The 1st Letter Has Finally Arrived!

Elder Tanner Jenson in the Salt Lake Visitor's Center next to Prophet Joseph Smith.

1st letter to arrive home from Elder Jenson! (June 4, 2012)

May 31, 2012

Hola!

I don't know where to begin! The past two days have been awesome! The Spirit is so strong here! I'll just run you through my first couple of days and then answer some of the questions you told me to answer.

First Day: Elder Campbell was the host missionary as you might recall. The first thing we did was go to the main office and get my picture taken, my new nametags were waiting for me. They put orange dots on the nametags of the new missionaries. After I was done with those few things, we went to my residence hall. I am in 16M, Booth Building. My room is 231. After that, Elder Campbell took me to my classroom which is in 17M room 221. I walked right in and all that was being spoken was Spanish! It's a good thing I took a lot of language classes or else I would be lost just like the rest of the Elders in my District. Hermano Andersen is my teacher. He served his mission in Honduras and has been home for only 11 months. Elder Campbell wished me luck and I was on my own. Hermano Anderson took me to a computer lab where I watched a brief orientation video. I returned to the classroom and when I got back, my companion was there! His name is Elder Wilson. He's from St. George, UT and likes to do outdoor things. He'd fit in with dad's side of the family for sure. After I met him, we had to introduce ourselves. First of all, there's 12 people in my District including me. They are awesome! 6 people going to Santiago North, 4 going to Conception South and 2 going to Guatemala and they leave in 3 weeks! The rest of us are here for 9 weeks. Oh, BTW, I leave on July 30th (tentatively), not July 31st. After studying a little bit of Preach My Gospel, we went to an orientation with President and Sister Brown. We got another introduction to the MTC and learned a lot about our purpose as missionaries. The food is very good! I love it. After we ate, we went right to class. In class we had 3 investigators. We had to hear their stories and then come up with ways to approach teaching them in an effective way. After seeing the heartache of the investigators and that they weren't happy, I really wanted to help them out and teach them about the gospel. After class we met our Zone leaders. They're Elder Herd and Elder Redd. They're awesome! After we met them, we went back to our dorm to unpack our things. My roommates were there. They are Elder Wilson, obviously, Elder Fernandez, and Elder Alder. Elder Fernandez was on the cheer team at UVU...Elder Alder was a ballroom dancer all his life. I'm glad I have Elder Wilson in my room. Even though Elder Wilson is really shy, he's a good guy. Elder Wilson likes to ride bikes and do outdoor stuff. After we unpacked, we went to bed. So there was my first day!

Second Day: Since then, I have had one more day in the MTC where we went on a tour, attended 6 hours of class and met our Branch Presidency. President Bowen is a great guy along with Elder Wright and Elder Ohman. We each had to have interviews (District) and then President Bowen assigned Elder Galloway to be the District Leader. He's a really funny and energetic guy so that's good. Spanish is coming really easy to me here so far. Everyone calls me the "translator" and comes to me with questions all the time about how to say different things. I'm grateful for the opportunity to help all of the Elders out. Elder Wilson knows nothing about Spanish whatsoever and his accent is terrible. It's really funny. He'll get it. For gym we went as a Zone and played sand volleyball. It was a blast! My Zone is awesome and I love to be around them. My district is good. I actually have seen like 4 people from USU! It's cool to see them again and see them doing well. I also saw Andy (Williamson)! He's leaving for Germany already on Tuesday! Crazy huh? I can't write you an email until next Saturday, the 9th, so I am sorry it'll be so long, but that's how it goes. I have received all of your letters and packages too, but I can't go and get the packages until tomorrow. I'll let you know how they are in a little while.

I know that this Gospel is true and Joseph Smith translated the plates. The Spirit is so strong in the MTC and I have learned so much.  The gift of tongues is real.  I am a personal witness.  I love you guys so much!  And I can't wait to keep getting your letters.  I am doing well.  I want to finish my testimony in Spanish... (without cheating :)).

Yo se que El Dios es nuestro Padre Eterno. El vive! Yo se que nuestro Padres Eterno es muy amoroso y el quiere el mejor por todos sus hijos. El libro de Mormon es verdadero la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los ultimos dias es verdadera tambien. Amor mi Padre Eterno-En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. Love, Tanner