Meetings‏ Sent:Mon 8/25/14 1:47 PM

Hey Family,

I wish I had better stories to share with ya but honestly this week was a bunch of meetings and empty houses! David and his family are doing great. The older kids are having a hard time feeling motivated to start this church going life but I can't blame them. It will take some getting used to I think before they start his whole process. Still really great kids though. So yeah we had a zone conference on Wed and then on Saturday we went to see Elder Johnson on the 70 talk to us as he was passing through. Great talk and great meeting but I hate driving so much! Me and Elder Tekanene are really close to the Senior Couple in charge of the mission cars and we told them that there was no way in hadies that we were going to go under our monthly allowed miles of 1600 and we will probably go over by 400 miles. He told me that as long as we get baptisms I can do what ever I want. #AbuseThatPermission haha but seriously other than that we had no luck with anyone in our area. No body is progressing in town. My favorite less actives are out of town. Sometimes Ritzville can be a really hard area but I am gonna be here for a while I think so gotta get comfy. I really do love this place I just hope for more out of it! We have new ZL's in our area and one in particular always asks for rides from us as we approach town and stuff and He is awesome. He is like my best bud. He is super bold in his teaching and pretty much calls everyone out! His stories crack me up and for whatever reason he reminds me so much of West. There ya go bro. I've replaced you.

You guys seem to be all about this ICE challenge thing! I got a bunch of videos but my lame family history computer cannot view them I haven't seen them yet. I will try another computer right after I email this but from what everyone else here tells me about it, It sounds pretty funny. 

I washed a HEFER! We were helping some other elders out at a county fair and walked by some FFA kids that were prepping their cows for show. I stopped and asked one of them if I could help wash their cow and they totally let me! I will attach a picture. Also DAD everyone had a blue cord FFA jacket! I totally felt like part of the group. I was like "I wore one in HS for a WEEK!"

Hopefully I will see the ice bucket stuff! You guys are incredible and know that I love ya.

Com amor todos pessoas!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

SAND STORM & BAPTISM‏ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 11:32:5

Oi Familia,

What a week! probably one of the craziest of my mission but who knows.. Its all pretty much a blur at this point! Before I forget to write about it, This Tuesday we had this crazy dirt storm in Ritzville called a Haboob! haha look it up its no joke! We were in the library just doing some service when all of the sudden there was this lady that went to the door and started freaking out about this wall of dirt! We didn't really pay much attention until she kept going on about it and so we looked from the window and literally saw a wall of dirt headed towards us! If you're having a hard time picturing it just think of the movie the MUMMY! #insane... The windows went black! We walked outside because I wanted the experience of course and I couldn't even see my own hand! It was gnarly! At the end of the storm there were trees in the streets and scattered across the golf course. There was even a huge tree that just crushed this poor house on Division St.! haha Yeah.. I don't even know what it is about the planes of Washington but apparently this happens all the time. SO yeah that's how my week started! ok cool so now that I remembered to tell you guys that Its on to the important stuff! #socialmediablitz #baptism #SOOSICK #mnmspokane

One of my most favorite days on the mission by far! It was so much fun to see how pumped everyone was about missionary work and getting pictures of us and more importantly going out teaching with us! I don't know how many pictures of me you saw but there was a bunch others that were put out by members here and I hope you get to see them! It was a blast! We had some seriously good moments and I think the mission got some really good publicity out of all of this! And then there was the baptism of DAVID!! That man is so awesome! It was incredible to watch him get dunked! Elder T was asked by David to do it because David said he saw it in a dream! How sick is that! So yeah He got baptized and we had everyone from the branch basically there and his kids all came to the Baptism! I have a picture I will send of their family but its kinda blurred so its not my favorite. As far as the next people to be baptized it will definitely  be coming out of this family! On Sunday he got the Holy Ghost and gave an impromptu testimony!! I was smiling so big haha! He thought I put the President up to it! haha Yeah I have found that the more I stay here in the Spokane mission the harder it will be for me to leave this place! I could potentially be here for when this family gets sealed and David goes through the temple and if I were to ever get my VISA it would be hard to not be here for that! #missionaryproblems Love this family though! (Peggy too.. just thought I would add that)

Know that I love you all! Much love!

Te Amo

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Gonna get DUNKED!‏ Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 11:27

Family,

This last week was so awesome! As you may have guessed from the title, OUR INVESTIGATOR IS GETTING BAPTIZED!! yeah yeah! Oh it was the sickest lesson ever! We were thinking about it for a while about how we thought David might just be ready to set a date for his baptism. We go in and start talking about any questions he might have and then he says, "So when can someone be baptized, like what does it take?" haha yeah.. he is the man! We set him up for this Saturday, the 16th! We are so stoked I can't even tell you. That whole day we were on cloud nine because right after that we went over to teach my favorite Less Active family in Odessa and she made be a plate of Snicker doodles for us and she kept telling us about how she was excited to come to church at the end of August!  Didn't even phase us that right after that we taught another investigator in town and he started talking about  underground German prophets and there connection to Alien spaceships. Naw, you cant get me down when there is a Baptism in the near future! So yeah like I was saying he is going to be baptized this Saturday evening at 7 o'clock . 

Oh I don't think I have even told you guys about this but on the 16th of Aug, we are also having a SOCIAL MEDIA BLITZ for the people in the Spokane mission boundaries. "The Book of Mormon Musical" is coming to Spokane and the mission has planned out this orchestrated effort to combat all of the negative attention the church will get from that with positive and accurate postings from members in this area about what #RealMormonMissionaries do! They have been planning this for a while and most of the younger members of the wards who actually use Facebook and Instagram and Twitter have been recruited into the effort to shadow us throughout the day and post stuff about what we do! So yep, this is going to be on the 16th, which means that the people shadowing us here will get to post about our baptism!!! Not that I'm a competitive person when it comes to missionary work but, no doubt, our day is going to be THE BEST! I am sure you can follow all of the posts online if you search the Hashtag: #mnmspokane <this is the hashtag that will link all of the postings together!> If you scroll through that at the end of the day I am positive you will see yours truly! 

Another thing that happened this week was transfer calls! Neither I nor Elder Tekanene is leaving but Elder Goins (the elder from the pool table picture) is leaving.. Sad days. But we will have a new DL and we have no idea who it is yet.. So that will be interesting!

Alright, love you all with all my heart.

Com Amor,

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Blisters..‏ Mon, 4 Aug 2014 11:38

Oi Familia!

What it do what it do! This week has been another awesome week in the books.  We had a really long stretch of time between P-days last week considering we had to work on Monday in order to attend the Temple on Friday but (because I don't live and work just to get from p-day to p-day) it wasn't bad. Monday started off with a laugh. Thanks for the Drugs mom! haha still cracks me up. I have not made the cookies yet but I need to. Its hard to find time and motivation to get the oven stared in an apartment with no AC and it is 110 degrees outside. But then the rest of the week went by pretty great. We organized a lot of our efforts and pin pointed some people that are worth working with and created a lot of routes and things so I pretty much know the area down to the dot by now. On wednesday we had a district meeting and then exchanges after. I was in Davenport again and got to play some more pool! We did a whole bunch of service and I met someone who was semi-related to the Cardon's in White Rock so yeah that was cool. We then met with our investigator family (David)  in Oddessa! They are awesome as ever and we had a great lesson. They came to three hours of church yesterday! So stoked about it. But anyways we also had a great experience with teaching a less active / part member family out in Oddessa as well. They have never really been receptive to missionaries before and most of the people in the Branch don't even know them because they apparently never open the door or let anyone from the church in. BUT! We have been getting in recently and I feel like she, (sister R) , is going through a phase after just having had knee surgery and her husband <member> is also looking for something more, more help or peace. Anyways, yeah they LOVE us. No joke, I don't even know why or how but we just really started hitting it off! She is awesome. Holy cow. She keeps promising to make me Snickerdoodle cookies ever time we see them, and the other lesson she said something along the lines of, "Well, I guess we better start coming to church then if you guys are going to keep being so persistent!" haha YES!! She is still pretty restricted with her knee but they will be coming at the end of this month probably! I am really excited about the work going down in this area!

And then to kinda cap it all of we went to the Temple on Friday!! What What! Yeah it was the BEST! New movie in case you haven't heard. Don't know if they have it in Alb or anywhere else yet but I would imagine they do. It has been out for at least a week or so! Anyways, yeah it was a much needed experience. I can testify that there is no place like the temple anywhere else on earth. You can feel the spirit so strong! After the temple we did some shopping in some stores that we never get access to usually. Went to Burlington Coat Factory and let me tell ya, missionaries go ham in that place. SO CHEAP! I have to confess mother... promise not to get mad at me.. I may or may not have bought a grey Suit. !!! haha I KNOW I KNOW but it was sooo worth it and very much needed. 1st reason- Black suit on 100 degree weather Sundays... nao bom! 2nd reason- I AM TOO FAT!! I can no longer call my self a 32 waist. I am at least 34 or 36!! haha Therefore going to all the effort to have someone let out my pants might not even work. 3rd reason- it was only 100 bucks. I'd say that is a screamin deal! 4th reason- last but not least I look dang good in grey.. So yep I did it. 

Alright everone.

Much love, have a great week! BYE

ELDER CHRISTENSEN