Almost There!

October 1, 2015

Hey there fam!

This week has been another great one in the MTC! Loving every second of it! I still can't believe how fast time flies here. I am just getting ready to send out a packet of letters so they should be there soon. Sorry its taken so long they actually don't give us any time at all to write we just have to use free time, and they really don't give us any of that. Plus I wanted to send one to everybody so it has taken even longer. Almost done though! Sorry about the pictures to, my cord doesn't work from the MTC,  but it will in the field and my comp just got an adapter so I will try to send some today. 

I don't really know what the deal will be in Madagascar but I will do what I can. The food here has gotten really old the last week or so. We kinda realized that its almost the exact same meals every day, and so its just not as good after 4 weeks. Class is going great though!! We're really starting to get the hang of the language. The hardest part has been the different sentence structures because it changes between active, passive, and circumstantial sentences. Other than that though it really isn't too bad. 

The words are really easy to pronounce, way easier than English. It is easier to spell in Malagasy too. All of the letters sound the same no matter how they are used so you can basically just sound everything out. We've started to talk some about the culture in Madagascar too, which is really fun. Apparently instead of pointing with their fingers they point with their lips. I laughed extremely hard the first time that I saw my teacher do it. He has been home for a whole year and he still does it all the time. It makes me excited to get there and see all this cool stuff. 

Apparently the fruit juice there is amazing. Do you think I could just live off of that for two years? I just might try it out. He also said we should prepare a couple of lessons before we go. He basically had to teach a lesson all by himself the 3rd day there. His trainer had only been there  2 months, so he had picked up some of the language but was no where near fluent yet. Apparently young trainers is a thing in Madagascar because he was a trainer after six months. We talked about a couple of areas he was in too, mostly Fianarantsoa and Antananarivo. It seems like a really great place and I just can't wait to get out of here. 11 Days left!! Can't wait! The Malays leave on Monday so it will be just 5 of us in the whole zone for two days. Next Wednesday we get 14 new people, and since we are Zone Leaders we will have to train them. Then we get to go!!! I really can't wait.

Love you guys so much

Elder Jensen

MTC 110%

September 23, 2015

Dear Fam, 

Have you ever heard the expression "Days turn to weeks and weeks turn to days."? Well it applies to the MTC 110%. Every day seems so long, just because we are busy the whole time. But then we look back and a week has gone by and we don't have a clue where it went. I feel like just yesterday I was sending you all an email, and here I am again. 

It's the craziest thing in the world. I honestly don't remember what happens most days. If I wasn't keeping a journal I don't think I'd remember any of it. It has been so great though! The last of the Lithuanians left on Tuesday, so now our whole zone is made up of our Malagasy district and the Malay district. That totals up to 11 people, which is crazy because our zone covers 8 different languages. We have all gotten really close though, as a district and with the Malays. 

Their classroom is right next to ours and their bedrooms are too, so we see a lot of them. They're really great guys. We play stupid games with them at night when we're bored. Last night I ate a spoonfull of hotsauce because I lost at clothes hamper basketball. It was awful. OH! And I finally accomplished my lifelong goal. I.Solved. A. Rubix. Cube. I can now basically die in peace with no regrets. Not really but yeah I'm pretty proud of myself. The language is coming along great! We get better and better every day. I know its still gonna be quite the shock when I get to Madagascar though, but I know I'll figure it out. Our lessons are going great. We started this thing called TRC last week and it was good. It's where they bring in some old malagasy missionaries and we teach them a lesson. Starting on Monday we Skype to members in Madagascar so thats gonna be a little bit scary. It'll work out though. Our teacher showed us more pictures from Madagascar the other day. It rains so much. We'll be getting there just in time for the rainy season too. He told us that when it rains there they are walking knee deep in water after like 45 minutes. So no dad, I will not be laughing at you from warm Madagascar. Hahaha. I'm excited so excited though I can't wait to get out there. 

As of yesterday we are over the MTC hump. I believe we only have 18 more days to go. Oh! and thank you to everyone who has been sending me things, whether it be letters or dear elder messages or packages, you have no idea how good it is to hear from home. Sorry I can't write more, ya'll know I'm a slow typer. Love you all so much!! Can't wait to hear from you!! 

Love

Elder Jensen

Ryker's Zone Leader

This week has actually been fairly eventful. I honestly don't remember most of Friday or Saturday they just flew right by. Our entire zone left on Monday and Tuesday except for the five of us and the Malays next door. And a couple lithuanians that didn't get their visas so they leave this week. With that came a lot of change! My companions and I are now the zone leaders, which really scares the crap out of me. The last zone leaders had been here 7 1/2 weeks before they were called. We'd been here less than 2. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing half of the time, and now we have to be responsible for the whole zone? 

Pressure. 

The language is coming along great! There are only 21 letters in the alphabet which means every word sounds exactly alike. Example: The other companionship was teaching an investigator and one of them tried to say "mamono ny apostoly" which is that all that all the apostles were killed, and instead he said "Manono ny apostoly" which means that all the apostles were breastfed. Didn't even realize he said it either, the investigator tried to tell him for like five minutes but he insisted that it was manono until finally the investigator just broke character and told him. 

We all got a pretty good laugh out of that one. Also we tried to learn how to say happy birthday yesterday, and the translation was like 3 lines long, and it doesn't really mean even close to the same thing. And our teacher showed us a bunch of pictures from when he was in Madagascar. 

They have the coolest zoos ever, and if you bribe the zookeeper with 5 bucks he'll let you hold the lemurs! Definitely planning on doing that at some point. Tuesday we had a devotional with and the general primary president spoke to us. I actually was asked to say the opening prayer for that one so that was a bit nerve racking, to pray in front of 2500 missionaries and a General Authority. It was aight though. I feel like there was something I was supposed to learn from all the excitement this week, but I can't tell exactly what it is. Who knows maybe I already learned it. 

Our investigators are coming along great! Their names are Ulrich and Nirina. Ulrich's first couple lessons were brutal, but he's coming around. And we had the most amazing lesson with Nirina yesterday! We answered his questions and taught a good lesson and even asked him to be baptized! He's not ready for that yet, but I'm sure he'll be there soon. Anyways hope all is well back home! Write me and let me know whats going on! Love Yall!