Jenkins, Joshua

Whats up everyone?        Recently I had interviews with our mission president and he told me some really good news. I will be getting transfered out of Alpine once transfers come around! It was a huge relief because I was worried to be stuck here for another transfer. After hearing this news, it felt like a lot of things were falling apart. I was super overwhelmed and stressed all week and it made it hard to stay focused. Regardless we were able to give some blessings this week, teach some people, and do lots of service.        On Thursday this week, we get to have a meeting that's called mission tour. It's similar to Zone Conference, but we get to hear from Elder Dunn and his wife, who are general authority's. It's going to be a good experience and I'm looking forward to it.         There's not much that I have to really report on other than I'm leaving soon and hopefully getting to a new area will be what I need to rech...

Good morning everyone!       Okay so I should have the mailbox fixed now. If you sent me mail and I received it, I sent you a response by email, if you didn't get an email from me then I didn't get your mail. Also be sure to include the apartment number on the address if you are going to send a letter otherwise i might not get it, but it should be working now! I also deleted a lot of pictures because I ran out of storage on my phone so if you want to see the pictures that I take, be sure to join the Google drive attached as a link to the bottom of this email. Now that we got the chores out of the way I can talk about my week. It's been a pretty good week! We were able to find a new person to teach and also get Jimmy to come to church again. We met with a lot of members as well and got to teach a good amount of lessons with people we are teaching. Things are really turning for the better in alpine!       I know not every week is not really one to w...

Good morning cuties!        I hope everyone's week has been good! Real quick I wanted to say that my mailbox has not been receiving letters or small packages since we moved apartments, so if you've sent me letters or cards or other things, I probably didn't get them. The issue should be fixed soon but just wanted to give a heads up because a lot of people have been asking me if I got their mail. But going back to my week, it was like a vacation. I don't mean that in a relaxing way. I think of a vacation on the mission as a very spiritual and rewarding week where God is keeping you in good spirits and you feel like things are taken care of. I've felt and seen the lords hand in the work here a lot this week. I've been focusing more on being grateful for things that I have and that are going on, and it's incredible how much it changes your outlook and perspective. I fasted for a long time this week for the area and the people in it, and also for personal reason...

Good morning yall,         This has been a very interesting week. It's been a challenge trying to find motivation in this area again, and the mental battles of pulling myself out of ruts and pushing through, over and over again, is exhausting. I'm feeling very burnt out in this area, and having to lead the area and show the ropes for the third time in a row and not seeing many fruits, is also exhausting. Regardless of that, I'm determined to leave this area better than I found it, and get things going here again. I'm happy to see that this area is turning Spanish. My new companion is fluent, and it's been helping with our work a lot. We started an English class which we teach every Thursday, and we spent the past few days making and hanging flyers. We had 3 Spanish lessons yesterday and it's so different and weird to be uncomfortable and confused during a lesson. I've always felt confident with teaching and actually really enjoy it, but it's a new experi...

Dear Elder Jenkins,       I am so proud of you. I know you have been through so much in your life, more than you're willing to openly admit, and maybe others may even know about, but there's a reason you're meant to keep going. Watching you grow this past year has been inspiring. I knew that you always had it in you to be an example and a light for others. You've come such a long way. You used to hide yourself and be scared about everything because of how many times you've been hurt, and you always were the first person to put yourself down. If the younger version of you were to look at you now, I don't think we would be able to recognize each other. You've always had it in you to push past the hand you're dealt and peoples expectations, but now you exceed your own and raise the bar. You've made incredible changes in your life, choices that were not easy to make and it broke you for a while, but the person who came out at the end was worth sticking a...

Hey       Today is pday which is why I am writing today and not Monday, but we got a lot to talk about. Yesterday we got transfer news and I gotta say that it was a curveball and a lot of mixed emotions. I'm staying in Alpine and elder Greene is leaving. It took me a while to come to terms with it and to be honest I'm not there yet. Elder Greene has been a companion that I needed and I guess that's what his purpose was for being in Alpine as he only did 1 transfer here. Me and him talked about how much we were going to change next transfer and push each other to do better because we let ourselves slip in Alpine, but I guess I'm left to do it on my own. I have really been crushed in Alpine, and have had some very long hard talks with God, and some very long talks with myself trying to convince myself not to just pack up and go home. Apparently I'm meant for something here and my work is not yet finished. I want to push myself to be the best me that I can possibly be ...

Good morning        Man I'm running out of ways to start my emails, maybe I should have done monthly emails to break up the chore of trying to figure out the titles and how to start. I'm doing a lot better and doing things a lot better. I've definitely grown this week and felt a change. Elder Greene and I were planning our week out and felt a little discouraged as we filled our schedules with pretty much nonsense. We're trying to find the most effective and best way to "waste" our time, given that theres not many effective ways to USE our time. This week ended up being a borderline mental health week, as people took their last minute vacations and trips before having to stress about getting things up and running for school again. Alpine turned into a ghost town, and were left wandering the streets soulless at times. A week to recoup and regenerate was something that we both needed considering the mental abuse that is Alpine. It's good to take a break for a...