Questions? Answers!

Last week was such a blessing! Oh man I loved it so much. We had some awesome spiritual experiences.

So to start: on Monday, we went to one of the 3 churches in our mission that has a gym and we all ate pizza and balled out. Way fun! And I got to say goodbye to one of my last companions, Elder Wilcox.

This week was just full of what felt like "random" blessings. Lately I have been texting practically every single number that is stored in our phone and asking people pretty frankly if they have interest of not. As you might expect, nearly all did not have interest, but the craziest thing was, some did! So we met them, and they became investigators. So cool! Then at English class one day, a random kid showed up and we asked "how did you learn about our class?" and he said right now he is preparing for this HUGE and really important test coming up and so he googled an effective way to learn English fast, and he found some link about us and how we have a free English class. What in the world? I have never found someone like that before. It was such a miracle! So tonight we are actually going to meet him and start up this program we have for people who want to learn English and the Gospel as well. I'm really excited for that one!

Then on Wednesday we were Sticker Boarding out by this really cool University, and it was a hit. We gave away more than 200 flyers, which is huge for us. And right as we were about to leave this older professor approached us and spoke pretty fluent English to us and explained that when he was 25, he first met missionaries and he loved meeting them. And so I was pretty bold and just said, "Well how about meeting them again?" And he agreed. I got his number, we met with him on Friday, and he has major potential. He looked at us in his office and told us he has one question that no religion has been able to answer: "What about my ancestors who never had a chance to learn about Christ because they were all practicing Confucianism? Are they just going to Hell?"  Nope! We told him that we in fact actually did have some answers he was looking for and he became an investigator! Sick! We met another really cool kid on Saturday who told us that every day he wonders "what is my life's purpose?" What in the heck? This is straight gold! 

And another cool thing from this week. I got to perform 3 baptismal interviews for the ward next to ours and they were all baptized this weekend! One of the interviews was scheduled at 11 o'clock and the baptismal service started at 12--talk about pressure on me--but he passed just fine!

Anyways, absolutely solid week for us. I hope yours was as well! 

Love you all! 

Elder Jenkins

Korean Thanksgiving

Festivities of "Chuseok:"  Korean Thanksgiving Celebration

Dancing

This week was seriously such a blast! Heading into the week, though, I honestly saw NO promise. First off, this last week we celebrated the biggest Korean Holiday (Chuseok), which was on Thursday. A General Authority from our Asia North Area came and trained us for a big portion of that day. And, to top it off, on Friday we went to the coolest thing I think I have seen on my mission! We went to this Folk Village in a place near where we live, and it was just all this old school Korean stuff. Everyone was in traditional clothing, and there were cool shows, sweet souvenirs, traditional Korean foods, and all kinds of fun stuff. As cool as all that stuff was, though, it cut into our precious proselyting time and we need investigators. But, the coolest thing was, we were blessed wayyyy more than we could have imagined.

Blessing Number 1: We absolutely destroyed proselyting this week--nearly doubling the amount of materials/phone numbers we receive in a typical week. What!?!

Blessing Number 2: We also nearly doubled the number of lessons taught from our previous week.

Blessing Number 3: I smiled my butt off all week long!

Blessing Number 4: We received training under Apostolic Authority, and I actually got to have a personal interview with him and talk about my missionary work. It was Elder Scott D. Whiting, the same GA that came last year at this time and I interviewed with then as well. We talked a lot about what had changed in a year. He was very complimentary and kind.

Blessing Number 5: We got to see horesback acrobatics this last week at the Folk Village, and a dope dance by professional hip hop dancers. (haha)

Blessing Number 6: My testimony of the Lord's will and the Lord's timing were strengthened sooo much!!! 

Blessing Number 7: This is a little bit of a wild card, but we also learned that we will be having a combined conference with the Seoul Mission next month! And guess who is coming to speak..... David A. BEDNAR!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was such a blast. I love it here. Of course I miss all of you... but....

Anyway, have a nice week. Smile. Be happy.

Elder Jenkins

A few photos from the week:

Urban Rice Paddy

Elder Fleming, my MTC Comp

Dinner at a Member's Home

Miracle Jackpot!

Elder Bratt and Elder Jenkins at the Temple

This week was really fun, but as I look back I can't remember a ton of what happened. Haha, my bad. I really do believe that the more fun you have, and the busier you are, the faster time flies. That has been the story of my mission!! It has gone by wayyyy tooo fast!

This week's highlight: We went to the temple on Thursday and it was so awesome. I absolutely love the Lord's house! Afterwards, we ate at this buffet that was on the Han River, which separates our mission from the Seoul Mission. Then we played rugby for like 2 1/2 hours. I had never played  before, but it was such a blast!

Seoul Korea Temple

Another fun thing about this past week was on Friday we hit a Miracle jackpot! We had about two hours that night to go on the streets to proselyte, and before we left the house we said our normal 'before we leave the house prayer' but I think we tried to be a little more sincere seeing that we don't have a ton. Sure enough, out and about, we found 2 Inactive Members who were totally down to meet! And then some lady approached Elder Bratt out of the blue, speaking fluent English, and she told us that she lived in America for 7 years! WHOA! It is super super rare to find someone who even barely speaks English in this area. And on top of that, guess where she lived: Utah. And on top of that: She has been to a Baptismal Service! hElder Bratt and I, I'm sure, were just sitting there with our mouths open in awe! It was a series of absolute miracles from the Lord

I know from this, and from other experiences in my mission and throughout my life, that when we pray sincerely, God truly does answer--In His timing and in His way. I love Him, and I sure know that He is here! 

Have a great week!

Elder Jenkins

Reunion with Elder Wilcox

After a trial of faith....Gold!

This week was much much better than last week, but I don't have a ton of time so I will just share one quick story!

We still have not found a ton of investigators even though we have been busting hard for it. It just hasn't happened yet. I think mostly this is just a test of our faith. Regardless, we have still been working hard on the streets and this week we finally found a little more success. But before I proceed, you need a little backstory: on Wednesday afternoon, we received a text from the Zone Leaders that some important church leaders from America were coming to Korea on Sunday and they were going to be holding a fireside. I got really excited and told my companion that we needed to go, but there was a catch: in order to go, you had to bring an investigator with you. At that time, we didn't have anyone we thought was even a remote possibility. Even so, I made a commitment that I was going to find a person to take to that meeting!

So fast forward to Wednesday night: we taught English class and afterwords we had 40 minutes to proselyte, so I decided that we should hit up the big intersection by our house and try to find some potential investigators. I was super determined to find the ticket to that meeting and the coolest thing happened: the FIRST guy I talk to was just like sooo sick! He was way down to talk, he even took out his headphones without my help (haha, I may or may not have "assisted" in headphones removal before), and he was really nice. But then after talking for a second, I told him who I was and everything changed and he just said "I hate Christians!" I was just like "come on Lord, just give me a break!" (haha) And He did. After talking for a while, the guy said "you know what, I didn't like Christians until I met you, now let's go get something to eat." Heck yeah! 

So in the restaurant he let us talk all about who we are and what we are doing and right before we were about to leave, I decided that I should try to get his number (which he gave willingly). Then I had another random (inspired) thought to just invite him to the meeting on Sunday, so I did. He thought about it for a second and said, "seriously, I didn't think I would ever go back to church, but I am coming to your guys' church on Sunday!" haha sick!!!!.. And the cool thing is.. He CAME! Seriously, such a miracle. The speakers were Sister Carol McConkie and then another lady from one of the presidencies (I'm drawing a blank right now). It was so cool, and the Spirit was really strong there. Afterwards, someone asked our new investigator what he thought about it and he said, "I will never forget tonight, and especially how I felt" Holy cow, such gold!! I really was so happy for him and I hope that through us he can continue to have the Spiritual experiences that he needs to have over the next little while!

Also, what a cool experience it was for us as a companionship and a true witness that after the trial of your faith you really are blessed! 

I had an awesome time this week. I Love it!

Hope all is well back home. Keep it real, keep the faith, and keep being you.

Elder Jenkins