Tuesday, December 29, 2015

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

Monday, December 14, 2015

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

Monday, December 7, 2015

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



Tuesday, December 1, 2015

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.