Exchanges and Work

Monday, March 23, 2015

Dear everyone,

This past week has been pretty crazy. It's always interesting to adjust to a new area because you need to learn so much so fast in order be effective here. But it's been good. So to start last Monday we visited our bishop and got to know him a little better. Iit took a lot of our time but we did alright.

Tuesday we had exchanges with the Irisan Elders. I was with Elder Abad. It was a good exchange. I helped him learn a few tricks. Nothing super crazy really happened though. We did have a PEC with his bishop and his bishop is super... intense but funny. It was interesting.

Wednesday we just went to work. We have been doing a lot of finding in our area because we are a little short on people to teach sometimes but all in all we have been doing pretty good there.

Thursday we did about the same. But Friday we taught a nice part member family. We took Elder and Sister Brown with us. They are the couple missionaries assigned in our mission and they are currently assigned in La Trinidad. Anyway we taught this family and I found it really interesting to teach in English for the first time in a long time on my mission. They all understand it very well and Elder and Sister Brown don't know Tagalog. It was interesting to say the least. haha

Saturday we took Elder and Sister Brown with us again and taught a different family that I really feel for. They have a son in law who just passed away last January because of a car accident. He left 4 small children, 3 boys and 1 little girl. The oldest is 11 and the youngest, the girl, is 9 months old. We haven't had the chance to meet the mom yet but we are teaching the grandfather who is a retired principal. They are having a hard time right now and I just want to help them out. But it was a sweet lesson the other night all about eternal families.

Sunday was good. I felt the spirit a lot but nothing super crazy happened... except at our last appointment with one of our recent converts. They had a clarinet, and they let me play it!!! haha It sounded really bad because I haven't played in so long a time. But it was fun to play around with one after so long. haha

Well that's all for now. Mahal kita at ingat kayo lagi

Elder Christensen


Questions from a Separate Email

* What is your companion like?

He is interesting to say the least. The more I get to know him the more I'm surprised. haha I like him but he is a little off the wall sometimes. He’s from Manila so he's pure Tagalog and he is trying very hard to pick up English while he is with me. He's 26 and he has a funny high pitched voice. We all call him "Master" Pandi because he was into mixed martial arts before the mission but he's gained a lot of weight since then and we just laugh about it with him. :P

* What are your responsibilities as a zone leader?

Well I have to handle all of the people's problems in the zone so we just stay busy. We have to plan zone activities and they always want a zone t shirt so we have to do that as well. haha It's a lot like being a district leader just on a bigger scale.

* You said it is like being a district leader... What are the differences?

Well the difference is I don't give workshops every week I only do it once a month and I have more meetings with the mission now. there's just more responsibility to be an example now.

* Do you go on exchanges with the other elders... Are you trying to help train them when you do? How does that work?

I will be going on exchanges almost every week for the rest of my mission... as long as l'm a zone leader for the rest of my mission.. But we do that a lot. We do it to help them if they are struggling or having a hard time. We also go with the DL's in our zone because we should. It’s just to help and in a way yes it's to train them on how to do it all the right way.

* How are you adjusting to being in the mountains again?

It's cold but it's getting hotter because it's almost summer in the Philippines so that's good. All in all I'm adjusting fine. I'm just very tired all the time but I think that has less to do with being in the mountains and more to do with the fact that I've been out for so long.