Eightieth Week Email

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   Well there's another week that flew by. I can't even begin to tell you how much happened this week. It felt like every plan we had all week long fell through but by the end of the week we actually had a lot happen.

   I went on about 3 splits this last week so I think that's probably why I didn't feel like anything happened in my area but we saw a lot of miracles this week. I had one of the most confusing moments of my life. I had 5 different really old men calling me daily and wanting to do the english program. And every single one of them had a really thick accent and apparently they all thought I was fluent because they spoke really fast haha. Well after we finally got everything planned out we get to english class a my phones starts going off because nobody can find the church. So I went out trying to find all of these older men and it was a pretty interesting time when I have been in the area for 2 weeks and my companion is a new missionary. But after all of that confusion we actually sat down with Brother Yang who has to be one of the most receptive people I have ever met. He would listen really well and than think for a few seconds and would ask the best questions. He would actually connect some of the dots in his head as far as why we believed this way and why we believe that way. At the end of the lesson he just told me that he had always wondered about the mormon church and he said that everything so far sounded great to him. He had a lot of similar beliefs about religion. We then talked about his beliefs and he brought up some really good questions that he has always wondered about.

   Just like I was blown away by learning a new language and learning how much it takes to understand a new language, I think I have been equally blown away by what it takes to teach. Teaching is still probably one of my weaknesses, but I have never taught the exact same lesson twice. Of course it's because people are different but just being in a mission where every missionary talks about how they teach and how this method is good for this situation and this method is good for this other situation, most of these methods just end up contradicting one another. So now I have come to the conclusion that I can prepare as much as I can and I can have a plan in place but when I finish the lesson, we talked about nothing I had planned. That's where the spirit comes into play with everything I'm trying to do these days. I've seen a lot of people say my way is best and others argue with that but I'm basically at the point where if I could do everything God's way I would be the happiest person in the world. I know that I have to use all of the knowledge and experience He has given me and try my hardest but there are some days where I would rather just know what He wanted us to do here and I could just follow haha. I guess that's why I really like that quote of "pray as if it all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on you." Well that's Elder Jensen's thoughts of the week. It probably makes a lot more sense in my head but I guess we'll see how you think about it. I can see so many faults in my self and things I need to work on but they can become strengths so now I'm just trying to follow God's path for me. Mainly because my path doesn't work out a lot of the times haha.

 

   Well I love all of you and I hope you have a great week. I'm already looking forward to this next week.

 

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Seventy-Ninth Week Email

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   Wow I can honestly not believe it's already Monday again. This week just flew by way too fast but it was still a great week. Elder Allan and I just went out and went to work. Right now we're serving in the Sunhwa ward. The ward here in Daejeon split and my ward had 15 members move out of the area so now we have one of the biggest most populated area's in the mission and our ward is very small. Well our Bishop sat us down yesterday and told that to our faces and gave us a really good pep talk. But we made a lot of new plans with the ward that I have never really tried and we got some new ward missionaries so I'm really excited to see where this goes.

   We just had a week where we saw so much happen. We met a new friend this week and him and our member are the exact same person. Our member was baptized this year and he's going to be one of my best friends. But we called him up to meet with our new investigator and it was creepy how similar they were. They both even wore the exact same pair of crocs which is unheard of in Korea apparently but I've never really had an experience like that before. But that relationship made the biggest difference during the lesson and Brother So our member did amazing. It was a simple introduce everything and get to know eachother and teach a little bit kind of lesson. But by the time we finished our new friend got our member's number and they have already texted a little bit. I wish I could just explain to all of you how similar these two are and how great the just hit it off but I guess it's one of those things you have to see.

   We had a few other pretty great experiences. We met with our friend John is an american living here teaching english. John has to be one of the smartest people I have ever met when it comes to education and history on religion. He was a part of the seventh day adventist religion and we had such a great conversation. I don't know how to explain everything we talked about but I had the worst feeling the entire time we were talking. Not because we were bible bashing or anything like that but when John talks about all of his thoughts and all of his views on religion it was just so sad. He even had to stop at one point and he apologized for talking about those kinds of sad things. I kind of sat up and looked at Elder Allan and we both had this blank empty looks on our faces and I could only imagine what we looked like to John. And after we talked for a little bit he did mention that he loved that about our religion. That we are always so happy and that happiness plays such a big role in our lives. But the reason why I was so sad by the time we left is because he told us that he's not happy. He told us that he really enjoys sitting down and talking about things like that and he doesn't really have an idea on what he believes and that's okay to him. He is completely content with not finding happiness and just really talking about these things with all sorts of people. That was normal to John and that is how he has come to believe in everything he believes and I can always respect somebody for having that much desire to study and ponder about things but I guess when everything was done he told us to our face that he wasn't happy, and he was content with that. That's still something I can't really wrap my mind around but the walk home was a quiet one and I felt so sad. I was content for a while in my life and I don't regret that time but now I'm sitting in a Korean coffee shop with the biggest smile on my face and I'm nowhere close to being content. I haven't been comfortable since I left Jeonju and that's such a great blessing to me. The most important lesson I had when I was learning how to swim is when my dad told me to jump off the diving board and he would catch me... we all know how that ended. But I learned so much on my mission when I went co-senior with Elder Pobst. I learned even more with Elder Hughes when I was training. I guess the main point I'm getting at is that it's really easy to be content but that's where I saw my progress slow and that happiness we talked about with John slow down as well. And talk about getting out of your comfort zone by being in a country where none of the foreigners are 10% fluent in the language and culture almost seems opposite in every way. And I love it.

   Well that's Elder Jensen's thoughts on the week. I hope I have more to tell you next week and I hope all of you have an amazing week. I will.

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Seventy-Eighth Week Email

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   Well I'm now in my new area with Elder Allan who is from California. All I can say about this area is that I just love it so much. Elder Allan and I have just gone out and worked. These young missinaries are the best and it's really nice to have somebody who just wants to do the funnest parts of missionary work like contacting and knocking on doors. We worked really hard and he taught such a great lesson on the street yesterday and he's just pretty great. And the Investigators I have been meeting and talking with are just amazing. We are working with Brother GS and I have never met anybody like him. He came out to this giant English Village that President Shin hosted and he has been meeting us a lot and coming out to church. He came out yesterday to a baptismal service for a young girl in the other ward and he's just so receptive. He absolutely loved it and when some of the member's spoke very bodly like koreans do sometime he was just so sure about his answers. Like when a member asked him when he was getting baptized and he said in 3 weeks he just smiled. He's a pretty amazing friend already and him and Elder Allan are just the best of friends.

 

   But it's just been hitting the ground running these days. I almost became a little comfortable in my last area and now I'm here. We're meeting a lot of new people and people here in Daejeon are just so nice. We talked to this man on the street the other day who was wearing really dirty clothes and had a small dog and he was so nice. He told us his daughter lived in california and bought us some drinks, and told us to follow him. So we walked down the street with him and he pointed to our right and said this is my building and we were looking at this small run down two story building thinking, "that's nice." But it turns out he was pointing to the 15 story building behind it that he was completely redoing. But he was probably the most humble man I have met in a while and we talked about the gospel and the Book of Mormon and took off. He told us to call whenever or just stop by anytime so we're going to see him hopefully very soon. Things like that have been happening left and right since I came here and I'm excited to see what's going to happen.

 

   Well I have to get going but I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week! Have a great week!

 

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