Sister Jordan Brown - Mission History
Sister Jordan Marie Brown
Frankfurt Germany Mission
July 30, 2014 - January 22, 2016
Areas served: Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Dortmund
Once upon a time, in a small city called Provo, a Sister Missionary took a journey to a far off land called Frankfurt Germany. Not knowing the challenges she would soon face, she took her two bags, a smile and a bag of chocolate, and entered into the MTC on July 30, 2014. A year and a half later ... now comes the mission history of Sister Jordan Marie Brown and all the many adventures she had in Germany. The blessings of baptisms, experiences, rejection, heart ache, the pure love of Christ and more all soon to come.
Well, the time has come, my mission will soon be ending so I should probably begin my mission history. Everyone said the mission would fly by, and that when the time came to an end that I wouldn't want to go, and that I would miss this place. I didn't believe them in the beginning, or even through my mission at times. I was ready for the glorious moment of getting off the airplane and running to my family. But now, packing my bags and getting ready to walk out our door for the last time in Germany, I feel a large peace of my heart being left behind with this place.
Going back to before my mission ... my decision to go was a bit of a spontaneous decision. I decided that my life was too enveloped around myself, and that it was time for me to give up myself for a time and serve others. Just like the talk from President Hinckley. "Forget yourself and get to work." I planned to make that my motto.
I remember finally reaching the Missionary Training Center, or MTC, 5 months after making the decision to go on a mission. The first week was a huge reality check for me and what I had signed up for. I was not used to so many rules and restrictions. I think, for me, that was the hardest thing in the MTC. I was used to living on my own and used to surviving, but having a companion 24'7 by your side telling you the rules wasn't the easiest thing for me.
My first companion in the MTC was Sister Arianna Bates from Utah. The best word I could use to describe her is "a fireball of excitement and desire serve." She was almost a complete opposite of me. She dreamed of a mission since she was little, and was ecstatic to get to work. Looking back now, she was the absolute perfect companion for me at the time. I needed her more than I admitted. She is a perfect example of humility and love. She helped me learn to love to follow the rules, and more importantly she helped me strengthen my own testimony.
The MTC was, in my opinion, the re-planting of the seed for my testimony. I knew the church was true, I was willing to obliviously follow the commandments and was willing to give time to show God I love the Gospel. But, I found that through my mission I learned WHY I follow the commandments, and found a greater love of God to have the desire to do so.
I learned a lot in the MTC ... another important thing I learned was German! (hah) There is a phrase in Germany that is, "deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache", the close translation is "the German language is a hard language". To this phrase I say, "AMEN!" (haha) I studied 4 years of Spanish, and though I wasn't fluent, it was very difficult to kick that out of my head and replace it with a completely new language.
I look back to my first emails home and have a good laugh. One instance I wrote "Feeling the spirit 24/7 is exhausting. I feel like it makes me so hungry and tired all the time, but it's a good kind of exhaustion!" That week I believe I got two packages from my family of just food. (haha) I think they thought I was being starved (lol).
After a long-awaited six weeks (I never thought we would make it), but I remember finally getting to the airport and sitting on the plane to our first connection in Dallas. I was sitting next to this lady and had the strong urge to talk to her, but I let my nerves get to me and I didn't say anything. Then we heard over the intercom from our pilot, "Attention ladies and gentlemen, due to the bad weather we are going to wait and watch this plane take off in front of us and if they do alright, then we will go ahead and go, as well." I looked at the lady and kinda laughed and said, "Are we gonna die?" She laughed, too, and that was the start to an awesome conversation with her. I think God knew I just needed a little encouragement (haha).
Getting into Germany was a very blurry experience ... They rushed us around to do paperwork and eat and have interviews with our new mission president, and then sent us off to a hotel for the night. I was alone for a little while, while we waited for our trainers to come in, and I remember looking out the window and thinking, "Well, too late to turn back now. This will be a long 18 months ..." Man, I was so wrong about that.
Transfer 2: Wiesbaden Germany
My Trainer was Sister Kathleen Taylor ... Man, she is just a big ball of love and compliments. Sometimes I had no clue how to reciprocate. She is such a great example to me and we had an amazing time together! Our first day together started off with a street display and I got to hand out two Books of Mormon, that was an amazing feeling to realize ... "Ya, I've got this!"
My first impression of Germans was: "I love the people here so much already! They are just so wonderful! They are a little bit of 'grumpy elves', but that's okay, I can fix that!" I think it was new to just walk on the street and not see very many smiles.
My first month in Germany I spent a lot of time getting used to being in another country and getting used to the culture. We had a lot of adventures. My first week living in Germany I had an electric heating blanket and a converter without a surge protector. I now know how vital a surge protector is after having the apartment electricity shut down and fry my blanket along with it. Oops! I also learned that there is a German and an American way to eat. Germans eat with a fork in the left hand and knife in the right, never put your hands on your lap under the table, and ALWAYS wait till the head of the house says, "Guten Appetite" before eating anything.
Sister Taylor and I had so many funny times. She has become a dear friend to me, which I am very grateful for. She pushed me past what I thought I could do and she would ask if I was comfortable. When I would reply, "No," she would say, "Good, then you're growing." That was her motto, I think (haha). If your comfortable then you are not improving and growing, but if your uncomfortable then you are learning something new and becoming better. I'll never forget that lesson.
I learned really fast how to fake knowing German in appointments that we had. I would watch (out of the corner of my eye) the facial expressions of Sister Taylor, and then I would copy them. Then after the appointment I would ask her what had happened in there and what they were talking about. Then she would shockingly ask, "Wait, you didn't understand any of that?" Ha ... I wish I could say German came super easy to me and that now I am completely fluent at speaking and sound like a native, but no, that's not the case.
An experience I won't forget from this transfer was when we were meeting with an investigator from Africa and her name was Nellie. The Sisters had been teaching her for a while and we came in and were reviewing the lessons, when out of no where Sister Taylor and I asked Nellie to be baptized. And guess what ... she totally said yes! Man, that was such a miracle. She had to go to Africa the following month for a few months, but the invitation was out there and she accepted. I've learned that that is all we can do as missionaries. We can't control the baptisms and the choices of people, but we for sure can control how many times we invite.
Transfer 3: Wiesbaden Germany
To make things interesting in the mission, President added another Sister to our companionship. This was Sister Lauren Sherwood. She was almost about as new on the mission as I was, so this was gonna be fun. It was a short transfer ... just five weeks. But, we had some great times together ... attempted to teach German, and English, many street displays and so many other adventures.
Sister Taylor was called to be a leader this transfer also, so we went on a lot of splits this transfer. A split is when you and another companionship swap companions for a day, basically. It's really fun because you get to see how other missionaries work and learn how you could be better, too. It was a good test for me to see how well I knew the area, though, because on all the splits Sister Sherwood and I had to stay in Wiesbaden, while Sister Taylor went and traveled to the other areas. But, we survived and didn't get lost too much (haha).
A family that we visited a lot at this time was the Gill family. These appointments were always so adventurous because the husband was from Pakistan, but they has been living in Italy for the last few years. They had two daughters ages 11 and 12 that had just recently been baptized before I got there, so we were teaching them the 'new member' lessons. But, we did not speak the language. Luckily Brother Gill spoke English, so we would speak English to him, he would speak 'Urdu', their mother language, to them and they would reply in Italian (haha). I remember one time we also had a member come and she only spoke Spanish and German, so we threw two other languages into the mix. But, those are great memories.
Another thing we did a lot was street displays! I love street displays. You can tell who wants to talk to you and who doesn't. My saying was, "If they look at me longer than three seconds, then I'm attacking" (hah). It turned out pretty good for the most part. We had some really great conversations through these street displays and we 'planted seeds' in the hearts of these people by sharing our testimonies.
Transfer 4: Still in Wiesbaden Germany
When my fourth transfer came around, Sister Sherwood was transferred to Essen and we received another companion to come into a 'drit' companionship, or in English 'a trio'. This was Sister Valerie Eschenmann from France. Our first time together she spoke only German and I began to worry because I, myself, did not speak German like at all, still. But, I later learned that she actually has great English.
I learned a lot from Sister Eschenmann. She was a very diligent missionary and a convert of only two years, but yet had a very strong testimony. With her I learned a very very valuable lesson ... for one, we are a team. Nothing is just one of us or the other; we need each other. Everyone in the church should be on the same team. It doesn't matter who baptized a person or who was the first contact for a person on a bus; but what matters is that these people are coming unto Christ by whatever means necessary. The second thing I learned is that we all show and accept love and appreciation in different ways. There is a talk called: 'Learning the Love Language of Others' and it talks about how people show affection differently. Some by serving others, some by words of kindness and others by a hug or something like that; so, there is verbal, physical and visual. I was so used to showing other my appreciation by visual, doing the dishes or cleaning or something, but I realized that I needed to show love to her with words and hugs. It was a good learning experience through trial and error. I think there was more contention at times, but you learn how to work things out through time and communication.
Sister Taylor, Sister Eschenmann and I were together for the Christmas time, and that was really special. There is something about the holiday season that seems to make talking to people on the streets a greater experience. Everyone is so open and happy to talk in this time of year. We were able to do some caroling and lots of street displays, and found a lot of success from these.
Something else we did a lot during Christmas was EAT! (haha) I've never eaten so much in such a short time in my life. Germans celebrate Christmas from the twenty fourth till the twenty sixth, and we basically ate the whole time, with at leave four appointments a day to eat at. But, it was a blast.
Transfer 5: Still in Wiesbaden
So, this transfer Sister Taylor finally got transferred out and I was to take over the area with Sister Eschenmann. Man, I was so nervous for this when I look back to it. I wasn't sure if I knew all I should to be trusted with a Ward. But, it was a pretty great transfer and we survived (ha).
A miracle in my eyes this transfer was that one day on a bus I noticed a lady kinda staring at us, so I started to talked to her. We found out that she used to meet with the missionaries all the time. She had health problems and the missionaries got transferred and lost contact. So, we were able to help her carry her groceries home and make out an appointment with her, and the missionaries were able to once again start teaching her again. It is such a blessing ... I have learned that if I have prepared myself, God will put people in my path that I need to talk to. Which is just a bigger incentive to make sure I'm alert and talk to everyone I see, to make sure I don't miss those I was supposed to meet that day. I'm not saying I did a perfect job at this, but I sure did try.
There were too many amazing experiences for me to write them all down but instead I will tell you the names of the people from the Wiesbaden German Ward that have truly touched my heart, and I will never ever forget them: the Özdemir Family, Saskia, Nellie, Diana, the Schapot Family, Sister Lourido, and Nick. I wish I could talk about all of them, but due to the short time all I can say is that they all have a piece of my heart.
Transfer 6 and 7: Opening the Wiesbaden Military Area for Sisters AND Training!
Sister Eschenmann and I both got a call from President asking if we could both train new missionaries coming into the field this transfer. Sister Eschenmann was asked to stay in the German Ward and take over there, and I was asked to open the Wiesbaden Military Ward for Sisters. The best part was that we were all going to be in one apartment (haha). One bathroom and four sisters. That was an adventure.
My new companion/greenie/golden's name was Sister Rachel Peterson. I was so excited and honored to have the chance to help her get her feet on the ground and get the hang of mission work. Now what better way than to start off in an American Ward (haha). Okay, it maybe wasn't the best way if you want to learn German quick, but it was so much fun to serve there with her.
She was such a great companion ... she was game for anything. Even if she was terrified to do it, she would give it a shot. She was such an easy companion to get along with. We were able to talk about just about anything and have some great laughs together. We were together for two transfers, so that was nice to have something stable for longer than six weeks. I learned a lot from her, and hopefully she learned a thing or two from me, maybe (haha). A great friend of mine back home told me that I am with every companion for a reason and that there is something to learn from them. My mom says that now with this variety of companions there isn't anyone I can't live with back home as a roommate (haha) ... I think she's right!
Sister Peterson and I saw a lot of really cool miracles in the Military Ward. One was with a family from Washington who were just fabulous. Our Ward mission leader ran into them in his apartment complex and they had been learning about the church for over ten years. We were to call the mom 'Miss Geena' and man, she is just a ball of fun and excitement (haha). I loved talking to her because she was just so real and would straight up say she wants to be Mormon, but she's afraid they would kick her out because she is bold and doesn't hold anything back. Of course that would never happen. But, she was just hilarious. I didn't get to see her baptized, but I hope one day she will feel ready.
Someone that is very close to my heart that I will never forget is Sister Wildt ... She was a member in the military Ward and while working there, I was able to build a great friendship with her. We had some great times together and we were able to have some pretty good spiritual conversations, too. The best times were when we would sneakily ask her if she could drive us to church certain days because of fallen out trains, so that we could get her to church. It was pretty obvious, though, but she would come and we would have a blast at church sharing carrots and chocolate, trying no to starve too much (hah).
One last miracle was Perry and Silvia ... man, they were so cool. One day they just showed up to church because a member invited them. It was amazing. We were able to give them a Book of Mormon and they wanted to learn more. They lived out of our area so that made things difficult, but they came to church a few more times and said they wanted their kids to be members. Silvia wanted to be a member, too. It was amazing. Unfortunately nothing happened with that while I was there and then they got deployed back to the states, but I pray one day they will all be baptized. That would be a miracle.
Man again there are way too many experiences to look back on, so I will just list everyone I remember and people I will never forget: Miss Geena and family, Perry and Silvia, Sydney, Martha, Wagner family, Rosenquist family, Horner Family, Rolf family, Comptee family, McKenna, and Brock ... and basically the whole Ward, but my memory escapes me (hah).
Transfers 8 and 9: Transfer to Mannheim Germany
Well, after 8 months in Wiesbaden I finally got transferred to Mannheim! This area turned out to be quite an adventure. I started out working with Sister Adrianna Morse, but after ten days together her health problems were getting bad with anxiety attacks and other things, so she decided it was time for her mission to end. So I was left to a brand new area and was joined then by Sister Erin Megli.
When President called me to explain that my companion was going home and that I was going to be joined by Sister Megli, he asked if I would be alright. I told him, "Well, I know where our apartment is and I know where the church is so ... Yup, we will figure it out!" (hah) I am proud to say that we only got turned around like once or twice in these two transfers.
Mannheim was a trail for me because not only was it a new area, but it was insanely hot and we had no investigators, so we were out 'finding' all day in the heat every day. Luckily I had an electric fan to carry with me, and that became my best friend.
The miracle of Mannheim, in my opinion, was that we were able to turn it from two appointments a week, to two appointments a day. We found and found and found, until we literally couldn't find anymore. Then we would go get some ice cream and then go find again (hah).
Sister Megli was such a trooper. She was actually in the MTC with me in the beginning, so it was super fun to serve with her again. She is such an amazing missionary. We worked super well together in lessons. In my opinion, we were able to bounce off of each others thoughts so easily.
Through 'finding', some miracles we had in Mannheim were first ... Margit. Man, I love her so much! We found some random paper in our apartment for her, so we decided to 'go by' on her and she was so so so excited to see us there. Elders had met with her in the past and she has such strong faith in God. We had some of the most powerful lessons on my mission, and you could see that she had a desire to be better. She didn't have the easiest life, so I think that was hard for her at times, but I hope one day I will hear that she chose to be baptized.
Second I would say is ... Mrs. Mora. Sister Melgi and I were having a hard day one time and all our appointments had fallen out, and we were exhausted from doing 'go bys' and trying to find people. By the end of the day we decided as we were walking back to catch our train we would ring the doorbell of one person per building until we reached our stop, because that was about all we could handle at that point. The first three doors nobody answered and then the fourth a lady answered on the intercom box, but we couldn't hear her, so we asked if we could come up to tell her why we were here. When we went up we started sharing why we're here and introducing the Book of Mormon, and we ended up staying and talking to her for like an hour! It was so cool! She even had her son come out and read a scripture from the Book of Mormon to practice his reading because he was young, and then she explained what the scripture meant to him. It was such an amazing experience. I got transferred before anything happened with that again, but that was the start of a seed being planted.
Lastly I'll share a time when Sister Megli and I were going by people that were potentially interested to learn about the church. It was getting pretty late, but I found a name on our GPS that was a 20 minute walk away, and Sister Megli decided we could make it. So we started walking out to it and on the way we found a bench, and I sat down to take a quick water break and then we continued on. As we walked, we were getting close to the middle of nowhere when we saw a car drive by and stop, and a man rolled down the window and asked if we were Mormons. I was first shocked to hear that he was speaking English and then he told us that he was a Mormon, too! This happens all the time in Utah, but never in Germany. Apparently he and his family had moved from Georgia a year earlier and he immediately invited us over to his house and Skyped in his brother to show him who he found. I talked to his brother and he asked me to bring his brother back to church (hah). It was such a miracle that we had ran into him. We got a follow-up appointment for the following week and went on our way. Later we found out that the address on the GPS didn't exist; the address was literally in the middle of a field. I think God planned that out so that we could run into this member.
The people that I will never forget from Mannheim are: Vi, the Broos, Mrs. Mora, blessing, the Gezichiari Family, Margit, the Lortz family, and basically the whole Ward, but again ... I can't remember ever single person's name at the moment.
Transfers 10 and 11: Transfer to Dortmund Germany
I was transferred out of Mannheim a lot faster than I was for Wiesbaden, so it was a crazy thing to go to yet another area, which would turn out to be my last area. I came up and joined Sister Dora Nielson for two transfers. It was a really fun time together with her. We worked super hard and saw a ton of miracles.
The first week I was here there was a planned baptism for an awesome investigator named Monia. She is from Italy and found the church, and had a baptismal date within 3 weeks of finding the church. She is a miracle investigator. It was so cool to teach her not only preparing to be baptized, but we also have lessons for those who have just been baptized, called 'new member lessons'. So we were able to meet with her a lot for that, and also to attempt to teach her German. It was quite an adventure.
Sister Nielson was such an amazing missionary. She was such a hard worker and wanted to make sure that our time was always best used. She showed me a great example of reaching outside of your comfort zone. For her, social contacts weren't always easy. But honestly, I would have never guessed if she wouldn't have told me herself. She was able to put her game face on and get out and do what she needed to do. I feel like that is a mission. Just like in the beginning with Sister Taylor ... if I'm not uncomfortable, then I'm not learning. Being on a mission is uncomfortable and inconvenient a lot of the time, but it is the time where I have seen myself grow the most. It is the time I have come closest to my Heavenly Father.
One other great thing I learned on the mission was that I got to learn so much about our religions. We ran into a guy named Nathaniel, and he is a Jehovah's Witness. He kinda ran into us and was interested to learn about what we know. But, it was really cool to not only teach him, but to also learn why he believes what he does. He was such a cool guy. It was fun to teach him and I'm grateful to have met him.
I strongly believe that The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints is the restored church from when Christ was on the church. I know it to be true in my heart. However, to see other religions in the world and to see that they have similar beliefs, I say if they don't what to be a member of our church, then that's their agency. But, I would hope that they, through their church and their beliefs, can bring themselves as close as they can to their Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. To be their best self. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite people to come unto Christ. If I have done that on the mission, I feel that is a success.
Well, there were so many great blessings Sister Nielson and I had together. We learned a lot from each other and we had a lot of fun together. I wish I could go on and on about all the amazing things that we did, but due to lack of time, I'll move on to my last two transfers.
Transfers 12 and 13: Still in Dortmund Germany
My last two transfers I was able to spend with Sister Lauren Bray. If I could describe her in one sentence I would say, "Sincere, trustworthy, hard working, humble, and a true friend." Man, this was such an amazing way to end my mission; working with her for the last three months. There were too many blessings to name. But, I will name a few ...
We made a goal to 'go by' as many less-actives as possible, so we made a plan out for them and started 'going by' the people. One day we felt inspired to go by a certain member named Sabrina. Immediately when we got up to her door she was so excited to see us. She couldn't meet at the very moment, but invited us to come the following Monday. When we returned we had such an amazing experience talking with her. You could cut the spirit with a knife, it was so strong. It turns out that she moved around a lot and right after being baptized, kind of lost touch with the church, but realized she was missing something in her life and she knew it was God. It was so cool to simply confirm and bear testimony of what she already knew. I hope this is a huge stepping stone for her to one day return back to church.
One other that I will mention is one that happened a few weeks with a contact from a bus ... I had noticed him staring at my name tag, so I started to talk to him. But soon after, we both had to catch other trains, so I gave him our cards and invited him to our Christmas devotional, and because we were in a bit of a rush, I kinda forgot about the moment. But, only a few days later ... this guy called! Throughout my whole mission I have not really had a contact call us back unless they were kinda creepy. So, he called back and wanted to come to church. Even though I doubted he would show up, he did! He enjoyed the devotional that was shown, and asked if we could teach him more.
It is times like these that I know that it was only through God that these people are able to come to know the true gospel of Christ. I have learned a lot about how God works through us. Something that David A Bednar recently said was, "We cannot control bringing the gospel into the hearts of these people, but we can bring it unto them." It's not our place to change hearts of the people here; that's God's job. Our job is to give them the opportunity to change their heart.
I have also learned a very important lesson on my mission: Nothing can beat a simple testimony. I may not know everything and have an answer to every question that gets thrown at us as missionaries, but I can testify of what I know to be true. I know that God is there for us. I know that only through Him can we know all things which we need. And even with God on our side, we still won't know everything on this earth, but that is okay; God will bless us if we can follow Him in faith.
I have learned more than I ever thought was possible as a missionary. If I had to take away only a few things from my mission for what I have learned first is ... always, always, always study the word of God. We are forgetful because we are human. If we continually study every day, they we can continually be reminded ever day. The other thing I would say is to pray. My most favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon is in 1 Nephi chapter 10 verse 18-19 and it says, "18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him. 19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." All we have to do is ask. God is always there. Sometimes the answers don't come right away and we have to test our faith. But, answers will ALWAYS come if we DILIGENTLY seek and ask God.
I can't write every experience, but once again I will share the people in this Ward that have touched my heart and that I will never forget. Obviously is whole Ward was incredible and like a family away from home, but here are some specifics: Monia, Nathaniel, the Dröge family, the Rodriguez family, Birgit, the Petzold family, Sister Rafael, Sister Böning, Rusimi and Brother Ilske.
I will close with my simple testimony, that I know, with my whole heart, that Jesus Christ is our savior. That only through Him will we be able to return back to our Father in Heaven. The Plan of Salvation is such a blessing to us. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have and the hope that the gospel gives to me in my life. I know that God will never give up on us. A quote I heard today was "God loves the sinner, not the sin." Although we mess up, through Christ's Atonement we have the opportunity to be made clean. I love my Savior and I know He lives. I know that Thomas S. Monson truly is a prophet called of God to help and warn us for what is to come in these later days. I know this church is true, and I know that you can find the truth of this church by reading the Book of Mormon and sincerely asking God if it is right. I know God loves us all. I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sister Jordan Brown
