Did you know that you are only 24 inches away from Heavenly Father?

We had a great week this week! District meeting was very powerful! We were taught how to use different study techniques and how to study more effectively.. especially for our investigators. what i learned the most was.. you are only 24 inches away from our heavenly father. the distance it takes for you to drop to your knees and pray to him! i have definantly taken advantage of praying on my mission because i know that prayer really does work and that my day always goes by so much better when i have a prayer to start me off! we have had about 6 cancelled appointments this week from different investigators. its way sad when that happens. 2 reasons why. you dont know what else to do besides tract when that happens and number 2. you want to teach them the gospel so bad you feel sad for them! We did have a lesson with our top investigators though on thursday. it was with mykel-15 mikayla-13 Corrine-13 and colton-11! when we got there we first asked the parents if we could set baptism dates with their kids because they are under legal age limit. well we had our lesson and actually had dana (mykel and mikaylas) mom join in on the lesson. at the end of the lesson we set baptism dates with all of the kids except corinne. she is still not sure because she also attends her dads baptist church.. of course!! well when colton agreed. corinne was like.. what about dads church? and coltons said. that was until i found this one! it was the coolest remark that kid has ever said! he has ADHD so he is bouncin of the walls all the time! when we were leaving with a prayer we asked dana frost to give a kneeling prayer and she did. it was such a cool experience!!
Friday night was the whitehouse christmas party and that was great! i got to meet more of the ward and enjoyed an awesome christmas play by the primary kids!:) Saturday was a very long day! we drove to jacksonville which is our farthest part of our area. i never thought i would be in a town where white people are a minority! there is black people all over the place! not that its a bad thing. its just different. we had a lesson later that night with our investigator natalie price. it was also her birthday and we gave her a full set of scriptures. she loved it!!!! she was very grateful! she will eventually be baptized when she decides to quit her smoking habit. On sunday Dana frost brought her children to church all the way from arp which is about a 30 minute drive away. talk about dedication! she also had a migraine and still came! (Dana is not a member). after sacrament they were leaving because dana was too sick to be there so we asked her if we could give her a priesthood blessing and she agreed! so we gave it to her and it was very neat! i could definantly feel the spirit working on her and her children!! anyways.. that was my awesome week!:)

Picking up trash, fixing cars, proselyting at ward carnival. All in a week's work for a missionary!

This week has been great and has gone by super fast! pdays are the start of the weeks and they come and go but when it is pday its so nice! a mission is so exhausting but i love it! on pdays. we get together with the tyler 1 and ysa elders and we just hangout and play a board game called settlers of catan! It is so addicting and is probably the best board game ever made! we had zone conference on tuesday in tyler and all of our zone was there! after our lesson we had lunch and then had a ginger bread making contest! it was so fun. our ginger bread house looked like a cross haha. it was pretty sweet though! we are teaching 4 kids right now that all want to be baptized but we just need to get permission from the parents because thats a rule! lame!! thursday was planning day and we planned with the tyler 1 and ysa elders and since planning goes all the way till 2 in the afternoon. we had tons of spare time so we played settlers of catan!:)On friday we had a lesson with our investigator who had a baptism date for this saturday the 17th but thats not going to happen because she doesnt have the desire to quit smoking. she knows the church is true and loves coming every sunday with her 5 kids! she wants to be baptized before her oldest kid turns 8 which is sometime in february! shes a great lady though! later friday night we went to a baptism for the tyler 1 and ysa elders. the girl was 19 and her name was tayshia hunt!! She is from washington state and she actually went to high school with kellen moore! pretty cool right? i thought so! Saturday was a day of service!!! we started off by picking up trash on a highway that the bullard ward adopted! after that we helped fix the emergency brake cable on a members ford truck. well i mostly watched elder derrick fixed it. that made me kind of mad because i am always helping when it comes to fixing cars! elder derrick worked in a shop for his job before the mission so he thinks he knows the in and outs when it comes to cars haha! he knows quite a bit though! anyways.. after we fixed the car we went to the whitehouse carnival to set up the ward bean bag toss. we also got permission to set up a booth right next to the bean bag toss with all of our commissary (bibles, books of mormon, pass a long cards, etc.) well the carnival started at 2:30 and went till 8:30. since we were not allowed to actively prosolyte and could only talk to people who came up to us and asked questions. we only talked to about 10 people in 6 hours! it was a terrible turn out and i froze my butt off! the bullard ward christmas party was that night too and we missed that! it stunk! on sunday we had 6 investigators at church! we were very excited about that! overall the week turned out to be pretty successful!

Pictures from new area - Whitehouse

Christmas light injury & meeting Glenn Beck

Me and my companion have been super busy this week! we have been doing a lot of tracting and a lot of teaching!! we have an investigator who has had all of the lessons and has a baptism date set for december 17th but she is struggling badly with kicking the habit of smoking. i have heard that smoking is the worst habit to quit.. even harder than quitting drugs like marijuana or cocaine for example.. she knows the church is true and told us the other day that she wants to be sealed in the temple with her husband when they are both worthy.. her husband is a member but inactive and also smokes. on wednesday we helped and 83 year old man in the whitehouse ward put up chrismas lights. and knowing me... i always have to be injured some way or another.. i was threading the lights through my had trying to untangle them and one of them just had to be broken and it sliced my finger open. it was bleeding pretty bad! but i just put a band-aid on it and kept working:).

On Thursday i went on an exchange with Elder Fry, and since we went on an exchange i got permission to finally drive our car. its been 5 months since i have driven so i thought i would be rusty. not even! its like riding a bicycle. once you learn you don't forget how to haha. i am horrible at backing out my companion too so i dont ever do that! Thursday night while on our exchange me and elder fry went to the church and played basketball with the young single adults branch. i was balling it up! i think people were a little jealous;).


Saturday was definantly my favorite day of the week!!!! Glenn Beck was doing an autograph signing at the hastings in tyler so me and my companion went with elder fry and his companion elder wheatley and we went to talk to people standing in line.. the line was huge!!!! a lot of people recognized us too!! it made me feel like a celebrity haha. there was also protestors and my companion had this bright idea that we should go and contact them. well guess who was the brave one of the group. this guy! none of the other elders contacted them! well when the line shortened up we hopped in line and i got to shake glenn becks hand! it was way cool! we also got to get a picture with him:). so as you can see.. i am super tired from last week! i fell asleep in sacrament yesterday.

love you tons!love elder christensen

Transfer to Whitehouse

So, this week i got transferred to east Texas to a area called Bullard and Whitehouse. It makes Plano look so small! If we were to drive from on side of our area to the other.. it would probably take about 70 miles to do it! okay so my companion is Elder Derrick and he is from Salt Lake City, Utah. When I got here, he told me about all of our investigators. we have quite a bit and one has a baptismal date for december 17th so i hope that goes through. Her name is Natalie and she has a smoking problem, but I know the Lord can help her with that. We have about 8 investigators total right now that we are teaching. so much more than we had in Plano! My area reminds me alot like the mountains because there is trees everywhere... except no mountains haha. Thanks giving this week was great although it was kind of hard not being with family. The families we ate with were the Prices, Walls, Reaves and Bro. Parmer. We all ate together. The Walls have a daughter who is a year younger than me and she is gorgeous! It's so hard not to flirt with her being a missionary and all haha. So, this Bro. Parmer guy is way cool! He is 83 years old and about in january or something. the missionaries knocked on his door and said he wanted to be baptized on his door step! He was so golden! He received the melchizadek priesthood 6 months later!! Elder derrick also surprised me by saying I had to give a talk at church on Sunday. It was on the plan of salvation. Well when sunday came around, I gave one of the best talks i probably have ever given! It was awesome! The ward members really appreciated it too! These wards are great but super small! well that was my week.
love elder christensen

Linda Davis Baptism

Thanksgiving week. Transferring to Tyler, Texas.

This week has been so hectic. We did quite a bit of tracting but found no one that was a little interested. except on lady who we found saturday. she was black and she was way nice and said she believed in the 3 degrees of glory. Saturday was our busiest day. It was the Plano stake day of service and so we went with 8th ward to clean up a canal that was full of dams from beavers and had tons of trash everywhere. so we spent 2 hours or so cleaning that up. We got pretty dirty. Saturday night we attended a Korean fireside. It was a neat experience even though i couldnt understand anything. The spirit was definantly there! Friday was our biggest day! We baptized Linda Davis and confirmed her a member on Sunday at church. We went out to lunch with Mark Warner..(grandmas brother) Saturday night came around and we were thinking we werent going to get a call for transfers but then at 10 we did. I am going to east Texas to a place called Tyler, Texas and the area I cover is going to be (bullard and whitehouse).. I also get a car and an apartment and I'm really happy about that:) (Elder Sinclair was mad about that and hes training again haha) so thats pretty much what happened this week!
love elder christensen

Tracting after dark.

We are usually out tracting or in a lesson till about 830 or 9. and it gets dark here around 645. dont worry though. i bought a light set for my bike so its all good! (answer to question if the missionaries are in before dark)

This week has been way crazy and way tiring!!! wednesday i went on an exchange with the plano 3&6 elders and i was with elder draper for the whole day. we spent 6 hours tracting finding no body! everyone was kinda rude to us that day too! we actually talked to a jehovahs witness and asked him if he had ever read the book of mormon and he said no. he also said that he didnt belief it was correct. we told him that we were sorry he felt that way and then walked off haha. some people just dont understand how much more happiness they can have in their lifes but what ever. Friday was probably the most tiring day of them all. we had a 6 hour long meeting in mckinney which is about 30 minutes north of where i am! it was a very good training and i definantly learned a lot. president durrant told all the elders and sisters that my mom won mrs. idaho america 2012 and i turned super red haha. everyone had dropped jaws! it was kind of funny too:). i told him in my last week letter to him so i guess he felt like i was okay with him saying that to everyone. Saturday i went on another exchange with the zone leaders. i went with elder price and they have a car so i was in a car all day. it was way nice! elder price is a spanish missionary and he goes home 2 days before thanksgiving so he is super trunky! well we had a full day of lessons so i told him i was just going to sit, smile and nod my head haha. i could only pick out a few words of what he was saying. we had dinner with a spanish sister and she has a table where you have to sit cross legged on the ground. it was a cool experience thats for sure. she also made homemade horchata which was really good! so thats my week in a nut shell i guess haha.

i love you madre!
love elder christensen

The week began with Halloween Trunk or Treat and ended with the stomach flu. :/

OH MY GOSH MOM! YOU WON MRS. IDAHO AMERICA??? THATS INSANE!

I was way excited to see that you won that. of course it would be the year that i was on my mission! im so would have been there to be your support. you know im your loudest child! haha. in a good way i think!? or hope;) this week has been a whirlwind! monday was halloween and we went to the church that night for trunk or treat. elder sinclair laid in the trunk of our recent converts car and was scaring kids as they went to grab candy out of the bowl haha. this week has been also a lot of tracting!! yippee!!! we actually got caught in a rain storm wednesday night while biking to our dinner appointment so we got there a little wet haha. we ended up having another lesson with linda davis. (mother of diana andrews) and she came to church yesterday. we also had joel holland one of the investigators that we tracted into at church yesterday too! so i never thought that members would fight over missionaries for thanksgiving but i guess it happens. Heres the bad new about my week. i went to bed friday night feeling good.. but woke up at 1:30 puking my bloody brains out! i was up every half hour after that throwing up. my saturday was horrible! i layed in bed all day and did absolutely nothing! well thats my week in a nut shell i guess? haha.

i love you mom and i am proud of you for winning mrs. idaho america 2012!! its a good thing you won! because the world is ending next year! hahahahahaha:) i love you mommy!
love elder christensen

Happy Halloween...just another day as a missionary.

Hey mom!
the dallas field i was at is the fc dallas park where the soccer team plays:) and yes there are lots of people that go all out during holidays! there is actually a neighborhood called deerfield where my recent convert melinda eitzen lives and it is apparently the neighborhood to visit during christmas time! everyone decorates their houses and they have a horse drawn sleigh during christmas time that you can rent and they take you to look at the houses!!

so the rangers lost the world series and the bishop that we live with was so upset that night haha. he didnt want to talk to anyone. literally! so diana andrews my recent convert has a mom named linda davis who lives with them. so we recently started teaching linda this last week and we have her committed to be baptized on november 19th. the last weekend before the end of the transfer!!! we are super excited for her! she also came to church:). we also found 2 guys who are 27 and 28 and they live in an apartment and their names are joel and david! we tracted into them and they were pretty interested! we have already had the 2nd lesson with them and they are continuing to read the book of mormon! they are wayy cool and want to learn more!

We also have another investigator named alyssa. she was actually a golden investigator that the elders before us had. well they left us literally nothing on the teaching record! we had a name and a wrong phone number! she apparently had a baptismal date and everything too! well this last week we actually got her information from the sisters because she had talked to them! we went to see her and she is still really interested! so we are going to see her tomorrow and she why she hasnt been returning our phone calls and such. so thats what happened this week!!! i hope you have a happy halloween! holidays on the mission aren't any different than a regular day of tracting haha. well thanks so much for everything you do! i hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Christensen

Giving a talk in church as a missionary

Hello my momma dear!
This week has been pretty crazy! we have been pretty busy with trying to find new investigators because ever since our last baptism. we knocked into a lady the other day named ms. kristen. she was from austria and was way cool! she gave us water and told us how much she admired us and what we stand for. she told us to come by whenever and that she would feed us if we wanted. she told us that she didnt believe in a god because when she was a little girl she was in a concentration camp and her mom was beaten so badly that she could barely walk. it was very sad to hear that and i could see where she was coming from when she told us that she didnt believe in a god. Thursday was elder sinclairs hump day so we burned one of his shirts at the zone leaders apartment. the zone leaders had their car towed that night as well haha. friday we had a specialized training meeting with the dallas north zones and it was very spiritual. So on sunday me and elder sinclair had to give a talk in 8th ward sacrament meeting. i was freaking out about it all week because i didnt know what i was going to talk on and how i was going to prepare it. i was able to give a great talk! the only thing thats kind of crappy about being a missionary is when you are asked to give a talk. you dont have many resources to prepare it with. haha. well mom i hope you have a great week!
love elder christensen

I belong to the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..therefore I AM a Christian

I'm glad that i was able to stay with elder sinclair for another transfer as well! So today is supposed to be a high of 88 but a cold front is coming in tonight and its supposed to be high 60's to low 70's all of the rest of the week! i was talking to a member and he said this winter is supposed to be worse than the last! crazy!!!!! Well this week has been way crazy! On wednesday we had president interviews from 2-5 and the night before the zone leaders told us that we needed to memorize a scripture in between the chapters 36-42 of Alma and i chose Ama 36:27. (And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me) Of course i memorized it and then when i went into my interview i completely blank and i was way sloppy at reciting it to president haha. i felt way dumb! Also.. about a month ago we had helped a non-member move out of his house.. he was getting a divorce with his wife and they were both moving out and so they were having this huge moving garage sale. well he told us we could take anything we wanted so i took a few music cds and a brand new pool stick that has never been used. and since the thiots have a pool table but no good sticks i decided i would take it haha. well anyways this guy was a emotional wreck! he was giving everything away for free! well we drove past his house the other day and the people that moved in were talking to us and they told us that he committed suicide! i talked to the member that helped us at church yesterday and he told me that troy (the guy that we helped move) was seeing his daughter at his ex-wifes apartment.. afterwards he went outside into the parking lot and shot himself:/. yesterday i could not stop thinking about that.. because this guy was so nice! and i could see the hurt in his eyes! anyways... i was talking to diana andrews (my recent convert) yesterday at church about her mom and she told me that her mom has been reading the book of mormon and is about half way done. I dont know if you have heard about this but this baptist preacher here in texas.. but he was on national news telling people that mormonism is a cult and that we are not Christians! it is so annoying because we probably get told about it at least 5 times a day! but now this guy is apparently getting torn to pieces! im glad i belong to the true church! love elder christensen

Elders doing P90X and no transfer this week

Hey mom!

thank you so much for giving me some extra money. my allergies arent completely gone but allergy meds sure do help! it sounds like you worked your hiney off last week! diana andrews our recent convert burnt us the p90x dvds and we did the ab ripper x last night and my abs hurt so much! kevin gosney.. the guy married to our other recent covert melinda eitzen told me whenever he sees me i look skinnier and skinner:) so this week we had transfer calls on saturday and we didnt get a call.. so it looks like i am still with elder sinclair for at least another transfer! me and him were pretty stoked that we are staying together and i will be the longest companion that he has had. Although he figured one of us was going to be leaving. Texas has a lot of religions so everyone we knock into has a faith. but the one i hate the most is the baptists. all they want to do is stand on their front porch and bible bash with you and tell you that you are preaching false doctrine and other crap like that. last night we were on a baptists porch for 45 minutes talking about why we need a prophet on the earth today. he asked us.. "what makes joseph smith a prophet.. what is something prophetic that he did" and we told him.. "well he translated an ancient record when he only had a 3rd grade education.. now how is that not from god? he said.. anybody can do something like that with a 3rd grade education.. but a 3rd grader.. cant! he made no sense and he kept contradicting himself. he also said that there is no where in the bible where it talks about heaven having 3 degrees of glory.. uh yeah it is! i told him its in corinthians 15:40-41. so we read it and then he said i guess thats right. duh to you! he was way dumb haha! so we have this member named bro. stone and he doesnt care if he takes us out of our area or cusses in front of us haha. hes one of the coolest members in our area.. well when we have dinner with him he will always take us out to eat.. he took us to this way good bar-b-q place called rudys.. and it was completely out of our area into the next city called frisco haha. well rudys is right next to the FC Dallas stadium.. where they play soccer. so we drove by and we were able to go into the stadium and take picures! it was way cool! well thats how my week went.. in a nut shell;)

i love you mom and hope your week goes smoothly!

love elder christensen

A message from Dilan's new converts.

I saw this message posted on Dilan's FB the other day and thought I'd save a copy and place on his blog from one of his new converts named Diana.

"I know Elder Elder Dilan Christensen won't be able to read this for a very long time. But he will always hold a very special place in my heart and our family's lives. I reunited with my husband this year after 22 years being separated and not knowing where each other were or what we were doing. James joined the church in 2004. Since our reunion he talked me into having an open mind. I did and... with the guidance and teaching of Elder Christensen and Elder Sinclair I was baptized on the 17th of September. They are both wonderful young men. James and I do hope they both will return in December of 2012 for our sealing in the Temple. thank you both so much for all they you have contributed to our family."

General Conference and Bingo at the Senior Residence

Hello Mom:)
I loved conference as a missionary especially because you get to stay in all day and not have to go out and tract. haha im totally kidding! but it was so much more interesting to actually sit and listen to the things that were spoken about. between all 5 conferences i took 12 pages of notes! crazy right? i really liked elder hollands talk during priesthood session. its wayy good. he is probably one of my favorites. hes so bold and he brings the hammer down on lots of things:) this week me and my companion found 4 new investigators and we are hoping to be able to get return appointments with them all. every friday me and my companion go to this senior residence from 2-4 and we call bingo and play cards with this lady named virginia. she is so funny and laughs at almost anything. there is this man named lowell who always plays bingo and he wasnt there on friday. so when i went to the bathroom i saw him on his motorized wheel chair in the hall and asked him where he was and he said. "well i was changing my pants.. you see when you get old like me. you piss yourself!" hahaha i was actually on exchanges with my zone leader elder condie and when we walked away we were laughing so hard! it was the funniest thing. Well mom i love being able to stay in contact with you. i hope you have a great week and i look forward to seeing your email again:) i love you!
love elder christensen

"Chalk Talks" at the parks

Dear mommy!
I did have a surprise visitor yesterday haha. i was standing in front of the doors talking to my district leader and his companion and then he walked throught the doors. i was way excited to see him but also super nervous because my district leader wasnt too happy. but i told him i had no idea greg was coming so he was like. i wouldnt worry about it then. well anyways This week we have been tracting a ton! and just trying to find that second group to teach. on friday i went on my first exchange with the district leader. his name is elder hermansen and he is pretty cool but i didnt like the fact that he bagged on his companion behind his back. his companion really isnt that bad and he made it seem like it was the end of the world! i mean come on? you are almost done with your mission and you are not even humbled! On wednesday me and elder sinclair decided to try a new method called chalk talks.. we bought a box of chalk and went to the park and i drew a huge plan of salvation on the bike path.. that was during the day and we didnt get to talk to a lot of people. so we decided to go back at night and we talked to alot of different people and it was really interesting to see all of the people that walk by or ride by on their bikes.. were always looking at it. luckily this bike path is right next to some really nice soccer fields that are always lit up with lights everywhere! so we were able to stay till about 8:45ish. it gets dark here around 7:45 now and its really annoying because you cant tract and knock doors anymore because people get really mad when its dark! so anyways thats been the whole week in a nut shell! lots and lots of tracting! its not really my favorite thing to do.. but you gotta do it when there is nothing else to do.

A surprise visit!

Greg attended a ward today while Sunday while working in Dallas. What a coincidence! It was the same ward that Dilan attends! Who woulda thought? ;) Ok..well, I did happen to send my famous cookies with him as a late birthday present this week.

Happy 20th Birthday, Dilan!!

20 years old today!!

Where has the time gone? I remember when Dilan was a mischievious tow-headed wild man climbing on the roof of my house (at 5), putting rocks in his ears, breaking his arm, splitting his head open at 10 months, again at 5, and then for the biggie crash into the birdbath at age 8. This kid just has had no fear and continues to be a daredevil.

I used to be afraid of him running off in the grocery store, talking randomly to anyone that would listen or be kidnapped from taking off to ..who-knows-where...on his bicycle. Again..at a very young age. Now..he gets to "randomly" share the gospel with anyone he can on the street. This should be EASY for him! ;)

Gosh! I miss this kid, but so incredibly proud of him and because of his ability to communicate ..without fear, he will go far and be an awesome missionary because of his personality, character, sensitivity and HUGE heart he has.

Happy Birthday, Pookie Bear!

Love and Hugs
MOM~

Hail Thunderstorms in Dallas...finally!!

Diana andrews and her husband James Andrews

Melinda Eitzen and her husband Kevin Gosney

hey mommy!
thanks for wishing me a happy birthday! you feel old? where in the heck did these 20 years go!? i remember being a deacon with seth chandler and causing a ruckus every where we went haha. thats way awesome that you ran into jordan! shes a great friend to me and am glad that we stay in touch every week! This last saturday i had 2 more baptisms making my baptism count 3.. i had the priveledge of baptizing melinda eitzen and i baptized her on the first try! i was pretty proud of my self:). melinda is an attorney for divorce cases she has a pretty big house and lives in one of the more fancy neighborhoods here in plano! plano is a pretty rich area and some houses around here go for 400,000 dollars and they arent even 2,000 square feet! crazy right? this last week has been crazy! we have had lots of meetings and on tuesday i had to move some other elders out of their apartments and into a members house. well this one elder named elder hermansen has a desk that probably weighs 500 pounds. it is by far the heaviest piece of furniture i have moved in forever! well its a good thing i was there and not some scrawny missionary because it was so heavy and that scrawny missionary wouldnt have been able to lift it an inch of the ground. LITERALLY! on friday our investigator diana andrews who was also baptized on saturday took us to buffalo wild wings with her husband james andrews. i watched the whole first half of the boise state game and kellen moore was tearing it up! i was going crazy! people were probably wondering.. isnt this kid not allowed to be watching tv or even be here? haha but i didnt care! i was super happy! the work here in plano is coming along great and i just hope the lord continues to bless me and my companion as long as we are faithful workers of thee! last night me and my companion were tracting and were caught in a huge thunderstorm! it was hailing the size of golf balls! no joke! we got home and we were soaken wet! i had called 5 minutes before getting home and told our members to open the garage and put some towels out. well we got home and there was not only towels. there was also those floating rings that you sit on in a pool sitting out for us as well! they like to joke with us and i thought it was super funny! last night was the first big thunderstorm we have received since we have been here. i was super excited for that! i think the drought was finally over! we broke the record for the hottest summer in dallas texas and thats way exciting too! well mom im greatful for you and your support! have a great week! i love you!
love elder christensen

BSU game and Wild wings??

Howdy mom!
Happy birthday to you!:)
i received your box on tuesday and was excited to get it.. squirt guns? you know i loved them but you have to remember.. im on my mission haha:) i gave some of those pretzels to my companion and now he is hooked on them too!

This week me and elder sinclair attended a funeral for a older man in the 4th ward who flew jets in the air force or something.. he had alot of medals.. too many to count haha. so how was the talks from sulli and kevin? is kevin still a goof ball? im sure he still has some goofyness to him! this week on saturday i have 2 convert baptisms for diana and melinda.. i am probably going to end up baptizing melinda but we will see! diana is married to james and he is a convert to the church and we love to go over to their appartment. they are actually taking us to buffalo wild wings on friday.. for the BOISE STATE GAME! HAHA. shhhhh... dont tell anyone hehe. i hope you have a great week and birthday mom! the only thing i can think of for my birthday is ties.. and maybe a nice electric toothbrush that you got for shea. i liked his so possibly the same one. if you cant get one tho.. thats okay. i love you mom and am greatful for your support! oh.. and maybe some money or something:)
love elder christensen

A testimony of the Law of Tithing

hey mom!
how have you been?? its gonna be short today cause we are way busy! im not getting transferred so i have the same address! we had a baptism on saturday for shirley lentz and it went very good! we met with an investigator named melinda eitzen yesterday. and she was taught all of the lessons from the previous elders so we were just seeing how she was doing. we met with her last week and she had a problem with the law of tithe. so we met with her yesterday and she said that after we left last week she had a dream all night about tithing and she came to know that it is a commandment of the lord. so she ended up paying tithing on sunday and then we met with her last night. she said. so i think we should set a date for my baptism! it was so cool that she wanted to set a date and we didnt even ask her to.. we werent planning on setting a date last night either woo hoo! so exciting so she will be baptized on the 17th. have a great week!
love elder christensen

Service project

So, this week we did alot of service and heres one story from the week. we had to go clean out this apartment for this couple in their 50's and they were horders! it was so gross! i ended up cutting my leg on a broken mirror and putting a huge gash in my leg. well not huge but deep. its okay no stitches just a bandage and i was good to go. well we took 2 loads of trash to the dump and we got out of there! that place stunk! the man that actually lived there was hospitalized because of the stench in that apartment. he got a sinus infection that ate the bone away between the brain and nose and he ended up passing away yesterday!:( so it was kind of sad to hear that and to see how he lived for his whole life!

Lovin' lasagna in Texas...but not as good as moms!

Hey mom!

it is always nice when i get to see emails every monday! thats so funny about zach and his bike riding! he never road the bikes when i was around? what made him wanna do it now? i havent really been spending lots of money lately but today im gonna go buy some ties cause i have like none and i want a more color variety! the streak for the heat never broke.. it never hit a 100 on like 2 of the days this last week which felt great! but very humid because it rained!

So heres an interesting story for ya! so there is this member named james andrews who was converted back in 2007. well he quickly fell away from the church and about a year ago he started biking and weighed about 300 pounds. well today hes probably about 230.. well he started having heart problems and we ended up giving him a blessing a couple weeks ago. well he married his wife diana about 20 years ago. and after a year they divorced. well about a month or two later they found eachother on facebook and still had feelings for eachother. so they wanted to get back together and remarried. well when they got a divorce.. the papers never went through, so they had been married for over 20 years and had no idea.. well they are now back together! well ever since hes been having heart problems.. he figured that was a sign of god telling him to go back to church. so he started going back and he brought his wife diana along with him.. well she is baptist and she said she has never felt the spirit in our church like she has anywhere else! she said that this is where she belongs! well this week we had the first lesson with her and i committed her to baptism.. my heart was beating so fast! she said yes and i was so happy for her! she could really feel the spirit because she started crying at one point of the lesson. it was a very spiritual lesson!

my companion and i get along great! and we teach very good together! the wards here are nothing like the ones at home! size wise that is! but they are all very strong in the gospel and very good with missionary work! so far lasagna seems to be the number 1 meal we eat haha. but hey.. lasagna is way good! not as good as yours tho:) i hope you have a great week mom! i love you lots and tell everyone that i love and miss them too!

lover elder christensen

Thank goodness for wearing short sleeve shirts in Dallas!

If you look in the background, you can see the Plano watertower

letter from Dilan:

Dear Mom!
so whats this i hear about ping pong.. did you get a table or something? if so thats way cool! we have a pool table in the house we live in so we take advantage of that quite a bit. we actually had to buy more chalk for the pool sticks today haha. okay so the power just shut off like 2 minutes ago and thank goodness my email was saved haha. but yes of course we get to wear short sleeve shirts. i would quit if we couldnt haha. jk! i have 7 short sleeves and 3 long sleeves. well my bike i bought from a members son who bought it about a year ago.. he never used it so it was like brand new and it was originally probably 600.00 dollars. it is a trek and it is really nice! i have pictures so i will send you one. so as of today i have lost about 20 pounds.. they just keep falling off and its so awesome! it makes me really happy! we go to walmart every monday and we buy food for the week. most of the time we have dinners at night so the people we live with dont make us food. she does cook us breakfast on sundays tho! :) i hope you are doing good mom i love you!
love elder christensen
ps. do you think you could send me one of those electric toothbrushes that you got shea on his mission? i would really like that!:)

Biking for 20 miles a day in 100+ degree temps

The answer to your first question is we are on bikes! we bike about 20 miles or so a day and it has been over a 100 every day since i have been here. i have lost about 10 pounds since being out here and i hope to keep losing weight! i do pushups and situps everyday and workout a little with the dumbells. breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal and lunch is maybe a sandwich. i dont really eat a lot during those times. its usually dinner with the members is when i eat! i drink a ton of water out here and i sweat so much! i dont think there is ever a time in my day where i am dry from the sweat! but it has humbled me so much since being out here and i am growing to love it! our days mostly consist of leaving the house around 12.. tracting for about 5 or so hours and going to dinner and then tracting for about 3 hours after us. even tho tracting is the most useless thing to do for missionary work.. the lord has blessed us with a few referrals since being here! we had a lesson with a 23 year old girl named shirley lentz yesterday and committed her to baptizm and she said yes! i was so excited for her and am glad she made that decision. so i think my first baptizm will be on the 27th of august.

Mission President - Elder Durrant and his wife

Dilan with his mission President, Elder Devin Durrant and his wife in front of the Dallas, TX temple. (President Durrant was a former BYU basketball player in the 80's.)

1st area - Plano, Texas!

My first area is Plano Texas.. the area is so big and its one of the wealthier areas to be in. so tracting isnt going to be so successfull and so far it hasnt haha. well monday when we flew in and i first stepped out of the airport the hot humid air his me so hard i started sweating (like crazy). i could not believe how hot it was out here! we went to the mission home and had infield orientation that pretty much took all day.. the next day we got transferred and i was the last one to be transferred and i was called to plano texas to serve with elder sinclair. it was funny cause the night before i tracted with him and his companion in their area so kind of funny. well we both got doubled in and had no idea who the investigators were in the area. we finally got settled down and are running smoothly now. We are living with the bishop and his family and they are all so nice.
(in addition, Dilan is serving in a ward where a missionary that served in Meridian, Idaho and lived with members around the corner from Dilan. His name is Elder Adrian Etherton and he just returned from serving and spoke in his ward on Dilan's first Sunday there. What a small world it is....even when you're in TEXAS!)

Elder Christensen has arrived in Dallas!

Just a quick note to let you know that your missionary has arrived safe and sound in Dallas, has been fed (twice--we tell them, "In the South, food is love!", so we make sure they are well-fed!!!) and are out with other missionaries hard at work already. They will get their first assignment and new companions/trainers tomorrow morning.

We are so glad to have your missionary here...

Sister Williams
Secretary, Texas Dallas Mission

MTC life

Trying to escape!

I wonder if they were caught on tape!

Top Bunk in the MTC dorm room. This doesn't look

too comfortable without the mattress.

Claire Poulsen, a friend of the family also received her call to the Dallas, Texas Mission. She came out the MTC 1 week ahead of Dilan

Dilan's Mission district

MTC mission companion, Elder Flitton and Elder Christensen

Gym time playing volleyball with the district

Missionaries emailing home while waiting for laundry

The Laundry room

Elder Flitton and Dilan doing laundry

1st official email from MTC- 2nd week.

Man! here in the mtc is way fun! so we have been learning a lot and its been such a great experience and i have gained so much of my testimony that i didnt even know i had. we have been going to devotionals every sunday and tuesday night. and last night we went to a devotional from a guy who was a member of the seventy. elder richard h. winkel. he and his wife went on and talked to us about christ and his life and his atonement and sacrifice he made for us. it was such an amazing experience and afterwards we had district meeting about the devotional and the spirit was so strong in the meeting i could totally feel it. me and elder flitton have been investigating a non active member named brother cheng. and we first met with him last week and he didnt really feel like listening to us. we went in to talk to him this week and we had members come with us. it was awesome cause the member could relate to brother chengs experience.. he wanted to know why his friends died in war and not the bad people. well the member had a very similar story and explained to brother cheng how he coped with that and how the lord helped him. it brought brother cheng to tears and you could tell that the spirit was working him so hard and letting him know that his heavenly father loves him! you asked if we go off campus to teach. the answer is no. the mtc has people that volunteer sometimes members sometimes non members. but they volunteer and act so well! its crazy! well im running out of time but i get to call home when i get to the airport on monday at 8 in the morning. (Leaving the MTC for Dallas on 7/18)

MTC - 1 week

1st Letter home

Friends in the MTC

Elder Jake Strong - Italy, Elder Dilan Christensen -Texas, Elder Jared Mortensen - Chili, Elder Zach Batis - Japan

Elder Christensen Arrives at the MTC-Provo, Utah