Week two in the MTC!‏ September 30,2014

Hi everyone!

I am still just loving it here. We have had quite the week, so I'll try to sum it up the best that I can.

I want to start by answering the questions that my family asked.

Sam: My favorite work in Portuguese is joelhos. (pronounced shj-oo-el-ee-os). It means knees. We say "oramos de joelhos" each time we pray.

Emilee: Portuguese is great. I understand what everyone is saying, but it is hard to respond because I can't remember if the word I'm thinking of is spanish or portuguese. It's all good though.

Julia: We don't really roll our r's in portuguese. It is only in certain areas that they do it a little bit. The MTC doesn't have flower gardens, but there are flowers and other gorgeous plants along the sides of the sidewalk everywhere you go. I love getting to know lots of people in the MTC the best so far. My district and zone are the greatest ever, and all the other people we meet are great too. Theoretically, you would probably charge $25-30 a month for piano lessons at your beginning level. This is for one half hour lesson each week. If there are more than two people in a family, I would take off five dollars from the third student on ($5 each additional student after 2) and I would add on five dollars if you go to their house to teach instead of having them come to ours.

Jed: I can't believe that Mike got a phone. It's like the whole world is ending! Okay, for your questions. The MTC, as mentioned before, is great. It's a lot of work, but somehow I always happen to have the energy to do it all. My regular day schedule goes something like this:

6:00 AM, wake up and get ready

6:30, read the Book of Mormon

7:00, go to classroom for additional study time

7:45, breakfast

8:30 Classroom with Irmã Nielson. There, everything we speak is portuguese. We learn how to teach lessons, have conversations, and about portuguese grammar and vocab.

12:30, lunch

1:15, Classroom with Irmão Gray. We to the same thing in afternoon class as morning class, but learning different specific things. We also teach an investigator in Portuguese both in the morning and afternoon.

4:15, Gym

5:15, shower after gym and get ready for the rest of the day

5:45, Dinner

6:30, classroom for personal, companion, and language study
9:00, plan for the next day,

9:30, go back to our bedrooms and get ready for bed

10:00, companion study

10:15, personal study

10:30, lights out.

Dad: On Sundays, we go to Sacrament Meeting at 8:15, then music and the spoken word before relief society, then relief society. After that, we have lunch (oh yeah, we have breakfast at 7:30 before church) and then go to our classroom for study. 3:00 our branch/zone walks up to the temple to take pictures and walk around. Then we have devotional with a film after at 7. 

In other exciting news this week, one of my companions dislocated her shoulder, so we have spent a lot of time outside the MTC at doctor's appointments since Thursday. We found out today that she has to have surgery on it, but we don't know until this afternoon if she has to go home for that or stay here. 

Most of our zone left this morning for Portugal, Florida (on their way to Mozambique), and to Cape Verde. I am really really going to miss all of them. They have all become like family to me. We have a TON of new missionaries coming in tomorrow though. We had a new sister come early last night from France to our zone. She is super sweet and we are excited to have her. Um...I'm now the branch music coordinator, so I guess that's cool and all. I will try and send all the pictures, but I'm sure I won't get them all in one email. Keep sending dear elders! I love them! I will try to answer any questions that all of you ask. Love you all!!!

Sister Jensen

PS I forgot to mention that we didn't end up singing in the choir last week because we were at the temple just late enough to not make it back for practice. I also forgot to mention that I'm saying the closing prayer for the MTC devotional tonight. In front of everyone! I get to sit up on the stand the whole time! I'll let you know how that went next week. 

Sister Post, Sister Bunch, and Sister Jensen

My closet

My District

Sister Bunch, Sister Post and Sister Jensen

My District

Here's our district motto: Nos Conseguimos (we can do it!)

We had fun as a district spelling each other's names really funny

My District

Poor Sister Post!

I found Elyse and we got pictures together!

We are matching even! I love seeing everyone that I know here!

First Email! MTC Week 1 September 23, 2014

Hello there!

I think you will have probably just gotten the letter that I sent you on Friday. It was just a little note that our branch president had us write in order to let you know that we got here okay. My address is on that, and I gave it to Pat yesterday to send get to you, so you should have it either way. 

I just love it here! I have two amazing companions, and awesome district, and a great zone too. I don't remember if I said anything about them, so I'll tell you now too. My companions are Sister Bunch and Sister Post. They are just wonderful! We are all so different, yet just the same and we get along really well. In our district, it is us and five elders. They are: Elder Carpenter (district leader) and his companion Elder Shakespear, and Elder Weeks (who was actually in the english class my first semester that I loved) and his companions Elder Camp and Elder Wally. We are all super good friends--like a family really. I talked about our zone being amazing too. You will never guess who is in it. You have to tell the Nickerls. Their friend Teagan (from Carlsbad--Caleb's brother) is in my zone! I haven't figured out how to upload pictures to the computers here yet, but once I do, I will send pictures. I might even figure it out before I'm done writing this letter. Who knows. 

I have also run into: Mitchell M, Elyse K, Leah J, and Kyle A.

Our teacher is wonderful! I didn't realize until I got here that everything is full immersion in the language. That threw me off the first day, but after that it wasn't bad. I understand everything he says, but I don't know how to respond to everything, but it's getting better. Our teacher's name is Irmao Gray (with the tilda over the a in irmao). Portuguese is easy, yet hard. So many of the words are the same, but I don't know all of them yet, so I can't just tell them apart from the spanish words. It's hard if I know what I want to say and how to say it in spanish, but I'm never sure if it's the same in portuguese or totally different. I will learn though.

On Friday (two days into our stay), we had to teach our first investigator in portuguese. That was one of the scariest things I have ever done. We have taught her twice since then, and it has gotten so much better each time. It's not hard for me to understand her, but as a companionship, we have to try and all understand and then know how to respond. The first time, we really weren't prepared for any extra questions, so that was super hard. The more we learn the language and the better we prepare, the better the lessons get.

Tonight at 7 there is a devotional. They are broadcasting this one, so I think you could find it and watch. My companions and I as well as a few elders in our district and zone are singing in it. You could look for us! 

Love you all!

Sister Jensen

PS We got to go to the Ogden temple rededication. It was so amazing. We all went where we have our devotionals and it was so cool to see 2500 missionaries do the Hosanna Shout and then sing The Spirit of God. I know Aunt Anna was there for that. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced!

Victoria's MTC zone.  This picture was emailed by Aunt Angela who gets Elder Willes' emails.  She's the one that Victoria talks about in her email.