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