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| 호 호 호, or Ho Ho Ho |
We woke up and, as usual back home, we went right
to the presents! There aren't really Christmas trees here so that
wasn't a thing, but opening presents is still the same. Thanks to my
awesome family! After opening presents, we used all of the food we had
been saving up for our "Christmas morning breakfast" (bacon, which is rare here, and eggs) and made a
masterpiece! Then we went to a cool church meeting, which was followed by a delicious lunch
with all of the members. And, the highlight, a special appearance from Santa Claus! (haha
me) Quite a reverent Sabbath activity I would say. Why am I always
the guy that gets chosen for the "big white man" chores here in Korea? It was my first
time being Santa, and I daresay not my last. I will say it was a real test of my language skills.
After the lunch ,there was a cool little baptismal service for our
little investigator named Kim Dae Hyon. It was such a cool experience.
Here were his wise words for Gokbanjeong Ward: "Hey, I am Kim Dae Hyon, I
have been meeting the missionaries now for about 3 months. It was fun.
We always played games together. Today I am getting baptized. In the
name of Jesus, Amen!" It certainly was an awesome experience seeing someone like
him get to step into the waters of baptism and open the gate to a flood
of blessings to come!
After the baptism, we
went with our whole district to the big huge Christmas tree located in
the incredibly busy part of our area and did a really fun proselyting
activity with a violin and sticker board! It was such a blast trying to help
others come to a knowledge of who Jesus Christ was! As we did that, I had a
cool and rare experience of someone walking up to me and screaming
"JESUS" at the top of his lungs and saliva flying all over my face. Nice.
And to wrap the
day up, we met with this fun member family. They have these
four cute little kids who really love and respect missionaries. We ate
some great food and had some great laughs. After a while, all of the kids
kind of filed into another room and what followed was one of the most
interesting moments of my mission. For about an hour and a half, these
two parents just unloaded everything they were having a hard time with
right on me and my companions' shoulders, and there was a LOT of weight. I
honestly think years and years of things just accumulated. It was difficult to know where to start or what to do or say to them. So after a while of
listening, I felt there was an opportunity to quickly say something. I said, "How
easy do you think the life of Jesus Christ's was?" They were kind of
silent and so I said, "Pretty dang hard right? Not easy at all. So then
why are we, as imperfect human beings, expecting our lives to be easier
and more joyful than that of the SON OF GOD--the only perfect human
being to ever walk the earth. Now I know, just as well as you do, that
there are positives and there are negatives of life. But where is our
focus? Is it how happy we will be while living here? Where is your
focus?" Yup. I really do believe this to be true. We all have it hard, but what are we choosing to focus on? The positives? Or the negatives? I know that as we choose to focus
on the Savior Jesus Christ and the positives, we will be a happy
people!!!
I sure was happy this Christmas Season. I love you all, and I wish you a Merry Christmas!
Elder Jenkins
Christmas Photos
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| Loot from home |
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Elders Choi, Olsen, and Jenkins |
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