Robert vs. Teaching Relief Society

Hayden and I at conference

I picked a ton of cherries on Saturday

Loloma!!! 

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

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

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

 Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Country Roads

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

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

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

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Linguistics

This is Gretta, our German investigator

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

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

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs Staying Busy

Ya'aat'eeh!!! 

Sorry I didn't let y'all know that we wouldn't be able to email yesterday since it was Memorial Day everything was closed down.  Well, the longer a missionary stays in Blanding the less work there is to be done since each set only covers about 400 houses and after about 6 weeks you basically know where everyone lives and their life story.  It's pretty hard to stay busy here and motivated but we did have a good week.  I have only met 5 people here that are NOT members of the church its crazy.  We did set a baptismal date for a man that has been living in Blanding for most of his life and has had home teachers for like 30 years yet has never wanted any of it.  Now he does.  Kinda of a hard situation right now because his wife and his daughter both have severe cancer and I don't think his wife will make it much longer.  I cover 1st and 8th wards here in Blanding and the chapel that has been here forever like since the 1800's is being renovated so they moved us all over to this other building now there is 3 wards there and it gets pretty cramped.  I went to youth Sunday School this week and it blew my mind how knowledgeable and prepared a lot of these kids are for missions and whatnot.  I must be in Utah or something.  

On the plus side of things compared to Polacca there is actually things to do here on P-days, and I wont get in trouble for traversing on sacred burial sites or something else extremely sacred.  There are lots of old Anasazi ruins around here and members have been taking us to go see them.  Yesterday there was a member that has about 80 acres of land and there are actually some ruins and things in the middle of his wheat field.  Since it is private property he let us just walk right up to it and all over it!  Another thing thats awesome here is just like Cortez, everyone has guns.  It's heaven.  We were kinda off roading yesterday and this huge cottontail rabbit just comes running across the truck and since our member has a gun in his truck I guess he felt obligated to shoot something.  Stopped the truck.  Hopped out.  BAM BAM BAM!!  Get in the truck. Continue previous conversation.  Thats how it goes I guess.  I'm pretty sure I've met the family related to the rednecks off "planes trains and automobiles"....."when she gave birth the baby came out sideways.....didn't even scream."  Hilarious.  Anyways I guess I don't have much to report this week.  I'm plugging along just fine here in Blanding.  Thanks for everything. 

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Moonshine and Rednecks

 This is Elder Maupin from St. Anthony.  He's the bigger one and my District Leader.

 Then there is the skinny Elder Phillips from East Wenatchee...he played Walla Walla a lot when he played for Moses Lake in basketball.  He's my favorite of the guys I live with. 

This is Elder Provard from West Jordan....not too far 

 Another little puppy that always follows me around whenever I am in the trailer park.

This is Elder Varela from Moreno Valley, California.  I was with him for 2 weeks in Farmington before I got switched Spanish.  He crashed into me on bikes our 1st day together and he flew like 20 feet, it was insane. 

 Some cool little arches that people made around here.

Thats my izzzit shirt....we went hiking today and all the Natives say izzzit...and  actually say I know without trying so I'm native.

 Thats one side of the canyon.....

.....and the opposite.

Elder Maupin "the pack horse" holding down the rope so we can kinda repel down the side to get to the ruins.

There's the rope descending....it wasn't that steep.

Some really old ruins....probably kivas of the Gadianton robbers

Me in shooting form.  I could just see myself hiding up there from opposing armies and stuff...

Howdy!!!

I have started to grab hold of a little twang in my speech here.  There are tons of Jeff Foxworthy type of rednecks here its so funny but kinda scary.  The other day we helped move this massive fridge into a different trailer and the wife was waving around with a big .45 magnum and a cigarette in the mouth just cause she can.  Hopefully it wasnt loaded but oh well.  Then I saw one of the best signs of my mission so far that just kinda explains people that live in the country around this area.  I need to take a picture of it but it said...."I'm here unless I'm haulin moonshine to Dove Creek." That sign is serious to, it isn't a joke.  Dove Creek is a little town in Colorado with a bunch of rednecks and old people like Cortez.  I'm still trying to get used to houses bigger then 15 sq. ft. and lots of food.  My companion and I took a bit of time for him to show me where all the members live and our area a bit.....ya it took like 1 hour total.  On foot. I swear I don't feel like a missionary here sometimes.  I cross 2 streets and find out I crossed 2 ward boundaries.  I have no idea why there are 8 missionaries here.  Kinda ridiculous.  We've been handing out a ton of Book of Mormons to people though.  I ask EVERYONE if they want one.  My companion is really self conscious and scared  to talk to people and struggles hard so he has never knocked on doors around here until I came to kick his behind in to gear.  About half of 1 of the wards we cover is Navajo and trailer park so I feel a lot more comfortable going over there.  Many missionaries that are in Blanding have never been to the reservation and they are scared to go into the trailer parks or around all of the Natives its embarrassing to me.  my companion just kinda sits back and enjoys the ride when I walk over there....which is ok cause I love to talk and I love to talk to natives.  We have handed out 37 Book of Mormons so far this transfer....all but 1 or 2 to Navajos.  

We had stake conference this week as well and Elder Villareale of the seventy (I think its how he spells it) was here.  He is from Mclaren? Texas.  He was a mission President in Bogota, Colombia.  He's aweosme, by far one of the most entertaining speakers I have ever listened to besides Elder Holland.  He mentioned a couple of things I would like to share.  First, he is a convert to the church and he is a commercial builder.   He said when he was about 21, only a couple of years into the church he was talking to some people that owned a hotel where the General Authorities come when they speak in that area.  They were coming that week to speak at their conference.  Its an Embassy hotel, the nicest and most expensive one in that area.  He knew that they rented out the most expensive floor with the suites and the rooms above them and below them as well.  He found that kinda of fishy naturally and wondered why the church would spend all that money just for 1 night for them.  But he said that "the church is true so I don't need to worry about it." He blew it off and didn't think anymore of it.  18 years later he met a man when he was a mission President that actaully owned all the Embassy Hotels across the country.  He asked the man about that situation and why the church paid so much money to stay for 1 night.  The man said that he lets them stay in all of his hotels for free and he gives  them the nicest floor and the rooms above and below them so nobody will bother them. Ohhhhhh....Elder Villaraelle said he could have taken offense to that so many years ago and made a big deal out of it, when come to find out it was someone being kind and hospitable to the leaders of Christ's church.  

The other quick one was he said that he was in his work office at in Texas one day and at his office he ALWAYS leaves the door open for anyone at any time.  The door is never closed.  One day though he said his secretary came in and closed the door....immediately he knew something was wrong and he noticed that she had been crying.  She walks up to him and says...I have a big problem but I can't tell you what it is.  Elder Villareale just asked her..."does your problem have anything to do with your salvation?"  She said...no.  Then he stated...."then its not a problem."  She then just turned around and walked out all happy.  Awesome little story.  Amazing how many "problems" we think we have when in reality they are just insignificant things in our worldly lives that should have 0 weight on our journey to become like our Heavenly Father.  Good stuff.  Go Broncos.

Love Elder Christensen

Robert vs. Blanding

This is outside of Tuba City

 Me and Chris

 These are my 2 favorite companions: Elder Bunderson and Johnson.

Ya'aat'eeh!!!

Well there are no more Hopi or Tewa around..and only a few Navajos compared to the amount of white people here in Blanding so I don't even know how to start my emails anymore.  It was great to talk to y'all yesterday and see how everyone was doing.  I will be home before I even know it...only 8 months....wow. 

Blanding is definitely a culture shock for me here.  I have a had a couple of small anxiety problems which I have never felt before in my life.  Mostly just from going to having nothing, and living with people for 8 months that also have nothing to having everything!  Made me really reflect on how appreciative I am of things and how important it is for people to go on a mission and have these experiences so you can be humbled.  

I now live in a big house with 2 other missionaries which is quite an upgrade from where I last was living.  We all get along great and its fun at the end of a day after walking around forever to come home and just chill with 2 other guys instead of just your companion.  Sunday was pretty good.  The churchs here are HUGE!!  4 stories and everything.  These Utah mormons get everything!  Theres even a seventy coming to stake conference this week.  Apparently they have a 70 every time!  Crazy.  There are tons of members here and the wards try to keep us busy with people to teach but honestly....I have no idea why there are missionaries here....there isn't much of a need for them right now...especially 8.... 8 missionaries in a town of 4,000...ridiculous.  I am enjoying it though, and we are around the youth a lot and we answer a lot of questions about missions and stuff.  We take the young guys teaching with us to give them a taste of what its like (In my opinion, nobody has been a missionary until you have to deal with drunk people, or been out in the middle of nowhere for awhile).  Its fun here though and I am just taking it one day at a time trying to get used to white people again.  GO BRONCOS

Love Elder Christensen

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!!