April 17, 2013

Zone Conference: Hiding just left of center (as they say).  Click to view large image.

Please...ACCEPT THAT OFFER [to work in the campground at the Hill Cumorah Pageant]. That is all I have to say on the subject. Will the Dones keep coming still without the calling, or did they get a different call?

I'll make sure to send pictures as I get more of them collected. Speaking of pictures, did my last SD card with all my MTC pictures arrive? You said I needed to use the right postage. Do those bubble wrap ones need more stamps?

We had transfer meeting today. We lost Elder Williams from Chinatown, he's going upstate to YorkTown for a few cycles, but we got Elder Folley back (he was a zone leader in upstate for a few cycles, now he's a companionship zone leader with Elder Mok.) We also got one new sister, Sister Chen (the symbol for her name is the same as mine.) She's from Taiwan, and speaks decent English too. We got another 33 missionaries in, and one of the old APs left.

I had already heard about the bombing in Boston, some of the ward members filled us in on it. Sad day, but there isn't much that we can do as missionaries to help provide service or relief, especially since it's outside of our mission boundaries, so we're just focusing on our work here.

I have a million crazy stories I could write you, but I'm saving some of them for when I get home, both because I want to see your reactions when I tell them, and also because some of them are just things that aren't particularly relevant, and I have limited time to use the computers.

The weather has been very nice these last few weeks, we haven't had any snow really at all, and only a little bit of rain. Most of the cold just comes from the fact that it is always windy. ALWAYS. I'm not sure why all the people I'm writing in Utah are complaining about the cold, it's really decent here (watch though, summer will be death.)

Teaching English class is...interesting. We have a number of ESL books that we resort to, and we also have a few native speaker missionaries who are able to help explain if we run into problems typically, its just fun sometimes since they can't speak English (verb=wourb type stuff.) And also the fact that I never really figured out how English works anyway, so I'm having to relearn Elementary English so as to be able to teach it. As for me learning THEIR language, I'm starting to have some words that have reached synonymous meanings in my head, especially when praying, I find it really easy to slip back and forth between English and Chinese. I'm understanding more and more of what is being said in lessons, even with Lin's Fujanese accent (yes, our blind friend is still meeting with us, although Zhou (the new investigator Elder's Williams and Cook found on splits) dropped us.)

So as I'm sure you noticed, I said that Elder Williams went up-state. This implies a change in my companionship. Say hello to Elder Murray. He's a piano performance major at BYU, and his older brother was my RA. He was also trained by Elder Williams (which makes him my [mission] brother), and now he's my follow-up trainer (which makes him my [mission] mother).

Love you all, Don't eat raw duck (cooked duck is delicious though, trust me.)
Elder Christensen New York Style

April 10, 2013

Conference was a blast, I've never enjoyed it that much before, nor have I ever gotten that much out of it.  An English Copy of the Ensign would be good, and look for some pictures of me in it, there was a photographer at the temple taking pictures for the ensign. Plus, they give us Chinese ones anyways.

If you could get me the address for that cheesecake place, then I can use my personal card to pick some up there. The Blairs (senior couple in Chinatown (don't speak any english)) are going to take me out to dinner on my birthday, so that will be fun too. On the subject of food, I think you might need to send me another box of the Nature Valley bars. Last time I checked, I think I had 4 left.

Life as a missionary feels quite normal to me now, I'm thinking that going home after spending most of my 2 years in this small area will make this place feel just like home to me. When we street contact, we typically start by asking them how their day is going. They usually blow us off, but if we can get them in a conversation, then we start bending it towards the gospel and BoM. Our 2 primary forms of contacting are that and tracting (yes, I am still sneaking into doors.), although on a long day with nothing to do, we might go up to Columbia University and work there. Our boundaries technically are...the mission. But we stay in Chinatown 98% of the time because that's where most of the Chinese people are. The bishop is really good, he speaks solid Chinese too thankfully, and we've got several key players in the ward leadership who are from solid wards (aka, they understand how church culture works.)

Transfers are next week. President warned us that missionaries who came out 6 weeks ago should be ready to train now, not at 12 weeks, so I might be going without a senior companion sooner than I thought. We'll see come Saturday when transfer calls come. Odds are, I won't get moved anywhere for at least 1 or 2 more cycles, though. My Chinese is getting better, and we've gotten better at SYL-ing. We're getting 2 more sisters and 1 more elder down here, plus Elder Folley (upstate) is coming back down, so that brings the total number of missionaries in ChinaZone to...20. In 1 ward. Coordination meeting and Ward Counsel are starting to get just a little bit crammed.

Our new investigator that was found while we were on splits last week (Zhou) is a 60ish year old lady from Beijing, she really wants to get baptised before she goes back to China. She was converted Christian after some experience with heart surgery, I didn't understand that part much at all. Her baptism date is May 12th, we're going to meet with her every Friday and Saturday. (Our first lesson was 3 hours long. Hopefully that isn't an indicator of future events.)

We went on splits this week, Elder Cook (MTC companion) came to my district. We spent most of the day contacting, I ran into a really nice Fujinese man, but couldn't understand most of what he was saying. We also had to teach English class together, which was interesting.

I FINALLY CAN GO WITHOUT A SUIT JACKET! IT'S 79 DEGREES OUTSIDE TODAY! This is going to be a very long hot summer if we don't cool back down for a while.


Love you,
Elder Christeeen (as the ward members say.)

April 3, 2013

I'm already starting to see my face filling out a little, I can't wait for it to get warm enough in the mornings that I can go running. (No, I still don't like running, but I need to do it if I want to remain in decent working order as far as how my clothes fit. Actually, if you wanted to send out a scale, that would be nice.) I can turn down sweets in the store just fine, but when you mail them to me, I feel obligated to partake, since you put so much money into them already. My companion/appartment mates would be more than happy to remove this obligation from me however, so if you want, you can send it to them instead, and just know that if I want anything out of it, I'll take what I want. Their names are Elder Williams, Elder Cook, and Elder Blonquist.

I'm still cooking a fair amount, we have Quesadillas, Chicken Alfredo, and Rigatoni Mozerrella planned for this week. I think the recepies from Bro. Allen should be in a blue folder on my desk somewhere, if you could find that and send it, it would be good. The canned ham...tastes like spam. Not joking. It's not really bad, but it's also not really good, it's just kind of there.

I've decided that Chinese take-out is by far the healthiest fast food you can get. I eat more vegetables here than I ever did back home. I even had some mushrooms in the Hot Pot Soup we all went for on Monday, and I actually enjoyed them (that said, it was a sichuan resturant, I got the weakest spicy soup they had that was still spicy, and it was quite warm in my throat and sinuses for a while after I finished.) It's actually funny that the food we eat is by and large all the same, despite the fact that we typically get it from different resturaunts.

I've decided that the fact I have to teach English class is Karma for the fact that I never payed attention in English class in school. Its fun though. I've finally started to feel like I somewhat understand what people are saying to me, so I can finally start really focusing my language study again on words I don't know/grammar. We've been picking up talking in Chinese at the appartment a little more. The bright side of being here is that even if we don't get completely immersed, I can already understand more of Fujanese, Cantonese, BeiJing, and NanJing accents than most Taiwanese missionaries can when they've been out twice as long as I have.

Guess what? I did the math, and I think my birthday is my 100th full day on a mission. How's that for cool/random fact? A CTR ring would actually be a nice present for that, I think my finger is a size 9 ring if I remember right. It might be 9.5 or 10 though. Just don't do a too expensive one, in case it's not the right size. Also, if you want to count in cycles (transfers) mom, April 17th is the end of my first full cycle here, and the end of my 16th cycle will be the 2 year mark, so I have 15 transfers remaining (don't worry, I'm not counting down, if anything, I wish it would go slower, I just thought you might like to count that way, since it's a smaller number than fast sundays left.)

We're going to the Manhattan temple to watch General Conference. We have live streaming. If we have an investigator with us, we will watch the Chinese translation. If not, then we get to watch the English.

Tender Mercy of the week was when I ran out of cash and we were going to go out to eat as a District for dinner (most places here don't take cards). We went back to the apartment really quick to drop some stuff off, lo and behold, I had a letter from Dad's parents with 3 dollars in it, which was just enough to pay for dinner.

Tracting is about as effective as it has ever been, but street contacting is slowly picking back up, people aren't quite as desperate to get inside a building now, so we have slightly better odds of getting them to stop and talk. Yes, we still only use Mandarin when contacting. It's really awkward though when the missionaries for another church are set up across the street with their own tables. That said, the Jehova's Witnesses just make it awkward whenever we go to the temple. They always have tables set up in the subway at columbus plaza. Oh well, love them anyway. We've decided to try a new contacting method. We just walk slowly around town, and as we find ourselves walking along side someone, we just start talking to them until they get to their destination. It has worked really well for the sisters in the past, we haven't tried it yet though. We're also planning a trip up to Columbia University to go work the campus there at some point.

I forgot to mention, I had to help teach Gospel Principles in church. It's the sunday school class for recent converts and investigators. Not a very easy class to teach actually, because most of the investigators are too nervous to answer any questions you ask, and most of the recent converts go get something to eat during the second hour so they can come back for Relief Society or Priesthood not as hungry. We need to work on that.

Our investigators are doing well, we may be doing a fast with Henry to help his Aunt let him be baptized. Chui came to church, which was a bit of a shock actually, but I don't think he got anything out of it because his Mandarin is pretty bad. We really want Li xxx (JieMei means sister) to come to Gen. Conference. We're trying to set that up with her over the next few days. Liang xxx is doing well, and we even found a new investigator yesterday named Zhou xxx. We were on splits actually, so Elders Williams and Cook found her, but since they were in our area, Elder Williams and I will be the follow-up with her. I don't really know anything about her though, so you'll get the details next week probably. Lin xxx xxx (blind one) is moving, which must be a real pain for him, but he won't let us help him at all. He already told us the new adress though, so we'll go check up on him once he's settled in.

Love you all,
Relative in service designated Elder Christensen

Look who showed up... Brother (Craig) Done!

March 27, 2013

Elder Christensen with President and Sister Morgan

On the subject of food, we do eat out a lot (dumplings and Mianbao are my friends here). They actually give the Chinatown missionaries a little extra money just because they know we don't get member-offered meals ever. I cook dinner about 70% of the time though. We found a regular grocery store. I've had Quesadillas, Pot Roast, Chicken Alfredo, a lot of Ramen noodles, sloppy joes, I think we did tacos one night... basically I'm probably going to get pretty good at cooking on my mission. Thanks for the cornbread and all that such stuff by the way, it was much more helpful than the candy (are you TRYING to make me fat?). Have Robin tell brother Allen that I might not have used his recepies in college, but I've used them out here, and I don't even have them. I just do it from memory. Also, I have had the tea a few more times, and every time it has given me a headache, so I don't think I'm a tea guy.

We do most of our lessons in the Chapel. Only 2 of our investigators thus far have allowed us to meet them in their house, and one of those 2 is blind (can't come to the church on his own). The other is 86 years old (Chui, the old man we found, and we probably won't be visiting much any more). We finally managed to overcome the language barrier thanks to elder Ling, (cantonese native) and apparently the man has no interest at all in religion, he just wanted someone to talk to.)

Regarding having an Easter program in the ward here, your guess is as good as mine. I can't understand the announcements made in church, so I don't know if the bishop said we are or not. On a random note about the chapel, we had a man walk in yesterday and ask if we had any BoMs in Russian. He wasn't a member, he just looked us up on the web and found the Chinatown chapel, and wanted to get a copy of the book for himself (yes, he was Russian, had a pretty thick accent, said he had been in NY for a few years.) and give some info so that the missionaries in Russia could find and teach his friend. Really weird/cool.

I was able to buy the hymn book online myself using my mission card, so no problems there. The back pack works great.

We don't really speak the language much simply because Elder Williams and I are always forgetting to do stuff in Chinese, and we do a lot of our lessons in English anyway. We're working on talking more in Chinese though. I have an hour set aside for language study every day, so I don't worry too much about my level going down, its just a matter of how fast I keep it going up.

Contacting is still okay during the night, but we usually try to tract during that time, more people are home, and we don't seem as threatening as when we stand on the street at night and try to talk to people as they walk past. The Jehova's Witnesses took our favorite street contacting place though, so we need to find a new one. Its not actually that cold most of the time, so we don't mind the contacting.

Our investigators haven't changed much: Henry (20s, college student, he believes, but he lives with his aunt, if he gets baptized, she's going to throw him out.), Lin xxx xxx (blind one, still can't understand when he speaks), Liang xxx (friend of a RC, she's open to the idea of god, but has a really busy schedule.). The one new one is a former investigator named Li Xiao Jie (Xiao Jie just means miss/Mrs.) She's been taught the first 2 lessons, but mostly seems interested for the sake of learning, not for the spiritual aspect. She has 2 kids, works full time, and does night classes, and has her kids doing Kungfu, piano, and violin. We really want her coming to church so we have a regular meeting time with her.

P days...thus far, we haven't really gone anywhere, we've been feeling a bit lazy, so we stay at the appartment, we played Monopoly one time. I haven't really been taking pictures that much (at all), but I'll definitely do so when I go somewhere for Pday, and I'll try to take some more overall.

Fun story, Sister xxx (Missionary from Singapore) has found an investigator. Problem is that he's interested in her, not the gospel. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.

Don't worry, I'm staying busy.
Your relative in service
Elder Christensen