MTC Pictures!

Australiens, un psychologist, et des questions impossibles

I was told pretty soon after I got in here that if you were to evenly divide up a mission into thirds it would look like this: The first third is the first three days in the MTC, the second third is the rest of the MTC, and the last third is your entire time in the field. I'm pretty sure that's coming true, it felt like I had been here forever at first, but the time is starting to speed up at a rather alarming rate O.o We've been playing a lot of volleyball with these other guys that we don't even know, we only talk to them during gym time from opposite sides of the net. That's been fun, and holy cow I'm being timed and my mind is blank (for all you Charlie Brown Christmas fans: "Marcie I forgot my lines!")! But yeah, about the title: We found out last Tuesday or Wednesday that some Australian reporters were going to be doing a story about missionaries coming to Australia and learning a second language. Since our district is the only one with Chinese-learning Australia-bound missionaries, they came to us. It was really fun and felt like we were making the District 3 although we're totally not. I hoped you would get to see my pretty face on Australian national TV but they didn't do any filming when they came to visit our classroom :/ We can still hope since they might come back, but more likely they'll just catch up with the missionaries in a couple months when they arrive in the great land of Oz. Later that day (Friday) an old MTC worker randomly came into our classroom with a couple other Chinese teachers from our building and said he was doing a survey with only one question. It felt like a therapy group because we were all sitting in a circle and the question was "what are your challenges?" We were super confused but practically against our will almost everyone in the district said something like feeling confined in the MTC or it's hard to be with a companion 24/7 or not feeling good enough or stuff like that. It was a little depressing, so it's a good thing Zong Zhanglao (Elder Brown) in desperation said something positive about our MTC experience. Once the guy had recorded all our answers and left, we all sat in stunned silence until I asked, "What on Earth just happened?" It was odd. That afternoon/evening in class we discussed some traditionally really hard gospel questions and tried to give simple answers to them. I can't think of any examples, but if you've been on a mission you'll know what kinds of questions I mean. Fun to see more friends coming into the MTC, I saw Elder Bateman going to Buenos Aires North and also one of my HEFY friends going Spanish-speaking to Los Angeles. This week we're getting like 45 new Mandarins, an entire district going to Taizhong and another district heading to England and Canada and the US. I found out just a couple hours ago that there's a Chinese guy here at the MTC going to Lyon! I think he must be learning French or something because I don't think I've met him, although I did pop my head into the French classroom and ask "Avez-vous un drapeau français?" I was met mostly with blank stares and it occurred to me that these missionaries were learning French. I'm not used to having better French than people with whom I try to speak it. Case in point: I met an Elder Ficquet from Toulouse going to Montréal Spanish-speaking (lucky duck) and last night Sorella Visconti from Pau (near Spain) going to Milan. I've gotten to see the other Frenchies fairly often, but only at meals usually. I've been meeting a lot of Italians (aka missionaries preparing to go to Italy) and gotten to confuse them when they walk by and see Chinese on my chest and hear "Anziani, come stai?" coming out of my mouth. Quick favor! Could y'all send my French flag to me pleeeeeassee? Or you can keep it and send me another? Oh and DearElder is highly encouraged! Basically you go to the website, send an email, and I'll get it in the form of a letter that I can read anytime during the week. Fin! Zhongwén sha wode fawén, 江長老

I'M HERE!

It didn't take long to find someone I recognized. When I drove up to the MTC curb for dropoff, my host standing there was Ammon Luckart from Camp Helaman, it was cool to see him again! Christian Broberg also found me at lunch the other day, we had a nice quick chat.

I am doing great, but it is hard for sure. Getting up at 6:30 isn't too fun, and once the novelty of the first couple days wore off my companion and I both felt kind of overwhelmed by the language. I'm only learning Chinese, but I've been able to run into some guys going to my mission that I talked to on facebook previously. My companion is Elder Fristrup (Feng Zhanglao) from Logan, he had Chinese in high school and we're really similar. We both quote the Best Two Years all the time, we like to sing, and we just bonded really fast. In some ways the MTC isn't what I expected, but I don't really even know what my expectations were so I'm not really sure about what surprised me or what didn't. I've seen a ton of people from BYUH including Elder Peterson (Bi Zhanglao) who was in one of my classes first semester and is now in my district! He's going to Taipei and he's the only one in our district with no prior Chinese experience. It's been tough, but he's a good sport and really working at it, we've had a lot of fun. There are two sisters, one going to Melbourne and one to Brisbane and they actually knew each other at EFY I think last year. One tongbantuan (companionship) is a guy from here in Utah and one from Arkansas both going to Brisbane. Elder Peterson and Elder Clark from Georgia are both going to Taipei, Elders Pedersen, Brown, and Fristrup are all going to Auckland, New Zealand leaving me as the lone man going to France. However, I heard a rumor from Elder Kimble going to Lyon that this week another Mandarin Elder going to Lyon is coming in! I hope it's true, that'd be super fun to meet him. Elder Clark and I, due to our more advanced Chinese, were both given the option to be on "fast track" and get out of here in 6 weeks, but I don't think either of us will. Our district is already like family and Elder Clark has been really valuable as Elder Peterson's tongban (best Chinese + worst Chinese in the district).

Quick favor to ask: Could I get a copy of my priesthood line of authority? I forgot to bring it with me. And tell Mom that our very first day in the MTC my tongban mentioned that a lint roller would be really helpful, so I reached down and guess what I pulled out of my bag? Thanks Mom, you're the best! Wish I could have sent a quick email last week but that wasn't an option, we really jumped into it. Class is all in Chinese and our teacher knows a few people I knew at BYUH, both missionaries and Taiwanese students. He had zero knowledge when he entered the MTC and now his Mandarin is fantastic, so it gives us all a lot of hope.

I promise I've taken pictures with my tongban, my diqu (district), and the MTC but we can't figure out how to upload them. We haven't been able to find wifi that we can access and the missionary-safe computers won't allow anything but this email, lds.org, and TALL which is a language learning program so we can't figure out how to get pictures from our cameras onto the computer.

Our whole district went to choir practice last night and it was super fun, there were more people there than the entire MTC had before last wednesday. We more than doubled the MTC population on the 10th and we're not even at half capacity yet. We're supposed to get like 45 more Mandarins in the next couple weeks including the Taizhong group (we've got a bunch of Taipei in our zone right now). For a little overview of our zone/branch, the destinations of all us Mandarin learners are Lyon France, Auckland New Zealand, Melbourne Australia, Brisbane Australia, Arcadia California, Los Angeles California, Richmond Virginia, Washington DC South, Taipei Taiwan, Taizhong Taiwan, Leeds England, Birmingham England, and Hong Kong. I might have missed one or two, but you get the point. Very different from the Malagasy Elders, one of whom I was talking to yesterday and found out he did HEFY in Tonga last year, so we had a bunch of shared experiences in Fiji and Tonga. Super fun to relive that a little bit!

Our third night Feng Zhanglao and I taught our first lesson, it was mostly awful partially due to the language and partially due to a lack of preparation. However, I bore my testimony right in the middle and the Spirit was so strong, I had this huge smile and it was awesome. Our investigator from Taipei might have started to tear up a little bit, I wasn't 100 percent sure. Anyway, the next day we had our second lesson for which we were a lot more prepared. We taught her about Jesus Christ and baptism and then invited her to follow Christ's example and be baptized on July 1st. She ACCEPTED! In the second lesson!! It was super cool and we still have a ton of stuff to teach her, but the MTC missionary guide says that we should always invite someone to be baptized in the first lesson (which we did, albeit rather awkwardly) and invite them again with a specific date in the second lesson (which we did much less awkwardly). Prayer works!

Also last night the choir director (who is hilarious and an amazing singer) told us all about Parley P. Pratt, his life story and why he was such a boss missionary. It's an awesome story, ask a Parley P. Pratt expert about him being locked up when Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail and then going Rambo-style for a week after breaking out of prison. Yup. The Sundaynight devotional was given by Brother Heaton, the MTC administrative director, and he talked aaaallllll about prayer. He had cool stories about prayer and miracles and my companion and I just looked at each other and said "I think we know what we're teaching in our next lesson." That lesson is tonight, we still have a lot of preparation to do for it.

One big thing that's been stressed here (in addition to Speak Your Language) is "Fucong chansheng zhufu; wanmei fucong chansheng qiji." That means "Obedience brings blessings; perfect obedience brings miracles." Our branch president told us in district meeting yesterday about an amazing string of miracles during and right after his mission all brought about by perfect obedience, it was really inspiring!

We watched Meet the Mormons last night! It was really fun to see it again and I completely forgot that Dave from Melbourne was in it until we got to the part and I FREAKED OUT because it was the same guy in the same store and I totally had the sit-down with Dave about proper foot hygiene and the testing tie colors with suits and that whole gig. It was so much fun to see it.

To close, I love you all and I know that perfect obedience and going the extra mile will bring more blessings than you could possible imagine. Also, go watch Legacy with the Korean dub. According to the other tongbantuan in our room (Wang and Zong Zhanglao both going to Auckland), the Korean voice of Joseph Smith is super smooth and intense and amazing to listen to.

我愛你們!

江長老

Off I go!

The full extent of my personal belongings for the next two years...




Yes, I'm freaking out! I've waited a long time for this and now it's GO time!

Les temples sont les meilleurs

Last post before I enter the MTC! I just wanted to share with you all the joy I feel in going to the temple. I was privileged to attend a number of different temples in the past couple months, pictures of which are below. Temples are places we go to worship and feel closer to God and while they're all designed differently, they all share similarities and at any one of them you can feel the peaceful feeling that comes from doing the work of the Lord. Attending the temple at least once every week for the past couple months has been a great blessing for me because the months before you report to the MTC can be difficult. I didn't think it would affect me much, but I have noticed it being a lot more difficult to be a diligent student of the Gospel even though I'm looking forward to this wonderful period of spiritual growth in my life. Thankfully, that time is now here! I'll always be grateful to those who helped me gain experience serving in the House of the Lord and allowed me to have that spiritual boost every week to keep me going before I start my mission. The Church is true everyone! The missionaries just want to help people, but they can't do all the work themselves. We have to be willing to reach out to those around us (something I wish I'd done more of) and share the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words."

First time at the temple (Laie, Hawaii)

Brothers at the Salt Lake Temple

Happy mom, handsome boys!

Beautiful at night

Early morning at the Draper temple

Draper temple

Provo Temple

Payson Temple open house

With Grandma Judson

Bright day!

Provo City Center Temple under construction

Portland Temple

Timpanogos Temple

T minus une mois

One month. When I got my call I had 3 months and 3 days before I would report and even that didn't seem like very much. Now it really is right around the corner and some fun stuff has been going on!

First off, I love checking the Missionary Portal on the Church website because that's when it really hits home how close my report date is. That day when I took this screenshot feels like it was yesterday, which is to say forever ago depending on how you look at it.

Here are the four big white envelopes the Church sent me! Number one in the bottom left is my mission call envelope that kicked off the whole adventure. A week later came my travel packet, the top left, with all my visa papers including the envelope in which I was to send everything back (top right) along with my passport and some pictures. Finally there is the bottom right, direct from the current mission president, President Roney. That one came directly from LYON, FRANCE :D It contains a letter for me detailing how best to prepare for my mission as well as a letter for my parents, assuring them that they're making the right choice and that I'll be in good hands for the next two years (you won't find better hands than the Lord's, after all).

This is my setup for working on my visa. I procrastinated it of course, so it was a wee bit stressful making sure we got it sent off in time, but we did it! I had to get my visa pictures to a very specific size which meant getting out the old ruler and squinting at the millimeter marks. I also made sure I had Débussy playing to keep me going.

Here's me sealing up that visa packet before sending it off. I was almost paranoid that I'd messed something up, but I don't think I did. I guess the Church will let me know in a little bit if that's the case.

According to the mission blog, this is the mission logo. The little red banner says "love" and the words underneath are as follows:

OBEDIENCE, DILIGENCE, FAITH = MIRACLES

prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer prayer

It's all true! I've heard this advice many times and I'll continue to share it because I know it works: "Pray as if it all depends on Him and work as if it all depends on you."

The Lord will bless us for faithful service and unwavering obedience to the things that we shouldn't do and to the things that we should do. I know that's true and I plan to be the best representative of Jesus the Christ that I can be.

Israël, ton Dieu t'appelle,

Elder Garrett Jensen

Shopping for the missionary wardrobe!

Okay, it's a nice coat...

But, here's the one I REALLY like!

David (from Meet the Mormons fame) helped both 

Matthew & me get outfitted for our missions!

So many suits to choose from...

And even more ties! What to pick?

How do I look in this one?

Matthew is thinking, "Didn't I just do this?" 2 years goes by fast!

And we're done...and broke, haha :)