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