Week 31: Back to the Beach

What a week! So many things have changed in so little time and it's
hard for me to keep up with the pace the Lord has set but I know that
He doesn't set the pace without giving us the push.

On Wednesday, I had to say goodbye to my companion elder guarcax. It
is always sad to send a missionary home to his house, but I am so
thankful for all that I learned from him. I know the Lord sent me to
him to get me ready for the trials that I will face here in
torremolinos.

That Wednesday I also met my new companion. He hails from the fertile
forests of Oregon, where he enjoys hunting duck and muddin in his
truck. There is no elevator that can fit him, no door frame that he
will not hit his head on. Hanging lights are in danger and the air
traffic control takes his location into account when planning flight.
introducing the great, the tall, the amazingggggg ELDER REEDER. He is
7 feet of smiles and love for the missionary work. I can't tell if the
people stare at him because he is tall, or because he is a missionary!
Regardless, he is a lot of fun to work with and I'm excited for a
great transfer together.

It is definitely a lot different now than it has been in the past for
me. After having two companions who spoke Spanish, I'm not used to
carrying 100% of the speaking weight on my shoulders. Luckily, after 4
months of only Spanish I think I'm more comfortable speaking in
Spanish than I am in English. I've also been very humbled as I have
had to take on the role of teaching this new missionary how to do the
work. It has helped me realize how much I don't know and I have had to
learn to have more faith in the Lord than I have in myself. Most of
the time, I really have no clue what I'm doing but I trust that His
plan is perfect.

I got amazing new this past week too! One of my past companions called
me and told me that a family that we found together just got baptized!
I was so happy and I felt so blessed to have been able to play even a
small part in a decision that has changed their lives.

Well, I'm really loving the new area. I started the mission by the
beach, and now I'm back! The people here are so nice and loving and it
is a blessing to be able to serve them. I hope everything is going
well and that you all have a great week! Thank you for the love and
the prayers like always!

Love,
Elder Jenkins

Things I learned
1. Have more faith in God than you have in yourself
2. "It's the cheese"
3. Sometimes the blessing you get from doing something is a testimony,
not a new investigator
4. You can only cut so many corners before your paper disappears
5. A job worth doing is a job worth doing right
6. You feel really short next to someone who is 7 feet tall

Week 30: Unexpected Goodbyes

Hello friends and family!

Well, I can't say that I expected anything to happen this week that
happened. I really have had to place my confidence in the Lord and
realize that He really is the one who knows what is best.

First off, I will be saying goodbye to elder guarcax, my little
guatemaltecho, as he heads back home to his family to hug his mom and
go swimming! It has been an amazing transfer that I have been able to
share with him, learning and laughing the whole time. He has taught me
so much and I truly will miss him!

As if that goodbye wasn't enough, I found out this week that I would
also have to say goodbye to all the amazing people who I have met
these last 6 weeks. There is a large shortage of missionaries right
now in the mission, so they don't have enough to keep all of the areas
open, and because of that, Huelva will only have sister missionaries
instead of sisters and elders. It was pretty sad news for us,
especially after 6 weeks of working so hard here to get to know
everyone and finally getting accustomed to being here! I finally
finished unpacking and now I have to repack everything. It's sad to
leave an area I have grown to love so quickly, but I know that this is
what the Lord wants right now for Huelva and for me.

And now the question, where does the Lord want me right now? I will be
serving in the beautiful beach city of torremolinos, right outside of
the city of Malaga! My new companion will be elder Reeder, a new
missionary who has only been here one transfer! But it's going to be a
little different serving with him because I'm used to being the taller
companion....elder reeder is like 6'10...we will definitely be
attention grabbers walking around the city for sure.

Also unexpected, I broke my first pair of shoes...but they were my
running shoes not my missionary shoes...oh well I guess I just won't
exercise.....hehe

Funny story of the week: so last week we went to this little town to
try and found some people to teach. We were knocking doors and this
guy came to the door who was about our age. He gave us the number of
his mom so we could call her and ask if we could come by. A couple
days later we called his mom and she told us that she wasn't living in
that town for the summer and we asked if we could come by when she
came back and she said no...and that was that. So this past week, we
went back to that town and we figured since the mom "wasn't there" we
would visit her son and talk with him. We knocked on the door and a
different kid came to the door and before we could say anything he
said, "one second, my mom is right here...." I couldn't help but laugh
and as she came to the door, I just gave her a big smile and said "Hi,
I'm elder Jenkins" the look on her face when she realized she had
talked to me on the phone....PRICELESS! The first 3 minutes of that
conversation were the most awkward of my life, but an hour later we
left her house with an invitation to come back anytime and a can of
soda:)

It is so surprising to me how much love I can have for the people here
even though I have only been here 6 weeks. There is a special feeling
that you get from trying your hardest to serve others. Huelva and the
people here are so important to me and a piece of my heart will stay
here, just as big as the part that is back in Cartagena and just as
big as the part that will stay in torremolinos. I know these next 6
weeks will bring new challenges and new experiences, but I know that
they will be to help me grow if I confide in Him who knows best.

I love you all and thank you for your support, prayers, and the
occasional letter! I hope the best for you all this week and will let
you all know about my new area next week.

Until then,

Elder Jenkins

1. Don't wait to make the changes tomorrow that you need to make today
2. How to defrost a freezer
3. A ton of things from the Christopher Columbus museum
4. Always be ready for a surprise cleaning check
5. There are these really amazing deep fried French toast type things
that they make here called torrijas
6. 8 of these torrijas will make you throw up
7. Be ready for anything during transfers
8. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own
understanding
9. You really don't need 40 ties

Elder Jenkins Week 28

Hi everyone!

Well another week passes in the beautiful country side of Spain...jk
the entire week was SO HOT because the wind pushed the African heat
and dirt into Huelva so it was super cloudy, dusty, and it turned the
city into a literal oven! However, finally the sun is back again so I
can get back to work on my missionary tan lines :)

For the past couple of weeks, we have literally just been passing by
every single person or address that we have in the records. We have
knocked tons of doors, made tons of phone calls, and walked literally
hours to addresses that don't exist anymore....but finally we have
passed by everyone and we have a better idea of where we are at in
terms of our area. It has been a hard transfer, but elder Guarcax and
I have one more week left together to work and find some miracles.

Funny story of the week...so a lot of the people here live in
buildings with a bunch of apartments. To get in, you usually have to
call up to the person you want to visit and they let you in, but
sometimes the doors are just unlocked or left open, so we always just
try to push the doors open first to see. Well we were trying to find
this address and the address looked like an Address for a building.
When we found it, I saw that the door was a tiny bit open, so i pushed
it open and walked right into the living room of a couple watching
tv.....that was a hard one to explain to them, especially in Spanish.
Let's just say they weren't too happy with my mistake...

The week ended with a baptism of the sister missionaries here in
Huelva. I was fortunate enough to have been chosen by him to perform
the baptism. It is always inspiring to me to see people who are
willing to be baptized based on the faith that they have that it can
help them change their lives, and also who have such a strong desire
to follow the example of Jesus Christ with exactness. Those moments
when you get to see the smile on someone's face right after baptism
are the moments that make you forget the hours of walking in the sun
or the countless unanswered doors knocked; they make it all worth it.

I hope all is going well over there across the pond. It's always so
funny to hear the things people think about America. This one lady
this week spent like 15 minutes explaining to me how big of a problem
tornadoes are for us and how we should just stop building houses
because tornadoes are just going to tear them down again.... Anyhow,
have a great week! Stay safe from the tornadoes. Thank you for the
prayers and the support. Hasta Luego amigos:)

Elder Jenkins

Things I learned :

1. Work to make the miracle happen today, but expect it to come tomorrow
2. The dangers of garbanzo beans
3. How to play Uno- Malaga mission style
4. The law of contacting
5. Falling asleep on the bus will result in falling into the isle and
having everyone laugh at you...
6. Make sure it's not a house before you barge in the door

Week 27: Bull fights and fairs

Hi everyone!

The city of Huelva is booming right now with tourists and cultural
experiences! It turns out that Huelva is the city from which Columbus
sailed to begin his voyage to the Americas in 1492! Actually, there is
a museum here where you can actually see two of the three original
ships that he used in his travels! Of course, to celebrate, there is a
huge fair with attractions and concerts and dancing and bull fights,
the whole nine yards (or meters here in Europe) of Spanish fun. For
that reason, it's been a tough for the missionaries to find people who
aren't either sleeping, or on their way to the fair, but we still had
a great week.

We did get permission to go take a gander at the fair one of the days
when it was a little less crowded, and before all the people got
there. That's one thing about Spanish culture, everyone stays out WAY
later. People like don't even start getting ready to leave their house
for the night until like midnight. We were talking to this member and
he was like I should probably come home Saturday night at a more
appropriate hour....like 2 am....the discos and parties wouldn't have
even started before 2, so when went there weren't a ton of people.
Luckily, my years in high school of wearing a fanny pack every day
prepared me for the weird stares I was going to get as a missionary at
the fair so that wasn't a problem either.

Later on in the week, we were walking home from our last appointment
and we started hearing all these cheering and loud noises. We went to
see what was up and it turns out that from the top of the hill we were
on you could see right into the stadium of the bull fights! I was
almost surprised that they actually existed. I kinda thought it was
always just a little joke that Americans made up about the Spanish but
there they were, five guys in flashy tight suits all fighting this
giant bull! It was pretty crazy to watch the whole process and how
much time goes in to killing it. We didn't stay too long to watch
cause I wasn't a huge fan of the whole idea but i wanted to be able to
say that I had been to one.

One more culture experience for the week. We ate with a member from
Ghana and he made us fufu. Basically, you take flour and water, mix
it, and then it makes like a bread looking dough. Then you make a soup
or whatever to eat with the fufu. Well I walked in and everything was
looking normal, until our friend brought out a dish of water. I asked
what it was for and he said to clean your hand after.....then I
watched as he grabbed the fufu, submerged his hand and the fufu in the
soup, and then plunged his hand into his mouth. I had never used my
hand as a spoon before, but it was definitely an experience I will
remember.

Among all these experiences, the work is going well. I feel like I am
finally in the typical missionary work that everyone thinks of;
walking around all day, super hot, knocking doors, getting rejected.
It's definitely been a lot more difficult than the comfortable car in
Cartagena, but nonetheless, it is service to the Lord and that's what
I am here to do! I know there are some great things prepared for me
here in Huelva, but it's just going to take a little more work to find
them.

Like always, I thank you all for the continued support and prayers. I
hope all is well and I send the best wishes from the beautiful country
of España! Have a great week!

Elder Jenkins

Lessons learned
1. You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed
2. How to eat fufu
3. It's really hard to do missionary things in English!
4. The art of bull fighting
5. Check to see if you have butane before you start your shower....

Week 26

Week 26! 1/4 Of My journey here in Spain already gone!

So the week started with another 12 hour bus/train trip back from
Cartagena to the beautiful Huelva. Elder van Leeuwen and I had some
pretty interesting experiences to help pass the time though. I think
the best was when these three teenage girls behind us assumed that we
didn't know Spanish and started talking about us. I'll spare you the
details of their inappropriate conversation. I was patiently waiting
for an opportunity to unveil our understanding of their potty mouths,
when finally my companion gave me an inspired phone call to see how I
was doing. You should have seen their faces when they heard me
speaking Spanish on the phone. Priceless.

For the rest of the week we have just been working as hard as we can
here. We are really working on our finding efforts, passing by all the
people who in the past have listened to the missionaries, knocking
doors, or trying to find people in the street. It's been a little more
difficult than what I am used to doing from my time in Cartagena, but
it has given us some pretty funny stories. One time we were standing
outside of this building, trying to find this guy we had talked to one
time, and so we asked a lady standing outside too if she knew the guy
or where he lived. She then looked at us and said, "if you want to
find him, all you have to do is this" and proceeded to push every
single call button for the entire building! Needless to say, the
people in the building were not to happy with us. It was kinda like in
the movie elf when he presses all of the elevator buttons...except we
were the other people in the elevator.

One of the best experiences I had this week was having my first
interview with the new mission president. I was a little nervous at
first because I had never had an interview with him, but the biggest
impression that I got from the interview was simply how much he loves
each of us missionaries individually. I had been having some questions
that I wanted to ask his advice on in the interview, and as I told
him, his eyes lit up so bright as if everything had just clicked into
place and made sense. He told me that that morning, he had the
inspiration to read a specific talk and didn't know why, so he read
it. The talk addressed the exact issue that I was having, and he was
able to direct me to that talk. It was a testimony to me of how God is
penitent of each and every one of His children, and also the
willingness and desire of president Anderson to follow the guidance of
the spirit; he is a true disciple of Christ.

Things are going great here! We found a couple of new investigators
this past week who are progressing really fast! We have already seen
miracles with them and I know we will see more as the weeks go on.
This area has been a lot harder than the area before, but I know that
it is helping increase my faith that the Lord is preparing people and
that this is His work, not ours. It's crazy to think that in two more
weeks elder guarcax will be going home and yet again I'll be getting
another new companion! I'm praying for another American native (like
central or south, not north) but we will see what happens! As always,
thanks for the support and the prayers! Have a great week :)

Elder Jenkins

Sent from my iPad