6/8/15 - Lots of Service!

With chainsaws ...

Hello all, this week was a fun one.

It was me and Elder R's first week and it was a good start. On
Monday or Tuesday, whichever one, I got all the birthday cards.

 I'm
not sure if I told y'all or not but someone tried to peel off the
apartment mail box so it's broken. We now have to pick our mail up at
the post office so it takes a little longer for me to get mail. But
boy was it fun to have 6 birthday cards waiting for me. Y'all are
awesome! Loved it and love y'all.

 Some highlights from this week:

Our zone got iPads!! It is soooo cool. I have every ensign going back
to 1971 and every conference talk going back to 1973 all on this nifty
little thing. It makes studies faster. But it is making me a tad lazy.
Now when I use normal scriptures I don't even want to look up cross
references I will just get my iPad to do it. Only downfall. We are
going to have a zone conference on the 16th and learn more about how
to study with them. It will be great.


 On Wednesday we helped some members of our ward pack up their
apartment and move it all into a truck. I have been sick this past
week and wasn't feeling to good but felt like we really needed to go.
Thankfully we did because we were the only ones there for a while
before bishop showed up. We really can be the answer to others prayers
when we decide to listen to the spirit. Along those lines we also went
on Saturday to a small town about 67 miles away from where we live in
San Antonio to help with flood clean up. We never see the news but
apparently we have had some really bad flooding and peoples houses
were picked up off the foundation and carried away. 

But we got up at 5
and got ready then went over to a members house who offered to give us
a ride. When we got to the meet up location we got these cute little
jerseys to put on that said Mormon helping hands. Then we went to the
next meet up spot and got our assignment. They broke the groups up by
wards so we were the 1st ward group. Our assignment was tree clean up.
We went and helped people who requested help. The water picked up
debris and trees and carried it and it ended up stuck in people's
trees and yards with no way of getting rid of it. So we went in with a
bobcat and chainsaws and cleaned it up. Very fun. 

We all felt unified
by the end of the day in getting the job done. It was a pleasure to
serve alongside such wonderful people. We might do it again next
weekend, we will see! Some people were assigned to house demolition
where poor people lost everything in the floods and their house was
destroyed. That would be rough. 

But we got done with one house then
drove up the road to see if the group next to us needed the bobcat.
They did but when we got out of the car this lady was standing there
and asked us are you here to help me? We weren't but we helped her
anyways and she bought us lunch and when we were all standing there
when we were done she said I was just praying that someone would come
and help me. It was sweet. So many opportunities to help others if we
just look outside ourselves.


 I was thinking the other day about Christ and how inadequate words are
to express our testimonies of Him. The spirit can speak where words
cannot. So something I am going to start studying is how to bear a
powerful testimony of Christ through the spirit. There is a verse in
the bible, sadly I don't know where, but it says if a man testifies of
Christ it is through the spirit. So if we testify of Christ it
automatically has power from the spirit. Cool scripture.

How grateful we should all be for the gospel. I take it for granted
but I am beginning to see how precious it truly is. 

Just the simple
truths of the gospel are incredibly powerful. For example: we have a
living prophet on the earth today, God is our Father, Jesus is the
Christ, He is the Son of God, God speaks to man today, prayer works,
God loves us, He knows us, etc, etc.
Those small things that we take for granted have affected us so deeply
and how deeply they can affect the lives of others if we would only
share them. Seek to obtain my word, then we can share it, because we
know it and love it!



Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Christensen

Do Good Stuff

5/25/15 - Turtle pee smells like the inside of a rotten pumpkin‏

So pretty exciting week if I say so myself!

This past week the weather gods determined that San Antonio was going to have a record breaking amount of rain. Well on Saturday, the clouds unleashed their fury. Me and mi companion were out knocking on doors after a baptism we went to for some other elders and we both feel like we should go home. But being rather dumb we ignore it and go and knock on one more door. While knocking we get a text that says Extreme Alert! It says that there are chances of a tornado so "Take shelter now." So we leave that lady and go home and it starts pouring rain and we have some intense thunder and lightning going on so we go back and hang out for the rest of the evening. Well at about 10 the lights flicker annnddd the power goes out. Everyone in our apartment complex loses power and everyone in the area as well. At this point its raining cats and dogs and the thunder is so loud we decide its bed time. So we all go to bed with the hopes that the power will turn on. The next morning, so yesterday morning there is still no power. Taking a shower and shaving with a flashlight was a first for me. Thankfully none of us got sucked up by a tornado the night before. But we eat breakfast hoping that our food will be ok, cereal of course, and then start studies. The other elders in our apartment have ward council so they head over to the church. They text us saying no power at the church were coming back. We have electric gates at our apartment and somehow they got out but they text us saying we can't get in which I think is hilarious so they go back to the church to see if the church has power yet. It doesn't. So they try a second time to get in and the power comes back to our apartment and they succeed! Yaaay! So we let bishop know that the church building doesn't have power and we get a mass text saying all meetings at the building are canceled for the day and we need to attend a different building and a different sacrament meeting. It was just a weird weekend to say the least. But some parts of San Antonio got 9 inches of rain and had some serious flooding. Hopefully everyone ended up ok in the end. It was a good time and rather exciting. 

Now to the turtle story, which isn't as cool. Yesterday we were driving out in the country parts of our area and we saw a weird shape in the road and we come to the conclusion that it is indeed a turtle. So we pull over and I get out of the car to move this dumb turtle which has wandered into the middle of the road and stopped. So I go over and pick it up to move it to the side and it starts to pee all over my hands. Apparently turtles think its appropriate to pee on the thing that saves it. It smelt bad and then I had to shake hands with my turtle pee hand. Kind of gross.

We also saw a spider the size of my hand while visiting people the other day. We go up to knock on someones door and its right under there door and it starts scuttling along the underside of the door. I am pretty sure my heart stopped for about 5 seconds and then picked up again. It was horrifying to say the least.

I learned this week that I of myself can truly do nothing. It is only through the Lord that I can do diddly squat. This is stupidly humbling. I used to be so full of myself and thought I can do everything I don't need any ones help. What a lie that was! I pray for humility everyday and I sure hope I will be able to develop it. 

It is so hard to see people that have the key to happiness not use it and open the door. It really hurts! I was reading in Alma this week and Alma gives a great prayer that he and his fellow missionaries will be able to bring them back unto Christ. And there is a great verse, Alma 31:38. Everything they experienced was swallowed up in the joy of Christ. The good the bad, everything. What a great reminder that was to me and it should be to everyone, that if we follow Christ we will receive eternal life and a fullness of joy, regardless of what we feel now. Just a reminder to keep moving forward and striving to do your best. 

This has been the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done and probably ever will do. I am uncomfortable allllll the time but growth only occurs when we are outside our comfort zone so hey, it will be worth it!

I am doing well, thanks for all the love and support!

I love you all!

Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen ...

On Sunday, February 15th at 9:00 AM at our house, Kade was set apart as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

President Pulsipher, our Stake President, set him apart.

It was a wonderful experience! We were all touched by the Spirit of love and peace that was present.