Christmas Party 2012

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

Fifty-Second Week Email

안녕하세요

   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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Fifty-First Week Email

안녕하세요

   Well that was a crazy week. It was very strange to talk to my
family... They are kind of a weird bunch haha. I'm kidding I love
them. But that was so nice to be able to say hi and it's always
awkward because I have stuff planned to talk about but I never talk
about it haha.

   Anyways my Christmas was wonderful mainly because all of you are
amazing and I really felt your love during this Christmas season. We
were also able to go with the other Elder's in our city to visit the
Sister's at the Hospital. One of the Sister's was in the Hospital for
4 days and we did everything we could to make her Christmas special.
But don't worry she's all better now and She's out working again.

   Well we had a few fun things this week. We had our Christmas party
that some of our Investigators showed up for. And lets just say Korea
is an interesting place haha. I'm not going to tell you everything the
missionaries did for our performance but just know that our Member's
loved it haha.

   We were also able to go out to the country side and help out one of
our member's with some service. His name is Brother Kim (I think the
only people I e-mail home about have the last name Kim) and he loves
having us around. His wife and daughter live in Seoul but he doesn't
like the city at all so he lives in a two room house that is heated by
a wood burning stove. And he is just happy living like that. He really
misses his family but he is able to see them a lot. Well we went out
and climbed up a down a mountain side carrying wood and branches for
about 3 hours straight and I just loved it. It reminded me of all the
camping and fixing up properties that we use to do when I was younger.
But we were able to get him enough wood to supply him for another
month or two and he would just laugh and say 나무 부자 (Wood rich person)
haha. It was so much fun and I think I kind of missed service
opportunities like that. When I was in Suwon it was such a big city it
was hard to find service projects like that. But We'll probably head
out there in another month or two and get some more wood for him.
Mainly because Korea is freezing haha.

   We were also able to meet our Member's son. Our Member Brother Kang
has one of the strongest testimony's I have ever seen. From the time
he met with the first missionaries and before he was baptized he read
the Book of Mormon twice. He had tried to help his children meet the
missionaries but they didn't want to at the time. Well we still don't
know what happened but His son showed up the first week I came to
Jeonju and he's been out to church ever since. After we became friends
he finally was okay with having us over and start the lessons last
saturday. It was so much fun and he thinks we are just funny. Mainly
because he thinks we can't do anything in Korea because of the
language haha. Anyways we had such an amazing lesson. He's Dad is just
such an amazing support for him and we would just kind of teach about
something and ask him a few questions and then his Dad would come in
and bear testimony and just teach in such a loving way. It was such an
amazing thing to see. And he is just like his dad. He has been
studying with his Dad lately and he's so outgoing in church and isn't
afraid to speak up whenever the teacher asks a question. We have set
up a few meetings throughout the week and yesterday (Sunday) His
daughter came out to church we were all just friends immediately. The
Sister Missionaries were able to talk with his daughter a lot and
during our ward lunch we just had fun.

  Well life is good and I love all of you. I love Korea and I'm having
the time of my life. it's going by fast and I'm trying to make
everyday count. Have a great week and I'll talk to all of you next
week.

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Fiftieth Week Phone Call Home

Elder Jensen made a phone call home this week and had nothing but great news to report of his mission so far. He loves the Korean people and although "they're short" he has enjoyed getting to know every one of them.

Forty-Ninth Week Email

안녕하세요

 

   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

안녕하세요

   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

안녕하새요

   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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