Robert vs. Elk and First Exchanges

Ya'aat'eh!

So i found out that i've been spelling that wrong this whole time, but hey Navajo isnt even technically a written language so I will spell it however I want too!!  I checked out some navajo language CD's and books from the library and now I can read Navajo fairly well.  I am 5 chapters into the Navajo book of mormon.  Not quite sure what everything says but im learning as I go.  Oh we taught seminary on friday, so that was way fun and brought back some memories.  I think we are teeaching again in a couple weeks hopefully.  The snow keeps a comin down, its fairly warm during the day but the spring wind is starting to come in so at night there are like blizzards all the time.  Its pretty cool to see though, hopefully we dont get stuck or something. (knock on wood)  Ah yes, the animal of the week is....nope not deer.  but ELK!  We were driving from our place in Dolores down to cortez one morning, just the normal routine.  We turn the corner and slam on the brakes, cause there was about 30 huge Elk just chillin in the middle of the road mindin their own.  So we honked a couple times and I stuck my head out and yelled some Gawn Gyet!! they scattered off but it was funny cause there was only 1 buck.  So im sure he's happy with his herom. 

 

We did exchanges yesterday, so I spent the day with Elder Hall from 1st ward and his companion spent the day with Elder Dobson.  Elder Hall is from Jerome, there are actually 5 Idahoans in my district so we pretty much own the world.  He is way awesome and he is pretty good at Navajo so he taught me some stuff.  He is also fluent in Italian so he shares my language obsession, it was nice to just talk about stuff like that with someone that understands.  Its interesting how many missionaries here speak different languages or such.  Its almost like it was preparation for Navajo because its like one of the top 3 hardest to understand in the world or something like that.  Anyways, 1st ward doesn't have a vehicle so they bike and walk of course.  Since their is still snow and ice everywhere we aren't allowed to bike obviously, wouldn't want to anyways so that was fine with me. So yes I got my first major walking day!  We probably covered about 10 miles, so yep we walked quite a bit overall for one day.  I kinda enjoy walking cause people notice you a lot more and many people honk and wave and whatnot.  Other people ask funny questions and then you always have the galaanii (drunk people) yell at you...oh what fun!  We walk across a big field where all the baseball fields are, I HAD to touch the fence and dugouts.  The dugouts reminded me a lot of Capital/Centennial.  Had to hold back the tears a bit.  Cant wait for summer to come around, baseball is big over here, maybe I will get to coach a team hopefully.  Some other cool stuff is we got to visit with Major.  which is one of 1st wards investigators, hes 18 and is being baptized on March 2nd.  So our meeting with him was kinda to help set up his baptism program like who he wanted to come and he wanted to do what and things.  It was a way good experience and we also taught him about the Priesthood and all the things he gets to look forward too.  He also plays baseball for Cortez high so of course I immediately hit it off with him.  We had some good conversation I'm glad I got to meet him.  We also were privileged to go give a members grandson a blessing cause he was way sick, so Elder Hall and I invited Major to come with us since he has never seen a blessing before.  He came with us and I'm sure it was a great experience for him, the home we went to was within very humble means and I think that helped Major open his eyes up to what we do as missionaries and such. The Grandfather was baptized about 10 years ago and he talked with Major about how awesome this church is and things.  He said he would come to Major's baptism and talked to him some more about the priesthood and things and how important it is.  When we got done with the blessing and we were heading back into town, Major said...Was I supposed to feel something in there?  and I asked  What did you feel?  and he said that he felt really warm and happy and lightheaded haha.  So Elder Hall and I explained to him that was the Holy ghost and how he can expect that to be with him all the time and things, also how he will be able to give blessings and such to people that are in need.  IT was way fun!

We also had dinner yesterday with member family and they made white chilli chicken! So I was like HEY! I know this food....and it reminded me plenty of home, so it was wonderful.  We had some not so good experiences this week as well.  Relanda and her mother said she didn't want to be baptized for a long time, so we were kinda shocked, but its kinda typical for investigators to cold feet.  Satan gets his hand in the door just when it seems to get good for some people, its sad but hey its our job to help in these situations.  What guess what?  we just got a text from Relanda saying that she wants to be baptized on the 9th now.  So BAM! We will help her make it happen.  Revelation just happened when we were emailing.  Her mother doesn't want to though so we will work on her.  Pretty much every single one of our investigators that desire to be baptized are going to have to move their date back.  One is going to jail. so ya....fun times.  I did get the valentines package so Thank You! that was awesome. Hopefully the other one will be here this week.  Colby our other investigator who I asked for the puzzles for has been super busy this last week with school and stuff so we didn't get to see him the entire week until Saturday.  When we got there finally it definitely seemed like he lost some ground on everything, but we had a great lesson and I think we brought his spirits back up.  He knows its true.  He said he went and talked to his pastor about the book of mormon and his pastor said that the Book of Mormon is a good book and it teaches good things but Joseph Smith is not a prophet.  So that was what our lesson was about and we talked about tithing a lot.  We went through all the articles of faith with him and it was great.  Its important to teach people that the church today is the EXACT same church that Jesus Christ set up when he was on the earth before he was crucified.  Or else people think that our Church was "set up" by Joseph Smith, WRONG! It was set up by Jesus Christ and he chose Joseph Smith to set his church up.  It says right on our nametags, THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST......cant get simpler then that.  So I think we helped clear that up with him.  He will come around.  His girlfriend of now 5 years stopped going to the LDS church after high school.  They go to a non denominational "rock band" church right now and she says that our church is true but its just to boring to go to.  Guess what?!  Its not about that! Church isn't about dancing and playing rock music and then listening to a pastor that preaches about how wrong other churches are.  I wish people would understand that.  Church is REAL! God is REAL! prophets are REAL!  its great!  They will understand eventually.  Anyways that's my rant of the week.  I'm glad Borah won, Go get em boys!!  I miss my baseball boys still give some hugs for me.  Well, its time to go, we got a lesson in about 10 mins.  I will hopefully answer more questions next time!

     

-Elder Christensen    Ayo anishinii!

New missionaries arriving.  Robert is 6th from the left in the back.

 Elder Dobson, Elder Christensen, President and Sister Batt

Mail to Robert

Just wanted to let everyone know that Robert's current address is on the sidebar of this blog.  All mail goes to the mission office and is then distributed out to the missionaries.  Robert wrote a little note to my parents reminding everyone that you must put his full name on all letters and packages.  Apparently there are SEVEN elders with the surname of Christensen in his mission.  Since all mail goes to the mission office, they don't know which piece of mail belongs to which Elder Christensen.  So, please address all mail to 'Elder ROBERT Christensen' and we should be good to go.  If you have any mailing questions, leave me a comment on this blog or email me directly and I should be able to help you out.  Thanks everyone!

Robert vs. The Chess Match with Deer

Ya'ah'teh!!

  

   I am emailing from Farmington this week.  My district leader has a docotrs appointment and they don't have a vehicle, so we gave them a ride down.  Also its Presidents day so ALL of the libraries and places that have a computer are closed. We gave up the idea of emailing today and would just do it tomrrow, so we decided to go get some KFC!! There are tons of members down here so the owner of KFC gives ALL missionaries 50% off.  oh ya livin the life.  It was deelish.  But then we saw a Navajo trading post across the street and we are like well lets just go over there and check it out.  What do you know! There are 4 other missionaries emailing here on the owners computers.  We were guided towards the right place haha.  I will lay down some thigns that are gon on so i dont forget. 

 

I ordered a couple nametags in Navajo so now I can feel better about myself haha.  Also we are getting some turquoise buttons on our nametag clips so ya, no big deal.  Some cool facts about the New Mexico Farmington mission...We have the largest fleet of vehicles in the world!  Pretty much every single companionship has a truck except 4 areas.  We are the only mission with Navajo, Apache, Ute, Zuni, Pueblo, and Hopii reservations in it.  I'm excited to be here. Oh ya! Mom, Dad, I know I've been asking you to send stuff a lot and I don't mean to be needy.  But the other day....I don't know if its my craving for French/Russian/German or I'm being told to study up on those languages so it would be awesome if I could get a copy of Francais, rooski, and Deutsch Books of Mormons pour moi s'il vous plait.  I'm missing my languages. 

 

Okay now for some actual mission stuffs...This week was pretty slow with valentines day and everything.  NObody really wanted to talk with us and people have their plans and whatnot.  So since NOBODY has really wanted much to do with us tihis week, we bought a chess board and have been playing everynight when we get back.  So far the record is 7-3 me.  Elder Dobson is determined to beat me, but im not going to let up.  Remember how I said we would have 11 people on date for baptism this week?? Well we got close...we have 9.  So we committed 4 more, its awesome to see poeples lives change for the better.  We would have had 11 but when we asked them, it was a young couple that have been investigating the church for awhile.  The wife said yes!! I want to start paying tithing and everything RIGHT NOW!! but then her husband gave a uhhhh....not yet, I don't think so. Hopefully his wife will talk with him. 

 

We aren't sure when the big Samoan banquet thing is, still dont have a date yet.  Elder Dobson and I gave talks yesterday in sacrament meeting.  We talked on the plan of salvation!  It was way good and we had 8!! investigators come to church also so it was a grand day.  Oh i forgot to mention that I actually cover 2 wards, the Cortez 3rd and 4th wards.  So on Sundays we get there at 7:30 for PEC, and we don't get out of church til 2pm! Hooray for 6 and a half hours of church!!!  Ryan, Andrew, and Kailen all came to church with their mothers yesterday so I think they are doing great.  Kaliens mom is sort of interested so we will be stopping by their house sometime and probably reading scriptures and stuff with Kailen.  Colbys family is all sick so they weren't able to come to church yesterday dangit....we pretty much prepared our talks just for him.  Try again next week.  Hopefully this week we will have a lot more lessons and things to teach but last week was pretty slow.  We haven't taught Leroys wife yet, it didn't happen so maybe this week.  That situation is kind of sketchy....We will be teaching Marcia, which is the Micklesons friend tomorrow.  Once her friends heard that she was gonna talk to them dang mormons then they brought out a bunch of anti-mormon stuff.  But Travis Mickleson told her that if she wanted to know about the church then talk to actual LDS people..not listen to made up dvds and things.  So we will be prepared for anything! bring it on!!  hopefully we will answer all her questions and things.  Oh ya, my 2 new favorite scriptures....I call them my bring it on scriptures...I shared this during my talk yesterday.  More scriptures will be added.  But right now its 2 Timothy 2:3....2 Corinthians 12: 9-10...and D&C 122.  Fun stuff.  I kinda like giving talks! wait I didn't say that....i hate  giving talks.  Well hopefully I will be able to share some more interesting stories and whatnot next week.  We almost slammed into another deer this week though, stupid animal was just sitting in the middle of the road, didn't even budge.  Lets go TOWARDS the loud noise and bright lights coming really fast.  The other deer were probably off in the distance laughing, I'm sure they told that deer that in order to join their herd then he had to get smacked by a truck.  We barely dodged it yet once again. 

 

Well I will have better things to talk about next time!  -Elder Christensen

Ayo anishnii! Agonet Shi'kis!

 

 

Robert vs. Deer and the Prince of Samoa

 Yaa'ah'te!

  I am doing awesome here! I don't even know where to start!  I live on the outskirts of Dolores, Colorado  inside of a warehouse.  Its awesome!  My companion and I get along great, hes a BSU fan and his favorite number is 13 and his favorite scripture is D&C 122, so its like a twin of me!  He has only been out 6 months but he knows a lot about the bible and the scriptures its amazing to see him whip out scriptures out of nowhere and and answer peoples questions.  He is helping me mark important scriptures and whatnot so I'm very grateful because I would get destroyed out here if it wasn't for him.  He is from Camas, Washington, which is right next to Portland. When it snows here it SNOWS! there is probably a good foot outside right now, i love it.  We drive around in our Chevy Colorado and tear up the roads its way fun.  I have 2 dogs that live with us at our warehouse.  Roxie and Daisy a Boxer and a Weiner dog.  They make me very happy whenever we come back home from being in Cortez all day, makes me want to be with my Hunter. 

Okay now for the crazy stuff.  To start off we were coming back at around 9pm after a lesson and we were just talking and a deer just busted out of nowhere and within about a quarter of a second Elder Dobson decided to swerve towards it and smash into it so we wouldn't fly off the other edge of the road, I agreed with this tactic ha ha.  Then he decided to swerve the other way and the deer grazed us just barely, so basically he pulled off some James Bond driving which I am very proud of.  But it was fun! we laughed for like 15 minutes. 

    Now here's the really crazy stuff, hopefully I can get all the info on our investigators in here.
So we have a less active member in our area, his name is Leroy Mariner (good last name).  and out of all the places in the world to be from and live in a backwoods town in southern Colorado....hes from Samoa.  Hes one of this really strong skinny Samoans not the big huge guys.  anyways hes 26 i think and he served his mission in the Philippines.  He is way awesome and extremely respectful towards the missionaries.  We came into his house and he has no furniture, so we all sat down on this floor made out of a certain tree bark that is all painted up and stuff.  He fed us pizza and we sat and talked for like 2 hours, it was my favorite day so far.   His wife is half Navajo and half Ute and she isn't a member.  He has been taking her to church in Shiprock, New Mexico so she will feel more comfortable with more Navajo there.  He wants us to teach her so this week we will be doing so and I am very nervous because I already care about Leroy so much I don't want to mess it up.  Here is the other crazy part about this.  Leroy is Samoan royalty!!!!!  He had to give up his royalty rights in order to join the church when he was younger, hes like the Kings nephew or something.  His job here is to work for the Samoan delegation or something and in March they will be having a huge get together/party/ceremony/fundraiser for the victims of a typhoon that hit Samoa really hard this year.  $500 a plate!  The governor of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona are coming to it.  As also is the President of Samoa and so is our mission President.  And guess who else is going??????  Tha'ts right my companion and I!  Oh did I mention that we are saying the opening and closing prayers!!???  In front of about 2000 people!  no pressure huh.....Leroys father works for the Samoan embassy and is also a member and told Leroy to get the elders in his area to say the prayers.  Lucky me....not.  Pretty excited though.  Many people from around the world and of many faiths will be there.  Gonna need some help on that one. geez.

  
Other awesome news.  As of right now, we have 5 investigators on date for baptism in March.  Ralanda and her mother on march 2nd.  We are learning many new Navajo words every time we go over there, so I'm learning slowly.  and on March 9th 3 boys, Riley who is 11, Andrew (Rileys brother) 13, and there friend Kailen who is 12.  They are some of the most inspiring kids I've ever met.  There mother is a less active and there father doesn't want anything to do with us.  Kailens dad is out of the picture he doesn't know him, and his mother was going to get baptized a long time ago but then she didn't. So we will work on them.  But I remember being 11,12,13 i didn't care about church.  I just wanted to get home as fast as possible.  I didn't have a testimony of anything at all.  These 3 kids though....wow.  I was blown away I almost started to cry during our lesson with them cause of how guilty i felt form being there age and not caring at all.  Its amazing to see kids care so much at such a young age.  So right now we have 5 on  date.....but Elder Dobson and I are expecting to have 11 by next week.  Its going to happen you watch.  We are being blessed left and right with finding people.  Some other investigators we have...Colby, hes 36 and he lives with his girlfriend Katy who has been less active most of her life.  They both have had 2 other marriages so they are kinda hesitant to get married. Katy has 2 children from the 2 other marriages, but they are really cool and fun to be around.  We have become very close friends with Colby and Keana, who is the only child in the house.  Colby has a very strong drinking problem but since we have been seeing him he has been getting off of it slowly and we haven't even talked about the word of wisdom yet. Which is the topic of this week.  Big step but he has lots of faith i can tell, I know he can do it.  His daughter wants to get baptized as well so yep lots of stuff going on. 
  
Other news.   The members that we live with have a long time friend that they work with and they have been planning on telling us about her.  Well apparently the Lord had other plans.  My very FIRST door I ever knock on.....its her.  And she asked if the micklesons sent us there, and we are sitting there like....how do you know the mickelsons???  So we have an appointment with her on Thursday.  Cant wait.  Travis Mickleson says  that they gave her a book of mormon and have talked to her and everything, so i guess its her time to hear the truth!! 

   One other investigator, there is an older man named Myron that we go over and teach.  Hes very learned in the bible and is one of the kindest people I've ever met.  He loves the missionaries but I feel like he just wants some company.  He lives alone. but we have had some very goo discussions with him and we will invite him to be baptized this week.  So ya, I think that's everything!!!!!  my fingers are raw.  Lots of good stuff here. 

  I'm glad you got my package safely!  We get fed practically every night by members so im good there.  Oh tell brother gregory that I met not just 1 Russian...but 4!! so I exceeded his calling.  OH YA!! so there's this one guy here...brother Balfour. Hes an older guy, and he and his wife are huge hunters and gun collectors.  He shoots prairie dogs for a living.  Hes counted every one hes shot, over 30,000 or soemthing.  Anyways he has a humongous gun collection, its bigger then the gun library at Cabelas.  Hopefully I will figure out the picture thing here....but there is a very special gun that he has that is the exact same gun that is used in a certain movie that we watch a lot at home.....here's the hint dad.  "ROY!  Lady my name ain't Roy!"  or here's another one...this one will give it away but I'm being tempted to type it cause its so much fun.  "We already ran the misfits out of our country....sent em back to England"  okay one more. "Hes been sitting up there all day waiting for 2 idiots like them to line up like that"  ya....that gun.  I got to hold it and I took a pic of it.  Its soooo heavy. 
anyways i got to go have lunch with Leroy, his wife is making us some fry bread! WOOOOO!

Oh and tell my boys at borah that I miss them a ton. Give sam and miles and connor and casey a big hug for me.  They better beat rocky and eagle and timberline...or my wrath will come down upon them.

AGONET'    Ayo anishini!! -Elder Christensen

Robert vs. The First Lesson

My mom and dad got a letter and a gift in the mail today from Elder Christensen!  Hopefully we will get an email on Monday as well:

2/5/13
Tuesday
10:30pm

I am in Cortez, Colorado.  My companion is Elder Dobson from Camas, Washington.  He is way awesome.  I will be in Cortez for at least 12 weeks with him.  I asked to be on the Rez, but they sent me here.  This could be a test.  I taught my first lesson today to a woman named Ralanda Williams.  She and her whole family are Navajo.  She has 4 kids and she is only 21, because the U.S. government pays the Navajo people for each child they have so Ralanda’s parents have forced her to have children and live at home so they can get the $$$.  It’s sad, but we taught her the plan of salvation.  I didn’t talk much but it’s okay.  She said she would pray about it.  My P-days are Monday, so I will give more details then on e-mail.  We also coach a youth basketball team on Mondays and Wednesdays.  And we play on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  So lots of B-ball!!  I played tonight with a few investigators we invited to come (more details later), but it was way awesome.  I am going to have so much to write about on Monday.

The first door we knocked on today was a worker for the member’s we are staying with and we  didn’t even know it and she said she wanted some lessons from us, so ya, a full day.  Got like 3 lessons tomorrow.  I’m pretty dang nervous still.  Oh ya!  Ralanda said she would get baptized!  We asked her! 1st lesson!  March 2nd is the date.  Hopefully she will stay strong.  But ya - I’m having fun.  I need lots of help getting these lessons and scriptures down.  Not confident at all.  Need lots of help.

These jewels are pure turquoise and silver.  There is an old man in Farmington that makes them for the missionaries.  And we got some to give to our mothers, so here ya go.  I will find a pure silver something sometime.

Time to go to bed.

Elder Christensen

Provo Temple

Provo Temple Pictures

MTC Pictures

 Rob was finally able to download some pictures from the MTC and send them to me!  He didn't include any captions or commentary with them so I have no idea who anyone is or if some of these pictures have stories or significance.  He'll have to fill in the details later.  

Elder Christensen gave us a quick call yesterday from the Denver airport on his way down to New Mexico.  He sounded great and is ready to get to work!  We haven't heard where he is in the mission, he could be in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, or Utah.  A little crazy not knowing which state your brother is in at the moment, but I'm sure he will fill us in with the details as soon as P-Day rolls around (not sure when that is either, so we are all waiting and checking our in-boxes everyday.)

From now on, I imagine I'll just be posting something up once a week, as soon as we here from him.  Pray for him and all the other missionaries out there....and extra prayers for Rob's companion....good luck, buddy.  :)

MTC Email #3

Yaa'ah'teh!

Yes i saw brett, he looks good.  I got the root beer and preach my gospel. Thanks so much! He came to give me a hug and I didnt know what to do.  I was like uhhhh....oh ya its ok to hug.  I am attempting to repack everythign today.  I need a miracle.  I leave on Monday at 6 am. Layover in Denver for a couple hours then fly to Durango.  From there drive to FArmington, the who knows where!  So if I call it will probably be sometime around 4:30 or 5ish i dont know. so be ready to be woken up.  I have to get up at 1:30, and we will have to be all ready to go by 3 am! so fun times!  I learned some more navajo lately from teachers that served there adn one elder who is navajo!  lfor example....  Ah'ee'ee (pronounced ah-yhe-eh)  which means thank you.  Very complicated to pronounce these words.  oh my favorite, cle'h.  whiich means horse.  Its pronounced with a nasal throat sound its almost impossible to say its crazy.  I have gotten to talk to some of my friends from BYU-i that were in my Russian class with me and have been able to carry on a few conversations so that makes me happy. Also a teacher here is French and he started talking to me and he insulted me in french but he was extremely surprised that i understood him and replied! it was great, but we didnt really get anywhere, i have forgotten alot of my French.  Tell steve hello for me! He can have his derek zoolnader shirt back, it should be in my closet.  I have had some more great experiences this week, cant wait to get out to New Mexico.  There is a teacher here that served in Phoenix which was what the mission was before it was Farmington.  he had a couple of interesting experiences he told us about our skinwalker friends that we will be amongst.  He told us jsut to always be listening for the spirit with extra intent especially when it gets darker and when we are tracting.  Things happen.  But hey whatever BRING IT ON!!!!!  I read in 2 Timothy earlier this week which is a great book by the way I highly reacommend it.  It talks about being a "Good soldier of Jesus Christ"  and to always be faithful and you will be protected.  So im excited.  Other fun news i got a concussion on Wendesday from playing basketball, so i guess its karma.  Elder Hullinger who is in my district and  from Boise, he went to Eagle, decided to be a linebacker for a second and he headbutted me in my face. Felt wonderful.  Bloody nose for about 30 mins, I went to the Hospital to get checked out and they said my brain wasnt bleeding but it swelled up pretty good.  So i was lucky.  Im all good now.

Anyways i got to go! The church is true!  The next info shall come from New Mexico, Utah, colorado, or Arizona.  its a pandoras box.  Go broncos!

-Elder Christensen

The Plaque

Robert's Missionary Plaque in Boise

in the reflection you can see the Prez snapping the pic with his phone