Hallo,
Highlight of the Week: The Jastram Family!
We contacted a couple who live right across the street from the church building, in the same building as a member couple in our ward. They are so cool! They have strong beliefs about family, and they are honest seekers of truth. We've been meeting with them this week, and they have so many questions! It's really a great experience, teaching them.
I'm getting really excited for Christmas. Yesterday was 'First Advent' in Germany. Every Sunday for four Sundays before Christmas they celebrate Advent, where they light a candle and sing Christmas songs or tell stories. So yesterday was the official start of the Christmas season. Sister Hansen and I, and the Zone Leaders, are celebrating by going to a historical Christmas market by a castle in Solingen. Christmas markets are a big deal here. We've already seen a couple but haven't had time to visit them yet, so today is exciting!
We're doing a really cool Christmas program with the Elders. They both have great voices, so we have a program where we sing Christmas songs and read from the Bible and the Book of Mormon and go door-to-door with this program. We're starting it up officially this week (we practiced it yesterday) so I'll let you know next week how it went!
We had a great Zone Conference with President Kopischke from the area presidency. He really inspired us to seek after the prepared people and bring them closer to Christ.
Don't have much time, but I just want to tell you all that I love you and miss you. I know I'm supposed to be here now, though. I'm learning a lot and I feel like something big is about to happen here in Germany. I hope I can help bring it about!
Here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hermann-Dornscheidtstrasse 20
40470 Düsseldorf
Germany
Love you all!
Sister Jensen
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
From Kristin's mother
Sorry that Kristin did not send her new address but I will post it as soon as she send's it. In the meantime, please send letters to her using the mission office address. If there is anything you want to say to her quickly you may e-mail me at barbaraellenjensen@gmail.com and I can tell her in the e-mail I send her that she will receive Monday after Thanksiving. Thank you to all for putting up with me adding my own post. Kristin's mutter
First week in Dusseldorf
Hello everyone,
This week was my first full week here in Düsseldorf. It's a pretty big city with 600,000 citizens and 4 missionaries (us and the Zone Leaders). A little overwhelming! Especially since I don't know this area at all, and Sis. Hansen has only been here for 6 weeks. This area needs a lot of work. This area took a pretty big hit to the work last cycle (part of the reason I came on a split here two weeks ago, and I suspect part of the reason I'm serving here now -- long story) and it's struggling quite a bit. We have almost no investigators. It's going to take a lot of building!
We have a really cool Christmas program we're working on, so we should be staying pretty busy through the holidays, which is good. I enjoy working with the Zone Leaders. They're pretty stellar Elders.
I'm also finishing training Sis. Hansen. Our mission uses a new training program which involves an extra hour of study every day, which means on a 'normal' day we don't even leave the house until 13:00. We're still trying to figure out how to work everything. I'm kind of missing my old companions. I think the weight of responsibility really hit me this week. I'm just trying to power through it and not get discouraged. I really do know that great things are going to happen in Germany with missionary work, and I want to do my part to help bring it about.
Lots of love,
Sister Jensen
This week was my first full week here in Düsseldorf. It's a pretty big city with 600,000 citizens and 4 missionaries (us and the Zone Leaders). A little overwhelming! Especially since I don't know this area at all, and Sis. Hansen has only been here for 6 weeks. This area needs a lot of work. This area took a pretty big hit to the work last cycle (part of the reason I came on a split here two weeks ago, and I suspect part of the reason I'm serving here now -- long story) and it's struggling quite a bit. We have almost no investigators. It's going to take a lot of building!
We have a really cool Christmas program we're working on, so we should be staying pretty busy through the holidays, which is good. I enjoy working with the Zone Leaders. They're pretty stellar Elders.
I'm also finishing training Sis. Hansen. Our mission uses a new training program which involves an extra hour of study every day, which means on a 'normal' day we don't even leave the house until 13:00. We're still trying to figure out how to work everything. I'm kind of missing my old companions. I think the weight of responsibility really hit me this week. I'm just trying to power through it and not get discouraged. I really do know that great things are going to happen in Germany with missionary work, and I want to do my part to help bring it about.
Lots of love,
Sister Jensen
Monday, November 14, 2011
Transfer
Hallo!
Highlight of the week: I can't pick one! So I'll just summarize:
- I'm getting transferred back to Düsseldorf, and I'll be with Sister Hansen again, but this time officially! (Which means I'll have all of my luggage this time). This means I'll be in Düsseldorf for Christmas, which Matt informs me is pretty awesome! I'm excited because Sister Hansen sings like an angel, so we'll spend a lot of the Christmas season carolling and singing. I'm really excited about this assignment. It's sad to be leaving the awesome Drit here in Hamm, but we knew it had to break up anyway, and I can't imagine a more awesome place to go. Plus Sister Hansen and I got along really well the week we were together, and she's a hard worker, so it should be an amazing transfer!
- Sister Gardner is opening a new Sisters area, Dortmund, and training there. This means we'll still be within a close enough distance to go on splits together, and we'll see each other at Zone Conference next week!
- Zone Conference is on Thanksgiving day, and the Europe area President will be coming for a mission tour, which is exciting. It's crazy to think that last Thanksgiving I was in the MTC!
- Tomorrow I'll be going down to Frankfurt for the training meeting (technically I'm half-training Sister Hansen, because she's still a golden).
- On Friday we had the craziest service project ever. We spent a few hours at a member's house cleaning her clown collection. She has hundreds of clowns. She had a whole glass display case full of them, and they'd all gotten dusty, so we removed each clown and cleaned them individually. It was actually really creepy. I'll have to send pictures home.
- Our investigator came to a stake relief society activity, and she had a great time! Her kids love everything to do with church, and on the way to Dortmund she told us that her girls wanted to be missionaries someday. We thought, 'Great! Now we just need to baptize you all first' :) She met lots of members at the activity, which is always the best thing. Missionaries come and go. Members are the ones that investigators need to form relationships with. Members are the ones who need to be there to answer questions and pick them up for activities and support them through hard times when the missionaries aren't there. Being on a mission has really made me realize what kind of member I want to be when I go home.
- Today, P-day, we went to Padderborn to go bowling with our district and check out a really beautiful cathedral there. We went into one of the echo-y cloisters, where they have really good acoustics, and we sang some hymns. It was beautiful!
- I talked to a lady on the street last week and we had our first appointment with her a few days ago. Her name is Jahne, and she's really cool! When we went over, she had just found out that her father was in the hospital, so we prayed with her, and the spirit was so strong. She is about 32, studying and working, and very interested in the purpose of life. Sister Jackson and her new companion will have to keep working with her, and I'll find out later what happens. So much of missionary work is planting seeds and never really seeing what comes of it. I wonder sometimes what it will be like to go to the spirit world and meet all the people I talk to on a daily basis and see what their story became. I've heard some crazy stories about people giving out pass along cards or copies of the Book of Mormon, not thinking much of it, and it changes peoples' lives. Everyone please pray for Jahne and her father.
Well, those are the highlights! I love being a missionary. I love this work!
Alles liebe,
Sister Jensen
Highlight of the week: I can't pick one! So I'll just summarize:
- I'm getting transferred back to Düsseldorf, and I'll be with Sister Hansen again, but this time officially! (Which means I'll have all of my luggage this time). This means I'll be in Düsseldorf for Christmas, which Matt informs me is pretty awesome! I'm excited because Sister Hansen sings like an angel, so we'll spend a lot of the Christmas season carolling and singing. I'm really excited about this assignment. It's sad to be leaving the awesome Drit here in Hamm, but we knew it had to break up anyway, and I can't imagine a more awesome place to go. Plus Sister Hansen and I got along really well the week we were together, and she's a hard worker, so it should be an amazing transfer!
- Sister Gardner is opening a new Sisters area, Dortmund, and training there. This means we'll still be within a close enough distance to go on splits together, and we'll see each other at Zone Conference next week!
- Zone Conference is on Thanksgiving day, and the Europe area President will be coming for a mission tour, which is exciting. It's crazy to think that last Thanksgiving I was in the MTC!
- Tomorrow I'll be going down to Frankfurt for the training meeting (technically I'm half-training Sister Hansen, because she's still a golden).
- On Friday we had the craziest service project ever. We spent a few hours at a member's house cleaning her clown collection. She has hundreds of clowns. She had a whole glass display case full of them, and they'd all gotten dusty, so we removed each clown and cleaned them individually. It was actually really creepy. I'll have to send pictures home.
- Our investigator came to a stake relief society activity, and she had a great time! Her kids love everything to do with church, and on the way to Dortmund she told us that her girls wanted to be missionaries someday. We thought, 'Great! Now we just need to baptize you all first' :) She met lots of members at the activity, which is always the best thing. Missionaries come and go. Members are the ones that investigators need to form relationships with. Members are the ones who need to be there to answer questions and pick them up for activities and support them through hard times when the missionaries aren't there. Being on a mission has really made me realize what kind of member I want to be when I go home.
- Today, P-day, we went to Padderborn to go bowling with our district and check out a really beautiful cathedral there. We went into one of the echo-y cloisters, where they have really good acoustics, and we sang some hymns. It was beautiful!
- I talked to a lady on the street last week and we had our first appointment with her a few days ago. Her name is Jahne, and she's really cool! When we went over, she had just found out that her father was in the hospital, so we prayed with her, and the spirit was so strong. She is about 32, studying and working, and very interested in the purpose of life. Sister Jackson and her new companion will have to keep working with her, and I'll find out later what happens. So much of missionary work is planting seeds and never really seeing what comes of it. I wonder sometimes what it will be like to go to the spirit world and meet all the people I talk to on a daily basis and see what their story became. I've heard some crazy stories about people giving out pass along cards or copies of the Book of Mormon, not thinking much of it, and it changes peoples' lives. Everyone please pray for Jahne and her father.
Well, those are the highlights! I love being a missionary. I love this work!
Alles liebe,
Sister Jensen
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sunday
Hello everyone!
I have an amazing story to tell you! First off, let me preface it with this: Sundays, as a missionary, are the most stressful days of the week. None of this 'day of rest' stuff. It's a normal workday, where we have appointments and go out tracting and such. Also, you never know which investigators are going to show up for church, and sometimes you have to leave during the meetings to pick people up, and then you have to make sure your investigator's kids are in the right primary class and having a good time and not having separation anxiety. Then, inevitably, we end up teaching one class or another. And every other Sunday, one of us gives a talk. Plus, we're always trying to catch members before they go home. So basically the only time we get to relax is during the sacrament. And even then, you usually have to keep investigator's children quiet and occupied by drawing with them or showing them pictures.
So yesterday was yet another normal Sunday. We hadn't reached anyone Saturday night or Sunday morning, so we were pretty sure no one was going to be at church, which is always sad. But then last minute, right before Relief Society, we managed to get a hold of two people, and we arranged to have one investigator pick up the other. We quickly threw a Sunday School class together for them, and then later when we walked into Sacrament, our investigator Tim was just sitting there, too! It was awesome! But the best part was that halfway through the meeting, two strangers walked into the meeting. We talked to them afterwards, and they said they were just looking for a church to attend. They had already tried two churches that Sunday but they didn't feel comfortable there, so they were about to go home when they saw our building. It was awesome! We told them a little bit and set up an appointment to teach them this Wednesday. Then we broke our fast at a member's house and did doors in their area, and had some really cool contacts there, too. Then we were able to reach an inactive lady who we've never caught at home before. By the end of the day, we were so tired, but so happy. It was one of those days when I just LOVE being a missionary.
We also taught an English class on Wednesday. I teach the 'Intermediate' level, and my class consists of four really old, adorable ladies who love America.
Today for P-day we went to IKEA! I felt like I was back at home. A really cool lady in our ward took us to look through the showrooms and get Swedish meatballs.
For Halloween we carved pumpkins. It was awesome.
This coming Saturday is transfer call day. I think all three of us are in denial. We know that one of us will get transferred, because next transfer there's an even number of Sisters in the mission, so there won't be a need for a set of three. Nonetheless, we are sort of pretending that we'll all be together for Christmas. This transfer with Sister Gardner and Sister Jackson has been my favorite on the mission, I think! The work is going so well, and we get along, and this area is awesome.
I love you all so much! I looked back through old photos a few days ago and got a little wave of missing my family and friends. But I love being here! I actually wrote a song about missionary work :) I don't really have a way to attach it though. Maybe later. Love you all!
~Sister Jensen
P.S. The guy doing emails right next to me has the most ridiculous mullet I have ever seen. I think I'll slip a pass along card into his bag secretly.
I have an amazing story to tell you! First off, let me preface it with this: Sundays, as a missionary, are the most stressful days of the week. None of this 'day of rest' stuff. It's a normal workday, where we have appointments and go out tracting and such. Also, you never know which investigators are going to show up for church, and sometimes you have to leave during the meetings to pick people up, and then you have to make sure your investigator's kids are in the right primary class and having a good time and not having separation anxiety. Then, inevitably, we end up teaching one class or another. And every other Sunday, one of us gives a talk. Plus, we're always trying to catch members before they go home. So basically the only time we get to relax is during the sacrament. And even then, you usually have to keep investigator's children quiet and occupied by drawing with them or showing them pictures.
So yesterday was yet another normal Sunday. We hadn't reached anyone Saturday night or Sunday morning, so we were pretty sure no one was going to be at church, which is always sad. But then last minute, right before Relief Society, we managed to get a hold of two people, and we arranged to have one investigator pick up the other. We quickly threw a Sunday School class together for them, and then later when we walked into Sacrament, our investigator Tim was just sitting there, too! It was awesome! But the best part was that halfway through the meeting, two strangers walked into the meeting. We talked to them afterwards, and they said they were just looking for a church to attend. They had already tried two churches that Sunday but they didn't feel comfortable there, so they were about to go home when they saw our building. It was awesome! We told them a little bit and set up an appointment to teach them this Wednesday. Then we broke our fast at a member's house and did doors in their area, and had some really cool contacts there, too. Then we were able to reach an inactive lady who we've never caught at home before. By the end of the day, we were so tired, but so happy. It was one of those days when I just LOVE being a missionary.
We also taught an English class on Wednesday. I teach the 'Intermediate' level, and my class consists of four really old, adorable ladies who love America.
Today for P-day we went to IKEA! I felt like I was back at home. A really cool lady in our ward took us to look through the showrooms and get Swedish meatballs.
For Halloween we carved pumpkins. It was awesome.
This coming Saturday is transfer call day. I think all three of us are in denial. We know that one of us will get transferred, because next transfer there's an even number of Sisters in the mission, so there won't be a need for a set of three. Nonetheless, we are sort of pretending that we'll all be together for Christmas. This transfer with Sister Gardner and Sister Jackson has been my favorite on the mission, I think! The work is going so well, and we get along, and this area is awesome.
I love you all so much! I looked back through old photos a few days ago and got a little wave of missing my family and friends. But I love being here! I actually wrote a song about missionary work :) I don't really have a way to attach it though. Maybe later. Love you all!
~Sister Jensen
P.S. The guy doing emails right next to me has the most ridiculous mullet I have ever seen. I think I'll slip a pass along card into his bag secretly.
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