Christmas Eve at Singers
doing the "modernized" version of the Nativity
(didn't you know Pumba from Lion King was there??
In his Christmas pajamas from me (Amanda)
Tebowing Texas style!!
Monday, December 31, 2012
New Years Eve Letter (Dec 31st)
GOOD MORNING UTAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How has yall's week been? Since i last talk with you on Tuesday.
By The way it was amazing talking with yall and seeing yall. It was a blessing to have that opportunity. I know that the time will go fast to the time i get to visit with yall again. ha
This week has been a slower week than usual. One because of the holidays and everyone is gone. And 2 people are sick there is a nasty bug going around and a lot of investigators got it and less actives so there isn’t a lot that went on this week so sorry but some things were awesome.
Christmas Eve was a very good day. It was p day we went to the Singers house for dinner that night. The whole family was there except josh who is on a mission. We had some wonderful soup that they made and we sat around enjoying each other’s company. There tradition is to reenact the nativity but we put our little touch on it modern style. haha. They gave Elder Hilton and myself each gifts they gave us matching ties with their names on it. It was awesome than I gave them our gift to them they were surprised it was so cool to see. I just told them my family wanted to do something special for yall because you’re my family away from home. Sis Singer gave me a hug she was very grateful for the gifts. I finally got my packages that night. I was so happy when I got them. I loved the PJ's :)
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!!!!!!! We woke up and went to the other missionaries’ apartment to have breakfast and to open some of our presents. It was good to be around them and to enjoy my Christmas away from home. We went back to our apartment and we opened more of our presents. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YALL PRESENT. I know that I will surely use it a lot. We went to the Wojahn's house to eat a huge turkey feast then the main event. I got to talk and see yall!!!!!!!!!!! It was so good to see yall and talk with yall it has been 10 months since I got to do that. It was a blessing to me and I know it was for yall. After that we went to the Singers and chilled with them the rest of the night and went home and found out that we are staying together for six more weeks and not getting transferred this time. But that night I got sick, I got another really bad cold. The cough came back and the runny nose and the head ache. It is not the funniest thing you can have.
Wednesday we met with Miguel Leal. He is amazing we met and talk about the word of wisdom but that last long he wanted to talk about missions; he really wants to go on a mission. But he doesn’t want to ruin the school track that he is on to get into UTI. He wants to be a mechanic but he wants to go on a mission at the same time he is going to have to choose either leave three years of school or go on a two year mission. He said he was confused and didn’t know what to do. I felt prompted to tell him that he needs to pray about it and when you pray with a sincere heart that God will answer your prayers. Might not be what you want it to be but god is all knowing and he will provide a way for you. Miguel said that he will and I’m glad that he has so much interest in going on a mission and will pray about it. This is a really good kid that we can see go on a mission within the next year and half. We were able to meet with this mom and she was so grateful for what we have done to bring the gospel in his life. They have noticed a change in the family and in the house. So hopefully we can work with his family and see what we can do for them.
Saturday night was an interesting night. We were in a certain area and we knew that a potential investigator named Matthew Duke lived around here. He is a 20 yr old kid and he is really smart he talk’s our head off about what he believes in. It’s wasn’t religion or anything it was something to do with energy. He is very earthly and loves chi energy and likes crystals and everything natural. It was very interesting as we talk outside for about 45 mins and he gave us a rock that will cleanse our heart and purify us. hahah it was so interesting that I could help but just walk away laughing. He said that the thing he loves to do was smoke weed and just enjoy life. The earth and energy he said if I was sick that he could spiritually heal me but he would be conduit to help. Cause he can cure me through energy it was so funny. Wow I was just shocked and was amazed haha
Sunday was awesome. We had to teach the gospel doctrine class and it went pretty well we taught them how to introduce the Book of Mormon to others in a simple manner. The third hour we had a member come and talk to us about member missionary work. Her name is Diana Hoelscher . You should look her up she is awesome. This is just what we need to get things jump started to get the ball rolling about member missionary work. After church we were able to go with Bro Singer to this nursing home to go take sacrament to a member who lives there. He had a stroke and he can’t talk and use his arms very well. It was a spiritual experience to go there and to give him the sacrament. That night we went to a member’s home for dinner and his mom and dad were there. They are expecting a baby soon so the parents were there to help them I found out that they are from Richmond Utah and I know there niece. She lives right by the Hyrum cemetery her mom is the cross guard for Lincoln Elementary School. So we sat down talking for a while about Cache Valley it was awesome being able to visit with someone again from home. Man it is a small world that you meet people who know home and who are from there.
Well I will end by saying I hope yall have a great New Year’s eve and a happy New Year, have a good time don’t party too hard and I will talk with yall next week.
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
How has yall's week been? Since i last talk with you on Tuesday.
By The way it was amazing talking with yall and seeing yall. It was a blessing to have that opportunity. I know that the time will go fast to the time i get to visit with yall again. ha
This week has been a slower week than usual. One because of the holidays and everyone is gone. And 2 people are sick there is a nasty bug going around and a lot of investigators got it and less actives so there isn’t a lot that went on this week so sorry but some things were awesome.
Christmas Eve was a very good day. It was p day we went to the Singers house for dinner that night. The whole family was there except josh who is on a mission. We had some wonderful soup that they made and we sat around enjoying each other’s company. There tradition is to reenact the nativity but we put our little touch on it modern style. haha. They gave Elder Hilton and myself each gifts they gave us matching ties with their names on it. It was awesome than I gave them our gift to them they were surprised it was so cool to see. I just told them my family wanted to do something special for yall because you’re my family away from home. Sis Singer gave me a hug she was very grateful for the gifts. I finally got my packages that night. I was so happy when I got them. I loved the PJ's :)
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!!!!!!! We woke up and went to the other missionaries’ apartment to have breakfast and to open some of our presents. It was good to be around them and to enjoy my Christmas away from home. We went back to our apartment and we opened more of our presents. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YALL PRESENT. I know that I will surely use it a lot. We went to the Wojahn's house to eat a huge turkey feast then the main event. I got to talk and see yall!!!!!!!!!!! It was so good to see yall and talk with yall it has been 10 months since I got to do that. It was a blessing to me and I know it was for yall. After that we went to the Singers and chilled with them the rest of the night and went home and found out that we are staying together for six more weeks and not getting transferred this time. But that night I got sick, I got another really bad cold. The cough came back and the runny nose and the head ache. It is not the funniest thing you can have.
Wednesday we met with Miguel Leal. He is amazing we met and talk about the word of wisdom but that last long he wanted to talk about missions; he really wants to go on a mission. But he doesn’t want to ruin the school track that he is on to get into UTI. He wants to be a mechanic but he wants to go on a mission at the same time he is going to have to choose either leave three years of school or go on a two year mission. He said he was confused and didn’t know what to do. I felt prompted to tell him that he needs to pray about it and when you pray with a sincere heart that God will answer your prayers. Might not be what you want it to be but god is all knowing and he will provide a way for you. Miguel said that he will and I’m glad that he has so much interest in going on a mission and will pray about it. This is a really good kid that we can see go on a mission within the next year and half. We were able to meet with this mom and she was so grateful for what we have done to bring the gospel in his life. They have noticed a change in the family and in the house. So hopefully we can work with his family and see what we can do for them.
Saturday night was an interesting night. We were in a certain area and we knew that a potential investigator named Matthew Duke lived around here. He is a 20 yr old kid and he is really smart he talk’s our head off about what he believes in. It’s wasn’t religion or anything it was something to do with energy. He is very earthly and loves chi energy and likes crystals and everything natural. It was very interesting as we talk outside for about 45 mins and he gave us a rock that will cleanse our heart and purify us. hahah it was so interesting that I could help but just walk away laughing. He said that the thing he loves to do was smoke weed and just enjoy life. The earth and energy he said if I was sick that he could spiritually heal me but he would be conduit to help. Cause he can cure me through energy it was so funny. Wow I was just shocked and was amazed haha
Sunday was awesome. We had to teach the gospel doctrine class and it went pretty well we taught them how to introduce the Book of Mormon to others in a simple manner. The third hour we had a member come and talk to us about member missionary work. Her name is Diana Hoelscher . You should look her up she is awesome. This is just what we need to get things jump started to get the ball rolling about member missionary work. After church we were able to go with Bro Singer to this nursing home to go take sacrament to a member who lives there. He had a stroke and he can’t talk and use his arms very well. It was a spiritual experience to go there and to give him the sacrament. That night we went to a member’s home for dinner and his mom and dad were there. They are expecting a baby soon so the parents were there to help them I found out that they are from Richmond Utah and I know there niece. She lives right by the Hyrum cemetery her mom is the cross guard for Lincoln Elementary School. So we sat down talking for a while about Cache Valley it was awesome being able to visit with someone again from home. Man it is a small world that you meet people who know home and who are from there.
Well I will end by saying I hope yall have a great New Year’s eve and a happy New Year, have a good time don’t party too hard and I will talk with yall next week.
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Merry Christmas!!!!
No email from Elder Christensen this week but we were able to have the wonderful opportunity to be able to Skype with him on Christmas. It was so wonderful to be able to talk to him and see the changes that he has made. On Saturday Dec 22nd, he had what he calls his "Christmas Baptism" of Elena Kent. His former companion Elder Gutierrez also made his presence there. This now brings up the total number of baptism to 12 so far. Not bad for only being out for 10 months. Way to go Elder!!!
New investigator Bobbi Jo (the mother)
Temple Day
Elder Hilton and Elder Christensen
Elder Gutierrez (former companion) Elena Kent, Elder Christensen, Elder Hilton
Skyping with him Christmas afternoon
Friday, December 21, 2012
The Mission Call
It is hard to believe that one year ago today, a certain white envenlope would change all of our lives for the better. We remember like it was yesterday how a certain soon to be missionary got the exciting call from the post office that his call had arrived. In spite of his excitement, he didn't realized til he got to the post office that he was there 30 minutes before it opened. With that and having to wait til 7:00 til he could open his call, it was one of those days where he had to test his patience. Anyone who knows Kendall know that he doesn't have alot of patience when it comes to certain things. But all in all, we are grateful for the willingness and desire he had to serve a mission.
The envenlope
Calling friends and family
The Call
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Dec 17th Letter
WHATS UP YALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How is everyone back in Utah!!!!!!!!! How is the weather? Still cold haha? Well it’s humid and rainy for the past couple of days and I was told that, that is Houston’s Snow ha. I’m just glad that it isn’t white. The coldest I have seen it here is 37 and that was in the morning. And that was soooooo Cold I actually saw frost for the first time in Texas It was crazy I thought I was in Utah.
Man lately it has been so busy! I love it but it’s crazy sometimes, this week we started out having Interviews with our mission president. That was really good it is always good to talk with him, whenever I talk with him one on one I can feel the love that he has for us. It is really true that mission president and there wife are your parents out here. We learned at interviews about lesson plans and how we prepare better for our lessons our Mission mom Sister Pingree taught us about manners haha that was really funny. After interviews we met with Kelsey Hodson she is doing good she bore her testimony two weeks ago in church and she wants to do it again real bad. It’s good that she has a desire to share her testimony more often. We met with Leticia Banos she is doing well she is still going through the grieving process of her dad passing. But we are just showing her love and support from the ward and from us.
Wednesday was a very busy day that started at 5:45 in the morning when we woke up. Our zone had the opportunity to do some service at the HUGE Houston Food Bank. We worked there from 8-12 in the morning and while we were there we processed about 14,000 pounds of food and that feeds 12,000 people. I think that was pretty amazing I didn’t have part of that fun. They needed some volunteers up in the administration offices so that was where I was and all we did was put stuff in envelopes and put them to the side so they can be shipped off, let’s just say we did about a 1000 of those and it was alright. Not the best job but it was cool to see what goes behind the scenes. After that is when our day got hectic. We had a baptismal interview for Elena Kent for her baptism on the 22nd than we had another lesson after that with a new investigator her name is Bobby Jo, than off to dinner with Monica and Justin at around 8pm so the whole day we were walking around with our heads cut off but I’m not trying to complain because in a couple of weeks it’s going to be slow with the holidays and we won’t be busy as we have been these couple of weeks.
Thursday was pretty good day. We met with an 18 yr old teenager that was baptized when he was 8 yrs old but has never come to church. So we have been able to go to his house and sit down and talk with him. He has a HUGE desire to come to church and loves it; he said that it is helping him make some important decisions in his life. He has received some good support from the ward and the young men. When we meet with him we treat him like we do investigator that means go through the whole lessons and teach him. Well this week we were teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ which talks about faith repentance baptism receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end it was a pretty good lesson the spirit was strong. After we were taught him the lesson we got into the conversation of missions and he ask if we had any interesting stories or experiences we have had on our missions as I was talking I felt the spirit more strong I told him about the Rios family and the wonderful opportunity I had to find them and teach them. After my companion and myself both shared stories he ask if you can go on a mission when you are older like 24, we said yeah but you should go sooner my companion and i had the feeling to mention to him that he shouldn’t wait but you should go when he had the chance. He said yeah. He said that he doesn’t know a lot but he is going to church more often and now is going to seminary which is awesome. We promised him that if he continues to do this (going to church, reading, praying, going to seminary) that he will know enough that he will go on a mission he said yea i want to do that. It was a blessing to be in this area and find this kid and meet with him and bring him back to the fold and get him a huge desire to come to church it’s a tender mercy of the Lord.
We had another huge spiritual lesson this week. It was with Elena Kent. We are getting her ready for the 22nd and we went in to answer questions that she might have or concerns. She had one and that was prophets. She has never been exposed to the thought of prophets on this earth, she was concerned because when she went to this one church the pastor she thought was leading them and guiding them wasn’t really doing that for them and some things were going on there so she has a lot of trust issues, so she said that there couldn’t be another person that is leading and guiding us. But we read a scripture in Matthew that says that a prophet of god won’t lead us astray it was good that we brought a return missionary with us he has been home a week and he help us out so much. He connected with her a lot and we watch the restoration dvd and we bore her our testimonies about prophets. And we challenged her to go to sacrament meeting with this concern that she has and we promised her that if she does that her testimony will strengthen and that she will come to an understanding that we have modern day prophets on this earth in these days. So yesterday we were fasting for the chance that she will be able to know for herself that we have prophets and she will get her answer. We are meeting with her and find out if she has come to knowledge of prophets. BUT she is still good for baptism on SATURDAY
This week is going to be very special I’m having two people that i have taught getting baptized. One is Elena Kent and the other is from my old area Spring Branch Jacob Alonzo. He is getting baptized I’m so glad that i have been seeing fruits of my work being coming about this work is true. I wanna leave you with my testimony. That i Love this work it has changed my life and i love it, i know the gospel is true.. I know that our savior Jesus Christ loves us and I’m so glad for this time of season for the love that we feel and the spirit. I CANT WAIT TO VISIT WITH YALL NEXT WEEK. I can tell you one thing counting down to Christmas makes the month go slow so don’t ever count down any days.
Love yall
Elder Christensen
ELF QUOTE. CONGRATULATIONS THE WORLDS BEST CUP OF COFFEE GOOD JOB EVERYONE!!!!!!
How is everyone back in Utah!!!!!!!!! How is the weather? Still cold haha? Well it’s humid and rainy for the past couple of days and I was told that, that is Houston’s Snow ha. I’m just glad that it isn’t white. The coldest I have seen it here is 37 and that was in the morning. And that was soooooo Cold I actually saw frost for the first time in Texas It was crazy I thought I was in Utah.
Man lately it has been so busy! I love it but it’s crazy sometimes, this week we started out having Interviews with our mission president. That was really good it is always good to talk with him, whenever I talk with him one on one I can feel the love that he has for us. It is really true that mission president and there wife are your parents out here. We learned at interviews about lesson plans and how we prepare better for our lessons our Mission mom Sister Pingree taught us about manners haha that was really funny. After interviews we met with Kelsey Hodson she is doing good she bore her testimony two weeks ago in church and she wants to do it again real bad. It’s good that she has a desire to share her testimony more often. We met with Leticia Banos she is doing well she is still going through the grieving process of her dad passing. But we are just showing her love and support from the ward and from us.
Wednesday was a very busy day that started at 5:45 in the morning when we woke up. Our zone had the opportunity to do some service at the HUGE Houston Food Bank. We worked there from 8-12 in the morning and while we were there we processed about 14,000 pounds of food and that feeds 12,000 people. I think that was pretty amazing I didn’t have part of that fun. They needed some volunteers up in the administration offices so that was where I was and all we did was put stuff in envelopes and put them to the side so they can be shipped off, let’s just say we did about a 1000 of those and it was alright. Not the best job but it was cool to see what goes behind the scenes. After that is when our day got hectic. We had a baptismal interview for Elena Kent for her baptism on the 22nd than we had another lesson after that with a new investigator her name is Bobby Jo, than off to dinner with Monica and Justin at around 8pm so the whole day we were walking around with our heads cut off but I’m not trying to complain because in a couple of weeks it’s going to be slow with the holidays and we won’t be busy as we have been these couple of weeks.
Thursday was pretty good day. We met with an 18 yr old teenager that was baptized when he was 8 yrs old but has never come to church. So we have been able to go to his house and sit down and talk with him. He has a HUGE desire to come to church and loves it; he said that it is helping him make some important decisions in his life. He has received some good support from the ward and the young men. When we meet with him we treat him like we do investigator that means go through the whole lessons and teach him. Well this week we were teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ which talks about faith repentance baptism receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end it was a pretty good lesson the spirit was strong. After we were taught him the lesson we got into the conversation of missions and he ask if we had any interesting stories or experiences we have had on our missions as I was talking I felt the spirit more strong I told him about the Rios family and the wonderful opportunity I had to find them and teach them. After my companion and myself both shared stories he ask if you can go on a mission when you are older like 24, we said yeah but you should go sooner my companion and i had the feeling to mention to him that he shouldn’t wait but you should go when he had the chance. He said yeah. He said that he doesn’t know a lot but he is going to church more often and now is going to seminary which is awesome. We promised him that if he continues to do this (going to church, reading, praying, going to seminary) that he will know enough that he will go on a mission he said yea i want to do that. It was a blessing to be in this area and find this kid and meet with him and bring him back to the fold and get him a huge desire to come to church it’s a tender mercy of the Lord.
We had another huge spiritual lesson this week. It was with Elena Kent. We are getting her ready for the 22nd and we went in to answer questions that she might have or concerns. She had one and that was prophets. She has never been exposed to the thought of prophets on this earth, she was concerned because when she went to this one church the pastor she thought was leading them and guiding them wasn’t really doing that for them and some things were going on there so she has a lot of trust issues, so she said that there couldn’t be another person that is leading and guiding us. But we read a scripture in Matthew that says that a prophet of god won’t lead us astray it was good that we brought a return missionary with us he has been home a week and he help us out so much. He connected with her a lot and we watch the restoration dvd and we bore her our testimonies about prophets. And we challenged her to go to sacrament meeting with this concern that she has and we promised her that if she does that her testimony will strengthen and that she will come to an understanding that we have modern day prophets on this earth in these days. So yesterday we were fasting for the chance that she will be able to know for herself that we have prophets and she will get her answer. We are meeting with her and find out if she has come to knowledge of prophets. BUT she is still good for baptism on SATURDAY
This week is going to be very special I’m having two people that i have taught getting baptized. One is Elena Kent and the other is from my old area Spring Branch Jacob Alonzo. He is getting baptized I’m so glad that i have been seeing fruits of my work being coming about this work is true. I wanna leave you with my testimony. That i Love this work it has changed my life and i love it, i know the gospel is true.. I know that our savior Jesus Christ loves us and I’m so glad for this time of season for the love that we feel and the spirit. I CANT WAIT TO VISIT WITH YALL NEXT WEEK. I can tell you one thing counting down to Christmas makes the month go slow so don’t ever count down any days.
Love yall
Elder Christensen
ELF QUOTE. CONGRATULATIONS THE WORLDS BEST CUP OF COFFEE GOOD JOB EVERYONE!!!!!!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
10 Months!!!!!!!!!!
We have finally hit the double digits!! Elder Christensen has now been out for 10 months!!! We are getting closer to the 1 year mark!!!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Dec 10th Letter
15 days til Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How is everything been going? Well now it’s getting cold over here it’s getting in the 50's and its freezing man it cold I guess my blood has thin out a lot.
This week has been a very good week for me. Do you remember how I mention the website mormon.org/christmas. Well that has been advertised a lot and we have had a lot of referrals this week. We have received two this week It’s cool we received by a young man named Matthew Duke. He is a 20yr old young man who has a lot of things going for him he wanted a free bible because he is huge into the building of the earth and stuff and he know that there is more to stuff like that and he is pretty religious so he has never had a bible and he wanted one so we gave him one and we talked about our purpose in life and to see if we could stop by one time and teach him more and he said just come over when you want. So we will be visiting with him soon.
Wednesday was our busy day we had appointments one after the other. We started out visiting with Astrid Otto she is the one who was a member and then left for different reasons. When we went to visit her she invited her friend who is a member and she wanted her to be there. Than our Relief Society president wanted to be there so she came also but we still needed a male to be with us so we brought a young male with us. So we had two missionaries’ three members and one investigator so we can say it was a packed house. We taught her about and faith and charity and how they go hand and hand. But the discussion turned to talking about her gift of the spirit she had it was cool we talked about this in Sunday school the Sunday before and the teacher told us to pray to know what our gift is so we mention to her that she has already figured out her gift. And she had no idea that was her gift it was cool to see someone get something for the first time and understand it.
This week we met with Elena Kent twice. Once on Wednesday and the other on Friday on Wednesday we taught her about tithing and fast offerings she doesn’t have a problem follow this commandment. She said that it is really easy for her to follow it because she was taught how to give more than she received and that when you give you get blessings it was awesome to know that she was taught it so young. On Friday we taught her about the law of chastity of course she has no problems in this and she believes strongly in that. The cool thing with her is that when we met with her on Friday she had a new book she was reading. We asked her what this new book of yours she said that she did some research and was trying to figure something’s out like why this is happening to her and to feel better. She said that she got this book and it talks about fasting. The title is like fasting and healthy living she mentioned to us that if you go without two meals a months that it cleans out your body and makes you healthy. I mention well you know that is funny because remember us teaching you about the word of wisdom and now you know about fasting she is like I know. So now she has committed to live the word of wisdom fully and fast.
We met with Monica and Justin twice this week also, she feeds us on Wednesday and we have a lesson afterwards. So this week they called us up and had a list of questions for us to answer. So after we had a huge ham dinner we answered there questions. They love that we could answer most of their questions that they have. We met with them yesterday and taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We focused our lesson on baptism we have been praying a lot about them and we felt like we should give them the date of the 29th of December for Justin’s baptism. So we asked him boldly after the lesson and he said that he was going to pray about it and make sure that this is what he is supposed to be doing. He said that he wants to get the support of Monica and she mention that she supports him 100% getting baptized. But she wants him to find it out for himself so I know that he is going to pray and figure what he wants to do and he will let us know for sure soon it was a powerful lesson I felt the spirit so strong with him and it was amazing.
We are working with this youth he is 18 yrs old and we are reactivating him back into the church. This week we finally got into contact with him we stopped by and gave him a quick lesson and then we asked him if there is anything else we can do for him. He said will you teach me another lesson but a lesson that has impacted your life so we taught him the plan of salvation which has impacted me the most knowing that there is something after this life and that our families can be together forever.
So each week it seems like there is something that I have learned or something that I have realized since I have been out on my mission and this week this is what I have come to understand. I’m so glad that I have my "eye single to the glory of god" I’m so glad that I’m out here for the right reason and not out here just because others want me to be here. I’m glad that I’m happy and even though sometimes it’s hard I know that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t want to sound like I’m perfect but coming out here I have seen things differently, and I feel like I’m more mature and I have grown up I guess that is what missions does to you haha
When I opened my email and saw the pictures from the temple. I cried. I can honestly tell a difference in uncle Troy's face, he is happier and so is his family. I’m so proud of him and his family it was awesome seeing that special day.
I love you guys and thank you for everything. CAN’T WAIT TO TALK TO YALL SOON
Elder Christensen
ELF QUOTE: HELLO BUDDY THE ELF WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR.
Hello Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How is everything been going? Well now it’s getting cold over here it’s getting in the 50's and its freezing man it cold I guess my blood has thin out a lot.
This week has been a very good week for me. Do you remember how I mention the website mormon.org/christmas. Well that has been advertised a lot and we have had a lot of referrals this week. We have received two this week It’s cool we received by a young man named Matthew Duke. He is a 20yr old young man who has a lot of things going for him he wanted a free bible because he is huge into the building of the earth and stuff and he know that there is more to stuff like that and he is pretty religious so he has never had a bible and he wanted one so we gave him one and we talked about our purpose in life and to see if we could stop by one time and teach him more and he said just come over when you want. So we will be visiting with him soon.
Wednesday was our busy day we had appointments one after the other. We started out visiting with Astrid Otto she is the one who was a member and then left for different reasons. When we went to visit her she invited her friend who is a member and she wanted her to be there. Than our Relief Society president wanted to be there so she came also but we still needed a male to be with us so we brought a young male with us. So we had two missionaries’ three members and one investigator so we can say it was a packed house. We taught her about and faith and charity and how they go hand and hand. But the discussion turned to talking about her gift of the spirit she had it was cool we talked about this in Sunday school the Sunday before and the teacher told us to pray to know what our gift is so we mention to her that she has already figured out her gift. And she had no idea that was her gift it was cool to see someone get something for the first time and understand it.
This week we met with Elena Kent twice. Once on Wednesday and the other on Friday on Wednesday we taught her about tithing and fast offerings she doesn’t have a problem follow this commandment. She said that it is really easy for her to follow it because she was taught how to give more than she received and that when you give you get blessings it was awesome to know that she was taught it so young. On Friday we taught her about the law of chastity of course she has no problems in this and she believes strongly in that. The cool thing with her is that when we met with her on Friday she had a new book she was reading. We asked her what this new book of yours she said that she did some research and was trying to figure something’s out like why this is happening to her and to feel better. She said that she got this book and it talks about fasting. The title is like fasting and healthy living she mentioned to us that if you go without two meals a months that it cleans out your body and makes you healthy. I mention well you know that is funny because remember us teaching you about the word of wisdom and now you know about fasting she is like I know. So now she has committed to live the word of wisdom fully and fast.
We met with Monica and Justin twice this week also, she feeds us on Wednesday and we have a lesson afterwards. So this week they called us up and had a list of questions for us to answer. So after we had a huge ham dinner we answered there questions. They love that we could answer most of their questions that they have. We met with them yesterday and taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We focused our lesson on baptism we have been praying a lot about them and we felt like we should give them the date of the 29th of December for Justin’s baptism. So we asked him boldly after the lesson and he said that he was going to pray about it and make sure that this is what he is supposed to be doing. He said that he wants to get the support of Monica and she mention that she supports him 100% getting baptized. But she wants him to find it out for himself so I know that he is going to pray and figure what he wants to do and he will let us know for sure soon it was a powerful lesson I felt the spirit so strong with him and it was amazing.
We are working with this youth he is 18 yrs old and we are reactivating him back into the church. This week we finally got into contact with him we stopped by and gave him a quick lesson and then we asked him if there is anything else we can do for him. He said will you teach me another lesson but a lesson that has impacted your life so we taught him the plan of salvation which has impacted me the most knowing that there is something after this life and that our families can be together forever.
So each week it seems like there is something that I have learned or something that I have realized since I have been out on my mission and this week this is what I have come to understand. I’m so glad that I have my "eye single to the glory of god" I’m so glad that I’m out here for the right reason and not out here just because others want me to be here. I’m glad that I’m happy and even though sometimes it’s hard I know that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t want to sound like I’m perfect but coming out here I have seen things differently, and I feel like I’m more mature and I have grown up I guess that is what missions does to you haha
When I opened my email and saw the pictures from the temple. I cried. I can honestly tell a difference in uncle Troy's face, he is happier and so is his family. I’m so proud of him and his family it was awesome seeing that special day.
I love you guys and thank you for everything. CAN’T WAIT TO TALK TO YALL SOON
Elder Christensen
ELF QUOTE: HELLO BUDDY THE ELF WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
New pics
lights?
Dec 3rd Letter
DECEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello from the Great State of Texas!
How is everything going with my people in the great state of Utah and the awesome city of Hyrum UT????
This week was a pretty good week we stayed way busy which was good because the week goes a lot faster when it’s busy. So let me tell you about my week here in Spring Texas.
So on Tuesday we met with Kelsey Hodson she is doing really well whenever we go over we sit down with her and read the Book of Mormon (the kids version ) but she doesn't want us to do that she get bored really easy so she wants us to do object lessons with her. So now I got to think of some ideas to teach her and have fun. We helped our other recent convert Leticia Banos, her sister moved in with her and their mom so we helped with her stuff from her old place and move it back in Leticia’s house. It was good serving people today not a lot going on today.
This week we met with Elena Kent twice Wednesday and Friday and both times we had a really good lesson with her. On Wednesday we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ she accepted the lesson really well I love teaching this lesson because it’s very powerful. We focused the lesson on baptism because it has been 2 weeks since the last time we have met with her so in those 2 weeks things could be either bad or good because she has been away from the gospel. So you could say I was a little nervous but when we got there she was so happy to see us I was so glad she is still good for the 22nd of December. We met with her on Friday and we taught her about the Word of Wisdom which I thought wouldn't be an issue for her but she had an issue of having wine because she explained well Jesus had wine and what not and she likes to have an occasional glass of wine here and there. But when we explained to her what it means she said that she will follow it to her best ability.
Thursday I was on exchanges with my district leader Elder Wilstead its funny because whenever you are on exchanges miracles happen I don't know what it is but miracles happen. Well that was the case when we were on this exchange we started out going to Wal-Mart picking stuff up and as we were doing so we met with a member there and talk to them. After visiting with them we got hungry so I ask my comp where do you wanna go for lunch? He said lets go to Wendy's so we went to Wendy's and got some food. We sat there talking and we noticed some guy sitting close by us and didn't think of anything. He leaned over and asks if we were LDS we said yes sir we are he said what that big white building down the street. We said that is our temple we got into a discussion about the gospel and the temple. He had questions about our MAGIC UNDERWEAR!!!! haha We were there for about an hour and a half talking to him he had a lot of questions he said he has always had questions but couldn't find anyone to answer them for him. So I’m glad he had confidence to ask us and it made me think that god wanted us to go to Wendy's that day and talk with him.
We met with Jonathan Barnes. It is usually crazy when we are there he acts really crazy and weird like sometimes I think he is drunk or high but this time he was normal. He invited us in and said sorry I haven't been able to meet with yall for a couple weeks I have been sick, my grandma died and I got locked up on warrants for my arrest. (For traffic tickets). When he mention about his grandma we taught him the plan of salvation again and he understood it. It was amazing when we said that we can have families forever and that there is waiting period after this life. He said I never heard about this and he really liked it so now he progressing and he is interested again.
Monica and Justin are doing awesome. They came to church this week again and Justin is opening up to us he is one of those guys that is content with everything and just follows along but when he is asking us sincere questions it’s awesome. He asked us what makes our church different from any other ones you say your Church is true how do you know. I’m glad that he asked that they called us last night with a list of questions for us to answer so we have a dinner appointment with them on Wednesday and we will answer their questions for them.
Saturday was a day of service we first helped the community in setting up tents and tables and get things ready for their chili cook-off we helped all morning with that than we went and helped our member in our ward put up Christmas lights, we then went back and cleaned up everything at the chili cook-off and take down everything it was one of those exhausting days.
Alright here is something that was funny that I did this week: So we were at a members house to eat, we got on the subject of peppers and hot things and I told them my story about eating a whole habanero and it was horrible so they told me to eat this pepper so I took half and my comp took half and it was so freaking hot it’s just right below the habanero pepper I have a video of it I’ll send it sometime so yeah I’m really stupid.
Mormon Moment:
So this Sunday was fast Sunday and this week I bore my testimony. This week I have been thinking a lot about Troy and Rachel* going through the temple for the first time I bore them my testimony about Temples. I have realized what means the most to me is my family and the other is the gospel. Those are the only two things that I need and those are the only things that we will have in heaven our families and the knowledge of the gospel. I have a strong testimony of that.
I wanna wish yall a very good week. I hope everything goes well for Troy and Rachel I will be praying for them; I wish I would be there. But I know I will go to the temple with them when I get home. I love you guys and thank you for everything.
Love
Elder Christensen
P.S. Here is my weekly ELF quote: The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. hahahaha
(* Troy and Rachel is our aunt and uncle, our dad's younger brother and his wife, who will be going through the Logan Temple for the first time to be sealed this saturday the 8th.)
Hello from the Great State of Texas!
How is everything going with my people in the great state of Utah and the awesome city of Hyrum UT????
This week was a pretty good week we stayed way busy which was good because the week goes a lot faster when it’s busy. So let me tell you about my week here in Spring Texas.
So on Tuesday we met with Kelsey Hodson she is doing really well whenever we go over we sit down with her and read the Book of Mormon (the kids version ) but she doesn't want us to do that she get bored really easy so she wants us to do object lessons with her. So now I got to think of some ideas to teach her and have fun. We helped our other recent convert Leticia Banos, her sister moved in with her and their mom so we helped with her stuff from her old place and move it back in Leticia’s house. It was good serving people today not a lot going on today.
This week we met with Elena Kent twice Wednesday and Friday and both times we had a really good lesson with her. On Wednesday we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ she accepted the lesson really well I love teaching this lesson because it’s very powerful. We focused the lesson on baptism because it has been 2 weeks since the last time we have met with her so in those 2 weeks things could be either bad or good because she has been away from the gospel. So you could say I was a little nervous but when we got there she was so happy to see us I was so glad she is still good for the 22nd of December. We met with her on Friday and we taught her about the Word of Wisdom which I thought wouldn't be an issue for her but she had an issue of having wine because she explained well Jesus had wine and what not and she likes to have an occasional glass of wine here and there. But when we explained to her what it means she said that she will follow it to her best ability.
Thursday I was on exchanges with my district leader Elder Wilstead its funny because whenever you are on exchanges miracles happen I don't know what it is but miracles happen. Well that was the case when we were on this exchange we started out going to Wal-Mart picking stuff up and as we were doing so we met with a member there and talk to them. After visiting with them we got hungry so I ask my comp where do you wanna go for lunch? He said lets go to Wendy's so we went to Wendy's and got some food. We sat there talking and we noticed some guy sitting close by us and didn't think of anything. He leaned over and asks if we were LDS we said yes sir we are he said what that big white building down the street. We said that is our temple we got into a discussion about the gospel and the temple. He had questions about our MAGIC UNDERWEAR!!!! haha We were there for about an hour and a half talking to him he had a lot of questions he said he has always had questions but couldn't find anyone to answer them for him. So I’m glad he had confidence to ask us and it made me think that god wanted us to go to Wendy's that day and talk with him.
We met with Jonathan Barnes. It is usually crazy when we are there he acts really crazy and weird like sometimes I think he is drunk or high but this time he was normal. He invited us in and said sorry I haven't been able to meet with yall for a couple weeks I have been sick, my grandma died and I got locked up on warrants for my arrest. (For traffic tickets). When he mention about his grandma we taught him the plan of salvation again and he understood it. It was amazing when we said that we can have families forever and that there is waiting period after this life. He said I never heard about this and he really liked it so now he progressing and he is interested again.
Monica and Justin are doing awesome. They came to church this week again and Justin is opening up to us he is one of those guys that is content with everything and just follows along but when he is asking us sincere questions it’s awesome. He asked us what makes our church different from any other ones you say your Church is true how do you know. I’m glad that he asked that they called us last night with a list of questions for us to answer so we have a dinner appointment with them on Wednesday and we will answer their questions for them.
Saturday was a day of service we first helped the community in setting up tents and tables and get things ready for their chili cook-off we helped all morning with that than we went and helped our member in our ward put up Christmas lights, we then went back and cleaned up everything at the chili cook-off and take down everything it was one of those exhausting days.
Alright here is something that was funny that I did this week: So we were at a members house to eat, we got on the subject of peppers and hot things and I told them my story about eating a whole habanero and it was horrible so they told me to eat this pepper so I took half and my comp took half and it was so freaking hot it’s just right below the habanero pepper I have a video of it I’ll send it sometime so yeah I’m really stupid.
Mormon Moment:
So this Sunday was fast Sunday and this week I bore my testimony. This week I have been thinking a lot about Troy and Rachel* going through the temple for the first time I bore them my testimony about Temples. I have realized what means the most to me is my family and the other is the gospel. Those are the only two things that I need and those are the only things that we will have in heaven our families and the knowledge of the gospel. I have a strong testimony of that.
I wanna wish yall a very good week. I hope everything goes well for Troy and Rachel I will be praying for them; I wish I would be there. But I know I will go to the temple with them when I get home. I love you guys and thank you for everything.
Love
Elder Christensen
P.S. Here is my weekly ELF quote: The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. hahahaha
(* Troy and Rachel is our aunt and uncle, our dad's younger brother and his wife, who will be going through the Logan Temple for the first time to be sealed this saturday the 8th.)
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Nov 26th Letter
WELL GOOD MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How was everyone's thanksgiving holiday?
Mine was amazing. It was so much fun we had a lot of food but a lot more fun as well.
So here is the week at a glance. GETER DUN. haha
Tuesday was a pretty busy day for me here. We had appointments all day and it was good to stay busy. We had an appointment at Noon with less active young men. His name is Miguel Leal he and his Dad are the only one in the family who are members and he is making an effort to coming back to church. When we meet with him we are treating him as an investigator in ways like teaching him the lessons from square one so restoration and plan of salvation etc. He hasn't been to church in a long time and doesn't remember much. But lately he has come three weeks in a row and is loving it he told us he has a desire in bringing his family to church and get them all active. He said he loves coming to church because it helps him make important decisions in his life. He just has a hard time understanding what everything means such as Lamanites and Nephities that's why we went over and to help him. We met with a woman named Miriam Casanova she is less active and her husband is a non-member. At one point in his life he met with the missionaries and almost joined but never did. We have been trying for weeks to stop by and meet with him so we set up a time to come over. We came by at the time we set up and he left right before we came the wife wasn't too happy but we told her that we will come by later today and visit with them. It’s a good thing we did we caught him right when he was pulling in the driveway. hahah sucker we got him there is no way he is escaping us. As we started to visit with him he was beating around the bush saying that he doesn't have time in his work life to come to church and stuff. He said he busy and when he is home he likes to relax and all that crazy stuff. But he said yall are willing to come by whenever and if I’m up to it we can talk about the bible and Book of Mormon so there is a glimmer of hope with him just going to take a lot of time.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Matuauto again, :) He is so fun to be around we get along very well so the exchange was very good and we had a lot of fun together. We got a call from our bishop to help him with service he said he needed help moving a ladder. I told Elder Matu and he started laughing and I was like what the heck well okay whatever so we went over to the bishops house and he has a very tall ladder and he was putting up Christmas wreaths on his house he needed our help to move it after he gets off Its one of those ladders that stand straight up and is very heavy. It was a good time to spend with our bishop and do some service and establish a stronger relationship with him. After we got done and their neighbor was watching us and asks if he can hire us missionaries to move his Christmas tree into his house. The bishop was like no you don't need to hire us we will come do it for you. The neighbor was like how much do I owe you? I said all you have to do to pay us back is go on this web site mormon.org and check it out. He was like I will and started praying for me on the drive way. Kinda random but it was good because the bishop notice it and it impacted him and he shared that story in priesthood meeting in saying we need to support our missionaries better. So it made me feel good that we did something that made somewhat of a difference.
Thanksgiving out here was AMAZING... I had so much fun out here in this ward I was deeply blessed that I have the opportunity to be in this ward during the holiday season. So at 8 am was the annual Spring Creek turkey bowl and it was my first turkey bowl it was so much fun. We played for three hours and I was so sore afterwards I caught 3 touchdowns and got 1 interception and had A BLAST doing it. Some people got hurt like dislocated thumbs and Charlie horses but it was a good environment to be in. My team we dominated we went undefeated. The Ward was stacking teams to play us there is a family in the ward that is super athletic and super good at sports. So I had the two sons and when we found out the teams were getting stacked they called there dad and he came over and played for us. I was the second tallest on the team alongside of a 6'5 adult and the rest were pretty small but super-fast. We won them 5-1 it was awesome.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at a member of the bishopric's home The Rosenlund's it was a very good dinner I didn't eat a lot this thanksgiving. I was actually shocked and I bet yall are too the thing I was most happy about was I actually had jello!!!!!!!!! First time in 9 months I was so happy I also had some good pies there and also at other members house. We then went to the Singers house and had a lot of fun there we played pool, ping pong and talk to a lot with members. I watched the last bit of the Texans football game it was Detroit Verses Texans OR in other words. DAD'S MISSION VERSES KENDALL'S MISSION and guess who came out the winner????????????? THAT'S RIGHT TEXANS BABY YEEEE-HAWWWWW. haha and afterwards we played just dance on the X-box they recorded me doing my dance moves and having a fun time i asked them if they could send it to me. And they said I can’t I have to send it to someone who has a I phone. I was like I know who has one my sisters send it to her. Good thing I still remember her phone number so that how you got to see my dance moves the only thing yall missed was me doing Michael Jackson beat it. hahah that was funny. We then went to another member’s house for pies not a lot of people showed up so we visited with then the rest of the night so this thanksgiving felt like I was home relaxing with my familia. haha
We met with Monica and Justin Swapp this week. They took us out to the woodlands mall to view some of the Christmas lights but there weren’t a lot of them up because it is barely the day after Thanksgiving so they took us out to a frozen yogurt place and had a good time. I FINALLY GOT TO RIDE IN A TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing even though it was a Dodge and a Cummings but I still loved being in a truck but before we went to have fun we taught them the restoration. It was a good lesson and they enjoyed it especially Monica hearing it again after 15 years. They came to church this week It was Monica's and Justin's first time coming and for Monica it has been 15 years and it was Justin's first time. They were worried about not being comfortable but I think that wasn't a problem after the first 5 mins in the sacrament meeting a lot of people came up and talk with them and they said it was really nice. Monica felt the spirit in gospel principles class we were talking about the Holy Ghost and she expressed her feelings about the missionaries coming by and bringing that spirit into their house. It was amazing we later found out that Justin isn't a member so he is our new investigator and he has a desire to be part of our church YA BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In closing I just wanna express my love to everyone. I have been thinking a lot about this lately the love the members have for us missionaries. Our ward has been pushing the ward members to help us out in the missionary work. The roles of the missionaries are to support the ward but the members are the real missionaries. And this week I have felt the love of the members with the season of giving always be mindful of those around us. And do all that you can to do service or do something small. I wanna yall to all go to mormon.org/christmas and put that link on your Facebook account. This is something that the church has been putting on that will help with the missionary effort and also helps others know the true meaning of Christmas. It will only be up for about a month and it’s a way to get us out to people who might not know who we are and what we think about Christmas I would appreciate it if all of yall do it. I love yall. Remember that this is a time of giving and people are always grateful in these times of the year.
I LOVE YALL
Elder Christensen
How was everyone's thanksgiving holiday?
Mine was amazing. It was so much fun we had a lot of food but a lot more fun as well.
So here is the week at a glance. GETER DUN. haha
Tuesday was a pretty busy day for me here. We had appointments all day and it was good to stay busy. We had an appointment at Noon with less active young men. His name is Miguel Leal he and his Dad are the only one in the family who are members and he is making an effort to coming back to church. When we meet with him we are treating him as an investigator in ways like teaching him the lessons from square one so restoration and plan of salvation etc. He hasn't been to church in a long time and doesn't remember much. But lately he has come three weeks in a row and is loving it he told us he has a desire in bringing his family to church and get them all active. He said he loves coming to church because it helps him make important decisions in his life. He just has a hard time understanding what everything means such as Lamanites and Nephities that's why we went over and to help him. We met with a woman named Miriam Casanova she is less active and her husband is a non-member. At one point in his life he met with the missionaries and almost joined but never did. We have been trying for weeks to stop by and meet with him so we set up a time to come over. We came by at the time we set up and he left right before we came the wife wasn't too happy but we told her that we will come by later today and visit with them. It’s a good thing we did we caught him right when he was pulling in the driveway. hahah sucker we got him there is no way he is escaping us. As we started to visit with him he was beating around the bush saying that he doesn't have time in his work life to come to church and stuff. He said he busy and when he is home he likes to relax and all that crazy stuff. But he said yall are willing to come by whenever and if I’m up to it we can talk about the bible and Book of Mormon so there is a glimmer of hope with him just going to take a lot of time.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Matuauto again, :) He is so fun to be around we get along very well so the exchange was very good and we had a lot of fun together. We got a call from our bishop to help him with service he said he needed help moving a ladder. I told Elder Matu and he started laughing and I was like what the heck well okay whatever so we went over to the bishops house and he has a very tall ladder and he was putting up Christmas wreaths on his house he needed our help to move it after he gets off Its one of those ladders that stand straight up and is very heavy. It was a good time to spend with our bishop and do some service and establish a stronger relationship with him. After we got done and their neighbor was watching us and asks if he can hire us missionaries to move his Christmas tree into his house. The bishop was like no you don't need to hire us we will come do it for you. The neighbor was like how much do I owe you? I said all you have to do to pay us back is go on this web site mormon.org and check it out. He was like I will and started praying for me on the drive way. Kinda random but it was good because the bishop notice it and it impacted him and he shared that story in priesthood meeting in saying we need to support our missionaries better. So it made me feel good that we did something that made somewhat of a difference.
Thanksgiving out here was AMAZING... I had so much fun out here in this ward I was deeply blessed that I have the opportunity to be in this ward during the holiday season. So at 8 am was the annual Spring Creek turkey bowl and it was my first turkey bowl it was so much fun. We played for three hours and I was so sore afterwards I caught 3 touchdowns and got 1 interception and had A BLAST doing it. Some people got hurt like dislocated thumbs and Charlie horses but it was a good environment to be in. My team we dominated we went undefeated. The Ward was stacking teams to play us there is a family in the ward that is super athletic and super good at sports. So I had the two sons and when we found out the teams were getting stacked they called there dad and he came over and played for us. I was the second tallest on the team alongside of a 6'5 adult and the rest were pretty small but super-fast. We won them 5-1 it was awesome.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at a member of the bishopric's home The Rosenlund's it was a very good dinner I didn't eat a lot this thanksgiving. I was actually shocked and I bet yall are too the thing I was most happy about was I actually had jello!!!!!!!!! First time in 9 months I was so happy I also had some good pies there and also at other members house. We then went to the Singers house and had a lot of fun there we played pool, ping pong and talk to a lot with members. I watched the last bit of the Texans football game it was Detroit Verses Texans OR in other words. DAD'S MISSION VERSES KENDALL'S MISSION and guess who came out the winner????????????? THAT'S RIGHT TEXANS BABY YEEEE-HAWWWWW. haha and afterwards we played just dance on the X-box they recorded me doing my dance moves and having a fun time i asked them if they could send it to me. And they said I can’t I have to send it to someone who has a I phone. I was like I know who has one my sisters send it to her. Good thing I still remember her phone number so that how you got to see my dance moves the only thing yall missed was me doing Michael Jackson beat it. hahah that was funny. We then went to another member’s house for pies not a lot of people showed up so we visited with then the rest of the night so this thanksgiving felt like I was home relaxing with my familia. haha
We met with Monica and Justin Swapp this week. They took us out to the woodlands mall to view some of the Christmas lights but there weren’t a lot of them up because it is barely the day after Thanksgiving so they took us out to a frozen yogurt place and had a good time. I FINALLY GOT TO RIDE IN A TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing even though it was a Dodge and a Cummings but I still loved being in a truck but before we went to have fun we taught them the restoration. It was a good lesson and they enjoyed it especially Monica hearing it again after 15 years. They came to church this week It was Monica's and Justin's first time coming and for Monica it has been 15 years and it was Justin's first time. They were worried about not being comfortable but I think that wasn't a problem after the first 5 mins in the sacrament meeting a lot of people came up and talk with them and they said it was really nice. Monica felt the spirit in gospel principles class we were talking about the Holy Ghost and she expressed her feelings about the missionaries coming by and bringing that spirit into their house. It was amazing we later found out that Justin isn't a member so he is our new investigator and he has a desire to be part of our church YA BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In closing I just wanna express my love to everyone. I have been thinking a lot about this lately the love the members have for us missionaries. Our ward has been pushing the ward members to help us out in the missionary work. The roles of the missionaries are to support the ward but the members are the real missionaries. And this week I have felt the love of the members with the season of giving always be mindful of those around us. And do all that you can to do service or do something small. I wanna yall to all go to mormon.org/christmas and put that link on your Facebook account. This is something that the church has been putting on that will help with the missionary effort and also helps others know the true meaning of Christmas. It will only be up for about a month and it’s a way to get us out to people who might not know who we are and what we think about Christmas I would appreciate it if all of yall do it. I love yall. Remember that this is a time of giving and people are always grateful in these times of the year.
I LOVE YALL
Elder Christensen
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The Singer Family
An awesome member family in Elder Christensen's ward. Both the husband and wife are orginally from Cache Valley.
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Nov 19th Letter
Whats up Yall
How has yall been week been this week. Mine has been interesting from being sick and feeling like crap to Getting a new companion to having miracles happening to us in two days. It’s amazing how we go through roller coasters to having good things happen to us.
This week was transfer week. And we got the call Tuesday night around 9:30pm saying that Elder Gutierrez was going to get transferred. He was really bummed to be leaving this was his first area and he was sad and kind of depressed to leave he got more nervous when president called him saying he was going to be district leader in Conroe which is just about 15 mins north of us so he isn’t too far away. But all Wednesday he was really sad saying bye to members and it just showed me that he really does love everyone. It was good that I got to spend three months with him. It seemed like it went by so fast even though we had our rocky first couple weeks of the transfer.
On Thursday I got a new companion. His name is Elder Michael Hilton from Honolulu Hawaii. He was born in California and he grew up in Hawaii he went to BYU for three years. He came to Texas to sell for Vivint for a summer. He is 20 Yrs old and he has been out for only 3 months so I got another greenie. So in missionary slang I’m his greenie breaker which means I’m his second companion after his trainer or his dad. I have been a step dad for two missionaries in Elders Gutierrez and Hilton. Elder Hilton is a good guy he has got a lot of energy He is ADD so he has a lot of energy which will be good to go out and work. So I hope this old man can keep up with him haha. I’m old I have been out 9 months which is freaking Crazy seems like I have been out only 3 months.
We met with Kelsey this week she is doing good. She is still a happy little girl we haven’t been able to meet with any of our investigators this week. Our top one is gone for the week and with transfer this week we were unable to meet with any of them and they were either gone this week or busy or signed up for a different time this month.
This week consisted of Several Miracles. During this week I was thinking man this letter was going to be short not a lot of things was going on and I thought man I got to have things to write to my family and man didn’t god provide for us.
Mormon Moment.
1. On Friday after District meeting we went to the only pawn shop in our area, My companion wanted a MP3 player for cheap so we went inside to see what they got. As we did so the women that checked us out with an mp3 asked us what we are doing I said we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. She said I know who yall are I said you do she said yeah aren’t yall witnesses. (Which means Jehovah witnesses?) I said no ma'am we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints the Mormons. She said I have no idea who yall are I said really well this is what we do I explained what we do and i said well where do you live. She said she lived behind our church house I said well I’m sending missionaries there to teach you can i have your information. She said yeah that would be awesome so maybe yall can teach my daughter she needs to do something. I said we can do that so that was awesome.
The same Night we were at Wal-Mart and a kid came up and said yall are missionaries. I said yes we are. The little boy said. Yall were at my house the other day I said did you invite us in. He said no but yall explained a lot. I said you want us to come back to your house he said yeah. :0
2. We were in a neighborhood of a potential investigator. We went knocked on his door and he wasn’t interest. But we were walking to another house where we met this guy named Willie. He was a black guy who outside smoking and was going back in to watch some football. He mentions that when he was in New York he talked to the missionaries he said they were always going out talking to people. He had a lot of questions, like blacks and the priesthood, Joseph Smith so we helped him understand more about it and he said that he wasn’t interested in joining our church but he was appreciated us talking to him and clearing things up for him.
3. The coolest miracle of the week happened to us on Saturday and Sunday. First we had a referral that we needed to get in contact with so we called them up and the husband answered and said that he wants us to come by on Sunday around 6 pm i said ok we will be there. Now the background with referrals is that they are not the best they are cool but not a lot of them are interested so that is what i was thinking he is going to say to come at this time and won’t be there but we went to his neighborhood that night and tracked the houses leading to this referrals house. We found one potential who might be interested.
Well Sunday came around and it was 6 pm time for us to go to this appointment, we had a member with us we stopped and we prayed that these people would be interested. We go knock on the door and all of the sudden this women answers the door and was so nice saying elders come on in i was thinking how does she know we are elders i was confused. After talking she said that she was a member that lived in Wyoming for a while got married and wants to come back to church. She said she has been inactive for 15 years and she wants to come back and raise her future family in the church I was so amazed this is better than getting a new investigator. Her husband got into an accident in 2005 and can’t remember anything that happened before that time so he doesn’t know if he is a member or not but we will soon find out and his wife wants us to teach them the lessons again. She has tried to come back to church before with just herself no one else and she said that it was hard so she wants our help. :) This couple is amazing Redneck couple so i feel home. We sat there while she served us pie talking about trucks even though he likes dodge. He has a 2006 dodge inline 6 twin turbo pushing out about 700 horsepower and he said by January he is going to have 1000 horse power he said i can ride in it this week YEEE-HAWWW.
This week i have been thinking a lot about the family and how blessed i am for being in a family who is strong in the gospel with a mom and dad who love each other and love their kids and would do anything for them and also raising us up in the right church. I’m so grateful for families and the blessing it is to be here in a family. I love you guys. Thank you for everything. I’m so blessed being out here receiving blessings. I hope yall feel it even though it is hard being out here it is all worth it. Sacrifice brings forth the greatest blessings I’m so grateful for a family who loves me. THANK YOU ALL.
LOVE YOUR MISSIONARY
Elder Kendall Christensen
How has yall been week been this week. Mine has been interesting from being sick and feeling like crap to Getting a new companion to having miracles happening to us in two days. It’s amazing how we go through roller coasters to having good things happen to us.
This week was transfer week. And we got the call Tuesday night around 9:30pm saying that Elder Gutierrez was going to get transferred. He was really bummed to be leaving this was his first area and he was sad and kind of depressed to leave he got more nervous when president called him saying he was going to be district leader in Conroe which is just about 15 mins north of us so he isn’t too far away. But all Wednesday he was really sad saying bye to members and it just showed me that he really does love everyone. It was good that I got to spend three months with him. It seemed like it went by so fast even though we had our rocky first couple weeks of the transfer.
On Thursday I got a new companion. His name is Elder Michael Hilton from Honolulu Hawaii. He was born in California and he grew up in Hawaii he went to BYU for three years. He came to Texas to sell for Vivint for a summer. He is 20 Yrs old and he has been out for only 3 months so I got another greenie. So in missionary slang I’m his greenie breaker which means I’m his second companion after his trainer or his dad. I have been a step dad for two missionaries in Elders Gutierrez and Hilton. Elder Hilton is a good guy he has got a lot of energy He is ADD so he has a lot of energy which will be good to go out and work. So I hope this old man can keep up with him haha. I’m old I have been out 9 months which is freaking Crazy seems like I have been out only 3 months.
We met with Kelsey this week she is doing good. She is still a happy little girl we haven’t been able to meet with any of our investigators this week. Our top one is gone for the week and with transfer this week we were unable to meet with any of them and they were either gone this week or busy or signed up for a different time this month.
This week consisted of Several Miracles. During this week I was thinking man this letter was going to be short not a lot of things was going on and I thought man I got to have things to write to my family and man didn’t god provide for us.
Mormon Moment.
1. On Friday after District meeting we went to the only pawn shop in our area, My companion wanted a MP3 player for cheap so we went inside to see what they got. As we did so the women that checked us out with an mp3 asked us what we are doing I said we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. She said I know who yall are I said you do she said yeah aren’t yall witnesses. (Which means Jehovah witnesses?) I said no ma'am we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints the Mormons. She said I have no idea who yall are I said really well this is what we do I explained what we do and i said well where do you live. She said she lived behind our church house I said well I’m sending missionaries there to teach you can i have your information. She said yeah that would be awesome so maybe yall can teach my daughter she needs to do something. I said we can do that so that was awesome.
The same Night we were at Wal-Mart and a kid came up and said yall are missionaries. I said yes we are. The little boy said. Yall were at my house the other day I said did you invite us in. He said no but yall explained a lot. I said you want us to come back to your house he said yeah. :0
2. We were in a neighborhood of a potential investigator. We went knocked on his door and he wasn’t interest. But we were walking to another house where we met this guy named Willie. He was a black guy who outside smoking and was going back in to watch some football. He mentions that when he was in New York he talked to the missionaries he said they were always going out talking to people. He had a lot of questions, like blacks and the priesthood, Joseph Smith so we helped him understand more about it and he said that he wasn’t interested in joining our church but he was appreciated us talking to him and clearing things up for him.
3. The coolest miracle of the week happened to us on Saturday and Sunday. First we had a referral that we needed to get in contact with so we called them up and the husband answered and said that he wants us to come by on Sunday around 6 pm i said ok we will be there. Now the background with referrals is that they are not the best they are cool but not a lot of them are interested so that is what i was thinking he is going to say to come at this time and won’t be there but we went to his neighborhood that night and tracked the houses leading to this referrals house. We found one potential who might be interested.
Well Sunday came around and it was 6 pm time for us to go to this appointment, we had a member with us we stopped and we prayed that these people would be interested. We go knock on the door and all of the sudden this women answers the door and was so nice saying elders come on in i was thinking how does she know we are elders i was confused. After talking she said that she was a member that lived in Wyoming for a while got married and wants to come back to church. She said she has been inactive for 15 years and she wants to come back and raise her future family in the church I was so amazed this is better than getting a new investigator. Her husband got into an accident in 2005 and can’t remember anything that happened before that time so he doesn’t know if he is a member or not but we will soon find out and his wife wants us to teach them the lessons again. She has tried to come back to church before with just herself no one else and she said that it was hard so she wants our help. :) This couple is amazing Redneck couple so i feel home. We sat there while she served us pie talking about trucks even though he likes dodge. He has a 2006 dodge inline 6 twin turbo pushing out about 700 horsepower and he said by January he is going to have 1000 horse power he said i can ride in it this week YEEE-HAWWW.
This week i have been thinking a lot about the family and how blessed i am for being in a family who is strong in the gospel with a mom and dad who love each other and love their kids and would do anything for them and also raising us up in the right church. I’m so grateful for families and the blessing it is to be here in a family. I love you guys. Thank you for everything. I’m so blessed being out here receiving blessings. I hope yall feel it even though it is hard being out here it is all worth it. Sacrifice brings forth the greatest blessings I’m so grateful for a family who loves me. THANK YOU ALL.
LOVE YOUR MISSIONARY
Elder Kendall Christensen
Thursday, November 15, 2012
9 Month Mark
Elder Christensen and the rest of the family hit another milestone today. He has hit his 9th month mark. It is crazy to think that he has been gone for that long. One inch closer to the 1 year mark and also to the double digits.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Random Pics
At the Houston Texas Temple
investagator Elena Kent
Baptism #11
Elder Christensen experienced the baptism of Kelsey Hodson on Saturday which is also his 11th baptism. What a happy day it was for him and his companion.
Elder Christensen, Kelsey, Elder Gutierrez
Nov 12th Letter
Hey Everyone!!!!!!!
Man what a great week this has been huh? Well for me it has been a week that i will never forget it has been amazing and a lot of things happened that i love.
Tuesday was a depressing day! Election Day :( When Romney lost and Obama won it was funny i was listening to it with some other elders and we were gathered together listening and waiting for a miracle to happen. But when we found out that Obama was going to win we read some scriptures about miracles and had a prayer that Romeny would pull off a miracle and win but we found out later that it never happened :( sad sad day.
Everyone here in Texas had the day off from school because it was the elections. (I wish i had the day off) But since school was out that meant a lot of people were home. So we took our priest (17 year old) with us and we visited an investigator. We taught him about the plan of salvation but i don’t know how much he understood of it. He listens and then speaks about something really random in the bible It’s hard to teach him but he is teaches me patience haha. Later we visited with Kelsey Hobson to get her ready for Saturday baptism. Her grandmother who is a member but is way less active told us nicely that she doesn’t want to be pushed to church. She knows that this is our job but she has things to get over but she knows she has to come to church. So one of these days she will come to church. We went to mutual that night and help the young men know more about what our week consist of.
Wednesday and Friday we visited with Elena Kent. She is the one that we gave the baptismal date of the 22nd of December. We taught her the plan of Salvation and Restoration. She is becoming more receptive to the message that we have. In the beginning she wasn’t because she had a lot of questions that she said that she needed to know before all of this happened but she has come to the realization that she might not know all of her questions here in this life but she will know it in the life to come. Every time we go over there we have a super powerful lesson the spirit is super strong and we have good conversations. She is going to be gone this week camping so we will resume teaching her next week.
Thursday we went to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Usually we go to the 9'o clock session but the mission president and the temple president got together and said that they wanted us to go at 8am which is super hard for us. We have to be there at 7:30 and get up early so needless to say a lot of people were sleeping but every time i go it just so amazing I really look forward to go to the temple it makes me realize how blessed we are to have a temple so close to us and go whenever we want. So thank heavens for temples. Guess what i finally had this week, HAWAIIAN HAY STACKS I haven’t had them since i left. So this member ask me what i wanted to have for dinner because it was my turn to pick so i picked them and man it was so good just like home and had all the fixings that we would usually have. haha. Thursday nights are the nights we have splits with the ward members and this night we had a very successful night. We got to visit 4 families within an hour. One of them was special she was an old relief society president who has become less active and she is very hard to get a hold of. We stop by and i knocked and she answered and was grateful that we came by. She said that she felt like she needed to answer the door when i knocked so she said that i have a convincing knock. haha whatever that means Thursday was a good day.
The best day of the week by far was Saturday which means BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. YEEE-HAWWW. Kelsey Hodson got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a really good turnout she had a lot of members of her family show up and to support her which is good because they are not the most religious family but they know how to support family when something like this happens. I had the privilege of speaking at her baptism. I spoke about baptism and for some reason before i talk to people on a stage or a meeting i get nervous, but i love it because when i get up there and talk all of the sudden i get comfortable so thank heavens of the spirit huh! The baptism was one of the most spiritual things i have attended. It was amazing seeing her in the water getting baptized and being a witness and seeing all of our hard work that we have been able to do come to this. As someone special once told me its "payday" and it sure was. My Companion Elder Gutierrez was privileged to confirm her Sunday in Sacrament Meeting and that was his first time doing something like that. He did such a good job he was extra nervous because we had to say the prayers in sacrament meeting and do the confirmation.
Camille (Blonde) Moment:
So i had a Camille moment this week that i would like to share haha. We visited with a member that we are working closely with and her boyfriend who just speaks Spanish and he is taking the lessons from the missionaries. We went over there one night and she was telling us about how he is just progressing very well and that he is getting baptized soon. She is so happy because she catches him reading and watching church movies, she asked if we had any more movies that we can give him. I said of course we do. She asked do yall have any on you and i said that we can watch one with him but it’s not in Spanish. She said well what is it. I explained to her by saying well can he understand melodies like music without words? She started laughing and she said “Well Duh he can” it took a second of thinking of what i said and was like Crap I’m so like my sisters hahaha. So just let yall know Spanish people understand music hahahah
In closing i just wanna express my love for you especially my family for the love that yall have for me and letting me come on my mission and serve the Lord for 2 years. I couldn’t do this without yall's support and love. But I’m grateful for the sacrifice yall make. I love you all and wish i could express my deepest love for yall but it wouldn’t be enough have a good week. Be safe. I pray for yall every day and night.
Love yall
Elder Christensen
Man what a great week this has been huh? Well for me it has been a week that i will never forget it has been amazing and a lot of things happened that i love.
Tuesday was a depressing day! Election Day :( When Romney lost and Obama won it was funny i was listening to it with some other elders and we were gathered together listening and waiting for a miracle to happen. But when we found out that Obama was going to win we read some scriptures about miracles and had a prayer that Romeny would pull off a miracle and win but we found out later that it never happened :( sad sad day.
Everyone here in Texas had the day off from school because it was the elections. (I wish i had the day off) But since school was out that meant a lot of people were home. So we took our priest (17 year old) with us and we visited an investigator. We taught him about the plan of salvation but i don’t know how much he understood of it. He listens and then speaks about something really random in the bible It’s hard to teach him but he is teaches me patience haha. Later we visited with Kelsey Hobson to get her ready for Saturday baptism. Her grandmother who is a member but is way less active told us nicely that she doesn’t want to be pushed to church. She knows that this is our job but she has things to get over but she knows she has to come to church. So one of these days she will come to church. We went to mutual that night and help the young men know more about what our week consist of.
Wednesday and Friday we visited with Elena Kent. She is the one that we gave the baptismal date of the 22nd of December. We taught her the plan of Salvation and Restoration. She is becoming more receptive to the message that we have. In the beginning she wasn’t because she had a lot of questions that she said that she needed to know before all of this happened but she has come to the realization that she might not know all of her questions here in this life but she will know it in the life to come. Every time we go over there we have a super powerful lesson the spirit is super strong and we have good conversations. She is going to be gone this week camping so we will resume teaching her next week.
Thursday we went to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Usually we go to the 9'o clock session but the mission president and the temple president got together and said that they wanted us to go at 8am which is super hard for us. We have to be there at 7:30 and get up early so needless to say a lot of people were sleeping but every time i go it just so amazing I really look forward to go to the temple it makes me realize how blessed we are to have a temple so close to us and go whenever we want. So thank heavens for temples. Guess what i finally had this week, HAWAIIAN HAY STACKS I haven’t had them since i left. So this member ask me what i wanted to have for dinner because it was my turn to pick so i picked them and man it was so good just like home and had all the fixings that we would usually have. haha. Thursday nights are the nights we have splits with the ward members and this night we had a very successful night. We got to visit 4 families within an hour. One of them was special she was an old relief society president who has become less active and she is very hard to get a hold of. We stop by and i knocked and she answered and was grateful that we came by. She said that she felt like she needed to answer the door when i knocked so she said that i have a convincing knock. haha whatever that means Thursday was a good day.
The best day of the week by far was Saturday which means BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. YEEE-HAWWW. Kelsey Hodson got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a really good turnout she had a lot of members of her family show up and to support her which is good because they are not the most religious family but they know how to support family when something like this happens. I had the privilege of speaking at her baptism. I spoke about baptism and for some reason before i talk to people on a stage or a meeting i get nervous, but i love it because when i get up there and talk all of the sudden i get comfortable so thank heavens of the spirit huh! The baptism was one of the most spiritual things i have attended. It was amazing seeing her in the water getting baptized and being a witness and seeing all of our hard work that we have been able to do come to this. As someone special once told me its "payday" and it sure was. My Companion Elder Gutierrez was privileged to confirm her Sunday in Sacrament Meeting and that was his first time doing something like that. He did such a good job he was extra nervous because we had to say the prayers in sacrament meeting and do the confirmation.
Camille (Blonde) Moment:
So i had a Camille moment this week that i would like to share haha. We visited with a member that we are working closely with and her boyfriend who just speaks Spanish and he is taking the lessons from the missionaries. We went over there one night and she was telling us about how he is just progressing very well and that he is getting baptized soon. She is so happy because she catches him reading and watching church movies, she asked if we had any more movies that we can give him. I said of course we do. She asked do yall have any on you and i said that we can watch one with him but it’s not in Spanish. She said well what is it. I explained to her by saying well can he understand melodies like music without words? She started laughing and she said “Well Duh he can” it took a second of thinking of what i said and was like Crap I’m so like my sisters hahaha. So just let yall know Spanish people understand music hahahah
In closing i just wanna express my love for you especially my family for the love that yall have for me and letting me come on my mission and serve the Lord for 2 years. I couldn’t do this without yall's support and love. But I’m grateful for the sacrifice yall make. I love you all and wish i could express my deepest love for yall but it wouldn’t be enough have a good week. Be safe. I pray for yall every day and night.
Love yall
Elder Christensen
Monday, November 5, 2012
Kelsey right before Halloween
Hanging out with one of his investigator Kelsey. He is still the silly kid he was before he left.
Nov 5th Letter
Hola Como estan familia estoy bien como lo estan pasando
(Hey family I’m doing good, how are yall doing )
Oh yeah that right I know some Spanish. Ok maybe not I had to have Elder Gutierrez help me with that. haha
This week was really good. We were busy and a lot of cool things happen this week.
This week of course yall know was Halloween now as missionaries we don’t get to have a lot of fun on Halloween. We had to be in our apartment by 6:30 pm which sucks. We went to a member’s house for a little bit to visit with them and have a good time. When we were there we played ping pong and pool and foosball which I am only good at one of these things and that is pool. The Dad taught us tricks and what we can do to improve our game. Well as this was happening of course trick or treaters where coming and getting candy. The dad left to go downstairs and do something while we were up stairs playing pool. We heard our names called down stairs and was told to come here so we rushed down stairs to see what we did wrong or something. Come to find out our investigator came and trick or treat at their door. The member dad came with us to an appointment with us before and they are neighbors. We got talking to her (Her name is Elena Kent) and right before she left she was like " you guys have been trying to come by lately have ya." we said "yeah" she said. "Wanna come by this week and visit." we said “yeah sure what day and time” we then got an appointment for the next day at 5pm.
So next day rolls on and we get permission to take one of our priests who is preparing to serve a mission. He is 17 and is excited to come with us we got less than a half a mile away and she called and cancelled and said to stop by tomorrow at the same time. We told the priest and he said "well i didn’t come all the way here with you to have to go right home lets go tracking" myself and elder Gutierrez were like "okay where you wanna go." we told him where our boundaries were and he was thinking we then pulled over and said a pray and we found a neighborhood and we started going at it. We found some Buddhist and all type of people this priest was amazing. He was just spitting out verses out of the bible and just teaching these people left and right it was truly amazing.
Friday came and we went and took that same priest to the appointment with Elena Kent. We got there and we got talking about the last part of the salvation. We started talking about that because she mention that her husband's coworker’s son died in a car accident and we wanted to help her learn and gain a testimony of the plan of salvation. Well that turned into a whole lesson on the plan of salvation she wanted to hear all of it. I don’t know how that got to be the topic but we shared a lot of personal experiences and the spirit was really strong. Than while we were talking about the preexistence somehow the topic turned into about coming into this world and being baptized at a young age. She believes that babies need to be baptized we told her about when we are supposed to be baptized. Now earlier in this day we had zone meeting talking about how we need to help bring people to baptism and I remember this one scripture Mosiah 18:10 it talks about what do you have against being baptized in the name of Christ and having the spirit being poured upon you. Before that Elena mentions she has a desire to be baptized. So I felt prompted to give her a baptism date and I asked my comp if he felt like we should. He nodded yes so I ask her and she accepted and we gave her the date of the 16 of December. I meant to tell her the 15 but she asked well what the next week is? I told her the 22nd she said I want that date it’s easy to remember. So WE HAVE ANOTHER BAPTISMAL DATE it was truly a spiritual experience. We sat and talk and thought if we would of never went to the members house on Halloween we would of never have had this opportunity.
We told this to our Bishop who was shocked. He knows her pretty well and was like well when is the baptism. We told him the 22nd of the December. He said well that interesting we have the Ward Christmas party that day and we have that building all day to us. He said it funny the ward members have asked why we are having the party at the stake center again. He said I don’t know we just need to. When we told him about Elena Kent and her date he said well we know now why we need to have the party that day. He said the same thing happen to them last year. They had a baptism the Saturday of their party
So that was the coolest thing that happened to us this week.
We still have our baptism this week Kelsey Hodson will be baptized on Saturday at 12pm. I don’t know who is more excited Elder Gutierrez, myself or Kelsey haha so we have a baptism this week
Another investigator we are meeting with has postponed our appointments for this month cause she is getting married to her member boyfriend so we will continued with teaching her in December and Elder Gutierrez and myself feel comfortable with it and that she will be baptized soon after it.
In closing i wanna thank yall for all your prayers and support. I can truly feel them and I’m so appreciative of all you do. I love you all and pray for yall each morning and night.
Thank you for all that you do for the gospel and for the church.
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
(Hey family I’m doing good, how are yall doing )
Oh yeah that right I know some Spanish. Ok maybe not I had to have Elder Gutierrez help me with that. haha
This week was really good. We were busy and a lot of cool things happen this week.
This week of course yall know was Halloween now as missionaries we don’t get to have a lot of fun on Halloween. We had to be in our apartment by 6:30 pm which sucks. We went to a member’s house for a little bit to visit with them and have a good time. When we were there we played ping pong and pool and foosball which I am only good at one of these things and that is pool. The Dad taught us tricks and what we can do to improve our game. Well as this was happening of course trick or treaters where coming and getting candy. The dad left to go downstairs and do something while we were up stairs playing pool. We heard our names called down stairs and was told to come here so we rushed down stairs to see what we did wrong or something. Come to find out our investigator came and trick or treat at their door. The member dad came with us to an appointment with us before and they are neighbors. We got talking to her (Her name is Elena Kent) and right before she left she was like " you guys have been trying to come by lately have ya." we said "yeah" she said. "Wanna come by this week and visit." we said “yeah sure what day and time” we then got an appointment for the next day at 5pm.
So next day rolls on and we get permission to take one of our priests who is preparing to serve a mission. He is 17 and is excited to come with us we got less than a half a mile away and she called and cancelled and said to stop by tomorrow at the same time. We told the priest and he said "well i didn’t come all the way here with you to have to go right home lets go tracking" myself and elder Gutierrez were like "okay where you wanna go." we told him where our boundaries were and he was thinking we then pulled over and said a pray and we found a neighborhood and we started going at it. We found some Buddhist and all type of people this priest was amazing. He was just spitting out verses out of the bible and just teaching these people left and right it was truly amazing.
Friday came and we went and took that same priest to the appointment with Elena Kent. We got there and we got talking about the last part of the salvation. We started talking about that because she mention that her husband's coworker’s son died in a car accident and we wanted to help her learn and gain a testimony of the plan of salvation. Well that turned into a whole lesson on the plan of salvation she wanted to hear all of it. I don’t know how that got to be the topic but we shared a lot of personal experiences and the spirit was really strong. Than while we were talking about the preexistence somehow the topic turned into about coming into this world and being baptized at a young age. She believes that babies need to be baptized we told her about when we are supposed to be baptized. Now earlier in this day we had zone meeting talking about how we need to help bring people to baptism and I remember this one scripture Mosiah 18:10 it talks about what do you have against being baptized in the name of Christ and having the spirit being poured upon you. Before that Elena mentions she has a desire to be baptized. So I felt prompted to give her a baptism date and I asked my comp if he felt like we should. He nodded yes so I ask her and she accepted and we gave her the date of the 16 of December. I meant to tell her the 15 but she asked well what the next week is? I told her the 22nd she said I want that date it’s easy to remember. So WE HAVE ANOTHER BAPTISMAL DATE it was truly a spiritual experience. We sat and talk and thought if we would of never went to the members house on Halloween we would of never have had this opportunity.
We told this to our Bishop who was shocked. He knows her pretty well and was like well when is the baptism. We told him the 22nd of the December. He said well that interesting we have the Ward Christmas party that day and we have that building all day to us. He said it funny the ward members have asked why we are having the party at the stake center again. He said I don’t know we just need to. When we told him about Elena Kent and her date he said well we know now why we need to have the party that day. He said the same thing happen to them last year. They had a baptism the Saturday of their party
So that was the coolest thing that happened to us this week.
We still have our baptism this week Kelsey Hodson will be baptized on Saturday at 12pm. I don’t know who is more excited Elder Gutierrez, myself or Kelsey haha so we have a baptism this week
Another investigator we are meeting with has postponed our appointments for this month cause she is getting married to her member boyfriend so we will continued with teaching her in December and Elder Gutierrez and myself feel comfortable with it and that she will be baptized soon after it.
In closing i wanna thank yall for all your prayers and support. I can truly feel them and I’m so appreciative of all you do. I love you all and pray for yall each morning and night.
Thank you for all that you do for the gospel and for the church.
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Oct 29th Letter
Hello everyone!!
So how is everyone doing this morning? And how was everyone's week been? Here is my week here in spring Texas!
Monday was a not so fun p day we sacrificed our p day because we had an appointment with a new investigator and he never showed up which was sad. So we stayed at our apartment and cleaned the couches. After cleaning we went to a totally awesome member’s house and we played soccer with the kids. The kids loved it and so did the parents because they were bothering them while they were cooking. We then went to a member’s house after that and It was the fathers 50th birthday he is also from Cache Valley so it felt like I was celebrated your birthday mom and dad here. We had pumpkin pie because that is what his tradition is in his family.
Tuesday is the most boring day out of the whole week. All we do is get ready for the day do our studies and then we do weekly planning for the most of the week. But it’s good because we need it. We had an appointment with Kelsey and we watched the restoration DVD with her. Kelsey wanted to fall asleep so not as productive as I thought it would be but I guess it was good. We had chicken pot pie for dinner with a member it reminded me of the restaurant at Disney land when Andy couldn't finish it and Camille did. haha. We then went to mutual with our young men and we taught preach my gospel class to help them prepare to go on a missions it was good we helped them realize there purpose as a missionary and the big responsibility they have.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with my district leader it was alright. All day we did service it was a good day we did some service for the community and for the members for our ward. We had a good meeting with our investigator who was a member of the church at one point we taught her a powerful lesson on faith and help her resolve some concerns she has and help her to realize that she needs more hope and faith and to come to church and read and pray so hopefully she will come to church this week.
Thursday we had another lesson with Kelsey. We are reading the Book of Mormon stories the picture book for the kids. We are helping her to get into the habit of reading the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with Jonathan he came out and said that he is still trying to find his desire if he wants to join our church or not. He said that he is really thinking about it. He is always listening to Mormon Channel land watching LDS. org and KBYU TV which is good he said the stuff that he listen to is amazing so hopefully he will come to know that this is the true church. We had splits tonight and it went really well we got to visit a lot of members that we are focusing on and got to meet a members husband that we are going to teach he already took the discussions and almost got baptized and then the missionaries got moved so he quit.so it was good to sit in again.so hopefully that fire will start back up with him again.
Friday was a cold day it was in the 50's and it was rainy, we did service most of the day and we had the ward trunk or treat, they had a chili cook - off and the missionaries were the judges. We tested 8 different types of chili’s and corn bread it was really good but it was so cold my blood has thinned out so much lately. The trunk or treat was awesome we got a bag and got candy and everyone loved our costumes. haha just regular missionaries
Saturday I was supposed to have a baptism with an investigator in my last area. Well that never happened her mom got into a car wreck in Fort Worth, Texas and she had to leave and take care of her. So she will be gone for a month so when she gets back she will get baptized. So since that happened we had an empty day so we visited with a lot of members one of them was pretty cool we visited with a member who we gave a blessing to two weeks ago. He had stomach pains and after the blessing we gave him he had a strong impression to go to the hospital. He got to the hospital and found out that he had diverticulitis and he had to have surgery. They had to remove about a foot of his colon so the doctor said you have to options 1- is go home and not have the surgery but you die this week or 2- you have the surgery and live. Well of course he took the second option. The doctor said his colon literally exploded and he said if you would have never come in when you did you would have died. That helped me realize that we shouldn’t waste one moment that we have. Life is too precisions it could end in a matter of seconds.
Mormon Moment.
This happened yesterday after Stake Conference. Our ward mission leader gave us a ride to Stake Conference he walked out of Conference when it ended and we got a text saying that he locked his keys in his car. We laughed and went outside and met him. The Ward Mission leader had his mom there with him and his parents are one of the branch presidents in the MTC and the first thing she said is here give him a pass along card. So the ward mission leader did and the guy shared his testimony about Jesus Christ and how he saved his life. The cool thing was he is a Firefighter/EMT for a department closes by but he wasn’t in my area. It was sad he had to hurry and leave and I couldn’t talk to him longer but it was one of those moments that you sit and think about who we need to share the gospel with maybe if he would have never came and unlocked our car he would never have heard from us. So always look for that kind of moment’s every day.
Sorry not a lot of things happening this week. But I hope yall have a good safe Halloween. And have fun
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
So how is everyone doing this morning? And how was everyone's week been? Here is my week here in spring Texas!
Monday was a not so fun p day we sacrificed our p day because we had an appointment with a new investigator and he never showed up which was sad. So we stayed at our apartment and cleaned the couches. After cleaning we went to a totally awesome member’s house and we played soccer with the kids. The kids loved it and so did the parents because they were bothering them while they were cooking. We then went to a member’s house after that and It was the fathers 50th birthday he is also from Cache Valley so it felt like I was celebrated your birthday mom and dad here. We had pumpkin pie because that is what his tradition is in his family.
Tuesday is the most boring day out of the whole week. All we do is get ready for the day do our studies and then we do weekly planning for the most of the week. But it’s good because we need it. We had an appointment with Kelsey and we watched the restoration DVD with her. Kelsey wanted to fall asleep so not as productive as I thought it would be but I guess it was good. We had chicken pot pie for dinner with a member it reminded me of the restaurant at Disney land when Andy couldn't finish it and Camille did. haha. We then went to mutual with our young men and we taught preach my gospel class to help them prepare to go on a missions it was good we helped them realize there purpose as a missionary and the big responsibility they have.
Wednesday I was on exchanges with my district leader it was alright. All day we did service it was a good day we did some service for the community and for the members for our ward. We had a good meeting with our investigator who was a member of the church at one point we taught her a powerful lesson on faith and help her resolve some concerns she has and help her to realize that she needs more hope and faith and to come to church and read and pray so hopefully she will come to church this week.
Thursday we had another lesson with Kelsey. We are reading the Book of Mormon stories the picture book for the kids. We are helping her to get into the habit of reading the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with Jonathan he came out and said that he is still trying to find his desire if he wants to join our church or not. He said that he is really thinking about it. He is always listening to Mormon Channel land watching LDS. org and KBYU TV which is good he said the stuff that he listen to is amazing so hopefully he will come to know that this is the true church. We had splits tonight and it went really well we got to visit a lot of members that we are focusing on and got to meet a members husband that we are going to teach he already took the discussions and almost got baptized and then the missionaries got moved so he quit.so it was good to sit in again.so hopefully that fire will start back up with him again.
Friday was a cold day it was in the 50's and it was rainy, we did service most of the day and we had the ward trunk or treat, they had a chili cook - off and the missionaries were the judges. We tested 8 different types of chili’s and corn bread it was really good but it was so cold my blood has thinned out so much lately. The trunk or treat was awesome we got a bag and got candy and everyone loved our costumes. haha just regular missionaries
Saturday I was supposed to have a baptism with an investigator in my last area. Well that never happened her mom got into a car wreck in Fort Worth, Texas and she had to leave and take care of her. So she will be gone for a month so when she gets back she will get baptized. So since that happened we had an empty day so we visited with a lot of members one of them was pretty cool we visited with a member who we gave a blessing to two weeks ago. He had stomach pains and after the blessing we gave him he had a strong impression to go to the hospital. He got to the hospital and found out that he had diverticulitis and he had to have surgery. They had to remove about a foot of his colon so the doctor said you have to options 1- is go home and not have the surgery but you die this week or 2- you have the surgery and live. Well of course he took the second option. The doctor said his colon literally exploded and he said if you would have never come in when you did you would have died. That helped me realize that we shouldn’t waste one moment that we have. Life is too precisions it could end in a matter of seconds.
Mormon Moment.
This happened yesterday after Stake Conference. Our ward mission leader gave us a ride to Stake Conference he walked out of Conference when it ended and we got a text saying that he locked his keys in his car. We laughed and went outside and met him. The Ward Mission leader had his mom there with him and his parents are one of the branch presidents in the MTC and the first thing she said is here give him a pass along card. So the ward mission leader did and the guy shared his testimony about Jesus Christ and how he saved his life. The cool thing was he is a Firefighter/EMT for a department closes by but he wasn’t in my area. It was sad he had to hurry and leave and I couldn’t talk to him longer but it was one of those moments that you sit and think about who we need to share the gospel with maybe if he would have never came and unlocked our car he would never have heard from us. So always look for that kind of moment’s every day.
Sorry not a lot of things happening this week. But I hope yall have a good safe Halloween. And have fun
Love
Elder Kendall Christensen
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Service Project
On October 3rd, the missionaries were asked to help out with the rest of Houston for a service project in an area called the 5th Ward.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Intro
I know that this is 8 months late but it has been decided that this would be easier to do than emailing Elder Christensen's letters each week. I (Amanda) will be posting his letters and pictures that he sends home to the family for you all to see. Enjoy!!!!
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