9/26/2011 Elder Christensen "A Great Week Ahead of Us!"

An old picture that I don´t think you saw...
Elder Speakman, Poulsen, and I eating rice at 11pm haha.
We all look DEAD especially Elder Poulsen. Haha love it.

Hey there friends and fam! Well... this weeks like the opposite of last week! I was just BARELY sitting at this computer... It feels like it should be like Thursday or something and not Monday again already.. But.... Whatever! Thanks SO much for the package that you guys sent me. Anybody who´s served a mission knows what a blessing it is to receive some goodies from the fam. Mom... your chex mix is absolutely insane! It´s so good that if Barack tried it he would probably resign from presidency. But no really its tasty. My compliments to the chef!

Second division with Elder Nieto. He´s from El Salvador.
Great day! (That sweet brown tie I got is a trade between
Elder Crist and I. Too good.)

Okay so nothing really big happened this week.... we had 3 investigators show up to church, which was also ward conference. Pretty sweet. We got 100 people to show up which is 30 more than I´ve seen since I got here.. One of the 3 gators was a contact Elder Nieto and I did in the street on divisions. He lives far away too but he showed up! Turns out that he´s evangelic and that he´s like a spy kinda guy... He goes and gives reports on what he´s learned in other churches... He stayed ALL 3 hours and LOVED it... We taught a class on ayuno... or fasting for our gator class and he at one point even said... "In this church you guys apply everything correctly!" hahah that is right my good friend emilio. We are hoping that he comes back and ends up being converted. At the end of the block the ward gave out true to the faith books and bookmarks to everyone in attendance. I Loveeeed my sunday.. Oh ya. We sang in the choir as well haha. We´re not the greatest singers but at least we´re supporting the ward.

I was pondering last night about what I would say to you guys today... I ended up thinking about conference.... CONFERENCE CONFERENCE CONFERENCE. How is it here again? Honestly I was just barely watching it on the projector in the office.... Dunno what happened to that six months... Anyways... I thought I´d start out with this Scripture in DyC 1:38.... ALL will be brought to pass.... through HIS voice OR the voice of his servants... THESE men that we will be listening to this week are his true servants on the earth today. What they speak is real... What they speak is directly from him. It´s like the line of authority here.. The big boss tells his servant and the servant tells EVERYBODY ELSE. Thomas S. Monson is called of God and he will tell us exactly what we need to here if we GO prepared... I invite you RIGHT now to start pondering.... Thinking of questions... I´ll make the same promise they always made us in seminary... If you write these questions down and watch ALL the conference sessions, you WILL receive an answer to your questions... In DyC 78:7... it says something to this effect.... If you want that I give you a place in the celestial world, it is precise that ye prepare yourselves, doing what I have commanded of ye....... If we want to start progressing towards the celestial kingdom, this is the way. Prepare ourselves. What better way to do so than to listen to and apply the things that the living prophet and apostles of God tell us to do... Fill up your oil lamps and be ready for whatever may come your way... Last scripture... DyC 88:77-80.... Teach one another the doctrine of Christ.... Do so diligently... You will be instructed in doctine, things that apply to Gods kingdom, new things he wants you to learn, things on the earth as well as in heaven, how things have been as well as how they will be. EVERYTHING that we need to know about our lives... about this state of probation and beyond... will be talked about this weekend. This is a HUGE deal people.. I get more fired up about General Conference then I do when they shut the lights off at the Jazz game and start announcing the players.... Those are two different aspects of LIFE entirely yet one gets me just... LIT UP!!! I know for a fact that people reading this letter right now have trials in their lives... I know that we all have aspects where we need to improve and where we could be contributing more... So lets think about these things! Lets study ourselves, find our weak points, receive some direct revelation this week, and better ourselves. As I said this life is a state of probation.. We have our agency and its up to us to make the right decisions. I want General conference to big as big of a deal for you guys as it is for me or for any other missionary for that matter. It´s like Jordan Johnston said... Its wayyyyy better than sitting in a hammock in Hawaii haha. Liked that one. Look at it as ten hours of time with God... Time to learn directly from him... Not just ten hours of obligatory listening before you can go hang out with your friends... TAKE NOTES PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE: Oh my gosh I´ve never been so bugged about anything before in my LIFE!! Everyone says they fall asleep.... DUHHH.. Sitting in the dark for two hours in a hot stake center will do that to you! As well you get those people who say.... "The Liahona will come out and I can read the messages when it comes... Or even better. Online.." COME ON!!! NOWWWW is the time. Maybe you´ll receive some revelation while writing things down that you would otherwise not receive 3 months later when the liahona gets to your porch.... (Liahona is an ensign by the way.) Last conference I wrote like 20 pages of notes AND I still have the liahona... Thats 20 pages of the doctrine mixed with my thoughts and feelings as WELL as the magazine with the original articles for referral... You see the point? Just do it. Nike. Just do it. PLEASE. Make conference an enjoyable, edifying experience. It´s the greatest honestly. Well........ I think that´s about all I have for today. I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again. The mission is the single greatest thing I´ve ever done in my life. I love it. We learn tonssssss about who we are. Its like having two years of personal study and coming to know Christ.. I know that what we are doing is God´s will. I know that this is HIS church. I know that Joseph Smith suffered through all kinds of trials so that he could translate the plates and get us this MARVALOUS book. The Book of Mormon! Definitely the best book I´ve ever read. As Joseph himself said... A man can grow closer to Christ through it than through any other book..... That says enough right there. I´ve written TONS in my book... Its more like a journal now hahah. And finally I know that these men who will speak to us this weekend are true messengers of our Heavenly father. I hope you can all have a great attitude and go ready to learn this weekend. I love you all tons and I hope that you have a great week. You´re all in my prayers. Much love, your son, your friend, Elder Christensen.



Elders Crist & Christensen (second cousins!)

 PICS!!!

Did divisions twice this week... Once with YOUR FAVORITE Elder Crist... Hahah. The family oughta love that one. It was super cool to work ALL day with that Elder... I definitely thought... What a coincidence that we´re both in Chile and we´re actually on Divisions together... Hmmm... Small world.