People Can Change!

November 30, 2020 

This week has been decently busy. Tuesday we had a great district council and Stanley was able to join us with Charleen. He had a lot of great insights and stuff. **Editor's note-Stanley is Charleen's roommate that was making life choices that were not conducive to the Gospel and she was hoping to evict him from her home. He is now trying to learn more about the Gospel and make some changes in his life.

Wednesday we had a good lesson with Tamaka and Julie (her fellowshipper from the war). It was good to talk with both of them! 

We had our pre-Thanksgiving feast as I told you about. Thursday was filled with Tamaka, Charleen, and the Fullers. We even got "exposed" to covid at the Fullers. I guess one of the girls' friends had it but we haven't had any symptoms so the nurse wasn't concerned.  

Friday we had exchanges and I went with Elder Hoyt and we spent most of the day on Facebook.  Saturday we had dinner with the Whites and it was good to talk to their son. He is almost ready to go on a mission. He was having a hard time though because they won't hold scholarships for cross country. 

Sunday was crazy with having Charleen AND Kayla at church plus lessons with Tamaka and Charleen and a dinner appointment.  

Busy week and we have a big goal next week to try and find 50 people as a zone!

Slooow week

 November 23, 2020

This week was pretty slow so I don't have any updates besides Kayla has made a lot of progress and we had a good lesson on part of the Restoration! She got a job and her boss is a less active member who owns a cool model house museum! 

Busy Busy

 November 16, 2020

This week has been so crazy I don't even know where the time went.

Tuesday we had a great district council.  It was nice because we haven't had one for 3 weeks. It was awesome to get a lot of council and guidance from the Lord through other missionaries. 

Wednesday we had a great lesson with Kayla! She is homeless currently, but trying to clean her life up and go to church. It was awesome cause she made it to church this week! 

We also had a lesson with Lucille, an old lady who was a service referral. Then we went and gave Charlene a blessing for her knee. Please be praying for her. 

Kaitlyn fell through, but we are trying to get some district shirts made through her because she has a t-shirt printer. The goal is to get to know her and her fiance on a more personal level. 

Friday we had a good lesson with Ken and we met with Jeff. We are probably going to have to stop teaching Jeff because his circumstances make it that he needs a lot of help but we are too far away to consistently drive to help him with little things.  We used almost all of the miles for this month already most in this week.  Are we gonna stop driving? No. We got work to do! 

Saturday we had service for Charlene.  

Sunday, Sister Smith, a less active member came to church, and Charlene and Kayla too! So good. The other Elders also had their youth investigator join too! 

We are worried for Tamaka. She doesn't really have the desire anymore. We still meet, but her lessons just haven't been that spirit filled. Pray for her as well. Thanks!

You Know You're In the South...

 November 9, 2020

This week has been super busy with lessons. We helped Charleen a lot and she came to in-person church! She enjoyed it. She is still trying to get the guy living with her to move out so be praying for her. We are going to teach her the law of chastity so that she can be strengthened and have God on her side more. She is really close to Baptism and being put on date. We got her a few new friends in the ward too!

We are a little concerned about Jeff. We had a lesson with him and he wanted us to call him to make sure he was ok (aka not dead). We weren't able to call that evening because we had a bunch of lessons. But we called him the next day and he didn't answer or called back ! 

Tamaka is doing pretty good. We are trying to figure out how to help her progress more. 

 

This week Elder Grant and I made fried chicken for dinner, then Charlene made us fried chicken and a member bought it for us. I think we've had enough for a while!

All in all, it has been a good week! 

The Greenwood Elders

We got so much chicken this week!

One of the members has a Lamborghini!

Slow and Steady

 November 2, 2020

 There was a good deal on a shoulder roast so I am going to attempt Carne Adovada. I even found new Mexico chili at a Mexican shop with the help of Elder Grant!

Charlene is doing really well. We painted her house and yesterday had a good lesson with her. She wants to get her partner out of the house because he isn't changing and is doing drugs. But she doesn't have money for an eviction notice.  She is doing really good with quitting smoking and coffee unless her partner is around.

She is wanting to come to church as well. 

Tamaka is doing ok. We are trying to get more fellowshipers so she can learn and understand more about the gospel.  She has been taught but the understanding isn't quite there yet. 

Lea canceled because of Halloween but we rescheduled. No word from Nathan. Will probably reach out this week. 

That's pretty much it. Been a short week. We did the flags for Bishop with the football team again but it was more boring. 

One of the companionships got removed from the district but they hopefully will come back. It doesn't feel the same without them.

Round 3!

Elder Grant and I are staying in Greenwood again this transfer!!! 3rd transfer here! (Taylor has loved Greenwood, SC, and has told me many times he would love to spend 6 months or more there). 

Tuesday we picked up some paint the bishop had so that on Saturday we can hopefully paint the inside of Charlene's house. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with Charlene and we talked again with her about being baptized. She said she would pray about it! 

We were supposed to teach Ken's family but we ended up just talking with him. He is struggling with how to help his family get on the right path.

Thursday we had a bible study with a lady named Belinda who we have been trying to contact for the past two months and we finally taught her. We were supposed to go by on Tuesday but it didn't go through. We did find a member who wanted to do a member video which was awesome! 

We had a lesson with Katelyn and she was interested in being baptized! Pray for her because she has some concerns about the book of Mormon, we haven't talked about it yet.

 
Friday/Saturday was supposed to be exchanges but due to me getting sick AGAIN  the other elders each went to different lessons. Jeff is a guy we got from a member and he was told he has 3 weeks to live. Elder Grant and Elder Hoyt went and he wants to get baptized and they said they gave a strong promise he would never want to smoke again! We are meeting with him tomorrow.

Sunday we had a lesson with Charlene and she was struggling with remembering the loss of her son. She said she is thinking about joining our church though! Later, we had a lesson with Tamaka again and her fellowshiper invited her to think about baptism! 
Tuesday we showed the member video we made with her and her family loved it!

Last week for p-day we hiked to some waterfalls.

Making some pizza

Newest skill-- balancing a wheel chair!

A dog (Taylor loves dogs)

Sick Week

 October 19, 2020

Tuesday we had zone conference and that was good. President Monson gave a great training on the Atonement. The spirit was really strong. 

I now understand why they put fog in Halloween movies because we were driving to zone conference in some of the thickest fog I have seen on the roads ever. It is definitely "spooky season"!

Wednesday morning my companion woke up sick with the flu or cold so we had to cancel all of our great plans and relax. It was kinda a bummer cause we were going to have a ton of lessons! 

Thursday he was feeling a lot better so we went on exchanges. I was with Elder Hoyt which was a lot of fun. This is his first transfer. We went and taught Wesley, a guy we found last week. He is really spiritual and has gone through a lot! We are hopefully going to teach him again Wednesday or Thursday. 

Funny thing is because I was still in my area I had the sim card in my phone and one of the sisters calls and tells us that they were potentially exposed to covid at church and then didn't find out until then, so they exposed all of us . Fortunately it sounds like none of us we actually exposed but we all lost it because Elder Grant was sick.

Friday I started feeling crummy so we took it a little easier. We still went and did some service for this lady the other elders are teaching. For some reason they didn't really contact much of the ward to try and get some members to help and tools etc. So we hit up one of our favorite member boys who is a senior in high school. He said he would come and pulled up with tools and a truck and two friends! He's awesome.  One of his friends gave him some Klondike bars but they decided they wanted to go to Brusters, an ice cream place here. And we were driving and he threw the bars through the windows.  Fortunately we caught them and they didn't splatter all over the car 

Saturday we did some service for some members demolishing a building so that was fun. We were pretty exhausted after that. 

Sunday we had the opportunity to speak on missionary work in church we both were only supposed to speak for 10 minutes each. But somehow we both spoke for 15+. Guess that will be the only time I talk too long! LOL! We had a lesson with Charlene. We had not one, but two member meals this week. One with the Whites and one with our Relief Society president's family. 

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Pray for the Investigators

October 12, 2020

 This week we have been able to find 10 people. Unfortunately, no one was able to make it to sacrament. Be praying for Nathan Craft,  he wants to come to church but has had to watch his grandmother because she is sick. He is 17 and could really use the gospel in his life. 

We had a great experience with a member family on Saturday where my companion was able to help a youth out with Spanish because she was behind due to being in the hospital for some stuff. They were a sweet family.

Sadly, Tamaka's grandma passed away and so she is gone to Michigan for her funeral and will be gone for 2 weeks. 

Charlene is up to chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon and we taught her about the commandments and the Word of Wisdom.  She really liked it! 

One of the members who moved into the ward tested positive for Covid and we helped organize a dropoff of food for him. He's feeling pretty sick but hopefully he is doing better. We have to check.

Elder Taylor Jenkins 

Year Mark!

October 5, 2020 

We went to dinner with a member because it was my companion's birthday. We had some good Mexican food. 

This week was pretty slow but busy at the same time. We had a lot of people cancel on us but it's ok. 

General Conference was really good.  I felt like I got something from almost all of the talks which doesn't happen often. I really like Elder Oak's talk from the first session. 

Hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. I made a keto cheesecake from Sister Hurren's recipe. I had enough to make two because it made so much which was good because I was supposed to bake the crust and didn't realize on the first one. They were pretty good though. Needed more lemon juice for the zing! (he took one to a ward member who has since asked for the recipe)

Happy Birthday, Elder Grant!

Chocolate swirl cheesecake

Wishing I had my mom's piping bags

Some more service

Baptism and Smashing Goals!

 September 28, 2020

This week was super awesome! Ken, our returning member, got baptized yesterday! I got to be the one to baptize him. 

We had a great but super busy day yesterday with Tamaka and Charlene and their fellow shippers! We were so busy we didn't eat most of the day!

We did super awesome as a district with finding this week. We had a goal of 20 and If we met it we would get a pizza party and we hit it plus some at 22 new people found to teach! My companion and I found 7 and we also had 3 people attend at sacrament this week which is the most I've ever had on my mission. We did a few service projects which were great and we got to talk to Tamaka in person for the first time! She is super sweet and funny. Really it had been a busy week. Will send some pictures from it!

We love Tamaka!

Ken's baptism

I need to get me one of those!

September 16, 2020 

This week was great! 

Some Sisters needed someone to baptize a lady. So we drove 2 hours round trip to go to a baptism Saturday and got to drive back in the dark. It was awesome! My companion baptized him

We met a lady named Charlene whose son was sadly murdered a few months ago and is dealing with a lot. We talked about the plan of salvation and eternal families. We mentioned temples and she said "I need to get me one of those!" We are super excited for her.

We also helped a lady with her chicken coop! I cant believe I didn't mention this before! We have been building this big coop and she is such a cool lady. Her name is Kelly.

We have a few people who we will hopefully start teaching more this coming week!

I will be staying with Elder Grant in Greenwood this transfer which is so awesome. We are both super excited.  Things are about to explode here! I can feel it! 

Ken is getting out of quarantine soon so excited for that! 

Tamaka is having a lot of tooth pain so hopefully we will meet with her tomorrow. 

We are getting another companionship in Greenwood who will be on bikes. Most of the district stayed except for 2 sisters. Kind of sad to see them go. The whole district got along really well!

Love,

Elder Jenkins

Don't Blink or You'll Miss This Post

 September 7, 2020

Tamaka is doing good, doing a lesson with Sister Wren on Tuesday with her.

Shone kinda dropped off. Hopefully we can work with him some more.

Holly, a recent convert is struggling a bit. She just got married to a nonmember. 

Ken just got quarantined because his daughter got Covid. 

Sorry it's kinda short!

ElderJenkins

Service!

 August 31, 2020

We have been doing a ton of service this week. It is a way to find people too. The new mission president, President Monson (no relation to the deceased prophet) encouraged us to do it as often as possible.  I really like the new mission president.  He trusts us which is awesome. 

We had some great opportunities to do service. One of ladies, Willow has had a pretty rough life. She grew up in the hood and lost her brother to some terrible circumstances. She seems pretty open to the gospel and wants to come to church so I think she will do great. Hopefully on the weekend we will meet all of Ken's family when they do a family home evening.

Been playing a bit of guitar ( on the guitar he bought at the pawn shop one p-day) and it has gotten a little easier. 

 I've been pondering a lot since zone conference about a heavy thought that came to me I'm glad Heavenly father has a plan because I'm still trying to figure it out. 

During zone conference we recieved an amazing training by President Monson. He talked about how the Spirit speaks to us and was going through a ton if super powerful scriptures.  . 

Love y'all so much, 

Elder Jenkins 

   

Birthday and Car Week!

 August 24, 2020

This week was great! We got a message from a member saying a formerly taught man named Shone (pronounced Sean) Lockhart was working on his car and needed a jack. We weren't sure what he needed help with but we thought it was simple. It turned out he was redoing the clutch in his Mercedes-Benz! We came in proselyting clothes cause we didn't expect it, but we didn't have time to go back and change so I got right under there. Sorry I ruined a shirt 🤣. We had to take the exhaust out and disconnect the driveshaft then pull a ton of bits and pieces out. Day two was removing the transmission and installing the new clutch. Day 3 was reinstalling everything! We were a little discouraged cause it was acting funny but he called and said it's working great! So basically, I'm a Mercedes mechanic now. We also had to change the lights in our car. It's been a big car week!

 A really cool miracle was one of the young men in the ward who is really cool got a text from an acquaintance who wanted a Book of Mormon! We had a short lesson and it was really good! He was a little hesitant to have another lesson but hopefully we can teach him again! We found a few other people this week but no one sticks out yet. 

Elder Jenkins 

I ruined a shirt this week but it was worth it to work on the car!

Shone 

The Mercedes

Longe alleyway

Happy 19th Birthday to Me!

Keepin' On

August 17, 2020 

 This week has been pretty good. My ankle has been feeling really strong and just trying to strengthen it more. 

We had a good lesson with Ken to help him get his family on board to try and start doing family prayers and family study. 

Tamaka is doing really well, we are hoping to have a worship service on Sunday with her and a member. No one else has really been a progressing person.

Elder Jenkins  

Greenwood is Great!

The day before leaving Charleston I sprained my ankle playing basketball. This is the same one I sprained back in June. My ankle still has some pain. It is definitely a bad sprain, the new brace they gave me at the doctor's office helps stabilize the leg bit there is still a lot of twinging if I walk the wrong way and it is still sore. Trying to visit and rest when I can but we have been super busy here...

Greenwood is an amazing area. The members here are very missionary focused and are they are trying to get the ward functioning again despite some leadership craziness with the bishop moving away and such. Literally, the first day here we called the Elders quorum President and he invited us to his daughter's baptism. 

  I don't know what the last Elders were doing but it doesn't look like they were really contacting the teaching pool. We have had a few good lessons with Tamaka a lady who wants to do daily bible studies. We also met Ken. He was a member for 11 years and then left the church. However, he has over the last bit come to understand that pride was the ultimate reason he left and we had an amazing discussion with him about the atonement. He wants to get baptized so we hopefully can do that soon and all of his children are unbaptized so hopefully we can start working with the whole family. 

We were able to have a coordination meeting on Sunday which was amazing. They set it all up and we talked about some stuff we can do and the ward wants to focus on family history to strengthen the members. 

We had an awsome member lesson with the White family that was super awesome. The seventeen-year-old son Hunter had his nonmember friend over and she joined in the lesson. We have another lesson with them on Thursday and hopefully we can start teaching her. 

We had a great call with one of the members whose husband is in the hospital. She was struggling a lot because there wasn't a lot of hope for his surgery so we were able to talk to her in her moment of struggle. Fortunately, she posted on Facebook that he is doing a lot better.

I'm really mad I hurt my ankle because my new companion Elder Grant is super great and loves to work out, the ward missionary plays basketball a lot and probably would play with us, and we have a full weight set in the apartment!

The area has a lot of promise so hopefully I can stay for a while. My ankle is kind of concerning because of the level and frequency of the injuries. Wednesday I have physical therapy and will find out what is needed. I'm concerned that they will recommend a long recovery time and therapy schedule that would require me to return home. Missionary medical only allows two physical therapy visits fo your whole mission. Maybe I'm just paranoid but this physical therapy stuff has me a little nervous. 

Here are some pictures of downtown Charleston before I left.

Leaving Charleston

August 4, 2020

 I am getting transferred to Greenville on the other side of the state and Elder Christiansen is going to a different part of the Charleston zone. 

We got to do some service for a member helping them build a terraced garden. Building the wall in our backyard at home gave me some practice for helping them.

 We also helped another member couple move into the area, that was fun. They bought us Chic Fil A.

For p-day and to celebrate Elder Christiansen's birthday we visited a gator aquarium. It was pretty cool! We were able to watch them get fed. There was also this giant spider. 

 July 2020

Again, July was long and hot. Stuck in the apartment so much as Charleston, SC shut down so much for quarantine. We spoke on the phone twice a week, so Taylor didn't write much this month.

John got re-baptized. Taylor enjoyed watching him regain his testimony after being away from the Church.

They continued to teach Tyler and help him with many struggles in his life.

In late June a new mission president from Ghana was supposed to arrive. Due to travel and Covid 19  he was delayed. A temporary mission president was sent to the mission. This is the 3rd mission president Taylor will serve under in only 9 months out!

Elder Jenkins and Elder Christianson made another video!

Quarantine Crazy

June 22 ,2020 

We got to move an abandoned car onto a trailer so they could redo the parking lot, which they never did. 

We had service mowing and weed whacking someone's lawn... that was quite a chore. I forgot how thick the grass is in the south.

We had a scripture bash with a 19 year old from South Africa. She definitely had some anti pulled up to try and stop us but it didn't really work. #knowyourbible

Elder Christiansen hooked a gator and it snapped the line. We have lost so many fishing lures at this point. 

We had a great lesson with Tyler on enduring to the end and testimonies. He bore his at the end! We also found someone to fellowship him which is great! 

John's records are on the way so he should hopefully be able to get re-baptized soon!

I'm going semi-crazy with all of the quarantine stuff still in place.

A little video Elder Jenkins and Elder Christianson made for Facebook.

Elder Christianson and Elder Jenkins

Slow Summer

 June 15, 2020

Tyler is doing good and so is John. He said he wants to get baptized soon. So we are working with him on that. 

Not much happened this week. We are starting to talk to more people, we also had a good bible study with a lady that wanted help understanding the scriptures. 

***Editor's note: The days were long and slow in Charleston. Sometimes Taylor didn't write much in his letter because we were able to video call twice each week.

One story he shared with us during this time is of particular interest. A companionship in his district was contacted on Facebook by a Christian pastor in Pakistan. The pastor asked the Elders to teach his whole congregation a lesson. The Elders would teach and the pastor would then translate to his congregation.  

This was a testament to us of the unique ways of how the work of the Lord continues. 

Testimony

June 8, 2020 

A guy we found on Facebook ended up wanting to bash.  We had a few conversations but not any fruit. 

John had a "church" with us Tyler had to cancel cause of an early father's day thing for his dad.

Kind of a testament/ reply I send about scriptures Abinadi was teaching.

It looks like we have a bit different views on the godhead. At first look it looks like Abinadi is teaching that they are one, but they are not. I believe they are separate. Jesus was with God, in the beginning, Jesus Christ helped him create all things. 

The Joseph Smith translation of that verse in John 1:1 Is 

1 In the beginning, was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God. 

We see that the Son existed before he was born as a spirit and God created him. They are referred to as one because they are one in purpose they are focused on bringing us back to him. 

The son came to earth to suffer for our sins and to die on the cross and be resurrected so we could live again. He fulfilled what was prophesied of in the old testament. 

This is shown in Matthew 26: 39-42

39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

In the garden he suffered great pain and in Luke, he describes him even sweating as great drops of blood. 

But verse 42 he asks the father to take this cup or the suffering from him. He wouldn't pray to himself if they were the same person. This is a great sacrifice showing the son a separate being, God's son who fully followed the will of the Father. How powerful that Jesus Christ followed his Father no matter the cost.

He then testifies that they are separate in the book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 11:32 

32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.

They are separate but work with one purpose 

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is the Son of God and he is separate from the father. They are individual and work together to bring us unto Christ. I know this because I have prayed and have received a witness. I have come to know the true doctrine of God and have looked for fault in the doctrine and there is none, and if there is it is the weakness of men that has caused it, because God is perfect. The Book of Mormon and the Bible testify of each other and they are the key to my testimony. They are how I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet who truly established Christ's original church with apostles and prophets upon the earth. They are "the fruits" that I know them by.

Ouch

 June 1, 2020

We committed Tyler to keep the word of wisdom and had a mini sacrament meeting. 

John fell through for our lesson, but he had a legit reason.

I sprained my ankle playing basketball so that's not fun. 

It's pretty hot here.

4 Species and Some Feces!

May 25, 2020

A few highlights from the week are:

A lady called us thinking we were a nursing home and hung up cursing when she realized we were missionaries  

The pond near our apartment has some big carp that we are trying to catch by hand when we go for walks... No luck yet 

We got to see a sweet bridge on our drive to Charleston 

We had a CRAZY rainstorm-- like 5 inches in 30 minutes.  

***Sometimes Taylor doesn't write a lot of information in his letters and then it's up to me to remember other details he shares with us.

Sergio--a man from Gambia who Taylor and his companion are teaching through texting and non-video calls. He found them somehow. So far they have had a good discussion or two.

Tyler--Gave him a tour of the church building and had a good discussion about why there are no crosses in our buildings and that we worship the Living Christ. Also, another good discussion with him.

On Memorial Day Taylor and his companion went fishing in the pond near the apartment. Most of the apartments have fishing gear! They caught 2 kinds of fish, some clams, a turtle, and a bag of dog poop!

The last picture is a 5-6 foot gator they watched go into the pond on their walk a couple of days later.

Getting some fresh air.

A cool bridge in Charleston.

Another video he and his companion made. Once again, in true Taylor fashion, he is behind the camera.

Feast on the Word Video