Week 48 yo no olvido el ano viejo

Feliz Año Nuevo A Todos!

I hope you all had the best Christmas this past week! Here in Spain there wasn´t a whole ton of excitement. Somehow, a bunch of kids in the really sketchy neighborhood across the street got their hands on a ton of fireworks and other loud explosives so they were going off all day and night. Other than that we pretty much just enjoyed feeling the Christmas Spirit and listened to Christmas music and of course, played the national sport of europe, futbol. The highlight of the day though was definitely being able to skype with my family. I got to see and talk to neices and newphews whom I had never before met and we also got to say a family prayer. Its funny how that didn´t seem like a huge deal before I came here to Spain, but I certainly have come to miss being able to kneel down with my family and speak to my Father in heaven together. I always tell the people here in Spain stories of how my family has spent hours laughing just trying to say a family prayer at night; those are some of my most cherished memories. 

I also got to celebrate my birthday with half of the Malaga Spain mission, because we all went to a conference in Sevilla. Miraculously, I ended up getting a birthday package from my mom that I have been trying to get out of customs for the past 3 months, and it came ON my birthday. Tender Mercies. 

Twice this past week, we got to go out and singing Christmas songs as missionaries. One time, 100 other missionaries and I went to a shopping center, got in a big arc, and just started singing Christmas songs. The other time it was just about 18 of us and we went to the center of Malaga where the most people were, and just started singing. It felt so weird to just start singing, but people actually stopped and listened and I could tell that they could feel some sense of joy and christmas spirit as we sang. I couldnt imagine any other situation in which I could just go with some friends and start singing in the middle of some random public place, but as a missionary you can and you don´t even feel the least bit wierd. Missionary life is the best life. 

One thing that we learned at the conference was about recieving. Sometimes, we are so focused on how this time is the season of giving and we need to give presents, give service, give love, give give give, and we maybe end up being a little bit like Marta, who couldn´t stop cleaning when the savior came to her house. This season is also a season of receiving, receiving gifts, receiving love, but most importantly, receiving God´s gift to us, His son Jesus Christ. As we focus on receiving the blessings that God gives us, we can be filled more greatly with a spirit of gratitud and draw closer to Christ.

I am excited to start a new year this year, especially as a missionary. We are always setting goals and keeping track of them so I am hopping I can actually keep to some new years resolutions for once in my life haha. It is also really fun to be at this time because there is a Columbian song that I learned back when I was in High School and I never thought learning it would do me any good, but now everytime I sing it the Columbians go crazy and we get to sing it together. The big tradition for new years is eating 12 grapes in the first 12 seconds of the new year. We will see how it goes...

Have a great week and Happy New Year

Elder Jenkins

Felithhhhhh Navidad (Spanish accent)

Etisen Me nuabarimas na me nuabas

What a surreal feeling to think that this week is finally here! I wait all year for this week to come, but it is definitely different now to think of celebrating my Birthday and Christmas here in Spain without my family...I just sure hope Elder Tenorio knows how to make a good American breakfast in bed...or at least sing the birthday song in English. 

I couldn´t have asked for a better week leading up to this one of celebration. I actually ended up getting an unexpected birthday present...there was an emergency transfer and so unfortunately one of our roomates was shipped across the mission and we got Elder Chacon. He is a missionary from Ecuador (so yes, are house score is now tied at 2-2 North vs South America) and he has been in the mission as long as my companion has been. It has changed the dynamic of the house a little bit, but also gave me a chance to swoop in and take the only king sized bed in the house before he got there - change is good :)

This week, I had one of the sweetest experiences of my mission. Sometimes, We as missionaries think that the pinacle of all joy comes when someone we love gets baptized, but I realized this week that this excitement grows exponentially as we get to watch those who we love participate in the gospel. Two weeks ago, one of our friends Joseph was baptized, and the next day, he brought one of his friends to a lesson with us. Through these past two weeks we have been talking with this friend and yesterday Joseph was actually able to baptize the friend that he brought. It was an incredible moment for me to see the mutual happiness they experienced as one brother performed a true act of love and service for the other. 

Our bishop here is pretty awesome!..a tad eccentric...but really awesome. He has such great insights on the gospel. One of his talks this week really brought up something that I had never thought of before. Let´s just think for a moment about the circumstances of Christ´s birth. Or even better yet, how about specifically what was the value of a life in that time. Large imperialistic empires slaughtered thousands without a second thought and those who weren´t slaughtered usually died from some kind of disease or sickness before they were 35. And yet, in this time, the Savior of the world was born, the most important life that would ever come into the earth. Those people, I am sure, did not truly realize the value of His life, a life of infinite value which would save those of the rest of humanity. I can imagine that when he was crucified, countless people did not think anything of it; it was just one more life taken. Yet there was a big difference, because He took that life back, rose again, and He lives. I am so grateful that he was born. In these days, life is one of our post prized possesions, and yet He laid His down so that we could have ours forever. He gave us that which no other can give us, that which has infitite value, and that which we should be ever greatful for, His life. What a wonderful opportunity we have to remember that gift as we surround ourselves with those lives most precious to us, those of our families and loved ones. May you all have the most joyous Christmas, is my humble prayer. 

Elder Jenkins

Week:47 ITS BEGINING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE...NAVIDAD

Hello Everyone! 

Finally, I heard a christmas song in the grocery store TODAY! Its about time that Spain got up to speed on the Christmas spirit. However, we did realize that maybe november 15 was a little too earlier to start singing christmas hymns...I think we are probably on our 6 round of singing the 6 that are in spanish. 

Things are really going great here! As Christmas fast approaches, we get to focus so much more on the Savior with people and the hope that His birth brings to us. It really has helped me to remember how fortunate we are to be able to say that He was born, unlike all the old testament believers who had to say with such hope and faith that ¨He would be born.¨ He has already come, He was born, and we can experience the result of what He did here on Earth for each and every one of us. What a blessing it is to be able to declare the message of what has already happened and what that means for us today. 

My companion has obviously been praying, and with great faith might I add, to improve on his english skills because we have been teaching more in english than any other language these past two weeks. Those who we are teaching come from different countries in Africa and have the coolest stories ever! I have learned so much from them, things such as:

-Nigeria has over 250 different tribal languages 

-If you confront a chimpanzee, it will only do to you what you do to it - in other words - if you punch it it will punch you just as hard, if you pet it it will pet you, if you feed it it will feed you...just in case any of you ever find yourselves in a 1 on 1 with a chimpanzee

- There are snakes that if you like cut them in half but dont make sure they are dead, they will follow you and sit outside of your house until you leave again to attack you - scary (you should have seen their faces when I told them I had snakes as a pet)

- How to make FuFU

- how to say hello, how are you, and what is your name in 6 different african languages

There are so many different cultures that exist in this world to which I was absolutely oblivious before coming here!!

This week, we were able to help one of our good friends prepare to be baptized. On Sunday, he entered the waters of baptizm to be cleansed of his sins and to be born again. I had the blessing of being there with him in the water and right after, and he was absolutely speechless. It was apparent that he was experiencing exactly what we had explained to him, the feeling of being totally cleansed and being able to move forward free from the weight of his past life. There is no greater blessing than being able to be there to share these experiences with beloved brothers and sisters of mine. 

One last thing that I really loved from this week. We were in the baptismal service and our bishop here decided to say a few words. Of course we had the service in English so he was feeling a little awkward about not speaking in his native language, but he said that he cherished the opportunity because it helped remind him that we are really all in a native land. We dont belong here. We are children of God and we belong with him. Being in a foreign country helps me to recognize the feeling of being somewhere that is not my home, and it reminds me that we are all foreigners on this earth. We should never forget who we really are, who our father really is, and where we really belong.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Good luck with finals and with school ending!! 

Love,

Elder Jenkins

ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS

FELIZ NAVIDAD....okay not exactly but ALMOST

I was pretty excited to go to a country where they still celebrate christmas. The only difference about being here in spain is that the focus really isnt on christmas, but instead on the 6th of december (I think) when supposedly the kings arrived to give the presents and thats when all the kids get presents. I kind of like the idea because they took one holiday and they split it into two separate times to give presents. With those two holidays and my birthday that would be three present times every holiday season....Spain is great. 

Well, This week was pretty great! We were able to go to a big conference of missionaries and a general authority leader of the church came to speak to us. Then all the mission leaders got together and we had a meeting with that general authority. It was a pretty awesome experience to be with all of them, and I felt really unqualified to be there, but I feel confident that the Lord will qualify whom he calls to lead.

Also, new favorite scripture. Proverbs 28:25 - Trust in the Lord and he will make thee fat...so now I dont feel bad for any weight Ive gained from spanish food and pizza three times a week....

We had a super cool miracle this week that I just wanted to share. The general authority focused a lot on always having a prayer in our hearts and constantly asking if what we are doing at that moment is what the Lord wants. Well we were doing that and all of the sudden we got the feeling to pass by a guy we had talked to a couple of weeks ago instead of going along with our plan. Well we went up and knocked his door, and he opened it up...despite the fact that he was in his pajamas. Then as we began to talk, we got the feeling to invite him to come to the church to do a tour...despite the fact that he was in pajamas. And he said YES! We were so surprised but we went to the church and he loved it! He accepted an invitacion to be baptized and then came to church yesterday too! All because we were a little more willing to do what the Lord wanted instead of what we wanted!

Well I hope you all have a great week and that you are feeling the spirit of the christmas season! There is a great video at navidad.mormon.org if you want to feel a little more of the spirit that comes with the celebration of the birth of Christ! Love you all!

Elder Jenkins

Week 44: Dia de Gracias = comamos hasta que moramos

Wow. I feel like I have cheated myself out of 19 years of happiness.
I'll explain.  all of my life I have been a picky eater, never wanting
to eat anything that didn't look good, smell good, or even had a weird
name. This means that thanksgiving for me has always been sitting at a
table trying to hide from my parents that I was only eating the bread.
I have dreaded that day ever since my childhood. Finally, coming to
the mission has broken the picky eating curse, but we weren't even
planning on doing a thanksgiving meal this year because anything that
we try to cook that isn't cereal or pizza turns out horribly. In fact,
two weeks ago one of the missionaries in our house ran into our room
and said "DANGIT GUYS we missed thanksgiving"...so that should explain
our feelings of importance towards thanksgiving. Luckily,  however,
the sister missionaries here called us and forced us to plan a
thanksgiving dinner for the zone of missionaries, so in two days we
handed out assignments and had everyone just bring as much food as
they could! Surprisingly it turned out really well! Everyone
contributed a dish, my contribution was a sweet potato casserole that,
despite it turning blue from the colored marshmallows, was really
good!  Everyone also brought turkey, which is really difficult to find
here so We ended up having a wide range from sandwich turkey meet, to
a rotisserie chicken even but we didn't care, we just ate it ALL. it
was the most amazing hour of my life. I couldn't even decide what to
eat so I just stopped thinking and started eating. It's safe to say
now that thanksgiving is a close runner up to Christmas for beat
holiday, with p-day at a close third.

Entering the promised land - Málaga week 1

Hi Friends and Family

IM FINALLY HERE! When I opened up my mission call a year and 4 months ago (WHHHHAAAATTTT¿?¿?¿?¿) and read the word Malaga Spain I feel like I instantly fell in love with this place, even though I wasn’t even here. Then when I arrived to Malaga, I had to leave almost instantly and travel across Spain to my first area. Coming back here after so much time is almost surreal, and I have found very quickly that my love for Malaga didn’t die despite the distance or time. This city is amazing, the people are so nice, usually rejecting us with at least a smile, and the missionaries here are the best in the world!! 

Elder Tenorio, my companion, is a BOSS. Its so crazy to see how much we have both grown and changed since we met 10 months ago. He is from Peru, but lived in Madrid before coming on the mission. He is teaching me so much! For instance, I always thought that I had to work really hard, explain everything super well, and then ask nicely to be able to visit someone in their home. Elder Tenorio just says, Hi we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ…where do you live?...and the people answer him! I was so surprised, and even more surprised when it worked for me too. He is teaching me so much and helping me become a better missionary.

I love living with 3 other missionaries again…other than the fact that the clean house lasts about 5 seconds before it looks like a bull ran through our kitchen…The house is full of laughter and we just decided that it was appropriate to sing Christmas songs for morning studies, a decision that Im sure our neighbors enjoy just as much as we do. 

I don’t know how big of news this is on a world wide scale, but a couple of days ago there was a terrorist attack in Paris. It has been absolutely heart wrenching to hear the horrific damage that it caused, but I have seen a change in the people as their hearts have been turned to the hope for a better world that comes to those who keep their belief firm in God. We have seen hearts softened to the message of the plan of happiness that God has for us, which includes redemption from death and the truths of eternal family relationships, and I am so grateful for the privilege of preaching this message every day. Surely, those who were affected by this disaster deserve a place in our prayers of peace and comfort. 

I hope that you all have a great week and I look forward to being able to share with you all next week the miracles of the missionary work!

Con amor y cariño 

Elder Jenkins

Week 41: bye bye torremolinos

Helo everyone!

Sorry this email is going to have to be short, but I just wanted to
let you all know a little about the week!

I just can't catch a break with transfers! Ever since my first 12
weeks, I have had a change every single 6 weeks! So I didn't expect to
be leaving, especially after just one transfer of training, but sure
enough my time in torremolinos has come to an end. Luckily, I'll be
going from here about 30 minutes to the actual city of Malaga! I'll be
going back to living in a house with 4 missionaries, just like when I
started the mission, and I'll be with elder Tenorio, who actually was
living there when I started the mission! I'll also be with elder
Adcock there, who I met before the mission at byu! It's funny because
people always asked if we thought we would meet in the mission a lot,
and we always said it was really unlikely...we have seen each other
monthly since we got here and now we will live together haha. I'm sad
to be leaving, but excited to have new responsibilities and get to
know new people. I know that the Lord has work for me to do there and
I'm excited to try and fulfill His expectations.

Sorry this one has been short, I promise a more experience filled and
dedicated letter next week for all of you, especially telling
everything about my new area. I love you all and hope that you have a
great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Week 40: El Halloween

Hey everyone!

My first Spanish Halloween experience was pretty interesting. I was
not very excited about having to compete with all the little kids for
knocking doors, but hoped that maybe we would be able to score some
candy for the night. Unfortunately, I found that trick or treating is
not nearly as big of a tradition here as it is In the US. Most people
won't even open their doors here if the kids knock them!

It's hard to believe that it has already been 6 weeks since I started
the journey of training with elder Miller. It has been amazing to
watch him grow. At the end of this week, we will find out if I will be
blessed by the people of torremolinos for another 4 weeks, or if I
will begin a journey elsewhere. I'm hoping to be able to stay! There's
just so much more to do.

As far as funny stories or experiences, I'm lacking this week, but I
did eat rabbit for the first time. There is a story that my brother
has from his mission in Portugal about  eating rabbit and accidentally
picking out the head. Lucky for him, he was able to pass it off to the
head of the house; however, I was kind of hoping that I would get the
head so that I could have a similar story that ended with me eating
it....unfortunately, they had already eaten the head before we got
there, but they did have a "hígado" with my name on it, and it was
delicious (I'll let all those who are curious look it up for
themselves).

Thank you all for the prayers and support! I hope you have a great week!

Con amor y cariño

Elder Jenkins

Week 39: Be humble or be humbled

Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!!

They apparently do celebrate Halloween here, but it's a pretty recent
thing. A lot of people don't trick or treat and I showed someone a
carved pumpkin and they were appalled. I'm hoping maybe that night,
people will give us candy for knocking their doors.

The weeks are flying by and I continue to be humbled by my amazing
companion, elder Miller, and all the other miracles the Lord has
placed in our path. Honestly, I've never felt more tired in my life,
but I've never been happier either.

We are still working out with "the hulk" man every other morning. We
just stand around some parallel bars doing dips for an hour as he
tells us his life stories about living through a war in Serbia, the
streets of Italy, and how he got to be so buff. I'll get a picture
with him soon, but I'm waiting to see if some workout results come
first....

His wife said something to us during a lesson that I thought was so
incredible. So many times we hear people say, I only believe in what I
can see. Instead, this woman told us, "I'm not content In only
believing what I see." Her comment really made me thing. We have so
many other senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and most importantly,
what we feel in our heart. It's seems pretty unsatisfying to me to
only depend on sight to tell you what is really there.

On Tuesday, my testimony of Gods existence and of His hand in our
lives was strengthened as I was humbled beyond belief. As the night
started, we began to go to our first appointment. Within the next 5
minutes, every single one of our other appointments, and the one which
we were going to, fell through. We called backups: nothing. We called
3rd backups: nothing. At that point, I really kind of gave up on the
night, figured we would try again tomorrow, and began to just
aimlessly walk around the city with a horrible attitude written on my
forehead. Even worse, I began to get frustrated with my companion
because he still seemed to have hope even though it was apparent our
night would be a failure. After about an hour of aimless walking and
silence, elder Miller asked me if we should say a prayer...I was so
filled with pride and frustration that I actually told him no and
continued to walk. After a couple of minutes, I realized how immature
my response had been and we stopped at a bench to take a little break.
I read a scripture, we said a prayer, and I felt recharged and ready.
We begs to contact every living thing that passed us. This lasted for
about 15 minutes before I fell back into pouting again. It was the
last hour of the night and I thought to just endure. We walked down a
road and elder Miller cautiously asked if we should try to visit this
couple who we had a tried a couple of times before. I told him no, and
kept walking. "We have already tried them, twice before," I thought,
"and both times they rejected us or left us aT the door. Why would we
try now?" As we walked by their house, I figured one more rejection
couldn't make the night any worse. So I turned up to go to their
house. As we knocked on the door, not even expecting an answer, the
door quickly opened and the husband invited us in without us even
saying anything. We began to talk and in the first 2 minutes She was
bawling, explaining to us how her life has gone so far off track that
she doesn't even know what to do. She said she had been praying all
day to find some way to be happy and to be able to return back to
Jesus Christ and give her life to him, but she didn't know how. I sat
there listening in awe. After I had been so unworthy all night, how
did the Lord still see fit to use me as an instrument to lift someone
else's burden? We had an incredible lesson with them and we were able
to set up another appointment for later in the week. Now they have a
baptismal date and they came to church this past week and loved it. We
got out of the appointment and all I could do was just give my Compie
a hug and tell him I was sorry. It was definitely a lesson for me.
Like my dad always says, be humble or be humbled, it's your choice. I
definitely felt humbled as the Lord showed me who is really the one in
charge of this work.

Thank you all for the love, support, and prayers. I wish you all the best.

Elder Jenkins

Miracles in Málaga week 38

Hello friends and family,

I've gotten to the point right now where I feel like I have been out
here for a long time, and yet I still have a large amount of time
left. Luckily, the time isn't passing by too quickly so that I can
enjoy this amazing opportunity to serve the people here in Spain.

Elder Miller is certainly one of the main sources of enjoyment. He
just wakes up with a smile every single morning, ready to work, but
still patient in those morning hours when I'm not so smiley. Of course
there are the occasional funny Spanish mistakes here and there, but
I've actually been so impressed with his Spanish in such a short time.
He did stand up in front of the church and say "I just want you all to
know that I love myself"...there were some weird looks, but I'm sure
they got the point.

This week was absolutely full of miracles. I am not sure if it is just
the faith of elder Miller, or maybe I have just been so oblivious
these past weeks, but we were able to see the hand of the lord so many
times. I'll just share one example. Last week we were sitting on the
train, it was late, we were on our way home, and I really just wanted
to read some of the Book of Mormon. I could tell my companion was a
little ancy to talk to someone, but he couldn't find someone to talk
to and I wasn't being very helpful in his pursuit. Then I head him say
hi to someone, and he quickly turned to me and said "elder, that guy
put down his phone and he said hi to me...I think he would talk to
us..." At that point in time I kind of gave him an "are you serious,
no one actually WANTS to talk to us" look and so he just kind of
looked down in disappointment and said never mind. At that point, I
was sufficiently chastised by the spirit that I put down my book and
started up a conversation with the guy. It turns out he is from
Finland (there is an elder in our ward from Finland) and he DID WANT
to talk to us and find more out about the book we were reading. We got
his number, but he didn't feel comfortable about giving us his house
number. We were able to meet again after that, but we kind of lost
contact with him after a week.

One morning, we decided to go and try to contact this girl who had
given us her number and address like 3 weeks before. We had tried
going to the house a couple of times, but never had an answer. This
time, we went to the door and knocked and imagine our surprise when
instead of the girl we expected, out came the man from the train....he
looked about as surprised as we were and explained to us that he had
lived in that house for 3 years and was interested to know how we
found his house...we were wondering the same thing, but it's no
question that the hand of the Lord was involved in us going to 1 out
of 900 doors that was his. Then as we went down to the street and
talked to him, a lady came up and tapped my shoulder. She was a
Russian lady who we had met a couple nights earlier. When we met her,
I was super frustrated because I had some pamphlets and stuff in
Russian in my bag but had taken them out. Well that morning, I just
saw them again and decided to throw them in there just in case. Lo and
behold, she found us as we talked to the train guy and I was able to
give them to her.

There were more miracles similar to this one all throughout the week.
So much that I'm like 5 days behind in writing in my journal! I know
that the miracles have always been there, but I have just kind of lost
the hope and the faith to find them in these past weeks. My new
companion is really helping me to remember that they are always there.

I'll just end with a quote from one of my favorite scriptures from the
past week , "wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope
for a better world..." Have hope my friends, in whatever may come in
life, because there is always good to come.

Have a great week. Thank you for love, support, and prayers.

Elder Jenkins

Adiós Elder Reeder, bienvenidos Elder Miller

Hello everyone!

It's so unbelievable to think that it is already a new month, and
almost a new year. Time is flying by, but only because I'm having the
time of my life:)

This week was especially special because I got to meet my new
companion. There were about 31 other missionaries there in the church
waiting to accept the new missionaries. When they all came in, it was
so incredible to see and feel their excitement and hope for what their
missions would mean to them. I was so nervous just waiting there and
wondering who would be my new companion! Finally, the waiting was over
and I was introduced to my new companion....ELDER MILLER! He is
probably one of the most amazing missionaries I've ever met and
honestly is training me. He is from west valley, you guessed it, UTAH,
and is the first missionary from his family. He is always smiling,
doesn't let anyone pass without saying hello and asking how they are,
and will not let you live 5 minutes without complimenting you. He is
well prepared to work and i am so excited to learn from him and work
with him. He is the trainee that every missionary hopes for and I hope
that I can be the trainer he deserves.

Other than that things are going great here. It was an amazing
opportunity to watch the general conference and hear the guidance from
God for us today. I know there are a to of things that I have to
change and work on and now I can focus on doing them! Spain is great!
The weather is cooling down and we have a month left of waking up at
7:30 so life is still good.

Sorry I don't have a lot of funny or amazing stories. Everything is
moving super fast so we are just trying to get our feet back under us.
We did have a pretty funny conversation as elder Miller found that
there were two toilet looking things in the bathroom and was trying to
figure out what the second one was for (the bidet). I'm sure more
cultural experience stories will come. I love you all and wish the
best for you this week.

Love, elder Jenkins

1. Our weaknesses help us just as much as our strengths do
2. Faith is either increasing or decreasing, it's never stagnant. It
increases as it is exercised
3. Believing comes by choice, not by chance
4. There is nothing impressive about skepticism
5. Don't be critical of the barriers that keep us safe
6. We don't need to endure our trials, but learn from our trials

Adiós Elder Reeder, bienvenidos...???

Hello everyone! Feliz fiesta de san Miguel to all of you! That's a
festival that they are having right now here in torremolinos...I don't
really get what it commemorates though. But there are a TON of people
here from all over the world to celebrate. It's funny because when you
walk up to people you just kind of have to try a couple different
languages every time you say hi. "Hola....hello...konichiwa?..."

So, this week we have just been patiently and anxiously waiting to
hear about what will be changing for these next 6 weeks. I was hoping
for another 6 weeks with my 7 foot body guard and best friend but
unfortunately there others in Spain who have need of his greatness.
Elder reeder will be leaving torremolinos and leaving me with....I
don't know yet! Because this next transfer I will be training a brand
new missionary! I am pretty excited to have this opportunity to be
someone's first impression of Spain and to help him learn everything
he needs to know, but then again it makes me a little nervous to think
of the responsibility that entails. I know that who the Lord calls, he
qualifies and that He will help me be who this new missionary needs me
to be. So tomorrow 31 trainers and 31 missionaries (supposedly all
from Utah!) will go to a church building and there the president of
the mission will decide who trains who! It's pretty excruciating to
have to wait but I'm excited for the moment when I get to hug my new
greenie ( name for someone new to the mission).

Elder reeder and I had a pretty good last week together though, and
I'll sure miss him, not just cause he casts a big shadow from the sun.
He's definitely taught me that if you aren't enjoying the mission,
you're not doing it right. This work really is a work of joy and he
has taught me how to work and laugh at the same time.

This next week should be pretty interesting. I'm sure the new
missionary and I will have plenty of funny stories as we conquer
torremolinos and as he conquers the language.

Also, I'm excited for the next week because we have the opportunity to
listen to something called general conference. As a church, we believe
that there is continuing revelation from God in these difficult days
and times by means of a prophet. I know that he is not only a prophet
of our church, but is the prophet of the world and listening to him
and the apostles can help us receive guidance and direction in our
lives, no matter our circumstances. I invite all to take a little bit
of time this weekend, and watch a little bit of the conference and see
if what I have said is not true. I know that if you listen to even a little
bit of it will help you find guidance in your lives, and even more, if
you go with a question in mind, it will be answered. That is my
promise to all who decide to take a gander. You can find more
information about the schedule of the conference and how to watch it
at lds.org under general conference.

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for the love, the
support, and the prayers! Hasta luego queridos.

Elder Jenkins

Week 35: and the iPad...had disappeared!

Hello all!

¿Cómo os va? Things are going great here in Torremolinos! I'm secretly
scoping out future vacation homes around this area because I have
fallen so much in love with it that I am certain I will need to come
back frequently. I'm hoping and praying that I won't be asked to move
again after 6 weeks like I did in Huelva so that I can enjoy more time
here, but I will do what is asked and do it with a smile :)

Noteworthy moment: we met someone taller than my companion. He walked
by and my companion just says, "I've got to talk to this guy". He was
from like Slovenia or something and was GIANT!

This week has been really great! No bad baking stories, but we did
have some interesting experiences. In one lesson this week, we were
about to start teaching this mom, but we know her 17 year old son was
there so we invited him to come. He started to make up some exudes,
so, having seen the pull up bar as I walked in, I invited him to a
little challenge. If he could do more pull ups than me, I would leave
him alone but if he couldn't, I would leave him alone. He happily took
the challenge; afterwards, he not so happily took a seat next to me
for the lesson. I won't tell you how many we did, but let's just say I
could NOT do as many as I could 8 months ago and it was only with the
help of angels lifting me up that I beat him haha. We ended up having
a really good lesson with him; he was full of questions and we were
able to help him find the answers to them.

So, time for the title story. So this Monday, unfortunately, we were
eating Domino's pizza outside at the restaurant and my companion had
his iPad leaning on his chair behind him. Well we finished eating and
as he reached down to pick up his iPad he realized to his horror that
it had disappeared! The people behind us explained that they had seen
a guy walk by, reach down to tie his shoes, And then walk away with an
iPad like 20 minutes before, but didn't say anything....long story
short, we actually ended up seeing the guy two days later. Well, he
saw us first and realizing that he had robbed the only 7 foot american
in all of Spain he turned the other way and booked off. Luckily for
the years of track, we caught him after a high speed chase through the
streets of Spain only to find denials and walk away still ipad-less.
It did have a lasting effect on my companion though, who wants to be a
cop now instead of an airplane pilot haha.

The work here is going great! I had someone ask me if I though that it
was worth it, leaving my "life" behind for two years, and I didn't
even have to think for a second about the answer. I have already been
able to see the blessings that have come from the opportunity to serve
others with the entirety of my time and I only hope that I am becoming
who the Lord wants me to be.

Well, I hope all is going well as school is starting up again and that
you are all seeing the hand of the Lord In your lives; I know it is
there, LOOK FOR IT ALWAYS:) have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

1. Always keep one eye on your iPad
2. You straighten a nail patting it from the back, not hitting it on
the head. People are the same.
3. If you cook a clam and it stays closed, it was dead before and you
shouldn't eat it.
4. Manteca is lard, not shortening...
5. If you're passing around the maté, and you say thank you when they
give it to you, it means that you don't want anymore and they won't
pass it to you again
6. You're supposed to spit out the first two matés, not drink them
7. 8 months is sufficient time to lose your ability to dunk a basketball
8. How to make a Spanish tortilla