MTC: Letter 2

Hello everyone!

This week has been incredibly stressful and amazing at the same time. I listened to an amazing talk by Elder Bednar with my district and it just completely blew my mind. I wish you could all see it but it is only shown in the MTC. It was called Character of Christ and it seriously was just amazing. 

The language has been coming along slowly but surely. I know we will get it eventually but this has actually been a pretty amazing week. I can now pray and bear testimony in Armenian and it is hard to read because it is a totally different alphabet but I can slowly read words off a paper. This week we finished teaching Geyvorg.

In the beginning of the week we just became really stressed out because we don't have enough time to prepare lessons and most of what we say doesn't make sense due to the language barrier. We couldn't understand him so that made it really hard. At the end of the week, he came in and talked to us in English and said we did a great job and all that stuff. I just hope we will be able to know more of the language for our next investigators.  The coolest thing this week though was right after the super stressful day where we wanted to give up, we were taught about the grammar of the language and that made us all super excited because we were now able to formulate sentences and not just memorize phrases. 

Also, last Wednesday 700 new missionaries came and 171 mission presidents and their wives. It is very crowded but there are a lot of general authorities on campus. Our district was selected to participate in a mission president training and during the training. Elder Dallin H. Oaks came into our discussion for thirty minutes. Our district was split so it was just the mission president and his wife and five missionaries. He had so much amazing counsel and wisdom I could just tell when I made eye contact with him. That was a wonderful experience for me.

My district has been selected for so many trainings and other things next week so we are really busy. We have been selected to host next week so we get to welcome new missionaries which will be cool. Maybe I will get to host Nick Jensen. That would be cool. I am starting to see more people I know so that is also wonderful. Well, I have to go now but it was great to write you all!

Elder Jensen

First Days: Letter 1

Hello everyone!

I am having an awesome time here at the MTC! I love it so much and it is just like EFY! The food is excellent and I love how much I am learning. As soon as I arrived I was ushered through several buildings where I received materials such as name tags and room keys and other stuff. We didn't have a chance to unpack until the end of the day so I just put all the stuff in my room and went to class.

My companions name is Elder Gray.  He is from American Fork and is an awesome missionary. I think we work really well together and have a better desire to be the best missionaries we can be. We work really hard to understand the language but I can see the blessings and it is actually coming really fast. He is very humble and has a very strong testimony of prayer.

The language is hard but we are doing great. My whole district (except for me) is going to the Armenia Yerevan mission. There are 9 Elders and 3 Sisters and each of them work very hard. In another district there are two Elders who speak Georgian as well which is also part of the Armenian mission. We had the opportunity to meet and teach our first investigator on Friday which is like really soon. On Thursday we had just learned the alphabet (we still need to learn more) and so we felt a little unprepared. Luckily, on Friday we learned how to pray in Armenian and we are learning so much more. I feel like I already understand a lot although when I first got here, my teachers didn't speak English so I didn't really understand anything. It has been great though.

I have been praying a lot more than I used to and I learn so much more everyday about the gospel. I am so grateful that I get to serve a mission with such wonderful people. Sometimes I feel a little left out because all of the other Elders and Sisters in my district are going to Armenia so I won't see them again but they will get to see each other all the time. There is always work to be done. I was called as the district leader and now have to prepare even more lessons and gospel talks. Life is great though! My P day will be Saturday for the next 8 weeks so email me often!

Love, Elder Jensen

MTC!!

This morning Rick gave Jase a beautiful father's blessing and then we headed out in two separate cars (since we can't all fit in one car).  The girls all rode with me and the boys all rode with Rick.  We drove to the Provo temple to take a few pictures and then had the kids say their goodbyes at a park across the street.  We left the kids there with Jared while Rick and I dropped him off.  We will miss him, but are excited about this wonderful opportunity for him! 

Jase Setting Apart

We took some family pictures before Jase's setting apart tonight...I still have more to add, but here are some for starters!

 

Jase Farewell Party

We had such a great turn out at Jase's Farewell Party.  We are so grateful for the amazing support of  friends, family, our ward family, and deaf branch.   I didn't get a chance to take pictures at the open house, but here are a few before and after. Jase's Grandma Jensen and Aunt Julie and Gerilyn brought him this awesome cake along with the Armenian Flag signed by the family! 

My brother Chris and his wife, Kim, traveled from Lindon for the open house and farewell