A Prayer for More Room

Most missionaries will tell you that it’s either feast of famine when it comes to your meals. Either you have way to many eating appointments with members and people wanting to send you home with food or there is nothing, absolutely nothing. My mission was no different. Usually when we opened an area it was famine but towards the end we had more feast. I’m guessing because the members saw how cool we were or we just started doing the work right.

Sister Christopher and I thought it was very nice to be fed by the members but we didn’t need it. We would rather you let us come teach you the lessons in your home (letting me practice my German and teaching ability) than to have us over just to feed us. Heavens knows I probably didn’t need the extra food.

With this all said, we were very grateful for meals. It meant we ate something nutritious and it wasn’t on the run. We had this wonderful family from South Africa in our ward and they would feed us as much as they could. We had a dinner appointment scheduled with them one night I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for fruit than that particular night.

It all started out with a single appointment that fell through. We had worked hard for that appointment and even reconfirmed twice just to make sure we were good. We felt very confident about our visit and had prepared a great lesson. We arrived only to find that they were no longer able to meet with us and told us not to come back. It was a hard way to start the morning. However we were prepared, we pulled out our map (now marked with colored dots for members, investigators, and less actives) and found who else lived in the area.

Let me just point out here that we had eaten a very large breakfast knowing that we wouldn’t be eating again until our dinner appointment that night.

Our first stop was a potential investigator. We had stopped this man on the street a few days earlier and he said we could stop by anytime. So we did. He was very welcoming and wanted to visit with us. As we came in we noticed he was getting ready to eat lunch, we offered to come back later but he quickly quieted our concerns and pulled out extra plates. We ate bread, cheese, and meet (basically open face sandwiches – so good). We ate until we were filled and taught a beautiful lesson (the one we had prepared that morning) about God and prophets. It was a wonderful experience as we left we scheduled an appointment for the next week and thanked him for lunch.

Our second stop was a struggling member family we had been asked to work with. They were one of the cutest families and we loved working with one of their daughters. As we entered the house the mother a very Spanish women by all means started cooking us food. We told here we didn’t need any but she insisted and would not take no for an answer. We discussed family prayer and scripture study and invited them as a family to pray and study together at least 3 times that week. We would then come back for a quick visit the next week to see how it went. After the second plate of food (big serving plates, not just the regular ones) we thanked her and went our way.

Fuller than ever at this point we decided to play it safe and visit a less active sister. It’s about 3pm at this point and we have 2 hours until our dinner appointment and we are just praying that we can digest some of what we’ve just eaten before than. Our less active sister was so sweet and older women who gave us tea and cake. Tons and tons of tea and this thick cake. She also sent us home with cookies. Little did we know this area was so plentiful with food. But by the end as we climbed onto the bus that would take us to our dinner appointment we had no idea how we would ever survive.

The family from South Africa was always so great to the missionaries. They would feed us well knowing that we didn’t receive much. Meals consisted of four courses and dessert all of which had heaped plates of food, and there were no options for leftovers. We arrived at the complex with just a few minutes to spare. We walked to a quite wooded area and said a quick prayer. We asked the Lord to help us so we wouldn’t offend this family. That our stomachs would be able to hold more. It was the most fervent prayer over a meal we had ever said. Walking into the apartment we were warmly greeted and informed that because it was such a hot day the family had decided to skip the usual dinner plans and have a “Fruit Night”. However if we needed more substance the family was willing to quickly cook us up something……

I could have cried right there. I know both Sister Christopher and I thanked the Lord a million times for that meal. It goes to the show that the Lord hears and answers prayer even if it be the prayer of two sister missionaries over food. We rod home in silence and upon our arrival quickly prayed, planned, and climbed into bed. It’s the most food I’d see on my mission in one day and to be honest I was grateful for it.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

 

The Dot System

A planning day (morning) is very important. This is where you really fill up your schedule and plan for the upcoming week. I loved these times because we got to see our mostly empty schedule fill up with appointment and meetings and so on. Sometimes we would get really ambitious and it happened on one of these days that we made the decision we wanted to visit every member in the ward but to really focus on the less actives. If we didn’t know who they were, we wanted to.

So there we were trying to figure out the best way to do this when we came up with the best idea ever. We got little colored dots; Red - investigators, yellow – less active members, and green – members We marked that map up good. Each dot had a number associated with it so that when we looked at the map we could go back to the ward list and match the two up. It was a brilliant idea.

How it worked was even better. We would head to an appointment which would fall through – this happened quite a bit. We would then pull out our map and find us. Then we would visit anyone that was in that area. Later on this system greatly helped us as we did out 30 in 30 week and also when we started including the members in more of our lessons.

We would find ourselves in an area and know we had to be there for some reason. We would pull out our map see who was there and do visits. When we visited member we teach a short lesson and then inform them we were going to do contacting in their neighborhood for the next 30 minutes. We would ask them to pray with us and then we would go to work. That night we would contact the member and let them know who we found. We always found someone to teach when we did it this way. Being prepared is important. It’s when we are prepared and ready to go that the Lord can then guide us down the correct paths. The dot system was our way of showing the Lord we were prepared to work.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving, a day set aside to give thanks for the bounteous blessings we have. My Mum is British so we never really celebrated Thanksgiving in our house. While in college my mother came and cooked turkey one year for me and we spent the entire day watching Doris Day movies. It was fantastic. However while I was in Germany I was taught for the first time the true celebration (party style) of Thanksgiving.

We had been invited to celebrate Thanksgiving day with a family in the ward. They were American and upon learning I had never truly experienced thanksgiving they were excited to have us over. They had invited the elders as well which was a great things once we arrived and we saw all the food – let me back up a bit, I’m getting way ahead of myself here.

The Harris family was amazing. When we first arrived in the ward and I didn’t speak a word of German, Sister Harris was quick to comfort me. She told me it took time and that she was still learning. She was one person outside of my companion, that if I had a need/issue I could go talk to her and she understood everything because it was all in English. They had a few kids who sadly to say spoke better German than I did even 6 months into my mission. They were sweet and full of Energy.

The family lived outside of the city and so it was a bit of a hike to get out there. Thankfully the Elders had visited the family before so we made it there with no issues. From the front door you could smell the most wonderful smells your noise would ever experience, oh it was heavenly. As we entered the house we were informed that the turkey wouldn’t be ready for another hour or so but to have no fear there was plenty to do until then. We played board games, read books, and even played a bit of American football. It was a lot of fun and those kids were great.

Finally dinner was announced and as we walked in and saw all the food, I’ll admit I was very glad the Elders had been invited as well for I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat enough. There was a giant turkey, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, corn, peas, green bean casserole, salads, jello, and pies upon pies. It was an incredible sight. We ate until our bellies hurt and then ate some more. Sister Harris sent us all home with food and a pie. It was amazing.

How wonderful it was to have an American family in the ward. A family that knew Thanksgiving might be hard for a few of us missionaries – myself not included. They gave up their entire afternoon to feed and entertain the missionaries. I know that we each prayed that the Lord would multiply this families blessing abundantly that next year because of the great service they did for us. That Thanksgiving will never be forgotten by us missionaries as it was such a tender mercy and true act of love.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen

Babak

Every Monday we would head into town to a little internet café. It was small and a bit dingy but it had cheap internet. We would pay for our hour and then sit down and write our emails home.

One afternoon while finishing up our emails a man came up to us and in English stated for everyone to hear, ‘ you are missionaries with the church.’ Looking at each other both Sister Christopher and I answer yes and asked if he was familiar with the church. He said yes and then told us his story. He was from Pakastan and was kicked out of his country because he became Christian. He had been in Berlin for a while and had met the missionaries up there once. We jumped on this opportunity and set up an appointment to meet.

After our first appointment we knew he was special. He had this deep desire to learn about the gospel. We started teaching him regularly meeting at least once a week. Along with our regular appointments he would attend our English/German class during the week where we either taught German or English depending on who came.

We had ordered him a Persian Book of Mormon and when it finally arrive he was so excited. He started reading immediately and by the next appointment he was half way through. He’d tell us that he loved reading it and he knew it must be true. We were at the church building one afternoon when he proudly informed us that he had finished reading the Book of Mormon. We asked what he thought about it. He paused for a moment looked up into the sky and then back at us and then told us he knew it was true. We invited him to be baptized which he agreed would be good.

He wanted to thank us for sharing the gospel with him so he planned to feed all of us missionaries for Thanksgiving, which he knew was a big American holiday. He made this amazing spicy, Pakistanis food that was…..I loved every savory bite. The elders were very impressed with him and his testimony of the gospel. The Elders taught the lesson that day and talked about baptism and why it was important. Babak looked so happy and so ready.

Our next meeting was in the city. We met at a small ice cream café. I don’t think it was that warm but we ate ice cream anyways. Babak informed us that day that the Spirit had told him he was supposed to marry Sister Christopher. Imagine our surprise when we heard that. We obviously had not taught him enough or correctly about the Spirit and how the spirit works and feels because he thought he was in love with Sister Christopher. And right there over ice cream had proposed.

I should preface this a bit. I had the most beautiful companion every – tall, nicely built, thick blond curly hair, amazing eyes…there isn’t anything wrong with her at all. So the fact that someone was interested in her doesn’t surprise me at all. Just that as a missionary she would be proposed to does because I didn’t know that type of thing happened. Especially while teaching the gospel. apparently he felt that they had been dating since we met. At what was I a chaperone.

We laugh at the experience now but at that moment it was a bit of a blow. We taught about the spirit and how his feelings for Sister Christopher were wrong. We met a few more times with him, but were sure the Elders were present. I actually believe we had them start teaching the lessons and we just sat in.

In the end he stopped meeting with us all together. There was no joyous baptism or confirmation. There are no stories to be told of how he became the next bishop or went on to be a great leader. Instead there is one blog post about this amazing man and how he came to know the truth. There are days as I think back on my mission quietly say a prayer asking that Babak has found the missionaries again. That he is following the spirit and that some day he will once again find the Church and be able to embrace it.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen