The Harvest is the Lord's

Michael with Elder McCleve

Dear everyone,

It's great to hear from you all. I'm happy to hear things are going great for the most part. Nana is recovering and it was awesome to get her email. Thanks for the pictures that you sent, those are always great. I don't have a problem with Paige magnifying her calling and helping out with the Zone Conference lunch tomorrow, haha. Yeah, I really am fine with it and look forward to it! How fun and rare an opportunity to see your sister on your mission like this. I'm just forewarning that I don't know how much time we will be able to visit and chat like I'm sure we'd like to but it will be great! See you tomorrow, ha. I have a favor to ask, can you send a list or some form of the descriptions of the games from Minute to Win it (assuming that show is still around). I can remember a few of them but not many; I figure there could be some that can be useful for object lessons in trainings and stuff. Thanks. About the contacts, the issue is my prescription is expired and I cannot order just 1 more month's worth without getting a whole new prescription. Should I go ahead and take care of that out here (probably just at Wal Mart, which is more than fine) or try and wait until I get home (not knowing if I'll be able to get in before we leave for California)? And if I get them out here, I'm sure it will save money to buy a year's supply rather than just month's worth. Thoughts? It's really interesting how last week I made mention asking about what major I should pursue and stuff and this week some events that have happened. Mom was recommended zoology and ironically I was in a situation this week talking with a Senior Couple where they (after me telling them I'm thinking of going into medicine) went off on how zoology was so good for their son preparing to go to medical school, etc. I also had a very neat experience in light of these things this week that I'll share later but not in this email.

It's so warm and nice, I can't believe it! Elder McCleve and I are going to go shopping today - I'm looking for a nice, inexpensive suit that I'll want here and after. Things are good.

This past week was a blast, going to 3 Zone Conferences. They have all been very Spirit filled, yet different and unique in their own ways. Elder McCleve and I are training on the teaching skill of "How to Begin Teaching" one of my favorite skills. They've gone quite well and I'm looking forward to continuing with it this week. Here is a simple outline of what we have going on: we are traveling to Elmira tonight, Zone Conference there tomorrow, working with the Elmira elders until Wednesday afternoon, traveling up North to Malone and staying the night there, Thursday Zone Conference in the North Country, working with the Potsdam Zone Leaders up there until Friday late afternoon, and driving home that evening, and we'll be in Utica teaching Saturday and Sunday. Good times. I'm still amazed at how well the work is going here! Gail is doing great and we are going to sneak in a lesson with her this afternoon before we travel to Elmira. She's really acclimating well in the ward and enjoying the Spirit in her life. We also had the investigator we visited last Monday at church yesterday, she's a sharp lady. We had another cool experience finding another new investigator. A couple weeks ago at Wal Mart we talked to this guy in the parking lot who was really interested in coming to church. He's Hispanic and speaks pretty good English but he is more comfortable with Spanish, so I talked to him in Spanish and he opened up quite a bit. Long story short is we stopped by his place yesterday and he invited us right in and we visited with him. He wants to strengthen his family and do this for himself and them. We are going to teach him and his kids Saturday morning with a recent convert who is an awesome Puerto Rican who speaks perfect English and Spanish. Great stuff. The Rome elders just came into the office and they were telling me of some great things happening there with people I know and taught - the harvest is the Lord's and the joy I feel just hearing about those things is as sweet as if I was there a part of it more.

Thanks for all that you do! I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Christensen