New Years' Eve!

   
This week was great! I think Christmas day was my favorite haha. It
was so nice to see all of my family and of course my friend jake haha!
It was definitely a christmas i wont forget.. we wer supposed to be
leaving the members house around 4:30 and it was snowing like crazy
outside.. yes snowing in Texas! Well we were wiping our windows off
when i opened the car and threw the keys in the car and i guess pushed
the lock button instead of the unlock button and locked our keys into
our car.. So now we are basically stuck at this members house for the
rest of the day and could not go to our dinner appointment that we
were planning on going to. The assistants could not come down to bring
us the extra set of keys until the morning so we were locked out of
our apartment on Christmas night. So we had to stay at another set of
Elders apartment for the night. The assistants finally got to us
around 12:30 the next day and we got back into our car! What a relief.

The rest of the week went really slow because alot of our
investigators were out of town for Christmas and so we weren't able to
meet with them.. But we had a really neat experience this Sunday at
church. So we had received a media referral earlier in the week for a
"Perry Cox" and it said that we had to contact the member before
contacting him so we had to wait to get the phone number from the
office which wouldn't open back up until Monday which is today.. But
on Sunday the member brought Perry to church and he seemed super happy
to be there. during 2nd hour we just sat down to visit with him and
get to know him and he basically told us his life story. He told us
that he was abused as a kid and he just broke down in tears he was so
upset about everything that happened in his childhood. But he did tell
us that he ended up working as a computer tech guy for quite some time
and he knows quite a bit about computers. Well we weren't able to
teach the 1st lesson because we ran out of time. The members that
dropped him off ended up leaving too so we had to give him a ride home
which was a ways away from the church. and guess where he lives.. in
the back of a friends yard under a tarp with some blankets! How Sad!!
I felt so horrible inside to see his living conditions and to know the
things that he has been through. I am just so grateful that i am
blessed to have a roof under my head and a family! Perry is probably
one of the most humblest persons i have met on my mission and he is
willing and ready to make a change in his life to be a better person.
I am excited to see how this journey will go with our new investigator
Perry Cox!

I hope you had a very merry Christmas and Enjoy the New Year!

Love Elder Christensen

Christmas Eve 2012!

This week has been great! This letter is going to be a little shorter
than usual because today is Christmas Eve and we are going to be
running everywhere! We had a few good lessons this week with our
investigators and we also started teaching this lady named Erin
Miller. She lives in Florida but works for one of the members and is
here for half of the month each month so we will see how that goes.
She invited us to a party happening the day after at a roller rink and
that was crazy! i havent been on roller blades in ages and it took me
a little while to figure out how to do it again. But by the end i was
going backwards and everything so it was good! On Friday we had a big
training and i got to see a lot of missionaries in the mission! That
was super fun. On Saturday i rode the DART train which is this train
that takes you into Dallas and saves us on our miles. We rode it into
Garland for someones baptism that Elder Thompson taught in his last
area. It was Super fun. Well i hope you have a great Christmas and i
cant wait to hear from you!

Teaching, blessings and Christmas preparations!

This week has been great and we are doing a lot better now in our area
now that we have been here for about 2 weeks! We are not teaching as
much as i was in my last area mainly because the area i am in now is
more wealthy and less humble. We had a great visit with Allison
Crawford an investigator of ours on Tuesday and also had dinner with
the whole family. We watched the restoration video and had a great
lesson on the prophet Joseph Smith. We were able to resolve a lot of
her concerns and questions and its probably not going to be too much
longer before she takes the plunge!

On Wednesday a member took us to Fuddruckers for Lunch! It was
delicious! I haven't been there my whole mission and its the first one
i have seen on my mission. We went to give a baby blessing after for a
less active sister in the ward. Her Baby has pneumonia! We also
visited Brother Jones who is a blind man in the ward and he was
cracking blind jokes left and right. It was super funny! Something
Texas is famous for is there "Trade Days" which is another term for
"Swap Meets". There is this huge one in one of our areas and we went
to it on Friday to see if there was some stuff we could buy to send
home for Christmas! We had a really great experience Wednesday
night.

We went to visit this family that the bishop was kind of hesitant on us
visiting. But our first Sunday here i just had their name in the back of
my head and it wasn't going away. So i knew that it was definitely the
Spirit. So we went to visit this family and had a great visit with Sister
Larsen on the doorstep. She got to talking about her husband being in
the potato business and we told her we were both from Idaho and she
said that she was from the Rigby area.. a little town called Labelle. Well
that is where Elder Thompson's mom was from and Sister Larsen.. come
to find out was best friends with Elder Thompson's Aunt growing up!
I knew that was an answer to the feelings i was having at church the
Sunday before! What a great experience!!

Saturday we took some Christmas pictures to make Christmas cards and
they are hilarious! Most of that day we were stopping by less active
and part member families to visit. We had dinner at a Chinese Buffet
and guess what was on ESPN?? It was the "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Game" Toledo Vs. Utah State. Oh that made me super trunky to see the
Smurf Turf and to also see the Boise Valley when they would show
it.... Later that night we went to the Mckinney 3rd wards Christmas
party which was at the Ragsdales home! They are super rich and have a
huge house and big property!

The Fairview ward also had their Christmas party on Sunday and it was
awesome! The members of these wards are definitely willing to do
missionary work! One member brought a friend to church yesterday and
now we will start teaching her this Wednesday.. Lots of great
opportunities to do missionary work here in my area!

First Snow in Texas!! (McKinney area)

We woke up this morning to 30 degrees and snow on our car! I got to
throw my first snow ball in over 2 years! How sad! This week has been
pretty crazy with being doubled in to a new area with my new
companion! His name is Elder Thompson and he is from Victor, Idaho and
he has been out for 20 months so he has 3 transfers left! It is weird
to think that i am only 3 months behind him! Anyways.. this area is
great and we are feeling so welcomed from the wards here. Our first
night we had dinner at the James Family's house and they are super
rich.. along with everyone else in this area! Brother James questioned
us about why we were out serving a mission and it kind of felt like i
was being interrogated!

For most of the week we were just trying to get a feel for the area
since we are both new and have no idea whats going on. We had dinner
with a returning part member family on Thursday and that was great!
The father was baptized at 8 and his family went inactive almost right
after but he started coming back to church this year and his wife got
bapitzed and also his son but his 15 year old daughter Allison
Crawford is still holding on. We had dinner with them and then we
shared a brief lesson with them about the importance of the book of
mormon and then we had to leave to make it to our next appointment. We
drove to Sister Shantelle Smith's house and when we got there i
recognized her and she recognized me. She actually used to live in
Tyler Texas and i went to her house a few times when i was in the
Bullard and Whitehouse wards. Well they have a neighbor who we are
teaching and his name is Taj and we are also teaching his little
sister. Well we met with Taj and had a great lesson. He told us that
he wants to be baptized but his mom wants him to wait and check out
more churches before he makes his decision.

We attended the Melissa Ward Christmas party and that helped us get to
know some of the members a lot more! Yesterday at church was the best
though. We finally got to meet all 3 wards that we cover and everyone
was so nice! Thats Texas for you! Unless you are in South Dallas (My
last Area). The Bishop of the Melissa and Fairview wards are so pumped
for missionary work and we sat down with both of them and got tons of
part-member names and families that we need to start getting
acquainted with! Yesterday was probably the best day this week for us
because it helped us figure out this area so much more than when we
first got there! My new address for this area is:

1600 Heritage Dr. # 612
Mckinney, TX 75069

Transfer to Melissa, Texas and Ward Christmas parties

This week has been good! We had District Meeting on Tuesday and our
District Leader Elder Shuman said the dumbest thing ever. He said that
he has been grateful to be the district leader this last transfer and
he hopes he didnt make any of us lose faith. haha. who says that? He
is one of those missionaries that desires leadership and that is just
stupid. If i was to be in leadership i would not push my seniority on
other missionaries! We had a really good lesson with one of our YSA
Investigator Alex Sauer. We have been teaching him for a while now and
he isnt really going anywhere. He has mixed feelings about baptism and
other things. So we decided to re-teach the Restoration to him since
it has been a couple of months and the lesson went really good. I
asked him the question "if this was all true what steps would you be
willing to take to change" and he gave some answer that i cant
remember but i asked him if he knew that Christ was his savior. And he
responded No. Well then i asked him that when he prays.. who is he
talking to? and he responded.. well when i am with you guys i pray to
your god and when i am alone i just talk. I told him that our god is
the same god as the Baptist god, the Methodist god, the Mormon god. He
is all the same God! and i said when you are alone.. I invite you to
pray the way we do and ask God if Jesus Christ really died for you!
and we left it at that! It was a really bold and powerful lesson!

The rest of the week was Hit and Miss. On Saturday morning we went to
the Mountain Creek ward Christmas Breakfast and it was pathetic. It is
nothing like ward parties back home. It just seems that the ward
doesnt click together. So I didnt feel homey at all! I did get a
picture with Santa though:)! After we went to Larrys house to help him
with Service. We got to use a torch and melt metal. That was pretty
cool! He also has this huge cat face spider that built his web in his
backyard and we found a small grasshopper and threw it in his web and
that spider destroyed the little grasshopper. Haha. After helping
Larry we went to Jared Salinas' house to help him put up Christmas
lights. He is a YSA Member. After helping him we went to the YSA
Christmas Dinner and party and we were there until we had to go home
for the night. Later that night I got a transfer call and i am leaving
Duncanville! I am going to Melissa Texas and i will be covering 3
wards! The Melissa Ward, Fairview Ward, and Mckinney 3rd Ward! I have
mixed feelings about the transfer but oh well. I wanted to stay for
Christmas! We went to see Lacy for the last time last night and she
said she has been crying on and off all day! She was super sad to see
me leave. but she did tell me that she was going to come visit me for
Christmas!:)

Apartment lock-out/ car lock-out with car in Neutral!

This week went by good. The work has died down now since i just got done baptizing my 5 investigators the last 2 weeks. we have other investigators but they are not progressing as much as i would like. On Wednesday we had a big zone conference at our building and there was a good 40 or so missionaries there. For lunch some of the members from the Desoto ward made us food and Lacy was one of the members there helping out. Its so cool to see on of the people i taught and baptized fit so well in with the ward and the members. There is this member in Plano that makes these really cool tie clips and he made a ton for the mission and they were passed out at the zone conference and i was the one passing them out and after everyone got some i got to have the rest. i got like 50 of them haha. Our district leader Elder Shuman was
originally going to go on exchanges with the Desoto elders that day and they said they couldn't and so he was super angry and he asked us to go on exchanges right then and i said no and that made him even more ticked. Talk about no planning at all! i mean come on!

Friday was such a terrible day! We got up at 6:30 and we were planning on going to the church to play basketball for exercise and we hop in the car and it wont start. and our apartment complex is full of black people and i stopped the only mexican in our apartments and i asked them to jump start our car. well i put the car in neutral and pushed it out of the parking space and left it in neutral. we shut our doors and as soon as the jumper cables connected it automatically locked our car with the keys in it. Well at this point we were screwed because our keys were locked in the car, the extra one is in dallas about 45 minutes away, and our apartment is locked. And it is freezing cold
outside! So we started looking for a way into our apartment. keep in mind that we live on the 2nd floor and we only have a little balcony for our back door. We saw that our sliding glass door was unlocked so Elder Kidd climbed up there and we were able to get in.. thankfully! Apparently i was showering the other night and Elder Kidd had to pee super bad so he peed of the balcony and forgot to unlock the sliding glass door. haha. Well Elder Kidd doesn't have a bike and we didn't end up getting our car unlocked till 7 that night because that day another zone conference was going on and no one was going to be in the office till after 5! So that day we didn't get too much done!

On Saturday we went to help this guy named Larry who we always help  with service. He as an 84 chevy truck almost exactly like mine. and we helped him take of the gas tank. clean it and put it back on. It made me remember working on old blue back home.. I miss working on cars. although i dont know that much about it.. i still love it! He is not a member but he is a really great guy and we love going over to his house and helping him out. Church was great but super long like always. I almost always get super bad headaches at church on Sundays, which i hate. all in all it was a good week.

A goal reached....Baptising a family of 4! Chili cook-off judges

This was a really good week for Elder Kidd and I. On Tuesday we had a
Multi-District Meeting.. Which meant that our whole zone got together
and were taught by our zone leaders. A missionary in our mission named
Elder Tuma and his companion were actually jumped by a bunch of black
people in Dallas last week and Elder Tuma suffered a Broken nose and
bruised collar bone and his companion who was a "Greenie" actually had
his jaw broken and had to go home. Elder Tuma was a missionary who
came out with me and was in my MTC District and he is a super great
missionary. I guess his companion waved at the group of black people
and when they parked the car they came up to them and said hey why
were you blowing kisses at my girlfriend which he wasn't and that is
what made the guys jump the Elders. Anyways.. after our meeting we had
to drive into Dallas for a new missionary trainer meeting.. which is
usually just for Trainers and new missionaries but they wanted back-up
trainers which is me and their companions. The meeting was good but
super long and it seemed like we were there forever. I met a sister
missionary named Sister Walton who is good friends with Heather Jensen
and she apparently was told to find and meet me once she got to the
mission. She seems pretty cool.

The whole week we were scrambling around to finish the Baptismal
program and find baptismal suits that fit our investigators. We
finally finished the program on Saturday and then at 6 we went to the
church for the annual Mountain Creek Ward Chili Cook-Off. I guess the
missionaries are always the Judges and we had to taste so much food!
At least 10 bowls of different chilis, A bunch of different bread, Pie
and Desserts! Not so good for my diet at all! After we finished
judging there were some members that were poor losers and they were
coming up to us and saying.. why didn't you pick ours? or did you not
think my chili with the brisket was good? That was kind of annoying!
Besides.. if you never feed me.. How do you expect me to pick your
chili or dessert or whatever? haha. After the ward event we had our
baptism for Laura Galvin, Anahi Chavez, Anessa Chavez, and Miguel
Galvin. It was a really big turn out and I was asked to baptize the
mom which was Laura.

On Sunday we confirmed our new converts members of the church and that
was super special! I baptized a family of 4! That was a goal I had for my mission was to baptize a family!!

Missionary exchanges and "3's Company"

This week went really well and pretty dang fast! We met with Ricky Buchunam one of our Ysa investigators and we taught him some of the commandments. We also committed him to baptism and he said that he still wants to become a member of the church! On Tuesday we had 2 lessons at the same time so the Irving Elders (Hoskins & Saenger) came down to help us out with them. Elder Hoskins came with me and our ward mission leader drove us to Lancaster to teach a new investigator. Her name is Linh Nguyen it is pronounced (lynn winn). She is engaged to a inactive member in the ward and his mother is active and Linh told her that she was looking to become a member of the church. So we taught the first lesson and had a really good visit with Linh. She told us that she believes she has already received her answer before she met with us. So i invited her to be baptized and we set a date with herfor November 24th.

On Wednesday we drove to Irving to help them with their area since they helped us. Elder Hoskins and I went to help do service for his uncle who actually lives in his ward that he serves in. how funny is that? Later that night we had another lesson with Lacy Long which was super good! She is so solid and she is receiving so much fellowship from the ward which is really good. Every investigator needs that! On Thursday Elder Hoskins and I decided to do another exchange. We have probably done like 4 together this transfer.  We went to visit this part member family the Carters that night. Elder Hoskins actually used to teach them 2 years ago when he was a greenie missionary!

On Friday we decided that we would drive to the far part of our area and try and visit some of the less active members that live out there. We were able to visit a few of them which was good. We did have a great lesson with our investigator family that night. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they loved it! The kids listen so well. Saturday we drove down to Waxahachie with a member.. Jeremy Sappington. He took us to this place called Catifish Plantation and ate some good fried catfish. The restaurant is this old run down house that was turned into a restaurant and it is supposively haunted. Nothing crazy happened though. Church on Sunday was great and we also got transfer calls this week and i am no longer covering the extra area that i have been covering but me and my companion are getting a third companion named Elder Kidd. So we will be in a Trio Companionship for who knows how long! This should be fun! (SARCASM)

Showing some love from Texas!

Fighting a contagious cold, building sheds and Studebakers!

Tuesday morning i woke up with a really bad cold and a very sore throat. it was super annoying. so we didnt really get out to do anything that day besides go to district meeting and then go back home. I ended up getting Elder Saenger sick who is in the district and then he got his companion Elder Hoskins sick. My companion ended up getting sick too! so it was just like a domino effect starting with me! On Wednesday i was feeling a little better and we went to teach Lacy Long our really wealthy investigator. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved it.. she told us that she wanted to be baptized and she also said "I dont want to be picky but when I get a calling I want to be a primary teacher" that was way cool! We didnt get a baptism date out of her because she was still undecided!

Thursday and Friday we helped out a part-member family with some service. The non-member is Larry and we always help him out with service.. Well he had this friend that needed help putting together a tin shed. Cause his last one wasn't tied down and during a Texas thunderstorm blew it away haha. so we spent both days from 9-2 working on building this shed for this guy named Paul Studebaker. He is a 9th Generation Studebaker and that is where the car comes from is his family! He also owns a
Studebaker which is in very mint condition! On Saturday we went to our investigators football game. His name is Daniel Ramirez and i have talked alot about him in my past emails. His football team is the Broncos and they played the packers and killed them! The Packers coach on the other sideline was freaking out! It was super funny! On Sunday we had 7 Investigators at church! That was way cool! Some of our baptismal dates we had to drop due to them not coming to church so we will have to recommit them!

Temple trip, Service project in the rain and humbling 8 mile bike ride

This week has been fantastic! We started teaching a former investigator named Aracelly Villa. She and her boyfriend investigated the church about a year ago but would never choose to get married so they could get baptized.. Well her boyfriend is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and was actually caught by police coming back from Mexico and now he is in jail some where in South Texas. Well I am pretty sure
Aracelly came back to the church so she could get members of the ward to sign a petition form saying Rene (Her boyfriend) that he is a good guy and they should let him go. Well i am not sure how much she actually wants to do with the church but we are trying to figure that out.
 
On Wednesday Elder Hoskins, Elder Ricks, Elder Crockett and I all went to the temple! That was an awesome experience and of course the spirit was so strong there. Elder Toomey had to stay with Elder Saenger because he is not endowed. Most of that day was spent in Dallas but that night we had an appointment with our rich investigator Lacy Long. She actually made us dinner first which was really  good and then we taught her the plan of salvation afterwards. She told us that she has been praying and she knows it is true.. but wants to make sure this is 150% for her! I don't see how it could not be for her if she knows its true. On Thursday we went back to Dallas for a Devotional. President Durrant's Father George Durrant and a lady named Susan Black came to speak to us. George Durrant gave a great talk on boldness and he was super funny! Now i know where President Durrant gets his humor. And Susan Black is a lady who knows almost everything about Joseph Smith! It was such a great talk! i learned a lot from both of them.
 
On Friday we taught our new investigator family! Laura Galvin is the mom and she is 29 and then she has 4 kids. Anahi Chavez-11, Anessa Chavez-10, Miguel Galvin-9, and Homero Galvin-6. We had a great lesson on the Restoration and we set a baptismal date with all of them forOctober 27th. It was so exciting! This area is really booming andright now we have 7 baptismal dates! I have never had that much at one time! Saturday was probably the best day this week! well the funnest i should say. It was raining in the morning and we had a service project planned that some of the church members came to help with. We helped the city of Duncanville put up a playground which was by far the best service project i had done on my mission. Although it was raining and we were all soaked. it was still fun. We were all split up in groups and i was part of the group that put together the swing set and the rock climbing wall. and Elder Toomey got the shaft job! He had to haul mulch to the playground. He was covered from Head to Toe in mulch! it was hilarious!
 
Later that night we met back up with Aracelly and re-taught the restoration because it had been so long that she had heard it. Well you basically have to teach her like you are teaching a child because her comprehension skills are terrible! we asked her 3 times what a prophet was after we explained it to her 3 times and she still didn't know! That night we got a call from the 2nd counselor in the Mountain
Creek Ward saying that we needed to give a talk because the 1st counselor who was supposed to talk was pretty sick. so we agreed to since we were giving our talks in the YSA too! Well it rained all day Saturday and all through the night into Sunday morning. In theMountain Creek ward we had 3 speakers. Luis Fernandez was first, then Elder Toomey and then me last. well at about 11:35 Elder Toomey got up to speak and he didn't end his talk until 12!!!!!! I had to kick himin the foot while he was up there speaking to tell him to end it! and then we had an intermediate hymn and i literally had 5 or less minutes to give my talk when i had planned to speak for 15 minutes. I was so pissed at Elder Toomey i just ignored everything he tried saying to me.
 
In the YSA i was able to give my full talk! It was on Faith in Jesus Christ. At this point i was still a little irritated with my companion it was at the point to where we were arguing with each other. Well that night we had a dinner that was 8 miles away. By the way my license is expired and i am not allowed to drive the car until i get my new license. So i was just going to drive to our dinner anyways but then i thought to myself and said nope... we are riding our bikes! Oh boy was that a struggle for my companion. i think at one point i was waiting a good 10 minutes for him to catch up! It was a good humbling experience for the both of us:)! My week was an overall good week with 7 baptismal dates set!
Not bad at all!!!

"One shot kill" on my 21st Birthday..chalk one up to Drake & Josh . Jaci's Baptism - 9/22/12

This week was great!!! It started off super slow but as the week went on it got better! Monday night me and Elder Hoskins went on an exchange to my area and it was super fun! Tuesday we went over to this part member families house to see Larry! He is the non member and he sells scrap metal so he can make a living haha. so that day we drove with him to the scrap yard with 2 big trailers full of tin and watched this huge crane with big jaws pick up the scrap! it was way cool! he made just shy of $400 dollars. not bad! Our exchange didnt end until Wednesday morning.. it was a little longer than a normal exchange but it was nice because it gave us a break from our companions!! haha. We met up at this place called Waffle House and had breakfast there. it was really good!

 We are teaching an 18 year old kid named Alex and he got interested in the church from his friend who converted about a year and a half ago. He has a lot of questions and seems to be seeking for truth sincerely! Thursday we taught the Bruce family and had the Ramos' come with us. We went in to teach them the Law of Chastity, Tithes and Offerings and Prayer and Bro. Ramos Highjacked the lesson and that was kind of irritating! we only got to talk about the law of chastity but oh well.. you can't always get what you want! Friday we were in Dallas all day for a specialized training. It was a long day but i really enjoyed it because i got to see my Trainer Elder Sinclair who i basically talk to on the phone every night and i also got to see a lot of other missionaries which was way cool!

Saturday was a great day.. and Happy Birthday to me also haha:) Saturday morning we had a baptism for my new convert Jaci Laster! The baptism was scheduled for noon but the Branch President was late and we didn't get started till about 12:30! Also President Durrant said he was going to come and he was running late too so we started the baptism and President Durrant still wasn't there.. but when i was standing in the water with Jaci.. as soon as the Font doors opened up. There was President and Sister Durrant.. That made me a little nervous but I Baptized Jaci on the first try.. One Shot One Kill! Later that day we saw a ton of other less active members and then since it was my birthday we decided to go to the best restaurant ever! Carinos!!! and i had the best dish there ever too! The Chicken Scalloppini! Oh man it was so good! Considering it has been over a year and a half since i have had that!

Sunday was such a great day too! The lord is definitely blessing us because in the Mountain Creek ward.. We had a family of 4 come who are not members and she said she really wants to know more and become a member! That was so so so Awesome!! Jaci was running a little late to the YSA Branch and i was getting a little nervous. but she made it and she was confirmed a member of the church. She is way awesome and she already knows so much about the church! She actually started researching the church 4 years ago when she was 14. She was watching the nickelodeon's tv show Drake and Josh and i guess Josh said he wanted to go to Utah because everyone is super happy there.. So Jaci asked her dad what was in Utah and her dad said the Mormons! and that is how Jaci got interested in learning about the church! way cool huh?! She also got me a card for my birthday which was way nice of her:)

Dilan is turning 21 this week on 9/22/12!

I can't believe that 21 years have nearly flown by since this little pale, toe-haired kid graced our presence!  We've been through alot with this boy of very little fear everywhere from splitting his head open TWICE, surgically removed rocks from his forehead and ears (separate incidents), broken arms, who knows how many concussions and many bumps, bruises, cuts and more to even count!  There was a time when he was young when I swear I would get turned in by the emergency room for being a horrible mother and that I must be doing something to this child when I made monthly (if not more) visits to the ER or urgent care.

Well..he's already survived (barely) over a year on his mission in Dallas, Texas...notwithstanding he HAS had a few injuries from falling off a roof, bit by a dog among a few of them. Probably more that he hasn't told me about.  Through it all, we are very proud of Dilan and how he has been able to use his personality to teach many without fear of failing.  He isn't afraid to open his mouth and share what he strongly believes to be true!  He is being an EXCELLENT missionary because of his attitude and is an example to so many!

Dilan has shared many messages and stories with us that I have kept updated here in his blog over the last 14 months and I thought that anyone who would like to send him a piece of mail letting him know we are thinking of him on his birthday..I know he would love to hear from any of his friends. If you prefer to write a message here, I'd be happy to send it on to him since I'll be printing any messages and mailing tomorrow.  (the address below will be good for at least another 4 weeks till next transfer)

Address:
Elder Dilan Christensen
700 W Center St. Apt 264
Duncanville, TX 75116 

Feeding family of Raccoons and birthday week!

 

This week was a pretty good week! On Monday we got a new investigator for the young single adult ward and he was supposed to come to church yesterday but he didnt:/. Tuesday was transfer day and me or my companion wasnt getting transferred but we still went to the transfer meeting so he could get the new missionary training. He said that it really helped him and he liked it. This week we burned a lot of our miles on our car but thats okay.. it was all for a good cause! On Thursday we had a lesson with the Bruce family and they said they weren't ready for baptism unfortunately but we did teach the word of wisdom and that went pretty well.. Bro. Bruce said that he wasn't going to quit drinking coffee and tea just yet.. While we were teaching them a family of Raccoon's came to the glass door and was eating the cat food that sister Bruce puts out for them.. i guess she has been feeding them for 3 years.. and this is the 3rd generation. It was a little distracting though.

On Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Crockett my zone leader because he was going to be interviewing Jaci Laster for Baptism.. Of course she passed without no flaws and then we set up her baptism for this coming Saturday. I told her that we need someone to baptize her and i said that it would be a really awesome birthday present if I could do it on my birthday and she thought about it for a minute and said.. "That would be a really cool Birthday present! Okay! I want you to baptize me!" So this Saturday I will be baptizing Jaci on my birthday:) Later that night we went out with a member from the DeSoto ward and his name is Jeremy Sappington and he is way cool! He actually used to be a member of the Crip Gang.. We went to visit this media referral that we received earlier that day and it was for this girl named Lacy Long. The referral said. "my husband is LDS but i am not." so we went to visit with them and they have a FREAKING HUGE HOUSE! She drives around in a 2009 Nissan Skyline GTR and he drives a 2011 Porsche Panamera! I was almost coveting in a way.. but i didnt.. cause i dont wanna break the commandments:)! So we got to know them and she wants to learn more so we are going to teach them on Tuesday! Saturday was a day of YSA numbers.. We had a couple of lessons with YSA's and that night we got 2 new investigators who look like they are in their mid 20's but only 18 and 19! Their names are Alex & Samuel and we had a great Restoration lesson with them. We have a return appointment with them and hopefully that goes well too! Sunday was a great day of course but i was super tired!!

Mock teaching our investigator, "Mr. balloon head"

This last week has been great! Elder Toomey my "Greenie" is starting to fall into the missionary schedule and thats good.. hes still super obedient which isnt a bad thing . It was a slower week for us. We didnt do as much teaching but that happens every now and then. I went on an exchange Tuesday with my Zone Leader Elder Ricks... My old companion actually and we had a great time. This family that feeds us every Tuesday night was super happy to see him and they took us out to Ihop! That was good! This week i actually dropped 8 pounds because i am doing this shake drink called herbalife and it replaces 2 meals for the day and then i eat one serving at a members house. I am hoping to be a lot more skinnier for when i get home.. you wont even recognize me:)!

Since i am training i am having to do the 12 week program with my companion which is an extra hour of companionship study which isnt too bad. but we do a lot of role playing together and he struggles when i act as an investigator so i had this brilliant idea. I blew up this ballon to the size of a head and I drew a face on it and then i stuffed my sweatshirt with my pillow and put the balloon in the hoody.. So instead of my companion teaching me.. we both taught our balloon friend and i could tell how much more that helped him when we were working together as a companionship rather than one on one..

Our investigators that we have with baptismal dates are still going strong. All 3 of our dates are for September 22nd which i probably told you that in my last email but if not i am telling you again. Well they all are coming to church and i know one of them is going to go through just because of the way i feel about her progression. The other 2 are probably at a 75% right now of actually being baptized on the 22nd. So hopefully that happens. Church yesterday was great and this kid from the YSA named Cristian Mattoon gave his farewell talk because he leaves for his mission on Wednesday. It was an awesome talk and I think he will do great!

"Get baptized Maybe" VIDEO

I ran across this youtube video made by a missionary and thought it was too cute!
It made me think about Dilan and his time away from home and the sacrifices missionaries make for 2 years such as dogs chasing them, temptations, dear johns, no tv, no facebook, lazy companions but all for wonderful blessings they receive from serving and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.   I know he wouldn't trade his experience for the world!  Check it out! He even mentions BOISE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WduxkDRo0A

Missionary meets sting ray - C R I K E Y!!

                                                                     

This week has been C-R-A-Z-Y! Like i told you in my last email.. I was going to get another companion which is my 3rd this transfer. Well i picked him up at the mission office on p-day and then we went to the Dallas aquarium. that was super fun and we got to see sharks and i touched some sting rays. i almost pulled a Steve Irwin.... Crikey!! but we are good.. I'm not injured or anything. Later that night we went to the YSA Family Home Evening and introduced Elder Toomey to the YSA.. On Tuesday we had the best district meeting ever. Elder Murdock the district leader has the funnest district meetings! We played powerade pong. its the same as beer pong but we played with powerade. and every time a team made the ping pong ball into one of the cups.. the other team had to answer questions from the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel! it was way fun. When we left District meeting Elder Murdock came with me and we went on an exchange. i was already getting annoyed by my companion! We made a Spud gun out of PVC pipe that day so we could use it for a visual lesson. that thing can launch a spud a good hundred yards i would think. we also made it to where it has interchangeable barrels so we can have a big barrel for launching potatoes and a small barrel for shooting Nerf darts super fast! we actually shot a member right in the gut that night and it instantly put a welt on him! hahaha! That was super funny! i have video of it too!!

My new companion .....

We did quite a bit of teaching this week and we actually set 2 baptismal dates for the 22nd with a part member family that we have been working with for the last couple of weeks! This sisters also passed off one of their investigators to us because she is YSA age and she has a baptismal date for September 22nd as well... My Birthday! so hopefully i will be having 3 baptisms on my birthday! which is also called a hat trick:)! Church yesterday was awesome and i love fasting! i remember back home i would dread it but going to church for 9 hours straight and feeling the spirit is amazing and totally better when you are fasting for the right reason! The YSA had another "Break the Fast" and it was breakfast and was super good! We also were supposed to go see another part member family last night and bishop earl wanted to go with us.... so here's the scoop on this family.. its the Ramirez family and they are probably my most favorite families in this area! Well Bro. Ramirez has been less active for about 2 years now and we have set multiple baptismal dates with his son Daniel... and Bro. Ramirez wants me to baptize his son because he says his motivation is not there and he says it will take a long time for him to be worthy of doing the baptism.. so we told bishop that and bishop basically said. that's just an excuse! Bishop has no love for anybody! and he is very hard to work with. So Bro. Ramirez said no to having us come over with Bishop.. so that made bishop a little angry and he said.. well my calling is to call people to repentance and i told bishop.. well you have to love these people too right?! I have been working with the Ramirez family since i have been here and i know what Bro. Ramirez is going through and for bishop to just have the intentions of going over and telling Bro. Ramirez what he should be doing instead of putting an arm around him and being a friend just doesn't seem right! I think that's one of the main reasons people go inactive or less active is because they don't feel the love from ward members! anyways.. i hope you enjoyed this weeks weekly update:)!

Trial missionary companion

This last week has been a little crazy! Tuesday we go a call from the assistants saying that we are getting an emergency exchange and Elder Edlund ended up getting transferred to Mckinney and my new companion is from Allen, TX about an hour away! He is a "trial missionary" he has diabetes and he is just serving with me for 2 weeks.. They do trial missions so the missionary can try out the mission and see if they can handle the mission life and learn to be on their own with their medical or physical disabilities.

So my new companion is Elder Hamblin and he is a good kid but he is very very quiet!! So we shall see how this little time with him goes.. it may be a very very silent companionship. We did quite a bit of teaching this week and we actually started teaching a part member family in the ward. The lady is the member and they just got married and she told her husband if they were going to get married than he would be joining her church! so he has been the last 5 weeks in a row! We taught him the Restoration and he took it pretty well. he said if he had a witness if this was true than he would be baptized! yay!!

Mission Olympics and Kevin Harris's baptism.

This week was super slow.. a lot slower than other weeks since i have been in this area.. we have just had a ton of people cancelling appointments and not being home and that has been super annoying.. Our mission president says he doesn't care about numbers and that he just likes to see baptisms and that's totally true but i don't like seeing my numbers when they are low.. it makes me feel like i didn't put in the effort for that week.. oh well. Everyone on a mission has weeks like those. All of Tuesday we were in Carrolton Texas at a Zone Conference and it was called the "Texas Dallas Mission Olympics 2012" it was super fun.. we had to do all sorts of different events.. each event was 6 minutes longs and we had.. Free throw shooting, push-ups, soccer ball juggling, speed walking around the church parking lots, scripture memorization, preach my gospel memory and other stuff like that.. it was so fun but let me tell ya.. i was super sore for the next few days hahaha!

This week we met with Kevin Harris for the last time before his baptism! We talked to him about fasting and about what was going to happen at his baptism and he was getting super anxious! Saturday i was so excited and anxious for his baptism. He got there on time and instead of wearing the jumpsuits that the church puts out. he wore white pants, a white shirt, a white tie and a white belt! He was looking pretty fresh! He said he was nervous because Xavier the person baptizing him was nervous too! That was his first time baptizing. Elder Edlund and I were the witnesses and we had to tell Xavier to restart the baptismal prayer before he baptized him and had to restart.. so he said the prayer right and when he baptized him it looked like he wasn't going to go all the way under and then Xavier gave him the elbow to the chest and pushed him all the way down! so it was a one shot one kill! Kevin felt super good and he was way excited to receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday. He is being fellow shipped super good and the YSA actually took him to a movie after his baptism which was way cool! On Sunday while we are sitting in the chapel waiting for sacrament to start.. Kevin wasn't there.. we were getting pretty nervous cause by this time it was about 10 after the hour and then he finally came in. But he came and was confirmed a member and that was super cool! He felt super good and almost invincible:) Kevins baptism was probably one of my favorites of my whole mission!

Visiting Air Museum, teaching and LOTS and LOTS of Service !

Monday was a way fun day! We went to an Air Museum with a bunch of missionaries and looked at a bunch of different airplanes and it was also next to an airport so we watched like 4 planes take off.. Elder Bishop was with us and he left on Wednesday so it made him super trunky! That night I actually went with Elder Bishop and Elder Crockett our zone leaders and Elder Ricks stayed back home to pack with Elder Edlund. We went into Dallas and picked up brand new missionaries and took them out for their first night. Their names were Elder Christensen And Elder Buell. They looked like a deer in the headlights! Elder Crockett took them teaching while i went with Elder Bishop to say goodbye to some of the families in his area. We dropped by this guys house and his name is Wayne but the missionaries call him Lil Weezy! Well he only speaks English and his wife only speaks Spanish.. i don't know how that one worked out but we got to his house and we asked his wife where Wayne was and she pointed down the hall and said shower.. well Wayne came out with only shorts on ........ (see email for rest of story)  Well later that night we dropped the new missionaries off back in Dallas and we picked up Elder Sinclair and another missionary so we could house them that night. They were coming in from east Texas so when that happens.. they have to stay with missionaries the night before transfers.. Well we drove 30 minutes back to the Zone Leaders area and visited with a member family forever!! We got back to their apartment and didn't get to sleep until 2:30! We stayed up telling mission stories and laughing super hard! Maybe that's why they don't keep more than one companionship in 1 apartment?! hahaha

So we woke up the next morning and we had to leave at about 8 to drive into Dallas for transfers! I got to see tons of missionaries and took some pictures.. if you guys want to.. there is a member that takes pictures at every transfer and has a Texas Dallas Mission page on facebook and i am sure you will see pictures of me!:) After leaving Transfers i felt super trunky! Elder Bishop is one of the missionaries i am going to miss! We didn't know each other for too long but we acted like we were best friends! I told him that after i get home we are going boating!:) Well I got my new companion that day and his name is Elder Edlund. He is from Pleasant Grove Utah and has been out for almost 19 months now. He was serving in the Desoto area and now they combined our areas and so we both now cover the Desoto ward, Mountain Creek Ward, and the Duncanville YSA. This whole week has been super crazy with trying to figure out our investigators and our miles because as of right now.. we have not gotten any extra miles and our area is 3 times as big now!

This last week we did lots of teaching and lots of service.. We actually moved a family out of their house and President Durrant told us that we are not a moving service! We also are helping this part member family Restore a very old camper trailer that has been sitting in their junk yard back yard forever! They have so much stuff in their backyard it is super crazy! They scrap metal so they can get a few extra dollars here and there.. a lot of people do that down here in south Dallas. Sunday was my most tiring day ever! We had to be at church at 7:30 for ward council and we did not leave church until 5 at night. Something cool that i like what the YSA branch does is.. every fast Sunday they have after church whats called "break the fast" and everyone brings in food and we have dinner! its way fun and cool.. i really enjoyed it especially since i had been fasting since 4p.m. the previous day! This coming Saturday we are having the baptism for Kevin Harris one of our investigators and we are super excited.. i will send pics next week! As you can see.. i have had a very busy productive week!

Hawaiian Luau with our investigator, Kevin

Monday we played basketball with a ton of missionaries and i hadn't played ball since my first area! so i was very rusty! it was still fun though. On Tuesday after District meeting i went on an exchange with Elder Stratford to his area and that was pretty fun! when i go on exchanges i like to go to other areas so you don't have to worry about trying to find something to do when appointments fall through. That night a member took us out to eat and guess where he took us! IN N OUT! Oh yeah baby! it was so good! I also bought a t-shirt so i could just say i went to one in Texas:) in n out is pretty new in Texas and has only been here for about almost a year now. Wednesday after exchanging back we met with our investigator Daniel Ramirez! i really love that family and its always fun to go over there. because they are super chill and aren't the kind of members that are going to tell on a missionary for doing something wrong.. not that i am a bad kid.. i'm just saying haha.

We went on another exchange Thursday with our zone leaders and i went with Elder Bishop. He is way cool and he goes home in a week from Wednesday.. We had a way awesome lesson with Kevin Harris our investigator again. He is progressing very well.. We taught him about the priesthood and also the word of wisdom. we found out he smokes like 2 or 3 cigarettes a week. which isn't bad at all and he said he would quit. He also told us that he has a Seventh day Adventist friend that has been trying to Anti him and tell him that the sabbath is on Saturday not Sunday. He told us that since he doesn't know the Bible too well.. he wanted us to give him some scriptures so he could have some fire power to throw back at her! hahaha! How awesome is that! He also told her that ever since we have come into his life he has been happier and drawn closer to god. Elder Bishop also had Elder Sinclair as a companion so we shared with each other a bunch of stories. that night we stayed up till at least 12 telling stories and laughing super hard. I'm sure our neighbors weren't too happy with us. 

Friday was a pretty slow day and we dropped by our investigator Sandra and come to find out.. she is smoking again. she also told us that she was moving so we are pretty much going to drop her because she isn't going anywhere! Later that night a storm rolled in out of no where and it was pouring down rain! We had dinner with the Hamilton's who elder ricks knows quite well.. they were the swim coaches at his High School and Elder Ricks is a swimmer! so while it was storming we had dinner in their home. They have a Great Dane dog and she is huge! i was playing with her and she is super strong and would knock me around! Earlier that day we got a referral and we ended up setting up an appointment for Saturday afternoon with him.

So Saturday rolls around and we met with another investigator Anthony Copeland. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and told him that his baptism date was 3 weeks away and that he needed to come to church 3 times before he could be baptized and he said he would come the next 3 weeks and he didn't.. so that was a bummer. We met with the referral at the church and his name was Tim Duitsman and he brought his brother Ben and sister Monica. We gave them a church tour and then we shared with them the Restoration. They told us that they went to the Manti Pageant in Utah and that's what got them interested. Towards the end of the lesson they started asking us bashing questions and so we had to pull out the bible bashing scriptures and they were caught off guard haha. They did tell us that they wanted to learn more so we will see how that goes.

Later Saturday night we had the YSA Luau and Kevin came to that. it was super fun and there was Polynesian dancers there. I am not sure if it was missionary appropriate. I did video some of them though haha! One guy came out and did the Hakka which was super cool! Sunday was a great day.. like always! Kevin came to church and he is really soaking it up! He says he is learning so much and is super excited to be baptized!

God gives us trials and tribulations so we can learn to love and forgive.

Dilan shared this video with me and thought I would share here on his blog.  What incredible strength this man had after suffering such a tragedy in his life and learning to forgive the offender.  I think that we can learn from this to forgive the very small offenses that occur daily in our lives.  I admit that it is so difficult to do at times especially when there are people that may continue to hurt us. We can only control how we deal with them.  I've learned to remove myself from the negative influences and seek positive relationships.  Having the positive relationship with our Heavenly Father and learning of his constant kindness, love and patience...he will help us through these times where we feel like we cannot do it alone.  Christ has provided a way to for all to be forgiven if we are willing to submit to him.  Enjoy the video! 

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng&start=37&end=48#2010-07-14-forgiveness-my-burden-was-made-light

Mission miracles...they keep getting better!

This week has probably been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission!! no joke! Monday night we had Family home evening with the ysa branch and they had a free car wash at the church. we were to go talk to the people while their car was being washed.. i figured to me that it was going against someones agency!! haha you have to listen to me cause your car is being washed! you know what i mean? luckily there was a storm rolling in so nobody cared to stop in and get a free car wash so it turned out to be kind of a failure! we got our car cleaned though:) Tuesday was great! we went down to Grand Prairie which is apart of our area and we were able to visit some less active members and have a lesson with our 9 year old investigator Daniel Ramirez. It was great! we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he knew almost everything. later that night we had a lesson with a member who has been inactive for a while now and we are re-teaching him the lessons because he doesn't really remember anything! His non-member wife sat in and listened but she still was saying that she doesn't want to be a Mormon. I think shes scared more of the title "Mormon" than the actual church itself. Funny thing that we found out.. Her best friend in Arizona is a member and her name is Amber Ricks and she is actually related to my companion Elder Ricks haha.

Wednesday was probably my most spiritual/miracle day of the mission so far! In the morning we went tracting in some apartments where the Spanish Elders live.. we figured since they live there and cant tract their own apartment.. we would do it for them. Well most people were not interested which is normal. but we knocked on this door and this black guy named Anthony Copeland came out and we told him who we were and what we were doing and he let us right into his house. we shared more about the Book of Mormon and that if he read it and prayed about it that he would get an answer from god that it was true. He was pretty excited to see us! he said that the last couple of weeks he had been talking to his brother about getting back into church and we just show up on his doorstep. He said that he was taking that as a sign from God! It was so cool! Right before we left we taught him about prayer and he said a prayer perfectly! He said that was the first time he had prayed in a very long time! That's not even the best part of my day!!!!!

So yesterday we received a referral from a member named David Kern that lives in the Rockwall ward. He is a lawyer and he had a co-worker named Kevin Harris that was a security guard at his law firm and was actually leaving his job for another job. Well David said that he had this impression that he should give Kevin a Book of Mormon and so he did and told him to read the introduction and Moroni's promise and then to pray about it! So we actually got a hold of Kevin and set up an appointment for Wednesday night and we went over! Brother David Kern met us there and we sat down and got to know Kevin a little bit. He told us a little about his life and that he knows there is a god but hasn't really been active in a faith. so we told him a little about what we do as missionaries and why we go out and serve! But lets get to the best part! We asked him about his experience about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and he said as soon  as he finished praying about it.. A calm, warm Energy went all through his body! I was so overwhelmed to hear about that! Wait!! it gets better! So we explained to him that, that was the spirit and so we started teaching him the Restoration and he was asking all of the right questions! He said. "if God loves all of his children, why would he create a hell"? so we were able to teach him a little about the kingdoms of glory. Another question he asked was. "what happens to all of the people that live in Africa, or China or wherever that don't get to hear about Jesus Christ? I don't think it would be fair for them to go to hell if they didn't get that chance! So we were able to teach him a little about the Spirit World!! How awesome is this!!!?? Well as soon as we finished sharing the Joseph Smith Experience with him.. He said he had that same feeling go through his body as when he finished praying! The spirit was probably the strongest i have ever felt in any lesson on my mission!!! We invited him to be baptized on August 11th and he is super excited! Kevin is so prepared to accept the Gospel! 

Thursday was a good day! we went over to Sandra's and last Sunday we were having our lesson in gospel principles about covenant people and she said she wanted to learn more about that. so we went in and taught her more and also about the temples and i think she really soaked that lesson up! i think she is getting closer and closer to baptism. She was asking us about her husband and what he has to do to get back on the right path.. he is actually in prison right now on First Degree murder for shooting a woman. Sandra told us that he was trying to defend himself because the lady pulled out the gun to try and kill him and they wrestled for it and the trigger was pulled and it ended up killing the lady.. i don't know too much of the story but that's basically the bulk of it. We explained to her about the Repentance process and that someone can have a change of heart and if he really didn't mean to kill that lady.. then god knows that! Thursday morning we were able to have a lesson with Anthony Copeland and we taught him the restoration and that was another fantastic lesson! We set a baptism date with him for August 11th as well!

Then came Saturday night.. We had another lesson with Kevin Harris! We brought a member from the ysa branch named Xavier Salazar.. he is actually a convert of about a month ago. so that made Kevin feel even better knowing that anybody can join the church. Xavier shared with Kevin the change that has come about in his life and how he doesn't want to do the bad stuff that he used to do. Kevin really like that! Well we taught Kevin about the Plan of Salvation and again he was answering all of the right questions! He told us that a lot of his life time questions were being answered and he was so excited! He told us that he is super excited for his baptism date on August 11th. He also told us that he would be at church the next day. So Sunday rolls around and Brother Kern came to the singles branch to support Kevin and when Kevin walked into the chapel. He looked like a member! He was wearing a suit with a white shirt and tie! He stayed all 3 hours and told Brother Kern afterwards that he thought that since church was 3 hours he would be struggling to stay awake! But he did and he said it actually went by super fast and that he learned so much! He asked another awesome question in Elders Quorum. He said "When i help people out i feel super good! Do you think God feels that same way about us"? So Spiritual! And to end my week off with a bang!!! He walks up to Xavier after church and says to him.. My baptism is on August 11th.. I want you to baptize me! I was so so excited to hear him say that and so was Xavier! This week has been such an amazing week on my mission! Very Very Spiritual!

"Pray with the right attitude in order to receive answers"

Our week here in Duncanville has probably been the best since i have been in this area! Monday night we had a lesson with our investigator Sandra at Bro. Selfs house.. That lesson was a disaster! Sandra was not happy at all and we have been asking her lots of questions to gauge where she is at and Elder Ricks told her to ask God why there are so many different churches around the world and this was her reply "i will do that.. but i am going to come to you the next day and tell you that i didn't receive an answer!" so i responded to her.. "in order to receive answers to our prayers we need to do pray with the right attitude" and she just snapped!!! She said "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RIGHT ATTITUDE" and that is where the lesson went down hill! she has been struggling financially for a very long time and she lives off welfare! Go figure! so it was nice to get out of that lesson! i was about ready to blow up!

Tuesday was a great day and we visited with an inactive member Bro. Robles and he has been inactive for about 15 years take or give.. We had a great lesson and he said that he knows he needs to get back to church and originally he wasn't going to come unless his wife came with him and so i told him that if he would come.. he would set that example for his wife and she would follow him! so he agreed to come this Sunday.. unfortunately he did not. But we did visit some other members that night was able to share more with them about the gospel! Wednesday was the 4th of July and it was hard because everyone was with family.. But we went tracting that morning and we found a new investigator named Chrystal Williams and she has never heard of the Book of Mormon.. Which is really weird to think that people here have never heard of it but they haven't strange right?! Another person we tracted into came bolting out the front door and she said. " are you Mormons" and we said yes! and she said " you need to get out of that religion.. Mormons don't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God!" This lady was super crazy! She had like inch long hairs growing out of her chin and upper lip! She again told us that we needed to get out of our religion and then laughed way crazily.. kind of like a witch and then went inside! I was so freaked out! That night it was about 8pm and we decided to stop in at sonic for some ice cream.. well this sonic was right across the street from the Duncanville community park where they were going to be lighting off fireworks soon! So this sonic was jam packed! people weren't even in their cars.. they were just standing next to the intercom's ordering food.. Elder Ricks and I were so uncomfortable! There were so many people and just being a missionary and around all of those people was sketchy! So we went home and the rest of the night we heard fireworks until I fell asleep!

Thursday after our weekly planning we decided to go on an exchange with the Waxahachie Elders (Johnson & Payne). They live about a half hour away so were meeting them halfway! we got a phone call from them and they said that they blew a tire about 2 miles away from our meeting point and they needed our help! so we drive down there and the tire is just shredded! so we call up the mission vehicle coordinator and hes telling us what we need to do.. anyways he just tells us to get the spare on and once we do that then he will figure out what we need to do next.. So i guess about a month ago or so.. these elders had one of their tires and lug nuts stolen from the car.. so when the tire company replaced the tire, they put on all 4 of the same lug nuts and one different one and different size. so the tire iron they had in their car didn't fit the odd lug nut! so we had to go to O'reilly Auto Parts. We get there and we found 2 different sizes of a four way tire iron and the guy at the register told us.. Who knows how tight those lug nuts are on that car and even with all the strength of Joseph Smith on your side.. you still probably couldn't get them off.. so go with the bigger one! That was super funny! He told us that his Brother was a member and he just couldn't resist saying that! Well we didn't end up buying one cause they were way too expensive.. but a discount tire shop let us borrow their tools which was very nice of them and we went back to switch out the tires! It was a good thing that I was around because I was the only one that knew how to change a tire! How Sad! So when we finally went on our exchange I drove down with Elder Payne to Grand Prairie for our lesson with Daniel Ramirez. He is a 9 year old and his family is less active.. His dad is super funny too! So we taught Daniel the restoration and Elder Payne is a brand new missionary and has only been out for like 4 weeks and Bro. Ramirez said.. How long have you been on your mission.. and Elder Payne replied About 4 weeks. and Bro. Ramirez said... yeah i can tell! hahaha! that was kind of funny! I'm not being rude or anything but I don't remember being that shy about teaching people.. Anyways the rest of the night was great!

On Friday we drove into Irving for Interviews with President Durrant! That was great cause there were alot of my missionary buddies that i got to see including my MTC companion Elder Flitton! Which by the way.. He is an assistant now.. I guess i am not that righteous?! I don't really like interviews with president Durrant.. Usually in an interview.. the person would ask you questions and you would answer them.. but president Durrant just says. okay what do you want to talk about? I have no idea what i want to talk about other than how my area is going and how i love my companion.. I don't know.. Just kind of different i guess! Anyways.. that took up almost all of our time that day. But on Saturday we were able to meet with Sandra again.. She seemed a little upset.. and she would not tell us why she was upset. So we just decided to ask her questions and come to find out that she was upset because Bro. Self told Bro. Daley about her financial problems and they went over there earlier in the week and tried to tell her how to budget her own money. They also tried telling her to get a job and she is physically incapable of doing that. She has Diabetes and she has lost all of her toes on one foot and cant stand long! So that's why she was upset.. in her own words she told us that what Bro. Self did "hurted her" keep in mind that she is black and they talk a little different haha! Once she was able to talk about her feelings she opened right up and we had a great lesson with her.. we ended up sharing the Baptismal interviews with her and almost all of those questions she answered right.. She said.. i am not ready still but i am close! I sure hope so!:)

Sunday was a great day and we were able to have Sandra join me at church.. But about half way through gospel principles we have to leave to go to the YSA Branch.. Well right as the branch started is when the Gospel principles class got out.. and we were talking to some people in the hall way so we were not in the sacrament meeting quite yet... and we had to get to the other side of the building so we walked through the gym to the other sided and as i opened the door into the hallway.. i slammed it into a person and i pull back the door and guess who it is........ of course! Sandra! OH man i felt so bad.. She told me that payback is coming to me! hahahaha! But that's basically how my day at church went.. We taught a new member discussion to a recent convert named Amythest after church and then had dinner with The Smith Family.. his name is Joseph.. no joke! ha! he is actually from Nampa, Idaho and lived there with his wife about a year ago! He is a dentist and just started up his practice here a couple months ago. He knows Bro. Payne my Orthodontist too! For the rest of the night we dropped by the Ramirez family and shared with them a lesson on chapter 22 of Alma! That's how my week went here in D.Ville!!!!

BUSY week! "Mr. Fix-it" mows lawns, repairs bike flats and his waterbed.

This week has been up and down and left and right! Kind of Crazy! But way Awesome! Tuesday was District Meeting day as usual and the rest of the day we visited with less active members and one of them was bro. Art Robles and he has been inactive for who knows how long.. he actually use to serve in a bishopric when he was active.. well now we are trying to get him and his wife back to church and we are not sure what her hold up is.. i haven't met her yet too. but bro. Robles has a few concerns about the church now since he has been inactive for so long.. He has been trying to read out of the Book of Mormon and he came across Jacob where its talking about Polygamy and how that's an abomination in Gods eyes and he couldn't grasp why the early church practiced Polygamy and why it was so necessary. So we shared with him a lot of stuff out of the scriptures and probably went deeper than we should have. but it all came down to praying and seeking the lords guidance on that and he said he would do so! Later that night we had dinner with the Mendoza family.. We actually eat dinner with them every Tuesday night and there daughter invited a guy over to have dinner also and we ended up sharing with him the Restoration.. That was pretty sweet!

Wednesday we went to mow the lawn for a less active/part member family that we wanted to help out.. They didn't have a lawn mower and there lawn was like 3 feet tall! So we packed all of our ward mission leaders Lawn care stuff (mower, weed eater, blower and gas) in the back seat of the lords car and we went to give service:)! it took us 2 hours to mow that lawn and it was way smaller than my lawn at home! We first had to weed eat all of the tall grass down and then we mulched the yard.. In Texas.. No body bags their grass! But it was a great blessing to be able to help a family in need! Thursday was really slow we had our planning day and during lunch i was laying on my bed and my sheets were wet.. so i get off and i found a little whole in my bed.. you are probably wondering why my bed is leaking but its because i sleep on a water bed! yep thats right:) we fixed the hole with a bike tire patch and so far it is holding up! That night we found a Buddhist Temple in our area and we went to look at it and there was monks everywhere! They were super nice to us and they allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted so that was a neat experience!

Friday was my year mark! yayyyyyy!!!! We were invited to attend the Youth Conference and we were asked to teach about the importance of having a testimony about the Book of Mormon and how we can share that with our non-member friends. There was 5 groups and the lessons were about 45 minutes each! It was great! Each youth got their own Book of Mormon and we asked them to highlight one of their favorite versus and then write their testimony in the front. We invited them all to give that copy of the Book of Mormon to one of their friends! After Youth Conference, My companion and I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Temple! OH was that one of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission! This was my first time going since back home and we are supposed to go every 6 months or so! So it was a very nice opportunity to be able to go and feel how strong the spirit is in the House of the Lord! Later that night some members took us to a restaurant called Cheddar s. Oh man it is so good! and i also got a dessert.. The monster cookie! (it is this huge 6 inch cookie with ice cream on top and chocolate syrup with nuts, whipped cream and a cherry! Texas food isn't quite the healthiest but is sure dang tasty!

Saturday was a good day at the start and then right before our appointment with a less active member at 5. he calls us and told us that he really needed us and that we needed to hurry and get to his house asap! when we arrived at his house there was 3 police cars parked out front and we walked in and he was sitting on the couch crying and his wife who is a Buddhist and some of her friends over and they were chanting prayers really loudly! Come to find out.. Bro. Moffette's son passed away. He was 19 years old and had a severe case of Autism and had about 5 seizures a month.. and apparently he had a seizure while he was sleeping and he ended up suffocating himself. It was a very sad situation and i felt horrible! Bro. Moffette was a wreck! we gave him a blessing and then we stayed with him for about 3 hours comforting him and teaching him about gods plan of happiness for all of his children! You could tell that by us being there he felt a lot better!

Sunday in the young single adults sacrament meeting was probably one of the most powerful testimony meetings i have been to in a long time! the spirit was so strong there and the testimonies that were bore were so powerful! we taught gospel principles since our branch mission leader is a failure at his calling and never comes to church so we have to wipe his butt for him! but that's okay. more blessings for us i guess! haha! After church we had whats called break the fast with the ysa branch and we all had a big dinner! Then we went back to Bro. Moffette's house with the 1st counselor bro. Esquivel, His home teacher bro. Pina, and bro. Eubanks and we planned out his sons funeral for this upcoming Saturday! so this will be my second funeral since i have been on my mission! but like i said at the beginning of my letter.. This week was Crazy!

CELEBRATING my ONE YEAR MARK!!

This week has been GREAT! Tuesday we drove to transfer meeting and i was able to visit with lots of missionaries that I just miss so much! I was also able to get my new companion... Elder Ricks! He is from Lindon Utah right next to Provo. Throughout my whole mission i haven't really had missionaries that i haven't really gotten along with but i love my companion and he is so much fun to work with and we can get along just great! So after leaving transfer meeting we headed down to Duncanville my new area! On the way we were super hungry so we ate at this place called Burguesa burger which is in oak cliff which is a very sketchy part of town. but this place was a Mexican burger joint and they made very good burgers! We got to our apartment and i got settled in and unpacked some of my stuff and guess what i sleep on.... a water bed! hahaha! oh man that was funny! its pretty comfortable too! The rest of the day we went out and worked and talked to lots of people!

Wednesday we had district meeting at the church and Elder Ricks is the new district leader so he gave his first official training and it went great! There is also a senior couple that is in our District and they are from Nampa, Idaho! So i was able to talk with them for a while and found out that they graduated from Meridian High long ago! They said about a 100 years ago.. that was funny. Our ward mission leader is out of town with his wife Right now so we are house sitting for him and we have to water all of his plants and also pick the tomatoes out of his garden.. that reminds me of working in our garden back home. We had weekly planning Thursday and that was a good way for me to learn more about the area and the people we are teaching. Later that night we went to teach on of our investigators. Her name is Sandra Rogers and she lives off a street called Gannon Ln. which is a very rough part of our area.. She is a black lady who had no toes on her left foot and she has 4 teeth and is super humble! A couple of weeks ago the missionaries shared the stop smoking program with her and she has been smoke free for over 2 weeks now.

Friday we mowed our ward mission leaders lawn and then we went out for the day trying to visit some less active people and we also dropped by some referrals that we had.. on of the referrals was growing a marijuana plant outside on his front doorstep! That just tells you the kind of area i am serving in now! We also had a lesson with another one of our investigators named Robert Good and we don't really know what we want to do with him because he says he knows the church is true and that the book of Mormon is true but he doesn't really put forth the effort in wanting to be baptized anytime soon! So that's the deal with him. Sunday was a great day at church.. I always love the first Sundays of being new in an area cause i get to meet new people.. The Mountain Creek Ward starts at 11 in the morning and we also cover a Young Single Adults Branch that meets at 1. So we are at church from 10 to 4 every Sunday. Well earlier this week my companion said.. "oh by the way.. we have to give talks in the singles ward this Sunday"! I have given so many talks on my mission its unreal! That is also the second time that has happened to me.. i get transferred to a new area and have to speak the following Sunday. It was a good talk though and i felt it went pretty good! It was about 98 degrees when we got out of church so we went home to change out of our suits and guess what!!! Our Air Conditioning broke!!!! it was 90 degrees in our apartment and there was no way i was going to be staying there that night! Good thing we are house sitting and so we just stayed at our ward mission leaders home last night.. Sweating in your own home unless you are working out is not fun!!! anyways that's how my week went! I reach my year mark this Friday! so exciting! time is flying by!

Here's my Address:

700 W. Center St. #264
Duncanville, TX 75116

Transfer to Duncanville

Last Monday we did the Juggernaut challenge like i told you we were going to do.. oh man it was ridiculous! 12 Scoops of Blue Bell Ice Cream and 6 toppings later i had the biggest stomach ache ever! The ones that tried eating one by themselves was Elder Howell, Bro. White, Scott Meager and me.. and the only ones that could finish it was Elder Howell and I.. Scott Meager was so close to finishing and then he just got up and ran to the restroom to throw up! It was pretty funny! Tuesday night we went into Scurry which is a really far part of our area that we don't go to very often! But we went down there and we went on member exchanges and i went to give a few blessings and teach the new member discussions to my convert Emma Drummond and Elder Howell went to teach another part member family in the ward.

Wednesday was a pretty fun day. We had a Specialized Training and so we drove into Dallas and got to see President Durrant and a ton of other missionaries! That was super fun! During the training everyone was asked to come prepared to give a 5 minute talk on (Revelation through prayer) so i got up cause they asked for volunteers and gave my talk.. i thought it was pretty good and i also used some notes from my talk last Sunday which was on having gratitude through prayer.. I really think that in order to receive revelation from our prayers.. we need to be grateful for the things we do have! During our lunch at our training we had a bracket set up for everyone that was there for a Free Throw contest.. That was really fun to see missionaries compete.. of course i didn't win but it was still fun:)

Thursday was quite an experience for me! We had a lesson that night back in Scurry with another part member family.. the Mcginnis'.. and we were also supposed to have dinner with them too... well when we get there she wasn't even there and only her friend Willy was there.. well since she forgot about us we started to leave and she showed up.. so we stayed and she made us dinner and we ended up teaching Willy.. We were supposed to teach her daughter too but she wasn't there.. well anyways.. we taught the restoration to willy and he had a lot of deep doctrine questions! But the weirdest thing he said was that he had the Gold Plates and he has had them for about 8 years now and he has been deciphering them since then. He said they are probably worth more than any of the gold in the world and that he wanted to meet President Monson to talk to him about them! It was quite a strange experience!

The rest of the week wasn't too awesome but we did get a phone call Saturday morning from the mission housing coordinator and he said.. "so you know how they are closing down your area" we had no idea that was happening.. but he also said.. "I'm coming to get some of your furniture" so he came and took our desks, dressers, and couch! So anyways.. we went about our day knowing we were going to be transferred.. but no one called us all day until Sunday morning! So they are closing down the Forney & Kaufman area and wont have missionaries in these wards for at least the summer is my guess.. because there is about 20 missionaries leaving this transfer and only about 10 coming in. so there is not enough missionaries going to be in the mission to fill the spots so they have to close down some areas for a while.. ever since i came to this area.. the Kaufman ward hadn't baptized in 2 years and Elder Howell and I baptized for them:)! So now my new area is going to be Duncanville which is south Dallas. Aka. The Ghetto! So No letters from anyone this week until i send my new address next week in my email. Thanks!