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