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