Lemme Teach You Tagalog

So folks. Let's take a brief into to Tagalog. One word only today. But it's the most important, should you be male and serving the Lord. Or female too, because the folks here can't seem to tell the difference. So. Do you want to know the Tagalog for Elder? Here it comes........Joe. It's great! Everybody. Also, as long as we are on the topic of Filipino culture. And I may have mentioned this before. So don't stone me and cast me out if this is a repeat. But this was reaffirmed to me this week. Hymns in the Philippines. It's like the Harry Potter Hogwarts song? Where everybody kind of just picks their own tune and pitch? It's great. I will miss it when it's gone. And finally. Embarrassed to pray in front of others? It's ok! Just move your lips and pray in your head til the end when you loudly, confidently, and boldly say AMEN! Good class! You are almost all Filipino now! Bery Gud!

Oh what a wonderful week on this side of the planet. Our investigators have been super flaky with appointments this week, which was a bummer. And, we are still having the HARDEST time getting them to come to church. You'd think we were inviting them to be brain donors. They just do not want to come to church! But, we did have a sweet lesson this week. So. We have some investigators that we have been teaching at the church. They are doing a class there for school, and their teacher referred them to us, so we teach them there after their class. They are all awesome, but they fall into the non-church attending category. Sigh. But they are doing good things. So we've gone over the restoration and the book of mormon and the plan of salvation. But they haven't really caught the fire yet. We've talked about prayer and the holy ghost. They are praying to find their answer, but they don't feel they've had it yet. So this day, my companion felt that we needed to watch the Testaments. So we did. Secret: there is no Tagalog on that video. Are we doomed? I think not. The Spirit speaks it's own language. So obviously, the movie is good. It is the one they have showed at temple square for forever. Well, even not understanding English, our investigators got a good message from it. As soon as it ended they started going on about how cool it was. And about the really really good feeling they had right in their chests. HA! Did we capitalize their? Yes we did. It turned into a wonderful lesson and hopefully, we'll see some good things come from it. 

So transfers are upon us. Tomorrow, my companion will ride off all alone to a new zone. And good old Elder Asetre, one of our beloved zone leaders, will also be leaving the house. He's headed to Fairview, to Elder Broadhead's old area. Speaking of!!!!! Holy goodness! Elder Broadhead is now a zone leader in the zone right next door! Stud status? Yes, yes indeed. I will not be transferring. I will stay here in my wonderful Valenzuela ward. My new comp will be an American. Say what???! Yes, the first American I've had since Elder Quinney, my beloved trainer. How is that man anyway? Probably married!!!!! Better not be cuz I didn't get an invite! Anyway. I'm a little nervous, I admit. He's newish. So we'll see how it goes! Ha, so the other zone leader, Elder Bustillo is staying in the house. His new comp is Elder Wu, chinese. Cool eh? Should be a good transfer. 

This last week, we had a wonderful zone training. We talked about teaching repentance to the people. We have been asked to add more focus to repentance. After all, pretty much one of the most important things we can learn to do is repent! If our investigators and less actives don't understand how to repent, how in the world can they change and come closer to our Heavenly Father? How can they find peace? How can they endure to the end? How can they enjoy the blessings of the gospel? They can't. So we have to teach them. We could have a lot less LA members if they understood repentance. Repentance sometimes comes off as a scary word. Repentance. Ooooo, he has to repent! Uh oh. You have to repent. But it's not a bad thing. The bad thing is when Satan can fool you into NOT repenting. The Savior has given us the opportunity to repent as a blessing. He didn't atone for our sins so that we could then have some dark and terrible punishment. It's a gift. Every person that has ever lived (excluding the Savior, of course) has to repent. Everyone. Heard a few wonderful talks this week. One was from Jack Christensen, a stake president. He said that after being called as a stake president, he needed the Atonement and repentance even more than he did before. Everyone needs it. Our Heavenly Father knew that we would all make mistakes. He knew we would have weaknesses to overcome. Look after all at Alma the younger and the sons of mosiah. They are referred to as the vilest of sinners! And look what they became? It's through the Atonement. We have to repent. We all have to change. Great talks from last conference come to mind. Heavenly Father knows we will stumble and fall sometimes. He cheers us on as we get back up and move forward. The important thing is that we do repent and that we don't put it off. Jesus Christ has given us this wonderful gift and we have to use it. Only through the Atonement and the process of repentance can we become clean and regain the presence of the Holy Ghost. We must use repentance to rid ourselves of the burden of sin. As we continually repent, we will have a peace come into our lives. We will see the blessings of the Lord. And we will come closer to our Heavenly Father and be more able to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Only then will we be able to receive all the blessings the Lord has for us and reach our full potential as sons and daughters of God. 

Someone is rambling. Can't imagine who. Hm. 

Anyways. It has been a good week over here. Let's see if I have any pictures for y'all. Haha, oh yes I do! Someone I know said they like a good sunset. So I got one of those for y'all. And then there is one of my comp. Haha, yeah, he's a goof ball. But we love him! And the housemates with us for the next pic. And the next pic. When you see that, you know what it means! Mom the missionaries are here! Ah, you guys aren't supposed to go swimming. Our wonderful crew of investigators at the church. Me and Elder Sojor eating some delicious food with our bakery family. A pic from FHE last night. Me helping sell pizza at Pizza Hut. Buy one take one. Can't beat that. And me and Elder Asetre being jeans models. Who knew?

Anywho, that's all I have for this week. Sorry the email is shortish, but the pictures below should make up for it, right? Have a wonderful week everyone!

Much love, 

Elder Christensen