Fifty-Ninth Week Email

(There was no fifty-eighth week email)

안녕!

   Well this has been a week to remember haha. To start off I'll tell
you about President Furniss's thoughts as he was sitting in a
testimony meeting with the 11 new missionaries who came in. President
told us that he was sitting there thinking that he had recieved two
temporary missionaries and he remembered assigning one of them to an
Elder up in Suwon but when he looked at the other temporary missionary
it dawned on him that he didn't assign him a place to live.... So
Wednesday night at 10:00 after nightly call ins we get a call from
President haha. Elder Brown answered and started talking. I had no
idea who it was until Elder Brown laughs and says I think you should
talk to the district leader about this one. So Elder Brown cops out
and hands me the phone and it was President asking if we could be in
Daejeon my 11 aclock in the morning. He told us that he didn't have a
lot of time to talk but that we needed to take in a temporary
missionary who was waiting on his visa. And then he told us that he
was sorry and that he had to go. So that was our night the day before
transfer day haha.

   But we do have Elder Kim with us now! Elder Kim recieved his call
to the Hawaii honolulu mission but he is waiting on his visa. Elder
Kim is from Poonghyang Ward in Gwangju which... if you can remember is
my greenie area. My Trainer and I worked with his family every week
while Elder Kim was at college in another city. And I absolutely loved
his family. I had only met Elder Kim twice before when he occasionally
made trips back to Gwangju for the weekends to visit family but his
Mom, him, and his younger brother joined the church back in 2008 and
she has been feeding the missionaries consistently and helping them a
lot ever since she was baptized. But yeah that's my other companion
right now.

   But it has been an interesting week. We were told that we aren't
training him because they want to do the 12 week program with him in
Hawaii. Also we can get a phone call any day and all 3 of us will stop
what we are doing and go straight to drop him off in Seoul at the
embassy. So this is going to be an interesting transfer. On top of all
of that it is only a 4 week transfer. Our mission has to line up with
the new 9 week training program at the MTC so this next group of
missionaries will be the first group effected by the new missionary
rules. Also I'm sure all of you have heard by now but there will be a
new Seoul South mission in July. And everybody who is in the Suwon
zone at that time will be going to the Seoul south mission. Our new
President was also announced and it is actually President Shin who has
been the Branch mission President at the MTC for every missionary who
has gone to Korea for the past few years. So I really can't wait to
see him again because we all love him so much.

   So the mission is chaos right now but none of us have time to think
about it. We had a few appointments yesterday and Elder Kim was able
to be thrown in the deep end and told to swim haha. I really forgot
how much they actually teach you at the MTC and we have been trying to
help him with everything. I assumed just because he was fluent in
Korean that he would just be able to do everything but we all have to
learn how to do missionary work. But he is doing amazing and he is so
much fun to work with. When he gave away his first Book of Mormon the
other day he had a grin from ear to ear and it really reminds me of
when I first started in the mission field. And Elder Brown and I have
just been having a great time with Elder Kim.

Well I'm going to have a great week so I hope all of you can have an
amazing week. I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week.

젠슨 장로

Fifty-Seventh Week Email

안녕

 

   Hello! Sorry about last week but we had some technical difficulties at the local library. But it was a pretty average week though so I'm sorry i couldn't tell you all about it. Just know that I still loved that week of my mission. Anyways this last week was a really interesting week for us in Jeonju. This last week was 설날  Solar (I have no idea how to spell that in english) But that means Chineese new years. But you can't say that in Korea or else they get a little upset. Anyways it was such a fun week because it is probably the biggest holiday in Korea. They have so many traditions that they honor and we were actually able to go to our Member's house and spend chineese new year wtih an amazing family and the Sister missionaries. Which means we were the only foreigners there haha.

 

   Well I'll start with Saturday. Whenever there is a big holiday like this the mission feels like we could use this time a little more effective so they schedule something like a cleaning day. So the entire district spent all day inside their houses scrubbing EVERYTHING. We were actually able to get out of the house to go meet our friend Jack who is one of our best friends here. He took us out to lunch and he really likes hanging out with us and we have been able to work with him a lot lately and he actually came to church with us this last Sunday. Well anyways we spent all day saturday cleaning everything in our house. And it was a little hard for us because our house is a little bigger than most houses in the mission. because our Member's Mom before she passed away gave her apartment to the mission and it is my favorite house so far. And that member is our neighbor and they were the ones who invited us over on Sunday morning for the traditional meal and they included us into everything. One of the traditions that we were included in was doing the traditional bowing to the father and mother of the family and telling them to recieve new years blessings. After that they give us counsel and Brother Lee is pretty much amazing and he told us how much missionarie's have blessed him and his familie's life and he thanked us so much. I think that was one of those moments during my mission where I actually realized what missionary's do throughout the world everyday and how I've had such amazing examples in my life because of other missionarie's. After that breakfast time we went and met Jack and went to church. We went from a normal 90 people to about 20 and it was such a great Sunday. We only had sacrament meeting but Everybody came in their traditional Korean Clothing and Brother Lee actually gave a talk and talked about Elder Brown and i having our first and last Chineese new year in Korea. And everybody had a good laugh when he told them that he had us participate in the bowing and other traditions.

 

Sorry this is such a boring letter this week but it was a great week in Korea. I learned so much about this amazing Culture. It's so different and at times it can seem a little strange (Dog soup) But I can really appreciate the respect they have for their elders and for their ancestor's. We have also been working a lot with Kyongman and we have such a great relationship there. We weren't able to meet most of our Investigator's last week because everybody travels for the week but we did meet a lot of new amazing people. I'm still having the time of my life in South Korea and it's all happening really fast. But I'm just trying to take all of it in and get to know this people as well as I can. I love everything about my mission so far and I'm so grateful for all of the oppurtunities I have to learn and grow especially in the Gospel. I love all of you and I'll try to make next week better. Have a great week!

 

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Fifty-Sixth Week Email

Due to technical difficulties there was no email this week :(

Fifty-Fifth Week Email

안녕하세요

 

   Well this has been probably I week I will never forget haha. I'm just loving this area more and more as weeks go by. So I guess I'll just tell you how this week turned out. I guess to start I have to tell you that our mission is doing a 40 day fast. Each companionship has a day to fast and the rest of the mission prays for that companionship and their investigators that day. Well ours started saturday night and went into sunday and it couldn't have been more perfect. I guess I'll give you a little backround on the week so that you  can understand how Sunday came together. Elder Brown and I have been working great together. We talked about giving commitments last week a little bit during district meeting and we came up with the idea to play good cop bad cop haha. So I always play the good cop and I'm very nice but Elder Brown comes in with the commitments and it seems to be working out perfectly, especially for one of our friends named Kyongman. We have been meeting him for sometime now and it was going a long a little slowly but Elder Brown was able to ask him to come and hang out with us at church and he was excited for it. He has also been reading the Book of Mormon daily and we have been texting him questions at night and he really seems to like finding the answers. Well that all added up to him coming out to church yesterday and he had such a great time.

 

  The other part of our week was working with Brother Kang a lot so he could be baptized yesterday. We met with him for a few days straight including the day for his baptismal interview. We were sitting in a small room in our church and he was so nervous. He kept on asking me if he answered a question a certain way if it would pass. I couldn't help but giggle a little bit and just tell him the most important thing is that he's trying to follow Jesus Christ example. And  he could always just bear his testimony and everything would be perfect. Well he had a great time with our zone leader and we all went out to lunch after and found a really good mexican food place. Our friend Jack that we are working with showed up to congratulate Brother Kang on being baptized and it gave him a lot of oppurtunities to talk about his baptism. It was just fun and we are all just friends.

 

   Well that leads into Sunday which was our fast day. Everything turned out amazing at church. Our newly called Bishop had a meeting with us before church and he's making a big push on missionary work in the ward and it's such an amazing feeling to have our expectations lined up with our ward. We have members asking us all the time to come eat with them and bring friends. It's just such a perfect time to be in Jeonju right now haha. But everything went perfect. Brother Kang told us that it was a special day and his little sister actually came out to church to support him. Kyongman had such a great time and stayed for the baptismal service and the lunch right after. All of the other missionarie's in Jeonju were able to come a bring friends and there wasn't an empty chair in that room. And then there are no words to describe how strong the spirit was during the entire service. Brother Kang shared his testimony and everybody in the room knew that he meant every word he said. Then they always give the missionary's a chance to talk about the entire process of meeting with them and teaching them and I was so happy to be able to talk about Brother Kang in front of all of the member's. I could probably tell everybody how amazing he is for hours. And then we all watched a father who was baptized 7 months ago who has told us that he never stops praying for his kids and wife,aAnd at every oppurtunity he has he tells us how much he loves his children and how proud he is of them, we watched him go into the baptismal font with his son. I can't even describe the happiness felt throughout the entire ward yesterday. there was a smile on every face and It's something I will never forget.

 

   After that amazing experience Kyongman couldn't stop asking questions about our church. We were able to teach him so much yesterday and he had such a great time at gospel doctrine. He told us that he'll come out again next week and continue reading the book of mormon and our ward just loved him. After the most amazing Sunday I have had in Korea we went straight out and talked to as many people as we could see. It was so much fun because I have never been that happy during street contacting and it made such a giant difference. But we did meet a few people that we have plans on contacting in the next few days.

 

   And when I thought everything was done for the day I got a call late last night from my old companion Elder Jo from my last area. I was so happy to talk to him and get caught up. But he called to tell me something that kept me up all night with a smile on my face. Chaerim who is the daughter of Sister Kim (Sister Kim was baptized in my last area with her son Junsoo) was baptized yesterday. I love that family so much and I really really hope I will be able to see them again soon. But I slept for maybe a couple hours last night so that's probably why this e-mail is all over the place. But now all I can say that God is a God of miracles. He wants us to be so happy in this lifetime and I hope I never forget that. I love all of the people that I mention to all of you in every e-mail, and I love all of you. I couldn't be in a more perfect place then I am in right now. I'm going to have a great week and I hope all of you have an amazing week.

 

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Fifty-Fourth Week Email

안녕하세요

 

   So this has been the most interesting 4 days of my mission haha. So Elder Brown and I have just been doing missionary work and it's so strange. Literally a  year ago we were sitting in a cinderblock room talking about how we were going to be able to live in Korea. And now we are having lessons with our friends and visiting our members. It's something that is still a little to comprehend but we are having such an amazing time doing it. And we have already seen so many crazy things happen and it has only been 4 days. I think one of the best feelings in the world happened to me last night. It was my first night to call everyone to get stats and really start thinking a lot more towards my training that I get to do tomorrow at district meeting. But I finally finished with everything and it was time to go to bed. There was just no time to do anything pretty much and I went and got ready for bed and layed down. I couldn't sleep for the longest time. My back, hip, and knees were sore and my mind was just racing. And I just had a smile on my face. It was just such a happy feeling and all I could think about was the week that we had haha. Well I guess I'll tell you a few things that happened.

 

   Well first of all we are working with our friend named Jack. He's just such a good friend and we talk to him almost everyday. He was actually taught about the church and was baptized in America and he is just really good friends with the missionary's. Well this last week he actually started coming to our english class not just to learn but he's coing to start teaching a grammer class for us every week. He's taken pretty much every test you can in Korea for English so I think that's going to be great. But he's just a friend who will help us with anything that we need and we help him with all of his english.

 

   But I think the most amazing thing that happened is that we met Brother Kang yesterday at church and during priesthood he told us that he wants to be baptized this sunday. And he was so sure about it. He just knew that this was going to change his life and he knew that it already has. He shared another amazing experience about prayer and told us that this is what he wants to do. So we told him everything he needs to do to be baptized and we taught a lesson with pretty much the dream team of memeber's in our ward. Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Kangs Dad who is the strongest recent convert I have ever met, and Brother Kim who is actually leaving for a mission in a couple of months. We were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was just perfect. We would just lead the lesson in the direction it was suppose to go and I could just look in any direction and there was an experience, testimony, or the entire principle taught in the perfect way. After that Brother Kang went to a fireside with the ward and he just had a great time. So we have a few appointments set up for this week and we have the interview set up and now I guess everything is up to Brother Kang. He's just like his father though and he has such a strong testimony already and you can really see that just being around him.

 

   I guess I'm just so happy to be in Jeonju, South Korea right now. I love my ward so much. They are making a really huge effort with missionary work and you can just feel that when you go to church on Sunday. You can literally see a person's attitude change when they are trying to share something they love so much with somebody they love so much. I also love my companion haha. Elder Brown and I were sitting in the train station on transfer day watching everybody meet their new companions and asking all of the normal  get to know you questions, and Elder Brown and I just looked at eachother and thought about what we were going to eat for lunch haha. But we know how to work with eachother and we skipped the awkward phases and just went straight to work. It's so much fun and he's helping me out so much with everything I have to do now. And I love my district and they are all working so hard. And I think my favorite part about being a district leader is not only being able to see the miracles that we see but to hear every night from the other missionarie's about their miracles. It's something to look forward to everynight after planning and I love it already.

 

Well I have to get going but I love all of you so much. I'm having a great time here and I hope that you all have an amazing week. I'll send some pictures off next monday so that you can see them. Love you ^^

 

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Fifty-Third Week Email

안녕하세요

   Well that's what a year feels like as a missionary haha. It's a strange feeling I'm not going to lie. I feel like it went by a little too fast but I guess I did spend almost 3 months in the MTC. It's crazy to think of everything that has happened in this past year and it's just all crazy haha. I think the thing that sticks out most to me about this past year is the people that I have met. I have met SO many people and I have made so many friends. I just remember being a greenie with my trainer when we would go to visit people. I would just try to eat as much as I could so that they would be happy with me and my trainer just took care of everything haha. But besides that strange feeling it was such a great week. When Elder Rice and I sat down last night to plan we were just exhausted and just happy.

   It was a super busy week with a lot of amazing experiences. We had a street boarding activity on Tuesday after our combined district meeting and it was so much fun. We have probably the biggest shopping center in our city by our church and we carried a box of Books of Mormon over there and gave all of them out and met so many amazing people. We have been contacting some of them lately and it is working out great so far. We also had about 25 random people show up to our english class this week and that was crazy haha. We were averaging around 5 and when we walked into the room last Wednesday I was a little surprised haha. We had a great class and our investigators loved the class. And right before that we met with Brother Kang and one of our Members and he taught us the first lesson haha. His Father has just been teaching him everything and Brother Kang has just been doing everything he needs to be doing to gain a testimony of everything and it's just amazing. Especially when we walked up to him after sacrament meeting yesterday and he was sitting there silently praying and you could just tell that he knew what he was doing. You could just tell that he was happy and he was talking to our Heavenly Father. I honestly couldn't help but smile and let him sit there. 

   We also met Ben this week a few times and we have just been friends from the start. He was honest with us about how he thought of our church before he met us and lets just say it wasn't very favorable. But he gave it a chance and he told us how he thinks now and it is the complete opposite. I always like to tell people that we are here to clear up some thoughts about our church that might not be true and then I always love giving them the chance to find out for themselves, and I really haven't had one person who has came out to church yet tell me that they still thought of us the same way. Ben is moving this week to go back to his job but he is really excited to meet the missionaries in his new city. He said he would be back probably 1 day a month and that he would let us know when he came back so we could meet up.

I think the thing I will remember the most about this last year is the people that I have met. I love them and they are truly my friends. I do miss a lot of them now but I'm excited for the friends I can make in the future and always give them this wonderful opportunity to know more. And always extending that invitation to be happier. I just think of Sister Kim and Junesoo and see where they are at now in life and how their testimony's have grown. President has allowed us to contact our last area once in a while just to see how everything is going and this last week I found out that Sister Kim is allowing her daughter Chaerim to be baptized this next month. She was always worried if she would be ready or not but just like Brother Kang she has been doing everything she needs to be doing to grow her faith in our Heavenly Father and I'm just so excited for Chaerim.

I guess I'm happy for the miracles I have seen. I'm happy that I can see how our Heavenly Father works in other people's lives and I just hope so much that I can play the smallest role in helping. I'm grateful for everything that I can do here and I'm grateful for all of you back home. I know how much I am loved by all of you and I am so grateful for that. I hope all of you know that I love you so much and I pray for all of you often. I hope all of you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week. Love you.

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P.S. Just received his transfer call and he will be with his old MTC companion, Elder Brown. He is so excited and honored to be District Leader as well!

Christmas Party 2012

Elder Jensen is towards the middle, second row down from the top