week 6

MTC week 6: I promise this will get more interesting

 

Life in the MTC is really great to experience but not all that interesting to write about or for you to read.  So I am sorry for the lack of entertainment thus far on this blog but I promise, only 2 more wednesdays of reading about my life stuck on a small campus with the same 9 people :)  Then I'll be in a new country and be able to share more pictures and stories!

This week was extremely mello.  We just did a whole lot of stuyding, eating, laughing, studying, eating and laughing.  The laughing often comes from the studying (our sometimes pathetic language skills) or from the food (our stomachs can make some interesting noises).  Today we had a snow ball fight on a small patch of leftover snow (the snow has not stuck much all winter, which I guess is weird.  i think i just brought ca weather with me) just to have something fun to write about.  haha it was a lot of fun though! our silly wednesday picnics are always one of the highlights of the week! 

Ok I again apologize for the lack of excitement.  I am still happy and doing great and ready to go serve the people of the Netherlands! My companion and I are getting stronger everyday with teaching and although it has been a somewhat slow (and sometime frustrating) process, I am so grateful for the lessons of patience and love I get everyday.  Oh one exciting thing about today for the people who know about my european candy addiction, an elder from England had his mom send me minstrels and they came today! I am in european chocolate heaven :) and only have to wait 2 1/2 more weeks to get it all the time!

Till next week!

<3<3

zuster jones

week 5

MTC Week 5: "Dont let the magic pass you by"

 

Sunday night at devotional the speaker showed us old mormon message videos from the 70's.  they were hilarious and touching all at the same time. one of the slogans was the title above and i think it fits perfectly for this past week! we celebrated our 1 month anniversary of coming here (and 1 month till we) go on saturday! we had a cute little martinelli's toast again but this time we made goals for what we needed to accomplish before we leave.  my whole district has gotten so close were almost sad that the time is all down hill from here but we are also soo excited to go to the netherlands! we realized though that time goes by so fast and that we cant let one moment of "magic" pass us by. haha so cheesy but our goals reflect that slogan and im excited to see all of our progress in the next 3 1/2 weeks!

 

One exciting thing that happened last weekend was an unexpected field trip! the health center was closed and my companion had a horrible cough so we got to leave the MTC and go to urgent care and walgreens! (for those of you who dont know, the only other time we can leave campus is to go to the temple which is accross the street) it was a fun little adventure and i got to buy some "healthy" snacks to make me happy.  and my companion doesnt keep me up all night coughing and snoring so im happy :)

 

I'm out of time again but im doing great, still loving it here, loving the people im with, the spirit i feel, and the language i am learning (most of the time). 

hope you all got to see the photos! only 3 1/2 more weeks and i can start posting some myself and explaining them more! thanks aaron for posting them!

love you all!

zuster jen jones

More Pictures!

 Me with my "gift" on Christmas morning that ended up being the spoon...

 My reaction when I realized there was a spoon in the box...

 I'm a little indifferent about sending his photo but my roommate insisted that I send it.  Kind of awkward but at least you can see that I'm happy :)

My companion and I 

All the zusters in my district our 1st Friday (we take pics every Friday)

From left to right:

Zuster Davies (my comp), Zuster Hinchcliff, Zuster Schwab, Zuster Townsend, and me! 

My district with our 1st "investigator".  The Elders were so convinced he was real that they had to get a photo.  It was a sad day when they found out he was actually our teacher's husband and our next teacher.  (I knew the whole time and had fun watching their reactions)

Picture Friday!

week 4

Blog:

Mtc week 4: yes. really. week 4. 

 

i dont have much time this week so this will be a quick one! everything is great here! the days are going by so fast now and we're having so much more fun as a district now that language skills are getting better and we have more of a grip on how to get everything we need done in a day!

highlights of this week!

-i gave the spoon (look in other entries if you dont know about the spoon war) back to elder douglas last week.  it went even better than planned! my friend jules works in the mtc travel center so i had her call him into her office and she told him his visa paperwork wasnt filled out right so hed have to redo some of it. he got a little nervous.  she asked him questions about when he was leaving and told him ok maybe well be able to get you out in time.  when she was saying goodbye she reached into her desk, pulled out the spoon and told him "oh and youll be needing this".  he was confused at first and then got super mad! haha in a funny joking kind of way.  im so mean! but he loved it and knows he has a lot to live up to now! haha the little silly things keep us going

-russel m. nelson of the 12 spoke to us last night so that was amazing!  the speakers here just get better and better.  there are rumors about the MTC anniversary having some pretty amazing speakers too. 

-we started teaching the in TRC on saturday (we teach members who speak dutch and get to have more real life conversations) and that went really well.  im starting to really love this teaching thing!

 

ok i really have no time this week but hopefully youll get to see some pictures soon and ill try to have more time next week!

love and miss you all!

<3

zuster jones

 

week 4

MTC Week 3: I am grateful for lies.

 

Before I got to the mtc everyone told me that dutch was the hardest language to learn.  I got laughed at when i told them what id be speaking.  then i got to the mtc and realized that there are people learning such obscure languages that there is no way this is the hardest language.  as a district we are having some struggle learning the language but that is normal.  i think it is amazing how much we can speak after three weeks.  we now teach 30 min lessons with only a few vocab notes to look at and the people we teach actually understand us.  our accents may be horrible but we are slowly getting this and im shocked.  the gift of tongues is real. 

Most exciting thing this week was our awesome new years eve.  that is a somewhat sarcastic comment.  we had a normal busy saturday but after we ended classes and planning the elders in our district pulled out the martinellis, cute plastic cups and some delicious cheese wiz.. haha it was supper cute though.  we poured the martinellis, got in a circle and did toasts of gratitude.  our elders are so adorable, they were more sentimental than the sisters.  we had a small cheese wiz fight and then went off to bed.  my companion and i woke up a midnight, pathetically said happy new years, looked out the window at some fireworks and went back to sleep.  wahoo! haha i cant believe 2011 is over.  2011 was one of my favorite years but i know that 2012 will be my most memorable year yet! 

sorry i dont have anytime to write but i love you all and again apologize for not getting back to some of you in letters and thank you cards! i promise im working on it! :)

thanks for the support!

<3<3

zuster jones