bye bye Lamadrid, Hello Cosquin

WOWZA!!! Crazy stuff. As the title indicates, I got transferred! I was so sure that I was going to stay in my old area General Lamadrid for another transfer with my companion, so I didn't even think about saying bye to anyone or packing bags, nothing. Not even in the back of my mind. 

But alas, on Saturday we got the call that I'd be leaving Lamadrid to go to Cosquin! I was in the same zone as Cosquin before, so I've already visited it and it is SO PRETTY. Probably the prettiest place in the mission. Also, they're bumping up the number of missionaries in the area from 2 to 4, so my new companion (Elder Vidal from Chile) and I will be starting from scratch finding people to teach! I'm really really excited.

It was really sad saying goodbye to all the families I know, it felt weird because my 3 months in Lamadrid passed by really fast. Hopefully I'll get the chance to go back and visit sometime. 

I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell next week, but today I don't have too much time because I need to move in all my stuff! Have a great week, talk to you later!

Elder Jenkins

Church open house

Explaining about baptism

Sotelo Family

the zone of Oeste

me cooking asado

The villa kids

the villa futbol field

The Valencia Family

The Irusta family

The temple

a bird

1 Year, Nelson, Slingshot, and AGUA - General La Madrid

Quite the eventful week, if I do say so myself. Ill just tell it all in chronological order.

First, on the 28th, I hit 1 year in the mission. CRAZY ITS GONE BY SO FAST! I met up with Elder Allen who was in the CCM with me, and we both burned shirts to signify the passing of our first year (it was a ripped and dirty shirt, don't worry). Now it's time to make the second year even better!

President Nelson, Elder Cook, and their wives came to Argentina (Buenos Aires), and they spoke to the nation, and the broadcast went to every stake center. I really enjoyed the talks, especially Wendy Nelson's talk on Family history. She challenged us all to find the joy in redeeming the souls of the dead. I also really liked President Nelson's talk, especially because after introducing himself and his topic, he told the translator "Con permiso, quisiera hablar en Español" (with permission, I'd like to speak in Spanish). He gave the rest of his talk in Spanish. I think it was such a blessing for the people of Argentina to hear the prophet's voice speaking their language!

Quick story, I was in the villa, and one of the kids Benja was messing around with a toy gun. Whatever, talked for a bit, moved on. Next day, we go back to the villa, I see Benja a little ways off, he has something in his hands and is saying "don't move! don't move!" I couldn't see well, so I assumed he was playing around with his toy gun that he had the day before, so I played along saying "ah nooooooo don't shoot!" That's when out of nowhere I get hit in the forehead by a rock shot from his SLINGSHOT. It was so unexpected I couldn't be mad. The other kids, instead of showing me sympathy, told me that he was probably just practicing his aim, and wanted to start with something easy like my giant forehead. One girl said "He was probably just trying to make your forehead a bit smaller." Great kids.

Last thing, most exciting, is that one of the kids from the villa got BAPTIZED!!! YAY!!! We've been working with him for this whole transfer, and he finally made it! He was really worried about the interview questions but he passed with flying colors. We had the baptism Saturday morning, His dad and some of his friends came, as well as lots of members. He chose me to perform the ordinance, which was really awesome and special for me. He's a great kid:)

That's all from me for now, this email is way too long. Have a great week!

Elder Jenkins

one year shirt burning

burn baby burn

family and friends at the baptism

futbol on pday

the city from the roof of the 9 de Julio pension

after the baptism

año - general la madrid

On Wednesday I'll hit one year in the mission. It's gone by fast.

I'll share my favorite quote I read this week for my spiritual thought: "It was asked me by a gentleman how I guided the people by revelation. I teach them to live so that the Spirit of revelation may make plain to them their duty day by day that they are able to guide themselves. To get this revelation it is necessary that the people live so that their spirits are as pure and clean as a piece of blank paper that lies on the desk before the [writer], ready to receive any mark the writer may make upon it." - Brigham Young

Have a great week! 

Elder Jenkins

We had a church openhouse for everyone who wanted to see what it was like, and we had a great turnout

Asado with the zone

farfal, kotter and I in a kettle

AUTHORITY - General La Madrid

Good week here in CBA. Ill share a quick fun experience I had this week. We had exchanges with the zone leaders, and as we were waiting for the bus, a guy came up to us and asked "What is the sword of the Spirit?" He caught us off guard, but told us that we had it in our backpacks. he said "the sword of the spirit is the Word." He continued to cite scriptures and talk loudly at us, getting us all hyped up saying stuff like "you are a man of GOD. You are a man of POWER. Your body is FILLED with AUTHORITY!" He wasn't a member of our church, he just really loves Jesus. He didn't even let us talk enough to ask his name. He talked to us like this for about 10 minutes until our bus came, and continued to yell to us as we rode away. It was a solid experience, and it definitely got me hyped up. It got me thinking about the calling of being a missionary, and the power and authority that comes with it. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve, and now that I'm officially HALFWAY THROUGH  MY MISSION, I'm excited to make the most of the half I have left:)

Elder Jenkins

Great Week - General La Madrid

Great week. there are lots of highlights, but I'll share my favorites.

The first is that we were able to visit a kid named Emmanuel in the hospital. Emmanuel is a super sweet 10 year old kid who has cancer, and wants to be baptized. He's currently in the hospital, be we went with our ward mission leader to go see him and talk to him about the Plan of Salvation. He's honestly the sweetest kid, and as he improves his condition and we get the ok from the doctors, we'll be organizing his baptism:)

Next, we were able to help a family from Bolivia that we're teaching build their house. there's still a lot to go, but we dug some trenches

Finally, this week, we visited a few inactive member families this week. It was a really spiritual experience for me to hear their experiences of their conversions, and their testimonies that they still have, and their desire to go back to church, but their challenges and fears in returning. I shared a scripture from 3 Nephi 17 with them that I really like. It says:

6 And he (Jesus) said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with ^acompassion towards you.

7 Have ye any that are ^asick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or ^bleprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will ^chealthem, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.

8 For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your ^afaith is ^bsufficient that I should heal you.

9 And it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their ^ablind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him.

I used this scripture to describe the state we're in sometimes, we're sick or afflicted  physically or emotionally or spiritually, but Christ is always ready and willing to heal us. We just need to have faith and come to Him, like the scripture says.

Love you all, have a great week

Elder Jenkins

ceiling of a museum

visit in the hospital

digging trenches

vroom - General La Madrid

Hey everyone! great week this week, Elder Ortega and I have been a ful working hard every day. He's had lots of good experience working with members and has showed me some good ways to teach and work with them! Its been great, he always has great ideas and the fire to work hard! He keeps us busy for sure! 

small highlight from this week was playing ukulele on the roof of our apartment on a Sunday afternoon as the sun was going down with orange trees on either side of me while waiting for the zone leaders to call to give reports and boring stuff. the mission is the greatest, it keeps you busy all the time helping people in the most rewarding way, and then gives you a few magical moments to relax and feel good about life.

That's gonna be my spiritual thought this week: APPRECIATE THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE! God gives us so many blessings and sometimes we don't even realize how much he's helping us. Try hard to acknowledge when things are going well, or when someone gives you a small act of service or when the moon looks pretty or whatever. All good things come from God, so try to recognize and give thanks for all the good things in your life! There are more than you know!

Elder Jenkins

(PS: this past weekend was the year anniversary of the Rappers in the Aisle concert and EP release, go give the classic jams a listen)  

Literally the only picture I took this week was of the lego car I made.  Sorry mom

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz - General La Madrid

Good week. Dont have much to tell but here's a quick spiritual thought!

I really liked reading this scripture the other day, Ether 12:41 

And now, I would commend you to ^aseek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth ^brecord of them, may be and abide in you forever.  

I really like that it says to "seek Jesus" and I started thinking about ways we can "seek Jesus" to be filled with the grace of God. Reading scriptures, going to church, praying, the classic answers, but they're true, especially if you do it with the purpose of trying to "seeking Jesus." Everyone find ways to "seek Jesus" this week!

Love ya´ll, have a good week.

With my boy Elder Kotter. 2nd and 3rd last pics in the draft, you know what's up.

We played soccer with a ton of other missionaries earlier today.

try to find me in the picture

Baptism! - General La Madrid

wowza what a great week!

The biggest highlight of the week is we had a baptism! This girl is the first one of hopefully her whole family to get baptized. She's eleven years old and knows a ton, she always remembers the names of the missionaries, even when she's only met them once. She even asks and remembers their first names! Even though I convinced her that my first name is actually Elder

Her baptism was really special, a whole ton of relatives came, none of which are members. It was a great opportunity to get to know them. A member took the photos so I'll send those as soon as I get them! It was a really great time though.

Not too much other news, played volleyball with the zone today, also went to an all you can eat restaurant. 

For a great spiritual scripture, read Alma 36. Its a great story about repentance, and shows the effect that Christ can have in our lives if we choose to call upon Him and seek His help! Read the Book of Mormon!

Elder Jenkins

nice lunch with some of the zone at an all you can eat place

goofy pic of the week featuring weird glasses that I found in a box in our apartment

Time to invade the Fire Nation - General La Madrid

Crazy and awesome week. first and foremost, this week a solar eclipse passed through Argentina and from my area we saw it at 98% totality and it was awesome. Different that a total solar eclipse, but still really interesting. I'm super lucky I got to see it. I thought about the scripture where Alma says that "all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." its true, I cant imagine that everything that happens happens just because.

Other highlight from this week is that we finally had our Noche de Cine activity (ward movie night) in support of missionary work. We've been planning this activity with our mission leader for a while, hoping that we would get a lot of new people to come, and we ended up with about 85 people, 20 of which aren't members. It was such a huge success and everyone had such a great time. Plus I got to catch some of How To Train Your Dragon 3 so that's cool. Bendiciones. 

I hope you all have a great week, God loves you, and will give you more blessings that you can believe for your obedience to the commandments and if you ask him for help! Pray, Read, and Go to Church!

Elder Jenkins

It's impossible to show the eclipse through my camera, but you can see the reflection of it underneath the horizon from the camera glare or idk how it works but this pic was taken at 5:30 in the afternoon and it was super dark and cold and awesome.

The eclipse made our shadows look weird where parts are crisp and parts are blurry

I fell down the other day playing cops and robbers with some kids and got absolutely wrecked by la tierra. I'll spare you guys the picture of my hand that got shredded (you can kinda see my left hand) but just appreciate the amount of dirt. 

We passed by the temple when we visited the mission office one day this week

My lego collection. thanks mom.

some pics from ward movie night

Me with two of the kids from the villa, that place is the coolest

Jugo de Naranja - General La Madrid

Another great week here in Barrio General Lamadrid! I'll keep this short not because I don't have time but just cuz I don't feel like writing very much. Honesty is the best policy.

Highlights from this week:

Making homemade orange juice from the oranges growing in front of our house

Camila was confirmed a member of the church wooooooo!

We had an activity in the church and a ton of people came to play futbol and board games

Quick spiritual thought: at the end of Alma 31, it talks about how Alma received lots of blessings because he "prayed with faith". but its not until the start of Alma 32 that you understand what that means. The first thing he does is he goes out and starts preaching. He gets right to work. Faith isn't waiting around for the blessings to come to you, its using the resources you have, trusting in God that he'll help you accomplish what needs to be done. 

All is swell, All is swell, Hallelujah America happy 4th of july

Elder Jenkins

Orange Juice done

The zone

Frolf - General La Madrid

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