Pics for "Workers"

05-27-13 "We got a fifty thousand dollar fine for workers..."

Yeah, finish that line yourself. Yes momma, first night back, we will probably watch that. Hello my dearly beloved brethren! Here we are once again. I'm in a computer shop, children on all sides playing dota, and using Facebook, and saying words that ought not to be said. It's a wonderful time of the week! 

This week has been good. We found lots of new people this week. 6 new investigators, just this week. Maybe to other people, that's not a big deal, but for us, that is huge! So basically, we've been teaching a ton! We've had a lot of good lessons as well. And yesterday, we saw some good results as we had over 20 Less Actives and Investigators come to church! Awesome!!!!! The work is just exploding here! I love where I'm at! 

We have a few investigators that are progressing very well and will be getting baptized soon! 

We also have a few kids that have been coming to church for about 4 weeks. We talked to their mom and she immediately wanted them to start coming to church with us. We haven't been able to teach her yet, because she owns a bakery and is always working there. But her kids keep coming to church and we started teaching them. They have even started greeting people and shaking everyone's hands at the door of the church. They are funny kids. 

No time to give you thoughts on the scripture of the week, but I did some study on Mosiah 3:19. Everyone knows the scripture, but I found some new things on repentance and obedience. Great study! 

Ah, I am out of time. We must be going so we can get to our FHE tonight. What a lame email. Sorry! But know that everything is going super super good here! I'm loving being a missionary! It's the ultimate best time in the world! 

Pics. I got a pic of a dead bat. Who doesn't want that pic? Sweet! Then some pics of us painting at a school. Then one of the girls from a family we are teaching. Cute right? Gotta love Filipino kids. Then the same girl and her sister and the pic they drew me yesterday at church. Some delicious Filipino food. Then us eating that food. Oh no, my face is covered. Oops, my bad. And then something we've been trying to picture for a little bit. So the first is several very very nice police cars all parked and lined up and looking good. Then the next is the zoomed in version. Don't know if they can't read English or they just don't care about the rules they are trying to enforce on everyone else, but we thought it was pretty funny!!!  

Have a wonderful week everyone! And don't forget your daily meds of scripture study and prayer, followed up with a good weekly dosage of church attendance. Studies done by a very awesome missionary show that almost 99% of all problems are solved by or through an answer from these three simple things. Wonder who made that study up on the spot? But it's true! Do it! 

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

05-19-13 Pics for the Children

05-19-13 "Remember, it's for the children..."

You've heard of save the children? Well, we save all the memories of the children. You've seen em, it's truly sad, with the bloated bellies and the flies buzzin. How we gonna know about em if there ain't someone there takin' pictures, while the flies are buzzin? 

Hello folks!! It's yet another p-day. Luckily, I seem to have a limitless supply. Thank goodness, cuz I sure do enjoy using them up!! For those of you that don't know, the above bit about kiddies is a movie quote. I love children. I just happened to spend a lot of time playing with them this week and therefore, I figured a good quote about children would be appropriate. 

Well. It was a good week. We finally started finding some good solid people to teach. We had a lot of good lessons this week! It's been a ton of fun! Our super shy investigators are opening up. The one came to church all by herself with no friend to guide her! It was awesome! We taught one about the plan of salvation. Tay, I used your pics you made me. I think she had an apostrophe! I think you mean an epiphany. Lightening, just struck her brain. Not literally, but in the sense that she got it. And the best part is, she got how important the atonement is for us all and how we actually get to decide where we want to go after this life. I didn't even tell her that! She came to the conclusion herself. I know, lightening, right? Awesome! 

We met a new family this week that is super cool. We are going to teach them. It's actually a compound with about 4 or 5 families in it. But they are awesome. We went over and they insisted that we eat with them. Filipinos are so nice! There was a fiesta of some sort going on. They have loads of kids, which makes a quick 'in' to the family for me. Basically, we played. Good times. They have a daughter that told me she had no boyfriend and that she would sure like to have one right away that looked pretty similar to me. Hm. That was about the time we decided to leave. Luckily, I know many a single man in my ward that would be happy to solve that problem for her. That makes a nice member present lesson. Wonderful, eh? The moms of the compound are awesome. They just seem like they'd make good members. Guess we'll teach em up! 

You may be able to tell, this is a week that I didn't make a list of things to talk about. Oops. 

Elder Sojor and I have been sitting in on a fun mini institute deal though. It goes down at a less active's house. There are 3 priesthood young men there. Some of the youth meet and have institute lessons. We've been sitting in. Very good time. Very good indeed. While we were there, I ran into a scripture that I'd like to share. Interesting food for thought. D&C 64:22-25. Now this, I will try not to go into too deeply. Mainly, I want to share the scripture and then you go check it out yourself. But in 22, the Lord says that he requires the hearts of the children of men. I like that very very much. You put that together yourself. 23 talks about tithing and the importance of it and about how the time from now until the second coming is called today. Meaning second coming is tomorrow. Meaning it's pretty soon. 24 talks about how the wicked or all who remain in Babylon will be destroyed. Remaining in Babylon. Oh man! How I want to go off on that. Things I've learned from our wonderful mission president. But, no, I'll leave it to you. And then, in 25, about how we will labor while it is still called today. Also in Alma 34:32, now is the time to prepare to meet God. This life. So, let us not waste away the days of our probation. It's like that test that's coming up. We know it is. Shame to waste away our time now doing things that really aren't important and can't bring eternal happiness and lose our reward while others are preparing and will pass the test and receive the reward. It's my hope that we are all doing all that we can to prepare now. And make whatever changes necessary, however big or small, in order to remove ourselves from Babylon. 

Anyway. Folks, I think that's about it for me for this week. Let's have pics!

First pic, we got a good shot of lunch. That's pretty normal, but upon thought, it might look a little different from what we eat back home. Fish folks! It's delicious! Next up, we got the river of filthy water. Also a pretty common occurrence, but I didn't want it to be one I forgot. And then me with bunches of kids. Funny story, none of them live in this home! They followed me in and sat in for our lesson. Cool beans eh? And the next pic, mobbed again. I'll be honest. And a little boastful. Basically, kids love me in this place. But that's fine by me. I rather enjoy it! Also, our wonderful zone leader house mates. The boys are wonderful. And then a pic of our activities earlier. We spent the morning cleaning the house. And it looks good! So here is a pic of all the trash we cleaned out. Yeah. Be impressed. It's a lot considering the house is not all that big. We washed out the cupboards and everything. Yes momma, I still remember how to clean!! 

I love you all! Hope you are doing well! Have a fantabulous week!!!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen 

05-12-13 Pics from OUR side of Mother's Day

Pics for Mother's Day

05-12-13-Mother's Day

Hello everyone!! Yes, the topic is Mother's Day. The rest of the week is basically unimportant. For all those of you who were unable to attend the festivities earlier, sorry!! But yes! I talked to my family this morning. It was awesome! The best! And far better than my last mother's day call. And, hehehe, also, my last mother's day call. Wassup. But it was a good time! I have a beautiful family, full of wonderful people and a sister that is a woman. Awesome sauce. 

Well, hm. What else is there to talk about? Hm. I did have a few days since my last email. Not much happened. But I should have pics this week. 

Guess we'll get to pics real quickly. That's an amusing story. So we had a plugged sink in the bathroom this week. So Elder Flanary and I set about to fix it. Now, momma, I remember sometimes, before my mission, I was not good at using my brain. We thought it was just pre-mission folk. I have come to the conclusion that it is young men in general, regardless of the age. We found that we had a plastic ball in the drain. We couldn't remove the drain. The ball was very tight, so we couldn't get anything in to pull it out. So....we decided to try to burn it out. We poured alcohol down the sink and lit that up. It didn't work. So instead, we sprayed down the thing with some really flammable bug spray. Now, with a very enclosed pipe, there is nowhere else for the flame to shoot. Think about that. But we light up the match and drop it. Of course, nowhere else to go, the flame shoots straight back out at us. Burned off most of my arm hair. Hilarious! But, it wasn't good enough to melt the ball. Fun fact, the burning idea wasn't my idea, although I did have a fun time going along with it. Next, we found a sword and decided to just try to puncture the ball. That actually worked!! So, the fire ended up being worthless, but it was still fun. And we did get the ball out. So success. Several pics there. 

And a pic of our monkey friend. We shook hands with him. It's not every day you shake hands with a monkey. It was like running into my twin on my mission. Go figure. 

Other than that. Missionary work happened. We have been having a tough time getting lessons. Don't be confused and think that means life has been tough. We have been having a good time talking to everyone! It's great! We also helped someone move their house. And we did some laundry for a nanay. It's been a good week. But we are still working to get more lessons. The lessons we did have though were pretty good. We have a lady who is really shy. She has been talking more and more and came to church again yesterday. Success. We also have our other brand new investigator that is progressing well. Life is wonderful!! 

Sorry, I forgot my scripture study notes from the week. Must have been in my excitement to skype my fam. Haha! So next week na lang. 

Sorry this is a short email. Lousy, really. But it has not been long since the last email. And...hehe, I just talked to my fam. Wassup. So, sorry for the rest of you. Hope you are all doing superb. Have a great week! 

Much love, 

Elder Christensen

Pics for "Brown Out"

05-08-13 Brown Out

Hello all of you! Know what a brown out is? Same thing as a black out. Don't know why it's brown here, but go figure. But earlier, while I was emailing, we had a brown out! Thus, my emailing plans were thwarted. But I'm back for round two, but unfortunately, with more things to do, it will be short. But for those of you who will be at my house on monday, not to fret because we will be chatting face to face in just a few days, so relax!

Ok, so quick weekly run through. Basically we don't have many people to teach. So we have been talking to just loads and loads of random people. It's been a very good time! Now it's time to follow up with them and hopefully, we will find a lot of people to teach from that.

We had that wedding my first week? Turns out the bride is an investigator. Brand new. So we just started teaching her. She wants us to teach her 4 times a week! That's a ton! So we should be able to help her progress very quickly. She is awesome.

We have the Regala family. They actually lived in my second ward, but I didn't really know them. Recent converts. Now, inactive. The father is a drug addict. The family had kind of lost hope. But we had a good lesson with them and helped them to realize that if they wanted a miracle for the father, they needed to start with themselves. Once they were doing all the things they needed to do, then they could focus on the dad. Kind of the whole clean the inner vessel deal. It went well and they came to church and told us they will for sure be back for next week. Sweet!

We have a man that does amazing magic in my ward. Amazing. The man blew my mind. Active member. Awesome sauce.

My comp and I took a trip to a magical place called global city. He had a doctors appointment. It was almost like being back in the US. Definitely a very weird feeling.

Also, I found that our apartment smells like the house in Italy. The people next to us are always washing laundry. I think it's maybe the same laundry soap? I dunno. Weird connection.

And we have a mate in our ward that is an awesome ward missionary. Only active member in his family. They all got kicked out of their house randomly on monday, so we went and helped them move. Good opportunity for us to start teaching his family! Crazy place here though. The landlord just showed up and said, "Aight, all y'all best be leaving before it gets dark tonight and we don't want to see you back." Just like that. No more house. Sad. But they have a temporary place for now and hopefully, they'll find something soon.

Had a workshop this week from our Zone Leaders about attitude. That was awesome. I talked about it a while back I think. But basically, we get to choose if we are happy or not. So choose to be happy and have a good attitude!

I noticed something this week as we talked to lots and lots of people. So many people are looking for happiness. Everybody is. Everybody wants to be happy. The only thing is, most people don't know how to do it. Satan gives us lots of ways to find "happiness". People go after those things and don't find it. They get sucked into that whole wells without water bit. Sometimes it's non members. They know not where to find the truth. They can search forever, but they won't find the "something" to fill that hole inside until they accept the gospel. Sometimes, it's the members of the church. They have fallen into traps and snares. They feel like they are caught. Satan tells them they are stuck or that their really is happiness through some other way. And we sometimes buy into that. But again, we won't find true happiness until we find it through the Lord's way, living His commandments, and being healed from our sins through His Atonement. There is no other way, or means or name under heaven, only in and through Jesus Christ. That is when we find true happiness. That is when we fill the hole inside. That is when we become freed from whatever snare we may have fallen into. There is always hope. There is always a way back. We just need to take the Savior's outstretched hands.

 

Today we got to go to the temple. That's the best. The best. Need I say more?

Then I've got a few pics. From this week...I don't remember what I attached. I think I attached the gross moldy bowl. That's what happens in a missionary apartment. Disgusting. If I didn't include it, sorry, next week na lang! I have us at our ward gathering last week. Swimming. A few pics there. Then the pic from when me and my comp got soaked. Oh yeah! I took a pic of us coming back on the bus from global city. Then I snapped a few shots outside of the bus. Just what we see on the daily. Then we've got us at our place at the trash heap. Had to snatch a quick pic there. And if there is anything else that I forgot, sorry. I did my best.

Anyway, sorry it's a short email, but I will see most of you in a few days!! Woohoo!!

Have an awesome week!

Much love,

Elder Christensen

 

04-29-13 Week After Transfers

Hello hello everybody!! Gotta tell you all right now I'm in a rush today. So this will be a quick one. We'll get straight down to business and I'll try to cram in as much as I can.

So I am transferred. Right now I'm in Valenzuela Ward in Valenzuela. My new comp is Elder Sojor. You will see pics later. He is from the farthest south part of Philippines. I would try to say what that is, but I can't spell it. Next week! My comp is cool. He is super super good at English likes to practice. So he doesn't speak Tagalog unless we are in a lesson or talking with ward members. But, I am also practicing. So during the day, I only speak Tagalog until we get home. In the apartment, we just speak english. We are in the same apartment as our zone leaders. It is awesome!! We have a very fun apartment. Elder Flanary, who was my zone leader in my last zone. He transferred here with me. And Elder Asetre, who served in my last ward a few months before me. Also very very good at English. Our chapel is very close and has carpet and padded church pews!! I have not seen that since I left the states! So it's a miracle! We also have aircon!! Wow!! I definitely like that. The ward also thought it would be a good laugh if I gave a talk in church. So I did. It's only the second one I've given since my farewell. So. Yes. I don't practice much. It was nerve wracking.

My comp is pretty new to this area too, so he doesn't know the people or the layout of the land too well. But it's enough to get us around. The work has been pretty tough in this area. So there aren't a ton of people that we go to right now. We'll change that. We will be teaching an English class with the zone leaders and some of the sisters. That will be awesome and hopefully very successful! There are tons and tons of people that want to come! It will be a great way to share the gospel.

We have one lady that we taught. Her name is Jennifer. She is soooo quiet. She is 20. Does not like to say anything. Not even a head nod. She just smiles and gives us shy laughs. My comp tried to tell me she was tough but I didn't understand til we taught. Whew. It was tough. But we are going to get her! We had an awesome lesson, trying to get her as involved as possible. It seemed a daunting task at the start, but by the end, we had improvement! And she came to church yesterday!! A first! So we will see how that goes!

Everyone in this ward is very very nice. Or so far. Lots of people wanting us to come in and eat their food. They want to help the missionaries too. Good people. I'm excited to see what comes here.

We have had a lot of rain. Which is weird, cuz I haven't had much rain in the last 6 months or so. But we have had tons! It dumped on the church yesterday. Luckily, we were inside. But a few nights ago, we got caught out in it with no umbrella. Oh boy. Needless to say, we were very wet. But you'll see pics later!

I also arrived just in time to go to a wedding. One of our investigators married one of our ward members. Score!!

Also, I have not done any tracting in my mission. But here, we do tracting. So far, it's been pretty cool. Not super successful, but that's only been 3 days or so. But I did have a kid tell me I was ugly and I made another kid cry. But it's still been a good time! We also have made many kids laugh and gotten a bunch of return appointments. Good good good! We'll whip this place right into shape!

A few thoughts from scriptures this week. The one came from the talk yesterday. Alma 37:7 I believe, which says that the Lord works through small and simple means to bring about the salvation of souls. Unfortunately I don't have time to get way into this. Check it out yourselves. But I will say that we can be His small and simple means and that as we try to help others, we do it though small and simple means as well. We don't need to throw big events or think up amazing lessons for people. We just serve others in need and give others our love. That is the example of our Savior and as he says, he has shown us all things we must do. We need to follow his example though service and love, even through small and simple means. Which, ps, is in D&C 81:5. That's all we have to do. Anyway! Also, scripture study assignment for you all this week because I have NO time to explain. Read it up and learn see what the Spirit has to teach you. 3 Nephi 9:13-14. Awesome.

Well sayang, I was going to attach some photos, but this computer doesn't want me to do that. So....joke lang about the pics folks! Sorry! I'll get you with them next week!

I hope you all have a very wonderful week! Take care!

Much love,

Elder Christensen