Phenomenal week. For reals. I've loved getting to know Capital a bit better, and the area is fantastic, so much great work to do, the church is a lot more established, so its a lot easier to have help from the ward. I really am loving it.
There are a boatload of things I could talk about from this week, like how I'm loving spending time with my new comp Elder Oyarzabal, how our new apartment is huge with two orange trees with super tasty oranges that we can eat for free, and more, but I want to focus on the best part of this week, a BAPTISM!!!
I met this girl on my second day here, and her situation was this: The area where she lives is super duper poor, but there's a TON of kids, and a lot of them are interested in the church, which is great. We go with members to go pick them up every Sunday. One girl is 10 years old, her older brother was baptized earlier this month, and she's been taking the lessons for 3 months now. The problem was that she was very afraid of messing up on the baptismal interview, so she refused to take it when the zone leaders had come earlier to do it, which is a real bummer.
Anyways, Oyarzabal and I went to the villa, and started getting to know everyone, including this girl. I could tell that she was ready for baptism, and we set an appointment the next day to come with a zone leader to do the interview. When we came the next day, she kept walking away and refused to have the interview, which was a real bummer, so we tried a more subtle approach, just talking normal with her and her friends. We bonded more and more, talking about whatever, and me showing my magic tricks (they're pretty good) and eventually, after 2 hours of talking, she agreed to do the interview, and passed with flying colors! EYYYYYYYY honestly a miracle from what Oyarzabal tells me of the situation before. We set everything up for the baptism on Sunday, and a member baptized her after the regular meetings! So so so awesome. I've only been here a little bit, but I already feel like I've grown really close to her and the other kids in the villa. They remind me a lot of the kids I met in India. They have almost nothing, even their family situation is kinda sucky, but they're so full of love and willing to be your friend without even getting to know you. So sweet.
All in all, I'm absolutely loving it here in General La Madrid. Seriously, I'm so blessed to be able to work here with Elder Oyarzabal.
You guys are the best, have a great week! Read the scriptures, say your prayers, go to church, because God loves you and wants to give you blessings!
Elder Jenkins
