Week 1: Oh Wow!

October 26, 2017

Week 1: Oh Wow!

YESSS! IT IS FINALLY P DAY! They made us wait so long! Although it's not the crazy Spaniard's fault, it's actually mandated by the First Presidency that you don't get your first P-day. And it's kinda hard to get mad at those guys. :)

I can't believe I have been living in Spain for a week! Although I might have well have been living in a cardboard box for the amount of Spain I've actually seen. Oh well, such is the life at Gospel Boot Camp. Soeur Cr hates it when we call it that so I can only do it in my head, but that's seriously what it is! I will send you a pic of my schedule so I don't have to describe it to you. 

My district is awesome. There are eight of us, the only French missionaries here. (there are also 6 Russian, 2 Portugese, and 39 Spanish). Soeur C, my companion, is literally the sweetest person ever. She is from Tahiti and hates seafood. She loves to draw and do calligraphy and is REALLY good at it. She speaks excellent English but I can tell there are times she really wants to say something to me but she doesn't have the English words for it. And my French comprehension is still not that great, so there's a bit of a language barrier between us, but it's getting smaller every day. The other two sisters are Soeur H (the English major from  Utah) and Soeur E (who is German and rides horses). Soeur E's father is American and speaks such good English I forget she is German half the time. They are both bubbly and awesome and love to talk about the gospel and the boyfriends they left. They speak French at about the same level I do. All three sisters will be serving in Lyon.

Three of the elders, who are all French, actually went out in the field BEFORE coming to the MTC so that they could make it back to school on time. So not only do they speak French perfectly and crazy fast, they also have real missionary experience. I feel like a 5-year old trying to explain the gospel next to them. 

Elder W is kind and soft-spoken, and was RUN OVER BY A TRACTOR while in the field two weeks ago. So he is on crutches while his femur heals. He is an amazing example of faith and patience to me. Whatever complaints I have seem trivial to a broken femur, honestly. Elder D'A is Quebecois and speaks French with the craziest twang. Sometimes even the teachers can't understand him. Whenever this happens, Elder W says, "don't worry, he doesn't speak French." Elder B is a goofball, but has actually been in the field three months and has a lot of good advice to offer us. He also draws well so our whiteboard becomes a work of art during personal study time. Elder P is our district leader and speaks very good English which is very helpful, because even though Soeur C does too she is too kind to correct me most of the time, and heaven knows I need correcting!

French is coming along, very slowly but surely. I can understand my teachers and French district members when they are speaking slowly, but the second they get excited about a topic or really worked up about something, it all becomes jamajdfdlfhldhfkjghlkahfdhfhfdjfhdhfsl, oui, je pensedjfalkdfjdhfdhfhfadhf, franchement. Est-ce vous avons compris? (blah, blah, Did you understand?)

Uh, NON!

Souer B is my favorite teacher because she speaks slowly and clearly. Soeur G too, only she has a teeny tiny voice. Frere T does a pretty job with that too, only sometimes he talks to himself which is really confusing. He did however promise to bring us conjugation sheets because it's hard to have no language helps at all, just classes that are wholly in French. Learning the gospel with Soeur Cr, however, can best be described as drinking from a fire hose. I'm pretty sure her lessons are really insightful, because when she asks for comments all the elders start talking at once, which is like drinking from a fire hose with four other fire hoses spraying you from all other directions. I don't know if I'll ever be able to understand her but at least I have good experience pretending to know what I'm doing and saying, "Repetez, s'il vous plait." if I think I've missed a really important point.

It was pretty funny because last Thursday I asked the elders if they could speak more slowly and loudly for us, and Elder W said (in French, of course), "We can try, but you Americans just love to shout. You speak so loud people across the room can hear you!" Which is hillarious because I AM sitting across the room from him, and I DO want to hear what he's saying! 

On Thursdays we go to the temple, and it's an English session but all the temple workers speak Spanish, which can get pretty confusing when someone accidentally took your clothes and stuff like that. Actually, everybody here who's not in our district or the Russian district either speaks Spanish or is learning to (and trying to SYL as much as possible), and so I've ended up picking up a lot of Spanish phrases.

The most exciting thing we've done here is proselyte at la Parque del Retiro on Saturdays, which is the largest park in Madrid. We all had to memorize a bunch of phrases and a brief history of the Book of Mormon in Spainish so that we can talk to people there. It's super awesome. We get put with a different companion and then we just talk to everyone like crazy. Okay I have to go to lunch but we can email for like ten minutes after so I'll try to finish then! And send pics. Love you all so much! I can receive emails thoughout the week so you can email me anytime. Please do!

Love,

Soeur Jensen

So, while we were proselyting at the park Saturday we met a whole bunch of people, and usually we had better conversations with people who responded affirmatively to our "Hablo Ingles?" oddly enough. We had a great conversation with a group of guys who were from a tiny island in the Meditteranean. They spoke Greek but also very good English. Hermana A and I talked to them about the gospel, but since they were the first people we met, we were both too scared to give them any materials or really share our testimonies at all. The conversation ended when they asked us if we wanted to go get a drink with them, and we declined. I really wish I had given them an English Book of Mormon or even a Spainish pass-along card, but I sort of froze up because I didn't have anything Greek.

We did give a book of Mormon to a very nice Spanish couple who also spoke English, and spoke to them briefly about what it was and what it meant to us. We gave several pass-along cards to a group of tourists who were interested in seeing the Madrid temple. It was really fun. Hermana A and I got lots of pictures together because we found out the best way to get people to talk to you was wander over to the fountains, lakes, gardens, etc. and and offer to take their picture while they were trying to selfie or ask them to take your picture. I'll attach a couple if I can.

I also attached a terrible picture of me staring into the sun because I was trying to get a picture with the gorgeous flowers on the temple grounds/MTC grounds. Yes, they are the SAME THING! We are literally 50 feet from the temple. Our cardboard box has a great view. We are living in the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors of a huge building that also serves as a distribution center and a hostel for people visiting the temple from far away. The first thing I learned here was: 4th is where you learn, it's the telestial kingdom. 5th is where you sleep, it's the terrestial kingdom, and 6th is where you eat, so it's the celestial kingdom.

Speaking of eating......the food here is SO WEIRD. Like super bizarre European food meets the Cannon Center. And runs into a deep fryer on the way. We've eaten a lot of crazy bizzarre things, including recycled leftovers from other meals. Probably the best leftover transformation was when we had ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, chicken cordon bleu for lunch with some kind of dissassembled potato salad (boiled whole potato with mayo/mustard sauce, and a whole boiled egg on a lettuce leaf), and guess what we had for dinner! Chicken nuggets, breaded deep fried fried mashed potatoes (yes that is a thing) and BREADED, DEEP FRIED slices of ham and cheese. No joke. This was also my birthday. (Which was a good day and they even got a cake for my district except it had almonds in it so I didn't get any).

Also, we can't have snacks because apparently bugs will get in, and that stinks because the meals are really far apart. I get pretty hungry but I'll be fine. Also, I think the precaution against bugs is kinda pointless since I'm pretty sure I have bugs in my bed already. Because I keep waking up with lots of bug bites. Oh well, I'll just keep washing my sheets.

Also we play soccer (futbol) with the hermanas in what's called the Pit (it is literally a cement pit a few blocks away) which is really fun but not enough exercise for me. I'll survive. 

All in all, it has been a really good week and I am learning a lot. President Packer is so awesome. He talks to us all the time and gives really good devotionals. He challenged us to read the entire Book of Mormon while we're here and I like being able to sit down and just read it for an hour a day.  

I love you guys so much! I miss you tons. Please send me emails. And I can get packages here, actually, a lot of people have. Not like I'm hinting or anything. 

Lily and Isaac thanks for the emails! I'm out of time but I love you! Your emails made me so happy.

Love,

Soeur Alice Jensen

PS Double rainbow out my window!

Our ami de l'eglise is kriztina and it's going really well.