Falling Down the Hill

Once upon a time there was a missionary who was very clumsy. She seemed to trip over her feet everywhere she went. She always joked that she learned how to run but not to walk. It was the only excuse she could come up with for her clumsiness.  Let me tell you if I could have thought of a better reason then that I would have used it be it really was the only thing I could think of. I had no idea what my issue was but I literally couldn’t walk anywhere without tripping. At college Blaine would walk next to me and I would trip and fall and he would just keep on walking. When I would catch up with him and ask why he didn’t wait he’s tell me it was because I was always tripping and he didn’t want to be associated with me during that moment. It was awful and become a missionary didn’t immune me or stop it in any way from happen.

I can’t believe I’m going to share this story. It’s almost my most embarrassing moment on my mission.

The train had stopped and we were pretty sure this was the stop we needed. We were going to visit a few of the less actives in the area but would need to get off here and walk the rest of the way. The train was crowded and getting off seemed almost impossible but I was not going to be left on the train so I pushed my way through. Coming out I tripped on the lip of the door and continued to trip all the way out of the train right past my companion. I finally caught myself at the top of the hill and started to turn around when I tripped over my foot again. Down the hill I tumbled. Literally tumbling. (Note: the train still hasn’t left at this point so everyone is watching me) If you have ever seen ‘The Princess Bride’ this was one of those falling down the hill type of moments. My feet flying over my head and everything.

As I came to a stop at the bottom of the hill it was quite a sight. Sprawled out on my back. Skirt who knows where, my backpack over my head but still on my arms, hair everywhere I was a mess. Sister Christopher come running and stopped right above me. She asked if I was ok and then started laughing unable to hold it in any more. I laugh and cry about it to this day. As we finally got me picked up off the ground we could see the damage. My hair, let me just tell you we deleted that photo it was awful. I had torn my skirt, put a hole in my nylons, and scuffed my shoes. My knees and hands were bleeding. I also may have twisted my ankle. It was great. We did a little bit of put together and then were off to our appointment and visits.

Once upon a time there was a missionary who was very clumsy. She seemed to trip over her feet everywhere she went and no one could figure out why. However she was good for a laugh ever once and again.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

50 Books of Mormon

District meetings would never be the same after this. The Zone Leaders were coming down and we had decided to have a Street Display as part of our meeting. We also had found out that there was a record in our mission of 20 Book of Mormons placed during one, two hours session at a street display. We had some very competitive Elders in our area at the time and I guess you can say Sister Christopher and I was a bit competitive as well. Are view was more like, if they can do it we can do it to and we will set the bar high and do better. It’s a bit cocky I know but that’s how we were. So our district set a goal to give out 30 Books of Mormon during out street display.

The Zone Leaders were great. They came down to Freiburg met us at the church and started the meeting. We had a song, prayer, and a spiritual thought by the district leader. The Zone Leaders than taught a lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was a great meeting, very inspirational for what we were about to do.

We then went to the middle of the city, set up our street display and got to work. Within the first hour we had given our 30 Book of Mormons. Within the next hour we placed 20 more equaling a total of 50 within 2 hours. Not only did we beat the record set in the mission we totally destroyed it. But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was that at the end of the day Sister Christopher and I got to call 6 other sets of Missionaries and tell them we had an new investigator for them. It was sooooo cool. We didn’t get many investigators for ourselves but during that 2 hour time frame we had been able to bless the lives of multiple people and of multiple missionary companionships.

It was a complete high for the mission and for our district. We told the story during ward counsel that week on Sunday and the ward went crazy about it. As I’ve mentioned before I LOVE street displays and street contacting. It was my favorite thing to do on my mission. I’ve thought about it long and hard and the reason why I loved it so much was because as you taught people on the street and introduced them to the gospel you would see the light in their eyes as they realized you had the answers to their questions. That you knew the meaning of life. That you knew what happened after death. This complete change would happen in them and it was beautiful to see. And our first street display as a district was no different. We met the most amazing people, people who were ready and willing to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

District Meetings

Each missionary companionship is put into a district. The district usually contains four other sets of missionaries, a district leader – one elder from one of the sets, and whole lot of fun. That last part I’m not really sure about but I was talking someone from my mission recently and he described it as such so there it is. You have a meeting once a month sometimes more often and you discuss different gospel topics, study together, help with any needs there are and so on. I don’t know what it was about Freiburg but we had the weirdest district there was.

There was this one meeting - Our district leader at the time was a bit nuts and out there. Anyways he had each of us pick a story from the Book of Mormon and we were supposed to put on a skit about it and we had to use what we had with us. There was the story of Ammon. The sheep were apples and the arms where pretzel sticks. The story of Nephi killing Laban, done with socks. That one was epic, total disaster. I can’t remember the others but I do remember sitting there thinking this was such a waste of time. We did some other really weird things. I can’t help from laughing right now just thinking about how crazy these meetings were.

At one point we had an Elder companionship that felt that same way about District meetings as we did. We then started to plan other things to do with our district meetings that would actual be beneficial and help us grow spiritual. I can’t diss to bad on Freiburg as we did start getting some great district leaders at the end that were all about the work and helping to move it forward.

I’m sorry this one is short and a bit pointless like a few of our district meetings but I wanted to discuss it so that later on you who didn’t know what a district meeting was would be able to follow along as I mention it.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Smoking Kills

Did you know the following:

·         Smoking in the U.S. cause 1 in every 5 deaths

·         Every cigarette smoked reduces the individuals life expectancy by 11 minutes

·         A single cigarette contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer

·         Every day, nearly 4000 teens in the U.S. smoke their first cigarette, while 1000 start smoking on a daily basis

·         Exposure to Secondhand smoke causes nearly 50,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone

·         15 billion cigarettes are smoked worldwide every day

You may be wondering why on my German blog I would be discussing the facts of smoking. While I was in Germany I saw something that shocked me.

Sister Christopher and I was getting off of a train at the outskirts of town. A block down the road was a high school. There were a lot of teenagers and some teachers standing out of the sidewalk in front of the school. Obviously this was in-between class or a break, nothing very unusual. What was unusual was the cloud of smoke directly above them.

Now I know you all are familiar with comic strips. You know how they make that little smoke bubble above people heads when they are swearing. I know what you mean. Well this looked exactly like it. The smoke was thick and dark. It was shocking. I couldn’t believe it, there were teachers out there smoking with the kids. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

In Germany on the corners you can find Cigarette dispensers. They are like candy machines but bigger. It’s one of the saddest sights to see. However on every pack of cigarettes in big letters it say “Smoking Can Kill”.

Some of the investigators we taught were chain smokers. Some of our members were recovering smokers. It was fantastic to see the change the gospel had in their lives. We saw investigators go completely cold turkey because they wanted to follow the Savior and be baptized.

To this day as I pass by people smoking the smell sends me right back to my mission. I will ever be grateful for loving parents who taught me the Word of Wisdom (see Doctrine and Covenants 89). They taught me the consequences of smoking and how it destroys lives. Not just our own but those around us as well.

  

 

       

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen