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

Week Hitu (7) - Provo MTC

Iorana!!!!

Eha to'oe huru?  

Tahitian is nuts.  It might very well be the death of me.  The grammar principals are fairly simple compared to French or English, but the memorization and pronunciation is utterly ridiculous.  But, I feel so blessed and grateful to have the opportunity to learn TWO languages!!! There are some islands called the Marquises in my mission, and if I get sent to those I'll actually have to learn ANOTHER LANGUAGE.  I can't tell whether I'd like to or not lol.  But yes thank you for prayers because they help very much!

I'm having a good time here.  I mean it's like the toughest thing in the world, and sometimes I wanna scream, but I wouldn't rather be doing anything else.  The other Elders are becoming pretty good friends and we get along! And guess what!? We got a new addition to our 4 person classroom!   We got a solo sister named Tuahine(sister) Weyland.  She's pretty cool and already knows more French than we do, so she's jumping right on the Tahitian train, and will leave the same time as us to TAHITI!!! Also it was Elder Kerr's BIRTHDAY yesterday and so that was fun to be able to see him.  

I've decided the Gospel is very similar to a good band.  Like your favorite band.  That makes you so so happy and the lyrics are very deep and can help you through rough times.  Then, you try to show your friends and they're like "nah".  So naturally you're upset, because they can't see how amazing it is.  LIKE THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND! I have a lot of those feelings while trying to teach here.  Because it's hard to understand/believe in the Gospel when you don't have a lot of understanding/experience.  Just like how someone might brush off a good band because they've only heard one or two songs they didn't like that much.  You just have to realize that underneath the surface is something incredible. 

I just hope so so so so so (infinity) much I can spread the amazingness of these blessings to as many people as possible.  Because once you REALLY understand what it's all about, there's nothing better.  It's taken me a while to get to that point, but it's been so worth it.  I miss everyone so much, but I can already tell I'm never gonna wanna leave Tahiti and the chance to be a missionary.  

Also everyone go check out the band "twenty one pilots" because that's what I got that idea from haha.   |-/

JE VOUS AIME!!!!

Elder Jenkins

Week 6 - Provo MTC

Hello everyone! How's life!

This week went by pretty fast! (although I really can't tell one day from another lol) But I'm still learning so much! Hopefully all your lives are more exciting than mine right now hahaha!  Don't worry I'm still doing well, I just CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO TAHITI

This week was tough (like every week) and I'm trying to perfect French cause this is our last week of French!  We start Tahitian on Monday.  Nuts. It's weird to think that we'd be hopping on a plane this week if we didn't have to learn a second language.  But, I'm sure it's gonna be worth it!  

One day this week it smelled like smoke everywhere and it was so weird.  Anyone know why?  Speaking of, Elder Todd put some sort of Chinese cup of noodles in the microwave, and turns out the lid had tin foil in it.  So the residence smelled like smoke all that night as well.  At least we didn't burn anything down!

So some Elders and Sisters got chosen to be in the MTC Choir to sing in General Conference! Unfortunately I was not one of them hahaha! But it's aright, just look out for those good lookin Elders and Sisters with the prophets! Choir is still so fun, and we all have story time while we are waiting for it to start.

Probably the best part about this week is that IT RAINED YESTERDAY!

I love the rain.  Super stoked for rainy season in Tahiti.  

Sorry this is short but really not much happens anymore haha!

Spiritual thought!!- While teaching, I've seen how it's difficult for people to keep commandments.  Especially new and "more difficult" ones like tithing, the law of chastity, word of wisdom, etc.  But what I've also realized while studying, is that harder commandments bring stronger blessings.  The Lord knows each of us individually and he knows what is hard for us.  If we show increased faith and obey all the commandments (even the hard ones) he will bless us tenfold.  And He will always be there to help us in our times of need.  You just have to keep your eye out for miracles, cause they happen every day.  *definition of a miracle by my teacher- "when we see God's hand in our life"  So really everything God does is a miracle.  And he helps us a lot.

Here are some awesome videos we watched in our additional study time this week and they are really cool.

The Hope of God's Light

The Refiner's Fire

Like a Broken Vessel

Bearing our Burdens with Hope

I LOVE YOU ALL, STAY AWESOME

Elder Jenkins

Week Quatro - Provo MTC

It has been a week! Haha not too eventful, but I feel like I've learned and experienced SO MUCH.  First off, French is awesome. I'm SO glad I get to learn it cause J'aime francais!  I hope I can learn the rest of it pretty quick so I can pick up Tahitian!! The other group of missionaries going to Tahiti has started Tahitian and they say it's pretty tough but really fun haha! So prayers and wishes of luck are appreciated.

Almost ALL the French speakers are leaving this week! All the French and French Canadian have finished their stay here.  After monday all of the French missionaries will be composed of only my 4 Tahiti, 4 new Elders going to other islands, that came this wednesday, and the group of missionaries going to French africa (including Elder Kerr)  So our numbers will go from like 50 to 20.  It'll be sad to see them all go, they've become such good friends.  But I couldn't be more excited for what they are going to do and I wish them the best of luck!!

There are a lot of pianos here in random rooms so I've had a chance to play a little bit of music during free time and that makes me very happy!  I'm not great at the piano but I've had a few Elders teach me some songs.  Again, ANY music sounds like heaven hahaha! I remember the first time I got to play a piano here I thought it sounded so amazing.  

This week has definetly not been easy, but it's insane how much you learn and grow in a week.  You learn big life lessons here every day. Both from teachers and from personal experiences through dealing with other people, trying to teach, and putting everything you've got into trying to study the language and the Gospel.

So this week I got a slap in the face from an Apostle so that was fun.  Metaphorically of course, (Apostles are too nice to slap anyone.[Except maybe Satan])  But here's the story-  A little while ago we had a speaker come and talk about a new missionary phrase- "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts."   And I thought it was so stupid.  They wanted us to have that as a mindset in the missionfield.  I just thought it made the church sound a lot "shallower" than from our mission purpose "Invite others to come unto Christ..."  To me, the phrase sounded like we only cared about how many baptisms we got, with no regard to helping people individually.

Then Elder D. Todd Christofferson (one of the 12 Apostles) came to the MTC and gave a talk about the same phrase. My eyes were opened for sure.  Of course we want people to get baptized and become part of God's kingdom, but I was totally missing the "Teach Repentance" part.  

Before the mission I looked at Repentance as "Saying sorry to God for doing bad stuff and then asking forgiveness."  It is so much more than that.  I feel like the word repentance has such a heavy feel to it, but really it's just awesome.  Repentance is "a changing of one's heart", and in doing so, becoming more like Christ.  More than just saying sorry, it is changing your mindset to become a better person, guilt free of any mistakes.  Go watch the "Because of Him" video clip the Church put out cause it's awesome and so so true.

So ya, repentance is awesome. Not easy, but it will bless your life SO SO much.  I repent like everyday, because I want to correct all of my little mistakes and become more perfect.  It's a way to have second chances with others, God, and yourself.  

Sorry if that was a little "preachy" but I mean I am out here preaching the good word for two years haha! And that's been something that I've learned this week and has helped me a lot.  The Gospel is so true and so cool.  It's amazing what faith can do.  God answers prayers 100%, IF you ask and have faith.  Thank you SOOOO MUCH to everyone who was able to write me this week, I absolutely LOVE hearing from y'all! I'm praying for you and I hope everyone is doing great! 

-Go Cougars

All the loves,

Elder Jenkins.

*Stuff to check out-

-1 Nep Chapter 1

-Because of Him

    And if you like the band "Neon Trees",

-Elaine Bradley-I'm a Mormon

Week Tres - Provo MTC

BONJOUR!!

Ok so the weeks here are weird, it's week three but I've really only been here like 16 days so it's not that long.  How is everyone!? I hope everyone back at home is awesome with school/college starting up.  I'm getting pretty used to the routine here and tbh it's not that bad. 

The usual daily routine consists of forcing myself out of bed at 6:30 in order to be "exactly obedient" (that's a saying they have here, "obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles." and I DEFINITELY need a miracle if I'm gonna learn two languages in 9 weeks haha!) Then we exercise for an hour, then we study for 3-4 (Personal study, companionship study, and language study) And all the studies are supposed to be aimed towards how we can teach our current investigators better.  Speaking of investigators!  We finished teaching "Nicole" and that was a fun first experience!  She was very nice and was encouraging to our week old French.

Elder Todd and I with Nicole

Now Elder Todd and I are teaching our teachers, Kimble and Vanderholm, who are pretending to be investigators.  (investigators are people who wanna know more about the Gospel and get taught by missionaries)  They are good actors let me tell you.  Vanderholm's character is so intimidating and just stares judgingly the whole time haha!! It's pretty scary and difficult to teach when the room feels so tense.  (and when you can't freaking speak French)  But ya!  We usually have 2-3  3hr lessons inbetween meals and then go back to the residence where we hang out, sing hymns and sleep.  

On P Days! (which are Fridays) We wake up and go straight to the temple! Then we eat from the temple cafeteria and it's SO GOOD!  yummys.  Then we come back and do our laundry, and write emails! (Which is what I'm doing now)  At 2:40 we have a giant soccer game with all the French speakers!  It is very fun and very hot.  I better get used to it.  Then at 6PM, P Day ends and we have a class.  

---Some random thoughts--- 

 It's so awesome seeing all these Elders I knew from high school come in! I'll pass someone I know every once in a while and I'll get so excited.  Elder Kerr learns French in the same building as me so we get to talk all the time! (when we aren't diligently studying French and The Lord's work, of course.)

Elder Kerr and I being Ethauns

The MTC has no regard for a sense of time.  It will feel like 10PM when it's only 11AM and the days come and go so fast but so slow.  I'm thankful we all have watches otherwise I would never know the time.  

I. Eat. So. Much. Food. Here.  But we do a fair bit of exercise so it's fine.  And I drink 2 glasses of chocolate milk every meal.  Praise for the BYU creamery.

I have had the oddest dreams while I've been here.  And they're always like action adventure end of the world type stuff.  And I can never remember them, just little parts.

We've met so many people who are already fluent in 2,3,4 languages and it's nuts! Like how do you do that!! And then I realize that will be me in two years lol.

We always toss an orange around for entertainment during study time.  Until it breaks and leaks all over my white shirt...

I spilled food on my new pink tie and I had to clean it before Wednesday, because on Wednesdays we wear pink. (ties)

There are a few Elders here who were also in bands before they came! So it's fun to talk to them about music. 

We taught TRCs this week! TRCs (idk what it stands for  [*see note below]) but basically we teach LDS members who speak French as practice! It's fun teaching actual people and not actors! I'm so stoked to go out in the field.

OK! STORYTIME! So we have a pretty busy schedule locked up here in the MTC so nothing THAT exciting really happens.  BUT! Elder Todd and I made it to the "outside." Here's how.  

Elder Todd's jaw has been bugging him, so he talked to some people about it, and turns out our Branch 2nd councilor (one of the guys that runs the French part of the MTC) is a dentist!! And he knew just what to do to fix it, he just had to make a retainer thingy to keep his jaw from doing stuff while Elder Todd slept.  So, he invited us to come see him any time on Monday.
  

So Monday after breakfast we hopped on a shuttle to Markham's (that's the Dentist's name) office! It feels like it's been so long since I've been in a car!  We started driving and I realized, We are SO CLOSE to BYU! Like across the street.  I saw the buildings where some of my friends live, and that was crazy.  It's odd to think that the world is so close but I feel so secluded haha!  Anyways, we get to the dentist's office and it turns out to be a KIDS DENTISTS OFFICE with an aquarium with the finding nemo fish and everything.  

Markham sits us down and they make a mould for Elder Todd's retainer.  Markham then tells us it will take about 2 hours to make the retainer, so HE INVITES US TO HIS HOUSE FOR LUNCH! SCORE!  We meet his dog, Axel, who was some rare "ridgeback" showdog breed and very pretty.  We then met his wife who was so so nice and they made us the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life.  (Probably cause I'm used to the MTC food by now) They also gave us their homemade wine!!! (Don't worry mom and dad it was just grapejuice) But seriously this stuff was amazing.  They grow like hundreds of types of grapes from all over the world and every year make around 1200 bottles of very fancy grapejuice. They invented their own steamer and everything. It's called Chateau Markham and there are several varieties consisting of many different combinations of grapes.  That was seriously probably the best stuff I've ever drunk.  Drinken? Drunken? Idk.

So as we finish up our food, Markham goes back to work ON HIS UNICYCLE and tells us the directions to walk back.  When we were walking back I felt like a real missionary haha! Everyone was looking at us and some people stopped to talk and we got honked at!  I felt like a celebrity as a missionary in Provo lol.  

When we got back to the dentist, we got the retainer, and as we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the MTC, we talked with the dental assistants and it was so fun!  Since it was a kid's dentist they made us balloon animals and gave us stickers hahaha!

The balloon animals Elder Todd and I got

The stickers which we naturally decorated our nametags

But ya it was quite a fun time, and it made me super excited to be out of the MTC.  6 weeks to go!

The French is actually coming really well! I can understand most when people talk, and I can speak pretty confidently to friends and in lessons.  Studying has been difficult cause we have to stay focused for so long but it has been so rewarding.
  

ALSO! I saw my first guitar in a while! Nicole, our investigator (who is really a teacher) had it to play hymns on our weekly sunday temple walk!  I REALLY wanted to play it but didn't ask cause I didn't wanna be "that guy" hahaha!

I'm not gonna lie, this was a pretty difficult week and has been very humbling.  Of course learning languages is hard, but the emotional and spiritual impacts of the MTC are brutal.  It's hard trying to be a perfect missionary haha! It takes a lot of sucking up your pride and trying to be humble enough to learn from the Lord.  I truly know that God answers prayers, I have seen crazy cool things happen as answers to my prayers since I've been here.  

Thanks again so much to anyone who has written me or sent me anything, you guys are THE BEST.  top notch.  number one. best of show.  first place.  Thankuthankuthanku

Also sorry my emails are so long, they will calm down now that I'm getting used to the new lifestyle.

  All the lovezzzzzzzzzzz, 

      Elder Jenkins

*From the MTC Wikipedia Page:

Teaching Resource Center

Missionaries review a mock teaching session in the TRC.

The Teaching Resource Center (TRC) gives missionaries some experience teaching in their mission language, even if it is their native tongue. All missionaries visit the TRC each week. Volunteers who speak the language role play as "investigators" (people who are investigating the church) in these teaching situations.^[8] At the end, Missionaries watch a video tape of their teaching session to find ways to improve their language skills and teaching style.

Volunteers are usually returned missionaries and/or BYU students with language abilities. Members of other faiths are able to volunteer as well. All volunteers must present a temple recommend or BYU ID card to participate. As visitors to the MTC, volunteers must pick up a guest pass at the main desk before going to the TRC.

Pics and Such - Provo MTC

Called To Serve Rap Video

The video is me rapping "called to serve" in French.
It's lit.  Actually it's super lame but it's funny so there yago!!
Feat. Elder Todd on the drums, Elder Jorgensen on the cowbell and Elder Campbell on the washboard.  (Also "mot" at the end means"word")

Companion Elder Todd

Ward friend Elder Caine

 Good friend Elder Miskimens

 Good friend Elder Peterson

The District: Elders Jenkins, Todd, Campbell & Jorgensen

Week Dos! - Provo MTC

WHAT IS UP MY FRIENDS AND FAM!?!?  This week has been nutzos.  It went by pretty fast but I feel like I've been here an ETERNITY.  I can't even remember what life before the MTC was like.  So long ago.  Anyways! I'm getting pretty settled in by now, I'm alright waking up at 6;30, I'm used to the food, and everything's pretty great!!  I miss you all so much dangit.  That's the worst part at the moment.  Surprisingly enough I'm doin just fine without my daily 14 hours of rock n' roll music!! I'm kinda used to just singing hymns everywhere I go.  It's actually a pretty fun time.

--Little known secret, THE NAMETAGS DOUBLE AS KAZOOS!  I do it all the time and it's so obnoxious.  But I don't have my guitar so I need some sort of instrument lol. Everyone gets along great here.  I was so worried I was gonna have a district with a bunch of crazies but everyone is so cool.  Excersise (plz excuse any spelling errors) times are super duper fun, we play soccer, basketball, and volleyball most of the time.  And kickball!  Itsh great.  

ELDER KERR FINALLY GOT HERE! But Elders Peterson and Caine left so that was a bummer.  But good for them!! They're gonna do so good out in the mission field.  The French is coming pretty good!  It's awesome, we try to speak it whenever we can, and it's becoming natural.  Like I'll naturally respond with "oui" or "merci" instead of yes or thank you etc.  It's still pretty bad, but I'm better than I ever was before.  

WE'VE TAUGHT 4 LESSONS IN ONLY FRENCH.  Not learned- TAUGHT.  The people here are crazy.  But somehow it all works out! My first "investigator" (they're teachers who are acting) was named "Nicole." She was super cool and never even laughed at how bad our French was! We taught her quite a bit, and then she revealed herself as a teacher here and gave us feedback.  What I've learned is you gotta teach with the spirit otherwise it's a waste of time.  We would go in with a huge script in perfect French and read it off, and she was like "oh cool that's interesting".  And then at the end we would just wing it and bear our testimonies and the spirit was definetly there.  (or as much as it could be given our awful French)  And Nicole would Actually be way interested! Super cool.  I know the gospel and the gift of tongues are real.  Like I always forget words during the lesson, but during the testimonies I always know how to say what I want.  It's incredible.  The spirit is the coolest.  

On sundays and tuesdays there's a choir practice and that's way fun! it's like concert choir except much bigger and only gospel songs.  After the choir a guest speaker comes for a devotional!! On sunday we had the "nashville tribute band" which isn't necessarily my style of music haha but they were so good!  they told stories about the church and their missions etc. and then played the songs they had written about those experiences!! Plus they were all crazy good singers.  Tuesday's speaker was someone from the 70 but I forgot haha! They're talk was super cool, about their own conversion story and how we need to devote ourselves to the Lord. 

SPEAKING OF

We have "movie night" Sunday night.  Really they're just talks from apostles but it's awesome!  We watched the "must see" movie - "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar.   By far the best talk I've ever heard.  It's all about how we need to be like the Savior and stop being selfish and focus on thinking outwards towards others.  How we need to become fully converted to the gospel by actively serving instead of just having a "testimony", cause that's not enough.  We all came out of that awestruck by the spirit.  We've had some way cool lessons too!  Our teachers names are Frere Vanderholm and Soeur Kimble and they are the coolest!  They both served in Tahiti too!  Vanderholm gave a super awesome presentation about how the BoM was written for the restoration and how it's amazing and it's so true.  Ugh I love the gospel it just makes everything better.  And we had THE BEST time last night in Kimbles lesson!  I can't even remember why, but near the end we were all so tired and could not stop laughing.  For like 20 mins!! We tried to take a break but we just kept laughing everytime anyone made eye contact.  It's actually fun only having 3 other guys in the class because we're all so tight and can be real with each other.  

It's slightly weird not having a phone cause that was always my go to source for entertainment.  But now it's gone and replaced with a little key holder/retracter thingy! I play with it for HOURS.
  

I EAT SO MUCH FOOD HERE.  Like I never used to eat anything and now I eat twice as much as the other Elders.  It's nuts I tell you. Cause I used to only eat like a sandwich and a bag of popcorn a day.  And they say I read the French dictionary like a book, but I'm learning a lot so who cares! 

Also SO MANY thanks to everyone who sent me letters or packages!!!!!! It's seriously so cool to hear from and get pictures and stuff from yall.  All the misses and loves, 

Elder Jenkins

Week Uno - Provo MTC

Bonjour mes amis et ma famile!! Comment allez vous?! Je suis tres bien!

Alrighty where to start.  This place is awesome.  I loves it.  There's always so much going on here! Everyone's really nice and chill.  My P-Day is on Friday, and that's when I can email everyone.  I'd love to hear from all of you, just sent me something at ethan.jenkins@myldsmail.net.  My companion's name is Elder Todd, and he's from Cali!! He's way cool and is actually half Tahitian! And he's visited there like four times, one of which was only a month ago!  So he already knows a ton about the culture.  He's said I'm almost definitely going to be able to have a guitar/uke so YAY! We can't do music like ever in the MTC, but that's okay cause there's always something else going on! 

I've seen SO MANY people from Olympus.  Like it's nuts.  And so so cool to see all the guys out serving the Lord.  Okay so the beds are pretty good, the food depends on the day, (but mostly really good) but I miss my shower cause it was oh so nice.  I feel like I've been here for a month but it hasn't even been 48 hours. "The days are long but the weeks are short" everyone keeps saying.  They also keep saying "just make it to Sunday."  They're supportive but it gets so annoying hahaha.  I took the orange dot off my name tag (lets people know you're new) after like 20 mins cause people kept shouting WELCOME TO THE MTC!!

Our daily schedule hasn't really been made up yet, it's all scrambled until next week.  So it's been very crazy thus far.  But let's go through the day!! So waking up is by far the hardest part, I am very not used to being awake at 6:30.  I keep almost falling asleep every time I sit down.  Then we go to like breakfast, which is cool, cause the cafeteria here is MASSIVE!!!! Thousands of people.  Haha so sometimes it's hard to find the people you're looking for! But everyone's so nice, you can sit down wherever and make 12 new friends just like that.  Not that I'd be able to remember names.  Good thing everyone wears a nametag!! also I keep forgetting to call everyone "Elder".  Like some of my close friends, I've seen "ELDERS" Peterson, Miskimens, Caine, and lots of others. 

The MTC vibe is very similar to the BYU campus, especially during EFY cause of the classes. Probably cause it's in Provo. We have lots of classes about The Gospel and French.  I'm learning French for 6 weeks then Tahitian for 3! so 9 weeks here.  So.  Long.  But I like it so I won't mind.  The Gospel classes are like seminary but a thousand times better cause the teachers are great and people actually stay awake and get involved.  I try to participate as much as I can because practice.  Our first gospel class they brought in "investigators" except I don't believe they are real.  The teachers SAY they are real, and they totally could be, because they act completely clueless and how an investigator would.  But it seems weird cause they are taught in front of/by like 100 new missionaries. The French class is LIT.  Ce Fantastic! I don't really know a whole lot yet, but I feel like I know more than I did after 4 years of high school French.  You learn SO FAST.  The buildings are ordained by apostles as learning centers for the Lord or something to that point, and you can totally tell.  The spirit helps you learn like none other.  I can just remember everything so easily, which is weird cause usually I forget whatever is being said after 5 seconds.  Our teacher is way cool and served in Tahiti as well!  

There are only 4 of us in our district (all the Frenchies who come in at the same time) and we are all going to Tahiti!! Which is apparently really small, it's usually like 10.  It's Elder Todd and I, then Elders Jorgensen and Campbell, whom I followed on instagram before I came. Those two are from Utah as well.  And we get our own classroom!  We are all rooming together in a 6 bed room, so we got a lot of extra space whoop whoop! *fist pump. We live in a building with all the French speakers and some of the Spanish.  THERE ARE SO MANY COOL PEOPLE HERE! Honestly I feel like I've experienced more culture in the 48 hours I've been here than my whole life before.  So many people from different places, and everyone is always speaking different languages and talking about different parts of the world where they are from.  I met a guy and girl from Tahiti, and two guys from England, one of which played in the Premier League, among like a hundred others from different countries. 

Our Branch (all the French speakers) are all so cool.  It's like we're 100 brothers and sisters from the same family.  Which we are haha!  Everyone speaks French to each other in our building and it's so cool.  Like seeing Elder Caine speak practically fluent French after only 5 weeks.  I never thought I'd be able to do it, but by trusting in the Lord I know I'll be able to learn the language super fast, and I've seen it in action!!  Every night we sing a hymn or two at the top of our lungs in French.  It's so fun and so powerful.  The spirit is awesome.  Everyone is so happy here and I've made so many friends.  Talk to me soon!

All the loves,

Elder Jenkins

Made It! - First day in the MTC

Hey hey!! So I'm alive! First day was pretty neat, I met my companion, his name is Elder Todd and he is from California! Also he is half Tahitian and has visited there like 4 times.  I keep hearing I will be able to have a guitar/uke so HUZZAH.  Love you and miss you all lots, it's crazy this is my life now.  We went to a few classes where it was like a group of us teaching a real/fake investigator?? no one knows really but it was cool and I spoke a lot cause I figure practice makes perfect.  I've seen like 6 people I know already!!! it's nuts.  Also our teacher only speaks French to us. Please send help. 

All the loves, 

Elder Jenkins :)