Half Way Through the MTC!!!

April 23, 2013

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!,

Half way through the MTC. Wow that is so crazy. I can't believe I have already been here for that long!! In some ways it feels like you guys just dropped me off on the curb only a few days ago. This week we are going to be getting a new district!!! I am so excited to meet them. Up until now we have been the youngest district in our zone. Today we got to go to the temple which was amazing!! After we attend the temple we always eat in the Cafeteria. The food is so good there and a nice break from MTC food.

We have this shirt button in our class that says ‘I ♥ Spanish’, and whoever has the button can only speak Spanish for the entire day! I got the button one day last week and I was able to go the whole day speaking only Spanish. Spanish has been getting easier. I am still terrible with the grammar when I talk. I have been very surprised by how much English grammar we have had to learn/know in order to understand Spanish grammar. Some days in class it has been more of learning English grammar and then applying it to Spanish grammar.

Last week on Tuesday night Elder Richard G Scott came and spoke to the MTC!! It was such an amazing talk!!! The topic was prayer and receiving answers from prayers. One thing that I thought was interesting was he told us there are three results from a prayer when asking a question:
1. If it is right you feel peace, comfort, and assurance.
2. To help you avoid an error, you will have unsettling feelings and a stupor of thought.
3. No answer yet. He gives us this result when He decides we need to grow through exercising faith and in teaching us to assume accountability. As you act in faith you will end up feeling either 1 or 2. Elder Scott then told us that we should thank god when he withholds an answer from us. It shows that God has faith in us. He ended his talk with a blessing on all the missionaries. And throughout the talk he kept saying how elated he was to see so many sister missionaries and he kept telling us all that we were doing the right thing. He closed and then we sang the closing song and then he got back up and he told us that he felt prompted to tell us this. "Remember the lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. He inspired your call.  This in an opportunity to discover things about yourself you never knew you had. You have the capacity to love and serve that will bless you throughout your life. Remember, you have been called!"
It was such an amazing experience to hear that talk.

So, some sad news, our teacher Hermana Young will no longer be our teacher after this week!! I am super sad. She has been with us since the first day. With the semester ending most of the teacher's schedules have been changing and so we no longer have her. L So that also means that we will no longer have our ‘investigator’, Cora either. This is sad because she was progressing so well! Our other ‘investigator’ has been a struggle. I was actually surprised when he invited us to come back after the first contact. So the first time we knocked on his door, he answered, and he said he no interest in hearing our message, we ended up talking to him outside his door telling him about the first vision and then gave him a book of Mormon, he then invited us to come back. He says he doesn't really believe in God and doesn't want to pray because it is uncomfortable. I have now discovered how hard it is to teach someone the gospel who doesn’t believe in God. We are going to meet up with him again, so we will see what will happen now. I know that God knows the way, I just hope that I am in tune enough to say the right things.

This weekend hasn't been the best for me. I have been afflicted with a cold since Friday or Thursday. I have no voice right now due to the cold. Hopefully I will get well soon! It is really hard to be a missionary when you can't talk. :)
Vaya Con Dios!
Hermana Jenkinson

Second letter from MTC--Sister Training Leaders

16 April 2013

Hola Famila,
    
     Things this week have gone a lot better. I am finally into the groove of things. Mom, you wanted to know what a typical day is, so here it is:
    
      So, generally I wake up at around 6. We are required to wake up no later than 6:30 and be in class by 7:00. That 30 minute window is not enough time, also, with only a couple of showers, and a bunch of girls it is necessary to shower at odd times or wake up early. At 7 we are in class and we plan for, like, 30 minutes. Then time for breakfast, and then we are back in class again. This was the time we spent teaching Patricio, who ended up being our teacher Hermano Pitcher. Last week was the last time we taught ‘Patricio’. We did not do a very good job. We never told him our purpose of why we were teaching him, oops! Now we know now and can do better for next time. This week we have two new investigators ‘Kevin’ and ‘Cora’. The couple of lessons that Hermano Pitcher has taught us has been amazing. The spirit was so strong and it was totally a call to action for us. One of the things he said that I really liked was, "Elders and Sisters, you are the super heroes of this church. Little kids sing about you. Everyone sees you, for some people you are all they know about this church- they see a white shirt, tie, and a black plaque," I have come to realize just how important it is that I have characteristics of Christ. I am out here representing him! I still have a long way to go, but I am working on trying to be better every day.
         
 After Hermano Pitcher leaves we then have personal study for an hour and then we go off to lunch. After lunch is Gym, YAY! Our one block of time we are not eating or sitting down. After lunch it is back to the classroom again. We then study language and do companionship study. Then it is off to dinner. When we come back we are with Hermana Young. She is so super sweet and patient with us. We have had her since day one and she always helps us make commitments to follow. These end up strengthening our district. She is with us till 9:30 at night. We then go to our rooms and get ready for bed and are in bed with lights out at 10:30. We have several other teachers that come and help out throughout the day they are: Hermano Pilcher (different from Hermano Pitcher), Hermano Croft, Hermano Menis, and Hermana Pinto. I love them all and they are all way helpful. I will send you a letter about my district because I don’t have enough time to write about them here.
        
 Oh, and some news this week. So Hermana Roundy and I were called to be Sister Training Leaders (What used to be the Coordinating Sisters). That means that basically we are over the sisters in our zone, we make sure that they are doing ok, and that their needs are met. I am excited to be able to serve the sisters in my zone. Well that is all I have time for this week. I only have 30 min to write and to read all my emails. It really isn't enough time. I love you guys so much.

Love,
Hermana Jenkinson.

 

First letter from the MTC 09 April 2013

Hola mi familia,

Well, I only get 30 min. to write emails, so using dearelder.com works great. I didn't get your Dearelder till yesterday. I think that is because of general conference weekend. Wow! General Conference was so good. Everyone here at the MTC gave a little cheer whenever they would mention missionaries, or the MTC. So anyway, I have been learning so much Spanish. I have learned to pray in Spanish. Wow I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will start at the beginning. After you dropped me off I went and got all my stuff and a sister showed me to my room. After that I went and got to see my class. I am in that classroom seriously all day. All I do all day is sit in the classroom and eat. We do get 30 min to exercise 5 days a week so that is nice. :) Anyway, back to the first day. I went to my class, did a little tutorial in a computer lab, and then I met my companion and district.

My companion is Hermana Roundy, she is from Bountiful, Utah. I absolutely love her. There are 10 of us total in the district. We have all learned, at least, a little bit of Spanish. There are 6 hermanas and 4 elders. Three of the hermanas, including me, are going to Costa Rica; the other 3 hermanas are going to Chicago. 3 of the elders are going to different missions in Mexico, and one elder is going to Honduras. I Love my district. We seriously clicked right away. That is sometimes a bad thing though as we get distracted easily. I feel like they are my family away from home. It is crazy that I have only known them for a week. I can't believe how much Spanish I have learned over the last little bit. There is still so much that I have to learn though and that is really frustrating. We have an investigator already! His name is Patricio. He is from Peru. He is studying here at the Y but his family is still in Peru. We have had 2 lessons with him so far. They have been ok. Not knowing the language is a huge hindrance. I want to, so much, share with him what I know to be true, but I struggle trying to find the words.

Conference this weekend was amazing it was also nice to make it to the weekend in the MTC. The first couple of days here were hard, especially Thursday I believe it was, but Thursday night was a lot better. That was when we met our branch president and I found out that my branch president’s wife is Sister Jones!! We had an amazing meeting where we found out why everyone decided to come on a mission. Everyone has different reasons.

I have run into so many people I know, let me see if I can remember them all, I have run into Elder Alex Jenkinson (cousin from Georgia) twice, Addie (from nursing class), Elder Sam Cassani, I see Sister Jenna Smoot (neighbor) almost every day in random spots. I ran in to Sister Rylie Sprauge (my old roommate), I have run into people from junior high, and oh I ran into Elder Spinder (neighbor). I have run into other people as well, but I don't remember all of them.

The first couple of days at the MTC have been hard, I have learned that I am fairly patient with other people, but I am not very patient with myself. I want to just know everything, but I know that isn't possible. I think the hardest times I have had while being here have just been when I have been frustrated with myself and trying to learn the language. Fortunately, everyone in my district does their best to lift everyone else up. Oh and guess what... All 6 of us hermanas share the same room, it is cozy. But we all fit in here, oh, and you should be proud of me, I have managed not to be a slob, the room is very clean and my desk in my room is clean. I am busy all day long and go to bed exhausted. The food here isn't that great, sometimes the food will be fairly good. 4 people in my district have gotten sick in the course of this last week; fortunately most of them have only been for like a day. I know now and understand what people mean by days seem like weeks and weeks seem like days. Well, I will try and get some photos to you, but it will be hard because most of the computers don't have the capacity and we only have 30 min. I love you all! Well I am out of time. Sorry I wasn't able to type very much and being a slow typer isn't good when you only have so much time to write. Letters and dearelder.com are definitely the best way to go. Love you.

Hermana Jenkinson