Last Email from the MTC, October 25, 2014

Hi there!

This email probably won't be super exciting, but oh well. I am so excited to go to New Jersey on Monday. It is going to be such a wonderful experience to meet all the wonderful people there and to get my feet wet in English before I have to worry about Portuguese too much.

So, Emilee asked me a few questions in her letter this week. I am going to answer them before I get too much further into my letter. The MTC is still going great. I love every second of it. Yes, we are pretty tired. One day, Sister Bunch and I caught all of the Elders in our district dozing off at the same time. It is amazing to see that the Lord gives us the energy that we need throughout the day. When Sister Post left, we just had Sister Bunch and I like a normal companionship. Portuguese is going awesome I guess. It is going to be crazy once I'm in Brazil, but I am so excited for that. Spanish is super helpful, but super confusing sometimes if I can't remember if the word I am thinking of is Spanish or Portuguese. 

We had so many wonderful experiences in lessons and TRC (where we teach members) this week. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to prepare to serve people all over the world.

I guess I forgot to say last week where everyone else in my district is going. Elders Carpenter and Shakespear are going to Omaha, Nebraska. Elders Wally and Camp are going to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and...Sister Bunch is going to Salem, Oregon! We were all super excited because she could still be there when you get there, and she was born there, so she is super excited for that.

I love you all, and will send more emails with pictures.

Love,

Sister Jensen

I found Dylan here too! that was super fun to see him! Sorry, it's kind of a funny picture

Here is a much better picture of Elder Oviatt and I. He is the best!

Here is sisters bunch, bow, gutke and I at the map pointing to our missions in Brazil and Mozambique

It's Jared! I finally found him when I had my camera!

 Here is our district on our last day with the amazing Irmao Gray. 

I was so incredibly blessed to have him as one of my teachers

Here is our district at the map with all of our reassignments. It is so cool to see us go all over the world!

This picture truly tells how much we all love each other!

Travel Plans, October 23, 2014

I just got my travel plans today. They go as follows:

I report to the travel office here at the MTC at 3:35 AM on Monday morning. From there, I go to the Salt Lake airport. My flight leaves at 8:15 from here to Philadelphia. I should get into Philadelphia at 2:30 in the afternoon. From there, I get on another flight at 3:55 to Newark, New Jersey. I should arrive in New Jersey at 5 pm or so. 

I will buy a calling card later today from the bookstore. I don't know when we should talk on the phone, but this is the information. Please email me back ASAP because I have another meeting starting in 10 minutes and I want to talk to you about that.

Love you!

Sister Jensen

Last Week in the MTC and Reassignment! October 21, 2014

Hey there everyone!

I can´t believe that it´s my last week here. It has been a wonderful last few days. Our TRC skype call and one of our lessons were some of the most faith promoting experiences of my life. The lady that we skyped with for TRC is so amazing! She has such a strong testimony! And guess what...she knows our teacher Irmão Gray! He served in her ward in Brazil and got pretty close to her family. And guess what else, she has a sister serving in my mission and a brother serving in Sister Bunch´s mission! It was so cool to talk to her! I love being able to see that the church is strong all over the world. This work will continue on through any difficulties that the adversary throws at us.

I have exciting news for everyone...I have my reassignment call. I´m going to go to the...New Jersey Morristown Mission. I am so excited. I´ll send a hard copy of the call home and an electronic one as well. I´m so excited to get to go and serve there. I know that is where the Lord needs me right now. I don´t know how long He needs me there for, but I will go in faith knowing that He understands the things that I don´t. 

One of the Elders in our district, Elder Weeks, got his VISA. He will fly to Brazil on Monday. Another Elder in our zone just got his yesterday. He left this morning for the São Paulo MTC. He went through the San Francisco consolate. Maybe I should have done that. Just kidding. I know that the Lord has a hand in all this and that everything will work out like it is supposed to.

Mom, I have a few questions for you. I need to get a card reader for when I´m out in the field. Should I just get one here at the bookstore or have dad find one cheaper. They run around $12 here. Also, they have converters, and I don´t know if I should get one and if I do, what kind would I need exactly? I finally picked a mission scripture for my plaque too. I have been meaning to find one for weeks and then to send it to you, but I haven´t yet. I love D&C 18:44 with D&C 4:4 after it if I can. I will try to get a picture to send to you too. 

I think that´s it. Keep sending letters, I love getting them!

Love you all,

Sister Jensen

Here is our zone. We are supposed to get 30 or so new missionaries tomorrow. We are already full. they are having to combine districts to make room. We don't have classrooms, teachers, or bedrooms. It is going to be an adventure getting everyone in.

All of the sisters in our room

I love Elders Carpenter and Shakespear photobombing this one. They are the best!

The one we are jumping in, I will tell you are names and where we are going.

from left to right:

Sister Bow, from California going to Mozambique

Sister Gutke, from Utah going to Mozambique

Sister Bunch, from Colorado going to Brazil

(me)

Sister Valentine, from Utah going to Brazil



Sister Gutke, Post and I being goofy one night



Here is us doing "yo-yoga" one night.

Here was the abundance of food that we had to celebrate Sister Bunch's

 and my one month mark. We had a little "festa ferra"





The next pictures are from our festa ferra last night for sister Bow's 20th birthday.

She has the same birthday as you Mom!

Sister Bow got a ton of crazy stuff in her package. These were gummy ducks

 that stood up on their own. They were our guests at the festa ferra

Week Four October 14, 2014

Oi todos!

I have had quite the week here in the MTC. We had a lot going on.

Sadly, we found out this week that Sister Post will be going home to recover after her surgery last Monday. She leaves tomorrow. I am so sad that she is leaving us, but I will forever be grateful for the lessons we have learned together. 

I am so happy to hear from all of you back home. Seriously, anyone can send me letters, and I would be so very very excited to get mail. Friends, family, anyone. Your trip to Salem sounds quite interesting, and hopefully you can get that house! That would be the best!

Jed: Homecoming sounds like so much fun! It sounds like you had an awesome group too! I am so excited for you to get here. You will just love it so much. 

Julia and Emilee: I just loved the picture of you two jumping in front of the Oregon State Capitol Building. You two are great! I promise, it may seem hard now, but you will grow to love Salem.

Sam: Happy Birthday! I can't believe you are 10 already! Now everyone in our family is in double digits! I am glad that you got so many fun legos. We love legos here too. One of the elders in my district got a conference package from his family, and they sent him a little lego set in it. It was the Millenium Falcoln. I probably didn't spell that right, but you know what I'm talking about. 

Dad: Portuguese is coming great! It isn't perfect, but I feel that through the Lord, I am learning so fast. I have been emailing with an elder that was in the zone here when we first came in. He is in Portugal right now, and he has been telling me how it's really crazy how different the language feels. It is super fun to see his perspective because it's not just some person saying it, it is someone speaking my language that I know. 

Mom: I hope you are having a great time with Auntie Manda in California! Soak up that sun for me because it's starting to get cold here. We are all waiting to get to the nice warm sunshine in Brazil. 

We got another district that is going to Brazil this week. There are seven elders and one sister. The sister is in our room, and she is great! It is so fun having so many people here going to Brazil!

Eu amo vocês muito! 

Sister Jensen

Here's our last week as a companionship

Here is everyone in our room now.

Our district again. I love everyone!

Here is our district being pretty goofy. This picture has our branch president in it too.

He is great! We all love President Brough.

Here is our district by "the map." We are going all over Brazil!

Week Three October 7, 2014

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well, and I'm still as happy as ever to be here. 

We had quite an eventful last week. I'll start by giving an update on Sister Post because everyone has asked me about that. I guess I forgot to mention what exactly happened to her. She was playing volleyball, and out of instinct, she went to dive for the ball. Mid dive, she remembered that we aren't supposed to dive in the MTC, and when she tried to catch herself, she dislocated it. After x-rays and MRIs, she went into surgery yesterday to repair her laborum (I really don't think that's how it's spelled) because it tore when she dislocated her shoulder. She is now recovering, and the surgery went really well. They didn't have to do some of the more invasive things like they thought they might, which was a huge blessing.

Another crazy thing. Today, Sister Bunch and I got to do something that not many missionaries get to do. We got to go to the mall to shop for clothes. She needed to go get some more, so after talking to a lot of people, we were cleared to go. It was so strange to hear music blaring all around us. It has been a long time since I heard any of that music. It's pretty much all hymns here. 

We got a ton of new elders and sisters in our zone last Wednesday. I think we got 36 total! And 14 of them were sisters. It's super crazy, and I still don't know everyone yet. Our district gets to be hosts tomorrow too, so we get to welcome another group of incoming missionaries, none of which are coming to our zone though. 

Saying the prayer at devotional last week was alright. It was cool to be up on the stand and meet the speakers and have comfy seats. I do have to say though that it is hard to see the words for the hymns from the second row on the stage. It was okay though, it's not like they would sing any familiar hymns to make it easier on us either.

You will have to tell MaKormick that I am so excited that he got his mission call! He is going to just love it! North Carolina had better watch out. And, he is super lucky that he doesn't have to learn another language (as far as I know). It kind of makes things a little harder. Oh, and thank Janet so much for the package! I don't have it yet, but I love her so much and hope that she is doing well--and I hope her knees get feeling better. That just sounds miserable! 

Mom, I won't know until right before where I am reassigned. They don't tell us about our Visas either unless we get them and it's time to pack. If I get it, I will email you to let you know any further information. 

Emilee, we didn't get to listen to conference in Portuguese. My district wants to watch that one talk that was in Portuguese though. I loved conference, and we all did like that story that Elder Bednar told, just like you did. 

Sam, that is so funny that Squishy got on top of the chicken coop. Silly chickens! 

Julia, I'm sure you really are almost fluent in Spanish. Mr. Monrroy would be so proud of you. I'm sure you can even have a full conversation with him because he's an awesome native speaker from Venezuela. Have fun being Taylor Swift for Halloween. You are so goofy. Dressing up liek someone just because you kind of look like them and want to make fun of them. 

Jed, I want to see Homecoming pictures! And, of course, I want to hear all about it!

Dad, the classes are long, but our district is great, and we have FABULOUS teachers, so it is totally bearable. 

Love you all and can't wait to hear more from you! Keep writing me, it's fun!

Sister Jensen

My District

Here's our new zone (at least those who came to the temple Sunday)

This is all of the sisters in our zone

This is all of us in our room (my companions and two other sisters)