Monday we had a lesson with this black man named Sylvester Mosleyy.. I'm not quite sure how much he is progressing but he does tell us that he looks forward to us coming over every Monday night to see him. Tuesday night we met up with Paul Abendroth to set up his baptism for this week and he was super excited! He told us that he had a friend that told him that he was being baptized for all the wrong reasons and that he shouldn't go through with it and he told his friend.. despite what you say i am doing what i want to do! That was really cool to hear that and to know that Paul really knows this gospel is true! As far as Kandie, Anna and Rickey go.. they are still pretty neutral and not to sure how much progression there is there but still hope!

 

On Wednesday we were tracting some apartments and ended up getting kicked out of them.. apparently were not supposed to be doing that when i have a paper that says its a protected right under the first amendment.. apparently the constitution and all of that stuff don't matter to this country anymore.. who knew? We had a lesson during the afternoon with this lady named Minnie Morgan who we tracted out! She seemed pretty interested and we taught her the restoration and then she said that she is a member and used to have The Elders over to eat at her house when she was a kid. She does have a daughter that may be interested though so we will just have to see where that takes us. We got her information and requested her records to see if she really is a member and if she is not or we cant find her records then we will have to make a new record;) meaning baptize! haha.

 

Thursday was pretty slow.. But on Friday we went to this health care center where we visit a member that lives there.. She has MS so she cant walk or come to church so we visit her every week! We met a lady that was there temporarily because she broke her leg and we went to visit her that day too.. Her name is Colleen Ralson and i think i may have mentioned her in other emails but she read the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks and i think she just read it to find fault! Well when we were visiting her she was just arguing with us and the conversation was going no where and i was getting super frustrated so i just stood up and told her that werewere leaving and so we did and we are not going back!

 

Saturday was the best day this week! We had to be at the church at 9 to fill up the font cause it takes 2 hours to fill up! The Baptism for Paul started at 11 and there wasn't too much people there but the Spirit was strong! A man named Brother Scott Lloyd gave the talk on Baptism and it lasted 30 minutes! It was super long for a baptism talk when they are supposed to be like 5 minutes but it was super good! He went into detail about how baptism ties in with taking the sacrament! After the baptism my Ward Mission Leader told me that ever since i have been in this area we have been teaching like crazy! He said he remembers with previous missionaries that when he signed up to go out with them they would just do drop by's but with me we always have a lesson to go to! So that made me feel super good inside!

 

On Sunday we were standing at the doors waiting for Paul to come in and it was about 5 minutes until sacrament was going to start so i was getting a little scared thinking he might not show up but he did! And he was confirmed a member of the Church! That was really cool! I love seeing people change their lives for the better:) We are supposed to have another baptism for Kylie and Lexie this weekend but I'm not to sure how solid they are quite yet. so i guess you will find out next week! haha.. Before going home last night we stopped by to see Rickey in his trailer and i knocked on the door and he was yelling and sounded really pissed off! well he let us in and he was a little drunk but he sat and talked to us for 45 minutes about how Kandie his own sister lied to him.. Apparently she promised him work when he moved up here and right now he doesn't have a job so hes really angry with Kandie right now!

 

Well that's how my week went and i hope it was very entertaining:)

3rd talk in 6 months in same ward!

We had another great week! Tuesday night we had a lesson with our baptismal date Paul Abendroth. We taught him the main commandments that he needs to be following for baptism. Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Tithing and Fast Offering and other ones. He said that he would follow all of them and keep them! He's getting baptized this saturday and we are so excited!

Wednesday we had Interviews with President Durrant and that was awesome! I love being able to see president.. sometimes i feel scared though cause i know hes the boss and i dont want to do anything stupid when he is around. well Elder Hedberg President that i write letters on other days besides mondays and so president talked to me about that and that irritated me a little.. so i was kind of mad at my companion that day and then he got mad at me cause i said i would be ready in 10 minutes when my hour lunch was finished so we were pretty much both mad at eachother and so i told him that we needed to resolve this concern and so we sat down and worked stuff out. There is no point in going out teaching if the spirit is not in our companionship.

On Thursday i went on an exchange with my Zone Leader Elder Mcomber. The reason for our exchange was so he could interview Paul.. well Pauls interview that night was super long. i think it was probably like 45 minutes long! After the interview we sat down and taught paul a few more commandments.. After we left Elder Mcomber said that we need to stay on Paul because during the interview when he was asking him if he is willing to obey the Word of Wisdom he said yeah.. i am not drinking caffeine and i even got decaf tea! Apparently when we taught him the word of wisdom he figured it was the caffeine that was bad not the tea.. even when we told him that drinking soda was not part of the word of wisdom. So Elder Mcomber told him that he needed to give him the tea and paul said that he bought a new gallon that day.. so Elder Mcomber made him promise to give the tea to his dad! Paul is very dedicated and i know he will be ready by Saturday!

The rest of the week went pretty good but nothing too exciting.. we had an investigator drop us but thats missionary work! But on Sunday Elder Hedberg and I had to give talks in the Whitehouse Ward and right when i stood up to give my talk.. this is what i said: "Good morning Brothers and Sisters. My name is Elder Christensen.. I have been serving for 10 months and I am from Boise Idaho.. Go Broncos"! hahaha.. then i said "i think i have set the record for the most times a missionary has spoken in this ward in 6 months.. this is my third! everyone was laughing:)! My talk was on how Prospective Missionaries prepare to serve full time missions. I felt like it went pretty good.. A member after told me that she needs to get that information from me because she has a son leaving on his mission soon!

Special message from Investigator.

This week has been great! After Preparation day last Monday we went to teach this man named Sylvester Mosely.. Hes a black man that we tracted into and so we went back and taught him The Restoration. It was a really good discussion with great questions and we left a Book of Mormon with him and we are going back tonight to teach him again.. Tuesday we had District Meeting and that was good. We went home to eat lunch after that because President Durrant has asked us not to eat lunch as a district anymore to save us more time for prosolyting! Later that night we had a lesson with a new investigator that we tracted into as well. Her name was Beverly Chandler and she is pretty interested in learning more and our discussion was good. We had a member go with us and his testimony was pretty powerful when he talked about Prophets and why we need them today!

On Wednesday we tracted all morning long and i got yelled at by an old grumpy man. It was so hard for me to not lose my temper and plow right through him. he made me pretty angry! We had dinner that night with the old stake president and his wife (The Nielsen's)! I love eating at their house. they are so funny but the only bad thing is.. is that he is a food pusher and by the time i leave their house i am stuffed! We had a lesson later that night with Kandie and Anna and we taught them about Tithing and Fast Offerings. that was a good lesson and i committed them to fast one day this week and for the purpose of quitting smoking... Thursday morning we had a lesson with Tom Deborello and it was great.. It is kind of irritating how he doesnt grasp the concept of a "God".. he says he pretty much needs physical proof and God is not going to come through the roof and appear to him so he needs to have lots of faith! Later that night we had another lesson with our baptismal date Paul Abendroth! He is so ready and is super excited! We finished teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our member that was with us.. Scott Lloyd was very bold with him! He was asking him alot of questions wanting to know if he really knows this is true and stuff like that! It was good for him though. One question Bro. Lloyd asked him was "Do you feel like you would be ready for baptism on April 28th?" and Paul replied "I already am ready!" That was so Awesome to hear!

Friday morning we met with our new investigator Colleen Ralson and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon last week and when we met with her Friday she was already to Alma 20! I was shocked! But instead of teaching her the Plan of Salvation like we were planning on doing. We answered a lot of her questions. I dont think she is reading it for the right reasons but reading it so she can "try" and find fault! That was a little irritating. Later that afternoon we drove out to Jacksonville and picked up a member Bro. Jack Parmer (He is an 83 year old that was baptized last year). We drove to our investigators Jennifer Herrington and shared with her The Gospel of Jesus Christ.. She seems to be doing good but i think she needs a more solid testimony and she needs to quit smoking! Saturday was a good day but it seems like every Saturday we do a lot of tracting! We didnt have a dinner appointment so i called our investigator Kandie and asked her if she would feed us and she said she would. so we went over to her house for dinner and while she was getting her food ready she gave me a letter that she wrote and it said this:

Dear Elders:
I would just like to take the time to tell you how much i really appreciate everything that you and all of our other Elders do to make a differance in peoples lives. As a child i was broken.. i had a very abusive life between and alcoholic mother and a neglective father. It is true as a child you need to choose your own path and unfortunately my path was the very wrong path. i consistantly ended up in very abusive relationships (up till now) and suffered the loss of a very beautiful duaghter.. Amanda Lynn. I was blessed to carry her for nine months but unfortuantely her life was cut short almost as well as mine. God saved me for a reason and i really had a problem with that. i never understood why after all of the mistakes and bad paths i had put myself into. As time went by i was given another chance in life. i believe it was his destiny but i was blessed with two more daughters. after being blessed with both of them i fell again into the worst path you can imagine. i turned to drugs slowly but surely i saw and felt myself drifting away almost thinking there was no place in this world for such a mistake like me! Until one day i had a knock at my door and i met the most amazing people in the world! My first Elders.. Elder Lindsey and Elder Hawkey. They my Elders never judged me. They directed me and gave me the answer i was looking for.. I do belong! Jesus Said you are my child no matter what you have done in your past and as for the abusers and the people that have tried to detour me from my feelings. i have been given such an amazing gift to forgive them and to just go forward! That i have! For the first time in my life i feel as though i truely have a purpose in life thanks to my newest Angels.. Elder Christensen and Elder Hedberg! And of course The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints. You have truely touched my heart and gave me hope. New hope in life and the belief that i also will get to see my little girl Amanda Lynn again! I truely love Every single one of you with all of my heart and have got to say that i thank you from the bottom and the top of my heart! I love you! Thank you so much for making me feel so free.. so new! your sister/friend.. and growing closer to the lord- Kandie Towne!

After eating dinner we had a lesson with just Kandie because Anna was at work and she told us that she had been fasting all day for the desire to quit smoking! i was so excited to hear that and that reassured me that she really does want to change! Church was great yesterday and we had a lesson with Kylie and Lexie.. our investigators that Elder moses and I began teaching. we had not met with them in a while and so we had a lesson. we just read them the baptismal interview questions and they answered all of them right on the money! we figured out that the reason they were scared to get baptized was because they felt they were too old! we fixed that problem pretty darn quick and set a baptism date with them for May 5th! Cinco de Mayo! Later that night we had dinner with a less active family and this man used to play football for TCU! He played back when Ladainian Tomlinson played with them so that was pretty cool to hear! Well that was my week and i am tired haha!

Texas Tornadoes and Easter week

So this week has been awesome and i am so loving the mission! It is defiantly hard work but so rewarding! Tuesday we had a lesson with Kandie and Anna and i think it went alright. we taught them the Ten Commandments and Kandie was really happy that we did that cause she told us that Anna has been snooping around her house and stealing their stuff.. so there is something definatly going wrong there! We went in about 7:00 Tuesday night because a huge Thunderstorm was rolling in and also Tornado warnings! Dallas was hit earlier with 11 Tornados and destroyed a lot of property but luckily no one was killed! Me and my companion were standing out side looking at the skys and right about us there was a "Wall Cloud" forming about us. which means this cloud was forming in a circle and about to drop a tornado down on our appartment! That was way scary! but luckily it didnt! That whole night it Stormed until about 1! Then the next day it was completely clear! Wednesday we drove towards the Frankston area and we went to visit some less active members.. one member we stopped by lives with this man and they are not married but they live in this private subdivision with a private run way and everyone that lives there has their own hanger and own airplane. well... almost everyone. This member had an air plane and we got to see it and that was pretty cool! We stopped by this other members house and she was like 80 and on oxygen. her dogs came running out and barking and then all of a sudden we start hearing howling sounds. i ask her what that noise was and she said. "Oh thats my neighbors wolves!" Her neighbor is an Indian and has 5 Full Blooded Wolves in a cage in their backyard. It was kind of cool but kind of sketchy at the same time cause those wolves wanted to take a bite... or two out of me!
On thursday we went to this mans house and his name was Jim.. he called us the day before and was telling us that he needed help cause his neighbor said his house looked abandoned because of how tall the grass and weeds were that was growing in his yard. He had got our phone number from some missionaries like a year before. So we went over to his house and his yard was a mess! So we spent 2-3 hours mowing his lawn and making it somewhat better looking. He wasnt a member but i invited him to come to our service this sunday and he said he would but he didnt come! That night we had a lesson with Paul Abendroth and Jennifer Herrington both at 7. So we had to go on splits with some members. I went with Joe Odom the Stake Patriarch and Elder Hedberg went with Bishop Brent Hill! I taught Paul about the Word of Wisdom and half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing he has a problem with was drinking tea.. But everyone in Texas has a problem drinking Tea! I asked him how he felt about baptism still and he said. "i feel really good. i think i will be ready for the 28th" i was so excited to hear that! he also said that he believed Joseph Smith 100%! That was even better to hear!
Friday was a good day. We went back over to Kandies and Annas to stress the importance of coming to church and they keep making up excuses so if they dont start progressing. we may need to drop them and i dont want to do that! Cause i really love these people and want to see them make and keep Committments! After lunch we went on an Exchange and Elder Cardenaz (Spanish Elder) came with me to my area and we went to visit some people. That night we had a lesson with Zoe, Tad and Kallie Nackos. They are so ready to be baptized but there mom isnt a member and hasnt given permission yet:/! We watched the last session of Conference with them cause they didnt watch it. I colored a picture of Spongebob and Patrick while we watched it haha! I'm really working hard i swear!;)
Saturday Morning we went to visit this member in hospice and ended up teaching her neighbor that seems pretty interested. Her name is Colleen Ralson and she is only there for about 2 more weeks and then she goes back home. she broke her leg and thats why she was there. Later that night we went to visit Tom Deborrello! He wasnt home for our appointment earlier this week so we stopped in on him and had a lesson with him. He still doesnt know if there is a god and he prays to Jesus Christ not god. So we committed him to pray to God and ask him if he is there and he said he would do that.. so we will see what happens. Sunday was a fantastic Easter and was a very special day.. Where we get to remember our Savior Jesus Christ and what he did for us! I hope you had a good Easter as well!

"Texas doorbells" and Conference weekend

My week was awesome! Tuesday morning we had a lesson with one of our investigators named Tom Deborrello. He is 70 years old but looks early 50's. We taught him the plan of salvation and he told us that he wants to believe it but he just cant get past the concept that there is a god and he loves each and every one of us.. He tells us that he prays to Jesus Christ and can gain great comfort by doing that. so as of right now we need to find a way to wear he can feel the presence of God or see a sign that he really exists.. We tracted a lot that day and found a few potential people. We tracted in a trailer park and dogs everywhere.. every day i come home smelling like dog cause everyone here in Texas has a dog. We call them the "Texas Doorbell" cause every house we knock on you here barking inside haha. well later that night we tracted houses and a lady opened the door and let us right in.. Her name was Beverly Chandler haha.. My moms name and friends last name! weird right? well we got her information and now we hope we can get back in to teach her. We taught Kandie and Rickey later that night.. Anna was at work so she wasnt there.. we taught them the importance of praying and reading the scriptures.. they are coming along pretty well but we need to keep on them!

On Wednesday we had District meeting because of transfers and it was Elder Hedbergs first training.. it went well! That day we went to Bullard Ward boundaries and went to see less active members.. later that night we had a lesson with our investigator Paul Abendroth.. we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really liked it and he wants all of this to be true! He met a girl online who is a member in Utah and this is how he became interested in the church.. I asked him to be baptized and he accepted:) He has a date set for April 28th so hopefully he will progress to that date. I know he will:) On Thursday we went over to a members house and helped her and her dad burn this huge burn pile.. it was probably 30 feet long and 15 feet wide and about 15 feet tall! this fire was huge hahaha. I loved this because y'all know me... i like to play with fire.. Pyromaniac!l I did not burn myself as i was throwing gas all over the fire;) but i did destroy this huge Fire ant hill by stabbing it with sticks that were on fire.. i got bitten a few times but not bad haha.

The rest of the week went pretty mellow until Saturday came! I love Conference!!! Every session of conference was fantastic! I think the Priesthood session was the best though.. it always is haha.. sorry all of you girls out there;)! we did not have any investigators come to the Saturday sessions but on Sunday Paul Abendroth came and watched the whole morning session and afterwards i asked him how he liked it and he said that he liked it a lot and that i brought up a lot of stuff going on in his life and he said that he was going to go home to take care of that.. I think he was talking about Repenting! I'm so excited.. He came back to the Afternoon session too and he really liked it! So we have another appointment with him this coming Tuesday and we are taking the patriarch with us:) My favorite quote from this conference was By Elder Donald L. Hallstrom and he said this at the end of his talk: We need to be fully converted to his church and fully converted to his gospel!