Seventy-Seventh Week Email

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   Well transfer day and yes I'm being transferred. I guess I learned what I needed to here in Gwangju and now I'm off. That or I'm just a trouble missionary haha. But I'm off to Daejeon to an area called Sun-hwa and my new companion is Elder Allan who is starting his second transfer. I will be a District Leader up there as well and my District has 17 people in it haha. Our mission is starting to get a lot of new missionary's with a total of 25 coming in this week and 4 people leaving I think. We're creating a new zone and a lot of new districts as well. This mission is just changing and it's such a great thing. We had our weekly conference call with the mission where we talked about everybody who was baptized in the last transfer. The missionary's just introduced all of the people and talked about them for a little bit and it felt nice to actually hear about these amazing people.

   Well I'm sitting here with Elder Dyer and we are just talking about what we learned this transfer. I was completely blown away by how far I was out of my comfort zone down here in Gwangju. And Once I started to get the hang of things and picking up all of the member's names, I'm off to Daejeon. I am excited to get going again. Being with Elder Jung made me realize how much I still have to learn but he has taught me so much. And not just Korean I promise. Elder Jung has an amazing story and he's a really amazing missionary. We had some really interesting experiences together and it's a little sad to say goodbye to him so soon.

   I'm sorry this is a really short one today but I have to get going. I have a lot of packing to do. I felt like I just unpacked but I guess that's why I can fit all of my possessions in three suitcases. I love all of you and hope you have an amazing week.

Elder Jensen 

Seventy-Sixth Week Email

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   Another week came and went and now the transfer is almost over. I'm not really appreciating this time situation. Somebody made a comment that I had 4 transfers left the other day and I had to get that out of my head pretty fast haha. But as always Korea was a amazing place this last week. We're all still working with all of the changes we have had lately and I feel like we are all doing pretty well with all of it. President Shin did do a round of visits and interviews this past week and I have just missed him since the MTC. And when I say they are changing things that means they are literally changing almost everything. We had a hour long conference call this morning with everybody in the mission and we will be doing that weekly. Also after they visited our house they called us about an hour later and said that they had already talked with the Bishop and we will be getting a new house because ours is pretty interesting....  Anyway we all have to pack everything up any day now to prepare for moving and I have no idea where we're going to find the time to do these things but we're missionaries, so somehow it will get done.

   Well this weeks are getting better and better here in Gwangju. Elder Jung and I had plenty of work going this week but somehow by a miracle we got everywhere we had to go. I had a split this week in probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. I went down to Elder Jo in a city called Najoo, which is a pretty small country town in Korea. I also can't even put into words what kind of person Elder Jo is, because he has to be one of the most interesting person that I have ever met. Well I still remember just walking across this overpass in the middle of this giant valley that was just rice fields clear off into the distance until they reached the mountains. It was a really windy day and we would just watch these giant waves run across the valley of the tall green rice fields. And it was just peaceful as we visited some of the members in the branch who were just loving. Also Elder Jo was happy to have a foreign companion, because I have little kids stop and yell foreigner out in Korean and point at me all day. He just loved seeing people and as I started to talk to them he would just point and say foreigner and I felt used because I was from america haha. But we met some pretty amazing people that day and it was completely different from being in a big city. We would stop and talk to somebody about their farming as they were working in a field and the next thing I knew was that Elder Jo was going back next week to eat some of the fruits and vegetables they were growing and to talk to them some more. It was just such a nice feeling being out in the middle of nowhere with people who weren't afraid to strike up a conversation with anybody who came a long. I feel like all of you.... more experienced people must miss those days.

   Another nice part about last week was church. I can't speak for all missionaries but during my mission church has always been a little fast paced... When you have friends coming out and you're trying to make sure everything is okay with the people who are sitting with them and you have to run around to a few classes and share messages with the different classes, and we have to teach all of our youth who act like a bunch of teenagers haha. But I love them and I get to pick on the young men to get them going so it's completely fine. With everything like that going on at church it can be difficult sometimes to actually stop your thoughts and just focus on what's being taught and what's going on around you. When I finally did that yesterday it made the biggest difference in the world. And our ward and stake have been gun ho on all of the missionary work going on so it was such a nice Sunday here in Gwangju. I hope all of you feel the same way about your Sunday today as well and I love all of you.

   I have to get going now but I love all of you and you're all in my prayers. Have a great week!

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Seventy-Fifth Week Email

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   Another week and i'm here again e-mailing all of you. But don't worry because it was a pretty great week. We had so much to do all week and when we finished with calls last night I was just done haha. But I still love that feeling so it was a great way to finish a week.

   Well we had a lot going on here. Our weekend was just so busy we didn't have anytime it felt like. The Gwangju Stake had all of the wards put together a big party for the Korean EFY that's coming up at the end of the month. They pretty much told us that we had to have all of the games and messages prepared so that's always fun. The Bishop of our ward just wanted us to build really good relationships with the youth and it was the perfect thing to do that. So I had talked a little bit about the ward I was in up in Jeonju and this ward in Gwangju and how they were very different. Well one of the biggest differences is the youth. The youth in this ward are just little punks sometimes and I absolutely love them. They back talk all of the time and they fight like crazy but i'm excited to basically pick on them like I needed when I was that age. Well we started the EFY party and it took us twenty minutes to get all of the kids to participate and get them off their phones but once that happened I can't even explain how fun it was. And it was one of those parties where everybody tells all of the kids to bring friends and nobody did because when you're that age you just don't want to. Who wants to go to a party with 5 foreign missionaries and when you think it's going to be boring and awkward the entire time. But we were able to have some of our investigators there and we planned well enough that at one point somebody was just on the ground from laughing so hard. And when it came time to talk about the EFY coming up it was pulling teeth to get them all in chairs again, but once it started it was great. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm sorry to everybody who had to put up with me when I was that age, but I can understand how you still loved me.

   We also had some pretty great meetings with our investigators and we were just out working. My companion is amazing and I am just growing to love this area and the member's more and more. Also this Stake is just hopping on the missionary train. I was able to see the Stake President who was in my greenie area and my ward mission leader and I was amazed that they could still remember me. That made my day a long with everything else that happened yesterday. We are in charge of teaching the youth out of preach my gospel for an hour every sunday and since we did that EFY party we just actually know the kids now. The mood of that class was completely different and we were able to sit down and just talk with the youth. Yes I still picked on the young men but that's because they need it. But at the end of the day we were told that one of the young women was planning on asking a friend to come to the next EFY meeting and it was just a great week. That's about my explanation for everything these days because I can't put in words the things I see out here.

   Well I have to get going but I hope all of you have a great week. I love all of you.

Elder Jensen

Here's the cookie game where you have to slide a cookie from your forehead down to your mouth to eat it. You have one minute and you can't use your hands.

The other game was that there was a tiny little candy inside a pretty big pile of flower and they had to get it out with their mouth.

Seventy-Fourth Week Email

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   Well another week in Korea flew by here in Gwangju. It's been a really interesting week for me here. We started off the week by getting our new President. And that has just flipped the entire mission on it's head haha. As if transfer week wasn't change enough our entire mission changed. We also lost one of our zones to the Soul South Mission so there has just been a lot of change lately. But it's still amazing to see this giant change and push for missionary work in the church. And trust me it's keeping all of us missionaries on our toes. Especially when our Bishop drops a program on the ward called 7+2. In the month of July they want every auxiliary to have two people lined up for the missionaries to be taught and be baptized. It was dropped on our ward and they also introduced a book called the power of everyday missionaries. And I can't begin to explain the change in the ward, mainly because I haven't been here long but this stake is definitely hopping on the train of missionary work and it's been amazing. Just the feeling of the entire ward is amazing. I have never seen an entire Elder's quorum discussing something with so much energy and I'm pretty excited to see what can happen here.

   Other than that we had a pretty good week. It is the rainy season in Korea so that means if you took a long hot shower and got out. That feeling of a really hot humid room doesn't go away for the rest of the day. We also had a record amount of rain a few days ago and I got home and it was like I walked through a pool up to my stomach. This is always an interesting time of year in Korea.

   But probably the best part of my week was meeting our friends here in Gwangju who are just amazing. We have a friend who's in High school and we have been able to meet him a few times this week. It has been so interesting teaching with a fluent Korean all of the time. I love teaching with Elder Joung because I have just been learning from him constantly. Not just the language but it's been nice to see the culture and the relationships that he has made with our investigators. Our friend Brother Kim really likes us a lot and he's been really accepting the gospel well. He's starting to come to the meetings with questions and I still just kick myself because when I was his age I was off being a punk kid. But i have really enjoyed meeting all of these new people and it's still been a pretty great time here in Gwangju.

Well I love all of you and I have to get going but I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Jensen

Seventy-Third Week Email

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   Hey there everybody! So Gwangju... It's been a fun one so far. I think I realized this week at how comfortable I was in Jeonju haha. But the work is progressing right so what more could I ask for. Our bishop did stand up last Sunday and announce a pretty great program and everybody can feel the giant push for missionary work. I couldn't be more happy to be serving a mission right now. This last week was pretty interesting though. We had a mission tour for President and Sister Furniss leaving. They are officially on a plane right now and we have President Shin in the office right now. I can't wait to see President Shin this thursday for his welcoming tour. He was so amazing at the MTC and I can't wait to see what will happen with the mission.

   But I do have to admit it was pretty hard to say goodbye to President and Sister Furniss. They both have been so amazing the entire time since I have been here. President has always been such a great example of a Priesthood holder for me and he had to leave all of us with advice on how to do better like always. I think the one thing I will always remember about President and Sister Furniss was their love. Interviews with President were the best things. We would get to a point where President would just call it straight up. I grew up being lectured and told what I need to do by my dad and those interviews were just like that. And being sick I would always love being taken care of by my mother, grandma, or sister and since they can't be here in Korea the next best thing is Sister Furniss. I'm just excited that I will always be able to remember them and they were just another blessing that I received because of my mission.

  Well life is great here and I'm going to have a great week. I hope all of you have a great week as well.

Elder Jensen

Seventy-Second Week Email

Hello!

   Well today is transfer call day but as usual I still haven't received my call and everybody else has. But other than that my day has been great haha. It has been a pretty nice week just being able to meet with all of our investigators and our member's.

  But I do want to say happy father's day to anybody reading this. As usual I got an e-mail from Tawns telling me they were sitting around talking about the torture they put me through as a small innocent child. Leaving me behind on snowmobile trips because the Puma (very small snowmobile) couldn't go as fast as their brand new ski-doo's. I have been thinking about what I wanted to say today in this e-mail and all I could think about were those kind of stories I experienced growing up haha. That's all I could tell some of our member's about last night as we were visiting them. We were sharing a message about love and I was telling the children that they need to learn from their parents and I went to go share experiences and everybody was laughing at all of the stories about how our Dad taught us lessons haha. And Brother Kim thanked me for sharing some new techniques for raising his children that he wanted to give a try. And as he said that his children looked terrified and I apologized to them for spreading that kind of torture haha. But as I was showing them my family picture book and telling them about all these stories I couldn't imagine growing up any other way. I tell everybody that I'm a person who shares experiences and I do that because everything I have experienced growing up was just so great. The trust I have in my Dad is a little different. As I think about how he taught me to swim by telling me to jump off the diving board and he would catch me.... he didn't. Most people would say that I couldn't trust him but I do have the trust that whatever torture he is about to put me through and no matter how much he's going to laugh he really has only one purpose in teaching me in a way that I will never forget. Here I am years and years later telling these stories to these Korean people and it always makes for such a great time. These are the kind of memories I never want to forget and I hope I can continue to share with so many people on my mission. 

   I was reminded of another couple stories at church yesterday. Every week we have a youth give a talk and as he was coming down from the stand to sit with his family in front of us, he sat down and told his mom thanks for writing the talk and everybody around us started to chuckle. I remember when I was starting to go back out to our Providence ward and I was given the same exact assignment. Being on a mission has made me realize so many of my weaknesses and one of those has been my knowledge in the gospel. So there I was as a 14 year old with an assignment to give a talk on agency. I was completely lost, and had no idea where to even begin. My Dad recognized that and he had a talk ready for me by church the next day. My Dad has always been supportive with any decision that I have made especially as I have chosen to serve a mission and continue in that direction. Especially when I got back from Texas the first time and I went in to work that monday and asked if we could talk. We sat down and I told him that I needed to give my two week notice and he was very professional and said okay and said now that was done he told me that he was now asking as a father and wanted to know what was going on. And I told him everything that was going on and how I wanted to move to Salt Lake to prepare for my mission and there wasn't a second of delay. It was immediate support and that kind of support has always provided so much guidance in my life. It's hard to even put into words the things I have learned from my Dad but I hope if any of you get anything out of this is that my Dad's children love him. And who knows where we would be without those kind of lessons we learned from him growing up. Sure we still put the fun in dysfunctional but I know that if I am ever in trouble that my Dad will be there to help me. That kind of knowledge just makes every big decision I make in my life so much easier and I'm so grateful for that.

   Have a great Father's day and I love all of you. I hope you have a great week and I hope all of you know that I will have a great week. And don't worry I still haven't gotten my transfer call yet.

Elder Jensen

Seventy-First Week Email

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   Well I felt like I was sitting in this seat e-mailing all of you yesterday. I don't think I like how fast that went but we did see so many great things this past week. Next monday we get our transfer calls and it felt like a blink of an eye so I'm not too happy about that. I had my last split of the transfer with Elder Lyons who lives in my house. I have still not had just a normal day on a split for my entire mission. But we just walked out the door and said that we were going to find somebody and the second person I talked to took us to his work and we talked for an hour and it was so much fun. He's a university student and he wants to go to america to become a cop so he needs to study and practice english a lot. I have taught so much english on my mission and it really makes me understand that I do not know anything about english haha. I just speak english and throw out every grammer rule when I speak. I'm sure all of you could notice in my weekly letters. The nice thing is that most Korean people just want to practice talking because they never have the oppurtunity in school. In the Korean Culture when kids go to school they are expected to sit there and listen to everything the teacher says and they aren't encouraged to asked questions very much so that has always made it interesting while we have taught people. But after a few lessons we are able to build a pretty good relationship and when we give them the oppurtunities to ask questions it just makes the lesson so much better. And this week for the new missionary training program Elder Hughes has the lead on all lessons and planning sessions so he's been having a pretty good time learning how to lead lessons.

   We weren't able to meet Sister Go this last week between schedules and her trips out into the country side to visit her mom. And I realized a little more how much I love this ward. I had talked to Sister Go on Saturday night and she was just so sad. I had no idea what was going on and we aren't allowed to council anybody about problems like that and she was really sad that we couldn't meet as well. And we had planned on talking about that problem in our missionary coordination meeting and filled out one of our records about having one of the member's that she had built a relationship call her and see if she could help with anything or invite them over to dinner. But once sacrament meeting closed our old bishops wife came up and asked me where Sister Go was and I explained a little bit about how her mom needs a lot of help and our member Sister Kim said that she had the thought that she needed to call her yesterday but she wasn't exactly sure why but I was just blown away. After I gave her Sister Go's number I got a call back from Sister Go that night and she was just so happy and told me that she had talked with Sister Kim and we were all going to go over there on thursday night for dinner. I am so amazed at what my member's do on a week to week basis. I'm not going to lie Korea is a very straightforward place and there are very few members here and they are just so different. They are so different from what the culture tells them to do and they are told that constantly. But they are so strong. I'm so grateful that I can see their example and they help me so much. I feel so selfish because I feel like I gain so much out of every conversation with them and I just want to help them more in every way possible but they just send me off and to add insult to injury they send me off with food. So I just love these members and everything they do for us.

Well I have to get going but I love all of you. I hope you all have a great week.

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