Ninth Week Email

03.06.2012

Dear Family & Friends

Well this last week seemed to fly by and 3 weeks from this exact moment I will be in Korea so I'm starting to get hit with a reality check. So much has happened in this last week it's hard to choose something to talk about. I'll start with Mary our investigator who comes to TRC every saturday. Well Sister Judd has been meeting with her and the missionaries throughout the week and we have written her Korean letters so we were so excited for her to show up to TRC. So we get to TRC on saturday and Elder Morris and Elder Keetch had a whole lesson prepared on how we can recieve revelation through prayer and they even made a little chart and bought stickers so she could track her praying and reading of the Book of Mormon. Well we got to TRC and she wasn't there. So it was kinda sad to see Elder Morris and Elder Keetch be so prepared but there was nothing they could really do so after a 40 minute lesson in Korean about prayer we headed back to the class. Sister Judd was giving us a lesson on how we could do everything right but at the end of the day it's up to that person and how they use their agency. As soon as she started to teach Korean her phone went off and it was Mary's host mom and it said that they were here so we had a unscheduled field trip back to TRC. Mary is the tiniest most shy person I have ever met but at the same time she had this huge smile on her face and she couldn't stop laughing. We all went into a room and introduced ourselves in Korean and told her where we were from and she told us a little about herself. Than for some reason Sister Judd (I have this strange ability to know when Sister Judd is going to choose me for anything) asked me to tell Mary why I'm serving a mission in Korean. They were simple sentences and I shared a quick story about going to Texas and it was probably the best I have ever felt while being here at the MTC. She even asked a few questions back sometimes and I answered so it was just an awesome experience. After all that Elder Morris and Elder Keetch were able to teach their lesson and they did amazing. As we finished up and she handed back some Korean letters that she wrote for us we headed out of the TRC building. We did not say a word all the way back to class. I think it kind of hit us right then that there are actually people out there that we are going to be teaching. We have been stuck inside this bubble called the MTC for almost 2 months now and we have been so sheltered from the world and to have an experience like that was such a blessing for all of us. Her host Mom told us that she has been loving all of the letters that we write her and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. They read every night as a family and since the Korean Book of Mormon can be pretty hard to understand she reads from the Book of Mormon stories for kids.  Her Mom told us that at first she never really seemed interested in reading every night but now it's to the point where she will go and sit in the front room and if they don't show up on time she says "Mom.... are we going to read now?" haha. Mary was so embarrassed after her Host Mom told us that story. And it sounds like the Missionaries are going to teach her the 3rd lesson and challenge her to be baptized this week so we are all on edge right now waiting for any little piece of news we can get from Sister Judd.

   The entire experience reminded me of a lesson that Sister Judd had taught us at the beginning of the week. We came into class and she wrote in big letters on the white board "In moments of pure happiness miracles happen" and she had a list of random things below that. She told us stories about her mission and how this saying has helped her in her life. I remember sitting in that little TRC room with all 8 of us facing this little Korean girl and her Host Mom and we must have looked so strange. Here's a bunch of Americans, a Canadian (Sister Kwok), and a German who are speaking very broken Korean and have these huge smiles on their faces. That was my first real moment with an Investigator. She went out of her way to come to TRC and bring us our letters and meet us. When Sister Judd asked if she wanted to bring her other friends who are in the student exchange program with her she kind of hesitated. I guess all 9 of them are going to church with their host family's so Sister Judd didn't see why it would be a problem. Mary ended up telling her that she didn't want to share us with anyone else haha.

   Another moment that happened this last week was more on the funny side and it was something that we all needed. It was late after planning one night and we were just EXHAUSTED. I'm tired all of the time now so I'm sorry if I'm all over the place in the e-mail. Well we promised our teachers that we would stay in the class until 9:25 every night. So as I sat there with Elder Brown, Elder Anderson, and Elder Breckwoldt I was just zoning out. Elder Brown is one of the funniest kids I know and he has gotten to the point where the smallest thing can throw him into a laughing attack. Well I was just messing around and I turned off the light in our class room. We sat there for a couple minutes and I was playing with my flashlight when I told them that I was going to wait until somebody looked through the peep hole on the door and I was going to shine my flashlight in their eyes. Apparently this was hilarious because Elder Brown lost it. He has the funniest laugh so as he was laying on the ground laughing I started to laugh a little bit. That small laugh ended up as another laugh attack. Eventually Elder Anderson lost it and Elder Brown is rolling on the ground, I'm face down on the ground with my back pack smashing my head, Elder Anderson is face down on his desk, and Elder Breckwoldt is sitting in his desk thinking how stupid we are. It was exactly like the times where I would sit in the Warnick's living room with Brock and Chandler and we would just laugh because we were so tired from a full day of golf. One person would make the other person laugh and that would make the other person laugh and it was just an on going cylce of torture. It made me how much I love it here and how much I love being with my District for 16 straight hours a day.

   Other than all of the craziness it has been just an awesome week. Our Native Koreans who leave with us in 3 weeks got in yesterday. We attempted to go find them last night but they were already sound asleep so I can't wait to meet them today. I loved the last district of Natives and I can't wait to spend the next 3 weeks with this District.

   Well that's all of my happy stories for the week and I hope everything is going just as great for all of you back home. I'm really loving the language and we have had a few good days so we have been studying outside now. I'm up to about 20 new words a day now and I try to review all of them throughout the week. My District is amazing at Korean and I'm so happy I'm able to have the oppurtinity to meet with all of them one on one every week and just get to know them a little more and help them with anything. I'll send home my SD card this week to Tawns so hopefully all of you can see some pictures. I love all of you and I'm so grateful for all of you.

 

Elder Jensen