Tri-Force is done!‏ Tue, 27 May 2014 12:02

Oi Familia! Tudo bem..

First things first, life has been pretty hectic this week but one thing to keep in mind is that no matter what happens to me on my mission, however frustrating or depressing, I love being a missionary. No doubt about it, I will serve wherever the Lord wants be and with whomever he wants me to. It is all for my profit and learning. 

Alright, so we picked up Elder Johnson on Tuesday and he is the man. I love him to death. One of the funniest people I have ever known. We laughed the entire way back to lewiston and I got to know him a little better. He knew Elder Hansen a little bit from another area but regardless we have had some great times this week teaching and living together in the BARN! Elder Johnson had to sleep on a few mattresses we snagged for him on the floor if the kitchen. Seriously though, Elder Johnson and I really clicked and it was just fun to be with him. On Wednesday we drove up to Coeur d'alene have a special training from Elder Aidukius of the 70 and it was a long drive but totally worth it. Great man, and beautiful place!! So then on thursday we actually began to teach together and meet some newer people. Friday we had NAIA volunteering to do and it was a blast. We scanned peoples tickets for 3 hours but it was pretty hilarious. Me and Elder Johnson would dance a little bit when it would get slow and people would walk up to us and talk with us asking why we were so happy. It was fun to have them recognize the badges we were wearing and associate us with the church even when we weren't really teaching anything. Street contacts with Elder Johnson is a ball. So the weekend starts rolling around and me and Elder Hansen are fighting off sicknesses and allergies and trying to get out and see some people as well. Not the most fun but yeah allergies here in Lewiston kick you in the face. Must be the grasses and things that don't exist in New Mexico, land of dirt and rock. But no need to worry Mom, Peggy self appointed herself to taking care of me and chastises me every time I cough or sneeze  haha. 

Alright so the reason for the Subject of the email. On Sunday night while we were contacting some house we get a call from the Assistants and Elder Hansen looks at me like its going to be about my VISA. We answer and they ask to talk to Elder Johnson. Apparently he is replacing some Elder companionship that got Emergency Transferred and since we were a tri-panionship he was top on the list of ready to be moved. SO, Elder Johnson is headed up to Spokane tonight to go join his new area and companion. I am sad to see him go but I know it's for a greater cause so it's all good. I think he was kinda bummed as well but its hard to dwell on it when you know that its all the Lords call anyways. He will do great and work for me and Elder Hansen is still moving here in Lewiston 2nd Ward so tudo bem. All is well. 

To answer your questions Mom, Terry did not get baptized yet. He is struggling with giving up the chew. He is one of the most genuine people I have ever met though and he is going to get baptized as soon as he can, I will just be some time. We gave him a priesthood blessing the other night and he seems like he will do better this next week. We wants us to go out there next Mon. and castrate/brand/give shots to some of his cattle and I am soooo stoked!! haha it will be a party! Can't say that Elder Hansen is looking forward to it as much as I am though.. Also no dice on the Dry Cleaning yet. I don't have the most time in the world to go do that and its out of our area so we only have a few moments to really get that done. There are a few seamstress in the ward so I will for sure get them to go it… 

Familia! Mom and Dad, you sound great. Mom your the best. Your calling sounds like a blast. Teach them kids right. Also shout-out to Grandpa! 85! Thats so sweet! 

Alright, I love you guys! I am doing great and I know why I am serving a mission so no need to worry about me! 

Love Life! Love You!  Love the Gospel!

Amo Voces!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Notha Day Notha Dollar ‏ 5/19/14

Alright Minha Familia! 

We have a lot of crazy stuff going down up here and its been a roller coaster of a week so le-go!

First things first, no VISA! yep kinda a bummer... worst part is that I pretty much through in the towel and admitted to myself that I wasn't going to get my VISA in time to make it down to Brazil in time for the world cup on Saturday evening considering transfer calls were Sunday night and usually they let people that have to travel a few days earlier so that they can be ready to get on the plan on Monday. So yeah I was admittedly bummed a little bit to sit there at the desk Saturday night and stair at the phone on the desk waiting for my false hopes. Sunday rolls around and we go to church and for whatever reason we have the most stress filled Sunday ever. We have like 4 investigators there that we were not expecting and like 5 less actives that just randomly showed up! Then we taught three lessons that day and caped off our 30 lesson week in a flaming glory! I have no idea how we were able to teach as often as we did but we did. 30 lessons.. i am sooo tired! haha Also last night we had transfer calls. Me and Elder Hansen are still companions and still in the same area. On top of this we are receiving another Elder into our companionship meaning that we are not entering into the realms of a Tri-panionship! Crazy stuff is going down. His name is Elder Johnson and I guess he has been out for a while because Elder Hansen knows who he is and has served around him. So.. yeah there are now going to be 3 Elders in the BARN, for 6 weeks.. haha I don't even know what to say really. Plus my mind is all messed up know because here I was a broken man a few days ago about not going to Brazil anytime soon and now that we are in a Tri-panionship, which only happens under dyer circumstances, It naturally leads me to believe that I will be leaving sometime soon. Which I guess makes sense if I get my VISA in the next three weeks but if that is so, they would have to know something more about my VISA, and if that's so then WHY HAVE THE NEGLECTED TO TELL ME?!?! I have no idea what's going on anymore.. haha as you can see from this letter thus far. This weekend has kinda been REDonkuLOUS!!

But in the mist of all this confusion and stress there gleams a shimmer of hope and happiness. PEGGY GOT BAPTIZED!!! She was baptized Saturday afternoon after having made a emergency, split second, poorly timed, Satan inspired , trip up to Spokane and back in the morning! (Spokane = 2 hours away = 4 hours round trip = usually not the most choice activity before a Baptism that was originally planned for 2 o'clock!! and was not made aware to the missionaries until Friday night!!) haha so yeah it was all good though because she was with her Son for a while which was actually really good for her but at the same time she was dropping  him off for JAPAN and will not see him again for 3 years. ANYWAYS!! She was Baptized! I was honored with the opportunity to baptize her and the spirit was so strong during the service! One of the best moments of my mission thus far and seriously such a fun moment. I love Peggy and I was so happy when she asked me to baptize her!  She is without a doubt one of the funniest crazy person I have ever met and I can see just how much the Gospel has changed, did change, and will continue to change her life and her outlook.  I firmly believe that she was someone I had to meet before going to Brazil and the fact that I will be here a while longer just means that I may be able to see Terry get baptized and who knows who else I have to still meet. Heavenly Father has  a plan for all of us. He has a plan for Peggy. He has a plan for Me. I just need to be patient and discover just exactly what that is. Peggy has so many new friends in the Ward! The fellowship started way back when we first met her and it has been so much fun introducing her into her now brand new ward family. I have no doubt that she will be watched over if I had to leave tomorrow. 

 (a family friend from Safford has a Daughter serving in the same mission as Coop. Sis, Johnson)

Alright guys! You guys are all incredible! This week has been a trying one for me personally but as we all know from wise words of Kelly Clarkston "WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER!" haha not missionary approved haha Stay strong. Hope this letter made sense! 

Amo vocês!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Sent 5/12/14

You have 2 more days in Hawaii! Live it up!

It was so good to see you guys yesterday! Glad to hear you are all doing so
great in life and everything! I don't really know how long you guys will be
on the Road to Hana but it sounds sick! Enjoy it.
This P-day is jam packed with all the missionaries in the valley gathering
to send Elder Wong back home on Saturday. SO I don't know how much effort
may be contributed to this email.. But yeah things this week have been
pretty great. Had a really busy week with meetings and with going to the
temple so we didn't get to teach as much as we wanted to. We had such a
sweet zone-conference on Thursday! In the middle of the meeting, our
mission president called on some sister missionaries to go out into the
streets and pick some random person to come in and practice teach in front
of everyone. The sisters went out and found someone in the parking-lot of
Wal-Mart!! And she accepted a baptismal invitation! She was so prepared!
Just proves that you have to talk to literally everyone because you never
know when or where someone will be looking for the true and restored
gospel!
This upcoming week: Baptism on SAT! going to be so sick! hopefully all
works out and it should be alright! After that I should find out if my VISA
is coming. Then Depending on if I stay, I get to help out at the NAIA
Baseball World Series here in Lewis&Clark State Collage! Going to be so
much fun! I really just want to stay for the soul purpose of keeping my
free shirt. Because if I leave I would have to leave it for the Elder that
would replace me!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. Don't worry or feel bad about me at all when you
guys go on vacations or do anything like that. I know that things will be
hard once everyone parts their ways after Hawaii but I know that it is all
apart of Gods plan for our family. West and Stasia! Your going to be
TEXANS! You can start practicing your Y'ALLs asap. Nano and Anton!  JAPAN
wont know know what hits them!
EVERYONE ELSE!! I love you all! Mom I hope you had a great Mothers Day!
Your the best mother that a person could ask for.

Have fun in HAWAII! I will write a better letter next week!
Amo vocês muito!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Sent 5/05/14

Minha Familia! Hang Loose!

You guys are probably already in HAWAII right now! Swag Swag! That's so
sick! I love how most everyone tried to hide the fact or at least feel bad
about telling me and Westley was the only one to be straight up and say
that he is trying to plan more vacations in the future while I am still
out!! haha

Alright so first off my week has been stressful but incredibly fast. We
taught more lessons this week than we have any other week since we've been
here in Lewiston which is a plus but at the same time not a whole lot of
other people are progressing. Peggy's baptism had to be moved back to next
Sat. on the 17 and that is the LAST sat of the transfer so we shall see if
that holds up. Terry is the other guy we have on date for that day and
pretty much he is my favorite man on the face of the earth! He is the real
life version of HayDay.. He IS little house on the prairie! Love that man
and he sat next to me in church yesterday. Testimony meetings are always so
nerve racking when you have investigators there. Either they are really
good or just really awkward! haha But me and Elder Hansen get up pretty
much every time because we can't stand the long pauses when our
investigator's salvation is at stake! But it was all great. We are swinging
by his house this afternoon to help him out with his FARM. It's going to be
so sweet. We are working today and taking our P-day tomorrow so that we can
attend the Temple before some of the Elders in the Valley end their 2
years. It's going to be so legit with all of the elders here in the valley
going. I honestly couldn't ask for cooler elders in this area. Such great
bros. haha Cool spiritual experience from the week was our lesson with the
Carpenter Family. We got into this set lesson plan and we were going to
teach about the restoration and we brought a returning less active along
with us. We get into this weird sideways conversation on some tangent about
the color of the nephites skin or something and He (the father) kept saying
stuff like how we will ALWAYS just agree to disagree and we hadn't even
taught him anything yet! haha so That's when our Member spoke up and bore
the most simple testimony on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ
(something he said that he didn't know how to teach moments before we went
to the appointment) and the father of the investigating family stopped
talking and looked at him and asked him to go on and teach more. I don't
know why he wouldn't hear us when we tried teaching the same materiel. I
don't know why we had decided to bring along that specific member. I DO
know however, that Heavenly Father will plan it out for us. He knows where
we are going to be. He knows what they need to hear and who they need to
hear it from. If you want to know how to teach the restoration simply, BEAR
your most simple TESTIMONY! Seriously, this man had come from twenty years
of inactivity and he was able to share the most sincere testimony in
Christ's church being restored, in it's fullness, back to the earth. I
learned that if you want to be sincere, be simple. I love serving my
mission. I love meeting new people everyday and we will see about this
family and if they will progress at all. Heavenly Father has a plan for me
in this Spokane mission and eventually in Brazil as well. Funny story from
the week is when we went to help out a radio station with a fundraiser they
were doing in the parking lot of the mall. We got to hang out in a vintage
firetruck! And draw the plan of salvation in chalk on the black top of the
parking lot haha! I wanted the guy to teach me to dive his old firetruck
but it was a double clutch so probably a no go (also probably against the
rules... haha)

Alright so #realtalk.. Mother's day we get to Skype for an hour. Probably
in the afternoon before we have dinner at a members house so around 5 or 6.
Which hopefully isn't too late for you guys. We will make it work I am sure
so. Expect it in the after noon. And don't try to hide the view from the
window. I know you guys are in Hawaii haha it's nothing worth hiding! Just
make sure you get some dope stories. 

So Dallin Parker leaves for the MTC on Wednesday right! That's sooo sick! I
am so pumped for him. He will be incredible. Also Burns sounds like he is
killin it from the normal civilian status! Send my love.
K you folks have an incredible time in Hawaii! Its going to be so sweet to
look at pictures next monday so make sure you take good ones!

Amo vocês muito!
ELDER CHRISTENSEN