Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust: 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