WEEK 71 - December 25, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I don't really have time to email, so I'll just give you all a quick rundown on my exciting week.

So on Wednesday, all the missionaries from Cagayan traveled into Laoag, so we got them settled in a hotel. While all that was going on, President Andrada interviewed Mhylez and Wellington Alejandro. They passed the interview and President said he was very impressed with them and was very excited for them and their baptism. We ended up at the office pretty late that night preparing for the Thursday morning activity. By Thursday morning, all the missionaries from the whole mission were all gathered at the mission home. We had a real fun activity with lots of games, water balloon fight, etc. Lots of fun to see everybody enjoy so much. 

Later that night, everybody got changed into their PLM polo shirt and dressed up nice for our Mission Dinner/Social night. Every zone performed their cultural dance, and some other presentations were included. It was a lot of fun, lots of laughing. The food was real good, and was just a lot of fun being around everybody having a good time. Also some of the RMs came back and visited the mission including Daryll Costales!! haha So much fun seeing that guy (editor: Ryan's trainer). 

five generations of trainers & their trainees

APs & office elders

Friday morning was the Mission Conference. We managed to squeeze everybody into the small little cultural hall and got to hear a few trainings from President and Sister Andrada. Then we had our big lunch. Sister Andrada went all out with buying gifts for everybody. She bought shoes, new shirts, candy, snacks and other gifts for a lot of missionaries. We also did a big mission-wide gift exchange. Last month when President was interviewing all the missionaries, he had them pick one name out randomly, and that's who they would get the gift for. I picked Elder Swann, so I customized a hat and put a picture of a swan on it hahaha... But yeah the gift exchange was fun, and got missionaries who don't really know each other to start talking to each other. Then we finished the conference and sent all the missionaries back to their areas. After all these events were done, we were absolutely exhausted. But looking back on it, it was a lot of fun.

A surprise Christmas carol serenade at the mission home on December 24th

Even though all these Christmas events were a lot of fun, the best part of the week was on Saturday. The Alejandro family was baptized! Mhylez, Wellington, and their two kids, Paul and Joshua were baptized together as a family. We combined with the Ward 1 elders who also had 4 baptisms.  So it was a nice big baptismal service. On Sunday they were confirmed, and they are feeling spiritually blessed :) 

Love the work and the joy it brings to others and into my life. It's such a blessing to be a tool in the Lord's hands in helping others come unto him, and having me grow spiritually through doing so. 

Love you all, Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 70 - December 19, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

First of all, I got an email from some random guy telling me that this blog makes it in the top 100 Philippines blogs in the world! haha so good job Mom. I was hoping we would be top 10 or something like that, but turns out we are number 84. But anyway, that made me laugh. Also congrats to Elizabeth on her Mission Call!! Very Excited for you!! (editor: cousin Elisabeth DeLong has been called to serve in the Taiwan, Taipei Mission,  Mandarin speaking, reporting April 25th.)

Ok, so it is sooo cold here! The past week we haven't been using our A/C at night or even our electric fans. This is the coldest I have ever remembered it getting here in Laoag - it's incredible! The only problem is still the cold showers... Brutal. 

Well this last week was a full of a lot of preparing for two things. First, for the Christmas celebration of the Mission. Tomorrow, all the missionaries will be here in Laoag. We will have a fun activity in the morning and then at night we will have our Christmas Party. Every Zone has a prepared dance presentation to perform and there will be lots of foods, gift exchanges, singing etc. It will be a lot of fun. Then on Friday we have our Christmas Conference. So it will be a busy next two days. 

The other thing we have been preparing for is the baptism of the Alejandro Family this Saturday! This past week we have been focusing on getting the kids ready, because the parents are good to go. They all came to the Ward Christmas Party last night and had a really good time with all the members. So we are so excited for them and their baptism on Saturday. 

We are so happy with the success we are having in the work right now. At church the other day we had 8 investigators attend. And then last night at the Christmas Party, 17 of our investigators attended. The Lord is helping us a lot to have success in the work even though we are busy with other responsibilities sometimes. The past few weeks I have been able to print out all of the J-Co devotionals and read them. (editor:  members of the extended Jenkins family take turns during the month of December to share a devotional on our family facebook page.) And I have truly been inspired and uplifted by the things you have all testified and shared about. I am truly blessed to live in such a Gospel centered family that relies on the Lord and trusts in his plan. I love you all so much! Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 69 - December 11, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVO!! Big 22!! you can now rent a car or something. (is that right?) Love ya brother, have a good one. 

Well believe it or not, it's a little cold here. Not cold in the afternoons, but in the morning and at night it's been a little chilly lately. Which is making my cold showers in the morning even colder. (editor: I looked it up... low of 70.) Christmas is getting closer and closer and you can feel it in the city. There is a Christmas event at the plaza almost every night, which gives us a nice opportunity to talk to a lot of people.

Speaking of events at the plaza, our "Light the World" event turned out great! Last Monday we were at the church for 5 hours trying to put a nice little choir together. It kinda turned into a me telling people to be quiet, listen, and stop messing around kinda day. Tuesday after our MLC meeting in the morning we gathered everybody in the zone together again for our last practice before the big event. It was kinda hectic and we definitely could of used more time and practice, but it was good enough. So we all walked over to the plaza. There were a total of 70 missionaries in the choir, so there were a lot of us. Our part was at the middle of the program, so when it was our turn to perform, there were lots of people in the plaza. After the first song, it was our (APs & office elders) turn to give our little presentation. I think once we got up there everybody's voices started shaking a bit. It was also our first time singing with mics, so we were all off a bit, but it turned out pretty decent. We all wish we could perform it again cuz it was a lot of fun. Definitely a good memory that we won't forget. Altogether, the event went really well. We didn't get too many referrals from it, but we definitely got the missionaries more well known in Laoag. There have been a few times where we will be out working and then somebody will come up and say, "Hey we were at your concert the other night!" haha So it was a very successful event. I'll try to get the file from President that has all the pictures on it, because I didn't have my camera with me during the thing. So I'll try to send some pics and videos soon.

Besides that, we had an awesome week of work. We were able to make daily contact with the two families that are progressing and both the families were able to make it to church yesterday. One of the families has a baptismal date of the 23rd. The other family's baptism date is on January 6. They have come to church 2 times now and are reading the Book of Mormon consistently. This next week we will have 2 sets of exchanges with ZLs, so we will be able to get a lot of work done. 

The other day I finished the Book of Mormon again, and continue to feel its great spiritual power, especially as I read through the last chapters of Moroni. As I try and reflect what effect this "Spiritual Power" has on me, I always seem to think back to Samuel the Lamanite standing upon a wall crying repentance. People are trying to kill him, throwing stones and shooting arrows. The stones seem to miss or fall short of him, and even the sharp arrows can't seem to pierce his skin.  All of this because of the spiritual "shield" that he has around him. That is the kind of shield that I want with me every day. Something to protect me from the sins and temptations of the world. I've realized that through scripture study, sincere prayer, a clean mind, and a pure heart, this spiritual protection can be with me all day. The companionship of the Holy Ghost and the spiritual power I am given through the Atonement are such blessings in my life.

Love you all, have a nice Christmassy week :)

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 68 - December 4, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

Well, we just finished off another busy transfer week. This was my 4th one, so I feel pretty used to it and it's all pretty routine for us now. It's an exciting week for sure, but after our meetings on Friday when everything was finished up, we are all pretty happy that it was over. 

So this transfer, we had 5 new missionaries come in. Three Filipina sisters, 1 Australian elder, and also one sister from Pakistan! Now that was pretty interesting, the Pakistani sister. She doesn't really speak English, and of course doesn't speak Tagalog. So we had to be creative in finding ways to communicate with her. Us APs and the office elders decided to study a little bit of the language of Pakistan so that we would at least know how to say "Hello", and "How are you" when she got here. But when we approached her at the airport and tried to say some Pakistani words to her, she just chuckled haha. She ended up being able to speak a little bit of English though, so it all worked out. 

Dinner with new missionaries

Also, we found out that the trainer of the one Australian elder would be elder Maharry, the trainee of Elder Reyes. So my bloodline in the mission has extended haha. I now have a great grandson :)

Elder Jenkins and his "mission posterity" 

So we didn't have much time to work last week, but when we did have any free time, we would spend it inviting everybody to attend the Light the World event on Tuesday. They really wouldn't seem too interested, so we just started telling them to attend our "Concert". That seemed to make them way more interested and a lot of them said they would for sure go haha. The location of the event is at the "Central Park" of Laoag, so we are sure there will be a large attendance. We are very excited. It will be a great missionary opportunity.

"Concert" rehearsal

Yesterday, we had 7 investigators attend church. We were pretty happy with that number considering that we didn't really get to work last week. The one family that has been progressing the past few weeks is doing great. The dad didn't make it to church yesterday, we aren't sure why. After this upcoming event on Tuesday, we are excited to be able to focus again on the work and get lots of progression going again in the area. 

These past few days of December, I made it a goal to really focus my studies on Jesus and His life. When reading in the New Testament and in Jesus the Christ, I always seem to realize or notice something about Jesus that strengthens my testimony of Him, and my relationship with Him. Every single day I seem to find myself on my knees more thankful than I was before for the grace and mercy that He gives me every single day. It is such a blessing to be a member of the true, restored church of Jesus Christ, and to be able to fully enjoy the blessings of His Church. There is nothing more I want for the people I teach than to also enjoy these blessings.

Love you, have a nice week!:)

-Elder Jenkins

Service with a smile...

dishes at the mission home after a big dinner.

Perks of "meeting" with the Zone Leaders - homemade bread!!