Twenty-Fifth Week Email

Hey Friends & Family,

So half a week in Gwangyang 광양 has already flown by. It was so weird
last night putting away my planner from my last transfer and bringing
out a new one. Gwangyang is pretty much the exact opposite of Gwangju
it's crazy. Since Gwangju was so big we could go out and 전도 street
contact all day but now that I'm in the country side in a branch it's
completely different. Now we have to knock doors all day long but
knocking doors is probably one of the funneist things I can do with
Elder Ward. By the way I haven't stopped smiling and laughing because
Elder Ward is exactly the same as my MTC Companion Elder Brown. Both
of them are from the same part of Arizona and they act exactly the
same. It makes both of them so mad because everybody tells them that.
But Elder Ward is so laid back and everybody loves him when they
answer the door so it's a pretty good time. And Elder Ward is probably
one of the nicest people I have ever met. I get so mad because he's
constantly trying to buy me something, make me food, or compliment me
all of the time haha. We had known eachother a little bit before I
came down here because he had to come sleep over at our house for a
few combined district meetings and mission tour. But life is good here
in Gwangyang!

So yesterday was a pretty interesting day at church. Our church is on
the second story of a building and it's super small but brand new. But
our Branch President has to be one of the best member's ever. About 20
people show up to church and 8 of those people are his family. He has
two of the cutest girls ever and they run the place pretty much. And
we had a fun time yesterday when I did a split with him and we went to
visit less actives around the city. Even though most of the people
don't come to church they have the best relationship with President
Yoo. He would basically call them and tell them that we were coming
over and they were so happy to see us. It's kinda cheating when he
brought his two daughter's a long because you can't not let them into
your house haha. But as we were driving to their house's he told me to
think of a couple messages we could share and it wasn't hard at all to
think of a few because I have been doing it for almost every day for
the past 3 months. And it was so much fun to work with our Branch
President the first day that I met him and I could semi communicate
with him all day long. But Korea has a pretty hard time with retention
so we have always been doing a lot of less active work but everybody
that I have visited with always invites us in and feeds us because
they love the missionarie's.

That reminds me of something I thought about this week. Korean's have
this ridiculous ability to give you anything and you can't turn it
away. I'll be knocking on a door one second and all of a sudden it
opens and I'm being told to sit down in their living room with
homemade mesheer (Japaneese plum) and fruit layed out in front of me
and I don't have a clue how it happened. It seems so strange because
in Korea they have so much respect for anyone older than you. If I'm
teaching a guy that is a year older than me I'm suppose to think of
him as 형 hyong which is older brother. He can basically tell me to do
anything that he wants but he also takes care of me like I was his own
little brother. It seems strange because Elder Ward and I work with a
lot of people who are much older than us but they treat us exactly how
they would treat old friends. It's such an amazing characteristic to
have and you can really see the love Koreans feel for everyone around
them.

Well I love my new area, branch, and companion. It's super different
from what I'm used to but so was speaking and hearing Korean 5 months
ago. Elder Ward is also so supportive when it comes to my launguage
ability and he has already taught me so much. Well I love all of you
and I can't wait to tell you all about Gwangyang in the future.

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Twenty-Fourth Week Email

Dear Family & Friends,


So Happy Father's Day! So today was awesome! let me tell you how we
started planning this p-day. About 3 weeks ago we decided that we
wanted to ask President if we could go to the Yeosu World Expo with a
ward member. He said yes and thought that sounded like fun... I guess
fun enough that President, Sister Furniss, Elder and Sister Brunson
(Financial Senior couple), The AP's, and pretty much all of the two
zones in Gwangju went haha. It was such an amazing experience. I have
so many pictures I'll try to get sent home. They had a bunch of
country pavilions that you could visit and see what that country was
doing to help maintain the ocean and every country just dropped so
much money on the pavilions to make them as awesome as possible.

Well that was my p-day and I just wanted to talk about that for a
second. But I hope all of you are having an amazing Father's Day so
far. I was thinking a lot about this past week about what I could
share with all of you. I think one thing that kept on popping into my
head was that this is transfer week. I actually got a call from
President and I'm being transferred down to Gwangyon with Elder
Allred's MTC Compaion Elder Ward. I love Elder Ward he's exactly like
Elder Brown (My MTC Companion) and everyone tells him that and he
really wants to meet Elder Brown now. But I kept on realizing today
that I was leaving Poonghyang Ward and Gwangju and it honestly makes
me a little sad. It feels like home whenever I walk into our super old
apartment and sit at my desk everynight. I love all of my
Investigators and the Member's here, they take care of me so much. We
have been making so much progress here lately with everything and it's
going to be hard to leave here.

I think the reason why this has been popping up into my head lately
while I've been thinking about what I could say to all of you for
Father's day, is that I'm not sure if I could do this with out my Dad.
Sure I could have made out on my mission without my Dad but I'm
talking more about the support I recieve from him, and everything he
has ever taught me. There has been countless times on my mission when
I get mad because I say the exact same thing that my Dad has told me
in my life. I get mad because at the time the advice he was usually
giving me was in response to some mistake I had made and I didn't want
to listen to it. After I say it I always catch myself thinking that he
always has to be right even when he's on the other side of the world
haha.

I'll share a story that I'm sure all of you have heard a million
times. Well I went on a split with a Korean Missionary up to Chumdan
which is the biggest ward in Korea right now. I think I already told
you that we went out and played baseball in the morning with an
investigator. Well I can't remember exactly how old I was but I had
just reached the age to be in the Major League in Little League
Baseball. I had just come from the Minor League where we either had
coatch pitch or machine pitch. I was in my first year and I had my
Older Brother and his age group playing with me and it seemed like
they threw the ball so fast while pitching. Needless to say I was
scared of the baseball coming at me so fast and I kept on stepping out
and closing my eyes to hit the ball. Well if you guessed right I
wasn't even close and I was being struck out all the time. Well my Dad
wanting to teach me what I needed to do took My Older Brother and I
out to a park in millville with a bucket of balls and a bat. As usual
Travy went first because he's older and he can do whatever he wants
haha, but he was hitting the ball. My Dad told me that it was my turn
and I had an idea of what he was going to teach me that day but I
should have assumed that my Dad was going to teach me in a way that I
would always remember. I got up and he threw the ball and I stepped
out and closed my eyes. He reminded me of everything that he had
taught me about stepping into the ball keeping my eyes on the ball. He
then gave me a warning if I did it again that he was going to hit me
with the ball haha... So I did it again and yes my Dad beamed me. I
was young and I was completely shocked that my own father would do
that to me but again I stepped out during the next pitch so he hit me
again. So for some reason I assumed that he wouldn't do it again and I
stepped out again because just like before I was scared and he pasted
me again. I finally decided that I'm just going to step into the ball
and keep my eye's on it because there's a chance that he won't hit me.
If I stepped out and closed my eye's I knew for a fact that he was
going to hit me again. So I finally followed my Dad's advice and hit
the ball and that following season I had the best batting average on
the team. Something that still helps me out to this day even when I'm
on my mission with an Investigator and another Ward playing baseball
and they keep on calling me the professional foreigner in Korean
because of what my Father had taught me when I was little. And the
feeling of actually hitting the ball far outweighs the small amount of
pain from getting hit by a ball.

Well I'm sure to some of you that story sounded horrible and to others
you might be laughing right now but I'm grateful for what my Father
has taught me throughout this life. And I'm grateful that I have his
support while I'm on my mission and meeting some of the most wonderful
people in the world. I can never put into words how grateful I am to
be on my mission and how grateful I am for my Dad. Well I love all of
you and when I talk to you next week I'll be in the most country part
of our mission haha.

Elder Jensen

p.s. Dog soup was delicious haha I'll get my SD card sent off today so
Tawns can hopefully post some pictures on face book haha.

Twenty-Third Week Email

Hello Family & Friends!

So this week was a pretty fun one in Korea like always. Not a whole lot happened this week though. It was another testing week in Korea so basically we couldn't meet with any of our investigators. So that was tough but I did go on a split up to 첨단 (chum-don) which is the biggest ward in Korea right now. They have a young mens activity every saturday morning and I finally got to play baseball. They love baseball here and I'm so grateful that my Dad spent so much time with me when i was little teaching be the fundamentels (Even hitting me 3 times in a row because I was scared of getting hit and kept on stepping away from the ball...thanks dad). The pitching mound was super close and those 15 year olds tall Koreans can throw the ball pretty fast but I still was able to hit every time at bat. Except for the very last inning in the second game where I just got beamed. It would have hit my body but I blocked it with my left hand and my hand is just purple right now haha. But they had a couple of Investigators there so they had so much fun. After the game the bishop told us that he would take us and the investigators out to lunch and they took us to the nicest meat buffet which was super expensive. So we spent all morning and afternoon with the ward and we finally went back to teach such an amazing lesson. I was with Elder Lee who is still a pretty young missionary as well but we worked super well with eachother.

 

The rest of the week has been street contacting and door knocking the entire time. And the Humidity is getting up pretty high these days so sitting in those apartment stairways can be rough. But It's always fun trying to work on my approach and thinking about what I need to say. And working on pass off which is our memorized lines that we have to work on our entire mission. All of the other Native Missionaries always make me speak only Korean to them so it can be frustrating but it helps out so much. I just have to learn how to say everything in the most basic and simple way.

 

Well sorry there's not a whole lot this week. We have a bunch of Elder's staying at our house tonight because we have combined district meeting tomorrow. So it's always fun to have a bunch of Elder's around. Elder Yoon is my favorite native missionary here. I spent my language study with him just saying stuff that I wanted to say in lessons in english and he would just write it in Korean the way he would say it. I love the Korean people so much and they treat me so nicely. Even random people will offer to buy us drinks because we're out in the sun all day in church clothes. Koreans have a gift of giving. They just put whatever they want to give you in your hands and will not take no for an answer haha.

 

Well I have to go because we have a lunch appointment with a member and his wife. They are taking us and the Sister missionary's up to a huge buddhist temple that survived the Japaneese when they invaded. And what are we going to eat for lunch?.... just some 보신탕 which is...... drum roll..... DOG SOUP HAHAHA! don't worry everyone I'll send some pictures home next monday haha. I think alot of you aren't going to like this e-mail a whole lot. But I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week.

 

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Twenty-Second Week Email

Dear Family & Friends,

Well another super fast week in Korea. It's strange to think that I'm halfway through my second transfer already and pretty soon I will probably be leaving Gwangju. But I can never predict what's going to happen with transfers. But I'll probably have to come back to Gwangju in the future either for general conference or zone conferences. Unless I'm up north for the rest of my mission which would also be great.

 

Well something amazing that happened this week in Gwangju was with that boy that we met on the bus last week. He ended up meeting us to go over to our ward barbecue and our Ward fed them so much. His sister came a long and they are both amazing at english. Well we got to the barbecue and we were just having a good time and just having small talk. We were running out of things to really talk about when all of a sudden his little sister screamed a really high pitched name. She screamed the name of one of her very close friends who is the daughter of our newly called Stake President. Apparently she didn't know that her friend was LDS but our entire ward including us were really confused. Everybody knows how two highschool girls act together when they are close friends haha. Anyways that changed the entire night just having those two being such close friends. Ward members make the biggest difference in missionary work it's hard to even explain. But from there on out we had fun playing ping pong and just talking the rest of the barbecue. At the end of the night when we started to introduce our church and the Book of Mormon the Stake President's daughter helped out so much teaching. And the Brother and Sister were very receptive to all of it. They both took a Book of Mormon and we made a return appointment. Well the Brother ended up texting us the next night telling us about how stupid laman and lemuel were all of the time and we just laughed.

 

Another amazing thing that happened this week is that we had a referal from Elder Anderson (My roommate at the MTC) and his Trainer. Well they had invited him to a baptism at the Stake Center and that's where we were going to meet him. He had met with Elder Anderson and his Trainer to learn english because he plans on going to the US later on in life. Well they hadn't talked about our church at all but he came to the baptism and when it was time they invited all of the non-members to come up and watch the baptism. The bishop of the ward started talking to him about how we baptize by immersion just like Jesus Christ was baptized and talked about that for a while. After the Baptism of course there were refreshments... We're Mormons there has to be refreshments. But when we talked with him later that night we told him about the 30/30 plan where we teach english for 30 minutes and the Gospel for 30 minutes and he said that was fine. He followed that by saying he wanted to talk about Baptism for our first meeting and it totally caught Elder Allred and me off guard but we just nodded and said sure.

 

I'm still amazed at everything I'm able to see out here every single day. I was talking to one of our Investigators and I was explaining how life is without TV and Phones. He thought that it sounded terrible and honestly at one point in time I thought it would be hard. It's such a nice break to pull out my scriptures and just read. The world especially Koreans have their phones glued to their hands at all times through out the day. Now it just seems like more stress and more of a distraction to me than anything. That's another blessing of my mission that I have added to the giant list of blessings that is growing everyday. Well I love all of you and I hope that you have an amazing week.

 

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