Marburg

Hi everyone!

Highlight of the week: Marburg!

Sis. Thaden and I visited Marburg last week with a couple of elders. Marburg is BEAUTIFUL. It has a really pretty river running through it and lots of old cathedrals and a gorgeous castle on the hill. The best part, though, was that I got to visit Sabine and Rahel Garsche, a family that Matt taught when he was here! I guess Rahel was only like a year old when Matt served here, but she's now 9 years old and baptized, and Sis. Garscha is still strong and active in the church. She had lots of awesome pictures of Matt as a missionary and of Mom when she came to visit. I brought photos of Matt, Melinda and Adelaide, and she was really excited to see them. I don't know if she already knew you were married, but she was really excited and said that Adelaide is soooo cute. :)

Also, I heard about Japan on Friday. So sad. We were down in a subway station and they have these big news screens and they kept showing pictures of the water pouring over the country and sweeping stuff away, and the earthquake shaking buildings apart. We heard something interesting, though. In one of the cities that got hit really bad, there were 8 missionaries living there, and all 8 are now accounted for and okay and everything. In that same city, there are thousands of people still unaccounted for, but all 8 missionaries are okay.

This week is the last week of this cycle, so transfers happen next week. We should get transfer calls on Saturday to find out if we're staying or going. Sister Thaden doesn't have a lot of time left, only 7 weeks! I kind of hope we stay together until she leaves.

We had a couple of really good lessons with Karin this week! She is getting an operation today, and on Saturday she asked for a priesthood blessing, and she said that she felt really comfortable and not so scared anymore. She has a lot of health problems, but she is the funniest, most feisty woman ever. She used to be Catholic, but she said that she always struggled with the teachings, because she didn't believe a lot of what the Catholic church taught. So about 10 years ago, she was sitting in the church listening to the preacher, and I guess she had just had enough, and so she stood up, called them all hypocrites who were perverting the bible, and stormed out, haha. Then she decided on her own to stop smoking and drinking, and a shortly thereafter the missionaries found her! It's so cool to see how the Lord prepares people.

We're also still working with Estael Said, the lady from Afghanistan whose son we're teaching English to. She has really been struggling with the Book of Mormon because they don't have the whole thing translated into Persian/Farsi, so the stories don't make a lot of sense, and although she speaks German pretty well, reading the German Book of Mormon is really hard for her. So this week, we started reading the Book of Mormon with her out of the kids version, the one with the pictures and the simplified language. It was so cool, because the stories finally clicked for her! She didn't understand, for example, why it was okay for Nephi to kill Laban. But when we read the story with her, she finally understood the reason and it all made sense for her. It was really cool! We're thinking of buying her a children's copy so she can read it at home.

Oh, speaking of which, a couple things that I'm really excited about. At the temple store here, they now have a Doctrine and Covenants DVD (well, a set of like 3 DVD's) that has some cool stuff on it, like the full length Joseph Smith movie! The one in the Legacy theater! It also has Legacy and Mountain of the Lord on it! It's so sweet, though, because it only costs 3€! Like $4.50! For all three movies plus a bunch of other cool stuff! You should check and see if they have it at Deseret Book, too. We've been waiting for the Joseph Smith movie to come out on DVD, but we thought it would be $7-10, maybe more here in Europe. Also, the Carinessa II tops will arrive to our temple store in about a month, which should be awesome. You'll probably get them back home before they make their way here. Maybe you already have them?

It sounds like Grandpa had a beautiful funeral. Give my love to everyone, especially Grandma Donna.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Love you all! Write when you can, and don't forget to send recipes! :)

Love,

Sister Jensen