I got permission from president to do the Skype on the 19th, so you can expect me to call sometime then. I'll get it all figured out some time this week and let you know next Wednesday what time.
We (well, Elder Murray actually) found a new investigator for us on the street who is pretty much as golden as you can get. I don't know if I told you about her yet, her name is Gem (I might have introduced her as Jen before) she started studying Christianity in China, she's been in the USA for 3 years, has no respect for people who go to church to "go to church", only if you're there for the sake of learning something, and then using it. She's read most of 1st Nephi already, and she really likes it, she feels peace when she reads it, and she started taking lessons out and applying them in her life without us even needing to tell her to. She's also really familiar with at least the book of Genesis and the 4 gospels of the New Testament, and she knew the story of Daniel in the lion's den, so I'm guessing she's probably read the full bible before. We're teaching her about the restoration on Saturday, and once she has a testimony of that, she's so solid that we can't really see anything else from potentially holding her back. Her date is scheduled for June 23rd.
Lin [xxx] [xxxx] is getting close to the drop point sadly, he isn't very receptive, he doesn't want more of the BoM on his MP3 player, and doesn't listen to what he has or pray very often. We've been trying to schedule some lessons, but he's been sick, so we haven't actually met him since April 16th.
[xxxxx] actually came to church 2 weeks ago, which was awesome!, but he couldn't come this last Sunday because his uncle died, and he had to go to the viewing. He said he felt the spirit though during our lesson, which was really good.
We've been trying to stay in contact with Li [xxxxx], but she's been super busy with school still, she might be coming to church though on Mother's Day, which would be perfect for her.
Liang [xxxxxx] dropped us, she saw one of the sisters paying her tithing, and saw how much money went in. What she didn't realize was that that sister was paying 4 months of tithing instead of 1. She felt she couldn't keep a commitment like that. I guess this counts as a sobering reminder to always do your tithes in secret, because there might be some negative repercussions, not just the lack of blessings from doing them openly.
We're revamping the English class program, so it's a lot more interactive, and a lot more of getting the students to converse, not read or take notes (which if you know anything about Chinese people, is like asking them to hug a cactus.) It's really fun though, and I'm finally starting to learn the names of the people who I've been standing in front of for the last 2 months.
The Golden Pancake [restaurant] was so so. When we come back here some day 20+ months in the future, I'll take you to some places that have a lot better food, and maybe to some that also have some not so good food. PS, they aren't playing checkers, most of them are playing Mahjong. It's the Chinese form of poker.
The story about Dad [coming out of anesthesia] is quite funny, I hope you videotaped some of it. Also, props to Robin on passing your test on the first time. You are officially a better driver than I was at that point, and probably will be when I come home as well, seeing as I very possibly won't have driven a car in 2 years.
I think that Chinatown really picks up during the summer, and gets really slow during the winter, because so fewer people are willing to talk on the streets during the winter. Too cold. That's what all the missionaries have been saying at least. Since I've been here, we've had 2 baptisms, and we have another on this Sunday. I actually think though that part of the slowing down is because we had a ton of baptisms, but so many of them went inactive shortly afterwards, that now we are working a lot harder on retention, and so we aren't spending quite as much time on finding new investigators.
Love you all, Don't die before I talk to you,
Elder Christensen
Thursday, May 23, 2013
May 1, 2013
I still haven't gotten the chance to go get the cheesecake, but I haven't spent the money, so I'll do it at some point.
We've gone outside once thus far for exercise, but I feel like getting ready to go out takes up too much of what little time we have, and I just went running anyway. We've apparently actually tried contacting people by joining in the Tai Chi groups, but they all are so focused that absolutely none of them ever answer. Oh well. I think you can probably leave the bands at home too.
I haven't had the chance to email president yet (I'm doing that today), so I don't have authority to change it, which makes the 5th not an option. However, the 19th is Stake Conference, which is held at the 65th street chapel (the temple) which happens to be on the same street as the Buckner's apartment. If you could get in touch with them to see if they're willing to do that (and get me their address, otherwise I'd have to make sure I saw them at the conference), then I think we can do it on Robin's birthday instead, President Morgan approving. (for the record, a number of people have now stated that Dad looks a lot like President Morgan upon seeing my family photos.)
When you go to HCP this summer, look for a number of Chinese people on Thursday-Closing night. They're my ward. Also, I'm telling the Blairs (senior couple in CT) to try and make contact with you there.
I went to Tasty Dumpling, wasn't bad, still haven't gone to the ice cream place yet. I don't think Ethan will be accustomed to all spicy-ness. I have determined that Asians who can do super hot Asian dishes can't take Mexican that I can to an extent. In essence, you become accustomed to that type of spicy, but other types of spicy are still really hard. Unless his is a blend of all forms, he won't be able to to everything.
I realized something interesting. I don't like getting recognized by members outside of Chinatown. I think it's because typically I only leave CT for P-day, and so we don't have a bunch of time to talk to the people, because we left CT in the first place to buy something.
I got my birthday Chop (the stamp with my Chinese name), but I don't have an ink pad, so that's on the list to buy next week. I also have remembered my Hep A shot, and am going up to the Bronx tomorrow to get the second one (that's where the approved place is for missionaries for some reason.) Got to go to the temple today for an English session as well, which was really good.
Henry came to church on sunday, which was really good (he hasn't come for the last 8 weeks or so. The whole time I've been here.) He also got to listen to my sacrament talk, which was supremely strange when I would pause and hear elder Mok off to the side translating to English.
The Zone conference was all of Manhattan, and it was on March 25th if memory serves. The one with the Orange in her mouth is sister Woo.
My Chinese is still coming along, I'm slowly starting to be able to understand natives more, although phone calls are still horrible. Elder Murray does speak English to me a fair amount, but he still SYLs a lot more than Elder Williams did.
We found a contact named Jen on the street last week, Elder Murray made contact, but had to switch her over to Elder Mok when she started asking about stuff in the Bible. Mok got her number, committed her to read the BoM in 2 weeks. 2 days later she had already read 30 pages, and was saying that she really liked it, it seemed a lot like the Bible, and she felt peace when she read it. Power of the BoM right there. We have a lesson with her on Saturday, really hoping she works out, she's pretty golden at the moment.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
We've gone outside once thus far for exercise, but I feel like getting ready to go out takes up too much of what little time we have, and I just went running anyway. We've apparently actually tried contacting people by joining in the Tai Chi groups, but they all are so focused that absolutely none of them ever answer. Oh well. I think you can probably leave the bands at home too.
I haven't had the chance to email president yet (I'm doing that today), so I don't have authority to change it, which makes the 5th not an option. However, the 19th is Stake Conference, which is held at the 65th street chapel (the temple) which happens to be on the same street as the Buckner's apartment. If you could get in touch with them to see if they're willing to do that (and get me their address, otherwise I'd have to make sure I saw them at the conference), then I think we can do it on Robin's birthday instead, President Morgan approving. (for the record, a number of people have now stated that Dad looks a lot like President Morgan upon seeing my family photos.)
When you go to HCP this summer, look for a number of Chinese people on Thursday-Closing night. They're my ward. Also, I'm telling the Blairs (senior couple in CT) to try and make contact with you there.
I went to Tasty Dumpling, wasn't bad, still haven't gone to the ice cream place yet. I don't think Ethan will be accustomed to all spicy-ness. I have determined that Asians who can do super hot Asian dishes can't take Mexican that I can to an extent. In essence, you become accustomed to that type of spicy, but other types of spicy are still really hard. Unless his is a blend of all forms, he won't be able to to everything.
I realized something interesting. I don't like getting recognized by members outside of Chinatown. I think it's because typically I only leave CT for P-day, and so we don't have a bunch of time to talk to the people, because we left CT in the first place to buy something.
I got my birthday Chop (the stamp with my Chinese name), but I don't have an ink pad, so that's on the list to buy next week. I also have remembered my Hep A shot, and am going up to the Bronx tomorrow to get the second one (that's where the approved place is for missionaries for some reason.) Got to go to the temple today for an English session as well, which was really good.
Henry came to church on sunday, which was really good (he hasn't come for the last 8 weeks or so. The whole time I've been here.) He also got to listen to my sacrament talk, which was supremely strange when I would pause and hear elder Mok off to the side translating to English.
The Zone conference was all of Manhattan, and it was on March 25th if memory serves. The one with the Orange in her mouth is sister Woo.
My Chinese is still coming along, I'm slowly starting to be able to understand natives more, although phone calls are still horrible. Elder Murray does speak English to me a fair amount, but he still SYLs a lot more than Elder Williams did.
We found a contact named Jen on the street last week, Elder Murray made contact, but had to switch her over to Elder Mok when she started asking about stuff in the Bible. Mok got her number, committed her to read the BoM in 2 weeks. 2 days later she had already read 30 pages, and was saying that she really liked it, it seemed a lot like the Bible, and she felt peace when she read it. Power of the BoM right there. We have a lesson with her on Saturday, really hoping she works out, she's pretty golden at the moment.
Love you all,
Your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
April 24, 2013
The crazy man I told you about is [xxxx], he thinks that his hand is his cell phone, and will talk on it as such, despite the fact that he told us that his phone is broken. He also answers it very abruptly, which makes me think he believes he can feel it ringing, despite the fact that it is actually just his hand.
Thank you for the birthday package, the mustaches are a nice touch. I considered sending home the Ipod until I found out is has HCP on it, now I'm conflicted on if I should or not. We were going to go eat at Pelligrinos (I think that's how you spell it) for my birthday with the Blairs, but Sister Blair got sick, so we're going to go out to lunch with them some time this week instead.
I think mine is probably going by faster because I'm still in the first 6 months, and Ethan is in the last 8-9. It's the difference between the count down and just starting I think. Also the fact that aside from when I'll get sent upstate for a few months, we know that I'm going to be doing much the same stuff every week for the entirety of my mission, the only variation will be in who I'm teaching and who I'm companions with.
Sister Shu took some of the Elders to MaLaTan (Sichuan restaurant) this last week. She's an old Cantonese member. Great lady, and the food did a number on my stomach. Chinese spicy and Mexican spicy are 2 different things. Mexican is on your lips and tongue, Chinese is all in your throat and sinuses.
When we did the big going away party for sister Chueh, Huang Kai (1st counselor in bishopbric) brought a lot of food to the Chapel and all the missionaries had a big dinner together. Duck was present, and duck was delicious. Actually, almost every store that sells meat has ducks hanging in the windows like that mom, and most of them seem pretty decent places to eat. The one you don't want to trust is called CNO on Chrystie street. There WILL be bones in your dumplings if you go there.
Tell Robin congrats, and also that her "annoying" card wasn't so annoying, seeing as the sound part was broken, so I never heard what song it was supposed to play. I should hope that she passed the first time, if she got in that much more driving time than me.
Speaking of driving, I've decided that when I get back- since we will have to go to pageant early, and you and dad have to be in meetings, I want to see if it is possible to steal the car for a couple days and take the kids down to Chinatown for a day or 2. That would be just about the coolest thing ever to go back and visit with some/all of the family.
The current biggest change in the companionship since elder Murray came is contacting. We typically do at least a few hours a day. The best description I've heard of it thus far is that we are basically begging people to listen to our message, just in a more dignified manner. Hurray for humbling experiences as a missionary. Speaking of contacting, I got my first number (with elder Foley's help on translation.) The most effective method for Christians is to ask them to share their feelings on Christ, that usually gets them to stop walking. Most of them just blow us off. If they're buddhist, then we tell them that the gospel can help them and try to show them how. My favorite is when we start by asking them what their names are and they say that they don't remember/don't have one. Sometimes [one of the Elders] gets mad at them all and just starts quoting scriptures about going to hell under his breath as they walk away.
Elders Mok, Foley, Blonquist, and Cook all went to the temple this last week to help read the names for temple work. It seems that here they just use the Chinese speaking missionaries to read the pinyin for the names.
We're hoping to go to Central Park today for a picnic and frisbee for a little while. I'll make sure to take some pictures for you. The weather here has been pretty much fantastic, we've only had 1 day of rain, and we only got caught in it for about 5 minutes (You'll enjoy the pictures of how wet we got on that, Blonquist and Cook had to make it from the Chapel to East Broadway in that, and they looked like they just got out of the swimming pool.)
Liang [xxxx] dropped us this monday. She said she wanted to find out for herself if it is true or not, not through meeting with the missionaries. All we can do at this point really is pray for her, and hope that she gets an answer.
Spiritual thought of the letter: The only constant in life is change. That means that the nature of the Gospel itself is change. Taking what you were before, what you want, think, and feel, and changing it all to become something better, something more in tune with what god wants of and for you.
Love you all, your relative in service,
Elder Christensen (PS, operation find out how to make my pants less tight is now in effect.)
Thank you for the birthday package, the mustaches are a nice touch. I considered sending home the Ipod until I found out is has HCP on it, now I'm conflicted on if I should or not. We were going to go eat at Pelligrinos (I think that's how you spell it) for my birthday with the Blairs, but Sister Blair got sick, so we're going to go out to lunch with them some time this week instead.
I think mine is probably going by faster because I'm still in the first 6 months, and Ethan is in the last 8-9. It's the difference between the count down and just starting I think. Also the fact that aside from when I'll get sent upstate for a few months, we know that I'm going to be doing much the same stuff every week for the entirety of my mission, the only variation will be in who I'm teaching and who I'm companions with.
Sister Shu took some of the Elders to MaLaTan (Sichuan restaurant) this last week. She's an old Cantonese member. Great lady, and the food did a number on my stomach. Chinese spicy and Mexican spicy are 2 different things. Mexican is on your lips and tongue, Chinese is all in your throat and sinuses.
When we did the big going away party for sister Chueh, Huang Kai (1st counselor in bishopbric) brought a lot of food to the Chapel and all the missionaries had a big dinner together. Duck was present, and duck was delicious. Actually, almost every store that sells meat has ducks hanging in the windows like that mom, and most of them seem pretty decent places to eat. The one you don't want to trust is called CNO on Chrystie street. There WILL be bones in your dumplings if you go there.
Tell Robin congrats, and also that her "annoying" card wasn't so annoying, seeing as the sound part was broken, so I never heard what song it was supposed to play. I should hope that she passed the first time, if she got in that much more driving time than me.
Speaking of driving, I've decided that when I get back- since we will have to go to pageant early, and you and dad have to be in meetings, I want to see if it is possible to steal the car for a couple days and take the kids down to Chinatown for a day or 2. That would be just about the coolest thing ever to go back and visit with some/all of the family.
The current biggest change in the companionship since elder Murray came is contacting. We typically do at least a few hours a day. The best description I've heard of it thus far is that we are basically begging people to listen to our message, just in a more dignified manner. Hurray for humbling experiences as a missionary. Speaking of contacting, I got my first number (with elder Foley's help on translation.) The most effective method for Christians is to ask them to share their feelings on Christ, that usually gets them to stop walking. Most of them just blow us off. If they're buddhist, then we tell them that the gospel can help them and try to show them how. My favorite is when we start by asking them what their names are and they say that they don't remember/don't have one. Sometimes [one of the Elders] gets mad at them all and just starts quoting scriptures about going to hell under his breath as they walk away.
Elders Mok, Foley, Blonquist, and Cook all went to the temple this last week to help read the names for temple work. It seems that here they just use the Chinese speaking missionaries to read the pinyin for the names.
We're hoping to go to Central Park today for a picnic and frisbee for a little while. I'll make sure to take some pictures for you. The weather here has been pretty much fantastic, we've only had 1 day of rain, and we only got caught in it for about 5 minutes (You'll enjoy the pictures of how wet we got on that, Blonquist and Cook had to make it from the Chapel to East Broadway in that, and they looked like they just got out of the swimming pool.)
Liang [xxxx] dropped us this monday. She said she wanted to find out for herself if it is true or not, not through meeting with the missionaries. All we can do at this point really is pray for her, and hope that she gets an answer.
Spiritual thought of the letter: The only constant in life is change. That means that the nature of the Gospel itself is change. Taking what you were before, what you want, think, and feel, and changing it all to become something better, something more in tune with what god wants of and for you.
Love you all, your relative in service,
Elder Christensen (PS, operation find out how to make my pants less tight is now in effect.)
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
April 17, 2013
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| Zone Conference: Hiding just left of center (as they say). Click to view large image. |
Please...ACCEPT THAT OFFER [to work in the campground at the Hill Cumorah Pageant]. That is all I have to say on the subject. Will the Dones keep coming still without the calling, or did they get a different call?
I'll make sure to send pictures as I get more of them collected. Speaking of pictures, did my last SD card with all my MTC pictures arrive? You said I needed to use the right postage. Do those bubble wrap ones need more stamps?
We had transfer meeting today. We lost Elder Williams from Chinatown, he's going upstate to YorkTown for a few cycles, but we got Elder Folley back (he was a zone leader in upstate for a few cycles, now he's a companionship zone leader with Elder Mok.) We also got one new sister, Sister Chen (the symbol for her name is the same as mine.) She's from Taiwan, and speaks decent English too. We got another 33 missionaries in, and one of the old APs left.
I had already heard about the bombing in Boston, some of the ward members filled us in on it. Sad day, but there isn't much that we can do as missionaries to help provide service or relief, especially since it's outside of our mission boundaries, so we're just focusing on our work here.
I have a million crazy stories I could write you, but I'm saving some of them for when I get home, both because I want to see your reactions when I tell them, and also because some of them are just things that aren't particularly relevant, and I have limited time to use the computers.
The weather has been very nice these last few weeks, we haven't had any snow really at all, and only a little bit of rain. Most of the cold just comes from the fact that it is always windy. ALWAYS. I'm not sure why all the people I'm writing in Utah are complaining about the cold, it's really decent here (watch though, summer will be death.)
Teaching English class is...interesting. We have a number of ESL books that we resort to, and we also have a few native speaker missionaries who are able to help explain if we run into problems typically, its just fun sometimes since they can't speak English (verb=wourb type stuff.) And also the fact that I never really figured out how English works anyway, so I'm having to relearn Elementary English so as to be able to teach it. As for me learning THEIR language, I'm starting to have some words that have reached synonymous meanings in my head, especially when praying, I find it really easy to slip back and forth between English and Chinese. I'm understanding more and more of what is being said in lessons, even with Lin's Fujanese accent (yes, our blind friend is still meeting with us, although Zhou (the new investigator Elder's Williams and Cook found on splits) dropped us.)
So as I'm sure you noticed, I said that Elder Williams went up-state. This implies a change in my companionship. Say hello to Elder Murray. He's a piano performance major at BYU, and his older brother was my RA. He was also trained by Elder Williams (which makes him my [mission] brother), and now he's my follow-up trainer (which makes him my [mission] mother).
Love you all, Don't eat raw duck (cooked duck is delicious though, trust me.)
Elder Christensen New York Style
April 10, 2013
Conference was a blast, I've never enjoyed it that much before, nor have I ever gotten that much out of it. An English Copy of the Ensign would be good, and look for some pictures of me in it, there was a photographer at the temple taking pictures for the ensign. Plus, they give us Chinese ones anyways.
If you could get me the address for that cheesecake place, then I can use my personal card to pick some up there. The Blairs (senior couple in Chinatown (don't speak any english)) are going to take me out to dinner on my birthday, so that will be fun too. On the subject of food, I think you might need to send me another box of the Nature Valley bars. Last time I checked, I think I had 4 left.
Life as a missionary feels quite normal to me now, I'm thinking that going home after spending most of my 2 years in this small area will make this place feel just like home to me. When we street contact, we typically start by asking them how their day is going. They usually blow us off, but if we can get them in a conversation, then we start bending it towards the gospel and BoM. Our 2 primary forms of contacting are that and tracting (yes, I am still sneaking into doors.), although on a long day with nothing to do, we might go up to Columbia University and work there. Our boundaries technically are...the mission. But we stay in Chinatown 98% of the time because that's where most of the Chinese people are. The bishop is really good, he speaks solid Chinese too thankfully, and we've got several key players in the ward leadership who are from solid wards (aka, they understand how church culture works.)
Transfers are next week. President warned us that missionaries who came out 6 weeks ago should be ready to train now, not at 12 weeks, so I might be going without a senior companion sooner than I thought. We'll see come Saturday when transfer calls come. Odds are, I won't get moved anywhere for at least 1 or 2 more cycles, though. My Chinese is getting better, and we've gotten better at SYL-ing. We're getting 2 more sisters and 1 more elder down here, plus Elder Folley (upstate) is coming back down, so that brings the total number of missionaries in ChinaZone to...20. In 1 ward. Coordination meeting and Ward Counsel are starting to get just a little bit crammed.
Our new investigator that was found while we were on splits last week (Zhou) is a 60ish year old lady from Beijing, she really wants to get baptised before she goes back to China. She was converted Christian after some experience with heart surgery, I didn't understand that part much at all. Her baptism date is May 12th, we're going to meet with her every Friday and Saturday. (Our first lesson was 3 hours long. Hopefully that isn't an indicator of future events.)
We went on splits this week, Elder Cook (MTC companion) came to my district. We spent most of the day contacting, I ran into a really nice Fujinese man, but couldn't understand most of what he was saying. We also had to teach English class together, which was interesting.
I FINALLY CAN GO WITHOUT A SUIT JACKET! IT'S 79 DEGREES OUTSIDE TODAY! This is going to be a very long hot summer if we don't cool back down for a while.
Love you,
Elder Christeeen (as the ward members say.)
If you could get me the address for that cheesecake place, then I can use my personal card to pick some up there. The Blairs (senior couple in Chinatown (don't speak any english)) are going to take me out to dinner on my birthday, so that will be fun too. On the subject of food, I think you might need to send me another box of the Nature Valley bars. Last time I checked, I think I had 4 left.
Life as a missionary feels quite normal to me now, I'm thinking that going home after spending most of my 2 years in this small area will make this place feel just like home to me. When we street contact, we typically start by asking them how their day is going. They usually blow us off, but if we can get them in a conversation, then we start bending it towards the gospel and BoM. Our 2 primary forms of contacting are that and tracting (yes, I am still sneaking into doors.), although on a long day with nothing to do, we might go up to Columbia University and work there. Our boundaries technically are...the mission. But we stay in Chinatown 98% of the time because that's where most of the Chinese people are. The bishop is really good, he speaks solid Chinese too thankfully, and we've got several key players in the ward leadership who are from solid wards (aka, they understand how church culture works.)
Transfers are next week. President warned us that missionaries who came out 6 weeks ago should be ready to train now, not at 12 weeks, so I might be going without a senior companion sooner than I thought. We'll see come Saturday when transfer calls come. Odds are, I won't get moved anywhere for at least 1 or 2 more cycles, though. My Chinese is getting better, and we've gotten better at SYL-ing. We're getting 2 more sisters and 1 more elder down here, plus Elder Folley (upstate) is coming back down, so that brings the total number of missionaries in ChinaZone to...20. In 1 ward. Coordination meeting and Ward Counsel are starting to get just a little bit crammed.
Our new investigator that was found while we were on splits last week (Zhou) is a 60ish year old lady from Beijing, she really wants to get baptised before she goes back to China. She was converted Christian after some experience with heart surgery, I didn't understand that part much at all. Her baptism date is May 12th, we're going to meet with her every Friday and Saturday. (Our first lesson was 3 hours long. Hopefully that isn't an indicator of future events.)
We went on splits this week, Elder Cook (MTC companion) came to my district. We spent most of the day contacting, I ran into a really nice Fujinese man, but couldn't understand most of what he was saying. We also had to teach English class together, which was interesting.
I FINALLY CAN GO WITHOUT A SUIT JACKET! IT'S 79 DEGREES OUTSIDE TODAY! This is going to be a very long hot summer if we don't cool back down for a while.
Love you,
Elder Christeeen (as the ward members say.)
Sunday, April 14, 2013
April 3, 2013
I'm already starting to see my face filling out a little, I can't wait for it to get warm enough in the mornings that I can go running. (No, I still don't like running, but I need to do it if I want to remain in decent working order as far as how my clothes fit. Actually, if you wanted to send out a scale, that would be nice.) I can turn down sweets in the store just fine, but when you mail them to me, I feel obligated to partake, since you put so much money into them already. My companion/appartment mates would be more than happy to remove this obligation from me however, so if you want, you can send it to them instead, and just know that if I want anything out of it, I'll take what I want. Their names are Elder Williams, Elder Cook, and Elder Blonquist.
I'm still cooking a fair amount, we have Quesadillas, Chicken Alfredo, and Rigatoni Mozerrella planned for this week. I think the recepies from Bro. Allen should be in a blue folder on my desk somewhere, if you could find that and send it, it would be good. The canned ham...tastes like spam. Not joking. It's not really bad, but it's also not really good, it's just kind of there.
I've decided that Chinese take-out is by far the healthiest fast food you can get. I eat more vegetables here than I ever did back home. I even had some mushrooms in the Hot Pot Soup we all went for on Monday, and I actually enjoyed them (that said, it was a sichuan resturant, I got the weakest spicy soup they had that was still spicy, and it was quite warm in my throat and sinuses for a while after I finished.) It's actually funny that the food we eat is by and large all the same, despite the fact that we typically get it from different resturaunts.
I've decided that the fact I have to teach English class is Karma for the fact that I never payed attention in English class in school. Its fun though. I've finally started to feel like I somewhat understand what people are saying to me, so I can finally start really focusing my language study again on words I don't know/grammar. We've been picking up talking in Chinese at the appartment a little more. The bright side of being here is that even if we don't get completely immersed, I can already understand more of Fujanese, Cantonese, BeiJing, and NanJing accents than most Taiwanese missionaries can when they've been out twice as long as I have.
Guess what? I did the math, and I think my birthday is my 100th full day on a mission. How's that for cool/random fact? A CTR ring would actually be a nice present for that, I think my finger is a size 9 ring if I remember right. It might be 9.5 or 10 though. Just don't do a too expensive one, in case it's not the right size. Also, if you want to count in cycles (transfers) mom, April 17th is the end of my first full cycle here, and the end of my 16th cycle will be the 2 year mark, so I have 15 transfers remaining (don't worry, I'm not counting down, if anything, I wish it would go slower, I just thought you might like to count that way, since it's a smaller number than fast sundays left.)
We're going to the Manhattan temple to watch General Conference. We have live streaming. If we have an investigator with us, we will watch the Chinese translation. If not, then we get to watch the English.
Tender Mercy of the week was when I ran out of cash and we were going to go out to eat as a District for dinner (most places here don't take cards). We went back to the apartment really quick to drop some stuff off, lo and behold, I had a letter from Dad's parents with 3 dollars in it, which was just enough to pay for dinner.
Tracting is about as effective as it has ever been, but street contacting is slowly picking back up, people aren't quite as desperate to get inside a building now, so we have slightly better odds of getting them to stop and talk. Yes, we still only use Mandarin when contacting. It's really awkward though when the missionaries for another church are set up across the street with their own tables. That said, the Jehova's Witnesses just make it awkward whenever we go to the temple. They always have tables set up in the subway at columbus plaza. Oh well, love them anyway. We've decided to try a new contacting method. We just walk slowly around town, and as we find ourselves walking along side someone, we just start talking to them until they get to their destination. It has worked really well for the sisters in the past, we haven't tried it yet though. We're also planning a trip up to Columbia University to go work the campus there at some point.
I forgot to mention, I had to help teach Gospel Principles in church. It's the sunday school class for recent converts and investigators. Not a very easy class to teach actually, because most of the investigators are too nervous to answer any questions you ask, and most of the recent converts go get something to eat during the second hour so they can come back for Relief Society or Priesthood not as hungry. We need to work on that.
Our investigators are doing well, we may be doing a fast with Henry to help his Aunt let him be baptized. Chui came to church, which was a bit of a shock actually, but I don't think he got anything out of it because his Mandarin is pretty bad. We really want Li xxx (JieMei means sister) to come to Gen. Conference. We're trying to set that up with her over the next few days. Liang xxx is doing well, and we even found a new investigator yesterday named Zhou xxx. We were on splits actually, so Elders Williams and Cook found her, but since they were in our area, Elder Williams and I will be the follow-up with her. I don't really know anything about her though, so you'll get the details next week probably. Lin xxx xxx (blind one) is moving, which must be a real pain for him, but he won't let us help him at all. He already told us the new adress though, so we'll go check up on him once he's settled in.
Love you all,
Relative in service designated Elder Christensen
I'm still cooking a fair amount, we have Quesadillas, Chicken Alfredo, and Rigatoni Mozerrella planned for this week. I think the recepies from Bro. Allen should be in a blue folder on my desk somewhere, if you could find that and send it, it would be good. The canned ham...tastes like spam. Not joking. It's not really bad, but it's also not really good, it's just kind of there.
I've decided that Chinese take-out is by far the healthiest fast food you can get. I eat more vegetables here than I ever did back home. I even had some mushrooms in the Hot Pot Soup we all went for on Monday, and I actually enjoyed them (that said, it was a sichuan resturant, I got the weakest spicy soup they had that was still spicy, and it was quite warm in my throat and sinuses for a while after I finished.) It's actually funny that the food we eat is by and large all the same, despite the fact that we typically get it from different resturaunts.
I've decided that the fact I have to teach English class is Karma for the fact that I never payed attention in English class in school. Its fun though. I've finally started to feel like I somewhat understand what people are saying to me, so I can finally start really focusing my language study again on words I don't know/grammar. We've been picking up talking in Chinese at the appartment a little more. The bright side of being here is that even if we don't get completely immersed, I can already understand more of Fujanese, Cantonese, BeiJing, and NanJing accents than most Taiwanese missionaries can when they've been out twice as long as I have.
Guess what? I did the math, and I think my birthday is my 100th full day on a mission. How's that for cool/random fact? A CTR ring would actually be a nice present for that, I think my finger is a size 9 ring if I remember right. It might be 9.5 or 10 though. Just don't do a too expensive one, in case it's not the right size. Also, if you want to count in cycles (transfers) mom, April 17th is the end of my first full cycle here, and the end of my 16th cycle will be the 2 year mark, so I have 15 transfers remaining (don't worry, I'm not counting down, if anything, I wish it would go slower, I just thought you might like to count that way, since it's a smaller number than fast sundays left.)
We're going to the Manhattan temple to watch General Conference. We have live streaming. If we have an investigator with us, we will watch the Chinese translation. If not, then we get to watch the English.
Tender Mercy of the week was when I ran out of cash and we were going to go out to eat as a District for dinner (most places here don't take cards). We went back to the apartment really quick to drop some stuff off, lo and behold, I had a letter from Dad's parents with 3 dollars in it, which was just enough to pay for dinner.
Tracting is about as effective as it has ever been, but street contacting is slowly picking back up, people aren't quite as desperate to get inside a building now, so we have slightly better odds of getting them to stop and talk. Yes, we still only use Mandarin when contacting. It's really awkward though when the missionaries for another church are set up across the street with their own tables. That said, the Jehova's Witnesses just make it awkward whenever we go to the temple. They always have tables set up in the subway at columbus plaza. Oh well, love them anyway. We've decided to try a new contacting method. We just walk slowly around town, and as we find ourselves walking along side someone, we just start talking to them until they get to their destination. It has worked really well for the sisters in the past, we haven't tried it yet though. We're also planning a trip up to Columbia University to go work the campus there at some point.
I forgot to mention, I had to help teach Gospel Principles in church. It's the sunday school class for recent converts and investigators. Not a very easy class to teach actually, because most of the investigators are too nervous to answer any questions you ask, and most of the recent converts go get something to eat during the second hour so they can come back for Relief Society or Priesthood not as hungry. We need to work on that.
Our investigators are doing well, we may be doing a fast with Henry to help his Aunt let him be baptized. Chui came to church, which was a bit of a shock actually, but I don't think he got anything out of it because his Mandarin is pretty bad. We really want Li xxx (JieMei means sister) to come to Gen. Conference. We're trying to set that up with her over the next few days. Liang xxx is doing well, and we even found a new investigator yesterday named Zhou xxx. We were on splits actually, so Elders Williams and Cook found her, but since they were in our area, Elder Williams and I will be the follow-up with her. I don't really know anything about her though, so you'll get the details next week probably. Lin xxx xxx (blind one) is moving, which must be a real pain for him, but he won't let us help him at all. He already told us the new adress though, so we'll go check up on him once he's settled in.
Love you all,
Relative in service designated Elder Christensen
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| Look who showed up... Brother (Craig) Done! |
March 27, 2013
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| Elder Christensen with President and Sister Morgan |
On the subject of food, we do eat out a lot (dumplings and Mianbao are my friends here). They actually give the Chinatown missionaries a little extra money just because they know we don't get member-offered meals ever. I cook dinner about 70% of the time though. We found a regular grocery store. I've had Quesadillas, Pot Roast, Chicken Alfredo, a lot of Ramen noodles, sloppy joes, I think we did tacos one night... basically I'm probably going to get pretty good at cooking on my mission. Thanks for the cornbread and all that such stuff by the way, it was much more helpful than the candy (are you TRYING to make me fat?). Have Robin tell brother Allen that I might not have used his recepies in college, but I've used them out here, and I don't even have them. I just do it from memory. Also, I have had the tea a few more times, and every time it has given me a headache, so I don't think I'm a tea guy.
We do most of our lessons in the Chapel. Only 2 of our investigators thus far have allowed us to meet them in their house, and one of those 2 is blind (can't come to the church on his own). The other is 86 years old (Chui, the old man we found, and we probably won't be visiting much any more). We finally managed to overcome the language barrier thanks to elder Ling, (cantonese native) and apparently the man has no interest at all in religion, he just wanted someone to talk to.)
Regarding having an Easter program in the ward here, your guess is as good as mine. I can't understand the announcements made in church, so I don't know if the bishop said we are or not. On a random note about the chapel, we had a man walk in yesterday and ask if we had any BoMs in Russian. He wasn't a member, he just looked us up on the web and found the Chinatown chapel, and wanted to get a copy of the book for himself (yes, he was Russian, had a pretty thick accent, said he had been in NY for a few years.) and give some info so that the missionaries in Russia could find and teach his friend. Really weird/cool.
I was able to buy the hymn book online myself using my mission card, so no problems there. The back pack works great.
We don't really speak the language much simply because Elder Williams and I are always forgetting to do stuff in Chinese, and we do a lot of our lessons in English anyway. We're working on talking more in Chinese though. I have an hour set aside for language study every day, so I don't worry too much about my level going down, its just a matter of how fast I keep it going up.
Contacting is still okay during the night, but we usually try to tract during that time, more people are home, and we don't seem as threatening as when we stand on the street at night and try to talk to people as they walk past. The Jehova's Witnesses took our favorite street contacting place though, so we need to find a new one. Its not actually that cold most of the time, so we don't mind the contacting.
Our investigators haven't changed much: Henry (20s, college student, he believes, but he lives with his aunt, if he gets baptized, she's going to throw him out.), Lin xxx xxx (blind one, still can't understand when he speaks), Liang xxx (friend of a RC, she's open to the idea of god, but has a really busy schedule.). The one new one is a former investigator named Li Xiao Jie (Xiao Jie just means miss/Mrs.) She's been taught the first 2 lessons, but mostly seems interested for the sake of learning, not for the spiritual aspect. She has 2 kids, works full time, and does night classes, and has her kids doing Kungfu, piano, and violin. We really want her coming to church so we have a regular meeting time with her.
P days...thus far, we haven't really gone anywhere, we've been feeling a bit lazy, so we stay at the appartment, we played Monopoly one time. I haven't really been taking pictures that much (at all), but I'll definitely do so when I go somewhere for Pday, and I'll try to take some more overall.
Fun story, Sister xxx (Missionary from Singapore) has found an investigator. Problem is that he's interested in her, not the gospel. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.
Don't worry, I'm staying busy.
Your relative in service
Elder Christensen
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