Elder Christensen: Letter 12/30/13 "Gym for the Win"

Well family it was great to see all your beautiful faces again. Man all you have changed so much! I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and loved the gifts I got them. Ha! Ha! I wish I had more time. I wanted to share more cool mission stories with you, but that will have to wait till I get home. :) So we found people like crazy this week. We have 4 new in our area, and 5 in our Teaching pool, which is just what this area needed! We had nothing and now we have 5 solid people to teach. I love when the Lord helps you through these tough spots.

 

The members are great and every meal feels closer to my mom's cooking, but of course it isn't there. I have a few more months to get that! Ha! Ha!. It was way cool on p-day this week. Our ward mission leader took us to the Arnold Rec center and we played basketball for 2 hours, and then worked out for an hour. Reminded me of the good ol' days when that's all I did to stay out of trouble after work. Ha! Ha!. Well hopefully this week we can get a few of those new investigators to come to church so they can feel theSspirit for themselves and start sincerely seeking... We had some really good moments tracting. My poor companion is just out of his 12 week program and has tracted for 2 transfers, so now that we got some people to teach, I hope that gives him the break he needs!! I Love you all so much!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 12/23/13 "Toys for Tots"

Well Family, I'll be Skype-ing you this Wednesday at noon your time, so be ready for that. I can't wait to see your faces!!! So it was pretty hard to say goodbye to all the great members of Springfield, but I was warmly welcomed into Crystal City! My full address is 1009 Kenner St. Apt 5, Crystal City, MO 63019 if you'd like to know.

We have zero investigators right now, but I guess that's why i'm here! I've come up with an awesome analogy to explain my whole mission. Some missionaries are sent to ride the tractor and enjoy the harvest with very little effort put into it. Some are sent to watch others drive the tractor so they don't miss any of the crops. Then there is the missionary that gets transferred every 3 months or less and his job is to fix the tractors and get the the machine running good for the next missionary, so he can enjoy the easy ride ha ha! So I'm a fixer! Whether that's a companion who's struggling or an area that's struggling, they send me to fix it and get it running, then I leave to do it all again for the next area ha ha!!!

Well, a pretty cool story this week. We did "Toys for Tots," and I helped like 5 families get toys. Then we have been tracting all week to get some investigators and we tracted into a woman that I had helped get toys! What are the odds of that? ha ha! She was like, "wow, hey remember me?" I was like, "oh ya, I do." She was like, "I'll take a book and read it, but I'm busy for the holidays. Can you come back after, then you can meet the kids you helped me pick toys out for." Ha ha! I was like, "Sounds good to me!!!" Merry Christmas everyone !!!!!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 12/16/13 "Crystal City"

Well Family, as I had predicted, I'm getting Transferred to Crystal City, Missouri this Wednesday. I'm really going to miss Springfield. ome of my best memories have been here! This week I got to make a few more memories before leaving. I got invited to Grandma Hurley's 94th Birthday party, which also is exactly one year from the day I baptised her. That was pretty cool to be here for. I'll never forget her. I will be missing a lot of baptisms in the next month that I worked my butt off for, but hey it's happened a lot in the last 18 months, and it will happen again ha ha! I'm pretty excited to get into my new area and hit the ground running. I will be a district leader again and will have the biggest district in the mission. It's almost as big as the whole zone I was just over. The District has 12 missionaries. That's mind-blowing for me! I will be in the South Zone of our mission. I've served in every zone other than St. Louis Zone, but hey, I've got 6 more months, so that can still happen lol!!

This past week I knew I was going to leave, so I had all my things packed a week in advance. My poor companion thought I was crazy, but I know how things work for me and I knew I'd be leaving ha ha! So I prepared ... The ward and the Stake President were not too happy when they got the news. They even cancelled our Christmas dinner now that I'm not going to be here ha ha! Poor Elders! I'm sure someone else will sign up tho!

We got hammered by snow this week and there was ice under it, so driving was a blast! My companion got his driving privileges back this week as well, so I let him drive some and we almost died ha ha! I calmly said as we fishtailed into oncoming traffic, "Yep were Dead!" ha ha! I know my mom is shocked I didn't yell my usual phrase of "DEEEEEE!" We also had a good week of finding, while tracting through all the snow. People saw just how crazy we are and how dedicated we are to this work so they heard us out. None of them made it to church this week because of the driving conditions, but I don't blame them. The ward Christmas Party was great. I'm glad I got to stay for that. Now hopefully my new area is having theirs this weekend so I get double the Christmas ha ha! I love you all hope that your safe and warm!

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 12/9/13 "Ice and more Ice"

This week we had a killer ice storm. I got to see 7 cars fly off the road, as I was driving to a farewell party for a sister in the ward (Brooke Bellmonte). She reports to the MTC this Wednesday. It was pretty cool to see another missionary talk and see the family here for that. Seems like mine was just yesterday, and at the same time, it seems so far away! She gave a very good talk and testimony. It was a shame none of our investigators where there to hear it... However we did go to the 2nd Ward with Betsy and Paul. We found them last week and they're both awesome. Paul read the intro and has finished 2nd Nephi. He is a very logical person tho, and doesn't believe the trip was possible. However early that same day I was reading my Book of Mormon student manual and helped show him how that trip was possible! I pulled the manual up on his computer and he went to town after we left. He loved having all those facts and now he is continuing his reading of the Book of Mormon. Betsy loves meeting with us. She really enjoyed our church and the people she has met. She will be getting baptised in January for sure! We got to teach Ashley this week. She has set her baptismal date for the 28th of December, so that's Awesome! Hope I'll be here for all that good stuff! I've put a lot of work into this area and this zone and haven't got to see to much of it play out yet...

We Also had our Zone P-day last week and had a mini Pool Tournament. I'm pleased to say that Springfield 1 was the Champion.:) We also had a bonfire, toasted hot dogsm and marshmallows. We had a good time. Elder Jensen, who goes home next week, said "Elder Christensen that was the best zone P-day I've ever had." And he meant it. He said I love that we had tons of fun things to do and we could just go do whatever we wanted when we wanted to. So I'm glad that made his day. Ultimate Frisbee was pretty fun too. Glad we had a lot of sun that day. It was perfect. The Messervy's are Awesome! I'm so glad they let us do that! Well, I had exchanges with Elder Presher this week. That was pretty fun, however, there was many unplanned events that took place that day. We almost made it in time to give a man a blessing and he passed away. :/ And I saw a new side to some of our investigators that day. It's a long story! You just have to ask me during Christmas Skype lol its a funny one tho !!!!!! I love you all hope your getting 3 feet of snow and drive safe !

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 12/2/13 "Turkey Bowl 2"

Well family, this week has gone by way too fast. I can't believe Thanksgiving was here again. It blows my mind thats it was a year ago! We played the same Turkeybowl as I did the year before haha! They weren't so clueless this year when I told  them I wasn't very good lol! It was worth a shot tho. We had a few appointments this week. Tracy didn't come to church this week again, but while cleaning her daughters room she watched the BYU channel and listened to a few talks. She did her Book of Mormon reading this week too. She is awesome! I have no doubt she will be Baptised one day. She just needs a social conversion as well. Oh and just a heads up Mom and Dad, I told them they could stay with us next summer for a few days ha ha! :)

Greg got up an gave his Testimony this week so that was really cool to hear. I didn't think I was helping him too much until I heard him say it. So that was nice! Ashley is out of town so we haven't started teaching her yet, but we hope she gets back soon so we can get her dunked before she is 12 so she can go to the temple for Young Women's. There is so much happening in this area. I hope I will stay another transfer here. I might be too much for my companion to handle tho ha ha! He is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I'm too crazy for him a lot of the time, but that's still the Jeff that's in me! Won't change that for the world tho. I am who I am! :)

 

Hope everyone enjoyed their Black Friday. I got to drive 190 miles to St. Louis for a 6 hour meeting. Oh the joys of being a Zone leader! I hope they come to their senses soon and retire me ha ha jk! But I'm getting burnt out with all the needless driving, but my companion is black-dotted, which means no driving for him! ... Oh well. Endure to the end right? Hope Thanksgiving was good for you all. I've got a couple weeks to Christmas. Hope everyone is ready for it!! Today we will be having our Zone P-day at the Messervys home playing some pool and football and a bon fire. What a good way to start the week! :) Love you all !

Love Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen: Letter 11/25/13 "Behold the Cold :P"

Well family, yet another week has gone by and this was a cold one. We had 18-22 degree whether, which I'm cool with as long as it snows!!! We still got nothing. It's snowed one time and it melted already:/ We had tons of appointments this week and most of them didn't fall through. Heck yes! We also had a miracle this Sunday with 12 year-old Ashley. She is a girl that lives with a recent convert family (the Winters) and she has a twin sister who was baptised a year or 2 ago. And just now after meeting us and seeing how fun and not scary we are, she told them on Sunday, "I want to be baptised." Now we're working on that, shooting for the 7th of December with Shawn's date too. So that was awesome!! Also on Sunday, Asta came to church even by herself. I was like, no way, but she was super interested after the FHE (Family Home Evening) we had with her. We watched the Living scripture Nephi and the Tree of Life. ha ha! I miss those movies I'll get them on DVD one day when I find those dang salesmen!!

We also met with Betsy this week on Tuesday and invited her to be baptised she said yes. We don't have a date yet cuz she hasn't come to Church yet, but she has been out of town the past 2 weekends so that doesn't help... We will be having a dinner and a lesson with her at the Messervy's this week on Tuesday. Hope she can feel the Spirit that's in the member's homes. She will be bringing all 3 of her kids as well and they are ages 9, 12, and 16, so hopefully we will start teaching them soon too. That will be great! I've always wanted to teach a family! Martin and Alecia are the biggest family I've taught so far, but their girl was only 2, so that's border line ha ha! I love them!!

We had our exchanges in Jacksonville this week and got to do some service there. Raking leaves is always fun. You get to see the immediate success of your labors lol. We also met Mary and reset a date for her. She dropped them last week and we helped respark why she was getting baptised and investigating the church and set goals with her. It went very well and she came to church this week. We taught Rachael the Plan of Salvation and I could really see her questions being answered. By far our best lesson with her she still hasn't come to church tho...

Also had Zone Conference this week. That was a lot of work! Getting everything set up and getting our trainings ready for that. I'm so exhausted... My training was super fun tho. I made an object lesson using a Basketball as a friend that needs the gospel. I took a missionary to the other end of the court said, ok you're a member this is your friend that needs the gospel. That hoop clear over there is baptism. Think you can make it? He missed of course, then I said, ok half court you decide to have the missionaries meet him at dinner. He got closer, then I said he takes the 1st lesson and comes to church, 3-pointer, and he almost made it. Then I said, ok now they teach the Plan of Salvation, free-throw still missed. Then I said, ok now they are taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, almost a layup still missed! ha ha! Then the commandments, layup he made it, and I taught from that. Sometimes we can make the half-court shots and 3 pointers, but if we invite them to church and get the lessons going its much easier to make the shot!  So the whole point of my training was to walk with your members and their friends until they can make that layup and see their friend get baptised. Pretty cool huh?  

Elder Christensen: Letter 11/18/13 "Twister 2"

Well family, this week we got lucky with yet again another huge tornado just missing us! :) It hit just 15 miles away but did most of its damage in Washington, IL. I'm not sure if we will be doing any service up there or not yet. It's just out of our Zone, but that town got hammered, so who knows?  Stake conference was good. I was asked by the Stake President to talk about when I had seen the Lord's hand in my life. It totally caught me off guard, but it went very well! The whole conference was very uplifting and directed towards missionary work, so it was great! We had a super great lesson with Greg this week as well. I'm glad he didn't drop us. We were pretty hard on him, but he's been investigating for almost 18 months and hasn't read The Book of Mormon.  His excuse is my favorite!! He says, "if I read it I'll know its all true, so if I don't then I'm ok still living the way I live." He knows it'ss true and he hasn't even read it yet! That's also why is was frustrating, but he will start reading this week. :) We moved Shawn's Baptismal date to December 7th and helped him understand how he can know he is ready. Great lessons all this week.

Elder Donaldson From the district Videos came to our mission this week and gave us tons of training on how to use the lesson pamphlets more effectively. Most missionaries don't ever use them, so they were all super shocked. I've used them like mad my whole mission, but I never used the picture like he taught us, and I learned a lot from that and introducing the Book of Mormon more effectively was great. We applied what we learned all this week. I wish the whole mission was at this meeting but it was hand selected. I just got lucky I guess... My favorite lesson of the week was probably with Betsy. We taught the Plan of Salvation and you could really see her feeling the spirit, and I invited her to be baptized and she said yes. We don't have a date yet, but I'm hoping we can get it before then end of this year, or before I get transferred lol! Hope everyone is safe and well!

Love Elder Christensen