All these words describe Texas, even on October. I thought it was
cooling off, but alas, twas not so. It's supposed to be about 90+ all
week. People are nice though and give us bottles of water quite
frequently. The concept of bottled water is bizarre. Water, which is
everywhere, in a plastic bottle.
Since we cover two wards we do a solid 6 hours of extra church. I love
it, the only bad part is getting motivated afterwards to ride bikes. I
really like two sacrament meetings. In the SA 1st Ward no one played
the organ so we had an electric organ that played itself. But this
limited us to 10 of the sacrament songs. I became familiar with those
ones. Sometimes it would just do the most random things. It was an
unpredictable organ. But in the two wards I'm in now they both have
organ players so we have full range of the hymn book. The little
things we take for granted. We really don't know what we have till
it's gone. Both wards are so rich, such a difference between the two
areas. Of course I received a warm welcome. Lots of good, kind people.
I think I've gained some weight too from all these dinners.
In our Walsh Ranch Ward we attend the priest quorum the third hour.
For some reason we have been asked to do so. It was fun. Youth are fun
people, lots of energy and excitement. I guess I'm still a youth, but
I sure do feel a lot older.
We might be moving from the mansion soon. The lease is almost up on
the mansion, the other elders in our mansion ad moving out sometime
this week and they haven't told us where we are going yet. It's tricky
because they can move us to apartments but the closest ones are at the
bottom of vista ridge and if we get moved there it's going to be quite
the journey to get up to Walsh ranch Ward. But who knows, we will see
what happens.
For the mean time our most common path is the brushy creek trail. It
takes us wherever we need to go! It's shady too so it's nice.
At the moment we have 1 investigator. Her name is Gabi. The
missionaries have been working with her for a while. She is in her
40's with a few kids. We met with her this week and she feels like she
has yet to get an answer as to whether or not being baptized is what
God wants her to do. As to whether or not this is the true church. Me,
Elder Shipley, and our Ward mission leader fasted that she would
receive her answer. Now we wait and see. Of course she will get one.
God always keeps His promises. Since we only have 1 person we are
working with consistently we do a lot of knocking. The primary program
is coming up so we are going to work with the members and hopefully
get them to invite some of their friends to the church.
We also went by these potentials, Jason and Jennifer. We knocked on
their door and they let us right in. We sat down and talked a little
bit about his background and his beliefs. We had a nice chat and we
would of taught him a lesson but due to some circumstances we did not.
We invited them to church and they said yes! Absolutely! But they
didn't come, we will invite them again and hopefully we will be able
to teach them. We get a lot of people that say yea you can share your
message but we won't change. I haven't been very good at taking these
opportunities to teach but this week I'm going to do better. Since we
also don't have too many opportunities to teach and testify each
person is a golden chance to do so. Whenever someone is on the street,
begin to testify immediately and hope they are receptive to the
spirit. I think this area will really help me with my ability to talk
to people as well. It will be good.
Me and Elder Shipley get long great. He is easy to get along with, I
think I'm easy to get along with, therefore it's easy. We've been
ponderizing this past week and we set a goal to do so the whole
transfer. It's awesome! It invites the spirit and helps you in your
thoughts, behaviors, feelings, really with everything. Outlook,
kindness, etc.. Pretty cool!
We also had our first district meeting this last Wednesday. It was
fun, the spirit was there, therefore it was a success. We will get
some district pictures next Wednesday. Due to zone meeting we will not
have district meeting this week. They want to take me to all these
good places to eat here in Austin so we started with this place called
Torcheys (Torchies?) Tacos. It was really good. We will try something
new next week. Sister Rey had us over for dinner this week and made us
some phillipian food. She made some great egg rolls. I was impressed!
Slow week missionary work wise. We will be led to where we need to go,
all is and will be well!
I was reading in 3 Nephi the other day in chapter 17. In this chapter
Jesus Christ prays for the people. In PMG there's a chapter called
developing Christlike attributes. Under the charity section there is a
scripture study box that gives you scriptures that show how Christ
showed His love for all of us. I was reading those and I think 3 Nephi
17:14-17 fits in quite nicely. In v. 14 it says "Jesus groaned within
himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of
the people of the house of Israel." The word groaned is powerful.
Shows His deep love. This teaches us about the character of Christ. He
never thought about himself. He was always and always will be
concerned for His brothers and sisters. He knelt down with the people
and prayed for them and with them. In v. 15-17 we learn how the people
felt about this. They felt joy! They felt the since and genuine love
Christ had for them. As we develop and pray for the love of Christ we
can help others feel that love. And that love brings joy. Jesus Christ
is so dedicated to our joy, I believe He is constantly working for our
benefit and always striving to prepare us for His gospel. Even if we
don't see it or feel it, He is always helping everyone. I've seen that
more than ever serving a mission. It's a priceless thing to see.
Love you all. Have a great week!
Do Good Stuff
Sincerely,
Elder Christensen
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