Robert vs. Saying Goodbye to Hopiland

NOTE:  Robert has a new address on the right sidebar if you want to send him anything!

 

The man that was baptized is in the blue and his wife is on the far left.  I've gotten used to being the tallest person around. 

I was able to plant a 2 and a  half acre field on Saturday....traditional style.  Stab a converted railroad spike into the ground...throw a few seeds in...and keep goin.  That was hard work and actually a very spiritual experience because of the love and care the Hopi have for their crops.

Loloma!!!

Well it just kinda hit me that I am leaving from one extreme to another again.  I am being sent to Blanding, Utah.  Honestly I am not very excited.....I have talked to quite a few other missionaries and other people about Blanding.  There is only about 4,000 people there and about 90% are already members.  They have 8 wards from what I've heard.  I will be in Blanding South.  I am leaving my people....and returning back to all those white people....I about lost it at the pulpit yesterday when i said I was leaving and the entire branch gave a big moan and about 30 people started crying.  I have lived nearly 8 months with the Hopi indians and like I said yesterday at the pulpit...I feel like I am leaving home again. There was bahana visitor at church as well and he said that he served the Hopi back in 62' and he was here for 7 months.  He came and sat by me after sacrament and gave me a big hug and started crying.  Thanking me for helping him remember what it was like to serve the Hopi...then he told me that when President Kimball was over missionary he made a stop to his mission and spoke and told them that all missionaries that serve the Native Americans will be greeted and by Book of Mormon Prophets and people when we step through the veil in the spirit world.  Cant wait for that!!!   I am glad that I was able to have some interesting experiences for my last sunday though.  I got a call after sacrament and it was from the reactivated member we have been working with lately.  We weren't able to call him back so we took out branch mission leader and went over there.  Come to find out that his nephew was killed that morning and since he is the leader of the family he felt obligated to stay home and help every one with the grieving process.  Don't blame him...good guy.  Since the Hopi all live very close to family like next door or across the road if there is one everyone is very connected.  I asked him if he would like the sacrament and he said yes, so we went back to church rounded up some priests and teachers and went back.  It was originally just him that we would be administering to....but he got a call from his sisters next door asking for us to come over.  There was about 20 people there...and they were ALL members.  But inactive,  except for the man we've been working with of course. They all partook of the sacrament and there was a calming spirit in the room and some of the women that were wailing almost hysterically were calm and I'm sure were remembering the time when they were all on placement program in Utah or something and going to church.  I was then asked to bless the home and family so I knelt down and said a prayer.  After the prayer one of the women said that "its sad that we have to have something tragic happen to open our eyes again to the church."  Hopefully there will be about 20 more people at church next week.  An entire family.  That would make my heart feel good.  

As for the baptisms on saturday, they went very well and the man being baptized was a bit on the heavier side so i was asked to help lift him back up out of the water.  It was fun to be dressed in white in front of so many non members and see the expression on their faces.  My time here was well spent I think and hopefully I did some good somewhere.  We handed out about 40 copies of the Book of mormons you sent us so thats good.  As for chris's blessing....he had to cancel due to some problems that came up so it was rescheduled for june 8th so maybe i will still be able to come.  Im sure there is an RM that has nothing to do in Blanding and will be willing to take me. 

Well I have a few more visits to make for my last day in Polacca.  I am basically held to an oath here by many people that I have to come back soon so when we come back through as a family we will be spending a lot of time here.  I m so grateful for the privilege I have had to be here...its gonna be an emotional day today and especially when Im driving away tomorrow morning.  I will see y'all on mothers day! 

Love Elder Christensen

basneywa! Singadee!  eyeamo!! 

Robert vs. Gardening

Heewahnahtahmo!!!!

Another week with the Hopi come and gone.  I feel like this will be my last week here in Hopiland which is a lot more sad then happy.  Most likely I will be moved back to the Navajo Reservation.  One thing I am looking forward to come August is the mission is opening up Monument Valley for missionaries to be stationed there.  Wouldn't that be awesome!!! To be a missionary where all the of those John Wayne movies and hundreds of others have been made....that would be sweeeeet!!!  We will see what happens!  It was an interesting week to say the least and were put in some sticky situations a few times, no need for details on that stuff....but as long as we aren't doing anything that we know we shouldn't we will be just fine around here.  Gotta be careful though especially dealing with drunk people everyday.  We are helping a lot with the gardening program out here and spend most of the day in my t shirts and jeans getting dirty, I love it.  There are these really huge weird white ant/beetle bugs that pop out of the gardens all the time and I don't know what to call other then in Hopi...Kaletatus...big heads.  Kinda funny when the only way you know how to describe something is in a dying Indian language.  There was a massive random blizzard that came through 2 days ago and caught a lot of people off guard and killed a lot of they're plants.  

              

On some good news yes everything is good to go for the baptism of Ralph and Flo Choyou.  They of course are related to like 500 people out here and Ralph used to be a "mongwi" or Kiva Boss.  Pretty high up their in the Hopi religion.  They will be baptized this saturday at 10 am in Tuba city because our font here doesn't work.  Little do they know that they are being prepared for a great calling in the future.  I am so honored to live among the Hopi.  Another exciting thing is Chris wanted me to be there for his patriarchal blessing this sunday!! I woke up one morning a few weeks ago and was overwhelmed by the thought that...these people don't even know who they are!!!!  For the last few weeks I have been asking all the members that we see and less active members...everyone....if they have a patriarchal blessing.  Many have not and we are teaching a lot of people about them.  I know its not recorded for the numbers for missionary work but I don't care about numbers at all.  These people need to know who they are and they're divine heritage and royal birthrights.  If I can help them in that way then I will be happy.  Baptism is definitely the most difficult thing to get people to commit to out here...they hear that word and BOOM..conversation over.  We just teach about the Book of Mormon and other gospel principles and then they decide for themselves for the most part.  Oh ya, there have been people dying left and right here like crazy just within the village I live in.  Weird.  There was like 5 or 6 funerals last week.  I'm starting to see a "slight off colored brown" thats my version of green down here and I love it!!  Its like I am a child all over again learning my colors.  I ate some Niqwovi last night which is mutton stew.  Funny how your palate adapts to flavors and tastes so fast...I hated that stuff in Shiprock and other times I've had it but now I love it!  Thats all she wrote folks!  I will tell more adventures next week.

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Angry Goats

Heewahnahtahmo!!!

This week we only had 3 days for Elder Johnson and I to work in our area.  We went to Tuba city 3 times in one week for District meeting and Stake Conference it was ridiculous, plus exchanges and I went to the Echo Cliffs!  The little branch there is called Bitter Springs.  I went there about 4 months ago but it was way better this time because I am really good friends with our district leader.  Its basically the northern tip of the Grand canyon and so pretty much the whole area you are in between 2 huge walls of rock and people either live on top of the rock or at the base.  It was weird to be surrounded by Navajos again, but once they said I was from Hopi they all wanted to know as much Hopi as I could teach them....a lot of the Hopi people also can speak Navajo.  I gathered eggs, fed sheep, horses, and I got chased around by some angry goats.  I  haven't been in area with more then 200 people in any direction you look at in 7 months now....I'm honestly kinda scared to drive in big city roads again.  

Stake conference was really good except none of our investigators showed up.  Chris came with us though and I was able to introduce him to President Batt so that was a good thing.  We will for sure be having at least 2 baptisms on May 3rd.  The other 3 are still in the air...so at least 2.  Which will be a miracle and a half.  I am pretty sure I will be transferred this time, we find out on may 4th.  Other then that stuff,  Easter was good!  Why the heck is Easter changed to April 20th???  Thats like having New Years Eve on January 20th.....stupid.  It doesn't change the fact that Christ was born on April 6th people.....  Just realized that I have less then 9 months now....crazy.  Another week come and gone.  

Basneewa!!! 

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Flooding with the Book of Mormon

Loloma!!!

Well this week was pretty boring to be honest but some good things happened.  There were 3 people that died this past week in the village closest to us so everyone was doing funeral ceremonies.  We don't attend funerals here unless they are in the church, due to ceremony stuff and once you show up you are pretty much stuck there for most of the day.  Plus Saturday and Sunday they had a ceremony called "racer kachinas" I don't really wanna explain everything about that right now...it would take a while.  I will tell you stuff when I get back in like 9  months now.  Our mission has decided to flood the reservations with the Book of Mormon.  We were givin 10 extra copies last Thursday....we have 3 left out 13 total.  Apparently the mission won't give us more until later....so much for flooding.  So Dad if its possible you can hook us up and send us a case or 2 that would be awesome.  The branch doesn't really have the resources to order some because pretty much the only functioning position in our branch is Branch President and RF Prez.  All the money goes to buying wood and propane and food for people.  Crazy.  

There was only 1 investigator that came to church this week so that means all of our others we had to drop basically.  Flippin frustrating.  I swear this has to be the one of the most challenging areas to serve in the world.  It's worth it though, and I am hoping I can squeeze out 6 more weeks here but I doubt it.  I ate a lot of traditional food this week.  I have gotten so used to food that really doesn't have much flavor and looks questionable in the first place that I have forgotten what spices are.  The main spice here is salt....that's it!  You don't need anything else!  Ever!  Good stuff.  The A1 sauce you sent me is the only thing that's keeping me sane.  

Handing out Books of Mormon is pretty fun though.  Basically you got about 15 seconds before they get defensive here and don't want to talk to you anymore.  "Its a gift"  Name that movie.....  Oh ya for the funny moment of the week.  Elder Johnson and I are basically the same person just different skin color so we think a lot alike and we are extremely sarcastic with each other.  Which is fun because its the only entertainment we have is each other so you better like your companion on the Rez or else its a loooong 6 weeks or more.   Anyways Elder Johnson and I will fake Bible bash or act like atheists and try to argue different things and sometimes we get so into it that we don't realize that we are yelling at each other and our little RV has 0 sound proofing.  Then Elder Kamka thinks that we are actually yelling at each other and  the other day he kinda burst into our RV and threatened us that we needed to resolve some problems out and he even told us that we needed to have an Emergency transfer.  I spoke up and told him we are just messing around and stuff.  I dont think he really believed me.  He thought that Elder Johnson was like verbally abusing me all the time cause he said that I always look angry or not happy recently.  I just laughed...why has that been a problem my whole life!? All through high school and whatnot everyone thinks that I'm mad or sad or anything but happy. I am a happy person!  That whole situation was just funny and we laughed pretty good after he left the RV.  Needless to say, we watch more carefully what we say how we act around the Kamkas now.  Good times.  I'm having a good time with the Hopi still and nobody wants me to leave so I am Happy.  

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Buddy Holly

Loloma!!!

Life in a dinky little RV sure puts things into perspective on what you do and don't need in a home.  One of the fun things about being in an RV on a reservation is that there is no such thing as "Hot" water for showers.  If I stood in the tub then my head would hit the ceiling, so my morning shower consists of me putting some soap in my hair and watering my face with ice water and if I am feeling brave I will jump in for like 30 seconds and just take it.  Things have been going up and down this week and I was sure in need of general conference for some time to just relax for a minute and listen.  All the speakers were great and I love how bold they are now.  Also I am pretty convinced that by their testimonies and the look in the eyes of the 12 apostles....they have seen Christ.  My favorites of course was Elder Holland and surprisingly President Eyring and Elder Scott.  Elder Packer sounded like he was giving his last testimony type of talk.  He for sure will be warmly welcomed on the other side of the veil whenever he goes.  We had 3 investigators watch conference with us and they seemed to really enjoy it.  3 of our 5 baptism dates are doing fine.  The Silas family...not so much....so frustrating to be working with these people since October and they just cant seem to kick the bottle no matter how much we talk to them.  They know its wrong and evil but they cant stop.  Plus we just got a call last night that 2 of their grandkids (clan relation wise) died last night....they were my age...guess what killed them....that stupid satanic drink.  I hate it.  I don't need to give you details on that but it sounds like we will be spending a lot of time today helping with that and getting wood for funeral stuff.  We need to step up our game out here.  These people need help.

I cant remember if I have already said this or not...but the "honoqoyas" or drunk people and those don't like us have given Elder Johnson and I a nickname.  I am Buddy Holly and Elder J is Jimi Hendrix.  Also people call us cornboys because when people pick corn they put on white shirts...funny stuff.  We are getting 11 copies of the Book of Mormon giving to us this Thursday so hopefully we can do some damage out here.  We need to find some New Investigators.  Im loving it with Elder Johnson we are great friends.  I am sorry that I don't answer questions very good..sometimes I am to lazy to go back and look what the questions were that you asked again.  I love this place and I never want to leave no matter how much junk goes on.  Every time I think I am ready to leave then I get this feeling like...I cant.  It will come though probably this May.  Hope everything goes well with Britt's delivery.  I guess this family does need another girl somewhere.  She will love baseball and guns though.  

Love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. Alcohol

Loloma!!!

I am happy to be here on Hopi until the Beginning of May.  Elder Johnson is the driver now so I believe that is my warning for I am being transferred this next one.  I will be sad to leave but nobody will ever be able to say that they loved the Hopi more then me.  We have 3 on baptism date for April 19th so hopefully those work out.  We had to reschedule the other 2 dates for May 3rd to give them some more time to overcome their alcohol addiction.  I have come to the final realization that....I hate alcohol.  Every single day I talk to multiple drunk people and I see how it destroys lives and families..but they don't stop.  I would love to take the CEO's of all alcohol companies and bring them out here and make them stay and interact with the people even just for 1 week...to see the destruction and evil that they bring upon this humble people.  It sickens me.

This was probably one of the most exciting weeks so far since I've been here because there was a group of 50 LDS kids from Salt Lake area that are part of a rotary club group and did some service down here.  We helped them a lot with wood and things and ah man it was fun to see a lot of white people again.  We are like celebrities out here it is so funny.  Everyone wants to take pictures with us and things...we even got some people to marry their sisters that are almost done with their missions.  Funny stuff.  We cleaned up the church grounds with them and had a huge tumbleweed bonfire.  Its so funny though, deep Utah mormons have this funny perception of missionaries like they can't touch us or talk to us very much.  It was good times and they put on an Easter egg hunt for kids here so we invited all of our 6 investigators and they brought their kids but one of them was wasted out if his mind and we didn't want him to bother other people so we went into the Relief Society room and just talked to him for like 3 hours....it was ridiculous.  Crazy but fun week!  Elder Johnosn and I are doing great, I would go nuts without him. 

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. 5 Baptisms

Loloma!!!

I am staying here on Hopi with Elder Johnson for another transfer!  Good news.  The bad news is we got moved into the an RV trailer that I can touch both walls with my arms stretched out.  It is a little bigger then I thought it would be so it's all good.  We spoke in church yesterday and that went well.  Had a few interesting experiences with people coming into the church wanting to cause arguments but got that taken care of.  I can't really send pictures right now because we are using our senior couples computer and it is really slow so it would take forever.  No idea when I will be able to send some.  We are getting ready for 3 baptisms on April 12th and they are doing solid. Just trying to stay away from the alcohol and verbal abuse of everyone in the village.  They are strong though.  Found out that there are 2 others that are ready for baptism in so we are looking forward to 5 baptisms in April.  Well we aren't going anywhere for transfers so I am not able to go anywhere to get a suit.  Nowhere in my zone is there a suit store.  I asked my district leader when he goes to Farmington on Tuesday to look for a cheap suit coat and pants at goodwill or something and I will pay him back.  I will get one eventually don't worry.  In fact nobosy in my district is moving except one and there is a greenie coming in with our district leader.  Everyone in our district has been out over 1 year so I assume this new elder will be kinda scared.  Especially since his first area will be in the middle of nowhere literally.  We decided to have some fun and on distrcit meeting we are going to just talk in different accents so he thinks we are from all over and just mess around a bit to put him at ease.  Don't worry we will play nice with the new guy.  Everyone goes through it.  Especially Rez missionaries cause we are stranded and have nothing else entertaining to do. Fun times!  GO BRONCOS

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Two Elephants...and an RV Camper

Loloma!!!

    

Well we will see how much info I am able to bust out this week with the time I got.  We have to use a different method of emaling now because of some rule changes so this will be very interesting and frustrating.  But hey, when you live in the middle of the desert and not a single person that you know has internet and anyone over 35 has never used a computer before...things can be interesting.  Don't need to get into details.  The stress is piling up for sure over here and this is definitely the hardest thing I will ever do in my life.  When an entire nation of people that have many centuries of time to work on superstitious traditions and alcohol and or drugs is in 99% of all of the houses that you walk into....the pressure mounts up pretty fast.  I feel like I have 2 elephants on each shoulder right now, but for some weird reason I love it here and I never want to leave.  I have a good feeling like I can squeak out 6 more weeks here but we will find out this Saturday.  

Found out that we are being kicked out of our trailer this Wednesday and getting an RV camper.  I ain't talking about the camper that you get to hitch up to your huge truck and drag around.  I'm talking about the camper that goes ON the truck....ya....those super small I can touch both walls with my elbows ones.  Plus, for the past week there have been like 50 mph winds all day so bring it on!   It will be fun.  Look at me trying to be optimistic! 

We have had some good lessons this week though and have actually had a lot more success with the few white people recently then the Hopi.  We gave a Book of Mormon to the family from Arkansas and sparked some interest I feel.  We will see what happens.  There was only about 20 people at church this week...no idea what's going on out here.  Really frustrating and stressful.  Found out the branch president here was asked to go to spring training when he was younger with the Yankees and the Dodgers but he never got the chance to go and the scouts said he would have been an All Star.  I have had a few good conversations with him on baseball and all that did was make me baseball sick.  For some reason I am not surprised that the senators get to go to Omaha this year.  I always knew one day that the group that are now seniors, Coach Mac had a soft spot for them.  

There was 2 investigators that came to church this week though and we have set a baptism date for April 12th for 3 people so hopefully that happens.  Well I apologize that I am not able to tell you more but the term Pday out here where I am at there is no such thing.  We chop wood and coal all day and do whatever else we can to help people that can't help themselves.  Pretty tiring but at least you feel good about it even right when you sit down to take a break and someone else calls.  Welcome to the rez!  I love the Hopi though and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  No missionary ever will be able to enjoy being here as much as I do.  Ever.  Well I go to go to a lesson!  See ya next week and hopefully I can fill you in on some more details.

   

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Sickness and Spring Break

Loloma!!!

This week started with some not so good experiences but ended pretty good.  Monday night we had 5 lessons fall through and once it hits dark you cant really do much out here cause of how many things "go bump in the night."  Kinda messed up.  So that was pretty disappointing but I went to bed and was feeling just dandy.  Alarm goes off Tuesday morning.....I just rolled over....aw man I'm sick....Ya I ended up blowin chunks 8 times before 2 o' clock.  Basically spent all day in bed and a lot of Wednesday but come Thursday morning I was good to go.  The in and out flu it was.  I am 100% now so its all good.  Haven't been able to get ahold of a lot of people out here because of the ceremonies going on.  This is the last week though for a few I believe so that should be good.  We decided to go knock on some doors where the "bahana" live in the hospital and high school housings.  Got a few wonderful slams and many rejections but 1 person actually came out and treated us like humans.  He said he wasn't very interested but that his wife was about to give birth and her father would be coming on Wednesday to give her a blessing so.......we going back Wednesday!  It should open up some doors I think.  He said that he wouldn't mind us coming over for dinner and stuff but he didn't want to talk about anything religious.  Which is something I  am used to out here with weaving in religion without offending anyone.  I'm excited. 

Well I don't have anytime so I will tell a real quick story then I got to go.  We were trying to visit some people yesterday after church and NOBODY was home.  When spring break hits out here everyone leaves for good.  We turned around after we knocked on a door and I saw a lady that I have been trying to talk to since I got here.  She was out doing something in a truck.  Walked over there and she let us in and her husband came down and we all just had a good ole talk for a while.  They are white people from Louisiana and Arkansas so they had some thick accents.  He lived in Boise working for something to do with Lucky Peak for about 3 years but ya we talked a lot about random stuff.  I was just trying to figure out a way to bring up the Book of Mormon the whole time and while we talked about Hopi for a minute I just asked them if they knew why the LDS church is so interested in Native Americans.  They didn't really so then I talked about the Book of Mormon for a bit then my next object was trying to figure out a way to get them to take the book.  Right when I was thinking that she said.."you gonna leave that with us?"  I said if you want it! Good stuff.  One more Book of Mormon in a home.  Good stuff, we will be following up with them soon.  They are fun to talk to and just throw out a billion words in 5 minutes.  Doing great over here just living it up in the desert.  

Love Elder Christensen 

Robert vs. Driving to Tuba City

Zone Conference Photos

Loloma!!! 

We didn't have church this week because of the Gilbert Temple dedication.  We left for Tuba City yesterday at 6:45am and got there just in time for the 9am session.  I have driven to Tuba City and back 27 times now.  Thats nearly 41 hours straight I have spent on the road.  I got at least 4 more trips.  Thats a lot of driving.  Get pretty burnt out by the end of the week.  This land has probably one of the best landscapes ever though so I am not complaining.  I haven't seen anything green in a very long time now, but I love all shades of brown now so its all good.  The Gilbert Temple is really awesome of course, from what they showed on the satellite TV that Temple is HUGE!  I was able to see the 1st and 2nd sessions.  The 2nd session was my favorite of the two.  They announced if I remember right that by the end of 2015 there would be 6 Temples in Arizona.  Snowflake, Gilbert, Phoenix by the end of this year, Gila valley,Tuscon, Mesa.  There are over 400,000 members in Arizona alone, might as well call it southern Utah.  Temples are awesome, through a lot of studying of the Old Testament I have learned a lot about Temples and their purposes.  Unfortunately, there really are many "plain and precious things" that have been taken from Bible.  Especially the Old Testament.  It makes no sense to me at all how anyone could even think that the Bible is a perfect text.  Blind leading the blind.  

Anyways, the good stuff is that we set a date with the Silas family!  April 12th.  The end of this transfer is march 23rd so we will see what happens.  I am pretty sure I can squeeze out 1 more transfer on Hopi land.  Elder Johnson and I get along great and we have way to much fun sometimes.  But I would be going insane out here if I didn't have someone to laugh with so I am glad he is here.  There is one man that we visit out here named Dennis.  He is a  very smart guy and we don't really pressure with much commitments or anything but if we don't have anything to do we go and just hang out with him for a while and talk about whatever.  He said that the more he is around us the more he likes the church and if he was to convert to a church it would be the LDS church.  We are slowly working on him.  Haven't talked to Chris in over a week so I am thinkin about him a lot.  Other then that there isn't to much going on out here, the work is moving but its at a crawl on the reservations because "the first shall be last and the last shall be first."  Everyone else basically has to get the gospel before the Jews and/or the remnants of the house of Judah fully accept it and blow everyone's mind.  But we do what we can to help.  I have been doing a lot of gardening this week as well.  Quite a number of hours playing in the dirt.  We have had 2 HUGE sandstorms this last week as well looked like I was in Iraq or something.  Or on the movie Hidalgo....pretty crazy.  But I love it here and have grown accustomed to the desert life.  Wouldn't wanna be anywhere else right now. 

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Spiritual Experiences

Loloma!!!

Interesting week....lets start off with some good news.  There are 5 people that should be baptized within the next 2 or 3 months, which is awesome because with all of these ceremonies and junk going on we are having the hardest time staying busy.  If I didn't have Elder Johnson to keep me sane I would want out of here real fast.  But ya we helped move around some people from house to house while there drunk parents and grandparents were away for a certain amount of time so we would help them gather all of their belongings to make there exodus.  Don't need to go into much detail about that stuff but Im sure having a lot of interesting experiences out here.  Technically I have served in 3 different countries since the reservations are sovereign nations.  Its a different world for sure.  There was 7 investigators at church yesterday which was awesome! We also had branch conference and oh man did the stake presidency lay it down!!!!  They talked a lot about tithing which is a really hard blessing for people to accept all over the world but it hurts small branches a lot.  They also talked about the traditions and whatnot.  There are some things that were said that were obviously temple sacred and I wouldn't have tolerated it with any other congregation except the Native Americans because they perform a lot of the exact same things that we do but they have lost the authority for it to be valid.  Very interesting stuff, I wish you all could have been there.  

Another experience we had was we were reading some scriptures with a family and a little boy that just barely turned 3 out of nowhere just said "Jesus called me.....He said He's coming back."  I about had an accident.  I told everyone to be quite and listen to him, and he said the same thing.  Now how does a 3 year old boy understand that or anything pertaining to Jesus Christ to say something like that???  Explain that theory to me evolutionists/atheists???  We didn't even mention Jesus Christ during our whole scripture reading after he said that.  Pretty amazing.  Then a few days later we were reading again and then he came up to me and pointed to a picture of Christ on the wall....he said "Its a picture of Jesus!!"  then he paused and looked around the room for a few seconds and I was  just interested in what he was gonna say next cause this kid is so funny...but then he said "He's in this room right now."  Then he just acted like no big deal and kept walking around....blew my mind.  I have had a few experiences like that on my mission so far so I have learned that when the spirit is in the room and there are little kids around, if they start talking try and listen.  You never know what they might say.  Good stuff!  

We had some sad news yesterday though, one of our investigators has been very sick and lately and then he woke up one morning to find that he couldn't even walk!!  The branch president is related to that family so he took another and gave a blessing to the man but I am not quite sure how he is doing.  Its kind of interesting to think about that how we just starting teaching the family about the plan of salvation and they are accepting it and then they go to the temple open house and have some amazing experiences...and now this.  Interesting.  Other then all that I have been shoveling lots of manure of all types of animals to be used for gardening.  I am going to learn a lot about gardening in the next month.  Except Arizona desert gardening is slightly different then nice fertile Idaho gardening.  Should be fun.  Go Broncos!!!

Love Elder Christensen  

Robert vs. Sacred Ceremonies

Thats the sign you see when you hit the Hopi Rez. and here was my last companion Elder Yazzie from Moreland, Idaho

We shovel lots of horse poo.....it's da best.  and I see something similar to that sunset every night!!! pretty sweeet.

That is Chris and his 1st place prize for the chilli cook off...I had 5 bowls of it.  That is my comp and Brother Linarte from Nicaragua...he feeds at his house allll the time.

This is to top it all off....men at work....a white dude, a black/Tongan guy trying to convince a bunch of Hopis and Navajos that we have their original traditions....Bring it on

Loloma!!!

   

Alright well this week has been a lot of fun and pretty stressful.  Elder Johnson and I are brothers from other mothers.  He is the black/Tongan version of me, I love it.  Well, to make a long story short the people that we have been helping to stop drinking  are pretty committed to be baptized but they don't want to set a date yet.  Thats how it works out here for some reason...if you try and use the Preach My Gospel technique of asking people to be baptized people just look at you weird and then say no.  Its happened quite a few times.  But you just have to let them basically set the date for themselves its really annoying but hey, its how it works out here.  We met this white guy less active member who just works at the police department for a few months and then goes back to Reno, Nevada.  We played some basketball and then the next day we went to go and try to find him....(Its not stalking if your a missionary).  Well we found his car but couldn't tell what door it was.  We knocked on a few and was just about to turn back and then we heard this huge burst of laughter from inside another door.  Elder Johnson and I think a lot like so we both said at the same time " that sounds like him"  and there he was!!  I personally believe that it is NOT coincidence that he laughed at that exact moment.  We had a good talk and he fed us some of this habenero/jalepeno beef stew....ah dang that tore me up, that was sooooo hot...but I still ate all of it and loved it.  Basically we addressed his background and he said that he just wants to be a mormon inside his heart and that he doesn't need to come to church..BUT!! He wants to get back into the routine of church back in his hometown so his son can "make a decision about which path to follow."  Kinda hypocritical....he's also a psychology major so being an intellectual doesn't always mean that you are that smart....when the Gospel is very simple and easy to understand...it doesn't need to be complicated at all...but ya hopefully he swings around sometime and realizes that if you just come to church then everything else will make sense.

The Hopi are doing some very important sacred ceremonies for the next few weeks so we are going to have a lot of time on our hands.  I'm glad that I have someone out here with me I can talk to so I don't go insane.  But ya there really wasn't much to report on this week...because of the dances there was about 30 people at church this week...it kinda shows who is truly converted to the church and who is not.  We got a lot of work to do here.....I can't wait for the second coming...just hurry it up!!! haha but ya that's about it!  GO BRONCOS

My address is 

P.O. Box 832

Polacca, Az 86042      

The mail service doesn't forward mail anymore so everything has to be sent directly.

Love Elder Christensen  

Robert vs. Drunkeness

Loloma!!!  

Aw man this is an email of joy for sure.  This week was a bust!  I'm not complaining but I've basically been running the entire area by myself for 6 weeks.  My current companion is an awesome guy but the curse if "idleness" is still surely upon the Lamanites.  I will be rejoining with the people of Hagoth.... thats right.... I am getting a Tongan companion!  Not just any Tongan...my favorite Tongan....who I already served with in Farmington 1st ward on the bikes.  My main man Elder Johnson!!  Not quite sure how we are able to be companions again but I am definitely not complaining.  Lets just say I pulled a few strings....and President Batt knows that I need some help out here.  But ya, I am staying with the Hopi for another 6 weeks!  6 months with the Hopi!  I am pumped!  I know the Hopi will love Elder Johnson, they are tired of all these white Gentiles.  This is definitely answer to a million prayers and hours of thinking....man I need a companion that will actually work with me not against me....here it is!!!  

Alright though, we had one crazy experience this week.  It shows how strong alcohol has an influence on people out here but it also shows that drunk people do the funniest random junk.  We decided to visit one of our investigators that we've been meeting with since october.  They have done a wonderful job at staying sober....until this week.  During this time of the year there is a ceremony called the bean dance and the men go into the Kivas and plant bean sprouts and the sign is if you have a tall bean sprout then that means your crop will be good this year.  But there is a lot more to then that and plus they have to go and smoke a ton of tobacco in peace pipe things and whatnot.  Anyways, our investigator doesn't want to do that stuff anymore and he wants to be baptized but he won't without his wife, which is understandable.  But he is getting tons of pressure from his clan and family to go and plant his beans.  People will persecute you nonstop its ridiculous out here.  He was just feeling overwhelmed and wanted it to go away so he turned to the bottle.  Poor guy.  It only made it worse.  We had a good talk with him though and he let his feelings out and was pretty sincere despite being a bit hungover.  As we were sayin the prayer his wife pulls up in her car with his mom.  She honks like 10 times and then we come out to see what the heck is goin on.  They wanted us to help her mom out of the car......oh boy....lets just say it was a "big" problem if you catch my drift...I open the door and WHAM! I got nailed by a huge whiff of booze and it almost knocked me over....this 80 year old shi'ma (as you would say in Navajo)  was wasted out of her mind.  So was the driver...so we had 3 drunk people on her hands.  We had to help this lady or else she was gonna fall out of the car and probably die.  Elder yazzie and I are tryin to lift her out of the car and she is just screamin PLEAASSEEE JESUS!!!! just over and over again...needless to say I was about to die from laughter on the situation.  We were able to get her out of the car and onto her walker...but it was uphill on sandy dirt so she was goin nowhere fast.  We basically had to push her up the hill and we almost got to the door and then she said she wanted to lean on the wall of the house.  We just kept pushing and saying NO you gotta keep goin, don't stop!!!  All the while the other 2 drunk people are cussin and laughin and ya...it was fun, and the shi'ma was still yellin for Jesus the whole time.  We got her to the step to her door and she obviously couldn't get the walker on the step so I set it up there for her and try to get her to step up or something, anything.  Then she just said...I'm a lay down now.  I was all Noooooo!!!! But it was too late, she did the go limp toddler move when you try to pick them up on us and we couldnt hold her. So there we were.....lookin at each other like...what the heck do we do.  There was a half passed out grandma lyin in the dirt and 2 other drunk people yellin around....I was just prayin that nobody saw us.  But we didn't know how to get this lady in the door!  Then one of the other people just said...roll her over and we will carry her in.  Whatever floats your boat!!  So we rolled her over and then they each grabbed an arm and we grabbed a leg and we half dragged half carried her in the living room....all while save me Jesus was still being yelled.  We laid her on the floor and then we needed to go so we left, but we saw that the other 2 people just left as well....but here is the funny/sad part....they have a daughter that was coming home from school in  about 10 mins and since nobody was there to explain to her what happened she probably walked into the house with a drunk grandma on the floor yelling her at her that the missionaries did this to her or something....aw man it was so funny and awkward and sad I had to take a break for a minute.  What a day that was.  Thats about it!

Chris blessed the sacrament again and told me that he stayed up til 1 am reading scriptures...the scripture bug bit him...good.  Yes the Choyou family came and we set up another time for Wednesday this week so its lookin good.  I swear this area is the most stressful and rewarding areas of all missions.  You get the best of both worlds here.  The disappointment of absolutely no progress happening for a couple weeks then bam!  Someone wants to be baptized or almost 100 people come to church.  Good stuff.  I am just excited for tomorrow when I get to pick up my favorite Tongan.

 singadee!!

 Love Elder Christesnen

Robert vs. The Adversary

Robert's buddy:  Bear

 This is how Robert plays Monopoly with his companion, helps him stay in the "zone".

 Hike with Chris and Elder Yazzie

Sweet Scenery

Loloma!!! 

    Well this has been an interesting week to say the least.  Don't need to get into to much detail but it got pretty rough here. Gosh every week I have so much stuff to say but my brain has no idea where to start or anything...okay here we go.  I got my new glasses and oh buddy are they fancy.  I hope I don't break them very fast.  Its inevitable that I will break them eventually, that's just how I roll.  These glasses though have some weird material in them where you can literally bend them in half and then they just bounce back to regular form.  It's like they put "flubber" in them, pretty cool.  We had 5 investigators come to church so that was awesome.  I have come to the conclusion that the only true "numbers" that really matter are obviously baptisms and investigators at sacrament meeting.  It doesn't matter if you teach 200 lessons a week....if nobody comes to church then there wasn't really much progression.  Early Saturday morning I was about to start razoring myself and then i felt like I should call Chris cause we hadn't heard from him all week.  So I did, and he told us to come out...so we did.  We went on another little hike/lesson and we talked.  He is going through a really rough time with the courts and the social services for possession of his son.  We had to encourage him to come to church cause he didnt want to.  It was a bad week, I feel really bad for him.  It seems like everyone is teaming up against him now because he is trying to live righteously, even his own family.  Super sad.  The Adversary truly doesn't want any the Native Americans to be strong in the true church, he's working really hard on them I can't even explain the evil that is out here.  But Chris said that he knows that he needs to keep coming...and he did! He also passed the sacrament for the first time so that was awesome.  During our priesthood meeting our Elders quorum President felt that we should have our own testimony meeting for class that day so thats what we did.  Everyone was talkin about how they were supposed to be on Hopi for a reason at this specific time and how they got there and all this stuff and I was gonna get up because I feel the same way.  Then Chris got up for the first time and just poured his heart out, it was amazing.  Afterwards us and a few others gave him a blessing and Bro. Wallace, the guy who gave him the blessing and also is the chief prosecutor for all of Hopiland told Promised Chris that he would find a wife and that he needed to get his patriarchal blessing as fast as possible.  I know that was divine inspiration because Chris is the only person we've talked about that with and hes been really thinkin about it.  Well there ya go!!!  Answer to prayer received.  So hopefully we can set that up this week for him and if I am lucky I will be able to go and be with him for the blessing!! cool eh?  

Last Thursday night was a hectic one for sure...lemee tell ya this has been the most stressful week of my life for sure.  One of our members daughters decided to run away with some 31 yr old freak that she met on the internet.  Scary stuff.  We didn't go search for her but we went and gave blessings with Elder Kamka and another member of the branch presidency to the parents and others.  IT was a loooooooong night for sure.  We let our District leader know that we were gonna be out late so it was ok.  We got in and finally went to bed around 12:30....it was nuts.  But long story short the FBI found the guy and rescued the girl.  She was at church yesterday so it was good o see she was ok.  Her parents were baptized about 3 years ago and they were really struggling with their faith during this but they bore powerful testimony that they have grown a lot stronger spiritually and are more converted.  Crazy week.....crazy week.  But its all good! The book of Mormon is true! True Blue through and through!!!  Glad the Seahawks won!  Now only if we can transfer that skill to the mariners.....then this will be a good year.  That is a miracle in itself, but hey ya never know!!

oh ya!  Just got word that the U.S. post office will NOT be forwarding our mail any more.  Sooo...if anyone is gonna send anything then wait a bit until next Monday when I can tell you if I'm staying here or not.  

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. The Spiritual War

We finally got some pictures from Robert!  Enjoy!

 Hopi Christian Book

 Jay (pronounced J-eye)

 Mom and Dad got a package in the mail from Robert with a bow and arrow set

 and some Hopi earrings

The large dog on the left is "Sparky".  He follows Robert around town and reminds him of Hunter when he jumps up on him.

Loloma!!!

T'was a good and not so good week this week.  Yesterday we had some pretty cool experiences.  My main man Chris came to church and he blessed the sacrament for his 1st time and nailed it!  He said he has to keep a perfect record.  He did such a good a job and really emphasized the prayer, gives a stronger meaning to it when it is read slower.  Everyone was giving him hugs and stuff it was good to see.  I'm telling ya...this little branch is the best the church has when it comes to fellowship and family.  We had a few investigators come to church.  We were expecting double digits but we got about half.  You can almost literally see the spiritual war thats going on out here.  I can certainly feel it happening all around me.  I mean literally....like evil spirits and good spirits....everywhere.  Maybe my spiritual side has gotten a lot more Indianish I don't know, but I feel a lot more sensitive to stuff like that now since I've been living with the Hopi now for 4 months.  I'm gonna beg President Batt to keep me here for at least 9 months.  I feel that will be sufficient time.  There is an older couple that has come to church off and on since I got here and it turns out to be that they are NOT members and this whole time I thought they were.  It also turns out that they are our Branch Presidents In Laws.  They invited us over for dinner last night and we went with our Branch President and his wife.  We had a good talk, about the spirit world and temples.  They went to the Gilbert Open House and loved it!!!  I mean how can you not?  Its a flippin temple!  Apparently its bigger then the Salt Lake Temple.  It has 3 stories, I wanna check it out but that won't happen since its about 6 hours away.  Brother Choyou (the investigator) said that when he walked by the baptismal font he felt someone literally push him towards the font and someone whispered to him "Jump in!"  and he almost did, that would have been pretty funny actually. But in their family they have had many deaths and lost a few children due to tragic events.  We told them all about the spirit world and who was "pushing" him to the font.  Now the Choyous are an older couple and Brother Choyou is an extremely respected person in the Kiva.  He is a leader for the Hopi here when it comes to ceremonies and stuff.  They both come to church every week now and want to be baptized.  So we are going to go over to their house starting tomorrow with President Funk and start lessons.  Good stuff!!  The work is moving along here on Hopi.  Brother Choyou said that his parents and grandparents told him that some day there would be an LDS church in Polacca and all Hopi needed to go to that church.  But Satan has a such a strong hold on people and he blinds them to the obvious truth about the traditions of their fathers.  See even the clan leaders and ceremony leaders know that we are right!!!  But they don't wanna stop doing they're messed up ceremonies.  They used to be correct with the traditions but its just all sorts of messed up.  I can't tell you how many prophecies and whatnot I've heard....No way this stuff isn't real.  Sister Funk said she had a vision one day when she was driving to church....she saw a temple at the bottom of one of the Mesas in an extremely sacred place where a lot of the Tewa have buried their dead.  She was staring at it the whole drive and then when she got out of her car it was gone.  I believe it.  It's gonna happen someday.  In the near future many Native Americans will be leading this church.  Which is a prophecy in itself....us Bahana are basically carrying them on our shoulders until it is time for the church to return to the original covenant people...which is the house of Judah and Joseph (Jacob). Read 3 Nephi 21.  BOOM!  The two sticks!  (Ezekiel 37:15-22)  Truly they will "Blossom as the Rose" (DC 49:24)  I can't wait. Also...as long as we Gentiles stay faithful and anyone attacks us....the House of Jacob will protect us....3 nephi 21:12-13.  Good stuff.  

Other then that we started a Book of Mormon class on Thursday nights and about 5 people came and we are inviting everyone so hopefully sometime we will have such a big class that we will have to move into the chapel.  Also we got a Ward mission leader now!! Brother Dukepoo.  Apparently Polacca has never had one before.  Woohoo!!  Aw yes, I'm happy to hear that my bow and arrow got home.  There isn't really a story behind it...Elder Pebbles got it when he was in Pinion.  It is hand made but its not really an authentic bow.  I got more bows and junk to send home now.  Anyways all that stuff Pebbles didn't want to carry around with him, but I knew if I showed any interest in it then he would take it.  So I acted like I didn't care and then the day after he left I'm all...I'm sending this stuff home before he wants it back.  It's mine now hahaha. "Thats my hat now!!!" Name that movie.  Mom and dad, you won't get it.    I have a Navajo ceremony shield I'm sending home as well. Good times!  Well that's about all she wrote for this week!  GO SEAHAWKS!!!  GO BRONCOS!!!..the real broncos...not this Denver junk. 

Love Elder Christensen