Hamm

Greetings from Hamm!

It was a crazy week, but I LOVE my new area! My new companions are awesome, and it's actually kinda fun being in a Drit (trio) again.

Really quick, for everyone who asked, here is my new address:
Sister Kristin Jensen
Kirche Jesu Christi (<<-- Must be included)
Bokumerweg 210
59065 Hamm
Germany
(And don't worry, letters sent to my old address will find their way to me. Sister Römer said she'd forward them on.)

I really like Hamm. It's a bigger city, and there are no contacting restrictions! I didn't even realize how awesome it is to be allowed to walk out your door and immediately start contacting. Because of the weird proselyting restrictions in Friedrichsdorf, I've never really experienced that. Another benefit is that the apartment is enormous! It actually has multiple rooms! Haha. And it is decorated with very 70's decor. Like... olive green paisley, fringed lamps, lace curtains, and a burnt orange couch. It reminds me of Harold and Maude. We even have an ORGAN in the apartment. I'll have to send pictures. :)

So, a little detail on my new companions:
Sister Jackson - She's 2 cycles younger than me on the mission, and a lot of fun. She's from Oregon, actually! Medford. But she grew up in Heidelberg on the military base, and then lived for a while in Nevada. She's still struggling with German a little, but she's fearless!

Sister Gardner - 2 cycles older than me on the mission. We get along really well and have a lot in common. She's actually one of the sisters that I've always thought I'd like working with eventually. She is 23, and a nurse. She's from Logan, UT.

Oh, another really cool thing about Hamm is that the whole city is obsessed with elephants. Jessica would love it here. There are elephant sculptures everywhere! I guess Hamm is home to the largest glass elephant in the world, and because of that the city has made elephants it's symbol. So far I've seen at least 20 elephant statues around the city. And quite a bit of elephant graffiti.

We've been crazy busy since I got here. There's lots to do. A lot of it is working with less-actives. This area doesn't have a lot of investigators, but we'll change that soon. We have a lot of really cool ideas. For example, next week we're starting up an English class and running an article about it in the newspaper (with a picture of us! :) ). We're also going to start attending bible study groups in local churches. Not to crash the party, but just to get to know people who are already interested in religion. Stuff like that. I'm excited!

I loved General Conference, particularly the talk from President Uchtdorf from the first session. It helps me to think that God loves each of us, he knows our worth, and no matter where we are, he can find us just fine. No matter where we are, the people around us are God's children and all have the same goal (whether they know it or not) to return to live with Heavenly Father. Nothing is worth getting in the way of that.

I love you all! Thanks for the support.

Love,
Sister Jensen

P.S. If any of you RMs have good, creative ideas for finding people -- things that worked in your missions -- please email or mail them to me, and we'll try them out!

Being Transferred

Hello everyon,

I have very little time today, but I'm getting TRANSFERRED! For the first time! I'm going to a place called Hamm, near Dortmund, Germany. Sister Römer served there and says it's realy nice. I'll be in a Drit (two companions instead of one). We're heading to Frankfurt in a few minutes.

Conference was amazing! The whole ward got a kick out of the Frankfurt Tempel story, especially because there is NO WAY anyone could get from Portstraße to Friedrichsdorf in 10 minutes, haha.

It was pretty emotional for me to pack my bags. I am going to miss the ward and our investigators a lot. And Inge is going to get baptized in a couple of weeks and I wont be here!

Well, have togo. Love you0 all!
Kristin

Pinewood Derby Car

Hello,

Highlight of the week: The Pinewood Derby!

Pinewood Derbies are not common in Germany. In fact, I think this may have been the first one ever. It turned out to be such a cool activity, though! Sister Römer and I even made a car (we got permission from Präsident Schwartz). We also brought two of our investigators, and there were tons of other non-members there, and everyone had a great time. I'm coming to realize that the spiritual conversion is the most important part of missionary work, but we're also responsible for a certain amount of social conversion to keep people strong in the church. :)

We also had Zone Conference this week, and we went all the way to Heidelberg. We didn't get to see much of the city, but what I saw from the train was beautiful. We had a mental health doctor at the meeting who told us all how to avoid discouragement and avoid negative thoughts. It's called, "Learning the language of faith and hope," And it's a whole mental process, that basically means changing all negative thoughts to positive thoughts. For example, when someone corrects my German (which Germans are shameless about doing, by the way. Like... interrupting while you're bearing testimony to correct your grammar), instead of feeling embarrassed or belligerent, you think, "I like learning new things" or "I take correction well." Or, for example, if you're getting annoyed at your companion (which, *ahem* never happens... of course...) you make it positive, like "it's not that important" or "our differences make us a good team". And in the morning, you look in the mirror and say positive, uplifting things, like, "I'm unique" or "I do many things very well" or "My companion and I are going to have a great day!". It's all a little cheesy, but it actually helps a lot. I recommend it!

Also, something that just made my day, I just wrote my email to President about ten minutes ago, and he just called me to say thank you, to answer my questions, and wish me a great day. He's such a wonderful, sweet man. He even gave me a HUG at Zone Conference because of my birthday in August!

Well, I love you all. Coming on the mission was the best decision I ever made. When it comes right down to it, the purpose of life is to have joy and prepare to meet God. I'm always touched by scriptures that say we'll stand before God someday. I often try to think how I want to feel at that time. I don't want to feel exposed or ashamed of anything. I want to feel totally confident. I want to smile and feel comfortable in God's presence. And my job at the moment is to help other people prepare to meet God, too. I spend every day trying to find people who are humble and open-hearted enough to change their lives so that they can feel confident in the presence of God when they meet him some day. What a cool job description!

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

P.S. I am attatching some photos of our AWESOME pinewood derby car. Our investigator Peter helped us make it, and he

Second picture

Technologically challenged mutter having difficulty posting 2 photos :(

The Bahn Strike

Hello everyone,

Highlight of the week: the Bahn strike!

(that's only half sarcastic.) The trains here went on strike, which meant that we had many unexpected delays, a few appointments we had to cancel, and quite a lot of time wasted at train stations, but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise! On Friday, we were waiting at the Bahnhof, and we got into a conversation with someone from Peru, who was here as a school teacher. We gave her a book a Mormon and the phone number for the missionaries in her area. Then, later, as we were stuck at a different Bahnhof, we got into a conversation with a woman who knew a member in our ward, and drove past the temple almost every day. She had quite a few questions, and we're going to set up a temple tour for this week with her. Then, later, stuck at yet another Bahnhof, we met a student in Frankfurt who lived literally across the street from the temple in Colombia, and also had a lot of questions! We got her in touch with the Frankfurt Elders and they're working with her now. It is just so cool to see how anything, no matter how frustrating or annoying, can also be an opportunity!

Another AWESOME thing, which will most certainly be my highlight for next week, is that Elder Bednar is coming to our mission! I am so excited! It's actually tomorrow morning! This is double exciting because it also means the whole mission will come together for a mission conference, so I'll see my whole MTC district again, and all of the Sisters will be together at once.

We also had a baptism yesterday, and Sister Römer and I sang again. We brought one of our investigators to the baptism, and it was so cool! He felt the spirit so strong, and afterward, he said that he wants to be baptized! He is such a cool kid. 18 years old. He has such a sincere heart. I don't think I have ever seen him not smiling. Please pray for him! (his name is Leonel).

Well, that's about it! Love you all,
Sister Jensen

P.S. Happy Birthday Melinda!

Two pictures from Kristin

The post yesterday was Kristin's email plus one picture. This new attachment should have two pictures including one of Kristin and companion rainsoaked. Posted by Kristin's technologically challenged Mutter.

Post birthday e-mail

Hallo, wonderful family and friends!

Well, the highlight of the week was... sorting the recycling.
...
...
...
Okay, I'm just kidding. The highlight was of course my BIRTHDAY! :) :) :) :) I'm 22 now! Thank you all so much for the cards and letters for my birthday! I don't think I've had that much mail my whole mission! It really meant a lot to me, and I felt so loved. I love you all so much! I'm including a picture of my birthday schrine I made on my desk (if your card isn't in the picture it's because I got it this morning in the mail.)

We got our transfer calls and I am staying here in Friedrichsdorf with Sister Römer! We're actually really excited about it. Part of me wanted to see a new area, but at the same time I love being here, and I've gotten so close to the members in our ward that I can hardly imagine leaving. Sister Römer threw me such a wonderful birthday. She made me breakfast and bought me a really cute sweater (which was very puzzling, actually, because I thought, "When did you get this without me noticing? We're basically superglued together at all times!") and she even wrote to all of her friends and people in her home ward and told them it was my birthday, and so I got a bunch of really nice cards and notes from people who had never even met me! It was so nice of her. She's awesome.

Another cool thing just happened as we were sitting here emailing. A lady from the Phillipines came up to me, and asked me where I got my hand sanitizer (the one Matt and Melinda gave me that hangs from my bag) because she had the same one. Then she asked if we were mormons. She recognized our nametags because in the Phillipines there are like 20 million missionaries. I told her my cousin went on his mission there (Alan). Anyway, we offered to come and visit her family and talk about the gospel, and she said yes! We're going there on Wednesday! So cool.

One more thing: There was a ridiculous storm in Rosbach, a dorf in our area, and in the time it tooks us to bike from the train station to our appointment, we were completely soaked. Our investigators were laughing so hard. They said, "We thought you would for sure cancel with this weather! We thought, 'There is no way they're going to bike to our house in this storm'" Haha! Two points for dilligence! Anyway, so our investigator's wife threw our clothes in the dryer and gave us pajamas to change into. I can definitely say that was the first time I've taught a lesson in pajamas. Also, what she gave us were like... short shorts, and I thought, Hmmm... how should we handle this? I really don't want to explain garments right now. Luckily we were able to make it work, modesty-wise, and we had a really good lesson.

Well, this email is long, enough, I think. Enjoy the attatched photos! Thank you, again, for making it such a wonderful birthday! Love you all!

Sister Jensen

P.S. Photo No.1 is of us after the rainstorm
Photo No.2 is my birthday schrine, haha. And yes, I got a bottle of champagne from an investigator. Time to teach him about the Word of Wisdom!