Mental Warfare

Hey friends, 


     As I'm laying here in my bed writing this email before I rest my eyes, I can't help but to keep reflecting back on general conference and my spiritual journey since being set apart as a servent of the lord. I have been spiritually and physically overwhelmed this weekend. It doesn't feel real to me that I have been on my mission for almost eight months already, and it's amazing to go back to memories of just even a few short months ago and see the person I was then and the person I am becoming now. I wish I could say these eight months were the easiest in my life, but to keep it real, they have been quite literally the opposite. While they have been brutally hard, they have been the most rewarding by far. No where else on earth would I experience such incredible things and be given this opportunity to learn and grow so much. This is why its been a mental warfare. A constant battle of feeling inadequate to tackle challenges at hand, a battle of changing old habits and putting off natural tendencies, the adversary sending his best soldiers to the front lines and tempting you with everything he's got, and also being quite literally carried by the lord. It's tsunami waves of emotions and feelings, and I love it. I am grateful for it. I am digging my heels into the soil of the gospel and doctrine of Jesus christ, and standing my ground. Without him I could not stand confidently at all. I know now that I'll be able to conquer anything, and I can say that with weight and confidence.


      General conference on the mission is always a great time. It feels so much more special, and it's a time we get to have a little bit of a "break" and rest. I absolutely loved the talks that we heard. In my opinion the talks encapsulated the doctrine of Jesus christ. We are one body in christ, and we can only achieve that if we are one in body with each other. It reminds me of the email I sent not too long ago where I mentioned to love, lift, and support others, instead of judge and criticize. This is something that I am very passionate about and take seriously. You can not serve two masters. You can't say you worship God and proceed to treat his children like they are below you. The guidance and direction that we received was very clear about loving others and I loved how there is a big push for support, because as a missionary, support and charity is the only way I can teach people and if they feel that throughout the whole church, they will feel at home. Leave no room for contention, you're only allowing the devil to creep in and influence you for bad. I hope all of you felt the love from our leaders of our church and most importantly from God. 


     This week we had the opportunity to give many priesthood blessings and exercise our priesthood authority. Giving blessings is one of my favorite things to do and to also be a part of. It's a beautiful thing that we have the gift of the priesthood on the earth. In terms of work this week, it was very slow. It was the last week of transfers and we had no miles to spare. We pretty much became an office calling center and called a ton of people all day. But we did also get transfer news on Saturday. I will be staying with Elder Judd in plainview. I am having mixed feelings about this. As I mentioned before, he has been my most challenging companion so far but I'm willing to love him and show him respect and a chrsitlike example. But that has been very exhausting on me mentally and spiritually. I have to fight thoughts of contention and yelling back at him or acting badly, and that makes me not feel the spirit. As a missionary, feeling the spirit is crucial to the work. You will not and cannot teach with power without it. So I'm trying to balance that and not let the adversary and natural man take over my spirit. Thankfully he's finally realizing he's in the wrong and is working on it and I'm trying to help him as much as I can, but man I feel like something is building up inside of me because I have yet to yell back and snap and react in a bad way towards him, and I'm scared I'm gonna snap. So I'm going to just go smash the crap out of golf balls at top golf tomorrow. 


     Well that's it from me yall! I love yall so much. Yall have a great week.


- elder jenkins 


Pics: 
1: the coolest dog in town 
2: Elder Harmon is going to India:(( 
3: my district 
4: me and elder Nichols on exchanges 



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