The adventures of Elder Malaki and Elder Maliit [Elder Big and Elder Little]

Dear All!

Ok!  Last P-day was good.  We went to the zoo here, which included some cool birds, a couple cool lizards, some monkeys…it was alright!  Email was good!  Alex Hocker is going to Atlanta on his mission!  Way to go!  So pumped for him!  In the evening we visited all of our investigators then had a family home evening with the Nolli Santos family.  Good fun!  Tuesday morning we had a CSP (service project) where we moved a giant pile of dirt for this part-member family. 

Moving dirt

In the afternoon I felt like it slipped through my fingers, like I didn’t do everything I could have.  I don’t know.  We did have a good lesson with the Ruiz family where we really listened to them, and the Spirit was super strong as we answered their “questions of the soul” using the Book of Mormon.  We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with Bien and that kid is excited!  Oh, and that was the day of unforgettable street contacts.  I was trying to relate the importance of family and how families can be together forever, and I said how that’s what Elder Palabrica want for our future families.  Well, this lady, ever helpful, started telling us where every single eligible young lady was in her neighborhood.  *Face-palm*  Not what I meant!  Then there were some teenage girls holding a guitar, so I asked if I could try, and then we were able to ask if we could come back and share a message, and I played a little of Stairway to Heaven.  Then, as we were talking to an elderly man, a guy came up next to us and started peeing on a nearby wall.  Interesting!  We had a few other lessons, but like I said, it was just kind of unsatisfactory.

Wednesday was good.  I felt like the Book of Mormon really spoke to me in Mosiah 26.  We had a really good district meeting.  (It was Elder Armatage’s and my 17 month mark!) ^th!  We taught Rufina, a hard-of-hearing less active and Ruby, who said she’ll think about coming to church with us this Sunday.  I really hope she does!

17 months!

And I felt like I received revelation on how we should teach a certain investigator.  Anyway, we went out and taught Jose, who is the most forgetful Tatay and that’s why he didn’t come to church again!  We taught Dom, and eventually I told him that if this message is true, every other church is wrong and that he needs to be baptized into Christ’s true church.  He was just not getting it if we put it any other way.  We taught Mariel, who is AWESOME and wants to get baptized SO bad but she and her less active “husband” aren’t married yet.  But we’re going to get going on fixing that!  We taught Jared, Mariel’s brother-in-law and a friend of Bien who accepted a BGD for Dec. 27.

Thursday we were only able to set one return appointment in the morning.  Nanay Ponco fed us lunch, which was SO GOOD!  We then went with the zone leaders to Laur, like the farthest part of our area, to visit President Nicanor and his family.  They lost their baby boy a couple of months ago and they’ve had a hard time with that.  We really enjoyed visiting.  President played “Black Bird” by the Beatles on his guitar, which was really awesome, then we reviewed the plan of salvation with them.  It was a lovely visit.  We had so many people we wanted to get to, but we were running behind schedule, and we got punted, but we still had some good lessons. We taught Bien, who is excited as ever for baptism.  We taught Michael, the less active boyfriend of Mariel, who wants to stop smoking, so we talked about it and made a plan to decrease it by 1 stick a day, starting now at 20.  Then we were punted again, and we were supposed to teach a man named Wilson, but when we went to his house he wasn’t home, but his brother, JR, was!  We actually met him last night and he let us right in!  We met his wife, Marieris and their one year old baby girl.  We taught them Lesson 1 and they were so engaged!  When we got to the Great Apostacy, JR was all, “So how can we know which church is true?”  GREAT QUESTION!  We explained the Restoration and how to ask God if it is true.  In our kneeling prayer, JR thanked God that He sent us to him and that he now knew God loved them because we were sent to them and that he believed Joseph Smith had a vision.  WHAT.  They accepted a baptismal goal date for the 27^th. After we closed, the first question was, “When are you coming back?”  Saturday, my friend.  That is the Solis family and they are elect.

Friday was a pretty good day.  We were finally able to teach Dahlia, Bien’s mom, again and it was a really good lesson.  We taught Jared and Mariel about the Book of Mormon and that was chill!  We also taught about the Book of Mormon to Mia and Kristel Bautista and they had lots of questions!  Good sign!  Saturday we had a good day, but the highlight was easily the Solis family.  They prayed and got an answer already!  And they are so set on getting baptized.  They asked what were the “rules” of this church were, so we left a Word of Wisdom pamphlet.  Oh, they are just so awesome!  Sayang talaga they couldn’t make it to church because JR had something come up with his work on Sunday morning, but they were totally planning on coming!  Church was good!  I feel like I do way more in church than I ever have in my life.  Yesterday, for example, I gave a talk, taught Sunday School, gave 3 baptismal interviews, had coordination meeting, and then ate lunch!  Kind of tiring, actually!  In the afternoon no one wanted to listen to us for a while because Manny Paquiao  [WBO Welterweight world champion] was fighting….I was a bit frustrated.  We found a less active we’d been looking for a while, so that was good!  We taught Jared and Mariel, two great investigators.  Because Mia didn’t read like she said she would, we read with her and that was good!  We also visited with our Branch Mission Leader, CJ, to try to help him with his calling.  Overall, it was a good week!  And thus ends the adventures of Elder Malaki and Elder Maliit [Elder Big and Elder Little] for one more week!

-Elder Christensen

***I thought I’d also include this email from a senior couple that worked in Brandon’s last zone:

Dear Sister Christensen: What an amazing son you have! We enjoyed serving with him & watching how diplomatically he worked with all the missionaries. He demonstrated such concern for all of their needs & feelings. Luckily, he has a sense of humor which paid off on more than one occasion, especially with the sister missionaries. We laughed at how bothered Elder Christensen was to have Dengue Fever a second time. I thought we would have to tie him to the bed because he was just too busy to rest----even though rest is what the doctor ordered. But it won him a trip to the hospital in Tarlac & that sounded like an adventure in itself.

We were all so shocked to receive Elder Christensen's message that President Mamaradlo had passed away suddenly, without warning. Sister Mamaradlo leaned heavily on you son in the days following & he was a pillar of support to her. As Elder Lund & I were frantically trying to find temple clothes for his burial, Elder Christensen took another missionary along with his own baptismal pants & his only long sleeved white shirt & dressed the President’s body. Your son told me it was the hardest thing he had ever done & we could see he had called upon every bit of strength he had to complete that act of loving service. Then the next day, Elder Christensen met us at the family home & led out in placing the temple clothing. As Sister Mamaradlo looked into the casket afterward she said, "He looks like a King," & he truly did. The day of the burial it was pouring rain. Elder Chirstensen should have been home in bed but of course he was not. I can say that the last time we saw your son, when he was transferred almost 3 weeks ago, he looked strong & healthy. He was ready for a new adventure.

 I want you to know that we thoroughly enjoyed the Spider-Man hoodie you sent for Halloween. I have seldom seen a happier young man than Elder Christensen when he put it on. I sent pictures of him to my family.

Thanks for preparing & sending a great young man out to serve The Lord & to take care of two old people who are trying to survive in the Philippines.

Love, Elder & Sister Lund

In Captain Moroni pose, while drinking Sparkle

His new "Spalring" basketball!