Robert vs. The First Transfer

 

 

Branding Cattle

 

 

Ya'aat'eh!

 

Sooooo.........guess what?  I will be saying ya'aat'eh alot more now.  I am being shipped off to Shiprock, NM!  Which is not a very deep part of the reservation but hey it works!!  We also got an email from President Batt saying that missionaries on the reservation are required nnow to spend 30 minutes a day learning Navajo from the CD's and workbooks the mission is providing.  It looks like i arrrived at the exact right time!  This is going to be a blast.  I have gotten mixed remarks when i told people i was going to Shiprock.  The white people were mostly like..."so do you get a bulletproof vest?" or " I hope you get to carry a gun!"  And the one Navajo man in the bishopric of 4th ward said " be careful. But its a good place"  So I guess i will find out huh!?  From what I've heard about Shiprock is that it is kinda like the Garden City of the reservation.  Quite a few people and its pretty trashy but hey sounds fun right?  My new companion is Elder Bunderson. Haven't met him yet but I will tomorrow when I get down to Farmington, he will pick me up and we will be in Shiprock before Noon!!  Good times a comin.  

 

A cool story on my last day of work in Cortez on Saturday.  Elder Nielsen and I had a dinner appointment at 6 waaaaay out in the boonies.  I have memorized alot of these backroads and when people say for example..."so get onto 145 take a left on empire right on mildred left on Road L right on Road 25 get up to 26.4 and then take a right on T, go to 28.35 and one more left on 29.7 and you'll be there" ya....i can get there.  It's good stuff. ANYWAYS we decided to do some tracting out near our dinner since it was way out there.  We got there about an hour beore, knocked on some doors, nothin. Then our dinner calls and cancels on us...dang but they gave us $20! so sweet!  We decided to walk up this one farm road and we came up on a scene that I usually would be a bit hesitant to approach.  There were 2 men outside underneath a barn/shed thing with their shirts off workin on some big chainsaws. Ya they looked very redneck.  There was about 10 kids out runnin around in the yard and some that were just sittin in a lawn chair in the yard.  I thought, i bet dad got this all the time.  It looked like louisiana backwoods people.  I almsost said lets keep walkin...but i thought hey if Peter and James and John and Alma and all those guys could walk up right to the people that hated them and not get hurt....so can I, but I'm not saying that they hated us, it was  just an example. We went and talked to them and they were really nice but they kindly refused and said we dont want to waste your time.  We left and kept goin down another road and knocked some more. Nothin.  We came back up the same road towards our truck and I saw in the distance someone walking towards us....I noticed it was a young boy probably 12 or 13.  Then I realized that it was one of the boys from that family out in the yard...and I  noticed he was carrying 2 water bottles.  I made the connection and was like nooo way....he came up to us and gave us the water.  Then the father who rejected us came up and asked us if we had eaten yet?  We accepted his invitation and they plopped 2 chairs down in the middle of the yard. They brought out some hotdogs and said go at it.  Everyone else was eating as well, but while all the kids were runnin around the mother sat and talked to us.  Come to find out she was actually married in the Mesa temple!  Then divorced and 4 of the kids were hers and the rest were cousins and nephews and whatnot.  That was pretty cool.  After everyone got done eating...people started trickling in left and right...within a few minutes there was about 15-20 people sittin on the grass and in chairs around us in a semi-circle like we were a little campfire.  The father came over and said.." alright boys...I got some questions for ya"...YES!  It was awesome, it led into one of the funnest, coolest experiences I've had so far.  He was drillin us with questions it was awesome! so much fun and we answered them to the best of our abilities. Honestly i felt like I was being interviewed to date one of his daughters or something thats kinda what the scenario was like haha.  We were there for over an hour just talking and we have a return appopintment with them tomorrow at 6:30.  Too bad I wont be there....dang.  

 

Another sad but good thing.  I have made very good friends with some of the people here.  Gay and Judy Balfour for one.  They have treated me like I was one of their grandkids. 

 

The other good friends I have made are my ward mission leaders.  Bro. Pack in 4th ward and Bro. Smith in 3rd ward. I have spent alot of time in both homes but the Smith family is awesome!  They have a sone named Conover who just left this morning to South Carolina for basic training in the Army. He turns 18 when he gets there next week.  I have become very good friends with him and he gave me 2 blue ties for me to take pictures of wherever I am and send them to him. I gave him one of my favorite ties as well so hopefully we will stay in touch. 

Thats all I've got! Goodbye Cortez!!! 

 

love, Elder Christensen    

Robert vs. The Disease

 

 

 

ya'aat'eh!!!

 

Everything is going pretty good here!  I want to bust out some good numbers and help lots of people this week.  Okay i have been warned that this was going to happen to me.  I would get the disease of not wanting to email lots....it has come.  Its not that I don't like to tell you stuff and my experiences, its just I get annoyed at staring at a computer after awhile.  I will try to fight the disease!  This could very possibly be my last week here in Cortez which is sad but I know there are other cool places to experience and help others.  We've been painting a lot and digging ditches for water pipes lately.  Hard but fun work.  We have a few new investigators this next upcoming week we are meeting with, hopefully it all goes well.  I met a guy here in 4th ward that served in Capetown from 08-10.  Barely missed Llyr but we talked for a long time and about South Africa, it was good.  I am having a wonderful time being a missionary and I already have grown attatched to the tag and I sleep with it on sometimes cause it feels strange to take it off.

 

love Elder Christensen

Quick Note

 Sister note:  Robert mentioned last week that he had gained some weight, he failed to tell us it was pure muscle!

 

 

Ya'aat'eh!!!

Okay so this week is major hectic.  I dont have time to explain.  But i will send some pictures from what i did last week.  Everything is fine, I am healthy and good.  Nothing crazy goin on. 

 Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. The Split

 

 

 

Greetings everyone!  We were able to video chat with Robert this week due to Mother's Day.  We had Mom and Dad in Boise, Llyr and family in Salt Lake, Robert in Cortez, and us in California.  It was a lot of fun to talk as a family and ask Robert questions about his mission.  We were able to meet his companion briefly as well.  Since we talked Robert's ear off on Sunday, he only wrote a little blurb today:

 

 

ya'aat'eh!!!

 

It was good to see everyone, thanks for getting that set up it was fun. 

 

Some sad news kind of...I heard that its highly possible that they may be splitting our area in half.  That means that we might only cover either 3rd or 4th ward and not both.  Its a lot harder to cover 2 wards, you have to get to know everyone really fast and who is related to who and whatnot but it makes me feel more responsible with a large area.  Its about a 50-50 chance of whether or not I stay here or go this transfer.  I have come to really enjoy Cortez.  I don't have much to say this week since I told you guys pretty much everything.  We will Skype again in about 8 months.  The next time you see me my mission will be half way over, i guess we will have to wait and see how i feel about that.  As of right now i don't think I have quite fully grasped the concept of what I am supposed to be doing out here and how to do it,  but that's ok right now I'm just trying to not let people down with what they ask me to do here.  I have made lots of friends with the other missionaries and I think we will be good friends for a long time.  I'm turning 4 months this Thursday. Goin by fast. 

 

Agone'!! love Elder Christensen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert vs. Branding Cattle

Ya'aat'eh!!

Well......I can say this week was one of the best weeks of my mission so far.  We didn't get a lot of teaching appointments but we sure did a ton of service.  I need to get better at taking pictures of everything I just get my mind wrapped up on what im doing at the moment and I forget to document it afterwards or during.  Our efforts of contacting the less actives have been pretty good.  There are about 5 that wish to have us stop by and talk with them which is way more then what I expected.  My main focus I think for helping the wards out is addressing what the bishop needs and the Presidents of each quorum and RS and whatnot.  If we can help them a bit and take any type of load off then I think we are doing our job.  I officially have lived in Cortez Colorado longer then anyplace on this earth besides Boise.  It has become my home away from home.  Here is what we did the past few days.  We helped finish that chicken coop and all of the yard around it!  We built a fence and put up another chicken wire fence so those dirty raccoons and foxes don't get in there.  That took about 4 more hours and we had Zone leaders come help us or else it would have taken a long time.  If you guys ever come down here and pick me up we MUST stop by in Cortez and visit some people.  The Balfour family has taken very good care of me and they make me feel like I am at home whenever I am around them.  They have also found out my addiction to dubble bubble gum....so they give me a bunch whenever we go over there and I have no problem with that.  He has some sweet "toys"  that I will take some pics of sometime that you need to see.

I am going to go from least awesome to most awesome of service projects we've done.  After the chicken coop which was exhausting and took up all Friday evening.  We went to a members house in 2nd ward and helped her move out and transport stuff to various places and whatnot.  I tell you what, you get 6 missionaries together and tell them to do something....it gets done!  Anyways  that was fun, I got a slingshot from the junk so that will come in handy especially if I go to the Rez with those nasty dogs. 

Okay last but certainly not least....I got in touch with my old Idaho family roots on Saturday and I felt like I actually did something worthwhile.  I went BRANDING!!! Yes...like cow and calf branding!  I strapped on my jeans and went tackled some calves and showed whose boss! I have 3 pics I will send them next week, my camera is in the truck and I don't wanna go out there cause its raining hardcore.  I got dirt and dust all over me and I got a pretty good workout in. Those little animals are STRONG! they probably weighed about 150 to 200 each.  The only way to get them where you want them to go is force them! So it was a tackle fest! I got kicked in the ankle pretty good but it didn't hurt that bad.  Some of those calves are angry all the time and they kick everyone!  kinda dangerous sometimes but it was one of the funnest things I've ever done in my life!  I told some ward members and since its branding season right now i may be doing it again!!! cant wait!

Well, other then that that's all i got.  We are teaching some people but always looking for more.  I love being a missionary.

 

love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. The New Companion

 

  Robert sent home a package of things to Mom and Dad last week:

 Navajo Missionary Name Tag

I might have to steal that cross stitch the next time I come for visit...

Knife with turquoise handle

 

 

My companion is from Richmond,Utah. He is the oldest of 3 he is 6'4 250lbs.  Big boy.  He has served in Farmington and in Loop.  Which is the reservation for 7 and a half months.  We don't have much in common except he seems to know every single movie I have seen so whenever I say a movie quote he knows exactly what its from.

Things are going alright here.  Havent been knocking on very many doors because frankly....its the WORST way to get people to even talk to you.  So recently, the bishops of 3rd and 4th ward gave us an updated member list and we are going and seeing all the less actives in the ward.  Which will keep us busy.  I just hope I don't get lost out on these major backroads because I don't have a GPS anymore.  I think I know the area better then some of the people that live here! Definitely better then I know Boise, I never paid attention to anything back home. 

 

Just some fun experiences I've had this last week while we were out and about.  Elder Nielsen and I were just walking down the street and we started to smell an interesting smell......it was....sweet...slightly minty...ideas from anyone on what it is?  ya mary jane makin a visit.  We were about 300 feet from the house and it was reeking! Oh and of course that happened to be the house that we were supposed to go into by the way.  I walk up the little steps and they had the door open, I hear big WHOOF! right next to the door and I almost slipped from flinching. I peek my face around the corner of the door and again...another pitbull!  Luckily the owner came down the stairs and grabbed it before it could do anything.  Anyways ya fun adventures!  Haven't taught much this week!  Still trying to find some people that are interested in what we have to say.  I've been doing a lot of service lately.  Fixing up a huge chicken coup mostly and digging up big weeds with shovels.  I have blisters all over my hands now, and yes I do wear gloves.  I kinda like it though because it reminds me of hitting for 3 hours after school and just not caring if I get blisters.  Well time to go.  The Church is true!

 

love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Slammed Doors

Ya'aat'eh!!

 

Yep! Transfers are today!  and........nope! Im staying here in good ole' Cortez Colorado!! In fact my last companion is heading to the Phoenix mission!  I will still be a four corners missionary.  Which is awesome because I really want to get on the Reservation.  My new companion is Elder Neilsen.  I have never met him before and he will be here in Cortez most likely on Wednesday.  I am in a trio with some other missionaries until he gets here.  I do know that he has been out for over a year so hopefully he can help me learn a lot more.  I will be "taking over" the area since the new guy has never been in Cortez before so I will have to show him around and whatnot.  I have pretty much all of Cortez memorized, at least my area.  Lots of old country dirt roads and hills.  I have a couple of pranks set up for my new companion with our ward mission leader in 3rd ward.  It was his idea, so that should be way fun.  Some of the people that we are teaching like Colby; know that I am getting a new companion and he wants to act like a crazy person and answer the door with his double barrel shotgun when I first bring him over.  I kind of hope he doesn't do that....but then again, it would be funny.  Oh well.

 

My last week with Elder Dobson was definitely not the best week as success and teaching goes.  People just don't even want to hear what we have to say.  Most of the time we don't even get to open our mouths when we knock on a door, most people just open it say something very derogatory and then slam!!  Not very nice but they are entitled to their opinion and I don't take offense from it.  We went around saying goodbye to people the last 2 days and some of the members here are some of the coolest people I have ever met.  I really like being in Colorado but I will probably be here until june or a bit longer! 

 

Ive learned how to say a very basic prayer in Navajo, pretty complicated stuff but its fun to learn.    Thanks for sending the CD's!!  I will cherish them, and the more the merrier so don't be bashful in sending General conference talks or anything like that.  We also are allowed to listen to Movie soundtracks as long as they aren't crazy loud and ya you know what I mean.  Our mission president is very chill, and understands that we are in the truck a few hours a day so he is lenient on the music thing.  So if you want to get on iTunes or something and get some John Wayne soundtracks or like, some baseball movies (sandlot, the rookie, the natural etc.) feel free but don't feel obligated. 

 

I will end with a little experience we had on Friday.  We were out knockin on doors around our apartment because we were trying to save miles.  Probably walked about 5 miles or so It was fun! Also the 2 dogs we take care of were following us and we couldn't get them to go away so we just let them be with us.  They would walk up to the door with us and just sit there as we talked like little protectors or something.  Anyways, we knocked on this lady's door and just like usual we didn't even get to open our mouths and say anything before she started bad mouthing us.  She said, "I believe in God and Jesus Christ and none of your evil Mormon philosophy and psychology!"....slam!  that was pretty disappointing.....only if she knew that is practically AAALLLLL we talk about and teach!!! Everything is revolved around Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. EVERYTHING. Spiritual, physical....EVERYTHING! so that was kinda sad, because she probably just was listening to what her friends told her and what crazy people on the internet say.  If people want to just understand a bit more about what "Mormons" believe....who else better to ask then a missionary, or at least someone who is LDS. Missionaries may not have the answers to ALL the questions, because I certainly don't because I am still learning but we just try to help people gain or get faith and provide information basically.   I think the Islamic religion is pretty interesting but I'm not going to just rely on what the news says and what people think.  I would love to run into a Muslim down here and understand more about it.  Anyways that's my spiel for the week

 

love, Elder Christensen

 

 

 

Robert vs. Pitbulls

 Amen. this is pretty funny, this church puts up random signs every month

 This is my tag written in Navajo with some turquoise on the button.  way cool, only missionaries in this mission can get that!

 

 those pitbulls were "happy" to see me

ya those tomahawks are all me

Ya'aat'eh!!

 

I met a lady out here that is neighbors with a member in Dolores that is a paramedic.  She told me a lot of interesting stuff!  She even invited me to take part in a practice drill they are doing with the fire department in May. I will be all colored up in fake blood and stuffed in a chopped up car that was burned an hour before and then the people have to come take me out and put me on a helicopter, from there I will be flown to the hospital which is like 2 minutes away.  Should be fun!!!! If I get permission of course.  Last sunday was the first sunday where we didn't have to do anything, it was kinda nice.  Usually every sunday we are either giving talks or teaching a class. 

 

Had some more fun tracting times out in Dolores. We have pretty much knocked on every single door up there. If you guys come pick me up, we are definitely going there and eating at this place called "the Depot."  Anyways....had some more pooch experiences this week.  We were walking up to this house and just out of nowhere I hear this deep growling and so I stop and look around to where its coming from.  There was this huge Oak tree in the yard and in the shade of the tree this big mutt was camo'd with the dirt and grass.  Didn't even see it...well the thing charged us and it didn't have chain or anything on it.  Sooooo....we started to back up pretty fast once we saw it comin at us.  Then I stopped and ran back at it and yelled, the thing stopped dead in its tracks and just sat there growling with a bad attitude.  Then we just walked off.  There was another dog that was playing decoy, this was all on the same street by the way....this dog had its paws over this  little fence and was barkin its head off but it looked like a nice dog and happy to see us.  It was all wagging its tail and looked safe.  We were just walking on the sidewalk next to it and I stuck my hand out to pet its head and then it turned into evil dog.  It had all of its teeth showing and if it wasn't for my cat like reflexes the thing would have had a hold of some of my fingers! so I smacked it on the head.  Fun stuff.  

 

Now this is just me being stupid and seeing how many dogs I can get angry at me.....There was another dog...and guess what kind it was....yep! Pit bull!  it was poking its head over the fence and I walked up to it, it of course started growling and I of course kept getting closer and closer.  Well I was playing 'crocodile hunter' with this pitbull and I got my face within a couple feet of his just staring him down and I started to laugh...that wasn't smart.  The dog jumped off the fence ran away...turned around...and got a running head start straight at me! I thought it was gonna jump the fence, which it easily could have so I backed up a bit and then it jumped and got about half of its body over the fence and his mouth got within about 6 inches of my face.  I wet myself a little bit, that was kinda freaky. I know I'm an idiot. but it was fun! 

 

Well transfers are on April 22nd! this week! oh, other crazy news and I'm serious about this. The flagstaff zone Is being transferred to the Phoeniz Arizona mission. Along with 14 missionaries.....2 zone leaders, 2 sister missionaries, 2 Spanish elders, and 8 others.  Could be anyone!  So I did the math and there is a 26.75% I could be transferred to the Phoenix mission.  Crazy huh! That goes into effect on June 1st!  I don't want to go....I have grown attached to the New Mexico Farmington mission.  We are the only mission in the US that covers 4 states!!! that's awesome! and we have the Navajo Rez!  Cant beat that!   but if I am told to go there I shall with no complaints.

Well that's pretty much all I got for this week!  Don't have anyone really interested in the gospel right now...but guess we just keep trying!  I had a man open up the door in Dolores...on the same street as the dogs...and He kept on waving at us to leave.  We just stood there like we didn't understand until he opened the door, he walked right up to me face to face and I was staring him down because I knew he was gonna yell.  He screamed right in my face "I DONT WANT ANY OF YOUR MORMON GARBAGE!!!"  then he walked back into his house and slammed the door.  I stood there for like 20 seconds wiping the spit off of my face with my tie.  Then I took a pass along card out and put in the door.  I laughed thinking that in the next life that man will come up to me and apologize and I will give him a big hug and then we will laugh about it.  People that do that just make me more driven to teach them, I hope he lets missionaries in some day.  People think we are bad people and are trying to convert everyone, when really....I don't think that's our job at all.  All our job is to spread the message of the restoration of Christs church...the exact same church that was on the earth when Jesus was here before he and after he was crucified.  And then our job is to help people gain faith, I don't care if people become LDS or not, just to help them gain faith and answer questions.  If they find that our church is true and real....(cause it is)...then its their choice whether or not they wish to act upon their heart and hopefully they pray and ask Heavenly Father is this church is true.  I mean if I heard that the EXACT same church that was set up by jesus was still here on the earth....I would want to find out more about it! anyways, that's just my spiel.

 

Agone'! ayo (love), Elder Christensen

 

 

 

 

Robert vs. Mesa Verde

 

ya'aat'eh Shi'ma'!!!

 

 Everything is going alright here, I don't have a lot of time this week.  I really enjoyed General Conference.  My favorite talks were of course, Elder Holland and the guy from Burley! yet another prophecy fulfilled from Burley, Idaho.  He was probably from Declo or Rupert.  Things are going alright here, thinking about baseball a lot, but I'm not letting it distract me.  We talked to over 50 people this week by knocking on doors, it was pretty fun! I enjoy knocking on doors, get some interesting responses.   Today should be way fun, we made raps about missionary work and are doing a skit as a district, I will try and video them.  

 

Don't have a lot of time today, I got to go and dominate at wiffleball with my zone.  Mesa Verde was really cool.  Some areas are only open in the summer but I did get to go and climb over some ancient ruins.  In Jesus the Christ, there is a part basically describing the people that lived there.  They were the Gadianton Robbers.  Pretty cool, I can see why it's so secret and whatnot.  Interesting stuff.

 

-love Elder Christensen  

 

 

 

Robert vs. The Dogs

 

 yes I threw throwing knives and tomahawks....twas very fun. im pretty good.

every single little dot is an Elk.....there was over 200 easy.  Couldn't get them all in the picture.

This is at Earl Ashcrofts house in Mancos.   Hes the guy that knew Grandpa Bushman.  He was in the Navy growing up in world war 2 and he traveled all over the world.  Each string is a different cruise he went on during the navy. way cool, he was a machine gunner on the starboard side of a cruiser.  He said he shot down 2 oe 3 kamikaze planes.

 

 

 

ya'aat'eh!!

 

Things are goin  alright here in Cortez.  Some good stuff and some bad stuff.  Transfers are April 22nd and I am excited for a change of something.  Maybe I will go and maybe I wont but whatever happens happens.  We are emailing early today because we are going to Mesa verde to go hiking!  This is probably the only time ever that we will be able to go and do this for the rest of my mission.  Some other fun things....on April 8th President Batt is coming up to cortez for a zone party!  We are  making flour bombs and are going to play capture the flag and wiffleball and all sorts of stuff.  We had to ask the sister missionaries to go buy some leggings because that would be really awkward for us to buy those so we can use them for flour bombs,You just stuff and pack the flour into the legging  things whatever they are called and they make a pretty good little ball that you chuck at people, the best part is when you hit them the flour explodes all over them its great. 

 

Alright, here are some things that is goin on with the work here in Cortez.  We have pretty much ran out of people to teach, after people get baptized your teaching pool shrinks dramatically.  But we found a Baptist lady that let us in and teach her the first lesson while we were tracting.  She really liked it and made her think about prophets a lot, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it.  We will check up on her tomorrow and hopefully get another lesson in, this time hopefully with her husband that she said would want to ask us some questions because he doesn't like Mormons, but hey that's what we are here for.  I had my first dog experience yesterday, they were some big nasty lookin pitbulls.  there was 5 of em I think.  Elder Dobson and I got out of the truck to walk up to this house and as we were getting closer we hear this like mob of dogs barking and running our way.  We just stand there and say oh crap.....but we didn't run, we just sat there and let them come to us and they slowed down a bit and just came and sniffed us and then it was all good.  Scary though, those were some big and nasty pups. 

 

The 2 boys that were baptized still come to church and whatnot, they are really good kids I would love for you to meet them when you come to pick me up possibly.  We are going to challenge their father to take the lessons from us this week.  And the young lady that was baptized also still comes to church and seems to be getting along fine.  Although...heres some bad news.  Her mother was diagnosed with Colon and lung cancer.  They are in Shiprock right now at the hospital, and her mother the day before she went to the hospital told us she wants to take the lessons again and be baptized.  I think she got a wake up call.  So we told the bishop and basically we are waiting for her to get back from Shiprock and then we will give her a blessing, teach her the lessons fast and hopefully be bale to baptize her and confirm her before she dies.  Its a race.  We'll see what happens.  From what I know....its hard enough to stop 1 area of cancer....but 2....doesn't look like things are on the upside. 

 

We have been asking the members and everyone we know for referrals because we haven't been able to teach a lot of lessons lately.  Last Friday I went on exchanges again with Elder Mullinex.  Hes one of my favorite Elders, hes also our district leader.  So I spent a day in Mancos, Colorado.  Very mountain looking town, reminds me of McCall or Idaho City...more Idaho city.  We visited this older gentleman named Earl Ashcroft.  Hes about 86 years old.  His wife passed away a few years ago so that's why he doesn't come to church often.  Hes an awesome guy.  He worked on the reservation as a trader and ran several trading posts  for over 40 years! so naturally I asked if he knew any bushmans....guess what....he goes I knew a Martin bushman!  I whipped out my pictures of him and he goes ohhhh yes I knew him! I saw him and talked with him at many trading meetings.  So scratch that off for finding someone that knew Grandpa Bushman. Cool huh? 

 

Well that's all I got for this week.  I will try and get some pics on here hopefully it works.  I am so proud of my baseball team.  I miss them all so much.

 

- Elder Christensen

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

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

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