Monday, November 14, 2011

November 14th, 2011

So tomorrow is transfers and so we just figured out who is going where. My first companion, Elder Spilsbury just got transferred. He was our District Leader, but he is now a Zone Leader. He is the Zone Leader over my zone, so I still might seem him quite a bit. He is really excited. So that means it is just me and Elder Knapp now! The trio was really fun, but it will be nice to have a little more room with just the two of us. Elder Knapp was the one in my MTC district. So we have only been out for 2 transfers/3 months, so our Spanish isn't great, but we will be able to get by. If anything, we just have to rely more on the Spirit, so I am really looking forward to it.
 
We were really blessed by the Lord this week. We had the most lessons that I have ever had on the mission this week. It was a blast!
And I am really grateful for that. Hopefully we will be able to bring more souls unto Christ through these lessons.
 
So in different countries, they have different words and different sayings. I hadn't really talked with a lot of Mexicans because the area I'm in doesn't have too many, but Elder Spilsbury and Elder Knapp have served in areas that is just mostly Mexicans. And this week we were teaching a Mexican family and I asked in Spanish if there is another day that we could stop by to share more. The wife said "Mande" which sounds like "Mahnday" in English. So I thought she tried to speak some English and thought she said "Monday". But it turns out that Mande is in English kind of like "Come again. (Like they didn't hear the question)" and so my companions just started busting up at me because they knew what it meant, but I thought she said Monday. And no one else really says Mande except for Mexicans. So that was pretty funny. Also this week at a door a mom with a baby answered the door. She wasn't super interested so we asked if we could give her a card. So I gave her a mormon.org card and said, "We would love to check you out." And then I realized what I was said, so then I was super embarrassed and said real fast, "I mean we would love for you to check out this website!" it was super embarrassing and she totally caught what I said the first time. My companions almost died laughing. My English is getting worse and worse. But hopefully my Spanish is getting better and better.
 
I know that this is the same Church that Jesus Christ established 2,000 years ago. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. There is so much power in that book! And your Heavenly Father is always there for you. I love this gospel.
 
Love you all and thanks for the prayers! I need them!
Elder Christiansen

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nov. 7th, 2011

Tracting is really awkward at night sometimes because you don't want to wake people up and a lot of people just tell you it's late, but one night we decided we would just try to work really hard and knock a lot of doors in the time we had before our next appointment that was close. Because it was night and no one was outside we started running, from house to house to knock as many doors as possible. We kept the running pretty suttle so we were still dignified and we didn't run if a car was passing or people were outside, but we had the greatest time tracting that I have ever had. The Lord blessed us of for trying to knock a lot of doors. I would guess we knocked about 10 doors in ten minutes and we had about 5 houses that would allow us to come back. Those are crazy good percentages for tracting. So we had a blast, and the Lord blessed us. I don't think we were blessed because we were running from house to house, I think it was because our attitudes were high and we were expecting and really wanting to find some people that night. Something that is really underestimated in life and missionary work is attitude. If we have high expectations, believe in ourself, and trust the Lord, we will more likely have success and accomplish what we need to accomplish. I have seen this in my mission many times. Some days we have tracted for hours and maybe found 2 houses that would even allow us to come back. Those days were the days when I was just really not in the tracting mood. It was hot, humid, I wanted to teach not tract, I didn't have much faith that anything good would come out of my efforts. But then I have had days where I love life, I love Florida, I love the weather, I love the people, I love tracting, and I just had fun and had some faith that we would find someone. And we would find so many more people in shorter amounts of time. I know that it has to do with attitude. As I'm writing this I am thinking to myself, why don't I always just have a good attitude then haha? I think it is because it is hard. Some days I have a good attitude and nothing huge comes of it. Then I get down on myself and my attitude drops. The Lord doesn't always want it to be easy for us because we won't grow, learn, and develop better qualities. But I know we have to keep our attitude up, trust in ourself, but more importantly trust in our Heavenly Father and glory in Him (Alma 26).
 
Times aren't always easy, I have a strong testimony of that on my mission haha. But I also have a strong testimony that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, and that He is always there for us and that if we turn to Him, everything will be better.
 
I know this church is true. The Book of Mormon is true. I love the peace I can feel when I read it. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lives. Heavenly Father loves us and is always there for us.
 
I love you all and miss you all. Thank you for the prayers and everything else!
Elder Christiansen