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
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
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
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
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
Monday, April 4, 2011
13 Doors
Hello everyone!
Well, lots of good things happened this week, but the highlight was: General Conference!
Oh man, I'm sure lots of people have the same feeling, but I felt like a couple of the talks were speaking directly to me! It's so wonderful that we have the chance to hear from the prophet and apostles. I felt really inspired. We watched the Saturday morning session live (at 6:00 pm Saturday evening here), and then the Saturday afternoon session the next day, and then we watched the Sunday morning session live again. We will see the last conference session in a couple of weeks after Stake conference. I think my favorite was Dallin H. Oaks' talk about the importance of desire. But all of them were so good!
We got the chance to do service for a lot of people this week, mostly cleaning houses. First we helped a lady who has a new baby, and is suffering post-partum depression. We've actually been helping her once a week for a few weeks now. It's her first baby and her husband works late every day, and she was feeling really lonely and stressed out. Then we got to help an inactive woman from Russia. We've been teaching her every now and then, but I don't think she realized how much we care about her until we showed up to clean her apartment.
Actually, that's a funny story. So we asked if she needed help, and she said, 'If you're willing, I really need to clean my doors. I haven't cleaned my doors in over six months!' And we were both kind of like, '...doors?' I don't think either of us had every really cared about the state of our doors before, but she seemed pretty concerned about hers. So we were like, 'Okay.' She just has a tiny, cramped, one-floor apartment, so I thought 'How many doors can there really be?' It turned out she had 13 doors! In a tiny apartment! It was kind of ridiculous.
What else... oh, and then today our p-day is a little shorter because we were walking home from buying groceries and saw our relief society president cleaning someone else's house, so we stopped in and spent a couple of hours helping her. It turns out it was supposed to be a relief society activity -- cleaning this old lady's house -- but no one else showed up, so Sis. Zonardo was going to do it all herself. Good thing we walked by!
Well, I'd better get going. Thank you all for the letters and emails and support! I love you all.
Sincerely,
Sister Jensen
Well, lots of good things happened this week, but the highlight was: General Conference!
Oh man, I'm sure lots of people have the same feeling, but I felt like a couple of the talks were speaking directly to me! It's so wonderful that we have the chance to hear from the prophet and apostles. I felt really inspired. We watched the Saturday morning session live (at 6:00 pm Saturday evening here), and then the Saturday afternoon session the next day, and then we watched the Sunday morning session live again. We will see the last conference session in a couple of weeks after Stake conference. I think my favorite was Dallin H. Oaks' talk about the importance of desire. But all of them were so good!
We got the chance to do service for a lot of people this week, mostly cleaning houses. First we helped a lady who has a new baby, and is suffering post-partum depression. We've actually been helping her once a week for a few weeks now. It's her first baby and her husband works late every day, and she was feeling really lonely and stressed out. Then we got to help an inactive woman from Russia. We've been teaching her every now and then, but I don't think she realized how much we care about her until we showed up to clean her apartment.
Actually, that's a funny story. So we asked if she needed help, and she said, 'If you're willing, I really need to clean my doors. I haven't cleaned my doors in over six months!' And we were both kind of like, '...doors?' I don't think either of us had every really cared about the state of our doors before, but she seemed pretty concerned about hers. So we were like, 'Okay.' She just has a tiny, cramped, one-floor apartment, so I thought 'How many doors can there really be?' It turned out she had 13 doors! In a tiny apartment! It was kind of ridiculous.
What else... oh, and then today our p-day is a little shorter because we were walking home from buying groceries and saw our relief society president cleaning someone else's house, so we stopped in and spent a couple of hours helping her. It turns out it was supposed to be a relief society activity -- cleaning this old lady's house -- but no one else showed up, so Sis. Zonardo was going to do it all herself. Good thing we walked by!
Well, I'd better get going. Thank you all for the letters and emails and support! I love you all.
Sincerely,
Sister Jensen
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