Butcher Knife

Hello all,

Fortunately, I was able to finish off the week with a bang (a week being from Wednesday to Wednesday) and I am just feeling great! Ready for my Adventure in Auckland (Oh my gosh. Did you notice that sick play on the title of my mission blog?)

My flight leaves at 4:50 p.m. this Monday! I'm going to take a picture of the travel itinerary and send my SD card because I must admit I forgot to bring so I can't tell you all the hours that I won't be on a plane. However, I do know I have a 3 hour layover, I'm just not sure in which part of the world...I actually think it might be in LA so it shouldn't be too difficult to get a hold of you and match times! At least you don't have to stay up till 1 in the morning, right?

We had some great experiences this week. The first was when Elder Handy and I were supposed to be teaching the second discussion, the Plan of Salvation, which you would know if you have continued to read PMG. However, when we began teaching we both felt impressed to hammer our investigator with a commitment to be baptized. It was a really powerful lesson in which we were led completely by the Spirit. We were all crying and it was basically beautiful. After the lesson, our investigator told us he had been acting as his best friend from Reno, his hometown, who refused to be baptized. Elder Monette (Mo-Net) said we told him some things which really helped him to understand how to help his friend so I guess we were really teaching more for his benefit than ours. We told our teacher, expecting him to be all proud of us, but he was actually kind of upset because we had strayed from the lesson plan...but I didn't care. Elder Monette needed it more than we needed practice for the second lesson. Besides, Elder Handy and I freakin' rock the discussions ;)

We are great friends with Elder Monette and his district now. We even played them in a "non-competitive" game of kickball. We totally wasted. It was like 10-1, even though if anybody asks we have to tell them it was 0-0. Pride is not good, but I sure have a lot of it when it comes to beating the stuffing out of some cocky missionaries! P.S. Elder Monette just walked by.

We also taught the third discussion, the principles of the gospel, to an investigator we call Sister Schneiter. She is a regular volunteer at the TRC where missionaries go to get lots of practice. We taught her and we were doing very well, sharing experiences and scriptures and whatnot, and she even said she was feeling something she had never felt before in such strong "portions." We pounced, obviously, and told her it was the Spirit and used that to ask her to be baptized. She was hesitant because of the all the challenges following the gospel presented, but she said yes! So we went back for a follow up, all excited to tell her more about the gospel when she told us she DIDN'T WANT TO BE BAPTIZED ANYMORE! Not she was WORRIED. Not that she didn't know if she could keep the covenants. She DIDN'T WANT TO! Absolutely devastating, ladies and gentleman. She told us afterward how hard it was for her to say no, but she had been asked by our teacher to not follow through on any commitment she had made. She said she felt the Spirit so strongly as we testified of Christ and how we need to be baptized to return to him and would have consented in any regular situation. She said she would always remember us and she was going to write about us in her journal. Even though I was a moron and tried to guilt trip her haha. But we didn't feel like we had done anything to impress this woman until she said all that so we were feeling good. Like we had done something good.

I'm sending my pictures home this week! All my wonderful MTC experiences...Ok, not all of them, but most of the ones that happened in my room :D I'm excited for you to see them.

Oh, and I got me hair chopped off! I seriously felt like a piece of cow under the butcher knife. They got out the shavers and went to town. And they weren't gentle about it either! They just dig into your skull. I have a theory that the salon people take bets to see who can inflict the most pain on a missionary. Make a missionary cry and you get employee of the month. Make a missionary bleed and you get promoted. Send a missionary home with head contusions (right word??) and you get double your monthly wages. You see where I'm going with this.

Anyway, I'm about out of time! I love you all and miss you! However, the mission is fantastic and I have a great district to keep my head on straight so don't even worry about me! The church is true! If it wasn't I wouldn't be able to do this. Period.

Love,

Elder Seth Thompson Jenkins