Buckle Up!

Hey family and friends. So first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! Everyone in the world says that they have the best mom in the world, but it turns out everyone else in the world is lying. Thanks for taking on a job way harder than Rock Canyon and UVU--motherhood. You're awesome!

WARNING: This is a long letter but I promise it's worth it!  A little bit more about the area.  The part of our area we work in is all Latino and Chinese.  The northern part of our area is mostly white.  I haven't really been up there much.  The part of our area that we spend all our time in is small enough that we can walk the whole time. It's soooo much better than biking!!

So this week we had one of the coolest stories I've had in a while so buckle up.  So we met this guy named Santiago.  We were heading to a set appointment that we had at 11:00.  That doesn't happen very often because usually everyone leaves super early to go to work.  So as we are walking to our appointment, this guy starts talking to us on a street corner.  After talking to him a little bit, we can tell that he is a little bit drunk.  One of the first things that he said was, "I would like to get involved with your church group."  So now with him being a little drunk, we were thinking, "alright, is he serious?" Sensing that the conversation might take a while, we started walking with him toward our appointment.  Turns out that he lived on the same street as our appointment.

So we talk with him for about 10 minutes as we are walking. He tells us that he wants to give up drinking.  He said that as he was walking around that morning he was specifically looking for somebody that could help him change his life. (for those that have watched District 2, this guy is totally like Eric)  We get his number and his address and tell him that we will stop by after the lesson we had on that same street.  So we go to the appointment and they weren't there.  So we go back to Santiago and talk for a bit.  We showed him the Because of Him video and gave him the Restoration pamphlet to read when he was in a better condition.  Seeing as we were going to be helping him stop drinking, we realized that we would need to drop by fairly consistently.  We thought that as we did that, he would have the needed support and we would also be able to find out if he was serious about quitting or not.

So this first lesson happened on Wednesday and we set up a return appointment for the next day.  Thursday, he shoots us a call about 2 hours before our lesson to make sure that we were still coming.  When we showed up, he was a little bit drunk again.  He told us that he called his family and told them all that he was now Mormon. We introduce him to the LDS Family Services program to help people fight addictions and invite him to read the first step.  We set up a lesson for Friday.  He wasn't there for the appointment.  A lady there said that he was probably at the convenient store on the corner.  So we go there and we found him with a group of drunks and everybody except for him were getting a little violent with each other, so we kept our distance.

We give him a call on Saturday evening to drop by and he said that he would be there.  We find him sober!  He said he had some beer in the morning, but in the lesson he essentially said, "I'm sick of this. I'm quitting drinking."  We invite him to church and set a baptismal date for July 20.  We told him that we would swing by and walk with him to the bus stop and ride the bus with him.  He calls us 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet up to make sure we were still coming. We get to our meeting spot and he's totally sober. He said that he slept awfully because of the problems with withdrawals but he was excited to go to church.  We get to church and the whole time he is talking about how good he felt there.  San Gabe is super good at saying hello and welcoming unfamiliar faces.  He told all of them that he will keep coming and that he is meeting with the missionaries and the missionaries are helping him to change his life.

Then we go by him last night to follow up on church a bit more.  He said he loved it and he wants to keep going with everything. He still hasn't had anymore drinks.  He's doing super well!  At this rate, we will probably have his baptism much sooner than July 20th.

So there's the miracle of the week.  Hope you all are recognizing all the awesome things that God does in your lives everyday.  As we look for his hand in our lives, we will find it.  As a result our gratitude and trust in God will inevitably increase.

Love you all!
Elder Christensen

2 Crazy Stories This Week

Hello family and friends.  So today was the official transfer day. Elder Febbo went home.  He was definitely one of the most influential people in my mission so far.  My new companion is Elder Vasquez.  He was already here in San Gabriel.  His area is getting replaced with sisters considering the steady increase in sister missionaries. He's got about  8 months in his mission. He's from Washington.  He was one of the first trainees that came into our zone when I was first zone leader.  It'll be super sweet.  We're going to play tennis today.

Alright, so I don't think I said much last week about the families we are currently teaching.  First, we have the Lopez family.  The mom was contacted on the street.  In the conversation, she said that her husband's name was Nefi (Nephi in Spanish).  So Elder Febbo grabs his Book of Mormon and says, "like this?" Ya like that.  So ya, he's a member.  He currently doesn't want to talk to us.  He hides whenever we come over, but his wife said that he's fine with us talking with them.  So the mom is being kind of lazy, but her kids are doing really well. Nancy (20) and Jackie (10) have come to church the last two weeks.  Brian (18) can't come to church until school is out because of some conflicts with work.  Brian is in 2 Nephi.  We are planning on having their baptism at the end of June.

Then the other family that we are teaching is the Juarez family.  The dad, Jesus, is less active.  His two daughters, Alexis and Ruby haven't been baptized.  Jesus is a single dad and he is doing an awesome job. There are some slight issues with work schedules and church so they haven't come to church in a while.  We are getting to the point that we have taught them just about everything and now they just need to start coming to church.

So now, the 2 crazy stories this week.  So each transfer, the group of missionaries going home bear their testimonies and all members and investigators are invited.  Missionaries are allowed to attend with their recent converts and/or their investigators. After the testimonies each time, President and Sister Becerra share a few thoughts.  So, all the missionaries finished their testimonies, then Elder Hoover (Assistant) gets up and says, "Now we will be favored with a special musical number by David Archuleta." Whaaat? Ya.  He sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and he does not need any technology to enhance his voice. Wow!!... (No Emmy, I didn't get an autograph)

Now this story was potentially more crazy.  We go by a former investigator on Saturday and his teaching record said that he wanted to be baptized, but he decided not to be baptized because his wife didn't want anything to do with the church.  We show up and he said it had been about a year since the missionaries had dropped by. He goes back inside his house and brings out a stack of all the missionary pamphlets and also his Book of Mormon and a Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price combo.  At this point, we are thinking "wow." It gets crazier.  He hands us the Restoration pamphlet and starts tell US the first vision word for word.  He got about 90% right.  We were stunned.  He said that he knew all this was true, but that he wants there to be unity between him and his wife regarding church.  Since she wasn't budging at all on coming to our church, he has kept going to her church.  Any suggestions on that one?

So when I came here to be Elder Febbo's companion, he was having a rough time with some stuff at home and his companion.  President told me to help him end his mission on a high, and I think we did it for sure.  We were able to see a lot of the changes that had happened in each other and it was cool to see that.

So ya, that's my week.  Hope you all are loving life!  Congrats on being done with high school, Emmy!

Elder Christensen


Tanner's response to mom's questions regarding his new area, comp, bishop, etc....

Northern El Monte is nice-ish.  Most of El Monte is super Latino and not nice.  We have a pretty good area.  We live in a perfect spot.  It's mostly Chinese and Latino. Elder Vasquez should be super good.  He could easily train or be district leader after this transfer.  I'm no longer zone leader nor district leader.  Just a regular joe. The bishop is fantastic! He's in his lower 30s and is the essence of charity.  He prefers English but goes to Spanish to help out the people.  His family comes from El Salvador but he was born here.  The ward itself is struggling a bit.  There is not much priesthood nor is there must collaboration between missionaries and ward members (minus the bishop).  We have the Elders Quorum President in our area, so we will start working with him a lot more. All packages and letters should be sent to the office now.  My actual release day is Sept 30.  With Elder Febbo, I had a lot easier time having fun.  But that's just because of who he is.  Elder Vasquez just turned 19, so it'll be a bit of an adjustment considering Elder Febbo is almost 22. As far as living situation back home, I haven't thought that far. I don't really want to get home and move right back out.  Maybe a month or two later? I don't know.  I'll start thinking, I guess. :)

Game Changer

Hello family and friends. Ready for this? Game changer...I got TRANSFERRED! That makes my third "emergency" transfer (transferred at a time other than regular transfers) to fulfill some kind of need in the mission (for brevity, I will refer to it as ET).

So let's look at my history for a second. I started my mission in the Bel 2 Ward (East LA). After 4 months, I got ETed to the Fletcher Ward (Glendale) to open a new area with Elder Smith. After 7 months, I got ETed to the Arroyo Ward (Lincoln Heights) to fill the empty spot left by the death of one of our missionaries. After 4 months, I got a normal transfer to the Pomona Ward (Pomona). And now, after about 2 months, I got ETed to the San Gabriel Ward (San Gabriel) to fill the empty spot left by an elder who went home early for medical reasons. San Gabriel is back in the East Los Angeles Stake. Now, wait for this one...My companion? Elder FEBBO! Now just as a refresher, Elder Febbo and I were companions for 3 months when we were in the Arroyo Ward (Lincoln Heights). I have been in this area since Thursday morning and Elder Febbo leaves for home at the end of this week (normal transfer time). I will have had a total of 10 days to learn the area and everything. We've been having a lot of fun.

We are focusing on two different families. Two of the daughters of one of the families came to church for the first time yesterday. They are pretty awesome. There is a pretty similar feel in my new area as there was in Lincoln Heights. Like Lincoln Heights, it's a part of the mission that hadn't been touched very much.

Sorry I don't have tons of time. Thanks for all your love and prayers!

Elder Christensen

An Invitation

Hello family and friends!  

 

It was so cool to SEE my family yesterday (through Skype... I promise I'm obedient).  I love how my friend Aaron described it.  It's like the year-and-a-half time gap we've been apart disappears and we feel like we never left.  It doesn't feel to me like we have been apart that long, but maybe my family wouldn't agree with that one :)

 

I had an interesting study this morning.  I was reading about Abinadi and at the end of Mosiah 17, it explains how his testimony was sealed with his blood.  I then thought about all the antichrists in the Book of Mormon.  When death was facing them, all of them denied what they were saying.  Yet prophets like Abinadi, Alma, Amulek, John the Baptist, and Joseph and Hyrum Smith didn't back down even though threats of death were present.  I thought back to Elder Holland's "Safety for the Soul" talk.  

 

He said,

"Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

 

There are two zones in our stake.  The other set of zone leaders is teaching perhaps one of the most prepared investigators ever.  He knows Hebrew, Greek, Italian, English, and is now working on Spanish.  He is going to the Spanish ward in El Monte because he is engaged to a member there.  He has been studying LDS.org for the last 6 months and just showed up at church one day saying, "I want to be baptized."  Now, the reason I bring this up.  So this guy is super smart and very well read.  His father is even more refined.  At the moment, he is against his son getting baptized because he is still under the impression that it is a cult.  This soon-to-be convert said to his dad, "Set aside everything negative you have heard about the church.  Now you cannot honestly tell me that you believe that the Book of Mormon could have been written without the power of God."  His dad didn't have any words to respond.  The conversation ended there.  And that's because there is no worthy, logical response.  The Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I have loved coming to see how the Book of Mormon really is the keystone of our religion.  There is no way to tear it apart.  For that reason, the Book of Mormon accompanied with the Spirit make up the most powerful tool for conversion.

 

I think too often, we think about conversion as what happens in the lives of investigators.  They switch from one church to another, therefore they convert.  Paraphrasing Elder Bednar, testimony is to know what is true and conversion is to be true to what you know.  We are all still working on our personal conversion as we continually strive to be true to what we know.  The best tool to help us get there? The Book of Mormon.  President Becerra invited all of us to read the Book of Mormon before President Villanueva gets here July 1st, so the Book of Mormon has been on my mind a lot recently.  I invite you all to take your scripture study one step further, whatever that step may be.  I recently read a talk by Elder Bednar from a CES fireside called, "Reservoir of Living Water."  I recommend that you all check that out if you feel stuck in your studies.

 

I love you all and I KNOW that this is the only church that has any power to save us from the consequences of sin.  And I KNOW that "in the ordinances, the power of Godliness is manifest."  I love you all and invite you all to take your conversion one step further.  A prayer that will always be answered is asking our Father, "Father, what do I need to give up to better know thee?"  This is my invitation. 

 

Thank you for all the love and support! Till next week.

Elder Christensen

2 Little Miracles

Hey friends and family.

So this week we had two pretty sweet things happen.

First, Omar got the Aaronic Priesthood!  He specifically asked bishop to give it to him (hurray for member friends!)  This upcoming week we will be talking to him a bit about passing the sacrament then in a few
more weeks we get him blessing the sacrament.  Sulema (the wife) bore her testimony in church.  I don't know if I mentioned this, but she bore her testimony the day of her baptism at the pulpit.  She is fearless.  The ward is doing a baptisms for the dead trip next week and we need to get the Lopez family ready to go!  We found out
yesterday that Sulema's mom died after giving birth to her, so she never met her.  We really hope we will be able to get all the information needed to help her be baptized for her!  So ya, they are still doing super awesome.

Next, we found a part-member family not on the ward list this week. This is probably my favorite type of people to work with.  So the mom, Vicky, was baptized about 20 years ago.  She was attending the El Monte ward which is about 20 minutes from where we are.  She then started moving around a lot to avoid some death threats and in the process she lost contact with the church.  3 months ago, she met a member of our ward, Carol.  She didn't know that Vicky had been baptized.  Now, we'll rewind a second.  Last week, we started teaching one of Carol's friends at her house.  We set a return appointment for Tuesday morning. On Monday, the friend cancels the return appointment through Carol, but she forgets to tell us.  So we show up and are initially disappointed not to find her there.  But Vicky was there. Carol was doing some stuff in the kitchen so she told Vicky that she
should sit down and talk to us for a second (Carol at this point still didn't know that she was already a member). We start talking and she has forgotten most of what she had learned before, but never forgot how she felt.  She has a 9 year old daughter Terry that we are now teaching and she is the sweetest, most prepared 9 year old ever. They came to church yesterday and loved it.

The work is picking up in our area!  We were able to hit the standard of excellence in every category this past week. We're having a good time.  Hope that all of you are well.

Invitation:  I get home at the end of September.  For all those that read this email, I invite you to look for 1 person to bring into the church or back into to the church.  If you are needing some ideas to get started, check out Elder Ballard's talk from Oct 2013 conference. When I get home, I would love to hear your stories!

Love you all!

Elder Christensen

NOTE: When I asked Tanner if he was for sure coming home on the September transfer instead of the November one (because his 2-yr mark is in October), he said he'd love to ask for an extension, but it's highly unlikely he'd get it. He said no one is getting them. I didn't tell him this, but I am totally okay with that!  :)   ...4 1/2 months and trying not to count!!  :)  

Thank you all for your love and support for Tanner!

--Sheila

Week 73

Hello family and friends.  This week was an exciting one in our zone. We have a district in our zone that has been pegged as one of the two wards that nobody wants to go.  Last year, this ward had (I think) 2 baptisms. This weekend, they had 3, bringing this year’s total to 5!

Another cool story.  I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous letter, but at the beginning of March when I first got to this area, Pomona had not had a baptism in 3 months.  President came to our zone meeting and asked us, "Why isn't Pomona baptizing."  Our district leader had been in the area for 6 weeks and had had the assignment of district leader for 4 days.  Every companionship had just changed 4 days earlier.  We have seen everything change here in Pomona.  In the last 30 days, we have had 7 baptisms in this ward and every companionship has baptized.  We aren't dealing with thousands like Ammon and Alma, but we're on the right track :)

We had interviews on Tuesday.  President did something a little different with our companionship.  He brought all 3 of us in and we talked about planning.  Here's how the conversation went down:

President: "Who's one of your progressing investigators?"
Us: "Rosario."
President: "What is the biggest thing that you could see getting in the way of her getting baptized?"
Us: ...pause... "Not understanding that this church is Christ's church and not some other church."
President: "Good. Good. Very insightful.  Now, what have you done about that?"
Us: ...pause... "Uh. Well. Nothing yet."
President: "So I'm not picking on ya, but you're telling me that the Spirit has told you what this lady needs and you haven't done anything yet?  So what are you going to do?"

It sounds harsh, but he did it with so much love.  He amazes me.  He told us that we are doing well.  As a mission, baptisms are up.  Now this newer focus on planning is going to take us to the next level. This upcoming Mission Leadership Council he told us that we will be looking at the mission effectiveness report (or whatever it's called) and setting goals and making plans to hasten the work.

These last two transfers, I feel like I have been learning so many life lessons.  Working with different types of people, the power of a unified vision, the power of planning, and acting on those plans.  As described by my good friend Elder Andrew Woodruff, who is finishing his mission this upcoming week, the mission is the Disciple Training Center.  I'm so grateful to be here.

To close, here's an update on the Lopez family.  Last week, the Lopez family did not come to church nor to a church activity that we had. We talked with them Saturday night and we asked them if they have felt any kind of a difference this past week. They all said that they felt empty. We explained again the importance of the sacrament. They committed to come to church the next day and asked us to give them a call to help them be on time for the sacrament. They came 5 minutes before the meeting started (the earliest they have ever been). We stopped by for a quick visit after church. We asked them how they felt. They said that they feel normal again. I am so grateful that they now have an increased testimony of the importance of church and it was really the Spirit that taught them everything.

Love you all!
Elder Christensen

NOTE: I asked Tanner what they do to involve the members with the investigators/new converts. This was his reply:

In the ward I'm in right now, we have a monthly FHE as a ward where it is encouraged for people to bring their nonmember friends.  We also make a huge push to get our current investigators there.  Also, every week the members of our ward get together to play volleyball.  This is a tradition that has been going for a long, long time. We usually have around 30-40 show up so we end up rotating who is and isn't playing.  When we aren't playing in the games, we are introducing our investigators and less actives to the active members.  We think that this had a HUGE role in the Lopez family's social conversion.  Also, we are working with a prospective elder that hasn't been active for 7 years.  He has had a blast the last two weeks at volleyball and he came to church yesterday.  On his way out, he said, "I'm surprised how many people still remember me."

 

So ya, that's what we have done.  We haven't really started anything new, but we have made an effective use of what was already in place. 

Love you!

"Because of Him"

So this was my first full week with my new trio.  We did pretty well this week in every category except for sacrament meeting.  We found 9 new investigators which is the most I've had in a while. It was good to get back in the groove.  Elder Williams has been helping a lot.  We had 6 people lined up to come to church and none of them came... lame sauce. 

It was so cool seeing the "Because of Him" video "light up" Facebook.  All of the members that saw it loved it.  We ended up teaching Gospel Principles yesterday with the topic of Easter.  We showed the Bible video that came out last year called, "He is Risen."  We started talking about the Easter story and why all of that was a big deal.  We tore apart Alma 7:11-14.  Then we watched "Because of Him" to close.  It was a very spiritual meeting.  Too bad that there weren't many investigators.  We'll do better this next week.

I want to share a bit of what I have come to better understand while being here on the mission.  That is the example Christ gave while passing through all that was required to fulfill the Atonement.  As His suffering in Gethsemane was approaching, Jesus said that he was "sorrowful unto death."  He partially comprehended that what he was about to go through would stretch him like nothing that He, or any other human, had ever or could ever experience.  In more modern English, He essentially said to the Father, "Father, I know that you can do anything. I know you have all power.  Please let there be some other way."  And then, he starts his next phrase with the word that has become one of the most significant words for me found in the Bible, "nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."  To quote Elder Holland, "This is the Living Son of the Living God saying, 'isn't there some other way?' And for Him there wasn't."  

So when we are called to pass through our personalized trials, we are often tempted to ask if there is any way that we could get out of it.  We ask for the bitter cup to pass.  But the answer from our Father sometimes will be the same as it was for Christ.  God does not leave the salvation of His children to chance.  Everything that we pass through has been calculated perfectly to give all of God's children the best chance for salvation.  So when we are called to drink our much smaller versions of a bitter cup, we can know that there is always a purpose.   In these moments when we ask ourselves if God's love has ceased, in fact it is often being demonstrated in ways that we are often unable to recognize.

I can't remember who said this, but there was a quote that I heard this week that went, "If the New Testament ended with the death and burial, there would be no good news."  Christ's triumph over death forged the possibility of a brighter future.  Because he lives, we will all live again.  We have the promise that we will overcome our trials and weaknesses.  We have the promise that no bitter cup is bottomless.  Because he lives, all that is unfair will be made fair. 

Elder Maxwell said, "If it is also true (in some way we don't understand) that the cavity which suffering carves into our souls will one day also be the receptacle of joy, how infinitely greater Jesus' capacity for joy, when he said, after his resurrection, “Behold, my joy is full.” How very, very full, indeed, his joy must have been!"  Someday, we too will experience this fullness of joy.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ is essential to our salvation and our eternal happiness.  All these things are made possible because of him.

I hope that you all had a fantastic Easter.  I thank you all for your love and your prayers.

Elder Christensen