Welp! One more week in the past! It's been a great week, but not too much has happened. We did have a baptism on Saturday, and it went great! Her name is Edith, and she's about 27 years old. She's a single mom, like many her age here. However, the great thing about Edith is that she has been graciously welcomed into branch! It's so nice to see her so comfortable with everyone around her even though she's only been to church 4 or 5 times. It's been great seeing everyone reach out to her to make her feel important and welcome.
This past week we had many transfers, with 12 missionaries leaving. Many branchess that had 4 or even 6 missionaries before now only have 2. In fact, the only branch that has 4 in Togo is Hedzranawoé, I believe. Anyways, we said goodbye to Elder Mundu this past week as he went home to Congo! His replacement as Zone Leader was Elder Edwards from San Diego! It's been very nice having another American in the apartment, and especially one that has been here for a while and really knows how to live in Africa.
So a story/principle that I want to share this week happened on Tuesday. We had a lesson with some members that need a little bit of strengthening from the missionaries every week. We were talking about faith, so we used the story of the Brother of Jared from the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. The Brother of Jared had been commanded to build several boats. However, he didn't know what to do for light because he couldn't put in windows in or else they would sink and obviously they can't light a fire in a wooden, enclosed boat. He then went up the mountain and found 16 stones (2 for each boat). After this, he prayed with incredible faith to the Lord to come touch the stones to light them so that they could provide light. As the stones began to light up, he actually saw the hand of the Lord touch the stones to light them so that they could have light in the boats.
As we were recounting this story, Elder Dagrou explained how this applies to us. He said that when we have a set plan in our life, we need to have an incredible faith when we ask God to help us, knowing that He will. When we have this faith, we will see the hand of the Lord "touching the stones" in our life to help us carry out our plans. It is when we have an inspired plan laid out before the Lord with the faith that He will help us, followed by taking action in this plan that we can see how the Lord helps us everyday in the direction of our lives. I have seen this many times in my life, especially here in Africa as a missionary. As we create a plan for everyday with the faith that the Lord will help and guide us, the Lord does, in reality, guide us to do His will, even if it isn't what we had planned.
Every single day, I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord 24/7. My time is currently short here in Africa, but I know that I have much ahead of me. It is truly the mission that prepares us to live the rest of our life with purpose.
I love and miss you all, and may the Lord bless you all with your righteous endeavors in the week to come!
Avec amour,
Elder Jenkins
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