Hello everyone!
Just a heads up, it's the last week of the cycle so starting tomorrow if you have letters to send, hold on to them until I find out if I'm getting transferred or not. It's not likely, but just in case! We get transfer calls on Saturday or Sunday, so next time I email I'll know if I'm staying in Friedrichsdorf or moving. I hope I stay, because we have a couple of awesome investigators and I don't want to hand them off to someone else!
Highlight from this week: 7 missionaries stuck in an elevator.
This was hilarious. So our district was all together in Gießen, doing district finding / getting dinner. They have this big main street that you take a bridge to cross, and we were like, 'Hey, let's just take the elevator.' So we all got in, and right about halfway between floors, the elevator got stuck. Also, it was an outdoor, glass elevator, and the stairs wrapped around it, so everyone going up and down the stairs was like staring in at us hahaha. 7 people, all dressed up in suits/skirts, stuck in an elevator. We were laughing so hard. I have some great pictures. Anyway, so we used the emergency phone thing, and they were like, 'KEIN PANIK!!!' (Don't panic) which was hilarious because we were just sitting there cracking up. Maybe through the emergency phone it sounded like screaming. It was a little embarassing when fire department came down the street with lights and sirens and had to break us out haha. We had one native German with us, Elder Hoffbauer, and we just had him talk for us. It was bad enough without everyone thinking we were American tourists or something.
What else... oh, so I officially anmelded (registered) today. In Germany, every time you move to a new city you have to anmeld as a citizen of that city. So I'm now a legit citizen of Friedrichsdorf, and I finally got my passport back from the office, too. Cool stuff!
Well, today is P-day, so we did some of the normal stuff, grocery shopping and such. After emails we're going to get some Wurst for lunch and do some shopping. Then tonight we have a cool route planned through Ober-Ursel, one of the cities in our area, where we're going to go by on former investigators and do a little door-to-door proselyting. This week has been a tough one for proselyting. It's been so cold and gets dark so early that we've been lacking in motivation a little. However, we know this is the Lord's work and that we're where we need to be! Sometimes when I think about what we have, I feel an urgency to share it. Think about all the things we know, as Latter-day Saints: we know there's a life after death, we know that God is our father and loves us, we know how to communicate with him through prayer, we know that we can repent and change no matter how many mistakes we've made, we know that we existed and had personalities before we were born, and we know that this life has a point and a purpose. Basically, we know everything we need to know to have hope, happiness and confidence! How can we not share that?
Oh, another thing, I am seriously lacking in recipes. I didn't think to bring any! When we're not eating with members, we end up making the same food over and over. So if you happen to write me a letter, grab one of your favorite recipes and stick it in :) Particularly, Mom, if you could send me the biscuit recipe from your cookbook, the big, red, plaid-looking one (or I think mine is still at home, except mine is pink. better homes and gardens? I think?). Also, your cornish pasty recipe. I know, I've asked you for it so many times I should have it memorized by now, haha. But anyways. Recipes are appreciated!
I think that's everything. Again, sorry I've been slow about responding to letters. The past couple of P-days we've had appointments during the day and had to end our P-day early (p-day normally ends at 6:00 pm, but if we have a lesson or a dinner appointment we have to get back to Friedrichsdorf early and don't get much time for writing.) But know that I love you all so much! Thank you so much for the letters and pictures and everything!
Lots of love,
Sis. Jensen
A couple people-specific notes:
Grandma Jones - I got both your letters this week, thanks! They're averaging 5-6 days to get to me. Not bad.
Jessica - I hear you found an awesome apartment! Hope all goes well with that. Send me pictures when you move in.
Kelsey & Co. - Thank you for the pictures. I died laughing at some of them. Good luck with grad school apps.!
Hailey - Thank you for the Friedrichsdorf weather report. It helped us greatly!
Mom - Thanks for the emails! I especially enjoy the bits of German you include :)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Temple Tours
Hello everyone!
I've decided to start doing a highlight for every week. This week's highlight: Temple Tours! We did 4 of them!
So a little bit about temple tours:
We take the investigator around the temple grounds and show them some of the symbolism (sun, moon and stars; the stained glass window; etc). Then we go to where there's a good view of Moroni and we talk about him a little bit, and who he was and such. Then we take them into our ward meetinghouse, which is on the same property, and we show them the baptisimal font and the chapel and such, and talk about baptism and the sacrament. Then we show them this really cool villa, also on the temple grounds, which has some historical significance. Then we show them a film that was made before the temple was dedicated, so they can see what the inside of the temple looks like, and the celestial room, and all. The film was made in the 80's, so it is super old, but it's good. We pause it at parts to explain what goes on in the temple. Then afterward we talk about it. They are some of the most spiritual lessons we have. I love doing temple tours. We gave our investigator Karin a temple tour and she said that she likes the idea of being baptized for her mother and father, who weren't really religious.
Anyway, so temple tours are awesome.
Oh, another funny thing: Everyone here thinks we're Nuns. Hopefully they at least think we're trendy nuns. Or maybe some kind of nun hybrid that's allowed to wear color. But nuns here go by Sister, too, and they're not uncommon to see.
Something really hard this week was that another investigator, Herr Kohlmann, totally rejected us on Wednesday. He's an older guy, and pretty cool, but he read a lot of anti-Mormon stuff online about how Joseph Smith was like... basically a Cassanova. Then he went on about how he was meeting with the Jehovah's Wittnesses now. I was really down about it. We asked him if he had prayed about it, and he got right up in my face and yelled at me, saying, 'Why should I?' and stuff. Sis. Thaden gave me a really good pep-talk afterward, though, and I feel better. Still sad that he didn't accept our message, though.
Oh, so if you get the chance, re-read President Uchtdorf's talk, 'Of the Things that Matter Most'. It's so good. It talks about the four most important relationships in our life, and just has some really good advice. Also, everyone here LOVES President Uchtdorf. I mean, they love all the apostles, obviously, but Uchtdorf is like a rockstar here. Also, everyone seems to have met him or is related to him or something. There is a Sister Uchtdorf in my ward, actually. Not sure how she's related. Everyone also loves Arnold Schwarzenegger (not sure if I spelled that right). Everyone asks us if we think he'll be the next president. They're really sad when we tell them he can't because he wasn't born in America. Maybe they'll change the law before then haha.
Mom and Jess, I got your letters! All three on the same day, actually. Thank you for that.
What else... oh, so my trainer, Sis. Thaden, comes from a huge family (5 sisters and 1 brother, all older, and all married. She has about half a million nieces and nephews) and she mentioned once that she missed peanut butter (they don't really have it here. If you ever find it, it's super expensive), and her mom and two of her sisters sent her huge packages for Christmas with tons of peanut butter things in them. Reices pieces and peanut butter cups, peanut butter cookie mix, Butterfingers, and a total of three huge jars of peanut butter hahaha. It's extreme. We're set up for life, I think.
Sis. Thaden only has a little while left, so we had thought we'd just stay together until the end of her mission, but Sis. Curtis (who I think I mentioned before? She's the wife of my old branch president at the MTC) emailed me saying that there are two sisters who got fast tracked at the MTC, because they already speak German, which means they'll probably come in this transfer, and there are only so many trainers here in the field, so it's possible that that could scramble things up. For all we know, we might get transferred at the end of this cycle and someone else would finish my training. I kind of hope not... Sis. Thaden and I are having so much fun together! But it will all work out no matter what. I'll keep you posted.
This week, I have learned the joy of ACHIEVING GOALS!!!!!!!!! (Yes, I'm that excited about it hahah). We broke a couple of records this week, for contacted referrals, inactives taught, and total lessons taught. I've also set some goals for personal and German study, and it's satisfying to meet them.
So, your assignment this week, set a goal, write it down, and then make it happen!
I love you all so much. Thank you for your support!
Love,
Sis. Jensen
I've decided to start doing a highlight for every week. This week's highlight: Temple Tours! We did 4 of them!
So a little bit about temple tours:
We take the investigator around the temple grounds and show them some of the symbolism (sun, moon and stars; the stained glass window; etc). Then we go to where there's a good view of Moroni and we talk about him a little bit, and who he was and such. Then we take them into our ward meetinghouse, which is on the same property, and we show them the baptisimal font and the chapel and such, and talk about baptism and the sacrament. Then we show them this really cool villa, also on the temple grounds, which has some historical significance. Then we show them a film that was made before the temple was dedicated, so they can see what the inside of the temple looks like, and the celestial room, and all. The film was made in the 80's, so it is super old, but it's good. We pause it at parts to explain what goes on in the temple. Then afterward we talk about it. They are some of the most spiritual lessons we have. I love doing temple tours. We gave our investigator Karin a temple tour and she said that she likes the idea of being baptized for her mother and father, who weren't really religious.
Anyway, so temple tours are awesome.
Oh, another funny thing: Everyone here thinks we're Nuns. Hopefully they at least think we're trendy nuns. Or maybe some kind of nun hybrid that's allowed to wear color. But nuns here go by Sister, too, and they're not uncommon to see.
Something really hard this week was that another investigator, Herr Kohlmann, totally rejected us on Wednesday. He's an older guy, and pretty cool, but he read a lot of anti-Mormon stuff online about how Joseph Smith was like... basically a Cassanova. Then he went on about how he was meeting with the Jehovah's Wittnesses now. I was really down about it. We asked him if he had prayed about it, and he got right up in my face and yelled at me, saying, 'Why should I?' and stuff. Sis. Thaden gave me a really good pep-talk afterward, though, and I feel better. Still sad that he didn't accept our message, though.
Oh, so if you get the chance, re-read President Uchtdorf's talk, 'Of the Things that Matter Most'. It's so good. It talks about the four most important relationships in our life, and just has some really good advice. Also, everyone here LOVES President Uchtdorf. I mean, they love all the apostles, obviously, but Uchtdorf is like a rockstar here. Also, everyone seems to have met him or is related to him or something. There is a Sister Uchtdorf in my ward, actually. Not sure how she's related. Everyone also loves Arnold Schwarzenegger (not sure if I spelled that right). Everyone asks us if we think he'll be the next president. They're really sad when we tell them he can't because he wasn't born in America. Maybe they'll change the law before then haha.
Mom and Jess, I got your letters! All three on the same day, actually. Thank you for that.
What else... oh, so my trainer, Sis. Thaden, comes from a huge family (5 sisters and 1 brother, all older, and all married. She has about half a million nieces and nephews) and she mentioned once that she missed peanut butter (they don't really have it here. If you ever find it, it's super expensive), and her mom and two of her sisters sent her huge packages for Christmas with tons of peanut butter things in them. Reices pieces and peanut butter cups, peanut butter cookie mix, Butterfingers, and a total of three huge jars of peanut butter hahaha. It's extreme. We're set up for life, I think.
Sis. Thaden only has a little while left, so we had thought we'd just stay together until the end of her mission, but Sis. Curtis (who I think I mentioned before? She's the wife of my old branch president at the MTC) emailed me saying that there are two sisters who got fast tracked at the MTC, because they already speak German, which means they'll probably come in this transfer, and there are only so many trainers here in the field, so it's possible that that could scramble things up. For all we know, we might get transferred at the end of this cycle and someone else would finish my training. I kind of hope not... Sis. Thaden and I are having so much fun together! But it will all work out no matter what. I'll keep you posted.
This week, I have learned the joy of ACHIEVING GOALS!!!!!!!!! (Yes, I'm that excited about it hahah). We broke a couple of records this week, for contacted referrals, inactives taught, and total lessons taught. I've also set some goals for personal and German study, and it's satisfying to meet them.
So, your assignment this week, set a goal, write it down, and then make it happen!
I love you all so much. Thank you for your support!
Love,
Sis. Jensen
Week 11
Sorry this one is a week late. I didn't have internet for a while. -Jess
Hello family!
I'll preface this by saying that I have very little time for email today, so it's going to be short (sorry). We are in Frankfurt today to do a little shopping, and we met up with the sisters from Offenbach, who are awesome.
So a couple quick notes:
- Germany is awesome.
- My German is getting way better already!
- I apparently giggle in my sleep.
- I have already eaten my weight in sauerkraut.
- I gave my first temple tour a couple of days ago, and it went really well!
- I am having such a blast with Sis. Thaden!
- We made pizza last night with fococcia bread as the crust and sauteed mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatoes, and gouda.
um, so that's all, actually.............. But I love you!
Love love love,
Sis. Jensen
Hello family!
I'll preface this by saying that I have very little time for email today, so it's going to be short (sorry). We are in Frankfurt today to do a little shopping, and we met up with the sisters from Offenbach, who are awesome.
So a couple quick notes:
- Germany is awesome.
- My German is getting way better already!
- I apparently giggle in my sleep.
- I have already eaten my weight in sauerkraut.
- I gave my first temple tour a couple of days ago, and it went really well!
- I am having such a blast with Sis. Thaden!
- We made pizza last night with fococcia bread as the crust and sauteed mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatoes, and gouda.
um, so that's all, actually.............. But I love you!
Love love love,
Sis. Jensen
Monday, January 10, 2011
Chillin out in Germany
(Sorry for the lame pun. :P)
Hallo!
I have now been in Germany for almost two weeks! (although I'm technically now on 'week 3' of this cycle). Germany is so cool! I can't get over it! And my ward is so wonderful. They keep us really well-fed. On Saturday we had three eating appointments. We didn't plan to have that many, but everyone we visited insisted on feeding us. By the end of the night I felt like I was going to explode haha. So, just to prepare you, if I start looking fatter in pictures, that is why.
New Years was fun here. I guess in Germany New Year's is like... just an excuse for delinquincy haha. Did I already tell you about this? Kids go out and set off lots of fireworks and then graffiti stuff. Seriously there is so much graffiti here. Some of it is really cool graffiti, though. As missionaries, we're supposed to go back to our apartments by 6:00 pm on New Years Eve (so we stay out of trouble haha) but we had a teaching appointment so we were out a little later. I can't remember if I already wrote about that, so sorry if that's repeat.
Oh, and postage just went down so now it's only 0.75€ to send a letter to the U.S. (when you convert that to dollars, it's still cheaper than sending from the U.S. to here!)
I had Zone Conference last Tuesday which was cool. I got to see Sis. Dietrich from the MTC again. Sis. Cannon is in a different zone so I didn't see her. I got your Dear Elder, mom. It was waiting for me at Zone Conference. With Dear Elders, it turns out they just get printed out in Salt lake then put in a normal envelope and mailed to the mission home, so I guess it's not any faster that way. It was good to hear from you though!
It is freeeeeeezing here! I can't feel my feet half the time haha. Sis. Thaden and I were out going door to door a couple of days ago and there was a thermometer on one of the houses and it was -11° C. Not sure what that is in Fahrenheit exactly, but I do know that it was way too cold to be outside in a skirt! I layer two pairs of gloves and several pairs of tights to stay warm. (thank you for the extra tights, mom!)
It's a little hard to contact people here, partly because of the weather -- no one is out and about outside, and no one wants to open their door to us -- but we do have a couple of investigators. We also work with a lot of inactives. It makes me feel good to teach them, because that way when we can't find people to teach, at least we're strengthening the ward and bringing people closer to Christ. Sometime I'll have to tell you more about the people we teach. They're cool!
Oh, so my ward is about 1/5 english speakers. They have cool headsets for people to listen to translations of sunday school. There aren't a lot of Americans, but there are lots of British families, or like... one parent is from England and the other from Germany. We have an eating appointment tonight with a British family, and they have the most charming accents. One of our inactives should be coming to dinner, too, so we have a cool lesson planned.
It's so awesome to be here and tracting and teaching and being a real missionary! Seriously, cold and all, it is so awesome. I love it. I'm studying like I've never studied before, and doing lots of hard work, and I love it. The church is true!
I love you all! I haven't gotten around to writing a lot of handwritten letters yet, but I hope to soon. In the meantime, I love you all so much, I hope everything is going well at home, and have an amazing week!
Tschüß!
Sis. Jensen
Hallo!
I have now been in Germany for almost two weeks! (although I'm technically now on 'week 3' of this cycle). Germany is so cool! I can't get over it! And my ward is so wonderful. They keep us really well-fed. On Saturday we had three eating appointments. We didn't plan to have that many, but everyone we visited insisted on feeding us. By the end of the night I felt like I was going to explode haha. So, just to prepare you, if I start looking fatter in pictures, that is why.
New Years was fun here. I guess in Germany New Year's is like... just an excuse for delinquincy haha. Did I already tell you about this? Kids go out and set off lots of fireworks and then graffiti stuff. Seriously there is so much graffiti here. Some of it is really cool graffiti, though. As missionaries, we're supposed to go back to our apartments by 6:00 pm on New Years Eve (so we stay out of trouble haha) but we had a teaching appointment so we were out a little later. I can't remember if I already wrote about that, so sorry if that's repeat.
Oh, and postage just went down so now it's only 0.75€ to send a letter to the U.S. (when you convert that to dollars, it's still cheaper than sending from the U.S. to here!)
I had Zone Conference last Tuesday which was cool. I got to see Sis. Dietrich from the MTC again. Sis. Cannon is in a different zone so I didn't see her. I got your Dear Elder, mom. It was waiting for me at Zone Conference. With Dear Elders, it turns out they just get printed out in Salt lake then put in a normal envelope and mailed to the mission home, so I guess it's not any faster that way. It was good to hear from you though!
It is freeeeeeezing here! I can't feel my feet half the time haha. Sis. Thaden and I were out going door to door a couple of days ago and there was a thermometer on one of the houses and it was -11° C. Not sure what that is in Fahrenheit exactly, but I do know that it was way too cold to be outside in a skirt! I layer two pairs of gloves and several pairs of tights to stay warm. (thank you for the extra tights, mom!)
It's a little hard to contact people here, partly because of the weather -- no one is out and about outside, and no one wants to open their door to us -- but we do have a couple of investigators. We also work with a lot of inactives. It makes me feel good to teach them, because that way when we can't find people to teach, at least we're strengthening the ward and bringing people closer to Christ. Sometime I'll have to tell you more about the people we teach. They're cool!
Oh, so my ward is about 1/5 english speakers. They have cool headsets for people to listen to translations of sunday school. There aren't a lot of Americans, but there are lots of British families, or like... one parent is from England and the other from Germany. We have an eating appointment tonight with a British family, and they have the most charming accents. One of our inactives should be coming to dinner, too, so we have a cool lesson planned.
It's so awesome to be here and tracting and teaching and being a real missionary! Seriously, cold and all, it is so awesome. I love it. I'm studying like I've never studied before, and doing lots of hard work, and I love it. The church is true!
I love you all! I haven't gotten around to writing a lot of handwritten letters yet, but I hope to soon. In the meantime, I love you all so much, I hope everything is going well at home, and have an amazing week!
Tschüß!
Sis. Jensen
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Is it week 9 or 10 now? Oh well, it's Germany time!!!
Hi everyone!
I am in Germany!!!!!!!!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!!! So cool! I love it here already. But man, it is cold. But beautiful! It snowed a bunch yesterday, but mostly it's just been windy/cold.
I have been assigened to serve in Friedrichsdorf, a pretty small town ('dorf' means like... village) north of Frankfurt. It is cool because Friedrichsdorf is where the temple is! I haven't done a session yet (my distrikt is going next week to do one) but I pass the temple every time I go to the church building. It's beautiful! If you are trying to find Friedrichsdorf on a map, the closest big-ish city is Bad Homburg.
My new companion is Sister Thaden. She is awesome. She only has a few cycles left, so I'll probably be her companion for two or three transfers, here in Friedrichsdorf. She is really cool! I'll try to attach a picture of us together. Her German is really good and she's been here for 4 cycles, so she really knows the members/investigators and she knows her way around.
Before I forget, here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hugenottenstrasse 4-A
61381 Friedrichsdorf
Deutschland
A few things about sending letters:
1. This is the address for my actual apartment, which means a couple weeks before transfers, you probably shouldn't send anything there just in case I get transferred to a new apartment. In my emails I'll be sure to mention when transfers are coming up, so that you wait to send letters.
2. Dear Elders, and letters/packages sent to the mission office address, will stay in the office until I have zone conference or interviews or something in Frankfurt, they don't forward them to me or anything. So I guess for letters it's best to just mail them to my apartment.
3. Letters have to have my name on them, or else they won't put them in my box. We don't have a mailbox number or anything, just our names on the slot, so make sure any letter you send says 'Kristin Jensen' in there somewhere haha.
4. Mail from the U.S. to Germany takes about 1-2 weeks, according to Sis. Thaden.
So, I have decided that Germany is cool. Actually, a lot of it is like Oregon. Except way more snow. Sometimes I forget that I'm in Germany until I notice that everything around me is written in German haha. A few other things are slightly different too. Like light switches look different, toilets have these weird flush buttons, all the sidewalks are stone or brick instead of concrete... stuff like that. The town I live in is really cool. It really looks like something out of an old movie! OH. Police sirens here ARE SO COOL. Everytime one goes off I feel like I'm in 'The Bourne Identity' or Anne Frank or some other movie. It's so bizzarre. Instead of being like "NYEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRR" like they are in America, they're like "oooooEEEEEEooooooEEEEEEEoooooo". (Sorry that's the best I can describe them hahahaha).
Oh, another cool thing: I've been able to us my spanish here! So far I have had dinner with two families that speak Spanish. Except I've forgotten a lot of spanish words. But it was still cool to speak a little spanish with them, even though we just spoke German most of the time.
Church yesterday was fun. All of the members were really friendly. I even worked up the courage to bear my testimony in church. Apparently I told the congregation that "Jesus killed for us" instead of "Jesus died for us" but other than that it went okay hahaha.
My district is cool too. I had my first district meeting last week and afterward we went out for pizza. Oh by the way, German food is sooooooo good. I love the yogurt they have here. And the cheese! I'm going to experience my first döner for lunch today (it's kind of like a doner kebab, I've heard. Anyway, everyone talks about them and so I've been excited to try one for a couple months now).
President Ninow and Sister Ninow are really cool people. I had a quick interview with President Ninow my first day, and he gave lots of really good advice. They took a picture with each of us and I gave them your email address, Mom, so I'm hoping he emailed you? He said they normally email parents to let them know their kids arrived safe. Anyway, hope that got to you.
Oh man, jet lag was lame. Luckily that's over now. My first three days I was soooo tired all the time.
Well, this email is super long already so I'm going to cut it off there. I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Jensen
A few specific notes: (Jess, you can post these on the blog if you want, or just make sure they get to people)
Grandma/Grandpa Jones - Thanks for the CTR ring! I opened it on Christmas and it fits perfectly! And I wear the slippers every morning while I study :)
Jess - Sorry I haven't written in a bit. I have a letter to send you, I just need to get some German stamps first.
Matt - Did mom tell you about sister Braaksma(sp?)? My host sister in the MTC? If not, ask her to tell you. It's a pretty cool story.
Okay, I love you all! Tschüß!
I am in Germany!!!!!!!!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!!! So cool! I love it here already. But man, it is cold. But beautiful! It snowed a bunch yesterday, but mostly it's just been windy/cold.
I have been assigened to serve in Friedrichsdorf, a pretty small town ('dorf' means like... village) north of Frankfurt. It is cool because Friedrichsdorf is where the temple is! I haven't done a session yet (my distrikt is going next week to do one) but I pass the temple every time I go to the church building. It's beautiful! If you are trying to find Friedrichsdorf on a map, the closest big-ish city is Bad Homburg.
My new companion is Sister Thaden. She is awesome. She only has a few cycles left, so I'll probably be her companion for two or three transfers, here in Friedrichsdorf. She is really cool! I'll try to attach a picture of us together. Her German is really good and she's been here for 4 cycles, so she really knows the members/investigators and she knows her way around.
Before I forget, here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hugenottenstrasse 4-A
61381 Friedrichsdorf
Deutschland
A few things about sending letters:
1. This is the address for my actual apartment, which means a couple weeks before transfers, you probably shouldn't send anything there just in case I get transferred to a new apartment. In my emails I'll be sure to mention when transfers are coming up, so that you wait to send letters.
2. Dear Elders, and letters/packages sent to the mission office address, will stay in the office until I have zone conference or interviews or something in Frankfurt, they don't forward them to me or anything. So I guess for letters it's best to just mail them to my apartment.
3. Letters have to have my name on them, or else they won't put them in my box. We don't have a mailbox number or anything, just our names on the slot, so make sure any letter you send says 'Kristin Jensen' in there somewhere haha.
4. Mail from the U.S. to Germany takes about 1-2 weeks, according to Sis. Thaden.
So, I have decided that Germany is cool. Actually, a lot of it is like Oregon. Except way more snow. Sometimes I forget that I'm in Germany until I notice that everything around me is written in German haha. A few other things are slightly different too. Like light switches look different, toilets have these weird flush buttons, all the sidewalks are stone or brick instead of concrete... stuff like that. The town I live in is really cool. It really looks like something out of an old movie! OH. Police sirens here ARE SO COOL. Everytime one goes off I feel like I'm in 'The Bourne Identity' or Anne Frank or some other movie. It's so bizzarre. Instead of being like "NYEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRR" like they are in America, they're like "oooooEEEEEEooooooEEEEEEEoooooo". (Sorry that's the best I can describe them hahahaha).
Oh, another cool thing: I've been able to us my spanish here! So far I have had dinner with two families that speak Spanish. Except I've forgotten a lot of spanish words. But it was still cool to speak a little spanish with them, even though we just spoke German most of the time.
Church yesterday was fun. All of the members were really friendly. I even worked up the courage to bear my testimony in church. Apparently I told the congregation that "Jesus killed for us" instead of "Jesus died for us" but other than that it went okay hahaha.
My district is cool too. I had my first district meeting last week and afterward we went out for pizza. Oh by the way, German food is sooooooo good. I love the yogurt they have here. And the cheese! I'm going to experience my first döner for lunch today (it's kind of like a doner kebab, I've heard. Anyway, everyone talks about them and so I've been excited to try one for a couple months now).
President Ninow and Sister Ninow are really cool people. I had a quick interview with President Ninow my first day, and he gave lots of really good advice. They took a picture with each of us and I gave them your email address, Mom, so I'm hoping he emailed you? He said they normally email parents to let them know their kids arrived safe. Anyway, hope that got to you.
Oh man, jet lag was lame. Luckily that's over now. My first three days I was soooo tired all the time.
Well, this email is super long already so I'm going to cut it off there. I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Jensen
A few specific notes: (Jess, you can post these on the blog if you want, or just make sure they get to people)
Grandma/Grandpa Jones - Thanks for the CTR ring! I opened it on Christmas and it fits perfectly! And I wear the slippers every morning while I study :)
Jess - Sorry I haven't written in a bit. I have a letter to send you, I just need to get some German stamps first.
Matt - Did mom tell you about sister Braaksma(sp?)? My host sister in the MTC? If not, ask her to tell you. It's a pretty cool story.
Okay, I love you all! Tschüß!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
