Robert vs. Primary

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

Alright well sorry for the late email, there was a county wide power outage yesterday for a long time so we didn't get to email.  Well this week wasn't very good as far as staying busy and whatnot but I know we did a lot of good.  As long as someone gets helped during the week then I consider it a successful week.  I got chased by a couple dogs this week and it brought back some fond memories of being chased by insanely huge pitbulls all over the reservation.  This mission is the best.  I only got bit once but it was fun while it lasted.  

The cool missionary story for the week I guess is on Friday we were heading back to our house for the night, then we decided to knock on a door that we didn't know who lived there, but we knew that it was a new family that moved in.  A guy came out and started talkin with us and its so funny how our conversations start here at the door.  After the hi how are ya's and whatnot we have to ask if they are a member or not and then try not to get to excited if they aren't.  Turns out he moved from my 1st area in Cortez and he was a member of the assembly of God church.  I immediately got pumped for some bible bashin or something derogatory..I honestly was hopin for it because I seriously miss being in the face of persecution all the time in Farmington or Hopiland.  Anywway, ya this guy is super nice and friendly and accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would love to meet with us and that he believes he's in Blanding for a reason that he doesn't know why yet.  Good stuff!  The nicest Protestant man I have ever met.  It will be a good experience to meet with him.  So ya that was it, I know it wasn't that cool but thats about as exciting as it gets round here most of the time.  

This little town is sure starting to grow on me.  There was a guy in my ward that came home form the Scotland/Ireland mission and he gave his homecoming talk in a kilt and long leggings.  It was the bomb, I wish I could do something like that.  I need an Eagle feather headdress or something....I have some moccasins maybe I will wear those.  Our recent convert is doing alright he gets a little overwhelmed at all the stuff there is to do to progress but we just say one step at a time..."just tap it in....just tap it in.."  Name that movie...only Llyr would probably get that one.  On Sunday we got asked at the end of sacrament to teach youth sunday school...and then we went to prepare for that and then we got asked to come teach sharing time for like 15 mins.  It was crazy and that type of on the spot junk happens to me all the time, I'm used to it though.  One thing for sure I know...I am not a primary teacher.  That was the longest 15 minutes of my life.  I am doing well here and enjoying the dry Blanding air and the nightly lightning storms with 0 rain.  Thanks for everything

Love Elder Chirstensen

  

Robert vs. The 4th of July

7 on 7 football tournament…awesome. 

Wayne is on the far right and Mitchell is in the middle.  Brother Harris, who baptized them, is on the left.

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

It was a good/hectic/spiritual week this week.  Didn't get that many teaching opportunities of course with 4th of July being like the world series/super bowl of Blanding.  We spent about 6 hours helping serve food at a gas station to whoever wanted to eat.  It was alright but both my legs fell asleep after about 4 hours of just standing there serving beans.  They had a huge parade but I didn't get to see any of it unfortunately.  I also didn't take any pictures because I forgot my camera all day.....I failed big time.  The town exploded to about 10,000 people it seemed like in one day it was insane!  We had like 300 people come up to us of course and take pictures and ask us all the where ya from's and how long you been out's….I'm pretty annoyed about answering those now.  I figure I got about 400 or 500 more times to answer that.  It was fun to feel like a celebrity though for a day.  We werent allowed to do any of the festivities which killed me....softball and football all day…I was dying to take a few swings.  Since we couldnt watch the fireworks with everyone at the park we just watched them from our house.  I am definitely coming back sometime soon for the 4th here.  It would be a blast!  Apparently there is like 100 guys spread out throughout the wards that served there missions in Blanding and eventually came back to live here.  I someday may become part of that group.  

The end of the week was great!  Wayne and Mitchell were both baptized.  Mitchell didn't NEED to be baptized but he insisted and so we got permission from everyone and it went well.  Mitchell just kinda sat down in the water after the prayer was said.  Brother Harris who was baptizing him had like no idea what to do.  But hey it works!!  Then Wayne had to be dunked twice cause his hand popped out of the water.  On the way up the 1st time he slipped and smacked his head against the wall....what a spiritual day:)  It was ok though and he wasn't too embarrassed so the 2nd time he went down worked out.  We did the confirmation in the chapel on Saturday as well and you could certainly feel that his wife was in the room watching it was an interesting experience. 

Everything went well overall this week and I plan on the rest of time in Blanding to be productive and help some people.  

Love Elder Christensen

 

Robert vs Big Dogs

Loloma!!!

Well not to much to report on this week again but there are some good things happening in the Blanding 1st and 8th wards.  The baptism for July 5th is still good to go and I am excited for the man we are teaching to FINALLY become a member after living in Blanding his whole life.  62 years.  We had a man come to church that hasn't been there in over 40 years!  I think he really enjoyed being back.  It's sad to see that something drastic has to happen in order for people to get their act together.  I am not exempt from that either.  But with a wife passing away and then deciding to be baptized, or finding out that someone did your wife's temple work along time ago and then deciding that it might be a good thing to get back to church is pretty dramatic.  Doesn't need to be that way.  

We did have a pretty good lesson with a Navajo family that I am excited to teach.  I get so giddy when I am teaching my Lamanite brothers and sisters.  I know back home I didn't go talk for long periods of time to often but I think thats changed for sure.  I might need someone to tell me to shut up.  Sometimes I get carried away and I don't let my companion teach as much as I should cause I am just so happy to be talking with Native Americans.  He's cool with it though.  

I met a purebred Mastiff could be classified as small horse.  It was a bigger than the dog from Sandlot but it looked a lot like it.  Knock on a door...WOOF!  Then the kid opens the door and this dog head the width of a football pushes through.  That is really the only time in my life that I can recall being afraid of a dog.  We went into the house and it just kinda backed me up into a corner and started barking and jumping on me.  It put its paws on my shoulders like nothing and stood taller than me.  When we tried to leave the dog would kinda mouth my forearm and pull me back in.  That was my life or death moment for the week.  I still love big dogs.  Maybe not that big.

We had a kid knock on our door at like 4am the other day.  He should be on a mission right now but he's had to deal with some pretty hard challenges.  He just needed someone to talk to and he asked for a blessing so we were all very proud of him for seeking out for the spiritual side of things.  We invite him to come over to our house a lot and just hangout with us and go to lessons and whatnot.  I am happy to know that he trusts us to be able to have the guts to knock on our door so early looking for help.  I love helping people, I don't care what time it is.  Anyways things are going well and I am pumped for the 4th.  

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Cancer

Loloma!!!

I sure miss my Hopi people.  Well this last week was pretty slow but I think we made a good impact on some people.  The man we are teaching is still on date for July 5th and he came to church yesterday so thats a plus!  That man has some extreme faith, I think a lot more than I do.  His daughter is going through like her 3rd round of chemotherapy for the same cancer that his wife died of.  Pretty tough.  We help out as much as we can.  I'm glad that I'm here so I can help this guy.  Life in Blanding is pretty dang routine, but its a good life.  There was a guy that took us home teaching with him last night for a while and he stated some interesting stats.  It took 98 years from the church starting in 1830 to get its first 100 stakes.  30 years later it upped to 200.  7 years after that, 300.  Today I guess we are close to 4,000 stakes.  If that aint hastening the work I don't know what is.  I really have nothing to write about this week.  We are walking around a ton!  It feels good though to at least be tired physically if you didnt have a very successful day.  The new Elder living with us is from Nampa so now we got 3 Idaho boys and one Utard under one roof.  We give plenty of grief to my Utah companion.  He is like a 4 hour drive from home.  Us 3 Idaho guys are all the babies in our family and since we all know what its like to be beaten up by older brothers we tease my companion because he is the oldest and he doesn't understand what its like to be at the bottom of the totem pole so we humble him a lot.  We have a lot of fun together but its only fun if you work hard during the day.  Yep, pretty boring letter, hope you enjoyed it!

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Teaching Relief Society

Hayden and I at conference

I picked a ton of cherries on Saturday

Loloma!!! 

Well I will be staying in Blanding for another 6 weeks so until the end of July at least.  I am happy because I know that we are doing some good with a few people around here and plus I don't really want to move around anymore.  Kinda tired of packing and unpacking.  This could possibly be my last area, we will see.  Happy late Fathers day by the way sorry I didn't say that beforehand.  We did have our investigator come to church this week and that man is one of the most determined people I have ever met.  He is absolutely set on being sealed to his wife that passed away recently.  He has a son named Mitchell that has a pretty severe case of a mental disorder.  Or the way I like to look at it..."a severe case of armour and protection from satan."  Last night we were at their home and during the lesson Mitchell just pointed out that when he plays piano now that his mom comes and points at which keys to press so he can learn faster.....no big deal.  He talks a lot about spirits and stuff, he's basically straddling the veil.  Pretty cool.  During the funeral service he organized a group and they all sang "You Are My Sunshine" and " If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands."  Seriously, that was one of the most spiritual experiences ever.  As soon as they started singing the entire pressure changed in the room switched and it felt like the chapel was filled to the ceiling with family and friends.  Pretty crazy.  

I accidentally signed us up to teach Relief Society....now the words of that one country song come perfectly into play "What Was I Thinkin."  It all started when we were eating dinner with a family and the mother said that she is just so afraid to talk to people about church stuff.  Then of course because I am super smart and can read peoples minds said...Well, we can teach you!  Then she had the idea that I already saw in my head come out of her mouth....not.  "oh hey why don't you just teach Relief Society on it....in both wards!!!"   Crap.  Oh well it will be fun, not quite sure when exactly it will happen but it will happen.  I need to start working on my centerpiece...any ideas?  Just kidding, I would have to give up my man card...I'm already on the border.  "Thou shalt not teach relief society or do anything like unto it as a man." - D&C 139.  It will be good I think and hopefully if we do well enough we can get some more meals out of it.  

July 4th is coming up...last July 4th I was in Shiprock and absolutely nothing happened.  Boring.  Not here in good ole Blanding Utah!  They apparently are in the top 5 ranked July 4th parades and parties in the nation....thats what the people say at least.  Anything can be ranked!  They have a 6 seater tandem bike for us to ride on as well....I am NOT getting on that thing.  I will be sure to take pictures of that blessed event though.  Hopefully I can get into a softball game or something.  Well thats all she wrote!!!  GO BRONCOS

 Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Country Roads

Last week was pretty good!  We handed out quite a few more Books of Mormons so that made me pretty happy.   I love the Book of Mormon!  For the week we did a trek on a 5 mile country road....that was murder.  Paved roads have no give when you step, my legs are killing me still.  It was a lot of fun though and the whole point was to just get to know the people in the area cause we had no idea who lived out there.  Well just so happened to be that ou tof the 30 or doors we knocked on that 28 were active members and the other 2 were less active.  Welcome to Blanding.  Kinda disappointing but whatever we just try to stay busy.  

Last week also happened to be a sad one for one of our investigators.  His wife passed away from liver cancer on the 3rd.  She was an EMT and also ran a food pantry joint for years.  I actually gave her a blessing the week before she passed away and I just knew that she wasnt going to live much longer it was a weird feeling.  She felt that nobody would come to her funeral.....oh boy she's in for a big surprise.  The night that she passed there was about 50 to 60 phone calls to the hospital from people around the country that kept up with a blog on her life that some of her family was running.  Then there was about 10 cars at all times for the week at their house.  The husband (our investigator) has a really hard time with being around lots of people and he gets anxiety easy but he is determined to be sealed to her and he came to church yesterday and toughed it out.  There is so many people that attend here that it makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes as well.  We set a date for baptism with him for July 5th and it just so happens that it's his daughters birthday who also is fighting liver cancer.  But ya there will be like a million people at the funeral and whatnot its going to be a good experience.  This sister basically gave her life to help people.  Don't get much better than that.  

I'm having some really good experiences here and even though missionary work with non- members is kinda hard to come by I am glad to get to know these Utahans and have some good times.  Honestly I cant believe I'm saying this but.....I was sitting in sacrament yesterday and the thought came to my head....I could totally see myself living here.  Alright I just threw up a little bit but its a weird thought that is entertaining my head right now.  There baseball coach is terrible and their program has taken a turn for the worse....who ya gonna call?????  me.  maybe.  Well thats all she wrote folks!

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Linguistics

This is Gretta, our German investigator

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

Well it was a pretty slow week as far as missionary work goes.  Some more of the families we were seeing moved away.  This is Farmington all over again...we had 9 investigators move in 2 weeks.  Now we only are teaching 1 but at least he is progressing fairly well.  We did a lot of service this week for members and less actives so at least we kept busy for the most part.  Yes the picture Bro. Fife sent you is a bull snake....we were walking past his house and then we hear this BOOM BOOM!  He came around the corner and he blew up that snake with his shotgun.  It was pretty funny.  It looks like I'm disgusted in the picture but he caught me mid smile actually.  We tore up a shed for a family that they wanted down, that was pretty fun to just get covered in sand and dust again all day.  I've been able to go on splits with a lot of the young men in the wards, so its good to get to know some of them.  Man this letter is gonna be boring..I seriously have nothing interesting to report.  Well I guess I am having some more language experiences.  Today we were playing soccer with a guy from Togo, Africa.  He speaks French and has a really thick accent so I am able to say things to him during the game that no one else understands so we got good teamwork goin together.  Then like 20 minutes into the game an investigator that the other Blanding Elders are teaching came in.  He is from Ecuador and he only knows like 5 English words.  Nobody there spoke Spanish so I was able to talk to him a bit and he understood what I was saying it was really cool!  Then, I was able to read "Das Buch Mormon" with our German foreign exchange student investigator.  She leaves tomorrow and she handed me a book and told me to read and so I read Moroni 10: 3-5 to her in German and she understood everything I read!  I have no idea what the words meant but you could still feel the power of that promise even though it wasn't in my native language.  I'm also reading my Russian Book of Mormon daily. I'm getting pretty good at it, so I am having a good time here letting my language nerd out in Blanding.  I apologize for all the random jumble I just have nothing else to talk about this week. There are 5 men here that are part of the Navajo Book of Mormon translation.  The navajo translation is not complete at all as of right now but these guys have authority from the 1st presidency I guess to translate the whole thing.  1 of them is in my area, I need to talk to him and find out whats goin down with all of that stuff.  Anyways thanks for everything!  Sorry for the boring email this week.

Love Elder Christensen