Hello friends and family! Another week has come and gone. Lots of good
stuff, like always! The work is hastening on and it will until the
Lord comes again. Thank heavens the spirit directs us as we strive to
do His work. If we didn't have the spirit, it would all be pointless
and nothing would get done. I have learned that revelation for others
is a very real principle. It just takes work, like all things that are
worth it.
I don't think I mentioned this but last week on the VR Ward we gave
talks! My topic was Being Born Again and Elder McNeil's topic was
Strengthening Testimony in Hard Times. I have more sympathy now for
people that have to give talks. Sitting on the stage the whole meeting
in anticipation to give your talk made me nervous. But it went well!
The Ward seems to trust us more now and we are being asked more often
to help with different events and things going on. Which is great! The
two talks before us were given by youth and they were such humble
talks. One was given by a girl named Faith. Faith was adopted from
China when she was 13, didn't speak any English, and then moved from a
Chinese orphanage to an American home to live with her new family. She
then learned English over the next two years (she is 15 now) and gave
a great talk on relying on Heavenly Father and how she has done so
during her journey. Then the other talk was by a girl named Sherezade.
She has had some serious health and body problems and surgery for
different things many times. I mean this in the nicest way, but her
body is so deformed she has a hard time walking and doing basic
things. She is only 15 and she gave a great , humble talk about how
she too has gotten through what she has gotten through by relying on
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Our talks were kind of lame compared
to those.
The Ward times swapped. VR used to start at 9 so we would go to their
sacrament meeting and Ward council. Now WR starts at 9 so we go to
their WC and sacrament meeting, and then all three hours of VR. It
will be different for sure!
I was bit in the arm by a rude dog. Thank heavens it wasn't a stray,
but it was still rude. We walked into a members home and this dog that
has never been there before, is there. It's their family who's
visitings dog and it comes over and sniffs us and then jumps up and
bites me right in the right bicep area. I was wearing 4 layers and it
bit right through them and broke skin. What a nightmare. It hurt
really badly but I didn't think anything of it until the next day. It
still hurts pretty bad the next day and it looks funny so I ask Sis.
Slaughter what it would look like if it's infected. Apparently dog
bites are a big deal and you have to report them. We went through like
20 steps of things we needed to do to report the bite. All in all, I
think I'm ok. It's just a super gross bruise now. BUT the family that
was visiting is LA and the kids haven't been baptized so we shared
part of the restoration and invited them to read the BoM. It was worth
it. No dog can stop the work!
On New Year's Eve we had dinner with a sweet Philippine lady and her
family. She always makes authentic Philippine food for us when she has
us over. It is so stinking good. She makes the best egg rolls I have
ever had and she always makes so many of them. Then she gives us the
left overs, yum. But this time she made something called Ceviche. I'm
still not sure what it is. We have been discussing and guessing what
it could of been ever since we had it. Still have no idea. She said it
was pork, so some part of a pig. But anyways, I put some on my plate,
which was mistake 1. It looks like strips of meat but running through
the middle is a white strip that looks like bone. Mistake 2, I ask
what the white strip is. The response, cartilage. Mistake 3, pleasing
her by eating it. It wasn't even warm, it was a cold, chewy, crunchy,
slimy meat thing. Elder McNeil said it reminded him of the pig
intestine he ate. Naaaaasty. For desert we had banana egg rolls which
weren't too bad and then some gross mixture of randomness; elbow
macaroni, purple potato, raisin, cahoot, pineapple, pineapple gel,
banana, shredded coconut, condensed milk, cool whip dessert. It was a
fun dinner.
Once again, I can't remember if I told you or not but we have a new
Ward mission leader in VR. He is on fire right now. He is single
handedly going to baptize everyone in the VR area. It's been fun to
work with him and see his excitement and readiness to serve. We had
coordination with him on Friday at his house. He has such funny kids
and the cutest cat in the world. Two reasons why going to his house is
awesome.
We met this funny old lady on Friday too. Her name is Vivian. It was
neat to see the spirit lead us to her. We felt promoted to go by this
certain LA family we didn't know and when we got there I recognized
the house and remember that they weren't very receptive. There were
some other people in the are we could try by so we decided to go by
them. While walking over we see this older lady sitting in a chair in
her garage. We go over and start talking to her. We find out she just
had surgery and she's on lots of pain medication and is doing other
things that violate the wow. In short, she's a bit loopy. We give her
a card with Jesus Christ on it and she thinks it's the loveliest
thing. We then ask her if she would like a BoM and she says yes. We
give her one and she says, "this is the most precious gift I have ever
been given!" We explain what it is and by how reading it we learn what
we need to do to live with Heavenly Father again. She wants to give us
money but we say no a couple times. We teach her a little bit more and
then say a prayer with her. For being loopy she was incredibly
prepared for the BoM. She said she will read it and we have an
appointment this week. Pretty cool huh? It's been neat to see how
aware Heavenly Father is of all of His children, and then He leads us
to those who are ready or in need.
Another awesome miracle we saw this week! I am going to call them the
H family. The H family has 3 in baptized kids and the kids are 9, 11,
and 13. The kids have been taught the lessons at least 3 times and
have come very close to baptism but never quite there. Missionaries
have been stopping by to try and help them for years and the Ward has
too. But nothing ever happens. The same has been the case with me.
I've stopped by many , many times only to set up an appointment and
have it fall through. The prayers have been heard! The other week the
mom talked to the bishop and said "my son's friends are going to the
temple todo baptisms but he can't even go because he isn't baptized.
Its time to get them baptized." They went from wanting nothing to do
with us to get them baptized as soon as possible. We had a mega lesson
on Sunday with the H family kids and the bishop just to make sure they
understood and remembered. They were so golden! They just told us the
lessons and the things we were going to teach. We then set up the
baptismal interview and all the little details. It is a tremendous
miracle that they all of a sudden have decided to come back to church.
It is a miracle under every meaning of the word. So cool to see! She
never, ever texted us back for the past 4 months I have been here. We
texted her yesterday and got an immediate response. I don't know how
to explain how big of a miracle this is! So very, very cool.
I think those are the big things that happened this week. Super, super
awesome week. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a
mission. I am also so grateful to be a member of this church. I am
grateful for prophets and apostles and for inspired church leaders. I
am grateful for the Lord and His Atonement. I know that the Atonement
covers EVERYTHING! I have felt it's powerful affect in my life. All we
have to do to feel it's power is repent.
Alma 36 is one of my favorite chapters in the BoM. Alma turns to
Christ and has darkness replaced with light, sorrow for joy. The same
is the case with us! Keep the commandments and life is good. God loves
you, I promise!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Christensen
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