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