When the praises go up, the blessings come down - Dean Funes

There's a lot I could tell you guys about this week, but mainly I want to tell you about the baptism of two boys!! So SO SOOOOO awesome. You might be wondering why I haven't mentioned them before, and the answer is because I didn't want to jinx the baptism.

So these boys are the grandsons of a brother in the ward, it's too complicated to explain all the family, but to say it quick, some of the extended family are members, some aren't. These boys weren't, and their parents aren't. 

They had both gone to church a few times, so they already knew a bit, but my comp and I were too focused on the people that we were currently teaching that we didn't realize the golden opportunity we had to teach them! One day a few weeks ago, one of the zone leaders called me and asked about them, because we had sent that they went to church. When I told him that we hadn't been teaching them he told me in a motivating way to get my head on straight, and teach and baptize them. He said "go to their house in the morning, if they're not there, go in the afternoon, if they're no there, go in the nighttime. And when you go, invite them to be baptized." I was full of motivation after that, and I decided to obey with exactness, so we went in the morning, weren't there. Afternoon either. in the nighttime, the whole family was there, we asked the parents if we could teach the kids, they said "sure, they're old enough to choose for themselves" and we invited one of them to be baptized that night, and his brother the next day. They both accepted!

We taught them everything that they didn't already know and needed to to be baptized, they had their interview, and this last weekend, they were both baptized and confirmed. So so so happy for them and their decision, and I'm so glad they have the support of their family, and they already fit in so well in the branch. They're great guys. I got to baptize one after Elder Miliotto baptized the other. We had a little pool set up in one of the unused rooms of the church to baptize them.

A lot more happened this week, but I'm not a big fan of super long emails, so I'll leave it there, you guys are awesome, make good decisions, live life, meet people, read the scriptures, love you!

Elder Jenkins

Before the baptism!

After the baptism!

Rest in peace, enjoy the movie guys

Easter Egg - Dean Funes

Well what a week it's been am I right?

I have a super great video with my companion, but it's taking a while to load, I'll send the link if it finishes. Paciencia

As I'm sure at least most of you know, it was Easter Sunday, which is awesome. Here in Argentina they take Thursday to Sunday off of work and school for Semana Santa (Holy Week) but mainly just to sleep. We as missionaries had a great time though. It felt like naturally all of our lessons became more and more focused on the sacrifice of Christ and His resurrection. It was a really edifying week for me, I've felt more gratitude than ever for Christ and everything He's done for us. 

This week we also had a multi-zone conference, it was awesome as always, especially because we were able to have 4 generations of trainers together. Elder Gingles, Elder Farfal, me, and Elder Miliotto. So awesome. This is Elder Gingles' last transfer, but Elder Farfal still has a year left, so we're going to see if we can get 5 generations, if my son trains, and his son trains before Farfal goes home.

We have some great stuff happening in Dean Funes, I'm absolutely loving it here with Elder Miliotto, we're working real hard, and we're really starting to see miracles from our efforts. God will help you if you ask. His arms of mercy are extended.

Love you all, hope you have a sick deans week, seeya later!

Elder Jenkins

FOUR GENERATIONS OF TRAINERS!

With the OG, Elder Kotter

Tie Exchange with Elder Miliotto

P O K É M O N - Dean Funes

Well, there you have it folks, I finished the Pokemon theme song, using one line at a time for each of my email subjects. If you haven't caught on by now, I don't know what to tell you. I started this journey on October 30th, 2018, when I was still chillin in Catamarca in my first transfer. What an experience. 

At this crucial point of change, it's a good time to remind you that my aunt Teresa has made a super epic blog where she puts all my emails and pics and extra stuff, its really cool. check it out: http://elderdallinjenkins.blogspot.com/

This week was real hard, not gonna lie. Hard is good though, it means you're getting stuff done. We've been working a lot with a family that's less active, trying to get them to get back to church and help two of their daughters get baptized. They weren't able to go to church on Sunday, but we taught a good lesson at their house after. We also invited a different boy from a different family to be baptized, and he accepted! When we meet with his brother, we'll also ask him to be baptized. They've come to church lots of times, its about time they should be baptized. Exciting stuff.

Highlight of the week was Saturday morning, when I got a call while eating my "Big-egg"TM (Patent pending) from my padre of the mission, Elder Farfal, who is currently in the office as the pensionero, or the person in charge of the apartments. He lets me know that him, his companion Elder Smith, and President Correa are gonna be at our apartment in an hour to paint and fix everything. YAY! It was super duper fun, listening to music together (You already know that Prez was jamming to some Rappers in the Aisle), painting everything so it looks super nice, going to get lunch with Prez and my padre, and singing hymns all together. It was a great time, and it was super fun to hang out with Elder Farfal again, it's been a while since we've seen each other. Also President Correa is a great singer and he gave me advice of what types of Argentine flutes I need to buy and learn to play before I go home. He showed me video examples. Now the pension looks really clean and nice, and we had time to organize it all today. 

We got to eat an asado at a member's house, and we're gonna eat another one tonight somewhere else. Asado is just a ton of meat that's all cooked real slow and good. It's the best meat you'll ever have. 

I'm writing today, not tomorrow, because we have a mission conference tomorrow, so we'll need to travel to Córdoba. It'll be great, its always fun to see other missionaries, and get trained by the assistants and President. I'm really excited.

This week I've thought a lot about how amazing the Atonement is, especially after tearing up teaching it to a family during an exchange in a different area. We watched the Prince of Peace video that the church made, and it's really powerful. It's amazing that no matter what pain or suffering or sin we're dealing with, Christ has already paid for it, we just need to "come" to Him into his "arms of mercy" and He's ready and willing to help us. Everyone be sure to be grateful for that huge sacrifice. 

Hope you all have a great week, don't miss me too much. 

Elder Jenkins

(PS, if anyone has an idea of what I should do with my subject lines, please help me, I feel lost now that I've finished the Pokemon theme song.)

Cooking asado

Painting with my son (Elder Miliotto), my dad (Elder Farfal), and Elder Smith. I forgot that Elder Miliotto had painted a smiley face on my cheek, and didn't wash it off before the picture. RIP.

Lunch with the boys and President Correa in our backyard.

Gotta catch 'em all - Dean Funes

Wow this was a long week I tell you what. Great though.

This week we headed to beautiful Cosquin for a zone conference and exchanges with the zone leaders. We traveled tuesday night, stayed all of wednesday, and came home thursday in the morning. good stuff. super tired but it was a good day. 

Also we also did a lot of missionary work this week, my hijo is working both our butts off, its great. we find time to relax a bit too though, we ate some choripan this week that was honestly incredible, and we ate a lomopizza last night. chao money and chao health. 

Later today we're gonna help build a house, so that's cool. it'll be fun. SERVICE! Everyone look for ways to serve this week. Look for opportunities where someone is struggling with something, and ask what you can do to help, and if they say they're fine, do something to help them anyways. Service is SICK DEANS.

I hope you all had the chance to watch General Conference, I loved it. It was crazy to me how connected the talks were, even more than they normally are. The biggest themes I saw were about loving your neighbour, and repentance, specifically daily repentance and weekly repentance with the sacrament. Really really great messages. I cant wait for the next one.

Stay Groovy.

Elder Jenkins

COSQUIN

The Zone

The Zone, but silly

COSQUIN AGAIN

unplanned working on the foundation of a house, using a tube full of water to measure if is was level

LOMOPIZZA AND PRITTY BABYYYYY, shoutout to the Castidad pamphlet in the background.

You teach me and I'll teach you - Dean Funes

What an appropriate subject line, teaching and learning with my new hijo...

ELDER MILIOTTO! from Mendoza, Argentina! So SO SOOOOO crazy that I'm training, I was freaking out for quite a while, I'll try to include the video of when I met him, t'was a legendary time. Still hyped honestly. He's already such a great missionary, super obedient and super hard working. I couldn't have asked for a better son, he's made training so much easier than I was expecting. What a guy. MY SON.

We've been working our tooshes off this week, finding a whole bunch of new people to teach, and making great progress with the ones we are teaching currently. Great stuff I tell you what. The only problem is we keep buying soda and ice cream to celebrate so many great days that it's starting to really damage my money supply and my trying-to-be-skinnier belly. Oh well.

This week has been awesome, and has reminded me of the importance of attitude! Dean Funes kinda has a bad rap of being a really hard area (Some people call is "Dead" Funes because "nothing happens" missionary work wise), but this week with my hijo has shown me that who even cares what other people say, if we're working hard and having faith, we'll find the success that the Lord wants us to have, and we've seen that in this first week together. Attitude is key, peeps. Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Elder Jenkins

La historia familiar: my dad of the mission and my son. Que tierno.

My son and I, and I'm pointing to Elder Farfal's (my dad) plaque.
All the missionaries keep their dad's plaque in their suit coat, and later their son's too.

RIP Jeff, the way-too-large spider that took about a gallon of Raid to kill.