Thursday, June 30, 2011

Thursday 6/30/11

Dear Familia,
 
Elder Cousinea is the red headed kid that I went to stay at his house for the Mountain West Tournament.
 
This week the biggest thing I learned was that I never listened when I prayed! We actually gets answers, its pretty cool and is seriously a COMMUNICATION with our Father in Heaven. It is cool that if you actually start praying and stop just to listen in the middle of the prayer, answers to questions and what to pray for will come to your mind. I've learned that any good thought that makes you want to be better is personal revalation.
 
So I don't have my whole 30 min. to email this week because I messed up writing you last week. If you want to write me go to www.dearelder.com (something like that I think.) And you just put Elder Kevin Donald Christiansen as who your sending it to and then mailbox #290... (I think thats right). It is something like that at least. And thats the way that I get the letter that you send the same day. I can only check my email once a week, so if you all just send me letters through dearelder.com, then I can read them basically whenever I get them as long as I have free time or during the night. Then on P-Day's, I'll be able to just write one big letter and not have to read my emails. My bad on telling you the wrong thing. Hope that makes sense, bascally just right me on dearelder and I'll be able to reply better on Thursdays.
 
This week was good, It's crazy how much Spanish I actually know. On Monday, just 5 days into the MTC, I taught my first lesson to the area leaders... All in Spanish... Then on Tuesday, I contacted a fake investigator, then left and taught her all in Spanish. I think each lesson went at least 20 minutes, we did an alright job, it was pretty awesome. We truely do have the gift of tongues on our mission, we just have to work at the language and pray to be able to access the gift.
 
Sunday, we had sacrament for an hour and priesthood for an hour, its cool cause we get some pretty good speakers. We don't have Sunday school, but instead we have like 2-3 hours of individual or companionship study or language study and then maybe a devotional. Something like that. Is all I know is that we are always learning.
 
Monday was just a lot of studying and we taught our first lesson.
 
Tuesday was studying, taught a fake investigator, and we had a devotional, it was about 10 steps of being a great missionary. Elder Walker of the first quorum of the seventy gave it. But the best thing that I got out of it was when he bore testimony of President Monson. It is just so powerful to bear testimony of a modern prophet and I realized that I hadn't been doing that in my first two lessons I taught and so I need to incorpriate that into them.
 
Wednesday was crazy learning and we actually taught a lesson in English to another Elder in our group, I think it really went good, well better than our lessons in Spanish haha.
 
Today at 7, we went to a session at the temple, so we woke up extra early (6:15). Then we had individual study and now we are doing laundry and having a little P-Day.
 
I love my companion, he is really cool. Its funny cause he has a girlfriend, but she's not waiting for him, but he is always eager to get letters and he always wants one from her, it doesn't distract him from the work, but its just funny because at lunch and stuff, he is always asking our district leader if he got the mail or when he is getting it. My companion has got a ton of letters and a couple packages so far... And I have got.. well one letter haha. But I really don't mind. Because I messed up and told you the wrong thing last time but if you use dearelder, I'll get way more mail. Not that I want mail... but packages would be nice! ;)... with my hair gel in the bathroom, jerky, those gatorade mix packages that you pore in water, candy... etc... that would be very nice! :)
 
Times up!
Love,
Elder Christiansen

Monday, June 27, 2011

Letter Day 1 at the MTC

Today  was a great day! Everyone is so nice and friendly. I really like my companion Elder Yentes. His is from Fresno, CA area. I'm all unpacked and just winding down. Dinner was pretty good and I saw a lot of people from BYU and stuff. I never saw Elder LeBlanc tho. This Elder stuff is weird. I didn't learn too much Spanish today, but we went over a little. My teachers are cool and so are my zone leaders. We are always going to be in the same classroom & everyone around us is also learning Spanish. And they welcome us in Spanish all the time cuz we have an orange dot on our name tag since its Day 1, but I just took my dot off. Expect an email Saturday. I'm just letting you know that I am having a GREAT time, I love it, and I'm doing great! Also I would just like to share the biggest thing that I learned today. Show people you love them, ask them questions about their life and listen to them, have charity even as Jesus Christ has, and just show them that they are important and that you care about them. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I know that I need to show investigators & everyone that I love them and let them know that their Heavenly Father loves them on an individual level. The spirit will reside where charity exists. The MTC is full of the spirit, its awesome. I know I'm doing the right thing.

Hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Christiansen

Sunday, June 26, 2011

MTC address

Elder Kevin Donald Christiansen
MTC Mailbox # 290
FL-ORL 0822
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
-1793

Email sent Sunday 6/26/11

So far so good. The Spanish is coming along, but i still need to practice a lot more. I've learned the missionary purpose, how to bear my testimony, and how to pray all in spanish so far along with several words. Yesterday Elder Bednar spoke to us on how to be Preach My Gospel Missionaries. It was a great talk but I didn't get to be in the room where he gave it because there were so many Elders and Sisters that showed up so early. So I had to sit in one of the overflow rooms. There were 6 other apostles there too I think. This week is crazy because so many missionaries came in this week and then plus all the mission presidents and their wives are here also. So several general authorities are here, but I haven't been seeing them. It might be because I wake up at 6:20 (which isn't hard... yet) then get ready and have breakfast at 7. At 7:30 I am in my classroom doing personal study for a while, then we might have companionship study, then we have classroom instruction by a teach until 11:30 where we then go to lunch. By 12:15 I am then usually back in the classroom studying some more, learning the language, or using this thing called TALL on the computer that teaches spanish. Then I have dinner at 4:30. Then at 5:15 its back to studying or maybe a devotional or yesterday we had 2 movies (spiritual of course) that lasted a loooooong time. Then back to my dorm at 9:30, lights off at 10:15, in bed at 10:30.  All of these studying things are at different times every day, but most of my time I am in a little classroom that is about 20 feetish by 10 feetish. My teachers are Hermano Moan and Hermano Snyder, I love them, they are great guys and great teachers. My Branch President, President Horne is also very cool and I like him. My companion's name is Elder Yentes (Yen-tesss) not (yen-tays) like I said in my letter home earlier this week. I have a hard time getting his name right and in spanish its Elder (jjjen-tays). I love him though, he is great, he is from Fresno area. I also like everyone else in my district and area. Everyone in the MTC is so nice and the spirit is so strong because of it, its awesome, I love it. My area leaders are great to. They seem like they are so much older than me but they've only been in the MTC for 6 weeks more than me I think. It's kind of funny how it seems like a week more in the MTC seperates you by like a year in age. We learn so much and so fast that the spirit is definitely here, teaching us everything we need to know. I've seen Elder Kyle Collinsworth (BYU BBALL) a couple times, Elder Hubbard and Elder Cousineau quite a bit since we are all learning Spanish and it's in the same building, and I finally saw Elder LeBlanc for the first time yesterday. This whole Elder thing is hard to get use to. Usually I refer to them as dude, bro, man, guys, homie, etc. But I'm getting better. The food is good and its amazing how it refuels me and lets me keep going. Right as I'm getting tired and running out of energy, lunch or dinner comes up and then I refuel and am good to go till the next meal or bedtime. The Lord surely gives us enough energy to keep on going. It's amazing, I've never had this much energy and focus ever. Some cool things that have happened or I've seen so far.
-One of the guys in my area, his dad owns Magleby's (resturant in Provo). And so he has like chocolate cake or brownies usually at night haha. Elder Parkinson is his name.
-Yesterday I was kind of wondering to myself and just contemplating whether I am meant to be here and if I'm truely ready to serve. I was getting down on myself, then my companion said an amazing prayer that helped me then like 30 seconds later I looked across the room and had deja vu. I had dreamed before that same picture that I was seeing, I then felt the spirit tell me that this is my time. It's amazing how much the Lord loves and helps us, right when we are discouraged and lose faith, he still answers prayers, doubts, and concerns. The one main thing that I have learned here is that the Lord loves everyone, more than we can even imagine.
-I'm not homesick at all which is good. Everyone is so nice, friendly, and loving that it's like they are my family. And its good because I am able to better concentrate on the work.
 
Our regular P-Day is Thursday so that will be my next letter home, we just get to do it today because we are new. This first week is different than all the others. If any family want to send a letter to me just send it to my Grandma Jill's email and she will send it to me at kchristiansen@myldsmail.com... They print the email, then get the letter in the mail that same day, so I don't have to wait until thursday to read everything.
 
Please send Hadley this email... I dont know his email address, but send all emails to him whether he likes it or not, just text him to find out his email address.
 
Mom, I love you and hope all is well. I'm here loving it, so don't worry!
 
Love, Elder Christiansen

Wednesday, June 22, 2011