So...Facebook is officially weird. I'll give you a run-down on how the system is supposed to work. We are allowed to use Facebook for proselyting purposes only. If anyone tries to chat us to talk about other stuff, then we ask them to please remember that we are missionaries, and that if they want to talk about this stuff, shoot us an email and we will be more than happy to get back to them on P-day. We can give out our FB page to people on pass-along cards if we want, and the goal is to use Facebook as a method of building trust in people to the point where they are willing to meet with the local elders if they live outside of our area. We can also use it to stay in touch with investigators/members who are out of town for a time, and teach lessons using the chat and also Skype. (ex: Skype call, and copy a section of a conference talk from LDS.org to the FB chat box and ask them to read it out loud over the phone.) So if you could all avoid sending me FB messages about funny stuff in the news, that would be cool. I would hate to have to block a post you had made on my wall. If you haven't noticed yet, my FB account has cleaned up a bit (I hid about 100 pictures, and I've been going through and hiding all the old posts that weren't necessary for a missionary profile. The symbolism for Repentance is actually quite significant.) I actually am going to need to change my profile picture again to one of just me, and you still have my MTC photos, so if there are any that are good photos of only me in missionary garb, feel free to post them on FB, and I'll see if I can make them my profile pic. If not, I can always just take one myself and up-load it, I just don't want to if I don't have to.
On the topic of updated technology, we are getting iPad Minis on Nov. 14th-16th, and I will keep that iPad for the rest of my mission, so long as I don't do anything to get it taken away. We will also all get iPhones for each companionship. We are asked to only spend about 1-1.5 hours on the internet a day, although if we have scheduled lessons then we can be on for honestly as long as we need to. The iPads are to be installed with a storage unit (physical or program is not clear currently) that will save everything we type and view, and during interviews with President, he will have the capacity to quickly view everything that we have done to double check that we aren't abusing this privilege. On the event of failure to use the internet during missionary hours for missionary work, we will lose the iPad and our internet privilege for the rest of our mission. No second chances. Currently, I am still in the set-up process, but hopefully within about a week or two you will see me put up a post announcing much of this same material to all my Facebook Friends, and at that point I will officially begin online missionary work. Also, we are required to friend President Morgan and his wife, as well as our APs, ZLs and DL [Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders and District Leaders: missionary leadership].
As far as the rest of this week, the Zone Conference on Friday where President Morgan announced all this stuff was awesome.
Xxxxx is doing well, he is now fully living the Word of Wisdom, and has committed to keep the law of Tithing once baptized. He goes back to China on the 21st of November, and then he won't be back to the USA until April 2nd, so we're really hoping he can get an answer prior to his departure on if he should get baptized.
Thank you for not sending me a Halloween box Mom, trust me, the members here are keeping me very well fed, it's quite surprising that I haven't put any weight on since I came up here. Fun fact, we aren't allowed to be out past 5 now on Halloween, so we'll have a nice long evening indoors.
I have noticed that while I was never tired getting up in the morning in Chinatown, I have been struggling a bit in the mornings with being really out of it. I think the fact I'm riding in a car/sitting in front of a computer so much as opposed to walking around has decreased my energy levels. Oh well, time to work out harder in the mornings.
Love you all, stay safe,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
October 23, 2013
I can cross something off my bucket list this week that I'm betting Ethan was never able to do during his mission. Fencing. Pictures will follow, especially since there's a decent chance that we will be going back there again for next week's P-day. Suffice to say that it is a much more complicated process than it appears to be. Congratulations to humanity on managing to turn a fight to the death into a highly-regulated emotionally-detatched event.
We have Zone Conference this Friday. We're guessing that is when they will give us the green light for Facebook, but SLC is backed up on the iPads, so those won't be available for most missionaries until December or later.
The ward here is doing a trunk-or-treat for the kids as a Halloween activity, which will be interesting. Especially since I'm not allowed to be outside after 6 pm on Halloween, New Years, or Christmas, and 8 pm on the 4th of July. I checked, Christmas just happens to be on a P-day this year, so I'm going to have an eternal P-day on Christmas. Merry Christmas to me (a few months early).
We re-taught Xxxxx the Word of Wisdom, the last time we had taught it he briefly mentioned that he was still drinking tea, and we decided that we wanted to re-teach it with a focus on tea. Then we got in the lesson and found out that he had decided to give up tea cold turkey after we had just barely mentioned it, we didn't even try to get a commitment out of him to stop drinking it, and he gave it up. He's awesome. If he gets baptized before he goes back to China, he's going to get most of the ward present for his baptism, everybody knows who he is.
We have another new investigator I might not have told you about, Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx (sister Xxxxxxx), who is showing a fair amount of promise. She was raised Catholic, but her parents never actually went to church, they just forced her to go for some reason. She really likes the Plan of Salvation (PoSal). Really hard life, but she's really good, and happens to have a convert of 3 years who lives literally across the street from her. Which for this area is about a 1 in 100,000 chance or less, unless Heavenly Father is pulling the strings.
It was the Parkers who spoke at the Adult Session of our Stake Conference, thank you for reminding me mom. Really powerful experience that was.
What day will Ethan's classes start/when is he going to get home? That would be helpful for knowing what days are good for being able to Skype home when he is there. Shoot, my 1 year mark is coming up quick. I've already been here in Peekskill for more than 2 months. I know it's affecting my Chinese, but not too badly hopefully. I noticed that the part that feels like it has gone down the most was during our last lesson with Peter, I felt like I was stumbling a lot more over the phrases than I ought to have been. That said, I might be going back down to Chinatown in 3 weeks, and if that is the case there is a good chance I would have about 56 weeks or so of non-stop Chinatown, which would be awesome.
I think you won't need to worry about registering me that early for classes mom, my deferral is for Aug. 2015, and while I'm not putting much thought into it at the moment, the idea of going to China and teaching English for a few months during the in-between before Pageant sounds very appealing. Also, President Morgan sends missionaries during the Christmas transfer home a few weeks early (ex: Elder Foley started his mission Jan. 6th, he goes home this year Dec. 16th. So depending on how he works it out next year there is a decent chance I'm going to be a one christmas missionary.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
We have Zone Conference this Friday. We're guessing that is when they will give us the green light for Facebook, but SLC is backed up on the iPads, so those won't be available for most missionaries until December or later.
The ward here is doing a trunk-or-treat for the kids as a Halloween activity, which will be interesting. Especially since I'm not allowed to be outside after 6 pm on Halloween, New Years, or Christmas, and 8 pm on the 4th of July. I checked, Christmas just happens to be on a P-day this year, so I'm going to have an eternal P-day on Christmas. Merry Christmas to me (a few months early).
We re-taught Xxxxx the Word of Wisdom, the last time we had taught it he briefly mentioned that he was still drinking tea, and we decided that we wanted to re-teach it with a focus on tea. Then we got in the lesson and found out that he had decided to give up tea cold turkey after we had just barely mentioned it, we didn't even try to get a commitment out of him to stop drinking it, and he gave it up. He's awesome. If he gets baptized before he goes back to China, he's going to get most of the ward present for his baptism, everybody knows who he is.
We have another new investigator I might not have told you about, Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx (sister Xxxxxxx), who is showing a fair amount of promise. She was raised Catholic, but her parents never actually went to church, they just forced her to go for some reason. She really likes the Plan of Salvation (PoSal). Really hard life, but she's really good, and happens to have a convert of 3 years who lives literally across the street from her. Which for this area is about a 1 in 100,000 chance or less, unless Heavenly Father is pulling the strings.
It was the Parkers who spoke at the Adult Session of our Stake Conference, thank you for reminding me mom. Really powerful experience that was.
What day will Ethan's classes start/when is he going to get home? That would be helpful for knowing what days are good for being able to Skype home when he is there. Shoot, my 1 year mark is coming up quick. I've already been here in Peekskill for more than 2 months. I know it's affecting my Chinese, but not too badly hopefully. I noticed that the part that feels like it has gone down the most was during our last lesson with Peter, I felt like I was stumbling a lot more over the phrases than I ought to have been. That said, I might be going back down to Chinatown in 3 weeks, and if that is the case there is a good chance I would have about 56 weeks or so of non-stop Chinatown, which would be awesome.
I think you won't need to worry about registering me that early for classes mom, my deferral is for Aug. 2015, and while I'm not putting much thought into it at the moment, the idea of going to China and teaching English for a few months during the in-between before Pageant sounds very appealing. Also, President Morgan sends missionaries during the Christmas transfer home a few weeks early (ex: Elder Foley started his mission Jan. 6th, he goes home this year Dec. 16th. So depending on how he works it out next year there is a decent chance I'm going to be a one christmas missionary.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Monday, October 21, 2013
October 16, 2013
Xxxxx didn't show up for Stake Conference for some odd reason, so I was lucky enough to not need to translate. The adult session on Saturday night was particularly good, it was held in New Canaan, Connecticut. That's about an hour's drive away from us, and we were trying to decide if it was worth the miles. In the end, Elder Hernandez and I decided to go, and the rest of our district stayed. IT WAS AWESOME. Spiritual supernova pretty much. We had three 25 to 30-ish aged sisters who told some very powerful stories about miracles in their lives, and then we spent 45 minutes listening to the parents of one of the children who died at Sandy Hook Elementary during the shooting last year. It was the first time either of them had given a church talk since the event. Then we all listened to the Stake President tell the story of how is older brother died when he fell out of the truck that he (the stake president) was driving (his older brother was 28 and had 4 children under the age of 6). All these stories had 2 themes that they focused on. Families and Forgiveness. At the end, they gave everyone in the audience a pink balloon, asked us to find something we hadn't forgiven yet, be it a childhood grudge or something very recent. Anything that we couldn't bring ourselves to forgive, and then they asked us to think about how much the Savior forgave us, and what he went through for us, and what others were going through as a result of our not being able to forgive. Then they wanted us to go through that same process after the meeting when we went outside, and decide that the balloon was the thing we hadn't forgiven yet, and let it go into the night sky. Words are truly a failure to try and describe that event.
We have recieved a little more info on the FaceBook missionary work. Specifically, I can now tell you that every missionary is going to be allowed 3 hours of FaceBook time every day. That feels like way too much for me, but I'm sure they have reasons for that amount of time being given, so I'll wait and see.
President promised me in the interview that he will get me back down to Chinatown at the end of this cycle or else next cycle. That said, he also promised Elder Blonquist that he would be serving upstate during the summer, and he still hasn't left Chinatown. Basically, what it boils down to is that his plan for me is what I've been expecting, but I recognize the fact that his plan is allowed to change as he continues to receive revelation for the mission. Barring new revelation however, I will be back in Chinatown before Christmas.
Ethan told me his soft date for going home is Dec. 26. I'm going to ask that you don't buy him too many new white shirts to replace the ones he left in Africa. We have some shirts out here that are super-slimfit that I can't currently fit too well, but which I'm sure would be great for him. I figure if he's giving me Africa stuff for Christmas, even if I won't be able to enjoy it for another year, at least I can give him something from New York.
Thank you for reminding me about Pumpkin Pie and Cheesecake mom. It reminded me of the fact that I had one of the sisters in Chinatown give me the recipe for a Pumpkin Cheesecake that she made once for everyone that was exceedingly delicious. I'll try and send that out to you this week. Consider it as me thanking you for the crackers, skittles, and the tic-tacs. (Those tic-tacs lasted about 6 hours. The sad part is that that is an improvement.)
I heard about a missionary dying in Idaho, is that the same Elder that you mentioned?
My gratitude for the suit. It fits pretty well, I might get it taken in a little in the Jacket, but the hemming was decent lenght. Everything else in my wardrobe is doing well, I have avoided developing any substantial sweat-stains on my shirts, although they are starting to look a little faded, probably from being washed with bleach so much. I never needed to break out the extra 5 short sleeve shirts, so I'll still have plenty of bright whites come next summer. My shoes are doing really well too, the heels on the walking ones are a little worn down, but aside from that, they're all in solid condition, and the boots are still hardly used. Some new size 43 Echo shoe insoles might be a good Christmas gift though, by that point the ones in my walking shoes are going to be pretty well worn, although since they're leather, they will probably be completely useable without problem to the end of my mission if you already have other ideas for my Christmas package.
Elder Hernandez is great. He goes home probably on Feb. 4th if memory serves. He's a bit interesting, but he's definitly willing to work and has the right motivation.
UEA and Davis Cup. What the garbage. What happened to summer? The leaves are stunning here, I've taken a fair number of pictures. I'm afraid that it isn't just your kids at home who are noticing that the days are getting shorter, Mom. Its actually really troublesome for us, because if tracting is ineffective beforehand, then it is pretty close to down-right useless once it gets dark outside. Nobody opens the door when they can't even see who're the people knocking. I guess that's when we'll save the 3 hours on FaceBook for during the winter.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
We have recieved a little more info on the FaceBook missionary work. Specifically, I can now tell you that every missionary is going to be allowed 3 hours of FaceBook time every day. That feels like way too much for me, but I'm sure they have reasons for that amount of time being given, so I'll wait and see.
President promised me in the interview that he will get me back down to Chinatown at the end of this cycle or else next cycle. That said, he also promised Elder Blonquist that he would be serving upstate during the summer, and he still hasn't left Chinatown. Basically, what it boils down to is that his plan for me is what I've been expecting, but I recognize the fact that his plan is allowed to change as he continues to receive revelation for the mission. Barring new revelation however, I will be back in Chinatown before Christmas.
Ethan told me his soft date for going home is Dec. 26. I'm going to ask that you don't buy him too many new white shirts to replace the ones he left in Africa. We have some shirts out here that are super-slimfit that I can't currently fit too well, but which I'm sure would be great for him. I figure if he's giving me Africa stuff for Christmas, even if I won't be able to enjoy it for another year, at least I can give him something from New York.
Thank you for reminding me about Pumpkin Pie and Cheesecake mom. It reminded me of the fact that I had one of the sisters in Chinatown give me the recipe for a Pumpkin Cheesecake that she made once for everyone that was exceedingly delicious. I'll try and send that out to you this week. Consider it as me thanking you for the crackers, skittles, and the tic-tacs. (Those tic-tacs lasted about 6 hours. The sad part is that that is an improvement.)
I heard about a missionary dying in Idaho, is that the same Elder that you mentioned?
My gratitude for the suit. It fits pretty well, I might get it taken in a little in the Jacket, but the hemming was decent lenght. Everything else in my wardrobe is doing well, I have avoided developing any substantial sweat-stains on my shirts, although they are starting to look a little faded, probably from being washed with bleach so much. I never needed to break out the extra 5 short sleeve shirts, so I'll still have plenty of bright whites come next summer. My shoes are doing really well too, the heels on the walking ones are a little worn down, but aside from that, they're all in solid condition, and the boots are still hardly used. Some new size 43 Echo shoe insoles might be a good Christmas gift though, by that point the ones in my walking shoes are going to be pretty well worn, although since they're leather, they will probably be completely useable without problem to the end of my mission if you already have other ideas for my Christmas package.
Elder Hernandez is great. He goes home probably on Feb. 4th if memory serves. He's a bit interesting, but he's definitly willing to work and has the right motivation.
UEA and Davis Cup. What the garbage. What happened to summer? The leaves are stunning here, I've taken a fair number of pictures. I'm afraid that it isn't just your kids at home who are noticing that the days are getting shorter, Mom. Its actually really troublesome for us, because if tracting is ineffective beforehand, then it is pretty close to down-right useless once it gets dark outside. Nobody opens the door when they can't even see who're the people knocking. I guess that's when we'll save the 3 hours on FaceBook for during the winter.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
October 8, 2013
So many questions!
Conference was awesome. I hate how it dragged on forever when I was a kid and didn't like it, and now that it's just about the highlight of my year, it has to go by so fast. We watched it at the chapel, and we were about the only ones there, but I kind of like it that way, I might do that when I go back home. I really liked President Uchtdorf's first talk about how God uses imperfect people, but the doctrine is perfect. Elder Oaks' and Elder Nelson's talks seemed like mirror copies of awesomeness, Elder Holland threw a surprise ball for me with the talking about depression, but it perfectly answered the prayers of several people I know, and it was very spiritual. I also liked Elder Bednar's talk on Tithing, I wish I could teach the commandments like that.
Life in Peekskill continues, the trees are really changing colors now, and it looks beautiful.
I have limited time currently, I messed up the timing really bad this week. Sorry.
Actually, never mind, I still have some time. Blasted library computers.
I guess I forgot to tell you mom, Chinese people like to give gifts when they first meet. Consider yourself warned. If you were wondering, I didn't tell Jen to tell you that I spoke good Mandarin, but honestly, I think she would say I spoke good Mandarin if all I knew was how to say "God loves you".
I know that I go on about biology and such when the important thing is just whether or not the problem gets fixed, I tend to get hung up on the fact that I can't understand it. I'm really good at accepting that I won't be able to understand everything about the gospel in this life, but accepting it for scientific stuff tends to be more difficult for me to do oddly enough.
I contact Jon on a weekly basis actually, our P-days don't line up, but that's not really any kind of problem.
Cameron is going to play the Oboe too? Boss. Tell him that means that he'll need to practice both instruments on a regular basis though. How good is his practice ethic anyway? Probably better than mine was, since he was taking lessons from brother Simons for so long. Is he still signed up for piano too?
We have interviews with President this Friday. Normally we're supposed to get them every other transfer, but for the last several cycles the scheduling has been really messy, so this is the first interview I'm having with him since June.
Now that Elder Wang has gone, I am the only translation available for Xxxxx. I haven't had to do too much yet, but Stake Conference is this coming Sunday, so 2 hours of translating non-stop should be wonderful for my head.
Already looking forward to next year's pageant. Man time goes fast. That said, if I were a sister missionary, today would be my half-way point. Odd. I will have had my mission call for a year before the end of this cycle too.
The gospel is true, and I advise you all to pull out your Preach My Gospels and go through the Christ like attributes section (chapter 6) at the back of it is a self evaluation for the attributes, then you can all go and try to set goals to improve on whichever attributes you find you are lower on.
Love, your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Conference was awesome. I hate how it dragged on forever when I was a kid and didn't like it, and now that it's just about the highlight of my year, it has to go by so fast. We watched it at the chapel, and we were about the only ones there, but I kind of like it that way, I might do that when I go back home. I really liked President Uchtdorf's first talk about how God uses imperfect people, but the doctrine is perfect. Elder Oaks' and Elder Nelson's talks seemed like mirror copies of awesomeness, Elder Holland threw a surprise ball for me with the talking about depression, but it perfectly answered the prayers of several people I know, and it was very spiritual. I also liked Elder Bednar's talk on Tithing, I wish I could teach the commandments like that.
Life in Peekskill continues, the trees are really changing colors now, and it looks beautiful.
I have limited time currently, I messed up the timing really bad this week. Sorry.
Actually, never mind, I still have some time. Blasted library computers.
I guess I forgot to tell you mom, Chinese people like to give gifts when they first meet. Consider yourself warned. If you were wondering, I didn't tell Jen to tell you that I spoke good Mandarin, but honestly, I think she would say I spoke good Mandarin if all I knew was how to say "God loves you".
I know that I go on about biology and such when the important thing is just whether or not the problem gets fixed, I tend to get hung up on the fact that I can't understand it. I'm really good at accepting that I won't be able to understand everything about the gospel in this life, but accepting it for scientific stuff tends to be more difficult for me to do oddly enough.
I contact Jon on a weekly basis actually, our P-days don't line up, but that's not really any kind of problem.
Cameron is going to play the Oboe too? Boss. Tell him that means that he'll need to practice both instruments on a regular basis though. How good is his practice ethic anyway? Probably better than mine was, since he was taking lessons from brother Simons for so long. Is he still signed up for piano too?
We have interviews with President this Friday. Normally we're supposed to get them every other transfer, but for the last several cycles the scheduling has been really messy, so this is the first interview I'm having with him since June.
Now that Elder Wang has gone, I am the only translation available for Xxxxx. I haven't had to do too much yet, but Stake Conference is this coming Sunday, so 2 hours of translating non-stop should be wonderful for my head.
Already looking forward to next year's pageant. Man time goes fast. That said, if I were a sister missionary, today would be my half-way point. Odd. I will have had my mission call for a year before the end of this cycle too.
The gospel is true, and I advise you all to pull out your Preach My Gospels and go through the Christ like attributes section (chapter 6) at the back of it is a self evaluation for the attributes, then you can all go and try to set goals to improve on whichever attributes you find you are lower on.
Love, your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Sunday, October 20, 2013
October 1, 2013
Transfers are in. Elder Christensen will be staying in Peekskill, while Elder Wang will be transferred to South Manhattan (not Chinatown though). My new companion is Elder Hernandez. If you were somehow still hoping after hearing that name Mom, I'll just let you know now, he doesn't speak Mandarin. In fact, he doesn't even speak Spanish. What I have been told though is that he does speak fluent Prankster, so this next 6 weeks could get very interesting. He goes home in Jan-Feb, so he's getting along missionary-age-wise.
It was a serious wherps on my part that I didn't get sister Lee's family number before I came up-state. They have yours, it's just a matter of if they'll contact you or not.
I have to agree with Cam, Bassoon was easier to play than the Oboe.
Something astonishing has occurred. Despite the insane amount of ice-cream and brownies that the members are constantly forcing upon me, I have not put on any substantial amount of weight. I still bounce between 162 and 165. This is even more surprising since I haven't been exactly obedient in terms of exercise in the mornings (I get up at 6:30, but I usually just read for that half hour, not exercise, hopefully Elder Hernandez breaks that habit for me. Elder Wang would always use that time for other pursuits.)
Dear Robin, just remember that Mom and Dad are not the norm. The vast majority of couples that get married do NOT start in Junior and Senior year. Don't let drama be the story of high school, if you do, odds are you won't have a very good experience, and you'll have to re-learn how to mix schooling and dating correctly once you go to college.
I don't know for sure Mom, but I've been told that several of the people in the video are from the Scarsdale/White Plains area, which is about a 40 minute drive south for me.
[This is regarding Robin's recent visits to a Chiropractor for treatment of dairy allergies.] Acupuncture is 50% placebo effect, 50% dumb luck. If you look at the cellular level of it, it actually doesn't make much too much sense, at least on the neural level. Nerves can only transmit an impulse 1 direction, if the problem is in the nervous system, the only thing he can do is poke the nerve, which, so long as he doesn't break it, could potentially alter how effectively it transmits the signal, (I won't go into how it would do that, I'd still be sitting here this time tomorrow.) but which is a concept I personally find very unsettling. From the muscular/circulatory systems, I couldn't say effectively what you could do, it would depend on what type of muscle/fiber you hit. For the digestive tract, all you could do short of surgery would be to alter the foods you eat, or else influence the nervous system's effect on the digestive tract. If you're trying to fix a dairy allergy, you could POTENTIALLY discover that the problem is a lack of Lactase in the small intestine (If memory serves). You could then discover that the flaw was that the pancreas wasn't producing enough Lactase, and find the nerve that was blocking the signal to produce such was coming from the spinal column, and wasn't a feedback cycle error from the intestine, and then reset that 1 particular nerve cell so that it was functioning properly. But first you would need to already know that the problem was a lack of Lactase, and not a twist in you intestine that was having a similar effect. Basically, what I'm saying is that there is no biological reason I can see for why it works, short of if you had a nerve that was mis-firing, and could identify the problem as such, and so I'm saying most of it is placebo, but I also realize that I don't know anywhere near enough about the body to say for sure, so I'll give them some benefit of the doubt. But if they try and talk about "balancing the body" and "energy flow", then just realize that they're really saying "I don't know how or why it works". And I prefer not to trust my body to the care of somebody who doesn't understand how or why what they do causes the results that it does. I also think you might want to avoid getting me on the subject of biology in the future while emailing Mom, it's an effective way to get me to waste the little time I have to email.
We had a new investigator come to church last Sunday, her name is Xxxxxxxx, she's 71, from the UK, and Anglican most of her life, but she's always been willing to try new churches. She said this last Sunday was one of the best feelings she's had in her life though, and she was shocked at how much everyone in the church seemed to love each other. She won't be able to make it to GC, but we have Stake Conference the week after, which will also be good.
In other news, I found out that Elder Cook (my MTC comp.) is with Elder Blonquist (his trainer) for yet another cycle. That means that, counting the transfer that starts today, he has been with Elder Blonquist for 5 of the 6 cycles we've been in the field. How's that for getting to know someone? Also, Elder Wang (from Chinatown, my 1st Wang comp.) has been transfered to Kingston, which is the furthest north area in the mission. Cheese is good!
Oh, I remembered one other thing. I went to my first ever FHE that was held around a fire-pit in the back yard. And it made me think..."When we have everyone back together, and its during the summer when we all have time, we should go up to the cabin for FHE, and then spend the night!" How's that for a cool thought? Also, next week is the half-way point for sister MacKay, the sister in my MTC district who is still in Chinatown. 9 months went by pretty fast.
I might email you later today, if not, talk to you in a week.
Love, your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
It was a serious wherps on my part that I didn't get sister Lee's family number before I came up-state. They have yours, it's just a matter of if they'll contact you or not.
I have to agree with Cam, Bassoon was easier to play than the Oboe.
Something astonishing has occurred. Despite the insane amount of ice-cream and brownies that the members are constantly forcing upon me, I have not put on any substantial amount of weight. I still bounce between 162 and 165. This is even more surprising since I haven't been exactly obedient in terms of exercise in the mornings (I get up at 6:30, but I usually just read for that half hour, not exercise, hopefully Elder Hernandez breaks that habit for me. Elder Wang would always use that time for other pursuits.)
Dear Robin, just remember that Mom and Dad are not the norm. The vast majority of couples that get married do NOT start in Junior and Senior year. Don't let drama be the story of high school, if you do, odds are you won't have a very good experience, and you'll have to re-learn how to mix schooling and dating correctly once you go to college.
I don't know for sure Mom, but I've been told that several of the people in the video are from the Scarsdale/White Plains area, which is about a 40 minute drive south for me.
[This is regarding Robin's recent visits to a Chiropractor for treatment of dairy allergies.] Acupuncture is 50% placebo effect, 50% dumb luck. If you look at the cellular level of it, it actually doesn't make much too much sense, at least on the neural level. Nerves can only transmit an impulse 1 direction, if the problem is in the nervous system, the only thing he can do is poke the nerve, which, so long as he doesn't break it, could potentially alter how effectively it transmits the signal, (I won't go into how it would do that, I'd still be sitting here this time tomorrow.) but which is a concept I personally find very unsettling. From the muscular/circulatory systems, I couldn't say effectively what you could do, it would depend on what type of muscle/fiber you hit. For the digestive tract, all you could do short of surgery would be to alter the foods you eat, or else influence the nervous system's effect on the digestive tract. If you're trying to fix a dairy allergy, you could POTENTIALLY discover that the problem is a lack of Lactase in the small intestine (If memory serves). You could then discover that the flaw was that the pancreas wasn't producing enough Lactase, and find the nerve that was blocking the signal to produce such was coming from the spinal column, and wasn't a feedback cycle error from the intestine, and then reset that 1 particular nerve cell so that it was functioning properly. But first you would need to already know that the problem was a lack of Lactase, and not a twist in you intestine that was having a similar effect. Basically, what I'm saying is that there is no biological reason I can see for why it works, short of if you had a nerve that was mis-firing, and could identify the problem as such, and so I'm saying most of it is placebo, but I also realize that I don't know anywhere near enough about the body to say for sure, so I'll give them some benefit of the doubt. But if they try and talk about "balancing the body" and "energy flow", then just realize that they're really saying "I don't know how or why it works". And I prefer not to trust my body to the care of somebody who doesn't understand how or why what they do causes the results that it does. I also think you might want to avoid getting me on the subject of biology in the future while emailing Mom, it's an effective way to get me to waste the little time I have to email.
We had a new investigator come to church last Sunday, her name is Xxxxxxxx, she's 71, from the UK, and Anglican most of her life, but she's always been willing to try new churches. She said this last Sunday was one of the best feelings she's had in her life though, and she was shocked at how much everyone in the church seemed to love each other. She won't be able to make it to GC, but we have Stake Conference the week after, which will also be good.
In other news, I found out that Elder Cook (my MTC comp.) is with Elder Blonquist (his trainer) for yet another cycle. That means that, counting the transfer that starts today, he has been with Elder Blonquist for 5 of the 6 cycles we've been in the field. How's that for getting to know someone? Also, Elder Wang (from Chinatown, my 1st Wang comp.) has been transfered to Kingston, which is the furthest north area in the mission. Cheese is good!
Oh, I remembered one other thing. I went to my first ever FHE that was held around a fire-pit in the back yard. And it made me think..."When we have everyone back together, and its during the summer when we all have time, we should go up to the cabin for FHE, and then spend the night!" How's that for a cool thought? Also, next week is the half-way point for sister MacKay, the sister in my MTC district who is still in Chinatown. 9 months went by pretty fast.
I might email you later today, if not, talk to you in a week.
Love, your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
September 24, 2013
2 interesting things happened this last week.
Interesting point number 1. Elder Bruce Carlson of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission for our annual mission conference with a General Authority. Super cool guy, we talked a lot about consecration, as well as the difference between Justification (coming into alignment with a standard), and Sanctification (he wanted us to come up with our own definition of sanctified, but gave us some scriptural points to prove that there is a difference between the two.) I also had the first time on my mission where a general authority addressed the missionaries to tell us that we need to get married QUICKLY after our missions. His advice was to write down a list of attributes of our mission president's wife, (or president for sisters), and set those as the goal attributes of the person we are looking for to marry. He then said to make sure that you get married before you can forget what those attributes were. It was kind of odd to listen to him talk about getting married really fast after your mission, since I still feel like a younger missionary, but then I thought about it and realized that I'm almost exactly 2 transfers away from reaching my year mark. Before next cycle ends, I'll have passed the 1 year mark of getting my mission call. Time flies when you're having fun. One thing that he mentioned was that you can't just "hang out" and expect to effectively discover which of the girls in your social group actually portray the attributes you want. And he also talked about setting a 5 year plan of what you want your life to look like after you get back from your mission. I don't know if you did that or not, Wes, but I would certainly encourage both you and Ethan (once he gets back) to discuss setting 5 year plans that start at roughly the same time as 2014. You won't set the same goals, because you are 2 very different people, but bouncing ideas off of someone else is, in my experience, one of the best ways to decide what is the best option/solution.
Interesting point number 2 was no where near as spiritually important/uplifting, but still really nice. I got to have JDawgs sauce. We went to a member family lunch appointment, and their daughter at BYU ships them out JDawgs sauce, so that was a nice little taste of home right there.
I got the letter you sent mom, so the address is right, you can send the suit straight to me. I just ask that if you do so, you send it today or tomorrow, because now that I'm upstate, I have no guarantee that I'll be staying in this area past next Wednesday. (how did that cycle go for speed?) The Birth-Certificate can be sent if you want, but I'm probably going to wait for the passport papers until I'm back down in Chinatown, It's a lot easier to get to the post office there, up here I would have to take a much longer portion of the Preparation Day to do it, and I don't think that it's that urgent. I have no idea if I'm going to go back down to Chinatown or not, but I personally think based on the recent record for other Chinese missionaries, I've probably got at least 1 more cycle in the English program before I go back to Chinatown. I did bring my heavy coat up with me, the only thing I left behind was the comforter.
Cameron has lasted 6 weeks with his first reed? I'll tell you what the difference was. I had just barely gotten my braces on before school started 7th grade, and I was playing the Oboe, not the Bassoon. Oboe reeds are a lot easier to break.
Oh, could you send me a picture of Dad without hair? I'd love to use that as the back of one of my planner covers. More pictures of the Cabin would be nice too. I promise I'll send some of my own once I get the chance to back stuff up onto my Flash Drive from a computer that isn't in the public library.
Is Robin having friend issues in terms of just high school drama, or is it that she has some friends who are making bad choices? If the former, she'll survive, and, in the words of Calvin and Hobbes "it builds character." If the latter, then she just needs to make the decision of if they are pressuring her in any way to violate her own standards. If so, then they are not friends worthy of having a super meaningful relationship with. That's about all the help I can give on that topic. High school felt not that dramatic while I was there, but now that I'm out looking back, it was really bad actually.
Xxxxx is still doing fine, he comes to church every week, he's going to go back to China for a few months in late October or November probably, but he does that every year, he has a green card in the US, so he can't leave for more than 6 months. We also got him to tell us his concern about getting baptized. Put simply, he's got some barriers to overcome, not in that he isn't keeping the commandments or doesn't believe the gospel is true or anything like that, just some stuff he will have to figure out for himself before it will happen.
If you're having a hard time enjoying scripture study mom, might I suggest reviewing Chapter 2 of Preach My Gospel (Effective Study)?
In other news, tracting is really good at saving your car miles. And meeting people who aren't interested. On the plus side though, I haven't had the cops called on me for soliciting yet (that's happend to my district leader 4 times over the course of his mission. He doesn't get in any trouble, because we aren't actually selling anything, it's just a serious annoyance according to him.).
Love you all, having a wonderful time here in Peekskill,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Interesting point number 1. Elder Bruce Carlson of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission for our annual mission conference with a General Authority. Super cool guy, we talked a lot about consecration, as well as the difference between Justification (coming into alignment with a standard), and Sanctification (he wanted us to come up with our own definition of sanctified, but gave us some scriptural points to prove that there is a difference between the two.) I also had the first time on my mission where a general authority addressed the missionaries to tell us that we need to get married QUICKLY after our missions. His advice was to write down a list of attributes of our mission president's wife, (or president for sisters), and set those as the goal attributes of the person we are looking for to marry. He then said to make sure that you get married before you can forget what those attributes were. It was kind of odd to listen to him talk about getting married really fast after your mission, since I still feel like a younger missionary, but then I thought about it and realized that I'm almost exactly 2 transfers away from reaching my year mark. Before next cycle ends, I'll have passed the 1 year mark of getting my mission call. Time flies when you're having fun. One thing that he mentioned was that you can't just "hang out" and expect to effectively discover which of the girls in your social group actually portray the attributes you want. And he also talked about setting a 5 year plan of what you want your life to look like after you get back from your mission. I don't know if you did that or not, Wes, but I would certainly encourage both you and Ethan (once he gets back) to discuss setting 5 year plans that start at roughly the same time as 2014. You won't set the same goals, because you are 2 very different people, but bouncing ideas off of someone else is, in my experience, one of the best ways to decide what is the best option/solution.
Interesting point number 2 was no where near as spiritually important/uplifting, but still really nice. I got to have JDawgs sauce. We went to a member family lunch appointment, and their daughter at BYU ships them out JDawgs sauce, so that was a nice little taste of home right there.
I got the letter you sent mom, so the address is right, you can send the suit straight to me. I just ask that if you do so, you send it today or tomorrow, because now that I'm upstate, I have no guarantee that I'll be staying in this area past next Wednesday. (how did that cycle go for speed?) The Birth-Certificate can be sent if you want, but I'm probably going to wait for the passport papers until I'm back down in Chinatown, It's a lot easier to get to the post office there, up here I would have to take a much longer portion of the Preparation Day to do it, and I don't think that it's that urgent. I have no idea if I'm going to go back down to Chinatown or not, but I personally think based on the recent record for other Chinese missionaries, I've probably got at least 1 more cycle in the English program before I go back to Chinatown. I did bring my heavy coat up with me, the only thing I left behind was the comforter.
Cameron has lasted 6 weeks with his first reed? I'll tell you what the difference was. I had just barely gotten my braces on before school started 7th grade, and I was playing the Oboe, not the Bassoon. Oboe reeds are a lot easier to break.
Oh, could you send me a picture of Dad without hair? I'd love to use that as the back of one of my planner covers. More pictures of the Cabin would be nice too. I promise I'll send some of my own once I get the chance to back stuff up onto my Flash Drive from a computer that isn't in the public library.
Is Robin having friend issues in terms of just high school drama, or is it that she has some friends who are making bad choices? If the former, she'll survive, and, in the words of Calvin and Hobbes "it builds character." If the latter, then she just needs to make the decision of if they are pressuring her in any way to violate her own standards. If so, then they are not friends worthy of having a super meaningful relationship with. That's about all the help I can give on that topic. High school felt not that dramatic while I was there, but now that I'm out looking back, it was really bad actually.
Xxxxx is still doing fine, he comes to church every week, he's going to go back to China for a few months in late October or November probably, but he does that every year, he has a green card in the US, so he can't leave for more than 6 months. We also got him to tell us his concern about getting baptized. Put simply, he's got some barriers to overcome, not in that he isn't keeping the commandments or doesn't believe the gospel is true or anything like that, just some stuff he will have to figure out for himself before it will happen.
If you're having a hard time enjoying scripture study mom, might I suggest reviewing Chapter 2 of Preach My Gospel (Effective Study)?
In other news, tracting is really good at saving your car miles. And meeting people who aren't interested. On the plus side though, I haven't had the cops called on me for soliciting yet (that's happend to my district leader 4 times over the course of his mission. He doesn't get in any trouble, because we aren't actually selling anything, it's just a serious annoyance according to him.).
Love you all, having a wonderful time here in Peekskill,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
September 17, 2013
First, I must quote the movie George of the Jungle. "This is the part where we throw our heads back and laugh. Ready? LAUGH! (all people on screen proceed to throw their heads back and laugh.)" The reason for this quote is that last Monday, I messed up cutting my hair too! I am the proud owner of an awkward bald spot behind my left ear, thanks to the fact that after I had trimmed my sideburns, I was doing a final check and found a couple of long hairs there, only to forget I should put the attachment back on before I proceeded to cut them. It's not as bad as dad's, but still really funny that it happened to both of us.
The suit thing...if it is going to cost 260, I'm going to request that you just take the cheapest thing that still fits the measurements I gave you, and have that shipped out, but wait until after my next email to place the order, so I can ask the other elders if there are any places around here I can get one for cheap. My only thing that I really strongly feel on suits is that there be at least 1 slit on the back, no slit feels really weird, but other than that, the rest of my requests have just been preference, I can work with what you send me. I know where I can get a suit down in the city for 90$-150$, but going down to the city is a full pday activity which I doubt I will have the time for in the near future.
Sorry, the package hasn't come through yet. What day did you send it?
My new goal that I've set for Chinese while I'm upstate has been to try and memorize 20 new characters a week, if not how to write them, then at least be able to recognize them as I'm reading. Thus far, I'm pretty close to on track. I've also slowly begun reading the White Handbook in Chinese, with a fair amount of help from Elder Wang on the characters that are still unknown to me.
Most of the trees upstate are still pretty green, I'm guessing that the real color change will come in October, and it will probably be glorious. Have most of the leaves in Utah already fallen? Sounds like a really early fall if that is the case.
The passport stuff I'm thinking is probably just me, and the fact that Elder Wang is convinced that China is going to open to missionaries in the near future, and he's made me paranoid I'm going to get sent there at some point.
Nice to know that Robin developed an allergy that I don't remember anyone telling me about. Hope the chiropractor works out well.
We have a couple of investigators besides Xxxxx, but no-one who is really interested in learning if it is true or not. They just are vaguely curious what it is that Mormons believe/have had good experiences with members in the past, but they don't really feel any desire to discover the blessings that can come from the gospel. All great people, but trying to figure out how to make them interested in the gospel with the correct desire is good at melting your brain.
Family are allowed to be friends with me on Facebook, and China doesn't actually allow Facebook (although Taiwan and possibly Hong Kong do.) The stipulation though is that you don't spend a lot of time talking to me on FB, and that the conversations be primarily missionary work related. More specifics will come as the iPads are issued I'm sure (we're getting 2 iPads per companionship some time next cycle, the transfer meeting that starts it is on the 2nd of October.) I'm guessing that I'll probably stay in the area for at least 1 more cycle, but President has proved that he likes to make life interesting via transfers, so it's impossible to say for sure.
Another spiritual thought I had during sacrament meeting this last week was to compare Christ to the heart of a body, and Heavenly Father to the brain. The brain is what controls everything, gives it all purpose, but the heart is the part that must continually be used in order for that purpose to be realized. Without blood from the heart, all body function would cease. The nervous system is what gave us the ability of movement, but the circulatory system is what gives us the chance to continue this movement. I didn't write down the full thought, so you can try to figure it out for yourself.
One final quote (slightly paraphrased I think) from C.S.Lewis to finish this week's report out: "The end goal of humility is to love our neighbor as ourself, and also be able to love ourselves as much as we love our neighbors."
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
PS, I seriously encourage you to find and read "the power of everyday missionaries" by Clayton Christensen. It's awesome.
The suit thing...if it is going to cost 260, I'm going to request that you just take the cheapest thing that still fits the measurements I gave you, and have that shipped out, but wait until after my next email to place the order, so I can ask the other elders if there are any places around here I can get one for cheap. My only thing that I really strongly feel on suits is that there be at least 1 slit on the back, no slit feels really weird, but other than that, the rest of my requests have just been preference, I can work with what you send me. I know where I can get a suit down in the city for 90$-150$, but going down to the city is a full pday activity which I doubt I will have the time for in the near future.
Sorry, the package hasn't come through yet. What day did you send it?
My new goal that I've set for Chinese while I'm upstate has been to try and memorize 20 new characters a week, if not how to write them, then at least be able to recognize them as I'm reading. Thus far, I'm pretty close to on track. I've also slowly begun reading the White Handbook in Chinese, with a fair amount of help from Elder Wang on the characters that are still unknown to me.
Most of the trees upstate are still pretty green, I'm guessing that the real color change will come in October, and it will probably be glorious. Have most of the leaves in Utah already fallen? Sounds like a really early fall if that is the case.
The passport stuff I'm thinking is probably just me, and the fact that Elder Wang is convinced that China is going to open to missionaries in the near future, and he's made me paranoid I'm going to get sent there at some point.
Nice to know that Robin developed an allergy that I don't remember anyone telling me about. Hope the chiropractor works out well.
We have a couple of investigators besides Xxxxx, but no-one who is really interested in learning if it is true or not. They just are vaguely curious what it is that Mormons believe/have had good experiences with members in the past, but they don't really feel any desire to discover the blessings that can come from the gospel. All great people, but trying to figure out how to make them interested in the gospel with the correct desire is good at melting your brain.
Family are allowed to be friends with me on Facebook, and China doesn't actually allow Facebook (although Taiwan and possibly Hong Kong do.) The stipulation though is that you don't spend a lot of time talking to me on FB, and that the conversations be primarily missionary work related. More specifics will come as the iPads are issued I'm sure (we're getting 2 iPads per companionship some time next cycle, the transfer meeting that starts it is on the 2nd of October.) I'm guessing that I'll probably stay in the area for at least 1 more cycle, but President has proved that he likes to make life interesting via transfers, so it's impossible to say for sure.
Another spiritual thought I had during sacrament meeting this last week was to compare Christ to the heart of a body, and Heavenly Father to the brain. The brain is what controls everything, gives it all purpose, but the heart is the part that must continually be used in order for that purpose to be realized. Without blood from the heart, all body function would cease. The nervous system is what gave us the ability of movement, but the circulatory system is what gives us the chance to continue this movement. I didn't write down the full thought, so you can try to figure it out for yourself.
One final quote (slightly paraphrased I think) from C.S.Lewis to finish this week's report out: "The end goal of humility is to love our neighbor as ourself, and also be able to love ourselves as much as we love our neighbors."
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
PS, I seriously encourage you to find and read "the power of everyday missionaries" by Clayton Christensen. It's awesome.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
September 10, 2013
We received an update on the use of internet proselyting. I will be logging back onto my personal facebook account around the end of October probably, and using it for missionary purposes. Now, the exact usage of it is still not clear to me, what is clear is that I am going to need to go through and get rid of a lot of old posts, comments, potentially friends and pictures. I'm also going to need to friend the mission president and the APs and my Zone Leaders.
Sorry for the announcement about the need for another suit, it's cooling down here faster than I was expecting, and when I got the Dry-Cleaners (professionals this time) to put another patch on the old sleeve, it lasted for about a day before it tore on the OTHER side of the patch the MTC did. Really bummed by that one. 38 Regular Jacket seems to be the right size, 2 button, 2 slit, open lapel gap are all preferred but not required. Pants would be 32/32. If you can't make it match the pants I already have, then feel free to do it via missionary mall. Black or Gray would work equally well, brown might not be the best idea since I only have black shoes. Also, on a fun note, I am holding steady in the range of 162 to 166 lbs currently. Now I just need to get the ward members to stop providing so much dessert with the utmost expectation that we will eat every single bit, and I can really start to lose some weight.
Xxxxx is still coming to church every single week. We take turns translating for him. I translate one week, Elder Wang translates the next. There is nothing to give you a head-ache during sacrament like trying to translate into Chinese during Fast and Testimony meeting I've learned, because during the other weeks, you can ask the person before hand for a copy of the talk, and just read translate. Translating by ear takes a lot more concentration. As far as other Chinese practice, I still try and talk to Elder Wang in Chinese as much as I can remember to when it's just the two of us. We have a goal to only speak Chinese while we are in the car, and we're working to get better at that. I also spend a lot of time now reading the Book of Mormon in characters. Not to say I know enough to really read it, but I'm learning a few every day, so it'll come eventually.
I've taken about 500 pictures total since I got into the field I think (That said, 90 of them are of various birds from when we went to the Bronx Zoo). I'll try to send you out the SD card itself in a while once I have the chance to upload the stuff on it onto my flash-drive. I don't really trust the computers here in the public library with my SD card and Flash Drive for some reason, so I'm going to try and do that stuff on one of the computers at our chapel.
My spiritual thought for the week comes from a bit of revelation I received during sacrament, although it wasn't related to the sacrament at all. During this dispensation, the nature of missionary work has changed substantially. From a start with soap-boxing in England that would lead to missionaries like Dan Jones in Whales baptizing over 3000 people, to what we currently have today. What I discovered though was that with the planned phasing out of tracting, we are moving further and further away from declaring the Gospel to any and all, to having those who are interested come to us. Now, missionary work of course will continue to work on finding from our own efforts, as well as the members, but it made me think of Mormon and Moroni. They were not allowed to preach the word. The work of God will go forth Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, until it has swept every continent, visited every clime, and sounded in every ear, and then, it will stop, because there will come a time when all people HAVE learned enough, and have decided to reject what they learned. And at that point, missionary work will follow the course of Mormon and Moroni, and switch to working as hard as they can for member retention. Clearly this point in time is still a ways away, but it was a little bit of a paradigm shift for me to realize this.
Love you all, hope that homework doesn't kill you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
P.S. no I haven't had the chance to go to the temple yet, I haven't actually gone since June I thing.
P.P.S. Upstate is really good, I'm getting a much better grasp of why they always say tracting is ineffective, but study time is a blast. Did I mention I've started reading the Lectures on Faith and the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis during apartment time after we finish daily planning? Both are excellent food for thought.
Sorry for the announcement about the need for another suit, it's cooling down here faster than I was expecting, and when I got the Dry-Cleaners (professionals this time) to put another patch on the old sleeve, it lasted for about a day before it tore on the OTHER side of the patch the MTC did. Really bummed by that one. 38 Regular Jacket seems to be the right size, 2 button, 2 slit, open lapel gap are all preferred but not required. Pants would be 32/32. If you can't make it match the pants I already have, then feel free to do it via missionary mall. Black or Gray would work equally well, brown might not be the best idea since I only have black shoes. Also, on a fun note, I am holding steady in the range of 162 to 166 lbs currently. Now I just need to get the ward members to stop providing so much dessert with the utmost expectation that we will eat every single bit, and I can really start to lose some weight.
Xxxxx is still coming to church every single week. We take turns translating for him. I translate one week, Elder Wang translates the next. There is nothing to give you a head-ache during sacrament like trying to translate into Chinese during Fast and Testimony meeting I've learned, because during the other weeks, you can ask the person before hand for a copy of the talk, and just read translate. Translating by ear takes a lot more concentration. As far as other Chinese practice, I still try and talk to Elder Wang in Chinese as much as I can remember to when it's just the two of us. We have a goal to only speak Chinese while we are in the car, and we're working to get better at that. I also spend a lot of time now reading the Book of Mormon in characters. Not to say I know enough to really read it, but I'm learning a few every day, so it'll come eventually.
I've taken about 500 pictures total since I got into the field I think (That said, 90 of them are of various birds from when we went to the Bronx Zoo). I'll try to send you out the SD card itself in a while once I have the chance to upload the stuff on it onto my flash-drive. I don't really trust the computers here in the public library with my SD card and Flash Drive for some reason, so I'm going to try and do that stuff on one of the computers at our chapel.
My spiritual thought for the week comes from a bit of revelation I received during sacrament, although it wasn't related to the sacrament at all. During this dispensation, the nature of missionary work has changed substantially. From a start with soap-boxing in England that would lead to missionaries like Dan Jones in Whales baptizing over 3000 people, to what we currently have today. What I discovered though was that with the planned phasing out of tracting, we are moving further and further away from declaring the Gospel to any and all, to having those who are interested come to us. Now, missionary work of course will continue to work on finding from our own efforts, as well as the members, but it made me think of Mormon and Moroni. They were not allowed to preach the word. The work of God will go forth Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, until it has swept every continent, visited every clime, and sounded in every ear, and then, it will stop, because there will come a time when all people HAVE learned enough, and have decided to reject what they learned. And at that point, missionary work will follow the course of Mormon and Moroni, and switch to working as hard as they can for member retention. Clearly this point in time is still a ways away, but it was a little bit of a paradigm shift for me to realize this.
Love you all, hope that homework doesn't kill you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
P.S. no I haven't had the chance to go to the temple yet, I haven't actually gone since June I thing.
P.P.S. Upstate is really good, I'm getting a much better grasp of why they always say tracting is ineffective, but study time is a blast. Did I mention I've started reading the Lectures on Faith and the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis during apartment time after we finish daily planning? Both are excellent food for thought.
September 3, 2013
The Fall is just barely starting to kick in, I've seen a few trees that have started to change, but most are still solid green. That will probably NOT be the case by the time I go back down to the city.
Mom, your description of the new teaching method (Common Core) reminded me of how Dolores Umbridge altered the teaching ciriculum at Hogwarts so that they never actually practiced magic, just the theory. Cameron, you are not practicing math, you are practicing math theory. In theory, that would help you in the long run, but I think that math is so theoretical anyways that it shouldn't make a difference.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but I've actually been senior companion since the day I finished training back in May. The difference is that both companions I've had since that point (Elders Wang and Wang), were both native Chinese speakers, and so I always feel like I'm the junior still, even though I started my mission before either of them. (Elder Wang (Chinatown style) went into the MTC 2 weeks after me, but got into the field 2 weeks before me. Elder Wang (Peekskill style) came into the field in early May.)
Driving is terrifying here. We have these blasted black boxes that record which driver is driving, and it has it's own GPS built in, so if you pass the speed limit it starts telling you to slow down. The roads are a mess, and I scared Elder Wang really bad when I drove the first time (he gets really creeped out when people start talking to themselves.) I know that Ethan probably had an even harder time starting to drive back when he first came into the office, but I still really don't like driving here. Good thing I'll get used to it (I hope.) and if I don't, I just have to make it until I get transfered back down to Chinatown, and then I won't need to worry about driving anymore.
We talked to xxxxx, he says that he believes the church is true, he believes in the atonement of Christ, but he doesn't want to get baptized. He said it's because he goes back to China for close to half of the year to go to the doctors and visit his family, but I felt a little bit like he was giving an excuse. He still comes to church every week, and to most of the ward activities too, so we're going to keep working with him to find out the reason why and help him get past it.
The most interesting thing I've noticed about people up here thus far I think is the fact that they are so defensive about the Trinity. We talked with a lady on her porch for 30 minutes yesterday (well, really she just talked to us), about how clearly the Gospel of John in the King James Version of the Bible states that Jesus is God and that the trinity is the only way it could possibly work. She actually said she had been praying when we knocked on her door, and she didn't believe that the meeting was coincidence. The problem was that I don't think she got that Heavenly Father wanted us to help her, not the other way around. (She even quoted the "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" as well as the false prophets scripture in the beginning of Matthew.) It was one of the funnier tracting experiences I've had thus far, and we both decided to read the Gospel of John for personal study today for fun. (neither of us ever found a scripture that gave any credence to the Trinity, although we did find John 17:3,11, and 16:3 which all would have been good to share with her.)
Dinner appointments are ridiculous. We get at least a few every week, they always have deserts (usually New York cheesecake), and they admit that they are actually trying to get us fat. Ironically, I now weigh 162. How odd that I've lost some weight since I'm hardly walking at all now. Speaking of which, that suit that I told you I got? I didn't actually use it, since it the jacket was too large for me, so if you could send me out a second one, that would be good. The best would be if you could get a jacket that matches some of the slacks I already have. The best would be the matching black slacks from Haggar, the number on the tag was WPL 386. The next best would be the Gray slacks from Croft&Barrow, RN#54341. If those aren't available, feel free to get one from missionary mall, jacket size 38 regular probably, 2 button, 2 slits, the lapels having an open gap and not pointed ones, but of course above all go with the cheap stuff. Also, if you could send out my Red/Silver stripes/squares tie that I left at home, that would be good, I want to wear it for General Conference. (and make sure Ethan doesn't steal it when he gets home.) :-)
Love you all, have a great week at school!
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
Mom, your description of the new teaching method (Common Core) reminded me of how Dolores Umbridge altered the teaching ciriculum at Hogwarts so that they never actually practiced magic, just the theory. Cameron, you are not practicing math, you are practicing math theory. In theory, that would help you in the long run, but I think that math is so theoretical anyways that it shouldn't make a difference.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but I've actually been senior companion since the day I finished training back in May. The difference is that both companions I've had since that point (Elders Wang and Wang), were both native Chinese speakers, and so I always feel like I'm the junior still, even though I started my mission before either of them. (Elder Wang (Chinatown style) went into the MTC 2 weeks after me, but got into the field 2 weeks before me. Elder Wang (Peekskill style) came into the field in early May.)
Driving is terrifying here. We have these blasted black boxes that record which driver is driving, and it has it's own GPS built in, so if you pass the speed limit it starts telling you to slow down. The roads are a mess, and I scared Elder Wang really bad when I drove the first time (he gets really creeped out when people start talking to themselves.) I know that Ethan probably had an even harder time starting to drive back when he first came into the office, but I still really don't like driving here. Good thing I'll get used to it (I hope.) and if I don't, I just have to make it until I get transfered back down to Chinatown, and then I won't need to worry about driving anymore.
We talked to xxxxx, he says that he believes the church is true, he believes in the atonement of Christ, but he doesn't want to get baptized. He said it's because he goes back to China for close to half of the year to go to the doctors and visit his family, but I felt a little bit like he was giving an excuse. He still comes to church every week, and to most of the ward activities too, so we're going to keep working with him to find out the reason why and help him get past it.
The most interesting thing I've noticed about people up here thus far I think is the fact that they are so defensive about the Trinity. We talked with a lady on her porch for 30 minutes yesterday (well, really she just talked to us), about how clearly the Gospel of John in the King James Version of the Bible states that Jesus is God and that the trinity is the only way it could possibly work. She actually said she had been praying when we knocked on her door, and she didn't believe that the meeting was coincidence. The problem was that I don't think she got that Heavenly Father wanted us to help her, not the other way around. (She even quoted the "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" as well as the false prophets scripture in the beginning of Matthew.) It was one of the funnier tracting experiences I've had thus far, and we both decided to read the Gospel of John for personal study today for fun. (neither of us ever found a scripture that gave any credence to the Trinity, although we did find John 17:3,11, and 16:3 which all would have been good to share with her.)
Dinner appointments are ridiculous. We get at least a few every week, they always have deserts (usually New York cheesecake), and they admit that they are actually trying to get us fat. Ironically, I now weigh 162. How odd that I've lost some weight since I'm hardly walking at all now. Speaking of which, that suit that I told you I got? I didn't actually use it, since it the jacket was too large for me, so if you could send me out a second one, that would be good. The best would be if you could get a jacket that matches some of the slacks I already have. The best would be the matching black slacks from Haggar, the number on the tag was WPL 386. The next best would be the Gray slacks from Croft&Barrow, RN#54341. If those aren't available, feel free to get one from missionary mall, jacket size 38 regular probably, 2 button, 2 slits, the lapels having an open gap and not pointed ones, but of course above all go with the cheap stuff. Also, if you could send out my Red/Silver stripes/squares tie that I left at home, that would be good, I want to wear it for General Conference. (and make sure Ethan doesn't steal it when he gets home.) :-)
Love you all, have a great week at school!
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
August 27, 2013
My new address:
636 Main street, Apt. 1,
Peekskill, NY 10566
The first difference that I feel I need to mention between "upstate" and UPSTATE is that here, even though there are tons of trees, and the houses have bigger lawns/are bigger themselves, it's still quite crowded here. There are houses on most streets, its more like a suburb with bigger houses and lawns than true upstate where there are small towns, and then a long stretch of road with just a few farm houses here and there.
I exercised way more in the city than I do here. We had to walk to the Chapel and back at least once every day there, which was a guaranteed 25-30 minutes of walking minimum everyday in Chinatown. Here, we have a car with about 2000 miles on it a month, and we don't actually have any bikes, so we don't typically walk much at all, only when we have a few hours to go tracting, we drive to a street where the houses are closer together, and walk up and down the street. It feels extremely familiar for some reason. (*gathering fast offerings as a deacon/teacher*) Thus far, we haven't really met with any of the investigators yet, just tracking down less active members and tracting, with a large number of meal appointments thrown in, and doing some service for members as well (Landscaping is fun until they start having you try to lift 70-700 pound rocks, then the 4 by 4 beam you are using as a lever snaps in half on the really heavy ones.)
Oh, there was one other Elder who was transferred out of Chinatown too, Elder Leung was transferred to the Bronx with Elder Murray (my follow up trainer). Most transferrees out of Chinatown last 1 to 3 transfer cycles. The soonest I could expect to go back down would be October 2nd, and the latest I think I can probably expect to go back will be December 18th. If it starts to get cold, I'll wear my jeans to bed, and there are several extra blankets here in the apartment (which is HUGE by the way). Did I mention that we have a view over the Hudson River from our back porch which is really awesome?
I finally have witnessed something in myself that I never thought I would see. City mentality. This last week has been a little bit of a slow down, starting to realize that I had picked up a little bit of the "Constant Motion" of the city, but that everyone up here moves at a much slower pace, even though its only an hour or so from the city. I never realized just how minor and yet huge of a difference it was until now.
I speak some Chinese with Elder Wang, but he really wants to practice his English as much as possible, so we're going to try and set some kind of goal for when we speak Chinese and when we speak English tomorrow during weekly planning. Oh, I forgot to mention, we do have one investigator that I've met thus far, his name is xxxx, he's probably about 50-60, he's lived here for 3 years, he was originally contacted by sister missionaries in Maryland 3 years ago shortly before he moved here, and he's been coming to church here ever since, but he doesn't like to have the missionaries come over and meet with him during the week, but he's come to church most every week for the last 3 years. Which is impressive as all get out since he's from ShangHai China, and doesn't speak hardly any English. We're planning on inviting him to be baptized this Sunday, since we realized that (1) no one has ever asked him to be baptized up to this point, (2), he lives the word of wisdom already, and we're assuming he's actually keeping most of the commandments already, minus tithing. If he gets baptized, then it's going to be really cool, he's a great guy. (He didn't have any translation for any of the meetings until Elder Williams got here in April.)
Love you all, have fun remodeling the cabin!
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
PS, when are you going to get the basement of the house finished, or replace the floor in the kitchen, now that you've taken another big makeover project?
636 Main street, Apt. 1,
Peekskill, NY 10566
The first difference that I feel I need to mention between "upstate" and UPSTATE is that here, even though there are tons of trees, and the houses have bigger lawns/are bigger themselves, it's still quite crowded here. There are houses on most streets, its more like a suburb with bigger houses and lawns than true upstate where there are small towns, and then a long stretch of road with just a few farm houses here and there.
I exercised way more in the city than I do here. We had to walk to the Chapel and back at least once every day there, which was a guaranteed 25-30 minutes of walking minimum everyday in Chinatown. Here, we have a car with about 2000 miles on it a month, and we don't actually have any bikes, so we don't typically walk much at all, only when we have a few hours to go tracting, we drive to a street where the houses are closer together, and walk up and down the street. It feels extremely familiar for some reason. (*gathering fast offerings as a deacon/teacher*) Thus far, we haven't really met with any of the investigators yet, just tracking down less active members and tracting, with a large number of meal appointments thrown in, and doing some service for members as well (Landscaping is fun until they start having you try to lift 70-700 pound rocks, then the 4 by 4 beam you are using as a lever snaps in half on the really heavy ones.)
Oh, there was one other Elder who was transferred out of Chinatown too, Elder Leung was transferred to the Bronx with Elder Murray (my follow up trainer). Most transferrees out of Chinatown last 1 to 3 transfer cycles. The soonest I could expect to go back down would be October 2nd, and the latest I think I can probably expect to go back will be December 18th. If it starts to get cold, I'll wear my jeans to bed, and there are several extra blankets here in the apartment (which is HUGE by the way). Did I mention that we have a view over the Hudson River from our back porch which is really awesome?
I finally have witnessed something in myself that I never thought I would see. City mentality. This last week has been a little bit of a slow down, starting to realize that I had picked up a little bit of the "Constant Motion" of the city, but that everyone up here moves at a much slower pace, even though its only an hour or so from the city. I never realized just how minor and yet huge of a difference it was until now.
I speak some Chinese with Elder Wang, but he really wants to practice his English as much as possible, so we're going to try and set some kind of goal for when we speak Chinese and when we speak English tomorrow during weekly planning. Oh, I forgot to mention, we do have one investigator that I've met thus far, his name is xxxx, he's probably about 50-60, he's lived here for 3 years, he was originally contacted by sister missionaries in Maryland 3 years ago shortly before he moved here, and he's been coming to church here ever since, but he doesn't like to have the missionaries come over and meet with him during the week, but he's come to church most every week for the last 3 years. Which is impressive as all get out since he's from ShangHai China, and doesn't speak hardly any English. We're planning on inviting him to be baptized this Sunday, since we realized that (1) no one has ever asked him to be baptized up to this point, (2), he lives the word of wisdom already, and we're assuming he's actually keeping most of the commandments already, minus tithing. If he gets baptized, then it's going to be really cool, he's a great guy. (He didn't have any translation for any of the meetings until Elder Williams got here in April.)
Love you all, have fun remodeling the cabin!
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
PS, when are you going to get the basement of the house finished, or replace the floor in the kitchen, now that you've taken another big makeover project?
August 20, 2013
Welcome everyone, to Peekskill, New York. I'm expecting to be here from 1 to 3 transfer cycles, after which I will return to Chinatown for the rest of my mission. My companion is Elder Wang (no, not the same one that was my companion in Chinatown, he's a different Elder Wang, who was called English speaking. But who still happens to speak Mandarin as his first language, with pretty fluent English as his second language.) Yay for having someone to still practice my Mandarin with!
I'm afraid I had to leave the granola bars back in Chinatown, along with my comforter blanket, I wasn't going to be able to fit that stuff effectively into my suitcases, so I left them in East Broadway, and they'll be there when I get back (well, unless the other Elders down there eat the granola.) For the record, I'm not sure what my address up here is, so for this week at least before I can email you again, you should just have all mail sent to the mission office, and the office elders will get it out to me after a while.
Can't really say what the work is like up here yet, I've been here for only a few hours.
Oh, my first baptism (Jen/Xu Jin Ting) is planning on coming to Salt Lake City for general conference. I gave Sister Lee (missionary in Chinatown) your's and dad's contact info, since the plan seems to be have Jen stay with sister Lee's family, since they speak Mandarin, and have her mom as the primary form of transportation, but potentially get them in touch with you, so that if you want you can try to arrange a time to meet up. Should be fun I think. Sister Lee's family live in American Fork).
Not too much else to say at the moment, if something comes to mind, I'll try before my session times out.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
P.S. Fun fact, I'm taking over the area Elder Williams was in when he was upstate (he's going back down this transfer as I go up.)
I'm afraid I had to leave the granola bars back in Chinatown, along with my comforter blanket, I wasn't going to be able to fit that stuff effectively into my suitcases, so I left them in East Broadway, and they'll be there when I get back (well, unless the other Elders down there eat the granola.) For the record, I'm not sure what my address up here is, so for this week at least before I can email you again, you should just have all mail sent to the mission office, and the office elders will get it out to me after a while.
Can't really say what the work is like up here yet, I've been here for only a few hours.
Oh, my first baptism (Jen/Xu Jin Ting) is planning on coming to Salt Lake City for general conference. I gave Sister Lee (missionary in Chinatown) your's and dad's contact info, since the plan seems to be have Jen stay with sister Lee's family, since they speak Mandarin, and have her mom as the primary form of transportation, but potentially get them in touch with you, so that if you want you can try to arrange a time to meet up. Should be fun I think. Sister Lee's family live in American Fork).
Not too much else to say at the moment, if something comes to mind, I'll try before my session times out.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
P.S. Fun fact, I'm taking over the area Elder Williams was in when he was upstate (he's going back down this transfer as I go up.)
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