Here Comes the Rain Danana :P

Monday, June 9, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This past week has been fantastic. I have loved just about everything about it. Haha So let me start from the beginning. Last Monday Elder Alanzo and I went to work in our area early because if we don't we can't get a ride home after 7:45. Well that just doesn't work if we are supposed to work until 9 pm. So we gave up an hour of our p-day and got to work early. :) It worked really well. We taught some great lessons and really kick started our week right.

Brian and Elder Alanzo

Tuesday we had another great day. We taught 6 lessons and they were all pretty good. The only down side to it was that we had to walk home afterward because we couldn't get a ride. It's over 3 miles to get back to our apartment from our area. But with great success opposition needs to come from somewhere I guess. That's what the Book of Mormon says at least. :)

Wednesday was kinda fun because the zone leaders dropped a bit of surprise exchanges on us. We had to pack a really quick bag and I went and worked with our zone leaders that night. It was super cool working with them. I learned a lot and I hope to apply it to my work. Oh and random fact. I've gotten pretty good at the Rubics cube. When I get home I'll show you guys some cool stuff. :P that's all.

Brian and Elder Alanzo

Thursday was the only super hard day in the whole week but as I said before opposition in all things. We got punted the whole day. We also had to drop some investigators :( I don't like doing that but sometimes they just won't come to church. We have to spend our time teaching those who will act on their faith. :( but it’ss a good thing because the we made up for it later.

So Friday was pretty normal but it felt weird. We taught three lesson. But it just felt off... I don't know. It was strange but Saturday was much better. We had a very powerful lesson with one of our member’s father. We taught about Joseph Smith and he was really quiet for a long time. He finally told us he was trying to decide if he wanted to join our church or not. That was awesome because when he was first being taught he told us he would never join no matter what we say. His name is Brother Salso. We are still waiting to see what he decides.

Sunday was the best day of the whole week. Of course church was good. But after that we went to work in our area and we found this super awesome set of new investigators. One of them asked us about baptism and then he said later on that he should go to church to learn more... that never happens! haha We were supper stoked after that lesson. We also extended an invitation to baptism that night to another investigator. She accepted the date very hesitantly but I think we can get her ready for it. :) Her names is Shareen. I'm just super excited right now. :)

... Wow this is a really long e mail I guess I'll close up. I love you all and I know this is true. I don't know what else I need to say. :) Mahal Kita!!!

Elder Christensen


Questions from a Separate Email

* How different is Ilocano from Tagalog? Well that's a little hard to explain because it's kinda like English and Tagalog mixed as far as structure and some of the words are the same as in Tagalog. But to be honest it's really, really different, new vocab and conjugations. So I guess it would be more like Portuguese and Spanish but it's still pretty different. But the funniest part about it is that everyone here just mixes it all together so in a single sentence you could hear Tagalog, Ilocano and English. It's super funny.

* How do you communicate with people if they only speak Ilocano? Well we get someone to translate usually. But that’s super easy because everyone knows both for the most part.

* How is your Ilocano coming? It's super hard right now. I only know a few phrases but I'm trying to learn it. It’s just hard because I can fall back on my Tagalog so easy.

Brian's Area

* Are you near the Ocean or further inland? What is your area like? We are on the beach so our area is super flat for the most part. We walk on the beach a lot. It's pretty nice I like it. Oh and fun fact: we went to the beach today for p-day and played volley ball. It was super fun. But yeah that's all.

* What is the weather like in your area? HOT. Really, really HOT. Oh and rainy season just started so the past few days we have happy with the heat because it's a little cooler but now there’s tons of rain. :P

Brian's Area

* When did you feel the Savior's love this week? Every day... haha but I really felt it on Saturday when we had to walk home in the rain, which was really annoying because its 5 km to our house to our area... haha But we enjoyed ourselves and I kept thinking that I would do anything the Lord needed me to because I know this is true and I know he loves me. :)

* Are you getting holes in your shoes, pants, or shirts? Well the souls on one pair of shoes is starting to get worn out but I was planning on it because I've only been wearing those shoes for about my whole mission so far. haha I only wear the other pair if I have to. oh and I'm starting to run a little low on chest medicine so in the next package maybe sent that but there's no rush.