Nice to See Some Fruits

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Birthdays!

Sounds like it has been a great week and I can't believe how old everybody is getting. I am still denying the fact that Emma will be driving. What ever happened with the driving test?

Dad is my hero. What a great example for me. I have always wanted to be just like him. He is amazing. I am astounded by everything that he pulls off each week. What a great example!

I love Emma for her quiet confidence and her awesome sense of humor! She always gets me laughing! I am so grateful for the great person she is and the good example she is for me. Way to hang in there for the sweet sixteen.

Charlie is my buddy. I love him for just being happy and always going for it. He is my favorite brother and will always be my best bud. We are going to have so much fun when I get back! Sorry sisters. GUYS ONLY! 

It has been kind of an interesting week. The good news is that J's family is showing a ton of interest in the church. His mom loves coming to church and showed up with one of his sisters yesterday, even though J was feeling sick and couldn't come. She felt bad because they walked in a little late and self committed to come early next week, as well as stay for the classes after. Nobody does that! We also had another great lesson with an 24 year old young man we were teaching yesterday. He told us he had received his answer that what we are teaching is true and would like to be baptized. We are not sure when it will happen because he might be moving to Santiago in a couple of weeks and is working through some stuff, but there was a really strong spirit when he told us about the answer he received. We also found a really great family that is full of energy this week.They have been really receptive. It is nice to see some fruits.

We had a lot of rule changes in the mission this last week and president has asked us to avoid swapping emails with the family. I feel like it is important to respect this rule. I love you guys tons and wish I could chat a little bit with you guys. Thanks for helping me out. Love you tons. 

You guys are so great! 

Elder Christensen

Help Others Come Unto Christ

Hey Family! 

I love you guys! Happy Birthday Charlie, Dad, and Emma!

I had a crazy week. We will start off with the good news. J got baptized! It was a really great week. We had some great experiences with him. At the end of one of our visits we were with the Bishop and we asked if J had any questions. His only question was, "What do I need to do to serve a mission?" The next day we met his family and they are awesome. He has three older sisters and a younger brother. They are all super nice. We started to teach them a little bit about the gospel. They came to both the baptism and church for the confirmation. The mom knew three of the sisters in church so that was really cool! She also told my companion that she felt something in both meetings. We are really excited to begin teaching them. They are good people. Another day we were teaching J about the responsibility everybody has to share the gospel. We showed him a video from The Work of Salvation about a young man named Hector who shared the gospel with family and friends after getting baptized. We asked him what he learned and he said that no matter who we are we have a responsibility to help others come unto Christ. We then commited him to share the gospel and he said he would and that he wanted to start with his family. The spirit was really strong in each visit we had with him this week. It is amazing how he is changed. A month or so ago he didn't believe in anything, but now he is ready to help others come to Christ! 

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life."

I loved this quote from the teachings of President Benson in Elder's Quorum yesterday. It brought me a lot of peace. I hope that I can turn  myself over to God. What an amazing promise!

The bad news of the week was that we have a rat problem. I will sent you a pick of the whopper we caught. Hopefully it is the only one.  So that was kind of depressing. 

That about sums up the week. I don't know if there is anything else you want to know?! 

I love you guys tons! 

Elder Will Christensen

Patterns of Light

From President and Sister Bluth, Elders in Angol

Hey Fam, 

I hope you are all doing well!

I have had a good week. We are working really hard. We found a couple new families that I am really excited about. It will be good to work with them.

It is good to be with good people. I enjoyed fasting yesterday and was able to feel peace and confidence as I fasted.

I enjoyed the Elders quorum lesson yesterday about light. We watched the patterns of light videos by Elder Bednar and I loved how he talked about how light always overcomes darkness, but darkness cannot overcome light. Light is also warm. Those videos are great and I invite you guys to watch them again.

Yesterday we talked to a nice man and his daughter. He was an older man and had reciently been diagnosed with cancer. He is an old history teacher and has an interesting perspective on things. His niece is the Stake Young Women's President here in Angol and his daughter was baptized when she was young, but later fell away because she felt it wasn't true. It was interesting hearing their perspective of God. They believed in the creation but it seemed to me that they felt like God just left us after that. We taught them a little bit about God's love and how it is like a fathers love for his children. As we taught I realized that we can learn so much about God's nature in our own families. It has been interesting to look at that and helped me understand a little bit better.

I am so grateful that our Loving Heavenly Father reaches out to us each day. That he has called prophets and leaders to help us. I am so grateful for the gospel and for revelation, that we are not left alone and I hope that I can look for more revelation in my own life.

I love you tons,

Elder Christensen

Patterns of Light: The Light of Christ, Elder Bednar

Patterns of Light: Discerning Light, Elder Bednar

Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation, Elder Bednar