Nov 19

Howdy-doodee everyone! Et un grand "bonjour" de toute la branche de Chicoutimi!

I love the people here so very very VERY much. :) This week was super boss. That's the only way I can think to describe it. Let me take a moment to try and think of the highlights....... Alright.

We found a new part of our area this week! We knew it existed, but we never grasped like WHAT it was. The place is called Arvida, and it's a suburb of Jonquière, but it's actually a city in and of itself. We went there because we heard a rumor that there were Anglophones (English speakers), and what we found was an Anglophone school, where all the Francophones (French speakers) that want their kids to learn english send them for english immersion. Not as exciting, but still pretty cool. :) 

On top of that, we invited a couple that we're teaching to get married, so that they can get baptized, which was ULTRA exciting! Everyone pray that I'll still be here in February so that I can plan a wedding AND a baptism! :)

Next on the list, the same couple has a pregnant dog. Had a pregnant dog. Now they have FOUR PUPPIES!!! The dog was giving birth DURING the lesson where we invited them to be baptized. I won't bother to try and describe the events of that night, because they were far too bizarre to repeat, but let it be known that that was QUITE an interesting lesson. :)

Next on the list, we split with the zone leaders! My number one favorite part of serving in a district leader area is all the exchanges we get to do. We have like an exchange a week, So I get to spend a lot of time with other missionaries, and it's super exciting. :) The zone leader split was incredible. We had miracle splits in both areas. I went to Québec with Elder Laguan, the remaining one of my two favorite zone leaders. (alright, alright, Elder Prawitt's not that bad either.) We talked a lot, about a lot, and we had some pretty cool revelations together while we were talking, which I was able to put into application this very week with one of the new investigators we found. That was cool. :)

Then, when we came back from splits, we got a call from an inactive member named Jordan Dufour. I might have mentioned him last week. He wants to come back to church. I've been struggling to have a spiritual discussion with this man since I came to Chicoutimi, he just won't talk about the gospel. When he called us today, he invited us to come over because he wanted to talk about the gospel. We don't know what happened, but we're grateful for it. :)

Then, DONALD CAME TO CHURCH!!! The young Haitian guy that we've been working with a lot. He hasn't been to church Since Elder Thia got here, and this week he came to church again. It was a wonderful feeling, seeing his face in the chapel again. :) We announced his baptism today too, for the 16th of December. Happy birthday to my little brother, and happy Baptism to Donald!

I'm so happy as a missionary. And I realized something this week. I'm so happy here, because I understand. I'm pretty sure that ALL unhappiness in the entire world comes from a lack of understanding. Whether it be the fact that you don't understand something, and it's upsetting you, or that you don't even know what you don't understand, human beings are ALWAYS happiest when we understand. That's how the Gospel makes people happier. It helps them understand the Plan their God has for them, the reason their here, and what they should be doing while they're here. It's so simple! And so difficult for some people... The ones that don't realize what they don't understand, and don't see the need to try and understand anything new. That's the saddest. But! We're out here working to fight that. Every missionary, every member, every one that gets it. We're all trying to help everyone else get it too, so that they can be as happy as we are. I sincerely hope that every single one of you reading this has found as much joy in the gospel as I have, and if you don't think you have, go study it some more. It'll come. :)

I love all of you!

--
Elder Christensen

Nov 12

Happy monday everyone! And what a couple of weeks it has been! Where to start... lets see.... Ah! Monday. ; )

Last monday we took off from our  little town of Chicoutimi at 9 a.m. to take a beautiful canyon drive the back way down to the city of Quebec. It took three hours. :P When we finally got there, I walked into the Quebec chapel and got surprise hugged by....... Elder Ian Mariott!!! One of my companions from the MTC who went to Tahiti on his mission. His shoulder injury acted up again in Tahiti and he was reassigned HERE! To my mission! He's now serving in my zone. :) That was the best day of my life. Next we had a bbq and played volleyball (inside) with other missionaries! I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be around other missionaries, it was crazy!  The next day we had a zone conference with the mission president. We cut his hair as part of a demonstration for how Elders should keep their hair cut (super funny) and Sister Cannon gave a talk about.... fiber. And all the...... health benefirts... that come with it. Bahaha. Then they talked about love, and how to get to know your investigators. It was AMAZING! I love my mission president so much! Ah, I was so spiritually uplifted! But wait, there's more! The next day we went to a zone study, which is basically the same thing, but without President. So we spent a whole day talking about how to work with members, how to help less actives, and what our purpose is as missionaries. It was incredible. I've got some pretty boss Zone Leaders as well. :) Finally, after days of conference, we hit the road again for the three hour drive back up to..... Rimouski! For our Exchange up their. I split with Elder Pehrson during the ride up, (he's from Utah) and we had a great time talking and laughing together. I love Elder Thia, but theire's something to be said for spending time talking with an Anglophone. ; )

We got to Rimouski late, so we did the actual split the next day, when I got to spend half the day out knocking with Elder Pehrson, and the other half out knocking with his trainee Elder Pihatarioe (he's from Tahiti). I. Love. Tahitians. All polenysians. They're great. We basically just spent the whole day laughing together. Elder Pihatarioe has really developed his missionary skills. Last time I split with these two he wouldn't even open his mouth at a door, this time He was running almost all the contacts! I was so proud. :) 

The next morning we were up at six to be out the door before seven to be to riviere-du-loup by eight so we could catch a ferry across the river. We were out the door by six fourty, but we forgot we had Elder Pehrsons GPS in the truck, so we had to go back. We pulled up to the Ferry parking lot in Rivere-du-loup just in time to watch the car-loading doors close as the Ferry pulled away from the dock. I snapped a picture while Elder Thia waved goodbye, and then we set out for the now EXTRA long road-trip down to Quebec and then back up to Chicoutimi. 

We hit our area again at about one on Friday. THAT is a long week. :P I was dead from driving, so we splurged and went out to A&W's for lunch (Did you know that place is NOT always in a KFC?! They sell burgers and stuff, it's like McDonalds!) Then we got to spend our week-end doing the things we love, in the place we love doing it. :) It was quite the rewarding week.  The thing that stuck out to me the most this week was love. All of our conferences were about love. For me, that's the essence of the gospel. God is Love. That's a scripture in 1 John somewhere. :P It's what we're all doing here. My momma sent me an e-mail today talking about the talk from conference "do you love me? Then feed my sheep" It brings to mind the other quote "If you love me, keep my commandments." I don't know, it seems pretty clear to me that Love is the most important thing we're supposed to learn here on earth, and not just loving those that love us, but loving EVERYONE. "That ye may be [children] of your Father in Heaven; for he maketh his [son] to rise on wicked as well as the righteous."

I love all of you. Thanks for the support. :)

Love,

-- 

Elder Christensen

Spotlight

Our ward did a spotlight on Elder Justin Christensen for the November newsletter. Here's what I (his mother) wrote:

Elder Justin Ray Christensen was born April 21, 1992. He is the second of four children. He was born in Salt Lake City and was raised in West Jordan, Salem and American Fork, Utah. 
 

Justin was a rather serious child. He would frequently stand to the side and watch other kids play, studying them. And then, he'd - I don't know, finish studying or something, and then he'd jump in and be just as wild or involved as any of the other kids. He was very serious, but also very imaginative. He had some trouble when he was little with being afraid of the shadows in his room, and when he'd say his prayers, he'd be thankful for all sorts of random things, like door knobs and clouds.
 

Justin started a thing in junior high where he had to give everyone hugs, and he just kept doing that, making friends everywhere he went. He earned his Eagle Scout about a day and a half before his 18th birthday. He did the whole project himself in about 2 weeks, organizing a blood drive with the local Red Cross. During his senior year he spent several months going to the temple weekly and doing baptisms for the dead. He also took 5 years of French. He also took an MATC cullinary arts class that he really loved.

 After high school he had trouble finding a job, or a car that worked. He found himself enrolled for a semester at Snow College, where he made tons more friends and even began teaching the gospel to a troubled roommate. He also tutored French there. While at Snow recruiters talked him into working at Jacob Lake Inn in Arizona, and he spent 9 months working there, making several hundred new friends.

 

Justin was called to serve in the Canada Montreal Mission, French-speaking. He entered the MTC the end of January, 2012, and flew to Canada the end of March. He is now serving in his second area, and he is a district leader, and is training a new missionary. The other 2 companionships in his district are elders who have been in the mission field less time than Justin, and both are also training. 

 Justin has an amazingly positive attitude. Every week is a new opportunity to serve. Every setback is a new opportunity to learn. Every person he meets is his friend. Every missionary he works with has something to teach him. He has a blog (which I update for him) at http://alampthatburneth.blogspot.com .

Oct 29

LIE Cleaning:

I had a revelation this week.

I've always wondered what happens to dry-clean only clothing when you machine wash it. So I have this pair of suit pants that got torn up by a bike in my last area, and as I was going to patch up the rip I said to myself "what the heck, why not give it a shot."

I washed those pants. I washed them in Cold water, and I dried them on low-heat dry, and they're fine. No shrinkage, no damage, no nothing.

Now, I could have left it at that, knowing that I could safely machine wash my suit pants......but now I had to know if I could wash my suit COATS too. So. I threw a suit coat in the washing machine, and said a prayer. Same deal, washed it in cold water, dried it on low-heat dry. Same results. No shrinkage, no damage, no nothing. So I washed my other suit coat and all of my remaining pairs of pants (this all took place over the space of two weeks. I did NOT just wastefully run four loads of laundry in the same day because I had nothing better to do.), and now I have remarkably clean suits that I didn't spend any money cleaning!

Machine wash your dry-clean only clothing at your own risk, but let it be known that this missionary will not be setting foot in the lie-cleaners again anytime soon.

In other news, my week has been good! We helped a woman move on Friday, which is always one of my favorite things to do, we did lots of knocking, lots of teaching, and we were remarkably blessed. :) We have two investigators that we recently found that actually knew missionaries last year, that are amazing. They made us blueberry pie. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't really like pie, or blueberries, but this blueberry pie was the most DELICIOUS desert I have ever dared to devour. It was amazing. I finally understand why people rave about pie so much. If all pie tasted like THAT pie, I don't think I'd ever eat anything but pie. It was incredible, and it was a wonderful way to start a wonderful week. :) Those two people have been to church for the past TWO WEEKS in a  ROW, which is a huge miracle because we hadn't had anyone come to church in over a month before we found them. They're great. The husband, Gaetan, doesn't read very well, so we gave him a childrens book of mormon. The next time we came over he said, with a toothy grin, "you're going to be so happy with me. Look how much I read!" and he'd faithfully torn his way through the first third of his children's Book of Mormon. And he was so proud. And I was so proud of him. I love these people. :)

That's something that I've really noticed about missionary work. Love. The two are sort of becoming one in my mind. If you love someone, you be a missionary to them. If you're a missionary, it's because you love someone. Missionary work IS love, and in the process of loving these people like missionaries do, you start to understand the tiniest fragment of the way Christ must feel about them. One of my all-time favorite quotes has become "when you start to see someone through Christ's eyes, they start to see Him through yours." My former zone-leader and current assistant to the president, Elder Teuira, would ask me every week. "do you love the savior?" and when I said yes he would say "Then share it. Share that love. You've got to love every one of these people like you love the savior. If you love HIM, love them."  It's a question that I still ask myself all the time. "Do I love the savior?" We had a stake conference yesterday, and one of the speakers said just about the same thing. Him and his wife had just been called to serve a mission in Madagascar, and he stood up to bear his testimony and said "I ask young people every time I hear that they've got a mission call, why they want to serve a mission. The best answer I've heard so far, is the answer that I hope to be able to give if anyone asks me the same question. because I love my savior."

That's what I'm working for. I want that love to be on my mind all the time. When we take the sacrament we promise to "always remember Him". That's my goal. It's a bit impossible, but it's good to have goals that are impossible sometimes. That helps us to rely on the savior, because with Him, it is possible. I hope one day that my love for the Savior will be the reason for everything I do, and that I'll be able to feel the Love that He has for me and for everyone I meet. That's how I see being a disciple of Christ. Feeling His love, for yourself and others.

But. That's just me I guess. :P

I probably won't be able to write you next week. We're going to Quebec Monday morning. We'll be in Quebec until Wednesday afternoon, when we head to Rimouski, where we will be until Friday morning when we will head back to Chicoutimi. Can anyone say road trip?

I love all of you! thank you so much for the love and the prayers. They really make a difference, I see miracles every day thanks to the faith of all of you. :)

Love,

--
Elder Christensen