Week 52: Happy Birthday To Me

Nooooo don't worry everyone you didn't miss my birthday....unless you
didn't say anything on December 22 in which case you did...but this
week I celebrated my 1 year of being a missionary here in Spain. I
can't really say that it's "flown by" like everyone said it would,
but I wouldn't have wanted to anyways. It has been a year of life
changing and memorable experiences. I'm actually excited to have my
midlife crisis in like 15 years and to go back and reminisce about all
the memories of the mission. And in other news, my date of going home
got moved forward a week so it's official...ill see you all this year
:) we won't think about that just yet though.

One of the coolest experiences that I had this week was just
yesterday. In these very moments of pondering the first half of my
mission, I had the chance to be present as one of the members here in
Spain prepared to go to Bolivia to serve for the next two years. It
was definitely a dejavu moment as I watched the stake president lay
his hands on the head of this young man and set him apart as a
missionary of Jesus Christ, just as i was a year ago. I wish that I
could have expressed to him exactly what he was about to experience
and how his life was about to change more than he could imagine, but
one can not explain that, it can only be lived.

Such experiences include one that I had this week. We went to one of
our friends from Nigeria and as he opened the door he told us he was
making rice. I told him that I had never had African rice before and
he just invited us in and said "you are so welcome"...I didn't fully
understand what that meant but he soon came out with a giant bowl of
rice with stew on top and two spoons for my companion and I. We
started to chow down and about half way through I came across with a
piece of meat with which I was not familiar. As I studied it, trying
to find out the best plan of attack, our friend decided to inform me
that he had made the stew with a mix of meats: chicken, fish, cow
kidney, cow tongue, and cow heart....he made my situation a lot easier
because now I just had to guess which one I was about to eat. I think
it was the kidney.

On a more spiritual note, my mind has been stuck on the idea of
repentance constantly these past weeks. As missionaries, we are trying
to focus more on teaching repentance instead of focusing on baptism.
We know that both are essential, but when one repents with sincere
heart they are naturally led to the covenant of baptism. As I have
been focusing more on this I have really come to understand better
that it is through repentance that we truly come unto Christ and
become more life Him. I have always throughout of repentance as like
the back up plan for when I do something wrong and need to erase it,
but repentance is really the only plan. The plan was never to be
perfect, the plan was to continually correct our mistakes and it is
this road which leads us to an eventual perfection in the eternities.
With this new mind set, I look forward to being able to recognize my
faults and repent of them so that I can become a better person
everyday.

I wish you all a great week! Thank you for the prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Week 51: Consistency is key

Hello everyone and Happy Martín Luther King Day! Yes I am currently at
Burger King fulfilling the undying Jenkins family tradition.

Exactly a year ago today, a priesthood holder called of God put his
hands on my head and set me apart as a full-time missionary. Honestly,
that moment changed the entire trajectory of my life. And in 2 days, I
will have been in Spain for a year! I can't say it has flown by, but
so much has happened, so much has changed, so much has been learned,
and it's still only the beginning!

This week I learned a powerful lesson about the power of the
scriptures. When I first got here, there was a family of three and the
husband and his child both had just gotten baptized but in the last
moment the wife decided not too. We spent the first couple of visits
focusing on trying to understand what barrier she was facing or how we
could help her, but as we did it seemed as if she was just closing up
even more. We decided to take the magnifying glass off of her and
focusing on helping the family be more unified and self sufficient
spiritually. When the new year came around, we sat down and all made
goals for the new year and some of their goals were to each read the
scriptures personally for some time during the day, and to set a time
when they could gather as a family and read together. I remembered
those minutes of reading as a family being so powerful in my own home
and so I was able to bear testimony and this motivated them even more.
As the weeks went by, all we did was keep following up with the goals
and let them tell us what they had been learning.

Well last week, the wife called us and told us she wanted us to come
by so we could all talk, but we couldn't end up coming for various
reasons for an entire week. We decided in our weekly planning to
exercise a little bit of faith and plan as if she was going to be
baptized that next week. We finally got to go over to her house on
Wednesday and as we sat down as a family to talk, she quickly said,
"alright, before we say the prayer, I'm getting baptized." Her husband
just about fell out of his chair (apparently he didn't even know
either) and I about did a spit take with my water. She said she was
just sitting in church the week before and all of the sudden he said
it just came to her, baptism, and from that moment forward she knew
that she had to do it. Then her reading of the scriptures just kept
confirming her feeling until finally when she told us she was ready to
do it the soonest possible moment. That Friday, we had the baptismal
service and it was absolutely incredible. I know that it was the habit
of reading the scriptures alone and in her family that opened the
gates to the personal revelation she needed in her life.

I have definitely see the difference that a consistent study of the
scriptures has made in my life. I can remember wondering how I was
going to study for 2 hours straight every single morning, and now I
wonder how I can possibly fit everything I want to study into 2 hours.
It is evident to me that a consistent discipleship in any spiritual
principle results in consistent blessings from God.

In other news, the spanish sales have started and I have no clue why I
ever bought anything from America ever. I wish I would have just
accepted all the hand me downs From my siblings and then saved all the
money to spend here. Just to help you understand, Inamerica I would
spend 65 dollars and come out with a pair of hollister jeans and a
migraine. Here, you can buy an entire Spanish suit for 50 euros and it
doesn't have holes in it when you buy it. If Spain had carpet and
chikfila, I'd totally be down to stay forever.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Jenkins

Week 50: Until next year Christmas!

Hey everyone!

Well, it's official. The holiday season is over :( overall, I'm pretty
down with the way they celebrate Christmas here and am kind of sad
that I have been ripped off from kings day for 19 years of my life.
They make these amazing cakes that are just two doughnut looking cake
rings and then they put a much of this cream in the middle so it makes
like a cake sandwhich....talk about a dream.

We had a pretty stressful week, traveling a lot, or doing exchanges
with the mission presidents assistants, having interviews with the
presidents, and then having to plan a meeting with the zone. Not to
mention I woke up in the middle of the week....and the world looked
very one sided...I looked in the mirror and realized that my left eye
was so swollen that I couldn't open it. I found out shortly later that
I had a boil that appeared in my eyebrow...I looked like the hunchback
of Norte dame....but luckily it's gone down to a more normal level.

I also completed a bucket list item. We walked past a kid here playing
basketball and so I went up and challenged him to a game of
basketball, the stakes being that he would listen to our message if we
won...I won't tell you who won, but as we were sharing a message with
him he actually said, I would have listened either way...there aren't
many times walking around here in Spain that I feel hope for my
generation, but it was really awesome to see someone willing to listen
even though he was like a cool teenager and what not.

Well, there have been a lot of things changing with this new year and
we saw the hand of the Lord so much as we talked as a mission about
our goals and what we wanted to do this year. It is really such an
amazing opportunity to be here!

Have a great week all!

Elder Jenkins

Week:49 ¡Bienvenidos 2016!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I couldn´t be happier starting off 2016 here in Spain as a missionary! New Years was often filled with regret or disappointment thinking about all the wasted time that I had spent surfing social media or motionlessly laying in my bed, but it was all the contrary this year. I am amazed to look back at what has happened in the short span of a year; living in 5 different Spanish cities, learning a new language, living with some of the most amazing young men I´ve ever met, and most of all, meeting hundreds of people here who have changed my life. I feel as if for once, I am starting the new year running and the breeze feels great! 

Unfortunately, the new years celebration was a little below par. Actually, it might have been the most depressing new years EVER. Allow me to set the scene. So of course, because we can never plan anything well, we waiting until there were only 10 minutes before 12 to start setting up the table, washing the grapes, setting out the cups...deciding to wash the cups first, so needless to say we were running around the house crazy. Then we were trying to get all the missionaries on a phone call, and that wasn´t working out. Also, we realized with 30 seconds left to go that we couldnt take a video and watch the clock at the same time. The BIGGEST miscommunication was that I thought the tradition was to eat the grapes in the first 12 seconds of the new year...well apparently, elder adcock was under the impression that it was the last 12 seconds of the new year (doesn´t make sense to me cause how can you shout happy new year with a mouth full of grapes). So he started eating the grapes, i was like what are you doing?! Then my companion was saying that we had the time wrong cause there were no fireworks....and amongst the confusion the new years passed and we were left dissappointed and still with our grapes. However....there is one moment that saved the whole new year. We decided to open up the bottle of sparkling apple juice by shaking it and blowing the cork off and the most miraculous thing happened. I will attempt to attach the video, but in the off chance that it doesnt send, well you will all just have to wait until i have a better way to attach it. 

The other great thing about spain is that even though christmas has passed, and new years has passed, its still technically Christmas here! Christmas lasts all the way until the 6th for the King´s day when people get their real presents, which means the decorations are still all up, we sang christmas songs for church still, and the love of Christ which acompanies this season still fills the air. There will be a huge parade tomorrow to celebrate so that should be exciting. 

I hope that you are all taking advantage of this new year to get a little bit of motivation under yourselves and set some great life changing goals. I took on the tradition of my family and made a little book that on the front says, ¨Gifts to the Savior¨. It helps me to remember to whom my gifts should really be. Sure its great to lose some weight, or get more social media followers, but the most worthwhile goals are the ones that help us to get closer to Jesus Christ; They are ones that show our appreciation to Him for what He did for us. As we focus our goals in the things that really matter, the changes that we make in our lives will be backed by divine power and will help us truly be more like He from whom that divine power comes.

I wish you all the best in this new year and that you enjoy all the blessings that 2016 will bring!

Con Amor

Elder Jenkins