8-3-15 / Another week has come and gone‏

It was a good week. We had a zone training meeting on Friday. It is
always so nice to have something like that to break up the days.

On Monday we had p-day. Having iPads has made our email time go up
quite a bit, so we emailed for like 2 hours, bought groceries, cleaned
the car, got a haircut, and ended up playing basketball for a little
while. I think we might go to the Alamo today and see whats up. I like
playing basketball though, it's a good stress reliever.

Tuesday we had exchanges again. This time I went with our district
leader Elder Forbush. He's a great guy, has good enthusiasm for life.
We didn't get too much done that day but it was fun none the less.

Wednesday we had quite a few lessons. Ward council asked us to go by a
less active lady in the ward. We went by and had a nice lesson with
her. She just has some stuff going on that isn't allowing her to come
to church. Hopefully it will pass and she can be active again. She
wants to be. We have also started sending a scripture text in the
morning to a group of people and she always loves it. Scriptures are
great! Elder Bednar in one of his talks said to read the BoM through
and look for one thing in particular. When you reach your old age you
will have a collection of BoMs that you have read and marked for a
specific topic. I've always thought that that would be cool to do but
never really had the dedication. Well I'm giving it a go and it's a
fun way to study. I'm liking it thus far, would recommend. Anyways, we
then had a lesson with a kid named Derek that wants to be baptized.
He's 11 and we should be able to make that happen fairly soon. We then
met with Jessica that night and went over 3rd Nephi 11 hoping that it
would motivate her to be baptized. It didn't work, or so we thought...

Thursday was weekly planning. Boo, next day.

Friday was zone meeting!! For whatever reason our mission has gotten a
lot of cars taken away. Thankfully not ours, but I think there's only
like 4 in this zone that have cars now. We were asked by our leaders
to go and pick up some elders and take them to e meeting. Every other
transfer we get the privilege to have an interview with president
Slaughter. I'm going to miss that man when we leaves. But that was a
good experience, so knowledgable. That meeting went from 9-3 and then
we headed home. We then had dinner with some members in our ward and
that was fun. Had a good talk about missionary work and how to share
the gospel. We then headed over to meet with Glenda and Christella.
They are interested but not interested. Not sure how to help them
progress to the next step. We set Christella, the mom, with a date but
we will see if she's sincere. Once we get them a CD player and the BoM
on cd they can then choose to use their agency and listen to it or not
listen. Hopefully they choose to listen.

Saturday we actually had the opportunity to proselyte all day! We got
a new app called the area book planner which is the area book and the
planner combined. So we never use paper planners anymore, ever again.
It's been an adjustment for sure. But it's given us every referral
since the dawn of time so we have been trying to go by them and make
sure someone that was genuinely interested didn't fall through the
cracks. Most of them are out in our brown area which is the country.
Lots of driving is required when we go out to the boonies. It was fun.
We ended up driving past a house me and elder Acor drives by like the
very first week I was on my mission. I wanted to go by this house but
I couldn't find their address in the area book. It just so happens
that we drove past it! We went in and had a nice little lesson and
they said we could come back and continue to teach them. Pretty cool
miracle! We then had dinner with out bishop and his family and some
other members in our ward. Fun dinner, good food, good company. We
then went and stopped by a few more people then headed home.

Sunday was fast Sunday. I love fast Sunday's. Such a clearness of mind
that comes with fasting. Love it. We had a great fast and testimony
meeting. It was a very spiritual Sunday. Normally it's not that good,
but I have felt the growth in the ward. I'm not sure what it is, but
it's awesome. We then had a linger longer potluck after church and had
some good food. Then we had a lesson with Jessica late that night and
she finally feels ready for baptism. So awesome! So we set her for a
date and I am going to be bummed if I'm not here for it. We started
working with her when I arrived, for 5 months! She is so excited to
have an eternal family and go through the temple. Such a good Sunday.

Keeping the commandments is the way to grow in the gospel. It is the
way to be taught by the Holy Ghost and receive knowledge. Keep the
commandments, read the scriptures, and pray frequently and the
mysteries of God will be revealed unto you.
Love you all so much. Thank you for the support, it is truly
appreciated! Love the emails and letters 
Have a swell week!

Elder Christensen