It Does Matter

Driving Test!

This week had quite the highlight! Not much compares to what happened, so I will just let the cat out of the bag now: Elder Jeffrey R Holland visited our mission and it was sooo sick! Within the last 6 months, Elder Bednar and Elder Holland both came to our mission. Total blessing!!! He said some things that were really strong, but just what we needed to hear as missionaries.

He was telling a story about a family who had been struck with an accident in Guam recently. He

explained that they were having such a hard time coping with the accident and he got a little emotional. Right then, BAM, the pulpit just pops and he says, "IT DOES MATTER! It does matter that Jesus Christ lives!!!" At this point he hit full lion! "Because of Jesus Christ, everything will be okay!" Of course he said a lot more, but that part really struck me. It totally does matter. And it is something we should all take into a little more consideration: Jesus Christ does live and because of Him, we will be okay! I, like Elder Holland, really do feel this to be true. This Gospel does matter and if we really do know that, we should let others know that too. 

Other cool things from this week: recently we met an older man who knew the Mormon Church clear back like 50 years ago when he was a student and he had actually attended church and really liked it. And for a about 13 years he has been living literally almost right next door to our church, but has had a hard time building up the courage to come in. Sure enough, after 13 years he took the chance and he has total interest. The coolest thing is he is Japanese!!! He is literally the second Japanese person I have met on my mission.

The Lotte Tower

Yesterday we met with one of our investigators after church who had come for the first time last week, and we had a great discussion with him. During our conversation, he said some of the dopest things I have ever heard out of an investigator's mouth. While reading a part in one of the pamphlets that literally is just talking about Jesus Christ's church, the word baptism comes out kind of softly, and he looks up at us and says, "By the way, I am still good for baptism next month right?" In our first real lesson. Uh yeah sure! Then later we were talking about the Spirit World and where he thought we would go after we died. He thought for a second and then replied, "I think it would be a pretty good idea to go and find all of the old prophets like Joseph Smith, and then with them go and find God so we could be with Him." Heck yeah! He is so sick! 

Anyways, things are doing well here in Seoul Korea. I love this place and I absolutely love the people. Wish I could be here forever. 

I love you all as well! Of course.

Elder Jenkins

Olympic Park

Korean Boiling Soup

Korean Fried Chicken is True!

The Newest Chapel in Korea

Because this week was so sick, I thought I would take some extra time to write this email. This week was so diverse and incredibly busy.

Here is how it looked~

On Monday, we had a cool district p-day where we played ping pong, board games and stuff like that, and then we ordered chicken! I think I have borne my testimony to you all before on how delicious Korean fried chicken is, but once again I will say...there is nothing more delicious. I have come to know that to be true on my mission! If you want proof, look at the belly folks.

Tuesday we met with an investigator and were able to set a baptismal date with him! He is a cool kid too. His parents had like locked him in the house and told him he couldn't leave, but he snuck out because he wanted to learn. However, there is a bit of a dilemma with him though: every Sunday he is too busy to come to church. Most people are pretty good at excuses when it come to Sunday morning church attendance, but this guy is maybe the best I have heard. Every single Sunday he serves the Elderly from 9-1 (haha).

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I was involved with mission training and it took a ton of time, but it was a lot of fun meeting so many missionaries. My only complaint is that it cut into time for my favorite: missionary work!

Then on Friday and Saturday, I went on exchanges with my last companion Elder Olson and we met with one of my favorite people from the Gokbanjeong area. It definitely was a time of reminiscing! 

Sunday without a doubt ended up being the coolest day! A guy we had never met showed up because he had received a text from me a few days earlier (someone obviously had at least acquired contact information from him earlier). He told us that he was already attending another church once in a while but was curious at the "timing" of my text and that essentially just led him to our church--AWESOME! He sat next to me in sacrament while the other white missionary and I were translating. As we are translating, I heard this little muffled sound to my right side and I looked over and this guy had his eyes GLUED to the speaker, almost following every movement of the speaker's lips. And then I heard the voice again kind of quietly but loud enough for me to catch it this time: "Amen!" I was semi-shocked. I had never actually heard someone do that in a church, and especially not someone who was attending for the first time! He absolutely loved it! SO then in the next class as well, guess who is full on participating: our man Brother Lee! He was laughing, smiling, and sharing thoughts. Sooo dope.  So we sat down after church and asked about when he first met missionaries and what he knew about the church--stuff like that. It ended up being a 45 minute lesson that ended with a baptismal date and a commitment to read the BOM and to come to church every week! My favorite line from the meeting: "Can someone my age be a missionary like you too??" This was actually hisfirst question.  Golden....? We also met a kid late that night and although it was our first time meeting him as well, we were blessed to be able to set a date with him too!

Lately in my mission I have really been seeing how important goals are for us and how they can also really bless others! As we set goals and push hard to accomplish them, others can see that example of improvement and success and then they often follow that example and set their own goals for improvement.

My week was so so great! It is crazy to me how fun the Gospel can be. The old saying "It is what you make it" has definitely been true in my life! I love it!

And I love you too^^

Elder Jenkins

Throwback Week!

Sending off Elder Choi 😢

This week was so fun. Let me give you a little rundown.

Because P-days are quite a bit longer now, we have been getting a little more creative! This week, we decided to go bowling at this sick bowling alley that has this unlimited deal anytime from 10 until 1 for about 10 bucks. So guess who spent three hours bowling so hard that he ripped his pants (hahaha). I didn't realize until we started throwing darts that there was an unfamiliar breeze, but that wasn't my first time so I knew what to do. The first time was about a year ago when we were playing screen baseball. These missionary clothes can't stop me!

There He Goes...Still 😢

On Tuesday there was a big training meeting that we had to be at; right after it ended we had to race to the airport to drop off my boy, Elder Choi! You might remember him. I just got done being his companion in Gokbanjeong and now he is headed off to the MTC in Provo! I am positive the Gokbanjeong MTC was more fun than the one in Provo will be: In 7 short weeks, Elder Choi got to put on whites two times! He had the sweetest mission training experience ever! But I can't lie and tell you that I didn't cry like those parents dropping their kids off at the MTC. It seemed like veryone else in the entire airport was calm and smiling as they said good-bye and I was just flipping in tears. I think I got a small taste of sending off a loved one might be like this past week. Really, I almost did feel like my little Korean son was leaving. I was sure grateful to be able to say goodbye to him one more time though. Hard.

On Thursday, I went on exchanges with a missionary who lives in a house where my former companion, Elder Altejar, is living. It was super fun being back with him for the first time in about 6 months. We still had a bunch of inside jokes and we shared a bunch of old fun memories. And actually that same night, we scheduled an appointment with a guy who I found once in another area but he had recently moved over to this ward and kind of stopped investigating. So I got to meet him for the first time in like 5 months or so and we actually ended up giving him a baptismal date. How cool! 

And then finally yesterday was Stake Conference. Out of the 5 areas I have served in on my mission, 4 of them are in the Stake I am in now. I got to see so many members that I used to know.

I absolutely love getting to see people that I had once known really well or that I used to spend a lot of time with. It makes me so happy and so grateful for those people that God gives to us. As a missionary, I literally feel like every person I have met was for a reason. And I think that truly does apply to all of us. There is always something to learn from or something to give to another. That reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures:

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend

I am so grateful for people!!! And I really came to understand how important they are to me this past week and the impact they have all made in my "sharpening."

I love you all, and am so grateful for you as well! You truly have all sharpened me.

Elder Jenkins

Baptism!

This week was super interesting. There are soo many new things to get acquainted with. Transfers are always so trippy like that--new house, new people, new companion, new methods, sometimes even new food and a change to the language! Always crazy, but definitely always fun!

Our week was also really busy, so time flew by. I really don't remember a lot, but I do remember a super crazy thing that happened to us: on Thursday we had an appointment with this 20 year old girl who is suuuper nice and from what I had heard, prior to meeting her, she has been really accepting of our message. I was pretty pumped for the lesson, and she in fact did accept SOME things well. But, at the end of the lesson, we felt like it would be best to ask her to pray about our message to hopefully be able to accept a little better. This is usually a pretty tender part of lessons because we usually get to teach the person how to pray and it is SO cool hearing people pray for the first time. Well, we didn't have to teach her anything; in fact, she was fluent in (you guessed it) TONGUES! Oh no! Yikes! It was so weird! We were speechless, and she was really really set on that being the way of prayer.  So we testified of what we believe is the correct way to pray and that was basically that, but I don't think she was convinced.

One last small story: on Tuesday night we had a cool opportunity to pick up a bunch of new missionaries from the airport and to bring them to the mission home. We have a big tradition in our mission to proselyte with the new missionaries on their first subway ride to get them into the life! I was next to one sister missionary and I just heard--in awesome MTC Korean and in a really loud voice that literally everyone in the subway could hear--I AM A REPRESENTATIVE OF JESUS CHRIST! It was so dope. Her words are true! 

I feel the same way as her!

Love you!

Elder Jenkins