Jan 21st Letter

AHH I can’t believe that I have 3 more weeks. I know I’m coming home but I home here!!

This last transfer has been a very good one for us. It has been very productive and this week has been that way also.

Monday I was able to go down to the Spring Branch to visit with the Rios Family. It was sad to say good bye to them. When I got down there, Not everyone was there the mom was gone with her uncle in the hospital, The dad was at work, and the kids were in and out of the house but I was able to say good bye to some.

Tuesday was awesome. We went to dinner at the Johnson's. We pulled onto the street they lived on and we saw the girls on the corner of the street waiting for us to come!. They were so excited to see us. They gave us all menus for dinner and they put us in certain spots. It was awesome. They are cute kids. And I love how excited they get when we come around Missionaries have that ability to make them go wild both good and bad sometimes for the parents.

Wednesday was a slower day not a lot going on I sat there thinking what we could do to make this place better and get work going I remember a member telling us about how we should go do service at a nursing home so this was sitting on my mind, so we went over there to visit with them to see if we could do some service!. We talked with the lady who was in charge of the activities and she was curious of why we were there. We told her our purpose and what we do. She was surprised that we came in. For one she didn't know there was Mormons here in Navasota and that she was happy we came by to help. She was looking for people and was about to call the High school asking for people and we showed up. She was happy I’m pretty sure we can get teaching opportunities at this place!

Friday we went to Caldwell population of Maybe 5,000 we had district meeting there. Their church is in a warehouse that was converted to a church it’s awesome! We had a good lesson on the plan of salvation then we went to a member's house where they wanted to demo a house! I got to use a sledgehammer and ax Etc. It was awesome. It is also a great stress reliever yall should try it just don’t get hurt. Luckily I didn’t!!!!

Saturday is going to be our bingo day we play bingo twice a day. I’m going to be so good at it! But this time was awesome. So we went looking for the bingo stuff and they never put it in the same spot all the time! We went looking for it when a man stop us and said "hey yall are Mormons'' I said yes sir we are. He later told us he is Jewish and that he studied our religion and read the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and that he lost it and wanted another copy. So we gave him one and a potential investigator!! How well did that work out for us!

In closing I’m excited to be able to come home and be with yall! I’m nervous and mixed emotions but I’m ready. I know it might be hard for the first while but it’s something that is going to be worth it. I’m so thankful for all that yall do and thank you for your support. I’m grateful for the time I have to serve my Father in Heaven and to be a missionary. I know the time is short but it’s going to be well worth it. I hope all yall have a great week and I will see yall and talk with yall real soon

Love

Elder Kendall Christensen

Jan 13th Pics

 

At Blue Bell Ice Cream

Oatmeal with Dinosaur eggs. Haven't seen those in years!!

Yum!!!

With less active member and his coworker

 

Jan 13th Letter

WHATS UP!!!

How was yalls week been? The life in Navasota is going pretty awesome so far!

This week we didn’t really do anything really new or exciting it’s sad to let you know that there wasn’t anything really exciting that happened

 Let’s gets to it and let you know what has been going on!!

P-day last week was fun we went to the blue bell ice cream factory! We toured it with some members of the district and some from my last district! It was really fun. We went to lunch than we spent the rest of the p-day in college station and had p-day with the rest of our zone. It was pretty fun

 This week we met with Joe and Elizabeth twice on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon! They are really close to the date of the 2nd for baptism. They came to church this week yes both of them which is awesome! We had branch conference and the stake president wanted to meet with them I heard that it went well. We taught them about the plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ with the law of chastity. They are accepting all of it and don’t have questions so far, the funny thing is they are surprised of how many rules missionaries have to keep and follow. They say we have a hard way of life to live but it isn’t that bad. We had the chance to hear Elizabeth pray for the very first time on Wednesday she isn’t much of one to pray in front of everyone but the prayer that she gave was very powerful. That is one thing I’m going to miss is a son and daughter of god, praying to their father in heaven for the very first time. That is a moment that hits you hard and you can feel the spirit. Joe's prayer was awesome also. He is literally talking with him, and he really likes us and enjoys when we come over to teach them. Oh i almost forgot so we taught them the word of wisdom last week and they are still continuing with that. The cool part of it is that when Elizabeth goes and drinks her coffee in the morning she has problems with her gallbladder. But when she doesn’t drink coffee she is perfectly fine. She told us that God is sending her a message saying that she needs to stop drinking!

 

Yesterday was an awesome day for me personally!  We had branch conference and the stake presidency members and the quorum leaders were all there. Sacrament meeting was awesome It really spoke to me. They had all their talks on 2 Nephi 4 which is known as Nephi's lamentation. The branch president and stake president are up there talking and I’m down in the audience just marking up my scriptures. It was one of those sacrament meetings that we had all the time it was awesome. But the cool thing was the stake president came up to me and talk and was thankful for all we do in this branch he said that he is so glad we have super missionaries like you in this branch he also said that if I ever came to college station that he has an apartment for me to stay at and my family when I come through. This guy is genuine sincere and nice he has met me twice and has stated that. That is awesome.

 

After conference we went to our appointment at ambulance station. There is a non-active member over there and we are able to meet with him. I get there and it made me Truckee haha i won’t lie it did. I get there and it was so real. I thought I was visiting dad at the station. We go in and sit down on the couches and it felt like I was talking to dad when he was at work. I was talking to him about being a paramedic and about the ambulance service at home. My comps just sat there while I was talking to him and his coworker. The funniest part was all of the sudden you get there pager going off! I was like AH MAN THEY ARE GETTING CALLED OUT what happen is they cover a county and there is 3 ambulances that cover it but 2 of them where on calls so they had to go in the center of the county to cover the whole district. It was awesome being there. Before we left he said can we have a prayer so I gave the prayer and I got pictures with him. BUT IT WAS SO AWESOME. While I sat there, I knew for sure that is something I want to do for my career.!!!

 Missionary Moment

 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are graven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them forth learning and the profit of my children. - 2 Nephi 4:15

 

Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?- D&C 19:39

This is how I feel right now I am truly converted to reading the scriptures. They are amazing I can’t go a day without reading them. They help my day go so much better I just can’t tell you enough how much I love them!!! I encourage you to continue reading them, study them and ponder the message they have it will truly bless your life. I was reading the sons of Mosiah being missionaries and the experiences they have converting thousands of people. It gives me more motivation to become so much better and find those people that are out here. I just want to continue doing this when I come home it’s truly amazing.

 

I love yall be safe this week I think about yall all the time. But don’t become trunky haha

Love

Elder Kendall Christensen

Jan 6th Pics

Editor's note: For some unknown reason, the blog is having difficulty uploading Kendall's pictures for this week up on the blog. I will be trying again later to see if the problem has been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience!!

Jan 6th Letter

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL YALL!!!!!!!

This week was a very productive week and a week that seemed to go as plan and some things popped up for us that turned out awesome for us. So here is a week in a life of an elder from Navasota

 This week was a week of having Member present lessons that is one stat that the mission focuses on a lot because it give the members involved and it’s the stat that counts a lot. So this week was full of them one of them was our Tuesday dinner appointment as she told us she is having her friend come over she is a non-member and lives in Dallas. The member told us to have a Good lesson and so we did the cool part about it was she was down here for a week and she came to church yesterday and this is the best part she wants the missionaries to come over to her house!!! So we got her info and sending missionaries in the Dallas mission over there. I love it when members bring their friends to dinner or and activity and missionaries are there. It makes an environment that is not too pushy and intimidating. Than they want to meet with the missionaries when they feel the spirit and see that we are not that bad and we have a gift for everyone!!

 Friday was a fun night. It has been getting so cold here right now it’s about 30-ish and it’s blowing and in the night it gets cold so we got invited to a members house for a bon fire. It was warm and toasty!  It was so much fun playing on their huge swing and having troubles and falling in front of them. It’s entertaining for the kids and its funny with this family; they have a nickname for me I’m Elder Batman. They have given us all nicknames Elder Bryan is Elder Candy Man and Elder Sneed doesn’t have one yet but he will get one tho haha

 Saturday and Sunday were busy days for us.

Saturday we visited with Aubrey and Raven they are the 9 year old girls we teach. Well when we were there we taught them and then there grandpa came in and kinda distracted them, But it was good cause we were able to teach him and he is having us over to his house so we can teach him also which is totally awesome. We also met people at a store and we talked with him about what we do and why we are out here! It was just awesome people were just in our paths and we were able to talk with them!!

 

Sunday was interesting but before that we had 3 investigator come to church 54 people attended our branch and 3 of them are investigators. That is awesome One of them was Joe O'Neill, the other were members friends!! Missionary work is real hot out here in Navasota.  We got a call from a member saying he wants us to come bless this house we were like alright we will. We go there and it’s a member’s neighbor’s house and they told us some things that have been going on in there so we blessed the house. Afterward we ask them if we can come by and they said yes. But the funny thing was we found out there last name, and they are a potential family we have been looking for, for about 3 months!!!! So that was way crazy,

 

 

 

 

Joe and Elizabeth!

 

They are doing awesome they are so far good for the 2nd of Feb for baptism. We have been over there teaching them the plan of salvation and word of wisdom. On Saturday Elizabeth wasn’t there for our lesson so we went over yesterday and when we were there they had friends over and they sat down for the lesson and they liked it also. They committed to read more and live the word of wisdom which is awesome. So Saturday when we went over there and they had there inactive father in law and he just went at us pretty much bashing with us. It was ridiculous! But it’s whatever but here is the best part of all this so Joe came to church yesterday for the second time in 3 weeks. It was fast and testimony meeting which you don’t have control of sometimes and it could be crazy but it wasn’t this time.  After the meeting I was talking with Joe and you can tell he was thinking a lot. I asked him what is up? He told me something really powerful he said that when we took him to the church for the first time he was pretty comfortable. The second time he was really familiar with it and loved it but this time was different. He said that when he was in the Hospital he saw this very chapel with this girl in a yellow bow sitting at church and this week there was a girl in a yellow bow and he said that God is sent him a message earlier and he recognized it! He was telling me that God is sending him a message that this is what he is supposed to do. So he is doing some praying and pondering to make sure this is what he wants to do!!! I thought that was super powerful and I know for a fact that God does prepare people. I know that for a fact. I have seen it many times out here he is hastening his work!!!!

 

Missionary Message

 

This week I was reading the Book of Mormon and I found a lot cool things. I LOVE READING It seems like whenever I start to read it I can’t put it down its addicting!!! I love the scriptures!!

 

This week I was reading in the book of messiah with King Benjamin’s address to the people and I found this to be awesome. I found this and it will help me when I become a parent  Mosiah 4: 14-16

 

 

 

14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye  suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the devil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

 

 15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

 

 16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

 

I know that the scriptures can help us out in our lives. It can tell us how to become better in every aspect of our lives. I know that the power of God is real so is the atonement. I have had my testimony of the atonement become stronger lately! I know we need to use it! If we do he will bless us. I’m grateful for all that you do!

 

I love yall and stay safe.

Elder Kendall Christensen

Dec 26th and 30th Pics

Frost

Christmas Eve P-Day

The Quinn Family had them over for Christmas Eve

Christmas Breakfast

Enjoying his first fire in the fireplace out there.

Dec 30th Letter

Good Morning!!!!!!!!!

How are yall doing? It was good to visit with yall on Christmas! Even though we had some struggle with the internet connection but that is Navasota for ya!

Here is what happened this week.

On Monday was our  Mission Christmas Conference and it was really good this year but not as good as last years but it’s all good. This year there was two Mission Conferences due to the mission being really big. President Pingree and others talked about Christ and his role in our life. The highlight of the conference was seeing all the other missionaries I haven’t seen for a while but one the coolest part was President Pingree. So we had a projector that was on the whole time which at this point is going on about 4 hours and not being turned off. Well someone was up singing and all of the sudden I smelled smoke and I was on the front row. I looked back and the paper that was covering the project caught on fire! It was a flame with lots of smoke. But good ol President made a joke saying it was kryptonite holy cow it even melted part of a hymn book. Ha ha it was the funniest thing i have seen in a while

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was really good. The highlight was being able to talk with yall. But we got treated very well for the holidays. We went to members houses for Christmas and Christmas Eve and had a lot of food. MMMMHMMM!!!

MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Have 2 Baptismal Dates for 2nd of FEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our investigators Joe and Elizabeth O'neill accepted that date!!!!!!! Man Iwas so happy when they said yes. It was awesome how the topic of baptism was brought up several times during our lesson with them. The whole Branch was so excited to hear the progress that we are making, and everyone else is shocked that we got 2 dates. They are just progressing really well so far. We met with them on Thursday and had dinner with them and a lesson it was good. They are actually remembering what we are teaching and it’s just going really smoothly I’m so stoked.

Missionary Moment

Today I was doing my reading and I found something in a section of the Doctrine of Covenants, it’s in section 46. I read this yesterday but I looked over it again. It talks about the gifts of the spirit and the gifts that we can find in ourself. I encourage yall and I am doing it myself to find what gifts of the spirit that we have in ourselfs.

Also I had the opportunity to give my second talk so far on my mission. The first one was on Mother’s Day of 2012 and then it was yesterday. I gave the talk on “How to live the gospel more fully" I focused more of my talk on prayer and how that can affect us in living it more fully and help with missionary work. Here are some quotes from my talk :

“Heavenly Father is pleased when you get on your knees and ask for help, and then get on your feet and go to work. He will help you in all righteous pursuits, but he seldom will do something for you, that you can do yourself" - True To the Faith

“This Gospel is an intimate thing. It is not some distant concept; It is applicable in our lives. IT CAN CHANGE OUR VERY NATURE"- Pres Hinckley

In closing I want to let all yall know I love you and that I pray for you often. I enjoy the opportunity I have each week to write yall an email. Sooner than later it will be in person and it will be better, I have much love for yall and think about yall constantly and how yall are doing.

Love

Elder Kendall Christensen