8/31/15 - The week of our first successful scripture study class!‏

Art by Elder Christensen -

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

8/24/15 - Woof!

Hello again my friends and my family.

This week was a swell week.

Monday: soccer for p-day, fun! Then we went and played basketball. Me
and elder west balled it up. I can't seem to beat him. He gets me in
game 3 every time. One of these days I'll get him. We then had a
lesson with the Domino family. They are all members except the husband
and he is coming along quite nicely. They came to church yesterday!

Tuesday: For whatever reason they decided to do transfer emails
instead of transfer calls. So we got our transfer email on Tuesday. I
will be staying in the first ward with elder west. Transfer 5! Almost
half my mission will be here. Crazy!

Wednesday: I think we had a thunder and lightning storm on Wednesday
which was so random. It was fun though. We had an appointment with a
lady in our ward but her power went out. She called us and said its
raining too hard don't come over! But it wasn't raining where we live.
She loves way out in the boonies and it seems to rain there then come
our way. Our area is so much fun. We have the city part but then about
75% of the area is all country. It's fun. We went and visited another
family in our ward to help them with their missionary work. We drove
50 minutes to get to their house and they are still in the ward
boundaries. They drive 50 minutes every Sunday with 5 young girls.
Talk about dedicated!

Thursday: The mission had a lot of cars taken away lately so we were
asked to go to transfer meeting to help transport people. It was nice,
I always enjoy hearing our president give us wise words of counsel. So
we helped some elders get to their apartment them we went out and
worked for the day. We have a new elder in our apartment, elder Cruz.
He's a nice guy, very social. He cooks us food which is always
appreciated. We then took another elder back over to stone oak which
is about 30 minutes away so he could get his new companion who came
from Austin. Lots of driving that day!

Friday: I cannot remember. Something happened, but what? I'm not sure...

Saturday: Our teaching pool is running low again so we tried to find
new people on Saturday for most of the day. We did have an appointment
with Glenda though to break up the day. We then had dinner with the
bishop and his family and they invited the Lomas family over for
dinner as well. Super fun to have dinner with them. Always a good
conversation and good food. We then went to the church to work more on
transferring data from the paper area book to the iPad.

Glenda isn't very interested in the gospel but she really enjoys
having us come over. So we go over and share a message/lesson with her
from time to time. It will take time but she might come around. We
will see! Only God knows.

We also started visiting with a sweet older less active lady. She's
like a grandma! Now we have two. Sister Heckenlievely and Sister
Sullivan. Fun, sweet ladies.

I think it was Tuesday but we almost got eaten by a pack of dogs. We
went to go knock on a ladies house and we almost step on her porch and
all of a sudden we hear ferocious dogs start barking and running at us
from the back yard at full speed. So scary. I tell elder west to start
running but he's paralyzed with fear. I start running but they are way
too fast so I just stop and wait for death. But thank heavens they are
well trained and the lady just yells at them to stop so they do. She
then yells at us to never come back. I really thought we might get
bitten a few times. So that was exciting.

We also saw some gorgeous sunsets these past few days. Always a bonus!

I am continuing to enjoys the mission life. Studying the scriptures
each morning is a wonderful blessing and is a huge boost and prepares
me for the day. All the growing pains and heat and dogs are worth it!

It was a good week. I enjoyed it lots. Lots of growth! Elder west is
doing well. We continue to grow together each day.

Jesus Christ lives and He is our Savior. It is the truth!

I love you all! But so does God and because He loves you, you can trust Him.
Do Good Stuff
Elder Christensen

8/17/15 - Fastest week yet; fastest transfer yet‏

Monday - 8/17/15

Not sure where the time goes. Out the window I think.

Our zone was challenged today by south zone to a game of soccer. So we
had studies until 10 then headed over to the designated spot for the
ultimate game of soccer. We destroyed. It wasn't even a competition.
We have Elder Tovar in our zone so it was easy. He's a soccer prodigy.
He doesn't even have to try and he can get to the goal with ease. Way
fun, I wish we played more soccer around here.

The transfer ends on Thursday and it has been a great opportunity to
learn with Elder West. He has awesome leadership skills and has helped
me grow. We might be together this next transfer or we might not be.
Normally I would know transfer information by now but they are sending
out a mass email tomorrow. You shall find out next p-day what's
happened.

Highlights:

District meeting: elder Forbush is a great guy and a great leader.
I've enjoyed being in his district. He's always smiling and helping
others feel good. This next transfer we should have at least 4
baptisms so it was mostly focused on setting up baptisms and making
sure they are a spiritual event for everyone involved. There was some
good stuff mentioned. We then had our weekly Panda Express run. That's
always fun. If I stay yay, if I leave yay. I don't care which at this
point. I've been here for 6 months, another month and a half won't be
a problem.

Dinner with the Morins: I love them so much. They are such good
people. They invited us over for dinner and we had a very relaxing
dinner and conversation. Always fun to get to know the members better.
They then bought us tons of food, so I'm pretty sure we won't be going
shopping today. Our ward is good to us.

Dinner with the Heifeners: Always eventful. We had dinner with them
and then had a lesson with one of our investigators who came to dinner
with us. He's an 11 year old kid with lots of spunk.

Scripture class: To get the members involved in the work we have
started a scripture study night. We made flyers for it and hopefully
we will be able to get some people to come. I think with time we will
be able to get people involved.

Michael: A while back we knocked into a guy named Michael. We picked
his house, knocked, and he let us in! He told us that he had just
prayed to God to know how he could give his life to Him. It was an
instant answer to his prayers. He recognizes us as servants of the
Lord, it's cool. We talked about the BoM and how it helps us. It went
to the back of my mind for whatever reason but recently we felt like
we needed to go back. We did and we had an awesome restoration lesson
and set him with a baptism date. He just wants his kids to be happy
and have God in their life because he didn't have that growing up.
Everyone loves their families and wants what's best for them. If you
can help others see how the gospel will bless their family, you've got
them hooked! That would be my advice for member missionaries. Address
the importance of the family because everyone loves their families.
Preach my gospel has some great stuff on this topic that you can check
out if you'd like.

I think one of my favorite things about working with others is seeing
how God has prepared them throughout their life to receive the gospel.
If people aren't born into the gospel then the preparation needed for
them to receive it starts before they come to earth.

I would just like to say that God hears every prayer. If you don't
know what to turn to, turn to God!

Sorry family, not the most exciting letter but I really cannot
remember what happened this week. I will do better this next week of
writing stuff down.

I love you all and I am so glad we will be together forever.
Do Good Stuff!
Elder Christensen

How many days until Christmas?

As a missionary we actually do listen to quite a bit of music. It's
all gospel and Christ centered of course but we do listen to music.
All the good stuff always ends up being Christmas stuff and it always
makes me want Christmas to be here sooner. Actually the most popular
music on the mission is The Lower Lights, so props to you Cherie Call.
I have become quite familiar with their music.

Every morning before companionship study our apartment gets together
and sings some hymns and has a prayer. The most fun ones to sing are
the Christmas ones which only adds to the longing for Christmas. Far,
far away on Judea's plane is one of my new favorites. Glory to God in
the highest!

On Monday we had p-day, of course, and we decided to go to the Alamo.
It's only like 10 minutes away from where our apartment is. It was
very neat. I can now say I have been to the Alamo. We then had a
lesson with Michael and his fiancé. They are getting married soon and
Michael wants to be baptized. Kinda cool how we got in contact with
them. So we send a scripture text every morning and we accidentally
sent the scripture to the wrong group. Well the lady who contacted us
was in this group and she ended up calling us and setting up an
appointment. Pretty cool! Then we went and met with Derek. He's an 11
year old that wants to be baptized too.

Tuesday, I can't remember what happened so probably not much. I think
we met with Glenda and Christella. Not much progress, but they are
trying.

Wednesday we had district meeting. In our district at the moment we
have us, 1st ward, the other elders on our apartment, mission creak,
and the woodlake sisters. Only 6 missionaries, which is normal.
Anyways, we thought it would be a good idea to have a musical number
thrown in there. We sang a round, a shepherds carol. It was awful. But
fun nonetheless. We then went to a great burger place and had yummy
burgers. Then we had a breakthrough! Every Wednesday and Sunday we
meet with the Lomas family. Aaron has recently gotten a calling as Cub
Scout leader dude so he's gone on Wednesdays now so it was just us and
sis lomas. Well let me back up. Last Sunday when we met with them sis
Lomas said she felt like she was ready to be baptized. Hallelujah! We
have been meeting with her for two days a week since I first started
my mission, in March. Hear baptism is planned for Sep. 26th and it is
so exciting. But when it was just us and her she really opened up and
told us her feelings about church, what she's been praying for, how's
she gotten an answer, what she wants to do, how excited she is to go
to the temple, etc. it was awesome! Now whenever we go over and teach
she is so much more open and relaxed. It's also been so cool to see
her progress. When I first started teaching her she was very shy and
didn't participate much. Everything seemed to be a burden to her. Now
she smiles, laughs, plays with her kids, talks to us openly and to
people at church. She says she hasn't felt this positive about life
ever. She has seen a total change in perspective about life. And when
we used to go over and teach there was always a good feeling in the
home, but last not when we went in it was incredible warmth and just
filled with the spirit. They seem so much closer as a family, so much
more united and happier. So in a year they can go through the temple
and receive the wonderful blessings of the temple. So exciting! Glad I
had the privilege to be apart of their journey. D&C 18:15 talks about
bringing souls unto Christ. It says if you bring once soul into Christ
how great shall be your joy with them in the kingdoms of my father.
The people we help come unto Christ we better like, because we will be
with them for eternity in the kingdom of God. Great verse!

Thursday was weekly planning but me and Elder West have become good friends.

Friday was a slower day. We proselyted and looked for people who would
listen to the message of the restoration. I finally like to proselyte.
It's fun and it feels good to share the gospel. The better you become
at sharing the gospel effectively the happier you are and that comes
from knowledge of how to do it. Preach my gospel is such a good tool
to use and to study, love that book. We then had a lesson with a less
active guy and called it a day.

Saturday was a similar day. Not much to report on.

Sunday was great, like all Sunday's. We had the privilege of going to
ward council this week which is always so fun. Our bishop has really
seen the importance lately of helping the people we bring into the
church stay into the church. It's awesome! We now have his full
support and trust. Things are on the uphill climb for the 1st ward. We
have a great bishop. Good stuff was discussed there. I really think I
came to this area not only to help investigators or non members but
also members too. I have definitely been called to the San Antonio
mission by inspiration! Sister lomas even stayed for all 3 hours and
loved relief society. Great day! We then went over and taught Jalissa
and destiny. They are in a tough spot and I hope they will act on the
message we share. Jesus Christ is there for everyone and to help with
all things. We then went over to the lomas house and had a good lesson
on following Christ and doing what's right. I then had the privilege
to give bro. Lomas sr a blessing. I take the priesthood for granted.
They don't! They see what a blessing it is to have the Melchizedek
priesthood, and they are starting to help me see it too.

Something that I run into a lot here in Texas is people are very
content with what they have. Most people don't have a desire to
change. I read Alma 36 this morning because it talks about what a
belief in Christ can do for us. In Alma 36:3 it says Christ will
support us in our troubles, and our trials, and our afflictions, and
we shall be lifted up at the last day. That is what a belief in Christ
can do for us. It leads to eternal life and complete support in this
life. We also learn in v. 20 that as we turn to Christ our souls are
filled wi joy and light. That is the only way to have that light
within us! It's His light, how do we have His light? Follow Him. It's
a good message. Glad I have the privilege to share it.

I also love in Alma 36:2 how it talks about bondage. I love when the
scriptures talk about bondage. Such good symbolism, only Christ can
free us from the bondage of death and sin and all trials both temporal
and spiritual. His yoke truly is easy and His burden is light.

D&C 76:22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of
him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he
lives!

Amen!

I love you all, thanks for taking the time to write and send emails.
It's always uplifting!
Have a great week

Sincerely,
Elder Christensen
Do Good Stuff

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