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