First Week Email

01.17.2012


Dear Family & Friends,


So I was told that the MTC was a lot like prison.... well now I'm
seriously considering breaking some laws when i get back because I
love it here. I'm exhausted when i get up to get in a cold shower but
I literally have no time to think about anything but Korean and Kim
Min Song our first investigator. I'll come back to him a little later
on. But when i walked in the door they treated us like livestock
pretty much. It was straight through these guided lines and and they
gave us our name tags. I was so excited to throw it on right then but
turns out all of my suit pockets are sewn shut. But it's the MTC and
they are prepared for everything so they just unstitched it and I put
it on. And the only thing I recognized was my name and the rest was in
Korean. I'll probably be sending home a few pictures soon so you can
see for yourself. After I dropped everything off at my room my host
took me straight to the place where I would be spending almost all of
my time in the next 12 weeks. It's a 8 foot by 10 foot cinder block
room. But I met my Teacher first, and her name is Sister Judd. She
just had the biggest smile on her face and she only spoke Korean the
first day so I didn't understand a thing. But after i sat there for a
few minutes I finally met my Companion.... And no he's not asian haha.
His name is Elder Brown and he's from Arizona. He's probably 4 inches
taller than me but I have him by 15 pounds. So i started off our
companionship with a hug and we pretty much went straight into Korean
lessons for the next 4 days straight.
  So it's Tuesday and I have almost been here for a week and I can
read, Teach lessons, and pray in Korean. It's a very easy to read and
spell words out. I have a tiny flip book in my pockets that i made
flash cards on and I'm constantly trying to learn Dano (vocabulary).
But I am so grateful for Sister Judd! Our room is all decked out and
she has taught us so much in the past 6 days. And our district is made
up of a trio companionship (Elder Breckwolt from germany, Elder Morris
from Salt lake, and Elder Keetch from Missouri) two sisters (Sister
Kwok who is Japaneese but lived in Canada, And Sister Johnson Tooele),
Our room mate companions (Elder Anderson who nonstop makes me laugh
because he's pretty into himself, and Elder Gibbons who might be one
of the best people I know. Our District is probably the closest among
the 3 new districts mainly because we always have the other kids in
our room at all times and they keep on getting mad at us for how far
along we are into our Korean studies. Even the older missionaries gave
Sister Judd some crap for teaching us Past tense which they learned
last week and they have been here for 4 weeks.
   Well Kim Min Song is our first investigator. A lot of the Elders
in our district think that he's just some RM from Korea who's going to
BYU mainly because he's a white guy. I try not to treat him like that
at all. He's 25 and he's from Busan, Korea. He's studying at BYU for
engineering. In Korea if you don't go into school after highschool you
go into the Army. That's where he said he wanted to know more about
God and knew that he wanted to change something in his life. He made a
friend in Korea who was a member and one thing leads to another and
he's here studying at BYU. We have taught him twice already and we are
meeting with him tomorrow.
   Well I'm almost out of time (30 minutes and yes it's timed) I just
want everyone to know that I love them. I hope everybody can know that
this is so amazing here and I love it. I love learning the Korean
Language and I love reading and teaching in the Korean language.
Please don't worry about me I feel so safe in my little prison called
the MTC. This place has been such a huge Testimony builder for me.
It's already taught me so much and I have only been here 6 days. I
can't imagine what it has in store for me in the next 11 weeks. Again
I love all of you and I'm going to keep on doing my best here.

Elder Jensen