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)

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.

  

Ice Bucket Challenge...and More

After being nominated by a few people within a few hours, I accepted (within the 24 hour time) and did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. My brother, Jed, had also just been nominated, so we decided to do it at the same time.

Sorry about the dumb looks on our faces in the video thumbnail. I know that some may not like my approach that I decided to take on our challenge, but I will stand behind it because I feel that it was the right thing to do. ALS is a terrible disease that no one should have to endure, but I also know that there are several other medical challenges that are just as bad in their own way and also need attention like this. I know that all the wonderful research that has been done for Breast Cancer has saved my mom's life, and continues to save the lives of many others. I am infinitely grateful for that, but as much progress as they have made for this needs to be made in many other fields.

Other than this, there were a few things that I forgot to put in my last post. Sorry, I know I already posted so much last time, but I just had to add these.

At the end of the Spring semester, several of my friends and I drove out to the Rigby Sand Dunes for a bonfire. My friends did many other things like that in the last week of the semester, but I was unable to go to most of them. Still, I love spending time with my friends, and I will miss them all as I leave for Brazil for the next 18 months.

Another cool thing that we did at the end of the semester was explode a  watermelon. Let me tell you, that is one crazy thing! I would recommend doing it outside. We didn't think of that until after the explosion. After putting many many rubber bands around a watermelon, it made a huge mess. If I had access to the video of it, I would have put it up, but I don't. Logan put it on Facebook, but not YouTube, so I can't put it up. It's pretty cool to watch, and I wish I could share it.

Anyway, that's all the super exciting things that I can think of to write about. Until next time I guess.