Hello Rome!

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Elder Christensen and Sister Gifford

Elder West and Elder Christensen

Dear everyone,

Greetings from Rome. It's fun to go around the state and email from these different locations but still read your emails and keep in touch with you in the same manner wherever I go. It seems that transfers often bring change for me, nearly every single one has brought a change in one way or another. I feel that this recent change (and all of them as well) is good. I'm happy to be serving here in Rome with Elder Farrens. He is a really an awesome guy and I can see us naturally becoming really good friends. Elder Potter was right, it seems, that we would make a good team. The ward here is really quite small and struggling a bit; it should really be a branch. There are maybe 60 active members. No pews in the chapel, that's a first. ha. It's great, though. The work had been a bit slow here but I've only seen great things happen since I've been here. It was fun to see E. Potter at transfers and to hear his departing testimony. He's such a great guy and friend. I received the package and letter/card! Thank you very much everything in it is very useful. That's cool Ithaca already met Elder West; he's a really good guy.

So... since I last wrote on Tuesday,as you know, lots has happened. Transfer day worked out well. It was the first time I've been in to Utica on a normal transfer day. I'm usually out in the field working, waiting for my new companion to arrive. It was a blast to see people I haven't seen in a while. Also I saw Sister Gifford; she seems to be happy and adjusting well to mission life. After, I arrived in Rome in the late afternoon. The apartment is pretty good, your right though, absolutely nothing will compare to my previous apartment. It's all good, enough getting pampered. ha. We have central air which is really nice and Elder Farrens is clean which makes things very nice. Really, we have had some awesome experiences in the short time I've been here. We have already found 4 amazing new investigators together. The first is a funny story. We were stopping by a potential investigator that neither of us knew but was in our records and when we asked for him at the door the man who answered was really confused and said no one by that name lives here, nor does he know who we would maybe be talking about. After talking a bit he invited us in and we were able to get to know him and teach him a bit. He's Hispanic, 30, and really nice and well off. He invited us to come back the next day so we did and taught him the whole first lesson. He had great initial questions about the Book of Mormon and interest. We're continuing to teach him this week. It seems like everyone is just inviting us right inside, it's bizarre! Also we taught and picked up an older woman named Lois who we're really excited about. She's awesome and has a nephew who is a member in Utah. I've met a lot of really good people here already. We're going to try and work through the ward a lot - use the many less-active members we have to teach/reactivate them and then hopefully teach any non-member spouses, children, and friends. I think it will give us a lot of teaching and opportunities to find investigators, too. Last night we taught and picked up a 15 year old guy named Alec. He went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant with his family and has been reading the Book of Mormon on his own. He is way mature and way smart, I'm really impressed with him. We're teaching him this week and will hopefully be teaching and picking up his entire family as well. The transition has really not been too bad. I'm learning the importance of change and submitting cheerfully with a willing heart. Easy concept to understand, difficult to practice. I feel it's been great, though. The Zone here is the second largest in the mission, 1 unit smaller than Albany, so there isn't much adapting in that sense of helping the other missionaries.

Well I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for all of your support and love, it helps so much.

Love,
Elder Christensen

PS- We have ZLC this week and a General Authority is coming (I think Elder Scott, an area 70?? Not entirely sure). Regardless of who it is I am really excited! We have almost this entire week planned out with appointments and things set. Oh, and I get to work in Herkimer on exchange this week! I'm really excited about that, with family ties tracing back there.

Thanks again for the cookies sent via Sister Porter