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