TRULY, the BEST TWO YEARS.

Dear Rakkaat,

Wow, This has really been the best two years. Ever. It seems now that it has gone by so fast, but it also seems so long ago that I was starting my mission, and i feel so old now.

This week was a great one to end on. I am going to miss serving here in Espoo 2 ward though. I have come to love the members so much. I have learned a lot about the importance of member missionary work here. They are so willing to help out and do stuff for the missionaries. We had one lady last sunday bring us food because she has a son who just left on his mission to Portugal and he has not been receiving any food appointments from the families there. She prayed that as she started to love and serve the missionaries here in Finland, that her son would be blessed as he served the people of Portugal. She also brought us food this sunday, chicken noodle soup in a little sac. so kind. And she said "God has answered my prayers! My son received his first Dinner appointment. Out of nowhere last sunday my son said that members called him and his companion saying that they were having a fiesta and wanted the elders to come. He said he has never eaten so much good food in his life!" Wow, I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us. I know that he loves us and is providing for us! 

I had our last lesson with Anneli this week. It was so good! We met her with our bishop. We taught  the Restoration and read some of the Joseph Smith history with her. At the end we invited her to pray about Joseph Smith, and if he really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and if he was a prophet. The next day she texted us saying "Elders, I prayed in the evening after you left my house about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true. The spirit answered me yesterday, I felt great peace that it is true. See you tomorrow at church! :)" It has been such an amazing blessing for me to be able to teach Anneli and her son the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We also had a great filipino feast this week. Some of the members in our ward invited us over to eat with them. Some authentic filipino. they call themselves "the tribe". It was so good. I almost threw up because they kept saying "elder, eat more, take" One of these members is the one that I had a baptismal interview with two months ago. She is doing so good and still comes to church every sunday! 

I want to thank all of YOU for the support on my mission! I am so grateful that so many people have prayed for me, and all the missionaries. I am so grateful for the experiences that I have had here as a missionary. I have completely changed as a person, and disciple of Jesus Christ. 

One of my very favorite verses in the Book of Mormon is: Moroni 7:48

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, ^apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true ^bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall ^cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be^dpurified even as he is pure. Amen.

I love where it says that as we develop this Christlike attributes, we will be able to see the savior as He truly is. I really believe that before most of us see Him and meet Him in person, we will come to know Him in our selves as we become more like Him. I love Finland so much because here is where I have come to know who our Savior is. I have come to gain a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus christ. I have felt a little bit of the true joy Heavenly Father has in store for each one of us!

I will see you all soon! 

Love Elder Christensen

"Life Motto"

wow, 

We had a great week here! I am loving these final moments. We just got done playing frisbee golf with the APs. That has been so fun for me this transfer. If anyone ever wants to go when i get home I am in! ps. i won this time. 

This week was superb. Very fast too. We had some great finding. 3 new friends and lots of great discussions with people. We also had the zone leaders doing splits with us this week. One of our lessons was on that day and it was so good. Maybe one of the best that I have ever taught. Her name is adina. She is a way cool Finnish girl. She said that she feels like her relationship with God is kind of the focus point of her life right now. I feel like she was really into the lesson and hopefully next time we meet we can set a date with her for when she will be baptized. Anneli our recent convert is doing great. She was at church this week and enjoyed General Conference last week. It is so amazing to see how the Gospel has affected her. I also ride the bus home every sunday with this filipino sister who was baptized 3 months ago. We have a special connection with each other because I gave her baptismal interview. She just went to the temple and is experiencing a lot of joy!

 

Cool story this week is that we were stopping people on the street and we stopped this young guy. It turns out that he is a player on FC Honka. The soccer team here. We told him that we were his biggest supporters and he loved it. In the end he was not interested, but we gave him our card and phone number!

Also, we had a first lesson with this guy from pakistan this week. Way cool guy. he works at this certain restaurant and invited us to come in and talk for a while. He gave us these huge burrito sandwich things. At the end I asked him what we could do to help him and he said "all I want is for you to do something good today for someone that you do not know." That really made me realize how much good we can do for each other. There are so many chances and things that we can do. Maybe at first we dont realize it, but I know that they are there. I feel like I want that to be my motto for the rest of my life. 

I love you all! I will see you next week!

TWO YEAR MARK.

Terve!

Hey all, we had a great week here! I hit my two year mark as a missionary on the 4th. I am so blessed to be able to have an extra 20 days! My time is quickly running out though. I leave on the 24th back to Florida. 

General conference was really good. I have not yet watched the women's conference or the sunday afternoon session, but I definitely will and I am excited for it. I really loved President Nelson's talk about Humanitarian aid. It got me so pumped to pay a generous fast offering when I get home, and to always pay a full tithe. It was super cool to see all of the good that comes from paying fast offerings. I also really liked sister franco's talk about missionary work, and then I think his name was elder alliaud who spoke about the Book of Mormon, and how we all need to receive our own testimony about the Book of Mormon. 

We unfortunately did not find anyone last week, but this is a new week and we are back to the grind. We found one yesterday, a young man and we taught him at the library. He was super cool. Said that we need more missionaries in the world. It is true! I can say 100%  that I needed to serve a mission. It has changed my life forever. I appreciate the gospel so much now and have learned a ton about life and working with others and responsibility. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to serve as missionaries because they love us, and they love those who we can help. Imagine the change that goes into every one's life when missionary work is done.

Our friend Anneli is doing great. She is the one that was baptized a couple weeks ago. She is loving it. She said that the first couple days after her baptism, she felt like she was in Paradise. That is what the Holy Ghost does for us. It doesnt matter what our physical circumstances are. Hers did not change. But the feelings that she had did change. As we follow the example of Jesus Christ and do all that we can to keep Heavenly Father's commandments, we are so blessed.

We had a great pday today. We went and played some more frisbee golf. I forgot to send these pics last week of the national forest that we went to. It was super cool! It is called nuuksio. we had a makkara grill out and it rained but the fire never went out. These pictures of the angry birds is the headquarters of angry birds in our area! Isnt that crazy? clash of clans and angry birds are both Finnish companies. I hope that you all have a great week!

love Elder Christensen

Arctic Baptism!

Rakkaat ystävät,

Wow. We had an awesome week here in Espoo! Our friend was baptized! It was so good. We did not know how to turn on the heater, so we had the arctic waters in the font, but other than that is was super great! I am way grateful that I have had this opportunity to help her follow the example of Jesus Christ. She was met 5 or so months ago. She actually prayed that she would be able to find people who want to talk about faith and religion with her, and then the missionaries showed up at her door like the next week. She was taught a few times and then on a month trip to Estonia. Once me and elder pauole got here she was the first person we called and met with. She is doing so great. She was so excited to receive the gift of the Holy ghost this sunday. A scary thing that happened though, about 15 seconds before she was confirmed her son had to go to the bathroom. So she left and I tried to stop them but he had to go really bad. They walked out of sacrament right as they were announcing it. So there I was, sitting there, time froze, so after a second I ran after them and the kid went to bathroom really fast and we ran back in.....it all worked out ok. 

Other than that, the work has been really great. We found two new friends to teach last week, and one returning member appeared out of no where and came to church. We have been trying to get in contact with him for the last 7 weeks. We are going to meet with him tomorrow! 

Last p-day we visited this water tour in our area that is super tall and overlooks the country. It was very cool to look out and see like all of southern Finland. I could see my old areas that I have served in. Finland is such a pretty place. I am going to miss it for sure! 

I am super excited for general conference this weekend! What a wonderful time it is for us to hear from the prophets! I have been reading in the old testament my whole mission starting in my first transfer, I am now in the book of Samuel reading about David. I am very slow.... But I love how no matter what the circumstance is or the love that is shown towards David, he always supports the Lords anointed/chosen servants. For example Saul was chosen to be king, and even though he no longer was living a righteous life and was trying to kill David, David still chose to love him and not fight back. I love all those times when David spares king Saul's life. After Saul dies in battle David says to the one who killed him "How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?" Wow, if we all had that same respect for those that the Lord has chosen to help lead us back to him we would be a very righteous people. General conference is a great time for us to sustain our leaders and follow their council!

I love you!

"Wading Through Affliction"

Hei!

Wow, we had a really good one here in Espoo. The weather in the mornings bounces around 0 degrees Celsius these days, so we are back in the freezing temperatures again. no snow though. probably wont until November at least. We had a wonderful 3 day meeting at the mission home. It was awesome. It is to help the trainees reflect on the first 5 weeks of the mission, and to talk about what they have learned, what has been hard, etc... We had the camera crew there with us as well. At one point, in the meeting we do this thing called "companionship inventory" That is where you talk about the strengths each other has and also the things that bug you and how you can improve, and things like that. The one at this meeting in an hour long, so that you can go deep. Usually mine are like 15 minutes. The camera crew filmed us and got nice and zoomed in as we discussed deeply. I would be lying if I said that it wasn't very awkward. But the good news is, the crew felt the spirit as they saw everyone doing their discussions, so after the filming they went outside and did their very own and said it was a revelatory experience. 

The temple was also great! I love the Finland temple so much. I am going to miss it a lot.

The work is going along grandly. We have a friend, Anneli, who is going to be baptized hopefully this next Saturday. so next week you will be getting the update on that! She is super excited. she has been making a lot of friends in the ward and has come to church the past 5 weeks or so. We have our last lesson with her tonight and then her interview will be this Thursday, and the baptism on Saturday. We are going to be teaching about tithing and fasting so hopefully we will be able to help her understand the blessings that come from those commandments! She is from Estonia and has been living here for a quite a few years now though. Her Finnish is like a missionary level, so it is super easy for me to understand what she is saying, but the finns have a really hard time. it is kind of funny!

Soccer Saturday was great. I continue to play left back and left wing. I have no idea why they have me play there, my left leg is so weak. But I play better there than any other spot somehow. I scored two goals this week. the Nigerians went crazy.

I really like a scripture that we have been focusing on for the past couple weeks. It is Heleman 3:34-35:

34 And they were lifted up in ^apride, even to the persecution of many of their brethren. Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction.

35 Nevertheless they did ^afast and ^bpray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their ^chumility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the ^dpurifying and the ^esanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their ^fyielding their hearts unto God.

I love how in this story, these righteous nephites, because of their situation, had to "wade" through much hardships and trials. When I think of the word "wade" I think of army guys walking through a muddy swamp, up to their chest, holding their guns about their heads, arms hurting, stinky and sweaty, mosquitos flying around their ears. Sometimes we all feel like that too in some sort of way. that we are "wading through affliction" I have felt the blessings that come through this "wading" here on my mission. as I have fasted and prayed oft, I have seen how I have become more humble and willing to follow the guidance from my Father in Heaven. as I have yielded my heart unto God I have seen how he has purified me. This really has been the greatest blessing I have received! We can over come our trials with the Savior and we can become better.

I love you all! See you soon!

The Most Important Part is the LEARNING....

Sorry, no pics again. 

We have been too busy to take pics. But this week we are going to set the goal to take a picture everyday, so I should be sending plenty next week! We have p-day on Monday this week because Tuesday through thursday we are going to be in this meeting where the trainees and trainers learn and discuss. I have been to alot of these because I have trained twice and was ap and i learn something every time. So we are way excited! 

This week was super great! We had a great time being in the work. We have a friend who is so close to being baptized! She has come to church now three weeks in a row and she is doing great. She has started to live the word of wisdom and is getting excited! Her son is also super cool. He is a 6 year old and has learned fluent english from YouTube and cartoons. She had a lot of questions about the temple so it was really cool that in sunday school this week we were able to talk a lot about Gods plan and temples and temple work. She really liked it! 

Other than that, we have been trying to find a lot of people. The work has been great. I love talking to people. I feel like everyone I talk to is my friend. We have such good conversations about anything and everything. I was talking to sister aura the other day and I was saying that I wished I had been able to do this my entire mission, but she goodly corrected me, and said that the learning part is the most important part. That is so true. It has forced me to re-learn the gospel in a more simple way. I have had to rely on the Lord and learn patience and humility. What a gift it has been to be able to learn Finnish, and to struggle, and not know what to say! 

We have been playing soccer with the Africans again. Let me tell you, I played so good. They had me playing left back always for some reason. I did make one bad mistake the led to a near goal, humiliating...and I asked them how I could get better and they said "you are getting better, we are African, we love everybody." So that is comforting. 

I got to go! Love elder Christensen 

Family History Work Brings BLESSINGS!!

Wow, what a good week.

We just got done playing frisbee golf, 18 holes. I averaged like a boogie on each hole, so that was great for me. 3 pars though! We went with the APs, my old comps. 

The weather here is really nice right now. Around 60s all the time, so perfect for being outside. We had the camera crew on us this week, that was an experience. My favorite part is when they want to get close ups of our faces when we are walking around, but they want to get the front view, so the camera man slowly walks backwards in front of us. It was a really awesome day when they were here. Some cafe gave us two loafs of bread for a grand opening,  and then 5 minutes later we stopped a lady who said she had a sick hungry friend. So we were able to give her some bread! We also set up a lesson with her to talk about Gods plan! So that is exciting! We also had a school presentation with some high schoolers. That was super fun and the kids loved it. They really liked us. 

One really cool moment we had this week: We have been trying really hard to help people get excited about family history. Even people just randomly on the streets. We had picked this less active member to go visit whom we did not know. We get there to her house and she says she has been atheist for 40 years and she wont change. So as we talk I say a prayer asking that she would be interested to learn about family history with us. And I ask her and she says "I would be really interested in that! Wow! We talk some more and i tell a little about what i had found that morning studying about my own family. So many stories ! Turns out I have roots from liverpool. No wonder I root for them! But these stories got me so excited, so it was awesome to talk with her. She is going to come to a class with us and we are going to do it together! 

I have really felt in my own life the joy that comes from learning about my family history. There is power that comes from that! There is a talk that I really liked that i read last week that named like 20 different blessings, it said "if you have ever prayed for any of these blessings, or hoped for these, or wanted these...you have already been given your answer. Do FH work. I am so excited to do more when I get home!

Love you all!