This is probably the only post that will be from THE Elder Christensen.

If you are reading this you probably know me and are close to me so I won't really describe myself...

But today is Sunday May 02, 2010. I get set apart tomorrow as a MISSIONARY for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 8:30 P.M. These last couple days have been a whirl-wind but I still have yet to fully grasp the concept of flying to Brazil Tuesday morning so I'm betting the coming days will just OWN me from the inside out as far as craziness goes. I am so excited to head off into the unknown, and am ready to tackle any challenge that comes my way. My mom and dad taught me right, and I am so thankful to you all of you that prepared me for getting this far. You all know who you are

Anyways the blog that follows will pretty much just be a post of Emails that are from me to my family and friends, and it will be a good way to see me progress through my mission first hand. Even if my emails aren't necessarily to you don't feel weird about reading them. I want as many people to share this experience with me as I can.

God be with all of you until we meet again. You'll need it while you don't have me to bestow my presence upon you. haha. I'll see you all in a couple years.

-Scott

Send Me A Letter, I Miss You.

Elder Michael Scott Christensen
Brazil São Paulo Interlagos Mission
R. Euzébio de Souza, 121
Jardim Londrina
05638-100 São Paulo - SP
Brazil

Dec 19, 2011

I AM FREE!!!

I got transfered again. While it should be annoying, I feel good about it. I had 8 people firm to get baptised in january already and a kid we were going to baptise this week, but whatever. Me and my comp got transfered. That happened in 3 areas here close. BUT WHATEVS. I AM FREE!!!

I started thinking about it, and this transfer means a few things:

1) It is almost certainly my last time that I will get transfered.
2) I probably will only have 2 more companions
3) I am not a leader of other missionaries anymore, so if somebody doesn't know what they are doing or they need help, I have nothing that I can do about it. I can just relax and not worry about anything besides feeling and following the holy spirit. YES. THAT IS THE BEST PART!!! No more worrying about some kid who wasn't prepped or is super immature or who wants to kill their companion. It isn't my problem anymore.

I feel like I have been preparing for this part of my mission my whole life. I know what I am doing finally and I feel like my relationship with our father in heaven is as good as it has ever been, and I can just ask him to use me as a tool everyday and go hunt spiritual expereinces and get lost in the work with the people. No more wasting time with cat fights between missionaries or anything like that. I can just wake up and feast on simple cool little experiences every day until I go home now. WHAT A RELIEF. I was getting sooooooo tired. I just can't explain how happy I am to finally just be a normal missionary again.

And the cool part is, is this feeling of "job well done" that rests in my heart. I have been killing myself lately to get stuff done and not complain and just try to be as good as I could. I was totally ready and willing to just finish my mission working my booty off and waking up more and more exhausted every day, BUT I DON'T HAVE TO. WHAT A RELEIF!!! It is a good feeling. This is like the greatest christmas present ever.

The people in this ward are pretty sad that we are leaving. I am trying to just leave without saying good-bye to anyone because they are all going to cry. A few people found out and they are pretty mad. They said that we are the coolest missionary companionship that has ever passed in their ward, and the ward attendance has gone up like 80 people in these 3 months. I don't even know how because we've only baptized like 5 people. Oh well, they'll get over it. One missionary goes out, another one comes in. Life goes on.

Funny story from lunch. I tried to help and wash dishes, but the lady was just sitting there tapping her foot watching me and then out of no where she was like "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU ARE EMBARASSING ME! I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOMEONE WASH DISHES SO SLOW IN MY WHOOOOLE LIFEEEE!!!" and so I was like "whatevs" and just went to eat some dessert. So then she comes in and asked my to cut some dessert, and I did, and she lost it. She just went crazy laughing like mom does. No one really knows why, but she was getting hysterical and just saying, "I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO GET MARRIED ELDER!!! IT WILL BE SOOOO FUNNNYYYY!!!"

long story short, I haven't changed that much as far as moving really slow goes. If anything I got worse apparently.

I might get a companion from moçambique (african country). That would be fun. but who knows what will happen. This transfer will be strange.

BUT, I will call sometime. I don't know when, because I still don't know where I am going or with whom. I know that I am opening up the area from scratch because I am getting transfered and my next comp will be a newbie. So I will try to make friends with a computer and a webcam until sunday. I am not really worried about it. The companion I get will decide when I call you guys. I will see if I can't send Rachael a message before sunday with the president's permission.

It is super hot here. So when you see me I will be skinnier, more sunburned and dirtier than you have probably ever seen me. That is... if I call with skype... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn


Bye, I love you all

Dec 12, 2011

hey‏

So, we had a pretty decent week. We had a baptism DURING our ward Christmas party on saturday. It was way cool because the whole ward was there. Fun times and a lot of food. Plus there was this kid there that is 9 years old who is an active member of the church but his mom is inactive, and then after watching the baptism he convinced his mom to come back to church and also decided to get baptized. Being that he is 9 years old it ends up being technically someone that we have to teach in order for him to get baptized, so we are just going to teach his mom. She said she will for sure come back to church and is excited. It is always nice to see inactive people coming back to church.

Speaking of which, there is this family in our ward that was super inactive but loves missionary work and we were working with them to find people to teach, and they randomly decided to practice what they preach and came back to church and are doing temple preparation. That is a good feeling to see a family being united in that way.

We can't really take any credit for that because we did literally nothing, but then again we can't really take credit for any of the work we do. The more time that passes the more I realize that a super effective missionary ends up doing very little other than just attempting to follow the spirit and rolling with the situations that come from your prayers. For instance, we made a goal of baptizing every week, and it was looking like this week we weren't going to have anyone to help despite our best efforts and trying pretty hard, but then we did a fast and then that 9 year old kid just walked up and asked us to baptize him this Saturday. And actually, pretty much everything we do ends up being like that. We always make up the master plans that we think are so cool and effective, and then nothing ends up coming from it because we are lame and the Lord just picks up our slack and makes things happen.

Things like that make me realize the true value of things like Duty to God and Personal Progress, because instead of focusing on a superficial knowledge of gospel topics, those church programs focus on helping you create a legit relationship with God and learn how to trust him in a real way and follow the spirit. I feel like that is the only really important part of preparation for a mission, or for life.

Before the mish, I thought I would study the scriptures and be able to prove stuff to myself or other people through logic, or somehow accomplish things in the mission field through my own talents... but sadly for me it doesn't work like that. You can be a total idiot that grew up in a cave and knows nothing about nothing, but if you really sincerely love God in a real heartfelt way and follow the spirit for reals you'll be ultra-successful in anything that is important (i.e. missionary work and/or real life), because in the end he does all the heavy lifting and you are just supposed to follow him. Like there is this missionary in our zone who is awkward and knows very little scripture wise and has no social skills and is super shy and he baptizes like crazy. And they are all simply people that do everything themselves and he doesn't even really work that hard. He just asks them to stop smoking and they do. And the difference comes from the fact that God prepared the people he teaches. He just asks God where he should go and what he should say when he gets there, and if he gets in a situation where he doesn't know what to do he seeks inspiration from prayer and everything he does works out perfectly.

So long story short, everyone really should consider doing Duty to God or Personal Progress, but not just to do them. Like really look for the spirit and try to learn to recognize it and build their trust in it, because I feel like my confidence in my own talents really hindered me for the first year and a half of my mission and those programs are designed to help people not do that. That is what I get for not listening to anyone and not doing my Duty to God. LESSON LEARNED. Now if only I had a time machine....


As this transfer winds down I notice two things.

1) the last 3 transfers went by really fast

2) I only have 3 transfers left. That is bad news.

I feel like I am just starting to learn. I wish so bad that I could just go back and restart. I wasted so much time on my mission because of my arrogance and my pride, and if I just would have followed the church programs and done what the prophets asked of me I would of been way more prepared. I feel like I have a heavy debt to pay off in the next 4 months. Luckily for me the Lord forgives us for our stupid mistakes when we really repent. We'll see how much I have repented when I get home and start being normal again, but however it ends up working out I am really grateful for my mission. The Lord basically took the time to sit me down and show me how useless it is to trust in yourself. Even if against other people you are comparatively successful, your satisfaction ends up being very little compared to what it could be if you would just accept your own nothingness.

Life's greatest satisfaction comes from fulfilling our divine purpose. Our divine purpose is to follow the example of our savior, qualifying for and learning how to follow the Holy Ghost and then consecrating everything that we have and are. Only through this will we receive a fullness of joy at judgement day, and I am 100% convinced that nothing else will give us peace on earth like following Him will. I have tried out both sides and I am convinced.

I love you all and I thank you all for supporting me enough to let me go and have this experience. I hope that I never am the same after this. I guess only time will let us see what happens. I'll probably just go back to being an idiot or something. We'll see.

later

send me what will be the best time to talk to you on skype.

Dec 5, 2011

blairs‏

So I thought the Christmas card that Rachael and Brandon made was pretty funny. I liked the subtle use of laser cats. Our family has really good taste. I haven't made my Christmas card yet, but we're trying to get it made sometime. Or at least we think about it time to time.
 
So this week I got the opportunity to help out at church on sunday with administering the sacrament. That was a pretty decent experience, but I couldn't really figure out why I felt so good/grateful to be something that I have done a million times and I have never really thought about that much. Then people were going up and bearing testimony of what they know/feel/believe during the meeting and that lady that came back to church last week went up and bore testimony for the first time in her life even though she was baptised 3 years ago. And it was simple/awesome. She was just like, "I, for the first time, feel like I can really say that I know the church is true and that God loves me" and then said some other stuff. But me and my companion were talking about it later, and really we didn't do anything other than feel some small feelings and walk to her house. We just basically did what the Lord asked us to do, and that was pretty much nothing. But even so, it had a pretty big influence in her life. That makes me see why service can be so rewarding. Not because you can take credit for pretty much anything, but because you can see the Lord starting to trust you with essential parts of important things. Like, it was and is obviously him that is changing this lady's life and making her feel happy and loved, but he trusted us enough to incorperate us into his plan for her. That is when I realized why I felt so grateful for being able to pass the sacrament. It is the same thing. Him letting us try to show our love for him through simple service.
 
It is like Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last conference about how we are important to God. He just taught that when we love the savior and focus our hearts on him, we'll feel happy and loved in any circumstance. It is also like the translation of this chirldren's him in portuguese that goes more or less like this: "The love of the savior I feel in every part. I feel it's warmth wherever I go. He knows that I'll follow him, I'll give my life to him, because I love the savior and I know that he loves me."
 
Like, obviously we'll never be perfect at following him or giving him everything we've got, or even loving him sadly because we're all pretty lame sometimes, but when you have little moments where things just click and you do do those things it is a pretty good feeling. Significantly better and more fulfilling than anything else that I have ever felt.
 
But other than that not much is going on. The members here found out that I have been out on my mission for a while and they are trying to make me feel trunky by going on my facebook and looking at pictures of my friends and trying to print them off and make me look at them. The sad thing is that they really do get to me sometimes, so help me out and pray for me to have amnesia or something and not remember that one day I'll have a normal life again. Whenever I think about that I feel this terrible clenching feeling in my stomach and it makes it hard for me to focus on anything worthwhile.
 
But I love you all. I really don't have much to say anymore. It is all the same wonderful stuff. All I can say is that the best thing that can happen to anyone is for them to realize how lame they are and start asking God for help. It has been good for me the few times that I have started doing that and way good for the people we teach.
 
So on that note, later.