Kyle Jensen
My name is Kyle Jensen (Tub Tsheej). I was Elder Poulsen (Peevxwm) missionary companion for three separate times for a total of fourteen months! Once in the MTC and again when we were only out for four and a half months. And then towards the middle/end of our missions. I am forever grateful for the lessons Peevxwm taught me. We did not always get along and had different approaches to teaching the gospel, but the one thing that we always agreed on it that we needed to WORK! No companionship worked harder than us. During the times we did get along we would often say that the Lord has kept us together for so long to smooth out the rough edges to prepare ourselves for our future wives. He certainly taught me humility and the importance of teaching from the scriptures. A few fun things I will always remember, but also fun stories are:
He said that after his mission he wanted to be a country music singer, we even had a country music sounding church CD. (I hate country music) And there was one day we were stuck in California traffic for a few hours and we listened to that CD over and over and over again and when it started for the 4th time we both looked at each other and couldn't take it any more and I ejected the CD and threw it out the window. I don't know if he ever said he wanted to be a country music singer again after that day.
Every morning he would exercise by doing this stupid dance around the apartment pretending to punch and kick things. Look up Billy Bank Taebo and you will get the basics. It was so funny and really showed his dance skills.
All of the old ladies and young women loved Peevxwm! He was tall, blonde and good looking. There was one only lady that would always come up and give him a huge hug and grab his butt and squeeze. It was so funny to see him try and avoid the old ladies at church. So much fun!
One of my favorite memories was on our 1 year anniversary together. We were at a time when we were getting along really well and had lots of people committed to baptism. We also knew how rare it was for a companionship to be together for so long so we decided that for one preparation day we would "bend" some of the mission rules and go outside of the area and just be a tourist of Sacramento for an afternoon. So we went to Old Sacramento and had a super fancy dinner and got our picture taken dressed like old west gangsters. It was such a fun day and I realized on that day that we actually had way more in common than we thought and I think we truly became friends and we were sad when our third time together ended because by that point he was my friend.
The greatest time I had with Peevxwm was when we were working and competing. Our time in South Sacramento and the Kong Hmong Branch was amazing! The work was so amazing and teaching the Lo Family was so great. Peevxwm had a special relationship with Ntuab Pov Lauj and even baptized him.
I know that your dad loved being a missionary and loved the work and the people and I am grateful that I was able to learn from him for so long and hope that he also appreciated the good times, as well as the struggles that we had as missionary companions because he helped me become the person I am today. Good bless Elder Peevxwm!
