Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So I just went to put my sd card into the computer to send you pictures...and turns out I'm sitting at the only computer in the library without a slot for it. Ruuuudepants! Guess I'll write this and then switch computers.

 

My Christmas was great, like I told you we were at the Tymczuks for dinner. Turns out a traditional Canadian Christmas meal is basically Thanksgiving, it was pretty delicious. And they had crackers too (the toy not the food), giant ones that looked like nutcrackers. So it wasn't much like our normal Christmas but it was super fun! They gave Sister Tuisku and I these giant chocolate eggs called Kinder Surprises, their daughter was horrified I had never had one before. You squeeze it and it pops open and there's a toy in it. I got this game where Tom and Jerry race to touch a fish, it's basically the dumbest game ever which probably means I'll play it for like 2 hours today. (Megan Hurst and I once got these toys out of a cereal box that we were obsessed with for like a week, I'm pretty easily entertained.) Sister Tuisku got this sweet water glider that we made up gospel analogies for so we have an excuse to take it to apoointments and play with it.

 

This week was awesome because like I said we got another investigator! Chris is brilliant, I have no idea what we're going to teach him, but he's really cool. He never believed in God but it bothered him that humans have always believed in God because he thought it made no sense, and then he had an experience about 5 months ago where he came to believe in God. Now he's struggling with what to do with this new knowledge and so he's opening up to us, it's been really interesting. We want him to come to church so bad, he's just going to eat this gospel up!

 

We also have another almost investigator. Her name is Lynda and when we knocked on the door she said we mst be a sign from God because she hasn't heard from missionaries in over 2 years and we came the night she was in a huge crisis. She was on the phone with her sister who's a member and just told her she didn't know what to do when we knocked. We didn't know any of this, we just found her address in the area book, so she was blown away. We've met with her twice and she said she knows it's time for her to read the Book of Mormon and find out for herself, so we're really excited. We just need to make an appointment with her, she's super busy and so she never knows her schedule well enough to tell us when to come back. So we're praying that we can meet with her again this week, and then we can have the miracle of going from no investigators at church last week to having 3!

 

Steve's doing great, he has alot of interesting questions every time we meet because he hears all kinds of different religious opinions from his roommates. But he's reading and progressing, we just need him to come to church! We've moved his baptismal date back to the end of January so he can quit smoking and have more time to learn.

 

So that's basically everything here! We're just trying to keep kinding the people here who are ready to be taught, it's become pretty clear that despite the first impression of Owen Sound this is a place with aLOT of people who are ready for us!

 

With all 3 of the people we've met with we've ended up sharing the vision of the tree of life with them, and this week has just made the love I have for that chapter even stronger. That metaphor is so perfect, it clicks to everyone! And you can see it coming true all over, I was reading 3 Nephi 1 where the nonbelievers are going to put to death everyone waiting for the sign of Christ's birth, and I realized it's a PERFECT example of the great and spacious building! There's this group of vain, worldly people making a great up roar and fighting against the lamb of god, just like in 1 Nephi 11. It follows the description of the building and the people in it exactly. Then the sign is given and just like in 1 Nephi 11 the building falls- people fall to the ground and realize their iniquities and pride in doubting the prophets and their plan of destruction is ruined. I love seeing examples where they most evil plans of Satan just crumble when the power of God is revealed, you also see it when Alma and Amulek are imprisoned and mocked and beat for days. The when the time is right they're granted to the power to break their bonds and stand free, and the prison tumbles and destroys all their captors. The powers of evil in this world can seem so strong and overwhelming, but when compared with the Lord's power is almost a joke, it can't even compete! I'm so grateful to be built on the rock of Christ and not on a foundation of nothing like the great and spacious building.

 

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! Have fun in Utah, give everyone huge hugs from me! Love you all!

Merry Christmas!

Hey y’all, hope it's been as great of a week for it as it was for me! Sorry to hear about the internet, that sounds miserable to live without being able to use the internet whenever you want ;) And that's exciting to be getting a Christmas box, I will anxiously await it! I have a present for you too, I know we set up a time to call but I'm going to have to ignore that a little...BECAUSE I GET TO SKYPE HOME! We found out last Monday night, so sorry we won't really get to talk about the timing. But since Dad's in charge of the ward just tell him to change any conflicts, I'm more important.I I'm going to call you on skype at 2:30 Houston time, 3:30 here in Toronto (Sorry, Sister Tuisku has a harder time difference to work with so she's going to call before me.) If that really won't work and I need to call at 1:30 Houston time like we planned, I guess just email President Scott and ask if he can call and tell me, I won't let his call scare me this time. Also Mom, yes I did decide to keep the boots, they work great. I just need something a little warmer than panty hose to keep my toes warm. And the coat is fantastic, everything I have works great, I just need a few more layers. And before I forget, I won't be emailing next Monday because it's Boxing Day and so everything will be closed (Don't ask me what Boxing Day is, I still don't know other than it's the day after Christmas.) Same for the Monday after that because it's right after New Years so the library will be closed, both those weeks I'll email you on Tuesday.

So this week was a MIRACLE week! Our focus as a district was on miracles, we had to call each night and tell them a miracle we saw that day, and I loved that, I think the attitude adjustment really helped me. And we have an investigator! His name is Steve, we were supposed to meet him on Monday but he never showed up and didn't answer our calls so we were really bummed because we thought we had been stood up. But he called us back about a half hour after we left and it turned out we were just at different Tim Horton's. He was just as sad about it as we were so we set another appointment for Wednesday and he did come. He's incredible, he told us right off the bat that he wants a closer relationship with God and has this desire to be baptized that he can't really explain. We were like, wait seriously? Because our purpose as missionaries is to prepare people for baptism and help them gain a relationship with God... It was crazy perfect; we met him again Saturday and taught him about the restoration. When we told him about Joseph Smith's first vision, we asked how he felt and he said "I guess the closest word to describe it would be joy." We were like, SERIOUSLY?! That's amazing! He rocks, he has a baptism date for January 8th. MIRACLE! He has a lot to overcome before that, he's had some really hard stuff in his life and is struggling from the effects of that, but he has a lot of faith and such a desire to know the truth so I have total faith that he'll be able to do it. We called our district leader and told him when he agreed to be baptized and about a minute after we hung up the zone leaders called to congratulate us and we were both like, WE DID NOTHING! We haven't taught him anything, we didn't even find him, it's been 100% from God, I love it! So this week we're working to get more investigators, the whole experience with Steve was a much needed confidence boost and now I'm totally ready to find every person in Owen Sound who's ready for the gospel!

In other exciting news, we got a brand new car this week! I guess there's been a long history of missionaries not having a good car in this area, Everyone in the ward was excited we finally have snow tires. But the ironic thing is that this is apparently a freak warm winter, we get snow but never more than a few inches and then it melts. Apparently there's usually a meter and a half of snow (which again I had to have translated for me, but basically I should be up to my shoulders in snow for December here). It's been such a blessing, I'm super grateful, not only because I don't wake up wanting to cry every day, but because there is a LOT of work we need to do in the cities other than Owen Sound, and that wouldn't be possible without this beautiful weather of only -10 degress C.

So here's something you'll enjoy, one of the thing I spend most my time doing is singing. I know, not exactly my strongest talent, but since coming to Canada I sang in training with Elder Kenning and Elder Welch as the musical number, sang as a musical number in zone conference with 6 other missionaries, and we're doing what's called a living Christmas Card where we go caroling to friends of members and then present a short Christmas message by either showing the nativity DVD or reading from Luke. I think I'm getting like a blessing from the Spirit that I'm able to sing well enough to not ruin the Spirit, every time I get complimented I have to resist the urge to laugh. I think mostly what's happening is that Sister Tuisku has this AMAZING voice that it covers mine enough that people think I'm talented as well. (She sang in Finnish at the last home we went to, it was so cool.)

Well, I think that's mostly it.  Hope everyone has another good week, you're all in my prayers! I can't wait to see you on Christmas!  Love you and Merry Christmas!

Things here are fantastic

Hey everyone, hope you've had a great week! I loved the pictures, yes I know I have the best ex-roommates ever, I love them! And the house looks so cute as always, I had a weird moment on Saturday when I realized yall were probably decorating for the night of lights. Crazy to think yall are doing normal Christmas stuff right now...


This week has been really good, though we still have no one to teach. It's killing Sister Tuisku, she is not used to an area like this. BUT we have 2 appointments this week with potential investigators, so I'm praying that by my next email we'll have at least one investigator. One of them, Steven, was referred to us by Elders in another area. We called him and he just said "Yeah I was hoping to meet with you and talk about what you believe." It was a MIRACLE, we're meeting with him tonight and I'm super excited. The other's name is Chris, he talked to missionaries over the summer but then got busy and stopped seeing them. He said if he was a Christian he'd be "born again" because he just had a spiritual experience, so we're going back on Wednesday to talk to him. Other than that we're really just focusing on inspiring members to do missionary work, we have a few people who said they might have someone to talk to so I think our work will take off soon. 

There are alot of churches here too, really big pretty old looking buildings. Every town has at least one intersection with one on all 4 corners, there are probably like 10 altogether in Owen Sound. It makes it interesting though because people here have seen alot of missionaries and while they're very religious, they're not very open to talking with us. We really have to get to know people if we have any chance of them even taking a pass along card.

Erin, I think all the time about how much you would LOVE this town, all the buildings are different sizes just like you like. And it feels like every new neighborhood we go to is right on the shore, it's really pretty. This week we got our first real snow, there's about a foot still on the ground but it is slowly melting away. It snowed for 2 days though, we had to cancel our plans to go visit other cities. I don't mind the snow too much, but the cold is RIDICULOUS! I'm not sure exactly how cold it's been but I've been layering like crazy. The tradition in Canada is you take off your shoes every time you go into someone house, which I thought was super weird at first because we would never have the missionaries take off their shoes at home! But here it's polite because otherwise you track water and mud into their house from the snow. So you know how we joked about taking the green frog slippers the Martins gave me to people's houses and wearing them?  Well, I've had multiple people ask if I brought slippers so my feet won't be cold. I haven't worked up the nerve to actually bring that pair, but it made me laugh that we were actually not too far off.

I don't have as much time to write so sorry this letter doesn't have any great spiritual stories, but I hope everything at home has been great!! Things here are fantastic, I love this area. I'm being well taken care of, the members seem to believe we'll if not fed at least 3 times a week so we're well watched over, it's awesome! And the Spirit here is crazy strong, this ward is awesome. I love you all and I'll talk to ya in a week!

GREETINGS FROM OWEN SOUND CANADA!

GREETINGS FROM OWENSOUND CANADA! One of the members of the ward told me President Monson told his father that this is the coldest place on Earth, so straight from the mouth of a prophet. And if you require 2 or more witnesses, THIS IS THE COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH! Actually, so far it's not bad, although the previous sisters were 4 hours late in picking us up because of the snow, but it's all melted since then. We've been promised there will be lots of extra snow this year too, because the lake is warmer than normal, so awesome.

Also, this area is GIANT! you can drive at least 45 minutes in any direction and be in the ward boundaries, and if you go very top to very bottom it takes about 2 and a half hours. The members are from 25 different cities! So one of the big problems in this area is staying within the alloted 1800 kilometers each month (this whole metric system really throws me off so I don't actually know how far that is, but the Sisters before went over by about 200). 

So there were Elders here for about 8 years, then the area closed for a transfer and the Sisters before us opened it up. However, they both had some serious health issues, one actually went home a transfer early due to it, and so they were both instructed that this was to be their last area so take it easy and just do what they can to prepare for us. So we're basically starting from scratch, I don't know if we're technically white washing but we practically are. It's hard, I'm SO grateful for Sister Tuisku. I love her by the way, she is from Finland but we have weird connections! Her brother is currently serving in the Houston South Mission, her cousin is in what used to be the Toluse France Mission (sorry if I spelled that wrong Melissa), and her brother served in the Denver Colorado South mission! Crazy eh? But President Scott was not lying, she is incredible, she always says "I love my mission, my mission saved my life!" She's so cute and such a hard worker, super obedient which I love. We pray and hug before we ever leave the apartment, and pray before leaving the car, she has such a great testimony of prayer.

 So lies I was told about Canada:

-People don't say eh: True not everyone says it at the end of every sentence, BUT EVERYONE SAYS IT, I have to try so hard not to laugh. And some people do end just about every sentence with eh, maybe in the city areas it's less common but here in the northern country it's rampant.

-Americans exaggerate how they say about: NO, the Canadiuan accent is very very real! EVERYONE says out and about as stereotyped.

-You'll never need or hear french in Toronto: True, I don't need it, but almost everyone speaks French! They even have a French Immersion option for elementry school.

 Fun facts about my mission:

-Most of the population comes from 98 different countries!

-There are 8 mission languages I believe, including Farcee (spelling?) which is not taught in the MTC. You're called English speaking and then the mission president calls you when you arrive to learn Farcee. One of the Elders who came with us got called to do so, in the MTC he was in the disrict right next door. SO COOL!

- On the western side of the mission you can make out the form of an elephant on a map, the tail and ears go into Lake Huron (I think? Whichever lake we're by anyways). Owen Sound is directly on the butt, under the tail. Basically the entire butt is my current area.

I think sometimes I forget I'm in Canada though, the first time I went to Walmart I paid with cash cuz it was like $1, and the cashier gave me back purple bills as change. I stared at it so long, by the time I said thank you she was giving me a super weird look.

 Okay I think that's basically everything. I have no investigators yet, though we're hoping to start teaching some nonmember family members of ward members. We think the work here is mostly going to be less actives and member referals, there are alot of churches in this area so people are not interested in talking to missionaries on the street at all. We do OYM still (open your mouth, basically we walk a street and talk to every single person we see, it's terrifying and I'm not good at it!) but actually tracting hasn't seemed like a good idea so far. In fact our district leader challenged everyone not to tract any doors this week, so our instincts are dead on so far! But I love this area so much, the ward is like a giant family. They drive like an hour to get to church, so they love being there and everyone's best friends. It's awesome, my bishop rocks, my ward mission leader is amazing! This area is so different then I ever expected my first area to be like, and it's going to be aLOT of heard work, but I already love it. Love you all, I've got to go before this computer kicks me off and I lose this email! There are letters on your way! Love you!

Sister Jensen has arrived!

Last Tuesday, November 29th,  Rachel traveled to Toronto. She was part of a group of 9 from her MTC district, which included her MTC companion, Sister Beasley, and 7 elders.   I was able to speak to her for a few minutes during her layover in Detroit, and was so impressed by how incredibly happy she was.

Yesterday we received a letter from President Scott letting us know Rachel had safely arrived.  In his email he said, "Her testimony and enthusiasm for the work are evident."   

I think you can see that in her smile! 

Sister Jensen with President & Sister Scott

Rachel's first companion is Sister Tuisku

and they will be serving in Owen Sound, ON.

.

If you'd like to write to Sister Jensen, her current address is:

#2 - 365 4th Ave., S.W.

Owen Sound, ON

N4K 5Y1

Canada

Can't wait to get her first letter from Canada!

Surprise Email!

So i just found out we're allowed to email today, since it's essentially our p-day cuz we do our laundry and pack today. I leave the mtc tomorrow at 4 am, catch a flight at 7:30, and have a layover i believe from 1-2 but i'm not sure what time zone. Anyways, that's probably when i'll call, just fyi.

 

Thanksgiving in the MTC is AMAZING!! I mean, it didn't actually feel like Thanksgiving at all, but it was really awesome. We made 8,000 first aid kits for South Suddan, got hear hear Russell M. Nelson and his wife give incredible talks, and got to watch A MOVIE! 17 Miracles, surprisingly fantastic, about the Martin Handcart Company, I highly recommend it. There was a super cheesy musical program which I spent about half of laughing through, they made us sing To Grandmother's House We Go with lyrics changed to be about Thanksgiving. We kept reassuring Elder Elford, who's from Canada, that Thanksgiving was NOT this dumb, but it was still pretty fun. And having 2 apostles speak in 1 week was pretty amazing!

 

The last few days in the MTC has been crazy, 2 of the elders from our district left this morning. It still doesn't feel totally real, but they've done alot to help switch our mindframe from MTC to field work. We had in field orientation ALL DAY on Friday, whichI thought was going to be horrible but was surprisingly not boring. It probably helped that most of the teachers were in the district, the training videos for the MTC, so we were all a little starstruck and that kept us awake. Elder Kenning at one point shook one of their hands and then turned to me and said "I FEEL SO ALIVE!" But we learned alot about goal setting, planning, contacting, references, and other stuff that should have been horrible to sit through but actually got me totally pumped. And they gave us pass along cards to use at the airport, which I do NOT want to do but I'm trying to work up the nerve to if I get the chance. We also had a departure devotional this Sunday, where they basically just gave us their last minute advice for the field. My hand was burning from trying to take notes, and I spent my whole 2 hours of personal study time today (we don't usually get that much, it was really exciting) going through the scriptures they gave us and studying different missionaries in the Book of Mormon like President Brown suggested we do. It's cool to see how they use so many of the same teaching principles we're being taught here in the MTC! One of the teachers in in-field orientation told us that if we were to throw away our planners and preach my gospel and start missionary work from scratch, and spend the rest of our lives doing missionary work, our methods and notes by the end would be essentially a poor version of Preach My Gospel, because that's what it is. It's a combilation of the most efficient information and methods that's been found through the course of the work of hundreds of years of missionary work. It's exactly the same advice Ammon, Aaron, and Nephi and Lehi, and all other great missionaries would give us. Everything we could be taught so far is in that book. I'm getting the absolute best missionary training training ever given in history, which is a little reassuring to know. The work will still be hard, but I'm as prepared as I can be.

 

Mom I got your box, thank you so much!! I can't wait to read my letters tomorrow, and Sister Beasley and I are PUMPED about the goodie bags! And my new skirt is coveted by all, even after only 3 weeks the idea of having something new to wear is thrilling. I'm going to try to start attaching pictures to my emails next week, especially since I didn't send a cd with the pictures I've mailed so far. And thank you to everyone who wrote me right before Thanksgiving, I got like 8 letters, it was fantastic. And a delicious pumpkin pie for pie night?? Best mail everrrrrr!

 

I've got to go start packing, but I love you all so much! Can't wait to hear your lovely voices tomorrow, I expect everyone to skip work and school and just sit home waiting for my call. I have no idea of when my p-day will be from now on, but i'll write again soon!

 

P.S. Erin, I can't remember if I told you this yet or not, but I say "Cool story Elder" like 5 times a day and I now feel your pain of no one thinking it's funny. But it cracks me up everytime!

My life right now ROCKS!!

FAMILIA!! Hola to everyone! I have a little less time to email today cuz I had to read letters, but that's okay.

So this week has been fantastic! I can't even think of where to start. First, can you believe this time next week I’ll be in the field?? I can't! It's crazy, I'm at the point where I'm ahead of my roommates cuz I’m learning the lessons 3 times as fast as them cuz I don't have to learn a language, so I was telling them about teaching the plan of salvation and they had just started it that day. Weird, I'm like as old as you can get as an english speaker in the mtc now. (P.S. I lied, my spanish speaking roommates are going to St. George! So ask everyone you meet if they know me Grandma and Grandpa!)

So pros and cons of befriending your zone leader:

Pros: He's a combo of Cory Martin and Joe, so basically he's my favorite person ever.

Cons: Personal study time is so much harder to focus in cuz we talk about all these random points of the gospel, and he'll make you teach a lesson in district meeting and recommend you to the branch president for callings.

So I am now the coordinating sister for our branch, which is super hilarious for a few reasons. I leave on Tuesday, so I got called this Sunday and will be released next Sunday. And they don't make any missionaries go to the mtc the day before Thanksgiving, so we aren't getting any new sisters, and 99% of my calling is welcoming and orientating new sisters. So why do I have this calling? Just because Elder Kenning recommended me.

Than I taught a lesson on the book of mormon being keystone of our religion, most over discussed topic ever. I complained to Elder Kenning about that and he told me that's why he gave it to me, cuz I thought I could find something deeper in it. No pressure. But it actually went really well, I had everyone say what they were grateful for that came from the gospel and wrote it in a shape of the arch and then talked about how without the book of mormon we wouldn't have any of them and erased them one at a time. It made me cry, so I guess if nothing else it really helped strengthen me. It's just crazy to think that without that book, which I tend to give so little time or attention to, there would be no priesthood authority or church or revelation and literally everything I value that got me here in the mtc right now would just be nonexistent! How do I manage to be so ungrateful of that? It's really something I want to change about myself while I'm here, and hopefully something I won't ever do as much again in my entire life.

Guess what Melissa, my branch president gave this super original talk about how the Holy Ghost is, wait for it... like a GPS! WHAT?!?! Really?? Just like they said in conference? Just like they say in the first book of the book of mormon with the Liahona?? GASP! It actually was an awesome talk, mostly cuz that analogy was only the very beginning of it, but I was cracking up the whole time thinking of you!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving, we get to spend it doing service and going to devotionals, it should rock! They still won't admit who's speaking though, so I'll keep pretending like I don't know.

I feel like the theme of this past week has been the Holy Ghost. Want to read something amazing, look up the 20 mark note talk by President Packer. We watched a clip about Elder Bednar talking about as a missionary he once gave Elder Packer 20 marks in case he got hungry on the train and 20 years later discovered that may have saved his and his wife's lives. But at the time he really just thought they may be hungry, he had no idea what an important spiritual prompting that was! The point was that as missionaries, and in our lives in general, we need to stop worrying so much about if something is our thoughts or a prompting of the spirit. The truth is that if we do what is right and are trying to keep our selves in line with Christ's teachings, or as Elder Bednar said "be good boys and girls", we'll have those promptings. It doesn't matter if we realize that's what it was or not, just have faith! That was so reassuring because I constantly worry about if I'm teaching with the Spirit, and I realized I just need to have faith in my calling and the promises of the Lord that if I’m studying and being obedient, than the Spirit will be there and the Lord will direct me. Cory wrote in an email to me to just learn to let go of the rope and let the Lord make up the rest, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

Well, last few minutes of email time! I'm so happy for p day, it's a little sad that THE HIGHLIGHT of my week is doing laundry, my district and i talk about it probably every day. But I don't know when I'll email again since next p-day I fly to CANADA! So i'll call you from the airport in a week, I forgot my travel info so I could give you a time estimate but I leave the MTC at 4 am and fly to Detroit, so I'll probably call you during that lay over or when I land. So mom KEEP YOUR PHONE ON AND ANSWER IT, I’ll call the house and dad's too since I know yours has issues but seriously, if you need to swap phones for the day with Erin and just put your sim card in hers so it'll actually ring do it so I actually get to talk to someone. Love you all so so much, I cried a lot about you this week but we had an awesome lesson about how Christ taught if we love Him more than these we are to feed His sheep. You guys are my "these", I love you more than everything except for Christ, He is the only one I value more and the only reason I can handle leaving you for so long is because I'm doing His work and feeding His sheep. Especially you baby EJ, I'll miss a lot with you but it's worth it, and I'll see you so soon anyways!

So reporting from the last time from P-Town Utah MTC, this is Sister Jensen saying my life right now ROCKS!!

Best decision ever, I'm so grateful to be here.

Hey well no one emailed me so I have to guess who to send this to, cuz guess what I'm so intelligent I didn't bring any addresses or emails. True story. So I'm not writing anyone who doesn't write me first, which let's be honest, I wasn't going to do anyways but now I have an excuse. But I hope one of the emails is yours Mom!

But how are y'all?? The MTC has been so fantastic, seriously I feel like everyone should come to the MTC even if you don't serve a mission, I'm being overloaded with everything I'm learning and the amazing spirit here. I really love it, and I'm getting so excited to hit the field! I just got back from the temple, which ROCKED, and I got to eat the fantastic cafeteria food in the temple, which was the best breakfast I've had since getting here. Totally worth the 5 bucks or whatever I spent.

So my district has 12 people in it, 4 sisters and 8 elders. 7 of us are going to Toronto, 2 are going to Nashville Tennessee, and 3 are going to Houston! Including the other companion of sisters, who I adore. Unfortunately they're going to the Houston South mission so you'll probably never meet them unless you're hanging out in Galveston. But they're seriously hysterical, they kill me. Sister Lewis always makes fun of me cuz I tell her like 10 times a day "You are out of control right now!" and Sister Holmes like to make fun of my use of y'all. I'll send you pictures in an actual letter of them. My companion is Sister Beasley, she's going to Toronto as well. She's awesome, I love her. Not gonna lie, she's not the kind of person I think I'd usually end of making friends with, but I love her so much she's perfect for my companion. You'll be happy to hear we're the nerdy squares of our district, we're the ones always studying and focusing when everyone else is talking, and I can only manage to do that because she helps keep me focus so I'm so grateful for her.

I have 4 other roommates, 2 of who are learning Spanish and two of who are learning Mandarin (I lied about that in the note I sent home). I love when everyone says companion prayers at night cuz there's 3 different languages being used, but we're all still communicating with the same God. It's super cool to listen to. They're all hilarious too, and since they're learning languages and have only been here 3 weeks Sister Beasley and I will be leaving before them, so they'll be my roommates all 3 weeks.

Okay, this might seem really obvious and dumb, but we pray aLOT in the MTC! I'd say I easily pray 20 times a day, and that might be an understatement. I'd list all the times but I only have 20 minutes left and I think that would take up all my time, so I'll just say I have a whole new appreciation of saying a personalized prayer. I have to make sure I'm not getting repetitive and am being sincere because I pray so often it's super easy to start to fall into a routine. But I already feel my relationship strengthening with my Heavenly Father because of it! I've also got a whole new testimony that the training for missionaries is divinely inspired, because it's not at all how I expected, no person would design it this way. Instead of learning the lessons and memorizing scriptures to teach people, we seem to be learning things backwards. I'm already teaching 3 investigators and we only just started learning what to teach in the first lesson. It kinda feels like everyday I learn the way I've been teaching is totally wrong and I have to start over, it's super humbling. But I can already see how it works, I feel like I've progressed so much in just a week (but I still feel no where close to being ready to go!) BTW, just FYI my investigators are not actual nonmembers, they're teachers and volunteers in the mtc, but it's taken so seriously I feel like they're real investigators! My roommates says she even puts hers on the prayer role in the temple lol. It's a really cool way to practice.

It's also super humbling to get in here and realize NOTHING I do in here it's for me, it's all about our future investigators. Even yesterday when we talked in class about how to deal with stress, our teacher said "We aren't teaching you this because the mtc is stressful and we want you to feel better, we're teaching you this because if you're stressed you won't be as effective of a missionary." It seems kinda harsh but it's so true, every second you waste thinking about your self in here is a second you're wasting because the Spirit can't inspire you as to how to help your investigators. Even personal prayers and personal scripture study are so you can prepare to teach your investigators, and to strengthen your testimony so you can share it more effectively. NOTHING is about me, which is hard cuz I'm super selfish, but it's improving.

So those are probably the biggest things I've learned and am working on so far. Here's some cool facts I thought y'all might be interested in: We currently have about 4,000 more missionaries than originally anticipated to be in the MTC! The amount of members serving missions is going in up drastically every category, which is crazy cuz in conference they talked about how we need more. Salt Lake just asked them to build a new 7 story residence hall, originally the MTC wanted to build a 5 story one but Salt Lake said it wasn't enough. My branch president told us the work is really taking off and we haven't seen anything yet!

Also, we had a fireside about how basically everything we do in the church is null and void without tithing, it totally changed my perspective on it. He talked about how it's a principle of faith, not money, and it's the only part of the baptismal interview you can't do until you're baptized so whether you pay it or not really shows if you're willing to endure to the end. If you don't pay tithing you aren't worthy to enter the temple, so without tithing honestly you can't receive the full blessings the Lord has promised us. It was so cool to think about! So I decided the anytime y'all put money in my card, please immediately pull 10% back out and pay it to the ward. I don't ever want to to miss out on paying tithing again!

So time's about up, but I love y'all so much!! I'm writing everyone actual letters today so sorry I didn't answer that, but I'm so grateful for all my letters! I've gotten 7, my district leader was blown away. So look forward to mail this week, there probably won't be any pictures just yet but I'll send some soon. Love you all, miss you but I'm so happy to be here it's worth it! I can't believe it's been a week and I'm 1/3 done, this experience has been fantastic. Someone tole me it was like EFY but EFY has NOTHING on this! Best decision ever, I'm so grateful to be here.

I'll talk to you in a week! Bye! Write back now, y'all hear?

Hey Houston!!!

We received the following note from Rachel today.  Can't wait to start receiving her regular emails!


Hey Houston!!

Miss me yet??  The MTC is fantastic, I really do love it.  Everyone here is so amazingly nice!  All of my roommates are so cute and total craps ups, I can't wait to get to know them.   My companion is also going to Toronto, Sister Beasley.  She's quiet so it'll take a while to get to know her.  But she seems super sweet. 

The first day was good, not too overwhelming though I'm exhausted now!  I hope everything's great at home.

Dear Elder me up!

Love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Jensen

I'm on my way!

Since starting tomorrow I will be without my Facebook, cell phone, or current email for the next 18 months, I thought I should make my remaining communication methods publicly known. If you want to stay in touch here are your options:

Write to me in the mtc for the first 3 weeks (the month of November 2011) at:

Sister Rachel Jensen
MTC Mailbox # 327
CAN-TOR 1129
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

You can also send me mail for free in the mtc by using www.dearelder.com.

Send me mail actually in Canada at:

Sister Rachel Jensen
Canada Toronto Mission
197 Country Court Blvd Ste 203
Brampton, ON L6W 4PG
Canada

I'll be sending home a weekly email, which you can either read here or if you message my mom you can be added to the mass forwarding list. I'll miss everyone and hope to hear from you!