Conversion unto the Lord

Mountains to climb!

Hey everyone!  So the internet connection today has been one of the worst that I’ve had in my time in Africa.  I was planning on writing to lots and lots of people today, but it might just have to wait until next week.

So I just wanted to share my testimony this week that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers.  Last week, when I wrote home, I had been going through a bit of a rough patch.  I just wasn’t feeling the Spirit of this work like I have before and I know I can.  I have been continuing to do my best to remain faithful and loyal to my God, but I just got overwhelmed with the fact that I have to be patient with myself and that I can’t master every commandment at the moment all at once.  Conversion to the Lord takes time, but this was a principle that I was just unwilling to accept or that I just didn’t understand at the time. However, after much prayer and meditation this past week, Heavenly Father truly opened the windows of heaven to pour out blessings and understanding to me.  Yes, I still have not mastered the principle of personal patience, but God has given me many instances this past week that have let me know that He is still there and that He has not forgotten me.

So in my personal study this week, I was reading 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon.  On Friday and Saturday specifically, I studied chapters 15 and 16 respectively. While I was reading these chapters, the Lord blessed me with understanding just as I had prayed.  My whole life I have known what the “Gathering of Israel” means, and I know that this is what I am doing now, but after reading these two chapters, including many, many cross references throughout the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and the Doctrine and Covenants, I really began to understand specific events and meanings represented as symbolism in the scriptures, especially in Isaiah.  Every scripture that I looked up had a unique meaning and explanation, many of which led me to have more questions that were answered as I searched more scriptures.

Needless to say, these two experiences left me so happy.  Enveloped in the Lord’s light, both Friday and Saturday were amazing days. Everywhere I went I just felt God’s love surrounding me.  Saturday was especially good with the baptism.  We had three baptisms (Bella, Bruno, and Kossi).  Bella and Bruno are sister and brother, and Kossi is Bruno’s friend that lives just down the street.  All three of them, while only being in their teenage years, have already made some great changes in their lives thanks to the Restored Gospel.  At the baptism there were about 20 baptisms, as we had a collective baptism for several missionaries in Togo.  The Anfamé Zone Leaders were able baptize two families of six people each, as well as several missionaries with one or two baptisms.  It was a great service as well!  The Spirit was there and it was amazing to see so many people enter into covenant with God.

From the baptismal service.  It was packed in there!

Our baptismal service on Saturday, 1/18/14.  From left to right: Elder
Rasolonantenaina, Kossi, Bella, Bruno, me, Abel (member)

Haha yeah we decided to have fun with some of the pictures.

Another one from the baptism.

As I have reflected on these two days, I have seen the goodness of God reflected in my life.  I am such an imperfect being.  In every moment of my life, I need to seek the Lord’s help, because without Him I am nothing.  Trying to fix things by ourselves in this life will only lead to sadness and confusion, if not in this life then definitely in the future.  The mission has already changed me greatly.  I am on the life-long path of conversion to the Lord and His Gospel, but I have so much to learn and to perfect.  Patience truly is a virtue and a Christlike attribute, and I pray everyday that I can have more patience with myself and with those around me.

As for the work here in Baguida, Togo, it is progressing well.  As previously stated, we had three baptisms this past week that successfully took place.  We have others that are progressing towards baptism, especially those that are finding solutions with their problems with the dowery.  I am very hopefully that Luc and Vicky can get everything sorted out so that they able to be baptized on Saturday the 25th because they are very ready for it.  Other than that, we have some that are struggling with keeping commitments, namely coming to church and praying, and prayers in their behalf would be greatly appreciated.  There are many good people here, but the church is still small and the Gospel still relatively unknown.  Ours is the task to take this light to the whole world, but just as this light takes time to grow in ourselves, it takes times to grow throughout the world. However, the Lord is hastening His work like never before and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a true servant and an instrument in His hands.

I love you all so much, and I pray that we may all search to feel God’s love in our lives.

Avec amour,
Elder Jenkins

A man was working with us on Sunday and was complaining
that his feet were hurting as we were walking to a mangez-vous.
So I just picked him up and put him on my back.
However, when we tried to take pictures, he got so ashamed himself and
wouldn't show his face!!!  Hahaha made for some good laughs.

Couldn't even get him to show himself while walking

 

 

 

 

Someone finally tried pulling his face, but he was sooo resistent.
Made for many laughs hahahaha.

Typical African stove.  Filled with charcoal and they just put the
pots directly on the charcoal.  Luckily in our apartments we have gas stoves.

The game we played after dinner Sunday evening.  We did it
tournament style, and I did 11 in the untimed preliminary, 10 in the
one minute quarter-final, 8 in the 30 second semi-final, and then I
won with 9 in the one-minute final!!!  Elder Kunz was my competition
in the final, and just lost with 8, even though he got 12 in the
untimed prelim.

What valiant servant would be upset about receiving an assignment to serve?

Enjoying the beach and working on the farmer's tan!

Another week gone!  And yes, they still fly.  To start off, Tuesday was a great day!  We had splits with the Assistants and Elder Dagrou and I worked with Elder Gomun, another Ivorien.  It was interesting working with 2 Ivoriens, but I loved it!  I learned so much, too!  The only bad thing about this week was that we didn't get to watch General Conference.  But, at least I got to listen to like 30 minutes of the Saturday Morning Session!

 

Loving life!

 

Nothing better than a day at the beach!

Also, we spent the whole day at the beach today!  I loved it!  We played some soccer and frisbee and took a bunch of pictures!  But I ended up super sunburnt afterwards.  So, my good farmers tan turned into a drastic farmers BURN.  But, it was all made right by a trip to Akif's for Chawarmas (yeah, like what Iron Man talk about at the end of Avengers.  They exist, and they're DELICIOUS).

So Saturday we received the transfer call from the Assistants.  Elder Dagrou is being transferred to Anfamé to be a Zone Leader!!!  We were both a little sad because of how great we've gotten along, but he's happy because he gets to work with Elder Layton again!  Anyways, I had a really good growing experience with that this past weekend.

So this whole week, everyone has been telling me that I'm going to be transferred because I've been here for so long.  So, naturally on Saturday, I was expecting to receive the call to be transferred.  Saturday at noon, the assistants called for some reason and talked to my companion.  He then told me that I was transferred to Kégué and would be working with Elder Kognani and that the Assistants would call later that night to confirm it.  Well, I was content.  Kégué has the nice church building with a nice piano and Elder Kognani is nice.  So, I was just about ready to pack up my bags.  Then, the assistants called Saturday night.  PSYCH.  I'm not moving.  I'm staying for at least another 6 weeks.

Well, needless to say, I was a little disappointed.  My whole afternoon had been spent thinking about my future life in Kégué.  However, as I knelt down to start my fast Saturday night, the floods of revelation opened up to me as I was praying.  I recognized that I am the Lord's servant.  I can't expect to want or ask for things myself that are contrary to His will.  Another testimony to me of the true meaning of prayer.  What kind of servant would ask his master for something and then be upset when he doesn't get it?  How can a servant truly serve his master if he isn't happy or willing to serve him?  What valiant servant would be upset about receiving an assignment to serve?
 

I truly began to feel the power of my calling again, and I felt happy for the opportunity to stay here.  Then, yesterday at church as I was bearing my testimony, I looked out at all of the faces of the members whom I have come to love, and I knew that my work here is not finished, and I was so happy about it.
 

This is probably the quickest attitude change in my whole life (most of you who know me know that when I'm not happy, I'm not happy), and it was a great example to me of the life changes that a mission brings.  I am so grateful to God for this opportunity to keep working in this secteur with a new companion, and I know that my work in this branch is not yet finished, and I intended to finish all of my work here going about my Father's business.
 

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

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

 

 

Missionary work is a work of miracles . . .

Another week gone and more stories to tell.  Each week I marvel at how quickly the time has passed, but yet the United States feels like another life ago.

So I was thinking a bit about what I should write today, and the only thing that came to mind was miracles.  Many people today believe that miracles don't exist anymore, but I have seen and witnessed many around me in my life.  For instance, this past Sunday, yesterday our branch, the Wuiti branch, moved to a new building that's right in the middle of our area.  It is much more convenient for many of the members rather than walking 15-30 minutes or paying for a moto.  Together as a branch, we have really been coming together this past week to bring many visitors and friends to church this week.  Honestly, I had no idea how it was going to go.  Often times we invite many, many people, but a few are all we've ever had come.

The chapel in the new building is much longer than the last and can fit 80 chairs inside.  At the beginning of the meeting, a little over half of the chairs were filled, which was already more than normal (about 40 or so).  However, during the first parts of the meeting, more and more people kept coming in.  Eventually, we had to bring chairs from upstairs and place them outside.  Many of us spent the most part of the meeting standing.  Towards the end the branch clerk got a count, which came in at 115!  This was absolutely a miracle and an answer to the the prayers of many people, including me.  Over 50 of the people present were visitors and friends of those who are members!  Officially, we had 28 sign the visitor sheet, but many had a spouse and a family present as well.  We looked over the sheet afterwards and 10 who signed live in areas assigned to other missionaries, so we have plenty to share as well!  Only 4 of those who signed the sheet were invited by Elder Dagrou and I, so my testimony of what can happen when the members get involved in missionary work was really strengthened.

After the meeting, we had a big party on the second level of the church building, which over looks the major road just below.  Soeur N'Guessan, the Relief Society President, organized and bought a lot a lot a lot of the same fabric for everybody to wear, the men for ties and the women for dresses.  The fabric for these kinds of special occasions here is called pagne (pronounced like pine).  It's a little stiff at first, but it really lasts well.  Also, it's EVERYWHERE.  You never have to worry about trying to find pagne.  It's just finding the right pagne, because there's millions of different patterns.  My goal for the mission is to buy a different outfit of pagne for every area that I serve in.

So apparently many of you have been asking about the food.  Here there are really three types of food:  pate (corn flour mixed with water and heated VERY hot), rice and spaghetti.  However, there's many, many, many different sauces, which is how people mix it up.  For instance, yesterday after church, there was pate, spaghetti, and rice, with 5 or 6 different sauces.  Oh! and pima.  Everybody adds pima in some sort of way to everything.  Pima is just any sort of spicy pepper, and it's freaking spicy.  So the sauces that I love are sauce rouge and Aubergine.  I tried the one that tastes like the zoo again this past week, and it wasn't bad at all.  Wasn't quite good yet, but it didn't taste like the zoo and I ate it without gagging.  At home, as I'm the only American in the apartment, I usually just cook by myself.  Kaleb, along with all of my Brazilian friends, you will be happy to know that feijaoda has become almost essential to my diet.  Rice, beans, onion, and hot-dogs are really easy to find and mix together, but I've added some African taste to it by adding pima and garlic.  Its really quite delicious.  Especially when fried.  That's another thing, the Africans fry just about everything.

Well, I'm out of time, but that's life here now!  It's an amazingly incredible experience, and I wouldn't 
change it for anything!!!  I love you all!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

(Note from mom:  He tried several times to upload pictures this week and finally thought they had gone.  Unfortunately all I received was the email with the description of the pictures and no attachment.  Hopefully next week he can try again so we can see the new chapel and the branch in their matching dresses and ties.)

Update 09/23/13 - he sent the pictures for this post!

Serving it up!

In the new chapel the night before!

My favorite picture of the whole day!  Left to right:  Elder Dagrou, Christian, me, Frederick, and Bashir

Gracia got a little tired.  That's one thing about Africa: when in gatherings like this, women will take other women's babies and strap them on their back.  For instance, Gracia is Soeur Assamagan's daughter, but Soeur Gilbette has her in the picture.

My plate: rice a roni with pima, pate rouge with a boiled egg, and fried chicken.  All delcious!  Very African tasts to them but they were great!

Everyone that was left after about an hour and a half of partying

Guided by the Lord



Elder Dagrou and I walking after we met Elder Mundu and Elder Kabedeh in the street



Well, I officially finished my Missionary Planner as of yesterday!  (There are six weeks in each planner.)  Only 16 more to go! 

This week was great!  Elder Dagrou and I definitely had some times where we were guided by the Lord to the people that we should talk to.  For example, Friday evening we had an appointment set up with two 16 year-old boys that were just recently baptized and two of their friends of the same age.  They are on a soccer team together and live close together as well, so they're all best friends.  We got to Landry's house and they weren't home.  We waited for a bit, but still they didn't come.  We decided to just head off to our next appointment.  As missionaries, we try to always look for people to teach while walking.  As we were walking down the street, I saw a man sitting on a bench and I had the strong impression to talk to him.  I asked my companion and he said if I felt like we should then we should.  We walked over to talk to him, talked for a bit, but not much came of it.  He said he was interested, but doesn't really have time.  I knew that we had stopped to talk to him for a reason, so we decided to just keep walking to our next appointment.  As we crossed the street, a moto pulled up next to us and the man riding it began talking to us.  He said that he has a lot of respect for us and what we do, how we sacrifice so much to go to a foreign country and serve the Lord.  We then asked if he was a member of our Church (normally it's just members that stop to talk to us like that), and he said no but that he had met with the missionaries a couple times before about a year ago.  We chatted a bit more and he said that he's a journalist here in Lomé and was going to Kara (a big city up ine the north part of the country) to do a piece this week.  But he would love to meet with us again when he gets back. 

After we had talked with him a bit we decided to keep going to our next appointment.  About 6 steps later, we heard the familiar call of "Elder!"  We looked back and couldn't see anyone, but then I spotted Yannick, one of the 16 year-old boys that was just baptized, a little ways back and across the street.  Not too far behind him were Landry, Stefan, and Stan, his friends.  We knew that now was the time to go and talk to them, and we ended up having an incredible lesson, especially for having four 16 year olds, a 19 year old, and a 22 year old all talking about God and prayer.  It was truly remarkable. 

We went about the rest of the evening with our normal planned schedule.  However, as I was thinking back on the day a bit back at the apartment, I realized how special our evening had been.  Of all the things that transpired, none of it would have happened if we were not in those exact spots at those exact times, which only happened because the Lord guided us where to go.  I was very, very grateful for that divine help.

It's weird now how normal Africa has become for me.  Everyday we leave the apartment, it's pretty weird how normal I feel being here.  Oh by the way, another tender mercy just happened.  As I was sitting here typing this, World Champs came on the TV right next to me.  The Cyber is on the French sports channel, and all of the sudden I saw some guy that was drenched and shirtless being interviewed in a press situation.  I then realized it was Yannick Agnel!  Naturally, my eyes are focused on the TV now, and they showed a few highlights of races and the results of all of the high-profile French swimmers.  Pretty weird seeing swimming, not being able to do it at all, haha.

Well, that's been my week.  I love you and miss you all and I wish the best for everyone who reads this.

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

playing marbles with some kids outside Frère Atiougbé's house

Our street during the big storm that hit Wednesday morning, 07.24.13

Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers!

Wow!  What a crazy past few days it has been!  It started on Thursday when we had interviews with President Weed, who is the father figure for all 104 of the missionaries in Benin and Togo.  He takes care of any of our needs, and he is also here to counsel and guide us.  Also, he is in charge of all missionary work in the 2 countries.  I love President Weed very much, and given my situation for the past couple of weeks, he gave me some great counsel of how to deal with it myself.

Then, every Friday morning we have our weekly planning session where we set out a basic plan of what we are going to do and who we are going to teach the following week.  Throughout most of the session, my companion was not showing me very much respect at all.  While I was still disappointed, I didn't get mad or angry like I usually would when someone disrespects me.  In fact, I let it go, and just turned to the Lord and asked for help with loving my companion.  The immediate answer was to just give service.  Serve, serve, and serve some more.  I started applying this, and I was amazed to see how much happier I was myself!  Though my companion really hadn't changed, I was so much happier with the situation.

The second answer to my prayer came Saturday night with a call from the assistants to the President, two missionaries assigned to help President Weed fulfill his responsibilities.  Elder Poll is the American assistant, and I have already established a good relationship with him.  He told me that there are a lot of emergency transfers of missionaries between Togo and Benin because of missionaries who are returning home or missionaries whose visas have expired.  Anyways, I received the news that my companion is being transferred!  That means that as of Wednesday I'll have a new companion!  Instead of changing me to deal with a companion who wouldn't changed, the Lord just sent me a new companion, which I found quite humorous.  After that, I think I was a little happier than I should have been, but it's helped the past few days get by.

Another thing with the transfer is that they'e combining my area with the neighboring area, so my day tomorrow will be spent learning the new area so that I can teach both areas to my new companion.  It's quite a bit of responsibility, but I know I can do it with the Lord's help.  If there's one thing I've learned from being a missionary, it's that the Lord takes care of his servants.

Anyways, that's all I have time for today, but I hope all is going well over there in the States, and happy 4th of July everyone!  Elder Seidl and I celebrated with Elder Poll (the Assistants stayed at our apartment that night) by having pizza delivered.

I love and miss you all so much, and I wish I could share every experience with you all!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief





in a corn patch with Elder Gnahore

This has been a very interesting week.  It has been full of some very good experiences and some not so good.  If I learned anything this week, it's that a mission isn't split into good and bad experiences, but rather it is spiritual and learning experiences.  It's been a struggle this week partially with missing home and with cultural differences in the apartment.  One of the things about the mission is that we have very specific rules set in place both to keep us safe and to help us be in touch with the Spirit of the Lord and of the work we are doing.  The Africans have a very different interpretation of a lot of these rules, which at times this past week has led to some times of tension in our apartment.  To sum up my week, I shall paraphrase a bit from Thursday in my journal this week:

Yesterday was a very interesting day.  I was still in quite a bit of a down mood from the day before.  When we got back to the apartment for lunch, I decided to take some time for myself after lunch to listen to soothing music (Paul Cardall) and read the latest Conference issue of the Ensign.  (For those of you who don't know, every six months our church has a church wide conference that is based in Salt Lake but is broadcast all over the world.  In this Conference, all of the leaders of our church, men who are called of God, share a spiritually uplifting message.  This is then transcribed into our church magazine (The Ensign) so that we can go back later and study those inspired words.)  I had been praying to our Heavenly Father for guidance and comfort during these trying times.  I put myself in the Lord's hands and said whichever talk I randomly opened up to, I would read all the way through and try to find the message.  I soon learned that it wasn't random at all in the Lord's eyes.  The first message that I opened up to was by Elder Bruce R. Porter of the Seventy, entitled "Beautiful Mornings."  Immediately I felt such a Spirit of peace and comfort, even to the point of almost weeping.  This provided such a simple, but powerful message of light in a time which was, at the time, seeming so dark.  This gave me such a message of hope that I knew that it had to be the words of God, merely spoken by the words of one of his servants.  When I finished reading this talk, I wondered how a man that I have never heard of before could bring such a change in my life during a time of need.  I now realize that this is exactly what I am doing as a missionary, which brings me even more comfort, to know that it can be done.  The phrase that affected me the most was when he stated, when speaking of missionary work in our church, "no man can stay its course, for God is the author of this work and Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone."  I know, without a doubt, at this moment, that I have been called of God to perform this work.

I then looked back to see which session of the conference this was given (Sunday Afternoon, April 2013), and I saw the first message of this session was given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, entitled "Lord, I Believe."  Again, I felt this same feeling of peace and comfort come over me as I remembered being in the building and feeling the Spirit of this message.  Elder Holland started by recounting the New Testament story of a father and his sick son.  When the father finally meets the Savior, he pleads for help, or in the least, compassion.  Christ then replies in asking if he has faith, for "all things are possible to him that believeth."  The story then continues, "And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (See Mark 9:22-24)  I thought of how this situation could apply to me, and I immediately opened my heart to the Lord and tried my hardest to turn myself to Him.  Something about the mission is that you cannot just call home to Mom when you're struggling; I can only email home one day a week.  In this instance, I think I really learned for the first time how to lean upon the Lord for help through prayer.  For the first time in my life, I felt truly converted unto the Lord, even amongst all the noise and turmoil in the world around me.  What a marvelous feeling this was, and I intend to carry it with me for the rest of my mission and the rest of my life.

This was indeed a very special experience for me.  I believe it has changed me and with that I can continue forward in this marvelous work.  I have shared this with all of you to bear testimony and witness that we all have a Heavenly Father who loves us all so very much.  I share this to bear witness that Jesus Christ really suffered and died for all of our pains, sicknesses, and afflictions so that we can lean on Him in times of need.  Whatever you are going through, He has felt the same way you have and worse, and He was able to make it through in order to help us, merely out of love and obedience.  For that I am eternally grateful and I love Him so much.  Finally, I share this to bear witness that I have been called of God to share His holy message of His restored gospel in Togo and Benin.  I love you all, and I thank you for all of you support.

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Jenkins





Ambroise

P.S.  I think I found the next Ziggy Ansah this morning.  His name is Ambroise and he's on the Togo national basketball team.  He doesn't have the means to contact or get to BYU, so I said I can use my sources to get him recruited.  He's a member and I met him this morning while playing basketball.  He's pretty dang good.

MTC week 1

Bonjour tout le monde!  So I've been in the MTC for 2 days now, and it has been an amazing experience!  For those who don't know, the MTC is the Missionary Training Center in Utah where all the missionaries come for a few weeks of training on teaching, language, etc.  So far I've been having a blast and loving everything about it!  My companion is Elder Cameron, and he's from American Fork, UT (he also just graduated high school yesterday, too!  Haha).  Because we both already speak French, we're are on the accelerated track.  Most of the other elders in my class are native speakers from wherever they are.  In my zone, we have French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog, German, and some other Micronesean language that I didn't recognize.  The weird thing is that everything is in English, so Elder Cameron and I have to help each other out with the language training. 

Yesterday was a very busy day as it was the first full day here in the MTC.  We were going from meeting to meeting learning about just about everything you can think of.  So yesterday, when I found out that everything was going to be in english, I got a little discouraged because I thought that we were going to be learning everything in French to help us be more comfortable with it.  That along with the fact that I was tired already lend me to be in a little bit of a bad mood.  I knew that I didn't want to be in that kind of [place, so I prayed to my Heavenly Father that I would be able to have my heart softened and lifted.  I didn't feel an immediate change, but I knew that I just needed to put my trust in the Lord.  After we got lunch, Elder Cameron and I decided to go and find the other missionaries that will be speaking French on their misisons.  Since they have to learn it here in the MTC, they've been here for four weeks longer than us.  We ended up missing some of them, but their teacher told us where to find the other Benin missionaries.  We found thier classroom, and there they were!  Elder Lynch and Elder Haggard were in there just doing companion study!  That lifted my spirit soooo much!  We talked for a few minutes before we had to get to class, but just seeing them and being able to talk with them helped me so much, and I knew that that was an answer to my prayer earlier.  The rest of my day was so much better because of that experience.

Later that evening, we met with our Branch Presidency which is just three older men that are in charge of our group.  They did a little bit of an orientation and then had a great meeting after that.  After doing interviews with our whole zone, they assigned two zone leaders, and then one district leader per district.  And guess what!  I was assinged as District Leader!!!  Basically I just go and get the mail for my district and make sure that they're progressing the way they should in the MTC.  It's going to take some extra work, but I know that the Lord called me to this position for a reason!

That's all I have time to write today.  There's so much going on, and I wish that I could share all of it, but I'll write you guys again next week!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

P.S.  Keep the letters coming!  Thank you everyone that has written me, and I'll get a response to you as soon as I can!  Probably next P-day.