Robert vs. The Chili Cookoff

Ya'aat'eh!!

 

 

Got about 4 weeks left here in Cortez and I have a strong feeling that Im leaving so we'll see what happens!  I am gong to miss free Coldstone ice cream and Dairy Queen.  We had one cool experience this week and not much has happened other then that...but we were wondering what to do for about 2 hours because our appointments canceled on us one day, so we decided to go knock on this one door that we have had a lot of news to stay away from!  Well we drive over to the house and kinda park in some bushes away from the windows and act like we were walking all day.  The wind was blowin about 35mph and it was FREEEEZING!  So we walk on up to this huge monster of a house and knock on the door.  Immediately the little yapper dogs go nuts as usual and they made me want to kick them for their annoyingness.  Anyways we were expecting to get yelled at, cussed out, told we were a cult,  ya know all the good stuff but this man opened the door and he was very nice....we kinda gave our little spiel and then he said oh man you guys look freezing come on in!  WHAT? we looked at each other like, this is completely unexpected.  We walk in and sit down and talk with him for about 20 min about random stuff.  Then we started talking about his beliefs and whatnot, he literally said this...." I've been to a lot of churches and they have all rejected me and told me im crazy for this theory that Ive come up with over the years....that we lived with God before we were here on earth, and that this life is a testing grounds, and then we go back home to him"  wow.....didnt see that comin.  So i whipped out my plan of salvation puzzle and we all talked about that for awhile.  Good stuff, but his wife didnt want to see us again.  We gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and wrote our number on the back of it hopnig he will call back sometime. 

 

Yes we made chili with some of our investigators last week and entered into the 3rd wards chili cook off!  We thought we did alright going into the contest.  We get a call the day of the contest from the Elders quorum President asking us to be Judges for the Contest!!!....because that way if there are any hard feelings they wont be taken out on any of the ward members, so we are just punching bags for everyone else to beat on i guess, which is ok.  But ya..no, we didnt cheat and choose our own chili!  Actually, our chili was the worst of all 20 of them.  It was terrible haha.  The winner was this awesome sweet chili that had barbeque sauce and bacon and maple syrup in it.  They won me over with just the bacon.  But ya we weren't beaten or yelled at to much but it was good! 

 

Relanda came to church last week and was confirmed a member!  so that's all good now.  Glad we got that taken care of. 

Heres a random thought that I learned about....(WELCOME)  Means  "We.Especially.Love.Cussing.Out.Mormon.Elders"   So whenever we see a welcome mat we brace ourselves.

 

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Baptisms!

Ya'aat'eh!!!

 

Things are goin good here in Cortez! We had 3 baptisms last saturday and they went really well.  We gave 2 of them the Holy ghost during sacrament the next day but the 3rd one didnt show up because she had a family emergency so we will have to take care of that next week.  We also gave one of the kids who wwas baptized the Aaronic presthood yesterday and that was really cool! after one of the baptisms we were invited over for a BBQ and that was awesome!  We played a 6 man monopoly game and that brought back some good memories. 

 

I am becoming good friends with the 2 boys that were baptized on Saturday we play wiffleball once a week with them and because we are such good friends with them, their entire family has opened up to us it feels like so we will see how everything goes. 

 

Last week was pretty slow with everything and getting the baptisms set up, hopefully this week will go better.  Well there is a very good chance that I will not be here in another 4 weeks or so but who knows I could be training here in Cortez. 

 

Sorry I don't have much to write about this week, I do have a cool thing I encourage people to look at...Look up the name "Sami Hanna"  it should be in an article by Russell M. Nelson.  I remember in seminary about 4 years ago talking about this article or something, and it just popped in my head during a lesson and it is awesome! 

 

Elder Dobson and I are entering a chilli cook off for 3rd ward, I don't think we will do very good but whatever we are entering with some investigators so it should be fun. 

 

thats all i got for this week!

-Elder Christensen

Privacy

This blog is now private, effective immediately.  If there is someone that you know would like access to this blog and is not approved, please have them email me and I will add their name to the list.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but we need to ensure the privacy of those people being taught and interacting with Robert while he is serving the Lord.  We don't want anything to stand in the way of the Spirit or someone accepting the Gospel, including privacy concerns.  Thanks everyone!

Robert vs. The Skunk

The Elders' muddy truck, inside and out.

Ya'aat'eh!!!

 

   So transfers were this week but Elder Dobson and I are staying here in Cortez, Colorado and are still over 3rd and 4th wards.  It will be strange to go somewhere else sometime and not have 6 and a half hours of church every sunday.  Im doin just dandy, Colorado is awesome.  Had 6 investigators come to church this last week so that was good.  

 

There will be 3 baptisms this saturday, Relanda @ 11 am....Ryan and Andrew Medina @5pm    should be way sweet. Elder Dobson will be baptizing Relanda and the boys Grandpa will be baptizing them.  Kailen Carlson, the other boy will not be getting baptized this week....we talked to his mother and she said that she doesnt want kailen being baptized just because Ryan and Andrew are....valid point.  So we agreed to come over and talk and teach kailen and his mother this week and hopefully their hearts will soften.  I think once Kailen sees his best buds get baptized this week then he will want to as well.  We havent gotten to talk to Colby this entire w time last week he has had family in town and apprently he doesnt want us over. I hope everything is allright with him. 

 

ah yes, Alma 40:11 says that no matter how good or bad we are on this earth then we will be saved because Christs grace is sufficient for EVERYONE to return and live with God.  BUT! as in Mormon 9...if we do things that we know that we shouldn't on this earth and don't repent of it....as in Mormon 9 it says" you would be more miserable to dwell in the presence of God then you would to dwell with the damned souls of hell." so basically, with knowing the things that you've done on this earth would you feel comfortable in the Presence of God and Jesus Christ???  When we sin WE are leaving God, God is NOT leaving us.  Cool concept that kinda blows people away when they hear it.  Its something to ponder.

 

The animal of the week is.....Monsieur Pepe Le Pieu!  AKA.....Skunk.  They are everywhere!!!!  and on our way to email this morning we hit one, and now Zelda (our truck) smells of skunkness. Its great, not really. 

 

I don't have much to say this week, we have been going up to Dolores and tracting up there...oh funny story, so Elder Dobson and I go up to Dolores to find a referral its about 7:30pm so its really dark.  Anyways, we found the referral but then we decided to knock a few doors before we head back home.  So around here lots of people have homes with glass doors, or HUGE glass windows and such it must be a colorado thing.  So I walk up to this house and of course the door is very large and is made of glass, I see a man in there standing in the middle of the room holding a cup of something just drinkin and watching tv...well usually we just knock.  But for some reason my finger went for the doorbell....and it was a LOUD doorbell.  Right when I pressed it the guy got scared out of his pants and spilled whatever was in his cup all over himself, so i'm holding it in trying not to bust out laughing and the guy comes to the door, opens it up and right when I opened my mouth he yelled "not interested!!!" and slammed his majestic door in my face.  THEN I couldn't hold it in anymore, we laughed for a long time, it was hilarious.

 

That's all for this week!  -Elder Christensen 

P.S. White Sock

ah yes, and that puppy is at relandas house.  She found out that there was little puppy that her son brought home and didn't tell anyone about it until, when we were having a lesson and there was some yipping coming from a backpack.  And BAM! a little puppy comes out haha it was great.  As you can see he has 1 white paw.  Therefore, I shall call him "white sock" satisfies Indian and baseball names.  its perfect.  I just want to send him home, hes so legit.

Robert vs. The Bald Eagle

Rob's apartment

Outside and the truck

 Inside of the warehouse, I guess they live above it?  Robert didn't provide captions, sorry.

Ya'aat'eh'!!

 

   Yes I got my package with all my Books of Mormon in them, its awesome. I am getting my French groove back.  First off, random funny news and such.....The animal of the week is......BALD EAGLE! there are about 10 of them that live around here, they are so pretty and big.  We saw some of them flying around and as we were gazing at them another one came dive bombing and nearly hit our windshield, and it reminded me of that time that dad and I were pheasant hunting in Parma and a gold eagle smacked into our truck.  It was good times. ah yes this is a funny story....so in 4th ward our ward mission leader has us signed up for dinner every thursday at his home but then he tries to call less active families to feed us and if they cant then he feeds us.  Anyways, he calls us and gives us a number for the "Hooker" family.  Ya you can see where this is going!  Soooo, I call this number. Nobody answers, so naturally i leave a message that goes along the lines of....."Hey this is the missionaries, hopefully this is the right number we are looking for the Hookers, ( at this very time my companion just busts out laughing, I dont even realize what i said...then it hit me and I sat there for like 5 seconds in silence trying to hold my laughter in) anyways give us a call back and let us know, bye"  sooo ya!  like 10 mins later they call back and they say...nobody by the name of Hooker lives here.  SO ya! that would be strange to get a message from missionaries looking for Hookers.  Oh what fun! Eventually we got the right number and we had a good meal, they are a cool family, they understand that their name creates problems but its hilarious.

 

Anyways, this week has been alright, definitely slower then weeks past.  We have 5 people on a baptism date for March 16th.  Ryan, Kailen, Andrew, Relanda, Shirley.  Relanda and Shirley are kinda getting sketchy, we have called them like 4 times and gone over there like 5 times and they are never there its disappointing.  SO not sure how that all going to work out.  Colby has committed to live the word of wisdom, and he is trying his best so far.  We are trying to help him out as much as we can.  I really hope he can pull through, its awesome just to see the changes he has made so far, hes way cool!

 

I love Colorado! it reminds a lot of Burley but with mountains instead!  Really not much went down last week.  Kinda boring.  Baseball season is coming up! I can feel it in my blood.  I'm starting to have withdrawals and dreams of baseball again.  Hopefully my boys can pull it off this year.  I want revenge! 

 

We still play a lot of basketball, twice a week.  I'm getting kinda bored of it, i don't know how to pass with 2 hands, I throw the basketball like a baseball whenever i see someone open.  I now have the nickname, "quick draw mcgee" cause I can throw the ball on a line across the whole gym and some of the defenders just don't try to catch it anymore cause i've jammed 3 fingers so far haha! its fun though.

 

I'm happy to be here! being on a mission definitely has some ups and downs a lot.  But im glad to be here.  Some departing scriptures....Moroni 9:5- this is for scotty.  Now apply that scripture to ANGRY BIRDS the game.  Perfect description.  Mormon 9.  The entire chapter is so cool! Moroni just lays it down.  In Alma 40:11 it says that EVERYONE will be brought back to God no matter how good or evil they are.  So...then why are their missionaries out on a mission if everyone is saved? Well the first 5 verses of Mormon 9 answer that.  read it, its way cool.  and then read verse 8..Moroni goes on a rant for the chapter its great.  Report back to me, this is your assignment for the week and I will tell you if you are right or wrong.

 

-Agone'

Gamaalii Christensen