Week 97: Chef Jenkins, You have been chopped...

his week, I am a changed man. 

It was Tuesday, and we still pretty much had no idea what we were going to do for thanksgiving. Half of me just kind of wanted to forget that it was fast approaching, and the other half knew that I have an obligation as an american citizen to celebrate peace between the pilgrams and indians. It was that day that we decided that no one else was going to fulfil our duty for us; we would have to take matters into our own hands. We called everyone who has ever come to or called us about the english class and told them that there would be a special class dedicated to thanksgiving and that afterwards there would be a feast. How?...we were still unsure. Thursdaymorning the fun began. My companion and I threw around a football for a little bit in the morning, which constituted for our "turkey bowl" and then we got to cooking. It was one of the most faith building experiences I have ever had; I dont know if I have ever prayed so hard for the food to turn out well. We bought little turkey breasts and wrapped them in tin foil with some vegatables and threw them in the oven, made mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and apple crisp - all things that I had never even eaten, let alone made, before coming to spain. You may be thinking, "These are all basic things though"...let me remind you all. 2 young men, tiny kitchen, limited utensils, 0 cooking experience, and very high expectations from all those who were expecting to eat an "Authentic American Feast". Well by the end of the night, we had 16 people show up to the class, an all-time benidorm record, 10 of which were not members of the church. We discussed the history of thanksgiving, learned how to say "I am thankful for" and then sat down for our feast. Each person expressed gratitude for something (in english, so they mainly gave thanks for the turkey, for the drink, or for not having to speak english all the time) and we feasted! The food was cold, and looked iffy, but for me it was amazing, mainly because I had taken part in the effort behind it - and no one died which was my main concern. I can definitely say that it was eye opening to see how much effort is required in some of the every-day events that I often took for granted. I am so thankful for my parents who always provided a thanksgiving meal that I never wanted to eat, and for not being to angry with me for not eating it. 

That night, I said a prayer of just gratitude for all of the blessings that I feel like I have received, just in the last 2 years of my life and I think in the end I could have kept going for a lot longer. I realized that gratitude is a key to being happy, because as we ask to be blessed with a spirit of gratitude, the spirit will reveal the blessings that we may have missed in the hussle and bussle of everyday life and we will recognize how blessed we truly are which will in turn make us happier!

In just this week, we have felt highly blessed by the Lord. One afternoon, we were walking to the church to do a language assesment, and we passed this guy to whom we said hello with really no response back from him; however, we both felt that we needed to turn around and talk to him. It´s kind of sad because i think through my worldly eyes and with my human judgements I probably wouldnt have talked to him, but I felt so strongly that we turned around and began a conversation. Right then he agreed to acompany us to the church and go on a tour, which turned out so great. I expressed to him at the end how impressed I was by the spirit to talk to him, and he told us that that very morning, he had prayed to find some way to be more involved in something spiritually. He had just gotten here a couple of months ago, and has felt that he hasnt been able to participate in anything religious or spiritual and as we began to talk to him he remembered that prayer and felt like it was an answer. As if that wasn´t enough, it turns out that he is friends with someone we were teaching months ago but lost contact with, and they both came to church this sunday! 

The last thing I will comment is about the new video that came out this week, light the world. We began to share it, and as we did I began to see the blessings that have come to my life as I have tried to serve more like the Savior did. I know that I dont even come close to doing anything that he did, yet that video showed me how even the small things help others see His love through us. Dedicating myself to that kind of selfless service has been the biggest blessing in my life; it has led me to meet people who have changed who I am and whom I love dearly, and has helped me come to know my Savior more, whom I also love dearly. With this initiative, there is a calendar that counts down the days until christmas and gives us ideas of service to do every day. As a mission we are going to dedicate ourselves to doing it every day, and despite the fact that the calendar basically counts down to the end of my mission, I am absolutely thrilled to be able to focus my last moments on serving others. I would invite you all to do the same during this month, because I know that it will bring the greatest Christmas joy, the joy that comes from Christ. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! dont forget...ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIMEEEE OF THE YEAR!!!!!!

love,

Elder Jenkins 

Week 96: "Just smile and wait elder, smile and wait..."

Hey everyone!

Happy thanksgiving! So far we don't really have any plans, so we are
probably looking at a nice humble at-home thanksgiving with a baked
potato, bread and sandwich meat turkey....but I guess that's a small
sacrifice to be here in Spain, and I'll only ha to wait a year to have
my first REAL American thanksgiving meal.

This past week I said goodbye to my Chilean compadre and welcomed
elder Romano! He has been in 6 weeks so he still has that
"in-training" fire. It is interesting because its been a over a year
since I was with someone with less Spanish experience than I have, but
It's nice that the funny Spanish mistake stories aren't about me
anymore. In the very first appointment my comp dropped a nice little
testimony of how Christ can clean us of our fish:) we have developed a
plan to take advantage of it though; we call it "just smile and wait"
when he contacts people and they tell us they don't want anything, I
just blankly stare at them like I don't understand Spanish either and
then we just continue with the conversation. They just get this
helpless look on their faces as they frantically search for some non
existent escape route. The best thing about elder Romano is that he is
pretty fearless and just wants to work as hard as is physically
possible, which is MY favorite thing to do EVERY DAY! We have been
getting along great and I expect that this transfer will be more
miraculous than ever!

It's funny because I remember coming into the mission and trying to
explain to my trainer what vine is and how to dougie...Now my
companion is the one blowing MY mind. Yet he still hasn't achieved
explaining to me what is up with the whole throwing the water bottle
nor how to dab...(he's currently laughing at me because I thought it
was dapping...point made)

I have been blessed to witness an incredible miracle over the past
couple of weeks. So basically one of our big efforts in benidorm has
been the English class. I've never been a supporter of the classes, I
have kind of just always seen them as a way for missionaries to waste
time in the church waiting for maybe a convert to show up and speak
English with them, but I didn't really know what else to do when I got
here so we decided to give it a whirl. Well now we have about 8 or 9
people coming regularly and most of them aren't members! About 5 weeks
ago, a new guy from the Canary Islands  showed up for the class, but
left right after the class before the spiritual thought. Then the next
week he stayed for the spiritual message. At the end, we found out he
was a programmer and we introduced him to one of the other class
members, also member of the church, who is a programmer as well. The
next week, they both showed up together and apparently had met before
to hang out. The next week, we had a baptism and so his friend invited
him and he came! All this Without even one appointment with him. We
finally got to talk after an English class and he expressed a lot of
interest in what we do and in learning more so this past week we met
with him and had an incredible appointment with him. We explained to
him Gods plan and how he could follow it and he told us how he really
just wants to have a family and feel like he has more of a purpose in
his life. We invited him to prepare for a baptismal date right there
and he said yes, and then just to make sure he understood correctly he
said, "so I would get baptized to follow the plan that God has for me
in order to one day return to live with him, and so that he can guide
me more in my life?".....uhh yeah, hit that one right on the head. He
came to church yesterday and loved it, even in a white shirt! The best
part was when in the class they asked who there was going to be a
father one day; I raised my hand, my companion as well, and then our
friend raised his hand as well. He's super awesome.

It's hard to think every day "oh my gosh, it's my last first weekly
planning" , or "oh my gosh it's my last 3rd day of the second week of
a transfer" but I'm truly enjoying every single day and my companion
is helping me stay focused until the end! Hope you all have a great
week. Eat a piece of turkey and lots of rolls for me :)

Love,

Elder Jenkins

I had to include the picture of my two trainees together...priceless
Elder Jenkins and elder Romano

Week 95...partay

Hello everyone!

This week has been interesting, full of opposition and miracles. Not
to mention the fact that no matter where I go, people insist on
screaming TRUUUUUUUUMP at me, knowing that I'm the only American here
in Benidorm... I've had to memorize my response "as representatives of
the church, we don't discuss political views and blah blah blah"

It has been pretty stressful trying to overcome the opposition to the
work. Every single baptism came with blatant opposition, which can
also be seen as an evidence of the importance and reality of the work
we are doing. On Wednesday, the people who were going to pick up the
girl getting baptized decided that they couldn't last minute, there
was no one else to bring them, apparently she couldn't find anything
she needed, they held her late at work, and she arrived about ready to
blow up, but once the service started there was such a strong peace. I
tried to organize a special musical number including me, myself, and I
and at the last minute the damper pedal on the piano broke, so I
resorted to the ukulele I found in our house and played and sang I am
a child of God in Spanish and Portuguese. I didn't have high
expectations, but despite the circumstances there was an immense
feeling of peace. The room was absolutely silent and the spirit was
strong. It turned out to be a really beautiful service all together.

Then on Friday, we got a call from the mother of the kids who were
going to be baptized and she told us that she had contacted with their
father and he rejected giving them permission to be baptized until
they were 18. We were heartbroken, more than anything for the kids. We
began to fast and pray along with some of the other missionaries for a
miracle. At least something to help them feel a little better. The
kids even tried calling him and asking him but he again denied
permission. The morning of the baptism, we decided to try ourselves
and call him. He picked up and with my heart racing about 100,000
km/hour I explained to him how I have been blessed in the course of my
life from making the decision to be baptized, what they would be
committing themselves to do, and how we have seen them change in the
course of these past couple of months. At the end of the conversation,
he surprised us all saying that he simply hadn't understood before and
that he would have no problem with them making that type of decision.
It was incredible! We had to basically sprint to the church to change
out the water and try to get everything ready for the baptism. While
in the process, I accidentally turned the water pump into a hydro
soaker 2000 spraying water all over the ceiling and the floor and the
paintings....but in the end everything turned out okay. The service
was amazingly spiritual and afterwards as we were cleaning up I walked
into the room with the baptismal font and saw 5 men absolutely soaked
in water and one laughing hysterically....turns out I'm not the only
one to make the water pump mistake.

I'm so happy and feel so blessed to have been able to have such a
miraculous last week with my companion. We have both been making
nonstop jokes at one another about who is going to leave and where
they will go. I also finished up his training this week and as we were
watching the training videos about missionary work and all the
miracles and experiences or what not I literally said to my companion,
"good thing I don't have enough time left to train again because if I
had to watch these videos my last week in the mission I would be a
WRECK!" Well later that day we got an unexpected call from president
about transfers and it turns into it that my trainee will actually be
leaving to be companions with one of my OTHER trainees! The one who is
7 feet tall, I'm excited to see them together: DYNAMIC DUO! I'm sure
they will have fun telling elder Jenkins training horror
stories....anddddd....ill be training again! It is pretty ironic
considering the comment I made earlier that day, but I'm so excited to
be able to finish my mission dedicated to helping someone begin
theirs. Training has been one of the most fulfilling experiences that
I have had despite the fact that I've never really felt good at it. I
guess the Lord just keeps giving me more chances to get it right...4th
times the charm, right?

Awesome thing about Spain, because they don't have thanksgiving in
between Halloween and Christmas there is already Christmas decorations
everywhere, music playing in the stores, I even felt the Christmas
spirit sneaking in during studies...

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Baptisms and setting up the "pool"
Also if you didn't get the picture last week, take a gander at my
compans feet.








Sent from my iPad

Week 94: eternal thanksgiving

What words do I have to describe this week.....🙌🏻ESSOOOOOOOOOO!🙌🏻

Unfortunately, our little Colombian ball of excitement and motivation
decided that he doesn't have time to look for work and continue
learning how to follow Christ in his life, but we have a lot of hope
for his future. If anything, he has definitely helped me realize how
incredible the message that we share really is and to always be
excited about doing so.

Regardless, we are being blessed beyond belief! About a month or so
ago, we found an inactive member on the bus and after talking with her
we found out she had just returned from Paraguay with two of her
children. Now, both of her children have decided to be baptized! And
the most impressive thing is their own desire and effort. Despite the
fact that their mom works all day, they both consistently read the
scriptures and pray daily, and even when their mom can't come to
church, they come! And they are only 11, and 14! The greatest thing is
the way that they both look up to us, I can imagine them both being
incredible missionaries in the future! They will be baptized this week
if all goes well!

So while we were planning all of the details for their baptismal
service, we decided to call the Portuguese girl and see how everything
was going and she excitedly informed us that as she was pondering her
baptismal date she strongly felt that instead of being baptized on the
26, she needed to be baptized on the 9th....this Wednesday! She made
an interesting comment, "I think the Lord is doing all your work for
you!" It was kind of a joke, but I let her know that that is how it
should be! We have really just been trying to step out of the way and
let Him do hHis work, just be the best instruments we can and in the
midst of this experiment we have come to find that the Lord is a LOT
more effective at doing His work than we are. She went to church
yesterday and during the sacrament I looked over and she was crying,
and smiling, and laughingly said "I don't even know why I'm crying but
I just feel so great!" It reminded me how we should feel every time we
have the blessing of going to the church and partaking of the
sacrament.

So, we will be pretty busy our last week of the transfer!

Question of the week: "so how long does thanksgiving last?"....I was
super confused and then she explained that she had heard that the
thanksgiving feast lasted from the first of the month until the middle
of December.....what a dream no?

Spanish error of the week: I was trying to explain the bible verse
about casting your pearls before swine. I knew swine was at least a
little different than pig, so I took a wild guess and threw out a
word, which resulted in an eruption of laughter first from my
companion and then filling the room. Apparently I had guessed badly
and somehow said "giving pearls to the prostitutes"....that was a hard
lesson to recover! Moral of the story: never stop doing language study
and be willing to be humbled.

I hope you all have a great week! Vote well :)

Love,

Elder Jenkins