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
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