Apparently the Easter week is really huge here. There are tons of parades and processions and festivities. I haven´t really gotten to see anything yet, but I´m sure I will get to this next coming week!
So I decided with my new experience of driving, I would give you guys a little taste of what driving here in Spain is like with this weeks ¨Rotonda De La Semana¨. Basically the most outlandish roundabout that I had to drive through this week. Literally, I was driving on what would be the equivalent of an interstate, so around 120 kmh, and I start seeing signs to slow down. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY there was a GIANT roundabout, probably half a kilometer in diameter. I was absolutely flabbergasted - that's the only word to accurately describe it.
Spanish is hard. I have gotten to the point now in my speaking that I speak in Spanglish without even knowing it, which I guess is kind of a good thing because it means that I´m not having to concentrate so hard in order to speak the language. Other times I forget I´m in Spain and I ask a question in English, only for it to be returned by a blank stare of a native. Whoops!
I cooked my first very own Spanish cuisine this week...Fried Plantains. I´m not quite the Bobby Flay of Spain yet, but one step at a time. The coolest thing about being here is that you get the European culture and the South American Culture all in one. I've eaten food from Spain, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru here because the population is so diverse. There is one really district group of Ecuadorians here called Otovalans, and you can usually tell them apart because the men have pony tails. They are such an amazing people and their culture is so unique. They have their own language that I've been trying (to no such avail) to learn and the women wear these super brightly colored dresses to church. Whenever we see one, Elder Whetten practically takes the wheel and pulls the car over so we can talk to them!
This week, not unlike every other week, has been amazing; full of miracles at the hand of the Lord. I realized I probably shouldn't include names in my letter, but I would like to tell you all about a miracle man that we found this week. We got a call from other missionaries and apparently they had been contacted by a man on the street who once he started talking, couldn't help but cry. He was a past member of the church and actually an ex-missionary and he wanted missionaries to meet with him. Once we heard that, we tried to call him every day. Finally, he picked up and told us we could meet with him
tomorrow, but he was really hard to understand and the little pueblo he lives in is about an hour away. We decided the journey was worth it and so we set off to find this man. After another hour and searching through fields and fields of crops, knocking doors and asking for directions, and finally this man picking up the 12th time we called him, we arrived at his humble abode. What we expected is what Elder Whetten calls a Sleeper Cell. The name is derived from those movies where there is an unsuspecting family in a nice suburban neighborhood living a fairly normal life, and then they one day receive a call and are activated as like spies on a secret mission. Likewise, sleeper cells in the missionary work are ex-members who have started a family and have a wife and kids who are all potential investigators, and this is what we expected at this house. What we found was a more or less 70 year old otovalan man, living alone, with years of trials and pain burning in his eyes. At first, it was hard not to be a little disappointing, especially as a new missionary thirsty for investigators and a baptism, but I was not prepared for one of the most powerful lessons of my mission up to this point. It had been 20 years since this man had been to the church. He served part of a mission but never finished. Since then, he had separated from his wife, his daughter had died, and at some point he somehow lost a finger and an ear (i must have missed that part in translation). There were so many points in that lesson where I had nothing to say, and not just because of the language. I was just at a loss for words. The Lord had entrusted me, a missionary of merely four weeks, with the task of bringing back one of his prized lost sheep. After the short lesson, we asked him to say the prayer and even though he insisted that he didn't remember how, he still agreed. The spirit during that prayer was so undeniable. Underneath those years of trials and pain, this man still had a testimony and love of His Savior Jesus Christ and although that flame was suppressed, exhausted, and barely flickering, it was there and guided him to us.
I realized then that my purpose isn't to baptize. We are here to invited others to Christ, whether or not they have been to Him before or not. This is a search mission and a rescue mission, and the rescue is just as satisfying as the find.
I hope you all have an amazing General Conference weekend. And if you don´t know what I mean by that, go to
mormon.org and look up general conference, and then watch it. I promise that if you go into General conference with a question, something that you truly want to know, you will find your answer. But just like a test, if you go in without preparing, you are bound to miss something! Seek the answer to your questions in the scriptures, not look, but seek, and you will be better prepared to hear what the spirit has to say during conference.
Love you all and hope you have a great Semana Santa!
Elder Jenkins
I only really have one big lesson for the week, partly because I don´t have my journal with all of my stuff written down in it, but mostly because I think it had the most affect on me. I was sitting in church
this Sunday, waiting the arrival of our investigator and her family who she ASSURED me were coming, and then all of the sudden, we were singing the opening him, and then the sacrament hymn, and then people were speaking, and still no sign. I´ll be honest, it was kind of hard to be happy in that moment, as I was looking back to the door so often I´m pretty sure my neck is sore now, but it was then that I realized my lesson.
1. This work is REALLY hard, only when you forget all the miracles.
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