CHRISTMAS :D - Papeete

Joyeux Noel!!!

This week was fantastic.  First off I bought some pasta in a breadbowl and that was very tasty.  

We had tons of Christmas related activities.  And I love activities. 

We made cookies, a lil christmas tree, and had lil christmas lights.  T'was perfect really.

We had a big Christmas party with all of the missionaries on the main island and it was so fun!  Saw all my MTC group, and got to know lots of the other studly servents of the Lord.  We all did comedy Christmas sketches, and they were great.  I would send a video but they were all in French.  

Our big missionary Christmas present each year is we get to watch A MOVIE! Haha usually a Disney.  So we all watched Finding Dory (in French of course) and I enjoyed every minute.  Did not understand every minute, but enjoyed. 

There was a wedding in our ward and it was so awesome!  We saw them come out of the temple, so happy cause they know they're gonna be together forever and ever.  And the wedding food was great!

We went caroling to some houses around the town and they all loved it!  A small child thought it was a good idea to take my backpack and bike away with it.  So we got to wait for like 5 mins till he came back, and he still didn't wanna return the stolen goods. We argued with him for a while, until finally an old lady came over and made him return my backpack.  He was so upset afterwards.  I guess he wanted all the Book of Mormons inside. 

We had fish heads for our Christmas eve dinner! So that was great.  First time for everything amiright

Christmas was amazing!  Started by opening presents from my lovely family, and I got to skype them! It was so much fun!  I miss ya'll so much.  Also holy cow Utah got some snow!  Jealousssssssss!

After we just chilled most of the day, and had a lovely dinner with crepes for dessert.  Quite perfect actually.  

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas as well!  I love and miss you all!!! I hope Christ was the center of your Christmas, cause it is CHRISTmas amiright???  But luckily, it's not JUST December that we can follow the Savior's example.  We should strive each and every day to become better.  Serve more.  Love more.  I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I know that He lives and through following his teachings, we can live happily with our families for ever and ever.  I know the Gospel is our best aid in life, and I'm so grateful we live in a time when the Gospel is in it's fullness. 

Merry Christmas to all! And to all another good 20 months!!!!!

All the loves,

Elder Jenkins

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR - Papeete

MERRY CHRISTMAS ON SUNDAYYYYYYY!

Santa Clause is coming.  Fun fact- I got to hear the Elvis Christmas Album (a timeless gem) cause it was playing at the mission office!! And in "here comes santa clause" he sings "Santa knows that we're God's children, and that makes everything right". And that's so cool cause how true is that!!

I still miss snow and such, but there are a lot of christmas concerts the church puts on, and those are so much fun!  Even if all the songs are in French!

I'm rereading the General Conference talks in La Liahona and ya'll should do the same!  Like they are straight gold!!! You can read a talk in just like 5 mins and feel uplifted and learn something!  It's such great knowledge, how lucky we are to have prophets on the earth to teach us!

Taught Feliz Navidad during the English/Spanish class! My comp teaches spanish, and since the American version of the song has english words we thought it'd be easy to just do that! They all loved it, and of course I danced like a fool to make everyone laugh.

Went to a music shop and played an actual nice guitar!  Haha the worker in broken english told me to play "cooly" cause I guess I was gettin a little too into it!

Ok so interesting thing about hair.  Back in the US, I was used to lots of comments about my hair, when it was very volumus and curly.  But here, everyone has the same hair as me haha! So the style is straight hair.  ALL the Tahitians love straight hair.  So I go to get my haircut, and the lady cutting my hair just starts straightening it.  I was like "What?????" haha I started laughing cause it looked so funny to me but I didn't say anything cause I didn't know how to explain that I thought it was odd.  She probably thought that I always straighten my hair, cause that's the style here! So I had straight hair for a day.  

Got unreasonably soaked the other day.  Rode bikes for a while while it was dumping, and it's like I literally stepped into  a shower.  My socks were soaked.  For the rest of the day.  I love Tahiti

Been out for 4 months now!!!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!! You're all amazing children of God! Do something nice for someone every day. CHARITY IS THE KEY

All the loves,

Elder Jenkins

12/12 It's Elder Jenkins! - Papeete

How is everyone! I hope swell.  Enjoyin that December chill.  Keeping snug, swaddled in a warm quilt.  Taking slow sips from a glistening mug of hot coco.

Life is good!  Not too much this week, pretty normal tbh.  I was a tad malade (sick) this week which was a major bummer, but I'm feeling good as new! Luckily it wasn't zika or one of the crazy diseases here haha cause that'll take you out for a month or two.  

Thinking about Christmas, and what it means.  It's really cool.  Repentance is awesome.  The Savior is the coolest guy ever.  Take a minute to read the parts of the New Testament about the Savior's ministry if you have the time.  You'll learn something important.  

Don't give up! The Lord loves ya, I love ya,

all the loves,

Elder Jenkins

Fastest week of my life - Papeete

For reals tho that felt like  2 days.  Mission time is crazy.

This week was great! Lots of progress in the Lord's vineyard. Amazing to hear the stories of all our investigators, and how the Book of Mormon and prayer has brought them such peace and happiness into their lives.  PRAY AND READ.

We went on a hike to "the cross!" It's this big ol crucifix
the Catholics put up on the mountain and it's very pretty.
Always keeps ya thinkin about Jesus!

A new Frenchy moved into the house, and he has a ukulele! Haha so I play that whenever I have the chance at night. I do miss the jams.

My companion made me a tie!!
I chose the pattern and he sewed it.

I bought some cereal this week, even though it's so dang expensive here.  But I miss America okay! Some Tahitian brand frosted flakes.  So good. I ate like a bag and a half in 10 mins.

The work here is crazy! Sometimes I think, "ok, I'll give myself 3 mins to think about home, then I have to get back to work!"  Same with speaking English! Like it is such a mental break to just have an English conversation for more than 10 seconds.  Also feels very strange and sometimes I have to stop myself before I respond in French!

Yesterday was great!  Fast day.  I've decided it's not really fast day until you've sacrificed one good opportunity for some ma'a.  (tahitian for food) Yesterday was popcorn.  I miss so bad haha actually the first popcorn I've seen here.  Thank goodness they have crepes here or I'd have sacrificed all 3 of my fav foods. (crepes, popcorn, chocolate milk) You americans better be thankful for your blessings.  Ya'll don't know how good you have it.

And yesterday was the first presidency christmas message! It was great.  Back in the MTC Elder Bednar told us that if you listen close, every talk is about either Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, or Enduring to the End.  And each talk has an invitation and promised blessings.  Hope you all found the subject, invitation, and blessings in yesterdays talks.  There's a reason they give the talks at the times they do.  LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS.

We ate some cookies that smelled like hot chocolate and I imagined snow outside and it was great.  Somehow it still feels like Christmas here.  Even without all the lights or family or snow.  And that's

cause Christmas is about Christ and following his example. All you need to do to feel the Christmas spirit is love and serve others.

I LOVES YALL S'MUCH!!!

have another fantastic week,

Your fav, Elder Jenkins

With one of my new best friends Kealoha. He's crazy.

MANGOES!

Jammin some tahitian classics.

HELLO AGAIN - Papeete

AHHHH how is everyone!!

I get so excited and smile every time  I sit down to do emails cause I just love ya'll so much!!

So this week was pretty good!  Lots of random fun things happen but really it's just great all the time doing missionary stuff so ya it's always great.

Last P day we went to go fishing and there was a little spot where we could go in the water!  Fun fact- I'm pretty sure Tahiti is the only mission that allows this, but we are allowed to go knee deep in the super warm clear water!  And it felt so so nice and I wanted more than anything to jump all the way in haha but that would not be appropriate!!!

Also my companion caught a barracuda haha the animal life here is nuts.

So this week for the English class I taught everyone Head Shoulders Knees and Toes!  Haha they seemed to enjoy it and they taught me the French version!

Thanksgiving was this week!  How was everyone's thanksgivings I hope great. They don't really celebrate thanksgiving here but they made an exception for us!  We ate at a members house and get this.  They heard they were having an American over for dinner (me) and they bought a turkey!!! Like no way!  Haha so I got a little American food along with all the fish and rice!

On thanksgiving, we asked the host what holliday we were celebrating.  He responded "is it Monday Black?" hahaha I love Tahitians.

Speaking of, I decided wearing all black was necessary on Black Friday, and made it through the day without heatstroke!!

It's crazy the connections I find here.  Like I saw a Utah State University t shirt at an investigators house!  And an Elder from Germany, who is serving with me in Tahiti, has been to my high school.  Like what are the odds!  Neat. 

The kids here are my best friends.  They're all so crazy and fun.  One of the little guys always asks for a pencil so he can draw scribbles.  And each time he just breaks all the lead in the pencil, and then cries because he wants to draw haha.  So i better start carrying around pens.  

Spiritual thought!!!  I'm trying to read the Book of Mormon all the way through again, and I've decided the most repeated phrase in the book is "Inasmuch as you keep my commandments, you will prosper in the land.  But inasmuch as you do not keep my commandments, you will be cut off from my prescence."  (That's God talking) And it is so true.  It's like God just wants to give us blessings.  And those blessings are free and awesome, and all we gotta do is follow the few rules He's given us!  So really if you think about it, commandments are blessings not rules.

Loves ya'll s'much!!!!

Elder Jenkins

Rain rain go away just kidding stay forever - Papeete

Hello everybody!!

Things are great!! Another fun week here in Papeete. 

The French is coming little by little. We teach a ton and everyone here is so nice!  We get random shoutouts on the street all the time from surfer dudes jamming to some island music.  

I keep finding lots of guitars and ukuleles to play and so that's awesome!  I got to jam on a tahitian ukulele with a bunch of other guys playing Weezer songs and they thought it was awesome haha!!

One guy was playing the guitar upside down cause he was left handed!  And he was way good!

It's rainy season now and that means it rains and is cloudy a lot!!! IT'S THE GREATEST EVER YO.  Like it's not even that hot anymore, just rainy and amazing.  

People sometimes try to talk in English with me and they think it's so funny haha! 

I've had many battles with lizards in our house but they are simply too fast.  The lizards are superior and we must submit.  They will reside with us in our house.

Spiritual story!!!

  Ok so one thing I strongly believe (which is also very cliche) is that the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Like I think He on purpose answers prayers different than we think He will. Why? Maybe to try our faith? Maybe to humble us? Or maybe He just has a crazy sense of humor idk.  But anyways! We were contacting and prayed that we would be able to find someone to teach.  So we go out and literally go through every single street, talk to tons of people, and loop around our entire sector and nothing.  We're like what the heck man we prayed and everything! And as soon as we have completed our travels, some lady walks up to us and asks "so why is it called the Book of Mormon if Joseph Smith wrote it?" Hahaha and I almost died.  So we quickly explained that Joseph did not, in fact write the book and gave her a quick lesson.  And she accepted the invitation to be taught!! The work here is awesome.  Things like that happen literally all the time.  From those experiences I've learned A LOT of things, but some quick ones-  God is there.  He is listening and WILL answer your prayers.  BUT you've gotta have lots of faith and act upon it.  I believe faith to be a verb rather than a noun.  You have to do something first, believing that God will follow through.  That is faith.  

LOVES YOU ALL

Elder Jenkins

Classic mango stand

My companion with a huge snail.

Me and temple cause why not

Hina's baptism!!  I forgot to say, my companion baptized her and I got to confirm her
and give her the Holy Ghost (in French so I struggled a little) but it was so awesome!

Some crazy kids

IAORANA!! - Papeete

Hello!! How is everyone!  I feel like I just barely wrote to ya'll!  I'm convinced that missionary time goes by WAY faster than regular time cause the days are just flying by!  I've been in Tahiti for 3 weeks now!!

Me with my companion Elder Tekurio!

Ok so things about Tahiti

It's super duper hot here!  I pretty much haven't stopped sweating since I arrived.  Which has taken a while to get used to, but now I barely even notice the stickyness or the constant dripping from my forehead.  It's pretty hard to stay clean when you're biking through dirt roads in the hot sun!  Mostly the humidy is nuts.  Which is kinda cool cause I've only really ever lived in Utah where it's always super dry!

It smells like a lot of things.  The ocean, sewers, cigarettes and weed, flowers, sweat.  Haha it's great. 

The music here is awesome!!  You hear people with little speakers walking around all the time.  Mostly it's American pop songs, but remixed to sound "islandy."  Also!  People play lots of music here and I've seen people walk around with ukuleles and guitars all over the place.  They have lots of little jam sessions playing island Tahitian songs and it sounds so cool!  They play not regular ukuleles, but Tahitian ukuleles.  They are played the same, but have 8 strings made of fishing line!  Weird sound.  And they play them so fast!!! holy cow! I'll try to take a video one of these days.  But I've been able to play a lot of guitars here just at members houses and that's been a HUGE blessing!  I miss so much!  We mostly just listen to church music. Tahitians I live with jam hard to Christian Rock. It's pretty awesome lol.  

It's super super pretty.  At least parts!  There's lots of graffiti, sewer smells, dead animals, and all that good stuff.  But we get to exercise at a members house right next to the ocean so I get to see that every morning!! But overlooking the different parts of the island is really beautiful.  And there are lots of mountains!  So it's really not that different from Salt Lake!  

Lots of pretty/ common views I see every day

Lots of pretty/ common views I see every day

Lots of pretty/ common views I see every day

The food here is SOOOOO GOOD.  So we mostly eat fish (raw) and chicken!  So that's awesome!  Probably cause they're pretty cheap.  (because the ocean is 3 mins away and there are chickens literally all over the place).  And we get fed by members EVERY NIGHT!  So to say the least I've eaten a lot here!  Definitely much fatter than when I left on the mission.  Whenever I complain to anyone about gaining weight they just smile and say "welcome to the mission."  They sell French baguettes everywhere you go for 53cents and it's incredible.  The best bread ever.  So that's always the go-to because we don't have a ton of money for food!  But I'm not complaining cause I LOVE.  

There's a CREPE STAND IN OUR SECTOR!!!!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND.  I was so happy when I found that out.  So we get crepes there a lot and the lady who runs it is so nice and sometimes gives us free crepes!!  The Lord really watches out for us!   People here are so so so nice. They just give everything to you.  Their way of showing friendship is by giving you food!  

The fruit here is unreal.  By far better than anything like ever.  Pineapples and Mangoes for dayyyzzzz.  Also I ate a coconut!  Elder Teamo knocked it off a tree for me and bashed it open and I partook of it's blood.  It was fizzy like carbonated!  I don't even know how that works but it was cool. 

Also I finally had the infamous fafaru.  For those who don't know what that is, it's raw fish.  That is left out in the sun for a while, and is then placed in salt water for about 10 days.  Then you eat it.  Why? Because you can.  It tastes like death.  But who am I to judge. 

Life here is super fun.  Sometimes I just stop and think to myself "what the heck am I doing!?" Cause it's quite a culture shock sometimes!  Whenever I meet someone who speaks English I have to pause and adjust back to my native language.  I really really hope I remember how to talk when I come home!

We are always doing something.  Studying, teaching lessons, biking to lessons, helping with ward activities, trying to find people to teach etc.  And I love it!  It's super exhausting but I really enjoy having a full day every day.  No wasted time.  It's lots of work but it really pays for itself.  Seeing investigators find the joy of the Gospel is amazing.  Love it.  

We also do fun stuff here!  All the missionaries are super cool and it's fun to talk with them.  And we go fishing on occasions!  The fish are all super pretty with lots of colors.  I just use a pole with a line literally tied onto the end and somehow I still catch lots of fish.  I love Tahiti!

"Mon Poisson et Moi" - A love story

Spiritual thought!!  So I'm reading the Book of Mormon over again, and I've hit the section in Alma about Ammon, Aaron, Alma etc.  And it's super helpful cause they were like the best missionaries of all time!  And what I've learned is that success comes through patience and enduring through hardships, and lots and lots of prayer.  It's night and day difference when we forget to pray before teaching or contacting.  Prayer is the key to success.  And I think that's the case with a lot of things too.  Because Heavenly Father loves us.  That's probably the biggest thing I've come to really know on the mission.  He loves us soooo much and will bless us and give us so many things if we let Him.  You just gotta ask and have faith.  And then be grateful for the blessings you receive.  

Thanks again to everyone who writes me,  ya'll are literally THE GREATEST!

All the loves,

ELDERRRRRR JENKINSSSSSSSS

Tahiti Temple

Everyone rides scooters here

Our house!!

Our house!!

Haha my companion gave me a haircut and also thought it would be funny to straighten my hair!