Hello Friends and Family!
How is life? I hope all is well with each of you! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Christmas isn`t really big here but new years is. However, the ward Christmas party was awesome! We had three potential investigators come,and one of them had a baptismal date by the end of the night. His name is Own, and he's from Thailand. He came and practically read the perfect script to us. "I want to have a connection to God. What can I do to make that happen?" That is exactly what he said! He is awesome! And when we called him a couple days later, he said he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He has such a desire,and his faith is inspiring. Please pray for him.
Ah-ha Moment: 1 Nephi 1:20 is the theme of my life. The tender mercies are EVERYWHERE!!!! At the Christmas party I got a chance to use some skills I acquired as an older brother. This adorable little Japanese boy (I made friends with him two weeks ago when we had dinner at a members house, he taught me some fun kids games in Japanese) came up to me with a transformers car (one exactly like the one we have at home!). He was stuck on getting it back into "car form." He came to me and asked for help. After about ten minutes of fiddling with the stupid thing, I figured it out. He was so happy when he realized that it wasn't impossible to fix his toy. He smiled and ran off, excited. His mom thanked me and asked how I could even figure it out. (Oh, she speaks english too. :D ) I told her we have one exactly like it at home. So, long story short: I have been so prepared for this area; even if they are small, little things. :D
Culture Spot Light: Japan has the beastliest phones. They have the craziest capabilities! They are only found in Japan too because they keep it here to make more money. Our phone has something called Sekigaisen. It is an infrared exchange system. We call it phone kissing. You pick what you want to send and then put your phone next to the other phone. It is a quick way of sharing contact information. We use it a lot. It is so cool! Put your phones close together and your information is swapped! There are a lot of little innovative things that make things more convenient. :D I love Japan!!
Funny Moment: My companion has an unpredictable bladder. :) We'll be in the middle of housing an apartment building and he'll say, "I need to go to the bathroom." Luckily, there are 7-11 convenient stores everywhere. Well, last week we went to find some less active members in this clustered area of houses. On the way we stopped at the 7-11 for the bathroom. We went back to that same 7-11 four other times that day. We laughed so hard when we back for the fifth (and final time) that day, because the workers were so confused. We kept coming back just to use the bathroom. It was really funny. :)
Spiritual Stuff: The call home was very therepeutic. Thank you Mom and Dad! I just needed to take a massive chill pill. Well, I took it, and the last couple of days have been amazing! I stopped freaking out about things I couldn't control, read my partiarchal blessing, and took complete control of things I could do. Yesterday was weekly planning and Elder DeBuse and I talked A LOT. We set some great goals for our companionship and ourselves personally. Then after a fired up planning session we went out and talked to everyone! We met awesome people that again seemed to be reading a script to us. This lady straight up asked, "Well, I'm in the middle of making dinner right now. If I am interested in your church, can I just come to church?" I almost started laughing. OF COURSE!!!! Come to church please! We are definitely going back to her house to give her more information. There was another lady on that block that said, "Oh, you're the missionaries. It's been twenty years since I've seen you; I want to talk. I'm taking care of my sister in the hospital right now but come back in a month and visit me." Who are these people!?! So, my spiritual stuff this week has been (again) realizing the tender mercies that are seriously blanketing me. I am crying while I writethis, because I am blessed so much!! And it's a bunch of small things. So many reminders, everywhere! I am just so grateful for such personal reminders! I love the Lord so much!
Well, I got to go! I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Smile and know that you are loved by me and your Heavenly Father!!
Forward Pressing Forward!
Elder Jenkins
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