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

Week 34: Never accept cookies from the missionaries

¿Que hay locos? Just like every week, things are going great here;
just living the life of your standard spaniard!

So this week, elder reeder and I learned an important lesson about
baking as a missionary....we shouldn't do it. We decided we should
make cookies for one of the church leaders here and his family. The
first problem was that we didn't have a working oven, so we decided to
just bring them dough to aazzzzzzmake the cookies. Next problem, we
bought all of the ingredients, got ready to put them together, and
realized that we didn't have any measuring cups at all. It gets
better. So the recipe called specifically for shortening, and said
explicitly that we shouldn't substitute for butter, so we went to the
store looking for shortening. Well, I didn't know how to translate
shortening into Spanish, so I am trying to describe what shortening
is, but I had never before I my life used Wis. Finally, the worker
pointed us to these little squares called levadura fresca. They looked
good to be so I got 4. We started cooking and we got to the point
where we needed to put I the "shortening" so I got started putting in
the 4 squares when my companion points out that it looks like tofu
instead of butter. We tried calling everyone we could to find out what
levedura fresco was, but no one answered, so we decided we just had to
eat some. We each took a piece of one of the squares and ate
them...quickly realizing that we had almost mixed 4 cubes of yeast
into our cookies...luckily we fixed our error and used margarine
instead. Then finally realizing we didn't have vanilla, we topped our
famous missionary cookie recipe off with some artificial
sweetener....needless to say, we gifted the cookies with the strong
warning that they should not be eaten, rather should just be taken and
thrown away, counting the thought, but instead of listening they
cooked them and brought some to church that Sunday for us to try. They
looked like little boulders, and had pockets of flour still in them,
but the family said they were so good and even. took them to school to
share....they were no toll house but we did the best we could.

We did have spiritual experiences this week too, like all weeks in the
mission. It is always amazing to me how manifested the Lord's hand is
in every day she you are constantly looking. I read a talk this week
by l Whitney Clayton that is called Choose To Believe. Talking to so
many people everyday, it's surprising how many have just given up hope
that there is even something to believe in. Really, believing just
starts with a choice. Alma, in the Book of Mormon, tells us "even if
ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you,
even until ye believe". We have seen countless examples of people who
change their lives around and truly become happier, just with a
decision to believe that there is something more to life and that they
have a father in heaven who loves them. I know that I have felt the
joy that comes from this belief as it has affected my decision to come
here to Spain and as it continues to affect my daily decisions.

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

Elder Jenkins

Things I learned

1. Shortening in Spanish is called manteca
2. The rule of 3s for starting a business: 3 times harder, 3 times
longer, and 3 times more expensive than prior expectations
3. The capital of Bolivia is Santa Cruz
4. You can hunt tuna with your hands
5. Fish pedicures exist!
6. Marriage: separated for life, together for eternity
7. If you ask for 10 churros they will always give you more
8. Believing is a choice, knowing is a gift

Week 33: miracles in Romania

Happy Labor Day to everyone!

I think they have something here in Spain like a day of the workers,
but it's not really a big deal. It happened like 4 months ago and
everyone still works! I'm definitely missing the usual going on the
lake and wake boarding to celebrate, but there will be plenty more
labor days to celebrate in 17 months.

Life in Spain is great! Today, it rained for the third time since I
have been here, but it like actually stormed! Apparently southern
Spain isn't used to that kind of weather because the entire city like
shut down. All the streets were flooded and the highways got closed
and trains broke down; it was a mess! Luckily the sun is shining again
and we should be back to the normal blazing hot and humid we are all
used to here in Malaga.

I'm still spending the days here with my 7 foot body guard and
companion elder reeder. It's been amazing to watch his progression as
a missionary. His language skills are getting better and he is really
working hard to participate in the work of the Lord. I'm so glad to be
with him and I hope that our time together doesn't end in 3 weeks.

So I will explain the title of this letter. Last Monday we had a
pretty incredible experience. We were out on pday, visiting some of
the sights of Spain, and we got a super distressed phone call from one
of our investigators. She was super distressed and was trying to tell
me what happened but she is Romanian and doesn't speak Spanish very
well so it was hard to understand her. Finally, we got to her house
and she told us that her dad had gotten in a car accident In Romania
and at that time was in a state of coma shock and wasn't moving or
talking. She wanted us to come in a say a prayer with her for him, so
when we were about to pray, she called her family there in Romania so
that he could be on the phone listening. So I started to pray, and
right after I asked that he would be able to start getting better from
what had happened, I heard noises on the phone. Our investigator
started flipping out and running around the room, apparently he
started talking! She was like KEEP PRAYING KEEP PRAYING, so I think I
ended up saying like a ten minute prayer. Once we finished, she asked
if we could go to Romania with her and give her a blessing, and we
told her we couldn't but that we could get elders there in Romania to
do it. So we were able to get a hold of missionaries there and they
went and gave him a blessing. I haven't heard anything more about the
situation, but I'm confident that her father is doing alright. I know
that the Lord answers our prayers and that he desires to hear from
each and every one of his children.

Miracles are happening every single day here in torremolinos, more
than I can count. I'm so happy to be here, serving in whatever way
that I can. Thank you all for love, support, letters, and prayers! I
wish you all the best and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Ps. I promise I'll do a things I learned next week! sorry!

Week 32: adventures in torremolinos

¿Que pasa familia? Things are going great on the other side of the
planet! The weather is finally cooling down a little bit, but the
beach humidity is keeping us sweating. Torremolinos is an amazing
area! I hear so many different languages everyday from the tourists
here, and it gives us more chances to serve as we translate for people
or help them find where they are going. Because my companion and I are
both fairly new to the area and don't know it very well, we stick to
working within a half a mile radius of our house, but I'm excited for
when we can spread out and start exploring more of this beautiful
city.

This week, we were blessed to participate in the baptism of another of
God's wonderful children. He is a Bulgarian who has been living here
for a really long time, away from his family who are all members of
the church already. He has been coming to church for like 2 years and
finally just said, ok I want to be baptized on this day at 7
o'clock...and that was that! It's crazy to see how God prepares
people, and how he does it in His perfect timing. During his
confirmation, he just started shedding tears of joy, which was
surprising because he kind of resembles a Russian mafia leader. I
could see how strong his love for his family and his love for Jesus
Christ are as he felt closer than he ever has felt to them both.

Being with a new missionary is hard, but it's also really fun! There
are so many times when you are both just so lost that you can't help
but laugh, or that he says something in Spanish that just makes you
laugh a lot. The lord does help me remember that I'm not perfect at
Spanish either. Two funny Spanish stories. We were talking about
baptism one time and how it can wash you clean of all your sins. Well
sins and fish are really close in Spanish, so of course, elder reeder
told this man he could be washed of all his fish hahaha however, mine
this week was worse. We were talking to this lady about how even
though satan tries to attack us all the time and make us fall, we can
withstand his attacks if our faith in Christ is strong and
firm...well...in that tense, the word fall and "go number 2 in the
bathroom" are really close, so I ended up telling this old lady that
satan does everything he can to try and make us "go number 2 in the
bathroom"....an interesting lesson for her and a lesson on humility
for me haha

Well, Spain is amazing, what can I say? I love it so much here: the
people, the language, the food, EVERYTHING! It's sad to think of how
fast the time is flying, but refreshing to know I've got a lot of time
left. I hope everything is going well. Thank you for the support,
prayers, and letters! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Jenkins