*This is a longer letter* President Slaughter is a funny man. Lots of little traditions that the church has that drive him nuts, and one of them is when people say, after a meeting, "will the priesthood please put the chairs away?" President Slaughter: Whenever I hear people say that, I just sit and wait to see what's going to happen. I wait for the chairs to fold themselves up and put themselves away. What we should really say is will the men please put away the chairs. Here another one. We were talking about praying and vain repetitions we often use. One of the ones we as members of the church use a lot is, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day." When we pray we are speaking directly to the most powerful being in the universe, and we thank him for the day. President Slaughter: I hear it all the time, people when they start their prayers will say thank you for this day. If God walked into the room would we all turn to Him and say, "Ah, thank you for THIS day!" No, so why do we when we pray? He says that using these vain repetitions such as help us get home safely, thank you for this day, etc. keep us back from saying things that actually matter and asking for things we actually need. All in all, he is a good man. I will miss him when he leaves. I have come to love him. Every other transfer, so every 12 weeks, we get to sit down with President and have interviews. This past Wednesday I had the chance to talk with him. I brought up the point that I really don't enjoy talking to people, because this is something I consistently struggle with. I wanted to know if there was a way I could enjoy it or what I could do to change. His response, so you're an introvert, me too. He then went on to say how in the past 50 years of his life he hasn't found out a way to enjoy it, but how his perspective has changed. His love for the Lord has sunk deeper, deeper into his heart and because of that its not about him, it's about the Lord and others. Because he loves the Lord, he talks to people, laughs with them, and strives to help them feel comfortable. Our love for the Lord will lead us to do things that will stretch us and make us better tools in his hands. Someone once asked an apostate if he enjoyed being an apostle. The apostle said, "I didn't know it was a requirement to be an apostle. I do it because I love the Lord." That should be our motivator as well. If you don't feel deep love for the Lord, learn of His atonement through the scriptures and then apply it to your life. Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a great talk about the atonement in this recent general conference titled, Strengthened by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One more cool thing I learned and then I will tell you the stuff you want to know. Jesus Christ, whenever he taught people or healed someone, He always required them to show faith. He did this because He wanted them to develop greater faith; he wanted them to grow. For example, when Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, He asked the people present to move the stone away. This took faith that Jesus could actually raise him from the dead. The same goes with priesthood blessings. Elder Nelson puts it perfectly. Olive trees are special in the Holy Land. The olive branch is universally regarded as a symbol of peace. This tree provides food, light, heat, lumber, ointments, and medicine. It is now, as it was then, crucial to life in Israel. It is not a deciduous tree, but ever bearing--always green. Even if the tree is chopped down, life will spring from its roots, suggesting everlasting life. Jesus came to the base of the Mount of Olives to effect the first component of the Atonement. This He did at the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane comes from two Hebrew roots: gath, meaning “press,” and shemen, meaning “oil,” especially that of the olive. There olives had been pressed under the weight of great stone wheels to squeeze precious oil from them. So the Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane was literally pressed under the weight of the sins of the world. He sweat great drops of blood--his life’s “oil”--which issued from every pore. (See Luke 22:44; D&C 19:18.) Jesus was accorded titles of unique significance. One was the Messiah, which in Hebrew means “anointed.” The other was the Christ, which in the Greek language means “anointed” as well. In our day, as it was in His day, the ordinance of administration to the sick includes anointing with the consecrated oil of the olive. So the next time you witness consecrated oil being anointed on the head of one to be blessed, and these sacred words are said, “I anoint you with this consecrated oil,” remember what that original consecration cost. Remember what it meant to all who had ever lived and who ever would yet live. Remember the redemptive power of healing, soothing, and ministering to those in need. Remember, just as the body of the olive, which was pressed for the oil that gave light, so the Savior was pressed. From every pore oozed the life blood of our Redeemer. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane. The anointing of oil before a priesthood blessing is an opportunity for us to remember the Savior and to develop greater faith in Him and in His atonement. Anyways, about my week! It was a great week. Still low on teaching others but that's because we have been doing things wrong. President gave me and Elder Shipley advice to stop knocking on so many doors and start getting to know the less actives, part-members, and active members. Chastisement taken, it was needed. We received that advice on Wednesday so for the past three days that's what we have been doing. As missionaries we do this thing called weekly planning where we plan for the week, just how it sounds. So we made a list of every once in the Ward and put them in their color. We have our area split into colors so we can organize ourselves and make the best use of our time. We did that which will help a ton. We also got a Ward roster for the vista ridge Ward and a prospective elders list which will give us direction and keep us busy. The work is improving.
I think I left off talking about our plan to teach more. That's the end of that! We had a lesson this week with a family that's coming back to church named the Dollahites. The reason they decided hey needed to come back was because of their son and an experience they had with the Lego Movie. After watching the Lego Movie, their son Tim, had some questions about God and was convinced that Will Farewell was God. This concerned them quite a bit. Since Bro. Dollahite had been raised LDS and his wife was baptized but never active, they decided to come back. Kind of funny! We talked about the importance of the BoM and what it helps us with. The BoM plays three roles, foundation of testimony, witness of Christ, and fullness of doctrine. We then read Alma 36 and focused on its role as a witness of Christ and hoe the BoM helps us grow closer to Him. They really enjoyed it. As a missionary I get to do stuff like that all the time so I forget sometimes that it's a treat when we go to people's houses and they get to learn about the gospel, at their house! They are a very sweet family. I like them a lot! Its always cool to see how the gospel unites people. At first it was kind of awkward as we tried to get to know each other and talk but by the end we could feel the connection. And that connection comes from the gospel and our love for Christ. It's neat to experience. I also had the privilege of going on exchanges with Elder Baker on Tuesday. He's the youngest, mission age, in the district but I have lots to learn from him. He does a great job talking to others, showing interest in them and helping them feel comfortable. And by so doing he can share the gospel easily. I also got to use a car for the day so that was a blessing in its self! Elder Hunt and Baker live with an old lady. She likes to be called Abuelita. It was kind of fun to live with an old lady for the day. I feel like when you live with someone it feels like you actually live in a home. You don't have as much privacy, but you do have a home feeling. But since she is old she likes to keep the temperature at about 78 which is hot. At night they sneak out and turn it down and before she gets up in the morning they turn it back up. Not the best, but also kind of funny. There are a ton of small business here because everyone is rich, which means there are tons of good restaurants. We tried this place called Bahama Bucks which is the best shaved ice I have ever had. It's incredibly fine, I don't know how they do it. It was yummy stuff. Also on our exchange we taught a guy named Conner who they had been working with. We brought a lady from e Ward to the lesson with us and we think she might of felt attacked a little bit by his questions and as a result she went on a rampage of bearing pure testimony. It was intense. So hopefully that's not ruined for them, she felt bad afterwards. It happens. A lot happened that day. We also had dinner with the cutest, awesome at family ever. They had 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. I thinks that's perfect. But she made us homemade noodles and made chicken noodle soup. It was incredibly good. They were fun to eat with. A while back we were asked to teach a class for a mini mission youth activity and of course we said yes. We did that on Wednesday. It was fun, we taught three classes 15 minutes each to a group of about 10 on the purpose of missionary work and why it's I important to share the gospel. You can tell people all day everyday these things but unless you have felt the atonement work in your life you won't have a burning desire to share it. Hopefully they will feel it and then desire to share it. As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. (Preach My Gospel pg. 2) We are still getting fed everyday by wonderful people. They make sure to take care of us, that's for sure! If we don't have a dinner or someone can't have us over for whatever reason, they order is pizza. Way nice. People are good. We also had a great opportunity to serve a lady named Maria. She asked us to help her load her trailer with stuff she was taking to Mexico to donate. We said of course and helped her out. It was fun, and she bought us groceries so we don't have to shop today. It was sweet of her. We are going to try and teach her, she has been taught in the last but maybe she will be open this time, who knows! It was funny because the day before we went over to help her i was thinking, man I wish I had a shoe horn. While we were packing up all her stuff, in one of the boxes there was a shoe horn and she said I could have it. Heavenly Father is oh so mindful of all of us. I get to go one exchanges with the zone leaders tomorrow which will be fun. My zone leader from my last area, East Zone, moved with me to this zone and is my zone leader again. He has been my zone leader my whole mission and I have always wanted to work with him for a day and now is my chance! His name is Elder Tovar, he is wise and a hard worker. Can't wait! We also had an awesome stake missionary breakfast at our stake presidents house. President Ludrop has missionary breakfast once a month where all missionaries in the stake are invited and all the Ward mission leaders too. We talk about how we can improve, what's working, what's not working, etc. It was awesome! Lots of wisdom was shared and lots of things to improve on. The food was also great! Austin is awesome. Anyways, the gospel is true. Our main purpose in this life is to conform our will to Heavenly Father's. His will is for us to return to live with Him. But we must be obedient to do so. Conforming our will to God's will is hard and requires faith, but it can be our sturdiest rock to stand on. If conforming our will to God's is essential, it means that the gospel is true. The universe is set up for our success. It's so much bigger than just us. I don't know how to express this. If you ever doubt the gospel and the truthfulness thereof, remember that there is more than just you. Remember that we need to conform our will to God's, humble yourself and acknowledge a grander purpose. Life is good! God is good! He is always around us. Love you all! Sincerely, Elder Christensen Do Good Stuff
