7-20-15 / What a weird week!

Hello people of planet earth!

Some solid stuff happened this week. We have two people set with a
baptismal date. Julius, the 9 year old, will be baptized this
Saturday. Claudia will be baptized on August 15th. Jessica has been
talking to her husband about church and temples and if he could
baptize her. She will be very soon as well. All the patience has paid
off! The church and the gospel is true!

This was my first official week with Elder West, I think, I can't
remember. If not it was week 2. We had some weird stuff happen this
week. It was like 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday I believe and some
old man with a walker opens our door, steps through the door way and
asks where is my son and do you have a bed for him? Elder Forbush
walks over and tells him uh your son isn't here bye and pretty much
gets him out. Very bizarre, so now we make sure to keep the door
locked. Don't worry, our apartments are very safe. Just something
weird that happened.

We also had the new trainee meeting this past week. It was a good hour
away from where we live. It's always fun to go to a new place and have
some new scenery. It was a good drive, the meeting was fun too.
President slaughter has such an incredible understanding of the
doctrine of the gospel and he always shares his knowledge with us when
he is there. He went over being saved. Anyone that has been baptized
and is trying to make it to heaven will be saved in the celestial
kingdom. So if you are trying to do what's right and stay on the path,
celestial kingdom is yours. Of course the longer you stay on that path
the narrower and narrower it gets. But that is very reassuring.

This week, teaching wise, was mainly getting Julius set up and ready
for baptism. We also worked with Glenda this past week. Her mom,
Christella, has started to join us as well. They both love the BoM and
always enjoy when we read it to them. Glenda wants her grandkids to
get involved and I think we will be able to help them get involved, it
will just take some time. Hopefully we can get them to go to mutual.
They are 16 and 12 years old. Youths. Glenda has a son in prison and
she wanted us to send him a BoM and some pamphlets. We said sure and
do it for her. We told her it was done and she started to cry. Such
little acts of kindness can make such a huge impact on the lives of
others. Hopefully her son reads it and finds the joy that it has to
offer.

We have totally gone digital. We don't use paper planners anymore, all
iPad. So we have been slowly moving data from our paper area book to
the are book app. It's been hard to adjust too. Planning is so
different now, concept is the same but making it work for you will
take some adjustment. It will be nice to have though, right at your
fingertips all the time. I like having all the general conferences
with me too. Love reading them. Lots of knowledge.

It has been 5 months now. Isn't that crazy? It has been a very quick 5 months.

Something I learned the other day during studies is found in Moses 5.
I'm sure y'all have found it but Adam is commanded to offer a
sacrifice. An angel the comes down "after many days" and asks Adam why
he's doing this. Adam doesn't know why, but he was commanded to do it.
In v. 9 Adam has the Holy Ghost testify to him that Jesus is the
Christ. So obedience to God brings further light and knowledge and
helps our testimony and faith develop. Something else rather cool in
that chapter is v. 7. The angel tells Adam that the sacrifice is in
similitude of the sacrifice of Christ. So Adam and Eve fell but
Heavenly Father, the first thing He does with His infinite wisdom is
turn them to Jesus Christ and gives them the gospel. This proves,
along with the rest of all the scriptures, that His purpose truly is
to help us return to His presence. Everything He does is for our good.
Learn to trust Him, it will take time and patience. But as we learn to
trust Him we will find joy in every situation because we will know it
is for our good.

I love you all, have a great week. Thanks for the letters and love
that you all send to me.
Elder Christensen

7-6-15 - We're staying here!

Me and my friends ... :)

We're staying here!! -Hopper

Yes, I am staying, Elder Rowland is leaving. I will be training a new
missionary this transfer, we will see how that goes.

Lots of work to do here in the 1st ward. We have been blessed with
lots of people to teach and work with. One of them is Glenda.

The other week we were knocking doors and we knocked into an older,
blind lady. Very nice and she allowed us to teach the restoration. We
set up a return appointment and she kept it. But when we taught the
restoration she had a very hard time understanding anything and
remembering. I think she might of gotten into an accident and bonked
her head. She lives with her granddaughters and her mom. They have so
many trials and struggles they have to face each day. Glenda can't
even make her own food, she relies on others to help her. They don't
have an income, they can barely feed their grandkids. It is probably
the biggest Ray of sunshine when we go over there and she has the
opportunity to talk and be around people that are kind. She says it
feels like such a long time in between our visits, even though it had
only been 3 days. She has a long road ahead of her, but Heavenly
Father will be with her every step of the way, and I will try my best
to help. She is a child of God and she deserves the best I can give. I
am grateful that Heavenly Father has given me another transfer to work
with Glenda. Also grateful for the Atonement which will make all
things fair in the end.

Speaking of the Atonement, isn't the sacrament wonderful? What a
sacred time of the week. Grateful for the blessing to ponder the
Savior's sacrifice in a sacred place. You can feel God's love very
deeply as you partake of the sacrament with purpose.

We also were able to start working with a lady named Claudia. She is
going through some trials as well at the moment and needs some friends
and a positive place to be. She has already told us she wants to be
baptized and she came to church yesterday. She is so ready to be apart
of the church. Claudia is from El Salvador, has lived in the U.S. For
about a year I believe and can't get employment because her social
security won't allow it. She is a sweet lady though and like all of us
the gospel can help her in every area of her life.

Julius came to church as well yesterday, along with his brothers and
sisters and mom. We will have to move his date back but it will be
sometime this transfer. It's funny how one choice one person makes can
have such an impact on every around us.

I enjoyed reading Alma 36 the other day. In that chapter Alma is
telling his son his conversion story. He talks about how great was his
joy when he decided to turn towards Christ. That joy that he felt came
from the Atonement. That joy is something we are all intended to feel,
and just like Alma, it comes from repentance. It comes from turning
towards God and understanding the Atonement. Scripture study is key to
understanding the Atonement, especially the BoM. Just like the cover
says, it testifies of Jesus Christ. He lives and He is the Savior of
the world. From it we learn what our true relationship to The Father
and the Son is, and exactly what we need to do to live with God again.
Thank heavens for the restoration.

For the 4th we went to Bro. M's home for a BBQ. He makes good food and
it was a fun time. The n we went out and did some proselyting and
stopped by some members, it was a good day.

All in all great week. I will miss Elder Rowland, he has been a good companion.

Love you all
Do Good Stuff
Elder Christensen

6-29-15 - It was a GREAT week for Missionary Work!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I have seen the Lord assist us in His work. It was a great week for
missionary work!

We have been receiving a lot of referrals this past couple weeks and
it has really helped us stay busy. I believe it is because me and
Elder Rowland are trying our best to do a good job and the Lord always
will bless us if we try our best. 

There is a system for referrals.
Missionaries receive a text telling us who the referral is, where they
live and what they have requested. Most of the time people will
request a bible and we will give it to them and that will be the end
of that. But we had two requests this past week for Book of Mormons
which was a fist for me! So we went by the first guy, Frank, a 76 year
old, who said he couldn't read the tiny text in the normal BoMs we
hand out so we talked about what the BoM is and then set up an
appointment for Friday, telling him that we will bring a large print
BoM. 

Since we don't have one of those we figure we better go get one
from the mission office. It's only about 25 minutes away so we go and
grab one and the day continues.

Friday comes and Frank calls us saying he won't be in town for our
appointment but if he gets back in time he will call us. So the day
goes on and we get a text from the sister missionaries from another
ward saying there is a lady who wants a large print BoM and to take
the lessons. Well miraculously we have one! We go over and meet with
her and she is a solid new investigator! So many small miracles each
and every day. I am learning that everything happens for a reason, big
or small.

The members are also staring to love us! I'm not sure what changed but
something has. 

They will bring us food on Sunday's and actually talk
to us! I'm not sure what the big change is but when you look outside
yourself and start the interaction with others, it makes you more
approachable. The Lord is so good to us in every way. I learn more and
more each day how much I need Him. How much we all need Him. We really
cannot change on our own. We can only change through the Atonement. We
learn this truth from Mosiah 3:19.

Exchanges were also this week! I had the privilege of going on an
exchange with Elder Reimschussel, our fearless district leader. He is
so good at helping people feel comfortable. He is a talker and can
talk about anything with anyone. One of his awesome gifts. That's
something that I have been trying to improve on. It was a good
learning experience to me. Trying to talk with people not at people.
It will come.

A couple weeks ago Aaron, the recently baptized guy, was assigned to
go home teaching with his dad. His dad has been less active for years
but has a super testimony. But they all came to church! Aaron's family
and parents. Our ward has really seen awesome growth and hopefully it
will continue in that direction.

Haven't been able to meet with Julius. I'm not sure what's going on.
Hopefully all will end well!

Transfer calls are this Sunday. I think I'm leaving this area. I'm
ready for some new faces, but we will see! 

I love you all and hope
y'all are doing fabulously!

Have a great week!

Do good stuff

Elder Christensen

Watch out for the slow moving tropical storm ...

Elders ...

This past week we had dinner with some members who really enjoy having
us over for dinner. At dinner she told us there was a storm coming
with high chances of rain everyday this week. Then her husband adds
his knowledge on the subject and tells us it's a slow moving tropical
storm. They really talked up this storm that's coming. Well it has
been the joke of the week between me and Elder Rowland. It has hardly
rained, and every once in a while it looks like there's a storm coming
but it will rain for 30 minutes then the sun will come out. It's been
fun. But yes it's been very grey lately which is nice but with the
grey comes humid and with humidity comes ew. It was 102 and dumb humid
the other day. How sweaty you may ask? Very.


This week was more active then last week. We still are lacking in the
set up appointments area but we always find lessons somewhere. Last
week we were struggling to find an appointment so we were knocking
trying to find people and we were about to move to the next area but
we felt like we should try a couple more. So we walk down the street
and there is a guy sitting outside. We go up to him and talk with him
and he allows us to share the restoration with him. He wasn't
interested at all in the church but he listened and he shared with us
the psalms he was writing and how he wants to be a rapper and rapped
for us. Made me smile. And best of all his name is Palace. I become
more and more convinced that God uses us to bless the lives of others
in ways that we may not see until it's over or until we think about
it. We didn't need to find a new investigator that day, just someone
willing to listen and make us smile.

A very similar experience happened this week too. Earlier in the week
one of the day's was 98, blaring sun and humid. We decided to walk to
each house because they were close enough but boy was it hot. I was
getting a bit impatient so I said a prayer. Backstory, I have been
trying to develop my gratitude for everything lately and so I have
been praying for the ability to see God answering my prayers and His
hand in my life. So we kept walking and sweating and being hot and
impatient when this big black guy comes walking out of his house and
yells at us hello fellow saints! He comes over and gives us a big hug
and tells us he's pastor Davis. He asks us if we have the Melchizedek
priesthood? We say yes and he says have a great day and we go on our
way. I know that that was God inspiring that man to come out and say
hello to us because we needed it. Heavenly Father is so good to me and
I'm not sure what I do to deserve it. We also that same day have
people say they weren't interested but then offer us water. Elder
Eyring gives a great talk on this topic called O Remember, Remember.
It's a good one. Lots of things God does for us everyday, we just have
to put the effort into finding them and being humble enough to
appreciate them.


Along those same lines we were proselyting the other day and we went
down one street I had never been down before to find a uhaul truck. We
go over and offer help and she says no but thank you but we felt like
we needed to go back so we did and the ladies friend comes over to us
and asks us if we pray. We say no and then leave.


Just kidding, we say yes and she asks us if we could pray for her
friend, whom we just met, who was recently diagnosed with breast
cancer. We say yes and we offer a priesthood blessing to Teresa as
well. It was a powerful moment. She appreciated it and we left her a
card and she took it. I could tell she was thinking deeply about the
BoM on the back. I also had prayed for the opportunity to find people
that were prepared that day and we found someone! I hope she uses this
trial as an opportunity to find the truth and grow closer to God. But
looking back on it Heavenly Father led us to her in around about way
without promptings, just by trying to do what's right we end up doing
what God needs us to do. Everything that invites to do good is of God
Moroni 7:16. So just do good stuff and you have no need to worry.


Every once and a while we will have moments where we are talking with
someone and the spirit will be so subtle but sublime and there. It's
like time stops, it's like a tunnel to Heaven has been opened, it is
the most peaceful, sweet feeling and I hope others can feel the power
of it when it happens. The blessing with Teresa was one of them. It's
like time stops so there is no denying that Jesus is the Christ. It's
like a pure testimony is being bore from the spirit. It's very, very
cool.


I was reading King Benjamin's address today and some verses from
chapter 2 stuck out and I will share them with y'all. Mosiah 2:16-19
talks about how king Benjamin has spent all his days serving them and
if he merits any thanks at all, o how he ought to thank your Father in
heaven. Heavenly Father has done so much for all of us. Including
sending His only begotten son into the world that through him the
world might be saved. Heavenly Father is the best father we could ever
want. He loves us enough to make our own choices and oh how we ought
to thank Him for that wonderful gift. It's a selfless gift, He knows
it is going to cause some of His children pain in this life and the
life to come, but His love is perfect. So trust Him and listen to His
words. Then obey. I promise that obedience to God brings the most
happiness. Surrender your will to Him and find joy.


I love y'all so very much and miss you lots. I hope everyone had an
awesome Father's Day. Thank you for the great examples you have given
to me.
Love,
Elder Christensen

Ps mailbox has not been fixed, it might be fixed in a year or two, we shall see

6/15/15 - It's getting hot

The past week has been around 95 and humid. I didn't know what it
meant to sweat until now!

We weren't horribly busy this past week. A slower week for sure but
regardless it was a good one. Last Sunday a lady we had not seen
before at church was there with her kids and apparently she's a member
so we tried to talk to her but we didn't get the chance. Thankfully
she came up to us after church and asked us if we would be willing to
teach her kids. We said no and that was the end of that.

Just kidding, of course we said yes and we have had 3 visits and he is
already set with a baptismal date. Julius is is his name and he is
only 9. Apparently he told his mom that he wanted to learn more about
Christ and God so his mom took him and his 7 year old sister to
church. Such a cool experience I get to be a part of. I wasn't sure
how to teach kids or if we should skip over anything but he
understands everything very well. It's neat to see a humble family
relying on the Lord. I certainly wouldn't have seen them that way
without this experience. They are good people who are striving to do
what's right. God really does love all of His children and is aware of
us individually. I am seeing that a little bit more every day.
Something that's really helped me see this is studying the Book of
Mormon. It really makes you more rooted in the faith. It helps build
that sure foundation.

We also have a new ward mission leader so it will be a change to start
working with someone new. He is a former bishop so he will be great.
On Saturday a member of the ward was having a get together with some
of his friends and he invited us over for dinner. He was in the
marines for a while and served in Korea and Vietnam and such. He loves
Korean food so he made Korean food. It was actually pretty darn good
and I enjoyed it.

We didn't get to meet with Baltimore but hopefully we will next
Thursday. We did meet with the Malones though and she is taking her
own sweet time. She is so ready to be baptized I am just not sure how
to help her see that. She also has a hard time coming to church but
where there's a will there's a way.

On Tuesday I had the privilege on going on exchanges with elder McKay.
He's a fun guy and it was a fun day. We had lots of lessons that day.
Tomorrow we have zone conference where we will learn more about how to
study with the iPads.

There's a cool scripture in D&C 84:45 that tells us exactly how we
have more of the spirit with us. All we have to do is understand
truth. We understand truth by reading the BoM, pondering, praying and
acting and observing. As we begin to know and understand eternal
truths we receive light which light is spirit, even the spirit of
Christ. What a cool promise! A good place to start is the articles of
faith. If we understand and have a testimony of each one we will have
an increase of the spirit. Of course we have to be keeping the
commandments and doing what is asked of us but as we do so the spirit
comes.
Love you all, have an awesome Father's Day all you fathers! Love you dad
Do Good Stuff
Elder Christensen

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

Life truly is good!‏

Let me first start off by saying THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY LOVE!! It was so fun to get a little piece of all of you down here in the heart of Texas. It really was a lovely day and you all contributed to that! 

This week has been awesome! I said good bye to Elder A but we are still in the same zone so we will continue to see each other. My new companion is Elder R. He is incredible! I have already learned so, so much from him and I hope we get to be together for more than one transfer because I have so much to learn from him. Hopefully he can learn something from me too. He is from Utah, can't remember the city but its down in south Utah. He has 7 brothers and sisters and he is the 2nd youngest. He is an awesome example to me! He has a wonderful how can we help attitude and looks for ways to help everyone. Very humble and full of the spirit. 

We have had some super cool floods here in the past couple days. We had a deluge the other day and the streets became rivers. That's not even an exaggeration! We had to go a very different way to get to our apartment because the streets we normally go down/by had knee high water rushing down them into the draining system. Super cool to see. We had lots of opportunities to help others that day. A lot of people would think they could go through and get completely stuck. It was fun. Thankfully no real damage comes from these floods. Apparently though in Dallas and Houston they have had some real problems with the flooding and the wards have been asked to go over and help. The city contacted the LDS church to go over and help which is awesome. So they sent 30 missionaries over to help and the respective wards. I think this weekend its our turn to go and help so that will be fun. 

We continue to work with Jennifer and she is certainly progressing. Her countenance has lightened up and she seems more relaxed. She feels like she needs to better understand the BoM in order to feel ready for baptism so we are working with her to help her get an answer that its true and real and baptism is what Heavenly Father wants her and everyone to do. It really is a big commitment. I can see why people choose to take their time and think it over. 

We had dinner with the H family and they are so fun. She either makes roast beef or chicken and the way they interact is hilarious. Its a husband and wife in their 50's. Bro. H is hilarious and always has some witty, funny comment to make. We found out he was in the special services in the Vietnam War and he showed us all his cool medals and such. There really is so much history to each person! 

We are still working with Baltimore. He has the desire to be happy and we are slowly showing him that this is the way to do so. He smiled this last time we met with him and he is doing better. He even read the BoM!! It is so great when people keep their commitments and aren't just saying yes. He is showing that he wants to change. We will continue to work with him. 

I think this transfer will be a lot more productive than the last. We are off to a great start! Something we both wanted to work on this transfer is working with the ward and getting to know the members. I really do love this ward. I don't think there is a ward on earth quite like the SA1st ward. Humble, great people that want to do whats right. 

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/biographies/elder-l-tom-perry?cid=HP_day_date_dPAAST_PERY_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

What a great, great, great, great, great, excellent man. Awesome article! Thats my thought for the week I guess!

Love you all so very much. Thank you so much for the love I feel from your letters and emails. Do good things!

Elder Christensen