Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!!
They apparently do celebrate Halloween here, but it's a pretty recent
thing. A lot of people don't trick or treat and I showed someone a
carved pumpkin and they were appalled. I'm hoping maybe that night,
people will give us candy for knocking their doors.
The weeks are flying by and I continue to be humbled by my amazing
companion, elder Miller, and all the other miracles the Lord has
placed in our path. Honestly, I've never felt more tired in my life,
but I've never been happier either.
We are still working out with "the hulk" man every other morning. We
just stand around some parallel bars doing dips for an hour as he
tells us his life stories about living through a war in Serbia, the
streets of Italy, and how he got to be so buff. I'll get a picture
with him soon, but I'm waiting to see if some workout results come
first....
His wife said something to us during a lesson that I thought was so
incredible. So many times we hear people say, I only believe in what I
can see. Instead, this woman told us, "I'm not content In only
believing what I see." Her comment really made me thing. We have so
many other senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and most importantly,
what we feel in our heart. It's seems pretty unsatisfying to me to
only depend on sight to tell you what is really there.
On Tuesday, my testimony of Gods existence and of His hand in our
lives was strengthened as I was humbled beyond belief. As the night
started, we began to go to our first appointment. Within the next 5
minutes, every single one of our other appointments, and the one which
we were going to, fell through. We called backups: nothing. We called
3rd backups: nothing. At that point, I really kind of gave up on the
night, figured we would try again tomorrow, and began to just
aimlessly walk around the city with a horrible attitude written on my
forehead. Even worse, I began to get frustrated with my companion
because he still seemed to have hope even though it was apparent our
night would be a failure. After about an hour of aimless walking and
silence, elder Miller asked me if we should say a prayer...I was so
filled with pride and frustration that I actually told him no and
continued to walk. After a couple of minutes, I realized how immature
my response had been and we stopped at a bench to take a little break.
I read a scripture, we said a prayer, and I felt recharged and ready.
We begs to contact every living thing that passed us. This lasted for
about 15 minutes before I fell back into pouting again. It was the
last hour of the night and I thought to just endure. We walked down a
road and elder Miller cautiously asked if we should try to visit this
couple who we had a tried a couple of times before. I told him no, and
kept walking. "We have already tried them, twice before," I thought,
"and both times they rejected us or left us aT the door. Why would we
try now?" As we walked by their house, I figured one more rejection
couldn't make the night any worse. So I turned up to go to their
house. As we knocked on the door, not even expecting an answer, the
door quickly opened and the husband invited us in without us even
saying anything. We began to talk and in the first 2 minutes She was
bawling, explaining to us how her life has gone so far off track that
she doesn't even know what to do. She said she had been praying all
day to find some way to be happy and to be able to return back to
Jesus Christ and give her life to him, but she didn't know how. I sat
there listening in awe. After I had been so unworthy all night, how
did the Lord still see fit to use me as an instrument to lift someone
else's burden? We had an incredible lesson with them and we were able
to set up another appointment for later in the week. Now they have a
baptismal date and they came to church this past week and loved it. We
got out of the appointment and all I could do was just give my Compie
a hug and tell him I was sorry. It was definitely a lesson for me.
Like my dad always says, be humble or be humbled, it's your choice. I
definitely felt humbled as the Lord showed me who is really the one in
charge of this work.
Thank you all for the love, support, and prayers. I wish you all the best.
Elder Jenkins
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