Forty-Ninth Week Email

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   Well what a fun filled week in Korea haha. I'll just start one day was spent in Daejeon for our christmas party which was crazy. Being with my 동기(dong-gi) was so much fun. That means we were at the MTC together and came to Korea together. I really want to find a word in english that would work for that. Anyways we had a huge party and did gift exchanges, watched madagascar 3, ate american food, and had a devotional. And I don't want to brag or anything but my 동기 is by far the coolest 동기 in our mission.... actually I did want to brag a little bit.

 

Well it was a pretty great week though. We started off the week with meeting one of our member's and his friends. Elder Rice and his last companion built an amazing relationship with both of them and it was so nice to go in and just have an immediate trust. And also to have our member there the entire time to just tell his friend how everything has improved and helped in his life. So far this ward has just been amazing with having spare time and instead of watching tv they give us a call and see if there's anything they can help us with. I was shocked the other day when we were planning and we had planned on calling our member but when we finished up he texted us and told us that he wanted to help us that day haha. But we have spent a lot of time talking to people and trying to find more people to meet with and that's always fun. I talked to somebody yesterday who lived in Chicago for a couple years and he actually walked up to us and started telling us about how he knew a mormon kid in his school and he was always the nicest person. We made a quick appointment and that is always such a strange experience haha. You spend all of your time talking to people and somebody finally walks up to you and wants to meet later on haha.

 

Sorry I'm really boring this week but it has been a little crazy with the christmas party and everything like that. Elder Rice is doing great and we are having a great time. Christmas time is starting to settle in and it's such a great time to be a missionary. Just like watching general conference felt different this time of year feels different. We have been out sharing messages about christmas with memebers and it's completely different how I have ever spent christmas and I actually really love it. Well have a great week and I love all of you.

 

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Forty-Eigth Week Email

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   Hey there everyone. So one of the coldest weeks of my life but it has been a good one. I did make the trip down to Jeonju this last week at I have just been bundled up the entire time with thermals, sweaters, and all of my warm stuff. I was actually really surprised by how much it snows in Korea. I'll try to send some pictures off today so all of you can see. 

   Well my week was a little sad. It's never fun to say goodbye to friends but I know that Elder Joe will take care of them. I think the hardest one was to Sister Kim and Junesoo. So we had a blizzard last Wednesday. Well Wednesday is when we have our english class but traffic was crazy and snow was coming down like crazy so we didn't have anybody really show up to english class. But Sister Kim took a bus through a ton of traffic and came to say goodbye with Junesoo. She made me a little picture album with a ton of pictures of all of our fun moments and she bought me a scarf that I really needed. That was probably the saddest goodbye so far of my mission. I'm really going to miss Sister Kim and her family but I basically commanded Elder Joe to keep on visiting them and loving them.

   But now I'm in Jeonju and it is so amazing. It's not as big as suwon but it's still a pretty big city. It's also getting easier and easier to give my introduction talk at church's every time I transfer. And the ward was so nice and it was probably one of my favorite Sunday's of my mission. And it was really nice to serve around 3 other missionary's in Suwon who served in my new area called Joongang. They gave me so much advice before I left and I was able to ask a lot of my ward member's about those missionary's and it made them so happy. A pretty fun thing that happened yesterday though was that I served with a missionary named Elder Miller up in Suwon. Well he was in this area two transfers ago and his recent convert is was one of the strongest member's in the ward here. Well he brought his son up to us yesterday and the first thing he said while pointing to his son was 침례 안받았아요 which means very bluntly he hasn't been baptized haha. I love how blunt the Korean culture is sometimes haha. Anyways after the awkward laugh we just talked to him for a while and set up an appointment to meet this week. He was a really nice guy so that was something cool to happen our first week. When Elder Miller heard he was blown away that his son actually came out to church and talked to us. So it's great to see something like that happen in your first week in a new area. I'm super excited to see what Elder Rice and I can do this transfer together.

Well I have to get going now but I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week. And don't worry Elder Rice and I set up a Christmas tree and it's actually really starting to feel like Christmas time. We have been making Christmas message cards that we will hang on our member's doors. So it's honestly an amazing time to be a missionary right now.

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Pictures: Me (I look like I'm about to rob a bank.... but very warm) and my adorable Companion Elder Joe. Sister Kim, Junesoo, and me wearing the scarf she gave me. And my Christmas tree.

Forty-Seventh Week Email

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   Well this was a great week in Korea. I really don't even know how to begin haha.  Well I started my week with a split with my District Leader. He was basically given the responsibility to give me a heads up that I needed to show my current companion everything haha. Basically meaning that today when I recieved my transfer call I was going to go to another place. So yeah after a week of showing him EVERYTHING I could possibly think of he is really stressed still. But I did just receive my phone call and I am transferring to a place called joongang which is probably about in the middle of our mission. My new companion will be Elder Rice and we will be co-senior so I'm really looking forward to that. Elder Rice and I stayed in the same room at the MTC for 6 weeks so we already know each other pretty well. 

   Anyways back to my week. We met all of my Investigators this week which is great, usually there was always somebody who couldn't meet or something always came up but not this last week. So I was able to meet everybody for one last time. The small heads up was kind of nice to really tell everyone goodbye one last time and not have to do it over the phone.

   But an amazing thing that happened this last week was a family who came out to church again. The mom has the disease where her bones can break very easily and it was passed a long to her son who is 3. It has also made her have to use crutches for her entire life. The first time I met with Mr Kim he had his son who had fallen down and broke his leg so he has always had a cast. They also have to hold him all the time and protect him from everything. It's something that might seem hard to most people but it has really brought this family so close together. Well Sister Kim (the mother) grew up going to church and she has heard some things about our church which was a little unfavorable. But I'm just happy that she could come to church and actually see for herself rather than listening to the things that other people tell her. Well during the week we were able to go to our bishops house and have dinner with them and another family and it just felt so natural. The little boy just loves me haha. He can tell something is different but he still hasn't fully figured it out yet. If I say hello in english he will just stare at me but as soon as I speak a little Korean he's just laughing and wanting me to hold all of his toys and everything. We also met with Brother Kim at his work this week and he showed us his collection of guitars, amps, and everything. Basically it all added up to over 15,000 dollars and he ridiculously good when it comes to playing the guitar. Which was super nice because my Companion Elder Joe is learning how to play the guitar right now. Elder Kim was a member growing up but hasn't been to church in maybe 10-15 years and when his mother saw him having some struggles in life she helped him come out to church again.  he has told us how only two weeks of going to church and helping his wife learn more about the gospel just feels different. He told me it felt like riding a bicycle remembering all of the sunday school answers. He also told me how he can remember some of the primary songs... Which I'm still convinced those songs are burnt into my memory forever haha. But it was such an amazing experience to see it happen so fast. I'm a little sad I can't be here with them longer but I know that Elder Joe loves them a lot so he will take care of them.

   I will be able to see Sister Kim and Junesoo one more time before I leave. They are the two who Elder Meigs baptized before he left. I was really sad to see some of my members for the last time but I'm just off to make more friends. But Sister Kim is just still there all of the time. She comes out to church, english class, and we still meet with her once a week. I think one of the greatest parts of my mission so far was to see our gospel doctrines teacher turn to her during class and ask her to answer a question for our Investigator who was there. And she answered it in a way that you could just tell she knew that it was true. She still loves everything so far and I'm really going to miss her and Junesoo, chereem (Her daughter). 

Well I gotta get going but I love all of you so much. I hope you have an amazing week and sorry this letter is all over the place. My phone won't stop ringing because it is transfer call day. Have a great week!

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Forty-Sixth Week Email

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Hey there everyone. So this week.... yeah haha. It's been a good week I would say. We made the trip down to the mission office and I picked up my new companion. His name is Elder.... Jo Gwangjin. Yes he's a Korean. And I feel like I haven't spoken any english since Friday night. And now I'm full senior but Elder Jo speaks perfect Korean so it doesn't really feel like I'm full senior.

But one thing that has happened throughout this entire experience is that President Furniss and my other leaders have really been there to help the entire time. They were really supportive with Elder Pobst and they have helped me out alot. This is one of those spiritual growth times that I'm actually very thankful for and I'm happy I can experience it.

Speaking of being thankful I forgot that this week was Thanksgiving. I'm sure I celebrated it differently than all of you but don't worry Elder Pobst and I still celebrated. With a full chicken from a street vendor and instead of stuffing there was rice inside of the chicken. And for a side dish we had... more rice haha. But we did go around the table and say what we were thankful for. And I did teach our english class about thanksgiving and we did the same thing. And it was so nice when most of them told us that they were grateful for us and teaching them english.

Well I have to get going now but I love all of you. I hope you had an amazing week. I did and I'm sure I'll have an amazing week this week. 사랑해요

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Forty-Fifth Week Email

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   So this week has been an interesting week. So I guess I will just
start with the news. So we found out last week that Elder Pobst will
be going home this Saturday.He has some things he needs to work out
and he's doing it the right way so I honestly look up to him for the
example he's showing right now. And he has been doing amazing this
last week and has been showing a lot of strength. It has been really
hard to focus but President promised if we just work we would get
through that last week. So if any of you can send some love to Elder
Pobst I would really appreciate it. He has been one of my best friends
in the mission and we have been through a lot together ever since we
came to Korea.

  It was a really good week to meet with our Investigator's though.
Whenever I meet with any of them I just have the best time and we
always have a great time. We were able to meet a lot of new people
this last week too so that's always a great thing. Brother Beh found
our advertisement for free english at our Investigator's University
and called and set up everything. After English class we had a great
discussion with him and our Ward mission leader and he was just so
nice. And him and our ward mission leader hit it off very well so that
made everything so much better. We also met with a lot of our member's
in the past week and I just love all of them.

Well it's been a week to grow and to learn and I couldn't have done it
anywhere else. I'm going to miss Elder Pobst alot but I'm happy that
he's doing it the right way. I love all of you and I hope you have a
great week.

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Forty-Fourth Week Email

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Hey everyone. So another week of wonderful missionary work. Let's just
say it has been a long week and I had so much fun. And I learned so
much.

I started off my week with a split. I had our district leader Elder
Campbell come to our area and that was super fun. One of our
Investigator's is a english teacher at a university way out in the
country side. Well we went out to his university and spoke in his
class. He let us talk about our english programs and leave all of our
cards and our number up on the board. After that we went around the
university hanging up advertisements for our english program and our
phone has not stopped ringing for the past week. So that will be fun
to see what comes out of that. After that day we had mission tour and
Elder Ringwood who is our area president came to talk to us. It was
such an amazing day to be there and I learned a lot. And it's always
good for our mission to be able to have those kinds of meetings.

We were also able to find a lot of new people this week. We met with a
woman who is from Alabama and her husband on saturday. She chased down
Elder Pobst last transfer to tell them that she had Mormon friends in
high school in the U.S. and they were always the nicest people. So I
guess that shows you how far your example can go. 8 years and on the
other side of the planet.

Well this next week seems like it will be pretty interesting but just
know that I love all of you. Have a great week and I'll talk to you
next week.

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My Halloween costume

Elder Meigs and Elder Jensen

Forty-Third Week Email

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So that was a long/interesting/tiring/fun week haha. Every spare second we had we spent studying Korean this week haha. But one full week down as co-senior and I had to learn so much in this past week. 

Elder Pobst and I have just been working. That's the best way to describe it haha. We were talking last night and it already feels like we have been together for a month now but it's only been a week. 

So something that was pretty great this week was we met one of our Investigator Families and we had such a wonderful time. And since I have been meeting with them the daughter has improved so much at english. Mainly because the Mom teaches her all of the time. But Sister Park wouldn't stop commenting on how thankful she was. She also told us about how she came to Korea from China and has been so lonely the entire time. And everytime we come over and visit their family they are just so happy. They told us how they met and we just had a great discussion about families and why are church treats families so importantly. We would try to share our message and Sister Park kept on insisting that we try in English and we would say one line and she would go off in Korean and we would teach for 20 minutes and then she would insist that we speak english again haha. It was pretty fun experience and I think she'll stop trying to make us speak english eventually.

We also found out some pretty sad news on sunday. One of our coolest members in our ward who translates is moving to Malaysia this week or next. So there's a few other people who can help with translating but the ward basically said that now we have to split the translating up evenly haha. So Elder Pobst and I are going to have a lot of fun over the next few weeks.

Well sorry my letters are so boring these days. I'll try to make them better for now on. But I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Jensen