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

Lots of Pictures Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:26:

Family,

This last week seemed like one of those that just barely crept along and then all at once the end of the week just got slammed tight with awesome lessons and experiences. So to skip all of the lame stuff we will go to Saturday. A brand new family just moved into this outside town like 45 min away from Ritzville and they were at church 2 weeks ago. The wife is a member that grew up in a less active home and she just decided to start coming back and taking online classes through church related programs. She married this guy named David, who is not a member, like 4 months ago and they are kinda like the Brady Bunch with kids from both sides. Anyways he is really interested in learning more about the church! He apparently has some ties to Brigham Young and he said in our lesson that, "He has just always felt like he was being pulled towards to the LDS church." I asked if he wanted to be Baptized as soon as he felt of the truthfulness of this gospel and he said "well ya for sure I would" haha It was the best! I love this family! They are incredible! They came to church yesterday and for whatever reason the speaker went on a 10 min tangent on how awesome Brigham Young was and I was loving it. I kept leaning forward in my seat to look at David! haha Yeah yesterday was a crazy day actually.

Funny story, We have this investigator in town who is pretty much crazy and she has been in an out of rehab and church and whatnot but she is the nicest person ever. We get a call from her like 10 min before we have Sacrament with a 7 min long voicemail (no joke) saying that she needs a ride to church. So we grab Brother K (who is slightly crazy as well) and we head out in his tiny car covered in dirt to go pick up our investigator. We are driving at most 5 miles under the speed limit and his trunk keeps popping open so we have to stop every block or so to close it. We eventually just decide there is no hope saving it so we ride with it open. We finally reach her and pretty much force her in the car because by now its almost 10 after the hour and we might miss sacrament. She starts jokingly yelling at brother K while he is driving to "Put the PEDDLE  to the METAL or we gonna miss the free food!"... yeah .. I know... she is a process.. haha but we eventually get there as they are on the last verse of the sacrament hymn . #madeit #NotAReverentMorning

These pictures are from elder folu..old stuff but I hope you enjoy it!!

​Here are the Hampsterball pictures  from pioneer days in Davenport from last week that i mentioned in my letter. I just happened to be by the computer and just checked to see if he finally forwarded the pictures to me so here you go...

 

Alright, that about wraps it up I think,

I exercise pretty poorly actually. I am honestly starting to get a belly and I can no longer fit into my suit pants.. all is not well. haha So I need to start getting my act together. We are in a 24/7 car area but our town is small enough to go walking or biking or something. Because I don't have a bike or anything I have to borrow from members. My Branch Mission leader here lent me his electric bike with a motor on the back wheel. It's pretty much a motorcycle that only goes 10 mph haha. NO HEALTH BENEFIT WHATSOEVER! I will have to send pictures sometime. I don't need any extra storage. I still have a few gigs of memory to use on what I came out with so no worries. 

K I think that covers it.

LOVE YA 

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

what a week..‏ Sent: Mon 7/21/14 1:12 PM

perhaps one of the awesome I have met thus far. They had a whole bunch of direct family names from His side (like his own father and step father) and it was so intense to be allowed to help them out! I was the guy who ran the names under the camera and then checked them off! haha We had like 60 names to do so it was insane! I also had the unique experience to watch my own companion get dunked! haha HOW MANY people can say THAT! It was so funny. He is a tall skinny islander who never really knows what people are saying to him if they talk too fast so yeah it was just a blast. Them good people for sure. Later in the week we did exchanges with the Davenport Elders and I just have to say they probably live in the nicest apartment ever know to missionaries. They are out in the mountains and they live in a members house and they have pretty much free rain to all of there little toys. They have a pool table and a jackpot slot machine and pretty much an entire meat freezer that they can use as they wish. Pretty much its ridiculous. So we went up and had a district meeting there (at which I burned my 6 month mark tie) and then that night me and Elder Goins got a few games of pool in.

The next day me and Elder Goins had a party walking around downtown Davenport at their PioneerDays festival. Needless to say we did a lot of street contacts and just talked to some really cool/weird people. We even got to jump in some hamster balls and Walk on Water!! (if I can get the picture to you it will make more sense. But the member that took some pictures for us hasn't emailed us yet) So yeah it was a nice way to cap off the week. I also had the chance to speak on Sunday so that was pretty good too. I gave a 20 min talk and I still had to cut stuff out on the fly. I guess that's what being a missionary does to you. You have way to many resources on your mind to pull from cause that's all you do for studies!! haha We actually have a new family that moved in the is Part Member and the father and kids are all really interested in learning more about the gosple <she is the member but used to be less active> Golden! I guess they only recently decided to attend since they moved! But we are going to talk with them more this week! 

There is a member here who apparently always serves the elders crap but apparently she was turned off when the last elders forgot an appointment with her and were helping someone move. I will work on her though.. #gottaGetThatCRAB!

I know that Heavenly Father likes to try us and make us stronger. He knows our limits and our abilities and will not push us harder or faster than we have strength. The only thing that we can do sometimes is take things a day at a time. I know that while the eternal perspective is great to have in mind, that isn't how Heavenly Father designed us to live. Sometimes in life we get to carried away looking ahead to see what is in the future, and in the midst of trial that can be a great thing. But in order for us to change our circumstances, to repent, to better the world in which we currently live, it requires very real and very sincere action, and it needs to happen as soon as possible. We have to be nourished and strengthened every single day of our lives. Some days we are blessed with bad ones but most days we are blessed with great ones.  I love being out here! 

 

Alright everyone! Know that I love you!

Tchao 

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

ps. I think west gave me a hard time about this but if you see any weird clothing in this pictures just realize that as a missionary, anything different to wear is gold... and since we have a food bank that gives out gnarly clothes for free.. we take pretty much whatever we want.. haha

miles and miles of wheat... and nothing Mon, 14 Jul 2014 11:47

Hey Family!

Glad to hear from all of ya! My week has been pretty good and while it is a whole lot slower than Lewiston, I am beginning to love these people and my area.  We keep busy around here by making sure we take care of the little details that normally with would forgotten in another area. We spent a good amount of time trying to make sure all the VISA stuff was good before we sent it. It took some time but Brother Banner, who works in the Sheriffs office was super helpful and gave me a lot of things for free.. namely free fingerprints and advice haha. Then of course being in a small town, people hear about it and want to know, "why are you getting a VISA? where are you going? why aren't you there yet?" kinda deal which I was hoping to avoid.. haha I love it though. give me a change to brag about the 3 lines I have memorized in Portuguese haha. We spent a lot of time driving this week, but to no success. We have probably driven around 300 miles in the past 3 days just to reach out and touch some of the towns that our Branch covers. We really tried to knock on some less active members homes but for whatever reason NO BODY was home or around walking or anything.. It was a bummer but at least I got to see just how big this area is. Looks like we might just do the drive again later this week depending on how much we get bored in town haha. 

what me and elder T eat pretty much every night.. he loves it.. I am becoming a fan. (SPAM, eggs, rice, romen noodles, Shriraka Sauce, and soy terriaki sauce!)

Other exciting news about this coming week is that we get to go to the TEMPLE! what what!? I am so pumped. There are some members here (really sick family, one of my favorites so far) that invited us to go participate in Baptisms for some family names from the fathers side <--convert>. We got permission from the President to help them out because they need another priesthood holder there and since it is going to be in the middle of the day on WED and people usually are working they NEED us!! haha I am excited. And this will be the first time Elder Tekanene has ever done baptisms for the dead considering it costs too much money to fly to Fiji to participate in that. So am really excited for him because they promised to DUNK him as well! Elder T is a convert to the church as well so we might try to get some family names for him to do as well. I have probably already said this a hundred times but I am so stoked!! Elder Tekanene is the best! I love him so much haha! He is the goofiest kid ever. I have never eaten more rice in a single week in my entire life! We get along really well so its been a blast no matter how slow our day feels.

Have a great week! 

Tchao,

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Happy Birthday America!‏ Sent:Mon 7/07/14 5:04 PM

So glad to hear from all of you and excited to hear from Stasia!!! CONGRATS!!! That's so awesome! (aka Kamimi in katibus language) Little Brooklyn Ray! Adorable!! I love it! You guys are incredible and I know you will raise HER right!

So my week has been interesting, exciting, slow and yet its just another week as a missionary. I love that no matter where I am on my mission, day in and day out, everyday is dedicated to preaching the gospel. And that never changes.. haha But yeah Ritzville Washington is quite the place. Its small for sure but not as small as Elder Hansen made it out to be in my head. They have a highschool, a few gas stations, a subway and McDonald's so its not too small.. I love the people I have meet so far! The members here are way sick because they know how the mission work is there and they do there best to support and give love to us. Some quality people here for sure and I am excited to begin working with them. On the 4th of July we got permission to stay out until 9:30 in order to watch the beginning of the firework display! So sick. We probably could have seen it from our place anyways but we went to the church to be with the members and to get a better view. So yeah I got to celebrate America's birthday with the rest of ya! We also have a band new investigator that we were able to teach and it looks like there is some potential there! He lives right next to our BRANCH mission leader so its pretty tight! Other things to know about Ritzville..  it IS actually an hour away from other missionaries. Everything around it is way flat. About 30 miles outside of town you start to see all the lush Washington evergreens fade and it just turns into wheat fields! 

Elder Tekanene is way sick. Defiantly an Islander haha but he is a little quite. Everyday he seem to open up more so that is better but being in such a slow area for such a long time has defiantly played a factor in that. We are excited to work together some more this next week. It was hard to say goodbye to Terry and Peggy and all the people I love out in Lewiston, but its all good. I will just have to visit them with you guys if you ever want to go on a mission tour after the mission. They are also talking about letting missionaries start to Email their recent converts (it wasn't allowed before just because they are in the same mission boundaries) but yeah I would be all over that! 

My New ADDRESS= 

310

W 10th St.

Ritzville, WA

99169

Answers: 

My pants were repaired by Sister Nelson in Ritzville! She is the Branch Mission Leader's wife and she is THE BEST!

I have to do all the fingerprinting and VISA business tomorrow because that's the only time I can get everything done at once. But on the bright side the guy that runs that in the Sheriffs office is in the Ward. Brother Banner is legit and he will make sure I get it all done right.

Hope this letter suffices for most of your questions! Let me know if I did a good enough job next week and I will make sure to answer them!

Te Amo Vocês MUITO!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN