Happy New Year

No new general e-mail from Kristin this week. But, we had three way skype with her and her brother on Christmas day and she looks beautiful. It was fun to listen to her speak German with her brother. She is not being transferred and so you may continue to snail mail her as previously:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hermann-Dornscheidtstrasse 20
40470 Dusseldorf
Germany
I received her "trunky" letter from the Frankfurt mission office and her release date is April 25,2012. I am sure I will be posting more e-mail from her after the new year which will contain information about how you can contact her beyond her stay in Dusseldorf.

Wishing you a blessed New Year!
Kristin's Mutter

Christmas in Germany

Hello everyone,

I must say, all the missionaries here said Christmas was the hardest time of year, but we've actually had a really good time. I'm coming to realize that you can look at missionary work during Christmas time one of two ways: either that there's a lot of stuff you can't do at this time of year, or that there's a lot of stuff you can ONLY do at this time of year! We've done a lot of carolling, Christmas street preaches, and other random little Christmas ideas, and I think diversity has kept us sane. It is pretty cold and dark, though. We don't see the sun a lot. But other than that, it's been alright.

In Germany there are three days of Christmas. Heiligabend (Christmas Eve) is the big one, but then they have First and Second Christmas days (the 25th and 26th), which most people use to travel and visit family. Everyone has work off on these days, and pretty much everything is shut down; all the stores and restaurants and such. We are very well taken care of for the three Christmas days. There is a lady in our ward who was called to organize our eating appointments, and she really took her calling to heart! I don't think we even need to buy groceries this week. And, on top of that, the ward bought us a real Christmas tree! And the relief society came together to give us some of their old decorations and lights. We have the most decked-out missionary apartment in history.

I'm going to attach some photos from the Christmas market. But just know, the pictures don't do it justice. Half of the magic is the music and the way it smells. It's like pure happiness.

Saturday I got my 'trunky papers' in the mail (asking about my flight plans going home and such). I can't believe how fast time has flown. Oh well, I still have four months left, and I'm going to make them awesome!

Love you all, thank you for all the support!
Sister Jensen

Kevin's Baptism

Hallo Familie!

Highlight of the Week: Kevin's baptism

Kevin is a really amazing kid, 20 years old, who learned about the church through a friend. His friend brought him to Institute, and the whole group of young adults welcomed him and befriended him. He had a pretty hard home life, and his family is not at all accepting of him joining ANY church, let alone the Mormons, but to him, the Institute center became his home, and the young adults became his family. He started reading the Book of Mormon, and by the time he reached Mosiah he knew it was true, and that it came from God. He is so solid and faithful! He'll probably be a bishop or stake president soon. Kevin sort of became everyone's investigator. There were three sets of missionaries teaching him, including us (because he lived in one place, studied in another, and came to Institute in Düsseldorf). Everyone loves Kevin, and his baptism was such a wonderful experience. There were so many members and missionaries there! I wrote a medly for his service ("I like to look for rainbows" mixed with "I know that my redeemer lives") and Sister Hansen wrote a guitar part, and we sang it for him.

Other notable events:
- We had a really successful ward Christmas party. Lots of members brought their friends, and everyone had a great time! The primary kids were adorable.
- We had a street preach with our district in a park, and got some great contacts out of it.
- I got separated from Sis. Hansen. She hopped into a train, and as I tried to hop in after her, I tripped over an old lady, and the train pulled away. It was pretty ridiculous, haha. Plus it was on a Sunday evening, so the trains only ran once every half hour. While I waited for the next train, though, I got a contact from another guy who was standing on the platform.
- Everywhere we went this week, we had appointments fall out, but every time we had an appointment fall out, we met someone else who we normally wouldn't have ever met. God moves in mysterious ways
- I'm trying to get better at contacting on trains, even when I only have a couple of stops to talk to the person across from me

I love you all! Have a wonderful Christmas!
Sister Jensen

12 days of Christmas project

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all having a good December so far; I've been hearing about some crazy storms back home! Hope you're all staying warm and safe. It's starting to get really cold, but no snow yet. Just lots of rain. I'm sure it's around the corner, though.

Highlight of the Week: our 12 days of Christmas project
(see attatched picture)

We picked four families in the ward and did a little project with them. First, they picked a friend or neighbor who might be open to the gospel. Then we made up a package of Christmas gifts, quotes, and scriptures (all Christ-themed) that they could deliver secretly every day for 12 days, leading up to Christmas. We had a lot of fun putting it all together, and the members thought it was a great idea. The plan is that we'll go over with them on the last day, when they reveal themselves, and we'll sing them some Christmas songs and share a thought. Then we'll ask them if they want to learn more, and the member will invite them to church!

Other than that, it's been a pretty cold, hard week. We don't have a lot of investigators at the moment, and so we have to spend a lot of our time tracting, which is kind of hard around Christmas time. We try to do a lot with the Elders. It's nice, having another set of missionaries in the same city. There's a big push in our mission right now to try new, creative ideas. We've thought of a few, but most of the ones we dream up are either expensive or could get us arrested. So we're trying to brainstorm, haha. (If anyone has any sweet-awesome ideas that can be done with 2-4 missionaries, let me know! :))

I'm also attatching a picture of some protesters we met in Bahnhof. There was a big group of them in masks, making a statement against Scientology.

Love you all,
Sister Jensen

New address

Hallo,

Highlight of the Week: The Jastram Family!

We contacted a couple who live right across the street from the church building, in the same building as a member couple in our ward. They are so cool! They have strong beliefs about family, and they are honest seekers of truth. We've been meeting with them this week, and they have so many questions! It's really a great experience, teaching them.

I'm getting really excited for Christmas. Yesterday was 'First Advent' in Germany. Every Sunday for four Sundays before Christmas they celebrate Advent, where they light a candle and sing Christmas songs or tell stories. So yesterday was the official start of the Christmas season. Sister Hansen and I, and the Zone Leaders, are celebrating by going to a historical Christmas market by a castle in Solingen. Christmas markets are a big deal here. We've already seen a couple but haven't had time to visit them yet, so today is exciting!

We're doing a really cool Christmas program with the Elders. They both have great voices, so we have a program where we sing Christmas songs and read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon and go door-to-door with this program. We're starting it up officially this week (we practiced it yesterday) so I'll let you know next week how it went!

We had a great Zone Conference with President Kopischke from the area presidency. He really inspired us to seek after the prepared people and bring them closer to Christ.

Don't have much time, but I just want to tell you all that I love you and miss you. I know I'm supposed to be here now, though. I'm learning a lot and I feel like something big is about to happen here in Germany. I hope I can help bring it about!

Here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hermann-Dornscheidtstrasse 20
40470 Düsseldorf
Germany

Love you all!
Sister Jensen

From Kristin's mother

Sorry that Kristin did not send her new address but I will post it as soon as she send's it. In the meantime, please send letters to her using the mission office address. If there is anything you want to say to her quickly you may e-mail me at barbaraellenjensen@gmail.com and I can tell her in the e-mail I send her that she will receive Monday after Thanksiving. Thank you to all for putting up with me adding my own post. Kristin's mutter

First week in Dusseldorf

Hello everyone,

This week was my first full week here in Düsseldorf. It's a pretty big city with 600,000 citizens and 4 missionaries (us and the Zone Leaders). A little overwhelming! Especially since I don't know this area at all, and Sis. Hansen has only been here for 6 weeks. This area needs a lot of work. This area took a pretty big hit to the work last cycle (part of the reason I came on a split here two weeks ago, and I suspect part of the reason I'm serving here now -- long story) and it's struggling quite a bit. We have almost no investigators. It's going to take a lot of building!

We have a really cool Christmas program we're working on, so we should be staying pretty busy through the holidays, which is good. I enjoy working with the Zone Leaders. They're pretty stellar Elders.

I'm also finishing training Sis. Hansen. Our mission uses a new training program which involves an extra hour of study every day, which means on a 'normal' day we don't even leave the house until 13:00. We're still trying to figure out how to work everything. I'm kind of missing my old companions. I think the weight of responsibility really hit me this week. I'm just trying to power through it and not get discouraged. I really do know that great things are going to happen in Germany with missionary work, and I want to do my part to help bring it about.

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

Transfer

Hallo!

Highlight of the week: I can't pick one! So I'll just summarize:

- I'm getting transferred back to Düsseldorf, and I'll be with Sister Hansen again, but this time officially! (Which means I'll have all of my luggage this time). This means I'll be in Düsseldorf for Christmas, which Matt informs me is pretty awesome! I'm excited because Sister Hansen sings like an angel, so we'll spend a lot of the Christmas season carolling and singing. I'm really excited about this assignment. It's sad to be leaving the awesome Drit here in Hamm, but we knew it had to break up anyway, and I can't imagine a more awesome place to go. Plus Sister Hansen and I got along really well the week we were together, and she's a hard worker, so it should be an amazing transfer!

- Sister Gardner is opening a new Sisters area, Dortmund, and training there. This means we'll still be within a close enough distance to go on splits together, and we'll see each other at Zone Conference next week!

- Zone Conference is on Thanksgiving day, and the Europe area President will be coming for a mission tour, which is exciting. It's crazy to think that last Thanksgiving I was in the MTC!

- Tomorrow I'll be going down to Frankfurt for the training meeting (technically I'm half-training Sister Hansen, because she's still a golden).

- On Friday we had the craziest service project ever. We spent a few hours at a member's house cleaning her clown collection. She has hundreds of clowns. She had a whole glass display case full of them, and they'd all gotten dusty, so we removed each clown and cleaned them individually. It was actually really creepy. I'll have to send pictures home.

- Our investigator came to a stake relief society activity, and she had a great time! Her kids love everything to do with church, and on the way to Dortmund she told us that her girls wanted to be missionaries someday. We thought, 'Great! Now we just need to baptize you all first' :) She met lots of members at the activity, which is always the best thing. Missionaries come and go. Members are the ones that investigators need to form relationships with. Members are the ones who need to be there to answer questions and pick them up for activities and support them through hard times when the missionaries aren't there. Being on a mission has really made me realize what kind of member I want to be when I go home.

- Today, P-day, we went to Padderborn to go bowling with our district and check out a really beautiful cathedral there. We went into one of the echo-y cloisters, where they have really good acoustics, and we sang some hymns. It was beautiful!

- I talked to a lady on the street last week and we had our first appointment with her a few days ago. Her name is Jahne, and she's really cool! When we went over, she had just found out that her father was in the hospital, so we prayed with her, and the spirit was so strong. She is about 32, studying and working, and very interested in the purpose of life. Sister Jackson and her new companion will have to keep working with her, and I'll find out later what happens. So much of missionary work is planting seeds and never really seeing what comes of it. I wonder sometimes what it will be like to go to the spirit world and meet all the people I talk to on a daily basis and see what their story became. I've heard some crazy stories about people giving out pass along cards or copies of the Book of Mormon, not thinking much of it, and it changes peoples' lives. Everyone please pray for Jahne and her father.

Well, those are the highlights! I love being a missionary. I love this work!

Alles liebe,
Sister Jensen

Sunday

Hello everyone!

I have an amazing story to tell you! First off, let me preface it with this: Sundays, as a missionary, are the most stressful days of the week. None of this 'day of rest' stuff. It's a normal workday, where we have appointments and go out tracting and such. Also, you never know which investigators are going to show up for church, and sometimes you have to leave during the meetings to pick people up, and then you have to make sure your investigator's kids are in the right primary class and having a good time and not having separation anxiety. Then, inevitably, we end up teaching one class or another. And every other Sunday, one of us gives a talk. Plus, we're always trying to catch members before they go home. So basically the only time we get to relax is during the sacrament. And even then, you usually have to keep investigator's children quiet and occupied by drawing with them or showing them pictures.

So yesterday was yet another normal Sunday. We hadn't reached anyone Saturday night or Sunday morning, so we were pretty sure no one was going to be at church, which is always sad. But then last minute, right before Relief Society, we managed to get a hold of two people, and we arranged to have one investigator pick up the other. We quickly threw a Sunday School class together for them, and then later when we walked into Sacrament, our investigator Tim was just sitting there, too! It was awesome! But the best part was that halfway through the meeting, two strangers walked into the meeting. We talked to them afterwards, and they said they were just looking for a church to attend. They had already tried two churches that Sunday but they didn't feel comfortable there, so they were about to go home when they saw our building. It was awesome! We told them a little bit and set up an appointment to teach them this Wednesday. Then we broke our fast at a member's house and did doors in their area, and had some really cool contacts there, too. Then we were able to reach an inactive lady who we've never caught at home before. By the end of the day, we were so tired, but so happy. It was one of those days when I just LOVE being a missionary.

We also taught an English class on Wednesday. I teach the 'Intermediate' level, and my class consists of four really old, adorable ladies who love America.

Today for P-day we went to IKEA! I felt like I was back at home. A really cool lady in our ward took us to look through the showrooms and get Swedish meatballs.

For Halloween we carved pumpkins. It was awesome.

This coming Saturday is transfer call day. I think all three of us are in denial. We know that one of us will get transferred, because next transfer there's an even number of Sisters in the mission, so there won't be a need for a set of three. Nonetheless, we are sort of pretending that we'll all be together for Christmas. This transfer with Sister Gardner and Sister Jackson has been my favorite on the mission, I think! The work is going so well, and we get along, and this area is awesome.

I love you all so much! I looked back through old photos a few days ago and got a little wave of missing my family and friends. But I love being here! I actually wrote a song about missionary work :) I don't really have a way to attach it though. Maybe later. Love you all!

~Sister Jensen

P.S. The guy doing emails right next to me has the most ridiculous mullet I have ever seen. I think I'll slip a pass along card into his bag secretly.

Back in Hamm

Hello, all of you wonderful people!

Sorry that the past few weeks have been so crazy. I have been seriously neglecting my letter writing and emails! They have been piling up and piling up. One of these days I am going to sit down and write you all back, I promise.

Highlight of the week: I'm back in Hamm!

Düsseldorf is a beautiful city, and I had lots of fun with Sister Hansen (Sister Schenk's golden). But man, am I glad to be home! The whole week was pretty stressful. I had packed really random stuff into my suitcase, it turned out, and so I had like three coats, and my first aid kit, but no skirts and shirts, haha. Bad planning. And because Düsseldorf is so enormous, we were always running after trains and getting lost. It also didn't help that Sister Hansen had only been there for three weeks, so she didn't really know her way around, either. But we miraculously made it to all of our appointments, and we so some really cool miracles along the way. I was able to commit an investigator to baptism, and to bond with a less-active girl who felt totally lonely in the ward.

Sister Schenk is now out of the hospital. We worked together in a Drit for a couple of days, but now she's doing okay, so I was able to come back home! I'm really glad to be back here. I would love to serve in Düsseldorf, or to serve with Sister Hansen again, but maybe under more normal circumstances next time, haha. It was frankly pretty weird to serve with Sister Schenk again. I kann tell that I've changed a LOT since we last served together.

Oh, also, while I was in Düsseldorf, I got to go to a meeting in Frankfurt with Elder Gonzales from the presidency of the 70. It was such an inspiring meeting! I have a lot of new ideas for missionary work now, and I'm stoked to start putting them in practice! It occurred to me that missionary work is basically PR. I thought, 'Why haven't I been treating this like a PR campaign all along?' After all, the messaging is already set up, we just have to target it to the right audience and put it in the appropriate channels.

Thank you all again for the love! You are all so wonderful. I pray for my family often. :) You're in my heart.

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

P.S.
Mom - What is this about you getting marriage proposals from Laotian men? :)
Jessica - I got your letters, both the one sent to Friedrichsdorf and the one to Hamm! Thank you for the totoros ^_^
Grandma Jones - I got your letter, too! Thank you so much. My companions love your elegant handwriting.
James, Kelsey, and Zoe - I laughed so hard at the package! I can't decide which part was my favorite. Probably the glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs. You are such amazing people. Also, Sister Hansen saw the picture of Lauren Watt and totally knows her! Hope your enjoying Florida, Kels!
Love you all!
~Sis.J

Temporarily transferred

Hello everyone,

Not much time to write today, I'm getting sent to Düsseldorf today! Random adventure. Not sure how long I'll be there, but probably no longer than a week. President called last night and told me to pack ALL of my stuff, which I did (faster than I've ever packed in my life) and then this morning he told me I only need a week or so of clothes.

I don't know hardly anything about Düsseldorf, except that it's huge, and that's where the fat kid in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is from. Sister Schenk had a medical issue so that's why I'm going, to take her spot for a week, and stay with her companion (who is a golden -- only been here for 3 weeks, so it's like I'm mini-training! Haha)

I'll write more detail next week. This week was really amazing and I wish I had time to tell you some of the awesome stories! Aaaaahhh being a missionary is the best ever!

Love you all,
Sister Jensen

Mormon.org

Okay, I already sent off the family email, but then I discovered the coolest video on Mormon.org! So maybe you can add this as a post-script, mom or Jess, whoever posts the email to the blog.

http://mormon.org/me/5233/Brandon/

It's the lead singer of the Killers (artists of "Mr. Brightside," "When You Were Young," and "Human"), one of my favorite bands! He uploaded an "I'm a Mormon" video about himself. All of those videos are cool, because they're about real people, but this was especially cool, because Brandon Flowers is such an awesome musician, and the Killers are such a great band!

Love,
Kristin

Nicole coming to church

Hallo!

The highlight of the week: Nicole coming to church

We had a really good lesson with our investigator Nicole, and at the end we invited her to come to church. She's never come before, even though missionaries have been meeting with her for a while. So this time we looked up the bus times for her and arranged to meet her at the bus stop and walk in together. We also planned out a "greeter" and a "caretaker" (a member to meet her at the door and say hello, and another one to sit next to her through the classes). On Sunday, the bus came... and went. No Nicole. At first we thought she had just bailed, or slept in, but just in case we started walking in the direction of her house. A few minutes later we realized we had no idea where we were going (because we've never gone to her house from the direction of the church), so Sister Gardner said, "Let's just say a prayer to know where to go, and then we'll keep going." We said a prayer, kept walking for a bit, turned a corner and about 30 seconds after turning the corner we ran into Nicole! She had missed her bus and had started walking, but she was sort of lost, so it was really good that we had met her halfway! She had a really good time at church, and a lot of members came up to her afterward to get to know her. Everyone was super friendly, and one person even invited her over for Family Home Evening tonight, and she's totally going!

Other notable events:
- We went up to Münster for a district meeting, and afterward we were all starving, so we went to this Döner Kebab place, and I was really excited because I was craving Falafel, and Sister Gardner had never had them before, so we shared this HUGE plate of Falafel, and by the end we both felt pretty gross, and so neither of us wanted to eat the last one, and Sister Gardner said, "I don't want the last falafel! They make me feelawful!" hahaha I laughed SO HARD, hahahah. Maybe you just had to be there.

- I went and anmelded (registered) myself as a citizen of Hamm, and they had a bunch of old license plates in a scrap heap, and I asked if I could have one, and they gave one to me! Coolest souvenier ever, and also free. The coolest part is that in Germany, license plates have the first 1-3 letters of the city on it, and then the license plate number, and so for Hamm it says HAM in big capital letters.

- I called Sister Römer and got an update on our investigators, and oddly enough it made me homesick for Friedrichsdorf. I miss my investigators and I worry about them all the time, or I think of things I want to teach them, but they're not my investigators any more. Plus, I was in the Friedrichsdorf ward longer than any other ward since I was 17. At school I was always moving back and forth, never staying in a ward for more than a few months, or moving somewhere else for the summer. The Beavercreek ward was always my "Home" ward, but I hadn't been there in a long time, either. Friedrichsdorf was the longest I've stayed in one place for years. I kind of miss it. But Hamm is amazing, too, and I love my companions.

- We biked through the most epic rainstorm the other day, but it was worth it because we had a really good experience doing doors, and we were able to visit an inactive member. I think they took pity on us because we look so pathetically soaked. I was glad for that big black raincoat mom bought me for the mission.

- We had something called "Dedicated Zone Finding," where everyone in our zone does finding time (doors or street contacting) at the same time, each in their respective areas, for an hour, and starts and ends with a prayer. We went to the fußgängerzone (like... pedestrian shopping area) and at the end of the hour we had two new contacts and an appointment for this week! It was so amazing. We could really fell the faith of the whole zone working together. It made me realize that, on a much larger scale, that's what we do as a church. When we're all pulling our faith and resources together all at once, and working towards the same thing, we can accomplish so much more, even if it's just by supporting/encouraging. Just like the prophesy in Daniel says, this gospel WILL one day roll forth and fill the whole earth. Nothing can stop it. We can either be a part of it, or we can miss out! I'd rather be part of it.

Well, those are the highlights. I love you all! Hope all is well at home!
Alles gute,
Sister Jensen

Hamm

Greetings from Hamm!

It was a crazy week, but I LOVE my new area! My new companions are awesome, and it's actually kinda fun being in a Drit (trio) again.

Really quick, for everyone who asked, here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Kirche Jesu Christi (<<-- Must be included)
Bokumerweg 210
59065 Hamm
Germany
(And don't worry, letters sent to my old address will find their way to me. Sister Römer said she'd forward them on.)

I really like Hamm. It's a bigger city, and there are no contacting restrictions! I didn't even realize how awesome it is to be allowed to walk out your door and immediately start contacting. Because of the weird proselyting restrictions in Friedrichsdorf, I've never really experienced that. Another benefit is that the apartment is enormous! It actually has multiple rooms! Haha. And it is decorated with very 70's decor. Like... olive green paisley, fringed lamps, lace curtains, and a burnt orange couch. It reminds me of Harold and Maude. We even have an ORGAN in the apartment. I'll have to send pictures. :)

So, a little detail on my new companions:
Sister Jackson - She's 2 cycles younger than me on the mission, and a lot of fun. She's from Oregon, actually! Medford. But she grew up in Heidelberg on the military base, and then lived for a while in Nevada. She's still struggling with German a little, but she's fearless!

Sister Gardner - 2 cycles older than me on the mission. We get along really well and have a lot in common. She's actually one of the sisters that I've always thought I'd like working with eventually. She is 23, and a nurse. She's from Logan, UT.

Oh, another really cool thing about Hamm is that the whole city is obsessed with elephants. Jessica would love it here. There are elephant sculptures everywhere! I guess Hamm is home to the largest glass elephant in the world, and because of that the city has made elephants it's symbol. So far I've seen at least 20 elephant statues around the city. And quite a bit of elephant graffiti.

We've been crazy busy since I got here. There's lots to do. A lot of it is working with less-actives. This area doesn't have a lot of investigators, but we'll change that soon. We have a lot of really cool ideas. For example, next week we're starting up an English class and running an article about it in the newspaper (with a picture of us! :) ). We're also going to start attending bible study groups in local churches. Not to crash the party, but just to get to know people who are already interested in religion. Stuff like that. I'm excited!

I loved General Conference, particularly the talk from President Uchtdorf from the first session. It helps me to think that God loves each of us, he knows our worth, and no matter where we are, he can find us just fine. No matter where we are, the people around us are God's children and all have the same goal (whether they know it or not) to return to live with Heavenly Father. Nothing is worth getting in the way of that.

I love you all! Thanks for the support.

Love,
Sister Jensen

P.S. If any of you RMs have good, creative ideas for finding people -- things that worked in your missions -- please email or mail them to me, and we'll try them out!

Being Transferred

Hello everyon,

I have very little time today, but I'm getting TRANSFERRED! For the first time! I'm going to a place called Hamm, near Dortmund, Germany. Sister Römer served there and says it's realy nice. I'll be in a Drit (two companions instead of one). We're heading to Frankfurt in a few minutes.

Conference was amazing! The whole ward got a kick out of the Frankfurt Tempel story, especially because there is NO WAY anyone could get from Portstraße to Friedrichsdorf in 10 minutes, haha.

It was pretty emotional for me to pack my bags. I am going to miss the ward and our investigators a lot. And Inge is going to get baptized in a couple of weeks and I wont be here!

Well, have togo. Love you0 all!
Kristin

Pinewood Derby Car

Hello,

Highlight of the week: The Pinewood Derby!

Pinewood Derbies are not common in Germany. In fact, I think this may have been the first one ever. It turned out to be such a cool activity, though! Sister Römer and I even made a car (we got permission from Präsident Schwartz). We also brought two of our investigators, and there were tons of other non-members there, and everyone had a great time. I'm coming to realize that the spiritual conversion is the most important part of missionary work, but we're also responsible for a certain amount of social conversion to keep people strong in the church. :)

We also had Zone Conference this week, and we went all the way to Heidelberg. We didn't get to see much of the city, but what I saw from the train was beautiful. We had a mental health doctor at the meeting who told us all how to avoid discouragement and avoid negative thoughts. It's called, "Learning the language of faith and hope," And it's a whole mental process, that basically means changing all negative thoughts to positive thoughts. For example, when someone corrects my German (which Germans are shameless about doing, by the way. Like... interrupting while you're bearing testimony to correct your grammar), instead of feeling embarrassed or belligerent, you think, "I like learning new things" or "I take correction well." Or, for example, if you're getting annoyed at your companion (which, *ahem* never happens... of course...) you make it positive, like "it's not that important" or "our differences make us a good team". And in the morning, you look in the mirror and say positive, uplifting things, like, "I'm unique" or "I do many things very well" or "My companion and I are going to have a great day!". It's all a little cheesy, but it actually helps a lot. I recommend it!

Also, something that just made my day, I just wrote my email to President about ten minutes ago, and he just called me to say thank you, to answer my questions, and wish me a great day. He's such a wonderful, sweet man. He even gave me a HUG at Zone Conference because of my birthday in August!

Well, I love you all. Coming on the mission was the best decision I ever made. When it comes right down to it, the purpose of life is to have joy and prepare to meet God. I'm always touched by scriptures that say we'll stand before God someday. I often try to think how I want to feel at that time. I don't want to feel exposed or ashamed of anything. I want to feel totally confident. I want to smile and feel comfortable in God's presence. And my job at the moment is to help other people prepare to meet God, too. I spend every day trying to find people who are humble and open-hearted enough to change their lives so that they can feel confident in the presence of God when they meet him some day. What a cool job description!

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

P.S. I am attatching some photos of our AWESOME pinewood derby car. Our investigator Peter helped us make it, and he

Second picture

Technologically challenged mutter having difficulty posting 2 photos :(

The Bahn Strike

Hello everyone,

Highlight of the week: the Bahn strike!

(that's only half sarcastic.) The trains here went on strike, which meant that we had many unexpected delays, a few appointments we had to cancel, and quite a lot of time wasted at train stations, but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise! On Friday, we were waiting at the Bahnhof, and we got into a conversation with someone from Peru, who was here as a school teacher. We gave her a book a Mormon and the phone number for the missionaries in her area. Then, later, as we were stuck at a different Bahnhof, we got into a conversation with a woman who knew a member in our ward, and drove past the temple almost every day. She had quite a few questions, and we're going to set up a temple tour for this week with her. Then, later, stuck at yet another Bahnhof, we met a student in Frankfurt who lived literally across the street from the temple in Colombia, and also had a lot of questions! We got her in touch with the Frankfurt Elders and they're working with her now. It is just so cool to see how anything, no matter how frustrating or annoying, can also be an opportunity!

Another AWESOME thing, which will most certainly be my highlight for next week, is that Elder Bednar is coming to our mission! I am so excited! It's actually tomorrow morning! This is double exciting because it also means the whole mission will come together for a mission conference, so I'll see my whole MTC district again, and all of the Sisters will be together at once.

We also had a baptism yesterday, and Sister Römer and I sang again. We brought one of our investigators to the baptism, and it was so cool! He felt the spirit so strong, and afterward, he said that he wants to be baptized! He is such a cool kid. 18 years old. He has such a sincere heart. I don't think I have ever seen him not smiling. Please pray for him! (his name is Leonel).

Well, that's about it! Love you all,
Sister Jensen

P.S. Happy Birthday Melinda!

Two pictures from Kristin

The post yesterday was Kristin's email plus one picture. This new attachment should have two pictures including one of Kristin and companion rainsoaked. Posted by Kristin's technologically challenged Mutter.

Post birthday e-mail

Hallo, wonderful family and friends!

Well, the highlight of the week was... sorting the recycling.
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Okay, I'm just kidding. The highlight was of course my BIRTHDAY! :) :) :) :) I'm 22 now! Thank you all so much for the cards and letters for my birthday! I don't think I've had that much mail my whole mission! It really meant a lot to me, and I felt so loved. I love you all so much! I'm including a picture of my birthday schrine I made on my desk (if your card isn't in the picture it's because I got it this morning in the mail.)

We got our transfer calls and I am staying here in Friedrichsdorf with Sister Römer! We're actually really excited about it. Part of me wanted to see a new area, but at the same time I love being here, and I've gotten so close to the members in our ward that I can hardly imagine leaving. Sister Römer threw me such a wonderful birthday. She made me breakfast and bought me a really cute sweater (which was very puzzling, actually, because I thought, "When did you get this without me noticing? We're basically superglued together at all times!") and she even wrote to all of her friends and people in her home ward and told them it was my birthday, and so I got a bunch of really nice cards and notes from people who had never even met me! It was so nice of her. She's awesome.

Another cool thing just happened as we were sitting here emailing. A lady from the Phillipines came up to me, and asked me where I got my hand sanitizer (the one Matt and Melinda gave me that hangs from my bag) because she had the same one. Then she asked if we were mormons. She recognized our nametags because in the Phillipines there are like 20 million missionaries. I told her my cousin went on his mission there (Alan). Anyway, we offered to come and visit her family and talk about the gospel, and she said yes! We're going there on Wednesday! So cool.

One more thing: There was a ridiculous storm in Rosbach, a dorf in our area, and in the time it tooks us to bike from the train station to our appointment, we were completely soaked. Our investigators were laughing so hard. They said, "We thought you would for sure cancel with this weather! We thought, 'There is no way they're going to bike to our house in this storm'" Haha! Two points for dilligence! Anyway, so our investigator's wife threw our clothes in the dryer and gave us pajamas to change into. I can definitely say that was the first time I've taught a lesson in pajamas. Also, what she gave us were like... short shorts, and I thought, Hmmm... how should we handle this? I really don't want to explain garments right now. Luckily we were able to make it work, modesty-wise, and we had a really good lesson.

Well, this email is long, enough, I think. Enjoy the attatched photos! Thank you, again, for making it such a wonderful birthday! Love you all!

Sister Jensen

P.S. Photo No.1 is of us after the rainstorm
Photo No.2 is my birthday schrine, haha. And yes, I got a bottle of champagne from an investigator. Time to teach him about the Word of Wisdom!

Hi from Kristin's mother and latest e-mail from Kristin

Kristin's birthday is August 27 - be sure to wish her happy birthday. Mutter

Kristin's latest e-mail:

Hello,

So first off: This is the last week of this cycle (Europe is transitioning to a new missionary schedule, so we had a shorter transfer than normal), and I think I might get transferred, so for the time being, probably best to send mail and such to the mission office:

Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstraße 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Other than that, not much to report. We had a pretty good week, the weather was gorgeous, we had an investigator come to church yesterday, and I discovered that the grocery store near us sells my favorite yogurt! What more can I ask for in life? :)

Another REALLY cool bit of news: http://newsroom.lds.org/article/mormon-ads-new-york-city
Stuff like this is my dream job. This is what I'd love to be doing when I get back. Oh well, we'll see what the future holds!

I love you! Thank you for all of the letters and support. The work is hard but very rewarding. Coming on a mission was the best decision I ever made in my life.

Love,
Sister Jensen

Two Splits and a Funeral

Hello,

This week was pretty awesome! We're working on a couple of really cool projects at the moment, which we fit in whenever we have spare time, but it's cool because what we develop will be used for the whole mission. It's kind of hart to explain, but basically we're working on a program for the missionaries to work more with members, so we're writing up some workshops and stuff. So far it's been really fun.

I also had an awesome split with Sister Cannon last week, and tonight I have another split with Sister Bognar, the other sister from Darmstadt. Actually we're sort of having a sleepover with the Darmstadt sisters tonight, because they're coming to the temple with us tomorrow. And then tomorrow Sister Römer and I are going up to Dortmund (a few hours away) for a funeral. There's a woman in our ward who passed away, and the funeral is in Dortmund. None of her family are members, and the Relief Society was worried that no one would come to the funeral, so we got permission to leave our area and go support, sing a musical number, help out with food, etc.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again, and I was struck with what a wonderful gift it is. Sometimes I forget how miraculous it is that we have the Book of Mormon. There are so many glorious, life-altering doctrines in it that I think I take for granted. We are teaching a woman right now (who reminds me strongly of Jessica, actually) and we gave her a Book of Mormon, and when we came back she had already read the introduction, witnesses, and a bit of 1st Nephi. She said she had started reading it every night before bed because it made her feel peaceful. She has a lot of questions about what happens after death, and it occurred to me that the Bible is pretty vague about what actually happens. When you read in the Book of Mormon, however, Alma 38-42 or so, it is so clear and answers pretty much any questions. That, combined with what we learn in D&C, paint such a clear vivid picture of God's plan for us. We're so lucky that we live in a time where the fullness of the gospel is on the earth.

Love you all!
Sister Jensen

Returning lost iPhone to grateful owner :) :)

Hallo,

We spent our P-day in Frankfurt with our district, so I don't have much time to email! Gotta head off to an appointment soon.

Highlight of the Week: We found someone's iPhone lying on the street in Friedrichsdorf and called a few contacts until we found the owner. They were really grateful and drove down to pick it up. We noticed that the background picture on the phone was an adorable family photo of a young couple and a little daughter. We thought, "They would be great Mormons!" so we prepared a passalong card to give them along with the phone. When the husband drove up, he saw our name tags and probably knew right away who we were (everyone in Friedrichsdorf knows the temple), and he asked us a few questions, and we offered to come by and talk about what we believe, and he said yes and gave us his phone number! We're really excited.

Also, I'm going on another split with Sister Cannon this week, which I'm really excited about! This time she's coming up here to Friedrichsdorf, which should be fun. For sisters, splits are basically really spiritually pumped-up sleepovers.

Well, I have to run. I'll send pictures we took today next week. We went up on a really high tower in Frankfurt and got pictures of the whole city and skyline and everything.

Love you!
Sister Jensen

New Cycle

Hi everyone!

Things are going well here in Friedrichsdorf! The weather is finally warming up, we found a couple of new investigators last week, and we're both healthy and well. :)

The Highlight of the Week was a spontaneous temple tour on Saturday. The temple called us and said that there was a non-member woman by reception who wanted a temple tour, and only had about half an hour. Normally we're not in Friedrichsdorf after 11:00 am (we're not allowed to proselyte in Friedrichsdorf, so we go to other cities to work), but luckily on Saturday we had gone back for something and so we were able to bike down to the temple really quick and do a tour. At first the lady seemed really cold and defensive, and a little annoyed that she wasn't able to go inside the temple, but during the tour she completely changed. She softened up and smiled more, and when we showed her the temple video she was even crying. It was a really good, spiritual experience. At the end she asked where she could learn a little more about the Church. She lives in Hanover, which isn't in our mission, but we got her contact information and we're going to put her in touch with the missionaries there. It was so cool!

I also got an AWESOME package from Grandma Jones this week! I was especially excited about the brown sugar, and the Rieses peanut butter cups. :) I shared the Rieses with my district and they were almost uncontrollably excited, haha. Thanks Grandma!

We also have some new Elders in our district, and they're all really awesome missionaries. There are actually a couple of Elders who were best friends before the mission, and now they're serving together! So cool. That would basically be like if Kelsey or Hailey was serving in my mission and we got put together. And the crazy part is that our mission president had no idea they knew each other! It must have been inspiration. They were so funny at our district meeting. We've nicknamed them 'the Sunshine Elders' because every time we see them they're grinning from ear to ear and laughing and just look like they're having the time of their lives.

We have one new sister in our mission, Sister Gates, and she is adorable. Sister Schenk is training her. Sister Römer and I went down to Frankfurt for the street preach to welcome the new Goldens. I had a couple of really awesome conversations on the street with people who were stopped to listen to us singing. Music is one of the most powerful tools we have as members/missionaries, I think. Music invites the spirit so much.

I'm also attaching a photo of me by the Freidrichsdorf Zwieback sign. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Friedrichsdorf is famous for this stuff called Zwieback, which is a food that supposed to have all sorts of health benefits, you can eat it when your sick, etc.. Basically it's just really dry bread that they toast twice, but everyone around here swears by it, haha.

I love you all!

Sister Jensen

Guten Nachmittag

Guten Nachmittag!

This week was pretty cool. Sister Römer and I have been getting to know each other a little better, and having lots of fun. This whole week it has been POURING down rain (in July! Crazy. Must be the Second Coming.) But we're mastering the art of riding bikes with umbrellas.

Highlight of this week: Mission Leader Council. They always invite one companionship of Sisters to come, but I had never been before! Part of it was just talking about numbers and how each of the zones are doing, but we also talked about Europe as a whole and how missionary work is going, and what plans the Europe office has, and it was fascinating! Apparently things are going really well, and there are a couple of countries, Portugal, for example, where missionary work has just taken off and they went from having a couple hundred baptisms a year to a couple thousand! Germany will be next :) We gave a talk in Relief Society and Priesthood about missionary work yesterday, and now the members are really getting excited, and everyone is catching the vision!

Please pray for missionary work here. Pray that we can find the people who are ready. Also, please pray for our investigators, especially the da Luz family, the Quiring family, and Peter. We could really use your faith!

A couple in our ward got sealed this weekend (they've been married for almost 10 years), and we helped make the wedding cake and decorate the church building for the party afterward, and then we gave a temple tour to the guests who couldn't go in the temple. It was a really cool day! It made me think of Grandma and Grandpa Jones, getting sealed after so long being together. The Spindens (the family that got sealed) were so happy! You could just tell they were glowing inside. So cool!

Sister Römer is helping me tons with my German, and I'm helping her with her Englisch. It's kind of cool to not be the only one making ridiculous language mistakes all the time, haha. But my German is getting way better! And she's also teaching me a few phrases in Swiss German, which is actually an entirely different language. When Sister Römer talks to people in Swiss German, I have no clue what she's saying. It sounds cool though!

That's about it. Hope all is well at home! I heard the last Harry Potter movie came out last week! Hope it was awesome. I'll be stoked to see that when I get home.

Love you all,
Sister Jensen

Louis Got Baptied

Hallo,

Highlight of the week: Louis's baptism!

It was so cool! It was such a beautiful service. Almost the whole ward showed up for his baptism. All the members love him already, which is really good, because now he has lots of friends to keep him active in the church! :)

We also went down to Frankfurt for another baptism right after ours. The Elders in Frankfurt were teaching a really cool girl about our age, and she came up for a temple tour one week, and she said it really helped her feel the spirit, and after that she decided to get baptized! She asked Sister Schenk and I to be there and sing at her baptism, but then Sister Schenk got transferred, but luckily Sister Römer can sing, too, so we did that.

What else... oh, so we had interviews with President Schwartz. He is such a good man. So far, I've never seen him not smiling! He gave me some really good suggestions and advice. After our interviews, he and his wife came back to Friedrichsdorf for Louis's baptism, which was cool.

Other than that, not a whole lot to tell, just staying busy! It's been crazy hot here. We've been eating a lot of frozen grapes. It's our new favorite thing.

Love you all,
Sister Jensen

New Companion

Hello!

Highlight of the week: A day in Darmstadt

I had a really fun split with Sister Cannon last week, down in Darmstadt (hometown of President Uchtdorf). We made some really awesome contacts on the street, and we made mexican food for dinner. Germany has zero good mexican restaurants. It was so awesome to see Sister Cannon again.

Also, we had a meeting on Friday where our new mission president and his wife (President and Sister Schwarz) introduced themselves a little and gave a very inspiring spiritual thought. They are a really nice couple. President Schwarz doesn't speak much English, so from now on all of our meetings will be in German.

I also have a new companion now. At the Friday meeting, we found out that Sister Schenk was going to be transferred out of Friedrichsdorf. That night she packed all of her stuff and on Saturday we travelled to her new area where I said goodbye to her and picked up my new companion. The sad thing is that Sister Schenk is now really far away, way on the other side of Germany, so I probably won't see her for a long time.

My new companion is really nice, though. Her name is Sister Römer. She's from Switzerland. I'm attaching a picture of us that we took at the temple this morning.

Love you all,

Sister Jensen

Another awesome week

Hallo,

Well, yet another awesome week! As always! Sister Schenk and I are having an awesome time.

Highlight of the Week: Ninow's goodbye party (see attatched photo)

President and Sister Ninow end their mission this week, and my new mission President arrives on Wednesday. We had our last Zone Conference with the Ninow's last week, and Sister Schenk and I wrote a little song for them and performed it, and then yesterday the Assistants organized a surprise party at the Ninow's home. There were about 10 missionaries, including us, and it was really sweet. We sang "God be with you 'til we meet again" (Sister Ninow cried) and presented them with a scrapbook from all of the missionaries. It must be very emotional for them. They've been on their mission for three years!

Lots of other eventful things happened apart from that, though. First of all, Sister Schenk's stalker showed up at church again yesterday. Have I told that story yet? There's a creepy old man who was in her old ward in Frankfurt, and he wrote her a love letter, and then started showing up at our ward building here. A couple of the brothers got him to leave, but Sister Schenk was still a little shaken up. We talked to President, and he said he might have to transfer Sister Schenk to a new area if it continues, but he doesn't want to do that, obviously, so Sister Schenk is writing her stalker a letter telling him she's not interested, and to leave her alone. He also now has a restraining order on our church building, which should help as well.

Other things of note:
- We taught primary yesterday and they were so cute. There's a four-year-old boy from England who told me he wants to marry me. It was adorable.

- I'm going on my first ever split this week! It's pretty rare for sisters to go on splits, because we're so spread out. Anyway, I'm really excited because I'm going on a split with Sister Cannon!

- We celebrated the first day of summer by breaking out our winter coats and scarves again. It was freakishly cold! But today it's 35°C (about 95 degrees) and feels like real summer, haha.

Love you all!
Sister Jensen

Busy busy busy

Guten Tag!

Sorry my email is coming so late. We almost didn't have p-day this week! But we've been fabulously busy and lots of good things have happened.

Highlight for the week: We got transfer calls and Sister Schenk and I are staying together!

We were both so excited. We had actually called President on transfer call day, with news about a baptismal date we had just set, and we purposely called a little later in hopes that he would just go ahead and tell us if we were moving or not, and so we got to hear it direct from the source! A sneaky tactic I think I'll try to employ every six weeks, haha. But then of course I'll have to have lots of baptismal dates to tell him about. Which could happen, the way things are going! the work is really going well, and we're meeting with so many cool people.

Another awesome experience was on Saturday. Sister Schenk and I went to a baptism in Frankfurt, because it was for someone who Sister Schenk had taught when she was there. We did a musical number for it, as well, which reminded me very strongly of when I was little, and Jess and I sang at everyone's baptisms, haha. Louis came with us to the baptism, and he said he really felt the spirit, and it helped him to understand baptism.

Louis is doing great! He has such strong faith. He reads in the Book of Mormon every day, he hasn't missed church yet. I think he's really on track to find his answer. I think the most wonderful thing about our message is that everyone can find out for himself if it's true or not. No one has to take our word for it. I think some people are afraid to, because it would mean that they would have to change their lives, if what we are saying is true. But there are so many people out there who have been looking so long for answers, and for truth, that they'll do anything to know. Those are the people God speaks to!

So our p-day has been sort of spread over three days (a few hours at a time), but we did have time to go to a really cool park where they took a bunch of old, historic buildings from all over Germany, packed them up, and shipped them to a park really close to where I live. They built a little city out of all these old houses, so it's like a museum, but a whole city. They even have actors who dress up in 1700's clothing and walk around, churn butter and all that jazz. It was really cool! I'll try to attach some photos.

We went with an investigator, and Brother and Sister Orum from our ward drove us. Brother Orum is from Denmark, and he reminds me SO much of Grandpa Jensen. But with a really thick accent.

Well, that's about it! I'm having such a good time. We had a couple of days where everything seemed to be going wrong, and we missed every train, and every appointment fell out, etc., and we were pretty discouraged, but we talked about it, pepped each other back up, and now it's going great again! Satan will have to find a better way to get us down. ;)

I love you all! I hope all is going well back home!

Sincerely,
Sister Jensen

God speaks through the Book of Mormon

Hello everyone!

Highlight of the week: Louis!

This was such an amazing story! There was a man who walked up to the church during the week, two weeks ago, and a member talked to him and the next week brought him to church. We met him there and started teaching him last week. We asked him what prompted him to find the church, and he said:

"I lost my job and left my wife and son in Italy to come here and find a job. A family from Nigeria took me in [Louis is also from Nigeria]. I was in their living room, and I cried to God asking him if he really cared, and if he did, why I was having so many problems. Then I saw the Book of Mormon lying on their coffee table. I picked it up and opened it to a random page. I read the words, 'now is the time for your troubles to be over.' Later I tried to find the verse, and I can't find it. I told the family, 'Where is this church? God has spoken to me through this book, and I have to find this church.'"

Needless to say, he found the church, and luckily an English-speaking member drove up just as he arrived and was able to talk to him. The woman that took Louis in is Sister Dirisu, an inactive woman in our ward, and she had just gotten back from Africa two days before she met Louis. It is just so amazing, a miracle really, how everything worked out! It strengthened my testimony that the Lord knows every single person on this earth. He doesn't see us as one big mass of people. He watches out for every person, and he hears every prayer.

We're meeting with Louis again tonight. He was at church yesterday and he bore the most beautiful testimony about the Savior, and how loved and welcomed he felt in the ward.

Anyway, lots of cool things happened this week, and we found a few new investigators, but that experience is really the one that stands out.

The other really memorable one was that a man invited us in as we were going door to door, and it turns out he's a big Evangelisch preacher with a huge congregation, and he grilled us for about an hour and a half on what we believe, the bible, the final judgement, baptism, you name it. It was so hard to not argue with him, which is what I would normally feel compelled to do. But instead we just calmly explained what we believed and bore humble testimony, and the spirit was so strong. At the end, he said, 'You're not at all what I expected Mormons to be.' (Yes! That's the goal!) and he said we could come back any time.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I'm praying for all of you.

Lots of love,

Sister Jensen

Exhausted, but happy.

Hello everyone!

I have come to realize that the most satisfying days for me are the ones where I come home super exhausted, knowing I've worked hard and well, and flop into bed and fall asleep instantly. A couple of nights ago I actually woke up around midnight still kneeling at my bed, having fallen asleep while praying, haha.

The highlight of the week: 4 investigators came to church yesterday.

And we only expected one! The other three just walked in completely on their own. Two were people I have never met before, but we're going to start teaching them this week!

Also, Sister Schenk and I sang in church on Sunday. We did an acapella version of 'I feel my Savior's Love' in German, with harmony, and it went really well!

What else... oh, the other day we were at an appointment in Rosbach (the furthest north city in our area) and it went late so we missed our train, but we had an appointment in Ober-Ursel that we had to get to, so I suggested we bike back to Friedrichsdorf, about 1/3 of the way there, as fast as we could, and try to catch our train connection. But just as we were passing Friedrichsdorf we could see that the train had already left, so we said, 'Okay, let's bike to the next city and catch a different train!' but then we didn't catch it, so we ended up biking all the way from Rosbach to Ober-Ursel, which is about 30 km, and then we missed our train coming home, so we biked back to Friedrichsdorf from there! In total I think we biked 35 km that day, which is the same distance as a marathon! (Although luckily we didn't have to run it, haha).

A couple of people you could pray for this week:

Emmanuel - He's 14 and decided he wants to be baptized. The only snag is that his father was a member and is now inactive. His dad even served a mission, but now he's sort of against coming to church. He's letting us teach Emmanuel, but pray that his heart will be softened. Sometimes it's hard to bring the spirit into our lessons, because his dad is really sarcastic and tries to trip us up in what we're saying.

The de Luz family - SUCH a cool family! We've been teaching them for about 4 weeks now, and the wife is severely pregnant. Like... the baby could come any second. Pray that everything will go well with the baby!

Okay, that's pretty much it. I love you all!

Love,

Sister Jensen

Best week ever!

Hello,

This week was awesome! The highlight was: we taught more lessons and found more new investigators this week than in any other week in my whole mission so far!

Man, everything just seemed to be going right this week. We had a lot of "finding" time this week, which is always pretty exhausting, but we just had a good attitude about it, and it was amazing! Sometimes we go hours at a time with nothing but slammed doors in our faces, but it is so worth it when that one person stops and listens to you and realizes that you have the answers to the questions they've had for years and years.

A couple of really cool experiences:

Last night we were going door to door, talking about happiness, and a lady poked her head out her window and I shouted up to her, 'What does the word 'Happiness' mean to you?' and she just stared at us for a few seconds and then said, 'Um... just a moment, I'll come outside.' All of a sudden I was panicking because I didn't know what to say next, but when she came outside I just said, 'when we understand who we are, it makes us happy' (I felt like I was quoting a Michael McLean song, but oh well). We asked her who she thought she was, and she said, 'I've been asking myself that for a long time.' We taught her, gave her a Book of Mormon, and then made a return appointment.

We were still sort of in shock as we turned the corner, and there was a man there, and we started talking to him about the Plan of Salvation, and we asked him what he thought happened after death, and he said, 'I've been asking myself that a lot lately.' Almost the exact same answer! We taught him and made a return appointment with him, too.

I had a couple of really, really hard days this week, too. Sometimes I get into slumps, and I just feel exhausted and down and not wanting to work, and not believing that anyone will listen to us, but luckily Sister Schenk always helps me to refocus and be happy again. And then the next day, when she's struggling, I help her! I suppose we go two-by-two for a reason. :)

Well, that's about it. So many cool things are happening in Germany. There are some awesome prophesies about missionary work here, and they're starting to happen!

Also, my President Ninow goes home in a few short weeks, and we'll have our new mission president, President Lehi Schwartz (A native German from Nürnberg). It'll be sad to say goodbye to the Ninows, but also exciting to see what changes will come!

Love you all,

Sister Jensen

P.S. Grandma Jones - Thank you so much for the Kool-ade! It arrived intact! I laughed so hard when I saw it, haha. I'm going to use one as a bribe for the Elders. I don't think they'll be able to resist Kool-ade. :)

Zone Conference

Hello everyone,

It's been such an awesome week! The highlight was.......... Zone Conference!

Zone Conference is always fun, because we get to see the other missionaries and catch up with them, but more than anything, it really builds me up and gives me renewed energy and inspires me! Although it's a lot like what they said in conference, about how General Conferenced is there to 'comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable', haha. Same with Zoko!

Sister Schenk and I also got new haircuts, which was fun, and I dyed my hair a new color, too. Gosh, this week has felt like a month! I just flipped back through my planner, and it feels like an eternity since I last emailed. I don't even know which experiences to share, because so many cool things have happened in the last week!

Oh, we have bikes now, so I feel like a "real" missionary now. I even biked through a rainstorm yesterday! We have girlie bikes so we can ride in skirts.

We also went out to this super far away part of our area this week. There are a lot of little dorfs (tiny towns) in our area, and since we don't have a car, there are parts of our area that I still haven't seen, even though I've been here for five months. But finally we went to this tiny town called Glashutten (Sister Thaden always called it Outer Darkness), and it was so misearable! Haha. There's only one bus that takes you there (a two-hour ride), and once we got there we realized there was only one main street, all the shops were closed, and the place was swarming with bugs and mosquitoes! We visited a less active there, did some doors, and then waved goodbye forever. The next pair of sisters can visit it in a few months. :)

We have been doing a lot of contacting this past week, and it is hilarious to see how people react. Some people have the craziest excuses to hang up on us. I was talking to a man through his Klingel (like... doorbell/intercom thing) and he said, 'Oh no, sorry, I've been kicked out of the church' and we said, 'Which church?' and he said, 'Uh, whichever one yours is' and we said, 'Do you know which church ours is?' and he said, 'I've been kicked out of EVERY church!' and then hung up, haha. There have been some other funny ones, too, but I can't remember right now.

Also, everyone thinks we're Jehova's Witnesses. In fact, some real Jehova's Witnesses actually thought we were other Jehova's Witnesses, and got all excited when they saw us, until they realized we weren't from their church. That was an interesting conversation.

This week has been so busy, and Sister Schenk and I are having so much fun! She has a really pretty soprano voice so we sing together while we're going door-to-door, and we're constantly laughing, and it just makes the work so much fun.

I hope all is going well at home! I love you all!

Sincerely,
Sister Jensen

P.S. I attached a photo of Sister Schenk and I (note the matching outfits, haha. I borrowed some of her clothes).

Love,
K

Sorry it's a week late...

Hello!

Well, the highlight of this week: Mother's Day Calls!

It was so great to talk to Mom and Jess yesterday. Our mission is allowed to use Skype now, so I actually got to see the both of them! It was so much fun. It went by waaay to fast, though. I wish we could have talked for a few more hours!

I picked up Sister Schenk, my new companion, last week. Right from the start we are getting along really well, and we have a lot in common. She served in Frankfurt for the last two cycles, and she learned a lot there that I think is going to help this area a lot, and already we're seeing a lot of success!

We contacted a referral last week for a really cool family, the de Luz family, and we've already met with them twice and have another appointment for tonight! The spirit is really strong in all of their lessons. I'm also learning tons about contacting (street contacting and doing doors and stuff).

It's really sad that Sister Thaden is gone, though. :( She was also so awesome. But I'm sure she's really glad to see her family again. Right at the end of Sister Thaden's mission, Friedrichsdorf started to see a lot more success, tons of temple tours, a lot more lessons, etc. I think it helped a lot, because then Sister Schenk and I were able to hit the ground running.

I really feel a lot of hope that things are changing for the better in Germany. There are a lot of cool prophesies that missionary work is going to explode here, and I feel like it has already started! I just need to do my part here in Friedrichsdorf, and I know we'll start finding a lot of people who are prepared and ready for us.

I love you all!
Sister Jensen

P.S. I'm cutting my hair short again today! I'll send pictures next time. Love you! Bye!

Amazing week!

Hallo,

Highlight of this week: We taught more lessons this week than Friedrichsdorf has EVER SEEN before! (at least in the last year, after that it's hard to tell because the boundaries were different)

We had an AMAZING week. We soooo busy and running around the whole week, but we got a lot done! We did 7 temple tours, we had a bunch of appointments with less actives, and we had a few really spiritual lessons with Karin, and during one of them she said she wants to get baptized! She said maybe in August, but hopefully before then because I want to be there. It was just such a great week! I'm really glad, too, because it was Sister Thaden's last week and I wanted her to end on a high note. It was really touching to watch her say goodbye to everyone, because she was here for HALF of her mission, and she did so much good in this ward.

Oh, and I also found out who my next companion will be, and I'm really excited because she is super nice. I've met her a few times. And she's a native German speaker! (she's from Salzburg, Austria). Sister Schenk is her name.

Well, I'd better go. Can't wait to talk to you on Mother's day, mom!

Sincerely,
Sister Jensen

Last week with Sister Thaden :(

Hallo!

So this week is the last week of this cycle, which doesn't mean a lot for me since I'll be staying here in Friedrichsdorf, but it means a lot to Sister Thaden, who is GOING HOME! It's crazy. We've still been really really busy, but she is also trying to pack, and I'm trying to get the apartment all cleaned out for the next sister. I'm pretty excited to find out who my next companion will be, but I will miss Sister Thaden like crazy. She was such a good trainer!

Well, the highlight for this week would be Easter, I think! We had a really wonderful church service on Sunday, and Karin came and she really felt the spirit. She was even tearing up at some of the Easter songs we sang.

One cool thing about Easter in Germany is that everyone gets 4 days off work! On Friday they have 'Karfritag' (good Friday?), which they get off work, and then Saturday and Sunday, and they also get 'Ostermontag' (Easter Monday) off work! It's pretty crazy. For the last four days, EVERYTHING has been shut down, except the bakeries, which seem to be open all the time no matter what, haha. People make a pretty big deal about decorating for Easter, too. They to Easter Trees, just like Christmas Trees, except the ornaments are all decorated eggs. And sometimes they're not trees, but just like a vase of branches. They're really cool, though! I think I want to bring that tradition back to the states. :)

Anyway, we changed pday to today because of Easter, and all of the stores being shut down. But today our whole district is going to Frankfurt and we're going to watch a soccer practice, get lunch, and then go to a museum. Should be fun! Our district leader is also going home this cycle, so we're doing lots of fun stuff together.

Well, I need to keep this short, but I love you all! Glad we all had the chance to think about Christ this weekend. Keep that fire and love for Christ burning all week long. You never have to wait for a holiday to appreciate the Atonement and the Resurrection. It really is a wonderful, miraculous thing. I am so grateful for my brother who sacrificed so much for me, and for all of you, so that we can live again after this life, and be together as one big family forever.

Love you all!
Sister Jensen

Smuggling Missionaries

Hallo! Guten Tag!

Gosh, I don't even know where to begin! This was one of the best weeks on my mission. It's hard for me to even think what the highlight is! But I guess I'll say: smuggling Books of Mormon into China.

Okay, that sounds more skullduggerous than it actually was. But it was a really cool experience! Here's what happened:

We were giving a temple tour, and half of the group was Chinese. They were all nonmembers who were there for a wedding, and were having a tour because they had time to kill during the sealing, since they couldn't go in. We had no idea the party would be half Chinese, but luckily one of the Chinese men spoke English, so he translated for the rest. Usually when we do temple tours for a wedding party, we try not to push religion too hard, because they're already tetchy that they're not inside the temple for their son's wedding (or best friend's, or sister's, or whatever). We just explain the temple, show them a short film, and then wait with them in the annex until the sealing is over, answering questions if they have any. This time, though, we left the group with our joint teach, Sister Vollath (a really nice old lady in our ward), while we ran some quick errands.

Sister Vollath told the Chinese man (the one translating) about the Book of Mormon. By the time we came back, he was very excited and said he wanted to read a copy. We had a couple of English and Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon back at our apartment, and we offered to run back and get them, but the sealing was almost over, and then they had to leave to get to the reception. And the man lives in mainland China, so we couldn't very well have missionaries visit and drop one off once he got home.

We ran as fast as we could back to our apartment and loaded up our bags with everything we could find in Chinese, which wasn't a lot, and then ran back to the temple, praying the whole way that he would still be there. It normally takes us 40 minutes to get to church and back, walking briskly, but I think angels must have been pushing us or something because we made the trip in 10 minutes. And you know me, I'm not exactly an athlete.

When we got back, the wedding party was still there, taking photos. We must have looked crazy, all windblown and sweaty, but we found the Chinese man, and gave him a Book of Mormon in Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and English (plus a couple of brochures in Chinese). He was very touched. He kept saying, 'Such a gift for me, such a gift.' He read the intro page, right then and there, and then said, 'I can learn a lot from this book.' Then he said, 'I want to bring my wife here someday.' Sister Thaden said, 'To Germany?' and he said, 'No, to the temple, so we can be sealed.'

I can't even tell you what that experience meant to me. I doubt I'll ever know what happens to him. All I know about him is that his last name is Chong, but I bet there are about 10,000 Chongs in China. But I am at least glad to know that we were able to touch his life and give him a Book of Mormon. Brigham Young was converted because he got a Book of Mormon from a friend, who got it from a relative, who got it from another relative, who got it from a missionary. So who knows.

Oh man, and that was only ONE cool thing that happened this week! I don't even know how to summarize the rest, and this email is already pretty long. Here are some of the other highlights:

- Our district did a temple session together, and it was France week (France doesn't have a temple yet so some of them come to Frankfurt) so the session was in French, haha. It sounded beautiful!

- I gave a talk in church yesterday. I was super nervous, and I'm sure I made a ton of German mistakes, but it was cool because our investigator was there.

- We gave two other temple tours, apart from the wedding one, and they were both HUGE groups! One group was from an Evangelisch church. It was the pastor and 25 of his congregation. I think he was trying to show his congregation how ridiculous we Mormons were, but I think it backfired, because a bunch of people from the tour have been calling the temple because they want to learn more. Temple tours are so wonderful. They really invite the spirit and I think people can feel the love and peace on the grounds.

- Sister Thaden and I tried on Dirndls last p-day after emails. (Dirndls are like Lederhosen for girls. Traditional German attire). I've decided if at all possible, I'd like one for a souvenir.

- Sister Thaden goes home in two weeks! I am going to miss her so bad. We have had such a good time together. I hope my next companion is cool, too.


Okay! Love you all!

Sister Jensen

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, lately. I lost the cord for my camera somewhere in the MTC when I moved. But I just found out the Internet cafe has a card reader! So I am attaching two photos:
1. The Chinese family from the temple tour (note the Book of Mormon he's holding!)
2. Me, in a dirndl.

Love you!
-K




Sorry, I don't know how to rotate the first one so it's not sideways... :( -Jess

Trespassing Missionaries

Hallo!

Highlight from the week: trespassing on my neighbor's balcony

So the story here is that I was on our balcony shaking out our rug, when my CTR ring slipped right off my finger and landed in the bushes on my neighbor's balcony below us. So we went downstairs and knocked on Herr Strabel's door, but he didn't answer. We weren't even sure he lived there any more, because we haven't seen him in a while. Anyway, Sister Thaden said, 'Oh well, just forget it.' But I said, 'I can't! It's my CTR ring, and my grandma bought it for me!' (It's a really pretty CTR ring, a German one, that Grandma Jones got me for Christmas.) So anyway, I went outside, and to Sister Thaden's embarrassment I crawled through the bushes, got up on this little ledge thing, and managed to climb onto the balcony railing and sort of roll/flip over it onto the balcony, haha. All in a skirt, too. But I got my CTR ring! It is safely on my finger as I type this. Nothing like a little light trespassing to start off the morning.

We also had Zone Conference last week, which was cool. This transfer, a lot of my MTC friends are in my zone, including Sister Cannon, so we took lots of pictures and carpooled over to Burger King together afterward. Burger King isn't quite as good here as in the states. The restaurants are way nicer-looking, but the food isn't as good. Same with McDonalds.

Oh! We also got two referrals this week! That is pretty much unheard of for this area. In some areas, they get tons of referrals from members, church headquarters, etc., but here it's like pulling teeth. But we got two referrals and were able to contact them, and they were both home! It was like magic. We're aiming to get return appointments this week, and to start teaching them.

We also went out to Kronberg and Königstein this week, two of the richest cities in German! I think Königstein is actually one of the richest in Europe. It had some of the most BEAUTIFUL houses I have ever seen. Our bishop Br. Klebingat lives there. Actually, he's not our bishop anymore, because he just got called as a mission president to the Ukraine, Kiev mission. It's pretty cool, because he actually bought the land for the Kiev temple that was dedicated last summer, so he knows a lot of people there.

On another note, it turns out I am allergic to Germany (or at least some of the plants here). I have never had springtime allergies before in my life, but I was sneezing and miserable for most of the week! The worst part was that all I had to treat it was Benadryll, so when I wasn't sneezing, I was falling asleep in appointments, haha. But luckily I got some medicine from the apotheka, and it's been working pretty good.

Yesterday we had Stake Conference, and afterward we went to a Afghani barbecue with our investigator, Estael. I really like the food and culture from Afghanistan! It's fun. Although I don't think I'd like to visit. They were swapping horrifying stories about the Taliban, and close shaves they'd escaped (almost getting shot for not having their heads covered, their homes getting raided, and stories like that.). Crazy stuff.

On the way to Stake Conference, we passed a bunch of huge cherry orchards in full bloom! It was gorgeous. It looked like snowballs all over the hills. Spring is really in full bloom here. Everywhere we go we see beautiful flowers. And they have these trees here (magnolia trees, I think) that bloom with these huge flowers on them. You should google it. I'll attach pictures when I can.

Well, that's about it! It's been a pretty awesome week. I love you all!

Sister Jensen