Trisom Week

Christmas PJs

Monday, January 26, 2015

Well to start this past week has been pretty crazy. But I will explain myself. To start with on Monday we had a hard day. It was good though because we had a Family Home Evening with our land lady. She is the one of my favorite members here. She is super nice all the time. :) It was good.

Tuesday was interesting because Elder Ledesma and I had to go to San Fernando for a new missionary training. It was fun and good to see everyone. I also got my package with PJ's from GnG Christensen. Thank you so much!!!! Also big thank you to the Clark family I got their package as well. :) The hard part about the day is we had to get up early that morning and teach a lesson at 7am because our investigator didn't have another time available. haha It was good though. :)

Wednesday was a good day of work. We got a lot done but it was also a sad day because Elder Marcantano got a call that night letting him know that he is going home. :( He has had 4 surgeries for his ingrown toe nail and the mission department made the call for a medical release. So Thursday morning we put him on a bus going to Manila and now Elder Talisa and my companion are in a trisom. Super sad to see him go.

Brian, Elder Talisa, Elder Ledesma

Thursday we went to work with our new companion. :) We have had a lot of fun in the trisom. We just work and laugh and then work some more. haha All in all it was a good day.

Friday we worked in both areas and got a lot done for it. We found a new investigator in Elder Talisa's area and then taught his recent convert. It was a fun day and we did get good things done.

Saturday was a hard day for us. We kept going to all our appointments and couldn't teach because we didn't have anyone with us and we can't teach girls unless there is a male with us as well. Super hard when you can't teach. But it was still good to visit them and see how they are doing.

Sunday was awesome because even though we couldn't really teach this whole week our investigators came to church. It amazes me every time I watch the Lord move his work even when we struggle though a week. The rest of our day was hard but everyone here is still smiling because even though it's hard the Lord is in it.

Well that's all for this week. I love you all. Mahl Kita!!!

Elder Christensen

Baptism in Naguilian

Excerpt from Letter to Mission President

For my studies this past week I have been reading a lot from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It’s interesting to compare the visit Christ had to the Americas and his teachings in the New Testament. They are super interesting. Something specific that I liked while I was reading in Mark was in chapter 7 verse 15. Christ states that what we eat or drink does not defile us but rather what we say and do. He further explained that evil actions come from within and so we should be more concerned with what comes out of our mouths rather than what goes in.

Brian

Baptism

Don't Drink the Juice!!!

January 19, 2015

Dear everyone,

This past week has been a great week. We got so much work done. So to start on Tuesday we taught some good lessons but nothing super interesting happened till that night when we met this guy. He is super religious but I'm still a little confused as to what his religion is. He is super interested in our message because it's the first time he's heard of God the Father having a body like ours. He started listing verses in the Bible like crazy. haha it was crazy but I'm super excited to teach him. We should teach him tomorrow. His name is Ernesto.

Wednesday was good both Elder Ledesma and I were a little sick but we still got a ton of work done. Nothing super special happened though.

Thursday was when we learned about the juice. haha I had super bad LBM (large bowl movement) in other words I was in the bathroom all night. :P Our less active gave us some juice on Tuesday and we knew it wasn't the best Idea to drink it... But they were looking at us and it was bad so we drank it... lesson learned. Don't drink the juice unless you know where it came from. :P haha But it's was all good it only lasted a few days. I'm all good now.

Friday was another good day even though we were still a little sick. But I think that's part of it. The Lord blesses us when we are at our weakest and that's how we grow. That was true for this week.

Saturday was our long day we only taught a few lessons but we ended up walking our whole area. It was long. But we were happy because we had and FHE that night which means good food. :)

Sunday was great. We had a lot of investigators come to church and we are seeing great improvements everywhere. All and all it was just a good week.

Well that's all for now. mahal kita!

Elder Christensen


Excerpt from Letter to President Balledos

For my studies this past week I learned about patience. Sometimes we forget that we need to work on the Lord’s timetable and that's not always easy. We don't always get the perfect golden investigator right when we pray for them. Sometimes we just have to work through our trials and that's part of being alive. I read Mosiah 24:9-16 and I was reminded that the Lord will often make our burdens feel light rather than take them away so that we can learn the he does visit us in our afflictions. He does help us in time of need. But we also learn patience. I think that being patient just means being positive in the face of adversity.

Pictures Brian Sent from Christmas:

* Toys that he bought to deliver while playing a "white, skinny, tall Santa."
* Elder Ledesma, his new companion
* Hi landlady at Christmas dinner

This is Mommy (our land lady) she had us over for dinner on Christmas day. When I say over for dinner I mean the next room over because we live in the same house. It's just sectioned off. haha it was pretty awesome. The first time I had stake on my mission. :P

Trisom and a Baptism

Sunday, January 12, 2015

Dear Everyone,

So to start this past week has been interesting. We started off last Monday a little rough but we came back.

Tuesday was pretty good. We started teaching Brother Delizo again and he is actually doing pretty well, accepting what we are teaching him. I really liked that. Funny thing that happened was a friend of ours on a trike, he stopped while we were walking home and told us to get on. We did and it was good thing to because a dog darted in front of us and we hit it. Nothing happened to the trike but the guy said if we had not been there he might have lost control. He said our weight help keep him alive. We all laughed about it but count your many blessing because we were there. :)

Wednesday Elder Marcantano went to Manila to have surgery on his toe. He has a super bad ingrown toe nail. So we were with Elder Talisa until Friday. It was cool working with him. We had a bit of a hard time in our area with him but that's life. We can't make everything work the way we want it to.

Thursday was pretty good. At the end of the night we went to Elder Talisa's area and taught his IBD who was being baptized on Saturday. He was super excited and it went well that night.

Friday we didn't get a lot done because we had to wait at the apartment for Elder Marcantano to get home from Manila. So yeah nothing special happened that night.

Saturday on the other hand was great in the Morning. Brother Espanya got baptized and our investigator came to see it. We were stoked. The rest of the day we got punted a lot but not bad.

Sunday was the best day of the week. We got to take the sacrament but there was also an area broadcast that night at 6. The crazy thing is when we started work we really got to work. haha. We went from one appointment to another and just taught. It always amazes me how much of a difference it makes when we have a member working with us and when we don't. It's like the Lord just opens all the doors when the members work with us and then when they don't we struggle. The broadcast was good and I learned some good stuff but that's about it.

Well that's all for now. mahal kita!!!

Elder Christensen

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Dear everyone,

First of all. HAPPY NEW YEAR. Guess what it's 2015. You know what that means. It means I will be seeing all of you this year. :D. But it also means I will be leaving the Philippines. :/ It's all good though that's still a ways away.

As for my week it's been good. I think I have had the most new investigators this week than any other week in my whole mission. haha I just hope we can get them to progress. So to start last Monday was lame. But it's ok the rest of the week was good.

Tuesday we taught Sister Maricelle. She has an IBD now and is doing very well. But nothing crazy happened there.

Wednesday was when the crazy things started to happen. We went to Sili to contact the referrals from last Sunday and we ended up teaching 15 people, 13 of whom were new investigators. haha It was super crazy and strange teaching so many people at the same time. The rest of the day was still pretty good but nothing crazy happened other than the fact that we went home early because it was New Years Eve. New Years for missionaries is boring. That’s all I have to say we just slept.

Thursday there was a funny experience. We were walking down a street to visit one of our investigators and this random guy yells to us from his fenced in yard. "Do you want to try our food?" haha we were like  "... um... ano (what)?" We were a little worried that the food would be bad or something. It was just weird because he called us not the other way around. But it was good. We ended up teaching him a lesson with the people in his house. We will see how he does.

Friday was a pretty good day. We didn't teach very many lessons but we had a few good ones. It was a good day though.

Saturday was crazy packed. We went back to the 13 we taught on Wednesday and taught again. It was ok but not as good as on Wednesday. It’s all good though. But right after that we had to run to town because I had to interview the other elders’ investigator of baptism. It was a good interview and he will get baptized this coming Saturday.

Sunday was a pretty good day. We got a lot of work done but nothing special or out of the ordinary happened. We just taught lessons.

Well that's all for now. mahal kita!!

Elder Christensen


Questions from a Separate Email

* What was New Year's Eve like in your area?

To be honest it was really quiet for the Philippines because the local government banned all fireworks. haha So it was really quiet. I mean they still had horns and stuff but the Philippines should be a lot louder. It was pretty boring all in all.

* What are the traditional celebrations for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day?

Well traditionally they eat a lot of food. Most get drunk and the blow everything up. :P haha They talk about the way it was about two years ago and it's sounds pretty crazy. :P

* Did you ever get Aunt Jean's package?

I never did. Sorry to say. We'll see what happens though.

* What spiritual experience you had this past week?

Well the other night we taught a new investigator. His name is Nestor. His wife just died of a heart problem last October 31. We have been teaching at his house for a long time and the previous Elders almost baptized his daughter but he didn't like that idea. We started teaching him but skipped the Restoration and went straight to the Plan of Salvation. I don't know when we taught him he seemed about to cry the whole time. The spirit was there and to be honest I think his wife was there to. So was Mama Sherri. But that was just the feeling. I don't know it was just a different kind of lesson.

* When did you feel the Savior's love this week?

Well I felt it all week. :P but the experience above is a good example.