WEEK 14 - November 21, 2016 (Bangui, Philippines)

  

WOWWWW, well it is a whole different world over here haha. And it has been a crazy week. I'll try to explain as much I can in the little time I have.

So I flew out of SLC to LA at about 7 pm on Monday night. And from LA to Hong Kong after that. That might have been the longest 16 hours of my life haha. So my seat was in between two Chinese ladies who spoke no English and didn't quite understand what personal space is. To top it off, the lady to my left had a young baby with her that desired to cry often. And sitting in front of me was a little Chinese girl who was probably like 5. And she loved to turn around and touch my TV screen. Most of the time it didn't bug me because I wasn't using it. But this one time I was doing a Sudoku puzzle, and it was taking me a really long time because she would not stop touching the screen and messing it up haha. I started to get frustrated and told her to turn around. She did not understand a word and she would just laugh. And her parents did not care at all. But yeah, that flight was looong. 

Alright, so I'm sure you mostly want to hear about the Philippines, so I'll try to explain it. I got off the plane and started sweating, and have not really stopped sweating since. Oh yeah so first off, when I got off the plane in Manila, there was nobody there to pick me up haha. I wandered around for a bit, using the Tagalog I know, asking questions. Luckily some one spoke English and I was able to use his phone.

Manila

The traffic is CRAZY in Manila. There are freeways with the speed limit at like 60 and no lanes. It's just a big open road, people weaving around other cars. So dangerous haha. I stayed in the Manila MTC for two days. It was really nice. I got to sleep for like 15 hours straight because of jet lag. I ate some weird food and I also got to go to the Temple. It's a beautiful temple and very very small. 

 

MTC food

 Manila Temple

So my flight to Laoag was on Friday. I was supposed to leave at 4, but didn't end up leaving until 7. Was at the airport or 6 hours.. that was brutal. But eventually we landed in Laoag at the airport... It did not seem like an airport though haha. It was like the size of church building... an American church building. Fortunately, there were people to pick me up. 

at the mission home in Laoag

So I was assigned to serve in the Bangui area. It is sooo beautiful here. So many big rice fields and it's right next to the ocean. And it is known or these huge windmills. Most of the people here speak Ilocano, but they all understand Tagalog. All transportation is from Trics or people have their own little motorcycle. Not really any cars though.

famous windmills

tric

People's houses are mostly either made out of some cinder block or bamboo. It's crazy how little these people have.

 

Fortunately our apartment is pretty nice. Besides the fact that you pour a bucket of cold water on yourself for a shower. I don't know if I will ever get used to that haha. It's like jumping in the pool, no matter how many times you have done it, you still hesitate to do it. Most of the time I have to pump myself up to pour the cold water on me. And we usually take 2-3 showers a day, because we sweat so much. Even though it's so hot outside, it does not feel good. After like 10 scoops though, it kind of feels good. But those first 10 scoops are killer. The thing I hopefully will get used to is the fact that they do not use toilet paper here. Sorry if that is TMI, but it's an important fact. People make fun of you if you buy toilet paper hahaha. My comp says he will burn it if I buy any hahaha. (Editor: not sure what he uses...good question for next week. YIKES!) My comp, Elder Costales, is awesome. He is from Manila and speaks really good Tagalog, and really good English. So he is helping me out a lot with the language.

with Elder Costales

Honestly, I have never been so frustrated not being able to speak to people and mostly understand people. If I could understand what they are saying, I could probably work up some response with the small vocab I know. But I am learning a lot every day. I have gotten good at calming myself down when I get frustrated with the language haha. I absolutely looooove the people though. They are easy to love because they are so kind. And I love the kids - the little mga anak are soooooo cute. And they will always run up to me and yell "up here" and high five me. A high five from a white person makes their day. People stare at me everywhere I go because I am white haha. I'm the ONLY white person in town, it's so weird. There are stray dogs and cats everywhere here. And stray chickens. Yesterday we went to go teach a lesson to a girl and her mother. The journey there was awesome. We were literally walking though little rain forests, went over a little river, and through a rice field or two. And then we had a good lesson, I think. I couldn't understand much, but Costales said it went well. 

Oh, another thing I'm going to have to get used to are mothers openly breast feeding their babies. Haha I seem to flinch every single time it happens. My comp said I will get used to it. Said it took him a while. 

Yesterday we took an hour bus ride to church because it was a district conference. Four long hours of understanding absolutely nothing haha. Mostly because it was in Ilocano (native dialect).

 

I have eaten SOOOO much rice. Literally breakfast, lunch and dinner is rice. I just went out and bought a bunch of eggs though. I realized that is one thing that probably tastes the same here as it does in America. We will see. I have liked the food so far though. The meat I've had has been really good. Not sure what kind of meat, could be dog, but it was good. 

So the other night, I was sitting in my bed, about to go to sleep. And I looked up and saw myself in the mirror, all sweaty and worn out. And I started chuckling a bit because I was finally in my mission. I'm so happy to be here and there is no place I would rather be. And even though I can't speak very much and can't really teach anybody yet, I can bear a strong testimony and that is what is most important. 

Well, it is hot out here and I'm sweating like a hog, but I absolutely love it. I took a few pictures. I'll take some better ones this week. Most of them are from the bus ride, so they aren't very good. Alright, talk to you next week, Love you :)

-Elder Jenkins

 

(Editor: He didn't say anything, but I think this makes him VERY happy!)

WEEK 13 - November 14, 2016 (West Haven, Utah) - Goodbye America

Well, the time has finally come. I am just about finished with all my packing, and I'm ready to ship off. After 6 weeks here in Ogden, I'm headed to the Philippines tonight. I am sooo excited and nervous at the same time. But I am absolutely ready. So I'll tell you how my week went really quick.

So, I think there was a reason I was put on a bike for my last week. I was soooo out of shape haha. We hopped on our bikes on Tuesday and had like a 5 mile ride to get to an appointment. It was soooo frustrating because Elder Stoner was cruising by me and I just could not catch up. I was going as hard as I could and it didn't look like he was even peddling that hard. That frustration continued for another day until I checked my back tire and realized that the break was rubbing up against the tire this whole time haha. I fixed it and immediately saw the difference. Stoner was shocked the next time we started riding because I was hauling past him haha. But at the end of the week I had lost 5 lbs so that was nice. But honestly it was kind of nice being on bikes. For the first time on my mission I would come home absolutely exhausted, just wanting to crawl in bed, with saddle soreness like none other.

This week was really nice, because I got to go to the temple twice. We went on Tuesday as a zone, and I got to go again on Friday with all the departing missionaries. Probably the last time I will be attending for the next 20 months or so.

So investigator wise and finding people to teach, it was a pretty slow week honestly. We biked all around West Haven knocking doors and just couldn't find anyone to teach. We weren't able to get into the Jenkins home this week because Mike is in Japan. The rest of the family didn't make it to church either. Kody, however did make it to church. His wife had to be up running the primary program and she needed him to take care of the kids. But he was there, so that was good. I'll really be hoping to get an email from Elder Stoner sometime next month telling me he's getting baptized.

We finally put Miley on date for baptism… but it isn't until January 12th. They said they are just too busy during the holidays and that’s the next time that it can happen. 

Sorry this letter was really, really short (based on Ryan standards). I don't have much time to write today. I'm gonna run out and get one more haircut real quick before I leave. But I just want to express my thanks to Uncle Sam and Aunt Melissa. They helped me soooo much while I was here. Nourished my elbow back to health and loosened my wrist up too. Not only that, but they also took me out to lunch a few times and took me golfing haha. The Jenkins family owes you big time. Between me and Davis, we are gonna run you guys broke hahaha. Thanks for being so generous and loving to me. 

Alright, well the next time I write you, hopefully I will have some cool stories and some incredible pictures. But don't expect the long letters anymore haha. I don't think I'll have quite enough time for those. Okay, I love you all. Farewell America :)

-Elder Jenkins

Waffle eating contest with the youth. Who do you think won? Haha

WEEK 12 - November 11, 2016 (West Haven, Utah)

Elder Kim from South Korea

Happy Monday everyone,

This week was a pretty slow week, so surprisingly, I don't have too much to talk about today. First of all, I received news that I fly out 1 week from today at 7pm. Pretty sure I will be flying all alone haha. I am soooo excited though. And pretty nervous at the same time. I know I will probably regret saying this, but I am sooo happy that I will be getting out of this cold weather. I'm sure my first week there, I will be wishing I was back in the cold though.

So sadly, the battle that I was hyping up last week did not happen. She texted us and said her husband did not want anything to do with us haha. We might stop by and try to talk with her at her doorstep for a bit anyway.

Some more bad news - we no longer have a car :( A few other elders that cover a larger area need it. So we have been abandoned with two bikes in frigid weather. That's not the worst of my worries though. The thing is, I get really bad helmet hair. And there is no way anybody could take me seriously when I look like a rabid animal. So I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Only thing I can think of is shaving my head. But I don't know if anybody would take me serious looking like that either haha. Tell me what you think:)

Ok so great new - the Jenkins family was at church again on Sunday. The bad news is that we went by to teach them on Wednesday night and nobody was home. So we still need to teach them a few lessons. But the fact that they go to church every Sunday shows that they are committed. The kids went to primary, so hopefully they made some friends.  I really love this family and I'm a bit sad that I won't get to see Maddy and Monica get baptized.

So last Tuesday was our best day this week. First, we went over to a less active member’s home for dinner. They have a 9 year old daughter, Miley, so we were looking forward to talking to her and teaching her. We taught her the restoration and she really loved it and said how she wanted to be baptized. So that was great. And the family is totally supportive of that. We are going back again for dinner on Tuesday to teach her. That was exciting to have somebody new to teach.

We met with Kody again on Tuesday night. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and really tried to understand where he's at and what's holding him back. As we were talking, I just started talking to him like I'm his friend, not a teacher. We began to relate on so many things. Out of all the people we have taught, I feel like he has been the one I have connected with the most and come the closest to. So that kind of helped me realize that you really need to become friends with people first, and kind of gain their trust so that they are more open to you and willing to talk. It might take Kody a while for him to realize that this is all true, but there is definitely a seed planted.

The Musical Fireside last night was incredible. The whole Tabernacle was absolutely filled with investigators, less actives, members, and some family:) Everything went sooo well. The spirit was so strong there, especially during the final song. While we were all singing, I could hear a few elders behind me and next to me, struggling to sing because they trying to hold back tears. I couldn't help it and my eyes began to misty up a bit. After the song, I turned around and almost everyone was tearing up, it was awesome. It was soooo nice to see grandma and grandpa again. And the DeLong fam was there to support, and they brought along Davis and his friend. Apparently we received a ton of referrals too. Over 200 or something. It was a great turn out.

So honestly this last week was pretty hard mentally for me. Going around trying to find people to connect with and teach, knowing that you are leaving in like a week is kinda tough. Because deep down you are thinking, "Okay I'm probably never going to see these people again, what's the point of trying to make a connection with them." But then I realized that that's not at all what it is about. No matter who ends up teaching them, they are still receiving the restored gospel. Sometimes you just have to be the one to plant that seed and get them going.

I loveee being a missionary and love the gospel. I cannot wait to do the work over in a different country and different language. Love you all, have a great week. :)

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 11 - October 31, 2016 (West Haven, Utah)

Hello everybody, Happy Halloween,

It has been yet another great week. I'll apologize in advance because this letter is a little long, like the last one. I guess some of you like them being shorter I hear? I heard there was some complaining about the length of the letter back home?? Davo?.. but anyways I'll tell ya how things went this week.

I've counted it up and it looks like we had a total of 23 hours of meetings this week. On Tuesday we had greenie training. Which was a lot of sitting there and listening to people talk to us. Then after that we had choir practice for the musical fireside. The mission is putting on a huge musical fireside thing on Nov. 6th in the Ogden Tabernacle. It's supposed to be really good and I guess there's gonna be a ton of people there. The choir director is crazy hahah. I mean, I've played sports a long time with a lot of different coaches, but this guy doesn't compare. He gets SOOO angry if people aren't singing. He literally will stop the music and begin yelling and screaming at you hahaha. If people are looking down at their music and not watching him he gets furious!! It's comical, I love it.

This is Elder Sangsuwan.. he's from Thailand and he's hilarious haha I love him.

So anyway our next long meeting was on Wednesday and it was zone conference. I learned a lot in that meeting from Pres Jaggi. And I had the opportunity to bear my testimony, since I was one of the departing missionaries. The next day was awesome. We got to meet with two elders of the Sevent: Elder Christensen, and Elder Natress. They both spoke at General Conference if you can remember them. So at the beginning, we are all gathered around in a big circle to shake their hands and meet them. When Elder Christenson makes his was over to me, he asks me "Elder Jenkins, how long have you been out?" I say "3 weeks"... he then looks at me with a big smile on his face, puts both his heavy hands on my shoulders, looks at me in the eye and asks "are you doing okay." Hahaha I replied with a yes, and he was happy to hear that, and moved on to the next person. Then when it came time for them to speak, they each talked for about an hour. And they both talked a lot about personal revelation. And also a lot about the spirit. It was awesome to hear from these two men  that recieve loads of revelation. And to hear from them explaining to us how to recieve it and how to be so in tune with the spirit so that you can receive this revelation. What it comes down to are a few things.. asking in sincere prayer, and studying your scriptures with real intent. But what you really need is the spirit.

So I'll give a quick update on all our investigators. We weren't able to meet and have a lesson with the Jenkins because they are so dang busy. But they were at Sacrament Meeting yesterday which was amazing. We meet with them again on Wednesday. Hopefully they don't need to cancel.

Last Monday we had another lesson with Alex the Russian. Unfortunately, our translator couldn't make it. So honestly the lesson was a bit unproductive. But we did get a bunch of Russian pamphlets and stuff for him to read and study. We just need him to come to church.

Same deal with Nikolai the fake Russian and his friend Brayden.. we just need them to come to church. They always say they will, but never do. They say they are afraid of the people at church. 

We met with Kody on Tuesday. He is the one whose wife is in the primary presidency. We taught him the plan of salvation and he really enjoyed it. He knows more about the gospel then he thinks he does. But the good thing is he understands everything we teach pretty well. It should be easier for him to start coming to church because his wife and kids always go. So we're hoping he'll make it this Sunday.

So we knocked on a ton of doors this week. One day for about 2 hours we knocked on just about every door in an apartment complex. Sadly, no one said they would be interested. But we did knock on one door that opened up to us. She said "I would really like to meet with you guys, but I don't think you want to meet with me." We asked why, she said "have you guys ever met with people that are going to try and convert you to their church?" And then she kept talking and basically said that if we do meet with her, we are going to bash. However, we did tell her that we want to meet with her still. So we are absolutely preparing for battle haha. We are going to try our hardest not to bash. So there is something you all can look forward to in the next letter. I'll let you know how that went.

Funny story... so during zone conference the other day, either president or somebody else, I can't remember who, but they told all of us the daylight savings was on October 30th. So we switch our clocks on Saturday night an hour back.. well we wake up the next morning, get ready and head over to ward council, which starts at 7:30. We walk in, and Bishop says "Elders, is there anything you need to add before we close." We were a bit confused and say, "Close? Didn't we just start 2 and a half minutes ago?" They all start chuckling and go, "No, we started at 7:30." Now we were even more confused because I look at my watch and it says 7:33. Then we realized what had happened haha. Just about everybody in the zone made the same mistake, so we weren't the only ones. 

So another "first" happened for me today. For the first time ever, when I went shopping for something, I walked out of the store with more money than I came in with. A nice older lady not only paid for our groceries, but she gave us $20 cash back haha. People here are so dang nice. 

So in our zone conference we talked a lot about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  And we went deep into details about the translation, about Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. And with President Jaggi testifying of all these things we were talking about and testifying about some deeper stuff we went in to. I was really tempted just to take his word for it, he being one of the greatest, most spiritual men I've met, you really just want to believe the words he's saying. But right after those thoughts went through my head, he stood up and said, "and all of you better not just simply believe the words I'm saying. You all need to get on your knees and ask to know for yourself if these things are true. I don't want you to take my word for it."

The past week I've gained a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. I've known that is it true for a while now, but my testimony runs deeper deeper every time I pray and ask if something I learned about it is true. 

Obviously, the feelings from the spirit that you receive while reading the Book of Mormon is the most important thing. But some facts about things that went on during the translation can really strengthen your testimony as well. I just want to go through a few of them that mean a lot to me.

• Joseph was pulled out of is home by an angry mob in the middle of the night from his two newborn kids and wife, had his clothes torn off of him, was brutally beaten and then had boiling tar poured all over his body. His friends had to painfully tear the tar off of his skin little by little. And the very next morning, Joseph, all bruised up, with scabs covering his body, went out and taught the people forgiveness. 

•And then Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage, eventually being killed defending the church. Leaving behind fatherless children and a widowed wives because they knew the gospel they were defending was true and they could not deny that.

It really angers and frustrates me when people call Joseph a fraud. No man would go through all of this and literally die over a made up church. 

• And then the witnesses: Oliver, Martin, and David all fell away from the church. But none of them denied that they had seen the plates. They never went back on their testimonies of the Book because they knew it was true.

All though all of these details can strengthen your testimony about Joseph being a prophet and about the Book of Mormon, the important thing is having the spirit confirm to you that the book is true. Through reading it.

Alright I love you all, and will talk to ya next week:) 

- Elder Jenkins 

WEEK 10 - October 24, 2016 (West Haven, Utah)

Hi everyone,

It has been another great week. First of all, Lily and her sister were baptized on Saturday :) That was awesome to see some of our work pay off. The room was packed at 9 a.m. with friends and family. It was great to see these girls take a big step in their life, and what is also amazing is their dad's story. His name is Sam. He was raised in an LDS family, but fell away from the church in his teenage years. Not long after, he was in a gang, living that lifestyle. A bit later, he realized this wasn’t the life he wanted to live. To get out of that life, he went on a mission and became fully converted to the gospel. But not long after his mission, he fell away again. Recently he has absolutely turned his life around again. When he saw the missionaries (us) he asked us if we could start teaching his kids and have them baptized as soon as possible. Seeing him in the font, somebody who has absolutely turned his life around for the better, baptizing his daughter, brought me such joy. It really teaches me you should never judge somebody by what they look like. Sam has tattoos from neck to toe, but has fully changed his life and has absolutely turned to Christ and wants his family to have the gospel in their lives. It teaches me that as missionaries we need to talk to everybody, no matter their appearance. I have loveddddd teaching the Fluckiger family.

Alright, so last Monday night we had a lesson with Alex and his family (The Russians). We decided to bring a guy from one of our wards who speaks Russian with us hoping maybe Alex will understand the lesson a little better. So we get in there, and these guys just start chatting in Russian. Laughing and joking and just being friends. And they talk back and forth for about 45 minutes. I have zero idea what they are saying, but at one point I could tell they started talking about the restoration. He seemed to understand it waaaay better in Russian. And at the end of the lesson we asked him to pray about the Book of Mormon.  He said in a thick Russian accent.  "I don't need to, because I know that it true. I just don't think I need it. The Bible is enough for me. It's like when I eat sandwich. I eat sandwich and I full. I need nothing more. Bible is sandwich. Book of Mormon is dessert. I don't need dessert. I am filled."

Soooo basically we just need to help him understand why the Book of Mormon is needed. I'm sure Nelson can attest to this, but the guy that came with us to that lesson said that Russians have a really hard time understanding the priesthood and authority. He said that you can talk to a Russian all day about authority but sometimes they just can't get a grasp on it. So hopefully we will be able to get through to him about those things he doesn't understand. Nelly should just come down to Ogden for a few weeks and help us out for a bit haha.(Cousin Nelson served in Kiev.) We have two Russian investigators including a family. One of them is an 18 year old kid that says he's from Moscow, but won't tell us where he lives. He's a mysterious kid. But we have a few guys in our wards that can speak, so we have some good help.

We have a few new people we are teaching this week, so I will update you on them as they start to progress. So frustrating - this one family we've been teaching canceled on us for one of our lessons. They are a busy family, so it is hard to get a hold of them. And then they weren't at church so that was a little saddening, but the willlllll be there next week. Let's see what else happened this week. I've been eating a bunch of Taco Time because we eat free. I’m soooo sick of it hahaha makes me feel so sick.. but hey, it’s free food. Thank you Aunt Renee sooo much for the pumpkin pie. I have absolutely loved having a slice after a long day of work. Also having a guitar here at my apartment has been nice. Whenever I have extra time (which is rare) I can just sit back and strum for a bit.

So, one thing I have learned about Utah missions is that there are actually a lot of people to teach to here. Before I got here I didn't really think there were that many non-members. And sadly, that's what a lot of the members think here too. But there is tons of work to do here. I feel bad for not going on more splits with the missionaries when I was a priest. Because that is what we need haha. Member help is soooooo needed and it helps the missionaries soooo much.

Thoughtful member texted this to me after feeding these fine missionaries  :)

One thing that has bugged me a bit while being here is when people are legit scared of us. We are innocent young boys walking around with smiles on our faces, and I guess people are a little frightened by that. We had somebody shut the door on us the other day and then lock the door with like 7 different latches. Not kidding. The poor guy was scared. I love being a missionary here though. Just going up to people and talking to them about anything and being friendly is amazing. I'll definitely miss being able to talk to people in English as much as I want. 

Another little story. So we went and visited somebody who was on the nonmember list. And it was an older lady in a wheelchair. Turns out the whole right side of her body is paralyzed and she has a prosthetic nose. She also really, really struggles to talk to us. But she really wanted to show us around her house. So she showed us around and then took us into her garage and there were a ton of paintings and like 15 Bob Ross books. Haha. She then expressed her love for Bob Ross and showed us all the paintings. After going through them, she offered us one! Haha I was actually way excited 'cause they were all actually pretty good. So we each chose one and promised to visit her when we are in the neighborhood. And even though she isn't a member, we noticed tithing slips all around the house, so that's good too.

I love being a missionary and teaching the gospel to people. There is nothing I would rather be doing than to be meeting new people every day and handing out copies of the Book of Mormon. It's awesome when they open the door and you immediately try to find something in the house or something that they are wearing to talk to them about and build some kind of connection. 90% of the time it has to do with sports of some sort haha. Yesterday we were knocking doors at around 2:00 and I knew that's the time that people like to sit down to catch an NFL. We knocked one door and a 20ish year old guy answered the door holding a Budweiser. I asked him what game he was watching and he seemed surprised that I knew he was watching football without even seeing his TV. He said he was watching the Niners game, and I told him I'm a fan. We talked about football for a while and he invited us to come back a different time. So there are good things that are coming out of all that fantasy football playing and all sports watching haha. 

We had a Stake Conference broadcast yesterday and Elder Christensen and Elder Gary Stevenson spoke to us. They talked a lot about missionary work and how members can get involved. So I was glad that he shared that message. They also talked about how the Book of Mormon is such a great main conversion tool. They both shared very good messages. Oh and yesterday evening we went to visit an active family. And it turns out both the mother and father served in the Roseville Mission. And the wife (totally forgot their names) served in Gridley for 7 months. I named off just about every family that I know from Gridley and she says she remembers all of them. Apparently Bishop Havens (Ryan's uncle) was her bishop while she was serving there. I think she said it was 16 years ago. But yeah that was pretty cool to make that connection. 

Quick update on my elbow - rehab has been going great. My very loving Uncle Sam has been doing a great job, and the numbness and tingling has pretty much all gone away. President Jaggi is going to call my Philippines mission president tomorrow to see when I will be sent out there. He said it's most likely that it will be in 3 weeks, at the end of the transfer.

Well I'm looking forward to a good week hopefully with lots of work and lots of finding new people to teach. Hopefully I'll have so cool experiences I can share with you all next week. I love being a missionary and I love the gospel. Going to try and make the most out of these last 3 weeks here in Ogden. Love you all.

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 9 - October 17, 2016 (West Haven, Utah) - A Trio No More

District gym time :)

Hellooooooo friends and family,

This week seemed to go by really, really fast. So I don't have too much to write about but I'll give ya a rundown of what happened this week. 

Well, sadly the trio that I was in has come to an end. Elder Hernandez got his visa last week and flew out to Brazil this morning. He had been waiting for it for almost 8 months!! Definitely sad to see him go though, he was a good trainer. So now it's just me and Elder Stoner. We have sooo much more space in our room now, which is nice. He also forgot a pair of shoes and a nice sweater, so that's also nice. And I get shotgun in the car now. So there are good things that come from this.

So first of all, Lily's baptism was pushed to this coming Saturday because more family will be in town and be able to attend. So we are very excited for her. Ok so it was a pretty solid week for us finding new people to teach.  On Wednesday, we met with a family that is pretty new to this area. Their name is pretty hard for me to forget because it is "The Jenkins!". The Jenkins family has one daughter who is 11 and a son who is 7. Mike, their dad, is a less active member of the church and his wife, Monica, is not a member. So we found them through our ward mission leader, Brother Gibson. This guy absolutely amazes me. He is a blind man who has been blind ever since he was a kid. When you walk up to him and say hi, he immediately recognizes your voice and reaches out to shake your hand. He was driving with us to one of our appointments the other day and he gave us directions on when to turn and where to go. He is incredible haha. But anyway, back to the Jenkins...so we met and taught them The Restoration on Wednesday and they loved it…especially their daughter. She absolutely wanted to be baptized, and so did her little brother but he isn't quite old enough yet. So she is set to be baptized on the 5th of November. But what was also awesome his how much Monica seemed to love the lesson. We would love to see her be baptized with her daughter on the 5th.

After that lesson, we, as a trio were feeling so confident because of how well they received the message. And of course, not soon after that, Elder Hernandez got a call from President telling him he's headed out on Monday. Right when we were kind of feeling comfortable, changes had to be made. God wasn't going to let us get comfortable and hunker down haha, He wants us to grow and get better and we all understood that.  

So another solid investigator we have is a girl named Kelton. She is friends with one of the girls in the Riverbend Branch. We actually went to a little Halloween festival with them and hung out for a little bit, and then taught her right after. She understood everything really well and also wants to be baptized. 

I realized something the other day that I can't help but notice. Whenever we are teaching about Joseph Smith and begin to recite his First Vision, there always seems to be a potential distraction. I'll give a few examples. When we were teaching Kelton and we started talking about the First Vision, a bag that had a candle in it lit on fire and went up in flames. People started racing over to put out the fire. When we were teaching a family about a week ago, a car drove by slowly, blasting music. The other night, it was kind of comical but still a bit annoying… somebody absolutely ripped one during our explanation of the First Vision. Yes, it was a bit funny, but yet again it was another distraction. I firmly believe that the devil really does not want people to hear about the First Vision because of how strong you can feel the spirit while listening. Every time one of my companions is reciting it in a lesson I feel so much peace and comfort. And I know that is the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of Joseph’s experience.

So tonight we are teaching the Russian family. We are bringing a member with us who speaks Russian - that will be a big help to us. One of Alex's (the father) biggest concerns is that the Sabbath should be from Friday night to Saturday night instead of on Sunday. So we will try to work out that problem for him and help him understand. 

My therapy seems to be going well. My wrist seems to be a lot looser and flexible (editor: last basketball season injury that was never rehabbed correctly - Uncle Sam's taking care of that too). The only thing that is still a little numb is my pinkie, but it's not too bad at all. 

Well this should be a good upcoming week for us. Hopefully I will have a lot to tell all of you. I hope it doesn't get too cold over here. And let's hope that people stop feeding me so much because I am not loving eating a big meal on a full stomach haha. And let's just say it's putting on a few unneeded pounds. Alright I love you all, talk to ya next week :)

-Elder Jenkins 

(Editor: one huge perk of stateside...we get random pics sent to us from kind people who know we love seeing our boy. Below are a couple that we got this week.)

WEEKS 7 & 8 - October 10, 2016 (West Haven, UT) - Stateside is Niceeeeee:)

Editor: This letter needs a little prefacing…bear with me. On Friday, September 30th, Ryan was scheduled to see a neurologist about his numb pinkie. My brother, Sam, who is an OT specializing in arm/hand therapy, offered to go with him. The long and the short of it is that Ryan was diagnosed with cubital tunnel syndrome and was being “transferred” to the Ogden Mission for 6-12 weeks to do missionary work AND to be treated by his Uncle Sam. His original mission call to the Philippines remains the same, this is just a little detour. Ok – now Ryan’s letter should make more sense.

With President & Sister Jaggi

first day in the mission field

Wow, it seems like it's been a while since I've talked to everyone. Let me tell ya, it has been a crazy week. So I'll get into what I loved about General Conference and everything later in the letter, but I just want to go through what has been going on. So on Tuesday morning, I was called into the District Presidents office in the MTC. It was about 9:30 and he pulled me in and said "OK you have about an hour and a half to pack all of your stuff, then you're taking a train to Ogden, and you will be there for one transfer, two if needed” (I don't think it will be two). So I got back to my room and threw all my stuff into my bags and hit the road. Had to say bye to all my new friends again haha so that was rough. But I got to the mission office in Ogden at about 2:00. They told me to drop all my stuff off and they put me with a trainer and we immediately went finding. The very first door I knocked on was a bit wild, and I probably unfortunately won't forget this experience haha. So we knocked and there wasn't an answer, so we knocked one more time. All of the sudden the door opens in a fury!! A large older woman was standing there only in a towel -__- this was not the sight I wanted to see from the first door being opened to me. She was sooooo angry and said "We didn't answer the first time, why would you keep ******* knocking!?!!" She then SLAMS the door in our faces and we walk away chuckling a little, yet a little distraught. We go to the house right next door, but before we knock, the lady's husband from the house before opens the side window and begins yelling at us "You are terrible representatives of Jesus!!! You kept knocking after we didn't answer the first time and that is horses***!!!!" When we walked back by their house to get to our car, they put a big sign on their door that said "NO MORMONS" haha. A couple houses down we knocked a door and a nice lady let us in. We started talking and it turns out she just moved to Ogden from Roseville (editor: a city close to home)!! So that was cool. We then taught her the restoration real quick, and she seemed to really like it. Sadly, she isn't in my area, so I don't get to teach her :(  - but she has good potential. 

So the next day I met my TWO companions: Elder Stoner from Virginia and Elder Hernandez from Ohio. They have both been out for about 7 months. Hernandez is visa waiting for Brazil. They are awesome, and we got a car, so I was happy:) However, our room is soooooo small haha. We have about 5 square feet of space to walk. So we are pretty packed in there. We live with a member, and share a bathroom with his 10 year old son Haha. The best part of this house was when I walked in and saw a guitar sitting there. Finding the time to play it is a little difficult though – so, so busy all the time. But yeah, I'm starting to get settled into life as a missionary out of the MTC. 

On Friday we were knocking doors in an apartment complex. And one of the doors we knocked opened up, and before we could say anything this larger man in a thick Russian accent yells "Come in! Come in! Please!" They just moved to Utah from Portland and have been living in the U.S for 13 years. He has a wife, 2  daughters, and 1 son. They are very open about and love their Christian church, but really liked the restoration lesson. They are soooooo cultural. They refused to let us leave until they either fed us or had tea with us. He offered us some "stuffed papers".   We were so confused until he brought the stuffed PEPPERS to us haha.  They fed and fed us even though we really weren't hungry at all. They are extremely, nice and told us they want us to keep coming back. So I am looking forward to teaching them. We also have a baptismal date for a 9 year old girl named Lily for this Saturday. I have only taught here once, so I don't know her very well, but she is a very sweet girl. 

Man, I thought back home that 3 hours of church was brutal - I hit 7 hours yesterday, but I surprisingly enjoyed it. We went to 3 different youth Sunday school classes to try to get to know the youth better.

So I am in the West Haven area in Ogden and am kind of starting to get familiar with this place. I am extremely happy that we have a car though. First, because it is starting to get frigid here. Also because my legs are sore all the time. We go to the gym every morning. And since I'm resting my elbow, all I can do is hit leg days hahaha. But yeah, I really enjoy the car.

OK so I loveddddd General Conference. I'll talk about a few talks I really enjoyed. So one thing I love about conference is that it seems like every talk is applied to you and your life. I loved Elder Nelsons (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/joy-and-spiritual-survival?lang=eng). I was reading his talk the other day and I counted 48 times he used the word "Joy". One part I liked that he said is:

"If we look to the world and follow its formulas for happiness, we will never know joy. The unrighteous may experience any number of emotions and sensations, but they will never experience joy! Joy is a gift for the faithful. It is the gift that comes from intentionally trying to live a righteous life, as taught by Jesus Christ."

Just being on my mission for a few months, I can see how this is so true. The main message of Elder Nelson's talk was to Find Joy in Your Journey. And that is exactly what I am trying to do through this journey. Another cool experience I had was during the Sunday afternoon session. For some reason ever since I walked into the building, I was really looking forward to Elder Rasband's talk (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/lest-thou-forget?lang=eng). I'm not sure why, but it was on my mind. When he stepped up to the pulpit, I felt like I needed to listen closely. And there were a few things he said that really caught my attention. One of the things he said that I really liked was:

"I encourage you to recall, especially in times of crisis, when you felt the Spirit and your testimony was strong; remember the spiritual foundations you have built."

After he said that I started to think back on times I have felt the spirit stronger than usual and times that I have felt my testimony grow. It is so important to remember these things when we are struggling or going through trials. These memories can lift you back up and encourage you to press on.

Sorry I don't really have any good picture to send you guys, I'll try to do better this week. Hopefully I'll have one with Lily in some baptismal clothes. 

Love you all, have a great week :)

-Elder Jenkins