Hello All!
The fastest week yet by a long shot! I cannot believe I’m
sitting down to a computer again. On Tuesday I
felt a little sick, and it must have been something I ate, but it wasn’t too
bad. We still got some good work done that day!
Wednesday was sweet! We, as a district, all had pizza after our
district meeting, which was way fun! I realized that we hadn’t challenged quite
a few of our investigators to baptism, and there really was no reason not to.
So I think I challenged four people to baptism on Wednesday? I
don’t know, it was fun though! And they all accepted and wanted to be baptized,
even though a few didn’t want to set a date. I also tried squid that day! It
was alright, super salty. It ranks somewhere around raw broccoli in terms of tastiness.
On Thursday Brother Jeff got home
from his mission in San Pablo mission, and joined Elder Lungay and I in
proselyting. He said he wants to work with us more, which is totally good with
us! That day we taught one lesson that stood out was when we had an
investigator tell us she totally believed all we had taught, but that she is
just waiting for that feeling of the Holy Ghost to confirm it to her. It was
interesting. It’s the opposite problem
we usually have!
On Saturday…Saturday was just a weird day! Even though
pretty much everything was a fiasco organizational wise, we were able to
baptize Oscar Esteban. He was an investigator of 5 months, and it’s been a long
journey for him. The next day at church he just looked so clean. He really
wants his wife to be baptized, and she comes to church every week, but she is
just slower to accept our message.
 |
| Elder Christensen, Elder Lungay and their new convert, Oscar Esteban, who was baptized on Saturday! |
Later, I had to deal with some Elders who
were perfectly ok with blowing off work for a couple hours until we had a set
appointment at six. That was frustrating, but literally the zone leaders
happened to be walking down the street and they helped me out.
Later on that night, I taught the most frustrating and
most difficult lesson of my whole mission. I was going to lead the lesson with
this less active family. As I started, they started laughing at my Tagalog,
which is pretty normal. I apologized for my lack of knowledge, but they still
didn’t stop laughing. Even the dad, who is usually a stern man, was laughing at
me. I started to get discouraged. I kept teaching, and it just got worse. I
tried to tell my companion to take over, but he didn’t understand me. I kept
going until I asked my companion to explain a passage, then I just stopped
talking. I couldn’t say a word or even look up without them laughing at me, so
I just sat there. I was very frustrated. However, when I took the sacrament the
next day, all my frustrations just seemed to go away. There is great power in
the sacrament, never forget that. Also, I then felt more love from the ward
members and fellow missionaries, more so than I ever have in my mission, the
rest of that day. It’s amazing how the Lord tries us before the blessings come.
I am so happy to be a missionary. We have so many
investigators with potential for baptism, and I pray that the spirit may touch
their hearts and turn them to Christ and the saving ordinances of his Gospel.
Lastly, I would like to make a request to all who email
me: DO NOT TALK ABOUT CONFERENCE NEXT WEEK! I can’t see it for another week,
and I would rather just experience it like everyone else.
I love you all, I pray for you, and thanks, as always, for
your support as I continue this adventure here in the Philippines!
--Elder Christensen
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