"It's him!"

If you thought, "The Best Two Years" before you opened this email, you get a gold sticker. If not, eh...work on your quoting skills. But no worries, I'll love you anyway. 

So, all of my people! It's been a great week!! We've been working really hard! It's been raining really hard! And eating lots of food....well, that's not hard. Haha! Moving on!

Highlight of the week. Saturday...drumroll please....what was it?

Please scroll down....

It was.....poison! No not really, keep scrolling.....

Ok, that's probably bugging you! I'm just trying to build the suspense. Are you still giving me a hearty drumroll? Ok, we finally had a baptism!!! Wooohoo!! My very first!!! It was wonderful!! Everything ran smoothly. Lenjel Lazo. He's 19 and awesome. And his girlfriend came to the baptism and is allowing the San Mateo (our neighboring area) elders to come teach her. Hopefully Lenjel's example will help her be able to accept the gospel!! But it was wonderful!! It was sweet to finally have someone that I got to watch come all the way from when we found him, to bearing his testimony after becoming a member. It was sweet! Hopefully, in not too long, he'll be serving a mission!! It was the best feeling ever!!!

Ok, other news. Two weeks ago, I got two letters from the Mcallisters. Thank you Momma Mac! Hopefully, more mail tomorrow. Note on that, I haven't written a single letter yet!! I'm sorry! I'm terrible!! But we don't have the time yet, and I haven't found stamps, or stinking envelopes either for that matter. But I'm working on it. So sorry, but that whole deal is kind of under construction. 

I had to do an online language assessment this week from the MTC. Yuck. I've improved since I left the place, but...barely. It'll at least give my teachers a good laugh. 

Somehow, we're pretty much out of time again. Sorry, lots of emails to go through since I missed last week. Just know the church is true. No one is going to change their lives completely because of a few 19 year olds with a weird religion. Don't get me wrong, Elder Quinney and I are, you know, pretty great. But no one is going to make the changes we are asking to make because we ask them to. The changes come when they feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. That is where the conversion can start. That's what catches their interest and makes things happen. Unfortunately, Satan has hold on a lot of people. Main thing; Word of Wisdom. Man, that is a tough one to fight. Once people get caught up in that one, they have a hard time having the faith that Heavenly Father can help them overcome it. They have a hard time giving it up. But, it can be done!! It's sad to watch some people fall away because they can't overcome that one problem. But it's so amazing to watch those that can come through it!! Amazing!! I love this gospel!!

Anywho, I gotta bounce. Seriously. But thanks for the emails, the letters and the prayers. I love you all!! Sorry for the lack of pics, but I'll get you some next week!! Have a good one!!!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

Re: Lock all the windows and screens...

Hi momma. Sorry, I was supposed to write way earlier and things would have been just dandy. But plans changed and we didn't get time to write til just now. So I'm a bit sad that I have no time to write. Cuz we have somewhere to be in about 10 minutes. But I do have time to hop on and say I'm alive and well. I love you to death. I'm working very hard. We're having success. First baptism coming up on saturday. YYYYEESSS!!! We had to set two or three back because of word of wisdom problems, which is so sad. And we had one less active that told us to stop teaching him. He was making such good progress. But he has a personal issue. We told him that if he stopped, it wasn't just us he would be distancing himself from, but from God. He said, ok. WHATTT??? Ok? How is that ok? Ah, I'm so sad for him. Hopefully he will have another chance to come back. Sad things. But all is going well!! I got a new umbrella and put my suit in for dry cleaning today. I have pictures to send but...yeah, it'll have to wait for next week. Tell everyone I'm sorry I didn't have time to reply to their emails. But I'll have great ones for everyone next week!! I love all y'all to death! Sorry about your sunburn! But I hope you're loving california!! That sounds soo fun! We're road tripping when I come home! And listening to HP!! Even if it has to be on cassette!! And, josh and matt driving....freaky. Yikes. But, tell everyone I love em! Tell the peeps on the blog that I'm alive and that the church is true!! And the testimony is strong enough to eat all manner of personal Goliaths. The gospel is true! If you live it, you can overcome any challenge! You just have to see past the worldly imitations of happiness. Anyway, love you momma!! Sorry for the short one. But good things coming next week!! Have a great one! Spread my love to the fam!! Keep it real!

D 1 N Only,

Elder Christensen

Your Most Favorite Son that Loves YOU THE VERY MOST PLUS ONE (1)

These pictures go with "Narnia"

I Found Narnia in my Bathroom Cabinet. What'd You Do This Week?

Answer me this; how many times at 6 in the morning do you get a sudden desire to ride a cow through some rice fields? The honest person among you will most likely answer never. Because in all honesty, that never happens! But it happened to me today. So the moral of the story is, anything can happen, especially when you follow a man with a bucket full of snails past the place where the sidewalk ends. And no, I have not been drinking. Anything!! But, my neck is sunburned. Maybe that explains this....

Well my people and my homies. All of my homies at home. It's been a good week. Actually it's only been a couple of days. But they have been good days!! As usual in my missionary life, I am in a hurry. So, I'll get down to business!!

Last P-day, we had an FHE. It was a lot of fun!! We were with a member family, and our people that we are getting married. The Bro is not a member, but the Sis is. So we are going to get them married and then get him baptized. So we had them there. And about a billion kids. At all FHE's, we play games. The losers are punished with some sort of talent sharing. Now, whether it be my red hair or the fact that everyone likes to watch me do embarrassing things, I'm not sure. But I always end up being punished too, even if I don't lose. So I was punished. I sang a crazy rendition of Just the Way You Are, by Bruno Mars for everyone. I had two back up dancers at the first. But part way through, I got joined with a lot more cuz it was so fun!! I included a picture for you all. Needless to say, it was an awesome FHE. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church this week so the baptism for the Bro will be moved back. But they will still get married in two weeks!! Woohoo!!

I had my first Filipino Mcdonalds this week. Unfortunately, it wasn't that exciting. Kind of like the US, but smaller. And there are things served with rice. But, nothing else to report there.

 We have had a good last couple of days. We've been teaching a lot and seeing progress. But, we only had one investigator come to church this week! We have 7 with baptismal dates so that was a bummer. All of them will be getting moved back. Our one investigator that came had a baptismal interview and has some things that need to be worked out with our mission president. So he will also be getting moved back at least a week. That is disappointing, but at the same time, he is honest and willing to work them out, which is better than not! So it's exciting! Just no baptisms yet. Sigh. But the work is going well! We've been having a lot of success particularly with our  less actives. We had 13 of them come to church this week! They are doing so well! We have been getting temple recommends renewed and getting callings issued. It's just been sweet to see people to allow the blessings of the gospel back into their lives. And they are awesome! You can see a difference in their countenance. I love it!! Missionary work is so cool!

 Today is P-day, of course. We got up stinking early because the Sisters had a cool idea.  It ended up being really sweet. Most of the zone came.  We went to an old church/temple that the Japanese hid in during the war over here. It was really cool!! And the place had some boss musical tone qualities which caused a few of us Elders to randomly break into song. Someone recorded it. I'll try to get a copy and maybe get it back to you. It was really cool! That was a lot of fun. Traveling there took us through the rice fields. And we encountered some of the most vicious ants I've ever met in my life! Man, it was like the hundreds of ants' souls  that I've killed out here were calling for revenge. Those ants got at us with vigor! It was nuts! But then we headed up to Wawa, to see a sweet waterfall. The pictures can't really do it justice, but we tried. It was super cool. We also found a sweet hanging bridge where we were tempted to reenact the Shrek and Donkey scene. But being missionaries, we decided not to. But it was tons of fun!! 

Ah. I also included a pic of the sunset from right by our apartment. The sunsets here are really nice. Ha, as long as your eyes stay about 45 feet above ground level. But it's beautiful!! 

It was an excellent week here. The work is going well. I love the spirit that we are able to have as missionaries. I love that we can share the gospel to help people change their lives. I have to many insights while I study the scriptures that I've never had before! I'd love to share them all with you, but I don't have time. But, man, read the scriptures!! Anything you ever need to know about the Plan of Salvation is there. The scriptures can answer the question for any trial you have. People here never seem to see the answer. Things are too complicated. I love being able to simplify things, with the help of the Holy Ghost and the scriptures. The Lord provided us with all that we need to have peace in this life. We just have to take advantage of those gifts. The scriptures are one of them. Read them every single day. Prayer is another gift. The Lord will give us answers to any question we have. Always pray. Live worthily of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It is such a blessing for us!! And of course, use the Atonement. That is probably the greatest gift we have been given. Of course, I don't understand it completely. But the more I understand it, the more grateful I am for it. It is so key to the Plan of Salvation. Study up on both in the scriptures!! Ha, everything we need to be happy is given to us and we learn about them and how to use them in primary. We just complicate things too much sometimes. Use the gifts we've been given!! Anyway. I love the work!! I love helping people! Share the gospel. We are so blessed to have it. Share it, share it, share it! Don't be shy. Getting out of your comfort zone to help with someone else's salvation, to share our blessings with them is a small sacrifice to make. 

Anyway. Gotta be done for this week. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

These go with "I'll Have None of That!"

"I'll Have None of That!"

Hi everyone!!!

It's me!! So, the subject line; dad this one was for you. We watched that one this week, so, I figured I'd have to use it! 

Well, it was an excellent week!! I'm in a rush (ha, when am I ever not??) so I'll get right to da quick business!! 

Thank you one and all for the emails. Ah, I love p-day. Hearing from everybody is fantastic!!! Thank you for your time!!

Ok, so it is still definitely rainy season. We've been getting LOADS of rain!! Every day we get a lot. But several days have been particularly wet. We get a lot of flooding. But we have work to do, so we walk in it!! Ha, an umbrella doesn't do you much good in the rain we get here. It keeps my head dry. But....I'll be honest. It's humid so the heat gets me anyway. I'm so sweaty that really, I'm completely wet! No way around it! But the flooding has been fun! It's only been in the streets so no worries on the apartment. But I've wished we had time to make little sail boats. It's been fun!

Last week, we were eating out at a place the we go with the missionaries. They tried to kill me with a finger nail sized rock in my rice! No worries, I still have all my teeth.

After a few weeks with no stove, we once more have been blessed with a stove. Ah, it's something to be grateful for. I like being able to make food. 

Ha, we were at the stake center doing a baptismal interview. I was reading a letter from a missionary in the Bacolod mission back to her home ward. And then there was this picture. AHHH!! GADZOOKS, that's Sister Tamang!!! I don't think they were comps but it was someone that knows Sis. Tamang. It was way cool to see her picture!! Just an interesting thing from the week!!

This week, we had Elder Quinney's birthday. We decided to buy a cake. Haha, and then, our may ari got him a cake. And then, the Single Adults got him a cake. Needless to say, we've had a lot of cake!! But it's been awesome!! We had some fun celebrating! 

Today was temple day. Oh how I've been starving to get to the temple. It was sooo great! I love the temple! Be grateful to have a temple so close that you can go to whenever you want! We got up at 3 to make it to the session at 6. And it was wonderful!! Then, Elder Quinney was in need of some new shoes and a new umbrella cuz his died last night. Ha, it was way funny! But it completely died. So we stopped by a mall. It was weird. Almost like being back in the US. It was crazy! It was a huge mall. Kind of fun. Ran into a white guy. That never happens. He is from Arizona. Lives here now. Did construction work on the temples. Catholic guy. We had fun talking with him. But it was a fun trip!!

Our teaching has been awesome this week. Elder Quinney has been having me stretch myself and go out of my comfort zone. I've been doing more in lessons and the Lord has blessed me. I've made progress with the language which has been very encouraging. I'm still terrible, but progress is a blessing. We've been having a lot of success. People progressing. We have several getting ready for baptism in the next few weeks. One wedding coming up. A lot of less actives are becoming very strong and active. Maybe those will be stories for later cuz I'm out of time. But it's been amazing!! The Lord is definitely blessing us for our efforts here in Ampid. Cool story about blessing a house and a family this week but I don't have the time to share it. Maybe remind me some time. Or I'll save it for when I get home. 

One quick question cuz it's been bugging us for weeks!! What is the bad captain's name in Pocahontas?? Please hook me up!!

Anyway, gotta run. Love you all, take care, be good and have a wonderful week!!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

Oh, I forgot. Pics. Um, lets see. One is with an investigator in his house. Cinderblocks. But a tv? Don't ask. It's normal. Several of us at temple tour. ha, found a guy with a BYU hat for dad. That's a first!! Sunset, Elder Quinneys birthday and my district!!

Peace n love!!

These go with "Harry! Ron!!"

Harry! Ron!!

Really, don't ask. I don't know why the subject is what it is. But it is what it is!! The effects of severe humidity I think. My brain must be starting to get wet and it's probably starting to rust. 

Anyway, the reason for the subject is because; da da da daaa! My boys showed up to the Philippines!! Woohoo! Elder Quinney and I had to go to transfer meeting last week. I was pretty stoked cuz Elder Hibbert, aka D. Hibbs or the Doc, was going to be there. The provo batch usually flies in during the afternoon, after the transfer meeting. But my comp would be there! So I was excited to see him. But when I got there, lo and behold, my whole crew was there!! It wasn't until they were all trying to leave that I remembered we should take a picture. So we aren't all in it, but I got most of them. That was awesome!! So good to be reunited with my boys!!! One of them, whose name I will now butcher, Elder Mcoullouch, ended up in my zone. In the pic, he's the man far left. So I'll get to see him every week. Fun fun fun! It made for a very good day. And needless to say, I'm really glad I'm not in any of their shoes, cuz the initial adjustment was hard!! Thank goodness for six weeks down!! 

Side note, I also attached some other pics. But I forgot what they were. Hm, oops! One should have been me and my first balut. One should have been Elder Batan's balut, which was ready to run right off his plate. One should be a FHE we had. Elder Quinney and me. A less active family. And the woman next to me in brown is one of the members, Sister Marzan. She's super awesome and way good to us. And she has some upcoming missionary boys that like to work with us. They are an awesome family! One pic or two should be a cool well we found. And then I have a picture of my zone. If there is anything else or I forgot something, please accept my apologies, but I'm running out of time and we haven't even started yet!! Let's move!!

This week was the best week I've ever had as far as mail goes!!! Dear Elders galore!! Sorry, but I gotta be quick. But a huge thank you to the McAllisters, Seals, my aunt Dawnette, my cousin Lo, and my brother Scottie!! Woohoo!! It was a huge batch!! Thank you thank you thank you! One and all!! You made my week!!! 

Quick note to the crowds of people concerned with my bathroom habits. No hand necessary. Especially now, in the new apartment. One word, sprayer!!!! Miracle!! Moving on!!

Before I run out of time or forget, p-day next week is on wednesday. Temple day!! Yes!!! I miss the temple!!!

The work is going very well out here. We've got a few people working towards baptism and a couple looking towards marriage!! It's been exciting!! But at the same time, we have so many people that just won't do anything! They love to listen to our message but they won't act on it. They have no desire to change. Most of them even believe what we say. They just are happy to know the message and won't understand the importance of change. It's very sad. I was having personal study and came across these verses in Mosiah Ch. 8 verse 20-21. Yes, look those up really quick because I don't have time to type them out. But it talks about the people being a flock, running and being scattered before the shepherd and being devoured by the beasts of the forest. The people have so many problems that they bring to us. We have the answer right here. We can help them!!! But no one will accept our help. And they run and get caught up in sin and get devoured, so to speak. It's so sad. But we do our very best. 

The kids flock to us as we go down the street. I lifted a boy, probably two weeks ago. But the word has spread. Whenever we walk down the street, we get swarmed!! 15 kids or so at a time and they all want to get lifted, 2 on each hand, up above my head!! They are crazy!! But they love it! We'll get some pics for you! 

Anywho, things are going good. We're working hard. The Lord is blessing us. Everywhere!! But I'm wayyyyy out of time! So I'm bouncing!! Have a wonderful week and I'll send word on wednesday!!

Much love,

Elder Christensen