THE JIMFFB(52 & 53)

Well, hello there.

Hows it going Y'all. Miss me yet? A couple of things to unpack here so as per usual let's just jump right into it.

The Jecheon International Music & Film Festival

     So kind of crazy, but there is this massive International Music and Film Festival happening right now here in Jecheon which has opened a lot of opportunities for us to meet some new people. Now I'm going to be totally honest I had no idea that this was happening or even how long it was going to last. We found out about it when we randomly ran into 3 Americans crossing the street and our initial reaction to them was "why the freak are there 3 Americans in the middle of Jecheon Korea?" Naturally we asked them and they said they were here for the Festival. We were like, "What festival?" Well come to find out this thing is the real deal. Jecheon does this Festival once a year and gets a plethora of composers and directors for all types of films around the world. Granted we have no idea what these films are but the Koreans sure love it. Jecheon has this pretty large arts center literally 5 minutes from our church and that was where the main attraction was. Now side note, if you didn't know, Koreans are probably the fastest builders in the world. I mean they built this massive stage and Jumbotron with all these stands at this arts center in a day. And as of writing this they took it all down in less than 6 hours. So it was kind of surprising to walk by and see nothing and then walk back and see an entire concert stage just built out of nowhere.

Anyway, the highlight of the festival was we not only got to jam to some cool music but also got to meet some cool people. If I had a nickel for every time I helped a random foreigner find a place to eat in Jecheon this week I would have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it is a little strange it happened twice. One of those 2 people was a dude from England. This guy by the way lives in Korea, and has been for about 30 years, so he claims. He didn't know a lick of Korean... We came to find out he had met missionaries a lot in the past and even told us a story where he witnessed a couple of Elders give a priesthood blessing to a woman who was sick and the next day she was healed. He was quite amazed by that I was curious as to why that happened. So we happily explained to him that the Priesthood is the power and authority to act in God's name and because of that we have access to his Blessings. He thought that was cool and we invited him to visit our church in the place he lived in Korea. He doesn't live in our area so we need to refer him somewhere else. 

Update: I actually found out he lives in Suwon which is where my last companion is at right now. So let's go Elder Bingham!

Another side note, we met a guy who lives in the mountains and he said his name is "Leonardo Dicaprio" and claimed he was an NFL star in the U.S.A so I pretty much just met a celebrity. Yeah I know we're gonna get him dunked as well.

Zone Conference

     I seem to dedicate a little section for Zone Conference each time it happens so might as well do it again.

Essentially, Korea has one of their national holidays named "Chusok" and it’s their version of Thanksgiving. For some reason that means we play a bunch of games in the gymnasium of the church building for Zone Conference. Such games included: Red light green light, some weird game where you had to hop on one foot and be the last one standing, and shoe bullseye, where we had to launch our shoes from our foot onto a target on the ground. It was alright. 

The best part was watching this big fat Elder start booking it on one foot to try and knock someone over but instead lost balance and absolutely ate it on the hardwood floor. He whipped around on his back to try and cusion his fall but instead that caused him to get crazy whiplash and pound his head against the ground. If his neck wasn't so thick I think we would be having a funeral. He then hit a crazy sweet ninja roll back onto his feet to make it look like nothing happened. Freakin' awesome.

That was the most eventful thing that came out of Zone Conference. Oh, and President told us that in the next 3 transfers we would be getting only 3 or 4 new Elders. Then maybe like 20 new sisters. KSSM, Korea Seoul South Mission? More like the Korea Seoul Sister Mission amirite...??

Anyone... No one? 

Alright moving on.

Conclusion

Well, Jecheon is still a great area and its definitely been because of the companions I've served with. Elder Bingham and Keate are awesome Elders and I am so grateful to have had the chance to serve with them. I place a lot of value on my companions which can be a good and bad thing. But at the end of the day I really am just trying to make friends out here. Who knows maybe the moral of the mission really will be the friends we made along the way...

Anyway, I love hearing from y'all so feel free to shoot me an email. 

수고하십시오!~

Love y'all

-Elder Christensen

These two miss each other!!