Hello Everyone

Hello everyone!

I have a crazy story for you today. We gave Iwona a conference talk about temples, and she called us and said, "We're going to have to talk very seriously next time we meet." We were a little nervous, but figured she just had questions about temples. Then, the day of our next appointment, she called us and said, "We can't meet at my house today. Instead, I want to meet you in the Altstadt" (Altstadt is the middle of the city, where all of the bars are, and it's always really packed). We had a really weird feeling, and so we asked her if everything was okay, and she said, "Yes, everything's fine, but today I'm going to be talking, and you're going to be listening."
*GULP*
We thought for sure she was going to tell us she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Well, we went to the Altstadt, and Iwona was acting really mysterious. The only place where we could find a little peace and quiet was in the St. Andreus Kirche (a Catholic cathedral). We sat down on the steps, and said, "So... what did you want to talk about, Iwona?"
"Yes. My baptism?"
"What about your baptism?"
"When is it? And what else do I have to do?"
And then we set a baptismal date with her, right there, on the steps of the cathedral! I think it was one of the happiest days on my mission! She is so cool, she has such strong faith, and she is ready! But man, she really gave us a heart attack, haha. We had been panicking the whole afternoon.
She'll be baptized on the 14th of April, so I'll be here for it!

Another cool thing is that I got a letter that same day from Grandma Jones, where she said she had been praying for Iwona. After we set the baptismal date, I pulled out the letter and read that part to her. She got a little teary-eyed and said, "Oh, I like your grandmother." I know a lot of you prayed for Iwona. Thank you so much. I know it made a difference.

That was definitely the highlight of the week, but we also found some really cool people and had some amazing, faith-building experiences. This week we really saw how fasting and prayer works. I've been studying about the Holy Ghost, and I'm learning so much. There's always something new to learn. I'm also trying to read the Book of Mormon again before I come home, and this time I'm reading it backwards (starting in Moroni 10).

I love you all!
Sister Jensen

Sister Bogner and I are staying together!

Hello, everyone!

It's a beautiful day, and I have marvelous news: Sister Bognár and I are staying together!
We had totally given up on the idea; in our mission it's really rare to stay together for so long, especially when both of us are so 'old'. It's about the best gift I could ever have! I'm ridiculously happy, and we both have the feeling that something great is going to happen this transfer. We're full of a lot of hope and faith!

This means I will end my mission here in Düsseldorf, with Sister Bognár. My hungarian vocabulary is growing every day. I'm a little bit weirded out to think that I'm in my last transfer, but I'm not trunky, and I'm working hard right up to the end. There's a really great quote from C.S. Lewis that describes how I feel:
“We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard.”

Anyway, enough of that topic. I may have mentioned it last week, but Iwona finished reading the Book of Mormon (in less than two weeks! How many of us do that?) and she said it was like she was hungry for more. She told us that she's ready for baptism, but that she's really scared at the same time, because her best friend stopped talked to her entirely because she's meeting with us. On one hand, it's easy to say, "Well, she wasn't a very good friend, then," but either way it's really hard on Iwona, and she's lost a huge source of friendship and support. She's afraid of what others will say -- especially her family -- if she gets baptized. Please pray for her!

Lots of miracles are happening in our mission right now. We had a conference call with our mission president and he told us some stories that blew my mind. There's a promise for Germany that there will one day be 100's of stakes and dozens of temples. Right now, you can count the number of stakes in Germany on one hand, and there are two temples. That means that something is going to change in the next few years, and we're already starting to feel it!

I love you all, thank you for your love and support.
Sister Jensen

P.S. I'm attatching a picture of me with Iwona and her kids, as well as a picture from the cathedrals we looked at last p-day. The last one is of Sister Bognar and I in a confessional. (we had some things to talk about). :)

Kelsey

Quick question for you Kelsey. If you are checking what I post to Kristin's blog and see this, could you please send me your e-mail address at barbaraellenjensen@gmail.com. Hope you are doing well.
Kristin's mutter

A few good quotes

Hello!

I hope you're all enjoying the change in weather as much as we are! I have heard a lot of people sneezing around here, and to me that is a beautiful sign of good things to come.

Mostly, today, I wanted to share a few of my new favorite quotes:
"And it is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater of new revelation than now. ... Men have come to speak of revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake. "
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness -- they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strenth of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means -- the only complete realist."
- C.S. Lewis

So those are my thoughts for today: 1) That God lives, and that we have revelations today, and 2) to encourage all of you to 'walk against the wind' this week, and by doing so find out how strong you truly are. A good tip for that is to "stop doing today one thing you know you shouldn't do, and never do it again!"

Some other quick notes:
- Elder D. Todd Christofferson is coming to Düsseldorf this week! We'll have Zone Conference with him on Thursday. He is also holding a meeting for members and investigators, and Iwona is going to come, along with a few other people we're working with. Speaking of which...
- Iwona called us this morning to tell us that she read the Book of Mormon until 2:00 AM this morning becuase she couldn't put it down. She is now in 3rd Nephi! Please pray for her.

Lots of love,
Sister Jensen

Cool Book of Mormon Stories

Hey, everyone!

I just have a cool story for this week. But first, if you haven't seen this video yet, got watch it: http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages#p/c/4E784EC0770935C0/5/3dNYpXZIN_c
It's about five minutes long, and really good.

Anyway, the hightlight of my week (and this shows how us missionaries are so easy to please): We have an investigator, Iwona, who I love a lot. She is so cool, and she knows the Bible really well. The only problem is that she never read in the Book of Mormon. We explained that the Book of Mormon is a major part of our belief, and, essentially, is the difference between our religion and all other Christian religions. We also explained that we are promised that we can get an answer about its truthfulness if we just read it. But she never "got around" to reading it.

But anyway. We kept meeting with her, and she was always pretty skeptical, and asked a lot of complicated questions, and always wanted proof for things. That was also okay, because that's what we're here for -- to answer questions -- but the spirit wasn't there. There was always an edge of contention. She was trying to prove the Book of Mormon to be wrong without reading it. So, finally, we simply asked her again to read the Book of Mormon: at least one page a day. She said, "Well, if I'm going to read one page a day, I might as well read a chapter a day."

We came back the next day, half-expecting that she hadn't read anything. She had read 10 chapters! She said that the words really spoke to her. She still had questions, and we gladly discussed them, but that contention and "bible-bashing" wasn't there. It was just nice. We came back two days later, and she had read until Mosiah 11! (about 170 pages in). I can't even describe how she had changed, but there was something different about Iwona. She was glowing. She looked so happy and beautiful. And I mean literally beautiful. I think that may be one of the best-kept beauty secrets in the world.

We later found out that Iwona's friends and former pastor are trying to get her to stop meeting with us. They told her that we're some weird cult, or that we're dangerous, or that we're going to grind her children's bones to make our bread or something, and she told us, "I told them to get lost. I'm going to find out if it's true or not, and no one is going to stop me."

There's a power that comes just from reading the Book of Mormon. The words written in it are powerful, but there's something else in the book that has almost nothing to do with the words on the page. I don't know why anyone wouldn't read it. I mean, if it's true, it's the most amazing and wonderful message in the world! If it's not true, it's still worth reading for curiosity's sake, because 14 million members throughout the world read it in 200 different languages and base their lives on it.

The only reason I see for people not reading the Book of Mormon is lack of time. It is kind of long, I guess. But the audiobook can be downloaded for free! :) I think you can download it here: http://mormon.org/book-of-mormon/


We also had Zone Conference this week in Dortmund, and that was cool. What else happened? Lately I feel like the days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days. I'm having a great time, though. Sister Bognar and I are enjoying what little time we have left together as companions! We think we're going to get split up for our last cycle. But luckily that's not for another three weeks.

Love you all!
Sister Jensen

P.S. Pictures!
No.1 - Spring is (almost) here! These were the first blossoms I saw.
No.2 - Sister Bognar and I eating "Wunderbars." Sometimes, when appointments fall out, or we get a way bad rejection, we just need chocolate.

Hello, everyone!

Man, I think every week is the new best week of my life. Yesterday, we had a whole day where everything was going just perfectly! At the end of the day we decided to count up how many miracles we had seen, and we counted 13. Some were small (like miraculously catching the tram to church), and others were a little bigger. For example, we haven't been able to get ahold of one of our investigators for almost a week, and we were sitting in the train thinking, 'Man, I wish we could just talk to him...' and just then he called us and asked if we could meet that night! We had a really powerful lesson with him. He's one of those rare people who is genuinely seeking truth. And he's a 21-year-old guy. There are so many other things he could be doing, but he takes time out of his social life to see if our message is true.

Oh, I was also in Hamm again this week, on a split. It was cool to be back there. I have so many good memories from that city!

This weekend is Karneval, and it's really big in Köln and Düsseldorf. Everywhere we go there are people dressed up in costumes. It's basically like Halloween mixed with Mardi Gras, except it's the whole weekend (from Thursday until Monday -- today is the big day), and people get way more drunk. Also, unlike Halloween in the states, EVERYONE dresses up here. Older people too (like 60, 70, 80-year-olds, even). And the costumes are sort of more... I don't know. Silly. Or wacky. I don't know the right word. Like how you'd picture cheap costumes in the states. And the most common ones are hippies (like 1970's hippies with flower-print bellbottoms), American Indians, and clowns. It was really funny to go to the train station and see a sea of costumes.

Sometimes it's not so funny, though, because there are so many drunk people smashing beer bottles all over the place. We were told by the mission not to go downtown for the whole week. It's so packed and there's so much broken glass on the ground that drunk people who fall down get cut up way bad. Also, we were in a train yesterday (Sunday) and a big fight started on the train, and we were with our investigator's little kids and they were crying and scared because people were screaming and pushing and throwing glass bottles. The police were already waiting at the next stop, though, and they broke it up. But that was only after three or four people dressed as policemen for Karneval tried to break it up, haha. I think they were also drunk, and thought they were real policemen.

We had a really cool experience this week: We doored into a man and offered to sing him a song for Karneval, and he was really touched by the music, and he told us that the day before he was considering committing suicide, but then he didn't, and he prayed to God saying that he wanted to find the truth, and whatever God sent him as a sign, that was the way that he would follow. Then the next day, we were there. We talked to him for about an hour, and made out an appointment to come back. I almost couldn't believe it. It was like a story straight out of the Ensign. God really does look out for his children.

There were about ten other cool stories from this week, but they'll have to wait! I never even get time to write everything in my journal anymore because so much happens every day! I am just loving life right now. It is the happiest time in my mission.

I love all of you so much! If you get time, please pray for our investigators. We have so many who are so close, and they could use your faith.

Lots of love and hugs,
Sister Jensen

P.S. I attatched a picture. It's of all 6 of us Sisters up in the north part of our mission. After our split we met in Dortmund and all went out to lunch.
From Left:
Sister Bognar (my companion), Sister Garlick, Sister Bulloch (from Cedar City), Sister Floyd, Sister Jackson, and me!