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.
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