Fifty-Fifth Week Email

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   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

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   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

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   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

Fifty-Second Week Email

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   Wow that was a fun week haha. It was one of those weeks where everything came together and we saw some pretty amazing things.

   So one thing I have been working o improving in my new area is our English class that we hold every week. I was use to a really big English class up in Suwon and we had a few weeks straight of nobody coming to our English class. But this week we were able to contact some members and one of our Sisters in our ward came out with her daughter and her two nieces who are actually going to start our English program this week. We were also able to have our member's son who is our Investigator come to English class and it was so much fun. We had pronunciation practice, taught some idioms, and then we played a game in english so it was so much fun. But that led to our Member inviting all of us out to lunch last Friday and we were able to have a great time with our investigator brother Kang. So now that has led to two other member families in our ward to saying that they would come this week and bring friends. So I guess our English class is back to where it should be haha. I really enjoy English class though mainly because in my last area it gave us an opportunity to see Sister Kim and Junesoo one more time a week and teach them some things that they didn't know about English. So that's what I'm looking forward to here.

   Well I think the really fun part about this week was yesterday haha. Sunday's are always interesting in Korea. But yesterday was a pretty fun experience.... Anyways we met with a new friend named Ben (English name) on Saturday and he's pretty cool. When we sat down we found out that he's a Pro at a Country Club in Korea and we spent the rest of our English time talking about Golf and getting to know each other haha. He actually chose his English name Ben because of Ben Hogan who is one of his favorite golfers. Anyways he was super interested in knowing more about our church. He grew up attending another church but hasn't been going to church lately. Anyways he was just asking the best questions throughout the entire lesson and he just wanted to know more. It was one of those lessons that you really feel like you did nothing in. Anyways he went and bought us food afterwards so we could take it home for dinner and it was just so much fun. Well I guess before the lesson I had to run to the bathroom and he was talking to Elder Rice (And we still haven't taught him anything at this point) well he ask Elder Rice when church starts and Elder Rice just told him 10 am. Well we were sitting there the next morning (Sunday) welcoming members to church and here comes Ben haha. That was a nice surprise and he was pretty excited to be there. During all of Sacrament he was asking me questions and during Gospel Principles he was asking questions to our ward mission leader who teaches the class. We also had Brother Kang there who was answering questions and participating very well. I felt like Elder Rice and I were there just to say the opening prayer and closing prayer haha. But my favorite part about yesterday was during Priesthood when a member in our ward teaches about blessings. And while I'm explaining blessings my ward.... ask Ben (first time to church and we met him yesterday) if he wants a blessing..... And our Stake President gave him a Priesthood blessing............. haha I love Korea. But I guess he took it very well and he was excited about our next appointment and English class. And our Bishop actually gave Elder Rice and I a really amazing blessing that I was very grateful for and he couldn't stop thanking us yesterday for that opportunity. And we just kept on telling him how grateful we were that he gave us the blessing.

   And another great thing that happened that took us off guard was Brother Kang and his Dad (our member) came up to us after church when we were standing with the Bishop and told us that he wants to be baptized next month. And he was just so sure of his decision. And we just told him that he was choosing the right thing. We set up the appointments to teach him the lessons and we are so excited to meet with him. We have just had fun being his friend and he has been learning so much from his Dad who is one of the strongest member's I have ever seen and he was baptized 7 months ago. I'm just so grateful I could be here right now just to see all of the amazing things.

   Well I'm out of time but I'm having a great week. I love all of you so much and I hope you have the best week ever. I'll talk to you next week ^^ (Korean smiley face)

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