Hello friends and family! Another week has come and gone.
It has been so hot lately. I've been asking people when it cools down
but I get a different answer every time. I think the average say that
it will start to cool down in October so we shall see. They consider
cool down like in the 80's, which at this point I would consider that
cooling down too!
It was a good week. More productive than it has been in a while. It is
so important to prioritize and make the best use of time. So much to
do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. The days fly by. I wake up
and then it seems like a couple hours later I get ready for bed. It's
crazy! At this pace my mission will be over in no time.
On Monday we had p-day, the usual. We then went out and proselyted a
little bit. We met a guy named Sid who said we could come by some time
and share a message. That was a bonus. Actually the whole street he
lives on is great. People were friendly and said we could come stop by
sometime. Even if we just give someone a Book of Mormon it's worth it!
Hopefully they read it eventually.
The BoM is so stinking cool. It's either true or it's not! If it's
true, were right and the church is true and all the doctrine is true
and Jesus is the Christ. If it's not true, there is no truth on earth.
All we have to do to get an answer is truly want to know and then read
it and pray about it.
On Tuesday we met with Sid who we met on Monday, Glenda, and Robert.
We met with Robert about once a week but then he started chemotherapy
and that put an end to that. His cancer is terminal so we talked about
what happens when we die and where we go. We were able to give him a
blessing of peace and comfort. He seemed so at peace with the world
regardless of his situation. He's a good man. He misses his wife so
I'm excited for him to see her again. I wonder what it's like not to
know what's going to happen after you die and then when you die you go
to the next world. It will probably just feel comfortable, like you
are finally home. He came to church a couple times but he was honest
with us and said he doesn't believe any church is right. All of them
are. A lot of people believe that. Glenda is doing ok. She has
listened to the BoM a little bit this past week which is awesome!
She's funny, she keeps claiming that the voice is really creepy and it
scares her. We then met with Sid later that night and we taught the
restoration. It was an ok lesson. He said he would read the BoM so we
will see what happens. We will follow up and see how it's going.
Wednesday was a weird day. An elder in our apartment broke something
in his knee and had a doctors appointment. We didn't know if we would
need to help them get somewhere and what not so we waited for them to
call us and let us know what's up. We then were asked if we could help
a lady moving from New Braunfels move into her home. We said we could
but she needed to get another male to go with us. Nothing ever
happened with that so we went out and worked for the rest of the day.
Normally we meet with the Lomas' on Wednesday and Sunday but school
started this past week and her oldest son just started school. He is
having a hard time apparently so she canceled on us which is fine. It
was a slower day.
Thursday was fun. We met with an older lady in our ward. We now have
two grandmas, Sis. S and Sis. H. She always makes sure we have some
chocolate when we come over and she lines it up on the table for us.
She's a sweet lady. She would love to come to church but her husband
has some health issues that she stays home and helps with. It's always
fun to go out to her house too because she lives about 30 minutes
away. Country is always fun. We were then asked by a guy in our ward
to go and help him give a blessing. We said of course. He came and
picked us up and we went over to the military base hospital where the
guy was. That was cool to see. We helped him out then went back out to
work. Thursday nights is our scripture study night and for the first
time someone showed up! We were actually able to teach a lesson. Me
and Elder West taught it and it was on preparing ourselves for the
second coming using Matthew 25 and the parables taught in it. It's a
good chapter. Lots of good stuff to take away from it. When we have
the class three was are invited. One of those three is a Spanish
branch so the guy that showed up of course spoke Spanish. Me and elder
west were the only ones that couldn't understand him so he would speak
a missionary would translate and then we would speak and they would
translate it for us. It was fun and different. He said he would bring
some people next time so we will see. I thought we did a good job
announcing it but I guess we need to do better. Good day.
Friday we had dinner with the Grunkes. They are so fun to eat with.
Older couple, very nice and fun. I was informed that Donald Trump is
leading the republican side. Hillary or Trump, that will be a blast!
We weren't able to do weekly planning on Thursday so we did it on
Friday instead. Yawn. It was a fun day anyways. We tried to meet with
Derek but for an eleven year old kid he is weirdly hard to meet with.
But he's eleven so what do you expect, if an eleven year old kid kept
his own appointments that would be bizarre. So I'm not surprised. We
were knocking doors on a street and we ran into an old people home.
The owner said we could come by on curtains day and visit with the old
folks. We will have to try that out sometime!
On Saturday we met with Glenda again and read some out of the BoM with
her. That is the best tool we have been given to spread the gospel. We
also met a lady while we were out and about and we taught her a brief
restoration lesson and left her with a BoM. She seemed to be very
interested with the BoM so we will see if she reads it. Then we met
with Michael and his wife. Bro. Rohrer came with us. Such a good guy,
we taught the plan of salvation and it went well. He really wants to
know whether or not this is the truth so he's been reading and praying
about it. He's becoming sincere in his desire to learn. Him and his
wife are excited to have an eternal family. We then had dinner with
the bishop and his family. It was bishops birthday and his favorite
food to eat is cheap out of a box pizza, so we had some of that. We
then were able to contact referrals that we have been given. Very
productive day.
Sunday's are always wonderful. We were asked last Sunday if we could
teach the combined YM/YW class. Our topic was preparing for a mission.
Super fun! The youth are so wonderful. So pure and clean and innocent,
such a good light about them. I enjoyed that a lot. Sacrament was
wonderful too. I remember someone saying something about how the
brethren were trying to get sacrament meeting more Christ centered.
I've been wondering when they are going to release a statement or
something saying please start doing this and what not. Because the
best sacrament meetings are the ones that are centered on Jesus
Christ. The sacrament is always wonderful to take. After church is
over I always feel ready to take on another week! We then had dinner
with the Morrisons. She made a delicious lemon cake for dessert. We
then met with the Lomas' that night. Jessica is doing well, she is
ready to be baptized for sure.
I love the scriptures found in Mosiah 24. I've been using this one a
lot lately when I begin to talk to people because it applies to all of
us so well! In Mosiah 24:9 Amulon, the ruler of the land at this time,
puts task masters over the people because he's not a big fan of them
follow God. In v. 10 we see that when they have afflictions they turn
to God in prayer. But Amulon, not being the nicest guy, says they
can't pray anymore an if they do they will die. Yikes! But the people
continue to rely on God even though it's hard to do so. They rely on
him and show their faith to him by praying on their hearts and
thinking of Him and how good he has been to them. As a reward for
their faith God blesses them with strength. We read the blessings in
v. 14-15. As they turned to God, their afflictions became light! They
weren't so heavy and they were still able to find joy even though they
were going through hard times. The same goes for us! We all go through
had things but the answer to our problems is the same, turn to God. He
will always help you! You just need the faith to try it and turn to
Him. I promise that this works. I'd recommend reading this whole
chapter, it's good.
I love you all very much. May god bless you with His spirit and the
peace that is sure to follow.
Love,
Elder Christensen
Do Good Stuff
