March 5th, 2013

My trainer is Elder Williams from the 7th ward. When I finish, I'm sure he'll come hunt me down so I can tell him the follow-up on people he leaves behind. We haven't had to do a lot in Chinese yet, but we haven't taught a lesson yet either, so we'll see just how much I know then. There are 16 of us, including the 4 who rotated in, so there are now 2 districts in Chinatown. The mission president told us that we have had 84 baptisms in Chinatown in the last 20 months, so still following the cycle of about 1 baptism a week.

Wednesday is my P-day. We email from the local library, I'm not sure what it is called, or what the address is. Apparently I need a piece of mail in order to get a real library card (the mailing address is 221 E. Broadway apartment 8A), Its right next to the intersection with Clinton, the building is called the Mayflower (if you can look it up and find it on G-earth). Right now I'm just using the guest portal. We get 47 minutes on the access, so a little longer to email thankfully. It doesn't really feel too cold here to me, the wind makes it a bit more so, but overall, not bad.

Story time. The ride into town on the subway was interesting. I had no clue how different the stations on the outskirts of the Bronx would be compared with the stations in central and lower Manhattan (a lot nicer there.) Also, they couldn't fit the luggage for all 40 missionaries on our 48 seat plane, so some of it (most of it) got diverted to La Guardia. They had us wait on a bus for an hour or so while they went and picked it up from there. They put us up in a hotel too instead of the mission home, and the Mission President interviews will be scattered throughout these next 2 weeks or so.

As for trying to "pack it all in", the only thing I really felt like I was packing in was all my books into my suitcases. I ended up having to leave my laundry hamper in the MTC, I'll buy a new one out here probably. The vacuum bags were a life saver, though, so props to whoever slipped them into my bags.

Love you all, looking forward to getting to know this place really well (the chapel is about a 15 minute walk away, which gives you an idea about walking times using G-earth).

Your son/sibling, Elder Christensen version 3.0