October 1, 2014

We've been doing a decent amount of contacting recently, we usually average around 2-3 hours, which is a bit less than the average 5 or so we were doing last year.

We have one investigator named Xx Xxxxx, he is a friend of Xxx Xxxxxx, a convert who was baptized in April. He is a pretty nice guy, he has no background in religion, his biggest issue is the fact he lives in Massachusetts, and not very close to Boston either. He comes down to Chinatown every week or two, but he lives in a region without much [missionary] coverage, so it is hard to follow up with him during the week. (Did I ever mention I don't really like New Hampshire? Every person I've met here who moved to New Hampshire disappeared because the coverage there is so bad.)

I have realized that one of the main things that was impacted by my becoming a district leader was my journal. I did a decent job for the first year roughly in the field, but ever since I became a district leader, it has been quite a challenge to record everything. I still try to write when I get time, but I think I probably average about once every week or 2 for the last 7 months. At least I get lots of pictures!

You don't know these people, but This is Chad Faulkner and his wife. He served a mission in Chinatown back in 2010-2012 (he trained Elder Mok, who was the Zone Leader when I first got here). The reason he was in town was because he was performing the baptism for an eternagator that he contacted on the street while he was serving here. Her name is Xxxx Xxxx, but a lot of the time we call her Xxxx. He promised her when he left for home that if she ever got baptized he would find a way to make it to her baptism. I conducted her Baptismal interview on the 21st of last month, and when she passed she decided to try and let him know, not because she thought that he would be able to come, since he goes to BYU Provo, but just to let him know. She wasn't able to get a hold of him until Friday night. Low and behold, he and his wife are both doing the Washington Seminar internship program that Ethan is part of, and so despite the last minute notice, 4 hours on a bus later, he was able to come, and she asked him to perform the baptism. Then we had a bit of a hard time finding a suit that would fit in the men's changing room, they were considering having a different person do it, when the sisters found an XL suit hanging on a door in the Women's room that fit pretty well. Random, but the Lord works in his own ways. It was an interesting experience for me personally because usually baptismal interviews are quite strong spiritual experiences. Xxxxx's though...let's just say that it was one of the most awkward interviews I've ever participated in, on either side of the table. I felt the spirit, but not much, and so I wasn't really sure if I should pass her or not, but I didn't feel like I needed to NOT pass her either. In the end, I decided to pass her, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience, which probably wouldn't have been able to have Elder Faulkner participating if I had decided that she needed to wait. I guess I am just glad that I was able to identify one very clear instance in my life where the Lord didn't really need to push too hard to get me to do the right thing, he just trusted me to do it.

There was another similar experience that occurred this week regarding revelation. Normally, our president gives us outlines for District Meeting. This time though, he didn't. I wanted to have a discussion on General Conference, so I prayed to know if that was right, no real response either way, so I decided to go ahead. I started reading "Ensign to the Nations" by elder Holland (April 2011). After reading the talk though, I didn't feel like the specific point that I wanted to convey was well covered in the talk, so I went back to the basics of my district meeting. "What principle did I want them to learn about?" "What invitation did I want to give them?" What I realized was that having the principle for the discussion JUST about general conference didn't match with my end vision of inviting them to try and write some questions for General Conference to answer. So I realized that what I actually wanted them to learn was revelation, and how to get it through General Conference. So I started looking for another talk, I skimmed through a couple, and then found "The Spirit of Revelation" by Elder Bednar (also April 2011). If you haven't read these 2 talks, do it, they are awesome. I realized after reading it that the process of how I had come to the conclusion I should share THAT talk during district meeting was a prime example of how revelation is often piece by piece, and that the Lord will always give us the chance to choose. Probably, if I had shared the original talk, it still would have gone fine too, but I felt that that was one of the better district meetings I've ever led, and it was a very neat experience to realize that I had been receiving greater guidance in the process of preparation than I had originally suspected.

Which brings me to my final topic, General Conference! Don't take minutes, come with questions, don't write down the names of the speakers, just write down the answers to your questions when they come. The best are questions that are not open ended, because those will be answered at least a half dozen times over the course of conference in different ways. Yes/No, True/False, or option 1/option 2 questions tend to bring the most direct answers in my experience. Of course, being willing to act on the answer is important too, Joseph Smith asked an open ended question, (Which church should he join?) and still got a specific response (None). It was his willingness to act on the answer that was most important.

I finally had pigs ears, pigs feet, and duck feet for lunch with a member. Surprisingly, all weren't bad, just messy to eat (and in the case of the duck, took a long time to get what little there was to eat into your mouth.)

You were saying we would replace the floor while Wes was on his mission. Let's be honest, that floor will probably get replaced when Cameron is on his mission. I hope the new couches look good, I liked the old ones.

I currently can do about 30-40 non-stop push-ups depending on the day. Let's see if he can beat me.

Well, this might be the longest email I've ever sent to you.

Love, your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

September 24, 2014

Mom, the travel plans will come when they come, I have no influence on that. It should be some time within the next 4 months, beyond that, I don't know.

I want to share one of the crazier (in a good way) stories that happened this week, not to me though, it was to Elder Wang Shuai and his trainee. They were about to go get lunch on Monday when Pres. Morgan called. He was in the 65th street chapel with a Chinese lady who didn't speak any English, and he wanted Elder Wang to translate, and gave the phone to the lady. After a quick discussion, Elder Wang and his trainee headed up to the temple to teach her a lesson. They didn't have any Chinese BoMs on them though, but would you believe that there was 1 copy, old and a bit rough on the edges, crammed in the corner on a shelf in the Family History Center at the temple? The lady was really interested, from BeiJing, and will be coming to church on Sunday and meeting with the sisters soon. After that, Elder Wang went to get lunch, guess who they ran into on the subway?  Xxxxxxx Xxxx, elder Wang's first new investigator when he started his mission, and the only investigator he ever had from his hometown in China. The guy dropped them like a pile of rocks back in March of 2013, but when they talked to him on the subway, he was wearing a suit, and said he had just passed his baptismal interview, he's getting baptized in one of the English wards next Sunday! Then after they got lunch, they went back to the temple because the South Manhattan Elders there said they had a potential investigator that was Chinese who said they wanted to meet Elder Wang. A solid investigator from BeiJing, she will be passed to the sisters as well, but the fact that there were 2 solid BeiJing people in the same day, both found at the temple, is so out of the blue that there isn't even a point in trying to argue that it is coincidence. And Elder Wang was over the moon to hear about Xxxxxx Xxxx.

This one is for Cameron. We went to the Metropolitan museum of art today, this was one of the exhibits.

 I gave up trying to understand how modern art counts as art. There is absolutely nothing unique about that piece, it is just a blue rhombus. And yet it hangs in the Met.

I would email more, but I need to hold a baptismal interview in a little bit, we have 2 people getting baptized next Sunday, hopefully three, assuming this interview goes well.

I got the muffin mix, thanks. A bottle of JDawgs sauce would be well loved as well. If I didn't finish by the time I go home, I could leave it for the other missionaries.

I don't think elder Guo will kill me, I think he will probably go upstate next transfer, at the very least though, I think I will probably have one other comp after him before I die.

The lack of a ward mission leader just means that scheduling baptisms and follow up on/passing off new members to the ward is a bit less smooth. We should be getting a new one though this coming Sunday, so that will be fun.

Oh, we had the farm trip to upstate this week, it was really fun, I'll make sure that I send you pictures next week.

Love you lots, 

your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

September 17, 2014

There are a lot of restaurants in Chinatown, which means there are also a lot of restaurant supply stores. We went in one a long time ago because we were bored on Pday, and we stumbled across them (Æbelskiber pans). I think they were just plain metal though not cast iron, but I would need to double check. I'll probably need to keep it, since I doubt any missionaries in Chinatown will keep using it after I die. I can ship it with a bunch of my short sleeve shirts and some books as well to free up space in my suitcases.

Your comment on Robin being able to kick your butt but needing to catch you first was hilarious.

The associates gave us all scholarships too, which is extremely nice. Plus, it will free up some of my schedule to be able to take a Chinese Minor, which I might not have been able to do with all the generals as well.

The Æbelskieber thing is a reward for the Zone. If we hit our goal for member-present lessons this week, then I'll make them all breakfast. 12 people, so to fit it into the morning schedule I'll probably need to split it into just one or 2 companionships a morning, and rotate them all through.

Elder Wang ShuangZhe made us a traditional Chinese treat as well, you make a basic dough from flour, baking....whichever is Sodium BiCarbonate, yeast and water, let it rise, take a small amount, roll into a ball, flatten it, put it into your hand and make a cup in the center of it. Take a mix of 50/50 flour and sugar, spoon it into the cup, fold the edges over until you have created a little roll with the flour/sugar mix in the center, put it on the counter with the (closed) hole down, smash it flat, then spray a frying pan, the "pancake" will have a lot of flour on it because you've been using your hands on it so much. The flour doesn't matter, just put it in the pan, fry it until the side down looks cooked, flip over, once the other side is done, pull it off, you can eat it pretty quick, and they are best when fresh anyway. The pancake can be anywhere from 3 to 6-7 inches diameter, just depends on how much dough you use. Remember to use more of the SugarFlour if it is a bigger one. You can try it when you have time, they are quite tasty, and you can split it open and stuff things inside too. Elder Wang called them TángBîng (糖饼) it just means sugar cookie/pancake.

Part of the reason why I don't include as many stories is because I can't remember them as much, being a district leader in the model district drains a lot of my time, I haven't been able to write in my journal more than once every week or two for the last several months, and so it is harder to remember what stuff I wanted to tell you. I'll try and pull out some fun ones though.

We had a mom come to English class this Saturday who brought her 2 year old daughter. She's been coming for about 6 months, and she almost always brings the kid, who is SUPER cute, and also likes to run around about as much as Eli did when he was that age. We were all used to her running around, and so we weren't paying quite as much attention, just making sure that she didn't leave the room that her mom was in (the chapel). Then we all heard a loud alarm go off and lights started flashing. Sure enough, the little girl had climbed on a chair and pulled the fire alarm. We couldn't figure out how to turn it off, so we had some missionaries go downstairs and explain to the doorman so that he could call the fire department before the trucks came over, and the rest of us just kept teaching class, since there was no way to turn the alarm off, and the time wasn't up yet. Teaching English class while a fire alarm is blaring is an interesting experience.

We had two little girls baptized this week as well, both were ward baptisms, but it still is really good to see a baptism. It only started 45 min. late because one of the fathers went home to make fresh sushi for the refreshments before he went to the chapel on 15th street where the baptism was actually happening. We also still have no ward mission leader, haven't since May, it's starting to be a bit of a long time.

My companion has been developing mystery rashes/itchy spots on his arms and legs now for quite some time. We have yet to determine the source, but it would appear that he is allergic to something. My unofficially diagnosed eczema is also still having fun hanging around on my wrist and the back of my hand, but it really is just the same as when my hands would get really dry during the winter back in Utah, just now it happens all year long.

We talked to a guy on the street yesterday who seems interested, English though, and moving to the Bronx in a week or two, so we won't see him for that much longer. Really nice though.

I learned how to say Plaintiff and Defendant during language study a few days ago. No, I never actually use most of the crazy words I learn, but I learn them so that when someone uses them I can understand what they say. I also found out how to say car sick.

Hopefully that was enough story for you,

Love you,

Your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

September 10, 2014

Congrats though on increasing your BoM reading. Based on your descriptions of home, I'm somewhat glad I get to miss a lot of the drama years while I'm out here.

I actually did move apartments, but since I only moved next door in the same apartment building, it isn't actually much of a big deal. I am living with Elder Wang ShuangZhe (my comp from upstate) and Elder Atkinson (the Elder I replaced when I started with Elder Zander) in the apartment I started in, before I went up.

If you can send muffin mix, that would be good. There are still granola bars in the Zone Leader's apartment from your last package that you sent to me (August 2013), I had one a few weeks ago, it tasted the exact same, so if I want any more I can get them from there. Apparently no one else in the Zone likes Nature Valley. Odd.

To honor 9/11 tomorrow, we are going to the freedom tower today for PDay. I'll see if I can't send you some of the pictures.

I have the new debt card, I was really happy to see that it kept the same pattern on the front, I was expecting a pretty lame card to replace the old one, but it turned out the exact same.

Well, in other news, the new Elder that Elder Wang Shuai is training is really cool.

We don't teach online as much now, because my comp isn't a native speaker, it's a bit hard to make sure we can understand everything they are writing to us. We still teach some late big lessons on the phone though.

Love you,

Your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

September 3, 2014

Well, I dodged a training bullet again. Elder Wang is training a new elder from Houston named Leishman, and I'm with Elder Guo this transfer. This transfer will also be a 5 week cycle, so that will be fun.

Sorry, we had a lesson today at 4, and had to help a former translate some social security stuff, so this weeks email is going to be really short.

Fun fact I was thinking about a few days ago. The sons of perdition have physical bodies, so outer darkness needs to be a physical place, as well as a state of being. Where is it then? Every planet is created with priesthood power, and with the intent to bring about the exaltation of man, so there would be some amount of god's glory present on the planet wherever you went. Then I realized that the phrase "cast off into outer darkness" might actually mean literally getting cast off. Thrown into space where they have no contact with other elements, their bodies effectively useless, since they can't actually walk, talk, or do anything with it more than spirits who never received a body can.

Oh, I saw Robert again, he is still in the Bronx with his trainer, he is going to be with his trainer for 3 transfers. He likes his trainer though, and seems to be having a fun time.

In other news, this guy got baptized last week. He's cool.

The guy on the far right is my new comp. The only one I haven't been comps with yet now is elder Radford, the guy between me and elder Guo.

We still have no ward mission leader, which is silly, since it's been about 3 months since the last one left.

Love ya,

Your son in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

August 27, 2014

We are still teaching English class mom, we never stopped, and have no plans to do so any time in the near future.

Transfers are next week, but training calls come this evening. We are supposed to get a new elder next transfer, but basically any elder could train, so I might be with elder Wang again, or I might be with someone else, we'll find out this week.

I think I had bro. Haywood my senior year. If it's the same guy, he's pretty cool. No, he isn't related to Brad Haywood as far as I know.

The old man is Xxx Xxxxx, our investigator who used to teach at a college in Shang Hai. This was taken a while ago, I had forgotten to gel my hair that day. I'm also down in weight a little, last time I weighed myself I was about 158.

So my watch rash from last year came back, except I'm not wearing my watch at all. And it spread to several chunks of my hand. One discussion with my mission president's wife later, and it has been unofficially determined that I have eczema. Oh well.

Reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese is interesting. There is still

some vocabulary that I don't know, I'm sure once I hit the Isaiah

chapters it will be just insane, but there are also a lot of different

ways of looking at some of the stories because the phrasing is

slightly different in order to make it match the language.

On the subject of language, I learned how to say "that defeats the

whole purpose" in Chinese, but it is a lot less polite. It translates

as "that's like dropping your pants to fart." Having native companions

is awesome, you can learn such crazy stuff.

Dependent upon whether or not I get a training call tonight (there is

a new elder coming in, we don't know who is training until about 7-9

pm), I might be able to go to my first live sealing. Sister Xxxx Xxx

and her husband Xxxx Xxx will be getting sealed on Friday, they

personally invited all of the missionaries, and we got President

Morgan's approval, but there is also a special training meeting in

Scarsdale on Friday for all the missionaries who will be training the

next transfer, so I'm hoping that I can make it at least 1 more cycle

without training. If I don't train this cycle though, then I will

probably never train period, since I only have 2 transfers left after

that.

Every day for the last week, whenever I have logged on to FB, the

first thing on my newsfeed is a person getting doused with ice water.

I'm waiting for when someone challenges me to do it so that I can make

a post about Elder Bednar's talk regarding the smart usage of social

media, and  say "I know Elder Bednar said he wanted us to flood the

world, but I don't think he meant for us to do it with buckets of ice

water."

Love you,

Your son/sibling in service,

Elder Christensen

陈少驹

August 20, 2014

Several of the trees outside the window by my study desk have started changing colors, and we actually raked leaves as our service project last Friday. I love the fall, but if it's starting this early, I'm a little concerned about when winter is going to start. This last winter didn't fully kick in until the first or second week of January, but the summer before was brutally hot, so I don't know, maybe we will have a long but mild winter? I guess we will see. Or, at least I will see the start of it.

Good luck at school everyone! Meanwhile, I'll keep just standing on the street talking to people. It's fun.

There was that 2 month window between when Wes got back and when Ethan left, but I don't know if you were able to tell any differences in that short of a timeframe.

We had Zone Conference yesterday. I had an awesome time, right up to the very end when President issued us all a challenge. Starting on Aug. 25 (he and sister Morgan's anniversary) he wants all of us to read the BoM in 120 days, which will have us finish on Dec. 24. I love the Book of Mormon, every time I read it I learn new things, but did he really have to make a mission-wide countdown that ends the week before I go home? He might as well have invited the entire mission to count down the days for me, and here I am wishing I didn't have to think about home, and doing my best NOT to think about how little time I have left. I think I will try to read the BoM in Chinese for that challenge, but I'm not sure, that might require too much time from my personal study becoming language study.

Speaking of anniversaries, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM/DAD! Sorry, I'm going to assume that my service as a missionary is enough of a gift, because I'm not planning on sending one.

I was trolling English class

Qi Xiao Dong, one of the recent converts, was having a planking contest with his son after church.
Qi Xiao Dong won.

Jared hasn't come back yet, we don't know when the next time is that he will be able to sneak away, so for the moment we just have to pray and leave it up to him and The Lord. The other investigator that I told you about, Liu Ce, has gone back to Shang Hai, he should come back out to NYC some time in Nov-Dec, so I will probably see him again before I leave, but for the most part, we're back to the basics of finding people again, we don't have too many solid people currently to work with, but a few potentials.

We're actually going to the temple today as well, curious to see if I will get to see the other new video or not. Regardless of which one, it is always a good time.

We taught the gospel principles class last Sunday on missionary work, it actually turned out really well, the only part I was kind of hoping for was more investigators being present, but we had a lot of recent converts there, so that was a nice reminder for them.

Any questions, comments, concerns, or coconuts can be sent before 6 pm NY time for a response. 

Love you,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
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