First Contact From Germany

Wow!  This past week has been like living in a black hole. . . no contact from our missionary, and very little info from the mission president!  I have been praying very hard for Jaren's trainer, knowing nothing about him.  I have been trying to be patient in my waiting to hear something, anything, from Jaren, and looking every day in the mail for the "hard copy" of the picture the mission president emailed to us.  Jaren's email arrived today, about 5 hours ahead of the letter from President Ninow.

Jaren's p-days are Tuesday, so that's when we will be hearing from him.  Jaren tells us he is in the little town of Hanau, outside of Frankfurt.  His trainer is Elder Norton, but Jaren didn't tell me where he is from or much about him, except that he is also the oldest in his family and he was in the Marines before his mission.  Here is what Jaren has to say about his companion and experience, so far.  "He is pretty organized with the way he does missionary work, so I have no complaints at all.  Both of us are new in our area.  I'm sure that President Ninow has already sent you an email telling you this information and the area I'm serving in, or at least he said he did."  (no, he didn't send that information, so it makes me wonder what information I'm missing out on with each thinking the other told me!)  "I'm serving in a little town outside of Frankurt called Hanau.  It is just to the east in the outskirts.  It is a nice place, and your typical German town/city.  When Elder Norton and I got here, our area book had nothing in it, we had no investigators and a few 2 or 3 contacts and that was it.  We have been busy ocntacting people non-stop since we've come here and we have already found some success.  We were in a small town of Maintal, just west of us a few days ago and we were doing doors." (tracting, knocking on doors to talk to people, is my guess) "We had done several doors and were at the last door of the day.  Elder Norton and I were both heading to the door when someone else was walking down the street.  Elder Norton said, 'okay, I'll do the door, and you go contact that person', "so I did.  As soon as I introduced myself, and told her a little bit about the church, she said, 'I recognize you!  I had two of your representatives contact me about a year ago.  I've got this problem, there are so many churches around today that say follow me, I'm the right one, follow me, I'm the right one, but none of them follow the Bible at all.  They all have corrupt practices!' "I just about fell over!  Here I was just contacting this person, and here she was wanting to know the truth.  I knew what she was saying, but I couldn't respond so well, so Elder Norton took over.  We got her name and number.  She is about 40 years old, has a 17 year old and a lab.  Her name is tatjana.  We are pretty sure that she is divorced.  We shared a  little bit about Joseph Smith right then, but we needed to be heading back.  We set up a return appointment with her for Monday, or yesterday.  We went to her apartment and she was bubbly and waiting for us."  (more than I can say for most people we made appointments with on my mission!)  "We sat down and gave her the first lesson.  The spirit was so incredible in that meeting!  I can't even describe it to you, but she nearly asked us about every single ordinance in the bible and asked if we had them. . . we then shared the Joseph Smith story with her, and she broke down.  Both Elder Norton and I felt the spirit fill the room as she looked at us, almost as if she were thanking us for what we shared with her.  We then gave her the Book of Mormon, and mom and dad, she just took it!  I didn't do too much talking, but I understood what she was feeling and what she was saying.  We asked if she wanted to read a part of the Book of Mormon before our next lesson, and she wanted to read through the whole thing.  We have her her copy and she just stared at it and kept feeling it and flipping through the pages as if it were the most precious gift she was given.  She is so ready for the gospel.  The only hurdle to jump over with her is the word of wisdom.  I don't think she drinks, but she smokes and probably drinks coffee.  But she felt the spirit penetrate her, that her testimony will just flare!" (yes, these are his own words!)  "She is incredibly happy and wonderful to talk to, and very open on gospel topics.  Not much has happened here in Hanau before, but the fact that we have Tatjana as a new investigator within the first three days of arriving here, is a miracle.  Anything that happens here is a surprise and success, and it is fun to see us go from nothing to something and watch the growth happen."

The mission president sent us the mission address and Jaren's apartment address.  It's a good thing he did, since Jaren didn't let me know what it is.  The mission address is:

Deutschland Frankfurt Mission

Corneliusstrasse 18

D-60325 Frankfurt am Main

His apartment address is:

Elder Jaren Smith

Rhonstr. 8

63450 Hanau

There are two little dots above the o in Rhonstr.  They are called an umlat, but I don't know how to spell it!

President Ninow said, "We are happy to report that your son, Elder Jaren Smith arrived safely on Tuesday.  His flight was even a few minutes early in landing and the day was beautiful. Despite the lack of sleep, he looked good and was excited to be here.  The day was a long one for him as we try to keep the missionaries up until in the evening so they can establish a routine quicker and get over jet lag sooner.

We met the group at the Frankfurt airport, greeted them and then they took the train, with my Assistants, to the mission office.  At the office they were oriented--completing paperwork to register in Germany, receiving their VISA cards so they can access their missionary support funds and learning about cars, bikes, and apartments.  From here they went with a group of missionaries to the pedestrian zone in the city where they participated in a street preach.  He can tell you the details when he writes to you on their preparation day, which is Tuesdays in our mission."  (well, he didn't give me a lot of details in this email, so I will have to write and ask, I guess!)  "However,  they were successful fand felt good about getting started so soon after arriving.  We are always grateful to have new missionaries come into the field as they bring a sense of excitement and a spirit of great faith.  They even cheered when they got off the train and got their first real look at Germany.  It inspires and energizes the whole mission."  (I would have cheered, too, to have a look at something besides the walls inside the MTC for nine weeks!)

"After 1:00 p.m. the group arrived at the mission home and Sister Ninow and I both spent some time getting acquainted with your son.  I had a few minutes to conduct a brief interview and we even enjoyed sitting in the backyard of the mission home and enjoyed a game, to basically keep everyone awake. . . by this point in time, the entire group was getting sleepy so after a typical German meal, they went off to a nearby hotel for some much needed sleep.  On Wednesday, Elder Smith, as well as the other new missionaries, were introduced to their new companions and headed off the their first areas of assignment.  We had another wonderful training meeting with them where the spirit was felt very strongly."

He included a map of the mission, and highlighted the town that Jaren is in.  It is a part of Germany that I have never been too.  I'm not sure if Jaren has been there before.  He might have been before we moved there when he was in the third grade, but I don't know.  He didn't give me many details, remember!

That's about all the mission news I have for now.  Look for new posts by the end of Wednesdays in the future.  Hopefully I can be prompt enough to get info on there by then!

Aufwiedersehn!