Feb 21

What the no email from my family this week?! Jerks. Thank you, Jenseny, for your happy valentines email. Good to know somebody loves me. ; )

Oh well! I got a DearElder. The official title on my nametag is! Elder. The French word for Elder is Ancien, but it's only used for old person. So, we're just Elder. :) Also! Please continue to post my emails on the blog. Thanks boss. :)

You figured out about the investigators huh? They're based off of people that our teachers taught during their missions. It's neat. :) I'm glad Dad's happy and working, and I'm glad you're not TOO overwhelmed. :)

The capacity of Rumors to explode into straight up insanity in here is..... formidable. :P

I don't know anything about those earmuffs, and the boxed quad is my old scripture set, so I don't need it.

Did you get my letter? Will Dad be able to send my some pepper spray? Also will it cause problems if I mail that to Germany? Just curious. :P Hows my watch coming? Any word yet? Now I realize why I don't have an email from you. I figured it out. :P DearEldering me with responses to all these questions definitely works best while I'm in the MTC. Speaking of, we hit our four week mark tomorrow! Also Matt Roundy.... Left today. Jerk. He was only in for THREE WEEKS! Jerk. Again. :P Oh! Pres. Monson didn't come to that fireside, we got Elders Holland and Nelson instead. Pretty good I'd say. :)

So! This week has been phenomenal. We had an incredibly spiritual experience with our investigator Laurence (girl) when we started singing hymns at the beginning of all of our lessons. Also, there are only two companionships in my district, which means both of us get to teach twice a day every day! I thought that was normal, until I realized that in other districts where there are four or five companionships they might not even get to teach every day, let alone twice. I'm very grateful for that added blessing. :)

We watched an address by Elder Bednar that was given this year at the MTC at Christmas. It was an incredible discours on how to forget yourself and what it really means to be Christlike and to be a missionary. There was one part in particular I wanted to share with you. Elder Bednar stated "In my mind the natural man can only be compared to one thing.... The Cookie Monster." and then said in a very poor immitation of said monster "ME WANT COOKIE NOW! ME WANT BAPTISM NOW! ME WANT ME WANT ME WANT!" It was hysterical, probably the funniest thing I've ever heard in the MTC, and at the same time it was SO TRUE! People always focus on what we want, how our lives are going, how we're doing, and to be Christlike is the exact opposite of that. Turning out where the natural man would turn in. It was stellar. :)

At the temple today I found out some interesting facts. The Provo temple is the busiest temple in the world. There are fourty-eight HUNDRED ordinance workers currently working at the Provo Temple. Between baptisms, sealings, endowments, and initiatories, they perform fourteen to sixteen THOUSAND ordinances Every. Single. Day. Holy Cow! No wonder they're building a new temple in Provo, huh? :P

Oh! My schedule! Well, It changes every day, but I'll just read you my thursday schedule exactly.

5:50 - get up and shower

6:15 - service assignment

8:00 - Breakfast

8:30 - Study time

11:10 - Gymn time

12:45 - Lunch

1:30 - Language study

2:45 - Classroom time

5:45 - Dinner

6:30 - classroom time

9:30 - return to residence hall

10:30 - Lights out.

We teach in both class hours every day except for Sundays and Tuesdays (P-days)

So! We're busy Elders. :)

Ah! I'm about out of time, but never out of things to say! Well, that's not always true. :P I've just noticed something here that I want to share really quickly. I've been a District Leader this whole time, and I've had a lot of opportuinity to help my fellow missionaries overcome any problems they may have, and this is what I've learned. You can't fix people's problems. Too many times we, as friends, parents, or leaders, try to fix people's problems for them. "Oh you're sad? Clowns. BAM! Problem solved" But that's not how life works. The best thing we can do for people is to listen to them, to REALLY focus on what they have to say, and then ask them questions to try and help them figure out how to fix their problem on their own. If you help a chicken hatch, it will die because it's too weak to survive. God gives each of us trials so that WE can learn and grow, and if you're solving people's problems fo them you're not helping anyone. Think about how God feels, watching all of His children down here making mistakes and doing things wrong and hurting themselves and eachother. He wants SO BADLY to reach down here and do it for us, to just make our sadnesses disappear, but He won't, because He loves us enough to let us do it on our own.

That's all I got. Keep up the wonderful examples that you all are! I love you!

--
Elder Christensen

Feb 14

I'm so glad to hear that Dad is doing well, and that YOU are doing well! There is definitely power in prayer, I've experienced that first hand. Our investigator Laurence (girl) has just been scared to death to pray about the truth of the Book of Mormon, so yesterday we talked through prayer with her and we got down on our knees and had her say a prayer right there, and it was wonderful! You don't notice it sometimes, but praying REALLY makes a difference. :) And as for you wanting to get released as ward chorister, I'm sure you will.... Just as soon as you don't want to be released anymore. God has a sense of humor? ; )

 

How are Jenseny and Joshua doing? I love getting mail from them so much! Is jenseny less sick? How's her hip doing? Josh doing alright in school and stuff? DID LADY GAGA REALLY DIE?! (Yeah.... That's what we worry about in here... :P) Also! I finally found the underground tie-trading network. I traded off one of the light blue boxy ties I had from Mr. Mac for a super chic silver paisley one, but now I have too many paisleys. :P I'm all about quality over quantity, so by the time I leave here I intend to have a tie collection that would make any man blink. That's definitely far down on my list of priorities though, behind things like, oh, learn the gospel? ; )

 

Our teaching is going great! We have two "Investigators" right now, Laurence and Fiacre. Laurence is not a Christian, and Fiacre is a Jehovahs Witness! He's tough... But he has a good heart and he knows what's right. They're both progressing wonderfully, it's so rewarding to spend days testifying to these people with no effect, only to have them read a few chapters in the book of Mormon and all of a sudden BAM! They start to actually LISTEN and WANT to learn, instead of just put up with the missionaries. It's incredible. :)

 

I found a favorite french hymn! It's number 179 in the French "Cantiques", mais il n'exist pas en Anglais. It's called "Souviens-toi", or "Remember" in english. I took the liberty of spending an HOUR yesterday translating the words into English for all of you, it bears such a beautiful testimony of a life before this one, a life we can't quite remember, I want you all to read it!

-Remember, oh my child, thy divine parents. You will be in their arms, the time is not far off. But for now you are here in this glorious day, and your gaze shines again reflecting what's within. Speak to me, oh my child, of this blessed scene. For, for you the veil is light, share with me your sight.

-Remember, oh my child, the towns and woods and plains. Can we here on Earth below even imagine? And the sky, til the night, is it pink or grey? The sun up there, does it wait for snow or for rain? Tell to me, oh my child, the colour of that place, and of the birds that sing a song of a forgotten world.

-Remember, oh my child, at the dawn of time. We were with all our friends, playing in the wind. And one day we can be in the joy that comes from the choice to follow the Lord's great plan of life, for tonight, oh my child, we have promised him that by love and by faith we'll be there once again.

 

Isn't that gorgeous?! Hymn number 179 in the French hymnbook, look it up on Lds.org as soon as you get the chance, I want you all to hear it!

 

That's the thought I want to leave you with today. Nous sommes tous les enfants de Dieu, et Il nous aime. Nous avons HABITÉ avec lui, pas juste resté avec, mais vraiment habité. Avec nos familles et nos amis. Et, un jour, si nous sommes dilligent, nous pouvons retourner chez lui, et y habiter encore. Je sais que Notre Père Céleste nous aime plus que nous pouvons imaginer, et à travers l'évangile de son fils Jésus-Christ, nous serons avec lui encore. Et je dise ces choses au nom de Jésus-Christ, amen.

 

Well, I gotta run! Um, I feel like I'm forgetting one of your questions... Just Dear Elder me so I can respond. Also!

 

I love all of you! Stay true to the faith! A la prochain!

--
Elder Christensen

Feb 7

Alright, now lets get to the good stuff hmm? My week! It started out busy, and ended busy, like always. I'm still going to be here for 9 weeks. Both myself and the counselors really felt strongly that I should be here, even though my French is more than good enough to allow me to move on. Since then my entire district has grown closer to me because I stayed, and I've seen a few other evidences as well that this really is where I need to be. Overall, I've had my faith sincerely rewarded by being shown that I made the right choice. :) We have 50 minutes of gym time five days a week, so I get to play VOLLEYBALL! I love volleyball! :D Also they gave us a stretchy "Exercise band" With our MTC health guide, which I promptly turned into a Lamanite headdress. Among other things. My french is coming back to me really fast! And the rest of the guys are learning quicker than I thought would be possible. The gift of tongues is real, and it's working hard! I thank Heavenly Father for it every day. :) We had our first "investigator" commit to baptism on our final visit with her, and now she's one of our teachers! Yesterday we started teaching our next two "Investigators", A Hindu and a Jehovah's Witness. Yikes! It's really cool, our teachers take experiences that they had on their missions and they help us experience them as well, so these investigators are real people out there in the world somewhere! It also gives us opportunity to exercise prayer, since these are real stories there is always something key about them in the conversion process, and if we skip over it it doesn't go so well. We pray every day to know what they need to hear and how we can best teach them. I love it. :) But more than I love this, would I love to be in Canada. I'm so excited! The general impression I keep getting of missionary work is "gee, that would be so easy..... in English...." hah! I thought it was funny. :) We have a General authority come speak to us every Tuesday, and last week we got Elders Holland AND Nelson! It was great! I'm really looking forward to tonight's as well! The food here is good...... but an Elder in my zone is a health science major and continually tells us how much of it is made of plastic and not good for us. We have some really fun mealtimes with him (Elder Coffey, cool huh?) man, I don't even know what else to say! I'm in a trio now with ANOTHER Elder Christensen, and my original companion Elder Bangerter, because Elder Christensen's companion went on to the advanced program. I love both of them. :) In my room there are us three, and two Portuguese Elders. Elders Hobbs and McCallister. I love them both. We have a room prayer every night, and they're way funny guys. I don't think I've met a person I don't like since being here. I saw Elder Roundy at the temple today!! It's so neat seeing him around here! That Elder is going far. :) Man oh man, I'm really running out of time here... uh.... Hmm. Let me just close with a quick testimony, I know the church is true! So true! I couldn't deny it before, but since being here I've been able to see the spirit flying about all day every day and I LOVE IT! Watching missionaries learn about the gospel and their languages so fast they're like robots, seeing and feeling all the love, this really is one of the happiest places I've ever been, and I love it. And that's about it for now, Au nom du Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Love always,

Elder Justin Christensen

First letter

And here are some excerpts from his first letter:

So! The MTC! I'm in zone 46, district H. I am the district leader, and there are no sisters in my district. We have six Elders, myself and my companion (Elder Bangerter), Elders Anthian and Christensen (cool huh?), and Elders Montross and Shearer. We all get along really well, so being the district leader at this point is like a cake-walk. :P My companion is from kaysville, he's a great young man that..... wasn't really sure if he wanted to be here. He's never studied much in the scriptures, didn't finish seminary, all sorts of things like that, and we had a sincere heart to heart chat about it like our second day here. Since then I've been able to watch his testimony and ability to speak french (Which were non-existant) grow exponentially. We've taught our "investigator" Terrancia three times now. The first lesson was me, talking, about nothing, while he sat there and said nothing. It was pretty bad. This last lesson was mostly him having her read scriptures and asking her about them, with me merely making sure she was understanding, explaining when she had complicated questions, and generally playing back up for Elder Bangerter. He bore the most beautiful testimony of baptism I have ever heard, in broken and barely intelligible French, and brought the spirit so strong you could SMELL it. We left that lesson walking on air, because both of us knew the spirit had been there testifying right along-side us, it was incredible! I wish I could show you the difference in our teaching style from our first lesson to now, I know we still have a lot to learn but Heavenly Father has definitely been teaching us more than we ever thought we could learn already. I love it here. :)

I ran into sister Bice on my first day here, and I see her at the end of every mealtime because she comes in right after me. It's pretty cool. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the MTC, and we're going to get some pictures with some mutual friends of ours at the fireside their having tonight (Because the choir all sits together, you see). Also, it's rumored that President Monson could be coming. No one knows anything for sure yet, but whatever's happening is going to be pretty big. 300 extra guests will be in attendance. If Pres. Monson comes I'll probably get to talk to him, because he was mission president of the Montreal Canada mission and there are only six missionaries in the MTC going there. :D

I've run into...... ten people that I already knew so far. One of whom is my zone leader Micheal Taylor (I was in French and Choir with him all through High-School). Also neat. :)

Umm.... Um... Um... did you have any other questions that I forgot? Also, is my alarm clock and/or driver license there yet? When can I expect a package from you? Will you ever be writing me letters, or will it mostly just be through e-mail? How's everyone doing? I'm glad you're not missing me too much. ; ) I know that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. I don't know if I need to stay here or go off to Canada just yet, but I do know that I am in the hands of God, and that He will help me to know whither I should go. This church is true. I know you already know that, but I want you to know that I know it. Undoubtedly, I can feel the spirit here everywhere I go. I've seen men who never spoke french in their lives learn in three days what it took me three years to learn, and I've seen testimonies LITERALLY grow from a seed into a tree, right before my eyes. And I've only been out here for five days. The moral of the story? With God, all things are possible. Without him, we don't have much going for us. I love you mom and dad. Thanks for raising me right. :)

Also! I left that black LSD flashlight somewhere in the basement...... and I brought like ten spare batteries for it.... I'd like that too if you ever find it. :) Also I'm out of time, ta da!

Love you!

-Think not about how inexperienced you are, or think you are. Think only about what, through the Lord, you can become.

-Elder Russel M. Nelson.

-All the Lord asks of us is everything we have, and even though that's not enough, it is for Him.
-- Elder Justin Ray Christensen

Jan 25

Elder Justin Christensen was safely delivered to the MTC at 12:40 on Wednesday, January 25, 2012. Give or take a minute. I was impressed, if I do say so myself, that we managed to deliver him pretty much exactly when he was told to be there.

I wasn't sure how emotional I'd be about it. We made sure to give all our hugs the night before, and that morning. Josh and Jens went off to school, Dad and I went off to work. Then I went back home and got Justin, took him by the store to get his flu shot. (I don't have the letter with his actual instructions, but Justin understood his instructions to be "wait until the last minute before you go into the MTC to get your flu shot." I understood them to be "Get your flu shot as soon as possible." The pharmacist was a little concerned about reaction to the flu shot. For future reference: Get the immunization sooner rather than later.)

The pharmacist had us hang around for 10 minutes in order to watch for a reaction. We mosied, bought a few things, mosied some more. Then Justin couldn't stand it any  more. "Can we go now?" We asked the pharmacist and he said fine. It had been 7  minutes. This boy has somewhere far more important to be, and he wanted to BE there!

We picked up the little sister (who had been texting us frantically. I had told her "We might not have time to come get you before he has to be there," to which she responded, "But you're going to come get me, right?" about 5 times. Fortunately we did, in fact, have time.) and headed to the MTC.

Wow! It's changed a little since I was there, almost 30 years ago. We were actually a few minutes early, but getting into the parking lot took a few minutes. It was Very Impressive, seeing all those elders lining the driveway, waiting eagerly to greet the new arrivals. We pulled up, Justin hopped out, "Elder So-and-So! (I didn't hear his name.) I KNOW  you!!!" (Well, THERE's a shocker.) And off he went with nary a backward glance. All righty then. Guess we'll be on our way.

So Jens and I went out to lunch. She had a dr. appt. (Yet another one.) We had a lovely time. Burger King in AF does not have WiFi, in case you were wondering. Dr. visit was productive, and I got back to work at a reasonable time.

And so begins his Grand Adventure. 8-)