Fun Stuff

Monday, December 2, 2013

Dear Everyone,

So this week has been full of crazy stuff. To start on Monday Elder Dela Cruz had to go to San Fernando for his career workshop because he goes home tomorrow. :/ I love having him around he is one of the sweetest missionaries I've met so far. I love talking to him. [The workshop] is just like a "how to get a job and get married when you get off your mission" thing. It's really boring so I'm told, and it's for everyone who goes home. Anyway that was crazy because we had to go pick him up way late in the night, and it was super hard to get a taxi home. Haha

Well the next day I taught my first district meeting. It went well but it was a little crazy because afterward we had an extra P-day because Elder Dela Cruz didn't get one. :) Anyway that was Tuesday for me.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders, and Elder Tanner and I went in my area. It was way fun and we got a ton of stuff done. I love working with him because we just get along so well. I hope that we can be in the same zone for at least a little while longer. :) Anyway it was just a fun day. No crazy stories but defiantly some good times.

On Thursday Elder Jones went to San Fernando for train the trainers meeting because he is training next week. So Elder Dela cruz and I just worked in Kias witch was fine by me. We did some good stuff even though we got punted a ton. Haha We get punted a lot in Baguio, but it's all good because I've found that the work still moves along no matter what we do it just dose. It's amazing how that works. [For Thanksgiving] we worked because we couldn't get permission to do anything and they don't do anything here in the Philippines for that. But it was all good. I'm just slowly enjoying my package. :) I loved the potatoes and gravy.  :) [Michelle sent him all the dried/dehydrated fixins’ for a Thanksgiving dinner.]

Friday and Saturday were pretty normal we just worked and worked and worked. Nothing crazy exciting happened but I enjoyed it. Sunday was fast Sunday of course and we just worked though that as well.

But to top everything off today we had a zone activity which I was so happy we had. We had a sports day with our zone and La Trinidad zone and we all just played basketball and football and all kinds of crazy fun stuff. I loved exercising like that I haven't done it is so long. :)

[How is Tagalog coming?] Well to be honest I hit a pretty rough patch again but I'm coming out of it again. I'm starting to understand just about all the everyday conversations. The hard part is when they say a whole sentence in deep Tagalog. :P

[What was your favorite teaching experience this week?] Well when I went on exchanges with Elder Tanner this past week we taught 5 lessons and that was a pretty good day. But my favorite was when we taught Sister Virginia [in Brian's area]. She is the sweetest old lady. She is 74 years old and very interested. It's a little slower because she has a harder time understanding what we teach but she is progressing. She has arthritis in her leg and we are trying to find a way to get her to church but we are having some hard times with that. I really liked the lesson because the spirit was really there. I always love the lesson where I can feel the spirit working within me. :)

So I need to tell you about phone calls home. :))))))))))) Any way so I am allowed to call home two times between Dec. 9 and Dec. 28. I can have 90 min calling home. That can be 45 min each or one 90 min call or however you want to work those but it has to add up to no more than 90 min. I cannot Skype. :( I will just have to use our cell phone. I can't use my companionship cell phone I have to use another elder’s phone so I need to work that out ahead of time so it would be good to know by next week. :D

Well I'm all out of time. I love you all so much thank you for all that you do. :) I don't think I could put in to words just how grateful I am for all the things that you do for me.

Ingat po. Mahal po ko kayo!!!

Elder Christensen

Exchanges

Monday, November 25, 2013

Dear Everyone,

This past week has been a bit of a roller coaster. I'm still in a threesome. It will be that way until the end of the transfer or rather until Elder Dela Cruz goes home on Dec 3. :) Since I'm in a threesome right now we have to work in both our areas. To be honest it makes things really hard because we have a lot more ground to cover and not enough time to do it all in. It's been good still.

[How has your week as DL been?] It's been a little crazy but not too different. I didn't have to give a training because we had a zone training with the zone leaders. It's really not too different because I'm just doing what I watched Elder Hernandez do as a DL. It was really easy.

So to start, last Monday we taught a lesson with Sister Jenifer and Jericho it went well. They are our less-actives in my area.

We had a zone training on Tuesday which was way cool and got me super motivated to work this week. I loved hearing from all the trainers. On Wednesday we worked in my companions’ area and then had a way fun dinner with our ward mission leader. He treated all of the missionaries in our ward to a dinner. It was pretty cool.

Thursday we worked in my area and managed to teach four lessons but nothing special really happened. But on Friday, I went on exchanges with Elder Lamoglia and we had a great time. He is one of the newest missionaries here in the mission and it was his first time leading his area. It was so fun. Also he can draw really well. It's way fun to watch him draw just the random things but they are way cool.

Elder Ian S. Ardern

Ok, so we had Stake Conference this week, and it was awesome because we had Elder Ardern. He is in the area presidency for the Philippines, and he gave some way cool talks about getting members involved in teaching with the missionary's. I loved hearing from him. http://www.lds.org/church/leader/ian-s-ardern

[What have you heard from about the Typhoon victims?] Nothing much, just that we need to pray and fast for them. Everything here is pretty normal. To be honest we don't talk about it much other than that we are doing all we can from here. But we also just keep working hard.

Well that's all for this week. I love you all. Mahal kita!!!!

Elder Christensen

Emergency Transfers

Monday, November 18, 2013

Dear Everyone.

This week has been crazy to say the least. It was pretty normal up until Tuesday night when the zone leaders called us. (Me and Elder Hernandez were getting along great, and I was way excited to finish the transfer with him.) Elder Tanner told us that his companion was being sent to San Fernando to be trained as an AP and that Elder Hernandez was going to take his place as acting zone leader. That means he had to leave me and move to the zone leaders apartment. I took his place as district leader, so now I'm an acting District Leader. I'm also in a companionship witch is a little crazy. :P I'm with Elder Jones and Elder Dela Cruz. It's interesting to say the least.

So as far as investigators go, we had to combine my area and theirs so we work in both. It's fun, though, because I get to show them around in my area, and they show me around in Kias. We all get along pretty well so no problems.

 [What are your responsibilities as district leader?] Well I have 4 sisters in my district, and they have to text me every night when they get home to make sure they are safe. Every Sunday night everyone in the district sends me their stats for the week, and I make sure they all make sense before I forward them to the Zone leaders. I also have to give trainings at district meeting every Tuesday. Oh and if someone in my district has a question about anything they text/call me. It's really not too hard. Oh, I also go on exchanges with the elders in my district. We are doing one of those on Wednesday to Thursday.

I love you all, I know that the gospel is true I see in all around me and feel it burn within me. I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to serve no matter what happens I know this is the place that I'm meant to be.

So we are teaching this lady named Elizabeth. We had to move her baptismal date because she missed church but we are confident she will keep moving forward. We moved the date to Dec. 14. We are on the back end of the lesson with her and she is so sweet. She is a little hard of hearing, so we write most of the lesson down for her, and she does really well that way. I'm very excited for her to progress. She does everything we ask her to do, and she really does try to make it to church every week. Most times she only misses because of some crazy thing that happens to make it so she can't.

We are also teaching Sis Iva. She is a single mom with very little time. She is very sweet and loves having us come by. But her biggest problem is time. We have the hardest time scheduling appointments with her because she is always working so she can support her daughter. I think when we can get more time with her she will really take off in the Gospel. She really just wants what is best for her daughter.

Thank you mom. I love you so much. Thank you for all that you do at home I don't know if I would feel quite so comfortable without knowing you were at home taking care of everything. well my time is about up. Tell everyone at home that I'm keeping them in my prayers. Keep on keeping on.

Well, that's about all I have as far as this week goes everything else is pretty normal.

Mahal ko kayo!!!

Elder Christensen


Update about Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)

Last Monday, a local newspaper, The Davis County Clipper, called and talked to Michelle. They were looking for a story about a local missionary in the Philippines. The Clipper wrote an article about Brian.

Michelle: What did you think about the article?
Brian: Why... I don't understand why they wrote an article about me. But it's cool. I was not expecting that.

Michelle: Some missionaries from the Tacloban mission were assigned to other missions. Do you know if Baguio received any new missionaries that were reassigned?
Brian: I don't know about any new missionary's sorry.

Martin sent a few pictures to Brian. His comment was: “Yes, I got the pictures. That's crazy.”

In addition to the pictures, The Deseret News published an amazing article about the faith and rescue of 10 sister missionaries.