First Letter!!

Krysta's first letter from England  2-20-2013

Hello everyone!!!

How is everyone doing? I'm doing so great!!! I have to type fast because we only get 30 minutes to write and it is timed. So I printed out your emails and haven't read them yet. So I will just begin from the beginning...
After passing through security, i got ahold of my emotions and was feeling much better. I met a girl from Slovakia who was returning from a catholic mission in the United States. I shared my BOM with her and she read from it for a bit and then returned it saying that she didn't have room. First rejection. The plane ride was pretty awful but I was asleep most of the time. We arrived in Amsterdam the next morning and I could figure out how to use the Calling card so I just ended up throwing my phone away. Haha. We flew from Amsterdam to Machester (there were about 5 of us now) and we were picked up by Brother Mount. He took us to the MTC. It was beautiful! It's exactly how you would imagine it be here. I love it. It is cold but not as cold as I would think. We got to the MTC and they told us that the group of 20 more missionaries were going to arrive later that night because their plane had problems and they were stuck in an airport in London. So that day we basically unpacked and got used to the MTC. The MTC president is President Edwards. They are SOOO nice. When the other missionaries finally arrived, we went to sleep and then the next day we were assigned companions. My companion is Sister Hanks from Logan, Utah. She is my age and is the sweetest thing ever. We get along great. The food here is really good but it's not at all like the Provo MTC. The MTC here is TINY. There are about 40 of us I think, so we are all growing very close. I am in a district called Abinidi with my companion and another companionship of Sisters with three companionships of Elders. There are the ESL missionaries which means english is their second language. There are some from Spain, france, Samoa, Italy, Uraguay, Albania and Tahiti. It's a wide variety and I love it!  So a little bit about my day... I wake up at 6:30 am and then we get ready, eat breakfast and then have personal study for an hour. We meet with our districts and have classes. We have been assigned investigators that are actually our teachers who pretend to be investigators. Right now, Sister Hanks and I are teaching Julian, who is our golden investigator, Tom, who really doesn't know what he wants or cares about, and Moritz who questions everything we tell him and has no belief in God. So it is very interesting! I'm learning that as long as you have the spirit, you can't go wrong, because he spirit is the teacher! My district teacher is SO great. His name is Brother Huemos. He is from Germany and is about as tall as me and very skinny! He is so funny but he brings the spirit so quickly. He does something caleld horse gymnastics- where you basically do vault gymnastics on top of a living horse. Crazy! This morning we got to go the the temple which is so beautiful. It was great being there with all the missionaries. There is a strong spirit that comes from that. This past Sunday we got to listen to a devotional from 2009 by Elder Bednar. It was amazying. He addressed the question- Is it just me or the Holy Ghost? Basically he said- stop worrying about it! You are spiritually paralyzing yoursel when you just sit there wondering where that thought came from. Be a good girl and a good boy, obey the commandments and keep your covenants and it doesn't matter. Get moving and the Lord will direct your paths. How true is that! I feel like I need to repent for all the times that I have questioned where revelation has come from. It doesn't matter! I am learning so much here at the MTC and I am the happiest I have ever been. The spirit is so strong wherevery I go. One thing that I have found so cool is that while I have been teaching investigators, I am becoming an ivestigator! I think of new questions every day and my testimony is just growing so much. I love this gospel more than anything and it brings me such peace. I have found myself slipping into an English accent from time to time without thinking about it! haha. All my teachers and leaders here have English accents so you hear it all the time. Another thing about England is that the word "awesome" is despised. My teacher cringes whenever we say it and says, "that's such an american word!" Haha. He tells us to use words like "eic" or "brilliant" instead. Another thing is that Nutella is HUGE here. Everyone eats it. I think we go through like 10 jars of it in a week.
Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to go to a square in Manchester to do some finding. I'm excited to use what I have learned so far on real people! A little scared too but I know that the spirit will be with me. We got to go to what is called ASDA today which is basically the England version of WalMart. I got my money converted into pounds and I bought a straightener, an alarm clock, some envelopes, and a diet coke. Haha. We don't have that at the MTC so i've been missing it! The store was pretty cool. I could barely understand the cashier lady, her accent was so thick! Most of the scottish accents are difficult to understand. On Sunday of next week we are going on a church history tour around Preston to see where all the beginnings took place. I'm way excited about that. And then a week from this Saturday I will leave the MTC and be transferred to my mission! It's amazing how fast this experience is going by. I'm learning tons and my testimony is growing each day. I love you all so much and I know that this gospel is the only way we can experience the most happiness. I have personally felt that. I know it is true. I know the scriptures will help us to come closer to God. There is one thing that I'm getting really good at, and that's extending committments. So I want to ask you all a question. Will you commit to reading your scriptures every day? I hope that's a yes. Well I love you all and hope that you are doing great. PLEASE send me letters!!! I'm dying to get one! They only take 4-6 days to get here so you still have time. Alright well I love you all so much. Talk to you in a week. I love you,

Sister Jensen