Fifth Week Email

02.07.2012

Dear Family and Friends

 

   So so much has happened in the past week it blows my mind. I'll start with the night after I e-mailed you last week. So every tuesday night we have a devotional and it so happened that last tuesday was the devotional for the 50th anniversary of the MTC. So many rumours were going around about who was going to be there so our district made the decision to go extra early because we already knew that the entire floor was reserved for special guest. So the Devotional started at 7 and and we had lunch at 4:50. Elder Brown and Elder Gibbons wanted to eat so I went on a split with Elder Anderson so that we could hopefully save some spots in line. We get to the big teaching building which is connected to the gym and we stood shoulder to shoulder with 100's of Missionaries for 2 hours. We inched our way up closer and closer to the gym doors and when the time came to let the Elder's in it went crazy. So after some strategy and some careful calculations Elder Anderson and I made it all the way up to the top of the stairs. After I saw some people that I knew (Elder Brown and Elder Gibbons) I lost it. I was so confused on how they managed to make it up so far ahead of us. So as we inched closer and closer to the door the security guard announced that they were pretty much full so that we should start heading over to the overflow and watch it on screen. My heart sank a little but I was still determined that I was close enough that I could still fit in. So after we let a few Sister's ahead of us and they got in I saw Elder Brown and Elder Gibbons at the door. The Security Guard let them in and said that that was it. We were two sets of Elders away! Everybody just went silent and I was pretty sad. As I turned to walk away Elder Anderson tells the security guard that he just let his companion in (Elder Gibbons) so I followed my District Leaders example and said the same thing. So we got in! It was such a crazy night. But after we sat down they still had seats open for hundreds of missionaries that they brought over from overflow so we would have gotten in anyways. So as we started to sing the last hymn the doors open and in walk Elder Holland and Elder Nelson and their wives! Two Apostles of our church. I was so happy that I could have that experience and there wasn't a sound that entire meeting. I think people even held in coughs just so they could hear everything these Two Apostles of God had to tell us. And I'm not going to lie Elder Holland has to be the most intimidating man I have ever been in the presence of. It seemed like he was staring right at me the entire time but I guess everyone else felt that way. Elder Holland spoke about how we are obligated to spread the truth that we know. Why would we keep something that can only bless people in this life and throughout all of eternity. Elder Nelson was the main speaker and he told us the story of the Provo MTC and a lot of stories about missionaries who have buildings named after them at the MTC. It made me realize what missionaries had to do when the church started and how spoiled I am to have the MTC and the ability to be fed, taught, and have a warm bed to sleep in everynight. This place is truely amazing and I'm pretty grateful that I can be here.

   Well another thing that i have been thinking about a lot this week has been the trials that we face and how we go about them. I heard a quote this week and it really got to me. I don't know the exact words but it went something like,

"We cannot change the wind, but we can adjust the sails." I have had a few "rough" days with being at the MTC this past week. I have always been pretty hard on myself for decisions I have made in life. So when i know that my mindset isn't on my mission as much as I want it to be I'm pretty hard on myself. So I took a lot from this quote about changing my attitude to the circumstances that I find myself in. We can't control what happens to us but we can make a decison between keeping our heads up and making the best of the situation where I know we can grown a lot from that experience. Than we can be a victim and continue to keep a bad mindset and i know from my personal experiences that this only leads to unhappiness. Well I hope I don't sound so preachy (that's a lie I hope i do sound preachy) because I still have to work on this every second of everyday and i feel pretty far from achieving it, But I know that I'm in the best place possible for me at this time to achieve this goal that I set.

   I guess I can tell you how my district and I stay sane down here. So Monday's are called Merry Monday's where we have to be super happy the entire day. We have to thank everyone about whatever they do in a very loud and happy way. It's great to see some missionary's responses. Tuesday's are P days a.k.a. christmas. After an entire week of learning and teaching lessons in Korean it's nice to only have a few things planned in a day. I still have so many letters to write so I hope everyone can forgive me for not writing back so soon. Wednesdays are fresh meat and ice cream days. I remember when I was with my host going to all of these buildings on the day i got dropped off. I had this bright orange sticker on my name tag (dork dot) which told everyone that I was a newby. I can only imagine the look I had on my face that entire day, but one thing stuck out to me. Wherever I went that day pretty much every Elder and Sister yelled "Welcome to the MTC Elder!" Every missionary here knew what was going through my mind that day so it was pretty nice to feel welcome. And they also serve all types of Ice Cream at lunch and dinner that day. Thursdays are rough, they are called Thirsty Thursdays. We have to drink four cups of anything with each meal and everytime a teacher says the word gospel in english or Korean we have to take a swig of water. It's a nice cleansing day for our body but it can get pretty rough. Friday's we have Jeopardy with our district. Each week we pick someone to host Jeopardy and it gets pretty intense. Don't worry there's a lot of Korean language questions or Korean cultural questions on the board. We also have Prime time Gym under the lights. We finish our day off with Gym and it's such a nice break to go play volleyball or go lifting. Saturdays are mini p days because we have our service project in the morning. So a lot of Elders have to scrub toilets or mop stairs. Our service is with these two Hispanic Sisters who go to BYU and they love us. We teach them Korean while we arrange chairs for sacrament meetings the entire time. We basically have the easiest service project and we have a lot of fun doing our service. And right after our service we have gym so it's a really easy going morning. And Sundays are our spiritual days where we can take a break and focus mainly on the gospel and being taught all day long. We also have a devotional that night followed my a movie in the big gym.
   I feel like I just want to tell everyone about everything that happens while I'm out here and how great it has been. But I have to be obedient and my timer is down to about 2 minutes (30 minutes to e-mail family) so I'll finish up. Well I love all of you and I'll keep you in my prayers. Again don't worry about me I'm doing great.

 

Elder Jensen