week ending 11.21.10

Hey everyone,

Well I just want to say thank you everyone! I am so grateful for all the support you have given me throughout my mission. Thanks. And I hope that Thanksgiving goes well for all of you!!!!!

This week was super-great, we had a conference with Elder Corbridge from the 70. He talked to us about the Holy Ghost and a lot of other stuff. There was one thing that I really liked a lot and it was this: "the gospel isn't hard, going to church isn't hard, the only thing that is hard is life." I have to agree with him, the world makes all of it hard, the world tell us that being obedient to the Word of Wisdom is lame but the truth is that it's cool to do it.

Because what are some of the blessings for following it?
•knowledge
•strength
•health
•protection from evil
And the down sides of not living the Word of Wisdom:
•loss of free agency (needing to smoke, drink, take drugs)
•loss of money
•bad health
•loss of mind control

I am going to have to say that living the gospel and the commandments are a lot better than not. And the other blessing we get from living it is going to the Celestial Kingdom. Who doesn't want to go there?  It's full of happiness and joy - who doesn't want that? Once again, I say living the gospel isn't hard - it's a blessing. The Word of Wisdom was only a example. We need to be thankful that we have the gospel in our lives, and all the people that have given their lives so we can have it and live it. Starting with Jesus Christ, he gave his life so that we could live the gospel and be saved. And Joseph Smith, who fought to restore the gospel in our days so we can have all the blessing of the gospel. There is a lot more - but there is a lot of thanks we owe all the people that sacrifice to bring the gospel to the world. (okay when I started to write this it wasn't my intention to be like, "be thankful for me and the missionaries," it just came out that way - whoops.) I love you all and I am thankful for you all as well! Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Christensen

week ending 9.26.10

Hey everyone!

Well last night we had changes, the whole day we were just worrying because we wanted to stay together another change. Oh man it was so scary, but at 11:20 we got the call and they told us that we are going to be together again. Elder Nielsen and I were pretty excited, he jumped on me after they told us and was going crazy! haha! What a crazy little kid haha. So we have been together for 3 months almost and we will be serving together until November 7, it's going to be a good change.

For our investigators, we have been teaching Karl still and we got a Book of Mormon in German for him and he was really happy. Now he can understand the stuff we read with him a lot better. He speaks a little Spanish and the reason why he came here was for work. He worked in a mine in Austria and then he came here to do it. He is liking it here but misses home but he also feels at home when he goes to church! He is so cool! Karl has a goal to be baptized the 10 of Oct.

The photo is of Carolina and Monesrrat, they are 2 of the people we are teaching right now and they are doing really well they have a goal of getting baptized on the 24 of Oct. Please keep them in your prayers so they can keep completing all the stuff to became ready for their baptism. A little about them, the mom is a single mom with 3 kids and they are really humble and have a lot of love for one another and the mom works really hard to help out her family. I know the gospel will help out this family so much I am so excited to keep working with them! 

We have one more little girl we are teaching, Camila, she is the girl that is really smart. She went to church with her mom and liked it a lot. This little girl is amazing! She just takes everything in and loves to keep learning about Christ. So we taught her the 10 Commandments and she learned them all in one day and the next day she could tell us all 10, it was really cool! She also has a goal of getting baptized on the 10 of Oct. so we are going to be working a lot with her and her family so they can come unto the gospel. Keep them in your prayers.

So I was studying this morning and I got a feeling that I needed to study about sacrifice, so I did. I learned a lot and now I want to start sacrificing a little bit more. Some of the things I learned:

•to receive a remission of all our sins Christ only asks for a broken heart and a contrite spirit. If we don't do this we wont receive all the blessing that we could receive for the Atonement of Christ.

•"if you are willing to sacrifice as the Lord has commanded, you will be accepted by Him. He taught, "All ... who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice- yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command- they are accepted of me" (D&C 97:8). With an eternal perspective, you can see giving up the things of the world is really no sacrifice at all. The blessing you receive are greater than anything you ever give up." - True to the Faith, pg. 150

  

Man, only if we could understand that what we give up here isn't even that big of a deal because what we will receive in the life to come with be so BIG!!!! Sacrificing a little for a lot isn't that hard. I know that sacrifice is a big part of the gospel and that when we learn to sacrifice unselfishly we will be so much happier. I know that I am in the true gospel of Christ and that I am doing his work! and I am loving it!

Thanks for all that you guys do for me and all your prayers. I love you all! Have a good week!

love,

Elder Christensen.