Riding the church bus . . .

Elder Rasolo and I in the van

Well it's been a great week!  I'm writing today from Baguida, my new secteur!  It's a really great secteur.  I actually haven't been out to teach yet because I got there on Saturday, and we immediately had a baptismal service that evening at Kégué!  We didn't get back until decently later in the evening. Then, yesterday I found out that church is from 1:30 to 4:30, but for some reason the branch here really likes to run over and it's super far (it takes us like 30 minutes to get there between riding in a taxi and walking), so we didn't get home until like 6:30, by which time the sun is already down!  And then today was P-day! But I'm really excited to be going out tomorrow!

 All of the 7 that were baptized by the two companionships in Baguida! 
Elder Peterson left a great present waiting for me!  Fortunately, he
was there too with his new companion so he got to see them get baptized.

With Assouka and Guillaume, the two that I left in Wuiti who were baptized
on Saturday!  We have been teaching Guillaume every Saturday since
my second week in Africa and he finally got baptized on Saturday!

So, this past Saturday, we had four baptisms!  The other companionship in our branch had 3!  So between all of us and the members who came to support them, we had a bunch of people.  Instead of getting a bunch of taxis and emptying our pockets, we rented a bus-ish looking van that takes people up to the village.  The driver is a former follower of a recent convert in the Anfamé branch that used to be a pastor.  His church was in our area, so he helps us all the time with contacts and such.  So we rented it for about 30 dollars round trip, and it was a blast!  I definitely got to see a different side of Togo and it was beautiful!  I didn't take any pictures, but I'll make sure to do that this weekend when we go to the baptism this Saturday!

That's the van that we rented

With the bus driver

Loved the bus drivers shirt!

It was pretty crazy in there.  What's even crazier is that they fit
twice as many people in that to go to the village!

So I don't really know that much about my new area, but it's BEAUTIFUL!  And our house is HUGE!  And we're a two minute walk from the most beautiful beaches in Togo! The only problem with this area is that everywhere there is sand which makes it hard to walk, and it's super far from everyone.  But other than that it's amazing!  My companion is super as well!  His name is Elder Rasolonantenaina (pretty sure I spelled that right), and he's from Madagascar!  He's super chill and he loves this area and the people, but he said he's only got like 3 or 4 weeks on his visa, so he's pretty much just here to show me the area.  I was pretty sad to hear that because I really like him!  Also, he's a wiz with the Bible which is definitely a weak point for me, so I'm excited to see how we'll work together in lessons!

 a view of my new house.  It has grass, a mango tree, some pepper plants,
and some growing papaya trees that Elder Kunz planted.

There was a storm going through as we were leaving for Kégué on Saturday.

I think that's about it this week. Not terribly too much going on, but next week's letter should be filled with new stories and adventures!  I love you all so much!  Have a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Semken Ramblings - 11.25.13

25 November 2013

To all of you wonderful people,

    We are doing well except for some small colds.  This has been a very dry year for these people and now it is the dry season which lasts until mid-March.   The roads and streets are particularly dry and dusty.  The Elders' shirts are so bad that it is very difficult to keep them clean.   This is especially true in Cococodji.

   A few updates.  I just received word from President Weed that the one year old District in Togo will become a stake in Togo in two weeks.  The growth and stability is miraculous.  Elder Vinson of the Seventy will organize the new stake.  Cotonou is much newer than Togo but it may be possible that a new stake will be in the making by the time President Weed returns home at the end of June.

    I met the first two missionaries in Togo and Benin.  The Findleys.  They are from Canada, age about 70.  They have only take one year off since 1999 as missionaries and humanitarian missionaries.  They started here in 1999.  There were only 6 members of the church.  Now there are 4,000 plus.  It wasn't long ago when the Southam's are there first mission only had 8 missionaries.  That was in about 2007-2008.  We now have 114. 

    To describe the process sometimes.  Remember Cococodji ?  It is on the outskirts of the city, so it seems.  The President tried figure out if we should go to the real capital of Benin.  About 35-40 KMs away or maybe to Cococodji.  He sought counsel from the highest source and said it will be Cococodji.  I was tasked to find an apartment for the elders our in the wilderness.  I found a suitable place.  They moved into the apartment in February 2013.  Two weeks later we decided to find a place to hold a group.  It was in the apartment below them.  Remember the first week we thought we would get 10-15 and we got 47, following week 54 and etc.  A branch was created in May. We were led to a large beautiful building.  It could hold 2 branch meetings at the same time.  Leadership training takes time and a firm foundation must be in place.  Last week there were 140 in attendance.  That is enough to make two branches.   All of this in less than 10 months.   The work is good, though difficult.  The missionaries are happy.   In some places there hasn't been a baptism for a couple of months.  But, there will be.

      Thanksgiving and Christmas are pretty much the same as any other day in Togo and Benin.

     We are pretty much in the saddle for now.   For a while it was if we were like riding a Brahma bull.  I am in the process of teaching and training an employee of the church how we do things with the apartments, utilities, etc.  He was an excellent football player (soccer). This will allow an easier transition to the new missionary couple when they come to replace us.  I am also helping to teach and train on how to get things done.  Like organizing new branches.  The individuals are very bright and capable.  They just need some instruction and they are very willing to do the work.  

    We have had some interesting discussions centering around 3 Nephi 18:32 through the end.  These people are faithful but they too have challenges and some stray for a while because of circumstances of jobs, distance to the church etc,  We are now talking more about Visiting Teachers and Home Teachers.  All of us have seen some who have wandered for a while but have come back and have been rescued as President Monson puts it.

       Never give up.  Never, Never, Never.  

      The missionaries do a great job of teaching and doing follow-up teaching.  We now need the members to start visiting.  There are remarkable stories to be told.

         Your sons and daughters are no longer young men and young women, but are now men and women.  They know how to do!

      Thank-you for you prayers, they are felt.

         Elder Semken

I'm being transferred to Paradise . . .

We got a little bored waiting for people to show up.

Well, what a week it has been!  To start things off, I got a call from the Assistants last Saturday night, and I'm being transferred!  I'll be replacing Elder Peterson in Baguida, and my companion will be Elder Rasolo (I don't know his whole last name because he's from Madagascar and their last names are like 20 letters long)!  I'm pretty sad to be leaving behind the Wuiti Branch because they've become family to me.

Apparently Baguida is like paradise, and it's actually quite cool because it's next to the ocean, so I'm very excited to be going there.  It's pretty far from everything because it's close to the border of Benin, but I'll be able to survive. Still not sure which day I'll be leaving, so next Monday I might still be writing from Wuiti or from Baguida, but my letter will still get out! 

So this weekend we had a pretty cool experience.  Gabriel, the former Prime Minister who was baptised in August, called us Saturday evening to invite us over to dinner at his house.  What he didn't tell us was that he was celebrating his 60th birthday, and we would actually be eating at his second house right next door.  To call it a house is an understatement.  I would say it's a super nice hotel (pool included).  So there were a few tables set up around the pool, and he seated us at one.  More and more people began to come until just about every table was filled.  I was one of two white people there, and by far the youngest person.  So, there were some dancer/ drummers that came and performed, but they got to be pretty annoying after like 10 minutes of the same thing over and over again.  Then, we ate.  We only got to eat the salad because we had to leave to go home, but we continued the feast Sunday night, and we feasted.  Gabriel wouldn't let us leave until I was stuffed beyond belief.  We got back to the apartment pretty satisfied.  However, my stomach began to be feeling really really uneasy.  Then a couple hours later, everything that I ate came back up quick or went down and out pretty darn quick.  After spending the whole night pretty miserable, I was able to conclude that it was food poisoning.  Guess that's what happens we I finally decided to try fish.  So, today's been a bit interesting, but I'm feeling a bit better now.
 

The view of the party from our table

A good shot of the dancers that came and performed.  I wish I could upload some of the videos I took, but I guess that'll have to wait

 

I also wanted to remark how much incredible progress the Wuiti Branch has made during my 5 months here.  Yesterday was one of the most edifying church experiences of my life.  We had testimony meeting during sacrament, and there were so many inspiring testimonies, especially Gabriel himself as he shared his testimony about how he knows that his whole family will accept the message of this truth as well and will become members of God's only true church on the earth.  Then, for the third hour, we talked about Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Restoration, and his role in our lives, and again, there were so many amazing testimonies shared about the Spirit and how it works in us.  I have been so blessed to be a part of this branch's progression, and again, I'm sad to leave, but I'm also excited to see how it will grow just until the end of my mission.

I love you all so much, and have a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Musee National

Happy 11/11 everyone!  I captured a picture of my clock at just the right moment today, but I almost missed it because we were at the museum!  Yeah that's right, we went to the museum.  Honestly, it's the small museum I've ever set foot in (well, I mean I haven't been to terribly many museums in my life, soooo yeah...), and it's the NATIONAL museum of Togo!  It's attached to the Palais du Congrès (the Palace of Congress) which is like the big(ish) auditorium where they do a bunch of concerts.

So yeah, every month we have a Zone activity just to have a break from the daily life of missionary work.  Usually we just go and play soccer/ basketball, but every once in a while we like to do something to educate us on the people/ nation so that we can understand them better.  So we went to the museum and saw a bunch of original African stuff, like straight up Voodoo/ slaves.  Yep, that was about it in the museum.  But it was pretty cool!  A bunch of cool looking artifacts.

 

In front of the museum this morning, 11/11/13



Apparently Voodoo priests use this for music

Didn't know they had Vikings in Togo

I got a little excited with the Xylophone (mom here - love seeing the percussionist in him comes out still)



 I think this is a depressed slave

That's the only sign indicating where the museum is from the road.  It was kinda hard to find

The main floor of the museum

The other floor of the museum



The slavery monument in Togo.  I didn't get the good side of it because I felt kind of bad taking a picture of it.  Not really sure if it's permitted or not.

So this week has been fairly normal, other than the fact that my companion and I got a bunch of lessons in.  We were both very happy with how our numbers turned out this week, so now it's time to improve.

I have been very impressed as to how the members of our branch have responded to the Prophet's call to be more united in missionary work between members and the missionaries.  The past 2 weeks we've had 6 people come for the first time that were invited by friends that are members!  And all of the members are so willing to accompany us to the lessons.  My companion and I were getting a little worried because we were running out of people to teach, but our plates have been filled again and we're ready to go!  We're already starting to see early fruits of the labor of the members!  I'm sad that my time in the Wuiti Branch is reaching sunset because I've come to love these people like family, and the work is priming to explode in this area.

 

We had our Primary program this week.  It is a little difficult for them to learn the songs because they do not have a piano, but it was great!

 

With the primary after their program on Sunday! (11/10/13)

 

Sorry, I don't have terribly too much to write this week.  We got to the cyber a little late this week, so not too much time.  I love you all so much, and as always, I share my testimony that I am truly on the Lord's time and His errand, and there is not a better place for me to be right now, regardless of worldly ambitions.  As the Savior said, and I paraphrase, when we seek for the Kingdom of God before all else, everything in our lives will fall into place.  And if something doesn't, it's not important.

Also, I have been brought up to date with the natural disaster in the Philipines, and so I send out a remimnder to please pray for all of those affected by this devastating tragedy, especialy those missionaries valiantly serving the Lord in that area of the world.

I love you all so much!! Have a great week, and make someone's day!

Avec amour,
Elder Jenkins

 

A picture of our Zone from Zone Conference this week!

I forgot to roll my pants back down after putting my shoes back on after cleaning the church building on Saturday, 11/9/13

 

Venance and Benoit and an African Halloween

Hey everyone!  I hope you've all had a wonderful week!  Out here it's been pretty splendid.  Elder Edwards and I decided to celebrate a bit this past Thursday, so I dressed up like a ninja and he carved a pumpkin and we ate some chicken noodle soup and candy.  It was a blast!  Everybody kind of looked at us weird as we went outside to light up our pumpkin, but we didn't care!  The two African missionaries in the apartment got a kick out of it, too!

 

Elder Edwards (the other American in my apartment) bought and carved a pumpkin!

Happy Halloween!  I decided to be a ninja.

I got some mad ninja missionary skills

Everyone just kind of sitting around as Elder Edwards lit it up

Had to pose with the pumpkin

Our little friend

 

Here's a pic of the chicken noodle soup I made.  I put in a few too many noodles so it became a bit of a chicken noodle casserole after I stored it in the fridge.

And I treated myself to an orange Fanta float. DELICIOUS!

Kind of scared me the first time I opened the fridge and a pumpkin was staring back at me

 

We had two baptisms on Saturday!  Venance and Benoit, both of whom are what we call papas since they're both older than 50ish.  But they have both, like Komlan, made some great changes in their life and are now along a new path.  Both are also eager to have us over to teach the rest of their families!

 

 The baptism on Satuday, 11/2/13.  Venance is next to me and Benoit is next to Elder Mbala with President Sam in the middle

Then, yesterday, Sunday, we got to watch General Conference!  It was such a great experience, and the Spirit was tangibly there.  After the Book of Mormon and the temple, General conference is my third testimony of the truth and power of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We truly do have the opportunity twice a year to listen to and receive the messages of a true prophet of God, his two counselors, the 12 apostles, and other appointed authorities that have been so carefully prepared according to the Spirit of God.  The 15 men at the head of this church (the Prophet, his 2 counselors, and the 12 apostles) have truly been called to lead the Lord's only true church on the earth today, and when they speak, it is truly by the power of God.

General Conference set up on Sunday!  It was different watching in French, but the Spirit was definitely still there carry the messages that we needed to hear!

We had four people come to visit us at church yesterday, one of which we have already taught and 3 that were invited by friends to come, and they all loved it.  They were so amazed to feel the Spirit and love that resides in every single message at General Conference.  Honestly, I agree with President Monson, Sunday morning session was probably the overall most spiritual session I ever watched, music included.  But these four people absolutely loved their visits, and I'm very excited to go visit them this week.

Well, that's about it.  Oh!  I forgot to mention that we got to experience a solar eclipse here on Sunday!  Right as we were leaving church it was in place, so I was careful not to look at the sun.  But the lighting was really eerie.  It was kind of a twilight zone feel, which was pretty awesome.  It also cooled down so that helped on the way back to the apartment.

Have a great week everyone.  I love you all!

 

Avec amour,
Elder Jenkins

 

This little guy decided to go creeping in as I was cleaning the kitchen this morning!

Note from mom:  I received a couple more pictures this morning from Elder and Sister Christensen, who are serving in Togo with Elder Jenkins. 

 

"The Doctor" doing his job 10/27/13

With the other Southern Elder Preston, Elder Preston Burkhart from Atlanta

 

Semken Ramblings 11.3.13

Good morning, it is another nice day in Benin/Togo.

     Zone Conferences were held in Benin this past week and they will be held in Togo this week.  At the present time things have finally settled down since we had so many missionaries depart the past 6 weeks and so many come the past month.  The new responsibilities of the missionaries that have been here requires additional training on the part of the mission president.  Then the new missionaries have a lot of adjusting to do as well.  It seems to me that things are going well and about as expected.

     These young men and women are exceptional.  There skills of language is remarkable as well as their enthusiasm.  They are very kind and considerate towards the members, the community, and their companions.  They learn the gospel and have the opportunity to put the things that they have learned to the test.  A mission becomes a refiner of men and women.  

      The challenges of culture may still be their biggest challenge.  Things are so different here and we learn new things regularly.  I have spoken about the traditions of the fathers:  Here is an interesting story that Sister Semken and I have been involved.  This couple, Gladys and Patrick and their two small children have been receiving the lessons.  They are not married, which is extremely common because most couples can't pay the dowry.  Sister Semken & I taught them about marriage.  They know they can't be baptized without being married and getting permission from both families and paying a dowry.  They live in a 12 x 15 sq foot cement lodging.  No running water, one 2 foot florescence lamp.  They thought that they would would not be able to be baptized for several months in order to save for the fees to get married, settle the dowry questions etc. Well they went to visit Gladys' family about marriage.  Her family is very traditional Catholic.  Her father came over to their house following their visit and said we are so glad that you will be married in the Catholic Church.  She said, we don't want to do that.  He said, we are so glad you are going to be married civil ally.  She said yes and we are going to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He said, we support you in your decision.  We are just glad that you are getting married, and BY THE WAY, THERE WILL BE NO DOWRY TO PAY.  Now, go figure.  That never happens.  There are miracles that happen regularly.   Your sons and daughters are a part of these kinds of experiences.  They learn so much from others and they have so much to give.  They are a true blessing to these people.  Thank you for your efforts on their behave. 

     Christmas is not celebrated as much here like in America or European cultures.  But, the missionaries love it.  We have a Christmas dinner and program (put on by the missionaries).  It is a lot of fun.  It is always nice for the missionaries to call home and they look forward to it.  They welcome the cards.

      This is a great place to be!

           Elder Semken