Ups & Downs

February 10, 2014

"Familie,

Can't believe this week is already over.  As I mentioned last week, Monday we were at the ZOOOO!! It was pretty cool actually.  

Tuesday we had Zone training, which the zone leaders carry out, it's always good.  Afterwards we had a Tausch and I went to Heilbronn with Elder Wasden, our District Leader.  It went good, we only talked German the entire time and we talked to a lot of people.  Oh the funny people Germany has!

On Thursday we went out and tried to contact a couple people, we ended up walking a lot but it was a beautiful day.  After we returned home we had a good weekly planning sesh...the energy is still rollin'!

Friday was a busy and great day!  We went to teach our less active, the Selifi brother, he is awesome and I just love him.  His girlfriend and younger brother are not members, but I have a feeling that one of these times we will teach one of them along with him.  After our lesson with him we went and dropped by this elderly lady we've been visiting.  I swear I learn so much from her in such a short time.  We didn't have too long with her but before I left I asked her what her favorite treat was, she responded with, "my favorite treat...a prayer with you two."  She is so humble and I love her.  We were suppose to meet with Brother "G" that day too.  We tried texting him and calling him earlier but no answer so we went and dropped by around the time we had mentioned.  As soon as we get close we see him walk out his door, pretty crazy "coincidence."  We met with him in the park again and we talked about how he had mentioned he wanted to become a member and what we must be doing in order for that to happen. He was being kind of silent and I said how we should set a date as a goal to be baptized.  He came with us to the English class we teach and the plan is to set a date with him on Sunday while we joint teach with Brother Wengert.

So Sunday came along and we had made a plan of picking him up for church, but he wasn't home and he didn't answer his phone either. We were really bummed, and it's really confusing.  Please pray for him and that our lessons can be consistent with him.  That night we met with one of our investigators and his sister visiting from Australia again.  She has such good questions and she is for sure a golden investigator! I could see her becoming baptized, probably not here though, probably when she returns back to Australia.  The spirit is always so strong.

Zone Konferenz was really good and it's always great to see President Miles.  And transfer calls are this Saturday!!  That will be crazy! Truly time goes by too fast, I will be approaching my 5th transfer.  I don't even like to think about it.  I love you all and hope you have a great week, full of hope and light.  Be the light shinning bright with faith, especially with all the saddness and turmoil around.

LG

Elder Jensen"

Zone Conference

Got to catch up with MTC buddy Elder Oviatt

Give it ALL you Got!

February 3, 2014

"Hey Fam,

This week was really good, I'm in Stuttgart right now and am kind of short on time because we went to the zoo today.  It was a lot of fun to my surprise and we saw a lot of animals.

So this last week, we continued to meet with our new investigator "G" (22 yr. old).  I love this man, he is usually kind of quiet in our lessons but he takes it all in!  He opened up a little more with me this week and after church on Sunday we had an amazing joint teach with Bro. Wengert.  Bro. Wengert really connected with him and it was really cool.  Afterwards we dropped him off at home and he told us how he could see himself becoming a member and wants too!  REALLY cool!  We said we can help with that, haha, and we're going to try and set a baptismal date this week - so please keep him in your prayers.

We met with another investigator and his sister, which kind of turned into all these questions and sharing back and forth between our two scriptures (our German bible and book of mormon and her arabic bible and arabic/english book of mormon).  Got a little crazy!  At the end I had this strong urge and just followed the spirit and said it as simply as I could to answer her questions - how we have a father in heaven who's our God, his son is Jesus Christ and the three seperate beings and we are created in their image.  I said how we could search and share scriptures all night and share our thoughts but when it comes down to it we must find out ourself, and pray and search the scriptures. (It made more sense than that and it was definitely through the spirit, it brought a certain calmness to the room).

We had some ups and downs this week, but we were able to have a great companion inventory.  We shared and talked about a lot of things and the phrase we are living by as of now is "GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT - LEAVE IT ALL ON THE COURT" (in this case leave it all in the FIELD)!

I'm sorry I left out so much but we are in a hurry to get back.  More to come next week, love you all and hope you have a great week.

Tschüss,

Elder Jensen"

Zwölf!

January 27, 2014

Translation:  Zwölf = twelve 

"Halo meine lieblings familie!  Ich liebe euch, das es ganz sicher!  This week was a great week!  I have to start off by saying again how much I love familieheimabend (FHE) every week with "M" and his mother.  Every week we pretty much do the same thing: talk, eat some delicious German food, sing hymns, Oma loves hymns (his mom), read a spiritual thought, then EVERYTIME we must play Skip-bo.  I love them so much and am sure going to miss them if I ever leave Pforzheim.  

As you know last week was a little harder, we only were able to have 2 lessons last week.  So I was destined to try and make this week an action packed GREAT WEEK.  
The end of last week I sat down and went through the 'area book' for at least 3 hours, maybe even longer, searching and reading about former investigators and their stories.  I then made a list of all these people who we could stop by within the next few weeks.  Elder Peterson told me the thing that makes him most happy on the mission and lifts his spirits is teaching lessons.  SO LET US TEACH LESSONS.  The week started out good, Tuesday we were able to have 2 lessons and a sweet member lesson with a family we took the sacrament too.  

On Thursday, you ready for this?  We had not one...not two...but THREE lessons.  And on top of that one less active lesson!  Oh it was so toll, and all the names and lessons we taught were from that list of people I made.  We picked them out together during companion study and then planned out the day!

The next couple days we had a few more lessons and our English class.  Then came Sunday and it was pretty hectic.  We were able to meet with Pres. Senter a little bit about the ward and how we can all work together better on missionary work.  Overall it was a really cool week.  President Miles told me in my interview to really study chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel, so I have been.  Street contacting and 'finding' has been hard these last couple months, so I turned to the Area Book like I said and it was worth it.  Because of the area book we were able to have 12 total lessons this week (that's including joint teaches and less actives)!  That is the most my companion has ever had on his mission!  On top of that we found 6 new investigators (potential) this week too!  We also scheduled 3 lessons for next week already. Needless to say this week went by really fast!  I'm excited to make this week better than the last!  I really appreciated Mom's quote last week about making the opportunities and not waiting.  BE STRONG.
I wanted to mention one of the new people we met with - Brother "G" he is 22 years old and we found him from the Area Book.  The Sisters had met with him a little before.  He was really cool and we had a sweet lesson with him on Saturday in the park on a bench.  He asked a lot of good questions and his main struggle is the subject of Faith.  Anyways we had a really cool lesson with him and I can tell we are going to become good friends.
This mission is really hard, and number wise it's maybe not "successful" some could say, but I know we are making a difference.  I love these people so much!  Gosh they are all in my dreams every night, REALLY!  I just care so much for all of them and want the best for all of them.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!  Thanks again for all your support and love.  Consider yourself all very BLESSED for being born into this blessing-filled life of having the gospel of our Savior!  Love you and carry on.
LG - Elder Jensen"

The real WARD

January 20, 2014

"Hallo Family

Well this week is over and I wish I could tell you something crazy happened or we had a whole lot of lessons, but I can't.  But it's okay because we were working our hardest and I enjoyed this last week, I really did.  

Monday we spent some time in Stuttgart, which was good.

Tuesday we didn't have distrikt meeting like we usually do, but we went by Sister "E's" brother and sister (last time we met with her she gave us their information and told us to go by them).  They both ended up not being home, so we left them a note and will hopefully be able to stop by again.  It's always a gamble trying to just "stop" by peoples houses and it usually takes up a HUGE chunk of your day getting there and trying to find their place.

On Wednesday we began our Tausch (splits) with the Heilbronn Elders.  I ended up staying in Pforzheim with Elder Graver.  We didn't really have any lessons planned so we went by a lot of people.  We went by the Selifi brothers that I mentioned last week - the older brother being the less active.  It was cool, we made contact with them but he was busy so he gave me his phone number and he took ours and said he would call us later.  He just called us like 5 minutes ago!  So cool, because usually when people say they are going to call us, sadly they don't.  But he did!  I just talked to him and he was really nice and said he had some time on Friday (this is the older brother-less active).

The next day, Thursday we met with the Weichelts family (the single mom that's a new member with the 3 daughters).  We taught them the family mission plan, and yes the little girl remembered me, haha.  Afterwards we played a few games!

On Friday we had a really good weekly planning, and then that night we went to Little Texas for dinner.  I love it because it feels like America.  Elder Peterson and I ordered a huge country platter!  So good!  

Saturday we didn't have anything planned, but we had written down a bunch of names before that we could go by.  It ended up being good and we delivered a french Book of Mormon to a french speaking lady.  That day we stopped by a lot of other people too, some former investigators and some less actives.

Sunday we met in Stuttgart with the Stuttgart ward.  It was so cool because it was a "real" ward!  Stuttgart has a really nice church building with a chapel and about 150 members, with families and a couple deacons and such.  It's been so long since I've been in an actual ward, I have forgotten how it feels.  The Weichelts family was there too and the little girl was so surprised to see us, she came running up the aisle to sit next to us.  Church was fun with that big of a ward.  Later that night we were able to have two really cool lessons.  One with this cool guy who lives on our street and we talked to him the other week, he is from Poland.  It was our first time "meeting" with him and he was really nice.  He told us how he talked to his neighbor about the mormon church and how he had been given the Book of Mormon (which we had given to him when we first saw him).  His neighbor said he wanted a Russian one, so that was cool!  We got a referral from a potential investigator then - who is now a new investigator!  A little confusing, sorry.  That night we met with Sister "E" about our church and family history.  She was interested in that, and hopefully we can go with her and a member to a family history center in Stuttgart.  That would be cool.

Overall we didn't have a very successful week number wise, but all that matters is that we are doing all that we can to make a difference in peoples lives and help them.  I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Liebe Große,

Elder Jensen"

A Great Week!

January 13, 2014

"Familie,

Overall it was a great week this week, I'm excited to stay!  We started the week out early, making calls and people calling us.  After we found out we were staying we had contact with people we hadn't seen or heard from for the last 3 transfers so that was really cool.  

On Wednesday we finally met with "T.S." and his non-member wife.  They were so nice and it was a really good lesson!  They have a three year old son who speaks both German and English, it was just way cool seeing a happy young family - it's been awhile since I've seen one. We tried meeting with a guy we found last week, we originally met with him by trying to go by his older brother who is actually a member (less active), but he wasn't there.  So this time we went by and the older brother was there and we had a sweet lesson with him and got to know him.  He is really cool and so nice.

Saturday early morning we had interviews with President in Stuttgart.  Along with interviews we have "distrikstversamlung" with Sister Miles.  I love the Miles and really appreciate them.  I enjoyed this interview a lot because I was more myself and not so nervous.  That evening we went and saw Sister "E" and gave her a short lesson.  The last time we saw her, I gave her a General Konferenz talk from 2012 from President Monson to read and ponder, and she insured us she did and it helped her find some answers she had been looking and searching for.  After the lesson she showed us some pictures of her family and told us to go by her sister and son who live nearby.  It was out of nowhere and surprising but we were excited to hear that, so we are going to see them.

The highlight of the week was definitely Sunday.  Sunday was branch conference and we had about 50 people in our little branch.  We filled up the whole little room we meet in!  There was lots of people there from the Stuttgart stake.  The Weichelts family was there! (She is the mom with the 3 daughters and is a new member).  It was a really good meeting and after church we had Gemeinde essen with everyone there.  I was talking to someone and the youngest little girl (Weichelt's daughter) came running up to me laughing and hugged my leg!  She would not leave my side, haha, and was literally my little shadow.  It's been so long since I've seen little kids or had kids at church.  She kept telling her family that she found a new best friend and she wanted to be like me.  She was awesome - it reminded me of back home with my niece and nephews.  We had two people bring friends to church on Sunday too!

I feel like I am leaving out a bunch of stuff, but it's hard to explain all the sweet things that can happen on a mission.  The work here is hard at times, it's just important to remember we are here to make a difference in peoples lives - and if they aren't quite ready to accept the gospel, we can still have a positive impact on them one way or another.  Love you all, love hearing about all my friends and their success, it's really cool! 

Liebe Große

Elder Jensen"

 District Conf. and interview with President Miles

This is where District conf. meetings were held

Against the Odds - Transfer Calls

January 6, 2014

"Familie,

Well the first of the week went really fast and was a lot of fun...I'll tell more later.  As you know we had transfer call this week.  It's pretty uncommon to be with your companion for three transfers.  So the call came Friday, and we are BOTH staying.  Yes that is right, we are staying together another transfer!  This will be our 4th transfer together in Pforzheim.  We were a little surprised I guess you could say, apparently this NEVER happens, ha.  But I'm excited for this new transfer.  I really want this transfer to be a good one!

We went to the Schwarzwald (black forest) last P-day and took this lift thing up to the top in Bad Wildbad where there is all these different walking trails and it is "beautiful!"  There is a little ski resort and huge evergreens reaching so high to the sky, and sometimes they make an archway to walk through!  We even encountered some snow!  The schwarzwald is really pretty!  There was this one peak that looked out over the back side of the schwarzwald where you could just see hills infested with evergreens.  The hill we were on was called Sommerberg (summer mountain), you should look it up!

Tuesday was Silvester or New Years.  We went to the Senters for that and had a little party.  We had smoked salmon from Norway on bread, that was good!  We listened to some music and watched the New Years thing they have in Berlin on TV - like America has in New York.  Once midnight strikes it's like being in a full out battle field!  Fireworks are really cheap here and everyone buys them and lets them off at the same time!  Literally everywhere you look fireworks are going off, explosions all around you!  It's crazy!!  Blanks are allowed too so a bunch of Germans were running around with guns shooting blanks, haha kind of scary!  We were safe up on the Sentner's balcony. The ride home was crazy, most of the craziness was over but somewhat still going on.  The streets were covered with debris from all the boxes of fireworks and firecrackers (which over here are like dynamites).  Driving home we were going slow, swerving and honking the horn to dodge the fireworks still going off!  The next day though was a ghost town!  The streets were a mess!  We made contact with this new guy, in a neighboring town this week.  He was really nice, we met him by trying to meet with his older brother who is a less active. Hopefully we can meet with him more.  Church was really good this week, good lessons all around and a great testimony meeting.  

I still can't get over me and Elder Peterson are staying together!  

Love you all and Bis Nachste Woche

Elder Jensen"

The trek up the mountain in Bad Wildbad - Schwarzwald

New Years Party!

A Quick Week!

December 30, 2013

"Hey Fam,

Weird I just talked to you a couple days ago, haha!  After skyping you on Christmas day, we went home and had our goose.  Oh gosh we were so excited and it tasted horrible, it was really good meat but way too "citrusy."  Our potatoes tasted so good, but were kind of crunchy.  No problem though we saved them and cooked them a little bit more so it worked out!  As far as our goose goes, it's in our fridge, still in a container - we don't know what to do with it.  

On the 26th, which is Christmas over here too, we went over to the Wengert's.  It was a lot of fun, they cooked us a huge lunch (lunch is the main meal).  We had duck, rotcrot, fresh veggies, and carbinated water - norm for Germany.  Then they gave us presents and I got a pretty cool yellow zip jacket.  We played cards for a good 3 hours and this other intense game called Lagreto, CRAZY intense.  They are really nice and it was all fun!

On Friday we had weekly planning and a lesson with this girl "JL" and Bruder Wengert came with us as a third person.  It was a good first lesson.  Afterwards we went and dropped by Sister "E" to see how she was doing.  I've been able to relate more with her because she has been having some knee problems and contemplating getting knee surgery.  Out of nowhere I pulled out my Book of Mormon and felt the need to share with her from 2 Nephi...I didn't even know what I was going to say but I was JUST SPEAKING, it was really cool and she really enjoyed it.  Afterwards Elder Peterson said how that was the perfect scripture for her and I said I didn't even know what happened and I was just going with it.  He said that's what missionary work truly is - following the spirit.

Then came Sunday, we were suppose to pick up "JL" and another person for church, but we couldn't reach either.  We had a lot of family visitors at church so it was cool and it doubled the size of our actual branch probably and almost filled the whole room.  

Today for P-day we decided this morning that we are going to go down to the Schwarzwald and take a ride up the hill in Bad Wildbad!  Love you all!

Liebe Große

Elder Jensen"