July 30, 2014

From Left to Right: Elder Wang Shuai (current companion)

-My probable departure date is either Jan. 2 or Jan. 5, president hasn't decided yet.

-My debit card (personal one) expires in August, so if you could figure out how to send a new one, that would be good.

-Pig's blood pudding is actually nowhere near as disgusting as you would think, and the only problem with the intestines is that it is super chewy.

-Beef Tripe stew is weird. Okay tasting, but weird.

We have no new missionaries in CT, but an old one has come back, Sister Toronto came back from Yonkers, she's killing sister Lee (this is the third time she's killed a missionary). Elder Wang Shuang Zhe (my first companion upstate about a year ago now) has also come down to Chinatown, he lives next door to us.

Don't get me wrong mom, I love Elder Wang Shuai, but I've also found that the way I grow the most/fastest is in a changing environment. Spending 5 transfers with with one companion, you don't get quite as much of the constant change feel that a mission normally brings. I'm perfectly happy though having another transfer with him.

Contacting has been picking up a lot recently, not a lot of new investigators out of it, but a lot of potential Investigators, so we'll see how they do.

We are currently working with a 17 year old named Xxxxx. He and his dad are from a city called TianJin, it's about 2 hours away from BeiJing. The kid is RIDICULOUS. Let me set the back-ground so you understand his life a bit. He came to the USA 5 months ago (maybe 6 now) with his dad. They needed documentation, so the dad (already divorced) married a woman who had a green card. Post marriage ceremony, they found out that in the bargain he had also picked up a wife who has some mental problems, and an estranged step-daughter who inherited them. The mom kicked her out of the house and told the dad/Xxxxx to never have contact with her, or else she will file for divorce. She is a hard core buddhist who took away Xxxxx's phone and computer access once she realized he was talking with us, and also told him he isn't allowed to come to our English class anymore, because she realized we would be able to talk to him for a while afterward. The dad though is super awesome, he's been trying to reach out to the step-daughter, since he feels like he should take responsibility for her, considering her mom isn't. He also noticed a huge change in Xxxxx's attitude when the step mom would get mad at him (like I said, she has mental problems, she shouts at him a lot.) So the dad wants Xxxxx to continue meeting with us. The loophole that was eventually found was by changing their medical coverage to the doctor who works on the 7th floor of our building. Xxxxx comes occasionally for physicals or other stuff, and we meet with him after. He spends most of his time at summer school for ESL, so he hides his BoM in his back-pack, since his mom would throw it away if she found it. He believes it is true, he reads during breaks between classes and after school. He has read to Jacob 5, he said he was laughing in the Isaiah chapters because he didn't understand, but also noticed that Nephi says (paraphrased) "I know you didn't understand that at all, and that's because you haven't prayed enough/exercised enough faith yet' so he realized that it doesn't matter too much if he doesn't understand everything yet. He also said he will sneak out to meet with us whenever he can get away from his mom. He turns 18 in February, currently it doesn't look like there is too high of a chance for him to get baptized while I'm here, but so many crazy miracles have already happened from the story of how he and his dad were found by missionaries up to now, I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if I do see him get baptized before I take the tag off.

I talked to a crazy Taiwanese lady yesterday. She gave us apples that looked like they were fermenting in their own juice. She also hates people from mainland china.

On the subject of holding to the straight and narrow path, I think that the most important part in making sure that youth of the church are firmly holding onto the rod is summed up in a quote by Elder Holland "Let us not confuse the Savior's ability to forgive sin, which he has an Infinite capacity to do, with condoning sin, which he never did, not once." We need to learn how to live in the world, and to live around people who hold very different standards than us. Not only that, we need to learn how to tolerate their view points and even strive to love them. In all of this, it is very important to hold on to our knowledge of what will bring us personally the greatest happiness, and still hold to our personal standards. In the Testaments movie, when a son goes astray, he asks his father why he isn't happy for the success he is enjoying. The father's response would be fitting I think for many of us talking to others who hold different standards "I am happy for you, because you are happy. But I am also sad, because I know that your happiness cannot last."

We finally found a weekly service opportunity! We clean the park where we play frisbee!

Elder Leung (my comp for one transfer when I first got back to CT from upstate)

Me, duh.

Sister Dong, came out my 4th transfer, goes home in October.

Elder Wang Shuang Zhe

Elder Radford

Elder Guo, currently on his 3rd cycle

Sister Ng, from Hong Kong, started in February.

Love ya!

Your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

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