Pics for "Dem Drunkards"

12-31-12 Dem Drunkards

Hello one and all!! Funny story, and this may sound familiar; I have no time!!! Hehehe, ok, so that's not funny. I'm sorry! It's the dang drunks!!! We have an early curfew!! Their fault. They are already getting hammered!! It's nuts here!! Anyway. Not tons has happened since last time. I did get to skype with my fam though!!!!!!! YEAH!!! Christmas was bomb!! And was actually cold. Since then, we have taught some good lessons. Found some new people. We found a kid that could name the capitol of every single country in the world. Very impressive, he's 5. Also, we had some fun talking to random people in the streets and getting lessons out of it. I'm talking to some kids next to me right now. It's a good time. AHHHH!!! NO time!! I'm very very very sorry!! But I am alive. And doing well. And feeling better about Tagalog every day, even though I'm still not good. Elder Sumagaysay and I are getting along well. OUr area is awesome. The people are ready here. People are returning to church. It's just the best. But I'd best be leaving!! Next week there is a regular curfew. So next week, I will write normaly. Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

Pics for "Bedford Falls"

12-24-12 Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

And a Merry Christmas to you, in jail. 

Na, joke lang. That's just the quote. No worries, I'm staying out of trouble. And I'm really not going to say anything here. I'm sorry for those of you who won't be attending Christmas calls. But if I spill all the info now, what'll I have to talk about? Guess the fam will have to fill you all in later!! These pics...just a teaser. Enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!!!

Much love,

Elder Christensen

Pics for Walang

Walang Oras

Yeah, so no joke about that. I have absolutely no time. I apologize to allllll of you!!! This was an absolutely crazy week for all of you at home. I send my condolences and love to all of you. Especially my good old dad. But it is as I said last week, I know grandma is better off and happier now. So, as I told my dad, all y'all keep your heads in the game!!! 

Ok, so it goes like this. I'm training. My new comp is Elder Sumagaysay. He's cool. Doesn't speak a lick of English. So that's going to be super super helpful for my Tagalog. Tagalog all day every day. We get along really well though. It should be a super good two transfers!! But, and don't tell my comp I said this, the best news is that Broadhead got moved back into my zone!!! YESSS!!!! We are in the same district again. Life could not get better. So that's how things are going now. 

The work. The work has been going well. Baptism for saturday, a few more in a couple weeks. Awesomeness. 

Good thought. So I was reading Ether. Ether 12 to be exact. Moroni talks about how he is worried about the Gentiles mocking the things he has written. It got me thinking about my mission. I worry about that all the time. People are going to mock my Tagalog. I'm not very good at Tagalog. I'm not a super great teacher. But the Lord has some comforting things to say to Moroni. "Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I figure it is exactly the same for us. The people may mock the things I say or the way I teach. But the people that are humble enough to accept my message won't care. We all have weaknesses so that we can remain humble. I obviously need help remaining humble. And eventually, if I keep my faith in the Lord and decide to be humble, the Lord can change these things to strengths. So, that was a fun thought for me! Hopefully, in the super speedy way I just put it down, it makes sense and does someone some good. 

That's really all I have time for. I hope you all have a very wonderful week. Sorry this email....lets be honest. It sucks a little bit. My bad. But we're out of time. Next week...ha, can't promise much for the email. It's the CALL that gets my time!! Woohoo! Anyway. Keep it real. Enjoy the last few weeks of this wonderful season. And enjoy the cold. 

Much much love, 

Elder Christensen 

Pics to go with "Chess""

12/12/12 Play a Grueling Game of Chess or Something...

Hello one and all!! First, I will apologize in advance. The following email will be brief and a bit boring. It will not be rich with detail or full of good stories and it is likely not to be laced with humor. Ok, I take the humor part back. I do usually attempt to add a little humor. But the number of stories this week is a little low and the time I have to write is similar. 

I will start by saying that this has been a fabulous week!! Holy goodness gracious. It has been a week much like all of the other weeks we have had. It has been full with missionary work!! And it has had lots of success! And it has been awesome!! But I admit, I was a little bit bad at keeping a list of stories written out this week, so I will mostly have to go by memory. 

First I suppose I can say that we have had several more people agree to be baptized. We are now looking at about 10 people seriously preparing for baptism. We have had a few cool things happen with LA people. The De Leon family, which I have talked about for a few weeks, is now preparing for the temple! We couldnt be more excited for them! And we had a brother this week that has not been to church for ages and ages!! 5 years? But he came back to church!!! We are soooo stoked!! That is all that comes right to mind. Just mostly good hard work and people letting the gospel change their lives. Masarap talaga. 

As far as other things go. There was a Ms. Gay pageant. In case you are wondering, that is for baklas. And yes, they dress up in skanky swim suits. In how many languages do you know the word for barf? You may now insert or think all of those words. Because that is disgusting. Unfortunately, I did not GET to attend. Sayang!! But no worries! A little girl in my ward watched some of it with her uncle and told me all about it!! Yay!! 

Also. A few of the elders in my apartment have decided to battle the oncoming fatness. We started P90x yesterday!! It is the best thing ever!!! And I got a jump rope from someone awesome once upon a time and have just now begun to put it to good use. Goodbye fatness!!!

Well. That is probably the shortest email I have ever written. But I have to go. And also, it has just been a week of not many stories. But it has still been wonderful. If this is not enough, read through the last two emails and it has pretty much been just like that. Woohoo!! 

Pics. One is me and some other elders sitting on a wall, talking to some kids. Kids are my favorite. I have a picture of me and the elders in my apartment holding a funny funny document. But I dont have time for that story. Some other time. Needless to say, it is great!! I have one of me and elder judar doing...something on the side of the road. I also took a picture of a frog!! Now you all know what they look like after they get hit in the road! Beautiful!! Gotta love how everything that comes out cooks black in the heat! I have a pic of my zone. And a pic of Elder Vea when he tried to beat the mission record of 22 cups of rice in one sitting. Yeah, he made it to 15 cups on his plate but he only finished 13. Sayang. 22 is a lot of rice!! We have a pic of us with my favorite ward missionary man of all time!! He is the coolest man possibly in the Philippines. Definite role model for me. Anyway. I think that is all!!

And! It is Christmas time!! Happy day for all of us!! And do not forget. Today is 12/12/12!!!! It is a huge day to celebrate!! Yeehaw!!

That is all! Thank you all for everything! Have a wonderful week!!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

Oh and also. Transfers are tomorrow. Elder Judar is transferring!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I am sad that we only got one transfer together. But he will be training now. As will I. Gotta feel bad for whoever that poor missionary is, eh? 

Pics for "Commandments"

12/4/12 Keep the Commandments

I hope you are all singing that song right now because it definitely is playing in my head now. And it's the single's ward version. 

It was a fabulous week this week. As far as the pics go. Sorry, because I send a ton of sunset pics. But I just don't get tired of taking the pics because they are so awesome!! So I usually send one. But, don't complain, cuz I could be sending tons more. Anyway. This week!!

As far as numbers go, it was not a huge week. But we did get tons accomplished and we did have some really cool things happen. And some funny stories. And I can't share it all cuz I need to be fast here. And therefore, this might be kind of lame. But here goes. 

So firstly, on Sunday, (so many great sunday stories) we had a lady telling a story during her testimony. Now, we had visited her the day before and she had told us a story about her kid sniffing a bead up his nose. Quite humorous, but she was so worried he was going to die! And as such, she took the Lord's name in vain several times in front of us. It was very uncomfortable. And as such, next time, we will talk about the commandments (and thus the subject line). Anywho, on this wonderful sunday, we realized she was telling the same story. And we thought, oh no, wouldn't it be terrible if she did it again? Haha, and then, of course as always in funny stories, she did!! She took the Lord's name in vain OVER THE PULPIT IN CHURCH!! Ah man! It was terrible!! We will definitely talk about the commandments. 

Also this week, we have had a man (he's 33 but I thought he was 19....oops. way smooth man though) who has been sick for about 3 months. He can usually go about his regular routine but he has no job because he can only do the lightest of labor. But he's great! Anyway. This one day, he texts us. He wants us to come give him a blessing. He spent the morning in the hospital. No big deal. But he's had people trying to find out what is wrong with him for the last 3 months. Of course, they have had nothing. So we went to give him a blessing. Often in blessings, we tell people that according to their faith, they will be healed. But this time was different. Someone had the thought to say, you will be healed, but it will come through giving heed to your doctors who will be inspired to know how to help you. But man, the doctors have been trying! And they have nothing. But, funny story, within two days, Brother Bobby got a call from one of his doctors who had figured out the problem and what they need to do to fix it. The power of the priesthood is real. There is no doubt in my mind. And not because of this experience. We have many. But this is a prime example. Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and our needs. He has blessed us with the priesthood to be able to overcome trials that we have in our lives and I know that through our faith, the priesthood works miracles in our lives. 

We also had our baptism!!! Woohoo!! Sister Wilma got baptized!! It was wonderful! She has had many many challenges. Many came to her right after her decision to be baptized. But she pushed through anyway. And she is being so blessed for it!! We are so excited for her! When we follow the commandments of the Lord, we receive blessings. Now, we are just hoping that her parents who are very active in the El Shaddei church will be able to accept the gospel through her example. 

We went to the temple this morning. Wonderful wonderful. I love the temple. It was a fantastic experience. And then right after, we went to Macdo. And I got freaking hit on by a guy gay. I may live with 3 men, but don't take that wrong. Ha, I am definitely straight. Sigh. You just can't escape the twisted ways of the world some times. But it's alright!! Besides the fact that I'm a missionary, a temple/p-day is not easily dampened. Woohoo!! 

Well, I'm sorry it's a short email. But I must be on the run. I hope you all have a wonderful lovely week! Take care! And please don't break the 3rd commandment and especially not over the pulpit! 

Much love, 

Elder Christensen 

Oh and pics. Sunset obviously. I got us with some of the piles of trash that are everywhere in the Philippines. Some baptism pics. Just me walking in the area.  And the nativity in front of the temple! If there is anything else, we'll I don't remember. So use your interpretive powers. 

Pics for "Stuck"