April 9

Heya guys! How are things going? I'm relatively positive that I emailed you all yesterday.... but my calendar (and my companion) tell me otherwise. So. :P

 

Thanks for all of your letters! It's great hearing about the family and everything. :) Tell Chris I'm in Chapel Hill right now, and ask if he knows anyone from here.

 

This week was a good lesson in how to WORK! We had a whole lot of things fall through all over the place, so we spent a lot of extra time finding. We dug through the area book with a bunch of old investigators and all that, and we called a whole lot of people who weren't super friendly, but we found four that said they'd love to meet with us again! But they couldn't set up dates then. So! We set ourselves up with four really solid potential investigators for next week. :P\

 

Allow me please to bear testimony to all of you of the power of member missionary work. There is a family we are teaching called the Riviere's, they're a Haitian family that's been living in Canada for a while now. They're all really cool, and they have a baptismal date for mid-may (they're waiting on some legal business before they can get baptized.... it's a bit personal to them so I won't share it). Since they have been involved in investigating the church they have decided that, even though they can't be baptized just yet, they're essentially members of the church, and have made themselves a part of this ward family. They are always inviting their friends to come to church with them, telling everyone about this new religion they've become a part of and how it's blessed them. Many of their friends don't want anything to do with us, and that's fine, and they stay friends. A few of them, however, have become interested. I say a few, but at church this week we had twenty non-members come because of this one family. twelve of that twenty are actively investigating the church with us. There is no way in the world that Elder McLean and I could have got those people out to church, let alone ever even TALKED to them, but lo and behold they were all at church for easter, able to feel the spirit there, meet the ward, and learn about the gospel, all because of one family (and really two people, Gary and Suze, the parents) that wanted to share the joy they had found here. in 2 Timothy it says "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of courage. Fear not thou, therefore, the testimony of our Lord..." This is me pleading with everyone who reads this, DON'T BE AFRAID OF YOUR TESTIMONY! You don't have to walk around preaching to people to make an influence, just be open with your beliefs! LIVE the gospel, make it the focus of your life! When people ask you questions don't look for ways to avoid talking about church, but try to find ways to bring it up! If it is the center of your life, prove it. "If ye believe these things see that ye live them." That's all it takes to change lives.

 

Our miracle for this week is named Herbie. We were knocking doors at an appartment complex before a service appointment (we met a woman named Caren! :D), and we stumbled across a big Haitian man sitting out in the sun. We had two specific house numbers we were trying to find, but Elder McLean said "Hey, let's go talk to this guy." So we walked up and started talking with him. We mentioned life after death and the man instantly launched into his testimony of a life after this one, and how he knew it. When we brought up the church we found out he has two brothers who are branch presidents for the church in Haiti. We mention the Book of Mormon, he has a stack of them at home. We mention teaching him, he was being taught before, he only stopped because he was hospitalized. We ask if we can come back, he happily sets up a date and gives us his apparment number. We start to walk away, he stops us and makes us take out our planners and watches us write down his address and phone number so he can be sure we're coming back. Herbie is a miracle. The Lord prepares people to hear His message. They're waiting for us, and the only way to find them is to follow the promptings, and to have no fear. Because where fear abides, faith cannot.

 

There's your message for the week! Please send me Each of the kids email addresses so I can email all of them individually, and know that I love you!

 

Also, I'm good to email pretty much anyone, so you can post my e-mail address on the blog if you want. Oh! The blog! Have Jake look into the pictures bit, he'll know how to do it. :)

 

Love,

--
Elder Christensen