Dogs, Hikes, and Calls

Note: A couple of comments from another email are interspersed into his main email. These comments added a couple more details, and they fit better in the body of the letter rather than at the end.


February 24, 2014

Dear Everyone,

First things first. HHHHHHAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYYYYY BBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHH DDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY TO GRANDPA BEVAN AND NICOLE :) I hope everything went well for all of you. I forgot to say that last week. :P

Roasted Pig for Branch Party

This past week has been crazy to say the least. To start we had the party I talked about last week and it was pretty awesome. :) The party was intended for members to meet investigators but none of our investigators showed up... But it was still good because some other people did and we all had a really fun home evening together. We had tons of food and tons of members they loved it. We played games and ate food. We all had some good laughs it was a really fun night. The only sad part is that we didn't have very many Investigators so they didn't really meet the members. But it was still really good. [How did the pigs turn out?] Well they were awesome to say the least.

On Tuesday we had district meeting. It was a really good one but we had a hard time teaching that night. We taught one of our less actives and that was it. We really struggled this week in our work. I am really having a hard time finding a way to really help this area. So if any of you have some ideas I would love to hear about them. Some background is that we have tons and tons of less actives and not enough support in the ward to build strong investigators. So yeah if you have ideas, I'm asking for them :)

Ok, so on Wednesday we had some pretty nice lessons but we didn't get a lot of action still. I tried some new fruit though called star apples. They are really, really good. :) But that was about all the excitement for that day.

Thursday we went to Fernando again and taught two lessons. Sadly nothing special to report from the lessons... :/ We had a dinner that night with one of the member of our ward. It was really nice and we had some good laughs. Another thing. I got a call from President Balledos and I found out that I'm training next transfer. That was fun. Ahhhhhhhhh! I hope I can do that. Transfers are on Thursday so I find out who it is then. :)

Friday we went to Bail and taught Brother Daligdig. I love teaching him. He just understands what we teach and is very interested. We haven't gotten him to commit to church yet but I think he will come... hopefully. It is a little far away. I just hope he can make it to church. We then walked to Fernando because we got punted in Bail. But I did try dog. I mean I ate some dog that they cooked while we were there. And to be honest it doesn't taste bad. It's just different.. haha

Beautiful View in Brian's Area

Also we decided to hike home that night so Brother Juan showed us the way over the mountain. It took us an hour and a lot of sweat and spider webs in my hair. :P The biggest thing I learned from that is respect for Brother Juan and his family. They walk over the mountain to come to church every Sunday. I can never complain again about how far I have to walk every day if he can do that. After the hike we had a dinner with some members which was very appreciated.

Saturday was not fun. We just walked around all day and couldn't find anyone to teach. We did have another FHE with Nabor family. :) That was good.

Elder Gison with Nabor Family

Sunday was pretty good we had some members work with us and taught a good lesson to some less actives. It was over all a good day, but again nothing special happened.

Well this past week we had really cool lesson in church about becoming future fathers and it really made me think of all that dad has done for me growing up and how grateful I am to have had a father who did what he did for me. When I have kids of my own if I can be half as good as he has been I will be a good father. :) I love you dad!!!

Oh another thing. I got another call from President Balledos, and I'm going to be District Leader next transfer as well as a trainer. So now I'm even more freaked out about next transfer, but I'm also excited to serve the Lord as best I can. Well that's all for this week. MAHAL KITA

Elder Christensen

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More Pictures of the Branch Party