Watch out for the slow moving tropical storm ...

Elders ...

This past week we had dinner with some members who really enjoy having
us over for dinner. At dinner she told us there was a storm coming
with high chances of rain everyday this week. Then her husband adds
his knowledge on the subject and tells us it's a slow moving tropical
storm. They really talked up this storm that's coming. Well it has
been the joke of the week between me and Elder Rowland. It has hardly
rained, and every once in a while it looks like there's a storm coming
but it will rain for 30 minutes then the sun will come out. It's been
fun. But yes it's been very grey lately which is nice but with the
grey comes humid and with humidity comes ew. It was 102 and dumb humid
the other day. How sweaty you may ask? Very.


This week was more active then last week. We still are lacking in the
set up appointments area but we always find lessons somewhere. Last
week we were struggling to find an appointment so we were knocking
trying to find people and we were about to move to the next area but
we felt like we should try a couple more. So we walk down the street
and there is a guy sitting outside. We go up to him and talk with him
and he allows us to share the restoration with him. He wasn't
interested at all in the church but he listened and he shared with us
the psalms he was writing and how he wants to be a rapper and rapped
for us. Made me smile. And best of all his name is Palace. I become
more and more convinced that God uses us to bless the lives of others
in ways that we may not see until it's over or until we think about
it. We didn't need to find a new investigator that day, just someone
willing to listen and make us smile.

A very similar experience happened this week too. Earlier in the week
one of the day's was 98, blaring sun and humid. We decided to walk to
each house because they were close enough but boy was it hot. I was
getting a bit impatient so I said a prayer. Backstory, I have been
trying to develop my gratitude for everything lately and so I have
been praying for the ability to see God answering my prayers and His
hand in my life. So we kept walking and sweating and being hot and
impatient when this big black guy comes walking out of his house and
yells at us hello fellow saints! He comes over and gives us a big hug
and tells us he's pastor Davis. He asks us if we have the Melchizedek
priesthood? We say yes and he says have a great day and we go on our
way. I know that that was God inspiring that man to come out and say
hello to us because we needed it. Heavenly Father is so good to me and
I'm not sure what I do to deserve it. We also that same day have
people say they weren't interested but then offer us water. Elder
Eyring gives a great talk on this topic called O Remember, Remember.
It's a good one. Lots of things God does for us everyday, we just have
to put the effort into finding them and being humble enough to
appreciate them.


Along those same lines we were proselyting the other day and we went
down one street I had never been down before to find a uhaul truck. We
go over and offer help and she says no but thank you but we felt like
we needed to go back so we did and the ladies friend comes over to us
and asks us if we pray. We say no and then leave.


Just kidding, we say yes and she asks us if we could pray for her
friend, whom we just met, who was recently diagnosed with breast
cancer. We say yes and we offer a priesthood blessing to Teresa as
well. It was a powerful moment. She appreciated it and we left her a
card and she took it. I could tell she was thinking deeply about the
BoM on the back. I also had prayed for the opportunity to find people
that were prepared that day and we found someone! I hope she uses this
trial as an opportunity to find the truth and grow closer to God. But
looking back on it Heavenly Father led us to her in around about way
without promptings, just by trying to do what's right we end up doing
what God needs us to do. Everything that invites to do good is of God
Moroni 7:16. So just do good stuff and you have no need to worry.


Every once and a while we will have moments where we are talking with
someone and the spirit will be so subtle but sublime and there. It's
like time stops, it's like a tunnel to Heaven has been opened, it is
the most peaceful, sweet feeling and I hope others can feel the power
of it when it happens. The blessing with Teresa was one of them. It's
like time stops so there is no denying that Jesus is the Christ. It's
like a pure testimony is being bore from the spirit. It's very, very
cool.


I was reading King Benjamin's address today and some verses from
chapter 2 stuck out and I will share them with y'all. Mosiah 2:16-19
talks about how king Benjamin has spent all his days serving them and
if he merits any thanks at all, o how he ought to thank your Father in
heaven. Heavenly Father has done so much for all of us. Including
sending His only begotten son into the world that through him the
world might be saved. Heavenly Father is the best father we could ever
want. He loves us enough to make our own choices and oh how we ought
to thank Him for that wonderful gift. It's a selfless gift, He knows
it is going to cause some of His children pain in this life and the
life to come, but His love is perfect. So trust Him and listen to His
words. Then obey. I promise that obedience to God brings the most
happiness. Surrender your will to Him and find joy.


I love y'all so very much and miss you lots. I hope everyone had an
awesome Father's Day. Thank you for the great examples you have given
to me.
Love,
Elder Christensen

Ps mailbox has not been fixed, it might be fixed in a year or two, we shall see

6/15/15 - It's getting hot

The past week has been around 95 and humid. I didn't know what it
meant to sweat until now!

We weren't horribly busy this past week. A slower week for sure but
regardless it was a good one. Last Sunday a lady we had not seen
before at church was there with her kids and apparently she's a member
so we tried to talk to her but we didn't get the chance. Thankfully
she came up to us after church and asked us if we would be willing to
teach her kids. We said no and that was the end of that.

Just kidding, of course we said yes and we have had 3 visits and he is
already set with a baptismal date. Julius is is his name and he is
only 9. Apparently he told his mom that he wanted to learn more about
Christ and God so his mom took him and his 7 year old sister to
church. Such a cool experience I get to be a part of. I wasn't sure
how to teach kids or if we should skip over anything but he
understands everything very well. It's neat to see a humble family
relying on the Lord. I certainly wouldn't have seen them that way
without this experience. They are good people who are striving to do
what's right. God really does love all of His children and is aware of
us individually. I am seeing that a little bit more every day.
Something that's really helped me see this is studying the Book of
Mormon. It really makes you more rooted in the faith. It helps build
that sure foundation.

We also have a new ward mission leader so it will be a change to start
working with someone new. He is a former bishop so he will be great.
On Saturday a member of the ward was having a get together with some
of his friends and he invited us over for dinner. He was in the
marines for a while and served in Korea and Vietnam and such. He loves
Korean food so he made Korean food. It was actually pretty darn good
and I enjoyed it.

We didn't get to meet with Baltimore but hopefully we will next
Thursday. We did meet with the Malones though and she is taking her
own sweet time. She is so ready to be baptized I am just not sure how
to help her see that. She also has a hard time coming to church but
where there's a will there's a way.

On Tuesday I had the privilege on going on exchanges with elder McKay.
He's a fun guy and it was a fun day. We had lots of lessons that day.
Tomorrow we have zone conference where we will learn more about how to
study with the iPads.

There's a cool scripture in D&C 84:45 that tells us exactly how we
have more of the spirit with us. All we have to do is understand
truth. We understand truth by reading the BoM, pondering, praying and
acting and observing. As we begin to know and understand eternal
truths we receive light which light is spirit, even the spirit of
Christ. What a cool promise! A good place to start is the articles of
faith. If we understand and have a testimony of each one we will have
an increase of the spirit. Of course we have to be keeping the
commandments and doing what is asked of us but as we do so the spirit
comes.
Love you all, have an awesome Father's Day all you fathers! Love you dad
Do Good Stuff
Elder Christensen

6/8/15 - Lots of Service!

With chainsaws ...

Hello all, this week was a fun one.

It was me and Elder R's first week and it was a good start. On
Monday or Tuesday, whichever one, I got all the birthday cards.

 I'm
not sure if I told y'all or not but someone tried to peel off the
apartment mail box so it's broken. We now have to pick our mail up at
the post office so it takes a little longer for me to get mail. But
boy was it fun to have 6 birthday cards waiting for me. Y'all are
awesome! Loved it and love y'all.

 Some highlights from this week:

Our zone got iPads!! It is soooo cool. I have every ensign going back
to 1971 and every conference talk going back to 1973 all on this nifty
little thing. It makes studies faster. But it is making me a tad lazy.
Now when I use normal scriptures I don't even want to look up cross
references I will just get my iPad to do it. Only downfall. We are
going to have a zone conference on the 16th and learn more about how
to study with them. It will be great.


 On Wednesday we helped some members of our ward pack up their
apartment and move it all into a truck. I have been sick this past
week and wasn't feeling to good but felt like we really needed to go.
Thankfully we did because we were the only ones there for a while
before bishop showed up. We really can be the answer to others prayers
when we decide to listen to the spirit. Along those lines we also went
on Saturday to a small town about 67 miles away from where we live in
San Antonio to help with flood clean up. We never see the news but
apparently we have had some really bad flooding and peoples houses
were picked up off the foundation and carried away. 

But we got up at 5
and got ready then went over to a members house who offered to give us
a ride. When we got to the meet up location we got these cute little
jerseys to put on that said Mormon helping hands. Then we went to the
next meet up spot and got our assignment. They broke the groups up by
wards so we were the 1st ward group. Our assignment was tree clean up.
We went and helped people who requested help. The water picked up
debris and trees and carried it and it ended up stuck in people's
trees and yards with no way of getting rid of it. So we went in with a
bobcat and chainsaws and cleaned it up. Very fun. 

We all felt unified
by the end of the day in getting the job done. It was a pleasure to
serve alongside such wonderful people. We might do it again next
weekend, we will see! Some people were assigned to house demolition
where poor people lost everything in the floods and their house was
destroyed. That would be rough. 

But we got done with one house then
drove up the road to see if the group next to us needed the bobcat.
They did but when we got out of the car this lady was standing there
and asked us are you here to help me? We weren't but we helped her
anyways and she bought us lunch and when we were all standing there
when we were done she said I was just praying that someone would come
and help me. It was sweet. So many opportunities to help others if we
just look outside ourselves.


 I was thinking the other day about Christ and how inadequate words are
to express our testimonies of Him. The spirit can speak where words
cannot. So something I am going to start studying is how to bear a
powerful testimony of Christ through the spirit. There is a verse in
the bible, sadly I don't know where, but it says if a man testifies of
Christ it is through the spirit. So if we testify of Christ it
automatically has power from the spirit. Cool scripture.

How grateful we should all be for the gospel. I take it for granted
but I am beginning to see how precious it truly is. 

Just the simple
truths of the gospel are incredibly powerful. For example: we have a
living prophet on the earth today, God is our Father, Jesus is the
Christ, He is the Son of God, God speaks to man today, prayer works,
God loves us, He knows us, etc, etc.
Those small things that we take for granted have affected us so deeply
and how deeply they can affect the lives of others if we would only
share them. Seek to obtain my word, then we can share it, because we
know it and love it!



Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Christensen

Do Good Stuff

Life truly is good!‏

Let me first start off by saying THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY LOVE!! It was so fun to get a little piece of all of you down here in the heart of Texas. It really was a lovely day and you all contributed to that! 

This week has been awesome! I said good bye to Elder A but we are still in the same zone so we will continue to see each other. My new companion is Elder R. He is incredible! I have already learned so, so much from him and I hope we get to be together for more than one transfer because I have so much to learn from him. Hopefully he can learn something from me too. He is from Utah, can't remember the city but its down in south Utah. He has 7 brothers and sisters and he is the 2nd youngest. He is an awesome example to me! He has a wonderful how can we help attitude and looks for ways to help everyone. Very humble and full of the spirit. 

We have had some super cool floods here in the past couple days. We had a deluge the other day and the streets became rivers. That's not even an exaggeration! We had to go a very different way to get to our apartment because the streets we normally go down/by had knee high water rushing down them into the draining system. Super cool to see. We had lots of opportunities to help others that day. A lot of people would think they could go through and get completely stuck. It was fun. Thankfully no real damage comes from these floods. Apparently though in Dallas and Houston they have had some real problems with the flooding and the wards have been asked to go over and help. The city contacted the LDS church to go over and help which is awesome. So they sent 30 missionaries over to help and the respective wards. I think this weekend its our turn to go and help so that will be fun. 

We continue to work with Jennifer and she is certainly progressing. Her countenance has lightened up and she seems more relaxed. She feels like she needs to better understand the BoM in order to feel ready for baptism so we are working with her to help her get an answer that its true and real and baptism is what Heavenly Father wants her and everyone to do. It really is a big commitment. I can see why people choose to take their time and think it over. 

We had dinner with the H family and they are so fun. She either makes roast beef or chicken and the way they interact is hilarious. Its a husband and wife in their 50's. Bro. H is hilarious and always has some witty, funny comment to make. We found out he was in the special services in the Vietnam War and he showed us all his cool medals and such. There really is so much history to each person! 

We are still working with Baltimore. He has the desire to be happy and we are slowly showing him that this is the way to do so. He smiled this last time we met with him and he is doing better. He even read the BoM!! It is so great when people keep their commitments and aren't just saying yes. He is showing that he wants to change. We will continue to work with him. 

I think this transfer will be a lot more productive than the last. We are off to a great start! Something we both wanted to work on this transfer is working with the ward and getting to know the members. I really do love this ward. I don't think there is a ward on earth quite like the SA1st ward. Humble, great people that want to do whats right. 

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/biographies/elder-l-tom-perry?cid=HP_day_date_dPAAST_PERY_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

What a great, great, great, great, great, excellent man. Awesome article! Thats my thought for the week I guess!

Love you all so very much. Thank you so much for the love I feel from your letters and emails. Do good things!

Elder Christensen