Elder Christensen: Letter 5/5/14 "It's the final countdown"

Well family, it's been a crazy week! We've seen everyone that is on our branch roster and 85 percent are moved, burnt out of their home, in jail, or dead.... So we had a few of the Less Actives come this Sunday so we had a whole 15 people there. Heck yes!!! It was the funniest Fast Sunday of my whole life!!! The theme of the meeting seemed to be mistakes and the atonement and the Branch president was in and out of the meeting like every 10 minutes and was hobbling pretty fast every time. Then he finally gets up to share his testimony and says "Its funny the theme seems to be mistakes for today I've made one of the more painful mistakes of my life." He goes on to say,  "just this morning I mixed up my medications and took double of the wrong medication and it was osmotic laxatives!" haha Everyone was dying because everyone was like why is he leaving every 10 minutes? Then at the end of his testimony he left again and the next sister was like, "well president you go take care of your business, while I confess to everyone all my my mistakes." I will never forget this meeting. It was so much fun and there was some really powerful testimonies too, which was just what our Less Actives needed!! One was like, "is church this fun every week?" And I said, "it is if you're in this branch!!" It's like one family of 15 people. It's awesome! I also got to teach Chris a New Member of about 3 months how to Bless the Sacrament. He got it... 3rd times the charm. That was cool to see. I also got to pass the sacrament which was awesome! I haven't done that in 2 years!!!  Hope everyone is having fun and is prepared for Summer!

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/28/14 "East Bound and Down"

Well East St Louis is everything I thought it would be and more! Ha! Ha! It's really fun. I'm loving serving with Elder Milne again. He has changed and matured greatly! I'm really happy that East St Louis will be my final area. One thing I've already gained in the short time I've been here is that I'm so thankful for the safety in which we live in. :) I'm also very grateful for police officers and all the work they do for our country. They truly are on the front lines everyday! I'm also thankful for my brothers Jakobe, Brian, and Jay Jay for walking us through the bridges in the hood! Ha! Ha! We would be dead without them! Then you would have to come out here and put a teddy bear on the pole for me cuz that's how they do it out here. If you're killed your family puts a teddy bear on the pole for you and I've seen some poles with like 40 bears! It's way sad! I feel the pain Mormon felt seeing this wickedness all around and knowing the gospel can change it all makes it even harder... No worries tho family. You won't have to to do that :) 

This area is really humbling and I can promise that from this day forth I will never take for granted the blessings the Lord has given me and helped me work for. I can't wait to see you all in a few weeks. I will feel your love more fully now that I've seen the best of my mission and the worst. Most of the people weve tried to see this week have been moved to safer areas out of our branch. Then their homes are burnt down or just abandoned and used by the many bums. Ha!Ha! It's hard to find good use of our time here cuz every other door is abandoned so tracting is a no go and contacting is way hard. I'll have to explain why when I get home lol. My studies have been the best yet in my mission cuz we have to be in by sundown, so I get like 3 hours in everyday, and I'm loving that its like having church everyday 2 times a day. So cool, and despite how crazy the world is all around us you can still find that peace and feel the Spirit ahhh I love it! I love you all!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/21/14 "East St. Louis here I come!"

Well this week was crazy! We've been visiting Deve all week to make sure he was still planning on coming to church this Sunday to be confirmed. He did come and was confirmed, so that was awesome. I didn't think this was gonna be my last Sunday here in this area, but I'm off. Hopefully to my last area this time!!!! Maybe I'll get transferred again before my 3 weeks is up! Ha! Ha! I'm glad I didn't unpack hardly anything this transfer. :) 

So I'm off to East St Louis to die. Ha! Ha! Who knows, maybe there is some meaning behind that missionary term ...? ha ha jk mom I'll be safe. :) President Morgan called me on Sunday and informed me of the many struggles that are happening in this area, so I've got my work cut out for me for sure! I love you all hope everyone enjoyed their Easter :)

Love Elder Christensen   

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/14/14 "Double Dunk"

We had some miracles happen this week! On Monday night we received  permission from Salt Lake that Brad Jacobs could be baptized and we have been teaching his best friend Deve with him. Deve said he ready to be baptized, but that he would like to wait so he and Brad could be dunked on the same day. That day was Saturday! Ha! Ha! It was so cool to see my companion baptize someone for a change, and I also got to baptize Deve. He had the hardest black name I've ever heard on my mission... I swear its like 6 names in one! lol Here it is Deveoueff Deamonearl Scoffield! Try and say that one. :) The baptisms went perfectly. This was the 1st font in my mission where it has a heater in the font. It was 89 degrees! Ha! Ha! Warmest baptism I've ever had !!! Brad's mom is hardcore Less Active, but she came to support her son and she felt the Spirit. I know she did. She also came to the confirmation where I got to confirm Brad and give him the Holy Ghost. I remember nothing of what I said, but his mom grabbed me after and said that some of the things I said where promised to her when she was confirmed, and she had tears in her eyes when she told me. I hope Brad can keep her coming to church so she can have more peace in her life and can feel the love of the Savior more abundantly in her life. All week we've been setting up interviews and getting everything set up for this baptism. I forgot how much work it is to set these  up by yourself! Ha! Ha! I'm so glad Brother Ethington was able to help out and keep me sane. :) Only bad part of this is week is that we baptized our whole teaching pool. Ha! Ha! Now what to do for the rest of my mission ...? Find and reactivate people I guess. I hope the Lord puts someone in my path ! Hope everyone had a good week. Hope to hear from you all soon !!

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/7/14 "GC in JC"

General Conference was awesome as usual. I wish we could've got some of our investigators to come with us! I was also was very pleased with have no talks on marriage! Ha! Ha! I'm sure in the Fall that will be in every talk now... My favorite talk was in the priesthood session when Elder Uchtdorf shared the story of him and president Monson being on the air force one plane. Then he went to the pilot's seat and daydreamed some and his hand went up to the throttle and president Monson came in and said, "don't even think about it!" Ha! Ha! I could see that happening so clearly:) I loved all the talks though. They were really good and uplifting. Just what I want to finish my mission out. More good talks to listen to and learn from.

This week we didn't get to meet with many of the people we're teaching but I did my last ZL exchange and that was killer! It reminded me so much of why I wanted to get out of that! lol We planned for 6 hours for all the zones stuff and Elder Evans made calls for like 2 hours while I sat on the floor planning my R.M.P. (returned missionary plans) lol 

Anywho we also played basketball on Saturday for our early morning workout and brother Jacobs was there with his son so we did 3 on 3 and he dove for a loose ball and broke his wrist. So that wasnt cool but it made for a good story at priesthood session ... So now the ward thinks missionaries beat people up in basketball. Ha! Ha! 

Well I hope everyone enjoyed hearing the words of the prophet. It's such a blessing to have that guidance in this crazy world. It brings much peace to know that the Lord still speaks to his people through Prophets and Apostles. Love you all!

Love Elder Christensen  

Elder Christensen: Letter 3/31/14 "Final Exchanges"

Well  family, another week has gone by. We had a really good lesson this week. We met with Brad Jacobs and just focused on our relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also got to show him the Mormon message that has the rock climber who does the free climb and it talks about Jesus being our anchor and our support. Brad really loved that and shared his testimony of how prayer helped him through some of the toughest times of his life. There also is a young boy down the street that were teaching. HJis name is Deve. He saw our car and came to the lesson at Brads and he loved it. We also read Enos with him and got to share our testimonies of the power of prayer and how its a two way communication with God. They both said they would be at church this week but Brad had to work and Deve didn't want to come alone so that was a bummer... However some of the less actives we stopped by to visit came so that was awesome to see! This week was fast Sunday as well and a Less active sister gave a super powerful testimony and I know it touched the less actives that came that day. After church sister Nelson opened her mission call and she is going to Oregon. I guessed New York lol just a little off... Earlier in the week I got to go on exchanges with the Linn Elders and they are truly in the sticks! Ha! Ha! But they have some awesome members out there to help them. I also got to have my Exchange interviews while fishing on one of the members lake. It felt so good to have that break! I could also tell the Elder I was with really needed that break as well. He is really struggling with adjusting to missionary life... Hopefully our exchange helped. I didn't have the smoothest transition into the mission life either. Ha! Ha! So we had some common ground. I just hope he sticks it out. It will be worth it! My life wouldn't be the same if I didn't, and I know the people I've served with and taught wouldn't be the same either. Hope everyone is stoked for General Conference!!!! 

Love Elder Christensen    

Elder Christensen: Letter 3/24/14 "ta daaaa"

Well family, this week we had a lot of success, just not for our area! Ha! Ha! We had exchanges with the Jeff city 2 elders. I'm trying to crank all my exchanges out early so I can enjoy my last few weeks in peace lol. We did get to meet with our investigator later this week. His name is Brad Jacobs. He's a really awesome guy. We're just waiting for approval to baptize him... It's in the process now in SLC so hopefully that will happen in the next month or so. I want to see my companion baptize someone!!!!! Also had a super awesome sleepover party with Jeff city 2 and the office elders with my main man Elder Bullough. We got up way early and went to the YMCA and played 2 hours of basketball, and I'm so close to dunking it now its not even funny! Ha! Ha! Don't worry pops I'll get it before we play. :-)  Sunday we also visited tons of less actives since 60% of our ward is less active. We got lots of work there! It was cool tho. This Sunday we had tons of new members show up to hear their friends talk. I hope we can start teaching them soon!! I hope everyone is doing well. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 3/17/14 "Jeffcity trick"

Well family, I,m in Jeffcity now, and I'm loving it! This city has a lot of potential and I've already seen why I was sent here! The district was not the best as far as following the rules the past few months, but they seem to making some big changes now that they have a district leader that won't put up with that. Ha! Ha! And they kinda fear I might beat them up if they break the rules again, which may happen! Ha! Ha! My home date is May 14th, so I have till then to fix these elders and sisters...

 

We did a lot of contacting in downtown Jeffcity around the Capitol building. We met some pretty cool people and took a few pictures for families visiting and gave them Mormon.org cards. Hope they check it out! We had a pretty cool finding story this week. While setting up my YMCA stuff for the rest of my mission we went to see the membership director and she opened up to us my saying, "Elders what can I do for ya?" I was like wait you know who we are? Turns out we found a Less active member and she opened up to us about how she found the church and told us her conversion story. So I challenged her to come to church this Sunday and she DID !!! I also had to speak for 5 minutes with less than 2 minutes to prepare. Ha! Ha! So I'm glad the Spirit was there to help me know what to say and how to say it! It was so cool to see, cuz my talk lead perfectly into the other talks for the meeting and I had no idea what they where going to talk about! So that was a really good start to my new area. We also have this really cool Vietnam vet who lives right by us and he is a member that is like our mission Grandpa. I call him "Grandpa Glenn." He tells us all these cool stories of war and he feeds us every meal that the members don't, so I'm a happy camper! :) Love you all!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 3/10/14 "Saw this coming lol"

Well Family, another week has gone by. They're just going faster and faster! The time is flying by! Well my curse continues! lol I'm being transferred to Jefferson City, Missouri for my last 2 months of my mission, and I couldn't get out of the leadership for the end of my mission. Believe me, I tried! I'm sick of it! Ha! Ha! I just wanted to be a junior companion for a change... It's pretty cool that I've served in both of the Capitols in the 2 states our mission covers. Maybe I need to get in to politics JK !!! Well we moved West and Austins baptismal dates one more week so they don't have to wait 2 weeks to receive the Holy Ghost, because stake conference is this Sunday... My tradition continues! lol Get the area rolling get some baptismal dates and get transferred. My whole mission has been this way, so it's not even a surprise anymore... I still want to see my companion baptize someone. My whole mission, either I baptize everyone we're teaching, or I get kicked out before it happens! Never have I seen a baptism from the other side or the glass! So let's hope that Jeffcity has someone close to baptism and my companion can baptize them before I go home! I hope everyone is enjoying the sun. I'm wanting more snow so I can stay focused til May and not think about all my summer plans, ect... I love you all! 

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 3/4/14 "Hot N Cold"

Well family, this week started off amazing. We had a killer tour of the Temple with West and Caleb. The sister's investigators came and they even had a little office in the temple where they let us use to teach our lesson.  So we had our lesson in the Temple and the Spirit was so strong. It was unreal! I love the Temple! I miss going every transfer ... Our lesson started off with just simply sharing our testimonies of the temple and how we have received answers to our prayers, and felt the Spirit when we go to the temple. They both were locked in the every word that was shared and even shared their thoughts and feeling while sitting there in the temple. It was so cool! Then after I said our closing prayer, I felt prompted to invite everyone there to take just a few minutes and offer up a prayer, and I promised them they would get their answer right there! So we all prayed for a few minutes and I could just feel during my prayer that they did get their answer. After that they both looked up at me with tears in their eyes and said, "wow I've never felt that warm feeling so strong!" I knew they both got the answer they needed and its was so cool to be a part of that! 

Later this week we got hammered by a killer ice storm and -10 degrees so church was cancelled again ugh!... We now have to push West's Baptismal date back another week which will put it just after transfers. Even with Austin's date he set, so I'm sure I'll be out of here next week! Ha Ha! It's been that way my whole mission, but let's see if it will change...? We didn't get to meet with Doug and his son this week. He dropped both of our appointments so I'm sure he got anti'd and wont meet with us again which is a bummer... I hate when people won't let others make their own judgments in religions. But they will be held accountable at the judgment seat for that. Ha! Ha! I hope everyone is surviveping these crazy ice storms, must be global warming! ... lol Stay safe everyone, love you all 

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 2/24/14 "Awesome Week!"

Well Family, this week was Awesome! We found a new investigator and his 10 year old son. They are super prepared. We taught the restoration and they watched the DVD that night together. We where on exchanges that day, but I got to invite him to baptism on the 1st lesson, and he said yes! :) They will be coming to church this week. So excited!! We also came by on Saturday and helped him work on his Jeep. I got to use a torch wrench and mount the head on his engine and we just got to know each other really good.

We also moved Austin to his new house just down the street from West our other investigator. They are the same ages and they're good friends and they give him rides to church so both their baptism dates are on! Heck yes! I hope I can stay here for my final full transfer. This is an awesome area!! The young men this week are doing baptism's for the dead at the St. Louis temple. I got it approved and we are going to take West and Austin and give them a tour on the grounds of the temple and have a lesson with them as well. Should be a good week! :) 

It was so cool to have 6 investigators at Church this Sunday between us and the sisters. The ward was kinda shocked we had that many people to teach let alone bring to church. ha ha! So I ordered my new camera last week and I got it, but it was the wrong camera. It was the S6500 not the 6800, so I called the guy I bought it from and he was in Montana, so I knew he'd be a good guy! I told him what had happened and he said I could return it and he'd give me some free movies or games, but I was like I'm a missionary for my church, so I can't really use those things... Then I told him there was a 100 dollar difference between this camera and the one I orderes and he said well then how about I refund you $125 and we call it good, so I was like, "ok sweet. I just got a 100 dollar camera for 50 bucks!" Then he called me 5 minutes later and said sorry man, but we made another mistake we just refunded all your money- $170. But this is an easy way to train a new employee, so just keep the money and the camera. So Happy day here ha ha!!! So I'll be posting pictures soon but none with me in them. Ha! Ha! It's gonna be a surprise when I get home!! 

The Sandy Creek sisters got in an accident this week, so that wasn't good but it was with a former investigator of ours, so in a few weeks when this all pans out we will be contacting him again. Ha! Ha! I'm glad it wasn't the sister's fault though. Black dots aren't fun to have! Ha! Ha! I hope everyone had a good week!

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 2/18/14 "Doe he know de are da lord's Chips?"

Well family, another week has gone by. We taught West the law of tithing and he was just blown away that we don't pay anyone in our church. He loved know that tithing money goes to buildings and temples. He said "every church should be like that." Won't argue that the Lord's money should go to the Lord and no pastor or priest should rob God! We also had tons of meetings this week and one of them was way south in Cape zone and I was very tired from the drive and I pulled out my GPS to find some food and I could not believe my eyes! I almost cried! There is a TACO JOHNS in Cape! It was so beautiful. Reminded me of all the trips I've taken with my family. :) They didnt have the apple crisp, but everything else there was dang good. Made me very happy! :) Austin and West both didn't make it to church this week which was a bummer. Both had family drama, but that's no excuse for missing church! Ha! Ha! 

We had Zone p-day this Monday, and we all went Roller Skating, and I couldn't believe how fun that was. I haven't skated like that in 6 years. Ha! Ha! It also reminded me of why 80's music still is the best. Ha! Ha! Love those tender mercies! In the words of President Clark, "if you cant avoid it, Enjoy it!" I miss that man!

On a good note thoough, we got a Less Active and his son to finally come to church. They haven't been in like 8 months and really missed it, which I found odd. Most Less Actives I've talked to try to convince themselves either they don't need church or that they hate it, or the people. Ha! Ha! But they really missed being in the loving atmosphere of the church. The most important thing was they missed having the Spirit and that's the part that doesn't surprise me. I love the feelings you get from the Holy Ghost! Nothing can replace that! I'm truly convinced that's what keeps our members coming back every Sunday. We wouldn't do half the things we do as a church if it wasn't for the Spirit being there with us through it all. There is no way I would've left my family for 2 years and put my life on hold, unless I knew the Holy Ghost would be by my side for those 2 years!  And I'm so thankful for all the lessons I've been able to learn in this time.:) I hope everyone is doing well! 

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 2/10/14 "Service Surfing"

Well family, we had a much better ending to this week. We had West come to church with his father and they loved the service! We had ward conference and sister Perkins sang "I Need Thee Every Hour," and that was the most powerful musical I've ever heard!!! She couldn't even finish the 3rd verse because the Spirit was so strong. It was awesome and to have a investigator there and his inactive father made it that much better! West was like "is it this good every Sunday?" And I said, "well she sings every Sunday, just not a solo so try and sit close to her and it can be!" Ha! Ha! He went with the young men and they took him under their wing which was super cool to see. He is being loved by everyone around him and that's so powerful. Maybe we can get one of the young men to baptize him too! 

We also taught West the commandments and the Word of Wisdom, and I shared my personal testimony of the time when I was at a party where their wasn't the best of people and drugs and things. So I left, seeing the changes in the party and as I left, I saw a cop come around the corner and busted tons of kids from school and had I not listened to the Holy Ghost, then I would've been busted too. That really meant a lot to him. He was like, "that's the most amazing thing I've ever heard. Can I give you a high five right now?" I was like, "oh ya you can!" We also taught him the Law of Chastity and he is fully reading to live all of it, so we're moving forward. :) 

Austin's dad flaked on 2 of our appointments this week, so we didn't get to see him and he didn't come to church, so his baptism date may or may not happen. We will see? Hope he buckles down even though his dad is not much help and really wants this for himself! 

Kathy Cooper our newest member was super sick and had a bad medication reaction. She was in the ER earlier this week and we gave her a blessing and she made a full turn around in time for Sunday. She was so happy we came and helped her. She said "There is just a sense of peace when you guys are around." So that was great to hear! I'm proly just numb to the peace. Ha! Ha! But I'm glad we got to help and strengthen her testimony! 

Service was fun this week as well we help tons of old ladies at a food pantry and they got a gold bar rip stick and where like hmmm we gave give this to anyone and how does this thing even work ? So i showed then how it worked and they were all blown away lol They made me perform 3 times that day they where like man its like hes flying around the room lol kinda felt like it to cuz i had many obstacles to swing around ha ha It felt so good to ride that to doesn't help me with my many snowboarding dreams but its fun to ride in circles in the apartment at lunch time lol ! They gave me the rip stick for payment of my performing ha ha!!!  I love you all 

Love Elder Christensen   

 

Elder Christensen: Letter 2/3/14 "Trial and Air"

Earlier this week we had both Austin and West come to Young Mens, and they built an obstacle course / Par-core course and that was pretty fun to watch. They really bonded well with all the other young men and then after all they young guys ran the course they made me and my companion run the course as well. Of course as a missionaries you're obligated to get the best time. So I did! Ha! Ha! I had to represent the Missouri St. Louis mission right! My favorite part of the whole course was they had a full round table that you have to go over and most people would slide on it and I ran as fast as I could and jumped as high as I could and I cleared the whole table. That really helped my time and all the young men where like "what no way?" It was pretty funny! 

Well Family another week has gone by. I hope everyone enjoyed their Superbowl parties. We had a non-Superbowl party with the Tuckers. That was pretty fun! Kathy Cooper was baptized this past Saturday and that was a pretty eventful baptism! We didn't have a jumpsuit big enough, so we ran to all the other buildings to try and find a 3XL but had no luck, so we had our ward mission leader get his white pants and doubled up on white shirts lol. We had Brother Forrest, one of her now really good friends in the church, baptize her, and he was a pretty old fellow himself. So that was a sight to see as well. That was the slowest baptism I've ever witnessed! Ha! Ha! But it was super spiritual as well! It was really cool to see how determined she was to get baptized when all these obstacles got in her way. She was focused and said ok this will not be what keeps me from getting baptized and she was pushing through all these trials so that was cool to see! I could really relate to her with being close to the end of my mission.There have been many trials that have been hitting me in this final stretch of my mission. My camera broke on me and investigators have been not keeping their commitments and many other things, but this life would be pretty boring without trials so I say "bring it on!!!"  "Trials are simply opportunities." They can either help you grow or you can let them get you down! So I'm going to keep on pushin on till I've got no more push left in me! I Love you all and hope that you had a great week :) 

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 1/27/14 "Stay'n Pray'n"

Well family, I'm staying one more transfer here in Crystal City. Maybe we will break my record of 2 transfers ha ha!! This week we had Kathy Cooper's Baptismal Interview. She passed:) We also contacted the Less Active and his son and taught the Restoration. We also extended a Baptismal invitation and he said yes so thats good news. Maybe we will have 2 baptisms in February and 1 in March. Not too bad for a dead area 6 weeks ago! We also had 3 Less actives come to church this week so that was a cool way to end this transfer. The sisters in our ward had 2 other investigators there as well so that was a very full Sunday! Then we had a priesthood meeting after all that and the focus was on Senior Couples serving missions. So that was cool to hear their testimonies and feel how much they really want to serve the Lord! It would be hard to leave your house and your grandkids. I give them tons of props! They also don't have to follow the white handbook so I think I'd enjoy their mission a lot!!!! You just get to be yourself and share the gospel. What more could you want?

 

Anywho after that meeting we gave a blessing to Sherry Daniel. She is a less active who just found she has cancer. So that's not good, but we had brother Homan come and give her that blessing and he was definitely the man for the job. I felt like he and her have been best friends for 20- 30 years and it was a really good blessing. You could just see her worries go away. :) She will be in my prayers along with our investigators and those who are having trials back home. Love you all!

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 1/13/14 "Good stuff"

Well family, this week was pretty fun other than freezing to death in the beginning! I'm glad I had all my winter gear! We did visit one of our investigators; Dustin. He and Amanda had a few arguments over the holidays, and he got pretty wasted and yelled some pretty mean things, so he got arrested and released this week. We saw him and he was a mess!  He even remembered the last words I said to him before the holidays. I said "Have Fun, but not too much fun, stay away from the drinks." He said jokingly, "that won't be fun then," and we left. He said my words rang through his head in jail over and over again, and he wishes he would've listened.  He is at the lowest I've ever seen him though. But it's bringing on tons of good changes. He dumped every bottle of alcohol he had in front of us and said, "I'm never touching this stuff again." So hopefully he sticks to it! I'm sure Amanda will come back once he gets his life back on track, but if he wont let the gospel in, he's got a long way to go...

We had a killer lesson with Austin this week! We watched 2 short clips and the Spirit was super strong during the basketball one and since we just played basketball last week, I think it softened his heart. After the video I said, "Austin I know that you've felt the Spirit with us and God will answer your prayers." There was a long pause and no one talked for like forever it felt like, and then he said, "I don't know why, but baptism just keeps popping back into my head almost like the Spirit is shoving me into it." His dad said, "Austin that's the Holy Ghost telling you it's right." And with his dad being an excommunicated member, he began to cry because he felt the Spirit again and said, "son I know you're ready. I wish I was too."  Then Austin set his baptism date for his mother's birthday, on March 14th. I don't know if I'll be here then with my transfer history! I could be gone in 2 weeks! Ha! Ha! So we will see... If I'm here or not, I know we made a difference in his life and being able to invite the spirit into their home has made a world of difference ! All in all its been a good week. I love ya family !     

Love Elder Christensen 

Elder Christensen: Letter 01/7/14 "ICE Crystal City"

Well family, this week was the coldest week ever! Ha! Ha! Zero degrees was our high for 3 days and it snowed 12 inches. They shut down the whole city of St. Louis for 2 days.  We also had a wind chill of -35, so I'm glad I was well prepared for this. We went tracting for like 20 minutes, and the police told us to go home, that it was not safe for anyone to be outside. So 2 days of chilling in the apartment, got tons of studies in, but when I finally got Spiritually yoked. Ha! Ha! It was fun time lol.  Then we helped tons of people get their cars out of the snow, which was fun. I found the best way to do it is to shovel til you get to the road and have them spin their tires and just push the car over till the tires hit the road, then rock it hard ha ha good stuff!

We did get to teach an awesome lesson to Austin, and invited him to pray for a baptismal date and we watched "things that matter most," from  Elder Utchdorf  and that was just what his father needed to hear as well. It's way cool to see the Spirit working on both of them. Then afterwards we played some basketball to build our trust with Austin and he is a little ball for 14 years old. Burned my companion a few times lol! But all around that was a blast! We played some 21 and a few games of horse. We also had another lesson with Katrina Holmes. She used to live in Florissant ha ha! So I know her Aunt and they're so much alike it's crazy! They both can talk forever! Ha! Ha! That was the longest lesson of my life! 2 and a half hours! I was trying to get out for 2 hours of that. Ha! Ha! I heard the same story easy 3 times lol. But missions will teach you patience that's for sure!

Well, I'm officially starting on my (6 months to sexy) ha ha! I did my body cleanse and lost all my holiday weight. I lost 10 pounds and now its time to rebuild and cut up! Ha! Ha! I am going for a mean 150 lbs. I hope it all works out. Can't see my friends looking chub chub ha ha! I love you all and hope you are all safe in your travels!!

Love Elder Christensen