Jared's girlfriend is engaged! Oh congratulations pal! Oh
no, not to him! Haha, no idea why, but that line came into my head. I figured
it'd look nice on the top. And funny story, actually fits in with this week's
happenings. But we'll get to that later!
Let's start with Renalyn. Ah, blessed day! Renalyn is
awesome! She is the one we taught back in the day that moved away and then just
moved back. We checked with her about how the lessons had been taught and how
her understanding was and what we still needed to teach. She is so solid! So
ready to get baptized! We set a date for 2 weeks from now, but she said she
wanted to get baptized sooner! Ha! Fine by me! So we have her set for this
Friday! Interviews are finished and she is good to go! I could not be more
excited! And she and her husband got all married up back in April (I probably sent
pics, it was the wedding we had about my first week in the area), so about a
year from now, they can be all married up in the temple!! Sweet? I think yes!
But, there is a sad side to this story. I don't know that this ever happens in
real life. Maybe in the movies. And definitely in jokes. In fact, I remember
one from Brian Reagan about it. There is no forgiveness when you ask a woman
what month her baby is due....when she's not pregnant. AHHHH! "Ah, the
pandas at the zoo! They are havin a baby....". Oh man. Yeah, my face is
usually pretty red cuz we spend some good time in the sun. But it went far more
red. They told me back before they moved that she was pregnant, so with that
thought randomly coming back to my memory, I asked when it was due. I was met
with blank stares. Oh snap. Um, the baby? You told me back in the
day....Thankfully, the husband remembered. Didn't help the situation though. He
said, "Ah yeah, that was just a false alarm. This though, (tapping his
wife's belly), this is just fat." Please, let me sink into the floor.
Didn't happen. But there was something that did make me feel better. Heard a
woman at church yesterday make the same mistake. Sigh. Not one of my finer
moments.
Our bakery woman and her children are also progressing right
along schedule. Should all go well today, (knock on wood). Name it. Should all
go well this week, they will be baptized next Saturday. So we could have
baptisms two weeks in a row! Life is just going well! Their family is doing
sooo good! We haven't taught the dad yet. Super nice man, but so busy with the
bakery. I asked him the other day about coming to church with his fam. He said,
sure, but that he'd have to find someone to take over while he was gone. I
mentioned he could also just close. He said, "For an hour?" I
mentioned that's not quite what I had in mind. He laughed and joked, "Ha,
what, the whole day?" He quieted down quickly when he saw in my face that
is exactly what I had in mind. But the next day when we were teaching his wife
outside the bakery, I heard a man come and ask for something and then say, eh,
nevermind. Just get it tomorrow, to which he replied, ah, you won't be able to.
We won't be opening tomorrow. WHAT?! Sweet!!! And they didn't. They all came to
church together yesterday! It was awesome! I'm very excited for them.
We are also teaching this other wonderful couple. Man's name
is Jerald and his wife's name is Che. She is a LA (active when she was a kid
but then they moved to the city and she never went back). He is catholic. But
we have had 2 really good lessons with them. He is a good father, honestly
searching for the truth. And he is making wonderful progress. They came to
church yesterday too. We are super excited for him.
We did have some sad news this week. We have been teaching a
woman named Jen. The missionaries started teaching her before I got here. She
has made some wonderful progress since I've been here. Came to church for about
6 weeks. Went to temple tour with us. Has been living the law of chastity and
the word of wisdom. Reading the scriptures. Got an answer to prayer that our
church is true. We were talking with her about baptism. She said she does not
want to be baptized. She knows it's true, but she doesn't want to change
churches. She actually only even listened to us because the woman she works for
told her she had to. We asked if she really had received an answer that the
church was true. She said yes, but she still didn't want to change. With no
desire to be baptized, we can't help her progress. She thanked us for the
lessons but didn't want us to come back. It was so sad! It is hard to be
rejected. But it is so much harder when someone has been changing and knows
that what you are teaching is true but still rejects you. We were so bummed for
her and for all the blessings she will give up. We invited her to keep reading
and praying and to let us know if she changes her mind. But for now, we are
dropped. Or in other words, dumped. We were feeling a little low in spirit as
we left. And to make matters worse, the tatay chewed us out for issues that
weren't our fault. Kind of like being kicked while you were down. Was a tough
night indeed. But! There are still more people to share with. And we can only
hope that the Spirit will get the better of her eventually and she will accept
the gospel.
We also cooked the best missionary cooked meal of my mission
this week. Steak, real mashed potatoes, gravy, and some steamed up vegetables.
It was divine. But you'll see pics of that later.
We had zone conference! It was incredible! I won't go there,
cuz I don't have time. But zone conference is a wonderful time for the mission
president to just heap the spirit on the missionaries. I love it! Also, there
was a talk shared from Sister Sperry that you might want to check out. It's
called, "And Nothing Shall Offend Them" by Elder Bednar. Pretty
awesome. Look it up!
The thought for this week came this one night when Elder
Jensen and I were about ready to head home for the evening. One of my most
commonly used sayings is, "It's a sick world we're living in". Yep,
Jingle All the Way. But we say it all the time. Whenever we see something gross,
or wrong, or just completely sinful. Sad thing is we find ourselves saying it
way too much. This one night, we had just noticed a lot of such things all
right in a row. Kind of weighed on us a bit. Found a scripture. Moses 7:26,
"And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled
the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and
his angels rejoiced." It just made me think of how filthy the world is at
this time. Satan is definitely putting in some overtime. It's very sad. So we
all see the filthiness being spread. That is quite apparent. But what is this
chain that he is using to spread darkness? Alma 7:15 reads,"Yea, I say
unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset
you, which doth bind you down to destruction". It is our sins that binds
us down and lets darkness be spread. When we live in sin, or show others that
they should sin, we become bound down in sin and we spread that blackness to
others. 2 Nephi 26:22,"and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord,
until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever." The devil is very
crafty. He leads us carefully. He encourages us to spread that darkness
carefully. And therefore, as it said in Moses, it covers the whole earth. So
how do we shake off those chains and stop the spread of darkness? 2 Nephi 9 has
that for us. Verse 45 says,"O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your
sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God
who is the rock of your salvation." We break free when we come unto Christ
and use his atonement. We help others when we show a good example and teach
them how to come unto Christ and use His atonement. One of my favorite verses
is 2 Nephi 26:25 which says,"Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart
from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of
the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price." The
Atonement is for all. Only through the atonement can we become clean and help others
to become clean also. Only through using the atonement can we break down
Satan's power on the earth. The atonement is a wonderful gift that can't be
bought with money. It is bought with a willing heart and spirit. It is bought
when we are willing to change ourselves and do only those things that are
pleasing to our Heavenly Father. We literally rid the world of darkness through
letting our good example be seen. 3 Nephi 18:24,"Therefore, hold up your
light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall
hold up葉hat which ye have seen me do." I pray that we
can all hold up a good example to others, and help them find the wonderful gift
of the atonement, that we may rid the world of darkness. For a good example,
maybe check out Alma 19:6. Can't go wrong with the sons of Mosiah.
Anywho. Time for pics! I promised pics of our timtams
adventure. So I got some of those. A couple pics of us demonstrating how it is
done. Then a group shot, just to show we are having a good time. And then, how good
are timtams? The pic of my comp shows it all. Face of pure joy. They are THAT
good! A picture of us with our bakery woman and her husband. They are some
wonderful people! I hadn't realized how small they were til we looked at the
picture. Man. She has a "presence". Makes her seem a few feet taller.
Then some pics of our DELICIOUS meal! Food Fact of the Day: Steaks can be
cooked in a frying pan. Fact!! Oh the things you get to try on a mission! And
one last pic just so you can see how much I enjoyed the food. THAT much. As you
can see, not only are we living it up, but we are very thoroughly enjoying it
all! Life as a missionary is THAT good! I'm sorry, I don't know what's up the
'that' in all caps all the time. Just sort of happened. I blame the water.
Well folks, I hope you are all doing so super good! Keep it
real this week! Have an excellent week and study your scriptures!
Much love,
Elder Christensen
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