Almost ALL the French speakers are leaving this week! All the French and French Canadian have finished their stay here. After monday all of the French missionaries will be composed of only my 4 Tahiti, 4 new Elders going to other islands, that came this wednesday, and the group of missionaries going to French africa (including Elder Kerr) So our numbers will go from like 50 to 20. It'll be sad to see them all go, they've become such good friends. But I couldn't be more excited for what they are going to do and I wish them the best of luck!!
There are a lot of pianos here in random rooms so I've had a chance to play a little bit of music during free time and that makes me very happy! I'm not great at the piano but I've had a few Elders teach me some songs. Again, ANY music sounds like heaven hahaha! I remember the first time I got to play a piano here I thought it sounded so amazing.
This week has definetly not been easy, but it's insane how much you learn and grow in a week. You learn big life lessons here every day. Both from teachers and from personal experiences through dealing with other people, trying to teach, and putting everything you've got into trying to study the language and the Gospel.
So this week I got a slap in the face from an Apostle so that was fun. Metaphorically of course, (Apostles are too nice to slap anyone.[Except maybe Satan]) But here's the story- A little while ago we had a speaker come and talk about a new missionary phrase- "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." And I thought it was so stupid. They wanted us to have that as a mindset in the missionfield. I just thought it made the church sound a lot "shallower" than from our mission purpose "Invite others to come unto Christ..." To me, the phrase sounded like we only cared about how many baptisms we got, with no regard to helping people individually.
Then Elder D. Todd Christofferson (one of the 12 Apostles) came to the MTC and gave a talk about the same phrase. My eyes were opened for sure. Of course we want people to get baptized and become part of God's kingdom, but I was totally missing the "Teach Repentance" part.
Before the mission I looked at Repentance as "Saying sorry to God for doing bad stuff and then asking forgiveness." It is so much more than that. I feel like the word repentance has such a heavy feel to it, but really it's just awesome. Repentance is "a changing of one's heart", and in doing so, becoming more like Christ. More than just saying sorry, it is changing your mindset to become a better person, guilt free of any mistakes. Go watch the "Because of Him" video clip the Church put out cause it's awesome and so so true.
So ya, repentance is awesome. Not easy, but it will bless your life SO SO much. I repent like everyday, because I want to correct all of my little mistakes and become more perfect. It's a way to have second chances with others, God, and yourself.
Sorry if that was a little "preachy" but I mean I am out here preaching the good word for two years haha! And that's been something that I've learned this week and has helped me a lot. The Gospel is so true and so cool. It's amazing what faith can do. God answers prayers 100%, IF you ask and have faith. Thank you SOOOO MUCH to everyone who was able to write me this week, I absolutely LOVE hearing from y'all! I'm praying for you and I hope everyone is doing great!
-Go Cougars
All the loves,
Elder Jenkins.
*Stuff to check out-
And if you like the band "Neon Trees",
No comments:
Post a Comment