Come and See

August 25, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This past week has been a pretty good week for me. Lots of cool things happened. So to start, Monday we went to Candon for a Zone Training witch was good. That night we worked in our area and ended up teaching a few lesson but nothing special happened that day.

Tuesday we went to Candon again for district meeting because President Balledos came and gave a workshop on "how to begin teaching." It was way good and after that we went straight to work. We had a pretty good day but it was kinda hard because we have a less active who basically told us he won't follow all the commandments because he doesn't think he can. I was so sad that he had given up the ability to change. But we will keep working with him. Don’t worry. :) We can help him anyway.

Wednesday, was a hard day up until the end when we found this new family to teach, the Fetalvero family. They are just really receptive and I think good things are going to happen to them. :)

Thursday we taught the Viduya family again which went very well. All in all it was just a good day. Friday was another pretty good day but nothing special really happened then ether.

Saturday was way boss. We started by going to Casilagan in the Morning. We visited May and her family and then found some new investigators. They are super sweet and all want to come to church. The only problem is that right now is a hard time because everyone is waiting for the rice fields to harvest so they can support themselves on it. But anyway, after that we skipped lunch and just kept working. It was great, hard but worth it because we got a lot done. We taught Edwin again and he said he wants to be baptized. But, we have a lot of things to work out with him first. But I really hope he puts forth the effort he needs to be worthy. To be honest we just got a ton done that day and it paid off because 3 of our investigators came to church yesterday and I am so excited for them. :) Nothing else excited happened on Sunday though but I was stoked for the people coming to church. :)

Well that's all for now. I love you all. mahal kita

Elder Christensen

here's my letter to president. nothing confidential or anything like that this time so here's the whole thing. :)


Dear President Balledos,

This past week has been great. We have had a lot of success in our area. We are getting people to come to church and take steps to come closer to Christ. I have noticed that the Lord will bless us in our efforts when we are willing to make sacrifices for him. With that in mind I tried harder this past week to find ways to sacrifice my comfort or my selfish desires so that I can give more time to the Lord and his work. I feel like that has been the biggest difference in this past week.

Elder Mortel is great. I love working with him. He is willing to work hard with me and that really makes all the difference. I have no problem with this companionship.

As for my studies this past week I have been reading a lot from Jesus the Christ. I really liked the story of Peter when he asked his brother if anything good could come out of Nazareth in reference to the Savior. The response to his question was simply "Come and see." I have tried to extend this invitation from the Savior to all my investigators and less actives. To all their concerns, worries and complaints I tell them to "come and see" come and see if the Lord can't fix them. Come and see if our church really is the true church of Jesus Christ once again restored upon the earth. I have learned a lot and found this to be a much more effective invitation. Like you taught us last Tuesday, we need to establish our purpose and invitation on the first visit.

Thank you for all that you do. mahal kita.

Elder Christensen


Questions from Separate Email

* Who is the senior companion? Are you still district leader?
I have no Idea who you would call the "senior companion" because whether he is or I am we just treat each other as equal partners doing the same thing. But I am still district leader. This will be my 5th transfer as a District leader.

* Where does your companion come from?
He's from Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. He's pretty cool.

* What do you like about your companion?
He's willing to work hard with me. For example last Saturday we skipped lunch and just kept working and teaching. It was actually a really good day too. But that's what I like most is that he is willing to work hard with me.

* What are his strengths as a missionary?
He works hard. haha He is also a very good teacher. I can feel the spirit when we teach and it's pretty awesome. :)

* How are the Doctulero family progressing?
They are doing all right. The mom and dad stopped going to church but I'm hoping that it's just because this is the hardest month of the year for the Filipino people because they don't have any money until the rice fields are ready to harvest, which happens next month. That's also when the big fish start to come in to harbor.

* Will you tell us more details about May and Joey? and Brother Viduya?
May and her sister-in-law went to church last Sunday which is pretty awesome. They are super cool. Joey is very interested in our message but he had work so he couldn't come last Sunday. However they have 2 little girls, Jesamay and Jeramay. They are super fun to play with. Jovy is Joey's sister and she is also listening to us. All in all they are just a sweet family.

Brother Viduya is hard working. The past week he has gone without sleep for about 3 days just so he can catch fish and support the family. Every time we teach he tries his hardest to pay attention but he's super tired. He's a supper sweet guy with super hard problems. We are just trying to help him the best we can.

* Did you ever get Grandma Christensen's package with your hump day shirt?
I have not. I've asked about it and no one knows so maybe it'll be here soon. :)

Transfers

Rainy Season
Picture Taken in July

August 18, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This past week has been pretty good. Tso start we had some pretty good lessons on Monday night but nothing special. Tuesday was pretty hard because Elder Alonzo was feeling pretty sick. So we only taught a few lessons. But it's all good.

Wednesday we taught Sister May again with her husband and her husband’s sister. haha They are super sweet. We taught them about Joseph Smith and committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. The rest of the day was pretty routine. We taught some less-actives but that was about it.

Dragon Fruit and "It's Awesome"

Thursday was transfer day. So that morning Elder Alonzo left and I stayed with Elder Karch and Elder Basan. It was a pretty good day. We bought some dragon fruit and waited for my new companion. Elder Mortel. I like him. He's a Filipino. He's older than me and he's been in the mission longer too. He's pretty cool. I'll try and get a picture next week.

Friday was kinda a hard day. Everyone we went to was gone which was sad but we managed to find some new people to teach and they seem really interested. I'm excited to see how that all works out. :)

Saturday we taught May again but Joey was super sick. He has a problem with his back all the way down to his foot so it hurts to move. We were still able to teach them and we answered all their questions about Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon. They said they would come to church when Joey was feeling better. We are really excited for them. :D

Rainy Season--Notice How Deep the Water Is
Picture Taken in July, But the Rain Continues

Sunday was pretty good. It rained pretty hard again and we had to walk through the river... I mean street haha to get to our appointments. But we still had a good time. We also taught Brother Viduya for the first time and he was pretty interested. The only sad part is his wife and one of his daughters just went to Manila to work because they have no money. :( But we should be all right to teach the ones left at home. :)

Well that's all for this week. Mahal na mahal ko kayong lahat. :D

Elder Christensen


Additional Pictures

So one night we wanted to fry fish over a fire like our hot dog roast. So this is what we did. haha I feel like we do some really ghetto things here but it works. haha

Animal Planet and Living in a Zoo

The following pictures are some of the "animals" that Brian encounters at his home. Brian thinks they are cool, and his mom thinks some of them are gross.


So we have this dog that lives at our apartment that we can't get rid of. It's not actually ours but the owner who used to live where we live... It's interesting but she's really nice and going to have babies soon. But that's beside the point. Haha

Check out this bat that was flying around in our apartment. haha I caught it in a bucket while it was still flying. haha It was pretty awesome.

So we found this spider the other day in our apartment fighting the cockroach. Obviously you can tell who won. But I thought it was pretty cool because the spider is missing 3 of its legs but it still won. It was pretty boss. Hahaha

Another Week

Brian and Elder Alonzo

August 11, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This past week has been a good. I we didn't have anything crazy to eat this week... other than what we normally have. haha. We just worked. To start on Tuesday we had district meeting in Tagudin. After that we went back to our area and when we went to one of our potential investigators we were surprised to find one of our less-actives already there. It was a surprise member present. haha

Wednesday we had exchanges and I worked with Elder Almajeda. He is a really cool missionary. I had a really good time working in the area with him and getting to know some of the people there. We had a pretty good day.

These three girls stole my camera and took some pictures. haha
The one on the far left is Grace Doctulero,
The middle is Katherine Viduya one of our investigators,
and the one of the far right is M.J. Doctulero our less active family.

Thursday we taught another set of investigators for the first time and it was awesome because we taught them at the Doctulero house with almost their whole family. It was way cool. I felt like I was watching myself in The District [training movies for missionaries]. haha

Friday we taught one of our less-actives that randomly stopped us one night on our way home. He says he hasn't been to church for over 5 years. And that was only once. Before that it had been more than 10. But he says he really wants to come back. So we are going to help him.

Saturday was a good day. We went to Casilagan in the morning and taught May with her husband Joey and his sister. They are super good investigators. The only reason why they don't want to come to church is because they have a little born again church in their neighborhood that they could have to pass in order to go to our church. Everyone in their Brangay goes to that church, and if they do that [go to the LDS Church] their neighbor's will get mad at them. :(. We are going to keep working with them though.

Later that day we went to Dili but there was a birth day party so literally all the males there were drunk, including our less-active. :( It was fun because we talked with some of our investigators but we couldn't teach because they were all drunk.

Brian Crossing a Bridge in His Area

Sunday was all right we got punted a lot. But we did manage to get some good potential investigators by the end of it. Oh but funny story... We saw two other missionaries from another church. They went to the house of one of our investigators. But what was funny about it was when our investigator saw them she hid from them. Later her mom came over and basically told us that they didn't want to listen to them because they were listening to us. It was super awesome.

Well that's all for this week. :) mahal kita

Elder Christensen

Fire, ata ata, and my Year Mark!!!

Hot Dog Roast in the Apartment

Monday, August 4, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week has been interesting to say the least. Food wise that is. It all started Monday night when we wanted to have a hot dog roast so we did. There's this little dirty chimney in our house in the back corner that just wasn't being used so we used it. haha We lashed forks onto the ends of sticks and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was a pretty awesome night.

Tuesday was normal. We just went to district meeting and worked in the area. Nothing special really happened.

S'Mores

Wednesday we had exchanges. I worked in our area with Elder Naitoko. It was way fun. He's a brand new missionary from Tonga. We had a pretty good day all in all.

Thursday was my year mark! I can't believe I've already been on my mission for a year. It feels like I left yesterday. I don't know it's a strange feeling knowing I have more behind me than I do ahead of me. As far as the actual day went, it was pretty normal until that night when one or our friends had us come over and he fed us ata ata. Ata ata is basically just raw meat and poop juice. :P Literaly they took the tenderloin of a caribou and marinated it in the juices of the small intestine. Masarap! haha It really didn't taste that bad but it was interesting to say the least because it was cold.

Raw Caribou

Friday was a crazy day because we were so busy we just taught a ton of lessons that day. But that's about all that happened.

Saturday and Sunday kinda blurred together because we just worked in our area but nothing really happened. We are having a hard time getting investigators to progress. It's just one of those things. But we'll get back on it. :)

Well that's all for now. Mahal Kita.

Elder Christensen



Questions from a Separate Email

* How is the Doctulero family coming?
Well it's been storm after storm here. He wasn't able to go out to work so they didn't have any money to go to church this week. :( I was way sad but they are doing well all in all.

* Will you tell us about a special teaching experience from this week?
Well the only one that comes to mind is brother Dexter. He is a Seventh Day Adventist but he says he believes in what we are teaching him. I just liked teaching him because the spirit was pretty strong there.


Part of Brian’s Letter to His Mission President

Thank you so much for your letter [see below]. In response [to the question in the letter] I believe that conversion is a process and we will only be finished when we are finished with this life. I believe that to be converted you must show it through your thoughts and actions. A big test for that is what you do when you are alone or what you choose to think about. I feel that we are truly converted when continually strive to be more like Christ every single day, try to be more converted every day. For me I feel that to show my conversion as a "Baguio Philippines missionary" I need to be obedient. I cannot afford to be distracted or lazy here on the mission. I only have now and if I don't take advantage of it I will regret it for the rest of my life. I will always strive to change myself and become a new sanctified missionary.

Pictures from Last Week's Email about the Spider

Letter from President Balledos [It looks like he sent this to all the missionaries]


Dear Elder Christensen ,

What is Conversion?

In the Bible Dictionary it reads: “Conversion denotes changing one’s views, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God (Acts 3:19). If followed by continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism in water for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, conversion will become complete and will change a natural man into a sanctified, born again, purified person—a new creature in Christ Jesus (see 2 Cor. 5:17). Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing (see Luke 22:32; D&C 112:12–13). To labor for the conversion of one’s self and others is a noble task, as in Ps. 51:13; Dan. 12:3; James 5:19–20; Alma 26; D&C 18:15–16.”

President Marion G. Romney, in an October 1963 general conference address, said the following: “It would appear that membership in the Church and conversion are not necessarily synonymous. . . Being converted . . . and having a testimony are not necessarily the same either. A testimony comes when the Holy Ghost gives the earnest seeker a witness of the truth. A moving testimony vitalizes (encourages, invigorates) faith; that is, it induces (brings, persuades) repentance and obedience to the commandments. Conversion, on the other hand, is the fruit of, or the reward for, repentance and obedience.”

How can one knows when he/she is converted?

The Book of Mormon provides descriptions of people who are converted to the Lord: They desire to do good. King Benjamin's people declared, “The Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil [false traditions and belief], but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). Alma spoke of people who “could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence” (Alma 13:12).

From these revealed truths, what actions should you – a real Baguio Missionary be doing to show and manifest your own individual real conversion? Will you change your natural characteristics and behaviors into a sanctified, born again, purified person—a new creature [real Baguio Missionary] in Christ Jesus (see 2 Cor. 5:17)?

In closing the words from Preach My Gospel “You cannot convert people beyond your own conversion.”

The Savior Jesus Christ expects you and me that we become a sure witness “as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.” (see Alma 23:6)

Our Father in Heaven will bless you as you diligently labor with ALL your heart, might, mind and strength to be truly converted is my prayers for you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Ps: Please send your response through your white letter. Avoid hitting the reply button. Thank you.

Another Week in the Field

Monday, July 28, 2014

Dear Everyone,

This week has been pretty routine, to be honest. We've just been working and teaching. To start with last Monday we taught the Doctulero family about obedience.

Tuesday we just had district meeting and worked some more. We taught our recent converts in our area with their friend. It was a pretty good lesson about the pre-existence.

Entertaining Themselves while Waiting for a Bus

Wednesday was fun because we had exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Harris (not the same one from Damortis). We had a great time talking and working in Candon. I also got a study guide for the New Testament, and it's way cool. I just read Revelations with it and I actually understand that now. :D

Thursday we had a great day. It was interesting because that night on our way home a guy stopped us and said he was a member. We were really confused because we didn't know him but as it turns out he had moved there a while back and that's why no one knew he was a member. We have been trying to go back to him but he hasn't been there. We'll see how that turns out.

More Entertainment while Waiting to Go Home

Friday was a great day too. We taught a lot and found this really cool investigator. His name is Lester. He lives with his grandmother and is super interested. He's 22 and from Manila. I'm really excited to teach him. :)

Saturday was wired. We didn't teach anyone... we did get a some of our less actives to a Relief Society activity that we didn't know about until that day so that took some of our time and then everyone else was ether really busy or not home. It was really weird.

Sunday was pretty good. But we still had a hard time getting people at home or being able to share. It was a little hard. But today is the start of another week and we will go and do it all again only better. :)

For studies this past week I have been reading from the standard works as well as the conference Liahona. I read a talk by President Uchtdorf about gratitude. I really like what he said. He talked about he we should have and attitude of gratitude rather than being grateful for things. With this attitude we can withstand any temptation and we will do so cheerfully and with a happy heart. I want to apply that to my mission. I want to be grateful for what I have and who I am no matter where I am or what I'm doing.

Mahal kita

Elder Christensen

Questions from Another Email

* Who have you been teaching lately?
Well right now we are teaching the Doctulero family. They are super sweet the father is a fisherman and he has a small boat that he goes out with when the weather permits. He couldn't go out this past week and because of that they couldn't come to church because they had no money. :( But they are still super sweet. Their mom considers us her children and it's super funny when we go over there. They have 2 daughters who are active in church and they make sure they make it every week even if the parents can't come and they have some sons but they don't like to listen to us anymore. All of them are older. The youngest is 16 I think.

* Did you have a funny/fun story from this week?
Yeah, so the other day we were at the Doctulero house and we found a big spider. The fun thing about spiders here is none of them are poisonous so people just play with them all the time. So we put him on our clothes and stuff and scared people with it. :P It was pretty funny. Then a chicken ran over and ate it. haha

* What was a good teaching experience from this week?
Well we taught a lesson last night that I liked. Our two converts are being retaught right now but we are teaching one of their friends with them now too. We taught about Adam and Eve but what I liked about it was how much we are getting their friend to think. She is a pretty hard born-again but she is starting to think about our message. I just really liked it. I don't know why. Her name is Gemalyn. We call her Gem though.

* What do you do on P-Day?
It depends on the P-Day. We buy all our grocery for the week and if we have time we play basketball. and email. Once a transfer we have a zone activity and that was last week. We had a letchon pig and played a bunch of sports. It was way fun.

* Have you been sight-seeing at all?
Not really. I mean I walk along the beach almost every day but I don't know if that counts. I've seen a lot of what there is but we don't really do anything like that. Also because our area is so far away we go to our area an hour early so we can still teach everyone we need to.

Rain

Monday, July 21, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Brian and Some Local Children

This past week started really good. On Tuesday we had a zone training in Candon which was pretty fun. After that we had a great day of work. We taught a lot of lesson and just had a good time.

Wednesday we had a little bit of a harder day but we still managed to get some lessons taught.

Thursday we had a hard day. We couldn't seem to get any traction in the area and nothing was moving. That's kinda how I felt about that last few days.

Friday we had zone interviews with President Balledos. Mine was pretty short. He basically just told me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is exactly what I intend to do. :)

Saturday we got rained on pretty hard core. haha That morning we went to Casilagan which is pretty far out and we taught a great lesson that morning to a new family we found. After that we worked in Dili. It was really nice until that night after our last lesson it just started dumping rain all over us. I felt bad because we got soaked and then when we got on the bus home I had a ton of mud on my shoes. But they took us home and it all worked out.

Sunday was almost the same story. After church we went to work and it just dumped rain on us. We were given umbrellas but they didn't do much because the streets turned into rivers. It was almost to my knees at one point. It was pretty fun and this group of kids started following us around in the rain. It was pretty funny.

Well that’s all for this week. mahal kita.

Elder Christensen

Emails from a Separate Email

* What was a good teaching experience from this past week?
Well this past week we taught Dexter for a little bit. He is in his 20's and is a Seventh Day Adventist, which means he worships on Saturday not Sunday. He is very receptive but I just liked the lesson with him. It was about the Book of Mormon and why it's important to read.

* How are Ellen and Robert doing?
We actually haven't been able to go back to them this past week. We got held up by rain and other appointments. :(

* How have the Doctulero family been doing?
They are doing very well they were all at Church again this past week. :) They say they are back and back for good. :)

* Have you had any more contact with Edwin?
We talked to him one day and he said we could come back that day. Bbut when we came back he was gone. :( We had a bit of a hard week to be honest.

* When did you feel the Savior's love this week?
When I was out teaching. I feel his love for the people we teach. It's crazy how much he love's these people. I see that a lot.

Baptisms!!

Monday, July 14, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Brian in a Tree

This past week has been bitter sweet. It was sweet because we had two baptisms. But it was bitter because the Raras family (they really aren't the Raras family but that's where we taught all of them) moved to Pangpanga. In other words we can't teach them anymore. :( That and we just had a really hard week last week. I feel like it’s part of the opposition in all things. When we have the most success Satan tries his hardest to make us falter by the way side. That is when your faith is truly tested.

So last Monday night was kinda frustrating because we taught one of our less actives and we both lost our tempers a little bit with him. He told us he didn't have enough money to go to church and we told him to stop buying beer and then he would... it worked out because the next day we made up with him. But he still didn't come to church. :/

Tuesday was a pretty good day. President Balledos came and interviewed Gina and Shareen for their baptism and he gave them the ok. :) We were pretty stoked. The rest of the day was pretty normal. We just taught some lessons but nothing special.

Wednesday we found 2 new investigators and they seem really sweet. Ellen and Robert. We found them in a new part of our area we hadn't been to yet. They were fairly receptive and we are going back to them sometime this week. It should be good.

Thursday I had to go to San Fernando for a District leader conference. It was really good. I learned a lot about marriage in the Philippines which is really complicated to be honest. haha They can't get divorced here. We have to be able to work with that because sometimes they separate and have kids with someone else but they are not married... yeah...

Brian, Elder Alonzo, Shareen, and Gina

Friday was just hard. I'll just leave it at that because all we did was walk around all day. It was hard.

Saturday was good because we had two Baptisms! :D Shareen and Gina were both Baptized. Elder Alonzo baptized them. It was awesome. It was kinda funny because Gina was scared and her knee kept coming out of the water so it took them three tries to get it right. haha.

Sunday was another hard day. Church was great and we had a less active family come to church that we weren't expecting, the Doctulero family. It was way cool. That night we didn't get a lot done. I don't know why. It's a little strange but we'll figure it out I'm sure.

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

Elder Christensen

Some Kids Brian Met in His Area

From a Separate Email

* Can you us more about Gina and Shareen?
Well they are both 23. Gina has a daughter named Paula. So we had to make sure she could get baptized but we worked that out. They are just really good friends and we would teach them at Shareen’s house.

* What was a great teaching experience you had this week?

Maybe the one last night with the Doctulero family. Brother hasn't come to church in months but he just up and decided last Saturday that he was missing out on some blessings so they came to church. And when we came to their house that night he was joking around with us which he neverdoes... I mean never. Haha it was super cool to see the change.

* How is Edwin doing?
Well he has been in Manila so we haven't seen him for a week.


* I asked Brian about different tropical fruits he has had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

Rambutan? It's actually starting to be Rambutan season again. I had a lot in Baguio my fist few months here but haven't had any since. It is amazing not going to lie. The shell can be a little annoying but it does taste pretty awesome.

Big purple avocados? Not really but I have seen them around.

Mango catsup? No, but I have banana catsup all the time. It's awesome.

Green mangos? Those are everywhere. I mean everywhere. We eat those all the time. We dip them in stuff. To be honest when I first got here to Santa Cruz we had all you can eat Mangos. They were amazing but then it started raining and we didn't get any more. But for a while there people would just give us mangos, as many as we wanted for free. :D

Guava? I've had a lot of Guava too but we only get it when people give it to us.

Jackfruit
http://whatvegetarianseat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/jackfruit.jpg

Other fruits I haven't mentioned? Jack fruit. It's this huge fruit that grows everywhere. It's sweet and you have to put oil on your hands before you eat it because it’s so sticky. But it tastes pretty awesome.:)

* You said you received the package. What did you think?
I loved it. Beef jerkey is always good and thank you for the hi chew's and the sour patch kids we can't get those here. I've been giving away my butterscotch too, but the ants have also gotten in to them. :( But it's all good.