Good afternoon!
It is a beautiful bright, cold day in Provo! The sky is blue and the mountains are covered with snow (although the ground is clear down here).
It's a little strange to be in the MTC on Thanksgiving day, but also wonderful. To explain why it has been wonderful, so far, I will share a quote with you from this morning's devotional:
"We are here to be your family today. We don't want anyone to be homesick. Today, the Holland's are your family." ~ Jeffrey R. Holland
Yes, we were privaledged to be visited by Jeffrey R. Holland this morning! His whole family came, actually! Including his wife, children, and all 13 of his grandchildren! We never know who the devotional speakers are going to be until they walk in, but we had heard a rumor that it might be Elder Holland today, and he holds such a special place in my heart. So, even though it was freeeeeezing outside, I went wiht some of the other elders/sisters in my zone and waited outside in line for two hours just on the off-chance that it actually was him speaking today. And it was! We actually had a lot of fun. My feet were soooo numb, but we spent the whole time singing hymns and by the end we had the whole line singing. So anyway, I was sitting three rows back, dead center! Not 10 feet away from an apostle of the Lord! He gave the most wonderful talk, too. And there were a couple of times he stared straight at me and smiled! :) :) :) :) :)
Anyway, Elder and Sister Holland wanted us to feel like they were being our families today, and so they both talked (and it was really sweet. I could honestly write this whole email just about the devotional! Aaaagh maybe I'll photocopy my notes and mail them home). So in going with the Holland family theme, they had their grandchildren get up and sing a primary song, and they were sooooooo cute! Seriously adorable. It was funny because all the elders were laughing by the end and all the sister were tearing up haha. It was so wonderful. I have felt so blessed every time we have a devotional, because it feels like I'm getting extra general conference, only better, because they're saying things directly aimed at the 2,000-3,000 of us here at the MTC. I love Elder Holland!
I still did miss you all a lot, though. It was expecially hard last night, because as I was falling asleep all I could think about was how if I was still at school, I'd be waking up the next morning to Grandma already working on the rolls, and I'd go help Grandpa get the folding chairs from the attic and then I'd chat with Grandma while I washed dishes and set the table. I've spent the last 3 Thanksgivings with Grandma! (maybe 4? I can't remember.) Speaking of which, can you make sure to forward this to her? She sent me her email address but I keep forgetting to bring it with me to the computer lab. And tell her I like nuts, but I'm not picky either way (she was asking about Christmas fudge).
Hmmm.... what else... well, this was my schedule today:
6:00 am - Laundry
7:30 am - Breakfast
8:00 - 10:00 am - waiting in line
10:00 - 12:00 pm - Spiritually FEASTING on Elder Hollands words!
12:00 - 1:30 on - Literally FEASTING on Thanksgiving lunch*
NOW - Emailing! (and having MDT/study time)
2:30 - 4:00 - Service project**
4:00 - 5:00 - Sack dinner in our room
5:00 - 6:00 - Thanksgiving program***
6:00 - 8:00 - [Project?]****
*Thanksgiving lunch was awesome! All day yesterday all I was driving people crazy with my talk of yams. ("Do you think they'll have yams? They'd better have yams. I reeeeally hope they have yams. Hey, you, do YOU think they'll have yams? I think they'll have yams. What if they don't have yams?!?! I think I"ll start a mutiny if they don't have yams.") For some reason I just really strongly desired yams. And guess what? THEY HAD YAMS!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) Hahahahahaha. We had turkey and mashed potatoes/gravy/cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin pie. Granted, it was cafeteria style, and not necesarily the most delicious, but I was impressed! The food here isn't super good, usually, probably because they have to feed so many people, but it was decent today!
**We're not sure what the service project is. Probably putting together first aid kits for kids in Africa or something.
***We also don't know what the Thanksgiving program is going to be. My guess is some musical number and some speakers.
****Yet another mystery! the greatest mystery of all is what we'll do after 8:00 pm. A missionary's day usually goes until 9:30 pm and then you go back to your room and get ready for bed. If we have actual free time, it'll be like an unprecidented miracle hahahahah. (they keep us super busy here.)
Oooookay, I need to hurry because I only have 6 minutes left on the clock. I love you all! So much! I hope you had lots to eat today. Thank you all for the letters! Oh, that's another thing. I didn't have much time to write letters today. Normally Thursday is my p-day, but since it's also Thanksgiving I don't really get p-day this week. So, everyone, if you don't get a letter from me, it's not because I don't love you! Especially you, Matt and Melinda. I keep meaning to write you back and I keep running out of time! But I'll write you letters soon. I really enjoyed your letters.
I LOVE YOU! SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!
With lots of love and hugs,
Sister Jensen
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Week 3
Sorry I'm a little late posting this one. -Jess
Hello family!
Today is yet another beautiful P-day. The weather here is gorgeous!
So we had an exciting week. My room originally had 6 girls in it, but on Tuesday three of them left for Germany! I was really excited for them, but our room is really quiet now without them. But anyway, they're in Germany now (Berlin Mission) and we got a new roommate yesterday. Her name is Sister Dye, and she's pretty cool. But yeah, three whole districts left this week, which means our branch is now about half the size it was. We'll get more German speakers in a couple weeks though.
Oh, so speaking of my branch, everything is in German! The Elders bless the sacrament in German, we sing in German, pray in German, and even in testimony meeting we had to speak German! It's kind of amazing to me how much I can already say. Also, they call the speakers by surprise, so you never know until after the sacrament whether you'll be speaking or not. Everyone prepares a talk on that week's topic (guess what! In German :)) in case they get called up. It's so stressful haha. But it's good, too, because I learn a lot by writing a talk. And they only have to be 5-10 minutes long.
Another cool thing my companions and I did today: there is a morning excercise class, JUST for the sisters, which is awesome, because it's stuff like yoga and kickboxing, and who wants to do that with Elders watching? Anyway, so we went this morning for the first time, and we did pilates, and it was super fun! The only downside is that it's at 6:00 am, and afterwards you only have about 20 minutes to shower and get ready for class. I think we're going to keep going, though, if for no other reason than that they play REAL MUSIC during the class!
Music is definitely the one thing I miss a LOT. We can't even listen to MoTab here. I brought a lot of CDs and music on my iPod, but apparently while you're at the MTC you can't even listen to that. They say it's so that when you get into the field it makes you appreciate music more, plus they've had problems with people coming in from the "outside world" with non-church music and so they decided to blanket ban music in the residence halls. But at the excercise class they play music!
I was keeping track yesterday, and I figured out that I sing, on average, 10 hymns a day, and pray at least that often (as a group. Not counting personal prayers, of course, which are occurring with ever-increasing frequency as the German gets harder.) I spend about 3 hours studying the scriptures, daily. I study teaching for 1-2 hours every day. The rest of my time goes to German! I love it so much. To me, it is a beautiful language. I love the sounds. Even the harsh-sounding ones. It's so fun to speak. My district has a new hobby: yelling in German. Hahahahah so fun. Suuuuuuch a good language to be angry in. (WAS BEDEUTET IHNEN?! NEIN! NEIN!)
Well, I'm running out of time, which is probably okay because I can't think of anything else to say. In general, this week was just another awesome week at the MTC! Love my companions, love my district, love my teachers! The food is starting to get a little boring, but I get to have all the Grape Nuts I could ever want for breakfast! Yessss!
Here's the missionary purpose in German:
Andere Einlade, zu Christus zu kommen, indem wir Ihnen helfen, das Wiederhergestellte Evangelium Jesu Christi anzunehmen. Dies Gescheit, Glauben an Jesus Christus und sein Suhnopfer uben, umkehren, sich taufen lassen, die Gabe des Heilege Geistes emfangen, und bis ans Ende ausharren.
On that note, I love you all! Talk to you again next week! (Thanksgiving!)
Sister Jensen
p.s. pardon all the spelling mistakes.
Hello family!
Today is yet another beautiful P-day. The weather here is gorgeous!
So we had an exciting week. My room originally had 6 girls in it, but on Tuesday three of them left for Germany! I was really excited for them, but our room is really quiet now without them. But anyway, they're in Germany now (Berlin Mission) and we got a new roommate yesterday. Her name is Sister Dye, and she's pretty cool. But yeah, three whole districts left this week, which means our branch is now about half the size it was. We'll get more German speakers in a couple weeks though.
Oh, so speaking of my branch, everything is in German! The Elders bless the sacrament in German, we sing in German, pray in German, and even in testimony meeting we had to speak German! It's kind of amazing to me how much I can already say. Also, they call the speakers by surprise, so you never know until after the sacrament whether you'll be speaking or not. Everyone prepares a talk on that week's topic (guess what! In German :)) in case they get called up. It's so stressful haha. But it's good, too, because I learn a lot by writing a talk. And they only have to be 5-10 minutes long.
Another cool thing my companions and I did today: there is a morning excercise class, JUST for the sisters, which is awesome, because it's stuff like yoga and kickboxing, and who wants to do that with Elders watching? Anyway, so we went this morning for the first time, and we did pilates, and it was super fun! The only downside is that it's at 6:00 am, and afterwards you only have about 20 minutes to shower and get ready for class. I think we're going to keep going, though, if for no other reason than that they play REAL MUSIC during the class!
Music is definitely the one thing I miss a LOT. We can't even listen to MoTab here. I brought a lot of CDs and music on my iPod, but apparently while you're at the MTC you can't even listen to that. They say it's so that when you get into the field it makes you appreciate music more, plus they've had problems with people coming in from the "outside world" with non-church music and so they decided to blanket ban music in the residence halls. But at the excercise class they play music!
I was keeping track yesterday, and I figured out that I sing, on average, 10 hymns a day, and pray at least that often (as a group. Not counting personal prayers, of course, which are occurring with ever-increasing frequency as the German gets harder.) I spend about 3 hours studying the scriptures, daily. I study teaching for 1-2 hours every day. The rest of my time goes to German! I love it so much. To me, it is a beautiful language. I love the sounds. Even the harsh-sounding ones. It's so fun to speak. My district has a new hobby: yelling in German. Hahahahah so fun. Suuuuuuch a good language to be angry in. (WAS BEDEUTET IHNEN?! NEIN! NEIN!)
Well, I'm running out of time, which is probably okay because I can't think of anything else to say. In general, this week was just another awesome week at the MTC! Love my companions, love my district, love my teachers! The food is starting to get a little boring, but I get to have all the Grape Nuts I could ever want for breakfast! Yessss!
Here's the missionary purpose in German:
Andere Einlade, zu Christus zu kommen, indem wir Ihnen helfen, das Wiederhergestellte Evangelium Jesu Christi anzunehmen. Dies Gescheit, Glauben an Jesus Christus und sein Suhnopfer uben, umkehren, sich taufen lassen, die Gabe des Heilege Geistes emfangen, und bis ans Ende ausharren.
On that note, I love you all! Talk to you again next week! (Thanksgiving!)
Sister Jensen
p.s. pardon all the spelling mistakes.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Week 2
And now we bring you the second installment of The Life of Kristin the Missionary, by Jessica Jensen (soon to be a major motion picture!):
Guten Tag!
How are you all? I hope everything is going well at home. I have looooooved all of your letters. Mom and Jess, thanks for the Dear Elders! Those are always fun because they print them out and hand them out at the end of the day, and it's cool because I know you wrote them just a few hours ago! So fun.
So I am continuing to LOVE the MTC! It is such an amazing place. And I'm learning German crazy fast, which doesn't make sense because the way they teach here is insane and would never work in real life were it not for the Gift of Tongues. Seriously. I look at our syllabus and I'm like, "No way." We do things in a day that took me weeks/months to learn when I did Spanish. It helps that I'm in class ALL DAY EVERY DAY hahahahah. But apart from that it is so amazing to have so much spiritual development. I have several hours a day to just study the scriptures or study Preach My Gospel. I'm also working my way through Jesus the Christ which is such a wonderful book. It is helping me understand the Savior and the political/cultural environment during his life on earth! I"m learning lots of cool stuff about the temple, too.
Speaking of which, I went to the temple earlier today! We go once a week (on P-days) and it's really nice because it's a beautiful walk up there, and we get to go all together as a district. Also, it's free for misionaries to rent clothing, and they actually have really pretty dresses for the Sisters. :)
Oh.... what else...... OH! Mom, you'll appreciate this: I met SHERI DEW on Sunday! It was sooooo cool! Man she is such a strong woman. She came and talked at a fireside and they had all the sisters sit way up in the front, since we probably were way more excited to see Sheri Dew than the elders were. So yeah, I was literally in the front row staring strait up at her, and afterward we got to go talk to her and shake her hand and such, so that was cool.
Also, Elder Bednar came on Tuesday! That's our second Apostle in two weeks! (M. Russell Ballard was last week) I feel so blessed! I feel spoiled, actually. To get to hear two apostles speak directly to us is such a blessing. Elder Bednar's talk was super doctrinal and made so many things I've been studying completely clear in my mind. He is so smart. But one of my favorite quotes from the night was, "I don't have what it takes to be an apostle. I'm not strong enough, I'm not smart enough, I just don't have what it takes. But in the strength of the Lord I can do ALL things." It gave me chills. He also talked about some really practical things, like how to answer really tough questions from investigators (like if an investigator askes about polygamy or something hard like that). At the end he gave us a beautiful apostolic blessing.
My companions continue to be awesome. We have so much fun. I'm going to have rock hard abs just from all the laughing we do. I can't believe I've been here for two weeks already! New missionaries came in yesterday (although none going to Germany) and I was like, "Hey, new elders! Wait, that was US. Two weeks ago."
Oh, so I didn't have a lot of time last week to go into depth, but I'll fly out of Salt Lake on Dec. 27, so I'll still be in the MTC on Christmas and it's very unlikely that I'll get to call home :( but I will get to call home from the airport, so hopefull I'll have a really long layover somewhere and can just hop on a payphone. It'll be interesting to spend two holidays here (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and see what it's like. I'm a little sad that I won't be in Germany by Christmas, but the really cool thing is that I'll still be with Sister Cannon and Sister Deitrich, and they are already such good friends. So we'll make it fun. Plus I hear rumors that they have a really cool Christmas program planned, and they keep you really busy on holidays so that you don't sit around and mope hahah.
By the way, my teachers here are so cool. Bru. Naumann has only been home for 2 months (did I tell you this already?) and Bru. McCracken has been home for about a year, and he just got engaged! They're super fun. We goof off in class a lot and have all these inside jokes and stuff, and I feel like they're just another couple of elders. It's weird to think that they leave the MTC and go into the *outside world* after class hahaha.
Okay, I only have five minutes left on the clock, but I just want to say that I love you all soooooo much! I love getting letters from you. I hope everything is going well. Keep me updated on things at home and give all the pets snuggles for me.
The Church is true! I can't believe I'll be in Germany in less than two months! So exciting!
Lots of love,
Sister Jensen
Guten Tag!
How are you all? I hope everything is going well at home. I have looooooved all of your letters. Mom and Jess, thanks for the Dear Elders! Those are always fun because they print them out and hand them out at the end of the day, and it's cool because I know you wrote them just a few hours ago! So fun.
So I am continuing to LOVE the MTC! It is such an amazing place. And I'm learning German crazy fast, which doesn't make sense because the way they teach here is insane and would never work in real life were it not for the Gift of Tongues. Seriously. I look at our syllabus and I'm like, "No way." We do things in a day that took me weeks/months to learn when I did Spanish. It helps that I'm in class ALL DAY EVERY DAY hahahahah. But apart from that it is so amazing to have so much spiritual development. I have several hours a day to just study the scriptures or study Preach My Gospel. I'm also working my way through Jesus the Christ which is such a wonderful book. It is helping me understand the Savior and the political/cultural environment during his life on earth! I"m learning lots of cool stuff about the temple, too.
Speaking of which, I went to the temple earlier today! We go once a week (on P-days) and it's really nice because it's a beautiful walk up there, and we get to go all together as a district. Also, it's free for misionaries to rent clothing, and they actually have really pretty dresses for the Sisters. :)
Oh.... what else...... OH! Mom, you'll appreciate this: I met SHERI DEW on Sunday! It was sooooo cool! Man she is such a strong woman. She came and talked at a fireside and they had all the sisters sit way up in the front, since we probably were way more excited to see Sheri Dew than the elders were. So yeah, I was literally in the front row staring strait up at her, and afterward we got to go talk to her and shake her hand and such, so that was cool.
Also, Elder Bednar came on Tuesday! That's our second Apostle in two weeks! (M. Russell Ballard was last week) I feel so blessed! I feel spoiled, actually. To get to hear two apostles speak directly to us is such a blessing. Elder Bednar's talk was super doctrinal and made so many things I've been studying completely clear in my mind. He is so smart. But one of my favorite quotes from the night was, "I don't have what it takes to be an apostle. I'm not strong enough, I'm not smart enough, I just don't have what it takes. But in the strength of the Lord I can do ALL things." It gave me chills. He also talked about some really practical things, like how to answer really tough questions from investigators (like if an investigator askes about polygamy or something hard like that). At the end he gave us a beautiful apostolic blessing.
My companions continue to be awesome. We have so much fun. I'm going to have rock hard abs just from all the laughing we do. I can't believe I've been here for two weeks already! New missionaries came in yesterday (although none going to Germany) and I was like, "Hey, new elders! Wait, that was US. Two weeks ago."
Oh, so I didn't have a lot of time last week to go into depth, but I'll fly out of Salt Lake on Dec. 27, so I'll still be in the MTC on Christmas and it's very unlikely that I'll get to call home :( but I will get to call home from the airport, so hopefull I'll have a really long layover somewhere and can just hop on a payphone. It'll be interesting to spend two holidays here (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and see what it's like. I'm a little sad that I won't be in Germany by Christmas, but the really cool thing is that I'll still be with Sister Cannon and Sister Deitrich, and they are already such good friends. So we'll make it fun. Plus I hear rumors that they have a really cool Christmas program planned, and they keep you really busy on holidays so that you don't sit around and mope hahah.
By the way, my teachers here are so cool. Bru. Naumann has only been home for 2 months (did I tell you this already?) and Bru. McCracken has been home for about a year, and he just got engaged! They're super fun. We goof off in class a lot and have all these inside jokes and stuff, and I feel like they're just another couple of elders. It's weird to think that they leave the MTC and go into the *outside world* after class hahaha.
Okay, I only have five minutes left on the clock, but I just want to say that I love you all soooooo much! I love getting letters from you. I hope everything is going well. Keep me updated on things at home and give all the pets snuggles for me.
The Church is true! I can't believe I'll be in Germany in less than two months! So exciting!
Lots of love,
Sister Jensen
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Change of Command
Hello everyone! This is Kristin's older, more attractive sister, Jessica. Kristin's a missionary now, which means I have COMPLETE CONTROL OF HER BLOG. Mwahahaha! I could use my newfound powers to post embarrassing stories from Kristin's childhood, or turn this blog to my own evil purposes, but instead I'm just going to post all of the e-mails that Kristin sends to us while she's on her mission. I hope you enjoy them! (P.S. Everyone knows that Kristin's really the more attractive one. :P)
Here goes the first one:
Hallo, family!
This is my first MTC email! It's actually really stressful because I only have 30 min. to write and there's a GIANT COUNTDOWN at the top of the screen hahahaha. So basically you should send letters via Dear Elder.com because that way I can spend my whole 30 min. writing instead of reading. (By the way, thank you for all the Dear Elders mom! I love getting them and hearing from you, because I miss being able to call you!)
So I've said it probably a million times already, but the MTC is AWESOME! I love it here! I love everything about it! (Except perhaps the food, which is like.... cafeteria food and probably sooooo bad for me haha. But even that is awesome because I eat three solid meals a day instead of snacking all the time. Off topic! ;) )
So: cool stories. M. Russel Ballard was here on Tuesday! He gave the devotional and his talk was wonderful! He gave a lot of really good advice about being a missionary. I was inspired. Here is one of my favorite quotes from his talk:
"Our purpose as missionaries is to take people out of the darkness of the world, or the despair of the world, or wherever we find them, and make saints out of them." That's my goal!
German is coming along really well! I'm learning it suprisingly fast, actually. It must be the gift of tongues. The spirit is so strong here that I feel like I'm constantly immersed in it. I love that I have so much time to just study the scriptures.
Another awesome thing about the MTC: the Elders are such gentlemen! I don't think I've had to open a door since I got here. They're always holding doors, and smiling and being so nice. And at dinner they always take our (mine and my companions') trays for us. At breakfast today we started to stand up with our trays and the Elders in our district actually yelled at us, hahaa. It was funny. They were like, "Sisters! Sisters! What are you doing? PUT THEM DOWN." hahaha and they took them for us. It always makes us feel really special. The ratio of Elders to Sisters is ridiculous. Like at least 10:1. The Elders in my district are so wonderful. Hard to believe they're recent high school grads. When I got here I felt so old, but now it's just fun. We're all good buddies already. One fun thing about Elders holding doors is that we're all learning different languages, so I'll say "Danke!" (thank you, in German) and they'll say, "De nada" back (you're welcome, in Spanish). And people are always coming up and contacting us on the sidewalk to practice bearing their testimonies to us in Japanese, and we'll bear ours in German to them (I'm getting really good at bearing my testimony in German, but I still struggle with vocab sometimes because there are things that I want to say that I don't have the vocabulary for.) This really is a wonderful place.
Sorry I'm bouncing all over the place in this letter. Mom, I just wrote you a pretty long one with more details and stuff. Today is P-day, which means I get to wear pants! Wooooo! P-day ends at 6 pm though and then it's back to class! Right now I'm doing laundry. I went to the temple this morning with my companions.
MY COMPANIONS! They are wonderful. I have two companions. We're in a 'drit' (or trio) which is pretty common for sisters, actually. There's another trio of german sisters in our room. (we have six girls to a room, three sets of bunkbeds) We have so much fun. We are always laughing. My companions are Sister Deitrich and Sister Cannon. Mom, Sister Cannon is the girl I was emailing before I left for the MTC, and she's super cool. We have a lot in common and our personalities are so similar that we work really well together. The three of us are all really goal oriented, so we're making lots of goals and staying on track with them, which really helps! Right now we're working on a goal to read the BOM before we leave. I'll send pictures of them when I get a chance.
Okay a few more random things:
- the German hymn book has 'Come thou fount of every blessing' in it! English does not.
- I'll still be here in the MTC for Christmas. I depart for Germany Dec. 27.
I'm running out of time! Aaagh! So much more to say! I'll write letters and write more next week.
I love you!
Mom, I sent this to jess, but I'm not sure I have the right address. Make sure she gets it and let me know if she has troubles putting it on my blog.
Love you!
Bye!
- Sister Jensen
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