Nov 25th Pics

 

District Meeting

Longhorns

 

 

Welcoming a sister to the zone

BONFIRE!!!!

 

Nov 25th Letter

Okay I thought I was in Texas!!!!!!! Not Utah. It is freezing and more than that we have rain with that so it is extra cold with the wind. haha Feel bad for me yet! haha i doubt it but here is the week in the life of a Navasota Missionary

 Tuesday was actually a very good day for us. Usually it’s not that busy but we got blessed of being busy. We were able to do some service for an Inactive member she lives in the back woods and she needed us to help her clear away some Limbs of trees and Logs, so her sister can move a cabin on her sister’s property.  The best part was that she wanted us to put them into a fire! And the fire was huge. I was like dang I wanna go camping and have a huge bon fire but I was in Heaven cause for one there was a huge fire and I was making it bigger by putting huge logs into the fire Kinda funny how you can entertain this kid by just throwing something into a fire and watch it! The member was very appreciative for our help and service. After we went to a member’s house for dinner and spend time with them and share a spiritual Thought. Was a good way to end a busy day!

 

The rest of the week was kinda slow. Lots of Rain and cold windy weather! On Friday we were at district meeting and we were talking about how to help Investigators get over trials and concerns in being baptized. During my studying I was thinking how can I make it more fun! Like what can I do as far as making it fun for everyone? So I decided to hit stuff and make it blow up. So we went to thrift shop and got old movies and Coffee makers and Tea Makers and got a baseball bat and hit the crap out of it. And it went BOOM! Every one like it and thought it was fun. So did I! We get to hit and break stuff who doesn’t like that?

 Missionary Moment

“We are one call 24/7, in being an Example”

“We don’t need to be an expert in speech or words; we need to be obedient to the Lord”

 Guess what I got another Letter From President Pingree Stating That I have 12 weeks left and that he want me to read The Book Of Mormon every day and finish it before I leave so I’m reading that and the Doctrine and Covenants at the same time.

 I was reading 1 Nephi and of course I have read that so many times because I get that far and I usually quit but this time I’m not. I feel like I’m back at home reading the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks like I had to do before I left on my mission. This time when I was reading I thought of some things.

 1- I found my example to look up to for patience and that is Nephi! His brothers Laman and Lemuel are Idiots. haha I would be so frustrated with them Always murmuring and whining and complaining. When they received so many witness from angels and they still act the way they do. Nephi is so patient and he is completely obedient to God and all the commandments that he gives him, like build a boat and go get the plates. That takes a lot of courage!

 2- I just love reading the Book of Mormon. I feel like someone who reads it for the first time and can’t put it down. I love reading it. The blessing that I get and the feeling I get is without words. I love that it is here for us to learn and study, and apply it to our lives.

 

In Closing, I know that I invited yall to read Doctrine and Covenants with me. But I would suggest that you would read 6 ½ pages a day with me. I know that this might be hard or challenging but I promise all yall that if you do that you will feel the spirit more strongly in your lives and that you will be attentive to the blessings and miracles that are in our lives. It will help us with Christ like attributes and have more love for others, the gospel and the Book of Mormon are here for us and we need to take an advantage of it!

 

Happy Gobble Gobble Day this week. Have your turkey pants on and eat lots for me and watch some football for me. I’ll be there next year with yall

 

LOVE YALL

Elder Kendall Christensen

Nov 18th Pics

Playing around with some member's kids

Nov 18th Letter

Good Morning Utah!

How is the snow? I sure don’t miss it what so ever! haha I love the weather that we are having here I would rather have this than Cold weather haha

Here is my week that went pretty well at least better than the weeks that I have had before!

Wednesday was a good night. We were able to meet with our new investigator Luis. He is a Spanish referral that we got from our Mission President. He is a really good guy and has a desire to learn we had our appointment at the branch building with our Branch President and Elder Sneed. I and my other comp left to go do something because it was in Spanish and we don’t speak it or understand it! But what I was told is that he wants to learn more but he is going to have a hard time cause he can’t get work off on Sundays because he works from 8-5pm at a Spanish restaurant. So we are praying for a miracle that somehow he will be able to get time off to come to church.

 Later That night we were able to go to a less actives house the Crawford’s. We went with our Branch President and simply invited them to come to church along with his nonmember daughter. She told her dad that if she comes that he has to come with her and he was like of course I will! But the cool thing was that she was totally serious and has a huge desire to come to church and potentially take our lessons. This is a huge miracle for us! It all started by just inviting someone to come to church! It’s that simple and let God and the Holy Ghost do the rest of the work! It’s awesome.

 Friday was My Official 21 month Mark, of when I entered into the Mission Field and not a lot happened but the one thing that did was we went by a Part Member Family and for the past 6 weeks they have continued to cancel on us but this time they didn’t and we went to their house and BOOM they cancelled on us. There reason was legit because the husband has lung infection and had to get transported to the Hospital 35 mins away from Navasota. The Wife wanted us to go over there for her sake and give him a blessing no matter what he said so on Saturday we went over there to visit him and he was surprised that we stopped by! and was excited to see us. We talked and we offered him a blessing and he told us not today but when he gets home on Monday to give one to him and his wife. He proceeded to tell us that he wants to get back into the church and get a calling and that he wanted to get his wife baptized soon and he needed our help! Man that was awesome and I know that it will happen. So Many miracles are happening here in Navasota I have a strong feeling that this will be the next baptism in Navasota!!

 This weekend was Stake Conference and we had the privilege to sing as the choir. There were 43 missionaries singing  our missions "fight song" and The EFY melody on Saturday night,  on Sunday we sang Hark all ye nations and Called to serve , The cool thing was that it was super powerful when we sang The EFY Melody and when we sang called to serve we sang after the Primary kids sang I hope they call me on a mission. It was so legit! I felt the Spirit really strong and it gave me Goosebumps from head to toe! The Main topic was about missionary work and it was awesome to see everyone’s excitement about helping us out in bringing others to Christ.

 

D&C COUNTDOWN

D&C 88: 73 and 80-81

73 Behold, I will hasten my work in its time.

80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

 81 Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.

These three scriptures stood out to me for Multiple Reasons. One was that ever since I have been reading my scripture I have gained a testimony of the things that are being said by the Apostles and Prophets about hastening his work are true. Here are the scriptures to prove it and the second is The verse of 80-81 are a testimony to me that I have been called to Houston Texas for a purpose both that I have been commissioned by God and The prophet to come here to represent his Son here and that as I strengthen the members that they will strengthen others.

 I have a testimony that God has a plan for us and that we will know what it will be when we let ourselves be able to be an instruments in his hands. We need to sometimes exhibit patience and long suffering! I know that to be true!

 I love yall and I hope yall have a wonderful week! I’ll talk to yall soon!

 Elder Kendall Christensen

Nov 12th Pics

Chillin on P-Day

 

                       Today marks that Kendall will be home in (guess this).......
                                                          12 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                                             LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 12th Letter

Ah man!!!! It’s good to have a very productive week and things go our way! It is a better feeling than having everything Fail on Us!

I’m going to get straight to the good stuff so Here we go!!

 Wednesday we had a specialized training with President Pingree! He talked to us about conversion in us and in our investigators. It was an answer to my prayers because I have been trying to figure out why I am in this area. Every area I find some reason why I am in here and this one it was taking a while for me to find out. God answered my prayers by this Specialized Training Its for me to be more converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is something I have been doing my whole mission but it’s a main focus in this area. I only have 3 MONTHS left and I feel the urgency, and I got to get things done and that is something I want and that is be more converted than I was before I came out. Later in the day I went on an exchange with some missionaries next to us the Brenham Elders. That was a good experience we went out tracking and we knocked on this house and the care taker answered and she told us one moment while she get the person who owns this house. Well she came out and she was about 90 yrs old and she was not happy to see us. She was very rude to us and said “can you read it says no soliciting”I said “we aren’t selling anything” she said “I don’t care that means no one knocks on my door I can’t keep coming to the door I’m 90!”. In the beginning she was rude but her heart was softened and she wished us well kinda funny experience.

 We met with Bessie Johnson one of our investigators. She is the one who likes us to come over and read with her and to have company because she has no one else to talk to. Well we are teaching her Grandkids Aubrey and Raven. On Thursday we went over there and one of the grandkids was home from school which was a surprise to us. So we took advantage of it and taught her she loves us coming over. Aubrey has this huge smile on her face when we come over we taught her how to pray and when we ask who would like to say it she always wants to say it. That is what missionary work is all about seeing the joy of learning to pray to her Father in Heaven, and seeing people be excited to do something so simple as in praying Its awesome! We met with them again on Saturday and we taught them the restoration with JENGA!! Remember that game it’s a really good tool to use to teach the restoration but you gotta be careful it can be a huge distraction as well. They want to come to church but we got to get the parents and grandma motivated to get them to come to church.

Friday was a good day as well we didn’t have anything planned from like 4pm until 6pm so I said lets go to the main street where there is stores and people and lets walk it so that is what we did! There are some really interesting stores there, but there is one that sells clothes and cowboy hats and boots. So I was like well I’m going in there and check things out. We went in and the owner was like “hey I know yall!” I said “you do” and he said “you’re the missionaries and you’re always in here looking at boots and hats”. And he also knew our p days haha that is something that we get asked a lot When our day off is?? I think it’s kinda funny but there was a girl who helped me look at stuff and she was asking us questions and we spent an hour and half talking with her. Come to found out that she lives really close to us and that she might be interested, and that we are more than welcome to come in and visit with her anytime. There is a lot of potential with her!

This week we got a referral from our Mission President and very rarely does that happen in places like this. President was up here on Wednesday like I said and he went to a Spanish restaurant to eat and he was talking to the person who was serving him and told him what he does and so forth! Needless to say he was interested. We went to his house on Friday and he is really interested in learning more! That is awesome I really have a testimony that God does provide miracles in places like this just a small branch like Navasota. He does remember us and blesses each and every one of us!!

  How is yall's reading going? Mine is going well. This week I just have a testimony that God does hear and answer our prayers. He knows us perfectly and he knows our weakness and he wants us to come unto him to become humble and teachable. I know that we are always going to have moments when we are down and that there are always trials in our lives but we have them in our lives so we can learn from them.  When we do get down that is where our faith comes into play bring us higher. I love my Savior. I love the Gospel and what it can do to people and help them become better Sons and Daughters of God.

 I love yall and I hope yall have a wonderful week

Love

Elder Kendall Christensen

Challenge

In 1 Nephi 19 Nephi said this “for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning"

Every week I have been able to let yall know what I have learned in my studies. Right now I’m at a point of my mission that I am having countdowns. One of the countdowns that I have is what is called Doctrine Covenants countdown which I read the Section that correlates with how many days I have left. Right now I’m at Section 97 and tomorrow I will be on section 96 and so forth.

I want to invite yall to join with me by reading the Doctrine Covenants. It’s not that much to ask for reading just one section a day. Soon I will have to read the Book of Mormon in 12 weeks. But I feel strongly that if you join me with reading that you will be having the same feeling that I am having with reading the scriptures and “liken them unto us".

I Testify from the bottom of my heart That the scriptures are the word of God. They are here for our benefit. The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants are here for our day.They are here to guide us and direct us. I know that if we do sowe will have the Spirit of the Lord with us at all times. He loves us and wants us to be happy.

So tomorrow will you start from Section 96 and read one section a day until I get back?

Love

Elder Kendall Christensen

Nov 4th Letter

OH BOY!!!!!!!! The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

That is the motto for this week. haha :)

Oh by the way Merry Christmas haha looks like yall got some white stuff the other day. I found out also when I went to church a member was talking to her son who lives in Bountiful. He said they got a lot of snow they told me and I was like "Thank Heavens I am in Texas " :)

This week was a really rough one for me in this area and in my mission. A lot of things failed on us and it was really upsetting and discouraging! So here is how my week went! 

Tuesday we were able to have some luck. We went to amember’s house to visit with her. Her name is Sister Kirby she has two really cute daughters who are 7 and 6 and we had dinner there, well kinda she cooked one of those frozen meals that take 2 hours to cook. That was the only success that we had for a couple of days.

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday were just Pitiful everything we had planned just went down the toilet, it was so frustrating and when we went to appointments we drove 25 miles one way and we get to their house to tell us that they were going to cancel. So we went home early because we were told that for Halloween we had to be in by 6:30pm!! Friday was almost the same story nothing happened. It was just so frustrating we only taught 8 lessons this whole week. That is my worst record of number of lessons I have ever had in my mission. I was so frustrated and the rest of the time we drove to find less actives and not one single person were home. Either they weren’t home or they lied to us and said they were there and not really FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!  But guess what I found out God had a different plan for us!!  

SATURDAY!!  

Saturday we went to an investigators house. Her name is Bessie we go there to teach her and to give her comfort. She is bed ridden and she doesn’t get out of her room that much. So we teach her and to give her company. Well when we went there we noticed the two girls that were there last week at our BBQ were there. Their names are Aubrey and Raven and we talked with Bessie about them and we asked her if we can talk to theirparents to invite them to take the lessons. We felt prompted to teach them. Well lucky for us Bessie is there legal guardian and she gave us the okay to teach them. YES!!!!!!!! WE GOT TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!!!  That was a good way to end our horrible week.

I have found Great joy in reading the scriptures lately. This weekI was reading from the Doctrine and Covenants and I love that book always have!! Well I read a scripture that really stood out to me.  

It’s In D:C 101 verse 64. It’s states That the work of the gathering together of my saints may continue, that I may build them up unto my name upon holy places; for the time of harvest is come, and my word must needs be fulfilled.

Now what that meant to me was the importance of the work of salvation. How this year we were told about how God has hasten his work and when I read that I was like holy cow it really is true!!! And I can say that I am part of this!!!!! I’m so grateful for being on a mission and I’m grateful for the scriptures. I know we have the Book of Mormon to testify of Jesus Christ. I know it was written for us in these days. I know that if we read it with real intent that we will have things revealed to us and answer question we have. I’m so grateful for our Savior, Brother and Redeemer. I’m grateful for the growth I have seen in myself in the last 6 weeks I can’t wait to continue it for the rest of my life.

I love yall so much.

Elder K.Christensen