September 16, 2013
So I was born in the hood, who would have thought? The first area you are assigned on your mission is known as where you are born. Pforzheim is known as the hood in our mission. It's mainly known as the hood here because it's full of immigrants from Turkey, Russia, Iraq, Italy ect. The people here still have hardened hearts and our branch isn't big but we still love them all.
I'll start out by sharing about our FHE last Monday with "M" and his elderly mother, both or who are members. Our investigator "P" came with us, which was really good. We had wurstsalad for dinner. It's a salad with sliced meat, pickles and such. Then she brought us fresh garden tomatoes with bread. The bread here is very popular. It is the bread mom would love with all those different seeds in it. Well I'm not a big fan of bread - as you know. But I was hungry, so I quickly finished the wurstsalad and my tomatoes. And then they brought me more. It's really mean to turn food down here in Germany and it's also REALLY mean to leave food on your plate. So I took a small second serving of wurstsalad, I was getting full, the bread alone was filling me up. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Well, I finished the second serving, but did not know how to say "No, No, I am full" in German. So they said, "Elder Jensen have some more," I tried explaining no, no, I am good thanks...but the mom said HAVE SOME MORE and gave me another whole loaf of bread. I'm eating it slowly, because I can't waste it and again I don't know how to say "I'm full." So the next thing I notice, she is bringing me fresh cheese to put on my bread. Then she brings me out radishes, finally "M" started to laugh and could tell that I had enough and told his mother that I was good. "Ich bin Satt" is how you say "I am full" in German. I won't forget that phrase! For the rest of the FHE we sung German hymns, read the Liahona, and then played Skip-o the card game. We do this every week, haha. It will be good. At the end of the evening we sang one last hymn and then after the hymn, "M's" mom pulled out her harmonica and started playing it. Elder Peterson was trying so hard to not laugh! haha. The next day we taught a lesson to an individual who was from the middle east and WOW, what a sad, sad story. It is unbelievable the persecution these saints and all the Christians suffered in his country. His dad and mom had to move out of the country to avoid persecution. At the end of our lesson I shared the story of Ammon/Alma watch the believers get burned to death, but how the Lord welcomes them all with open arms in the kingdom of God. I got yelled at this week for having my lucky "Tiki" keychain I bought in Hawaii. I forgot I had it attached on to my backpack, some lady saw it and freaked out at me saying it was my idol and stuff. I kept apologizing and saying it was just a little thing I bought in Hawaii, but she came and took it off my backpack! So yeah, I got accused for idolism. Our English class is going good with the Russians, we think one of them might be interested in the church. One of them speaks really good English, so we don't really have much to teach him. This last week was PfahlKonferenze - Stake Conference in Stuttgart. It was great, I got to see everyone in our zone and stake. It was nice seeing Elder Oviatt and the Elders serving with him. Elder Peterson saw his last son (the new missionary he trained right before me) who is actually training Elder Oviatt. We talked at the train station where we met and then on our way to conference. We told stories and all that stuff, so that was good and nice for all of us to be together. At stake conference we met someone who just arrived in Stuttgart from Provo that day for his work.
Now for the miracle of this week, last Friday our Branch President asked if we could help him move some heavy metal roof panels. He has a long driveway up a hill to his house and the panels were at the bottom of the driveway. Each panel weighs about 40 kilos or 85-90 pounds and is 20-25 feet long. It required two people to lift them, and when we carried them up the hill, one of us had to walk backwards all the way up or we had to side step all the way up the hill. An ultimate test for my weak knee right? Well it's obvious that the Lord is watching over me and has blessed me, because I was the one who was walking backwards up this steep hill. It took us about 2 hours and my knee handled like a champ - I didn't even notice it. Although my arms were very sore and tired, haha.
"P" is doing good, he is trying so hard to quit smoking. He reads the Book of Mormon everyday and we meet with him every other day. We try and contact him everyday. I want him to be able to give up his addiction so bad! He is doing the churches 15 step program and every other thing he can think of. The German language is continuing to take a lot of patience. I'm trying so hard to understand it and am currently working on the grammar. I am able to make out what most things say when I write them down, but when I try to speak it then it is more difficult. I know it will come, I just need to be patient and okay with sitting in the passenger seat until I'm more comfortable. My gospel input for this week is found in Mormon, chapter 9. It talks about how God continues to work miracles today and it is so true. It all comes down to our faith and us knowing that the way is prepared, with faith comes miracles.
Love, Elder Jensen"
More Pictures of Pforzheim
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