Hello my wonderful family,

I am really in a poetic mood for some reason and I have tried for the last 5 minutes to get my head out of it... okay. This week has been a pretty good week. We have been out doing a lot of contacting this week. I have learned this week that if we focus on learning from the Lord His desire for the work then we will be much more effective. This is the Lord's work and we are simply instruments in His hands. If we do not follow the Spirit while planning, if we try to make our own plans, if we don't work harder than we ever thought possible, then we are not working with the Lord and thus working against Him in some way or another.

Ammon and his brethren were able to perform miracles because of their faith in the Lord. Alma and Amulek were able to perform miracles because of their faith in the Lord. All other prophets only performed miracles through faith. If we do not have faith then our Heavenly Father is unable to help us see miracles. (Ether 12) So we must have faith. The only way to work with our Heavenly Father is through having faith in Christ. If our faith is not centered in Christ then we are not working with the same purpose as our Savior. Therefore we are working against Him.

I have worked this week to change my efforts to being more guided by the Spirit and in-line with the purpose of my Heavenly Father. I have changed my personal studies to be focused only on those that I am meeting with those I am interacting with that day and it has allowed for our lessons to be more spirit directed. We have focused our companionship study on teaching more effectively and we have felt a more powerful spirit. Pan is the young man that we are teaching. This week he was sick all week. We weren't able to get a hold of him. We do have a great member though who called Pan and made sure that he promised to be at church next Sunday. Please pray for him. I know that I have not focused enough on others and it has reflected in my writing. I do apologize. Thanks dad for helping me get back on track. Your asking for more details made me think of how I need to change my focus to less of what I am learning and more to how I am helping others learn. This is when I will be able to help others come progress. I know that this gospel is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sincerely,

Elder Christensen