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