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

Weaponized ice cream

Hello everyone,

Sorry I didn't write yesterday. P-day was pushed back because yesterday was Rosenmontag (Germany's equivalent of Mardi Gras) and all the stores were closed. It's carnival season, so we see a lot of people in costumes, but other than that it's been pretty quiet! It looks a bit like Halloween, actually.

I was sorry to hear about Grandpa. I sent a note to Mom to be read at the funeral. I love you all, and my prayers are with you. At least Grandpa is reunited with Dad, and they can keep each other company. I hope Grandma Jensen is doing okay. Give her my love.

Highlight of the week: Weaponized ice cream

So this was pretty embarrassing at the time, but in retrospect kind of funny. So Sis. Thaden and I were getting ice cream, and I was trying to tell the guy to put it in a waffle cone, and he gave me a weird look like he didn't know what I was talking about. So I pointed to the stack of waffle cones and he finally got what I meant, and he started laughing really hard, and so did Sis. Thaden. I guess instead of saying 'eine Waffel' (a waffle), I had been emphatically telling him to put it in 'eine Waffe' (a weapon). Hahahahahaha So that's the joke that Sis. Thaden has been holding over me the past few days. 'Can you put that in a weapon, please?'

Oh, another great moment this week was on Friday: we were waiting at a bus stop, just the two of us and another lady, and the bus was taking forever. Apparently it was taking too long, because the other lady walked a few feet away, crouched down, and started peeing on the sidewalk, haha. Like, through her pants. We were trying SO HARD not to bust up laughing, haha. The she got up, totally unfazed, and put on her coat (luckily a long one), and walked off confidently.

Something else I keep forgetting to mention is that fanny packs are considered pretty in style here. Not kidding. We spot at least ten a day. Like the cool-looking guys, who you can tell think they're hot stuff, wear fanny packs. It's funny because Kelsey sent me a fanny pack for Christmas, as a joke. But now I can totally wear it and be cool! Hahaha. (Don't worry, I won't really.)

Also, we went up to Wetzlar yesterday for a housewarming for the Elders, who got a new apartment. It is really pretty up there. A lot of gorgeous countryside and cool old-looking towers. We're going up again on Friday to visit a member in Marburg who wants to meet me (because she knew Matt). Should be cool!

Well, that's all I've got time for. I love you all. Again, give my love to everyone at Grandpa's funeral. It really is a comfort to know about the Plan of Salvation, and that we'll see him again. I had an interview with President on Sunday and he gave me some really beautiful words of comfort.

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

Carnival Season

Sorry this is so ridiculously late! We've been stealing internet from the neighbors, and for some reason they had it shut off this last week. Anyway, here it is! -Jess


Hi everyone,

It's a gorgeous day today! Sister Thaden and I just got back from Frankfurt, where we played soccer with our zone. It was lot's of fun! I'm already sore, though, haha.

Highlight of the Week: The Restoration DVD

If you haven't seen the 20 min. Restoration movie yet, the one that came out a few years back, you should watch it! It's a great depiction of Joseph Smith's vision and the early history of the church. We ran out of copies a while ago, but we got a box at Zone Conference. We have now watched it with two investigators, and both times it really invited the spirit and helped them understand the Joseph Smith story. We watched it yesterday with our investigator Peter, and he LOVED it. He was taught by missionaries a while back but lost contact with them, and he was really struggling with Joseph Smith and understanding why he was important. I think the video really helped him. It's a great movie!

Also, Germany is heading into Carnival season, which is pretty intense here. In some areas of the mission they actually pull missionaries out and have them stay somewhere else around Carnival time, because the festivities get really intense, and some cities aren't safe/good for missionaries to be in while the parades are going on. Luckily, it should be pretty quite in Friedrichsdorf. On Thursday they have a funny holiday called Altweiberfasnacht, where girls go around with scissors, and anyone they find wearing a tie, they chop the tie off and give the guy a kiss. They warned us about it at ZoKo, and advised the elders to wear a scarf to hide their ties, haha.

Also, at ZoKo, I won an award! Just a small thing. They have this missionary development program in our mission, where you can earn different levels based on tasks you accomplish (study topics, Book of Mormon reading, german study, etc.). I earned the 'Basic' level, and I got a little certificate and a Toblerone :)

Well, that's about it, nothing too exciting! Pretty slow week. We had some really good lessons, though, and a few really nice eating appointments with members. We're trying to get more people excited about missionary work.

Hope all is going well back home! Love you all,

Sis. Jensen

Week 17

Hello!

Highlight of the week: Sister Baird's Sons (let the auction begin)

This was so funny to me. So we were at the temple, just having finished a temple tour, and started chatting with a lady in the visitors center. She was talking about how her sons, Ryan and Johnny, had fallen away from the church, and she wanted advice on how to help him. We weren't sure exactly what to say, but we gave some suggestions, and she just kept shaking her head and saying, 'No, no...' and then she got all excited and said, 'I know, I just need to get them MARRIED to a nice Mormon girl!' and we kind of laughed a little and she said, 'Seriously! Do either of you know anyone who could marry my sons?' Sis. Thaden and I just looked at each other, going 'Uhhh....' and she said, 'She would need to be a nice girl, and speak a little German, and she doesn't have to be really pretty, but it would be nice if she was sort of pretty. In fact, if she wanted to come to Germany and get to know my sons, I have a nice apartment she could stay in. And then she could pick which son she wanted to marry!' hahahah. We were trying so hard not to laugh, but she was totally serious! Then she was talking about how great her sons were, and attractive, and had good jobs and stuff. I jokingly said that maybe I could email my family and see if anyone was interested, and she said, 'Do that! I just need to get them married. Here's my phone number...'

Anyway, so here's the classified ad:
For sale: Sister Baird's sons (Ryan or Johnny)
Age: 31 and 33
Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Looking for:
A nice mormon girl (or two!) willing to come live with Sister Baird and pick one of her sons to marry.

Oh, man. Awkward. Anyway, that's about the most exciting thing that happened this week. There's not a lot of news to tell, since I just emailed a few days ago, but we did have a couple of awesome temple tours, and a great lesson with Karin! (pray for us, we're teaching her the law of chastity tomorrow). It is ridiculously cold here this week. I've gone back to three pairs of tights and two scarves.

Another funny thing, there's a song that just got really popular here (maybe it is there, too?) and we hear it everywhere. In fact, it just played here in the Internet cafe a second ago. It's a sort of catchy techno song, and the only words are 'Barbara Streisand', which are repeated once every ten seconds or so, haha. At least, we think it's saying Barbara Streisand. Maybe it's actually a random German phrase that means cucumber sandwich or something ridiculous.

OH!!!! I forgot! We did do something really cool last P-day! We went to this awesome museum called the 'Dialog Museum' in Frankfurt. It's a museum all about blindness. We met up with the elders in our distrikt and we did this tour called 'Dialog im Dunkel (conversation in the dark)', where they take you through this maze/obstacle course in pitch black. You seriously can't see a thing. And they give you blind-people canes to feel your way around with. They take you through normal things like buying fruit (and you have to feel/smell everything to know what it is), crossing a street (having to listen for the different clicking sounds from the traffic signals) and ordering stuff at a bar (good thing euro bills are different sizes!). It was so much fun! Plus our district is hilarious, so it was fun to hang out with them. Anyway, they have Dialog museums all over the world. Google it!

Well, I think that's it. We're doing pretty well here. We could still use recipes, though. :) Especially a recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies that doesn't use brown sugar, if such a thing exists. There's like... no such thing as brown sugar here.

Love you all! Hope all is well at home!

Sincerely,
Sis. Jensen

Week 16 (I think... Right?)

Hello everyone!

Highlight for the week: I got to see Sis. Cannon again! YAY!!!!!!

So on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, we had our training meeting, which was actually really awesome, but also exhausting, haha. It went from 8 am - 6 pm all three days, and we did TONS of roleplays and practices, and my brain was exploding with German by the end, haha. But I learned a ton! It was really cool that I got to be there, actually. They invited all of the sisters in the mission, but not all the elders. Only the zone leaders, district leaders, A.P.s, etc. But anyway, since all the sisters were there, I got to see Sis. Cannon (one of my MTC companions) again! I missed her so much.

Also, all of the missionaries at the training meeting got to go to the temple on Tuesday, which was so wonderful. The whole day was a little stressful, and cramming information into our brains, and then at the temple it's just so calm and relaxing and uplifting. Also, I did everything in German this time! I totally botched it, but the german lady helping me was really nice, haha.

Oh, hope you all had a happy Valentine's day, by the way!

Okay, I have to tell you about our investigator, Karin. She is making so much progress! She has now been to church three times and stayed for the whole thing last time. She loves sunday school. Last week, she also asked for a blessing (she's having an operation in March), and she said she felt really good afterward. But man, we had a huge scare last Sunday! So, Karin was investigating the church a few years ago, but she stopped because she came to church and some random lady hugged her, and it was too much. She's just a little skittish. So we've been really careful. But on Sunday, we were sitting in sacrament meeting and the bishop was giving a talk, and he said, 'Karin Breda, will you come up here for a moment?' I think my heart actually stopped. All the blood went out of my face. But yeah, he called her up, in front of our ward of like 200 people, and had her GIVE A FIVE-MINUTE TALK. I almost died. I was praying the whole time that she wouldn't like... stop meeting with us after. But it went okay. The worst part, actually, was afterward, because everyone like... swarmed on her. She looked a little shellßshocked. The whole way home she kept saying, 'That was a little to much.'

We saw her again today, though, and she seemed fine! We were just glad she made a return appointment with us. Anyway, we taught about the word of wisdom, and the only problem she has is that she still drinks cappucinos. She stopped drinking and smoking a long time ago. She said she just likes the taste of cappuccinos and it's part of her morning ritual and stuff, but we taught about the blessings that come from living the word of wisdom, and she committed to live it! We were pretty excited. We gave her a bunch of hot chocolate packets so she could drink that instead. :)

Well, that's about it. We'll have P-day again on Monday, so I'll probably email again then. I also have Zone Conference next week, which is cool. This cycle has been really weird, schedule-wise, what with the 3-day meeting and then now ZoKo. Kind of fun, though!

Love you all,

Sis. Jensen

Training Meeting

Hello!

It's not my p-day, but I got permission to email home quickly and let you know that I won't be emailing on Monday. I'm going to a three-day training meeting! Should be fun. Actually, I hear they're pretty grueling, but I should learn a lot! Anyway, my p-day next week will be on Thursday or Friday, so expect my actual long email then.

(I guess in the past, when they've postponed p-days, concerned parents have freaked out and called the mission office to see why missionaries didn't email home, haha. Don't worry, I'm not dead!)

Things are going great up here!

Love you all,
Sis. Jensen

Beer Shoes

And the highlight for this week is....... SISTER THADEN AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER!!!!!!!!

We got the call this morning, and we're staying here, together, in Friedrichsdorf. I had a panic attack this morning thinking, 'crap, what if I get transferred?' Luckily, though, we're staying. So all's clear with sending letters to my same address (Hugenottenstrasse 4-A). I'm really stoked. Sis. Thaden and I have so much fun together. Also, I get the feeling like there's something we still have to do together. Maybe there is someone we're supposed to find and teach.

Things are still going well with investigators. In fact, we had three investigators at church yesterday! (A new record for us). It was wonderful. Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting, which we were a little nervous about, because you know how there are always a few people who get up and share a really weird testimony? Or they share false doctrine from the pulpit? Well, we have a few of those in our ward, haha. But everything went well, and the testimonies were beautiful, and the spirit was really strong!

Oh, so a couple interesting stories from this week:
1) I went to my first ever German funeral.
It was pretty much like a normal funeral in the church building. It was really small, though. Only about 12 people came. A man in our ward recently lost his daughter. He gave the eulogy. It was pretty intense, actually. Apparently his daughter had fallen away from the church, gotten into drugs and alcohol, and totally alienated everyone from her, which was why the funeral was so small. He ended his eulogy with, 'And THAT is why you ALWAYS listen to your parents. Amen.' There was quite the awkward silence afterward. The graveside part was interesting, though, because his daughter was cremated, but they still buried the urn. We were glad we were there to support the family, though, and we helped with the food/dishes afterward.

2) Beer shoes
So we have been visiting this inactive lady once every couple of weeks, but every now and then she starts acting very strange. This past week, she apparently made a huge meal for us, because she thought we were coming (though we hadn't made an appointment or anything) and then flipped out when we didn't come. We went to her house yesterday to see if she was okay and apologize, and her husband told us that she was mentally ill and had secretly stopped taking her medication. He was pretty frazzled. Midway through our appointment he was like, 'Oh, I'm sorry, would you like something to drink?' and he went in the entry way to get us some soda and knocked a bunch of glass bottles of beer off a shelf, which shattered on the floor near where we'd taken our shoes off, and soaked our shoes in BEER hahaha. Sis. Thaden got the worst of it. She picked up her shoe, poured beer out of it, and gave me this horrified look haha. Her shoes still smell like beer. We went to church right after, smelling like beer, I'm sure. Pretty funny. Well, more funny in retrospect than it was at the time, haha.

3) Transfer calls
So in addition to finding out I'm staying, we also found out that we're getting a new district leader! Our old one, Elder Collins, goes home on Wednesday. Our new district leader is Elder Hoffbauer, a native Austrian. I'm stoked because now we'll probably get to do district finding in MARBURG!!!!!!! (I've been looking for an excuse to go there ever since I found out how close it was). Our old district leader was opposed to going there, but Elder Hoffbauer loves Marburg, so my chances has improved. I'll take some pictures for you, Matt!

4) My new daring haircut
Actually, it's not that daring. But the daring part is that I cut my hair myself! I bought some haircutting scissors last week and gave myself a trim. Sis. Thaden helped. I was actually terrified to cut my own hair but it turned out to be quite cathartic.

Well, that's pretty much it. I hope all is well back home! Sounds like some crazy stuff is going down in Egypt? I got your email, mom, I'm printing it out to read later.

Love you all!

Sis. Jensen