Hallo!
Meine Gute, Ich bin SO BEGEISTERT fur Deutschland! (I'm so excited for Germany!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
First off, I want to thank everyone for the letters, packages, postcards and dear elders. I'm convinced that I have the best family in the world. I love you all, and I pray for you all!
This will be my last email until I get to the mission field. I only have 4 days left! Today is p-day, tomorrow is Christmas eve, so the schedule will be a little different so our teachers can spend time with their families, Saturday is Christmas (Merry Christmas everyone!) and they keep us pretty busy that day, then we have church/interviews on Sunday, and then I leave at 5:00 am Monday morning! The people going to Berlin don't leave until Tuesday. I'm really sad to leave my district. I love them so much, and half of them aren't even going to the same mission as me! We have epic plans for MTC reunions though. In two years, hahah.
So some cool stuff has happened this week. The highlight was going to the MTC talent show try-outs. Yes, we are having an MTC talent show. The real deal will happen on Christmas day, and it should be really good. But the auditions.... well... hahahah let's just say it was like American Idol, but mormon style. Meaning that there were lots of really talented people, but also people singing renditions of the 12 days of Christmas replaced with MTC lyrics. ("FIIIIIIVE CTR RIIIIIIINNGGSS!!!!!!!") It was hilarious hahaha. Plus we had to wait for 2 hours before my companion got to try out so we saw a lot of acts.
What else, oh, it snowed here like crazy. It snowed non-stop for a day and a half. A lot of it has gotten washed away by rain, now, but a bunch of missionaries that were supposed to leave this past Monday got delayed and had to stay at the MTC until yesterday. Apparently snow is hitting Germany pretty hard, too, and the Frankfurt airport was closed for a while. So the fields really will be white!
Oh, and thank you so much for the package, mom! I loved your daily planner with all the inspiration stuff written in it :). I have a funny story about the Nutella, though. So Sister Cannon and I have been joking about Nutella ever since we got here. We both LOVE Nutella. It's our guilty pleasure of choice. We were talking about how we love Nutella on everything, and by the end, I think Sister Cannon was dreaming about Nutella. She kept saying, 'Ugh, why don't they sell it in the bookstore? I NEED some Nutella!" and then, lo and behold, what was in your package? A HUGE JAR hahahaha we about DIED laughing. She said, "You told your mom, didn't you?" hahahah. It was perfect. We took it to breakfast so all the elders could have some on their bagels and bananas and stuff.
Well, my brain is really scattered and I can't remember what else I was going to tell you...
Oh yeah! So I thought you might be interested to know that in the 61 days I have been here, we have sung 'Called to Serve' 24 times. (half in German, half in English).
Well, I love you all lots! Wish me luck in Germany!
Kristin
P.S. Matt and Melinda - I loved your package! I got it forever ago and I sent you a glowing letter about what awesome siblings you are and how cute Adelaide is, but I think it probably got to VA after you left. I love you lots! Thank you so much!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Week 7 (11 days 'til Germany!)
Guten Tag!
It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, which means my departure date is coming closer too! All of us are getting really excited, but also really nervous. Also, a sister going to Berlin (my old roommate, Sister Risemay) sent a letter to me yesterday. She has been in Germany for about three weeks, and apparently it is sooooooooo cold there right now! In her letter she said, "Yesterday, the high was 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature is supposed to plummet next week." Yikes! I'm really excited, though. And it's already been crazy cold here in Provo, so I don't feel totally unprepared.
So a couple of exciting things happened this week. First of all, I got called to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting, which was cool! I think I told you already, but the way they do it in my branch is that everyone prepares a talk in German, and then right after we take the sacrament, the Branch President calls two people at random to come up and talk. In a way it was kind of nice, because I didn't have time to get psyched out! I just walked up there and gave it! A bunch of people complimented me on my German afterward, which made me feel good.
Another cool thing is that we had the BYU Men's Choir at the MTC for the Fireside on Sunday. They are AMAZING. I love men's voices. They sang a bunch of Christmas songs and showed some really cool video clips and such.
We also got a new roommate on Tuesday, Sister Nieman, who is also going to Frankfurt! She is already fluent in German, though, so they fast-tracked her and she moved into a different zone, different branch, and different room even. But we had fun for the two nights she slept in our room. She's a convert, so she shared her conversion story and everything with us. It makes me excited when I hear conversion stories, because soon I'll be the missionary in those stories! Yay! Aaaaaagh I can't even believe how soon Germany is!
Also, I got a really nice Christmas email from the Stake Presidency today. If you see President Lundgren soon, tell him thank you for me. It was really nice. Maybe I'll forward it to you, Mom.
What else..... Hmmm.... Oh, so I don't have my travel plans quite yet, but they're supposed to be here tonight or tomorrow morning. I was hoping I'd have them in time for me to email them to you, but I guess I'll just write them down and mail them to you with my handwritten letter, Mom. I hope I have a long layover so I have lots of time to talk!
Okay, well that's about it. My testimony is growing and filling me up inside. I love the MTC, but I can't wait for the field, life is good, and the Church is true!
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Jensen
It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, which means my departure date is coming closer too! All of us are getting really excited, but also really nervous. Also, a sister going to Berlin (my old roommate, Sister Risemay) sent a letter to me yesterday. She has been in Germany for about three weeks, and apparently it is sooooooooo cold there right now! In her letter she said, "Yesterday, the high was 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature is supposed to plummet next week." Yikes! I'm really excited, though. And it's already been crazy cold here in Provo, so I don't feel totally unprepared.
So a couple of exciting things happened this week. First of all, I got called to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting, which was cool! I think I told you already, but the way they do it in my branch is that everyone prepares a talk in German, and then right after we take the sacrament, the Branch President calls two people at random to come up and talk. In a way it was kind of nice, because I didn't have time to get psyched out! I just walked up there and gave it! A bunch of people complimented me on my German afterward, which made me feel good.
Another cool thing is that we had the BYU Men's Choir at the MTC for the Fireside on Sunday. They are AMAZING. I love men's voices. They sang a bunch of Christmas songs and showed some really cool video clips and such.
We also got a new roommate on Tuesday, Sister Nieman, who is also going to Frankfurt! She is already fluent in German, though, so they fast-tracked her and she moved into a different zone, different branch, and different room even. But we had fun for the two nights she slept in our room. She's a convert, so she shared her conversion story and everything with us. It makes me excited when I hear conversion stories, because soon I'll be the missionary in those stories! Yay! Aaaaaagh I can't even believe how soon Germany is!
Also, I got a really nice Christmas email from the Stake Presidency today. If you see President Lundgren soon, tell him thank you for me. It was really nice. Maybe I'll forward it to you, Mom.
What else..... Hmmm.... Oh, so I don't have my travel plans quite yet, but they're supposed to be here tonight or tomorrow morning. I was hoping I'd have them in time for me to email them to you, but I guess I'll just write them down and mail them to you with my handwritten letter, Mom. I hope I have a long layover so I have lots of time to talk!
Okay, well that's about it. My testimony is growing and filling me up inside. I love the MTC, but I can't wait for the field, life is good, and the Church is true!
I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Week 6
Hi family!
How are you all? Thank you all for the letters and Dear Elders! This week has been so awesome. I'm getting really excited because we get our travel plans by the end of next week! It's crazy how fast time is flying. I can't even remember what all happened this week to write about it.
We're officially not required to wear tights/nylons anymore, which caused much rejoicing among the sister missionaries. Except... now I actually kind of love wearing them. But in summer it'll be nice.
Did you all get to see the First Presidency devotional? The Christmas one? They broadcast it here on Sunday, and I really enjoyed it. Especially President Uchtdorf talking about the Grinch :)
So we have taught lessons in German twice now, and both times were sooooooo bad hahahah. I mean, we can talk just fine, but the volunteer investigators speak much better German than us, so we panic every time they ask questions. Also, there's one volunteer who comes every week, Herr Cuvelier, and somehow we ALWAYS manage to teach him haha. We have taught him three times now, but each time he's a different investigator so we have to pretend we've never seen him before. This week he decided he was Muslim, so we had to explain God and Jesus Christ to him, and how they were different from Allah and Muhammed hahahahah IN GERMAN. Afterwards we just laughed so hard. Sometimes the TRC (where we teach the investigators) is borderline humiliating. But we learn so much every time, and it's always funny afterward.
What else... oh, so Mom, I wanted to tell you about Sister Curtis. Sister Curtis is our branch president's wife, and she is really good about checking up on us girls, and coming and making sure we're healthy, and visiting our residence halls to say goodnight to us every Tuesday, stuff like that. Every time we see her we get about five hugs from her. She reminds me a lot of Sister Harlon, actually. I should send you a picture. Anyway, she told us this week, "Everyone, I want you to write your mothers and tell them that if they're worrying about you, Mom Curtis is looking out for you." hahaha. She is so sweet. So anyway, just know that she is giving me proxy hugs for you.
Well, that's about it, I know I'm forgetting stuff but my laundry's almost done anyway. If I get my travel plans before next time I email I'll let you know what time I have my layovers and where and all of that.
I love you all so much!
Sister Jensen
How are you all? Thank you all for the letters and Dear Elders! This week has been so awesome. I'm getting really excited because we get our travel plans by the end of next week! It's crazy how fast time is flying. I can't even remember what all happened this week to write about it.
We're officially not required to wear tights/nylons anymore, which caused much rejoicing among the sister missionaries. Except... now I actually kind of love wearing them. But in summer it'll be nice.
Did you all get to see the First Presidency devotional? The Christmas one? They broadcast it here on Sunday, and I really enjoyed it. Especially President Uchtdorf talking about the Grinch :)
So we have taught lessons in German twice now, and both times were sooooooo bad hahahah. I mean, we can talk just fine, but the volunteer investigators speak much better German than us, so we panic every time they ask questions. Also, there's one volunteer who comes every week, Herr Cuvelier, and somehow we ALWAYS manage to teach him haha. We have taught him three times now, but each time he's a different investigator so we have to pretend we've never seen him before. This week he decided he was Muslim, so we had to explain God and Jesus Christ to him, and how they were different from Allah and Muhammed hahahahah IN GERMAN. Afterwards we just laughed so hard. Sometimes the TRC (where we teach the investigators) is borderline humiliating. But we learn so much every time, and it's always funny afterward.
What else... oh, so Mom, I wanted to tell you about Sister Curtis. Sister Curtis is our branch president's wife, and she is really good about checking up on us girls, and coming and making sure we're healthy, and visiting our residence halls to say goodnight to us every Tuesday, stuff like that. Every time we see her we get about five hugs from her. She reminds me a lot of Sister Harlon, actually. I should send you a picture. Anyway, she told us this week, "Everyone, I want you to write your mothers and tell them that if they're worrying about you, Mom Curtis is looking out for you." hahaha. She is so sweet. So anyway, just know that she is giving me proxy hugs for you.
Well, that's about it, I know I'm forgetting stuff but my laundry's almost done anyway. If I get my travel plans before next time I email I'll let you know what time I have my layovers and where and all of that.
I love you all so much!
Sister Jensen
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Week 5
Okay, sorry again! I'm really late on posting this one. We'll have another one in just two days. My apologies...
Hallo, familie!
Wie gehts? This week has been yet another wonderful week at the MTC! The Christmas lights are up on the campus, and it finally snowed a ton, so the atmosphere is feeling very festive! I made a red and green paper chain to decorate our classroom, and each day we rip off a link -- counting down until the day we leave! I'm starting to get really nervous/excited now that I'm past the halfway point. I'll be in the field in no time!
How is everyone back home? I hope you're all happy and healthy! EVERYONE got sick here. Like half the MTC at least. I finally caught it, despite my plethora of vitamins I was taking. Man there was just no stopping it. The worst part is that when someone gets sick and has to stay in bed, the companion has to stay home, too, and since there are three of us, and we all got sick at different times, we ended up missing quite a bit of class last week. But luckily we're pretty much all better now!
Another district in our zone left, going to the Alpine mission, so it's pretty quite with lots of empty classrooms on our floor, but that will change soon since we're getting 30 new missionaries next week! I'm really excited. I hope there are some more sisters coming in. On our floor we have all the German speaking classes, Icelandic, Dutch, Danish and Swedish. At the far end we had Portuguese but they're all gone now because they finally got their Visas. Apparently portuguese visas are sehr hard to get. The floor below us is mostly Russian speaking, which is fun haha. We have turf wars.
Hmmm.... what else.... Oh, for devotional on Tuesday Julie B. Beck came! She is so cool. All of us girls were so excited, and elders were like, "Who is Julie B. Beck?" hahahaha. She gave the coolest talk, too. By the end, the elders were all saying, "Man, maybe I should watch the relief society broadcasts from now on, because that was awesome!" hahahaha.
Oh, so we had our very first TRC teaching appointment in German! It was SO NERVEWRACKING. Oh man. At the end we were like shaking and one of my companions looked about ready to cry. Needless to say, we are not pros at speaking German yet. I mean, we can say a few sentences, but nothing prepared me for our "investigator" asking me to explain things like unpaid clergy and why we don't do infant baptism. I have soooooo much to work on! Seriously, I sometimes I get really discouraged because I just want to be fluent and be able to say everything I want to say, you know? But it's coming along. We have 4-5 hour periods at a time where we're only allowed to speak German, and I'm always surprised at how much I can say. We're going to do some serious practicing for next week's TRC, so that we don't fail so bad next time.
I'm still loving the MTC! I'm learning so much every day. I wish everyone could come here, just so they could feel the spirit that's here. It's wonderful.
Oh, one more random thing: I did sealings for the first time today! (Missionaries are only allowed to be proxies for children) It was very cool! The provo temple has about 14 sealing rooms haha.
Jess - I'm adding to your assignments: I also need the lyrics to 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' and 'Oh come oh come emmanuel'. Pretty please? :3 Love you!
Grandma - Thank you for the pillowcase! I snuggle with it every night and think of you. I'm writing you a letter today, too, and you should get it soon. Love you!
Mom - Sorry to hear about your travel plans getting cancelled. Glad you got some work done, hope you have something fun planned to celebrate your hard work!
I love you all so much!
Smile!
The church is true!
Love,
Sister Jensen
Hallo, familie!
Wie gehts? This week has been yet another wonderful week at the MTC! The Christmas lights are up on the campus, and it finally snowed a ton, so the atmosphere is feeling very festive! I made a red and green paper chain to decorate our classroom, and each day we rip off a link -- counting down until the day we leave! I'm starting to get really nervous/excited now that I'm past the halfway point. I'll be in the field in no time!
How is everyone back home? I hope you're all happy and healthy! EVERYONE got sick here. Like half the MTC at least. I finally caught it, despite my plethora of vitamins I was taking. Man there was just no stopping it. The worst part is that when someone gets sick and has to stay in bed, the companion has to stay home, too, and since there are three of us, and we all got sick at different times, we ended up missing quite a bit of class last week. But luckily we're pretty much all better now!
Another district in our zone left, going to the Alpine mission, so it's pretty quite with lots of empty classrooms on our floor, but that will change soon since we're getting 30 new missionaries next week! I'm really excited. I hope there are some more sisters coming in. On our floor we have all the German speaking classes, Icelandic, Dutch, Danish and Swedish. At the far end we had Portuguese but they're all gone now because they finally got their Visas. Apparently portuguese visas are sehr hard to get. The floor below us is mostly Russian speaking, which is fun haha. We have turf wars.
Hmmm.... what else.... Oh, for devotional on Tuesday Julie B. Beck came! She is so cool. All of us girls were so excited, and elders were like, "Who is Julie B. Beck?" hahahaha. She gave the coolest talk, too. By the end, the elders were all saying, "Man, maybe I should watch the relief society broadcasts from now on, because that was awesome!" hahahaha.
Oh, so we had our very first TRC teaching appointment in German! It was SO NERVEWRACKING. Oh man. At the end we were like shaking and one of my companions looked about ready to cry. Needless to say, we are not pros at speaking German yet. I mean, we can say a few sentences, but nothing prepared me for our "investigator" asking me to explain things like unpaid clergy and why we don't do infant baptism. I have soooooo much to work on! Seriously, I sometimes I get really discouraged because I just want to be fluent and be able to say everything I want to say, you know? But it's coming along. We have 4-5 hour periods at a time where we're only allowed to speak German, and I'm always surprised at how much I can say. We're going to do some serious practicing for next week's TRC, so that we don't fail so bad next time.
I'm still loving the MTC! I'm learning so much every day. I wish everyone could come here, just so they could feel the spirit that's here. It's wonderful.
Oh, one more random thing: I did sealings for the first time today! (Missionaries are only allowed to be proxies for children) It was very cool! The provo temple has about 14 sealing rooms haha.
Jess - I'm adding to your assignments: I also need the lyrics to 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' and 'Oh come oh come emmanuel'. Pretty please? :3 Love you!
Grandma - Thank you for the pillowcase! I snuggle with it every night and think of you. I'm writing you a letter today, too, and you should get it soon. Love you!
Mom - Sorry to hear about your travel plans getting cancelled. Glad you got some work done, hope you have something fun planned to celebrate your hard work!
I love you all so much!
Smile!
The church is true!
Love,
Sister Jensen
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