What a Week! Every single day I have just collapsed into my bed out of
exhaustion (which you would think wouldn´t be a big issue since we
have our luxurious car) but with the biggest smile on my face. I have
felt the Lord literally walking beside us, or navigating in the
passengers seat, almost every day this week and because of that, we
have seen miracles.
Honestly, I can´t tell if the time is flying by or not. I mean, on one
hand, I can´t believe that I am already starting week three here in
Cartagena; however, on the other hand, I feel like I came out of the
womb wearing a chapa (missionary name tag). I thought I would share
some of the few things different about living here in Spain and then
close with some of the miracles that happened this week.
Right now, I´m writing my email from what we call a ¨Loc¨ which is
short for locutorio. Its a super sketchy internet cafe place where we
have a little cubicle to write letter in, not exactly the luxurious
laptops we had in the MTC but it gets the job done. I started driving
this past week and it has been pretty scary. There are never any
intersections policed by traffic lights, just roundabouts of every
size. There are small round abouts, big round abouts, roundabouts with
traffic lights in them, and roundabouts that have other roundabouts
connected to them. Its pretty different, especially driving on super
small cobblestone streets where I feel like I could stick my tongue
out the window and lick the cars passing me, but I´m already getting
used to the European style of driving. The other weird thing is seeing
speed limit signs that say ¨120¨, even though its only in Kilometers
per hour. Other things that are different. All the super markets REEK
of fish, because they just have fresh fish and sea food of every size
sitting on ice, and the toilet paper is slightly longer here too! The
other thing that is weird to get used to is not having a drier. We
have these little racks that we hang all of our stuff on and then a
space heater that we put under them to make them dry faster, but it
makes all your socks super scratchy and shirts super wrinkly, but I
guess that's the price you pay for being able to live in the most
beautiful city on the planet.
This last week we had a cita in a place called The Manga, which is a
little strip of land that bordered on one side by the Mar Menor and on
the other side by the Mediterranean sea. The lady we were visiting
lives on the top floor of an apartment building right on the coast and
we were there right during sun set. It was such a breathtaking moment,
and i was sad i didn´t have my phone to snapchat it, but the image is
ingrained in my mind forever.
This week has been FULL of miracles. Everyday, we set goals that we
never thought we would be able to accomplish, but we worked hard and
kept walking and the Lord guided our steps. The first day of the week,
my trainer, Elder Whetten, who is also the zone leader, had to go to
Malaga for a meeting so I was on an intercambio with another elder in
our apartment, and I didn´t have the car so we were walking. It was a
pretty hot day and I was in an area that I had never been to before,
and on top of that my companion was kinda lost. Everyone was out
working so we couldn´t get anyone to teach, so we decided to just try
to visit one more Antiguo, which is someone who hasn´t been taught in
a long time. We knocked on the door and a man answered, but said he
was an inactive member and had absolutely no interest in listening to
us. As he was shutting the door, my companion just shared a tiny
testimony with him about God´s love for him. We walked away, and i was
feeling like this day was pretty wasted, but then we heard someone
calling our names (well...Elder...haha). We turned around to see that
this girl was literally running after us. I figured it was probably
because we are american and she wanted a picture with my blonde
companion or something. When she caught up to us, she told us that she
was the daughter of the guy who just rejected us. She was sitting on
the computer when we came to the door, and heard my companions
testimony and wanted to know more. She ran after us and told us that
she wants to be taught. I literally was at a loss for words, and not
just because of the Spanish. I just kinda stared at her and almost
asked if she was serious. Unfortunately, she goes to school in Murcia
so we aren´t able to teach her and see her growth, but we got the
reference and passed it on to the missionaries up there to teach her.
I was in awe and I immediately prayed for forgiveness for all the bad
thoughts I had up until that point. Someone literally thought our
message was important enough that she ran after us! I realized an
important lesson. The Lord won´t let a single day of His work go to
waste, unless you waste it.
I know this is long, but I just want to tell one more story. So within
the first couple days of being here, I had the opportunity to ¨find¨ a
family of four. Finding means that you got a reference and then you
contact and teach them a lesson and they become a new investigator.
Well, we found Nanci and her 3 kids a day or two after I got there and
got to just get to know them. Well this past week, we got to have
another lesson with them, so we decided to teach the restoration. She
is so golden, I could spend ten more minutes of time talking about how
great she and her family are, but I just want to focus on one part.
Just the night before, Elder Whetten and I were talking about how
something ALWAYS happens when you share the first vision. Well we
shared the restoration with them and it was time for the First vision.
I shared it and all was going well, the spirit was so strong, and
nothing had happened. We let a couple seconds of silence pass and then
Elder Whetten started to bear his testimony. As he was talking, I
watched as a huge tri-fold mural behind Nanci started to wobble, and
in slow motion fell right onto her head. The room erupted into
laughter and me and Elder Whetten could not believe our eyes. I
jokingly told her she must not have been listening when I said
´´escuchalo´´ and so this was God telling her to listen. We were able
to get the lesson back on track and as of right now the whole family
has baptism fechas, but it has been an amazing experience to be a part
of the entire conversion process with them. I will keep you all
updated on how it goes.
Well, everything is going absolutely great here. I couldn´t be more
happy to be here in Spain, but more importantly here in the service of
the Lord. I know that this gospel that I am here spreading is true and
if you are seeking true joy and happiness in your life, the Gospel of
Jesus Christ will bring exactly that. I hope all is going well with
all of you and I send you my love. Until Next Week!
Elder Jenkins
Things I learned
1. The Lord won´t let a day of his work go to waste, unless you waste it.
2. If during the day, you ever say, ¨what are we going to do next¨ ,
your planning the night before was a failure
3. Pedestrians here will expect you to slam on the breaks without even
looking to see if a car is coming
4. When people ask a gospel question, give them a camera case of info,
not a suitcase of knowledge
5.The choco-pillows cereal doesn´t turn the milk into chocolate milk,
BUT if you mix it with coco pebbles you can enjoy the goodness of
choco-pillows without the grossness of shelf milk
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