MTC Overtime: Week 15- I GOT MY VISA!!!

 This was a pretty eventful week! Many good things happened and I hope that good things happened to you too!


On Sunday Elder Whitehead and I performed a special musical number during sacrament meeting. We also played it that evening during choir. I played the piano and Whitehead sang. The song was "Lord, I Would Follow Thee." It went pretty well and I even wrote a quick 4-measure interlude between the verses and did a little bit to spazz up the second verse. While our piece was being announced at the pulpit I was introduced as Hermana Jensen. I guess not enough elders play the piano so I was assumed to be a hermana!

On Friday Morris came to help us call migrations to try and bug them into giving us our visas. We sat for two hours or so waiting for people to pick up our calls and then Morris just talked to them in Spanish. I didn't even get on a call because Morris seemed to figure all of ours out in a couple calls. I don't know if that event specifically did anything, but it was a bit of a break from the typical day as a campo.

I feel like my Spanish is getting worse. I don't know why but sometimes speaking gets pretty hard for me. I'm sure I know more Spanish than I did a few weeks ago, but I think my speaking skills have gotten worse for some reason because my mind races too fast while I'm speaking and I can't think about everything I'm saying. I'm still praying for the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretations of tongues. I know it'll be extremely hard the first few weeks once I'm in the field, but I'm sure it'll help me improve my Spanish eventually.

I forgot to say in the last email that about nine of the elders and hermanas in the group below me got their visas and left. I didn't feel jealous or that things are unfair, just as long as I get my visa soon. This past week two hermanas from the group below me and one elder and one hermana from the youngest group all got their visas. It seems really random who gets theirs and who doesn't.

In the meantime we've been finding games to play. One involves one person in the center of a circle with their eyes closed. They point at someone randomly and say an animal sound the person has to make. Then the person in the center has to guess who made the noise. I gotta say I do a pretty good baby and a good seahorse that's choking. (Some of them got pretty weird) The other game is Gadianton Robbers, which is just the Book of Mormon version of mafia. Other fun roles we added were prophet, which is the detective, and Teancum, who gets to kill someone else when they get killed. Once when I was a prophet we were able to guess all 3 robbers right in a row. These games are fun to pass the time once we're all done for the day.

And now for the big news, which I already spoiled in the title. I GOT MY VISA!!! I didn't believe it at first, because usually presidente gathers us together and announces them, but this time we heard a bunch of rumors that I, Elder Graham, and Hermana Cox had gotten our visas. Then presidente was like, "yeah, you got your visas" when we asked him during dinner. But I went to immigrations today and got the card! After hitting 100 days in the CCM this weekend I'm finally going to the field! I feel pretty guilty that some people from my "lost zone" haven't gotten theirs yet, though. I'm waking up tomorrow morning bright and early at 5 to catch my flight to Trujillo at 9:30. Who knows, tomorrow night I could be knocking on doors! I'm so grateful for the amazing people I've met here. It's been such a blessing being able to get to know these people, from all 4-5 zones I've met. I think with the extra time I've spent with them our friendships will last for a long time. I'm thankful for Presidente and Hermana Jackson for the amazing environment they've provided and for the spiritual devotionals they prepared. The teachers who taught me Spanish and how to be a missionary are amazing as well.

I don't know if my emails in the following weeks will be as long since I definitely won't have as much time as I've grown accustomed to here in the CCM. Thank you for all the prayers that you've given and for the words of affirmation and hope you've sent. I hope you have an amazing week, and I'll see you in Trujillo!

Elder Jensen








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