Fifty-First Week Email

안녕하세요

   Well that was a crazy week. It was very strange to talk to my
family... They are kind of a weird bunch haha. I'm kidding I love
them. But that was so nice to be able to say hi and it's always
awkward because I have stuff planned to talk about but I never talk
about it haha.

   Anyways my Christmas was wonderful mainly because all of you are
amazing and I really felt your love during this Christmas season. We
were also able to go with the other Elder's in our city to visit the
Sister's at the Hospital. One of the Sister's was in the Hospital for
4 days and we did everything we could to make her Christmas special.
But don't worry she's all better now and She's out working again.

   Well we had a few fun things this week. We had our Christmas party
that some of our Investigators showed up for. And lets just say Korea
is an interesting place haha. I'm not going to tell you everything the
missionaries did for our performance but just know that our Member's
loved it haha.

   We were also able to go out to the country side and help out one of
our member's with some service. His name is Brother Kim (I think the
only people I e-mail home about have the last name Kim) and he loves
having us around. His wife and daughter live in Seoul but he doesn't
like the city at all so he lives in a two room house that is heated by
a wood burning stove. And he is just happy living like that. He really
misses his family but he is able to see them a lot. Well we went out
and climbed up a down a mountain side carrying wood and branches for
about 3 hours straight and I just loved it. It reminded me of all the
camping and fixing up properties that we use to do when I was younger.
But we were able to get him enough wood to supply him for another
month or two and he would just laugh and say 나무 부자 (Wood rich person)
haha. It was so much fun and I think I kind of missed service
opportunities like that. When I was in Suwon it was such a big city it
was hard to find service projects like that. But We'll probably head
out there in another month or two and get some more wood for him.
Mainly because Korea is freezing haha.

   We were also able to meet our Member's son. Our Member Brother Kang
has one of the strongest testimony's I have ever seen. From the time
he met with the first missionaries and before he was baptized he read
the Book of Mormon twice. He had tried to help his children meet the
missionaries but they didn't want to at the time. Well we still don't
know what happened but His son showed up the first week I came to
Jeonju and he's been out to church ever since. After we became friends
he finally was okay with having us over and start the lessons last
saturday. It was so much fun and he thinks we are just funny. Mainly
because he thinks we can't do anything in Korea because of the
language haha. Anyways we had such an amazing lesson. He's Dad is just
such an amazing support for him and we would just kind of teach about
something and ask him a few questions and then his Dad would come in
and bear testimony and just teach in such a loving way. It was such an
amazing thing to see. And he is just like his dad. He has been
studying with his Dad lately and he's so outgoing in church and isn't
afraid to speak up whenever the teacher asks a question. We have set
up a few meetings throughout the week and yesterday (Sunday) His
daughter came out to church we were all just friends immediately. The
Sister Missionaries were able to talk with his daughter a lot and
during our ward lunch we just had fun.

  Well life is good and I love all of you. I love Korea and I'm having
the time of my life. it's going by fast and I'm trying to make
everyday count. Have a great week and I'll talk to all of you next
week.

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Fiftieth Week Phone Call Home

Elder Jensen made a phone call home this week and had nothing but great news to report of his mission so far. He loves the Korean people and although "they're short" he has enjoyed getting to know every one of them.

Forty-Ninth Week Email

안녕하세요

 

   Well what a fun filled week in Korea haha. I'll just start one day was spent in Daejeon for our christmas party which was crazy. Being with my 동기(dong-gi) was so much fun. That means we were at the MTC together and came to Korea together. I really want to find a word in english that would work for that. Anyways we had a huge party and did gift exchanges, watched madagascar 3, ate american food, and had a devotional. And I don't want to brag or anything but my 동기 is by far the coolest 동기 in our mission.... actually I did want to brag a little bit.

 

Well it was a pretty great week though. We started off the week with meeting one of our member's and his friends. Elder Rice and his last companion built an amazing relationship with both of them and it was so nice to go in and just have an immediate trust. And also to have our member there the entire time to just tell his friend how everything has improved and helped in his life. So far this ward has just been amazing with having spare time and instead of watching tv they give us a call and see if there's anything they can help us with. I was shocked the other day when we were planning and we had planned on calling our member but when we finished up he texted us and told us that he wanted to help us that day haha. But we have spent a lot of time talking to people and trying to find more people to meet with and that's always fun. I talked to somebody yesterday who lived in Chicago for a couple years and he actually walked up to us and started telling us about how he knew a mormon kid in his school and he was always the nicest person. We made a quick appointment and that is always such a strange experience haha. You spend all of your time talking to people and somebody finally walks up to you and wants to meet later on haha.

 

Sorry I'm really boring this week but it has been a little crazy with the christmas party and everything like that. Elder Rice is doing great and we are having a great time. Christmas time is starting to settle in and it's such a great time to be a missionary. Just like watching general conference felt different this time of year feels different. We have been out sharing messages about christmas with memebers and it's completely different how I have ever spent christmas and I actually really love it. Well have a great week and I love all of you.

 

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Forty-Eigth Week Email

안녕하세요

   Hey there everyone. So one of the coldest weeks of my life but it has been a good one. I did make the trip down to Jeonju this last week at I have just been bundled up the entire time with thermals, sweaters, and all of my warm stuff. I was actually really surprised by how much it snows in Korea. I'll try to send some pictures off today so all of you can see. 

   Well my week was a little sad. It's never fun to say goodbye to friends but I know that Elder Joe will take care of them. I think the hardest one was to Sister Kim and Junesoo. So we had a blizzard last Wednesday. Well Wednesday is when we have our english class but traffic was crazy and snow was coming down like crazy so we didn't have anybody really show up to english class. But Sister Kim took a bus through a ton of traffic and came to say goodbye with Junesoo. She made me a little picture album with a ton of pictures of all of our fun moments and she bought me a scarf that I really needed. That was probably the saddest goodbye so far of my mission. I'm really going to miss Sister Kim and her family but I basically commanded Elder Joe to keep on visiting them and loving them.

   But now I'm in Jeonju and it is so amazing. It's not as big as suwon but it's still a pretty big city. It's also getting easier and easier to give my introduction talk at church's every time I transfer. And the ward was so nice and it was probably one of my favorite Sunday's of my mission. And it was really nice to serve around 3 other missionary's in Suwon who served in my new area called Joongang. They gave me so much advice before I left and I was able to ask a lot of my ward member's about those missionary's and it made them so happy. A pretty fun thing that happened yesterday though was that I served with a missionary named Elder Miller up in Suwon. Well he was in this area two transfers ago and his recent convert is was one of the strongest member's in the ward here. Well he brought his son up to us yesterday and the first thing he said while pointing to his son was 침례 안받았아요 which means very bluntly he hasn't been baptized haha. I love how blunt the Korean culture is sometimes haha. Anyways after the awkward laugh we just talked to him for a while and set up an appointment to meet this week. He was a really nice guy so that was something cool to happen our first week. When Elder Miller heard he was blown away that his son actually came out to church and talked to us. So it's great to see something like that happen in your first week in a new area. I'm super excited to see what Elder Rice and I can do this transfer together.

Well I have to get going now but I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week. And don't worry Elder Rice and I set up a Christmas tree and it's actually really starting to feel like Christmas time. We have been making Christmas message cards that we will hang on our member's doors. So it's honestly an amazing time to be a missionary right now.

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Pictures: Me (I look like I'm about to rob a bank.... but very warm) and my adorable Companion Elder Joe. Sister Kim, Junesoo, and me wearing the scarf she gave me. And my Christmas tree.

Forty-Seventh Week Email

안녕하새요

   Well this was a great week in Korea. I really don't even know how to begin haha.  Well I started my week with a split with my District Leader. He was basically given the responsibility to give me a heads up that I needed to show my current companion everything haha. Basically meaning that today when I recieved my transfer call I was going to go to another place. So yeah after a week of showing him EVERYTHING I could possibly think of he is really stressed still. But I did just receive my phone call and I am transferring to a place called joongang which is probably about in the middle of our mission. My new companion will be Elder Rice and we will be co-senior so I'm really looking forward to that. Elder Rice and I stayed in the same room at the MTC for 6 weeks so we already know each other pretty well. 

   Anyways back to my week. We met all of my Investigators this week which is great, usually there was always somebody who couldn't meet or something always came up but not this last week. So I was able to meet everybody for one last time. The small heads up was kind of nice to really tell everyone goodbye one last time and not have to do it over the phone.

   But an amazing thing that happened this last week was a family who came out to church again. The mom has the disease where her bones can break very easily and it was passed a long to her son who is 3. It has also made her have to use crutches for her entire life. The first time I met with Mr Kim he had his son who had fallen down and broke his leg so he has always had a cast. They also have to hold him all the time and protect him from everything. It's something that might seem hard to most people but it has really brought this family so close together. Well Sister Kim (the mother) grew up going to church and she has heard some things about our church which was a little unfavorable. But I'm just happy that she could come to church and actually see for herself rather than listening to the things that other people tell her. Well during the week we were able to go to our bishops house and have dinner with them and another family and it just felt so natural. The little boy just loves me haha. He can tell something is different but he still hasn't fully figured it out yet. If I say hello in english he will just stare at me but as soon as I speak a little Korean he's just laughing and wanting me to hold all of his toys and everything. We also met with Brother Kim at his work this week and he showed us his collection of guitars, amps, and everything. Basically it all added up to over 15,000 dollars and he ridiculously good when it comes to playing the guitar. Which was super nice because my Companion Elder Joe is learning how to play the guitar right now. Elder Kim was a member growing up but hasn't been to church in maybe 10-15 years and when his mother saw him having some struggles in life she helped him come out to church again.  he has told us how only two weeks of going to church and helping his wife learn more about the gospel just feels different. He told me it felt like riding a bicycle remembering all of the sunday school answers. He also told me how he can remember some of the primary songs... Which I'm still convinced those songs are burnt into my memory forever haha. But it was such an amazing experience to see it happen so fast. I'm a little sad I can't be here with them longer but I know that Elder Joe loves them a lot so he will take care of them.

   I will be able to see Sister Kim and Junesoo one more time before I leave. They are the two who Elder Meigs baptized before he left. I was really sad to see some of my members for the last time but I'm just off to make more friends. But Sister Kim is just still there all of the time. She comes out to church, english class, and we still meet with her once a week. I think one of the greatest parts of my mission so far was to see our gospel doctrines teacher turn to her during class and ask her to answer a question for our Investigator who was there. And she answered it in a way that you could just tell she knew that it was true. She still loves everything so far and I'm really going to miss her and Junesoo, chereem (Her daughter). 

Well I gotta get going but I love all of you so much. I hope you have an amazing week and sorry this letter is all over the place. My phone won't stop ringing because it is transfer call day. Have a great week!

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Forty-Sixth Week Email

안녕하세요

Hey there everyone. So this week.... yeah haha. It's been a good week I would say. We made the trip down to the mission office and I picked up my new companion. His name is Elder.... Jo Gwangjin. Yes he's a Korean. And I feel like I haven't spoken any english since Friday night. And now I'm full senior but Elder Jo speaks perfect Korean so it doesn't really feel like I'm full senior.

But one thing that has happened throughout this entire experience is that President Furniss and my other leaders have really been there to help the entire time. They were really supportive with Elder Pobst and they have helped me out alot. This is one of those spiritual growth times that I'm actually very thankful for and I'm happy I can experience it.

Speaking of being thankful I forgot that this week was Thanksgiving. I'm sure I celebrated it differently than all of you but don't worry Elder Pobst and I still celebrated. With a full chicken from a street vendor and instead of stuffing there was rice inside of the chicken. And for a side dish we had... more rice haha. But we did go around the table and say what we were thankful for. And I did teach our english class about thanksgiving and we did the same thing. And it was so nice when most of them told us that they were grateful for us and teaching them english.

Well I have to get going now but I love all of you. I hope you had an amazing week. I did and I'm sure I'll have an amazing week this week. 사랑해요

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Forty-Fifth Week Email

안녕하세요

   So this week has been an interesting week. So I guess I will just
start with the news. So we found out last week that Elder Pobst will
be going home this Saturday.He has some things he needs to work out
and he's doing it the right way so I honestly look up to him for the
example he's showing right now. And he has been doing amazing this
last week and has been showing a lot of strength. It has been really
hard to focus but President promised if we just work we would get
through that last week. So if any of you can send some love to Elder
Pobst I would really appreciate it. He has been one of my best friends
in the mission and we have been through a lot together ever since we
came to Korea.

  It was a really good week to meet with our Investigator's though.
Whenever I meet with any of them I just have the best time and we
always have a great time. We were able to meet a lot of new people
this last week too so that's always a great thing. Brother Beh found
our advertisement for free english at our Investigator's University
and called and set up everything. After English class we had a great
discussion with him and our Ward mission leader and he was just so
nice. And him and our ward mission leader hit it off very well so that
made everything so much better. We also met with a lot of our member's
in the past week and I just love all of them.

Well it's been a week to grow and to learn and I couldn't have done it
anywhere else. I'm going to miss Elder Pobst alot but I'm happy that
he's doing it the right way. I love all of you and I hope you have a
great week.

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Forty-Fourth Week Email

안녕하세요

Hey everyone. So another week of wonderful missionary work. Let's just
say it has been a long week and I had so much fun. And I learned so
much.

I started off my week with a split. I had our district leader Elder
Campbell come to our area and that was super fun. One of our
Investigator's is a english teacher at a university way out in the
country side. Well we went out to his university and spoke in his
class. He let us talk about our english programs and leave all of our
cards and our number up on the board. After that we went around the
university hanging up advertisements for our english program and our
phone has not stopped ringing for the past week. So that will be fun
to see what comes out of that. After that day we had mission tour and
Elder Ringwood who is our area president came to talk to us. It was
such an amazing day to be there and I learned a lot. And it's always
good for our mission to be able to have those kinds of meetings.

We were also able to find a lot of new people this week. We met with a
woman who is from Alabama and her husband on saturday. She chased down
Elder Pobst last transfer to tell them that she had Mormon friends in
high school in the U.S. and they were always the nicest people. So I
guess that shows you how far your example can go. 8 years and on the
other side of the planet.

Well this next week seems like it will be pretty interesting but just
know that I love all of you. Have a great week and I'll talk to you
next week.

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My Halloween costume

Elder Meigs and Elder Jensen

Forty-Third Week Email

안녕하세요

So that was a long/interesting/tiring/fun week haha. Every spare second we had we spent studying Korean this week haha. But one full week down as co-senior and I had to learn so much in this past week. 

Elder Pobst and I have just been working. That's the best way to describe it haha. We were talking last night and it already feels like we have been together for a month now but it's only been a week. 

So something that was pretty great this week was we met one of our Investigator Families and we had such a wonderful time. And since I have been meeting with them the daughter has improved so much at english. Mainly because the Mom teaches her all of the time. But Sister Park wouldn't stop commenting on how thankful she was. She also told us about how she came to Korea from China and has been so lonely the entire time. And everytime we come over and visit their family they are just so happy. They told us how they met and we just had a great discussion about families and why are church treats families so importantly. We would try to share our message and Sister Park kept on insisting that we try in English and we would say one line and she would go off in Korean and we would teach for 20 minutes and then she would insist that we speak english again haha. It was pretty fun experience and I think she'll stop trying to make us speak english eventually.

We also found out some pretty sad news on sunday. One of our coolest members in our ward who translates is moving to Malaysia this week or next. So there's a few other people who can help with translating but the ward basically said that now we have to split the translating up evenly haha. So Elder Pobst and I are going to have a lot of fun over the next few weeks.

Well sorry my letters are so boring these days. I'll try to make them better for now on. But I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Jensen

Forty-Second Week Email

안녕하세요

   So.... this has been a long 3 days haha. It's been so much fun
though. Church was a pretty fun experience. I had to do my first
missionary counsel meeting and that was pretty fun. I talked about
most of our Investigator's and it was so fun to speak that long in
Korean. I helped translate for
some of the foreign members in our ward. We have a Korean member who
is going to start a job as translating so she was doing  most of it
but she had to ask me a lot of questions throughout the entire
sacrament meeting. I also translated for Elder Pobst's introducing
talk so that was pretty fun. After that we went to our gospel
doctrines class where our bishop pulled us out and introduced us to a
less active part member family. And now we set up times to eat at our
bishop's house with them this week. I pretty much have no idea how
Elder Meigs did it but I think after some time I'll get use to
constantly planning all of the time. But Elder Pobst and I are doing
great together. We thought this companionship would either ruin our
relationship or make us best friends. I guess we have 6 weeks to see
what happens haha.

Well we had our halloween party last saturday night and it was
awesome. I sat behind a white board and attached candy to the end of a
fishing line for 2 hours straight and helped set up for the party for
3 hours before that. So it was a pretty long night but it turned out
pretty well and the stake is really happy with the missionaries right
now. Sister Kim even helped us out alot with our fishing game that we
set up so it was great to see her there. Her kids had such a great
time so it has just been a great week. Another great thing that I saw
this week was when we were sitting in our gospel doctrines class I saw
our teacher treat Sister Kim just like a member and it was such a
great feeling. I also saw one of our member's daughters pray for the
first time out loud in a very long time. Our Member's family wasn't
coming to church a lot but after Elder Meigs they come out every week
and participate so much. I've also seen the relationship between the
Mom and her daughter's grow so much. I just love my area right now and
everything that is going on.

Well I have to get going but I love all of you. Sorry my e-mail is all
over the place but it's probably going to be like that for a while.
Have a great week ^^

Elder Jensen

Forty-First Week Email

hey there everyone....

So craziest week of my life. But don't worry crazy in a completely
amazing way. Yesterday was just amazing. Our Ward did amazing when it
came to Sister Kim's and Junesoo's baptism. It was a day that I
honestly hope I will never forget. I'll be sure to send some pictures
to Tawn's as soon as possible. Sister Kim was meeting with
missionarie's before Elder Meigs and I both came to Suwon so the ward
was so ready to welcome her.

But right now I'm a little distracted. Probably because I just
received my transfer call and I'm going Co-senior with Elder Pobst (He
came to Korea with me) and he's one of my super good friends in the
mission. So I'm really excited and a little nervous because I can
count how many transfers I have had in Korea on one hand. Elder Meigs
has helped me out so much though. I have had the phone for the past 3
weeks and I have had to speak in church so often now it almost feels
normal to speak to a big crowd. But I have a ton of work to do this
next transfer and it's going to be interesting to see how this works
out.

Elder Meigs and I have been having so much fun lately. Our President
Furniss always tells us that if we aren't having fun we aren't doing
missionary work right. And I have learned so much the last transfer.
It's going to be a little sad to see Elder Meigs leave but he's going
to have a blast in California. Make sure that some of you make fun of
him on facebook or something for me.

Well I have to get out of here but I love all of you and I hope you
have an amazing week. I know I will.

Elder Jensen

Fortieth Week Email

안녕하세요

Well first of all thankyou everyone for the awesome birthday wishes
and packages. I had the best birthday ever. I wear my winnie the pooh
beanie all around the house and the mini golf cart doesn't make me
want to golf at all..........

Well I'll tell you some quick stories because I don't have a ton of
time today. So on my birthday we went had our weekly planning session
until lunch and our study times after lunch so we just wanted to get
out of the house super bad. After our study times we went to our
favorite member's english academy and had 3 lessons back to back with
the people that she reffered to us. And all of those people just love
us so much, and Sister Kim the one that we have been working with a
lot lately showed up with her son and a birthday cake for me. I had
showed her my family picture book one time and the title page has my
birthday on it. Well she remembered that and just randomly showed up
and we had a small party with our member, her family, and my
investigators and it was the best. And our Member brought a ton of
meat and they apologized for the strange meal but I told them if they
fed any american cake and beef they would be so happy.

Well I love all of you and I hope all of you have an amazing week. And
congratulations to all of the newly engaged people. I just started
laughing out loud in this government office when I read about the
announcements.

Well church is true, Book of Mormon is blue (Missionary editions), and
I love you.

젠슨 장로

p.s. Thanks for telling me how great conference was and this huge news
about missionary work rules..... I'm in this really far away country
where I won't be able to watch conference until this weekend so I have
no idea what is going on haha.

Elder Meigs hanging out with his best friends at the Korean folk village.

Sister Gee (our member) Sister Kim (our investigator),  Junesoo (Sister Kim's son), and me making the worst face EVER!

HyunSo, Junesoo, Elder Meigs and I with some hair issues going on...

Thirty-Ninth Week Email

Well hey there,

   So this week has been a complete wreck haha. Last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday was Korea's thanksgiving called chu-suck. So everything has been closed for a few days so I can finally e-mail all of you today.

Well another crazy fun week in Korea. We had an amazing few days with Investigators and english class. It started off on monday when we went to a Korean folk village with our friend Brother Kim. He's Korean but speaks fluent english with an english accent haha. We saw all of so many amazing things about how the Korean people use to live and it was such a great time. I'll see if I can get some pictures off next week.

We also met with our Investigator Sister Kim who has been going to more church events than we have lately haha. We would show up to our Bishop's house and she would be there, or to our friend's house for chu-suck dinner and there she was again with her two kids haha. That always makes for a great time. But we had an amazing  lesson with her this last week and it really cleared up a lot. So we'll see how well that goes this week. But they are such an amazing family and our relationship with them is built on the gospel and it is so different from the normal relationship that we are just foreigners and speak english.

And at the end of the week on Sunday we went to our member's house who we love and had our chu-suck dinner. When we showed up there was Sister Kim and her son and daughter so we were so happy. And I think my favorite part about the week was we just sat and talked with all of them and they treated us like family. That might be one of the best feelings is to be treated normal when we are completely different from about 99% of the people in this country haha.

Another super funny thing that happened this week was at about 1 am one morning somebody just started pounding on our door really loud. I was so tired and woke up to it but just went straight back to sleep and it happened again. Elder Meigs hopped out of bed and as he hopped out of bed we heard the voice of our Zone Leader Elder Decker. Turns out  that Elder Decker and Elder Pobst (He came to Korea with me) hopped on a bus and missed the stop they should have gotten off at and the bus went straight to the freeway and up to Soul and to the richest part of Soul which I'm sure all of you have heard constantly. It's called Gangnam, which yes I have been hearing that song constantly for a few months now. Every Cell phone store and coffee shop blast that song out on the street. So we spent that night with 4 of us in our tiny apartment and we only have 2 foam pads and a couple blankets so I pretty much did not sleep after they got there.

Well I have to get going now but I love all of you and Happy birthday to Isla just barely, what is she like 6 or 7 by now? And thank you for all of the birthday wishes I love all of you. Have a great week.

Elder Jensen

p.s. I'm with Elder Bricco on a split right now. He is the Grandson of the Bishop that sent me on my Mission.