New Places

April 7, 2014

"What up Fam,

Not a lot of time today.  Augsburg is pretty dang big!  We live in the Altstadt (Old City) which is supposedly the oldest city in all of Bayern.  It's cool, a lot of the real city walls are still standing.  It is weird to now have sisters serving in our area too.  The ward seems really good, I haven't met all of them yet because it was General Konferenz.  Since we have such an AWESOME church building, we got to watch conference here in Augsburg.  All the other Elders came and übernachted it at our place, so we had 6 Elders staying with us in our apartment, it was fun.  They are all so different - haha.  Konferenz was AMAZING as always.  The people I've met in the ward so far seem really awesome!  It is quite funny how different it is here though, Bayern is known as the Texas of Germany - so it's practically its own little country.  Lots of people here wear their lederhosans and derndls around casually.  

We had this thing at the church towards the end of the week, in English its called something like 'day of open doors' and it's where lots of people just come and tour the church building and they have family research presentations.  I challenge you ALL to seriously look into furthering your knowledge on our family history and the church family history program.  

I fill like I will like it here in Augsburg.  I haven't really seen a whole lot of the city because we have been at the church a lot these last couple of days.  This week will hopefully be back to normal.  I'll be able to email more info next week, all I know for sure is that Augsburg has SO much potential.  There is a university here and a way nice church building.  Time to start thinking outside the box and get things really going here!  Love you all and hope you have a great week!  

Love Elder Jensen"

Some pictures of Augsburg, it's beautiful!

Bitter Sweet - transfer calls

March 31, 2014

"Familie,

So I've been here in Pforzheim for 7 months, and I would have never thought I could have made so many life long friends and had so many good experiences in a short 7 months.  I honestly mean it when I say that Pforzheim is my second home (so far) and the little Branch here is my second family.  Gosh I love them all so much!  What an eventful week it was to say the least, really busy with a lot of excitement!  I'll just go through the week beginning with Monday...

Monday:  A normal P-day, we hung out with "G" and went shopping with him.  Then we went and got our haircuts since we would be seeing President and Sister Miles tomorrow (Tues).  We also cleaned our apartment really good just in case they came to our apartment while they were here (haha).

Tuesday:  We had Distriktsmeeting here in Pforzheim and then a "finding" day afterwards here in Pforzheim also.  We have finding days in our mission where we do nothing but talk to people on streets, buses and door.  It was a good day.  Then that night we had our joint teach with President and Sister Miles.  They only joined us for one lesson and they met us at our Church building.  So we met them there with "G" and the lesson went GREAT!  President is such an inspired and spiritual man and it just went really well!  We told our investigator "G" to come with some of his concerns so we could answer them together.  So he told us all some of his concerns and President answered his questions PERFECT!  He asked "G" why are you here tonight?  Why do you normally meet with the missionaries - why do you read the Book of Mormon - why do you come to church??  Then "G" said "I feel good when I meet with them, I feel at peace - like I'm surrounded by good." There obviously was a lot more said and discussed and even some funny parts and joking around, but overall it was a really good lesson and something that "G" needed.  President has such a powerful spirit he carries with him and Sister Miles is so loving and just has that loving "mom" charm.  We all enjoyed it a lot.  I taught tonight like I would any other lesson - thats one thing I have vowed on my mission is to always be myself despite the circumstances.  We didn't get any time to talk to President or Sister Miles personally or anything like that.  After the lesson was over they had to drive back to Munich, I'm sure going to miss President and Sister Miles when their time here is done.

Wednesday and Thursday:  Normal days for the most part - lots of finding.  We had to weekly plan on Thursday because we were going to be tausching (on splits) on Friday and Saturday.

Friday:  We had splits.  Elder Mickelson came here to Pforzheim.  He is such a chill bro. and he is our distrikt leader.  We had a good joint teach on Friday with "G" and Sister Setner and Sister Setner's house and we talked about how prayer is the key.  
Saturday:  The main day!  So we began the day with transfer calls.  We were on tausch still and I was here in Pforzheim, we got the text from the others in the Distrikt saying how they got there calls and were staying...but we still hadn't been called.  Then we got the text from the Zone leaders saying how they've called everyone that was staying and were now letting people know if they were being transferred.  So at this point I knew I was getting transferred and I was nervous.  It's like opening up a mission call!  Then I received the call from the AP's...but I'll get to that later! haha.. We had this huge 2 zone finding day in Stuttgart - two different zones met together and we had a finding day on main street in Stuttgart in front of the palace.  It was packed!  The fountains were on and there was literally so many people walking the streets and just everywhere.  We sang some hymns in front of everyone and we handed out little balloons with sayings on them to the kids. We just talked to everyone we could!  It was a good day but exhausting.  At the end of the 2 hours we found 71 potential investigators (as in we got their information) and we gave out over 50 Book of Mormons.  
Sunday: This Sunday was kind of sad since I knew it was going to be my last in this area.  I was really sad because a lot of people were missing but towards the end everyone ended up making it!  I got called up in the middle of sacrament meeting to bare my testimony and announce the news.  After I told everyone I was leaving they all just went ahhhh, like they were sad.  It was really sad all around. It was the first tear I have shed since I've been on my mission.  Right after we took a branch picture together that they will hang for the upcoming year. We are like a little family!  I took a lot of pictures with different members and people, received little trinkets and gifts, exchanged emails and addresses. I'll have a lot more goodbyes over the next few days too.
So I am being transferred to Augsburg, Germany.  It's in Bayern, close to München.  It's the 3rd oldest city in all of Germany, pretty spread out area so there will be a lot of ground to cover.  They have a 3 month 'new' Church building that all the members LOVE I hear.  I've heard mixed sayings on this place but I've learned to not pay attention to any of it!  I mean everyone was telling me that Pforzheim was the armpit of the mission but I have LOVED it here so much!  
Hope all goes well this next week for you back at home.  Love you all!
Elder Jensen"

Elder Herzog, President Miles and our investigator "G"

Saying goodbye to our investigator "G"

                                                

Spent every FHE in Pforzheim with "M" and his mother "Oma"  

 Utah couple "Johnsons"

Pforzheim Branch

Time Keeps Flying By...

March 24, 2014

"Familie,

What a busy week it was!  Man this transfer has just flown by!  I can't believe that transfer calls are this Saturday!  We also have a HUGE finding day in Stuttgart on Saturday - two zones finding, plus all the youth members, so lots and lots of people - it will be sick!  

This last Thursday we dedicated to finding because we haven't found a whole lot of potential investigators these last couple of weeks.  We went around to various villages near Pforzheim and walked around trying to find less actives or former investigators, pretty much just talked to EVERYONE we saw.  We found 2 potentials.

We had some good lessons with "G" this last week.  We had a really good lesson going over the Plan of Salvation.  The reason why he isn't baptized is because he still has some doubts and his faith is still sadly not that strong in certain areas of the Gospel.

Oh yeah, how could I forget, so last Monday our 1st counselor Br. Wengert called and asked if I would gladly give a 20 minute talk in church on Sunday, at 'least' 20 minutes.  I wanted to make sure it was a decent talk since my first talk I ever gave in this branch was my 3rd day in the field and only like 2 minutes long, haha.  I tried cracking some jokes and adding some sense of humor to the talk...but I ended up talking for 28 minutes, in German natürlich.  It's a small branch and sacrament takes like 3 minutes total, so there is A LOT of time left for the 1 or 2 speakers.  It was fun though and a good experience.  After Br. Wengert and I were joking about my first week here and my first talk I gave in church, and how he was worried at first to assign a talk to me for that long.  But after this he realized that there was no need to worry (haha).

So big news "this" week is on Tuesday.   Apparently President Miles, about once a year, goes around the mission and chooses 2 or 4 random missionaries in each zone to work with for a day or teach a lesson with.  Well he is in the Stuttgart zone this week and he chose us to work with on Tuesday!  So we are really excited and feel very honored.  We are going to use him as a joint teach with "G" and try and set a new taufe datum with him (baptism date).  I'm really excited, it's a once in the mission opportunity to be able to work with the President like this.  

Anyways transfer calls are this week already, love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

LG

Elder Jensen

This last Tuesday in Heilbronn on splits with Elder Mickelson

Servus Familie

March 17, 2014

"Wow, the weeks go by fast!  What a great week it was.  Last P-day was crazy but cool - we have developed a strong relationship with Setners, I love them.  We had a great time hiking with them last week!  

Tuesday we had zone training.  Zone training is once a month, just our zone or our stake (so for us = the Stuttgart stake).  Then every three months we have Zone Konferenz and that's when we see President Miles.  Sadly it's so hard for them to see us more because we are so spread out!  Zone training was good, I shared the "miracle story" of our branch (about the new members moving in) and how our prayers are being answered.  That night we had a tausch, I stayed in Pforzheim with Elder Smith - he is 2 transfers younger than me.  Well we had a dinner appointment at Sister "E's" later that night that we had kind of forgot about.  Her husband mentioned he would cook for us a couple weeks ago so he called us at about 20 o'clock (8:00pm) asking where we were.  Elder Smith and I SPRINTED over there and it's not that close, at least a mile away, ha.  It was good food though and they were so nice.

Wednesday morning, we were still on tausch, and Br. Wengert shows up at our apartment door at 7:15 in the morning.  He was kind of laughing and just sat on our couch waiting for us.  We went and checked on someone and then he took us to get breakfast at a backeri, that was really nice.  That evening after the tausch was over and Elder Herzog was back we met with Sister "E" and then went and ate at the Johnsons (new members from Utah).  They are SO cool!  I love them so much.  They have been married for almost 2 years, it was so much fun talking with them.

On Thursday we did lots of vorbeis (went by people) and we met with "G" in the park.  We taught and committed him to the Word of Wisdom. He really seems to enjoy meeting with us.  We get ice cream with him a lot of the times in the evening and then teach him a little lesson.  All the ice cream stores by the river opened up for the season.

Friday was an adventure.  A bit random and kind of crazy.  Long story short we met a lady on the bus who convinced us to go with her to this really good restaurant that is way cheap.  Ended up being the soup kitchen.  We ate dinner there and met some new people - pretty funny and random moment you could say.

Then comes Saturday, it was just like any other day - but it couldn't have been better.  For my birthday, Elder Herzog baked that halloween cake that I got in my halloween package!  That afternoon, Sister "E" and her man wanted to have us over for a birthday lunch.  We had authentic Indian food.  Interesting = Yes, Good = Eatable.  Sister "E" dished me up my second serving and oh gosh it was literally double the size of my first serving.  But I finished it all.  It was so nice of them to do that for me on my birthday.  She gave me a little birthday gift, a scarf and a black tie.  She is really nice!  Afterwards we had a good lesson with her, even her husband enjoyed it.  She finally accepted my offer of finding a ride for her to church because her knees are bad.  Later that night we had ice cream and a lesson with "G" again.  All in all I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!

Sunday was awesome.  We had ward council early, and we picked up "G" on our way to church.  Ward council went really well.  It's just so cool to see how much the branch has come around.  Church went great!  I joint taught Sister "E" with another member and Elder Herzog joint taught "G" with another member.  We had 37 people in our branch!  After church we had gemeinde essen, it was nice to just sit and eat and visit with everyone.  I sat next to the Setners and we had a good conversation and joked around a bit.  Then I mentioned how transfers were 2 days before general konferenz and who knows what will happen.  They said I have to stay at least one more transfer!  It sure is a lot different then my first two transfers here - when they didn't even know my name and I was just that young "golden" who didn't know German, haha.  Gosh I love them all so much, I've grown such a bond and care for this branch!  The Pforzheim branch owns a piece of my heart.  It's not easy being a member here in Europe - Germany to say the least.  I respect all of them so much.  It will sure be interesting to see what happens this next transfer, I've been in this area for quite a while now, but it's my 2nd home.  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

LG

Elder Jensen 

Happy Birthday Elder Jensen - Big 19th!!!

March 15, 2014

Happiness here in Pforzheim!

March 11, 2014

"Hello Fam,

I am sorry about no email yesterday and have to keep this one really short, but I promise I'll write more next week.  Yesterday for P-day we went with the Setners (our Branch President and his wife) to this little dorf called Bisingheim.  Wow.  It was a beautiful day so we went on a hike and picnic.  It was so much fun and literally took the whole day.  The hike was really really long but we saw so much.  Hikes here are different, literally you just wander around - follow little signs.  We walked through huge vineyards, over bridges, through old (old) villages and towers, little forests, and then had a picnic on the edge of this vineyard that overlooked all this various farming ground.  It's so hard to describe how truly beautiful it was. 

I can't even begin to explain how much the Branch and everything has turned around from when I first got here.  I love them so much and will miss them like crazy.  I've been here for almost 8 months now and feel like I'm one of them (these last few weeks particularly).  

Sunday, "G" came to church with us, we had priesthood leadership konsel so we had to be there early and picked him up on the way.  We had really good lessons with him this week and some joint teaches too.  We had a joint teach with "G" and the Johnsons at church, he can speak some English and likes too.  It was really cool.  After church we went home with the Wengerts and ate with them, first time I've had a eating appointment out of no where and on a Sunday on the mission.  We will be eating with the Johnsons (new young couple from Utah) on Wednesday and they will be cooking us mexican food!!  Ich freu mich schon!

We had 5 joint teach lessons this week!  Never have had that many.  It's so cool to look back at when I first arrived last September to now, it's crazy to see how much I've changed along with the area.  I'm not going to lie, European missions can be really tough, especially when it comes to the work with members and the people respecting you or even listening to you.  Yeah I may not have seen a baptism yet or may not even come across people wanting to be baptized or asking to be baptized while on my mission.  But I know I can still make a difference. WE ARE making a difference, if not with non members of the church, with members of these little branches, and if not with anyone - with OURSELVES.  That's why I love missions so much, especially my mission.  It's humbled me in different ways that no where else could.  We are so blessed in so many different ways.

Again so much has happened this last week and just know it was a GREAT week.  As always here in Pforzheim.  Too much to say, love you all, love the Branch here in Pforzheim, simply love the mission - especially my European mission.  It's a "finding" mission one can say, but it's my mission and that's why I love it.

Mach's gut Familie. Vielen Dank für alle die Geburtstag Wünschen.  Ich liebe euch, Ich liebe diese Kirche, und diese Evangelium.  Die Kirche ist wahr, und Ich weiß dass!  Ich bin sehr dankbar dass Ich in dieses Wunderbaren Evangelium aufwachsen konnte.

Liebe Größe

Elder Jensen"

Pictures from the hike on P-day

Prayers are truly answered!

March 3, 2014

"Hello Family, 

I don't have a lot of time sadly, but what a cool week it was!  This week I've witnessed a huge miracle unfold before my eyes, but I will get to that later.  

So this week went pretty well.  We had a couple of great lessons with "G."  One of the cool ones was we asked him to write down his concerns or questions on a paper then bring them the next day so we can answer them.  We also wrote down concerns or questions we may have, so he could help answer our questions, it was really cool!  His answers to our questions lined up with the Gospel pretty well!  All his concerns were dealing with Christ.  He is so close, but just can't seem to fully BELIEVE.  He loves the church, loves the branch and he loves us.  

We also met with Sister "E" twice this last week.  The second lesson with her went really good.  She kept saying how she KNOWS the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and even admitted that she knows coffee isn't that healthy (which is what really held her back last time).  I had the strongest prompting to commit her to baptism again, we weren't planning on it at all.  I turned to Mosiah 18, kicked Elder Herzog under the table and showed him where I was.  He knew instantly what I was thinking and turned there too.  I read Mosiah 18:9, said how she had the desire and then together we set a baptismal date with her for April 26.  Really cool!  

As much as I want "G" to make his baptism date, and as much as he wants to become a member, he still needs to obtain this TRUE faith in Christ.  It's so hard to imagine, because my faith and love for our Savior is beyond describable.

We met with "Kat" this Russian we found on the street the other week.  I just happened to have had a Russian Book of Mormon with me to give to her.  She is really nice.  Anyways this last week she had read what we had assigned her too in the Book of Mormon...and more! Except she HATES when it talks about wars, she showed us the chapters that talked about the wars had huge x's through them that said "krieg" which means wars.  

The work here in Pforzheim is just great, and I love it so much!  I've grown such a deep love for the Branch that I can't even explain.  I have never felt closer to a branch or ward.  The 4 new Americans (2 young married couples from Utah) that just moved here and will be living here for at least the next 6 months are truly an answer to our prayers in helping our branch.  They have such happy positive attitudes all the time, and the branch just loves it.  They got up and shared their testimonies and thanked the branch for all the love and support they have shown to them and how united we all are - despite all our backgrounds.  Our Branch President go up to bear his afterwards and said how he along with the Elders have been praying for this, and the Lord has heard and answered our Prayers - now we have 4 new members in the Branch that bring such a positive attitude and truly has helped unite everyone in so many ways.  I'm excited to see what all will happen and unfold because of them!

Thanks for all that you do!

LG,

Elder Jensen"