Eat Mor Chiken

Yes, I was hoping you all know that the subject is from the cows. Because there are a ton here! They seem to wander as they please. You'll get big groups of them hanging out all over the place. The road is particularly popular, although, I saw a few hanging out at the gas station the other day, no joke! 

Anywho, hello to all of you! It has been a wonderful and crazy busy full week. So I'll hop straight to business. 

We've been working crazy hard. Our area is huge. There are tons and tons and tons of people for us to visit. Different people every single day of the week. Makes things tough when you only see people once a week, but we have loads of people so that's how it has to be. One story just to share and give you an idea of how fat I am. We arrive at a house. They invite us in an offer us some plastic chairs to sit on. Mine broke. No joke, I saw someone break a plastic chair once. I thought to myself, "man, you really have to be fat to break a plastic chair". Yep, karma will get you. 

Sorry if this email is random, but I have a list written out of things and I have to be kind of fast, so bear with me. 

We also got two new investigators this week. One was a friend of a man that we were teaching. We taught her at the same time and she wanted to learn more. Score!! Another was a referral from a ward member that has been taught before. Decided she really liked the gospel and would like to become a member. Score!! We also had two more potential investigators show up at church. We set up appointments to visit them. Score!! It's been an exciting week. 

One investigator just got herself a baptismal date. We have been teaching her and will hopefully be having a baptism on Dec. 1. She is the cousin of our ward mission leader (he, by the way, leaves on a mission on nov. 24. cool story). But as such, she has had them teaching her and answering questions for a while. So she is golden. 

We found an inactive member the other day just because we talked to people. We haven't gotten a return visit but we found him. We'll let the Spirit work on him and hopefully, he'll be back in no time. 

Funny and maybe slightly sacrilegious. Everyone calls Jesus, Papa Jesus here. It's the weirdest thing. We also have the baby Jesus, who is Santo Ninyo. Also weird. And we have a black Jesus. These are every day things here, but I noticed them so many times this week, I figured I had to tell you all about them. 

Yikes. We are teaching 4 kids who are investigators. They live with their grandma who is a member. We were teaching them the commandments, and when we came to the 3rd, not taking the Lord's name in vain, we were trying to explain what that means. No worries, nanay came to our rescue. Or so she thought. She told them every single way you could take the Lord's name in vain, and probably several times each. My ears were almost bleeding. "Yes, thank you for the help 'nay. Kids, don't ever ever EVER repeat anything your sweet grandmother just said". You can't always teach kids not to do something by showing them what not to do. It's just not a good idea. 

Fun fact. In the movie Finding Faith in Christ, there is the part with the loaves and the fish. The Savior asks a little boy if he can share his bread and fish. The little boy is Elder Molnar, one of my house mates!! Way cool! 

We also had an inactive that we have visited twice. He and his family were sealed in the temple. But he has been inactive for years. But the Spirit will work on people if you give it a chance. He came to church yesterday! The bishop was shocked! And next week, he's bringing his family daw. So, we're excited! 

Fun food I ate this week. Chicken feet, which is not bad. And crocodile. Also not bad. Different though. But tasty. 

We had an awesome FHE last night with about 4 families all living in the same house. I got to share a message that I made up on the spot. All of you preparing to do missions, be ready to do that. Cuz it happens a lot. And then we had games and food. A wonderful time. 

The pics. Cows. Of course. I've been taking pics. Also, we climbed a water tower by one of our LA's houses. Good view. I even snuck a pic of a santa claus. Several pics of sunset. The sunsets here are great!! And pics from the FHE. The boy on my lap has down syndome. He's the man. He is my little buddy. 

I'm a little bit out of time and therefore, must go. We have two FHE's to get to tonight. The schedule is just loaded!! But the work is going so well! I'm absolutely loving life as a missionary. It's the greatest thing ever. Tagalog is still tough. But it's a working process. Life is good. Keep the commandments and endure to the end. Have a wonderful week!! I love you all. 

Much love, 

Elder Christensen