Yelled at in German

This one is short but I wanted to share an experience for posterity. I’m sure a lot of missionaries have experiences like this and it’s actually really common. We were tracking one day going door to door talking to people about the Jesus Christ. In Germany they have apartment buildings and what we called Klingels (doorbells) all on one sound box down stairs. If someone wanted to talk to you they would ring you in and you would proceed to their apartment. Once you were done you would then go back down stairs and pick up ringing where you left off until the next person let you in.

This particular day we were having no luck at all. We arrived at the building with about 20 Klingels and started from the bottom. About the time we got to the fourth floor a women answered. We introduced ourselves and said we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and if she would let us in. She said to hold on for one minute and we got ready to be let in. To our surprise the next thing we knew this lady had stuck her head out the window and was talking to us.

I was not phased at all by this. I could totally understand not letting a stranger into the house. So there I went sharing our message about Jesus Christ. Still not being able to understand what most people were saying I just kept on teaching know that Sister Christopher would jump in when I wasn’t getting it right. Then from out of nowhere this women starting yelling at us. I didn’t know what had happened we had been having this wonderful conversation and then this. I looked at Sister Christopher and all she could say was “You don’t want to know”.

This same thing happened a few other time. The promise of success and then this yelling. Finally being completely prostrated I asked Sister Christopher what they were saying. Apparently we were being cussed at from the moment they pocked their head out the window. Thankfully for me being so new in the mission I didn’t understand one word.

Later while I was training a companion I had the same thing happen. This time the roles were reversed and she timidly looked at me and asked “what did they just say”….my response, “You don’t want to know”.

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jenessa Jensen