the form of a woman (uh.. what the?). After a while of listening without intending to say much, my mouth just opened and kind of randomly said "I BELIEVE IN CHRIST!" Seriously, it was the craziest thing. But upon hearing that, she just stopped and nodded her head and kept on walking! Not another word. Although this experience was pretty weird to say the least, it really made me realize that a testimony can really carry a lot of power. Just 4 words was all it took, a simple testimony to stand up for something I believe. Don't underestimate the power of declaring a testimony! 

One last cool thing from this week: On Saturday, it was recommended we try to stay indoors with investigators and that kind of stuff, but after a while of nothing we just decided to take a little bit of time and go proselyte. As we were leaving the church, I had the thought that we should pray to find someone to come to church tomorrow, so we prayed right there in the middle of the road and then went to work. We spent about an hour walking about; we talked to some fun people, but no one committed. Frustration! So right when we were walking back to the church, literally 50 meters from the church, a guy stopped us and asked "where have you guys been? I have been waiting at the church for you. Lets meet!" So we sat down, got to know him a little bit, and when things were wrapping up, I made the last little "attempt" and invited him to church. To my surprise he said "yeah, I guess that would be a good thing to do."  Of course man! It was such an awesome experience: reliance upon the Lord and being specific with the Lord brought a specific and needed blessing! 

But the funny thing is, he didn't come out to church yesterday. I am blaming it on the weather ... and that is missionary work! But the thing is, whether or not that random guy came to church or not isn't the important thing. I think it was the fact that Elder Altejar and I relied on the Lord, and because of that He reminded us He was there, and it is still His work and He does it in His own timing. So yeah, maybe we will never see that guy again, but I sure do think there was a reason we met him on Saturday.

God really does work in funny and interesting ways. I love Him! And I sure love being His representative. 

I love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Jenkins