Robert vs. A Trio

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

No I'm not moving back to my Rez home sadly but maybe next transfer.  Elder Johnson will be going to Shiprock, which of course was my old area.  The people will love him because he is polynesian and brown.  There is another Elder in Shiprock that is Sioux and the people love him, they get over 20 lessons a week and get fed every night.  So its ok, the navajo people love the "non white" elders a bit more but I'm not bitter.  I have had a lot more fun biking this week in the rain.  Yesterday was a HUGE storm and we decided we were dumb enough to go out and bike around in it.  It was really fun but again people love to tidal wave us deliberately and we just keep going to show em we don't stop.  So yeah that means that I am getting some newcomers to 1st ward.   Yes plural....I will have 2 companions and we are still on bikes.  Not quite sure the reason why I am in a trio but to be honest I'm not to excited about it. A lot of people already are intimidated when we ride up and there is just 2 of us, so 3 will be interesting.  One of them has been out 6 weeks and the other a transfer longer then me. Also from the looks of them they are in need of a little "cardio" if you know what i mean so i will be sure go up the big hills haha.  I am really going to miss Elder Johnson we have become very good friends and have had 0 contention with anything.  I thought my home being remodeled was weird but his family completely moved from sandy to draper so I'm sure that is weird for him.  I have been getting antsy for football to come I think about it quite a bit actually and am getting some BSU hater talk from the BYU nuts down here.  They don't know anything. 

We were trying to contact somebody in a trailer park the other day and this lady came out speaking spanish at us.  she started off with a como estan?  I said muy bien, then she of course assumed I spoke espanol so she started going off about something and I just raised my hand and said no hablar haha...she was kinda embarrassed but then I remembered that i learned how to ask someone in spanish if they would like other missionaries that spoke spanish and so i just blurted it out.  I'm sure this lady was confused....I just told her I didn't speak then I started speaking! She said yes and I asked what time and everything when she wanted them to come over and got that down and handed her over to the spanish elders.  So that was pretty fun!!!  I don't really remember what I said but it seemed to work!  I have had some opportunities to speak in all of the languages I studied in high school and college.

There is a less active in our ward who has a Russian girlfriend and she has been coming to church and he wants her to take the lessons.  He came up and asked if we could teach her.  Her name is Mirina and she has a very thick accent so I look forward to talking to her with my very basic knowledge of Russian and hopefully she will feel more comfortable talking to us.  Good times!!!  We haven't gotten very many lessons lately, just handing more Books ofs Mormons...I decided to put an s at the end of every word because I cant figure out how to say multiple copies of the Book of Mormon.  With this new transfer our district got shrunk from 14 to 7 so that will be kinda nice and not so crowded.  Other then that we are just plugging along! We get to go to the Monticello temple on September 30th so that will be nice.  

I have been studying the Old Testament a lot these last couple of weeks.  There is a lot of interesting stories in there but it all makes sense.  I'm glad we have the Joseph Smith translations to a lot of scriptures or else some of the meanings would be taken completely wrong forever.  Other then the Book of Mormon of course, the Old Testament is my favorite book of scripture.  I figured out that I absolutely love reading scriptures and learning just in general, my imagination goes wild and I put myself as if I was actually there and it brings a whole new experience on things.  Yep thats all she wrote for this week, I'm having a lot of good times out here and I wouldn't trade these past almost 8  months for anything.  

GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!

love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. The Bees

Howdy y'all

 

Alright mom just to get it over with.  Yes I'm doing a lot better now, Sister Palfreyman gave me some good drugs to take so I'm pretty good now.  I didn't let me being a bit sick stop us from going out and doing missionary work so no stopping me!  We still have 0 new investigators kinda frustrating but we certainly help out a lot of people which the numbers don't show.  We have given out probably 30 or so copies of the Book of Mormon.  I think thats my favorite subject to talk about with people.  When we knock on doors and talk to people on the street I always bring up the Book of Mormon.  Other then that its been pretty hot and muggy this week, i sure sweat a ton being on bikes all day but I like it.  This is the last week of the transfer so who knows what might happen.  We all find out whats going down around wednesday night this week.  We get the news so early because Elder Pieper of the seventy will be here this week and President Batt has a lot more important stuff to take care of to get ready for him.  I think I will be staying here in 1st ward and possibly training or Elder Johnson and I will still be here together.  There is 28 new "greenies" that are coming in this transfer and they are opening up 12 or 13 new areas.  So basically we will have about 220 missionaries all together here and nearly every single area in the mission will be filled.  They are even opening up "Dulce" which is the Apache reservation.  I really want to go there but the people there I heard are kinda hostile.  Oh well! Bing it on!!  After this shipment of new missionaries there will be a huge drop off of new people coming in.  it will be around 4 or 5 every time. 

 

Didn't have anything to crazy go  down this week.  A less active man that we have been teaching came to church yesterday but only wanted to stay for sacrament which is fine. Progress!  I had my first kiss with the pavement this week.  I though I was gonna go the whole time without crashing but Farmington is stupid the way they design their sidewalks.  They put telephone poles right in the middle and then have huge bushes growing on one side, the other is a 50mph street with oncoming traffic.  Fun!! The culprit for making me bite the dust was my old nemesis....the bee.  I was just cruising down the sidewalk and I was avoiding another pole next to a huge lavender bush and there were bees all over that piece.  I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and I ran right into a mini swarm of bees!  I of course reacted like a little girl and my front tire went off the curb and I just fell over on the sidewalk pretty good.  My dignity was hurt more then anything, I was embarrassed and angry cause thats a main road with tons of cars and everyone saw it and was pointing at me and stuff.  Ya good times! Love it!  

Other then that Elder Johnson and I get along great, he definitely is my favorite companion.  I am becoming a lot more bold with my speech I love being able to read peoples feelings and thoughts without them even having to say anything. Then we ask a question or whatnot and BAM! They get mind blown its great.  The mission really teaches you how to talk to people and try and understand people and the way they think.  Elder Johnson and I were talking about it earlier.  We are basically "spiritual interrogators/counselors" It's awesome.  I also have figured out how to ride without hands and I can do all sorts of stuff now on a bike.  Anyways sorry if it sounds like I'm being prideful of myself, just thought I would update you on my experiences.  Thanks for everything. times up got to go!

  

Love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. Rainstorms

Hola!!!

 

This week was alright, lots of rain and very hot sun.  Best of both worlds, my arms are super brown.  For some reason i met a lot of people that lived in Idaho this week and we talked a lot about McCall and whatnot.  The family we helped move in will be meeting with us this week sometimes hopefully.  We still check up on them every other day or so but they are pretty stubborn in saying they don't want our help with unpacking the rest of their stuff. 

 

I guess the big event of the week was the rainstorms.  I haven't been in a big storm in awhile so it felt good.  We were giving a blessing to a lady when we heard a huge BOOM outside then the sky went dark it was pretty cool!  The land down here needs as much rain as possible so floods are good.  Its kinda funny cause everyone we talk to says something about how much they want rain and then when it comes they hide inside.   Pansies.  Elder Johnson and I whenever we see a dark cloud we grab our bikes and head out!  Except this last big storm really caught us off guard.  The rain felt like i was getting shot with BB's and there was tons of wind so we were biking against wind and rain and uphill.  That was really tiring and very cold but fun!  There was huge puddles that collected in the gutters and stuff and since we were riding right next to the road most people move over a bit so they don't send a wave on top of us.  Until you get some not so nice person that probably see us as targets, then they go right into it and I got smashed by a huge wave and nearly knocked me off but i just waved at the guy and kept riding.  Its kinda funny how people love to yell stuff at us, I personally think its entertaining and spices the day up a bit!  We got called "Jesus freaks!!!" that was my favorite this week.  Plus we got a "Jehovah witness hates you!!!"  haha that one was great.  Whenever we get called something which is everyday it just puts more fire in my belly to find their house and knock on their door.  Good stuff, I love it. 

 

I got to go to the Connie mack world series last Monday, we only got to stay for like 40 mins because of appointments but it was good and it brought back lots of good memories.  it ended last Friday and I'm not sure where they are from but the "East Cob Yankees" won the series.  Just because of that last word in their name I'm not a fan.  We have a couple of new investigators that we will be teaching this week.  The big problem is that people just don't stay true to their word when setting up appointments, people lie to us a lot and say they will be there and we give them our number and stuff. write it down and everything but no go.  Oh well we just keep trying. 

 

Elder Johnson and i spoke in sacrament yesterday.  He spoke on service and I spoke on the Book of Mormon and missionary work.  I was up there for about 20mins, this talking thing is pretty fun actually as long as we don't have to speak a lot but I kinda like it.  Anyways that's about it, sorry nothing to exciting this week. Go Broncos!

 

love Elder Christensen

 

 

Robert vs. Connie Mack

 

 

 

Ya'at'eeh!!!

 

This past week was a tiny bit better, we only got to teach 5 lessons this week.  Which is terrible, we usually get 12 or 13.  More investigators have moved away but we also helped move IN a few people so that's good.  It was pretty fun moving in this one family-the Moodies.  They are probably mid 30's and have 2 young boys.  They are not members and they were very impressed apparently that we would just throw down our bikes and help move a bunch of big dusty boxes and couches for a couple of hours.  It was a good experience and the Husband said that "he'd be darned if he let us help him and not let us give our "spiel.""  He has had a crazy life and they asked a lot of questions about Hell and we helped clear up some "misunderstandings" about the church, so that was a fun conversation but we really got through to them and they want us to come back!  So we lost 5 or so investigators the last week but gained 2 so hopefully they don't move anytime soon.  Its been sprinkling now and again here but no big rainstorms or anything.  Every time it even looks like its getting close to rain we try to be outside so we can ride our bikes in it because we are tired of the humid, nasty heat.  Being on bikes is a lot of fun and good exercise.  People get to be exposed to us a lot more, and some people roll down window and laugh at us and others make fun of us because we are wearing helmets.  We just laugh and wave, its good times.  Whenever a car full of teenagers drive by its guaranteed that something will be said to us.  I don't blame them because I did it to the missionaries back home as well.  I would never say anything mean, just if I knew them I would make a joke at em or something, so now i know how they feel.  I love it!  

    

The Connie Mack world series is in full force and it going on all this week as well.  The bottom part of our area is just packed with cars and people flooding in and out of the stadium.  We are actually lucky enough to be invited to go to a game tonight!!!!!! I am soooo excited but also and going to be a bit homesick and maybe slightly jealous.  But oh well I will get over it.  Some things I forgot to say about the moving....it was pretty cool on one occasion there were 2 ladies moving into their house and they were so exhausted that they  went and prayed that they would have the strength to finish the move....well guess who showed up like 10 minutes later?!?!?  that's right 4 missionaries.  Us and the elders from 3rd ward just "happened" to be passing by and we helped.  Prayer is pretty cool thats for sure.  

   

Some really cool experiences at church this last couple of weeks that I've been treasuring that I will share as well.  There is a family in our ward the Buttreys.  They have 4 young kids, it reminds me a lot of Britt and Doug.  One of them is a redhead and he looks A LOT like Austin its weird.  He is I think 1 year older than him.  I've been watching him during church and one time when we went to the Buttreys for dinner.  He is a fascinating little kid.  I was watching him and I noticed that the way he walks and looks at things, he plugs his ears a lot and does little quirky habits.  I haven't asked or anything but I bet he has autism as well.  I forget the kids name, but he is reminds me a lot of Austin.  This kid does talk though and I figured if Austin was talking then this is what he would sound like and say.  One of the coolest things happened yesterday during fast Sunday also.  That kid went and bore his testimony all by himself!  He just walked right up there and you could barely see his eyes over the pulpit and he just said  " I love this church, I love my Heavenly Father and I know he is real, and I love my family, amen."  then he just went and sat down.  This kid I think really touched a lot of people.  It was really impressive and made me think about how close those that have "disabilities" are with Heavenly Father.  Another amazing thing that I am proud to say, there is a man with severe down syndrome in our ward.  His name is Josh....BUT he is probably my favorite person in the ward besides the little kid.  He is an ordained Elder and he blesses the sacrament every week.  I guess he has been blessing the sacrament every single week for a number of years and has NEVER messed up on the wording, and he refuses to do anything else but bless which is awesome haha.  Another man in the ward when he bore his testimony was all about how grateful he was and how grateful we all should be to be able to receive the sacrament from a celestial being.  Now that's kinda deep but its also very basic.  Anyways so those are some of the experiences that I have been having.  1st ward is pretty awesome as you can tell! Elder Johnson and I will be speaking next Sunday on how we can help include the ward in missionary work.  I will be talking about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in Missionary work.  Fun times!  Go broncos! Go rays! 

 

love, Elder Christensen