Life is Pandemonium

Buon Natale!

2010-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

Alicia celebrated Christmas in Italy this year.

"The holidays here were interesting. It was surprisingly difficult to meet with people during this time and we got SO MANY bedones (bee-doe-nays, cancelations) in the last week. My comp said she hasn't gotten this many since a legendary transfer in Ragusa, so it was hard, but it brought us together and helped us reevaluate certain things that are making a difference in these last couple weeks of the transfer. I can't believe the transfer is almost over!! It just started! Christmas here was pretty anti-climatic, esp, w/o snow, I missed the snow. But we had some good experiences and were able to bring joy to some of our members and friends that are also far from their homes right now."

"We spent New Years in Mistretta which meant we ended up spending NYE eating a huge, and delicious lunch, then going to some members' country space and eating tons of freshly picked mandarinis and oranges and a lemon that was really sweet and tasty and not sour at all - it was weird! Then we went to the members' home for shrimp (still in the shell with the legs), calamari, and baby octupuses, tentacles, suckers and all!"

"With regards to cultural experiences we went to teatro Massimo last night to watch the opera Rigletto. It had nothing to do with the feature films for families version, and I wouldn't necessarily tell all my friends to go see it, but it was a wonderful experience to see an italian opera in Italy in a sweet theater. Of course now I want to watch phantom."

Palermo, Italy

2009-10-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Alicia is currently serving in Palermo, Italy. She is serving with Sorella Sleight and continues to learn the language. These first two pictures are in Erice. The first one is a castle, and the second one is in front of a church.

Sorella Jenkins & Sorella Sleight

Here is an excerpt from one of her recent letters:

"We had some time so we decided to do Parco, which is now one of my favorite things in the world to do. Slla Jones worked with us on parco so it was something I was eager to make the most of, and to this point parco was going in and trying to share the gospel and getting rejected. But on Thursday we went in and Slla Sleight found someone she felt she needed to talk to. I didn't want to stand there while she was doing this so I tried to talk to someone else, and she turned me down. Then I saw a woman sitting on a bench by herself. I had noticed her when Slla sleight was approaching her new friend, Vittoria, and this woman seemed apprehensive that we would come talk to her, but I decided to go sit by her anyway. I went and sat down and just chatted with her. Her name is Liliana, and she asked if I was italian (did NOT think that would happen in my first month!!) but she's from Romania so everyone seems as italian to her as they do to me. I commented on how I'd met a couple other Romanians and they are all wonderful people. As we talked I could see in her eyes that what I had previously thought was apprehension, and gathering her things to leave, was actually an eagerness to talk to us and she was gathering her bags to her so there was room to sit down. She was a miracle for me. And, because she just got to Italy 4 months ago, she speaks about as much italian as I do so it was perfect! She gave us her number and her romanian address and her palermo address, so no matter what we can find her. We're meeting with her tomorrow and I'm praying with all my greenie soul that everything goes well."

This picture is in the Catania Italy Mission Home: Sister Jenkins with her MTC companions and their respective trainers.

Alicia at the MTC

2009-08-02T17:17:00.001-07:00

Sorella Jenkins reported to the MTC July 15. She has been there for half a month!

This is the family dropping Sorella Jenkins off at the MTC. We were all very sad to see her go, but very happy and excited for this exciting time of her life.

Sorella Jenkins at the MTC

We ate breakfast at Mimi's Cafe in Provo. It was delicious! Oddly enough we met one of Sorella Jenkins MTC companions there before we dropped her off! Another girl sitting right behind us was going to the MTC and was called to serve in Catania Italy as well! It was crazy. Later we found out they were companions, crazy!

Sorella Jenkins has written a few letters to family. She is learning the language, but her German and Portuguese background "keep getting in the way". She is very busy, but we all know Alicia...she is thriving in this environment!

"Farewell" Party

2009-08-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

I will be posting periodically for Alicia, Sorella Jenkins, while she is on her mission. Alicia was called to the Italy Catania Mission. She reported to the MTC July 15!

Alicia had her farewell get-together a few weeks ago. There was an abundance of delicious food.

We had a pillowcase that everyone signed, kind of like a year book. People wrote advice, funny sayings, and kind words.

What a beautiful sister missionary!

6 Days!!

2009-04-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my papers for a couple weeks now. When Brett got his call about a week and a half ago, I was so anxious for my own. Last Sunday, I had my interview with Stake President Stewart and he told me I'd get my mission call in about 2 1/2 weeks. So I've been preparing myself for that timeline. Then tonight, Bishop Larson called. He said he checked online and my call has been assigned and is in the mail, and I should get it this week. Brett's hoping it will come Monday, but we're planning on Thursday.
I'm so excited just to know when and where. For the past ten years, I've thought I'd serve a mission and where was always the exciting mystery. Well, in a few days, the mystery will be solved and I'll be so happy no matter where I go, whether it's Okinawa, Japan or Okaboji, Iowa.
Brett and I are kinda hoping I get called to the Philippines so we can come home and speak Tagalog together. Our own secret language. But there are so many places I would love to go, and so many people I would love to teach.
Just 6 more days and we'll know...!!!!!

I'm becoming my...brother?!

2009-03-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

So I've taken a job at a small (but growing incredibly fast) web design company. At first it was just a job to pay for my mission and one that I wouldn't dread going to everyday. But I'm enjoying the work and all that I'm learning. I'm also learning however, there are other perks to the job. For example, I can now carry on a google Talk conversation with my older brother for the better part of a morning. While we've always has a pretty good relationship (he and Cec would introduce me to new music, and I would humor him by spending hours looking at websites and hearing about the coolest new site or system he'd learned about) we now have even more to talk about, and when he shows me a website I actually know what to look for and I can anaylze it better.
The flip side of this is that I feel bad for Cec the next time I visit them. It's bad enough that she has to put up with his geekiness, but for another of us to cross over, she'll be outnumbered.

P.S. J/K Cec, I'm not that bad yet ;)

It's Official

2009-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to make it official and tell everyone that I am planning on leaving in June to serve a full-time mission. I don't have my call yet, and I'm starting on my papers now, but I am planning on going about 3 months after Brett leaves. Mom and Dad are a little worried about how to pay for two at once, but since we're both paying for at least half, it shouldn't be that big a deal. Anyway, I'm really excited about this opportunity. I prayed about it a year ago and it wasn't right then, but I got the "ok" now and I'm probably more excited than ever!!!

2009-01-04T20:18:00.001-08:00

Ha! I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving and its even January now! Yay for the new year!!! Anyway, Christmas was wonderful! It was so nice after a crazy hectic semester to just chill with the fam and enjoy getting dumped on with snow while playing games and enjoying hot chocolate (this christmas my mom got a cocoa-motion and I got an insulated cup that you can plug into your car to keep it warm so it was a cocoa-y christmas). Brett, Emma and I made a snow cave in the front yard but due to warm weather followed by super heavy snow it collapsed :'( Ryan and Cec came up and bopped back and forth with the Bennetts and us but we got them Christmas morning, and Kalia flew in from LA. We were all together and that hasn't happened since April (which isn't all that long ago but it seems like ages ago) and we won't all be together for a couple years while Brett's on a mission. I'm gonna miss that kid like crazy!!!

Skimming the weeks...

2008-11-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is gonna be a long post since I haven't done any in Ages! The Last Couple weeks have been crazy!! A group of friends and I went to High School Musical 3 and the School's semi-formal dance and it was a great night which finished with chocolate fondue and Mormon games like the Ant and the Aardvark and the Tie game. On Halloween a couple friends and I went to Utah for an audition to be Disney characters at Disney World. The audition involved some pantomiming to see how well we could tell a story without talking; making it larger than life for the little kids (and the adults I guess). We also got to learn a dance and then we would perform in groups of five for the casting director. They also measured our height and looked at our faces to see if we could be princesses, but none of us will know if there's a possibility for that until we get down there. There were about 120 mostly girls with a few guys thrown in there. The trick with Disney characters is you have to either be really tall or really short. I don't think I've EVER found myself trying to shrink when they took my height before. When we found out we had to be there on Friday morning and would have nothing else to do the rest of the weekend we decided just to stay and play until Saturday night. Mandi aunt let us stay with her and fed us a lot too, so Saturday morning we raked up her leaves. Then we went and saw forever strong and to end the day we hiked Y Mountain. Having done EFY done there I saw it a lot but never had a chance to climb. It was listed as an "Easy" hike online but it wasn't so easy, switchbacks and steepness the Whole way! But it was worth it just to say you made it to the Y and sit on the white concrete covered rocks. Plus now if anyone asks how the Y and white, I know.
So it's official, I'm excited for classes to be over. I'm trying to tell myself not to wish my time away and I know as soon as this semester is over I'll be sad and miss everything about it (well...maybe not Everything). But I'm really looking forward to Christmas break and not having to worry about history research and how far behind I am on case briefs. I'm also looking forward to the family all being together for a while. With Ryan and Cec in Utah, Kalia in LA, and Brett getting ready to go on a mission soon I am excited for a traditional Christmas season! And Christmas break will probably be the next time I'm able to post something so until then...

2008-10-16T22:07:00.000-07:00

Well, my fear of never getting on here and updating it has come to pass. Which is probably the lesser of two evils. Anyway, my schedule is literally the definition of life in the fast lane! I think they even added my name to it in the dictionary. I get up real nice and early and try to get some studying in before I go to class. Then after classes I'm at work until I can tear myself away from all my friends! Then i go home, grab a bite to eat, and it's off to the library until bedtime. I get some social activities in there; for example, I was on a grass volleyball team and that was so fun and sometimes I go country dancing for a bit, but the majority of my social life is either hanging out with all my SSE friends outside the office or seeing all my friends at the library. I found the perfect spot where I can study for a while, and every once in a while someone comes along and it keeps me awake. I don't really have a favorite class this semester. There's none that I dread going to, but there's none that I get stoked for, although the two I probably like the most are Intro to teaching Seminary or Constitution. Then again my Education Psychology class is fascinating too. I don't know, I'm just very happy with my major. Anyway...I should get back to life now.

2008-08-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, at least I'm not posting too often! The only problem is that I haven't really posted at all.
But a lot has happened that I really should post about.
First let me finish off all-things-EFY: I spent a total of six weeks this summer playing and working with youth between the ages of 14 and 18. They were such a blast and I loved every single one of them. By the end I had more than 100 hundred participants in my companies (boys and girls) and 57 of my own amazing girls. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my girls and miss them. We had fun times and we had REALLY fun times! I still get letters from many of them and, thought I'm not the best letter writer, I think I'm pretty good at responding. Except when I'm not in a position to send mail for days!
I loved my EFY days and I hope I can do it again next summer, but if not I am so glad for my days of EFY this summer.

So Tired!

2008-07-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I just finished three staright weeks of being an EFY counselor and I am beat. Don't get me wrong, I have loved working with my girls and all the participants, but that is tiring stuff! So now I am at my brother and sister-in-law's place and we decided to set up a blog for me. I'm a little worried though that I will either abandon this and never post on it again, or I'll become obsessed and waste way too much time on it. I'm excited though, to have a place to record thoughts and events in a pretty way! If you start noticing that I'm posting way too often, let me know and I will seek help immediately.