Adjusting To Mission Life.

I'm running out of things to say for my intro so hey, 


     This week's been pretty wild. It started off with a normal p-day and a lot more goodbyes. Tuesday was a terribly long day. I got up at 5am and spent the whole day driving and unpacking and packing and unpacking and packing and more driving. I don't know what I was expecting plainview to look like, but it really lives up to its name. It's just a lot of pretty plain views. This new area is hugggggeeeee. We cover a lot of ground and we have a car now thankfully. There was a lot to get used to at first. Me and my companion are the only missionaries in our area and the nearest ones are about an hour away from us in every direction so thats going to be interesting, luckily me and my comp are getting along very well so it's not too bad. Our new apartment is extremely small. It's basically one big room with beds a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a laundry room and thats it. There's no couch and no where to sit except our beds or the floors. We have a very small branch that we go to for church. I've never gone to a branch and I don't remember ever seeing one before, especially one this small. The members are extremely awesome though and it's definitely small town vibes and love, the people are all really close with each other. 


     My first member dinner was crazy. I finally get to tell my dinner stories again like I used to. Member dinners are always my favorite. I was warned beforehand that we were going to eat at a part members family and the dad was super aggressive/mean and didn't like having us over. I was so excited. We get there and we get a text that says the husband is in an extra bad mood, so I was hyping myself up preparing to meet Satan himself. We get to the door and before we can knock there's just things being pushed and thrown and screaming echoing through the house and lots of stuff going on. He swings the door open and just starts cussing at us. We go inside and sit down and just kind of have small talk with him while the wife was cooking. The whole time he was yelling at his wife to bring him beers and demanding orders and all kinds of fun stuff. They finally get dinner all on the table and we pray over the food and it gets time for us to start eating. We had spaghetti with garlic bread and it was actually really good. But the weird part is they didn't give us forks and everyone just starts going to town eating these noodles with their hands and slurping them and putting their plates to their face. I look over to my companion and he starts doing it too, so I thought it was just a normal thing to do in plainview so I start going crazy on these noodles. After we were done eating we were talking about church and all that fun stuff and somehow the branch leadership comes up. Well it turns out that the husband was the branch clerk and was putting on an act the whole time. We all had a good laugh and she gave me a fork and an apron to finish eating my dinner. Safe to say we have become really close with them because they are hilarious and help us out a ton actually. 


     The rest of the week we just met members and called lots of people to set up appointments. We helped move an rv that was stuck and dead. We had to push it up a little hill and it had flat tires. Me and my comp were the only ones that were there to help because it was older people and they couldn't push it. We did it so I guess you could say I'm pretty strong. I also had an experience at church the other day. We were helping with the youth in second hour in church and just having fun with them. After class a kid about the age of 14 pulls me aside and asks if we can meet in private. I take him just outside the front doors of the church and he begins telling me that he's possessed and that he needs help because he sold his soul to the alumminati. (Idk how to spell that) This poor kid just broke down in front of me and was telling me just some pretty hard things and it was so sad. I'm glad that he trusted me enough to tell me these things and that he felt comfortable talking to me about them. After listening to him for a while I comforted him and gave him some advice and council and helped him calm down. I gave him some scriptures to read and told him to pray any time he hears the voices in his head. I guess I have a spiritual gift for dealing with demons and things of the adversary because I've dealt with that a ton on my mission and it's been interesting to me to see the influences on both sides. 


     I've actually been thinking a lot about spiritual gifts and talents lately. We all have them. I'm not really sure what mine are yet but I know that I have them and through faith and righteousness I can learn mine and strengthen them and also develop more. I was reading Moroni 10 which talks a lot about these spiritual gifts and its been something that I've been studying about and pondering about and it's been really cool. If you haven't thought about your gifts that you're given, I challenge you to do so. It's pretty cool and you'll learn about yourself and your purpose. But overall I love this area so much already and I'm so excited to jump headfirst into the work and just grind here. We have zone conference on Thursday so I'm looking forward to that as well. There's just so much joy in the work and I'm eating it all up and trying to become a better disciple of jesus christ. The church is so true y'all! I love yall too, and u hope you have the greatest week ever. 


-elder jenkins 


Pics: 
1: just some of the food we got for the food bank
2: transfer van
3: goodbye Jackmans 
4: goodbye voores. (He likes to collect books) here I'm holding a second edition book of Mormon signed by Brigham young. Elder Howe is holding a Bible written in ancient Greek and is super super old.
5: taco bell 
6: me and elder Dunn watching football at a members house, also our last pic together 





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