7-20-15 / What a weird week!

Hello people of planet earth!

Some solid stuff happened this week. We have two people set with a
baptismal date. Julius, the 9 year old, will be baptized this
Saturday. Claudia will be baptized on August 15th. Jessica has been
talking to her husband about church and temples and if he could
baptize her. She will be very soon as well. All the patience has paid
off! The church and the gospel is true!

This was my first official week with Elder West, I think, I can't
remember. If not it was week 2. We had some weird stuff happen this
week. It was like 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday I believe and some
old man with a walker opens our door, steps through the door way and
asks where is my son and do you have a bed for him? Elder Forbush
walks over and tells him uh your son isn't here bye and pretty much
gets him out. Very bizarre, so now we make sure to keep the door
locked. Don't worry, our apartments are very safe. Just something
weird that happened.

We also had the new trainee meeting this past week. It was a good hour
away from where we live. It's always fun to go to a new place and have
some new scenery. It was a good drive, the meeting was fun too.
President slaughter has such an incredible understanding of the
doctrine of the gospel and he always shares his knowledge with us when
he is there. He went over being saved. Anyone that has been baptized
and is trying to make it to heaven will be saved in the celestial
kingdom. So if you are trying to do what's right and stay on the path,
celestial kingdom is yours. Of course the longer you stay on that path
the narrower and narrower it gets. But that is very reassuring.

This week, teaching wise, was mainly getting Julius set up and ready
for baptism. We also worked with Glenda this past week. Her mom,
Christella, has started to join us as well. They both love the BoM and
always enjoy when we read it to them. Glenda wants her grandkids to
get involved and I think we will be able to help them get involved, it
will just take some time. Hopefully we can get them to go to mutual.
They are 16 and 12 years old. Youths. Glenda has a son in prison and
she wanted us to send him a BoM and some pamphlets. We said sure and
do it for her. We told her it was done and she started to cry. Such
little acts of kindness can make such a huge impact on the lives of
others. Hopefully her son reads it and finds the joy that it has to
offer.

We have totally gone digital. We don't use paper planners anymore, all
iPad. So we have been slowly moving data from our paper area book to
the are book app. It's been hard to adjust too. Planning is so
different now, concept is the same but making it work for you will
take some adjustment. It will be nice to have though, right at your
fingertips all the time. I like having all the general conferences
with me too. Love reading them. Lots of knowledge.

It has been 5 months now. Isn't that crazy? It has been a very quick 5 months.

Something I learned the other day during studies is found in Moses 5.
I'm sure y'all have found it but Adam is commanded to offer a
sacrifice. An angel the comes down "after many days" and asks Adam why
he's doing this. Adam doesn't know why, but he was commanded to do it.
In v. 9 Adam has the Holy Ghost testify to him that Jesus is the
Christ. So obedience to God brings further light and knowledge and
helps our testimony and faith develop. Something else rather cool in
that chapter is v. 7. The angel tells Adam that the sacrifice is in
similitude of the sacrifice of Christ. So Adam and Eve fell but
Heavenly Father, the first thing He does with His infinite wisdom is
turn them to Jesus Christ and gives them the gospel. This proves,
along with the rest of all the scriptures, that His purpose truly is
to help us return to His presence. Everything He does is for our good.
Learn to trust Him, it will take time and patience. But as we learn to
trust Him we will find joy in every situation because we will know it
is for our good.

I love you all, have a great week. Thanks for the letters and love
that you all send to me.
Elder Christensen