Oh my gosh what a crazy week y'all!!

Okay so for the readers back home, I am OPENING another area!! This is seriously the perfect way to spend the last three months of my mission. I am opening Stonewall, LA but, most of our area is in Shreveport. The Stonewall Ward has been begging for sister missionaries for the last little while. I actually had a huge feeling that I would be opening the area. All I've heard is good things about the ward and how ready it is for sister missionaries to come. I was in Wal-Mart with a member in Bogalusa when we got the call from president. Not going to lie...I nearly fainted. I don't know why I was so nervous to get this phone call but I was. When he told me the good news all I could do was be excited.

Anyways...here we are in Shreveport currently. Our apartment isn't ready this whole decision was I guess pretty last minute! But, it was the perfect decision and totally led by the spirit. However, most of our area isn't even in Stonewall, it's in Shreveport. I mean we have some of Stonewall, but we are called the Stonewall sisters because the church is in Stonewall. So, there you have it. It's been kind of a frantic week. I've felt like a total bum this week!! When I got here on Tuesday I was soo confused as to what I was supposed to do let alone where I was even at. Well, my comp showed up (Sister Brown) and I was to stay the next two nights in Blanchard in her apt with 3 other sisters. I got the couch (total bum). I didn't even get here till like 5 p.m. on transfer day. But all I wanted was a taco...I was soo hungry. So, the Elders were our shofer's for the day (with permission from president we are all car sharing) and they took me to get a taco. That night we ate with a family in the Brownlee ward (which is Sister Browns last area).

Okay so Wednesday here we go. Basically it was our first district meeting and this district used to be sooo small!! It was the Coushatta Elders and Stonewall Elders and that's it. But, now the sisters have hmm "spiced" things up a bit. We all went around and thanks to sister brown told each other what our favorite flower was! I love this girl! She's like me in so many different ways.

Later this day the Elders were supposed to give us a tour of our area. Again with permission they took us to the other side of Shreveport to see our area. They took us to meet a couple of members. They also took us to see our "future" apartments. It was great, slightly overwhelming but it really was great. We really came into this area with nothing. We have a "substitute" phone currently. We offically split our area on Sunday, we had to get background checks for our apartments, and sooo much more. The Elders dropped us off at a random road in our area to tract...then they were going to be back to pick us up (we are like children/bums). Well, tracting was a success!! We found a woman who really is elect and said, "I've been trying to find a Mormon church everywhere because I want to go, but every time I ask someone they just blow me off." Well, prayer answered, the Sisters are in town. She sent us a text message that night of how grateful she was that we came. It was a pretty amazing experience, the Lord truly does always put us in the perfect place at the right time.

We ate dinner that night with a member who's mission president was President Monson!! how cool is that? He told all of us about it. That night we went to the church. It's pretty far out there, but hey it's a beautiful church. I had to get some energy out...so I played basketball with the young men (my comp was inside the gym of course). They have sooo many young men!! It's weird coming from Bogie town with 4 young men to here. Bah!! the area is awesome.

Okay, so then Thursday the Elders were done with all the tours because we now have the car. We did a lot of paper work and realized what a drive it is everyday from Blanchard to here. So...we called president and asked permission to stay with a member in our area. We spent a lot of time trying to find a map today. Well, we found one in a binder and we had to print off a bunch of mini maps to create our entire area. Complicated but it was worth it. Elder Jones told us to go to Jmart...well, we put J mart in our GPS (we named it Lwonda), it's actually Elder Loftins GPS....but we named it anyway. Well, Lwonda took us to a prom dress shop! It was called Jmart...bah everything was soo confusing. Typical of opening an area, I was having flashbacks left and right of opening Hattiesburg.

That night Bailey (the daughter of the member we're living with) took us to a service thing in Shreveport. It was cool, this church has made an effort to feed homeless people. So I was able to be a "Table Host" and talk to some people who don't get food at the table I was assigned to. Really random, but cool we want to help out again with that. Bailey wants to serve a mission, so being with her is great.

Friday the biggest thing that happened was the Glass family told us we could live with them for the next week while we wait for our apt to be ready! Oh and that night I almost cried. You see, we were invited to eat at the Quicks house for dinner. A recent convert named Drew "Andrew" lives with them. Our ward mission leader was there and so was the Elders quorum president. We had the most legit "Member Directed Lesson" I've ever had. Brother Tuck directed the entire lesson! I was so impressed with this moment I basically wanted to cry. They had their preach my gospels and everything. This is the kind of mission work I've been waiting for my entire mission. The ward is solid.

Saturday we officially moved in to the Glass families home! I am so thankful for them really. Their home is beautiful and it's right in our area. They are taking such good care of us. I really hope one day I can do the same favor to missionaries if I have the opportunity to do so.

Sunday we met the ward!! Sister Brown and I bore our testimonies and you can just feel the energy in this ward. In Relief Society, Sister Adams basically said, "We're all so excited y'all might get a standing novation." We ate dinner with the Adams family and well so much more! Great week y'all. This week a ton is going to happen. We will hopefully be let into our apt by the end of the week.

The gospel is amazing, I've loved life as of lately and I couldn't be more thankful to be here.

Love always

Sister Jenkins