Entering the promised land - Málaga week 1

Hi Friends and Family

IM FINALLY HERE! When I opened up my mission call a year and 4 months ago (WHHHHAAAATTTT¿?¿?¿?¿) and read the word Malaga Spain I feel like I instantly fell in love with this place, even though I wasn’t even here. Then when I arrived to Malaga, I had to leave almost instantly and travel across Spain to my first area. Coming back here after so much time is almost surreal, and I have found very quickly that my love for Malaga didn’t die despite the distance or time. This city is amazing, the people are so nice, usually rejecting us with at least a smile, and the missionaries here are the best in the world!! 

Elder Tenorio, my companion, is a BOSS. Its so crazy to see how much we have both grown and changed since we met 10 months ago. He is from Peru, but lived in Madrid before coming on the mission. He is teaching me so much! For instance, I always thought that I had to work really hard, explain everything super well, and then ask nicely to be able to visit someone in their home. Elder Tenorio just says, Hi we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ…where do you live?...and the people answer him! I was so surprised, and even more surprised when it worked for me too. He is teaching me so much and helping me become a better missionary.

I love living with 3 other missionaries again…other than the fact that the clean house lasts about 5 seconds before it looks like a bull ran through our kitchen…The house is full of laughter and we just decided that it was appropriate to sing Christmas songs for morning studies, a decision that Im sure our neighbors enjoy just as much as we do. 

I don’t know how big of news this is on a world wide scale, but a couple of days ago there was a terrorist attack in Paris. It has been absolutely heart wrenching to hear the horrific damage that it caused, but I have seen a change in the people as their hearts have been turned to the hope for a better world that comes to those who keep their belief firm in God. We have seen hearts softened to the message of the plan of happiness that God has for us, which includes redemption from death and the truths of eternal family relationships, and I am so grateful for the privilege of preaching this message every day. Surely, those who were affected by this disaster deserve a place in our prayers of peace and comfort. 

I hope that you all have a great week and I look forward to being able to share with you all next week the miracles of the missionary work!

Con amor y cariño 

Elder Jenkins

Week 41: bye bye torremolinos

Helo everyone!

Sorry this email is going to have to be short, but I just wanted to
let you all know a little about the week!

I just can't catch a break with transfers! Ever since my first 12
weeks, I have had a change every single 6 weeks! So I didn't expect to
be leaving, especially after just one transfer of training, but sure
enough my time in torremolinos has come to an end. Luckily, I'll be
going from here about 30 minutes to the actual city of Malaga! I'll be
going back to living in a house with 4 missionaries, just like when I
started the mission, and I'll be with elder Tenorio, who actually was
living there when I started the mission! I'll also be with elder
Adcock there, who I met before the mission at byu! It's funny because
people always asked if we thought we would meet in the mission a lot,
and we always said it was really unlikely...we have seen each other
monthly since we got here and now we will live together haha. I'm sad
to be leaving, but excited to have new responsibilities and get to
know new people. I know that the Lord has work for me to do there and
I'm excited to try and fulfill His expectations.

Sorry this one has been short, I promise a more experience filled and
dedicated letter next week for all of you, especially telling
everything about my new area. I love you all and hope that you have a
great week!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Week 40: El Halloween

Hey everyone!

My first Spanish Halloween experience was pretty interesting. I was
not very excited about having to compete with all the little kids for
knocking doors, but hoped that maybe we would be able to score some
candy for the night. Unfortunately, I found that trick or treating is
not nearly as big of a tradition here as it is In the US. Most people
won't even open their doors here if the kids knock them!

It's hard to believe that it has already been 6 weeks since I started
the journey of training with elder Miller. It has been amazing to
watch him grow. At the end of this week, we will find out if I will be
blessed by the people of torremolinos for another 4 weeks, or if I
will begin a journey elsewhere. I'm hoping to be able to stay! There's
just so much more to do.

As far as funny stories or experiences, I'm lacking this week, but I
did eat rabbit for the first time. There is a story that my brother
has from his mission in Portugal about  eating rabbit and accidentally
picking out the head. Lucky for him, he was able to pass it off to the
head of the house; however, I was kind of hoping that I would get the
head so that I could have a similar story that ended with me eating
it....unfortunately, they had already eaten the head before we got
there, but they did have a "hígado" with my name on it, and it was
delicious (I'll let all those who are curious look it up for
themselves).

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

Con amor y cariño

Elder Jenkins

Week 39: Be humble or be humbled

Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!!

They apparently do celebrate Halloween here, but it's a pretty recent
thing. A lot of people don't trick or treat and I showed someone a
carved pumpkin and they were appalled. I'm hoping maybe that night,
people will give us candy for knocking their doors.

The weeks are flying by and I continue to be humbled by my amazing
companion, elder Miller, and all the other miracles the Lord has
placed in our path. Honestly, I've never felt more tired in my life,
but I've never been happier either.

We are still working out with "the hulk" man every other morning. We
just stand around some parallel bars doing dips for an hour as he
tells us his life stories about living through a war in Serbia, the
streets of Italy, and how he got to be so buff. I'll get a picture
with him soon, but I'm waiting to see if some workout results come
first....

His wife said something to us during a lesson that I thought was so
incredible. So many times we hear people say, I only believe in what I
can see. Instead, this woman told us, "I'm not content In only
believing what I see." Her comment really made me thing. We have so
many other senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and most importantly,
what we feel in our heart. It's seems pretty unsatisfying to me to
only depend on sight to tell you what is really there.

On Tuesday, my testimony of Gods existence and of His hand in our
lives was strengthened as I was humbled beyond belief. As the night
started, we began to go to our first appointment. Within the next 5
minutes, every single one of our other appointments, and the one which
we were going to, fell through. We called backups: nothing. We called
3rd backups: nothing. At that point, I really kind of gave up on the
night, figured we would try again tomorrow, and began to just
aimlessly walk around the city with a horrible attitude written on my
forehead. Even worse, I began to get frustrated with my companion
because he still seemed to have hope even though it was apparent our
night would be a failure. After about an hour of aimless walking and
silence, elder Miller asked me if we should say a prayer...I was so
filled with pride and frustration that I actually told him no and
continued to walk. After a couple of minutes, I realized how immature
my response had been and we stopped at a bench to take a little break.
I read a scripture, we said a prayer, and I felt recharged and ready.
We begs to contact every living thing that passed us. This lasted for
about 15 minutes before I fell back into pouting again. It was the
last hour of the night and I thought to just endure. We walked down a
road and elder Miller cautiously asked if we should try to visit this
couple who we had a tried a couple of times before. I told him no, and
kept walking. "We have already tried them, twice before," I thought,
"and both times they rejected us or left us aT the door. Why would we
try now?" As we walked by their house, I figured one more rejection
couldn't make the night any worse. So I turned up to go to their
house. As we knocked on the door, not even expecting an answer, the
door quickly opened and the husband invited us in without us even
saying anything. We began to talk and in the first 2 minutes She was
bawling, explaining to us how her life has gone so far off track that
she doesn't even know what to do. She said she had been praying all
day to find some way to be happy and to be able to return back to
Jesus Christ and give her life to him, but she didn't know how. I sat
there listening in awe. After I had been so unworthy all night, how
did the Lord still see fit to use me as an instrument to lift someone
else's burden? We had an incredible lesson with them and we were able
to set up another appointment for later in the week. Now they have a
baptismal date and they came to church this past week and loved it. We
got out of the appointment and all I could do was just give my Compie
a hug and tell him I was sorry. It was definitely a lesson for me.
Like my dad always says, be humble or be humbled, it's your choice. I
definitely felt humbled as the Lord showed me who is really the one in
charge of this work.

Thank you all for the love, support, and prayers. I wish you all the best.

Elder Jenkins

Miracles in Málaga week 38

Hello friends and family,

I've gotten to the point right now where I feel like I have been out
here for a long time, and yet I still have a large amount of time
left. Luckily, the time isn't passing by too quickly so that I can
enjoy this amazing opportunity to serve the people here in Spain.

Elder Miller is certainly one of the main sources of enjoyment. He
just wakes up with a smile every single morning, ready to work, but
still patient in those morning hours when I'm not so smiley. Of course
there are the occasional funny Spanish mistakes here and there, but
I've actually been so impressed with his Spanish in such a short time.
He did stand up in front of the church and say "I just want you all to
know that I love myself"...there were some weird looks, but I'm sure
they got the point.

This week was absolutely full of miracles. I am not sure if it is just
the faith of elder Miller, or maybe I have just been so oblivious
these past weeks, but we were able to see the hand of the lord so many
times. I'll just share one example. Last week we were sitting on the
train, it was late, we were on our way home, and I really just wanted
to read some of the Book of Mormon. I could tell my companion was a
little ancy to talk to someone, but he couldn't find someone to talk
to and I wasn't being very helpful in his pursuit. Then I head him say
hi to someone, and he quickly turned to me and said "elder, that guy
put down his phone and he said hi to me...I think he would talk to
us..." At that point in time I kind of gave him an "are you serious,
no one actually WANTS to talk to us" look and so he just kind of
looked down in disappointment and said never mind. At that point, I
was sufficiently chastised by the spirit that I put down my book and
started up a conversation with the guy. It turns out he is from
Finland (there is an elder in our ward from Finland) and he DID WANT
to talk to us and find more out about the book we were reading. We got
his number, but he didn't feel comfortable about giving us his house
number. We were able to meet again after that, but we kind of lost
contact with him after a week.

One morning, we decided to go and try to contact this girl who had
given us her number and address like 3 weeks before. We had tried
going to the house a couple of times, but never had an answer. This
time, we went to the door and knocked and imagine our surprise when
instead of the girl we expected, out came the man from the train....he
looked about as surprised as we were and explained to us that he had
lived in that house for 3 years and was interested to know how we
found his house...we were wondering the same thing, but it's no
question that the hand of the Lord was involved in us going to 1 out
of 900 doors that was his. Then as we went down to the street and
talked to him, a lady came up and tapped my shoulder. She was a
Russian lady who we had met a couple nights earlier. When we met her,
I was super frustrated because I had some pamphlets and stuff in
Russian in my bag but had taken them out. Well that morning, I just
saw them again and decided to throw them in there just in case. Lo and
behold, she found us as we talked to the train guy and I was able to
give them to her.

There were more miracles similar to this one all throughout the week.
So much that I'm like 5 days behind in writing in my journal! I know
that the miracles have always been there, but I have just kind of lost
the hope and the faith to find them in these past weeks. My new
companion is really helping me to remember that they are always there.

I'll just end with a quote from one of my favorite scriptures from the
past week , "wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope
for a better world..." Have hope my friends, in whatever may come in
life, because there is always good to come.

Have a great week. Thank you for love, support, and prayers.

Elder Jenkins

Adiós Elder Reeder, bienvenidos Elder Miller

Hello everyone!

It's so unbelievable to think that it is already a new month, and
almost a new year. Time is flying by, but only because I'm having the
time of my life:)

This week was especially special because I got to meet my new
companion. There were about 31 other missionaries there in the church
waiting to accept the new missionaries. When they all came in, it was
so incredible to see and feel their excitement and hope for what their
missions would mean to them. I was so nervous just waiting there and
wondering who would be my new companion! Finally, the waiting was over
and I was introduced to my new companion....ELDER MILLER! He is
probably one of the most amazing missionaries I've ever met and
honestly is training me. He is from west valley, you guessed it, UTAH,
and is the first missionary from his family. He is always smiling,
doesn't let anyone pass without saying hello and asking how they are,
and will not let you live 5 minutes without complimenting you. He is
well prepared to work and i am so excited to learn from him and work
with him. He is the trainee that every missionary hopes for and I hope
that I can be the trainer he deserves.

Other than that things are going great here. It was an amazing
opportunity to watch the general conference and hear the guidance from
God for us today. I know there are a to of things that I have to
change and work on and now I can focus on doing them! Spain is great!
The weather is cooling down and we have a month left of waking up at
7:30 so life is still good.

Sorry I don't have a lot of funny or amazing stories. Everything is
moving super fast so we are just trying to get our feet back under us.
We did have a pretty funny conversation as elder Miller found that
there were two toilet looking things in the bathroom and was trying to
figure out what the second one was for (the bidet). I'm sure more
cultural experience stories will come. I love you all and wish the
best for you this week.

Love, elder Jenkins

1. Our weaknesses help us just as much as our strengths do
2. Faith is either increasing or decreasing, it's never stagnant. It
increases as it is exercised
3. Believing comes by choice, not by chance
4. There is nothing impressive about skepticism
5. Don't be critical of the barriers that keep us safe
6. We don't need to endure our trials, but learn from our trials

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