Hey family!!

I made it here! I love you so much!! What the mission president here does is he posts a picture on the mission blog for the families to see. I guess he is not very good at letting families know about it though. I made it here just fine. After I finished talking to you on the phone I had an awesome missionary experience with a lady at the airport. I was able to give her a Book of Mormon. She is from Argentina. I hope she reads it.

I am in Perez Zeleledón right now. It is a canton (or county) in Costa Rica. San Isidro is the city. It is about 3 hours south of San José. So I am at the bottom of the country. My companion is Hermana Remero from Guatemala. She speaks only a little bit of English so we have been teaching each other our native language. She is super sweet and she has only been in Costa Rica for 12 weeks!! She just finished her training! We definitely have a lot of work to do here, and I don’t know where to start, but it is good.

I have been home sick at times... mostly in the mornings. Despite it, I am learning to Love this place more and more. The food has been really good here. I think I have had only had one thing I didn’t like. There is a set of elders in the city as well, so we work with them on occasion. There are only the four of us in our district. The other two elders are from Mexico and Honduras. So I am the lone gringa here. The elders have been very kind. The one from Mexico studied English before his mission so he has been helping me too. At times I can understand everything everyone is saying and other times I have no clue. A lot of the natives are surprised by how much I know. Many times when we first meet someone they assume I don´t know any Spanish so they turn to my companion and will ask a question about me and she will say, ‘ask her yourself’, and then I will answer their question.

Ok, a little about the country, the first thing I noticed (and it surprised me), was how much this country is like the U.S. For example, you see teenagers walking around everywhere with their face stuck in their cell phone. Also, the clothing they wear is similar. Every house has a TV, some things that are different too. Most of the milk you buy doesn´t have to be refrigerated, (they do have cows here). Eggs aren’t refrigerated here either. They have gates in front of every house and every door and window. I will send a picture sometime soon to show you. Homes generally have doors and windows open to let the wind come in. the people are all very nice here. I have gotten a bunch of frescos here (drinks generally consisting of one or more fruit. super yummy.) Oh, and the water is clean here so the mission president told us not to worry about it. I get warm showers if I turn the shower on correctly. It is interesting because there are wires in the showers to a heater to warm the water; you can see the wires as your shower. All the cars here have the exact same car alarm so everyone pretty much ignores them because they go off so frequently.

Next week I will tell you more about it here. Today we went to an investigators house and she did acrylic nails for us. She is learning how to do it and needed the practice. I will have to show you a picture of that as well. She did a good job... it just took forever!!

Yesterday we went to Tierra Prometa to contact a previous investigator and ended up having amazing experiences. We met two beautiful families willing to listen; we will see what will happen. The branch here struggles a lot with retention so we have a lot of work to do with the less actives; the members who do attend are awesome. I am excited to be able to work here. I have definitely had my ups and downs, but I think I am starting to feel more comfortable. I love you all so much. Don´t forget all the blessings God has given you and don´t forget to thank him often. I love you!!!

Hermana Jenkinson

Oh and I only get an hour and a half to write you and the mission president. I will be emailing you earlier in the day next week. The nails took a lot longer than expected.

Hola Familia,

Sorry I know this email is during a different time during the week then you are used to. On Sunday they announced to us that every 6 months they change the schedules and we happened to be here after one of those 6 month blocks. What this means is that our whole schedule is different, and most of our teachers got put in different zones and so basically we have all new teachers. The only ones who are the same is Hermano Pitcher and Hermana Pinto. Every one else has either been assigned to a new zone or they went home! :( We are super sad about that.

Another thing that changed was our p-day. So for this pday and the next it will be on Thursdays. When I get out to the field I have no idea when my pday will be. Our Gym time got changed as well and I am super sad about that. Because the people I used to have gym time with was a bunch of Elders who were polies from  Samoa, Fiji and other such Islands. They couldn't speak English very well, but they could play volleyball. Despite the fact that we didn't speak the same language we had some fun times playing volleyball, they would set me up sometimes and I would get to kill the ball. I would set them up and then they would kill the ball. It was so much fun. I earned a lot of respect from them by knowing how to play. I think a couple where slightly intimidated by me. oops. Now no one really knows how to play, it is still fun... it just isn't the same though.

 

Also some bad news, so since I am in the MTC during mothers day I will not get to call you. There are too many missionaries at the MTC and not enough phones to allow us to do this. How ever I will get to call you in the Airport when I am leaving for my mission. What time, I do not know yet, we will be getting our travel plans tomorrow. As far as visas go I will not be given my visa or passport until just before I go. If my visa is not ready before I leave the MTC then I will get assigned to go somewhere state side. However I talked with the people in the travel office and they said that very few people going to Costa Rica don't get their Visas on time. So it looks like I will have a good chance of going straight to my mission.

 

Oh I looked back on one of my old letters and saw that you asked when my estimated end date was. I will be here in the MTC till May 14th and I will be in the mission until September 30th 2014 approximately. I got the package you sent me. I love the skirt, it fits me perfectly.

Yes I have seen Sister Orsmby's aunt at the MTC. I see her 2 to 3 times a week. She is one of the branch presidency wives in my branch. So I have both Sister Jones and Sister Ormsby's aunt in my branch. Every time she sees me she talks about Wilson and about getting me his address so I can email him. She is supper Funny and we all love her a ton. I couldn't have asked for a better branch presidency with their wives.

Dad, I am still getting along with my district great. I feel like I have known them for years and it is weird to think that I have only known them for a couple of weeks. I honestly will miss them all once I am out in the field. Fortunately i get to keep two of them with me. We have been a little family here in the MTC and I can't imagine going through the MTC with out them. They each bring their unique personalities and we wouldn't have been complete with out that mixture. The Elders in our district attempted to play a prank on us and they failed miserably. They put an alarm clock set for 3 in the morning in one of the sisters purses. Yeah we found it that night before we went back to the room. They attempted to slip in her camera case but we found it again just before we went to bed. The next day before they saw us they were all scared and had been regretting it all night. I am pretty sure they thought we were going to kill them. If it had gone off I know of a couple of the sisters who would have killed them.

My cold is better now. It lasted for a week and i was very glad when it was gone.

Funny story now. So one night, I am not sure what started this but we learned to jump into our pants. I am proud to say that I was able to do it :) HAHA it was really funny.

On a more spiritual note this week has been amazing. I started the book of Mormon again on Monday and I am already to Mossiah. I am going to try and read the whole thing before I leave the MTC. As I have been going through and reading the book of Mormon this time around I have really been studding it and reading it because I have a strong desire to read it. I feel almost like I have been blind my whole life and I am finally able to see the Book of Mormon for what it is. I have never felt such a strong desire to read the book of Mormon before. I have been going through it like one of my novels I used to read at home. I seriously love it. When you learn to apply the Book of Mormon to your life It becomes something so meaningful and precious. I have really learned a lot in the short time I have been here. I have really learned what the spirit feels like and learned what it is like when i always have it with me. I never what to loose the companionship of it. It is such a comfort and a source of strength. You really can feel God's love all the time when you have it with you. Do everything in your power to be able to keep the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It is worth it. There is such a peace it brings. You can be silly and laughing and not talking about spiritual things and still have it so strong in our life. I am so grateful for the peace and warmth it brings.
I love you all. The Gospel is true. Christ is our Savior and through him we can return to live with God again.

Hermana Jenkinson