Sevilla Semana Santa summer survivor

Hello everyone

Well it's official. I am a Sevilla Semana Santa summer survivor! I
tried to translate that into Spanish and in front of the whole ward I
said "I'm officially a Sevilla free-loader"...whoops. It's been a
rough one, but I could not have been more blessed by any other area in
the mission. It was worth every moment in the heat, seeing the
miracles brought by the refiners fire. Unfortunately, the time has
come for me to leave behind all the "armas" I have come to love here
and to bring the gospel to another part of Spain.

This next transfer, I'll be going to the beautiful beach city of
Benidorm! It's super touristy and ritzy and has also been described to
me as Las Vegas "but worse". Right now there are missionaries, but
both will be leaving and I will be going to start fresh with a brand
new missionary whom I will train. I kind of feel like Jonah going to
preach to nineva, or alma to ammoniah....and I'm kind of scared, but I
am sure that amongst the wickedness there are souls searching for the
truth of the gospel, and we will find them!!

The week has been pretty packed with exchanges and meetings. We had a
special meeting of trainers and I found out that both of the
missionaries I trained will be training as well! I guess I didn't do
too badly after all! :)

Awesome miracle: we were walking up the stairs in a building and this
kid was running around the stairs. We stopped him because we thought
he was the man we were looking for (we sound like policemen...) and he
told us we could pass by. We went by another day and it turns out that
he is 18, from chile and came to Spain because he is a professional
ping pong player!! I'm like, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN IN THESE 6 MONTHS!?
But other than that being awesome he is one of the most willing to act
people I have ever met! We asked if he would say the prayer ar the end
and I was ready to respond to his excuses for why he couldn't but
before I could even fold my arms he was already praying! He is really
awesome and I can tell he will be a great investigator. I'm sad I
won't be here to see his conversion.,,or to play ping pong with him.
We were going to play today but it couldn't happen...I would have won
anyways.....just kidding.

I would say the worst part of the mission is leaving those in the
areas you have served. At least when I left my family, I knew exactly
when I would see them again and that they wouldn't go anywhere; yet,
in this case, you never know when you might cross paths again. It is
hard, but I couldn't imagine if I wouldn't have left my other areas to
come here, which means there are miracles yet to happen in this
benidorm!

I hope you all have a great week. Pray for me so I can find my house
and we don't have to sleep on the beach .... That would be tragic now
wouldn't it....

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Week...8?: Don't criticize the trials

Hello everyone!

This has pretty much been the greatest week EVER!...not unlike all the
other weeks but this one was especially great.

One great thing was that we had a mini missionary for the week and he
was the best! He had just come from a church youth camp and so he was
so excited and ready to work. He really helped remind us of how
exciting missionary work should be! He was always energetic and asking
what we were going to do next. One time we were on the bus, I started
talking to someone, my companion started talking to someone else, and
so instead of joining with one of the conversations he just looked
over and started talking to the guy next to him. He was great.

The highlight of the week was one of our investigators who I met my
second day here in Sevilla deciding to be baptized. The week was full
of difficulties, people coming out of nowhere to tell her not to and
other unforeseen issues, but at the end we were able to have one of
the greatest baptismal services ever!

I seriously don't know if I could ever be happier! I am so happy for
every single thing that has happened in my time here because I know
that if I wouldn't have had the difficult times I could not have
appreciated so much these moments of joy. When I think about why God
allows us to have trials, I think of all of the times in the
scriptures that the people were highly blessed and then fell into
iniquity. Without the constant reminders of trials and tests in our
lives, we would forget so quickly of the dependence we have on God. I
guess we could all be a little more grateful for the trials in our
lives.

Well, I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Our mini missionary and investigator

The adventures of elder Jenkins

Hey everyone!

What an incredible week it has been! Incredibly spiritual, incredibly
miraculous, and incredibly HOT! Everyone has been raving about August
since summer started so we shall see what she's got.

His week is going to be awesome! We got a mini missionary, a member
who is going to stay with us for the whole week. He is 17 and
preparing to serve a mission. It was cool because the president has
never even considered zone leaders as mini missionary companions but
he felt strongly that we should have him, so we will see what the
reason is!

Highlight of the week was definitely a baptism that we had! It was the
sisters baptism, but the man asked me to baptize him! It was a man who
I met a couple of months ago in a bus and as we talked I invited him
to think about making the necessary changes in his life so that he
could be baptized and we left. 3 weeks ago, he walked into church and
came up to me and said, "do you remember me?" Honestly I didn't, but
then he told me about when we met on the bus and that he had been
thinking about what I said and that he decided he wants to be
baptized. It was pretty cool honestly, we never know what effects our
little efforts can have!

This week will surely be the best week ever! I'll be excited to tell
you all about it. Until then!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Giant dog
Baptism!
Eating seviche
Mlc meeting