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