Happy New Year

No new general e-mail from Kristin this week. But, we had three way skype with her and her brother on Christmas day and she looks beautiful. It was fun to listen to her speak German with her brother. She is not being transferred and so you may continue to snail mail her as previously:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Hermann-Dornscheidtstrasse 20
40470 Dusseldorf
Germany
I received her "trunky" letter from the Frankfurt mission office and her release date is April 25,2012. I am sure I will be posting more e-mail from her after the new year which will contain information about how you can contact her beyond her stay in Dusseldorf.

Wishing you a blessed New Year!
Kristin's Mutter

Christmas in Germany

Hello everyone,

I must say, all the missionaries here said Christmas was the hardest time of year, but we've actually had a really good time. I'm coming to realize that you can look at missionary work during Christmas time one of two ways: either that there's a lot of stuff you can't do at this time of year, or that there's a lot of stuff you can ONLY do at this time of year! We've done a lot of carolling, Christmas street preaches, and other random little Christmas ideas, and I think diversity has kept us sane. It is pretty cold and dark, though. We don't see the sun a lot. But other than that, it's been alright.

In Germany there are three days of Christmas. Heiligabend (Christmas Eve) is the big one, but then they have First and Second Christmas days (the 25th and 26th), which most people use to travel and visit family. Everyone has work off on these days, and pretty much everything is shut down; all the stores and restaurants and such. We are very well taken care of for the three Christmas days. There is a lady in our ward who was called to organize our eating appointments, and she really took her calling to heart! I don't think we even need to buy groceries this week. And, on top of that, the ward bought us a real Christmas tree! And the relief society came together to give us some of their old decorations and lights. We have the most decked-out missionary apartment in history.

I'm going to attach some photos from the Christmas market. But just know, the pictures don't do it justice. Half of the magic is the music and the way it smells. It's like pure happiness.

Saturday I got my 'trunky papers' in the mail (asking about my flight plans going home and such). I can't believe how fast time has flown. Oh well, I still have four months left, and I'm going to make them awesome!

Love you all, thank you for all the support!
Sister Jensen

Kevin's Baptism

Hallo Familie!

Highlight of the Week: Kevin's baptism

Kevin is a really amazing kid, 20 years old, who learned about the church through a friend. His friend brought him to Institute, and the whole group of young adults welcomed him and befriended him. He had a pretty hard home life, and his family is not at all accepting of him joining ANY church, let alone the Mormons, but to him, the Institute center became his home, and the young adults became his family. He started reading the Book of Mormon, and by the time he reached Mosiah he knew it was true, and that it came from God. He is so solid and faithful! He'll probably be a bishop or stake president soon. Kevin sort of became everyone's investigator. There were three sets of missionaries teaching him, including us (because he lived in one place, studied in another, and came to Institute in Düsseldorf). Everyone loves Kevin, and his baptism was such a wonderful experience. There were so many members and missionaries there! I wrote a medly for his service ("I like to look for rainbows" mixed with "I know that my redeemer lives") and Sister Hansen wrote a guitar part, and we sang it for him.

Other notable events:
- We had a really successful ward Christmas party. Lots of members brought their friends, and everyone had a great time! The primary kids were adorable.
- We had a street preach with our district in a park, and got some great contacts out of it.
- I got separated from Sis. Hansen. She hopped into a train, and as I tried to hop in after her, I tripped over an old lady, and the train pulled away. It was pretty ridiculous, haha. Plus it was on a Sunday evening, so the trains only ran once every half hour. While I waited for the next train, though, I got a contact from another guy who was standing on the platform.
- Everywhere we went this week, we had appointments fall out, but every time we had an appointment fall out, we met someone else who we normally wouldn't have ever met. God moves in mysterious ways
- I'm trying to get better at contacting on trains, even when I only have a couple of stops to talk to the person across from me

I love you all! Have a wonderful Christmas!
Sister Jensen

12 days of Christmas project

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all having a good December so far; I've been hearing about some crazy storms back home! Hope you're all staying warm and safe. It's starting to get really cold, but no snow yet. Just lots of rain. I'm sure it's around the corner, though.

Highlight of the Week: our 12 days of Christmas project
(see attatched picture)

We picked four families in the ward and did a little project with them. First, they picked a friend or neighbor who might be open to the gospel. Then we made up a package of Christmas gifts, quotes, and scriptures (all Christ-themed) that they could deliver secretly every day for 12 days, leading up to Christmas. We had a lot of fun putting it all together, and the members thought it was a great idea. The plan is that we'll go over with them on the last day, when they reveal themselves, and we'll sing them some Christmas songs and share a thought. Then we'll ask them if they want to learn more, and the member will invite them to church!

Other than that, it's been a pretty cold, hard week. We don't have a lot of investigators at the moment, and so we have to spend a lot of our time tracting, which is kind of hard around Christmas time. We try to do a lot with the Elders. It's nice, having another set of missionaries in the same city. There's a big push in our mission right now to try new, creative ideas. We've thought of a few, but most of the ones we dream up are either expensive or could get us arrested. So we're trying to brainstorm, haha. (If anyone has any sweet-awesome ideas that can be done with 2-4 missionaries, let me know! :))

I'm also attatching a picture of some protesters we met in Bahnhof. There was a big group of them in masks, making a statement against Scientology.

Love you all,
Sister Jensen