I'm Thankful for my Family

Hello my dear family,

I am so happy to see that you are all doing well. I am also very happy to hear the progress that is being made by Uncle Bob and by Nicky. I do pray for them both. I am especially grateful to hear about Sarah :) I know that we have all done our very best to help her see the wonderful woman she truly is. She is incredibly intelligent, she has great courage and faces the trials of everyday with strength, she also has a strong testimony of this gospel that shines through in her face. I am so grateful for all of you.

Audrey is also a great woman who has such a happy attitude all the time. She brightens any room she walks into.

Rebecca you are so cute with a deep desire to do your best. You will not settle for anything less and I know that this will be a great blessing to you in your life. You are also very bright and have a great understanding. You have a great love for others and never really want to hurt anyone.

Jeffrey you are so cool :) You also have a very happy attitude and desire to serve others. You like to get things done on your own and have fun while doing them. You are also very funny :)

Mom I love you so much and thank you for your being such a great example of love and kindness to me. You serve others everyday. You always do your best to understand people and put yourself in their shoes. You too have a very strong testimony of the gospel that shines through whenever you smile.

Dad you are also a great example to me of diligence and always striving to do your best. You are constantly learning and striving with all your heart to follow the spirit. Every once in a while you have said that you pray for more patience but I don't think anyone could be all that much more patient than you (except maybe mom ;) ) I'm kidding. You showed me the importance of using my knowledge in the best way, which in truth is being wise. The way I have always heard wisdom defined is not knowing a lot but using what you know in the way it is intended. You truly are a very wise man. You are also very humble.

I love you all and it is only because of your examples that I am the person I am today. Some of you may think that I am a great person but truly I am only parts of your personalities. Everything that you see in me and in each other is a part of yourself as well. We have all grown up together. If you ever find yourself wishing to be like your brother or sister just know that it is absolutely possible because we are all part of each other. That is the beautiful thing about families. When you look at yourselves just realize that you are a son or daughter of God and because He is perfect, you can be perfect too. I give you a promise that if you strive to look at yourself in this way your faith will increase, you will reach those goals that you set, and you will constantly and consistently progress. Now down to this week. I had an amazing week this week. We have been over to a few members' homes and loved being with them and sharing our testimonies with them. Also, we were able to visit a few different investigators this week. There is one in particular that I would like to talk about. I have already had a day or two where I thought for a moment that it was impossible for me to truly learn Mandarin. At those times I felt great amounts of despair and at one point I began to have tears roll down my face. I wasn't sure I could do much more. But I started to remember the times that my Heavenly Father had blessed me with the ability to understand the members that I talked to and be able to talk back with them. Everything that I wanted to say came easily. So yesterday we went and met with an investigator named Xiao Yun. We started teaching her and she had a great deal of questions and comments and right as we were starting to teach her I thought that we should pray but I was too shy to cut off my companions. I let them go on for a while and they talked back and forth with Xiao Yun. Around the middle of the lesson I found that it felt like the Spirit was speaking very sternly at me and telling me that I should stop the conversation have someone say a prayer and then bear my testimony simply and surely that the things we talked about were true. I thought that my Mandarin still wasn't very good but I did it anyway. After that the conversation went much faster and much more smoothly and our investigator was much more intent on listening and understanding what we were saying I was even able to reply to what questions she asked me. I know that the gift of tongues is real and that I can learn this language with my Heavenly Father's help. I know that we need to listen to the Spirit and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sincerely,

Elder Christensen

Loving San Jose!!

Hello my dear family,

Well I am absolutely LOVING San Jose!!! I got into San Jose on Tuesday and met my mission president at the door of the airport. He and his wife are so great! So, when I met my mission president he told me something along the lines of, 'hey I know you will like it here. We have two companions for you from..." he didn't pause but I will... "...Taiwan". HAHA. I am was so excited during the rest of the day. I couldn't help but smile the whole time. So my two companions are named Elder Wang and Elder Lee. Elder Wang is from Taipei and Elder Lee is from Tai Chung. They are great! Since that day I have been able to go to member's houses, tracting (which hasn't been very successful yet), to a branch activity (where I met a lot of people from the branch), and of course I was also able to go to church on Sunday and meet the rest of the branch members. There are 7 Mandarin speaking missionaries in San Jose and I am in the largest area right now. For Dad and the rest of you to know we are living right at the bottom of Sunnyvale pretty much across the street from Cupertino. There are Mandarin areas in Fremont, San Jose, and Palo Alto. The San Jose area covers most of the bay area going up into Fremont a little ways and also to Palo Alto. Then down to the bottom of Cupertino. That is about as much as I know of the area so far, I haven't been here long enough to tell you about all the rest. But, the branch members are great. The Branch President is president Law along with his two counselors President Xiao and President Lian. Brother Lian doesn't speak a whole lot of Mandarin but his wife does and so they are in the branch. Brother Xiao's wife, Sister Xiao, is the Relief Society President. President Law's wife is a lot of fun with a very bubbly personality and very talkitive. She is great. Then there are a few others such as Brother Li who is the Elder's Quorum President, Brother Hsieh is the branch clerk, and Sister Li is the Gospel Principles teacher. The Primary is combined with the primary of another English branch that meets during the same hours. The branch activity was actually a talent show and so we had a few people perform. Sister Law was the MC for the show. Oh Sister Juang's mother made this chinese ornament like thing ( I don't know how else to describe it). On the ornament was stitched pictures of the creations from Genesis. It was really cool, and Shen mama (sister Juang's Mother) is 93 years old. Brother and Sister Juang are great members with a son named Benjamin. Benjamin is graduating from High School this year and will be going to BYU. Another woman that got up and shared her talent was a woman by the name of Susanna. She is a really really good artist and she shared some paintings that she had done and the stories behind her inspiration. They are absolutely beautiful. Then there was one of our investigators named Linda. She has a great voice and sang a couple of popular Chinese songs. Linda is getting baptized this Sunday which we are all excited for. I think the sweetest performance was done by Wang bobo and Wang nainai. They are an elderly couple in the branch and they sang a great Japanese song. Wang nainai also played the harmonica part for the song as they taught us how to sing the words. It was really cool. There is also Gao DiXiong and his family. Oh, I mean brother Gao. He is very cool and he is from Hong Kong. He saw my "Family Ties" tie on Sunday and I told him that I had bought it in Hong Kong. We had a good talk after that. yesterday we went over to the Cai (Tsai) family's home for dinner and it was fun to talk with them and get to know them. Um... Oh Susanna has a sister named Sharyl and after I had talked to them for a little while they both told me they feel as though they are first American and then Chinese because they have lived in America for about 64 years. There are a few more but I can't think of them now. I love being here and getting to know the members. It is hard to find people to teach but I know that Heavenly Father will bless our companionship as we do all that we can to work on getting more investigators to church and increasing our influence. My Mandarin ability has grown so very much since I have been here, especially my listening comprehension. My speaking is much better but of course there is always room for improvement. We have a couple of eternal investigators that I have met with named Brother Jiang and Brother Wang (not related to Wang bobo ;) ). They know that they like to be here but I think they are just afraid to commit to anything more. Brother Jiang was always saying "Man4 Man4 Zou3" "Wo3 Xu1Yao4 Bang1 Wo3 Zi4 Ji3" meaning He feels as though everything is up to himself and he feels he needs to take everything slowly. Oh we also have an investigator name Yun2 Bo1 who is coming to church kind of because she feels obligated to follow what the missionaries ask her to do. Other than being baptized :( ;). But I am sure she will progress to a point where she knows that this church is true and desires to be baptized. Mainly it is just getting the chinese up and over that hill of comfort, if that makes sense. Well I love you all and I know that this gospel is true. I am so excited to be out here and help this work to progress forward as best I can. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon was translated through the power of God. I know that there is real power in the Atonement of Jesus Christ ane I hope to share this message with more and more people as the days go bye.

PS Mom and Dad what was the name of your Mission President because a few of the members here might have been in your area while you were on a mission :). And how long ago was your mission? Oh and happy anniversary I know that I missed it by quite a bit but I promise that I did remember it around April 5th and said happy anniversary on that day. I love you both.

Oh and if you could send this email to Matt and ask him if he knew an Elder Ives and Elder Buckmiller. Also, see if Da Ke has met an Elder Edwards yet. I might read it right after this but I don't have a lot of time.

Love you Family.

Sincerely,

Elder Christensen

Off to San Jose!

Hello loving Family,

I am soo very very very excited to be headed to San Jose tomorrow morning :) and to call you :D. I was able to go to the temple for the last time at the MTC today and had a very strong spiritual experience. I just want to say that I know our Heavenly Father, the God of the whole earth and universe, really does take the time and the effort to speak to His children. We are all His children and He loves us more than ever. I know that this is true. I have felt His love, I have heard His voice speak to me. I know that He also loves us enough to put people in our way to help cheer us up. Like yesterday during the devotional the BYU Men's Choir came and sang. After the fireside I went down with another missionary to welcome a member of the choir who was coming into the MTC later and will be going to Hong Kong. As I was holding the door open a member of the choir came over and said, "Elder Christensen." I looked at his face and slowly my eyes opened and my mouth dropped because Tyler Mickelson was standing infront of me! I looked at him and said, "No way!... No way!..." I hadn't seen him in about 7 years and every time I had a chance to possibly see him I missed it but my Heavenly Father loved me enough to let me be able to see Tyler just before I left. I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the night, I was so excited. Don't worry Sarah he isn't as tall as I am ;) He has changed a lot though but that is beside the point. My Heavenly Father also knew that I needed to hear music during this MTC experience and so He brought to me one of my favorite choirs so that I could feel of their spirit and feel the boost from their praises to God. I know that Heavenly Father loves us! He really does! If you read in Matthew about the parable of the talents it can give you a great boost as you know that you have done your best to build up the kingdom of God and use your talents for the best. God blessed me this past Saturday to feel a boost of confidence (not pride) in my Chinese ability. I had felt that my Mandarin wasn't very good and I know that I am stilll not fluent but that Saturday was an all Mandarin day for our practice in teaching. My teacher told us before we went in that we must leave ourselves at the door. All of our fears, all of our cares, all of our desires must be left at the door for us to truly be able to teach to the needs of the investigator. As we were in the lesson I did finally forget myself. Through doing this I was blessed by my Heavenly Father to know everything that the investigator was talking about and all that was said during that meeting which was 100% mandarin. And my companion and I didn't feel the spirit in the lesson until we finally bore testimony of the gospel. As soon as I started to bear my testimony it was as if there was a blanket that fell over the room and the Spirit was so strong. I thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with this experience. I know that this gospel is true and I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God ordained with His power to bring about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ leads His Church today and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is only Christ's Church. I know that Thomas S. Monson is also ordained of God and that he does all he can to listen to the instructions of the Lord. I know that the other General Authorities of the Church are also called of God and have the power of the Priesthood. The power of the Priesthood is real! I know these things and leave them with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sincerely,

Elder Christensen

Last Week

Hello My loving family,

I finally received my new email address. I did receive my itinerary and I leave a week from tomorrow :D I will probably be able to call around 7:00am here which would be about 10:00pm for you. I might be a little off but that depends on the drive out to the airport. I am excited to call :) I loved this week! General Conference was amazing for me and I know that it will be for you. I love this gospel and know with all my heart that it is true. The parts that stood out most to me in General Conference were actually the hymns that were sung. I realized the meaning of the words being sung and they pierced right down to my core. I know that some of the greatest sermons truly are taught in the hymns of the church. When you get a moment you should read the Introduction page of the hymnal and see the blessings that we can receive from the music. The promises are incredible. The talks were also all amazing and filled with great counsel. I loved the talks and how the message, though it wasn't said to be for missionaries, was very applicable to missionary work. I learn a great deal about how I should look after God's children when I teach about this gospel. Important insights were shared as to how people need to be taught and how much care we should take in teaching them. I am low on time due to my need for a new email address but I know that if you prepare for this General Conference, seek for and ask questions, write them down, and look for answers in Conference you will be richly taught. I know that our Heavenly Father loves His children and desires all that He has to be ours. One of the songs that was sung was "How could the Father tell the world" This teaches us how much the Father loved us and wanted to show us the path back to Him. "He sent His Son to walk with man, on earth that we may know." Be sure to listen to the words of this song carefully. I love this gospel and know that it is true. Sarah how is Dino doing? How is Pradderson? I do expect a reply :) Mom and Dad I thank you for your wonderful example to me and the great nourishing environment you created in your home to help me become the person I am today. You helped to keep the fire of my testimony burning and growing. I love you. Rebecca, Jeffrey, and Audrey I love you all please pay close attention to this conference. It is one of the best that we have ever had. You know that this gospel is true and I know that the Spirit will answer your questions. I can promise you that. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sincerely,

Joey Christensen