2-1-16 / 81 degrees in January?

What is this magic? It was so stinkin' hot. But now its going back to 40's. You go from 6 coats and gloves to wanting to go swimming in the course of a week. That is something I have never experienced. 

The Brethren have said "No More Transfer Meetings!" Which is a big meeting where missionaries get their new companions and go to their new ares. It almost always took up half the day so now we will have more time to do missionary work. Which means the whole system has changed, again. Originally the Assistants to the President would call all the companionships in the mission and tell them stay or go. That would happen Sunday night and then we would have 4 days to pack up and then we would get transferred on Thursday. I assume that was way too much work for the poor AP's so they switched it up. They then sent an email with all transfer information at 5:00 pm on Tuesday the week of transfers. Then you knew everything that was happening and you had two days to pack for the transfer on Thursday. Now we get a call from the zone leaders Monday morning telling us where we are going and our new companion and where we need to be in order to exchange. Then you pack during p-day and are transferred Tuesday morning. I think the new way will be the best way and of course it will be, this is the Lord's way of doing it revealed through His servants. 

So I will be staying in Vista Ridge/Walsh Ranch pedaling as much as possible for the next 6 weeks. Elder McNeil is being transferred to my hometown, East Zone! That will be so much fun for him. I love San Antonio. I will be getting my new companion on Wednesday. Hopefully someone offers to take a picture of us and then sends it to my mommy so you will know who my new companion is! 

This week was awesome! So much good stuff has been happening and we are continuing to be blessed. Why? I don't know, but we are. Missionary work is so interesting. You work hard and try to talk to everyone and the Lord will always lead you to those that are ready to be taught. We rarely talk to someone and they say yes come on in. We are always led to them in some divine way. Such was the case this past week!

We started to teach a couple with 4 kids, Jason and Pang. They feel ready to learn more about God and strive to follow Him and live good lives. They really want their kids to have faith and belief in something as well. But since neither of them know anything about Christianity, they didn't know where to start, but they liked how their neighbor lived her life and the good things her family had. Their neighbor is a member of the VR ward! Pang asked if she could have a Bible and the member gave Pang a Bible and a BoM and then told us. We went and stopped by and we didn't even have to ask if we could come over and teach her, she asked us if we went around teaching people and if we could come by. It was too easy! So we set up an appointment. We didn't see a man of the house anywhere so we didn't know if there was one of if he would be interested. Normally the lady will be interested but the guy will hide in some room. We went back for our appointment and Jason was just as excited to see us as Pang was. We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration and they had so many questions. It was great! Then they wanted us to come back the day after the next and teach them again. Very cool. I often just want to tell people to keep the commandments and your life will be so much better; live the gospel and you will be happy, have direction and purpose. Just try it! I guess that's all we can do right? Invite people to act on the message of the Restoration. 

We were also led to another family by a member this past week. A RM invited his aunt and her family to church, and they came. The daughter, Chelsea, 16, is half way through the BoM. We had a lesson with Megan and the dad, Sheldon, and we are going to meet again this week. Coming to know that the gospel is true is the best journey you could make. Then acting on that knowledge will bring so much joy. 

The car lot continues to get more and more cool cars. They have a few more Ferraris and a Lambo. Haven't gotten pictures yet, but I will. 

Friday was madness. We biked all over Ceder Park and Round Rock, from appointment to appointment. It was a fun day. We are teaching a less-active girl named Mia. The first time we met with her she didn't have much light in her eyes, but it was better this time. Its neat to see that happen. The gospel brings light! They have this cute little beagle puppy that trips on its floppy ears and this massive black, skittish dog that barks at everything. Its a funny, good home. 

We also had a lesson with a guy named John that moved into our area. The lady that was with him could TALK. I haven't ran into that since SA. But her topic was why there shouldn't be any technology in sacrament meeting. She ranted about this for at least an hour.We just kind of thought she was nuts and poked fun but then at church on Sunday, the Bishop got up and encouraged us not to use technology during sacrament meeting. Ironic. John though, the investigator, has been coming to church for two years and has read the BoM twice, and hasn't felt like the spirit has prompted him or told him that he needs to be baptized. That is craziness. So we will try and find out what is going on there. He is coming to church and doing all that good stuff but he is missing out on blessings he could have if he was a baptized member. 

Then on Saturday, we had the H family baptism! It was an awesome baptism and the spirit was strong. There was at least 50+ people there to support them. Then we had a fiesta afterwards. The dad has a friend that makes cake from scratch. The lady made 3 big cakes for the baptism and they were amazingly delicious. Rivaled any cake I have ever tasted. We didn't get any pictures with them because it felt weird; we didn't do anything. All we did was knock on their door a few times and teach a lesson. It was all them! Hopefully they will stay active. Now they can work on being sealed in the temple. 

6 hours of church is getting harder and harder. It's too long just sitting there and learning about the gospel. You got to get out and live the gospel too or else it won't work. Oh well, our presence is appreciated. We go to the Priest Quorum for the 3rd hour and because of it we have gotten some youth to come with us to lessons and what not. Try inviting the missionaries to your priest quorum meeting on Sunday sometime, it might help! 

Oh can't remember if I told you, but, Andie, the girl with cerebral palsy is good to go! she will be baptized this Saturday. Apparently she has more agency than the normal kid with that problem, so she can make mistakes and sin. She is a sweet girl, if she could talk she would be teaching us. She is better than all of us. 

Our theme in one of our sacrament meetings yesterday was keep the commandments. A lot of scriptures were used from Mosiah chapter 2. I read that this morning and couple verses in particular stuck out to me, Mosiah 2:22-24. "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?" The question, "of what have ye to boast?" is poignant. Really, what have we to boast? Nothing. What a great perspective given to us by King Benjamin; what great chastisement and comfort comes from this as well. We are all the same, God loves us all and wants us all to return. It's through His gift that that is possible anyways. So keep the commandments and give thanks to God. 

Not much happened fun wise this week that's worth telling, just lots of work. But here is a picture of a delicious peach!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Christensen

1-25-16 / President Polley

The new Texas San Antonio Mission President has been announced, Todd B. Polley. I think he is coming sometime this Summer. That will be a change for sure.

We had a worldwide missionary broadcast put on by the Quorum of the Twelve and Presidency of the Seventy, and the missionary board. Elder Andersen gave a great talk about our role as missionaries; bear witness of the name of Christ. He said the name of the Savior should always be on our lips. If we don't know what to say or talk about, talk about the Savior. The Savior gave us a promise that if we always taught others of the doctrine of Christ and taught of the Savior, the Savior would speak our name unto the Father. That's incredible. They focused a lot on the basics of missionary work and it was a great opportunity to focus on my purpose and remember why I came on a mission. 

The doctrine of Christ is so simple. Have faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. That is the only way to return to live with Heavenly Father and qualify for eternal life. Not always easy, but simple. Grateful for the Restoration which makes this truth known. 

Last Monday for P-Day we went mountain biking. It was pretty cool. We ride a trail called
Brushy Creek trail which takes us over to Walsh Ranch ward, but we always stay on the paved path. We always see other paths that lead off into the middle of no where. We took some of them to see where they went and they were rocky and hilly. I wasn't the best at it, I'm too light. Not enough weight to keep my bike on the ground. But some of the trails I could do better than others. It was good. If you got out of the cities of Texas, it would be a cool place to explore and roam around.

We are seeing tons of blessings in the Vista Ridge ward, but really struggling in the Walsh Ranch ward. From our new apartment to the top, main area of Walsh Ranch, it takes an hour and a half to bike. We don't have time to bike there and do some decent work and then bike back. We tried this past week and it was a no go. We are going to have to ask the good ole members for rides.  We have such good, supportive members, I am sure they would, all we have to do is ask. They love us and we love them. They are always bringing us food or leaving us treats. Way too nice, but I feel the love and I love them too. 

The H family will be baptized this Saturday! The ward and the H family are so excited. The mom came to church yesterday and stayed for all three hours. That was awesome to see. They are such a good family, they will be great kingdom builders. They will get to experience the awesome blessings of keeping the Sabbath day holy and coming to church, which blessing is peace and joy. Good to see. 

I can't remember if I have mentioned Maria in past emails, but if I haven't then here you go! Maria is the brother of a member in the WR ward. She isn't a member, but when she lived in Michigan she took the discussions and ever since then has LOVED missionaries. Here is a story of God's perfect golden thread. The first transfer I was in this area we got a phone call from her asking if we could help her load some stuff into a trailer that she was going to donate to people in Mexico. We go and help her, she buys us like 10 bags of groceries and we lose contact for a while until about 2 weeks ago. We were in the area so we stopped by to say hello and see if she needed anything. We chat for a while and then she asks us if we could rake her leaves. We say yes, schedule a time, and then go on our merry way. She loves to feed us so we go back and she made us lunch, we have lunch, and we talk to Maria and her mom. Her mom is probably in her 70-80's but has been meeting with different churches trying to find the truth. She has been meeting with the seventh day Adventist and Jehovah's witnesses. She brings up some odd concerns and things she has been told and I find them amusing at first until I realize how serious she is. She is seriously looking for truth. So we set up an appointment for next week. It is so neat to see how people are led and directed to the gospel and to missionaries. Maria is such a good hearted person, just has some concerns with what we believe. It all started with her brother who joined the church when he was in his 20's, because h joined the church they took the lessons, because they took the lessons they were introduced to missionaries and the church, Maria wants to serve the missionaries and loves them, we come in contact with her again when she moved to Texas, we have an appointment set up. God has such a perfect plan for everyone. I am so convinced of that, even when things are hard and I complain, I know He has a plan.

I had the privilege of going on exchanges with Elder Goeckritz this week. He is a new Elder in our district. We had an Emergency Transfer and he joined the 4 man district. It was a good day! We were able to do a lot. We met a lady named Marty who was almost baptized in the past, but is struggling to see the commandments as a blessing and not a burden. She is open to us coming over though so we will read the BoM with her and try to help her build her faith. We also met with a girl named Mia. She is the daughter of a family in WR but hasn't been to church in a while. She expressed the desire to take the lessons and learn more about what we believe. Hopefully she decides to act on the invitations we extend and experience the blessings of the gospel. It was a fun exchange. 

Yesterday was another day of 6 hours of church. I like it, but sometimes I get really tired. We sat next to our ward mission leader and his family. I sat next to his 9 year old daughter and son. They are so funny. The 9 year old boy has no filter.The girl was trying to color but the boy kept wanting her to find words in his crossword. She was being so patient with him, but at one point she leaned over to me and said "he is driving me crazy with his crossword book!" I love little kids. It was also a good Sunday because a lot of random people just showed up because their friends had invited them. We gave an older guy a BoM. He said he wasn't interested in meeting yet but he did want to read the BoM. A girl named Megan also came and we have an appointment with her. This is proof that if you invite your friends to come to church they will probably say yes and be honored that you invited them. If they can tell that you truly love them, it will build your friendship that much more. We had a good discussion in ward council about missionary work and I think one of the thoughts brought up is worth mentioning. We talked about how we often think of missionary work as inviting a certain friend to church and them being baptized. That might happen if we are lucky, but most of the time its not going to. The Lord has a perfect plan for them to be baptized but it is all in His timing. We can best help when we invite. Every church activity should be seen as an opportunity to invite others to experience what brings us the light that we have. In short, if we are truly friends with someone, missionary work isn't hard, all we have to do is invite. 

 I like being a part of ward council though. Lots of good people that want to move the work forward and help build the kingdom. I get to learn a lot from their examples and who they are. I appreciate the goodness of good people, it makes me feel good inside. I've noticed that the happiest families are the ones that center their lives on the gospel. Grateful for the gospel and the ability it has to bless families. 

We are still working with Andy. She is going to be baptized next Saturday. She has cerebral palsy so we weren't sure what to do with the baptismal interview. She is over 8 so she has to have one, but it all worked out and she is good to go. She is so sweet. It will be a great experience for her family.

I find great comfort in the words of the Lord as found in D&C 88:63, "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." The Lord will come unto us with the same intensity that we come unto Him. What a beautiful promise. Even if you feel like it isn't working, keep pushing forward and keeping the commandments. Continue to exercise faith and you will be grateful you did. I also love the invitation in this scripture to ask questions. We are also given the promise that we shall have our questions answered. It doesn't say immediately or when we want, but we are promised that they will be answered and the door will be opened.

May we all strive to seek the Lord with a burning desire, that He may come unto us in the same manner!

Love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Christensen

Mosiah 16:9

1-18-16 / Dick Cheney, fast cars, and missionary work, Oh My!‏

Me and my companion were walking down the street and we passed by this older man raking his leaves. We ask him if we can help and he says something in Spanish and then says, "I've got more work than Dick Cheney!" We try to have a normal conversation with him but he wasn't having any of it. So we walk away. But we need to go the same way back to get to our bikes so we pass him again and try to start up a conversation again. Round two. He tells us like 3 times he has more work than Dick Cheney. Odd huh? The people you meet on a mission. 

We were also biking this past week going towards the poorer part of our area when I look over from the top of this hill and I see what looks like a Ferrari. I want to go and check it out so we do and there ends up being tons of expensive cars over in this random little area. 5 Rolls Royce, 5 Aston Martins, 3 Lotus', and a Ferrari. Why? We have no idea. But we did take some pictures!

That was really fun. Always nice when something new happens. 

This past week was also our Zone Meeting! Every other transfer we have interviews with our mission President, President Slaughter. So this was a transfer where we had the opportunity to have interviews. I always enjoy them. Its fun to talk to someone that is so knowledgeable of the gospel and you know cares about you. I will miss him when he leaves, which really isn't too soon. I think he leaves summer of this year, June I believe. It will be here in a blink of an eye. It will be interesting to see how things change as a result of getting a new head honcho. As long as the missionaries keep on being awesome then all will be good!

We have the smallest zone in the mission, 10 people. Some districts have more people than we have in our zone. Not sure what happened there. 

I gave you the wrong address last week. I actually live here:

The pictures of us standing in front of a house looking thing was us in front of the mansion. (From last week)

We are all moved into our new apartment. Its really nice. But it makes getting to Walsh Ranch a pain. Brushy Creek trail actually goes all the way next to our apartments so all we have to do is hop on that trail and it takes us there. Its simple but it just takes so much time. We biked for an hour and a half to get to an appointment. Its like we drove from Austin to San Antonio. I think it was around 10 miles. But that is the only downfall. We have been working a lot more in the VR ward which has been super under worked. Its been fun. Our ward mission is coming along too. We recently got a new ward mission leader and some new ward missionaries who will help out. It will be nice. 

Mason, Martin, and Melinda are going to be baptized on the 30th of this month. That will be an exciting day for them. They are so ready. The ward is very supportive and ready to help them in anyway! 

We are also teaching a 10 year old girl named Andy from China. This sweet family adopted 3 kids from China and Andy has cerebral palsy. The parents want her to be baptized so our bishop and the Stake President talked to President Slaughter about it and he said it would be a good experience for the family and that we should teach the lessons. It has been fun to teach her and her family. She is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. She gets so excited when we teach her because we talk to her. She can't talk so we aren't sure how much she understands but its good review for the family too. Grateful for the opportunity I have to meet such wonderful people. 

People are so good to us. Missionary protection and blessings is a real thing!

We got our monthly phone call from Diane the other week. She wanted some help taking down her Christmas decorations. She is a funny lady. She always tells us how much she hates cats even though me and Elder McNeil love cats. She always tell us that cats will eat our faces. Weird and probably not true. But we helped her take down her Christmas decorations and chatted while we did so. I'm not sure what it will take for her to accept the gospel but Heavenly Father does. All in his timing. 

We didn't meet with Kasey or Paul last week due to scheduling conflicts. We will meet with them this week and hopefully help them come to know that the gospel is true and help them see how it can bless their lives. 

​

A while back we were asked to help with our ward primary's Great to be Eight baptism preview thing. We had that last night. It was fun to help out and be apart of it. We were asked to teach about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Its a great topic. We are baptized to show Heavenly Father that we are willing to follow His Son and keep the commandments. To help us keep this promise we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost which then sanctifies us and helps us keep our promise to strive to live as the Savior would. 

Weather has been beautiful and sunny. Some cold days but thats bound to happen. 6 hours of church has prepared me for another week!

Hope you have a great week too. 

Love you all lots!

Love,

Elder Christensen

Alma 7:23-24

1-11-16 / News flash!‏

Me and Elder McNeil are swapping apartments with the Sister
missionaries. They live outside of their area and it would save them
lots of miles if they lived where we live now. So, alas, I will not be
living in the mansion. My new address is: ....

If you have sent something to my old address, no worries! I will be
able to get it with ease. This might be a blessing in disguise. We
have been wanting to work more in the Vista Ridge Ward and now we will
be living over there. And now we will have easy access to wifi and
now we will have a gym! What a blessing. On to the good stuff!

We have been playing tennis on our p-days as of late which has been
fun. But we always had to call members and borrow their equipment.
Last week someone at church brought us tennis rackets and donated them
to this area. Too nice huh? Serving has been our biggest weakness.
Takes way too much practice! We played tennis, had some fun and then
went and planned a lesson with a member.

Update on Kasey and Clare, the friends of the member missionary. We
had a lesson on Tuesday with them and the members about the plan of
salvation. We have started to notice a trend of people believing in
God but not seeing the need for Jesus Christ. The belief that there
are many ways to heaven, not only through Christ. That's what Kasey
believes. But she always thinks very deeply about the lessons and
always keeps her commitments. We invited her to come to church and she
came! And she enjoyed it! We are doing our small part of inviting and
the Lord is doing the rest. I think it might take some time but I
think someday she will be baptized. The gospel will help us through
anything.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder
Iverson! We went over to his area and had some lessons and some fun.
Exchanges to another area are always so nice. You get to sit back and
relax; watch and learn! He has a lot of apartment complexes in his
area so we worked in those. We also stopped by a less active guy who
is a glass artist for a living. He makes these glass marbles with
galaxies in them. They are pretty darn cool. We stopped by and he
showed us all his cool stuff he's made and collected over the years.
It was a good way to get in the door, and it was nice of him to show
us. It was neat.

Then I went on exchanges with Elder Mecham! He is a green missionary.
I remember the struggles of being a new missionary. Hard, but the only
thing you can do is push through and rely on the atonement. Really
that's all we can ever do! But we went to Torchy's Tacos so it was all
ok. Not much happened that day. Lots of biking, but not much talking
to others.

Oh update on Paul! We had our second lesson with him. I wasn't there
but it went very well! We brought a member with us and they became
instant friends. We even met a couple of his kids. We are trying to
get them involved and slowly but surely it's happening. He continues
to read the BoM. All because the spirit told us to knock on his door.

It was weirdly cold this week, which makes biking miserable. But once
again, the only thing we could do is push through! It really doesn't
even get that cold but the humidity makes it cut to the bone.

We are being way too blessed right now. I feel like we haven't done
too much but we are being blessed with people to teach and good stuff
to do. The Hester's are going to be baptized on the 30th of this month
which is great. There is a child of record that wants to be baptized,
we have progressing investigators, the Lord is good. We were biking
the other day and some guy pulls over in his car and tells us he was
investigating the church for 13 years but was never baptized. He then
invites us over and we have a lesson. Hopefully we will be able to
help him have the peace and happiness the gospel offers. It was kind
of funny because the other people there were devout Catholic and they
love their bibles! We ended up looking at their bible collection. They
had like 7 bibles all throughout one room, open to different pages.
Some people have very different beliefs. It's interesting.

We got all our stuff moved today. It really wasn't bad. The only
painful part was fitting all our stuff in the car and making one trip.
Other than that, it was fine.

Anyways, it was a good week. Life is so very sweet when you keep the commandments and strive to do what is right. I love you all so very, very much. Thank you for taking the time to write me! I always look forward to Monday and reading your emails. It's so ought full and I am grateful for your dedication to do so. 

Love,
Elder Christensen

1-4-16 / "Peace and prosperity. 2016!!!" - Random Indian Man‏

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

12-28-15 - Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...!‏

The Christmas tree had plenty of presents underneath it this year.
They were all from you! Thank you very much for being thoughtful and
for making sure I know that I am loved and remembered. Sweet!

It was a good week. How could it not be with Christmas and Christmas
Eve involved? We tried to proselyte a little bit but people weren't
having any of it. It's impressive how rich this area is. It was 80
degrees on Christmas Eve which made it not feel like Christmas time at
all! And since Christmas Eve was on a Thursday we weekly planned
anyways. That is one thing I don't enjoy very much, weekly planning!
If you do it well then it's super helpful but I'm not sure how to do
it well and I feel like it's just bleh. Anyways, we weekly planned
then worked for an hour or two and then went to the Howard's home for
dinner. Super thoughtful of these people to invite us over during the
holidays. Trust me, people took excellent care of us, and they will
continue to do so. The Howard's had tons of family in town so it was a
mad house. We started off by acting out the nativity and reading from
Luke 2, then we had a "traveling meal." Just a fancier one. It's a
meal that the wise men might have eaten when they were traveling. We
had beef jerky, oranges, dates, nuts, cheeses, and sparkling cider.
Does that sound like what wise men would eat? Kind of funny. It was
heaven though. As a missionary I'm too poor to buy good cheeses, but
they had bought like 10 good ones! Yuuuummy! It's also tradition in
their family to open pajamas on Christmas Eve and they didn't want us
to feel left out so they bought us these cool journals and hillshire
farms cheese/meat sampler thing. People are way too nice to us. AND
THEN they invited us to play Settlers of Catan with them so we did. It
was a very fun day and night. Good people!

Christmas Day was wonderful too. We woke up and opened presents which
was fun. Thanks again for the time you took to get them for me. And we
were planning on talking to our families at 11. For some reason we had
this awful idea to just go to the church to talk to our families but
that would of been so lonely and boring. Thank heavens some members
saved us and invited us over for lunch and fun while we talked to our
families. I had a great time talking to my family and I enjoyed it
lots. It was so good to see their faces! I miss them lots but I am
grateful for the family that I have been blessed to be in. They are
the best!

So we talked to our families at a members home and then we worked on a
puzzle while my companion went and talked to his family. The puzzle
was stinking hard. 1000 piece puzzle but every piece looked the exact
same. We worked on it for almost 2 hours but got close to nothing
done. After my companion finished we went and visited a lady named
Nancy. We went by on Saturday because we dropped off our Christmas
packages on that day and the post office was next to Nancy. We asked
her what her plans were for Christmas and she said she didn't have
any. That broke our hearts so we decided to buy cookies on p-day and
take them to her and some other people we wanted to say thank you to.
We took her the cookies and we made her a card and gave that to her
too. It looked like she appreciated it, hopefully she did! We then
started to bike over to dinner but realized it would take way too long
to get there, so we got a ride. Oops!

Dinner with the Herzogs was fun. They too had family in town so there
were lots of people to feed. We had ham, salad, mashed potatoes,
rolls, carrots, the works! And then some delicious pie to finish it
off. We then chatted for a little bit and then took off to finish
delivering our cookies and cards.

On Wednesday we had district meeting. I can't remember if said this
yet or not but our district is so lame now. We have 4 people in it.
The new Hope sisters are gone and Leander Elders are now covering
Leander and New Hope. A 4 person district meeting is kind of boring,
but we will figure it out! It was a good meeting none the less.

We have also been incredibly blessed with so many miracles. I will
share my favorite one from this past week.

We set up an appointment with Diana for Tuesday afternoon. We go over
there and before we even knock on the door she comes running outside,
looking a tad stressed. She tells us she doesn't have any time to meet
right now because of some problems that have popped up with her trying
to sell her house. To make a long story shorter, she is selling her
house the next day, Wednesday, and everything is planned out for her
stuff to be moved Saturday so she can leave on Tuesday, tomorrow. The
realtor called her that morning telling her there was a lean on the
house for 50,000 dollars that hadn't been paid yet. She has paid it
but the check hadn't been cashed by her ex yet so it looked like it
had never been paid. So either her ex helped her out or she was in
serious doo doo. And it all had to be done before the following day
because if it wasn't she couldn't sell the house. 73 year old woman
trying to sell her home by herself, it was a mess. So we ask her if we
can say a prayer with her and she says sure. She was raised Catholic
so we hold hands when we pray. I think that is the funniest thing. So
we make the prayer circle, hold hands, and we say a prayer. In that
prayer we ask that everything will work out and that her ex will call
her. She chuckles and says well hopefully that helps, not believing
that her ex will call back because she thought he would be at his
families already and wouldn't be able to go to his bank. She thought
it was definitely not going to happen. She tells us we can come back a
little later and see I of she has some time.

We go and work for a few hours and then go back. We have a lesson and
then after we are done we get on our bikes and start to leave. As we
start to leave we see her running out of her house looking very
surprised. I was excited because I thought she was going to tell us
she saw an angel and she wanted to be baptized, but that was not it.
She comes over and tells us that she went inside and there was a
message on her message machine from her ex saying he would go to the
office and take care of it. She then told us it was a miracle and the
prayer was answered. As she starts to go back inside she says, "I
believe a little bit more and now I'm worried about myself!" Pretty
cool huh?

We also stopped by a LA guy and his family who was baptized but knows
absolutely nothing about the church or what we believe. He let us
right in though and we shared some scriptures and talked about the
doctrine of Christ. He was so nice to us. He then fed us, we didn't
have much of a choice in the matter! Did I tell you this already? How
would that even be possible? I think I did somehow...

About the weather...

Your prayers to keep me safe were answered!!! On Saturday night it
started to get really windy and dark. It didn't start raining though
until we were in our beds, safe and sound. Sunday morning was just
super rainy and windy and really cold, and that was on and off all
through the church. When we went home from church it was fine, we then
had lunch and we biked and the storm was held off while we biked and
proselyted. We then had dinner with some members. As soon as we start
to share our message it starts raining, but the rain is super loud,
louder than normal. We then go and look outside and it's hailing.
These pieces of hail are the size of small stones, and it was just ice
falling from the sky. And the it started to downpour with thunder and
lightning. So the members took us home and we did some planning for
the rest of the night. It was eventful. And yes, we were kept safe.
But now it's like 5 degrees outside, it went from 80 to 5 in the span
of 3 days. Texas has some crazy weather!

Great week! I would just like to say how much I love the Book of
Mormon. It is the best book ever written! Study it often!

Love you all lots!
Sincerely,
Elder Christensen

A random couch in the middle of no where, we had to take a picture!

A gold calf in the middle of someone's yard, only in Texas.
Annnnnd a cool tree...

November 2015 (photos) -

Thanksgiving Dinner in Texas - Special thanks to the family that fed him and for the photos! Kindness goes a long way :)