Aug 27

Dear family and friends,

 

I have the best job in the world.

 

Love,

Elder Christensen.

 

Alright, so this week was incredible. First of all, we had zone conference in Quebec city, which was AMAZING! It was all about the Spirit, recognizing it, teaching by it, acting on it, it was completely marvelous. President Cannon showed us how to help people recognize the spirit in their lives by asking them if they've felt the fruits of it, and then after THEY have identified the good feelings brought on by the spirit, how to teach them that those things they just felt came from God. It was incredible. Also we learned how to make a delicious breakfast out of fruit, granola, and yogurt, so we've been eating unusually healthy and fantastically delicious breakfasts every morning since. :) We had the area health advisor come talk to us about the top ten healthiest foods and things like that. It was well received. Then, after zone conference, the members cooked for us. This is my plug for French cooking. It is exquisite. It is indescribable. It. Is. Everything I've ever wanted. They made us chicken, but it didn't taste like any chicken I've ever had before. It tasted like the celestial kingdom.

 

Then, we got to do splits with the zone leaders! There are several perks to having a district leader for a companion. One of them is that you get to go on splits with the zone leaders with full confidence that it's NOT because your companionship is having problems. :P I split with Elder Teuira, a big tahitian. It was great because he doesn't speak that much english, so we were pretty much forced to speak french the whole time, which was fine by me. The really great part was that I can UNDERSTAND his french! I love understanding the things that people say. :) So that split was very fun. Elder Teuira came up here to Chicoutimi with me, and little innocent me was completely confident that my experienced, native french-speaking zone leader would have my back in any situation, and I proceeded therefore with absolutely no fear at all of making any mistakes during my first experience taking charge of an area that I've only been in for three weeks where the people speak a language that I don't understand. Elder Teuira's a way funny guy, so basically the two of us just laughed, and talked, and taught, and knocked, and it was a very enjoyable day for the both of us. Everytime you do a split with one of your leaders they conduct a "stewardship interview" at the end so they can get all the details about your efforts to take care of the area that God has given to you, and give you constructive criticism and advice to help you improve. After our fun filled day, I was expecting a fun filled interview as well.

I was wrong. 

 

We sat down and prayed, and Elder Teuira's smile disappeared as he started to talk. He said "I've been watching you Elder Christensen" Uh oh.... I started making a mental list of everything I hadn't done right that day. Then he asked me a question "did you notice what I was doing today?" "Uh.... laughing?" That got a chuckle. Good sign. "No, I was acting like a greenie." "wait, what?" "I wasn't doing anything." Again, I started to review our time together, and I realized that he was right. He'd been really quiet during all of our lessons and door contacts. I thought he was just enjoying a nice break from responsability while he was out of his area. Nope. The dog was seeing how I'd react if I had a companion that didn't do anything at all. He was testing me!

 

Don't worry, he said I passed. :P

 

It made me think a lot though. In that moment when he told me he'd been watching me, my first thoughts went straight to my failures, the things I hadn't done right. But what Elder Teuira started to tell me about was all the things that I'd done right. All the good he'd seen from me. It made me think about judgement day, when we'll be brought before the bar of God with, in the words of the prophet Alma, "a perfect remembrance of all your sins". At that day, when meet God again, I imagine he's going to say "Son, I've been watching you." and we are immediately going to start reviewing our lives, and think of all the things we've done wrong. We'll be sweating, standing in front of our maker, just about ready to cry. Heck, maybe we will start crying, just from thinking about our screw ups, our mistakes, all the times when we didn't measure up. Don't we know they will be many, those heartwrenching memories. How hard will it be to stand in front of Him, knowing that He knows. Knowing that you failed. Because you HAVE failed. All of us have failed. It's moments like that when I realize how much I need Christ in my life.

 

Anyways, that was my deep thought for the day. Other than that, our week was amazing. We had TWO investigators come to church, and one of them, Donald, met with us afterwards and told us that he knows he's not living his life the way he should, and that he wants to change, but he's scared that he won't be able too. The kid's 15. He's a spiritual giant. We promised him we'd be with him every step of the way, and we're really excited to get to work with him more often. :)

 

Thank you for your love and prayers! I love every one of you. I attached a picture just to give you a tiny hint of how GORGEOUS Chicoutimi is, like an appetizer for in a few weeks when Elder Fitzgerald brings the jump drive back home. Thanks again for everything!

 

Love,

Elder Christensen.

 

P.s., mom. My camera came! :D I'm super excited about it. :P I love you!

 

P.P.s., your stories from the week made us laugh a lot. :) Kloveyoubye!