Edwin is baptized!

Hello All!

Here is my weekly update!  Monday night was crazy as we found out that Elder Tsunoda, my kabahay/zone leader had become the new assistant! SO the Assistants were in a threesome, and so were me, Elder Hubbard, and Elder Antoni. So we had to share work in our respective area's this week until Friday when Elder Mosquera, the old assistant, became Elder Hubbard's temporary companion until transfers this Thursday.

SO! Tuesday the work was awesome. We worked in both areas and got 11 lessons combined on the day! The hard part about the day was when Sister Lina, an AWESOME investigator who is currently an active Seventh Day Adventist, has completely closed off her mind that the sabbath can be on any other day but Saturday, so that was really hard...but other than that it was a good day! Wednesday I went on exchanges in Dap Dap, an awesome town up in the mountains, with Elder Sanico!
He's super cool, and we had a blast! I gave an interview and had a spiritual experience where the spirit testified to me that they would indeed be ready by their baptismal date. 

Thursday I interviewed a candidate of Elder Hubbard’s, who is named YOLO FIESTA! Ok, its spelled Eulo, but it is pronounced YOLO FIESTA! He's a funny, bright nine year old, and he has the greatest party name ever. Afterwards we taught Elder Hubbard's investigator Matthew, a 16 year old Chinese kid that was adopted by a American Dad and Filipino mom from Minnesota.  He has the saddest story ever, and he is staying with his aunt here in the Philippines as a punishment by his parents. He is the humblest, nicest guy. He only speaks English, so we taught lesson one in English, which was nuts! He's totally open, and so cool!

 We had a ward home evening, which was so fun! 

Friday was just a pretty normal day actually. We taught a new family that Elder Antoni found when I was in Dap Dap, the Martin family, and they're really open! So that's cool! Saturday was great, not a whole lot of work though! We taught Vanessa, that girl I found last Sunday, and she is SO awesome and receptive!

We just taught a couple of lessons before EDWIN'S BAPTISM!!

It was so awesome, and I got to baptize him! He's such a goof, but he cried a bit during his testimony afterwards. It has been a small miracle to see him baptized, as he has been taught on and off by the missionaries for a year. It was beautiful to see his time come and I am so blessed that I was the instrument in the Lord’s hand that was able to witness it. And, afterwards I gave him his ice cream, as promised. 

Sunday was fun, as we got Nanay Norma going on preparing for her husband who is dead to be baptized for the dead, so they can be sealed in the temple as a family! We had a Stake missionary fireside that took a big part of our day out, but was highly attended and really good. We had a Dinner Appointment with the Venesuela family, and after our sharing portion they gave us five referrals!!!! SO aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome!!!

 Today we went to the Bataan Death March Memorial, which was way cool!

And yeah, that's all. Spiritual insight? Just that I love my Jesus, as Nephi said in 2 Nephi 33:6. He guides me and comforts me every step of my journey as a missionary. I love you all!

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Elder Christensen

Riding on the back of a jeepney--Yikes!

Mother's Day Skype!

Dear Family and Friends -

We were so happy to get to Skype with Brandon tonight.   He wasn’t  able to write an update this week because he has a set amount of time on the computer and skyping with us took a big chunk of that time.  So, I thought I would just fill you in on some of the things he shared. 

First of all, he looked and sounded GREAT!!! He is really loving his mission.  It is super hot and he is sweating constantly, but he is loving life!  His investigator Edwin is set to be baptized on May 17^th.  Edwin is married to a good, active member of the church, but until recently wasn’t too interested in the church.  But that has all changed and he is really growing in the gospel.  He is in Mosiah in his Book of Mormon reading.  He told Brandon and his comp that when he gets baptized they have to give him ice cream, so Brandon is bringing a tub of ice cream to his baptism.  He had grown really close to Edwin and his wife.

Brandon will be transferred a week from Thursday.  They only keep a trainer with their trainee for two transfers, so Brandon will be transferred.  He has really enjoyed Tarlac and he is sad to go, but he is excited for what is ahead.  I guess the ward that he serves in is planning a little farewell party for him for a ward activity this week.  Then the next transfer will only be 4 weeks, because then his mission president goes home and he gets his new president.

He says that when he is walking around, people say random things about him.  Like a mom with a child will say, “That’s your father”.  Or a girl will say to her friend, “That is my boyfriend”.  Filipinos often ask him if they can trade eyes with him.  They also ask if they can trade noses with him.  Isn’t that funny?

Oh, and he said that he is mailing us a package from the Philippines today.  It is for Glenn and I.  I can’t wait to get it.  And—I can’t really think of anything else--- but he was really happy and doing so well!

He did send me his weekly letter to his mission president, so I will include that here:

Dear President!

In another blink of an eye a week has come and gone. I am still loving my life, loving the people, loving this work, and loving the Lord. Yet again, I think Elder Antoni is brilliant. We had a night where I became frustrated because a few members were frankly wasting our time and there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it, and at the end of the night we fell just short of our goals that in my eyes were very attainable. During our nightly planning, my companion told me what I needed to here. He didn't coddle me like a parent and told me everything is going to be ok, as I probably would have preferred, but he told me what I needed to hear. He told me when that happens, maybe we can't help if members waste our time, but we can still help if we have the spirit with us. And it was true, I had driven the spirit away because of my impatience. He really did help me. He's so awesome. And he's super fluent in English, so that's a bonus because when I get frustrated Tagalog becomes hard for me. He is one amazing companion.

This week the work was good, and we had one experience that I would like to share. It's nothing crazy, but it shows that the Lord's hand is here. To make a long story short, me and a ward missionary were stuck, no appointments close by, and everyone we had tried was busy. I said a silent prayer in my head for guidance. I glanced over and saw a young woman in yellow. I felt I needed to talk to her, the feeling happened twice actually. So we did, and she readily let us in and we taught a 15 minute version of lesson 1 and set up a return appointment. She seems very interested and ready and willing to learn. She even asked if we were coming back! The Lord really does prepare people and lead us to them. It's amazing, this thing we call the Work of Salvation. Thank you so much for everything president!

Elder Christensen

I'm LOVING IT!

Hello All!

Well, just like that another week has gone by! And the work is moving forward! And I’m LOVING IT! Monday was pretty fun as me and Elder Antoni just kind of chilled with Elders Westover and Gemintiza all day as we did our various P-day errands. Tuesday was interesting. We went back to Sister Mina Castro, who is not doing well. Her and her mom kindly told us to come back next time. Her mom also mentioned how Mina was hardly eating her meals, which usually consist of meat and rice, and if she doesn’t go to the public market to work, they don’t have any other income for food. We mentioned how fruit and vegetables might be better, and asked if she liked that. She said she did, then we left. Me and my companion had the exact same idea, as we went directly to a little supermarket and bought some fruits and vegetables. We brought them back to Sister Mina, who seemed surprised and appreciative. I felt really good that morning, the spirit was ROCKIN. We had some good work in the afternoon, but that was definitely highlight of the day. Oh! And Sonny gave me this Spider-Man water bottle thing he got at Jollibee. It at changes color depending on the temperature of the contents, cool!

Cool Spiderman waterbottle Sonny gave him!

Wednesday we met a less active named Melanie, who lives in the slums, has the most darling little family, but her husband HATES Mormons and Mormonism. In fact, he hates anything but Catholicism and debates with any other religion. Last time she went to church, her husband didn’t come home for two weeks and they had to borrow food from neighbors. He’s ripped apart mga Book of Mormon, and threatened to leave if they go back to the church. We shared with her about the mighty change of heart Alma experienced, and she just has so much hope, saying stuff like, I wish this would happen to my husband, even if he would just listen to you guys one time. Which leads me to a little rant, as this is an international phenomenon: AWESOME LDS GIRLS AND WOMEN, WHY ON EARTH DO YOU GO AFTER ABSOLUTE SCUM?!?!?!? I don’t care if he’s a “bad boy”, this can ruin your life/salvation! AGH! Alright, moving on! 

Thursday we had Zone Training, where the topic was accountability and stewardship. At first I wasn’t feeling so great about myself as a missionary, as they were saying stuff like how we need to give our best all the time, because if we don’t, the sins of those we didn’t help but could have are on our heads. I was pretty worried, like what happens if I’m just not feeling it one day and I don’t do my best? Then as they started talking about it more and I thought about it what my Dad used to tell me every time before a swim meet when I was little: just leave it all in the pool.

Young Brandon "leaving it all in the pool"

I don’t really know why, but that really helps me to think about everyday as an all-out sprint to be the best missionary I can be, then return with honor every night to my Heavenly Father to report on what I’ve done. I love it! The past few days have been AWESOME with this new mindset! We talked to so many people on the street the past few days, and teaching more enjoyable, spiritual lessons—Oh! We had a small miracle! Elmer from the Canlas family during a lesson basically told us not to bother with them anymore, but after the closing prayer he was complaining how his legs were hurting because of boils I think? Anyway, we explained a priesthood blessing and he hurriedly asked for one. After the blessing his heart was softened and he said that they were going to church that coming Sunday. Yes!!! 

Friday was interesting, as we helped plant potatoes with one of our less actives before a lesson, helped proofread Arianne’s English for a student council assignment (she’s doing great by the way!), and a little kid upon seeing me asked his mom, “Mom, is that a human?” I laughed pretty dang hard. We had a good lesson with this teenager  Ralph as we’ve been helping him come back to church. You can just see a glow coming into his countenance! Same with Edwin, who will be baptized on the 17^th, you can tell that his testimony is growing! I LOVE IT! Saturday Sonny told us he was having a bit of a problem with his mom, but by Sunday he said it had been worked out. We taught Sister Lina and Jenive, who are our goals for baptism in June, and they are still very receptive, and both so intelligent! They just understand things the first time around! Sunday was good! Fast and testimony meeting is always fun! We had 4 investigators at church! The work was alright in the afternoon. I feel like we could have got at least one more lesson, but we got stuck at this one house for like an hour….oh well! Need to let it go! And we had a delicious dinner to break our fast with the Reyes family again, they are so nice! So yeah! Its super hot and super awesome in the Philippines, and I’m loving my adventure here!

Beautiful sunset!

--Elder Christensen

Thanks to every last person who pushed me to go on a mission- It's the best thing I've ever done!

Hey hey hey!

So! Just like that another week has gone by. A week of unbelievable heat coupled with random, super crazy thunderstorms!

Exhausted from the HEAT

It was an adventure many times this week! So, on Monday we had a Family Home Evening at the Bishop’s home where our two investigators who will be baptized in May, namely Edwin and April, attended, and a good time was had by all! Tuesday we had some good lessons, and saw some promise in some investigators…the highlight though was when I met Jenibe, an investigator that Elder Antoni found last week when we were on splits. She just moved into her very active cousin’s house, and she’s totally into the lessons. She’s got solid potential, and a great fellowshipper! Wednesday we had a district meeting where I helped throw a surprise party for my district mate, Sister Penales, as she just turned 21!

Happy Birthday Sister Penales!

We taught Edwin and April that day, and they’re both progressing right along! Neither of them have crazy strong testimonies yet, but they definitely are growing and keeping commitments! 

Thursday was kind of a rough day. One of our ward missionaries now has a job at a mall where he works every Sunday, and he was supposed to be getting ready for his own mission…dang. We visited him and he said he would try to fix his schedule. We spent an extraordinarily long time at a recent convert's house as he shared with us an incredibly detailed account of this bogus YouTube video about some South American’s “vision” of heaven and hell. After it was done, we doctrinally tore it apart.  The highlight of the day was when we taught Jenibe again, and she already felt a “different” feeling in answer to her prayer about our message (and her cousin was right there to tell her that was the Holy Ghost, fellowshippers are AWESOME!). We shared about the Book of Mormon and she accepted a baptismal invitation! 

Friday I interviewed one of the sister’s candidates. We taught a few other lessons, and taught our investigator Maria Cristina’s house mate, Ofelia, and challenged her to pray to know as well! Saturday we kind of had a rough day again, just not too many appointments. We did have a super awesome lesson with Sister Lina, where we taught Lesson 2. We planned on teaching just the first part, “Where do we come from?” But the spirit was rocking and we both felt we should teach the whole thing. She told us some of her biggest questions had now been answered, such as the ultimate fate of Satan and his angels! So that’s cool! She said she would come to church, but when Sonny swung by to pick her up, she had some excuses and just said next time…agh!!! Sunday my companion and I gave talks in Church. I felt that I needed to talk about God’s love, so I shared about that, focusing on 1 John 4. My companion talked about callings, and many people shared with us their approval of his talk! We had 100 in attendance, but only two investigators at church. I gave another interview after church, then we had splits so we were able to get some more lessons.  Sonny and I worked together, and we worked hard, fast, and efficiently! It felt good, as I felt sometimes we hadn’t pushed as hard as we could have this week. Among our lessons we taught Nanay Norma, who still has a strong desire to push her family to be sealed! And she’s still coming to church, so that’s good! And she wants us to come to the temple with her! I would LOVE that! I miss the temple so bad…We didn’t get to teach Ofelia, but I was able to speak with her long enough to follow up and find out she did have a feeling in her prayer about the Restoration! We ended the night teaching the Reyes’ niece who is staying with them for the summer Lesson 1, and had a fantastic dinner appointment there! I ate salmon! I haven’t had that in so long! It was a good way to end the week.

 

Teaching

At a teaching appointment...

And so now I’m here! I’m still enjoying the work!  Elder Antoni and I are laughing a lot and we’re seeing good things in the future! I love my life, love this work, and I want to thank every last person who ever pushed me to go on a mission; even though I didn’t know it at first, this is the best thing I’ve ever done. I couldn’t ask for more than this opportunity to serve here among this people.

May the Lord bless you all!

--Elder Christensen

Things are just looking great!

 Hello all!

So first of all, this week was phenomenally better than the last. Not that any of these problems seem to be going away, just that things are just starting to look a little better! And this week was CRAZY!!! And I want to try something different; I have some scriptures to go with my weekly letter! So first off, Hebrews 12:29 (For our God is a consuming fire.) IT IS SO HOT! I am literally dripping with sweat all the time, even in the evening when it would be nice and cool…nope, still sweating like crazy.

Next scripture: D&C 19:15-17 (Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I).  This is what I wanted to explain/yell at people this whole week. So it was “Holy Week” here, which apparently means a bunch of Catholics get together (against the will of their leaders and church) and say, “Hey, Jesus died this week some 2000+years ago, let’s all cover our faces, take our shirts off, wrap thorny vines around our head, and whip ourselves/carry around crosses in the streets, because, you know, it’s not like our sins and sufferings have been paid for, we’ve got to do this.”

It was seriously the most disturbing thing watching supposedly perfectly sane people walking down the street whipping themselves, blood everywhere…the whole nine yards. People kept telling me to take pictures…I didn’t even want to look! So I didn’t take pictures of the whipping, but I did of the crosses. At first I was just sad and disturbed, but it eventually turned into anger at the ignorance and traditions of their fathers. Kaya nga, I wanted to yell Helaman 13:29 (O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiff-necked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?) Sorry, needed to vent a little bit there!

The work was really good this week! We were able to get 46 lessons this week, which is pretty high up there for me! Tuesday we met Lina, a referral of Wilma Layug, our recent convert. Apparently they joined a Baptist church back in the day together. Anyways, SHE IS AWESOME! She is the nicest lady with three grandchildren that live with her. She has such a knowledge of the Bible, and she is totally open! She had been taught by missionaries back in the day, but they stopped coming…no one knows what happened there. She just loved the first lesson, and totally soaked in every word we said! She called our visit, “a little bit of heaven!” And for me, after last week, she was what Paul described in Romans 8:26.

Wednesday was Zone interviews, which was my third and last interview with President Martino. I love that guy so much; I’ll miss him when he leaves in June. He gave me tons of good advice, like receiving personal revelation through this guy!

Other highlights on Wednesday, we got our recent convert, Arianne, to commit to help one of our less actives, and it totally worked!  They both were together at church on Sunday! Thursday was just a solid day, good lessons, and Lina accepted a goal date for May, but she was a bit hesitant as she’s not sure if she’ll be ready. 

Friday I gave a baptismal interview to the Sister’s candidate in their area, and he was so awesome! He literally has gone to no belief in God to the strongest testimony of the atonement in two months! He did check yes to one of the three questions that require an interview from the mission president, so that was a bit crazy, but we got that all coordinated and it worked out.

I have another scripture to insert here: Moroni 45-47 ( And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail-- But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possess of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.)  So we’ve helped this one old lady, Norma, come back to church. She’s a little grouchy, drinks coffee occasionally and has one heck of a sense of humor. When we taught her on Friday I saw her in a whole new light. There’s always this one girl that’s hanging around her, Leah. She’s about my age, and I think she has fetal alcohol syndrome, for who anyone who is familiar with that knows it greatly hinders her brain processing, mouth filter, and general social behavior skills. I always assumed that she was just one of her grandchildren, because she has tons of family who lives in this little compound. Well, as it turns out, Leah is some random distant niece or something like that, who was left with Norma when she was 3 days old. Norma, in her old age, raised her, made sure she was baptized, and has loved and cared for her for more than 20 years. She could have said no, or shipped her away to some other relative, especially when it became evident her condition was not normal. Nope, she just showed charity. She may not be a perfect Latter-Day Saint, but she is a brilliant example of charity. That one moved me and Elder Antoni. 

Saturday was another good day, we were able to teach 7 lessons, and we worked really hard! Oh yeah, there’s this one little kid of a less active member that has been joining us in our work! He’s 8, and we really want him to be baptized.  He and his mom just need to come to church! He’s really cute, so I gave him a CTR ring (Thanks Mom!).  His name is Cedric and he reminded me a little bit of Christian, you know, just having a little brother. 

Sunday was SWEET! We had 95 people at church, and tons of less actives come!!! We got splits on Sunday as well. I worked with the Bishop’s son, CJ, who is preparing for a mission, and Sonny, while Elder Antoni worked with the ward mission Leader and a brand new RM. They had awesome success in finding TWO NEW FAMILIES who are totally open to the gospel message, just ready! We also had good lessons, one with Brother Edwin, who has stopped smoking cigarettes, and so he’s on track to get baptized the Saturday before I transfer out of here! And he really wants me to baptize him, so I hope I can do that. He’s so funny; he demands I give him ice cream before he gets baptized! We had some other good lessons, and ended with a dinner appointment, which was AMAZING.

We had a really fun zone activity this morning, which included Ultimate Frisbee but using a football. It was pretty much incredible. We also played basketball earlier, and had a water balloon fight after!

Zone Activity

And now, I’m here! I’m loving it, even though it’s crazy hot! And things are just looking great! I wake up excited every morning now, I love it!

Well, take care everybody!    

 -Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen eating adidas (chicken feet!)

A roller coaster week

Dear All!

This week…wow. Last week was SO awesome, and this week seemed to punch me in the stomach. Our first few days of work were not so hot, relatively few appointments from Tuesday to Thursday. Wednesday was transfer announcements, where there were lots of changes in the Zone. Almost everyone who is not a Sister Training Leader or a Zone leader is training now! Crazy! In other news around the mission, my trainer, Elder Lungay, just became a Zone Leader, as well as my good buddy Elder Armatage! And Sister Tuione, my batchmate, just became a Sister Training Leader! Super cool! Way excited for them! Thursday was transfers, and because the transfer point is in our area, we stopped by the church right before lunch. I got to see Sister Tuione for the first time since we arrived in the field! That was way exciting! I also saw many other friends, so that was fun. 

Elder Christensen with 3 of his batchmates

Thursday was actually a pretty good day I guess, as we had some good lessons, then a Ward Home Evening at the church to welcome home a missionary who just returned. It was lots of fun, and we were even able to teach one more lesson afterwards.

Ward party for a returning missionary!

Friday was my companion’s birthday. He’s 27!!!! Holy Cow! We had a district lunch at a restaurant called “Chic-boy”, which is a kind of funny pun in the Philippines. We also got him a cake, and sang, all that good stuff!

District birthday lunch for Elder Christensen's comp!

And the rest of the day was…rough. After being rejected and walking around for hours, we prayed and went to a house of a less active, who ended up being home. I had an impression to try to find the girl we met a few weeks back whose situation rocked me to the core. We found her house, but they were already asleep. Their neighbor said to come back in the morning. So Saturday morning, before conference, we went to them and shared the plan of salvation. I really thought it would help her or give her hope…but she didn’t seem to care too much. We explained about priesthood blessings as well, and despite the petition of her mother, she refused to have a blessing. Just seeing her in this condition and having her turn away…it was hard.

Conference was AMAZING! I loved all of the talks, if I could chose a favorite I would, but I honestly can’t. Elder Holland, Sister Reeves, Elders Anderson, Eyring, Scott, Hales Zwick, Cook, The ENTIRE PRIESTHOOD SESSION…I’m sorry it was all so good. However, in between the Saturday afternoon and priesthood session we were able to teach one lesson to a longtime investigator, who just this past week who turned out to commit a VERY grievous sin, which was really hard for us. All 5 sessions of conference, we didn't have one investigator come. 

Sunday after conference, members approached us and told us how they had evidence that one of our investigators had committed a fairly serious crime against them. Then as we went out to work, I had an asthma attack, and thankfully I had my inhaler. I was lightheaded, exhausted, and not feeling well the rest of the day where yet again, the lessons were very scarce. But there is one thing that I have a new testimony of: in D&C 84 it speaks of the Holy Spirit sanctifying unto the renewing of bodies. Even though I was lightheaded, exhausted, and overall not feeling well, when we were finally able to teach a couple of lessons in the evening, I felt rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit and I was back to feeling my normal self. It was a cool experience.

And that brings us to now! This week was a roller coaster if there ever was, and sometimes I felt like I was barely holding on. But I’m growing closer to my Savior every day, and what else can I really ask for?

 I love you all, and He lives!

--Elder Christensen

Saving Grace of the Galaxies

Hello All! 

Wow what a week it has been! This has easily been my favorite week this transfer, and it is all thanks to the Grace of The Lord which has attended our lives this week. The opposition hasn't lessened, but the spirit has increased! So at the start of things, Monday was good, I bought a football, so we have some fun P-days ahead of us here! The rest of P-day was good, though I did see posters for the Amazing Spider-man 2...oh well, first night when I get back! We had a dinner appointment with with the bishop's family that night, which was good. Tuesday, we had an awesome lesson with Sister De Jesus, a recent convert who has been struggling a 

lot, and has hid from us quite a few times. It was a super spiritual lesson, and my companion was simply on fire! He truly was an instrument in the Lord's hands in that lesson. We were able to teach a couple of less actives who usually hide from us, so that's good! Sometimes my mission is a giant game of hide and seek...oh well! 

Wednesday we had Mission/District Leadership council, which was absolutely awesome! It was all about grace, and I absolutely love that topic! President Martino gives the best workshops. We had good work that day, and met another less active teenager, who has some promise. Her name is Christina and we gave her a Book of Mormon, so that was something. Thursday we had Zone training meeting where we relayed the messages given during MLC/DLC to the zone, which went well, and afterwards we had Lechon Baboy...SO GOOD!!!! It's classic filipino style roast pig...awesome stuff! I also got TWO packages from my awesome Mom! Thanks!!! We're enjoying the easter candy already! Lessons were a bit scarce in the afternoon, but we had lots of contacts so that's cool! And we had an awesome dinner appointment with the De Jesus family! Lots of good food that day! The work was SWEET on Friday! I had a lesson in which I drew how the gospel is the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life. We taught Sister Arianne, who is still glowing from her baptism. We taught a less active who has returned, Norma Ho, who is in her seventies and really wants to be sealed to her family, but her less active kids couldn't care less...its sad, but she can still be sealed to her husband who died a ways back, so that's good! We taught April Roxas, who has a goal date for the 26th, and she is a waitress at a little resturaunt owned by members that we always eat at. We also taught Edwin, the husband of an active member, Sister She, and he is starting to progress! He said he felt the spirit in the lesson, wanted his own copy of the Book of Mormon, asked really good questions about the plan of salvation, and after the lesson we set a baptismal date and then they even started talking about a sealing about a year from now and whether or not I would be able to attend! Holy cow! We haven't been able to teach him since then, but he came to church and he has apparently been reading and has a lot of questions! So awesome! 

Saturday was a good day, Sonny worked with us! And speaking of which, he told me he found this blog...so Hi Sonny! Oh- for the first time in my life, I felt like I was literally filled with the spirit of prophecy! We were in a lesson with Nanay Soriano, a 70+ recent convert who hasn't been to church in a while, and she was telling us about how she can't walk to church anymore. While she was talking, I felt the spirit so strong multiple times tell me to promise her that if she would use her faith and go to church, she would be able to walk to church and it wouldn't hurt. She didn't seem to believe me though, even though I promised her it was coming from the spirit. And lo and behold, she didn't come to church. I know she didn't try, because if she did she would have been able to make it. Our last appointment on Saturday night was sad, as we taught the Bonus family and they informed us that they are being forced to move out of the house they've been renting, because the owner needs it for his family. They will be moving to a different part of Tarlac, in a different area, so I won't be able to be there for their baptism...dang. But I'm sure the Sisters there will take care of them and see them all the way to baptism. 

Sunday was good, as our Sacrament attendance is up to 93! That's improvement! We had pretty good work, as we had help coming from Brothers Sonny and Ryan, our ward mission leader. We taught mostly less actives, but we taught one investigator that had a 1 year old nephew die suddenly this past week. She has been taught the Plan of Salvation before, but we reviewed it and shared from section 137 how all small children who die are saved in the celestial kingdom. We had another fantastic dinner appointment with the Reyes family, who are always so nice to us missionaries. This morning I gave our bathroom the cleaning of the lifetime, which was very satisfactory. We have a Family Home Evening scheduled with a member who has lots of less active teenage neighbors, who hopefully will join as we invited them last week, so that should be fun. So yeah, right now I'm loving my mission, loving my life, everything is pretty much great! I love you all, I love my Savior, and there's no other place I'd rather be!

Nagmamahal,

Elder Christensen

I should have brought more Pepto-Bismol...

Hey Everybody!

So this week was different...everything started out good! We had good lessons on Monday night and a fairly good day on Tuesday as well, but Tuesday night I just was feeling super tired and not so good. I didn't think I had eaten anything bad, but boy was I wrong. Wednesday I woke up with a fever and migraine headache...not too much fun. I was in bed all of Wednesday until Wednesday night when I started throwing up and other things, so at that point I started my diet of toast, apples, and bananas to try to set at bay whatever I had eaten...

Thursday was battling my stomach in the bathroom all day while still fighting a fever...Friday the fever left but the stomach problems remained...and Saturday my stomach still wasn't perfect but we had a baptism to get to!

So the one highlight this week was that Arianne Bernardo was baptized!!!! It was so awesome, she was just glowing afterwards, as they all do. And she's totally getting involved with the church; she wants to go to Youth Conference next month! She's super solid!

Arianne gets baptized!!!

Oh And Sonny Layug has gone out and worked with us 2 more times. All he wants to do is work! Super solid! So, so far the recent converts are staying strong! The work on Saturday was good as well, but that wasn't even close to the highlight. 

Sunday was a hard day, as I still wasn't totally feeling good, and the lessons were few and far between. But we had a dinner appointment that was super nice. I love solid active families in the church; the spirit is just so strong in their homes! And that brings us to now! Hopefully we will be having two baptisms coming up this month, so the work will go forward! No weapon formed against us will prosper, even a really upset stomach!

Love you all!

--Elder Christensen

Here is Arianne’s conversion story that he emailed me:

Group shot at Arianne's baptism

 So she, first of all, was a tender mercy that came when I got here. As you know, we had NO progressing investigators when I got here, but we worked hard and good things started happening! She was a referral coming from an assistant, Elder Olsen. He met her at a ward home evening that their ward had. Arianne's Grandpa, a strong member, was about to move to America so he invited all of his family to this activity and there he bore powerful testimony about the plan of salvation. Arianne was moved by it, even though she's only 14. She talked with Elder Olsen, who then referred her to us. We taught her at her grandma's house, who is a member. She is SO smart, like you tell her something once and she can recall it just like that a month later. It was a bit of a struggle to be able to teach her for a while there, because she was so hardworking with her studies (she's one of the top students in her high school). When Andrew Layug (Sonny’s brother) became ineligible to be baptized, that’s when Arianne started coming to church! Before her interview, we taught her three lessons in one sitting because we hadn't been able to teach her in about a week and a half before that! But it all worked out, and she's just awesome! She reminds me a lot of Anna because she is so tall for her age/gender/nationality! So yeah!

Elder Christensen with his new convert, Arianne

Darkness and Light

Dear All!

Well, just like that it’s been another week! It’s been an incredible one, moments of real darkness and moments of pure light. Let’s start at the top! Tuesday was kind of rough. We met the Layug Family’s neighbor, a faith healer who is blind and knew a lot about Joseph Smith but says she’s never met with the missionaries…I don’t know, I felt like I wasn’t fully prepared for that day, and that ultimately it slipped through our fingers and we didn’t work as hard as we could have.

 Wednesday the work was absolutely awesome! We taught one recent convert, Jessica, at the Plaza again, where we had tons of OYMs, so that was really fun. We were able to teach 8 lessons, and they went really good. It was such a good day until the evening. Me and my comp got into an argument of sorts about just the stupidest things…we were in our room until 11 at night, and then we ate dinner and went to bed. In the morning we both had humbled ourselves a bit and it was all good. We taught Maria and then her husband/live in Roldan, and they’re either going to get separated or married soon here, and she keeps saying hopefully before I transfer out in May.

Later that afternoon Sonny Layug told us that he had encountered Joseph Smith and polygamy on the internet…of course, the week of his baptism. We talked about it for a while there, but it ultimately came down to if he had prayed to know the truth. He said he had, and he had prayed the night before to know what to do and he felt he should go through with his baptism. We bore witness that that was of God, and he was a bit more at peace about things. We had a few more lessons, but right before we went home we ran into Brother Jericho, a 14 year old less active. He’s a bakla. I don’t know if I’ve said much about baklas yet. It literally means gay, but not in the way we think of it back home. If you’re gay here, you often change your name (he hasn’t, but many do), grow your hair out like a girl, and dress like a really skanky girl, short shorts, low cut shirts, makeup…the whole nine yards. Anyways, we taught him and his other bakla friend right there on the path. He says he’s willing to change and come back, just “step by step.” 

Friday…oh man. Friday we taught this recent convert who is also less active tatay, and he’s just been giving excuse after excuse, and basically I just didn’t take it anymore. I bore down straight, not sugarcoated doctrine, and it pierced him, I saw it in his eyes. I feel like I was a bit harsh, but he didn’t give any more excuses. Later we got Arianne ready for her baptismal interview on Sunday.

That night, I had a life changing moment. In the ghetto of our area, we stopped this one lady who told us about her daughter. This daughter was with her, but had gone ahead. This daughter has diabetes and cancer, and a crippling infection in her left foot. We ended up catching up with this girl, who was using a stick to hobble along with. Her foot was wrapped in dirty bandages. I asked her name, and she replied Mina Castro. She said she was 24, but she looked and sounded 13. Her left eye was fogged over. We asked if we could share a message of hope that could help her sometime, and she said she didn’t know, as she’s at the market with her mom every day. We gave her a pamphlet, and I walked away and just cried. I had to sit down on a little bamboo bench and I bawled. It was the single saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I was really shaken up. How can I ever complain about anything? How could anything possibly be hard for me in this life? I vowed there never to complain again…My spirits were really down, I was just so sorrowful for this one precious daughter of God who has been dealt an extremely unfair hand in this life. We later found out that they don’t have any transportation to the market, so they just walk the kilometer or so twice a day 7 days a week. Me and Elder Antoni cried a lot that night.

But the ultimate tender mercy came the next day when Sonny and Wilma Layug were baptized. It was a beautiful service, and it was a great reminder that while darkness is definitely real, so is light, and it’s our privilege as missionaries to help others receive this light in their lives. 

Baptism of Sonny and Wilma Layug

On Sunday they were confirmed, and Arianne passed her interview, so her baptism is next Saturday, which is perfect, because she’s going to the Mountain Province for summer break for two months, so if she was going to be baptized it’s now or never! It was awesome to see God’s plan for her come together. 

On Sunday afternoon Sonny worked with us, which was awesome, as he multiple times opened his mouth to testify, and the Holy Ghost justified his words. The gift of the Holy Ghost is real; I saw it in Brother Sonny yesterday. He told me he just had the words come to him and he felt like he needed to say them. It was awesome, and that was a great highlight to end my week on.

Sonny goes out with them to teach and testify

Darkness is real, suffering and sorrow are real, but they aren’t permanent. All that is unfair and unjust will ultimately be made right by Jesus Christ. He is the light, and I saw the Light triumph over darkness this week.

--Elder Christensen

 

Brandon w/ an investigator's baby

Sonny and Wilma Layug get baptized

All the convert baptisms that day

A spider eats a cockroach on his bathroom floor