The First Email!

Kumusta Family,
I think that is pamilya...but at the moment I only know how to say it not how to write it. I will get there eventually. I lot of what we are learning is Spanish with an oriental twist. I can already bear my testimony sa tagalog and my companion Sister McCormack and I do so 5 times to random missionaries we stop. I love doing that, it is awesome to be the one stopping, since I was stopped so often as a volunteer. We also always pray sa tagalog, it is interesting, I say about half of the prayer in tagalog and then finish the phrase in English because we have not learned those verbs yet.
There were 3 districts that came in with me, there are 6 sisters that came in on Wednesday. We are all split up 2 by 2 into the 3 new districts. My Elders are awesome, I know that I am supposed to be in this district. I am ahead of the others in the language...but I love the opportunity I have to help them understand what they are saying and how to say it. I am so grateful that I had the help I did before my mission so that I can help lead my district in learning and teaching. I am also so grateful for being able to know my way around the MTC what a relief, and hearing all of those lessons over and over...lesson planning has been a lot easier for me than for my companion because of that. Fun story, we were walking and teaching the first lesson yesterday and it was my turn to take the restoration section and I wanted to quote the first vision but we were not allowed to use notes so I said I quick prayer and went for it...it came out flawless and with such assurity that I shocked myself, my companion, and our teacher. I am so grateful for the spirit and for the prayers of all of you on my behalf, I know that without the spirit there is no possible way to teach.
My companion is Sister McCormack from Highland Utah, she is a year older than I am. She graduated from beauty school and is here because the Lord told her go and so she went. Her story reminds me of Em's a bit. She doubts her faith a lot, which is why I am so grateful for my setting apart and the blessings that I received in that, there are many times where I do not know what to do or say to help her and those phrases come to mind. I did not know that I would be lifting my companion in the MTC as well as in the field.
Food...I hate the food. Mind you normal people food looks mabuti (great) but my food that the dietician planned out for me is ayos lang...or just okay. I eat a lot a lot of green apples...actually it is just about one per meal. They make me a special plate and I have to go through the kitchen to the back to go pick it up and it is a lot of pork, plain boiled chicken and plain diced potatoes...ya mom the things I do not like to eat. I was going to go talk to her today but with it being Pday we missed breakfast to go to the temple and then lunch we did sack lunches. I miss bread, they never ever give me bread becuase it is all milky...sigh.
Thank you for your letters, I did get both of yours mom and one of dad's but I got all 3 of them on Saturday. Elder Haws (yes of the BYU boys basket ball is my district leader) and I really don't know when he checks the mail.
Well I have to run.
I love you all, thank you for your prayers.
Sister Rebecca Jensen

Addresses

MTC (Letters and packages)
Sister Rebecca Jensen
MTC Mailbox #173
PHI-QUE
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84604

PACKAGES (After June 24, 2010)
Sister Rebecca Jensen
Philippines Quezon City Mission
P.O. Box 13873
Ortigas Center
Pasig City 1600, Metro-Manilla
PHILIPPINES

POUCH MAIL (After June 24, 2010)
Sister Rebecca Jensen
Philippines Quezon City Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130

The Farewell

Thanks to everyone who came to hear Becky's Sacrament Meeting talk yesterday! She did such a good job and proved (yet again) that she is going to be a phenomenal missionary. We've had our share of... trials... these last few months, so we know that someone is trying his hardest to hold her back. Luckily, no mere emergency appendectomy is going to stop our Becky! (You had better baptize a WHOLE island, Nah!)

Things have been in a flurry since she got her call in December. She completed one more semester and kept herself super-busy. She just moved home from BYU on Saturday and gave her talk yesterday. She'll pack and clean today. She'll be set apart on Tuesday night. On Wednesday afternoon she'll be in the MTC! I'll post her addresses and some pictures from the farewell party soon.

GOOD LUCK NAH!

The Answer is...

Nah is going to the Phillipines Quezon Mission, and will speak Tagalog! She reports to the MTC on April 21, 2010. We are so proud of you, Becky!

Last night we drove to Provo to hear Becky's voice recital. We stayed at the recital for as long as time (and as Clark might say, sanity) allowed, and then we left. Becky didn't want to open it in the car or her apartment, but she was tired of waiting. So we found a chapel near her old apartment building. There must have been a ward dance going on, because there was loud music and people in costumes. We found an empty room, and Nah tore it open. Taa daa!

IT'S HERE!!!

Nah's mission call was delivered today! It's... um... certainly in a sealed white envelope all right. Hasn't been steamed open or anything. Noooo..
No, really, we wouldn't do this to Nah. I would have killed somebody if they'd done that to me. We did hold it up to the light, but that doesn't mean anything because they layer it. I'm pretty sure that's deliberate.
Postage is $1.56, which means that it tips the scale at 6 oz. If the same trick works now as it did for me in 2007, that mean's she's going foreign.
Clark holds with Helsinki, Ash holds with Arkansas, and I hold with Japan. Tomorrow we'll see who is right, and who is dead. I mean, who is wrong.
YAY!

This is it!

We knew as of yesterday that THE CALL IS IN THE MAIL! Nah is excited, and we are all holding our breath. There is a flurry of last minute guessing. We are also wondering, which day will it come? Wednesday? Thursday? When will the holy trek to Provo commence? No one knows. The next post will be the big one!

The Papers are IN

December 1, 2009
Rebecca's papers were submitted on Sunday (Nov 29!)
Now we just get to wait by the mailbox.
This is exciting.
We're proud of you, Nah!