new comp! - Tahaa

Ia Orana i te utuafare ta'u!! Ua here vau outou.  Here roa.

This week was great.

We planted vanilla plants last p day!  It was super fun to do some manual labor with all the spiritual labor goin on.  Taha'a is the "île de vanille" so it's everywhere.  It's apparently super expensive and hard to grow, but smells really good. 

Elder Barlow is gone!! He's on Tahiti now.  He will be missed.  My new comps name is Elder Murdock! He's been out the same amount of time as Barlow, only 3 months left on a mission.  He's super cool, played soccer in HS, and is really good with people.  I'm excited to learn and teach with him.  He's "coaching" me.  That means that I'm officially the sr. companion, but he's there to help me if I need.  I'm also the District leader now, so that means I am officially the King of Taha'a.  

We took a wonderful boat ride through turquoise green blue water the other day.  Most gorgeous experience of my life.  You could see like 10 ft under water clearly to the white sand.  I'm so lucky.

Haha so Elder Murdock broke Elder Barlow's bike our first day here lol.  It was pretty beaten up, and one of the big hills did it in.  It's okay though cause Barlow has a car in his new sector.  We will wait patiently until Murdock's bike arrives.  

Spiritual thought!!

One of my favorite scriptures is obviously Matthew 22:36-40.  Where Jesus explains the greatest 2 commandments are to love God, and others.  If we can get to the point where we can love God and others perfectly, our lives will be awesome.  I love the way Jesus phrases it, he says "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself".  And I believe we should love our neighbors more than ourselves, and think of others first.  But I think maybe what Christ meant, was that we should look at life from the other person's point of view, and pretend we are in their situation.  That's a wonderful first step to learning to love them- Learning to understand them.

I love you all!

Have a great week

atl

Elder Jenkins

Baptism baby - Tahaa

What a week!

Monday I was super sick so I slept and played chess with Elder Barlow all day cause it was also P day.  Our Tahitian mom gave me medicine.  Which here is Coke and lime juice.  But it works so hey! 

The Lord is setting us up with so many new people to teach and I'm so excited! It's really fantastic to find the children God has prepared for His Gospel.  We just gotta hope and pray that they will have the desire to read the BoM and pray!! After that, it's a piece of cake!  

I got to do a split with my zone leader on another island! What great fun.  We had a day of 0 success haha!  House to house and no one was there.  But, we learned a lot, from our experiences and the spirit.  God always has something more to teach you.  Always be open and ready.  

Recent revelations-

1) We show our faith by our actions.  If we really believe something, we'll act as if it's true.  I always ask myself if I really know if the Gospel is true, and I really hope I do, but sometimes have doubts.  But I realized, I just have to go out and do what I believe.  As long as I do what I'm supposed to and accomplish the will of the Lord, I can have the confidence that I am in the right path and have real faith.

2) We can pray always by acting as if God is always next to us/ watching us. (which He is).

3) We pray in Christ's name because we're supposed to pray for things that HE would pray for. 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/eyring-holland?lang=eng&cid=HP_SA_4-3-2017_dPFD_fArchive_xLIDyL1-C_#00:37:40

4) Be grateful for every experience and trial you have.  Because they're exactly what you need to learn and become perfected in Christ.  If you follow His commandments and example, of course. 

5) God teaches us line upon line by small and simple works.  Learn to recognize His hand in your life.  And pray for that ability.

6) If you're ever scared by monsters in the dark, just play MJ's Thriller and all the monsters will start dancing and it's no longer scary.

Elder Barlow is getting transferred! Elder Murdock is coming.  He's pretty cool from what I hear, I'm excited.  I'll send pics.  

WE HAD A BAPTISM WOOHOO!  It was cool cause Elder Barlow got to baptize in the ocean!!!  She's a mom of 2 kids and was amazingly ready to receive the Gospel.  She has a strong testimony already and I love her and her family and hope they all get the Gospel too.  

Thank you all for being so lovely! Have an above average week!

atl,

Elder Jenkins

Bee Juice

  

Le baptême dans la mer!

I was a witness so I got to go in the ocean heheehehe

Pineapple

Mustache

Tool pic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Happy Mother's Day! - Tahaa

Shoutout to Mothers everywhere- you are the best.  Keep up the stellar work.

Last week a crab made it into our house and we were too lazy to get it out so then we went shopping.  When we came back it had disappeared.  Then 3 hours later we found it halfway up the bathroom door and the wall.  #SpiderCrab

Went running for the first time in 5 months and yep it's still hard.

We were so blessed last week to find a woman who's like the most ready for baptism person I've ever seen, she just wants to change her life and follow God.  It's so inspiring.  She made an awesome comment, that if we really love God and Jesus Christ, following their commandments isn't even hard!  Overcoming trials is easy cause we can lean on the Savior and God's love.  SO AWESOME!

We saw a few ex Tahiti missionaries on vacation here and it just made me want to come back and visit! Then I realized I'm already here.  haha I love my life.

Elder Barlow got super sick on Saturday so we spent the whole day at home.  Mixed feelings, cause it was fun to relax, but also I felt so unproductive!  

Yesterday was AWESOME!!! I got to skype my family and it was the greatest thing ever. I love them.  

On the way to church, a mini miracle happened!  A french guy calls us over on the side of the road, and he looked pretty washed up, so we thought he was drunk and was gonna give us trash.  But he just asks, "do you guys have a Book of Mormon for me?"  And I was like YES!  Haha it was so awesome, just some guy, looking for truth, who felt drawn to ask us for a BoM.  He's super anxious to meet with us on Wednesday, he even called us to see if we could come sooner!! The Lord loves his children and prepares the way to eternal life.  Just gotta keep your eyes open and follow it when you find it. 

I love you all have a great week!

atl 

Elder Jenkins

what's up my friends - Tahaa

What's up my friends!

This week was fantastic. 

It started off with a visit from our Mission President, President Bize!! He's an awesome French guy who also speaks perfect English, and is a buisness mastermind.  So very professional.  

He came to our little chapel to do a family night with the whole branch! And he came dressed in a floural t shirt hahaha! He cracked jokes all night and everyone had a great uplifting experience with the family.  FAMILY NIGHTS ARE AMAZING AND SO IMPORTANT! Make em fun and learn the Gospel together.

We even got to do a split with him! That means he took us around in a little red Fiat rental and we visited some of our potential amis.  Miracles happened.  It's amazing the power the Holy Ghost can have on people. 

We met lots of fun people, a Tahitian grandma who got mad at me for not knowing how to speak Tahitian, but then I just explained that it's real hard and it's hard enough in French and ugh.  Haha then we talked and left best friends.  I love people.  We met the old mayor of our island!  He's mute now, but showed us pics of his grandkids and was happy.  So cute. 

Pray we don't get sick haha there's a big wave of "the dengue" (the dang haha)  coming through the islands haha and it sounds pretty bad.  

We deep cleaned our house but that lasted like 3 mins cause lizards poop on all of our possessions every day. 

So many more miracles! I'll share more next week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK I LOVE YOU ALL!

atl

Elder Jenkins

Great Week! - Tahaa

Great week!

My new bike brakes arrived from Tahiti so now when we go down hills I can stop when I need to without the sound of metal grinding against metal.  Brake pads don't stand a chance against these hills.

Lots of little miracles in finding people to teach.  We pray so much to find the people the Lord has prepared. And we are blessed so much to run into some of these wonderful brothers and sisters!

We had zone and stake conference this weekend!! So fun. Elder Nielsen from the 70 was here and just killed it.  He only speaks English so he had a translator and it was so fun to hear the difference in the languages with a translator! Especially when he would tell jokes that didn't translate hahaha and no one got it.

We got hit on by a drunk lady at the roulotte (kinda like a food truck).  Who was there with her husband.  And holding a baby.  The Word of Wisdom is a blessing folks.  

Spiritual thought!

I've been thinking a lot about faith recently, and it's helped a lot.  Like thinking about this gospel, the book of mormon, God, etc.  And even us missionaries struggle with faith and such when there's a lot of discouragement or lack of success.  But it got me thinking, either this Gospel is real or it's not.  Either God exists or He doesn't. etc.  So the real question is? Do you believe it or not?  And if you do, make sure you live your life 100% in accordance with that belief.  Cause that's what faith requires.  And then you can sit back and watch the blessings flow into your life.  I know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and can heal us and make us stronger and better if we turn to Him and keep his commandments.

I love you all!!

atl, Elder Jenkins