Mar 18th Letter

Good Morning Utah!!!!!

How are things going in the state that is trying to warm up from the long cold winter.

The great state of Texas is warming up and turning up the humidity and yall know what that mean. Swimming in my own puddle of sweat!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) haha

Well another week has come and gone. And here is a review of what we did this week.

On Monday it was pretty awesome. So Elder Kuila loves to snack so he likes going to this certain gas station it’s like the only ghetto one in our area. Well we went there on p-day and he got some stuff to snack on. As we got up to the cash register the attendant ask if he wanted a pipe?! Elder kuila said Ah no I don’t smoke the Gas attendants ask why not and how old are you and Elder Kuila said that he is 19 and it’s against what I believe. This went into a conversation of the gospel and our purpose as missionaries. And the attendant said I thought yall were I saw yall all the time in here. It was cool that even going into a gas station multiple times and getting noticed that you can help someone know a little more about us and what we believe.

Tuesday and Wednesday we did some service for a member of our ward there name is The Rodriguez family. And they are crazy and love to keep everything. Our service this week was to clean their garage. The first thing I need to mention is that people love not using their garage for the right purpose. They don’t use it to store their cars. They love to use it as a storage place and this family had a ton of stuff. The garage was horrible and the parents wanted us to do was to take everything out and clean stuff and organize the garage. Well it took us two days and it looks like we didn’t even put a dent into it. It is funny they love to fight with one another so the wife wanted everything out and thrown away while the husband wanted to keep everything he is pretty much a hoarder haha. He had so much empty boxes for no reason and he buys alot of things like the stuff they advertise on TV yeah he will buy that for no reason haha it’s kind of funny.

Thursday was a service day as well. We went to a nature center and did 4 hours of service in the middle of the day. Now I forgot that it was warming up down here so it kinda was not fun haha its’ getting really hot. We spent 4 hours digging up trees, there is some species that is a pest in the nature center and they cut down the trees and they left the roots and a little bit of the tree trunk so we dug up about 30 trees. Now these are smaller trees not huge one but baby ones but it was funny while I was trying to get some of the roots up I was using a pick ax to dig around the roots and to bring them up. Well this one would not come up so I was tugging and pulling and I was putting all my weight on it when SNAP!!!!! I was like yes finally I got the root nope it was the ax. I busted the ax and the handle in half. It wasn’t one with a wooden handle it was one of those really nice and expensive ones so yes I’m proud of that. That is my claim to fame right now. I knew i was strong and working out but I didn’t know that I was that buff ahahahahahah just kidding I’m weak. ha Oh yeah I forgot to use gloves so I got like two blisters that busted while working and I trip and fell and one of the stumps cut me haha it hurt but I’m a man hahaha

Friday was a miracle day to start off the day I got a text from President Pingree saying that he is coming to my district meeting. Okay I was so nervous but he showed up an hour late so it was towards the end so it was good but I was freaking out the whole time haha but lately we have decided to do a lot more finding. We have investigators that are not going anywhere. We have one who is Shawn and he is ready for the 13th of April to get baptized but we need more people to talk with. Elder Kuila and I have decided that we need to do some tracking, now I hate tracking with a passion but right now I’m willing to do it cause we need people and the members are not giving us anything. In the afternoon we went to a part of our area called Fox Run. We went to the first street and started knocking and the first door we found a person who is a friend of a member in another ward. She has gone to seminary a couple of times and would like to hear the message again so that was way awesome. Than we go down the street some more and found a black guy who would like to learn more. So that is two potentials in a matter of 20 mins that we have found so I’m getting excited. We had an appointment with an investigator so we were walking around talking and contacting people. When we went past a house that elder Kuila and his old companion had tracked into and they were interested but never could get a hold of them. Well they were outside doing yard work so we went up and talked with them. They were nice to us and they were trying to get this bush out and they were having a hard time with it. We asked if they wanted us to help and they said no. We waited for a few mins and we just got in there working on it they were happy that we helped and we got it out in a matter of mins. They were so nice that they wanted us to come by this Friday for dinner at 7pm so they seem really interested and I got high hopes for them becoming new investigators.

Missionary Moment:

This is a quote that a member gave in her talk that she gave Sunday in Sacrament Meeting and it hit me pretty hard and it put a whole new perspective on the way I do missionary work. It’s from a talk by President Eyring HEARTS BOUND TOGETHER. I strongly encourage yall to read it.

"Many of your deceased ancestors will have received a testimony that the message of the missionaries is true. When you received that testimony you could ask the missionaries for baptism. But those who are in the spirit world cannot. The ordinances you so cherish are offered only in this world. Someone in this world must go to a holy temple and accept the covenants on behalf of the person in the spirit world. That is why we are under obligation to find the names of our ancestors and ensure that they are offered by us what they cannot receive there without our help."

" For me, knowing that turns my heart not only to my ancestors who wait but to the missionaries who teach them. I will see those missionaries in the spirit world, and so will you. Think of a faithful missionary standing there with those he has loved and taught who are your ancestors. Picture as I do the smile on the face of that missionary as you walk up to him and your ancestors whom he converted but could not baptize or have sealed to family until you came to the rescue. I do not know what the protocol will be in such a place, but I imagine arms thrown around your neck and tears of gratitude."

For me knowing that I’m making a difference in people life is remarkable. I wanna be that missionary who has helped a member of some family receive the gospel for the first time and when it comes time to go to the spirit world I wanna see how the seed that I have planted has grown into something awesome. That to me is success. Sometimes I think that I’m not going anywhere but I know that everything I do is because god wants it to happen

I love yall have a great week and I’ll talk with yall soon.

Elder Christensen