Missionary Training Center. He requests that letters come through
DearElder.com. He has limited time to do e-mail each week and with
DearElder they are printed and delivered on a daily basis. He loves hearing
from you!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Taylor Jensen" <tajensen8@myldsmail.net>
To: <njensen@cinci.rr.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 2:03 PM
Subject: Friend Email
Hey friends!
Another week has passed here...it feels like forever!! its almost hard to
remember my life before being here just because my 16 hours of being awake
are PACKED with studying learning and classes. I have learned so so much.
Its fun learning spanish and it is a struggle. i've finished two weeks in
the MTC (which, also happens to mean i have finished about 2% of my mission
(52 weeks in a year, 2 years... think about it.)) Week two has gone SO much
better than week one. Instead of that overwhelming feeling i had first week,
this week has gone a lot more smoothly. We are all settled in and oriented
and everything now, so that is great. Elder Foye and I have been practicing
our teaching a lot. We have found one teacher who we love practicing with
because he is incredibly smart, reverent, and loving and teaches us so much.
Just little things- how to ask good questions, how to talk showing love
instead of just conveying messages. its been great, and although our
teaching still isnt very good still, we have made a lot of progress!
We have been to the RC (referrel Center) several times to work the phones
and call to make sure people recieved the missionaries or stuff they ordered
from pass along cards. Its a little scary at times, (especially when you are
calling people who havent been called since, like, 1997) (that only happened
once) but most of the time you get answering machines, so all is well! i've
talked to several people on the phone and some of them have agreed to talk
to the missionaries. its pretty exciting! just wait till i do it in
espanol...THAT will be the scary one!
I feel like ive been learning so much here. There is so much to teaching
that i have yet to learn (see above paragraph about Teaching Evaluations
(TE's). Preach My Gospel (the missionary handbook/teachign guide) is just
loaded, and we have only skimmed the surface. Spanish is going well. Its
hard to focus on listening so intently for so long each day in class, but i
feel like its really been paying off. i feel like i am doing a pretty good
job of observing sentence structures and such, so hopefully my speaking will
catch up!
I have been pretty sick basically since i got here. I've pretty much been
limited to Rice, water, sometimes a bowl of cereal, and delicious wheat
rolls. I also have delicious oyster crackers and pumpkin cookies (thanks
mama!) and nilla wafers (thanks to adrianne!)to get me through. I am pretty
sure i've lost between 2 and 5 pounds... crazy! i guess i have to fit into
my suits somehow and putting on weight wont help, so i may as well lose it!
haha. Needless to say, i'm getting a bit tired of eating that stuff (except
the rolls--they are way good!) I have a suspicion its just the food they
serve here, so i'll just have to figure out what works for me. We've also
had a bad headcold/sore throat going around our zone, and i came down with
that this week too. I just cant wait till i start feeling good all day every
day!!
Gym period is still the best. Volleyball is so much fun to play. I am
starting to pile up a few bruises and floorburns, but the pain is so worth
it!!! It has been absolutely gorgeous here. We have some snow on timp from a
rainstorm yesterday, and the weather is like mid 60s. does it get better?
nope. The mountains are always gorgeous. The clouds are nice. The snow on
Mount Timpinogas is awesome. Elder Foye and i take a long route back to our
room each night (we actually just walk a loop around the small MTC campus)
and i found two spots that i can see my stars relatively well. Its great! I
have a pedometer that i keep with me too. I've put in about 6500 each day
(which is so WEAK!!!) that number is going to jump so much when i get down
to argentina.
The advanced spanish missionaries that entered with us leave in a week or
so, and i am really sad about that because they are SUCH FUN PEOPLE! I love
the natives because most of them are so nice and will talk to you for as
long as you want and help you figure out the language and stuff. Its so much
fun!
Saturday night was a bit rough on me. I was sick and tired (see above) and
really wanted to be in the mountains rather than the white classrooms. We
got back to our rooms and i started venting in my journal and then finished
by saying basically i just need to forget all that stuff and focus on what
i'm here for. I finished writing and looked down from my top bunk and say
Elder Najac (the convert) sitting on the ground folding elder foye's clothes
(elder foye is sick too and had already fallen asleep). It was so touching
to me to see that. Here is this kid who has recieved just one letter since
being here taking time and loving us and helping us in our time of need. His
mannerisms can be a bit annoying at times, but with love, who cares? Me and
Elder Lytle jumped in as soon as we saw what was going on and started
cleaning all of elder foyes stuff up. It was definently a unique, bonding,
touching experience for us all.
Dearelder.com rocks. my box number is 185 in the provo mtc. send me some
love.
Love you all
Fuerte con Animo
Elder Taylor Alan Jensen
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