June 4

Momma (and Others, but mostly momma),

 

Thanks for the message! I'm glad to hear things are going well back there. :)

 

So! This week was a rollercoaster. Patricia told us on Wednesday that she didn't actually want to be baptized anymore. (What?!) She thought it would be better if she postponed her baptism until her husband was ready so that they could be baptized together. (Oh.) So, we prayed a lot, and asked her to pray a lot, and went to see her just about everyday, and by Friday she still wasn't sure what the best course of action was. Her whole family went up to visit with her parents in Montreal this weekend, so they left friday after we saw them. We didn't know what to do, so we did the obvious thing. We asked Dad for help. Only by Dad, I mean our mission president. :) We called up President Cannon and asked if he could meet with Patricia while she was in Montreal and just chat with her and comfort her. He was more than happy too. They met together Saturday morning, but didn't come home until last night, so WE were

pretty out of the loop until yesterday morning when she texted us and said she's ready and that we can go ahead with the baptism! So, we're still on for Tuesday. :D Like I said, Rollercoaster week.

 

In other news, we went for a bike ride in the pouring rain (that was SUPER FUN!!) because we were out of Klicks, we had lunch given to us by our favorite gas station attendant, and left, right, up, down, and in between the Lord was teaching us the principle of Enduring to the End. We saw it with Patricia, and we saw it every single day when we were being cancelled on left and right and knocking on doors every day. Saturday our schedule was PACKED to the brim, and we ended up doing nothing but knock doors. We were getting cancelled on and having doors slammed in our face for the whole day, until about half an hour before a stake activity that night, when we were just about ready to head to the activity early. We had about 6 houses left on the street that we hadn't knocked on yet, so we figured we'd go get rejected six more times and then we could be done. The first house was a lady named Linda who wouldn't even open her door for us, but ended up happily inviting us back over and saying she'd love to talk about the gospel with us (even though she wasn't comfortable praying with us or giving us her phone number. Hmm.). The second door had a sign on it saying "this is a smoke-free home". Oh man. For the first and potentially only time in my mission we did a door contact using the Word of Wisdom. And it was awesome. The woman (Annie) had been a smoker, but had quit. I told her about Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Fred quitting. We talked about values and how there are things that people just plain shouldn't do. Her husband (Francoise) walked up and joined the conversation right as we were about to set up a return appointment. We tentatively asked if we could come back and visit with the couple the next week.... and Francoise said "sure thing!" Before he even knew what we were talking about. (WHAT?!) So we're going back to see them on Thursday. :)

But wait, there's more! The NEXT door was a woman named Megan who had just turned away someone knocking on her door the day before, and was curious about why there were so many people doing it, so we had a great chat with her and left her a plan of salvation pamphlet. :) It was awesome. Then we had to leave to make it to our stake activity on time (A night of broadway, members of the church performing single songs from broadway plays. One of our members did "bring him home" from les miserables and did it wonderfully!). That was a huge testimony builder of the Endure to the End principle for me, and that was only one. They were everywhere this week. I know the Lord was trying to help us learn about that one thing, so that's the thing I wanted to share with all of you as well. Everything is easier to say than to do, and enduring to the end is no exception. The next time you give up, whether it be exasperation at a friend or family member, trying to solve a problem, or even just doing homework, I hope that you'll remember this, take a deep breathe, and give it one more try. Because if you do, I know you won't regret it. :)

 

So! That's my week in a nutshell. Thanks again for all the love and prayers! You guys rock my black calf-length gold-toed socks!

 

-Elder Christensen

 

P.S., we gave a book of mormon to a druggy on saturday. He was higher than a kite, but SUPER excited about the B.O.M. He wouldn't let us walk away until we gave him one. Maybe drugs can be good for you after all? (Don't take that seriously) See ya!