Marcos gets baptized!

Hey everybody!

Well, this week was a bit of a tough one, but overall it ended really well. We had a really good lesson with Marivel on Tuesday all about faith, and she did say she had the faith to be baptized…but just not yet. We don’t really know what’s stopping her…we had a good lesson with the Centeno family all about grace...I don’t know-- We had all of these lessons that I thought were good, but no one really came to church on Sunday. We did bless one of our former investigator’s child that night, and she was all better the next morning, so that was good! Wednesday we went back to a contact we had on Sunday, and it’s this cool little family that was taught back in the day, and they really understood the lesson and were so receptive, so that was the highlight that day for sure. Oh, and Happy Birthday. Mom! 

Thursday we sort of played marriage counselors to two of our new investigators who are having relationship problems. We shared all about love and whatnot…I hope it helped…They sure do have a lot of problems. We did have the coolest new investigator though! She was taught a little less than a year ago and was coming to church and everything, but she moved away, and just came back! We set a baptismal date for August on that first visit. 

Friday we had a ton of lessons, and we just had fun with the work. I don’t know, we were just super happy that day. Even though we had investigators just shut down baptismal invitations like so hard, it was just a good day. Fevelyn, our recent convert just got called to be the branch chorister, so we helped her practice leading music that night. Just a good day. Saturday we had a good zone goal setting in the morning, and then we had the craziest baptism ever…Well, the craziest baptism that almost didn’t happen. I won’t go into all the details because of a lesson that Elder Lund, one of the senior missionaries, taught me: it’s all about perspective. At the end of the day the doctrine of Christ is that a man must exercise faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. And even if all the details weren’t perfect, Marcos Rivera was baptized last Saturday, and what else could possibly matter more? Sunday he was confirmed a member, and just kept telling me how happy he was! It was great.

Elder Christensen and Marcos!

Nancy was our only investigator besides Marcos who was at church, but that’s ok. I was feeling pretty sick all day on Sunday, which made me not so effective during lessons. We did get some work done though. We found that our recent convert Niko has not been making the best decisions lately. He showed up to church early in street clothes, then left to change and never came back…I’m worried about him…but yeah, the day ended ok with cooking up some breakfast burritos, thanks to the tortillas Mom slipped into my last package! And I just want to end this email with a quick, fun story. So it was our town’s fiesta recently, and a bunch of streets are blocked off with these tents selling things. While we were walking through there one day and this kid, maybe three years old, comes up to us holding his moms hand and says, “Police!!!!” I had to laugh. It was adorable. Then his mom sort of corrected him, by saying, “No they’re not police…maybe Jesus’ police!” And that made me smile a bit. This month we’re going to work on smiling more and just being positive no matter what, which has been a real weakness of mine to be honest ever since I got to Baler. I just get super stressed and frustrated…it’s just been a whole new level of stress here! But I will work on it, and the Lord will help me. He sure is trying me sometimes, but he’s helping too.

 Love you all!

--Elder Christensen 

**When I asked him in my letter how he liked being a zone leader, he said that overall he loves it, but that he’s never been so stressed in his life. 

He says he’s been stressed, sick and sleep deprived this week, but having Marcos get baptized helped get him through this past weekend.**

And now here are some pictures of his zone:

Fiesta killed church!

Dear All!

Movie star pose at the Baler Museum

The rest of last Monday was fun; we went to this free museum in Baler and took a ton of pictures. That was pretty legit! 

At the Baler Museum

Tuesday we did a little bit of finding, as a lot of our investigators are just not progressing. Wednesday we went back to that family we found and taught them Lesson 1. They're SO receptive, but their mom is just like never around...And we found out our one investigator, Marivel's real concern. It’s not a testimony issue as it is so much a commitment issue. Oh yeah, on Tuesday night, we got caught in a rainstorm and there were no more trikes heading back to town at night so we walked a while in the rain. Well, little did we know that our investigator, Sister Centeno, who had turned us away earlier that day because they had somewhere to go, saw us and was actually touched by our dedication or whatnot. She told us all about this on Thursday in our lesson, and expressed a real desire to get baptized. It was a really spiritual lesson!

We also started teaching Marcos's family on Thursday, and hopefully they will be receptive as well! We're having a family home evening with them later on. We reviewed the interview questions with Marcos as well, as his interview was on Saturday. Friday we had exchanges in a tougher area in the zone, San Luis. I worked there, and we had a good day of work! And I think I was able to help Elder Escosio as well. I hope so anyway...

Saturday was a crazy day. I went from San Luis to Baler for zone interviews, then back to Maria as President Clark did a house check (I love that guy by the way, I feel so comfortable with him), then I went to lunch with the Assistants as they were also there for interviews, then we went to our area with Elder Hedman to interview Marcos for his interview (he passed!) then we went back to Baler for District Missionary Coordination with President Clark and the district presidency and the various branch presidents. Then we went home, and it was a downpour, and we got out to work at 6:30. It was a long, wet, tiring day! 

Sunday was hard. It's our town's fiesta right now, so basically no one came to church. No investigators, no less actives...man. Our attendance was around 45...big drop. We were pretty punted as well on Sunday...it was just a hard day. But today we've actually been able to enjoy the fiesta, parades, cheap stuff they're selling...so yeah! That’s all for now really!

Children in parade at town fiesta

More parade at the town fiesta

Just keep going, because our light affliction now works us for our eternal weight of glory!

--Elder Christensen

At the Baler Museum

Elder C has an oven for the first time on his mission!

Facebook profile at the Baler Museum

There (to Tarlac) and Back Again!

Hello All! 

What A week it was! So last I left I was about to go to Costa Pacifica, an awesome beach resort/restaurant, where thanks to a little birthday cash from Grandma and Grandpa, I was able to treat the zone! It was way fun! Then Elder Paredes and I got on a bus and went to Cabanatuan, then Tarlac for Mission Leader Council! It was really fun, as I got to hang out with tons of friends around the mission (Elders Armatage, Cash, Lungay, Olila, Tsunoda, Sisters Marcucci, Tui'one, Altea, and many more!) for about two and a half days at the mission home!

With 3 out of his 6 mission comps in the field at Mission Leader Council

It was so great; the testimony meeting was the best part by a long shot! Loved it. We learned a lot about councils and culture and how to be more one with the members through branch council meetings. Way awesome!

With two of his batchmates at Mission Leader Council

That Wednesday we got a free lift back to Baler from the assistants as they came on exchanges with us! I worked with Elder Tsudona, and it was way fun and I learned a bit too. On Thursday we had zone training meeting, but as we were giving the workshop, I started to feel sick. I think it was because of lack of sleep (I had been getting up at five for four days straight at that point) and I took a little nap when we got back to the house. When I woke up, I wasn't feeling great, but we went to work anyways. While we were out a little girl came up to us and asked if we knew Elder Ramsey (a missionary assigned here WAY back in the day). She showed us where her house was, and there we met the Manaois Family. Ok get this, they were supposed to be baptized 6 years ago, but WHILE THEY WERE SITTING IN THE CHAPEL WAITING FOR THE BAPTISM TO START Sister Josie got a text saying her husband had passed away, so she left and it never went through and she fell away. She still has a testimony, and like 5 kids who are all ready and anxious to listen! Miracle!

Friday was cool I guess as we got a referral from a recent convert and taught her. I'm not sure if she totally understands lesson one, she doesn't seem to have a great knowledge of the bible or anything, but we'll work with her! Her name is Florida by the way. Saturday we put on a district missionary fireside at the Baler Chapel, which went well! Each missionary was involved in the workshops. It was all about the members’ role and responsibility in conversion. It was ok! Sunday was a good day, as we had Branch Council meeting for the first time since I've been here! We had some good work, and found out a major concern of a recent convert family that is now totally less active, so that's good I guess! We had a good lesson with the Centeno family as well, where we found out that they do want to be baptized, but they just don't think they can go to church on a consistent basis. We'll fix that!!! And yeah, that takes us to now!

I love my Savior so much and the fact that he loves me enough to take all my frustrations and weakness and fears and imperfections and wash them away in his name just never ceases to amaze me. I just love my life. I love my Jesus, who is my hope, light, and strength.

--Elder Christensen

New mission president and wife:  President and Sister Clark

***When I asked how he liked his new president, after spending time with him at the mission home, he said, " President Clark is the man! He is very straight forward, not soft, not harsh, just forward! I like it. He's a big fan of the council method, which I like. And he is definitely inspired. He's not President Martino, but he is fantastic. I wholeheartedly sustain him."

Elder Christensen's 20th Birthday today!!!

Hey Everybody!

So it’s my birthday, so I’m trying to email quickly, so I can enjoy a little time at the beach before I get on a bus and head down to Tarlac for another meeting! SO Tuesday we were back at it, and when we were teaching Marivel we found out that we actually hadn’t taught her The Restoration, and that’s why she doesn’t know that this is the true church. We taught it to her sister, and then she started listening in during the following lessons. Whoops, THAT’S embarrassing. We had good work that day, and we were really glad to have found out our mistake! Wednesday the work was alright. We’ve started teaching this former investigator girl, who is super smart and is very receptive as well, her name is Queen! We taught the Centeno Family, whose progress is stalling…we found out actually they’re having family problems, so we’ll try to help there.

We all got in a van again and went down to Cabanatuan for another ZONE CONFERENCE, but this time is was meet the New Mission President! President and Sister Clark are way awesome, definitely different style than the Martinos, but still good! They’re from Illinois, and President Clark’s mom’s name is Coleen CHRISTENSEN Clark (relation???). It was nice to meet them, and I’m looking forward to having them here for the second half of my mission.

Elder C. with his new mission president, President Clark

We got some work done after we got back from Cabanatuan, and we went back to one of our contacts, Reah, and taught her lesson 1, and it went really well! She’s definitely got potential. 

Friday was an alright day, and we started teaching all of the people about the importance of staying the full three hours of church (you guys would seriously not believe it; it’s like a mass exodus after sacrament meeting every week. This last Sunday I stood by the exit and just asked everyone where they were going and why they weren’t going to class. I made them own it if they were going to leave. I even looked one sister in the eye and said, “Sister, you know you’re not following God’s commandment.” She said, “I know.” And I said, “Ok, your sin is not on me.” She said, “Ok,” and then walked out. What on earth??? Sorry, little rant). 

On Saturday we had good work, getting 11 lessons, and the highlight there was when we taught Reah again. After our lesson about the Book of Mormon, we got talking about missionaries and missionary life. And she could not believe it when I told her I’ve never been happier in my whole life than when I’ve been here in the Philippines sharing the gospel all day every day for no pay. But hey, I don’t really care if she doesn’t believe me there; I just hope she believes the message. Sunday was ok, we only had two investigators attend church, and there was the mass exodus again…I ended up teaching the third hour again, which was good, because the third hour almost just didn’t happen. We got super punted from tons of our investigators, and a lot hid from us. That’s discouraging. BUT we had a really good lesson with one of our less actives, who opened up to us about her problems, and the spirit was really strong there. AND afterwards, we went to the Habala family (Fevelyn, Marivel, and Tonton’s family) for a dinner appointment/birthday party! They sang Happy Birthday and made my favorite, chop suey,

Chop Suey- his favorite!

and wrote me little notes. It was super nice! Felt the love!

Birthday Dinner for Elder Christensen at the Habala home!

When we got home, I opened up my birthday package for real, thank you so much! Oh and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Christensen for the “Over the Hump” day shirt! It’s pretty funny! And thanks to the best Mom in the world, who knows how to make her boy smile even halfway around the world! The package was seriously awesome!

Elder Christensen with some of his birthday package stuff!

And that brings us to now. I’ve now been riding this rock going around the sun for 20 years now…pretty crazy! I’m no longer a teenager…its ok though, I haven’t really felt like a teenager while I’ve been on the mission, and that’s a good thing.

Well, I love you all, love this gospel, and sure love the Savior. And our whole hope is to be pure like he is pure, and hopefully I can do better at that in the third decade of my life! Till next week!

--Elder Christensen

Brandon with Elder Antoni, who he trained, at zone conference

Brandon with members & missionaries of Tarlac 2nd Ward, who made them dinner for zone conference

Fevelyn and Niko get baptized!

Sorry! Sorry! Super slow internet, and no time to respond to literally ANY

emails. SO SORRY! But here's the update!

Dear All!

Well, one more week has come and gone, and what an incredible week it
was! Monday we went to Cabanatuan for Zone Conference, and we got
there in time to have dinner at Greenwich Pizza! Yum! The conference
was on Tuesday, and it was super good, way spiritual! It was also to
say goodbye to President Martino (He went home yesterday). I was
actually expecting it to be super emotional, but it was actually not
bad. It is weird to think I won’t see him for the rest of my
mission…oh well, President Clark has arrived and we will be meeting
him this Thursday! We also rented a van, and our entire van squeezed
in there and we played games and sang and laughed our heads off, so
the travel was actually crazy fun!

 So Wednesday, we had the single
best day of work of my whole mission. We had so many good things
happen. Our investigator Nancy, who has been taught for about 4 years, 
is finally super progressing! We’re now just working on her papers so
she can get married, then baptized!!! We met a less active kid, and
taught him, went back to an old contact and got a new investigator
there…we had an awesome lesson with one of our less active members,
and she now has a desire for temple marriage…It was just an awesome
day, and we had 14 lessons in that one day! 

Thursday morning we had a cool moment where all of our appointments fell through, and the moment we stopped to make a decision to see what we would do, we received

inspiration to go teach some investigators that are seriously never
home so we haven’t taught them in like three weeks. But we went there, 
and there they all were, ready to listen, and they loved the message 
(about repentance) and we set a sure return appointment! Sweet! We had
good work again that day. Friday we started out super punted, as in we
walked around until about 6 pm, but we after that were able to get
some good lessons. We had good lessons with our investigators Janet, 
Lito, and Fevelyn, who in fact was BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!

Fevelyn Habala and Elmer Manangan (but he really goes by Niko) were both
baptized on Saturday! It was a good service, and the spirit was so
thick there you could cut it with a knife! Tonton, Fevelyn’s brother, 
baptized, which was super cool!

Fevelyn and Niko get baptized!  Tonton, Fevelyn's brother baptizes them :)

Afterwards we had good lessons with
the Centeno Family and Marcos, and we got done in time to have a
dinner appointment at the Habala’s. 

Sunday…good news and bad news. Bad news, Marcos and the Centeno Family didn’t come to church. Good news!  Fevelyn/Marivel/Tonton’s mom came to church, as well as Nancy (our all  of the sudden progressing investigator) and her friend Vangie! Super
cool! We had good work on Sunday as well, as we were able to go on
splits for about two hours with some members! We got to teach this 12
year old less active girl Mycah, and I don’t know, I feel bad for her, 
she’s going to school and she wasn’t able to come to church because
her mom needed her help selling vegetables at the market. We taught
her about learning to choose the right now, so that when temptation
comes she’s ready. We gave her a CTR ring. I don’t know, it was the
highlight of the day for me!

 We had a great week as far as our numbers went, as we had 53 lessons, and, as our district leader informed us, we hit the standard of excellence in every key indicator category this week. That was a miracle indeed! The work is moving along great here in Maria! The internet is pretty slow here, so maybe no pictures this week. But Yeah, I’m loving it here! The church is true! The Book is Blue! And two more souls just entered the straight and narrow path
leading to eternal life!!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

--Elder Christensen

52 Things I've learned as a missionary in the Philippines!

Well Hello Everybody

ONE YEAR BABY!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I had to get that out there! So this week was good, I was just super stressed though those first few days, I don’t really know why! Tuesday was a great day, as we had 11 lessons, that’s a new all-time high!! Wednesday we found out what our investigator Marivel’s real concern was, and why she keeps saying she’s not ready for baptism. For her sake I will remain mute on that subject, but I’m so glad we figured out what was going on! 

Thursday was transfers, but only one sister transferred out of my whole zone! And her replacement is Sister Penales, who was in my district for three transfers in Tarlac! And she used to be in the stake of my companion, Elder Paredes, and is the batch mate of my roommate, Elder Choresca! So excited when I found out she was coming! 

Thursday was good, and we taught a really awesome lesson all about repentance to Marivel in the morning. We were able to get some new investigators too! They all listened, but in the coming days we’ll find out who’s really progressing and who is just so-so. Marcos is doing great; he’s super excited for his baptism on the 12^th of July, as are we! The Centeno family was doing good, but they didn’t come to church this last Sunday…dang. And we don’t know why yet either!  But that night, I burned a panyo and tie in honor of my year mark! Oh, and I opened my “Hump day” package, complete with a camel and everything!! Love the camel, Mom! And the letters were super awesome as well. 

Elder Christensen & Sister Penales

Elder C and his comp on Hump Day!

Friday we had exchanges as our District Leader, Elder Hedman, and I switched so he could interview our candidates, Fevelyn and Niko, who both passed!!! Sweet!!! Two baptisms on the 28^th!!! That’s a miracle, because when I got here neither of them were even in our teaching pool and we had a goal of zero baptisms for the month of June. Saturday we had a zone service project down close to the beach, and I got to see Sister Penales there, and it was fun to talk about Tarlac!

Elder Hedman, Sister Penales and Elder Christensen

​In the afternoon we had that meeting with all the Branch Presidents and President Martino again. The meeting went really well actually! President Martino goes home this week, but you would never be able to find that out by looking at him. He is working harder than ever!

Elder Christensen and his comp meeting with Pres. Martino

​I also got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Christensen! Thanks for the shirt!!!! 

Sunday we had a good meeting where we finally got home teaching figured out in this branch, and got a bunch of information we’ve been needing for our reports, so that was good! We had pretty good work too, and a couple of new investigators who are genuinely interested and engaged in the lessons! And today we’re going to Cabanatuan for Zone conference tomorrow, so that will be fun to have another road trip with the zone! 
So in honor of my 52 weeks as a missionary, here are 52 lessons I’ve learned as a missionary in the Philippines!

1.       You sweat if you’re working hard

2.       You sweat even if you’re not working hard

3.       There’s probably some sort of bug on you 24/7

4.       Dengue is the worst thing ever!

5.       Don’t aspire to leadership

6.       Worry more about following the Spirit with exactness more than following the white handbook with exactness

7.       Obedience brings blessings

8.       Rice 3 meals a day is totally doable

9.       Coconut is actually crazy delicious

10.   Mangoes are actually the greatest/most delicious fruit in the world, and most probably the fruit in Lehi’s dream

11.   You decide what kind of missionary you are, not your circumstance, companion, or language ability

12.   Exact obedience brings miracles

13.   Repentance, even as a missionary, hurts

14.   Repentance is the greatest thing ever

15.   If we are not growing spiritually, you’re backsliding spiritually

16.   If I was not a Latter-Day Saint, I don’t think I could be a Christian, it just doesn’t make sense to me any other way.

17.   You can sleep when you’re released

18.   The people in the Preach My Gospel videos are the missionaries’ celebrities

19.   EFY music ain’t half bad!

20.   Even singing along with Babylonian music distracts you as a missionary

21.   You can buy 4 burgers for less than a dollar!

22.   Pineapple is actually super delicious as well!

23.   McDonalds is like an oasis for missionaries serving out in the rice fields

24.   San Jose City, Nueva Ecija is my second home

25.   Baler Zone is like PARADISE!

26.   The hardest news you can receive as a missionary is either when a buddy goes home early, or when a baptism in an old area doesn’t go through…or when BYU loses to Utah again.

27.   The best news you can get as a missionary is when one of your friends decides to go on a mission, or when someone from back home gets baptized (quick shout out to my cousins Joe and Angie, Joe got baptized while I’ve been out here, and that to this day is the greatest email I’ve ever received on my mission! I literally cried in the computer shop when I found out!)

28.   There aren’t bad companions, just bad attitudes

29.   You are at your greatest when you are humble

30.   Always think about others first

31.   Always say yes to a merienda! (a snack)

32.   Pepsi and Mountain Dew just don’t taste good in the Philippines

33.   Coke tastes EXACTLY the same in the Philippines, thank goodness!

34.   Smiling makes everything better!

35.   Don’t worry about what you want to do, worry about what the Lord wants you to do

36.   Unless you have the spirit burning in you to do so, never chastise anyone.

37.   Be grateful

38.   No one I know in America is poor. People back home like to say they’re poor, but you all live like royalty. People HERE are poor.

39.   I have no room to complain. EVER.

40.   The Lord has been so good to me.

41.   The Philippines is one non-stop adventure after another!

42.   The Filipino people are the greatest on the planet earth! I wish I was more like them every day.

43.   God directs this work, and does indeed prepare people.

44.   Even when you have a hard day, there’s always someone who had it harder.

45.   Christ understands literally everything we go through.

46.   When we face God, we will all know our guilt perfectly, but the saints who have repented and endured to the end will know never-ending joy as well.

47.   Scripture study is the best. Thing. EVER!!!

48.   God speaks.

49.   Angels visit the earth.

50.   This is God’s kingdom on the earth.

51.   Jesus is the Christ, and Joseph was his prophet.

52.   All I want, all I truly desire, is at that last day for Jesus to call me by name, and say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

See you all next June!

--Elder Christensen

"Sometimes, when i'm teaching, i'm just so awesome I turn into a power ranger"

Another great week!

Dear All!

And just like that another week went by! Another great week! Tuesday was awesome as I had exchanges with Elder Escosio, and we had a great time and great work and 4 referrals! One we’ve contacted, and one we’re going to meet later on tonight actually! We found out the Centeno Family LOVED coming to church! I knew they would, and they’re really starting to progress toward baptism! Fevelyn also accepted a baptismal goal date for the 28^th, and she’s excited for it and really progressing as well! 

Wednesday, was actually kind of a rough day, low lessons, but hey we tried! Thursday we had a service project where we cleared some land on a coconut plantation, kind of different! We met one of our referrals, Teresa, and she’s super receptive. We’ve already taught her twice and she has received an answer that our message is true!!! Marcos is progressing alright; we taught him the Word of Wisdom and afterwards wanted to join us in teaching our next lesson! So why not! He bore testimony about the Book of Mormon, he’s pretty much awesome. 

Elder Christensen sporting a pigeon on his head

Friday was a good day as well. We had a good lesson with these two long time investigators, Vangie and Nancy, who are neighbors of the branch president. My companion wanted to drop them, but we just followed up on their testimony and found out Nancy has been reading every day and her testimony is really picking up. She just needs to get to church…and get married to her boyfriend…but yeah! She actually has legit progress/potential, so that was good! 

Saturday we had a district conference adult session thing that ate a lot of our time, and just basically was a big discussion of goals and numbers throughout Baler district, which I don’t think did a whole lot…whatever! It’s ok though. We were still able to get 8 lessons on the day. Sunday we had this really cool District conference thing in Baler. And despite Baler being a half hour trip from our area in Maria, we had 8 investigators at church! And the Conference included a live broadcast from Salt Lake City just for us in the northern Philippines. Elder Cook spoke and everything, it was seriously awesome! Super sweet.

The highlight as far as teaching goes was when we were also able to extend a BGD (baptismal goal date) to Marivel, Fevelyn's sister for the 28^th as well! So we have those two, and Nico getting ready for the 28^th! So cool!

This morning we went to the Mother Falls (Ditumabo Falls) here, which is absolutely gorgeous! And that took most of our day, so that’s why this email is so late (Sorry mom!!!). But yeah, everything is pretty much the best here in Maria!

Kabahays at Mother Falls

 I love Baler Zone, I love my life…really can’t complain!

 That’s all for now!

Selfie at Mother Falls

--Elder Christensen 

***Brandon, in answering the questions I asked him in my letter, told me to say that he is really sorry that he hasn't had time to respond to emails from friends lately.  He is crazy busy on P days now and often doesn't even get to reading his family's emails.  He does always write a general update, though.  He's got so much reporting to do now as a ZL and he says that since he is in Baler zone (that has so many amazing things to do and see) that it is assumed that they will have a zone activity every P day, and those take up so much of the day. P day is his least favorite day of the week because it is always so stressful and he never gets done everything that he needs to, let alone everything that he wants to.  So--sorry if he hasn't responded!***

Underwater nametags at the the falls