Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:08

Minha Familia!!

Alright, my week. I actually took some time last night to write down the highlights from the week to share with you guys. SO last Tuesday we helped his guy move who may be one of the most intense baseball fans I have ever seen in my life. NO joke though. He had stadium seats, 50 signed baseballs, signed bases and patches of turf! This guy was legit! Biggest Dodger Fan on the PLANET! So we were moving a lot of stuff to his new apartment and a lot of it was considered precious so we were all very nervous when we had to carry the glass display case. So heavy but yeah we somehow managed it. He also had and autographed Yoda shrine with an autographed yam-aka on..? haha yeah we got a picture with it. no worries. 

This week we had the biggest blessing yet on my mission! We met this lady named Peggy on Wednesday and have met with her everyday since until yesterday when she came to CHURCH! She is the definition of GOLDEN! So elect! Seriously love her to death. She has had some many trials in her life that have pretty much humbled her to this point now and she is so ready to hear how to improve her life! Yep she is incredible. We will probably see her tomorrow and teach her the Commandments. Hopefully all goes well. Also on Saturday we did exchanges with the Zone Leader in the area. HE went with my comp Elder Hansen so I was with the ZLs comp Elder Folu from New Zealand! He is my bro and we had so much fun. I had to drive there car since I am the designated driver for my companionship and so we had like 5 other elders in this mini-van (the other elders are also from the area) and I was driving all of them around  and I am the youngest on the mission.  We were bumping some serious church music and jammin out, with the windows down because it was 60 degrees, and this car was next to us and he was laughing at us and we turned the music down and did a restoration lesson between the windows on a red light. It was so legit. Church is true. But yeah it was hilarious. Love being on my mission.

Ok ok my address is also important to give out to people when I make fun of them for sending mail to Bonners Ferry...

 3532 15th Street E

Lewiston ID,

83501

There you go. I am still waiting to get my other packages and mail from the ZLs in the Bonners Ferry area tomorrow but that's alright. It just continues to be something to look forward to. As far as any VISA information.. I don't have it. ha I had to go into the post office last Tuesday and retake my Passport photos because the first photos were "too dark" haha yeah idk these people are crazy but I don't think that I have to re apply for my passport I just have to send these in separate I guess. That's ok though. We all know how bad my last passport photos were.. So it's probably better. I will make sure to send you a picture of what my new one looks like. ok also Yeah I forgot to write this in my last weeks letter but I am SO STOKED FOR DALLIN's CALL!! That's awesome. Tell him or Sister Parker that I know he will be a dope missionary! Says those words exactly! 

I love all of you very much! I hope I was able to answer some questions. But if not there is always next week! Time is flying by when your on the Lords errand!

Amo Vocês Muito!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the GREATEST MOTHER ON PLANET EARTH‏ Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:05

Sorry for the late post. Sick kids this week. The big news is that Bonner's Ferry, ID is not the same place as Lewiston, ID. Working on getting his correct address.

Minha Familia! 

First and foremost I would like to take this time to wish my mother a very Happy Birthday! She is without a doubt one of the greatest people I have ever had in my life. Seriously though I don't think that I would have been able to accomplish anything without her loving guidance and just her warm personality! Mom I love you like crazy. I cannot count the amount of times that I think about you here out in the foreign lands of north Idaho. And being honest its nowhere near enough because your one of the soul reasons I am out here on my Mission. Thank you for your testimony and your example. You make me laugh all the time. I think world of you. Ok I love you! I admit it! Time to write about myself now.

So this week has been pretty fun. We have had a pretty routine schedule going, week by week.  We went all the way up to Spokane on Tuesday for a trainer and trainie meeting. We made it over to the mission office after and I was able to pick up the past few letters you guys have been trying to send. I don't live in Bonner's Ferry. I was so confused haha. But regardless thank you so much for the shirt and other gifts! I got that and Sarah's blog letter. Which I couldn't see any of the pictures from but it was still good to imagine them haha. I have to painting from Conway and Ellese posted up on my wall as well so thanks Jen! Maggie your pictures are adorable! I loved the video. Some serious eyes there kiddo!

 Ok so really quick before the kick me off. My week was pretty smooth. Met tons of new investigators. Went to a funeral for the Dahlberg family if you remember them (he jams hard on the guitar and wears flannels) . It was good for us to be there for their family. WE ALMOST got Brother Lincoln inspired to say he wanted to be baptized but he wasn't going for it.  And now I have been given car control due to the fact that my companion doesn't feel comfortable driving. haha Yeah idk guys I really cant muster up any great stories this week.. OH WAIT! I remember we killed like 20 mice this week! Divided by 10. We got two of them. Secret combination of peanut butter and cheese. haha but yeah I have some sweet pictures I will send you guys next week. I really would articulate this better for you all if I had the time right now but I don't. I love you all and promise to get out some sweet stories for this next week!

Amo vocês!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 12:56

Minha Familia! Tudo Bem!?

Life here in Lewiston has been pretty great and it was awesome to open my LDS mail account and see all the love and pictures. Seriously you guys are the best! Alright to start off the week,.. So we have been continuing our sweep of the Lewiston area and trying hard to meet more people everyday and build up our Teaching records. We didn't have much of a chance to connect with anyone we had met in previous weeks so yeah we really did kinda have to start over and meet some new people. We met the one less active member whose name is Brent Cooper. Its kinda weird calling him brother Cooper because I feel so dis-attached  to my first name out here. He is a really cool guy. He was in the Marines  and was shot out of a Helicopter with and RPG missile which broke it back and neck and both knees.... crazy right!? He has a disability check from the military that pays for his living now but because he can't do much physical labor his house in kind of a mess.. So we went over and did some service and he has some kids that are in Highschool that could probably use some gospel messages!! Yep it's gonna be pretty awesome getting to teach them these next few weeks! They are some really nice people. Our first time there they made us some bacon. Ha It's the young ones GO-to snack haha. We also had the chance to meet some of Bro. Christensen's friends and Potential Investigators. We met the Cavanaugh family last night and they are pretty awesome! The wife is probably one of the funniest people ever. She is a winner and the family has a ton of promise in possibly converting over so it will be fun to teach them more. Doug Linoln, if you remember from last letter, WAS at Stake Conference yesterday and I was sitting right next to him. It was such a sweet conference and all centered around people's conversion stories and it was basically everything the he needed to hear so tomorrow night we are going over to see if we can get him to put himself on date!! Yeah pray for us, I have a sweet feeling about it and I know he felt the spirit, I sitting right next to him and he brought it up after that he kept getting chills because of the temperature of the room and I was like "or its the SPIRIT talking to ya!" ha and his wife came over (the member) and said "I think the spirit feels a little warmer than that!" (wrench thrown..) haha its all good though, he is basically Elect to get baptized at some point.

So I will try to include more about my life here in Lewiston really quick. We live in a super small garage "attachment" -if you will- and yeah, 2 rooms. Literally 2... (bedroom-study- kitchen all one room, and then the bathroom) but I love it! 

We rent from a non-member family the LittleJohn's. Missionaries have lived here forever and so he is pretty much not open to being taught. But yeah still super nice people. The town is pretty much country living! It really is good sized town though closer to the river. They have a Panda Express so yeah I don't consider them that RED neck. haha There is the Lewis and Clark college just off the hill we live on and yeah pretty much its kinda random here. Some houses are really rundown and hurting (mostly older people with disability) and then there can be some really nice houses that younger families or doctors and dentists, live in and yeah its pretty much ever other house that's nice or bad. I think I mentioned this in my last letter but everyone here has horses or sheep or goats or something. Also dogs. Whenever we are talking to people they talk about some ranch work or something like that and ask if I have ever done this or that and I almost always say "nope! but I am sure my dad probably has!" Seriously though this is modernized farm land. Side note story of the week. We were eating dinner at the members house and the 9 year old girl was so stoked to show me here baby goat that was born a few days earlier. She eventually couldn't contain herself and just brought him in. Ha I held the little guy pretty much for the duration of the meal and then throughout the lesson haha my companion didn't want to hold him and the little girl wouldn't let me put him down so there you go.. haha I have a picture I will try to send haha.

 But yeah that's how we do dinner out here in Idaho! On Friday we traveled out to the other outlying areas in our boundary. We went with our Bishop and gave some sweet lessons to some less actives. Always a good experience to teach well in front of Bishop.  And yeah that's all I have about me.

Alright well I love you all soo much!!

Amo vocês muito! 

ELDER CHRISTENSEN    

2nd Week In I-D-HO Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:59:50

Oi minha familia!

This week has been pretty crazy but todo bem! To start off, Me and Elder Hansen keep finding more and more holes and problems created from the last set of elders. On the bonus side we do feel like we are making some progress with the investigators we are finding and are continuing to build trust with the members! He have met some seriously awesome people.Yesterday we met the old WML (WardMissionLeader) Bro Christensen and he is my favorite! He is totally related to us somewhere somehow! He is an orthodontist and may be able to fix my top retainer ( it broke while I was eating a Quesodilla.. i know.. lame). Bottom line he is the greatest and is hooking us up with some decent help finally! As far as investigators, there is this guy named Doug Lincoln. He is someone who the ward is really protective of because he has been coming to church for a few weeks and he wife is a member and all these great things are happening but they have a hard time trusting Missionaries because they feel like the ones in the past have pushed him pretty hard. But we went over last night and I worked some casual conversation magic and he seems to really like us. He is the man though and Heavenly Father has definitely been preparing him for a long time. He is not on date for a baptism but he is one of those guys that will be baptized undoubtedly just on his own time. I just hope it's while I'm here still. Another sweet investigator we have is this guy named Larry Dahlberg. He has been taking lessons for the past 6 years and his wife is a member so yeah there are a lot of people in the ward that kinda lost hope in the idea of him every joining. He is VERY opinionated and yeah.. let us leave it at that. But me and him are pretty tight! He is a retired mail man, so he plays guitar gigs in bars around the area and he fills extra time with hobbies like gardening and other stuff. Basically, he is kinda like DAD in ten years but if Dad grew up with a Pastor for a father and wore flannels,.. all the time. haha Other missionaries have given up on him but I really like him. We seem to click for the time being but unfortunately the Dahlberg's son died unexpectedly on Sunday morning so they are really down right now. I don't know, maybe Heavenly Father has a plan for them, he just has to chose to see it after this huge trial in his life. Pray for him, he honestly is the coolest guy and Sister Dahlberg is awesome.

 We have also taken part in some pretty memorable moves this week. This 50 year lady was one of the previous Elder's investigators and so she called us for help moving because for whatever reason she needs to get out of dodge ASAP... already sketch.. so yeah we helped her with the first half of the move last week and then a few days ago we went over to help her mom pack up with her in a UHAUL. So, being the service minded missionaries we are, we climb into our current WML's car (super sick guy by the way) and drive. We thought it was going to be about a 30 min drive, but NO, we drive out about an hour and a half out into #NoWhereVill USA with dirt roads and trees and hills and snow and she is driving this massive truck and sliding and swerving. We finally get there and there is this Cop who is supposed to show up (never does) and monitor the move because her sister has a restraining order on her and her mother's stuff is all at this house. We walk in and there are probably 1000 dead mounted animals all around. ( I asked them what one animal was and the daughter who was just creeping  in the corner was like "AFRICA!" and I was like "oh.. cool/you didn't answer my question?" and then some other elder that was helping us walks in and pulls an Anton and just shouts "AMERICA!" out of nowhere! haha is was a hilarious day!) Also, on top of that,  this place smells strait up like CASINO (if they simultaneously smoked gun powder). Sorry just really trying to paint the picture here. So yeah we walk in and all of the contents that the mother has to pack up exceed pretty much any reasonably sized UHAUL. So we are pretty much  are like "umm so this cannot fit... You are going to have to start picking what's essential" and she about looses it. So basically we all kinda said a little prayer and then we just started to fill-er up. Turns out that God answers prayers even for things as small as moving your entire collection of Lamps and Cat quilts! We some how managed to fit every single thing into this truck... still doesn't make any sense. It was kinda sad to see how broken the family was but hopefully our service will leave a good impression on them and they can connect with some more missionaries out in Connecticut! 

Alright  I should bounce off and try to figure out other stuff like pictures so you can really see how much like Ireland this place is...

Amo Vocês MUITO!

EDLER CHRISTENSEN

Some older pictures he sent from the MTC. Maybe ones of Idaho next week he says. :)

 This is with Sister K who is in Nebraska and wrote Mom a note about me

Elder Keck who is currently in Africa!

This picture is with Irmao McGloughlin and he district.

Spokane Mission Arrival in Pictures

Pictures provide from Brother and Sister Mullen from http://washingtonspokanemission.wordpress.com/

 Arrived at the airport!

 Spokane Temple

 Dinner at Presidents house

 Assignments

 Elder Hansen is Elder Christensen's training companion

Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 11:52

Minha Familia!

The long awaited email has arrived!! How crazy is it that I am in the field right now! I have a lot to say so I will try to get it all out there in the few minutes I have left to write. 

First things first, I am currently serving in Lewiston, Idaho 2nd Ward! Check it out on Google maps! I love this place so far and pretty much everyone that currently serves here calls this place the promised land and honestly there is some serious truth behind that. People here are just awesome and they are ready to hear the gospel! My companion is Elder Hansen and he is from Mesa, Arizona. He has been out on the mission for a year now and has spent most of his mission in "the sticks" of Canada and other tinny towns so needless to say he is excited to be here with me in Lewiston where we have our own Panda Express! He is new to the area as well so if you want to go by mission terms, we are both sweeping into the area and we don't know anybody.. at all. haha I guess that President Mullen just felt like things here could use a change and so he decided to move us down here and get people excited about missionary work again. Our district down here consists of two other sets of Sisters and they pretty much are tearing this place up! We only hear good things about the sisters in this area and from talking to them, they know everyone and they actually used to serve where we do now, but they served there a few transfers ago. So yeah I don't know... its been kinda frustrating to not know what we are doing down here and having to kinda wash the bad taste of the last missionaries that were here out of the mouths of the members and their former investigators, however, we have lists upon lists of people to visit so the work will be hasting for us shortly. But yeah its been so much fun! Me and Elder Hansen get along pretty great already and he reminds me of a Joe Stradling- Shaw Parkinson mix... I don't know how it makes sense but he pulls it off pretty well. 

Spokane area was beautiful while I was there as well though. My first day in the field we did some "Fear Bustin'-" and went tracking. It was dumping down some serious snow so it is pretty cool to think that the first door I knock on my mission was in the snow and the last one I ever knock will be the exact opposite! But yeah I stayed in the home of some members near the mission home and it was way tight! I tried to get a picture but found out I erased it I guess but over time I will get emails from companions and all that stuff so I am not worried. What else. I don't know so much happens everyday now so it's hard to think about what I should write... I feel so blessed to have this adventure in my life! I have sang to random people in the street, I have jammed out with a person and a guitar in his home!, I have helped some crazy lady move out and in turn carried home the entire contents of her refrigerator. I have honestly met some of the coolest people alive so far. We went on semi real splits with this member named Brother Keane and he shared to most incredible story about saving his Wife's life a few months back with a less active who we hadn't even meet yet and it turned out to be exactly who we needed to fellowship him back to church! It's the day-by-day, moment-by-moment experiences that are beginning to help me realize that none of the things that happen on this earth are by mere happenstance. I cannot wait to continue to serve these people and to serve the Lord. I know that I have a purpose to be here. I know that the person that the Lord wants me to meet is just around the next corner. 

Sorry I don't have anytime to write any longer because we are still trying to figure out laundry and all these details in the new area. ( We live in an Attic on top of some guys garage.. One room/kitchen/closet/bathroom... haha its incredible and therefor we don't have a washing machine) But yeah I wish I could stay and write you guys so much more but I know that you will survive another week and my next email will be better. 

Amo Vocês!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN