Hello again! It was great to be able to talk with some of you yesterday. This last phone call was much better (for me, I guess) than that on Christmas. I really felt good afterward and excited to continue the work today. Like Mom mentioned in her email that it was cool to hear me talk about my stories and experiences, I didn't really realize how fun it is to talk about them with you guys! I'm glad that everyone is doing well and sounds well! That makes me feel quite good. It sounded like Papa and Nana have had a great week and that Ben in Salt Lake likewise has had a good time. It's great to hear from you, Nana, each week; know that I really appreciate it and love you and Papa so much. The picture attached last week was, in fact, Janero - the Spanish speaker/lesson. Such a good guy. He has a date for baptism now, too! Speaking of pictures, what is going to be the best and cheapest way to send memory cards (in the protective case) back and forth? My birthday list really only consists of the following: 2 white short sleeved shirts, possibly some more of the socks we got from Pomeroy's (just because they're a little faded but that's it), and dark/conservative classy ties. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to let you know but I'm well off and all is well! I don't need much! Nor do I have space for much. Thanks so much, though :).
This week has been a pretty good one. It was one of my goals this week to be sensitive to, and act on, anything I felt was a prompting from the Spirit. On Monday we had a really sweet experience with this. I was driving and we were on a quasi-country road (rural) heading to a less-active members house to stop by when I looked at a house on the side of the road and thought that it'd be cool to go knock on the door. Realizing that this may be a prompting I explained myself to E. Potter and turned the van around a little ways down the road to come back and try it. We knocked and Jean answered; her sister is married to a Mormon and lives in SLC and her brother also lives there. She grew up Catholic but isn't too fond of that faith. We set up an appointment to come back and teach more after teaching about the Book of Mormon and Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ briefly. It was so sweet, and so obviously the Spirit guiding us! Tuesday I got slapped in Troy, ha! It was a unique experience. Walking around a corner we saw a man about 15 feet in front of us and we tried talking to him and he said don't even talk to me. Then I asked if I could simply give him a card with our website on it and before I finished saying that he said if you don't stop talking I'm going to slap you. Starting to apologize (and standing close to him as I tried handing him a card), he then full-blown swung at me. I dodged it pretty good and he basically just got my neck and lower cheek, but without a doubt contact was there. Ha, after E. Potter told me I had a red mark and also how surprised he was at how happy/not flustered I was afterward. Great shall be the joy of those who are persecuted for [His name's] sake, I suppose. Alma 26:29..."smote upon our cheeks." Wednesday we taught the man who showed up at church last week. He's so awesome! He came again to church yesterday and is very willing to act and 'pursue this course which has presented itself.' Thursday we were going to celebrate cinco de mayo in style with a family taking us out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, but it was way crowded so we ended up at a Vietnamese place instead, ha. Sis. Hou is very skeptical of the Book of Mormon and it's been tough teaching her lately; we'll see how it goes from here. I was on exchange with a Tongan elder from Logan, Utah on Friday (I was still in Albany, though). We had an awesome time, he's a great missionary. Elder Matongi. We gave a blessing to a recent convert who has cancer and in the blessing I felt prompted to say that she hadn't done anything wrong or that this was not punishment because of something like that. And right after she said how that was such a direct answer to a question she had of what she had done wrong to deserve this. Really neat experience. We're teaching awesome people right now and it's all going well. E. Potter and I are doing our best; it's not easy but it's certainly fulfilling - and the phone call yesterday really helped me realize that, looking back on past experiences and things and recounting them. I feel I've grown quite a bit in the time between Christmas and Mother's Day. Who know what this time until Christmas this year will hold? Should be a normal week this week. Excited to go mini-golf today, it's really nice outside.
Hope you all have a great week and know of my love and appreciation for all of you!
Love,
Elder Christensen
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