July 1st Letter

IM BATMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  haha

Alright I want to clear some stuff up. haha Yall think that you have the worst heat and that it was hotter than Texas. WELL!!yall have dry heat and we have wet heat SO when it gets hot, its FREAKING HOT! yall have no idea haha :)

This week was hard, rough. It is the type of week that you have when you have a baptism and all this success and then you have a week that crashes! That is how my week has been not fun!

I apologize now! This might be a short letter!

When we had the baptism last week that took our topinvestigator to Recent Convert and we had 2 of our other investigator drop us. So we are down to one real good investigator that we are trying to work with and 2 others thatwon’t do anything So its kinda frustrating, but that is what you get for being a missionary. I just have reminded me that this is not easy It is the hardest thing I have ever done!  

We got a new investigator yesterday! She was a former investigator and this woman has been on my mind for a while!And whenever we try to go there she is never there! But we had luck yesterday! So we went there and she opened the door and told us to come in and gave us some water! She was talking to us and she is a really nice lady. She lives by herself, with two or three cats! She has a lot of stuff in her house like stuff she has saved in her days. But there was one thing that I noticed and that was she had a bible and a triple combination on her coffee table. I thought ah man she has been reading she said that she has read the book of Mormon Twice!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like HUH!!!! She reads and any questions she has she writes them down and asks us. Lately she hasn’t done that because she works a lot, but now she wants us to come by and teach her again. I asked her if she believe the Book of Mormon was true and she yeah, but I have concern about the golden plates, But that is something I have to go on faith. I was like man you are like solid!! I ask her if she would be baptized if she knows these things are true and she said maybe! So hopefully we can work with her and try to get her to know more. Her name is Ladine Hamiliton

On Thursday we didn’t have dinner so we just worked all day and had dinner late at night when we came in from the night. Elder Cornwall wanted Taco bell, than changed his mind to get Jack in The box! So we go inside and its 8:45pm He orders a$1.69 hamburger and a water cup. I didn’t get anything becauseI was out of money. So he got a receipt and if you fill out a survey you get two free tacos. Well I did it but I didn’t know that I had to buy something to get two free tacos. I was like ahMan. So we are just sitting there talking and then we were like where is your hamburger. So I asked the guy moping the floor and he said let me go check he yells from the counter what didwe ordered. I was like a Texas cheese burger! He said I don’t see it and they have three workers looking at the screen and I go up and show him the receipt. Than all of the sudden they were like HOLY S@#$!!!! IT was the top order and no one saw it and we have been waiting for 39 mins!! The manager was so pist!!! The funny thing was one of the workers face and reaction was priceless! So after 41 mins we walked out of there with two burgers and fries for free! It was funny!!!

Another cool thing happen was we were walking this neighborhood and I didn’t know why there was a potentialinvestigator there, and that is where we wanted to go visit. But while we were walking we got stopped by a guy mowing his lawn and asked if we wanted water. I said YES so we went inside and I was happy cause I thought this random guy was inviting us in. we go inside and I see wine and I was like yes we got someone new but come to find out he is a member and active! So is his family. They moved in last week and there neighbor gave them the wine I was kinda sad they weren’tinvestigators but we found an active family no one knew moved into the ward! I still know that I’m getting put into places that god wants me to be.

Last and but not least i got a visitor Saturday!!! Brian Schofield was in my area and he stops by the apartment and visited me!! Ihaven’t seen him in 10 months!! It was so good to catch up with him and to see him. It felt like old times again being companions

I hope yall have a good fourth of July I know it won’t be as good if I was there hahah but have fun and take lots of pictures and videos for me. I love yall so much!!

Elder Christensen

Jun 24th Pics

Sydney's Baptism (pink floral)

Elder Cornwall, Sydney, Elder Christensen

Kendall found himself in his area

Jun 24th Letter

I am so thankful to be alive!!!!!!!!!!

This is going to sound weird but I have seen the Lord’s hand in our safety as we drive. I swear we have had a near experience every day this week. Let me tell you about one we had the other day. So yesterday morning we were going to church for our ward correlation meeting Elder Cornwall asked where he should turn. I told him Right at the Next light so we get to the light and we are stopped we start going and he gets going about 30mph he starts going and he is starting to miss the turn not even seeing it and I said You’re missing the Turn TURN! and he all of the sudden cranks the wheel and takes a right turn going about 25 mph. Needless to say the tires were squealing and we almost lost control. After I was just quite so I didn’t offend him he knows he sucks at driving and I do to and it frustrates me every time we get into the car. So needless to say IM STILL ALIVE!!!!

Anyways this week was a good week. We got dropped by an investigator who has been investigating for about 1 1/2 years. We have been noticing that he has been ignoring us for a while and we didn’t know why. We knew that he wasn’t that much interested anymore, but we were able to go to his house when he was home. I can tell that something was wrong you can just tell by his attitude something was up. So we talk with him and I ask if we can sit down and talk for a little bit. He said you got 15 mins and that is it so I ask him how everything was going and getting a conversation started and he came out and said that he doesn’t want to read the Book of Mormon anymore he is playing tug a war with himself inside with us "pushing" him to read and pray and be baptized and him finding negativity on the internet about Mormons, Joseph Smith and getting negativity from his friends that he couldn’t take it anymore. So he said I love the friendship that we have and I want that but no more "Mormon" which is good that he did this, to let him know and feel what the spirit is like when we are gone and that the choice that he is making is he is going to be accountable for it in the end.

 

Thursday was an awesome day. We called one of our less active members to come over to his house. He said yeah come over so we went over around 11am and he took us to the back where he was working outside we go back there hearing Pantera Blaring on the radio It was funny. He starts to weed his yard and we started helping him he doesn’t have a weed whacker so he pulled the grass around the edges of his house, so we got on our knees and started helping him. It was awesome he order pizza for us for our service. But while we were waiting for the pizza we started to tape his bathroom so he can paint it. He was saying that on his mission these were the times that he remembered the most, and he is going to remember this with us. We have been working a lot with him getting him back to church. We have had a lot of heart to heart conversations and he is opening up to us it’s awesome how we can touch peoples life so much!

After we got done at his house we got a call from Sister Ripley she asked us if we can give blessings. No sorry it’s against our religion hahahahah just kidding we said yes and she wanted us to come to the hospital to give her daughter a blessing. Her daughter was fearing a miscarriage and she wanted a blessing. Now the funny part was that this meant Elder Cornwall had to drive the freeway. So he got onto the feeder road and I told him to get into the third lane. Now the third lane leads into the freeway he didn’t want to do this but since I’m such a mean trainer, and he listens to everything I say I got him on the freeway he was so scared it was so funny!!!! But we were able to give her a blessing and we were safe traveling.

 

The Ultimate Highlight of the week was SYDNEY's BAPTISM! She got baptized on Saturday at 5:30pm!!! It was funny Elder Cornwall was going to baptize her and he was so nervous!!!! He had to baptize her twice! He forgot to say "and of the H.G" so he did it twice but it was awesome to see her being baptized. Sister Ripley was so happy and shared her testimony and said she thought that this would never happen but her family is so close in getting back to activity. We are now working with their daughter to get her back to church THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!! Sunday I had the privilege to confirm her member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. That was a moment that I will not forget! As I was there the words of dad rang through my head ITS Pay Day!!!! It was pay day for me and Elder Cornwall having this opportunity to see the fruits of our labor! Seeing that it is possible to get a baptism. I’m glad to have Elder Cornwall get this baptism to show him that through hard work and the faith in Christ that stuff like this happens!!

 

In closing I hope yall had the opportunity to see the New mission president broadcast. That was so special! I hope yall got to see it if not I strongly encourage yall to watch it online. It talks a lot about how to work with the ward council and the importance of it to us missionaries. I know it is going to help me in my work with the members. I know that god is hastening his work and we are in the middle of it and we need to do all that we can.

 

I love you so much

 

Elder Kendall Christensen

Jun 17th Pictures

Sydney's Wedding

(investigator of Kendall's)

 

Elder Cornwall, Sydney, Sydney's groom, Elder Christensen

 

 

I forgot to posted this awhile ago but Kendall now has 8 more months til he comes home!!!

Jun 17th Letter

Whats Up Yall.

So people think that oh it’s too hot In Utah or somewhere else freak man you should come to Texas!!!!!!

This week was so freaking HOT!!!!!! Especially on Saturday (more coming about that )

Monday was awesome. We got a new investigator his name is Daelin Strause he is 9 yrs old. The Parents want us to teach him and also teach them the lessons to reactivate them and also get there son baptized. We also had dinner with them they bought Taco Bell!!! We had a lot of food it was Amazing!!!  Daelin is such a smart kid and so are his brothers they ask such good questions that I would never believe that a 9 yrs old would ask! It is awesome to have someone to teach and to also try to reactivate a family as well.

This week as you have heard we had a general authority come to our mission Elder Christoffel Golden Jr. It was a very interesting Zone conference he is really big into numbers and wanted to know what our goals were and see how our mission is by the way of numbers. So after the Assistants presented the numbers for the past two months Elder Golden stood up and Lecture us about 2 hours about goals and how our goals and the goals we have as a mission are way too low. It felt like the whole time we got chastised about how we are not good missionaries and we have low standards as a mission he told us that we need to take it one step higher and go one number more of  what our goals are to get the Lord to help us and to exercise our faith. Then the zone leaders stood up and presented numbers and goals that the zone has accomplished and set. Well it got to our zone and Elder Petersen went up and presented our goals for member present lessons and new investigators and people being baptized this month. We had a goal as a zone to baptize 13 people. Elder Golden stands up and says "how many missionaries do you have in your zone". Elder Petersen said" we have 11 companionships". Elder Golden said “well that is one baptism for each missionary companionship, who was the person who went one more".  Elder Petersen said "Elder Christensen and his district" I was like HUH!!! Then Elder Golden tells me to stand up. Now I am really freaking out I’m getting called out by a 70!. He said the following words "well Elder you must be sick! I need to check your pulse. How dare you go one above what is the goal. You don’t belong in this mission if you’re going higher than what your mission goals are! You belong in another mission I wish the mission had more elders like you who go above and beyond what you are told and go more than what is set goal wise before you!  Thank you for your leadership and great example. Thank you and you may be seated!!"  Now at this point I was a deer in headlights. As I was standing up I was trying to figure out what he meant by all of this and was trying to understand what he was saying. I thought I was getting chastised but I was getting complemented by a general authority. As I sat down everyone around me was like "AP" ohhhh I was like ah man. But some people where joking and saying I can’t be with you your too good for us I’m just like wow! But it was a moment that I won’t forget!!

(OH BY THE WAY HE CANCELLED CHECKING MY APARTMENT. SO HE DIDNT COME)

Saturday was such a hot day! It was SYDNEY'S WEDDING!!!!!  It was so awesome to be at my first wedding on my mission. It was good to see them get married. It was just as awesome as getting a baptism. But I felt bad for the bishop he was in his suit all hot and sweaty doing the wedding ceremony. He got done and he was just dripping wet it was so Hot it was in the High 90's with humidity I was sweating. But this was really interesting it was so hot that balloons were popping! Now that is when you know that it is really hot. There colors were awesome lime green and purple The reception was good also. They got a BBQ restaurant to cater So we had good eating!!!! MMMMHMMMM!!!

This week was awesome I took Cornwall tracking and he got his first SOFT Rejection. But we later found someone by the name of Randy he told us he is interesting in learning more and we are going back Wednesday at 6 pm. But the thing is cool is that it all came down to our faith. I’m not a huge tracking person but I knew we needed to go. So this is a testimony to me that if we put our will along with god's he will put people, events, and trials in our path to make us a better person. I know that if we have our will the same with God's all things are possible and we are doing what he wants us to do.

I love yall and I hope yall have a good week. Don’t do anything i wouldn’t do ahahahah

Elder K.Christensen

Jun 10th Pics

His new car 2013 Ford Fusion (just alittle jealous)

The alligator dog treats he tried (refer back to his letter)

Yes Kendall is just alittle.................special

Alligator Poeboy

Plan of Salvation

 

Jun 10th Letter

Good Morning Real World!!!!!!!!!!!

How was everyone’s week been??? Mine was pretty awesome not going to lie.

It’s beginning to get HOT! I know that I say this every e-mail but I just want you to keep that in mind for the people who live in the land of desolation.

(Elder Cornwall calls this place land of desolation)

On Monday we had the opportunity to go to Shawn Beards house, and have dinner and to join him for FHE can I say I am pretty amazed every time we go over to his house. He was teaching his 7 year old daughter about prayer and you can’t even tell we taught him he is like a member who has grown up in the church all of his life it’s amazing. I love him he is amazing and he even helped us this week moving our stuff from one apartment to the other. He was so willing and he was so dedicated in helping the Lord’s servants.

Tuesday was AMANDA'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was a busy day for me. I did service all day we are helping the Ripley's with yard work and everything and anything to get the prepared for their wedding for this Saturday. We were out planting plants now you might think that this is easy to do. But it is different out here in Texas. We have Clay dirt and it sucks to dig I broke there shovel trying to dig. (Whoops). We spent 6 hours in the 90+ weather shoveling it was awesome I loved it. We had the opportunity to have dinner with them afterwards it’s awesome cause we get on the subject of food a lot I mention that I want to try Alligator. They were like well we have all natural alligator dog treats. So they dared me to eat one so the son Ryan and I both ate one. It was not bad but the after taste was nasty. The barley taste nasty and on top of that there was bone in it and that was nasty then my stomach was hurting for like two days but I got over it.

Wednesday we had a busy day moving stuff from one apartment to another. We spent most of our day doing that. We had one of the most intense lesson I have ever had, we have this investigator named Shannon Munoz now she is interesting. She likes to be very conniving so she was asking us conventional question like homosexuality, etc. and she was asking us what our stance was on it and we told her that we love the person but we don’t accept the sin and I told her that like 20 times. She was always trying to find little things to make us back down or confound us but it didn’t work. She answered her own question with our answer and then she ask about the word of wisdom and that was annoying cause she was like well you can have soda and not coffee they both have caffeine and both are addicted. So if you can see this is the type of person we are dealing with and trying to find fault in everything we say. But the one cool thing was I found a way to talk to her about the restoration and when I gave the first vision it was intense. The spirit was so strong everything was quiet and you can tell she was fighting with the spirit I know for a fact she felt the spirit and she knows that this is true she is just looking for things she likes and run with it but we will work on it.

Saturday we had another powerful lesson. We are still working with our eternal investigator Michael. This time we brought a member who is very smart about church history. Cause he is having a hard time with Joseph Smith. Michael has been doing a lot of research online about Joseph Smith and is getting a lot of Negative Stuff!! So it was awesome that our member was there. He told him basically it is impossible for us to gain a testimony off of the stuff we read on the Internet. I thought that was so profound. This can deal with people like him or just in general But during this lesson we were able to get him reading the Book of Mormon. We told him that he can’t get a foundation and a testimony about Joseph Smith without reading the Book of Mormon. He committed to come to church but he didn’t. I am FRUSTRATED WITH HIM!!!!!!!!!!! So yesterday we went over to his house and we found him outside studying. We talked with him and he said that he know he has to fast and he is studying what the bible says about fasting. I ask him why do you want to fast he said that the only way he is going to get his answer is if he fasts. I was shocked. Finally after all these visits some things are clicking in his head. So he is going to fast soon and we are going to join him.

To end this letter on a good note we talked with Sydney this week and figured out who was going to baptize her and confirm her on The 22nd of June and she has asked Elder Cornwall to................. BAPTIZE her and Elder Christensen to..................... CONFIRM her. She will be my fifth person I have been able to give the Holy Ghost to and Elder Cornwall’s First Baptism. But this week is her wedding and we are invited to it.

I am so grateful for the life I have been giving and how I can use my Personality to share to others and touch other people’s life. I love Texas and I definitely know why I am out here!!!!!!

I love YALL

Elder Christensen