HAPPY HALLOWEEN! - Papeete

How is everyone!!

Halloween is in fact a thing here in Tahiti!! I'm dressing up as a missionary haha!!!

Things are great here.  I still can't really understand what anyone is saying, but it all somehow works out! I can tell the gift of tongues is real because the only time I can really speak well is when I'm bearing my testimony lol! Missionary work here is awesome! It's super hot and we have to bike everywhere!!! We teach a lot and I love it!! Two of our investigators agreed to be baptized!! It was awesome and I had to do the invitation cause I'm new and was so scared haha.  But I love all the people here!!  Ok I'm super pressed on time and it's always so busy, so I promise I'm gonna write a huge email next week with lots of pictures!!

All the loves,

Elder Jenkins

Tahiti Temple

Elder Jenkins and Elder Tekurio at the Tahiti Temple

President and Sister Bize, and my first companion Elder Tekurio

It's Lit Ya'll

I email on Mondays now!

...Cause I'm in Tahiti!!!

This place is nuts.  The flights were great, everything was super unclear and we weren't actually sure our luggage was gonna get here, but it did!  Merci Seigneur.  Just walking through the airports was way cool cause there were actual people!  Not just missionaries!  I felt like a celebrity in the SLC airport and in the California airport I kept getting the weirdest glances haha!  It's awesome. 

Ok so as soon as we landed in the Tahiti airport stuff got real.  EVERYONE SPEAKS FRENCH.  I thought I was pretty decent at French from the MTC.  That was a fallacy.  (Also if you haven't noticed I can't spell.  Also I'm typing this on a French keyboard so 90% of the words are red underlined.)  So ya I can't understand anyone.  It's great.  Super fun trying to play charades with everyone I talk to.  Whenever I meet someone from America it is such a treat because I get to have an actual conversation!  I hope I'm not going crazy cause I just sit and think to myself a lot.  Also side note- English is the worst.  None of it makes sense.  Trying to translate all the miscellaneous phrases is impossible, because they don't exist in French.  Also English words have no consistency.  Stop yourself every time you say the word "get" and realize there is no word for "get" in French.  There are like 17 different meanings for that word and now I have to memorize all the corresponding words in francais.  

LUCKILY my new companion speaks English!  At least a little!  His name is Elder Tekurio and is a native Tahitian.  I live with 3 native Tahitians, the other two are the Mission President's assistants!  They are all so cool.  I can't understand everything, but I can understand what's generally going on and we tell each other funny stories in broken English/French.  My companion is super cool.  He plays the violin very well, he's super smart and speaks like 5 languages! or at least parts of 5 languages!  And he's very patient with the fact I can't speak to anyone here which is very good!  

I can do my part in teaching lessons,  the hardest part for me is just comprehending what other people are saying.  But it's alright I'll get it eventually!

So Tahiti is way cool.  My area is Papeete 2, which is the biggest city in French Polynesia.  So it's decently urbanized.  It has about the vibe/quality as Kilby court, for those of you who have been there.  And then some bigger buildings. Except much hotter and more trees!  Also tons of wild animals.  There are cats, dogs, and chickens literally all over the place.  And millions of tiny tiny bugs that you can barely even see.  Like everywhere.  All over the floors.  There aren't too many bugs, but I have seen a jumping spider, a cockroach, lots of little crabs and oh ya an eel.  Just chillin in the gutter.  

There are many times where I think to myself "what the heck am I doing here?" hahaha!  Sitting in a dirty apartment with people speaking another language eating lots of raw fish. But it's a good time! And it's awesome to see people feel the spirit in lessons and the joy the Gospel brings to these people who don't have very much.  

I taught an English class.  Yep.  Definitely not qualified for that.  To a bunch of Tahitians.  And I teach every Wednesday!  So if you wanna learn English or Spanish head over to our chapel wed at 6!  Also pretty sure I said something offensive in French whoops lol.  But the members still seem to like me so I think I'm in the clear. 

It's all super crazy, and there is beyond more to tell ya'll, but there's not too much time and I'll save some stuff to tell you in later weeks!  

Thank you all so much for your prayers and letters!  I miss you all sooooo much and I love ya!

All the loves,

Elderrrrrrrrrrrrrr JENKINSSSSSSSS

Time for TAHITI!!!

Salt Lake International Airport

LA DERNIER SEMAINE!!!! - Provo MTC

I hope I spelled that right.  I can speak French but usually forget the spellings lol.

AH!! I leave for Tahiti on MONDAY!!! at like 6AM and I AM SO EXCITEDDDDDDDDDD

We moved residences earlier this week, which was annoying cause we only had like 6 days left! But the new building has nice desks.  And I like nice desks. Because we are missionaries.  Which means we study.  ALL. THE. TIME! it's great.

Some of the French missionaries on our floor play lots of pranks, and I won't really go into it, but there have been multiple instances involving a real, dead, tarantula.  And the drinking fountain now permanently smells like fish.

SO GET THIS. Some of the other islander missionaries and Sister Weyland (our new addition to our Tahitian district) didn't get their Visas on time, so they are going to the Irvine-Cali, and SLC East missions!! So if anyone sees an Elder Walton or an Elder Burbank out in SLC tell them hi for me! And feed them.  They're good Elders.  But don't worry, after a few weeks they will get to go to their originally assigned missions.

Ok so Brother Markham is one of our leaders.  And he makes crazy good grape juice from like 40 different varieties of grapes from all around the world.  And on Sunday he gave us a presentation explaining Jacob 5.  (A really long confusing chapter in the Book of Mormon) And he brought a ton of his grape juice (called Chateau Markham) and candied pears and fruit leather and I thought I was gonna die it was so good.  We are way too spoiled here.  We are so blessed THE LORD IS GOOD.  And I've really learned to appreciate the scriptures.  Like you can learn anything you'd ever need to know from the scriptures.  And there is ALWAYS more to learn.

ELDER BEDNAR CAME TO SPEAK!  He's I think my fav Apostle.  His talks always go way in depth.  So there's always so much to learn.  Go check out some of his talks. 

We had our last lesson with one of our teachers and that was sad.  Frere Vanderholm, what a guy.  He served in Tahiti and has given so much good advice to us young grasshoppers.  ALSO he was in a Mormon Message when he was like 17! Haha here's the link-       https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-04-004-fulfilling-your-duty-to-god?lang=eng     He's the one with braces in the really cool snowy lake area.  He looks much different now but it was funny to see this!

Also I met the Czech Slovak missionaries here! There's only like 3 of them at the MTC right now.  For those of you who don't know why that's important, I WAS a Czech missionary! (for a day haha) visiting the amazing McConkie family when they were mission presidents there.  I walked around the beautiful city of Prague with a real missionary and we talked to people about the Gospel in a language I couldn't understand.  And now that's what I'm going to do every day! Haha it's awesome.  

The Spirit is REAL!  It's actually nuts to see the difference when the spirit is in a lesson or not.  When it is, the investigator is super interested and feels peace and we can speak the language really well.  When it's not, the investigator is super bored, learns nothing, and we can't speak the language half as well as normal.  

Ok so I was sittin one day, and felt the need to write a list of things/ ways to be happy.  And more importantly to have joy.  It's kinda an advice list I wrote to myself. So here is the list (so far hehehe)

-Read the Book of Mormon

-Make sure you are progressing as a person.  Be productive. Learn lots of new things that interest you./ exercise/ practice and develop new skills.

-Serve others

-Follow the commandments and live the Gospel.

-Be humble

-Get enough sleep

-Pray/ be grateful for everything/ count your blessings

-Keep priorities straight

-Trust God/ Realize we don't know the big picture, but He does.  It'll all be good in the end.

-Love unconditionally

-Make friends and meet people. Smile and make someone else's day.

-Don't be so serious.

-Don't be lazy/ idle/ waste time

-Create your own self confidence/ don't rely on others.

-Smile

-Forgive and forget

-Don't complain

-Be the bigger man/ swallow your pride

-Realize trials are blessings in disguise.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Can't even describe it.  CAN'T EVEN!! I hope life is treatin you all GREAT!!! 

All the loves,

ELDERRRRRR JENKINSSSSSS

week va'u - Provo MTC

Iorana!

How is everyone!  I'm doing just dandy. 

Ok so CONFERENCE!!  Literally the best time ever.  I never really appreciated conference as much as I should have until I became a missionary.  Like, these are PROPHETS!  Actually the coolest thing that we live in a time with prophets on the earth.  Cause they give so much good council on how to find joy.  Speaking of, probably my fav talk was Elder Nelson's.  EVERYONE GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!  It's all about Joy.  very good.  RIGHT NOW GO READ.  Or watch.  That's even better.  But they're all so good so just watch them all if you haven't already!

It's getting colder yo!  It's kinda nice and I feel like I should enjoy the sensation of cold, cause I very well might not feel it for the next two years.  I'm very excited to go to Tahiti.  Haha sometimes we can hear BYU games off in the distance at night and it's fun to remember the good ol days, eating a cougar tail and watching some quality sport.  

OK YO so for a devotional this week Vocal Point came and performed!! (BYU's male accapella group) (I can't spell)  They are so good like holy cow.  And ever since then I've been obsessed.  They have a  lot of pop covers, but we only listen to the religious stuff.  If you haven't heard "nearer my God to thee" or "Homeward Bound" you need to look them up this instant because they are my jam.  Like if I could listen to normal music I'd still be listening to those right now.  And we got to meet some of them! And funny enough we saw one of the members today walking back from the temple!  I felt very "fangirl" like lol.

We said goodbye to a lot of Elders, including elder Kerr, which was sad, but so awesome! They're all gonna do so great!!

SO GUESS WHAT! There's a guitar here!! It's in some teaching room and we went in and I got to play it for a little.  It felt SO GOOD I miss guitar.  Stoked to be able to play in Tahiti!  Only 10 more days isn't that nuts!!! WOOHOO!

Also my band's EP comes out tomorrow on Spotify and iTunes and everything tomorrow!  Haha Idk if I'm allowed to advertise but go check it out!! That project took a lot of work and I'm so happy it's finally getting out there!! 

I love you all!  God loves you and you're all amazing!  Thanks for all the emails, I hope everyone is doing great!!

ELDERRRRRRR   JENKINSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS <3

Things to check out-

-President Nelson's General Conference Talk- https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/joy-and-spiritual-survival?lang=eng

-Vocal Point- https://youtu.be/caUIXLxqiPU 

                  https://youtu.be/WyxXGdG3-Io

-#MCM by Middle Class Marvel (my band hehe) saturday oct 8