CCM Rap

Elder Parr and Elder Jenkins
CCM Rap

My district in front of the Mexico City temple

Colory houses

I jump on this green dot in front of our house every time I pass it. It's the small things.

My main man Elder Kotter and me in front of our casa

This snake climbed a tree in front of our casa and there were 8 workers trying to get it down and kill it and it was really entertaining and awesome and epic. It was a fight to the death, and the snake was a good fighter, but eventually lost to the tree saw stick thing. They didn't let me hold the snake but they said I could get a picture of it and pretend I was the one that killed it. Call me Elder Serpentslayer from now on. 

¿A qué pasa, calebaza? - CCM

WhAts up fam, this is Elder JEnkins coming at you with anOther weekly update! This week was stellar as all of them are. quick question, who would win in a fight, Tony the Tiger, Cap´n Crunch, or Lucky the Leprechaun? we were arguing about this amongst the district, and my bets are on Tony because how many tigers have pirates killed, especially tigers that are smart and have great sportsmanship? and Lucky has magic, but its all defensive and evasive magic, so I don´t think he would have much offensive power against a tiger. but send me your rebuttals. 

This week I have learned a lot. Spanish became a lot more difficult to progress in, and stuff stopped making sense. also I'm tired one hundred percent of the time so that doesn't help me when I'm trying to focus. but I kept working hard and its turning out all right. Its crazy that I'm only going to send one more email from here until I get to Argentina. I'm stoked to leave, but I'm nowhere near prepared enough.

Cool experience from this week, One morning we got up early to run, and when we came back to shower, the water was freezing cold. We were all a little upset by it, but we carried on with our day, peeved at our cold shower. Elder Kotter was getting some toast at breakfast, and started talking with some new Elders from Haiti. Kotter told me that when he was putting Nutella on his bread, the Haitian elders were surprised and shocked by it. They were amazed that they could put their own nutella on their own bread and eat it, and that they could have as much as they wanted. Kotter shared that in our testimony meeting that night and it kinda put a lot into perspective. We were bugged that morning that we had a cold shower, and these Haitian elders had so little back home that they were amazed and grateful that they could have nutella on bread. So crazy. We started sitting with them and talking with them more, and they're really cool guys. They speak French and Creole, and a little bit of english and a little spanish, so basically our only real form of communication is the little bit of spanish we know, and the little bit of english they understand. It's super cool talking with them though, their home lives are so different than ours. Their dream jobs are being construction workers, and I cant handle a cold shower. Crazy. They're really cool guys and we have a cool handshake now. 

I don't wanna make this too long, but just know I love what I'm doing right now, and I don't want to be anywhere else. I love and miss you guys, and I know this church is true. Read your Book of Mormon, it's awesome.

Hasta luego, mis estrellas.

Elder Jenkins

MANTEQUILLA EN MI SILLA - CCM

Hey mom this is my weekly email, you can delete this first line. Actually don't delete it, it's funny if it just stays in there.

This week was stellar, but uneventful. There are always good things happening here at the CCM and I'm constantly learning so much. Now that I'm over halfway done here it's starting to hit me that I really need to be learning all I can before I'm thrust into the world.

I was not feeling too good on Sunday, probably because I ate 8 and a quarter uncooked eggos and a not very safe taco. Oh well. Tell you what, there's nothing quite like throwing up in a dirty, Mexican bathroom at 2 in the morning while listening to the Independence Day fireworks and fiestas outside. I heard 24K Magic play over a passing car's speakers though. So that's pretty neat.

A ton of people left this week to the field, the commodore is so empty, and our awesome zone leaders are now gone, RIP. Elder Kotter got made the new district leader though, so for all intents and purposes, I'm practically a member of the MTC Presidency. Elder Parr was one of the Elders who left this week, bless his heart. He's gonna kill it in Chile. Speaking of things not lasting forever, send me your bets for how long you think my chaco tan will last. It's been over 3 weeks since I've worn them in the sun, and on a scale of 1-3, my tan line is still a crisp 2.

One of the things we've learned a lot about is enduring to the end. The days here are long, and sometimes they all blend together, and it's hard to stay focused, but enduring to the end is key to getting the most out of your experiences and life. President Bennett mentioned that a lot of the time, the most influential and important hour of the day is the last one, and the most important week is the last one, but we won't get the benefits of the last little bit if we don't hold on and stay strong. It's like in Mario Kart (doesn't matter which one, but I obviously prefer Double Dash because it's the best one) when you're drifting around a turn. As you keep drifting, your wheel sparks turn orange, then yellow, then blue, etc. Each time it changes color, it means you'll get a better speed boost after the turn. If you can hold the drift all the way to the pink sparks, you'll get the biggest speed boost possible. Much of our actions in our life are like this. It's hard to stick to something longer and longer as it gets tougher and tougher, but if you hold on just a little bit more, you'll get the most out of the experience and "win the race." I've felt that is true in my days here at the CCM, and my CCM experience as a whole, and I'm sure it could be applied to school, work, and much more. Just endure to the end, and Heavenly Father will bless you.

I love and miss you, I hope you're doing great. I'll close this email with a lil' something I wrote this week.

Sentimientos del corazón: un poema

Barbero del gato. Batido cansado.

Anuncio mi atado morado.

Jamón serrado. Sábado rosado.

Yo muero por mi pescado pesado.

- Elder Jenkins

funny statue we can see from the CCM

our district being somewhat uncooperative taking a picture, lo siento. but that's most everyone

FLAME ON! - CCM

Hola! I've been stoked all week to write this email. Fun Fact: someone should make a mashup of I Feel My Savior's Love and Dreams by the Cranberries. They have the same notes at the start. Eh. They give us boxed chocolate milk here called Choco Melvin with a brown elephant with a human body on the carton, and it tastes exactly like the Yoohoo! chocolate milk I had when I was a tender lad. Everyone go sip a Yoohoo. They're dank. Speaking of dank, try making some "dank sauce," it's equal parts ketchup, mayo, and BBQ sauce, then smothered in Tahin and mixed all together. It's killer, and it makes the food here taste better, but the food still... uhhhh... well, just go read Jeremiah 4:19. You'll understand.

Cool stuff this week, it was harder than last week, but I learned a lot more. We learned about Family History and watched a video called "Russell M. Nelson: A Visit From Father." It's super cool, watch it for FHE or something. I'm getting a lot better at teaching lessons, but sometimes I get a bit burned out. Like I said last week, I feel the Spirit with excitement and energy, so when I'm tired (a lot this week) I can't teach by the Spirit as well. When I do teach by the Spirit though, its crazy how much the Lord can help you with Spanish and knowing what to say. It's awesome.

We got to go to the temple last week, it was so rad. One of the most unique looking temples, and speaking spanish the whole time was really interesting. Really awesome to see first hand that the church is so widespread, and so many people are able to partake in the blessings of the Gospel and the temple.

We made up a game yesterday called Bunkball, its played on a tennis court with a volleyball, 6 on 6. You serve it like volleyball, it can bounce one time once it crosses to the other side before anyone touches it, then after it's touched, you have a total of 3 hits and 1 more bounce to get it back over. It's a lot harder and more fun than it sounds. give it a try.

Everyone listen to Me and Michael. It's the greatest song in history. (Besides Hymns and Rappers in the Aisle.)

Elder Kotter is still a beast, he's the coolest guy. If you guys know the scripture that goes along the lines of "through service you will receive wisdom" let me know, because he's been searching for it. All of our district is getting along better and better. Its really cool to see everyone start to be comfortable and open to each other. Were writing a rap song together about the CCM to perform to the new missionaries. Gonna be TIGHT.

Speaking of tight rap songs, Elder Parr and I have a surprise for you all, that should be attached to this email or sent later. Give it a crisp ol listen, we spent a whole 15 minutes on it. #RitA4EVER

CLICK HERE FOR the JENKINS PARR CCM Rap

Everyone, I really do miss (most of) you (got em), this week especially. You should send me a personal email because I wanna chat with you but I don't have your emails. Now go read your Book of Mormon, you know you should read it more. Seeya soon.

Todos los amores, Elder Jenkins

Elder Kotter (aka the best guy) and I in front of the Mexico City temple. It's super cool looking.

my lovely package from my lovely mother

I took this picture after playing basketball today. If you know me, you know there's nothing I love more than shooting ankles and breaking hoops with the boys

TRUST THE BUNK - Mexico MTC (CCM)

Woohoo! I made it. To Mexico. Wazzup. This week has been sooooo long and tough, but holy cow its been cool. these keyboards are a little bit messed, so sorry for any spelling or punctuation mistakes, it takes me five minutes to find the darn semicolon. 

Anyways, I've already progressed so much physically, mentally, and spiritually. Its like in Zelda where at the beginning of the game, you can hold like 299 rupees, but I just got the Big Wallet, so now I can hold like 699 rupees. And leaving for the mission field will be another upgrade to hold the maximum amount of rupees, or knowledge or spiritual growth. Basically, for all the non-nerds out there, I feel like I can learn and grow more and faster here, in every way, than any other time in my life. Cool Stuff.

Ive seen some people I know, Elders Parr, Hunt, and Lee; what studs. Ive met a ton of new people too, and everyone pretty much seems like the best guy (or hermana). Mi compañero is named Elder Kotter, and he's legit. We get along so well, even though we have practically nothing in common. He plays basketball and baseball, and claims to have no musical talent. So he makes up for my lakc of coordination when we play basketball, and idk I guess I make up for him not missing music as much as I do:) descanso en paz. 

Español is coming along real well, its insane how much the new missionaries have progressed so far. Ive gone from knowing how to say "en el MTC usaré lo que no aprendí del señor menos" to being able to teach a 15 minute lesson about the restoration in only spanish. shoutout to the gift of tongues. The CCM (thats MTC in spanish if u didnt know) is nice, food isnt too bad (most of the time, please send me snack packages, Elder Jenkins, District 14D). The CCM president is the coolest guy. He'll always stop to talk to the missionaries, and sometimes after dinner, when we put our finished trays on the cleaning rack, hes back there with the employees doing dishes. Hes a great Christlike example. D&C 50:26 says: "He that is ordained of God and sent forth, the same is appointed to be the greatest, notwithstanding he is the least and the servant of all." That relates well to the CCM prez, and also to the missionaries. Weve recieved a sacred and important calling, and have been ordained of God to spread a powerful, important message, but were meant to be the servants of all. Everyone go read that whole chapter, its fire. I especially love verses 40-42.

In one of the classes, we were talking about how we felt the Spirit when we came into the CCM, so I thought back to what I was feeling, and I remembered feeling excited. We all feel the Spirit in different ways, and at that moment I realized that I feel the Spirit thought excitement, energy, and just my heart racing. Once I thought about that, I have been able to recognize the Spirit much more often, and I can identify when Ive felt the Spirit before coming here. Like at my setting apart, I was nervous, but during the blessing it all turned to excitement. I recognize that feeling now as the spirit telling me that these next 2 years will be awesome.

I dont wanna make this too long, but I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, and listen to the new Rappers in the Aisle live album, out now everywhere;)

Love ya

Elder Jenkins

Leaving Salt Lake

Mexico Airport

Bus Ride

My Roommates: Elder Kotter, Elder Hatch and Elder Gray

My Companion Elder Kotter

View from the CCM

With Elder Parr

Pic from the CCM

Pic from the CCM

First Pic from the Mexico MTC

Elder Parr & Elder Jenkins

Off to Mexico!