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