Jenkins, Joshua

Dear Elder Jenkins,       You did it. 2 years and it's over. You did it! Despite all odds and challenges, you overcame them all, and came out on top. Your testimony that you thought wasn't enough, grew and changed the lives of people you didn't even know. You have grown and become a better person, a journey that cut you up and left some bruises along the way, but you still pushed through and showed yourself what you're made of. You have tried your best and given your all during your service, and at times have fallen short, but those moments have helped you realize the importance of your work and who your true character is. Im proud of you. What you did wasn't easy, and it definitely wasn't easy for you. You have had every reason to give up, every reason to stop and throw in the towel. You faced so many challenges and opposition that knocked you around, but you stayed strong. Why? Because you know this church is true, and you love the Lord. You know that no matte...

Hey, it's me again. My mom's favorite missionary.       This week was rough. Just gonna flat out say it, no need to sugar coat it. No one was able to meet with us. We had maybe 2 lessons which is still better than nothing. Our most progressive person right now is an evangelist preacher who likes to have conversations with us which just end up with him trying to prove everything about us false. Luckily, God helps me remember scriptures and I can quote them word for word better than he could and he would go quiet and listen to what we had to say. He kept trying to catch us in our words but we knew better. Anyways he wants us to come back and im just burnt out and tired of being led on and wasting my time so I'm not going back. I have no tolerance for that anymore and I've just been super bold and no nonsense with my approaches to people now. It's been helping to sift out who's actually interested and who's just being nice, but now we are back to square one and...

What's popping!?       The weeks are getting harder and my time is getting shorter. I'm trying to stay focused and work my butt off and it seems like Satan is throwing everything in my way to get me to stop or to lose attention on what's really important. I got sick for 2 days this week, and of course they were days we actually had back to back lessons that we finally were able to setup after weeks of nothing. The mental battle of waking up knowing that you're going to have to put all your energy into knocking doors all day until your arms fall off is exhausting, and even more so is the lack of reception that comes from it. Regardless of all the hardships and trials, I love it. This is why I came out on a mission. I didn't know what I was signing up for exactly when I did, but I willingly signed up for everything and anything that was going to come my way. I have never seen myself grow as much in my life as I have while being a missionary. The unique life experinces...

What's popping?        Man I'm trying my hardest to survive it out here. Well it's not that hard to be honest, but it's been a struggle for sure. We're completely having to start from scratch because there's no previous work done here and also the ward missionary trust is in the dumps. I've had to revive pretty much every area on my mission, swear im a janitor, and not one of my areas have been this bad in terms of clean up. I thought Hobbs was bad when I got there but it's nothing in comparison to Borger. We have been working our butts off, burning through white shirts cuz of sweat, and we have not seen lots of fruits as of yet. It's been easy to be discouraged but I always try to stay positive and ive learned to be patient or look for the fruits in other ways. On top of just the pain of daily life for an Elder, I have constant thoughts trying to distract me and pull my focus away from the work and I'm fighting it and attacking it from all corne...

What's popping gang?       I understand some of you will have questions regarding my title for my email. Let me ease your mind and sum up my explanation by inviting you to join my Google picture drive attached at the bottom.       I love Borger. My heart is full of nothing but love and gratitude. I have an absolute hunger for the work like I've never had it before. I have worked my butt off just these past 2 days and have seen some incredible manifestations of God so far already. I'm on a no nonsense, no distractions, nothing but serving mode. I've been just on cloud 9 these past few days and I love it. I have honestly been praying about extending my mission another transfer just to help this area grow and flourish. I noticed that I kind of let my focus get off course in Hobbs as I was way too comfortable with that area. I developed habits of being a little careless at times and just kind of going through the motions near the end of last transfer....