Elder Christensen: Letter 6/3/13 Slapped by the word!

Well this week was great because we didn’t die in a tornado! Four of them were in our mission. Crazy stuff! And one was 40 miles from us but I have no doubt that we will be protected! We got 2 new investigators and had awesome lessons this week with Mike and Danny and our newest investigator John. He lives in Paris which is a small town like 30 miles from Moberly and he believes everything we taught. He love the restoration, but he just thinks that the prophets to follow aren’t correct so we are working through his concern but he is well prepared and we did invite him to pray to know if president Monson is a true prophet. We will be seeing him again this Friday to see how that went J We also might be teaching Miss Moberly. She ran into us at service and was helping out and was either interested in our message or us... Ha! Ha! We will find out in 2 days, but as President Clark (PC) says “Elders, we need to flirt to convert” Ha! Ha! I love PC im gonna miss him for sure !! His mission President is finished with his mission this summer, so he will be getting a new one.

 We had a baptism this weekend. A part-member family baptism. Nicholas got baptized by his dad and confirmed by his brother. That was cool to see. We taught Nicholas the discussions mainly for practice for my greeny, but they went very well and we got technically a convert baptism. Ha! Ha! Fun stuff, but hopefully we will get some of our investigators to church this week and get them rolling J

We also had a lot of District unity this week as we went to the Pizza Hut buffet and battled to see who could eat the most. To say the least I still hold my title! Ha! Ha! I almost lost to Elder Peterson. He is a beast he weighs 285 and played college football as a center, but I still got it! Definitely had some running to do after that !!

Things are picking up out here hopefully will get some fun stories and more memories. JI also got rebuked hardcore this week in my studies as I was listen to a talk from Elder Ballard. He read D&C 49:15 and if that wasn’t the biggest slap in the face I don’t know what is ha ha so I’ll be looking a little more openly on the subject from here on out haha !!!! I love you all hope all is well!

Love Elder Christensen

FYI, I had to look this one up. D&C 49:15- "And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man." Jeff has been saying that he probably won't get married, so I guess he is reconsidering after hearing this!

Elder Christensen: Letter 5/28/13 Truck + Me = :)

Well this week we got all settled into our new apartment and got our truck nice and dirty with all this rain we’ve had. It's been nice!! We got 5 new investigators this week, which is good because this area is dead otherwise. My new companion is Elder Rausch. He is from Alberta Canada and is 18 years old and is the youngest of 9 kids. Only one older brother wet on a mission out of 5 so he is breaking the curse and trying to get his 19 year old brother to go.  I can say I see a big difference in the age drop now that I'm training an 18 year old, and I must say Im pretty shocked at how immature 18 year olds are! I was one of the least mature at that age but the Lord will make up the difference... I hope J 

It's been really fun being back in the farmland. At least we have the proper tools for this area. I love our truck! The ward is great. The members feed us almost every day and its really good cooking out here. I had some Amish milk and oh my goodness it’s a good thing there isn’t a lot in Salt Lake or I'd be 500 lbs !!!  We are working with some part member families that seem pretty sweet and I can already see why my comp is in this area with me for these specific families.  Can’t wait to see where this goes in the time we are here! Other than our district leader, I'm the oldest one in the district. It's very weird but its cool to see my greeny learning new things every day.  I love you and hope to hear from you soon!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 5/20/13 "The best way to leave!!"

Well this was the big Sunday and everything went perfectly. I was able to baptized Alecia Louis Mata and Dorris Jean Carter and see Martin Mata get baptized! I couldn't believe how many people from the ward came to see these baptisms. We filled every chair in the Relief Society and then some! We had at least 50 people there. It was awesome. The talks at the baptism were very good. Sister McCowin really hit it home for Dorris. I'm so happy that she has a fellow-shipper like that in this ward. She is blessed to have her.  It's funny because Sister McCowin was in my families ward in Montana in the 80's. She told me about my uncles and my mom in the ward and all my grandparents did with their callings and it's way cool how small the world really is.  I can't wait to see how far all these new member of the Church go and how many people they help along the way! 

It was my last Radichel Sunday but it was a good one! I'm gonna miss that family a lot. They have been such a blessing for me in this area. Can't wait to see them after the mission :) This area will be one to come back to for sure !!

 

My new area is Moberly Missouri. It's a small farm town but we get a truck so that's gonna be fun and I'm training a new greeney. Lucky him ha ha ! This will be great! Hopefully this new area will give him a good taste of what this mission is all about! Love you all and hope to hear from you soon my new address is 306 North College ave apt 6 Moberly MO 65270

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 5/13/13 "Love yo ma!"

 

Well this week I got to see my beautiful family. They are all doing very well. I was also able to see my grandma and grandpa Christensen. I miss them so much and they are doing great :) 

 

This is the big week Martin and Alecia are getting married and baptized. I still don't know if I'm baptizing either of them. I hope so because I might not be here for the confirmation if I get transferred, so we will see what happens !!

 

Mother's Day Sunday was great. The talks were really good and had tons of greats stories to go with them.  I cant believe how old everyone is back home blows my mind and I'm not getting any younger! Won't be long till I'm dead! Ha! Ha! Missionary term ;) means I'm going home!  Hope everyone had a great Mother's day and showed appreciation for their mama! If you didn't I'll beat you up when I get home.

We had tons of great appointments this week with all of our investigators. Half of them made it to church we had 4 there, so that was cool. It's been a while since I've had that many come to church! Hopefully more baptism dates for the next missionary to come here... my companion goes home in 5 weeks so crazy, but ending your mission with baptisms and obedience is the way to do it for sure!! Glad I've been able to help him trough the hardest part of his mission especially with getting dear John'd and everything its taught me a lot about putting others needs above my own. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 5/6/13 "One LOVE, Bob Marley"

Well this week was Awesome have some good news on Martin and Alecia. After the blessing and all the events that took place in her downtime and reading the Book of Mormon like crazy they are wanting to move their wedding day forward! :) My comp and I will be the witnesses for their wedding and the only thing we are waiting on is paperwork for the wedding, which should be coming this week or next week.  So I'm super excited for that! I didn't think I'd be here for that and I will be so that's awesome !!!  This Sunday we got to be with Martin and Alecia for their daughters 2nd birthday and that was a blast. Yhey are so much fun. I can't wait to see them when I come back to visit !!

 

Oh and according to Apples to Apples, I'm Healthy, Cool, Sexy, Depressing, Glorious, Funny, Loveable, Worthless, and Desperate ha ha ha (We always take the cards that we win and they suposedly describe you) Hope you enjoyed your week and the NBA playoffs as the Heat will be winning it again this year!

Transfers are May 22nd, just 2 days before my birthday so that's a bummer if I go. I hope I stay but we will see what happens?  It rained, no joke, all week other than Monday. We went to the Zoo and played some golf with Brother Marco. It was a super P-Day !! We did more service on Wednesday for the Tornado. I used a chain saw and cut more trees and had the youth carry them off. Fun stuff, but hard work !!

 

We set another baptism date with Dorris Carter for Mothers Day, but I feel she will want to push that back more. We will see how that goes but that would be a cool Mothers day !!

 
I was thinking a lot this week about how I can continue to improve both as a missionary and a Human being and through all my diligent studying and praying this was what I got.  The biggest stumbling block to the missionary work is self. Self that refuses to sacrifice. Self that refuses to give. Self that refuses to go. Forget Yourself :) - Elder Christensen. So I'll be trying to do better at this for the next year. Hope I get there! :)

I love You all!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/15/13 Tornado time

Well this week I got to see my 1st ever tornado. Those things are crazy and deadly! I have no clue how people can live where they happen so often!! This one was really close to our apartment and the church. Luckily both didn't get hit. Tons of homes by the church are ripped in half, which is sad!! Full grown trees were thrown into homes and street lights are long gone. We lost power for 24 hours and some areas had no power for the whole week!! We did get to do some service finally though. We helped neighbors cut trees and haul them off and this Sunday we helped put together food and clothing kits with the Radichels and the Ringling family at the Hazelwood elementary school. Nothing would have gotten done if the Mormon crew did show up! No joke. They had no clue what they needed to do!! 

Also this Sunday, Dorris Carter, our investigator got up and bore her testimony. It was great! Then at the end of her testimony she said, "I would like to thank God for my missionaries he has given me. I would like to say they is the most handsome Elders I've ever seen!" Everyone busted up laughing including me. Ha! Ha! She is a character for sure!! Hopefully we will be getting her dunked soon.:)  We also taught a part member family on Friday for FHE and talked about the structure of the church and how the Book of Mormon came to be. Her 2 little kids loved it, especially Kiara. She is so cute! She is 8 years old and loves art.:)  

This month has been going by super fast cant believe I'm almost 20 years old! I'll no longer be in my teenage years:/

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 4/8/13 Stayin here

Well, good news! I'm staying for another transfer. :)  General Confrence was great. I really enjoyed all the talks. I really could realate to president Monson's talk when he shared the story of almost burning down all the cabins and pine trees.That sounds a lot like something I would've done!! 

 

This week people were super talkative on the busses, but only to me. My comp didn't get much action there for some reason.  I was very happy. I got to teach 6 other lessons within 3 buses. Pretty cool! One of them used to be a former investigator and we wouldn't know that because some really dumb missionaries before us threw away all the records of the area. I hope they get their just reward for that deed!:) Sam is the former investigator in whom I'm talking about and she is way cool. I talked with her about the plan of salvation and she just ate that up!! She really wanted a book of mormon so we gave her one and will be meeting with her this Thursday, :) 

 

We had a great dinner with the Radichel family and this was the last time we will be seeing their foreign exchange student from Germany. Hopefully she has learned tons from the Radichels and the great example they are for our ward. Maybe she will taking the lessons in the future now, or at least stop the missionaries when she sees them?  The work is picking up out here. Our area will be getting cut in half this Wednesday, but I made sure that we kept some of the ghetto for us too. Ha! Ha! Hopefully we get some good Elders and a car!! I have taken over the duties of basketball on Tuesday so we can teach those non-memebers and get them rolling. I'm so mad that it just stopped and never came back, so I'm making it happen lol. I bought a new ball last week, and got a key for the hoops on its way! :)

 

I have learned a lot about myself this last transfer and its been almost more than I can handle. I'm so thankful for my Father in Heaven, and for my friends and family who write me. I won't ever forget these letters and emails and when I get home you will be the 1st people I hold in my arms!!  I love you all and hope you are enjoying this Spring and getting ready for this summer. :)

Love Elder Christensen