"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Departing picture with Elder Gomun.  He and I have become very close.

Well, it's been a bit of a slow week.  With the departure of eight missionaries (and one in our apartment) there were many things that we had to do, visits to make, etc.  However, once everything got a bit more settled we were able to put more effort into the work.

Our last District Meeting with Elder Gomun as our District Leader!

Whoops!  Somebody was watching?

The airplane going to Côte d'Ivoire with 5 missionaries on it! (We hear every single airplane that leaves the Cotonou airport).

How's that for front row seats?

This week has also been filled with physical afflictions, which hasn't made it any easier. However, it is the Lord's work, and He has given me His strength to be able to accomplish His will.

What happens when you have no water for 4 days?  You have to go to your neighbors and fill up some jugs!

And then prepare for the long haul up the stairs...

In spite of the hardships of this past week, there have been tender mercies of the Lord, showing me that He is still there and that He still cares about me.  Most of all, I have felt my personal testimony strengthen of God, the Eternal Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. They truly do live and are constantly watching over us, caring after us.

Something that has really caught my attention lately is the story of Thomas after Christ's resurrection, Thomas who refused to believe that Christ had risen from the dead until he saw.

 24 ¶But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

 26 ¶And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

My studies have really been drawn to the response of the Christ to Thomas and to us all:

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.  (emphasis added)  (John 20:24-29)

I have really been pondering on this scripture and others that convey a similar message. Sometimes, I get discouraged because the work isn't progressing the way that I want it to. Sometimes there are people that I love so much who just refuse to believe!  It's so hard sometimes to see people lose sight of what matters most.  It happens to all of us in certain degrees, but it's hard to watch.

However, I take courage knowing that I am doing what I need to be doing, and that I believe in Christ, although I have never seen Him.  I know that He lives!  This is truly His work.  Even though there are many forces fighting against God in this world, He is there.

The past 14 months (almost) of my service to the Lord have enlightened many things to me.  I have tried to serve the Lord with all of my heart.  Although I have fallen short many times, He makes up the difference.  As long as I have the desire to serve, He provides a way.

I have learned that the more I focus myself on others, the more I have strengthened my testimony and deepened my conversion to the Lord.  I have seen the famed scripture of the words of Jesus Christ in action:

35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.  (Mark 8:35)

These past 14 months have truly been a blessing for me.  I have seen many lives change.  I have seen people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior through His Restored Gospel.  But the life that I have seen change the most is my own.  I don't know how, but it has happened, and I am eternally grateful for the Lord's grace and mercy that He has so fully given me.

I love you all so much.  Have a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

I have truly felt the power of the Savior's Atonement pick me up when I was down

Hello everyone!  Unfortunately again, time isn't on our side in the cyber.  However, we've had an awesome day today that totally made up for it!  It's been great week, too, so I'm just a happy missionary!

This week, I have truly felt the power of the Savior's Atonement pick me up when I was down.  Both Elder Sahue and I fell sick this past week (and maybe slightly depressed), but both of us were able to overcome that quickly and find our steps again in the work.

Sunday was a special day for me.  We had a "missionary" Sunday, which means that the missionaries do EVERYTHING.  So I was assigned the piano (nothing out of the ordinary there), a talk during sacrament meeting, and the lesson for the Young Men.  With the lesson in Young Men's, I really gained a testimony of the new Youth Curriculum.

I've been working on the preparation quite a bit (the lesson was on covenants), and I was really trying to focus on the aids that they gave in the manual.  When the lesson came, it was amazing the influence that the Spirit had on the lesson.  Everything flowed so well with the questions that the young men had.  And I was very impressed by the level of questions that they had.  It was a very edifying experience.

Then today.  We had an awesome activity this morning celebrating the 8 missionaries that will be going home this week.  We started it off with a basketball game between the French speakers and the English speakers, about which Elder Sahue has talked smack to me every day for two weeks.  Two of our starters showed up late, so we dug a bit of a hole for ourselves (plus they only had 2 missionaries on their team--the rest we just picked up from the other courts).  But we were able to tie it up and actually lead, but they ended up winning.

Follow through

So fast I'm a bluuurrrrrrr

Yep, that's when I started to get tired and walk back on offense (like 5 minutes after starting--I'm so out of shape).

2014 Missionary dunk contest?

 
After that, we had a DELICIOUS African lunch of Atiéké (made from the same stuff as tapioca, but so much more delicious and dry), rice, a tomato-based African sauce, and pork brochettes.  It was delicious.  

Lunch!

Thank you sister missionaries!

Then, there was this girl setting a volleyball by herself on the vball courts (possibly the only ones in this country, haha ok not that drastic, but it's rare), so I walked up and asked if I could pepper a bit with her.  She was fine with it, so we did.  First time I've touched a volleyball like that in over a year.  It was fun.  There were a couple of other missionaries that joined us.  Apparently there's a team here.  I find that kinda hard to believe, but ok!

We kinda just wound down to chatting until we left at like 3:30.  It's been an awesome day, but I'm exhausted.  Thank goodness there was a good cloud cover so it wasn't too hot.

Welp, I think that's about it for this week!  We've got a change in the apartment with Elder Gomun going home, so that should be interesting.  Many new Zone Leaders called with 5 going home!  We've taken a hit in this mission.  Several areas have been closed due to lack of personel, but we'll get that back up in the coming months.

Ok, I love you all so much!!! Have an awesome week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Preparations and Goodbyes

With the Ghanians (Elder Amoah, me, Elder Konduah, and Elder Adjei).  The reason why I was laughing is because I was just chanting "USA! USA! USA!" and they got super mad hahaha (06/20/14)

Well, I honestly don't have too much to write this week.  We've had a week filled with meetings, conferences, interviews, and choir, so we haven't had too many lessons.  But it was a great week anyways!

This week, we had our final conference with President and Sister Weed!  It was a great conference, but it was really just a testimony meeting.  We all had matching pagne too! 

President and Sister Weed's parting present (06/20/14)

All the Sisters and their matching pagnes (06/20/14)

Missionaries serving in Benin (borrowed from Elder Hawkins) 06/20/14

Benin missionaries in their matching pagne (borrowed from Elder Hawkins) 06/20/14

Thursday we had our last interviews with President Weed.  President and Sister Weed came and shared a short message and had us write a few words of counsel to those who might ask them for advice.  As I thought about some of the lessons I've found important this past year, here are two that came to mind: Love everyone, but the Lord first; we don't have to be perfect, but we can be perfectly obedient.  I was tempted to write "eat yogurt three times a week," but I didn't.

Our apartment (me, Elder Silvas, Elder Sahue, and Elder Gomun) with President and Sister Weed after interviews on Thursday, 06/19/14

Sister Weed's message was simple, but strong.  She took it from Jacob 6:12 in the Book of Mormon, which says, "Oh, be wise.  What can I say more?"  President Weed's counsel was focused much more on preparing ourselves for the next life.  He talked about how if we prepare ourselves in this life, we will literally sit with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Moses, Peter, Joseph Smith, Adam, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father.  He talked about what the word reconcile really means.  Through an etymological breakdown, we learn that it means, literally, to "sit with again."  So when we say that Christ's Atonement reconciles us with God, it is quite literal.

All in all, it's been a good week of goodbyes and preparations for President Morin next week.  Sorry to be a bit short today, but I’m short on time.

I love you all so much.  Have a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Baywatch...

yep.  Don't know what to write