Welp. Time flies. And apparently accelerates expodentially.

Lets see. I got pretty sick these last couple days. But that is pretty normal. It is actually so normal that when people here say "stomach ache" they actually mean "diarrhea". I know it is gross to say, but I can't let this one go: I had eaten, among other things, a ton of eggplant that is like florescent purple, and that resulted in seeing every color of the rainbow (except for blue) in the toilet over the course of 48 hours. Fun times. But I am mostly better now. My intestines are just tired.

uhhh, yesterday I saw something pretty cool. It was a blind couple that was on a date and trying to get on a city bus. They were having a blast even though they were having tons of difficulties and what not. It just made me realize that life is what you make it. They were having way more fun than me at the moment when I saw them and I technically have more reasons to smile than they do, but I was choosing not to smile and think about my "stomach ache" and they were choosing to smile. So they win. LESSON LEARNED.

what else... I really appreciate everyone who writes me. Especially grandma velma. She is a boss. I was thinking the other day how I want to be a grandparent like her when I get older. I think I have like 100 million letters from her in my suitcase, and they are all way personal and come with cool stickers and 5 dollar bills. It makes me feel really special. so I just thought I should give her a thank-you. THANK-YOU GRANDMA!!! YOU ARE THE COOLEST!!! I LOVE YOU!!! hopefully I yelled that loud enough for her to hear. (joke: I am using email, I don't have to yell)

yep. Everyone (including my belt) keeps telling me I am getting way skinny. That tells me it is time to take some anti-worm medication. I'll see what I can do...

We had a baptism yesterday. It was that lady that I was talking about that turned her whole life around. Way special. I was happy and a half. Plus it was the first time ever that my companion got to actually baptize somebody. So that is cool. Hopefully we'll have one this week too. for now it seems like everything is all set and ready to go, but you never know. We are getting way blessed here so thanks for all of your prayers.

less than 2 months now. I hope I don't waste one second. Getting sick was super frustrating because I had to go home and try to sleep it off last night. Luckily that worked and now I can crank out a super good week. A member of the church sent us a text this morning at 6:35 saying that she met a person who wants our visits. So hopefully that works out.

But that is it. I love you all and I'll see you all soon.

meowmeowmeow

Well, once again I've hit an interesting landmark time wise on the mission: I have been with my current companion for more time than I have left. Weird. Somehow going home seems like it is getting farther and farther away now. Hopefully that is a good thing...?

In this area we have had the opportunity to teach some pretty cool people. I think the changes that these people are making in their lives is a bit bigger than a lot of the people that I have already taught. We are finishing up the teaching of this lady that is probably one of the people that is most dedicated to really learn what we teach that I have ever taught. When we found her her life was sucking pretty hard core, and by developing and applying faith to the things that she does it is all changing. 3 weeks ago she had no job, had just been evicted from her home, had a 12 year old kid, was studying in college, was living off of food that her friends were giving her, and had been thinking suicide for a while. Now the only thing she doesn't really have is time. Like things are still tough for her but it is definitely all looking up a lot. She's got 2 jobs now and for the first time invited us to eat dinner with her which was food she bought with her own money. She just needs to finish quitting the whole coffee thing and we'll finish up with her. It is crazy how fast God can change every aspect of someone's life when they let him.

So things like that are cool. You can't really take any credit for what happens in people's lives, so you just end up feeling pretty thankful.

I have also been seeing that very few people want to hear the truth about things. There is this member that has had pretty much every calling in the church you can imagine, and we were inviting him to come back to church and start doing what he already knows he should be doing as far as covenants go, and he was like, "no way broseph. I'm not going to go to church." So whatever talked with him a bit more, and when we were about to leave he was like, "oh, and I want you to cure my vision" because he is kind of blind. And I was like, "okay, well, you need to understand that if you don't trust Christ enough to even try and follow his commandments then your faith probably isn't enough to be healed, but if you want we'll do our part and you can give it your best shot." and the dude got super mad. He refused the blessing and we just kind of left. It was way awkward. But so I read this part of the old testament today that explains that pretty much everybody is like that about at least somethings. It said that we treat god and his servants like our favortite bands. We listen to them for fun and love to see them and we might even memorize what they say, but then we never apply anything to our lives. So i realized that that is totally true for me a lot of the time and that I am in the same boat as that dude. Lameeeeeee

I eat like 4 or 5 times a night now because everyone thinks we starve all the time. Every house we go to of people we are already teaching has a ton of food. TRANSLATION: I will go home chubby.

We are teaching this awesome cat lady who is super cool. She is like a little grandma that says the coolest stuff. here are some good quotes so far:

Us: "well the book of mormon is kind of like a cake. If you wanna know whether or not it is tasty you just need to eat a peice or two."

Her: "And when you eat the whole thing then you get diarrhea, right?"

crap, I ran out of time. I'll send more of her quotes next time.

LOVE YOU ALLSASKJHF

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Grace?

So over the weeks and months (and years...?) I have been realizing that if I go crazy in the work and do everything I can, but with the sad but true knowledge that my work alone won't amount to much, and then get on my knees at night and plead with the lord to just make what we both want to happen happen, everything works out incredibly well.

And on the other hand, I can work equally hard, but if I don't ask him for help, even the most basic of things go horribly wrong. This happens to the extent that it is almost funny, if it weren't so frustrating.

So today I found the word to put on that. It is called grace. I knew there had to be a word for that. It is by grace that everything happens after all we can do. I have success only because I let Christ do his thing. If I didn't nothing would happen. Cool.

I have to pee, so this will be short.

I love you all and can't wait to see you

Love elder christensen

meow

well, 2 more transfers. Things are going a lot better. We have 6 way good investigators that are loving building a relationship with Christ. Heck, I'm liking too. It is like that part in D&C 50 that says when you teach by the spirit and the people you teach let the spirit teach them, everyone rejoices.

 

In great contrast to those people we had this lady freak out on us and say mean things to us for like an hour and a half. I still don't understand why, but I think she was just tired or something. We just decided that arguing with her wouldn't help her or us feel any better, so we just took it silently. I don't know if you guys can imagine me being quite while someone just goes on and on saying agressive stuff (becuase I know I can't) but I totally did. Then we just asked her husband to say a prayer, I told her that when she wants our help that she doesn't have to feel ebarassed about asking for it because we forgive her, and we left. It was weird and I didn't like it, but at least we didn't freak out or anything. A few months ago I would have punched her in the face or something, but I think I am too tired to move my arms now. HA.

 

I don't know if you guys remember or not, but I have said a million times that I don't remember really who I am or what I like and I feel like I have no personal desires. Well last night the veil thinned quite a bit and I can remember for the first time in over a year what I like. It feels awesome because I remember what I like to do if I were to have free time, but now te whole mission/gospel thing is definitely in first place. I think our father in heaven just like made me forget so I could learn some stuff and he decided that I am ready to remember now. So if I were to describe myself from the perspective I got last night it would be like this:

 

I really enjoy being rebelious in the sense of breaking the mold of trends and such (fat albert sweatshirt?) and I like tons of weird stuff like ferret documentaries and weird indy films, and I really enjoy stuff where I can get out and feel way free (dirtbiking/snowboarding) but I have zero desire to do anything against God's will. I have no desire to do anything bad like breaking commandments or anything. I just like weird stuff. But now on top of that I like being organized and responsible and trying to better myself and draw closer and closer to God and all that jazz.

 

It is an amazingly relieving feeling to know that I have normal desires to do something besides read the scriptures, and that all of those desires are totally in control and fit into a good lifestyle that a disciple would have. I was getting terrified of going home and throwing out everything I had learned on the mission, or going home and having zero friends. It is good to know that I am not going to do either of those things (maybe the zero friends thing...?).

 

But yeah. that is what I realized this week. We are working hard. It is weird because the baptisms we are marking and prepping right now are for march. Like we've already got one for the end of march of this couple, then comes april, then home...

 

I love you all. See you soon.