What's Free Time?

August 4, 2014

"Hey Family,

I can't remember the last time I had free time...mensch so so so busy!  But hallo family!!!  Hope you are all doing good.

So yes I am training.  It's weird because it literally feels like it was yesterday that I was with Elder Peterson, and now he is emailing me from home as a lost returned missionary.  My son's name is Elder Griffey, he is from Tennessee.  He is really smart, 18 years old and just graduated high school this last year.  I hope he is enjoying the mission because our ward here in Augsburg is so awesome!

On Tuesday we had a killer Distrikt get together/meeting, one of the best.  Afterwards Br. Dobmann and Stutz made us German pancakes!

Then on Thursday, after picking up my new companion (son) at the München bahnhoff, we had a couple lessons and sportabend.  That night we met one of our less actives (the one that actually came to church because his neighbor told us we stopped by to see him and he wasn't there).  He was having a rough time so we shared a few scriptures with him about Christ's love for all of us.  We got him to commit to come to church on Sunday and he ended up coming on Sunday!!!  I found a couple members and asked them if they could befriend him and sit next to him through out church, and they did of course.  

Anyways, back up to Saturday, we helped this new member move into our ward.  She lives in the middle of no where, about an hour and half away from Augsburg.  But we got to bond with some ward members so it was awesome.  I seriously love our ward, we get a long so great!

Sunday was great, it was fast Sunday.  i got up and bore my testimony about Christ and thanked the ward for everything.  Sister Smith and her family showed up to Church, that was cool and they were really nice!  M&A came to church, asked lots of questions and answered lots of questions.  We set up a termin with them and our Bishop this Friday at Bishop's house, so we will pray that goes well.  We also had a huge BBQ after Church at Dörings with the Smith family and a few other members, that was fun.

This next week should be good, we have interviews with President.  We also have distrikt meeting this Tuesday in München.  I have absolutely NO free time, between training and distrikt stuff but I believe this is when I will grow the most!  I know prayers are answered. Love you all and hope you all are doing well.

Love, Elder Jensen 

(starting to grow gray hair, spaß (joke) haha!  It's cool I really have no stress, mission miracles!)" 

Meet Elder Griffey

Becoming a Golden (Trainer)

July 28, 2014

"What up Family,

Another great week...and full of eating appointments!  Elder Sponseller is leaving, it was a quick 3 transfers with the 4 of us in Augsburg (2 Elders and 2 Sisters).  Our ward has called us the dream team.  They have done so much for us and I think we have helped the ward as a whole too!  From simple little things they have changed.  They go on splits with the missionaries and have invited us over for eating appointments (some who haven't had the missionaries over for who knows how long!)  They even bring us little treats!  It's been so cool to see.  It's sad to see the "dream team" split up but I hope we can keep the member excitement up with bringing in new missionaries.

This last week went well.  Monday was full of spontanious little moments that I wouldn't be able to experience anywhere else.

Tuesday we met M&A for breakfast - weißwurst, bretzles and weißbier, an original Byrish breakfast.  We had a good conversation with them, they are awesome!

Wednesday we had a good Distrikt meeting.  It was about how we are all leaders out here on the mission.  It was fun and I think it went well!  Then we tausched with the Zone Leaders for my "year mark," I was here in Augsburg with Elder Spencer and it was cool.

Thursday, M&A came to sportabend - that we hold weekly.  It was cool having them there.  Alexa (A) injured her knee though and showed up to Church on Sunday with a big ol' knee brace, we felt so bad.

On Friday we were with members all day.  We went to Donäuworth for some eating appointments and some more 'garden work'.  That evening we went on splits with some members to less actives, I went with Br. Grünnbichler.  He was baptized by Elder Bedner when he was a missionary here, pretty cool!

Saturday we visited some families and then went through the member list.  On our list we have about 400 members...but we only have close to 30% activation.  It's a story.  Plus so many members that no one knows anything about, it's really sad.

Then comes Sunday, M&A continue progressing like crazy!  They showed up to all 3 hours of church again, they get involved and speak up even.   After church we went to Bishop's house, we had to take a train and there ended up being this huge deal on the way there.  We were stuck on the train for over 2 hours, and firefighters, police and ambulances all showed up and we could see them through the windows doing something to the train car ahead of us.  Then two doctors walked through our car and asked us if we were okay...still have no clue what happened.  Anyways after Bishop's we went to another members and ate some more!

So transfers are this Thursday.  Elder Sponseller is going to the neighboring area, München and I'm becoming a Golden (training a new missionary), I'm pretty excited.  Sister Regnier is becoming a golden too!  So we will have 2 brand new missionaries in our ward now. Please pray for our investigators and pray for my new companion.  I have no clue who he is but I pick him up on Thursday!  Love you all.

Elder Jensen"

Some surrounding scenery from going on splits with a member

Zu Schnell! One Year Mark this Week!

July 21, 2014

"Hey Family,

Wow the time goes too fast.  This week I will be hitting my year mark!  I will be on a tausch here in Augsburg with Elder Spencer on my "hump day," the zone leader here in München.

Monday, we did our splits with members and I was with Br. Stutz and Br. Dobmann and we walked a ton!

Tuesday, we had zone training and we all wore black in our Distrikt because Sister Smith is dying (on her mission = going home). Afterwards we had a tausch and I went with Elder Hoggan to Kaufbeuren, it is beautiful and right next to the German Alps.  They have an auto down there too so it was weird driving around in a car.  It was cool though, we had a lesson with a family (mainly the dad and son). The son, Jakob, is 18 and was a foreign exchange student in Las Vegas two years ago, with a member family.  He went to Shadow Ridge Mustangs High School and played on their football team while he was there.  Well...Snow Canyon played football against Shadow Ridge High in 2012 at Snow Canyon...yeah small world!  I ended up playing against him while he was in The U.S. and here we are meeting 2 years later in a random dorf in Germany and we are teaching him the Gospel!  He became interested when he was staying with this family in Vegas who were members (believe it or not, that is how MANY strong youth members of Germany get baptized).  It was really cool, we ended up playing football in the backyard after the lesson.  The dad and son are the main ones investigating the church but the mom warmed up a little bit.  They got all my information and want to keep in contact.  They said they visit America quite often too!  I'm sad I won't be able to meet and teach them, but I'll make sure to tausch there when we are in the area and get the chance.

Wednesday, we went with Br. Herber to visit some less actives in random dorfs.  He is awesome and we had some good visits.

Thursday, what a busy day.  We went to the church in the morning and were taught how to make knoodle by Oma Kaehn - a member. Afterwards we met with M&A, with a member present.  I got to know this couple a lot better.  We need to figure out how to have them find the "truth" of our church.  They came to church though, all 3 hours, and they were excited about it!  After that lesson, we met with our Romanian family that we had found on a previous tausch.  We didn't have our translator with us and they speak zero German, so that was tough!  But we gave them a Romanian Book of Mormon and assigned a chapter to read.

Friday we ate with the Dörings and visited about St. George!

Saturday was really hot here, it reminded me of back home.  Elder Sponseller and I did vorbeis the entire day - went by various less actives on our list and a couple former investigators.  It was a good day.

Sunday, all our vorbeis paid off!  The Sisters and us had 8 new visitors at Church!  There were 4 less actives and 4 investigators.  One of the less actives was one we didn't even make contact with, we dropped by his place and he wasn't there but we talked to someone that lives by him and they told him we had stopped by.  Anyway he had the feeling he should come to church on Sunday, it was so cool.  It shows that when you just give your all and do what the Lord asks of you, he will do his part!  After Church we went to a younger family's for dinner.  They have such cute kids!  They invited a friend over too who is not a member, so that was cool.

Transfer calls are this week, we will see what happens.  Love you all and hope you all are doing great.

Love, Elder Jensen"

The Augsburg missionaries enjoying lunch on the train

Wir Sind Weltmeister!!! (We are World Champions)

July 14, 2014

"Hey Fam,

Well you could say Deutschland is pretty happy about being Weltmeisters!!! (World Cup Champs)  

Today, we are going on splits with some members, going to go by some less aktives.  This week was really cool with a lot of miracles!  

Distrikt meeting went good this week, right after that we ate Pfannkuchen, a member cooks it for us once a month after distrikt meeting. My tausch with Elder Harvey was awesome!  He is a cool kid, we talked about St. George a lot and he updated me on new stuff happening there.  Then I had another tausch with Elder Morrey and it went well too!  We get along great!  We had a lot of appointments fall through but then we went to "Haus des Gebets" odor House of Prayers with a potential investigator we found the other week.  It was awesome, haha. Long story but we got lost while trying to find this House of Prayers and ended up finding ourselves wandering through the  wilderness "shrubs" next to the train tracks in the pouring rain.  But we found it and had a good time, he saved us 2 seats on the second row.  Before hand he told us we should take off our name tags before we go in because we will attract attention, so of course we kept them ON! Everyone was nice, it's a place where all different Christians come and simply pray together however they pray, and they have a Christian band up front singing prayers and gospel songs.  It was something to experience!  Lots of people asked us who we were...and we said how we were disciples of Jesus Christ and on the Lord's errand for two years.  They loved us!  I could go on for a while about the House of Prayers, but it's a place practically preparing people to meet with us!  It's a bunch of people who love Christ and want to come nearer to him.  We met a college girl after walking out who is just starting to 'believe' again, so we got her email and will be excited to meet with her.

Tausches take awhile - especially the Tausch backs.  It's an hour there by train and an hour back, so I traveled quite a bit this last week with tausches.

Saturday we went hiking with Bishoff, his two sons and Lena (a member who got baptized a year ago and goes on her mission in a month). We didn't have a P-day last Monday, just time to do emails, so our P-day was with them on Saturday.  We went hiking in Allgäu - google it, it is beautiful beyond description!  I love our Bishoff and his family.

Now Sunday, miracle Sunday.  We met Markus and Alexa (M&A).  We went outside and a member followed and after a minute of just standing in front of the church, M&A come walking around the corner.  We greet them, talk for a bit and gave them a little tour of the Church.  We took them in for the last little bit of Sunday class, we are learning from the Old Testament so that was great!  Then we went to sacrament.  After I asked them how it went and at first he said 'different'...(they just came from visiting the Baptist church).  So we talked a little more with them and they asked some questions, said how they were visiting all these churches and in search for the Truth.  In the end we got their emails and info and gave them our number and they text us later and want to meet again during the week!  This is the Lord's work.  We just have to have the faith that they will find out for themselves that this is the TRUE church, because it has the whole Gospel. The Gospel of Christ.

Truth can be found in every church, and every church is good, but only THIS church has the full and pure Gospel of Christ.  Please pray for M&A and pray that our members can fellowship them.  Another guy has been coming to church the last two weeks, he is from Romania. He told me after Church that this is the BEST Church, the true church, the church for him and his heart.  Found out that he has met with the missionaries before a long time ago, and next Sunday he is bringing his Book of Mormon and we can talk more then!  Pray for him too!  

Overall a good week, love you all and stay strong!

ACHSOO!  Deutschland...so that was hard not being able to watch the game, I'm a sport nut!  Deutschland loves their Fußball so of course the whole city was going crazy for it!  The game started at 9 o'clock here, I kind of saw it from our neighboring apartments window but not really, we could hear their reactions though.  We were in bed by 10:30 and I was so confused because it was so quiet - usually it's pretty loud.  Then finally close to midnight I start to hear the horns and shouts in the streets, the loud booms from blanks, yelling and drunks singing, the whole bam!  A few ambulances here and there, haha, oh Deutschland! I love it!

Elder Jensen"

Hiking in Allgüa

Selfie with an alpen cow!

Celebrating the Red, White and Blue in the Schwarz, Rot und Gold!

July 7, 2014

"Hi Family,

Hope you all showed your American pride this last week and had a fun 4th of July because mine was pretty awesome!

But first let us go through the week, it was a fast week as always, but a fun week.

Tuesday: We had a good distrikt meeting with our focus being on Christ and his part in all that we do.  That truly is the main purpose of all missionary work, he is the center of all that we do.  That night we were suppose to go on splits with members and have 5 lessons between the Sisters and us in Augsburg.  I went on splits with Br. Dobmann and we visited some less actives.  He is pretty funny and I got to hear all his jokes.  

Wednesday:  We did "garten work" a.k.a. moved 250-300 pound old stones.  We had to dig up the ground to find them then dig them out and move them.  It was fun and good hard manual work.  We were doing it for a member in a neighboring city, their whole house is surrounded by gardens and fields.  Funny story = the member cooked us lunch/dinner before we left and it was a pasta dish.  Anyways my companion and I swear she said the sauce was a tuna sauce, and I am not a huge fan of tuna, so I just told myself it was chicken the whole time and tried adding lots of noodles to it.  She saw me doing that and insisted I needed more sauce with all my noodles, so she flooded my plate with the sauce, haha.  Some fun times with eating at people's houses!

Thursday:  We went up to Höchstadt to visit our 'brothers', had a good lesson.  Our other appointment fell through.  That evening we had sportabend, and I was the reigning racketball champ, no biggie :) ha.

Friday:  We were ALL over town running errands for the 4th of July party that night, it was kind of hectic.  That night all the Elders in our distrikt were staying over at our place too.  They are all so awesome!  Now...the 4th of July party was AWESOME!  We had water activities, horses, volleyball, so much food and I made lots of homemade rootbeer and they all loved it!  Elder Sponseller and I were throwing water bombs at the kids and they were chasing us around.  Our whole distrikt was there and it was just a lot of fun!  Some were watching the Deutschland Fußball game inside the church too!  Great time!!

Saturday:  Went to München and met President Kohler and his wife and their two kids.  They are really cool!  He is a cool guy and has some great ideas.  They have a son who is 17, a daughter that is 14 and then another daughter on a mission in Japan.

Sunday:  Was our abendteur/adventure with Herr Gerblinger, our Grandpa for the day.  He was a former investigator and I called him Saturday night and he remembered us and said we could meet the following day.  We rode with him on the train to a small dorf called Oberschönerfeld.  They were having a markt that day and it just so happened to be fast Sunday so Elder Sponseller and I were so-o-o thirsty and hungry and we were walking all over the place.  It was fun and hopefully we will meet with him again later.

So, following up, I'm still waiting for all of your conversion stories through letter.  I know we all have one, and I know it's SO important now more than ever that we have a personal conversion.  Times are changing and things are going to get scarier soon and we already know that the church will be targeted.  It's so important that all of us are personally as well with our families rooted deep with our testimonies.  If anything write and think of how the gospel has impacted your life and the thankfulness you have.  Love you all and have a good week.

Elder Jensen"