Hello Everybody,
This
week has been a crazy week. I’ll tell you all about it. So after I emailed last
Monday, I took a 4 hour bus ride and 30 minute jeepney ride to my new area,
Aparri. This place is a little, big city. Lots and lots of people and tons of traffic.
Not with cars, but Tricycles…lots of tricycles. It’s kinda nice cuz when we
need one, there is always one driving by. It’s a lot different that Bangui
where we would have to call our tric to get one. But wow there are tons here.
Lots of people.
But anyway, I got dropped off at Jollibee with all my luggage. Jollibee is like
the McDonald’s of the Philippines (they have McDonalds too). I waited for my
comp there to pick me up. My comp is Elder Montojo. He is from Mindanao (the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines), and
has just 3 months left on the mission. He has been here in Aparri for 3 months
and will probably finish his mission here.
So our apartment: it’s
me and 3 other elders and honestly, the place is junk haha. For example,
we went to pump some water this morning, and it decided not to work. So I had
like 3 quarts of water for my shower haha. Our kitchen is infested with ants,
cockroaches at night, rats sneak in and feast on any food that we leave out. So
we are gonna try to fix that problem. I forgot to take a picture of our
bathroom, I’ll send one next week. You guys will laugh haha it’s hilarious. It’s
literally just a toilet bowl, with a bucket of water next to it. We have to
manually pour the water into the bowl to flush it lol. It’s a loooot different
here to say the least. It smells really bad.
One thing that I don’t
enjoy here is the water. It is freezing cold. The showers are brutal. I
seriously dread taking showers every morning. I just stand there and pour a
freezing cold bucket of water over me, shivering while I wash, and then pour
bucket after bucket of cold, cold water to rinse off. Some days it’s hard to
pour that first bucket on cuz I’m just not feeling up to it. So I do all I can
to heat myself up, pushups, jump up and down, anything to help haha. I
will never get used to the showers.
I am very very excited
about this area though. There is sooo much potential here, it’s fully ready to
harvest. Yesterday we had 6 investigators at church, 4 of them will probably be
baptized within the next 3 or 4 weeks. So the work here is good. And the
members are great too. Lots
of them get together on Saturday and all go home teaching. We have a nice big beautiful chapel. I
love it here.
So here in Aparri, of
course they speak Tagalog, and they speak some Ilocano, but they have another
language here too – it’s called Ibanag. So I guess I’ll start learning that one
too haha. The language (Tagalog) has gotten a lot better for me though. I’m
beginning to be able to speak to everybody without any problem. It’s a lot of
fun. The best part about the progression in the language is the ability to
teach better.
Lately, I’ve been
studying the New Testament, and also have been reading Jesus the Christ at the
same time. As I read and study His teachings and the way He teaches, I become
more and more enlightened by the spirit on how I can improve my teaching. It’s
incredible to me how the spirit works. It will just pop ideas into your mind,
and then confirm those ideas by a feeling. I have also realized that God likes
it when we pray specifically. For example, instead of me asking how I can
become a better teacher, it’s more effective if I ask how I can help a specific
person understand the gospel better. And I am enlightened during my studies of
how I can help that specific person. I love how God works, and how this church
works. And I absolutely enjoy the spirit every day of my mission. I could NEVER
deny the happiness I receive from this gospel. How could I not give it all I
have every day. I owe it all to my Savior!
Love you all,
-Elder Jenkins
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