Hello, It's Mr. Nasty!

Hello hello!! Can you believe one transfer is down already? What?

Well, sorry for the subject. In case anyone doesn't know, it's You've Got Mail. But hopefully, should you be a righteous person, you already knew that. Ok, I'm in a rush this week and I think I have a bunch to write about. So I'll hop right to it!!

For starts, I'm sorry about the missed communication from my side. Since it's transfer week, we have p-day on wednesday. But I forgot to mention that last time. I'll be sure to remind you about it in the future. My bad!!

So, way back and forever ago, probably last p-day. We were talking to a family late at night outside their house. We got swarmed by a group of kids. And they love when the tall white and red guy lifts them up in the air with one hand. So, they are taking turns getting lifted. We were attracting some attention. We always do. And these two pretty girls came over our way. They talked to Elder Quinney. But I was playing with kids, so I didn't pay any attention to them after that. But I did notice them come and I thought they were attractive. Oh man what a no no. So as we do leave, there is something just off about them. I asked Elder Quinney and he noticed too. So, we have a tag along companion child. He's been talking to us a lot and following us for the last couple weeks. His name is Atan. He's way cool. But we asked him, Atan, what are they? We are already dreading the answer that may be coming. Sure enough, without skipping a beat he says, Bakla. AHHHHHHHHHHH YUCK BARFFFF HURL!!!! NOOOOO! Yes, tis true. I got fooled by baklas. Worst thing ever. Needless to say, we watch out. Yucky creepy shivers. That is disgusting. So, nasty story of the week right there.

So as the week goes, things happen and if I think I want to share it, I write it down. So if things seem a bit random....well, it's cuz they are. Sorry! Next!!!!!

I hope you all know the game Angry Birds. Anyone anyone? Raise your hands and say I. But don't lie, cuz liars go to Hell. Ok, anyone not raising their head, yes, those of you with the confused and slightly puzzled expression, please, open a new tab and look up Angry Birds. Pops, that means you. Ok, now that you've done that, you see it's a game. A pretty dumb game. It can be addicting for about 10 minutes but then you're over it. And that's if you bother for that long. It's dumb. Popular at home at least for a little, but only cuz people played it. Here, different story. It's huge!!! Everyone talks about Angry Birds! There are shirts, door mats, sheets, umbrellas, flip flops, notebooks, pens, pictures, clay figures!!! You name it. They have it. I just couldn't help but wonder why. Sorry, was thinking about it. So it made the email!! 

For my friend Marci Johnson back home. I keep seeing Snoopy too. Makes me think of Marci and her Snoopy shirts. 

Reason for the subject line: we have/had a really cranky neighbor that stayed up with his friends every night drinking and then every single morning he was angry! We would be trying to study but you would hear him yelling at everyone and everything for hours!! Ah!!!

Small tiny sidenote: I don't know if you remember the name tag that went on vacation? It turned up. Gift from heaven. No idea. Don't ask. 

Cool interesting thing I noticed. Every night, we go over our plans for the next day and make sure we have lessons set. A lot of times, we end up getting punted when we show up for the actual appointment. There was one day in particular this week that we got destroyed. We got punted by every appointment for the first 3 hours or so. That can be discouraging. But man, it's so cool that when you do your part to prepare, and you have faith and you put in the effort, even when it would be easy to give up, the Lord will bless you. If you work all the way through to the end, He makes miracles happen for you. We just had random things work for us through that day and we found new investigators and we had appointments that people were very prepared for. It's always important to remember that we don't know what the Lord has in store for us. We ask Him to lead us to those that have been prepared. But then sometimes, when the plans that WE make don't work out, we can get discouraged. Sometimes we need to remember that it's all about the Lord's plans. Ours don't always work so that we can be lead to those that have been prepared. Every time you get punted, it's for a reason. So keep your eyes peeled and keep moving forward, cuz you don't know what the Lord has in store for you!! 

We had another go with our eternal investigator this week. He wants to know why we haven't been visiting him. Ha, we have so many appointments every day that we can't even get to them all. But so we talked to him at church. He always wants us to answer the same questions for him and he can't accept anything on faith. He wants solid evidence and signs. There are a lot of scriptures about those kinds of people. And a lot of scriptures about faith and the Holy Ghost. I'm really sad that his heart is so hard. But he will just keep coming to church and hopefully, his heart can be softened. When people straight up question or challenge your beliefs, your beliefs either fall or are strengthened. I'm glad with how much he has helped me strengthen my own beliefs. Undeniable. I have seen the Lord's hand in my work and I have received answers to prayers. I know it's true! But, we can't reason things out with him. We just have to wait for the Holy Ghost to be able to find it's way into his heart as we testify and let him dig. 

Ah, almost out of time!!! 

But, this week I ate balut!! With transfers upcoming, my household decided that for some bonding, we would eat balut together. Don't have my camera today, so I will get you pics on monday. But it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't choose to eat it, but if it's gotta happen, I won't shy away. Not too bad. Ha, but still gross!!

 From meeting with investigators and answering questions, and then through study about things we are asked, there are a lot of interesting things that happen. I love study time! I have so many things that I come to understand through the Holy Ghost! It's amazing! But, with so many people out here having a hard time enduring to the end (thus our multitude of less actives) and with investigators asking about repentance, we studied repentance a little bit. I'm out of time too. But I realized that repentance isn't something we can procrastinate. It's not something we just do before we die so that we can be clean when we go to be judged. Repentance and the Atonement are all about us changing. It is something we need to be doing forever! We are seeking to become like our Heavenly Father. We do that through change. We are seeking to become like them. Not just to 'be clean'. But I'm out of time, but it's an interesting lane of thought to travel down. 

And as a side note, monday, we were in study time when the AP's texted us and asked if we were ready to move. So we did!! Randomly! Love the apartment, it's nice!

I love you all and I'll be back monday!!

Elder Christensen