Friday, September 11, 2015

The Gift of Tongues


Not gonna lie I did cry just a little bit when I saw the pictures. Just a little though. The MTC is the greatest place in the world and I have loved every second of it. There are five of us going to Madagascar right now so we are all one district. Since there are 5 of us I have two comps, Elder Nelson and Elder Ulrich. Elder Nelson is from Layton and he's a pretty cool guy. Elder Ulrich is from South Dakota. He was kinda quiet at first but he's coming around, and he's a really hard worker. The other two Malagasys are Elders Heo and Bowen, and they're both from California. Since we're such a small district we basically just stay together all five of us all the time and its a blast. They're so much fun and we've gotten really really close. I guess that's what happens when you stay 12 hours in a classroom together during the day. It's impossible to stay focused all the time, so once in a while we play a game of Malagasy hangman or else trashketball. Our teachers names are Rahalay Swindal and Rahalay Evans (Rahalay means brother). If you go online to those youtube videos about returned missionaries from Madagascar Rahalay Swindall is the one that looks like curious george. They're both really great teachers and I've learned so much already. They still won't speak english to us though. I can pray and testify in Malagasy, and I have the sentence structure mostly down. Now it's just a matter of learning the words. I swear every other letter is an A so they all sound exactly the same. We've taught about five lessons in malagasy now, one was on the third day. That was kinda brutal actually. But the gift of tongues is a legit thing. I have no idea how it works but it does. I can't tell you how many times our investigator has asked questions with words that I have never heard, and i've had no clue what he said, but i've just kinda felt like I know what he said? And I've been able to answer him in my broken Malagasy. I know it doesn't make much sense, or I guess maybe to you it does dad, but that's what happened. Its really crazy. Our last lesson went really well, and our investigator agreed to be baptised. Well, Rahalay Evans Pretending to be an investigator agreed to be baptised, but it counts. We get two new investigators tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I couldn't get the pictures to download to the computer so hopefully next week I guess. I couldn't get the mouse picture you sent but I did get the ones of baby Jexlee. She is so adorable! I realized when I got here that I didn't actually bring any pictures so if you guys could send me a package with some that would be great. In fact here's a list of stuff I realized once I got here that I need.

1. An iron (there was one for my whole floor but it broke like 2 days ago and I don't know when it will be replaced)
2. You remember how bad my feet stink? Church shoes don't breath at all so if you could send my like 20 of those smelly sneaker ball things then that would be mahafantatra (awesome). 
3. Pictures!

Yeah that's about it for now. I did get your dear elder letters but if you could date them next time that would be great. I got them all at once and when the one said that they were gonna start Mahala tomorrow I kinda got nerved out cause i had no clue when that would be. But you have no idea how good it feels just to get an actual letter. And i can really mail you back any day so that should work great. 

Love you guys so much
Elder Jensen

Monday, September 7, 2015

First Email from Ryker



Hey dad! Manahoana! Just finished up day two and I love it here! My P days will be on Thursday so that will be the day to check for emails. Today was a little different because it was my first week but next week I'll get a real P-day. Share this email with the fam cause i don't actually have mommas email. Anyways this place is great the food rocks. There are only five elders in my branch because we are the only Malagasys that are here right now. My companions are Elders Nelson and Ulrich and they seem like pretty cool guys. I just got made senior companion! Haha we showed up to class yesterday and our teacher it turns out isn't allowed to say a word of english to us the entire time we're here. I feel like we're actually catching on pretty quick! Today i learned how to pray in Malagasy which makes me feel pretty cool. We also learned how to say awesome which is pretty much my new favorite word. I don't actually remember it at the moment but i will! I feel so blessed i can already see the gift of tongues starting to work. I just hope it works fast as i have to teach a lesson in Malagasy tomorrow. I want you all to know that there is no where else i'd rather be, and i'm doing fine. My branch president just gave me five minutes to write this email so you wouldn't worry until P-day so I'm gonna end it now. 
Love you all so much!!
Elder Jensen

There He Goes

On Wednesday September 2, 2015 Ryker left for the MTC to began his journey as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. We are all so proud of his decision to serve mission in the Antananrivn, Madagascar mission.  This picture is so heartwarming to see the excitement in his eyes and the love he has for his family and especially for the Lord.
Enjoy the journey of this blog, hopefully between Becky and me, we can keep it up to date.