Jan. 28th, 2013

The weather is really nice here, birds chirping, people singing in the streets, no one gets old here, and everyone is happy... No complaints over in DELTONA-RICO baby... We had a great week, every week so far has gotten better. Numbers are going up, investigators are going up, but most importantly we are seeing others progress in coming closer to their Savour Jesus Christ. We are really being blessed. We picked up some more new investigators this week who are a lot more solid than last weeks new investigators. As we are working hard, the members are working hard here as well. It is just like that good ole grandpa Jeff conservative blue grass music Willy Nelson style music to the ears over here. Already my favorite area I am going to say. We taught this lady named Marta in a member's home this week! She is a referral. She came to church as well this week. She is just awesome. When we mentioned baptism, she smiled.. Hehehehe... haha. So she is the highlight of my life right now.

We were talking to everyone and their dog the other day trying to meet some goals, and the VERY LAST PERSON WE TALKED TO AT 8:50 PM. was awesome! Hopefully.. Haha.. We were biking and he was walking and talking on the phone and so we kind of just well, started talking (sometimes ya gotta be rude, I mean, it's salvation) and so then he told the other person he would call them back and he hung up. We started talking in Spanish, found out he was from El Salvador and has lived in the US for 7 years, (that usually means they don't speak good English, especially if they are older) but he kept throwing in English words without too much accent, so then we later found out he is a translator. He translates English to Spanish and French. He also speaks German. He speaks English better than me haha.. He said his grandpa in El Salvador taught him English, but with the British accent haha when he was little. So when he came over here, he was fluent, but at the airport they detained him because it was suspicious that a Spanish guy was speaking with an English English accent haha. Any who.. He asked us if we were Mormons, we said yes. He asked where we were from. Nevada and Arizona. He said it surprised him that we weren't from Provo. (He still spoke to us in Spanish just to be nice haha.) And he told us he went to Provo last year and loved the people there and was very impressed with them. He told us he has researched about every religion (that usually is not good haha) and he said he has read the Book of Mormon more than once. Then he invited us over and I'm thinking to myself (I have fell in this trap before.. Bashing).. But then he said he didn't want to bash, just ask questions about the pre-mortal life what it is too understand it better. He thought Jesus Christ coming to the Americas was fascinating. But had some questions. He wasn't able to talk to anyone in Provo. But he is really really smart, so hopefully it is not a trap, but if he is sincere, it will be a miracle for sure. We are going over tomorrow. So that was cool. We also found a family of 7!!! haha. And we got some sweet member referrals this last week.

The church is true. It is true, true, true... The Book of Mormon is the literal word of God. The Spirit is the best teacher and the most desirable thing on the earth. It is accessible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ the Living Son of the Living God. Happiness is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through the Prophet of God, Joseph Smith.

Love you, Your prayers are amazing

Elder Christiansen

Miracles

So I love my area! So much. Possibly could end up to be my favorite area in the mission! My new address (only for packages, keep sending letters to the mission office on satellite blvd.) is 1622 Moreno Ter. Deltona, FL 32725 ....

Well this past Sunday at church was like the best Sunday on my mission at church... We went into the branch president's office and had a meeting. We made a suggestion list for him for ward missionaries that could be called to help out the work here (we have 0) and we told him why we needed them and he seemed pretty willing to call them. They have tried in the past to get more ward missionaries, but it hasn't happened, hopefully now it will. It will be a great accomplishment. We then started talking to a ton of the members. One lady gave us a referral for a guy that seems pretty cool, we found out a little girl that is turning 8 needs the lessons to get baptized (parents aren't members... yet) long story. I will fill you in on it when the whole family gets baptized :).. Then a 14 yr old girl has a friend that is interested (youth are golden for referrals), some member has a sister that would be interested, and we set up an appt with a cool part member family that is the family mentioned above.. The kids are all members but the parents aren't... yet.. So we are really going to work with them. More info to come after this week. O ya and this super cool kid that is like 18 named Maklin has a family for us to teach this week. These members are spot on in this branch! I love it! We are being blessed to the ears... (is that a saying?) Well we are getting a lot of blessings. Prayers really work. I read in the bible dictionary this week something like: prayer is one of the ways of receiving the highest of all blessings! Holy smokes, that is powerful. By small and simple things, great things come to pass. I thank you so much for your many prayers and for putting my name in the temple. It has been a testimony builder for me on the power of prayer.

We got 10 new investigators this week! In order to be new investigators, you have to teach them and leave them a commitment and get a specific return appt. 5 of them were for English elders though haha. So we got 5 for us... It was awesome... And they are all families! Just not all of the family has heard us yet. One is a family of 2, other 4, other 4. So we will see where it goes in the future.

We served the Brazilian family this week. They are so cool. We helped them with dry wall. I am super weak haha. We had to hold it up and push it against the ceiling why he screwed it in...

We are in full car here, so hopefully I can get chunky... amen.

Love you all, the work is amazing. Hope you all are praying for missionary opportunities and setting specific dates to have someone invited to be taught in your house. It will come to pass.

143

Elder Christiansen

O ya, we had a meeting last night in Daytona Beach for the stake, We were about a mile away from the beach, but we didn't see it. We passed the race track though. THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!! haha. It was huge though. Pretty crazy. Love ya all!

O ya, if I haven't written you a letter back, forgive me, I am working on it!

New area!

Cool Cool! So the new area! First of all, I live in a house. It is nasty... Trashed. I don't like that haha, so we are cleaning today! :)... I don't know the address, I will get that to you all next week. But my new companion is Elder Sharp. He goes home in less than 3 months! It is a blessing to be with him. He isn't trunky and he knows how to teach and he is pretty laid back in the sense of personality so that is good. He is from Phoenix and is going to be a neurologist. He goes to Arizona and he is 23 years old so he has already been to 3 years of school. We get along really well. The area is amazing. We live in Deltona, but it should be called Deltonarico... Deltona and Puerto Rico.... Everyone is Puerto Rican and from New York basically. New Yorriquens... New York and Puerto Rico haha.... So we find a lot of them, but the majority of them speak English better than Spanish and have the New York accent.... We cover the whole Zone!... Which has Deltona, Deland, Daytona, New smyrna beach, bunnel, and other towns... But we only stay really in Deltona and Deland. Because Deltona is where our church is and the other cities are 45 min- 1 hour away... It is a new little building. It is like a mini church haha.. It has everything, just miniature scale. We have like 3 columns of pues and like 7 rows haha.. It is pretty cool. We are a branch, but about to be a ward. We averaged around 80-105 people at church last year, but church started at 9 in the morning and this year we start at 1 so we should have a little bigger attendance. The cool thing is that most of the branch is active! We have like 130 total members and 90 active. Really uncommon in Spanish work.

Deltona is full of houses, basically no apartments (switch from my old area), and it looks like Fallon. No lie. Yesterday we ate dinner with a member family from Brazil. I felt like I was eating at the Faught's house and the Hutching's house if they had a kid haha.. They had a couple cows, chickens, and a really beautiful house. My Grandparents would have loved it. All their kids are gone now and one lives pretty close to them so they have 4 grand kids that visit them often, so it is a grandchildren house. They have a bed that looks like a wagon, a tent in the living room, etc. haha.. They eat there own animals so it was some good food. Feels good to get out of the city and get back in the country. He had a diesel truck too. Probably the 2nd one I have seen on my mission.

The people here in Deltona are crazy!!! No lie. There are some normal ones, but I think Deltona is famous for being a little crazy haha. So there is never a dull moment. I was stunned my first day here. But I love it.

Love you all and thanks for the prayers!

Elder Christiansen

Transferrreeeeddd

Yup Yup... So long to Windy Ridge.. 7 months later (5 and a half with the same companion haha)... It is definitely a Bitter Sweet. I made a lot of good friends here in this area and it has definitely been my favorite, but I feel like I've been here forever, so I am kind of happy to leave.. My next area is called Deltona 2.. It is in the very north of our mission. It is the only Spanish area in the Deland stake, so we cover the whole stake. It will be my first area with the beach on it because Daytona is part of it. So next week I will send you my new address. I guess it is super country, so I am guessing it will be a lot like Fallon haha. We will see though. And it might be my last area in my mission. I have accumulated a lot of junk on my mission, and I am pretty sure it all won't fit in my suit cases and stuff, so I have to start throwing some stuff away.

But anyways this week was a good one to end on... O ya, you remember how last week I said "Wait for the miracle this week,"? well.... We had a baptism!!! So you remember how I told you about Carlos who was the dad of a member and just visiting from Peru? well he has been going to church for about 3 months straight and he wanted to wait to get baptized when he returns here in like 2 more months because he preferred it like that, and then last Sunday he told us that he wanted to be baptized. And that he wanted to be baptized Wednesday. We hadn't covered a ton of the lessons with him, but he was definitely ready for baptism, so on Monday we basically taught him every lesson except for the plan of salvation and we also taught him all of the commandments. He is really smart, so it wasn't too big of a problem. Then on Tuesday he got his interview and passed with flying colors then on Wednesday we had the baptism! And it was the most spiritual baptism of my baptism. At the end he gave a little testimony and it was so perfect! We were blessed. The Lord did some amazing work once again. :)

Then we also found a guy last week that we just said a prayer with him and we blessed him and his mother in the prayer, then we asked if we could come back and he said yes. So we came back and taught him and invited him to Carlos's baptism and he came, then we taught him again and invited him to church this week and he came to church along with his mother and they really liked it! :) They are from Cuba.. Cuban Spanish is a little difficult to understand sometimes but its all gooood.

I went on exchanges with a Portuguese elder in his area and so I studied some Portuguese for language study and then went to work. It was an awesome exchange. But I couldn't speak Portuguese at all, so I just listened and spoke back in Spanish and they usually can understand me. I really enjoyed it.

Well Imma miss this area :''''( but on to the next one! It should be awesome

Your prayers worked a lot of miracles for us these last two weeks!
Love you and miss you all!
143
Elder Christiansen