Cancer & Things

Top scariest thing that happened on my mission even more scary then being chased home. It happened on an ordinary day. We were getting ready for companionship study when Sister Christopher informed me she had found a lump. ............................... Ok so I may not be able to write more than that about this. At this time Sister Christopher and I had been companions for over 9 months. You don't know how attached you become to someone until you spend every second of every day with them for 9 month. You start sharing the same likes and dislikes, you can understand the other person, you worry about things they are worried about. You become BEST FRIENDS.

There I was sitting in a hospital waiting room in Zurich Switzerland. Sister Christopher had just gone in to have it checked out when a doctor came out and said they were going in right then to take samples and that further surgery may be needed. They had found cancer. (Just sitting here brings back all those feelings and emotions again) I was terrified, sad, angry that this could happen - we were good missionaries. We were being exactly obedient and working hard. My thought was how could God let this happen.

That night at the mission home it was discussed that Sister Christoper would need to go home for surgery. Sister Christopher being head strong was not willing to let that happen. I remember sitting on the couch in the mission home next to her and just thinking this can't be happening, she can't leave, what will I do. We plead with the mission president to let her stay. After all was said and done and calls were made to Sister Christopher's family, the decision was made to keep her on her mission. But that with that said surgery would take place in the next day or so.

We spent the night in the Mission home and the next day I took Sister Robinson to Freiburg with me. It was so hard to leave.

The next time I saw Sister Christopher I was in the mission home picking up my new companion. She was on bed rest but looked good. A bit loopy but good. Her and Sister Robinson were to be companions and I was going to be training a new missionary. We would all be in Freiburg together which was a nice thought. I left with my new companion and went back to Freiburg feeling completely alone, while Sister Christopher and Robinson stayed at the mission home for another week of recovery.


It was the scariest thing I experience on my mission. It taught me that things can change in an instance. I wasn't ready for change and not until I moved to my new area did I fully except it.


Sister Christopher is cancer free to this day and doing really well.


mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Festival

One of the things that happens in Germany is called 'Festival'. It's one of the most creepiest things every but good to experience at least once. The Germans dress up in the old German clothing and wear masks and have this big parade down the center of town. Everyone is there from all ages.

We had our P-day the day of Festival. Not sure if we took it on that day because we knew tracking wouldn't be good or if it was actually a Monday. However we were there in the middle of town ready for 'Festival'.

CREEPY - I don't think there are any other words to describe it. There are two important things that happened during this event.

First - we got pretty good spots on the street, we were right up front so that we wouldn't miss anything. As it started this little boy (about 2) came up and grabbed my leg. I smiled down at him looked around and saw his parents that tried to usher him back. I said it was ok as long as they could still see him. I don't think he let go of my leg the entire time. He just stood there and would hold on tighter as these scary things came close. It was so cute.



Second - so there we are Me, Sister Christopher, & Sister Robinson. We are taking tons of pictures and just enjoying the experience. When all the sudden this man grabs Sister Robinson throws her over his shoulder and starts running off. It was so fast and sudden Sister Christopher and I just stood there for a second and then we finally realized what had happened and were off. They didn't go far with her. It was just to the center of the street where they threw her into a big wagon full of confetti. We pulled her out and brought her back to the side of the street. I think we found confetti in our apartment for weeks after that. This experience was definitely on the list of the top 5 scariest things that happened on my mission. We left shortly after that.


So if you are there for festival, be prepared for a bunch of crazy, creepy things and be careful not to be carried away.


mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

New Apartment, New Experiences

Sometime it is necessary for change. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very keen to change. I actually hate it but I do see how it's important.

We had a Sister go home early in our mission which meant that there was going to be a threesome 'drit' somewhere in the mission. When the mission president called us and informed us that Sister Robinson was going to be joining our companionship, we were both pleased. Sister Robinson and I had been in the MTC together for three weeks and it was exciting to think that we were actually going to be companions.

With the call from president also come the news that we would be moving to a new apartment as ours was way to small to fit three people in it. Exciting so far right, then we learned we were going to be moving into the Elders old apartment. WHAT! I don't feel I need to explain how boys and girls style of living and cleanliness is very different. Little did I know though how extremely different it was.

When we arrived it was a mess. The Elders were moved out but you could still hardly see the floor. There was junk everywhere and nothing had a home. I don't know how the Elders had ever lived there. We spent our P-day cleaning up the apartment and moving around furniture, by the time Sister Robinson arrived it kind of looked like a home, kind of. It took us a few more weeks to get it looking like a sisters apartment but once we did it was great.

The apartment was perfect and served us really well. Later on we added one more sister to the mix and so the four of us lived there comfortably with four beds, four desks, coutches, closets. It worked out really nice.

Moving is never fun, however this experience was really good for me as each time I was transferred from this point on I moved into elders apartments. So i wasn't surprised to find the same mess in each place.


mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Amera

One of the first people we met in Freiburg was Amera. She was a ward missionary but because of illness couldn't get out much. She was willing however to help however she could. We would go to her house and practice teaching the lessons and she would help with our German.


Sometimes when we were there Linda would join us. I know she was helping us but I think that us being there for both her and Linda was a great help. Sometimes we were just there to listen and to help out with some of the things Amera couldn't do like vacuum and take out the trash. It was a great learning experience for me, that sometimes what people need most is a friend.

 

   

  

   

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Experience Brazil in Germany

Currently I live in Washington DC and it's the mixing pot of the world. We have a bit of everything here. I felt the same way in Freiburg, Germany. We would talk to more non-natives than we would true Germans. Most of these people had moved here years ago and could speak German pretty well but others knew better English. It is part of the reason we had so many translations of the Book of Mormon, we never knew when we would need one in Spanish, French, Greek, etc.


One of the less active sister in our ward was from Brazil. She knew pretty good German and a bit of English. She was a member of the Church but her husband was not and he was not interested at all. We were not allowed to come over if he was there it was that bad. However she wanted her daughter to know the gospel and be familiar with Jesus Christ so we were invited over often.


Each time we came she would feed us this great meal very native to Brazil. We learned to cook some really good things there. One of us would read stories with the daughter and the other would help with the meal. We would then teach a lesson after the meal and help clean up. It was great experience and we got to experience some of Brazil each time we came over.


Her husband started taking the lessons and from what I heard last they are both active members of the church today.




mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Inviting the Spirit back

Members are of key importance when teaching. They help bring the spirit and the create a bond with those you are teaching. This makes it easier for people to come to church because they know that they won't be alone but that they will have a friend.
We started working hard to have a member at each of our lessons. We would meet with the member before hand and teach them the same lesson we planned to teach to our investigator. We would lay out our lesson plan and invite them to participate and to share their testimony with the investigator or less active. We found that this really helped in keeping our lessons on topic and moving forward. However with all that work there are still times lessons don't go as planned that sometimes your member decides that they know best.


Even now thinking about this particular instance I laugh with dread as it was so bad. We had met with our member two days before the lesson and all seemed well. Our member was prepared to share two scriptures, an experience, and their testimony. They had a copy of our outline and knew the investigator so we arrived thinking all was well.


We got in there and started our lesson. All the sudden our member started contradicting or fluffing up what we were saying. (ex: you should pray every day - member would say, well you don't have to pray every day and you'll be fine) We were totally blown away we had no idea what was going on. We tried to continue but at every turn our member was attacking us. It was incredible.


The spirit had left and we could tell we were loosing our investigator and she was frustrated. Both Sister Christopher and I could feel the tension and that things were wrong. It was a fight or flight feeling and I was not about to flee so there I was about to fight. I said a silent prayer and then asked if I could sing a song. It was so out of blue I had no idea where it came from. I didn't know what song I was going to sing or how I was going to sing it.


We were trying to teach the concept of prayer so the song that came to my mind was "Oh, My Soul Hungered". More nervous then I had ever been I explained that I wanted to sing this song but that I only knew it in English. I wanted our investigator not to listen with her ears but with her heart.


So I sang:
Oh my soul hungered the moment I knelt down to pray,
And felt all my doubts wash away.
Oh my soul hungered, He heard my cry.
The voice of the Lord spoke peace to my mind.
Oh my soul hungered Things that were old became new
When I learned to feel what I already knew.
With all my heart, With all my soul,
I wrestled before the Lord to make my life whole.
He filled my hunger, He fed my soul.
He fed my soul.
The truth that belonged to everyone else
 Is now a sacred part of myself.
Oh, I found out what I could not find,
When I heard with my heart
What I knew in my mind.
Oh, my soul hungered.


I finished, and you could feel the change in the air. Sister Christopher and I bore testimony of the truth and power of prayer. We then asked if our investigator would prayer with us before we left. We knelt down and asked if she would offer it. We both folded our arms and bowed our head. It felt like eternity but finally our investigator started to pray. The spirit was so strong. We set up our next appointment and left. This whole time our member had been silent. As we walked to the bus our member told us she had never seen anything like that. She was so impressed by us and knew that our investigator was in good hand. That night we couldn't thank the Lord enough.


Today that investigator is a faithful member of the Church and attends every week. She's old and has dementia but there is one things she remembers and that is that the Church is true.




mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Twilight

You never know what will spark someone's interest in the Gospel. For those of you who don't know - the author of the Twilight series is a member of the church. In 2009 Twilight was a huge thing in Germany especially with young girls. One Sunday we had three young girls walk into sacrament meeting. We talked to them and they were interested in learning more about the church so we talked further and it finally came out that they wanted to see where this author got her inspiration from.
I have my opinion about this topic and it's probably for another time but I can promise that those books are not based on gospel principles. However it was interesting to see how many people we met who knew who we were because this women who had written Twilight was a member.


It goes to show that you always need to be careful what you are doing because it doesn't matter if you have a name badge on with the Church's name on it or if you are just being you -- if you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you will be associated with the church in all things that you do. I believe that is why the Lord tells us to Stand in Holy places at all times and in all things.




mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen