March 19th, 2012

So this week something amazing truly did happen and we saw a pretty awesome miracle from the Lord.

 

About a month ago we were talking to this family here who is a part member family. We thought that they had some potential in the gospel. And we asked the non-member if he had ever talked to missionaries. To our suprisement he said that they had talked to him, but never done the "lessons" with him. We asked him if he would be interested in hearing them. He said that we could set up an appointment  to teach a lesson, but it seemed though that the lesson was just for the intent of just to have a lesson for the heck of it. So we set up the appointment up, which was pretty far away because he had family visiting, events to do, etc. He also told us that basically he was willing to listen to us one time and he told us his likes and dislikes and gave a little background on himself. We had the feeling that the lesson would basically have to greatest lesson of all time in order to open up his heart to want to hear us a second time. We were also a little discouraged that the lesson we set up was like 3+ weeks away. We shouldn't have been discouraged at all and we were totally wrong on thinking that we had to give the greatest lesson ever.

 

This past week, we had the lesson with them. During personal study, I studied for about 35 minutes for him, thinking about him and what he needed. I created a pretty good lesson plan (so I thought) and thought that there were a lot of good ideas in it. Waiting to discuss it with my companion because we were on exchanges. So when we got back off exchanges, we talked about the lesson throughout the day. Role Playing it as if my companion was the investigator and I was the teacher. We couldn't come up with anything that just felt perfect or even really good. The lesson was in our minds all day and just nothing was coming. We finally got to the appointment and had dinner first and we talked to them. We still had no idea on what to teach. We then went to sit down with him after dinner to have the lesson. Still with no ideas. When we sat down, he started telling us about how he felt, his intentions, etc. He said that he wanted to take his family to church, that he had never really been open to our church, but is now going to open up and listen to what we have and to experiment on it. He was willing to act on answers he got. Basically in the 3 week period that there was from the time to setting up the appointment to actually teaching him, the Spirit had really worked on him. It was such a blessing and a nice little reminder from the Lord as if He was telling us, "Don't worry I got you covered." Then the investigator told us to share with him our defining message. So we taught the Restoration (Which was not really one of our 3 plans we had haha) and it was awesome! So much better than I expected. We have another appointment with him. It truly was a miracle and I know that this is the Lord's work.

 

I love and miss you all! Thank you for your prayers

 

Love,

Elder Christiansen

March 12th, 2012

So just to start out with a quote that I heard this week on exchanges, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." When the Elder that I was on the exchange with said that, well first of all, it invited the Spirit, the members we were teaching loved it, and it really hit me pretty hard. It is so cool to be in a lesson with someone and to get taught even though you are the "teacher". It has happened so many times in my short time here in Florida. So this week I have really been working on having charity. SO HARD sometimes, but when you get little tastes of  it, it is an amazing feeling and everything is just a lot better. I think it is so hard to have charity because if you have it, you have pretty much every Christ like attribute (my own opinion haha).

 

On another note, more temporal... Last Prep-Day we went golfing with an in-active member. It was my first time golfing in tooooo long. We only had time to play 9 holes, but it was a great opportunity. The member we went with hadn't gone to church in 20 years and he has come 2 times in the past 4 or 3 weeks. Super coool!

Another side note, today we are deep cleaning (really cleaning the house, we have to do it the 5th week of every transfer). This past week we have had quite a lot of gnats or some little bug in our house, we thought it was just because of the garbage can, but as I was cleaning today, I went to the pantry (a lot of random food gathers in it from missionaries) and on the top shelf in the back, there were ancient potatoes like dripping some stuff all over and there were so many gnats! Super gross. So much for thinking we had a pretty clean apartment. So we are trying to fix that problem soon haha.

 

This week we had the opportunity to work with members. We taught the most member lessons this last week that I have ever taught. We learned a new cool way to work with the members and it looks like it will be helping out the work quite a bit. My companion has quite of bit of baptisms and said 0 of them are from his own finds, so we have to work with members. It is a blessing to work with them. We had a lot of cool experiences this week because we got to see the Spirit touch them and get them excited about missionary. It was super cool. It is such a blessing to see the Spirit teach and touch the members this week.

 

Well wish I could tell you all everything, but just not enough time.

 

I love and miss you all, thanks for the prayers!

Elder Christiansen   

143

March 5th, 2012

First of all got to give a shout out to Elder Hadley Faught on the mission call to Chile! I did not expect that at all! He will be great!

 

I have a lot to be grateful for in life. I have so many blessings in my life. I never really realized it until I got out here to Florida. I am grateful for everything that Heavenly Father has given me. We taught this one lady a while ago and she really wasn't too interested in our church we could say, but yesterday we decided to go see her. When it was time to head her direction, the wind was blowing against us and it was pretty uphill and we got kind of lazy in our heads thinking "Well this could be a waste of time and she is not even interested, why are we going over there?" But we decided to stick to our plans and go visit her. When we pulled up to her house, we walked up her driveway (her house is on a hill) and we found her just laying on her sidewalk looking up into the sky. I first thought she had fallen, but then we said "hi" and she looked up and she was talking on the phone to her mom. She told her she would call her back and then started talking to us. She told us that it was weird that we stopped by because she had been talking about us and thinking about us just yesterday. We asked her how she was doing (we already knew that she had insomnia and she told us she only got two hours of sleep the night before. She started crying and started telling us about her story. It was super sad, but it was nice to know that the Lord had sent us there for a reason. She recognized it too. We had a nice little lesson with her and she was really grateful that we stopped by and told us we could come by again. Both times we have been there, she has been telling us how the Lord has sent us there for a reason, but she has been telling us how we need to go to her church and how we need to open our eyes a little and not shut down other ideas. But by the end of our second lesson, she said the closing prayer and prayed that either her our us would be able to find the truth. Totally shocked us haha. Little by little great things come to pass, and I hope that we can continue to be used as instruments in the Lord's hands to help her reach her full potential. It was an awesome miracle that we experienced this week.

 

I know this gospel is true. I am grateful for all I have been blessed with.

Thank you for your prayers. I love and miss you all!

Elder Christiansen

143

Feb. 27th, 2012

So things have been going pretty good lately. We don't really have anyone who is progressing or near baptism, but we are constantly receiving blessings and seeing the Lord's hand  everyday.

 

We were told to really clean our apartments and to de-junk them. A lot of times missionaries will leave things behind. And you have the most random things in your house. So we De-junked the heck out of our house and cleaned it pretty good and organized it. And I didn't realize it until today when I read President Hall's email, but we have been seeing more miracles and feeling more of the Spirit. The Spirit was stronger in our house and we were receiving more revelation. One day we prayed and chose a street to knock. It wasn't like a huge spiritual expression came to us, but we just felt good about one street, so we decided to go tract it. It was the coolest/weirdest street I have ever knocked. We found a part member family who weren't in the church records, we met a nice pastor, we cheered up a man with terminal cancer, we had the two most crazy door contacts of my life (we asked them questions at the door step and they totally agreed with everything we were saying and asking, but then weren't interested in hearing us #baffled), then we taught a lady on her grass. Even though we didn't see any "huge" miracles on the street, I felt like we were suppose to go there and it was an awesome experience.

But I guess I learned a couple of things this week, and most of them I already knew, but my testimony strengthened in them this week, is that the Spirit can't dwell in unholy temples and dirty missionary apartments (as well), that this is the Lord's work and no matter how smart, worthy, and qualified we are as missionaries, we can't do it without Him and that we should put our trust in Him, the Spirit is not a shouting voice or really loud, but more just thoughts and whispers, and if we don't keep a journal we easily forget about the Lord's hand and the little inspirations that we receive every day. The other night I was thinking, "wow, I really haven't seen the Lord's hand", then I opened my journal and just started reading and noticed a lot of things that I had so easily forgotten, and if I didn't write them down, they probably would have been lost forever.

 

Yesterday at church, we received 4 referrals, which was crazy cool. Two medias and two from members all in about 30 minutes. That was a miracle we saw yesterday, and hopefully one of them will turn out to accept the gospel!

 

Well I love and miss you all! Have a great week and I am grateful for your prayers!

Elder Christiansen 143 

Feb. 20th, 2012

I just looked at my watch and saw today is the 20th, I swear January just ended. But this week was really good!

 

Well first with the bad news. So we had this sweet lady we were teaching and she came to the church this Saturday and did Genealogy work (which was fun, I looked at mine and Grandma Jean, you are crazy with that stuff, I just clicking on people's dads and got all the way back to the 1500's, I just went from Grandpa Lattin's side, so that was really really interesting, I kind of caught the Spirit of Elijah!!) Well back to the story, so this investigator read at least like the first 13 chapters of Nephi, the Introduction, Testimonies, etc. in about a week and then she came to the church to do genealogy, and then we did a church tour, and then we walked her to her car and she dropped us in the parking lot!! We were sooooooo bummed. It is crazy to see how much you love a person when you no longer have them. So that was the worst part of the week.

But some cool things that happened this week, an investigator prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true and she opened up the bible and the first words she read were something like, "And now these are the words of Christ", so that always helps when investigators get answers like that. And we have 2 investigators who want to get baptized, but were smoking, but now they are 5 days clean!! So that is awesome! I don't think I have ever seen the Lord's hand so much in my life than I have here in Minneola. It is such a blessing.

This week we were so bummed on Sunday because we didn't think any investigators were coming to church, but then after Sacrament meeting, we saw one in the foyer who had been there all Sacrament meeting with her boy friend's mom (member), so that was a little miracle we saw this week. We had a pretty awesome Sunday. We are spoiled here in Minneola. We had a lunch and dinner with members and they were both really good. We had that one bread from like England or somewhere like that where it is thing and you put stuff on it, it is kind of like their pancakes???? I forget the name, but it was really good!

 

We had Zone Conference and those are always awesome because the Spirit is just really strong there and you learn so much. They make you feel like a horrible missionary though most of the time because I always walk out of them feeling like I have so much to do and work on! But I really do love them and the Spirit is the teacher there.

 

I wish I could tell you all everything that I see, feel, and experience, but I don't have the time!

Thank you for all your prayers! Not only me, but lives around me are being blessed because of them!

 

I love and miss you all!

Elder Christiansen

Feb. 13th, 2012

First of all shout out to HDF 587 for turning in the mission papers! one love.

Well this was my first week to be here in Clermont/Minneola, Florida.
It is really beautiful here and it has A LOT of hills. The only place
in the mission with some hills. And it has been really cold lately.
But I think it will be heating up this week.

So I am now in English work. At first when I heard I wouldn't be
speaking Spanish, I was a little upset last week, but I kind of had
the re-assurance that all was well, that there was something for me
to learn, and that I was coming here for a reason.

The first sign that I am suppose to be in this area, was that during
the first lesson that we taught when I first got here, the
investigators grandma came in during the lesson. She was in my ward
back in Valencia. So that was super cool that I knew here in Valencia,
and know I am teaching her grandchildren who are like 25 and speak
perfect English haha. And then right after the lesson we went to an
in-active members house. He is the son of a family in the Valencia
ward that I was pretty close too. So that was really cool also. I am
also getting to use my Spanish quite a bit here. And I know that if I
work hard here, my Spanish won't decrease too bad because the Lord
always has a way for us to fulfill His commandments, and I am
called/commanded in a way to speak Spanish. So I know that all will be
well. And my testimony has grown in the promise that wherever we are
called, it is for the purpose of the salvation of souls. (something
like that)

I have also seen the Lord's hand in my new companion. His name is
Elder Bennett from Ranchocucamonga, CA. He is really cool and we have
a ton in common. I have been struggling out here with just wanting to
be perfect. I wanted to be the perfect teaching, contacter, etc. And I
wanted to know exactly how to do missionary work to get the best
results. And he has taught me in this short week that I am just crazy
and that I stress too much. (Got it from Grandpa Jeff, big ups to my
gpa!) And that I need to relax a little, work hard, enjoy my mission,
and have a fun time. We work really hard still, but we have a lot of
fun and I think I am getting better at not worrying as much haha.
Because I can't be perfect on my mission, I was always unsatisfied
with myself and just kind of beat myself up too much. So I am glad for
his counsel that he gave me that I can't be perfect haha and to just
RELAX a little bit (my mind).

Here our complex has a half court basketball court!!!! So much easier
to have desires to work out in the morning! And another set of Elders
live in our complex, not same apartment, and so workouts in the
morning are super fun now. We live on the second floor in a pretty
nice apartment. I like it.

And the ward here is awesome! I went from only having about 19
families in my proselyting area to work with, to about well a whole
ward of families, so that is really awesome. And the bishop here is
really awesome and the ward missionaries are really good too, so I am
super excited to work with the ward here.

I am loving life right now. I am the happiest/busiest I have ever
been. I know that the church is true and that we indeed have a
Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can imagine.

I love and miss you all, hope all is well. Thank you for the prayers!

With love and swagg ;),
 Elder Christiansen

Feb. 6th, 2012

Well I'm getting transferred and will leave this area tomorrow! I'm
excited, but also kind of bummed. I really liked it here and will miss
it a lot. I learned a lot of things that will help me for the rest of
my life. I feel like we just finally got 3 super cool investigators
that all are progressing great and now I am leaving. But that's how it
goes haha!

This week was an awesome week to finish off. A lot of things happened.
We taught some very cool lessons and we received a lot of help from
the Lord and from the members.

On Friday a member came with us and we taught a lesson to a lady who
is reading the Book of Mormon and is searching for a religion. It was
amazing how we found her and I know that the Lord prepared her for us.
But the lesson was really cool. Because first of all the member and
investigator became really good friends right off the bat. And we
taught the Plan of Salvation to her and she was really interested. She
has a lot of questions and they all can be answered through the Plan
of Salvation. She was really excited to read the pamphlet.
Then after that we went to a Part-Member's house, who just recently
moved here and we didn't know it and they didn't know which church to
go to because they wanted to go to a Spanish one. It was another
miracle of how we began teaching them because we didn't know about
them because they never were in the ward roster. The Lord has prepared
them too. It is a blessing to see the Lord's hand in this work every
day. But we taught a family home evening about how to become closer
together as a family. We were trying to think of a game to play with
them alllllll day, and then at the last moment it finally came all
together! And they really enjoyed the game. It was a very cool lesson.
They also fixed some super good lasagna haha.

Friday was an awesome day, and it came right after a really really
rough Thursday. I feel like I am on a constant roller coaster of ups
and downs. And I have come to realize that Satan is always trying to
discourage us and get our hopes down right before blessings come. I
constantly get my hopes down and frustrated and it is something I need
to work on! But I know that I can always pray to a loving Father in
Heaven who wants to help me and hear me. I couldn't do this work
without prayer. Prayers of my own and all of your prayers. I am really
grateful for them. I love and miss you all!
Elder Christiansen