Mar 25

Just another Manic Monday

Get it? 

Hah, hey everyone! How the heck are you? Me? I'm great. :) 

We had transfers this week, and we got a wave of new missionaries! We had 22 new missionaries come in on wednesday, and 13 of them are sisters. Holy cow! :D the whole mission is full of Greenie Fire, and all of the members are rejoicing in having sisters in so many new wards, it really is an exciting time in la Missionne Canadienne de Montréal! As for our little zone here in the Rive Nord, we received two additional teams. Growing all the time. ; ) One of the two teams was my dear friend, Elder Bangerter! :D My MTC companion is finally in my district..... and he's fourty five minutes away from me with no car. We had district study over the phone. He's finally in my district, and I don't get to see him any more than I did before. :P That's life eh? But we're all pretty excited, because we also have Elder Heder in the zone, who was the third missionary on the plane with us on our way here. When we arrived in Montréal they sent us all to different corners of the mission, and now we're reunited together on the Rive Nord.

Victory. :)

Other than that, the week was.... well.... normal I guess. A lot of things that were supposed to happen that didn't, a lot of things we weren't planning on happening that did, Miracles coming from all directions, the normal for the life of a missionary. ; )

The exceptional day of this week was Sunday. Sunday we had a surprise.... named Lucie! Lucie is a woman that called us asking for a blessing last month. We gave her the blessing, it worked splendidly, and we haven't heard from her since..... until yesterday when she showed up at church! Our wonderful ward was on that like a dog on, well, a hot dog. In the first twenty minutes she'd been roped into singing with the choir, and invited to a members house for dinner. I love Laval. :) And she loved church! Which was great. We're excited to start teaching her for real. ; )

I feel like the biggest Lesson I've learned this week is obedience. My companion Elder Murphy is the single most obedient missionary I've ever met. I think I could honestly say he's the ONLY missionary that I would call 100% obedient, all the time. It's great! For those of you who know me, you will recall that exact obedience has never been my forté (I'm getting better!), but being with Elder Murphy has been doing wonders for me, and this week I think we really saw the blessings for that. After all, obedience is supposed to be the first law of heaven, or something like that. ; )

Speaking of, I'm about to go over on E-mail time, so! I'll have to leave you with that for the week. Know that I love all of you, and I keep you in my prayers! Go share your testimony with someone this week!

Ciao!

Mar 18

March 18, 2013

No time!

Hey everyone! Sorry this will be short, my companion already finished his e-mails, so I don't have a lot of time.

This week was super good! It was transfer week, but we're both staying (which is a nice change from my last few transfers), and We're stoked for another six weeks in Laval! :) 

This week our theme was: member work. We set a goal to bring members to lessons that we never have before, and to work with more of the members, and we were very succesful. It was a dang good week. My companion's great, he's really good for helping me be obedient. ; )

Also, yesterday a speaker didn't show up to church, so I was called on (along with the other three missionaries in Laval) to give an impromptu talk! First time ever! It went really well, but it was all in english, so I guess that's not a real test..... not that I'm asking for one. Don't you pray for that. jerks. ; )

Well, I'm gonna scamper out with that for the day. I'll write more next week! Sorry again that it's short! I love you all! Ciao!

Love,
Elder Christensen

Mar 11

Mar 11

à tous mes êtres chères

Hey! How the Heck are you? Good? Glad to hear it. :)

I`m doing great! This was just another busy week in the Neighborhood here in Laval. Our theme for this week: Baptism. Or rather, committing people to baptism. We had a split with the assistants on Thursday and they introduced us to a little hypothosis they've concocted called KALDTism. Explanation, KALDT is a mission term, it means

Know your investigator

Ask inspired questions

Listen lovingly

Discern their needs, and 

Teach to their understanding

Basically, it's the mission president trying to teach us how to get to know the people we teach so we can teach THEM instead of just rattling off the concepts we need them to understand whether they catch on or not. It's one of those skills you never really perfect and you spend your whole life working on. :P

The ism in KALDTism stands for baptism, and what KALDTism IS is this nifty little door approach where the first thing we talk about the first time we see someone is, of course,  baptism! I love it. I love trying new things and watching when they work! Like I said, they just stewed this little angel up last week so we as a collective whole are still trying to figure out how to make it work, but the result as of week 2 is that missionaries all over Québec are learning how to talk about Baptism without being overly pushy, super awkward, or overly shy. I'm a fan.

So, we sort of caught baptism fever after being 'trained' to KALDTism, and we ended up just talking about Baptism with everyone and everything this week, and boy did it make for a wonderful week. I don't think I've ever enjoyed anything quite as much as I enjoyed watching my companion invite someone to be baptized after we'd known them for less than 30 seconds, and I think he could probably say the same thing about me. :) Wonderful.

Other exciting things from our week, the members here rock. We went to a Dinner Appointment with a family that lives an hour north of us, and we arrived at the house to see a giant handmade BANNER saying 'Bienvenue Elders!' that the Children had spent the afternoon fingerpainting for us. :) Talk about cute. They let us take it home with us. :)

Also, Elder Murphy left everything he owns in the zone leaders car on Thursday, so we learned a new meaning of the word Share this weekend. :P

Well, I could go on forever and ever about my wonderful week, but I think I'll leave it there for this week, and share something spiritual with you before I go. Deal? Cool. In church yesterday we talked in priesthood about eternal life, and the blessings and everything that come from the gospel, and the motivation we have to get there. As some of the brothers were having a slightly heated deeply (DEEP) doctrinal discussion about their motivation for wanting to go to the celestial kingdom, our investigator interrupted them to say something really profound. He's from Colombia, he's only been here for a few months, and his French is pretty... well... limited, but he understands well, so he talked in spanish and asked one of the brothers to translate for him. Talk about courage! What he said was basically this 'Lets look at two men who have the same job. One of them works because he wants the money. The other one works because he loves that job, and enjoys the money as an added bonus. Which one do you think is more agreable? Which one do you think spends more time complaining about job conditions? Which one do you think the boss likes more? Now lets look at the Lord. Do you not think that the Lord is happiest when we do His will, not for the reward He has promised us, but because we love Him, and we love to do it?' 

Wow! This guys such a boss. :) He silenced an entire Elder's quorum, in a language they didn't even speak! Then, this morning I was reading an e-mail from a friend, and it said something much to the same effect. 'Our desire to become like Christ has to outweigh anything that might tempt us.' Now, It's true that Christ has made us some pretty sweet promises, but if we're only on His side because of the loot he's gonna give us at the end of the game, really, at our core, we're in it for ourselves, because we're selfish. Every one of us should look into our hearts and ask us WHY we keep the commandments. Is it to get to the celestial kingdom? Or is it, because we LOVE our Father, and our Savior? Your answer to that question may well be the factor that decides whether or not you stand up to temptation when it really counts, whether or not you ARE the person that the Lord needs you to be. I love my Savior, and I hope that that love for Him shows in everything I do. I hope that it's the fire that fuels me, and little pink bunny inside my energizer battery, and I hope it's the same for all of us.

Thanks again, all of you, for everything you do, and God bless you. :)

Have a great week!

Love,

 Elder Christensen

Mar 4

Mar 4

:)

So Elder Murphy's nice.

Hey everyone! How the heck are you? Good? Good. Me too. :)

This week was a nice practice in how to reschedule. Elder Mieville spent his last six months here, and it's his last REAL area before he goes home in two weeks, so we had a LOT of people he wanted to see before going home. Which hindered the work a bit. Fortunately, Elder Murphy's a boss, so we still managed to do ALMOST everything we had planned for this week.

The first real thing we did, was have our first real zone study! :D That was exciting, AND unconventional. Why? Well, neither Elder Murphy nor Myself has ever actually planned and/or carried out a zone study before, because last transfer we had zone CONFERENCE, which was the responsability of President and the Assistants. So we just sort of.... made it up as we went. Sure, it didn't happen in the normal time bracket for these sorts of things, and yeah maybe we weren't the most organized zone in the whole mission, but! The spirit was there, and we all learned a lot, so I'll take it. :) This new zone is really nice, the whole only having 5 teams things makes it easy to really get to know everyone in the whole zone! That was a good deal more difficult last transfer with the 13 teams. :P

Other than that, we spent a whole lot of time making phone calls, and out knocking on doors. :) I read a story this morning that I wanted to share with all of you. You all know I'm no good at telling stories, so I think I'll just copy and paste it on here for your viewing pleasure. :)

"When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten, the most obvious sin is some sin against charity. I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards to those particular acts. They would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill tempered man; it only shows me what an ill tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily, they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.
Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul.
And if, what we are matters even more than what we do-if indeed, what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are- then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct voluntary efforts cannot bring about. After the first few steps in Christian life we realize that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by  God."

Isn't that wonderful? That's something that I've really learned on my mission. I try, and I try, and I TRY so hard to be something, to be better than I am, to change my personality, my nature, my very being, and it's the weirdest thing..... It doesn't work. :P 

But! Despite my lack of being able to consciously do ANYTHING about the way that I am, I have been changing. I've taken to reading, each day, my journal entry from one year ago, and I've been able to really see the difference between the little boy writing back then.... and the little boy reading it now. I can't claim that I'm a "man" now, or that I've somehow become something wonderful or incredible or worthy of note, but. I'm most definitely different, in a decidedly desirous way. I'm happy with what the Lord is making me into out here, and I'm excited to see what the next year will add to what I've already discovered. :)

Thanks again for all the prayers and support! I love all of you. :)

Love,

Feb 25

Mozzletov! It’s a boy!

Hey everyone! One more sunny week here in Laval! We even saw pigeons this week. Springs a comin. :)

So! Let's start with the good stuff. Transfer calls! I'm staying in Laval. I'm losing Elder Mieville though. He's being transferred for his last three weeks. The members here think we're joking every time we tell them. Poor guys. ; ) He's excited though. He's been here for 6 months, he's due for a change of scenery. My new companion is named Elder Murphy, and he's from California. I've heard only good things about him, so I'm excited. ; ) 

The other thing I'm losing is my zone. Elder Teuira told me this week that he had a surprise for me, and left me to sweat about it all week long. My surprise turned out to be....... a brand new baby! A brand new baby ZONE that is. :D Elder Murphy and I will be opening the Rive Nord zone this Wednesday, and with a whopping 5 teams of Elders and no sisters, it is most certainly a boy. :) But! Not for long. This transfer is going to be the fastest transfer of my whole mission (literally, it's only going to be three weeks long), and then we'll be receiving at least 3 additional teams of sisters! We'll be receiving new teams every transfer, so in a few of them we'll take off our pull-ups and be a big kid zone. ; )

As for the week..... it was busy, but it was good. Except for thursday. I don't want to talk about Thursday. Most of our week was spent running back and forth to Montreal for exchanges and things, but we still managed to see miracles here in Laval! Example, Saturday. That was our miracle day. Saturday night we passed by a potential we had, but his son told us he was busy so we left. That happens. But! Half way home we get a phone call. It's our potential. "sorry, my son misunderstood my instructions, could you please come back and talk to us?" Hah! THAT happened! I love this place. :) They're a really cool Haitian family that has only been in Canada for a few months. Super cool people. :)

I would say the biggest lesson I learned this week was how to keep a smile on my face. I know there may be some of you who feel that that's a lesson I didn't need to learn, but! I managed to learn it anyways. Re-learn it maybe. ; ) By the end of the week, as I look back at everything that happened and everything we did, I can't help but smile as I remember how much fun we had while we were doing it. 

I love the gospel. No matter how big our problems seem, they're never as bad when we look at them in the gospel light. Nothing that can happen to us here is really as bad as it seems. This life is temporary, and everything we're learning here will be for our benefit in the Eternal life that is to come, just like the Lord told Joseph Smith in D & C 120. So, my friends, follow McDonald's inspired advice and Put a smile on. After all, Why not?

I love all of you! Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Christensen