Mar 27

He has arrived!! (And he did call me at 6:15 in the morning.) He sent me this email just a little while ago:

I made it!

Hey momma! Just thought I'd let you know that I made it safely to mission conference and I LOVE it here! I'll write more on P-day, love you bye!

--
Elder Christensen

Mar 26

I LEAVE THE MTC TOMORROW!!!!

 

Holy cow. Holy cow. Holy. Cow. SO! I don't have a ton of time to write but I figured I'd cover a few little bases with you right now. So! Apparently there's a lot of hype about calling your family from the airport before you leave or something. I thought I'd let you know that I probably won't call. A) no-one will be home tomorrow morning, B) You don't really have time, and C) Mother's day is in like a month and I'm going to call you then. So. I hope you're not too cut up about not hearing from me tomorrow.

 

I don't really have time today, but I thought I'd share a quick thought! I just watched the movie "Mountain of the Lord" last night, about the construction of the Salt Lake temple, and I thought I'd share something I LEARNED with you! And you might already know this, but! They wanted to name utah "deseret" initially, but a senator who wasn't favorably disposed towards us didn't like that so he proposed the name "utah" instead, after the Ute indians. This is the crazy part. In the language of the Utes, "utah" Means the top of the mountains. There's a scripture in Isaiah that reads "In that day shall the mountain of the Lord's house be established in the top of the mountains...." ......OH MY GOSH!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! That's about what my brain did when I found that out. Just sayin. So! The church be true. And stuff. :) Also! In French we call our investigators "Amis de l'Église". In english that means "friends of the church". Isn't that awesome? That means I spend all my time thinking about how I can help out, and what I'm going to do for, my friends. Isn't that great?! If there's one thing I know how to do, it's make new friends. :) The Church is true! I'm so excited to get to Canada and start sharing the joy of this gospel with all of my friends in Canada! I love you!

--
Elder Christensen

CANADA ADDRESS

Per Justin's - er, I mean, Elder Christensen's - last letter, he's leaving the MTC on March 27 (Tuesday) at 4AM. If there's any chance your letter won't get to him before Tuesday, then please address it here:

CANADA MONTREAL MISSION
470 Rue Gilford, Ste 300
Montreal, QC H2J 1N3
Canada

Mar 20

(A note from Mom: SO SORRY, Everyone, for neglecting the blog. I just got busy, and then caught a nasty cold this past week. Here ya go!!)

Hey Friends and family!

Alrighty! This week has been awesome! We got flight plans last Thursday. I depart the MTC on Tuesday the 27th (In one week) at four in the morning. :D That means that any mail that would arrive here after that point won't get to me, so PLEASE go find my Canada mission address on one of those post cards, and update my mailing address on Facebook and the blog. I'M SO EXCITED TO GO TO CANADA!!! :D :D :D Man, Our branch presidency talked to us about enduring the end, and the special blessings the Lord has in reserve for those missionaries who stay at the MTC until the very end Mentally as well as physically, so I'm working on that, but it's tough some days! But I'll do good. Also! Neat story, I was on a Sunday walk to the temple two days ago, about to leave to go home, when up comes Mike Woofenden, building coordinator, to ask us for some help. We got to go into the provo temple while it was closed and empty to help him lift a HUGE bench from behind the pulpit in the chapel where you wait before endowment sessions. Apparently they've installed a mural behind the bench. It was SO COOL to be walking around inside the house of the Lord in UTTER silence! I can't even express to you how great that opportunity was. Also, my new companion elder Maryott is doing physical therapy after having had surgery on his right shoulder, so I get to leave MTC campus with him twice a week every week! I go to babylon all the time! :D It's really weird being in provo now, because I can't look at or think about anything the same way that I did before. Everything changes through the eyes of a missionary. Hmm... What else.... We threw birthday parties! We decided to throw our teachers some surprise birthday parties because we won't be here for their real birthdays. So we got a bunch of balloons, two miniature pine trees (Don't ask how.) and a bunch of other assorted gifts, and threw them each a party! It was very fun, and they were both very appreciative. Apparently no one celebrated Sister Dix's birthday this year but us, even though it was in January. So! It was pretty cool. We got Sister Dix a very manly punk rocker birthday card, and we gave Brother Starita a little pink card that read "For our special little girl." It was so funny I about died watching him read that. Whoo! :)

Also! I got a letter from Daniel Forbes! :D Now I'll be able to keep in touch with them a bit better, so that will be good. Man, there's always so much to talk about and so little time! I have three minutes left, so I'll share a story. My companion had to stay back from the mission field for his surgery. He's been in the MTC for sixteen weeks, and it was REALLY hard on him because He didn't know why that happened to him, and why he couldn't go. It's been a real struggle for him. But! We got a new district of tahitians in, and one of them had some pretty tough struggles as well. Elder Maryott was able to give him a blessing that literally changed his outlook on missionary work, and since then he's only been improving here. Elder Maryott had to stay back here for a reason. There's a moral here. No matter what happens to us, there's always a purpose. God has a plan in mind for each of us, and it's a plan that will make us happy. The only way we can truly experience something sad AND purposeless, is when we make poor choices, fail to listen to the spirit, and inflict it on ourselves. I know this church is true, and I'm so excited to get to CANADA! I pray for them, and you, every day! I love all of you!

--
Elder Christensen

Mar 13

Howdy hoo neighbors! :)

 

Uh.... DearElder me if I forget to mention something important in here.... because I can't remember anything about our home business I was supposed to talk about. Congrats on the License Josh! and Good Luck with your health Jens! I love all of you so much!

 

Anyways, this week has been SO FREAKING GOOD for me! :D So at the start of the week I was having some problems with my district leader who is also my companion, Elder Christensen II. I also started a game in our zone called "Spooning" Where you sneak a spoon into someones pocket without them noticing you do it (SUPER fun game. I highly recommend it). This game (Obviously) Was frowned upon by the branch presidency and so it lasted a grand total of about three days. :P As a consequence of it, our Branch President taught a lesson on obedience in Priesthood, but the focus of it wasn't on obeying the letter of the law, but obeying the spirit of it you could say. It was an incredible lesson That really helped my to understand that GRUDGING obedience isn't obedience at all. Any time the scriptures promise us blessings for obeying something, those blessings become null and void if we don't obey WILLINGLY and cheerfully. Interesting thought. Fortunately, there are no hard feelings about the spoon game directed at the branch presidency or any of the missionaries. (Phew!)

 

Along with that fun game, me and my companion Elder Bangerter have taken to having rubberband fights in our room in the evenings. They're more like wars really, and they're SUPER fun! We were telling our wonderful teacher Sister Dix about them, and after laughing uproariously at our narrations she told us a story from her mission. Sister Dix found out just about halfway through her mission that her Father has Terminal cancer. He's still dealing with it right now, and so she has some pretty rough days sometimes. She told us about how she found that information out at the same time that she was in the hardest part of her mission, spending all day every single day contacting, giving handing over refferals to the Elders because they were single men, watching all the other missionaries getting baptisms every month, giving every single ounce of her spirit to the mission, and not getting any results. Now, in the MTC today they teach us something. If you read in Jacob in the parable of the Olive tree you will find the word "Perhaps" in several verses. Things like how the Lord digged about his trees that PERHAPS they might bring forth good fruit, or that he grafted out branches that PERHAPS he might save the natural tree, and so on and so forth. They teach us nowadays that the Lord does EVERYTHING He does.... for a maybe. That He works constantly, and does everything He possibly can to help us, so that we MIGHT decide to choose the right. We have free agency. Results aren't guaranteed. So they counsel us to work with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, so that we can rest easy knowing that no matter what happens WE have done everthing we could do, that WE have not failed, as long as that principle is true. Because a missionary NEVER FAILS, as long as he or she shows up, and brings the spirit. But, that's a relatively new concept. Back when Sister Dix was out, she was told that if she worked hard, and had faith, she would get baptisms. That people would believe her words and she would have success, based on her faith. Can you see how expectation could be hard on someone? Now add in the knowledge that your dad is going to die. Rough time. Anyways, the story she shared with us was about her mission president. She went in for an interview, and as they were talking he asked the question "Do you like waht you're doing?" She said of Course. "Are you having fun?" This caught her off guard. She had no idea what to say, because she hadn't thought about it. Every second of her life for TRANSFERS had been devoted to finding, to working, to giving her all to the work. The word "fun" didn't seem to apply. So, he challenged her to do something fun every single day. Whether that be having a shaving cream fight in the appartment, or taking a walk by the lake, or eating a donut, whatever it was, to do something FUN every. Single. Day. He told her the same thing Elder Scott talked about in conference a few years ago, that if you can't take a step back and ENJOY what you're doing, you're missing it. The promise of missionary work isn't baptisms, it's that our joy will be full. The promise of life on earth isn't success, it isn't money, it isn't fame, it's joy. Pure and simple. So, for any of you who aren't enjoying your life right now, I have a challenge for you. Do something fun. Every. Single. Day. Don't stop working, don't stop trying, don't stop being the best you can be, but make sure you're having fun too. Make sure you're experiencing joy in what you're doing. Because life was meant to be enjoyed, not just endured. If you take the element of joy out of life you're left with something cold, futile, and confusing. Put it back in and it becomes warm, and things make sense again. Never forget that Joy is our PURPOSE on earth! And through the gospel our Joy can be full. This is my testimony, and I leave it with you in the name of the One who's known the most misery in all the world, the One with the most excuse to complain, and the one who joys the most in our happiness, Even Jesus Christ. Amen.
--
Elder Christensen

Mar 6

Bonjour ma famille!

 

Oy, it's been so long since I wrote you last! not really, but it sure feels that way! well. Where to begin.

 

Thanks for the package! And for the cookiest and stuff. C'était excellent! I really do love getting mail from everyone, especially from you Dad!

  

As for the other letters, Mom, thank you for the late welcoming present. :) And for my priesthood line of authority! I didn't know dad didn't get his priesthood from grandpa... Cool. :)

Also your advice about Fiacre is exactly what we ended up doing, and it worked! He came to church yesterday and he's being baptized on saturday. I'm so excited! Also I might get a new companion again and not get to see it. Grr. We had an elder going to tahiti that had to stay home and get a surgery, so now his whole district has left and he's stuck with us. I THINK I'm going to be his new companion... We'll see. :P

Elder Day, I'll keep my eyes peeled!

 

I'm glad you guys got to attend Sky and Alli's baptism! And that Aunt Vyrl received my testimony in time to read it. I love those kids. :) Tell Josh good luck on his license and stuff, and tell Jens good luck at the specialist, and I love them both, And tell Jake I REALLY loved his dancing for Paco. :) As for the CD, Don't worry about it. Just save it for now.

 

So! My spiritual thought for this week is, again, coming from Isaiah, but I left my scriptures in the classroom and TIMES A WASTING so I'll just wing it. Somewhere in Isaiah there's a verse that says essentially "...I have refined you in the furnace of affliction" And I thought a lot about that this week. How the Lord uses the trials in our lives to shape us into what HE wants us to be. Later in the same chapter there's another verse that says "Oh! Would that you had obeyed my commandments; then would your peace have been like a river and" yadayada something else cool. The POINT is exactly what I said last time, that God doesn't want to send us trials, He doesn't want to watch us suffer, but He does out of love, so He can refine us, so He can lift us, so we can learn and grow and become something better! I got a letter from a dear friend yesterday that said something that I want to share.  In John 17:15 it says "I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from Evil." It's Jesus praying for his Disciples. The point? "He knows we need these experiences, but He has not abandoned us. He did not suffer on Golgotha to leave us alone in our time of need." How true that statement is! In the words of Isaiah, "And I have forsaken you for but a small moment," and then something else about coming back to us and our joy being full forever and ever. (Don't forget your scriptures when giving a spiritual thought. It detracts from the spirit. :P) So. No matter what you're going through, you are never alone. Our speaker this week was Alex Boyé, and it was awesome!! He said that negative talk, doubting yourself, thinking your not good enough, thinking you can't handle something, any of that, is denying the power of Christ. It's spitting in His holy face. For Christ is with us, and with Him, by Him, and THROUGH Him, we. Can. Do. Anything. To say otherwise is to deny the power of Christ, which if you recall Joseph Smith's first vision, is one of the many problems Christ had with the churches of the earth. "They draw near to me with their lips, but they deny the power thereof." So. Don't Deny the power of Christ. Might as well deny the heat of the Sun, eh?

 

Moi, je sais que l'église de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours a été vraiment rétabli sur la face de la terre par l'intermediare du prophet Joseph Smith. Je sais qu'il a vu Dieu, et son fils Jésus-Christ, et que nous tous pouvons les voirs un jour si nous serons toujours fideles à ses commandements. L'église est vrai, et l'église est bien. Moi, je crois en Christ, et cette croyance m'apporte plus de joix que je peux dire. Et ça c'est pourquoi je suis ici, en train de devenir un missionnaire de cet église. Pour partager cette joi. Je vous aime tous, et je vous laisse avec ses mots au sainte nom de Jésus-Christ, Amen.

--
Elder Christensen

Feb 28

Somtimes these comupters don't have the option to put the keyboard in french, which is really frustrating because by now I'm used to typing in French and so it takes me SIGNIFICANTLY longer to do it in english. Grrr....

 

Anyways, how are things going?! Did you get my last letter? I hope Jenseny enjoyed my stories from the MTC. Tell Dad I'm sorry about all the testing and security nonsense at work, if it makes him feel better there are idiots that do things like that everywhere, even here at the MTC. Sad but true. AH! MY WATCH IS BACK!! :D I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about that. A missionary without his watch is like a sheep without....... three of it's legs. It's bad. So thank you. And! Thank you for the nutella which I am about to enjoy. :)

 

I thought you all should know, I've been praying for everyone.... In french. So if something REALLY unusual happens to any of you, I probably asked for it by accident. Just say a prayer of thanks to God for listening to my prayers.... And having a sense of humor. :P

 

Alright! Time to talk about the week eh? I met a girl today who's dad went to the Montreal Canada mission. It was cool. Also I've noticed a severe surplus of people here from my high school lately. I was wondering about how strange it was that they're all showing up now.... until I realized they're all from the grade beneath me. :P C'est la vie.

 

Last tuesday we had a WONDERFUL discours during our devotional by a member of the seventy about what it takes to be a missionary. He talked a lot about sacrifices, and what exactly you had to give up to achieve which traits. It was good. Also I lied, that was this Sunday. :P The TUESDAY talk was by Elder Wilson, a member of the seventy still who talked about using the Book of Mormon to help our investigators. We'd been hearing a lot of talks on such topics, so during the week we started reading the Book of Mormon with one of our investigators in a lesson, and it was Awesome! Elder Bangerter made her cry. He followed the spirit and pulled out a scripture that our actual teacher, not her investigator persona, needed to hear. It was very cool.

 

Speaking of teaching, we teach more than any other language-learning district here! Most districts have three to six companionships so they teach once every day or once every other day or so. We have two. We all teach twice a day, every day, except for Sundays and P-Days. On WEDNESDAYS one of those teaching appointments is at the Training Resource Center, where we teach real live people. Members of the Church who speak foreign languages volunteer to be taught by learning missionaries, it's sort of like a family home evening setting and it's REALLY cool! :D Also, starting tomorrow we'll be taking turns being investigators for the other companionship, so we'll be teaching an ADDITIONAL two lessons a week. For the next four weeks we teach eleven lessons every week, on top of all the time we spend learning the language AND the gospel, as well as everything else we have to do here. It's insanity. I can't even explain it.

 

Oh! One of our investigators (Fiacre) Is going to be baptized next week! It's super exciting, I don't actually know what happens after that point. :P But! He didn't show up to church on Sunday because the JW's came over and stopped him! Like six of them. It was weird. Anyways, if he doesn't come to church this Sunday he can't be baptized yet, and worse yet, I think if he keeps letting the JW's stop him from coming to church he'll miss the importance of being in church on a regular basis. We could really use some insight here.... How can we impress upon Fiacre the importance of coming to church to the point that he'll actually make the JW's (Who are also his friends) leave in order to come to church with us, without coming across as too harsh or inadvertently bashing on his friends? Any thoughts?

 

Mmk, spiritual thought for the week. Some of you know my all time FAVORITE prophet is Isaiah. If you don't understand that, go read the book again. You will. :P Anyways, I found a chapter during my studies today that I wanted to share with you guys. Three verses in particular. Isaiah 60:18-20 says

"Violence shall no more be heard in they land, wasting nor destruction within they borders; but thou shalt call they walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall they moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall end."

 

Wow. That is SO COOL! And here's why, Think about the effects that violence has on us? Sadness, anger, pain, suffering, etc. Isaiah is speaking in these verses to the nation of Israel about their land and country and so on, but when we shrink the scope down to us as individuals, the area of effect shrinks as well down to our own lives. The promise being made to EACH of us, individually, is that through the Lord our lives will be freed of all sadness, anger, pain, suffering, loss, and everything else associated with violence and warfare.  Furthermore, we will have walls of Salvation. The salvation offered to us by the savior is a LITERAL wall against evil. A bulwark against the sins and temptations of the world. It's our own personal little fortress, with a gate called Praise. The gate is called praise, because that's how it operates. We open the gate by praise, and whatever we open it to is enabled to enter. If we spend our lives praising and worshiping God, his light and his love will flood through our open gates and into our lives, to fill us with joy! If, however, we devote our attentions to the world, put God second, and worship the natural man, the world will enter through our gates. It will bring with it all the darkness and sin that it has, and it will render null and void the walls of Salvation that the Savior has given us. Be careful what you put first on your list of priorities.

 

Next it goes on to talk about the sunlight and the moon, both of which will be replaced by the eternal light of the Lord, and I do NOT have enough time to get into those as much as I want to, but suffice it to mention that sunlight gives us vitamin D, and is essential for our Health and Happiness. Through the light of the Lord, and the Glory of God, our lives will be filled with a health and happiness greater than the Earthly sun that we rely on could ever give us, and it's a light that will never end. A sun that will never set. A moon that will never darken. Love without end. And the days of our mourning will be over.

 

Gah! Time, up! Must go! I love all of you so much and I KNOW that this church is true, and I'm SO EXCITED to spend the next two years of my life spreading that sunshine to the entire world so they can all feel of the love of God and the joy of this gospel!

Also, remember that's just the scripture according to Elder Christensen... They're could be SO MUCH MORE IN THERE! I exhort all of you to study the words of Isaiah, for great are his words.

 

I love you!
--

Almost forgot! I had a language thought to share.

 

The word for "Lord" in French is Seigneur, and the word for "blood" is seinge. They're not really related, but I can't help but think of Seigneur as being literally translated as "Bleeder" or "the one who bleeds". Even an earthly Lord sustains his subjects with his own provisions. Gives them a little bit of his own life, his blood you might say. Our Celestial Lord did the exact same thing for us, giving us of His life and His blood so that we could be provided for in the eternal world.

 

Ta ta!

Elder Christensen