So, I don't remember for us, but here, Holy Week is kinda
THE thing. I mean, people can work on Christmas, but NOBODY works on Good
Friday, or whatever it is called. And most people don't work Wednesday through
Saturday. It was crazy!! So, most days this week were pretty quiet, but on
Friday, it was almost unnerving. We left the apartment and walked down the
street and it was like I Am Legend. I thought everyone else on planet earth
might have died. It was crazy! No honking jeepneys, no cursing trike drivers,
no, "Hey Joe!"s. Nothing. No people. It was the weirdest feeling! In
a place that is SO loud and SO crowded to have absolutely nothing. Weird.
Unfortunately, they have the whole thing a little backwards. Sunday, which
should be holy, was definitely not. Everyone was back to work and the hustle
and bustle returned to normal. Interesting how that works, eh?
Hello all of you happy good white people!! It's been a very
good chunk of week, but also extremely short. So, I will tell you in advance
that this will not be a killer long or particularly interesting email. I woke
up this morning and one of my first thoughts was that I had nothing to say in
my weekly email. No list, no crazy experiences, no crazy killer study. So, I
don't particularly know what I will say. But I will come up with a few things.
Like the first paragraph, they may not be all that spiritually uplifting.
One thing that was slightly amusing. Actually, to me, it
felt slightly degrading, but hopefully you will find it amusing. So this
morning. We followed the typical P-day ritual, which involves playing
basketball bright and early. We come home after. Our landlord has decided to do
a little "face lift" for our bathroom. So we come home from
basketball ready to shower and hit the road to celebrate a birthday. Oh ps,
yesterday was my boy Broadhead's birthday!! Woohoo! So we were going to
celebrate in our favorite buffet. But, haha, joke's on us. Tatay has the
bathroom torn apart! "Oh, magandang umaga Tay. Ano ginagawa mo dito? Ah,
may project ka ba? Hm, ano lang, may appointment kami ngayon, so kailangan
namin maging bilis, and mediyo kailangan namin maligo." Or in other words,
great that you have the bathroom torn apart, but we kinda gotta bounce and we
need to shower first. He tells us no problem, he's got an apartment below us
without people. We can use that shower. Great! So we hop down there. But, there
are four of us. Ends up having 2 bathrooms. Long story short, I end up in a 3x3
bathroom, crouched between the nappy toilet and the sink, trying to get myself
under a little spigot in the wall, about a foot off the floor. The water
barely trickles out and I have nothing to collect it in. So if you will,
picture this. We will edit, to be clean. I'm wearing swimming trunks. Thank you
for my modesty. Now, using this image, imagine me, basically in fetal position
between the gross toilet and sink, my backside stuck on the wall behind me,
sticking my hands under the water and just trying to splash it up on me to at
least wet my body. The best description would probably be a very deformed T-Rex
attempting to splash sewer water on himself while crammed in a toilet stall.
Gets nyo ba? Hopefully. It's very hard to describe, but I will probably be
haunted by the experience forever. Note to all future missionaries; do bathroom
face lifts yourself. If the landlord wants in, tell him too bad. A man can't go
without his own bathroom for a day. It just turns out wrong.
That's about all I have for you. We did work this week, as
usual. Taught lessons. Helped people with concerns. Basically did what
missionaries do. Our little couple Danika and Mike are progressing wonderfully!
They finish all their papers this week and then we will see to getting them
married and baptized. And I might miss it! I may transfer first. Blast. But
that's ok! They are the dankness!
I suppose my email may be devoted to what I have been
studying, even though I said I had nothing there. It sort of goes along with
Easter. So I have been looking into the visions of Nephi and Lehi and the tree
of life. It is a very very interesting few chapters. SOOO much symbolism. I
have already hit you all with the need for us to hold on to the word of God or
study our scriptures. Be warned, I may get back to that in a minute. Maybe. But
there is a scripture here. But wait lang. So lets talk about the people. There
are several different types of people found in this vision. We may fall into
any of the categories. But 1 Nephi 8:32 says, "Many were drowned in the
depths of the fountain" if we look into fountain, we find it is
filthiness. Filthiness to me could be sin. All of us get caught up in to sin at
some point in our lives. I talked about the verse from 2 Peter which says that
the temptations of the devil are wells without water. We go off the path into
the desert after some well in hope of water and it's depressing to find none
there. We are so off the path. We used so much energy getting there. I like the
description from verse 8. People drown in the fountain of filthiness. Sin can
become overwhelming to us. If we rationalize, well, I've already sinned, might
as well carry on, we can drown in our sins or filthiness. We find ourselves
overwhelmed and it can be a very hard choice to come back to our Heavenly
Father. The crazy thing is how crazy good a liar Satan is. He is always
plotting against us. D&C says he goes about, seeking to destroy the souls
of men. He tells us that we are the exception. We are too far gone to come
back. Our load is too high, too heavy, too filthy to be rid of. But, as the
father of lies, what do you expect? It is a lie. My message to you today is
that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite. There is nothing that we cannot
overcome through His atonement. Because of our loving Heavenly Father and our
loving brother Jesus Christ made a way for us to return. We can repent. Jacob
2:8, "And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the
pleasing word of God, yes, the word which healeth the wounded soul".
Through this gospel, we find happiness and joy and find access to the cleansing
power of the Atonement. We find that the overwhelming weight of sin
is escape-able. We find that we can have peace in this life as we follow
the commandments of our Heavenly Father. It all works because of the
Atonement.
But, I told you I would probably get back to scripture
study. It's so important!! Helaman 3:29-30 tells us that the word of God is
powerful and will destroy the snares of satan and lead men to our Heavenly
Father. And if we return to the vision, those who hold faithful to the
scriptures, and don't give into the pride of the world will be lead to the tree
of life. So, we can all do ourselves a favor and just stay reading our
scriptures every day!! Feast upon the word folks. Like a starving man let loose
in Tucanos. Go wild!! But, of course, should we fall, which we all do, take
advantage of the atonement.
Almost forgot pics!! First is one I just thought was
amusing. Never Flat? Yeah, I hope you can get your money back!! Second is me
helping my comp get his dunk on this morning at basketball. Yeah, that's what's
up! The next just shows how good my comp is at ball. Man'll be famous some day.
Or so he thought. The last pic is Broadhead helping my mini comp get down from
the rim after I put him up. Haha, oh thank goodness for height!! That's all the
pics!! Sorry! Short email, no pics. Lame, eh? Maybe next week will be better.
Maybe. No promises though!!
Anyway. Shortish message. Nothing else. Sorry if it's below
par. But I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Easter and a
wonderful week! Keep it real and be happy until we meet again next week!!
Much love,
Elder Christensen
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