May the 4th Be With You - Dean Funes

May the Fourth be with you. we bought super cheap custom mugs to celebrate. 

We're drinking mate cocido, not tea, Palabra de Sabiduría, check it.

Red 5, standing by.

Darth Miliotto

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

A heart so true - Dean Funes

As always, another great week. Not very exciting though, so no pics, sorry.

Elder Oliveira taught me how to say the alphabet in Portuguese. It's a lot harder than Spanish.

I learned how to play some South American card games, like Escoba de 15, Truco, Chin Chon, and I showed some North American classics like Toast.

I hope everyone had a great Saint Patrick's Day. I forgot to wear my green tie, and I was worried about getting pinched to death, but then I found out that they don't celebrate it here so I was fine.

For sure the highlights of this week were some great lessons with the people we're teaching, and also finishing the Book of Mormon again. It's such a great book. I counted the pages I would need to read every day to finish this transfer, and I always read more, so I finished early. The scriptures are so awesome. Seriously, if you aren't reading every day, do it. It'll change your life. F'reals. I took "Moroni's Challenge" again after finishing, and prayed to know that it's true, and felt the Spirit very strongly and distinctly. I know that if you read and pray, you'll feel the Spirit too. It's a promise, and God can't break promises. He's made tons of promises to all of us, all we need to do is keep up our end and we'll receive the blessings that He's so excited to give us.

Next week is transfers, I'm pretty sure I'm sticking around here in Dean Funes, we'll see if Elder Oliveira is staying too. Hope you all have a great week!

Every challenge along the way - Catamarca

Merry Late Christmas everyone! I hope everyone's holidays were spectacular!

Pics for this week include:

Our trip last P day to Pirquitas, an awesome lake, with cool rocks, and a nice dog. 

Emptying the dirty baptismal font by hand because the machine didnt work.

Farfal's small foot in my chacos.

The baptism of Lucia!!! We've been teaching her since I got to the field, and she finally joined the rest of her family in the church! It was really awesome, and she's progressed so much in loving the scriptures and the gospel. Her baptism was really great.

A picture of me with an old man, we visited an old person home, and this guy couldn't talk, so I don't know his name, but we conversed between my less than perfect spanish and his hand signals. It was really nice. We sang to them too.

Christmas Eve with Lucia's family, they're the sweetest.

Christmas morning with the zone! we spent christmas all together, because the rest of the country was busy sleeping.

Real quick I just wanted to add a spiritual thought, because I forget to add them in my emails a lot of the time. During the Christmas season, its a great time to remember our Savior, but we should remember Him all the time! His life was entirely dedicated to every one of us, and His sacrifice for us is the most selfless act in history. After being out here on a mission for this time, I've loved coming closer to the Savior and learning more about His life and love for us. So everyone, remember that Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father love each and every one of you personally, I testify of that.

I love you all, and I'll talk to you next year!

Elder Jenkins

The power that's inside - Catamarca

Hello!

Short week highlights:

We started teaching a really awesome family. Some of the fam are members, others aren't but they're all really awesome and interested.

I got bit by a parrot named Panchita.

A random guy stopped Elder Farfal and I on the street, handed us cien pesos (its not a lot in USD but it's a decent amount for us) and said to go buy ice cream, then walked away before we could say anything.

We went to a lake far away from the city, it was a super pretty hike, and a stray dog followed us the whole trail, it was epic.

There's not much else to report this week, but everything is really great, we got some rain this week so hopefully Christmas won't be too hot. Wish you all the best.

The sun is a deadly laser,

Elder Jenkins

To train them is my cause - Catamarca

Wowza this week was awesome! Honestly probably my favorite of the mission so far! (I'm gonna send pictures of everything through a Google drive folder with comments on each picture, let me know if it works well, or if I should send them a different way)

So first off, this week our Zona Catamarca returned to Córdoba for Zone Conference. Since everyone's gonna be busy during December, this conference was Christmas themed, which got me hyped. We saw a whole bunch of missionaries from other zones, heard some awesome messages from the assistants and the president and his wife, ate some dank food, and performed skits that we prepared (I got a video of the best part.) We hit the town for a little bit afterwards because none of us had really explored Córdoba much, cuz we live 6 hours away.

Definite highlight of this week was a baptism! It was really cool, his family was really excited, I was nervous about messing up in Spanish, and the water wouldn't fill all the way (and Lil guy is super tiny) so I baptized him on my knees. It was de diez. We had some cake afterwards to celebrate. I felt so happy the whole time for him.

Since we were in the Christmas vibe after conference, and we are starting a new transfer, we decided to switch around the whole pension and decorate for Navidad. The pension definitely feels a lot more alive, and now we can study where we have an air machine so we don't have to be roasted alive while we're trying to feel the Spirit. 

Last week we went to a farm, pics included.

We were being driven around by a member, and after we taught a family with him, he was driving us home, and we were going past the home of one of the families we're teaching and we decided to visit them and walk the 35-40 minutes home instead of get driven home, but it was awesome. I love visiting that family because they are all so humble, and have so much faith. I spent a lot of the time talking about my pictures, and teaching a short lesson with Elder Farfal. I felt the Spirit super strong the whole time, and afterwards, Elder Farfal told me that she was really surprised about how fast my Spanish has progressed. Made me feel real good, and I know it's the gift of tongues and the Spirit that have helped me grow in the language, and I'm really grateful. 

Speaking of grateful, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up, so make sure you think of things and people you're grateful for, and express your gratitude to Heavenly Father. We all have so many blessings, and Heavenly Father loves when we show gratitude for those things. Also, a great way to show gratitude is to serve others. I gave a talk in church this week about serving like Christ, and "abounding in good works." Look for ways to serve these next few weeks.

It's dangerous to go alone, take this,

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