Well hello again!! Man, time does not stop, even for us
missionaries! Not even for a minute! It's just flying by out here! Whew! Tons
to write! I have a little catch up to do from last week. So I'll start
there.
Firstly, I got a picture of this too. The Friendly
Neighborhood Spider. We found this guy in one of our less active's house. Man!!
This thing is hand size! I don't know if you can tell from the pic, cuz he
looks small. But the board he is on is a two by four. Seriously hand sized.
Gross. But the member said is was nice. Didn't even stress that it was hanging
out on the wall right behind his chair. Man. Filipinos.
Last week we had zone interviews. That was way awesome! Got
to meet with President Sperry and his wife. Way way awesome. My mission
president is great!!
So a quick story on the power of discernment. It is very
real. We had an investigator that was doing well and progressing. Then one
lesson, she told us she had a particular issue. We both felt right away that
there was another issue. We had something particular come to mind. She didn't
mention it. Then, at the end of the lesson, she said there was something else,
but that we would talk about it later. We did splits later and Elder Quinney
went back to her. It was the exact issue we had felt in the beginning of the
first lesson. I know that if we have the Holy Ghost with us, Heavenly Father
will help us find the needs and concerns of those that we are teaching so that
we can help them progress. It was an awesome experience for me and it was very
helpful for her as we will be able to help her continue to progress
towards baptism!
Because of the tons of work we were getting in our area, the
are split this transfer. It's pretty amazing. The area had the lowest numbers
in the mission and then had all the missionaries pulled out of it because of
how lousy it was. But, when you get down to it, there are tons of people being
prepared to hear the gospel! They came out of the woodwork! The field is white,
eh? Harvest time! I'm way excited for the elders there now. They have plenty to
do!!
We did a community service project as a zone that was really
cool. We fixed up a road and dug a canal to keep it from flooding. Lots of
genius engineering on our parts. Haha, but with the flooding, there is no way
it survived. So, I won't bother going into details on that.
And my last week in the last area, lots of people kept
telling me that my Tagalog was improving. That was way nice to hear! It's still
lousy, but the fact that it's getting noticeably better is a huge confidence
builder!!
And of course, there was tons and tons and tons of flooding.
Most of our area wasn't higher than the knees, but we had parts that had over
15 feet of water. I tried to get some pics of during the flooding and after.
Most of the pics come from literally 30 yards down our street. We have members
with 2 story houses, and it got halfway up the second story. I got a pic from a
bridge later, with a different view of their house. You can see the line from
where the water went up to. And then later, when all the water was gone, you
can get a slight feel for the mud. There was about a foot and a half of mud
left over. Most of the houses down by the river were badly damaged. Some were
completely gone. And the ones that survived have lots and lots of work before
they will be ready to be lived in. The crazy thing is these people do this
every year. I can't imagine. We did service the day after the water
disappeared. We cleaned out six apartments. That night, it re-flooded. The next
day, we did the exact same project. The people here are like ants. As soon as
they can, they get right to work cleaning it up. If it goes again, they start
right over. No complaints, no time wasted. They do it over and over. They are
nuts! I couldn't do it.
Ha, then there is one pic I sent that Elder Quinney and I
were particularly excited about. When the people heard I was leaving, they put
up a monument for me!! That would be the picture of the sign. This seriously
was on our street and though it doesn't stand for what I'm playing at, we still
had a good laugh at it. Shows you how immature one red headed elder still can
be.
Ok, and now, on to this week. So I got transferred. I'm now
in the Fairview zone, across the river from my old zone. My companion is a
native, Elder Doria. He is really cool and we get along really well. He speaks
pretty good English. He will definitely help me with my Tagalog. I would say it
has improved just in the last few days. It helps to be using it a lot more
often. And he of course, knows it all! So it's going to be sweet! Our area is
brand new to full time missionaries. So we don't have a lot to go off of. But
it is a challenge we are ready to accept!! I'm looking forward to a great
transfer!!
This morning, we got to go to the temple. That was
wonderful! I love the temple! Ha, we both got ticketed this morning!! Hard to
do if you don't drive, but it's possible!! We took a bus and then a taxi. The
taxi driver told us to get out at the end. Said it was free. So we said thanks
and hopped out. We immediately got picked up by some cranky guys in uniform. We
got dropped off on a center medium and picked up for J-walking. We didn't know
and of course blamed the driver. We got lucky that the head guy was nice, I am
a clueless American, and one of the men in uniform was a member. So we got let
off without a fine since it was a first time offense, but we still got a
ticket. He explained that it means nothing and nothing will happen, but they
have record so if we do it again, we'll be in trouble. Whew, way to start the
morning, eh? But the temple was wonderful after that. With that lengthy
intervention and our lovely killer traffic and the fact that we slept through
our alarm, we were later to the temple than we wanted to be. But as we got
there, I saw Elder Hibbert leaving. I didn't get to talk to him, but we both
got to wave. Ah, love that man.
Anyway, that is it for me this week!! I'm looking forward to
good things ahead!! Thanks everyone for your prayers and support!!
Much love to you all,
Elder Christensen
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