A new companion and a great week!

August 18, 2014

Hello one and all!  I hope everyone is doing good back home.  Well, this week was a bit crazy!  Monday night we had a fun Family Home Evening where we got our faces covered in charcoal. 

Tuesday we had our last district meeting, but we didn’t find out the transfer announcements until Tuesday night.  Tuesday was spent running around teaching our last lessons to our favorite people.  We also taught Marcos’s son Dio, who is SO receptive and wants to come to church…but he has to work on Sunday, because he is Marcos’s sub when he goes to church.  It’s ok though.  He’s so ready and it will work out!  Tuesday night we found out Elder Paredes was transferring and that Elder Anasario would be my new companion, which I was excited for! 

Elder C with new comp, Elder Anasario!

He was in my zone in Tarlac, and he was my friend and Elder Westover’s trainer!  He’s so cool and humble and SO NICE!  Wednesday was spent packing and going to Cabanatuan for transfers.  Elder Williams and his family stopped by the house, as they picked him up from his mission.  Fun preview ;). 

Elder Williams stops by

And on the bus going to Cab... Argh-they showed The Amazing Spiderman 2!  I kept my head down over an hour in that bus so that I wouldn’t watch. That was the worst. 

Head down on the bus to avoid seeing movie...

But we ate at McDonalds that night so it was ok.

 Transfers on Thursday were crazy—new zone leaders- double foreigner companionships- amazing zone leaders re-assigned to train new missionaries, etc.  As we waited for our new companions, me and my good buddy Elder Armatage talked for a long time.  I do love that kid.  We waited for a long time, because both Elder Choresca and Sister Penales are training brand new Americans!  Yes, that means I have a BRAND NEW American in my house!  Seriously, it’s been like someone grabbed the August 2013 version of Elder Christensen, stuck him in a time machine and sent him to be my housemate.  All the same feelings, doubts, fears, questions—It’s crazy!  His name is Elder Jacobson from Idaho. 

New companions in the house!

Friday was a bit of a hard day, as we saw how few of our investigators actually have any progression. And that continued into Saturday morning as well… They are great people but they’re just not keeping commitments or refusing to keep commitments… It’s sad.  But on Saturday afternoon we had a good day.  We got a referral from Marcos and we taught him later on that day.  We taught some of our investigators that do have potential.  There’s one, named Queen, who really does have potential.  She’s 18 and knows a couple of members who go to the same college as her.  Sunday was good!  The whole Habala family came to church!  That was a miracle.  Dexter and Elma, the parents, Marivel, Fevelyn, Ayan, RonRon… literally everyone in the house came!  We don’t even teach the parents regularly!  And even though many came late, the sacrament room was pretty full!  A great tender mercy!  Work was good!  We went to that area with no progressing investigators, but we did some finding, and we have so many people that have potential!  One girl asked us about what her dream meant. Get this: Jesus, dressed in white, goes to a forest where a kid is, then the kid says “Apo!” which means “Lord” in Ilokano.  Man, you should have seen her face when we showed her the picture of the First Vision.  We have a return appointment on Friday!  We also finally taught this one girl, April, who has such potential and also her friend, Apple.  Yeah, that’s her name!  A new investigator, a return appointment for Friday!  Great day, great week!  I’m very excited.

As far as studies, I’ve been studying how Jesus is the Father in many senses, based off of the First Presidency explanation from 1916.  So good!  I love D&C 39:4, where it says we have the potential to become sons of our Lord Jesus, and what that means in D&C 76:59.  No one can get to the Father without going through the Son.  And once we are His (Jesus’s), we can become one with the Father (D&C 35:2).  Beautiful doctrine.  Beautiful Gospel.  Beautiful life!

Matal ko kayong labat!

-Elder Christensen

Yellowcard shirt!

Baseball shirt from Grandma C