Week one is done! Well, I've only been in the MTC since Friday morning, but I was set apart last Sunday. I woke up at 3:45 on Thursday morning to make my 6 am flight to Dallas. Saying goodbye to my family felt very brief and sudden, but I knew what I was doing was right. I saw two sister missionaries at the airport and we stayed together for our six hour layover. I had my last American meal in the Dallas airport Applebees and we finally met another sister and another Elder who were also going to the Lima MTC. The flight was pretty miserable, since I had a sore throat and stuffy nose. My COVID test had come back negative, though. I just sat there for most of it but did fall asleep twice, for only an hour at a time whenever the baby next to me wasn't crying. We arrivex in Lima at about 2 am, and it was amazing seeing the miles of endless orange lights from the window. We were all at the very back of the plane, so we were the last to go through customs. Luckily, a nice man who spoke Spanish, (who also happened to be LDS), helped us get through customs. Driving through Lima to the MTC was also amazing because of the maze of buildings that looked abandoned tat te bus driver took us through. We finally made it at 4:30 am, and I immediately changed and got into bed when I got to my room.
I only got three hours of sleep that night before getting up. I was placed into the Amulek district and was in a trio comanionship with Elders Sorenson and Haymond. The other missionaries in my district are Elders Frasure and Tobeler, and Hermanas Cox and Wardell. Classes can be pretty stressing because not only do I have to learn how to do everything, I also have to do it in Spanish. Our teachers don't speak the best English, which makes it really hard to understand anything. I'm feeling very overwhelmed with the Spanish right now, but I know it will come with time and help from the Lord. I do, however, think that my scripture studying skills have improved just from being a missionary. I'm seeing things in the book of Ether that I've never noticed before.
There's no ice here and the water is all warm, but I guess that's something I will just have to get used to. The food has been hit or miss. We have rice with almost every meal and we get a lot of cake. The first day for breakfast we had a lunch sandwich with inedible nano sized french fries and today we had an egg salad sandwich with four slices of bread. But then we've also had pancakes with fruit and chocolate drizzle and some delicious chicken and steak meals.
On Sunday we broadcased all of us (there's about 120 missionaries here, with about 40% being American and the rest latino) singing "Called to Serve" in Spanish to people in Ecuador. I couldn't understand the words, but I could feel the spirit very strongly.
Everything was going great, except for my stress about Spanish, until on Monday we hax to take a Covid test. I didn't have any symptoms so I thought I was ok, but I tested positive along with 3 other Americans and 26 latinos. So I had to move all my stuff downstairs again. I have to stay in my room for 10 days and have to have my food brought to me and take classes online, which will only make them harder and make me stress about them even more. I'm in a room with tve other positive Elders, Elders Lopez, Brough, and Figueroa, who's actuslly been here for 16 weeks because his visa hasn't been approved. He's actually from Pocatello, which is really cool. So these next ten days are going to be pretty tough.
One positive thing to come out of quarantine, though, is that I'm becoming more comfortable talking to the Latino elders. Only one of them speaks english, but I think it'll be helpful being around them. I could have talked with them vefore quarantine, but Elder Tobeler did enough talking for all of us and I didn't feel comfortable. But now that we're stuck together I feel like I can get to know them better and improve my Spanish, which I think will be a blessing. Last night we all went into one of the Latino's rooms and played a variation of shurades, which was definitely the most fun I've had here so far.
That was my week! I'm hoping I'll still be able to learn even in quarantine. I think that most people here are going to get covid, so we'll see where that goes. Hope everyone stays safe! Buenas noches!
Elder Jensen
(The one of me in the mirror is after I had to repack everything and move it down the stairs to new room)
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