Last 3 days in the MTC!!

Hei! Hyvää Päivä!

I hope that everyone is doing awesome! We are all really pumped because we leave in 3 days! The days just get better and better here. I think that you can feel the spirit here more than anywhere else. There is a special work that goes on here. I remember that on my second week, we had to fly to LA to get our visas and there was no longer that happy peaceful feeling. Going to Finland is going to be awesome but we will also be going into the real world again. We are no longer in our little bubble. We are very excited for the challenge. And the cold. it will probably be around 20-25 degrees F on we get there I think. And then We spend the night in Espoo, Finland which is a city near Helsinki. We might spend a couple of days there...not sure yet.

We met the old Finnish Mission President one of these nights. He was really cool. He is now one of the branch presidents here at the MTC. He came into our dorm and talked to us all about Finland and what to expect. Really great experience. We got a picture with him also. If president Aura is like him than it is going to be a blast there.

On sunday, we found out that our branch president, President Coombs, is being released. We all really liked him a lot. He went on his mission to samoa and had tons of good stories and mission experiences that he told us. We are usually with the branch presidency on Sundays and Tuesdays. This is because those days we have devotionals and discuss those with them. We have the best branch in the MTC. Brother Svendsson is branch 1st counselor and he is so cool. He also really loves sock ties and wants me to wear them on sundays and tuesdays. I might give him one before I leave. 

Sunday night we had a devotional and it was about turning your weaknesses into strengths. We were asked to pray to God, and ask him to show to us what we can improve on, and then to give us opportunities to make it happen. It was really cool. We should always be moving forward. "improving" in Finnish, repentance means improvement. We all need to improve on something. Use the atonement of christ to help you improve no matter what it is. And this doesn't have to be dealing with just sins. You can use the power that comes from it. On tuesday one thing that I got out of it was that "we are representatives of Jesus Christ" There is no greater honor than to represent him. He is the most perfect person to ever live. Who else would you rather represent?

The Dutchies and Mongols left this week too. We are the lone survivors. Elder Leung, the big chinese guy was a dutchie. I would always chill in their room because it was always quiet and clean too. Our room is really gross. No matter how many times you vacuum it, or clean it, you cant get it to smell good.

In my personal reading this week I read about abinadi...he was talking to the priests and king noah, and he was asking them if they keep the commandments and teach them to the people. Mosiah 13:26 I say unto you, Nay; for if ye had, the Lord would not have caused me to come forth and to prophesy evil concerning this people.

Often times we hear the same things in talks and in conference. But we forget why sometimes we might be hearing the same things. Those talks are planned through what God wants. If we keep hearing the same thing, we must not be doing something. "The lord would not have caused me to come" If we were doing it right...we wouldn't be told again to do it. Do it the first Time. And if it is wrong, improve the second time.

Before we go off to Finland, this week we have been doing infield training. it is another class where we learn about ideas to use while in the field. The members are the best tool. 50% of people that members find to teach are baptized. Only 20% of people missionaries find are baptized. Members...invite...help the missionaries...I wasn't very good at it always, but now i have learned. What can go wrong? There is a 50% chance that you just changed their life forever. We need your help.

Cool things:

On sunday, I passed the sacrament and when I partook of the water, there was a hair in my cup and it wrapped around my big tooth and got stuck there. It was Quite interesting.

Me and my companions are the new sacrament coordinators for the last week that we are here...so we make sacrament and pick people to pass and bless.

I no longer use bed sheets. I sleep on the top bunk, and it is really annoying and hard to put them on when they fall off...so now I no longer try and just sleep on the mattress. 

We got to write letters to ourselves that will be mailed to us in 10 months. We can read them and see how we have changed. We wrote us advice and thoughts and worries.

Minä rakastan teitä! 

Next time you hear from me I will be in the land of 2000 lakes freezing.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that everyone had a good time! Our p-day got pushed back a day because of thanksgiving celebrations here. A real treat I must say. This was the busiest week ever. There is so much to write about. We only have around 10 days left i think...so only one more P-day at the MTC! I would be fine staying here for the rest of my mission. (there is a mtc mission) At first, i was kind of salty that i had to be here for 9 weeks, and the first day was sort of mental, but now I love it here so much. I cannot believe that I have almost been here two months.

The new nords and swedes left again. So we got even newer ones. Elder baugh was a nord. Funniest guy ever. Me and him and elder Reed would always hangout. We are definately going to miss him. He went to byu before he came on his mission and also worked at a mentally disabled place aswell. Very cool guy.

On sunday, after the devotionals, as a parting gift for the nords and swedes, we went to the new t4 building and created a smiley face using lights with the windows. It worked better than I thought. There were a couple of weirdos who turned off one of the rooms thou and then vanhin Jordan had to run back up and turn it on again. We all had to time our lights at the right time so that we could have the picture show up all at once.

The sunday devotional was really good. At one time during it, someone was talking about their favorite scripture and they used Alma 57: 

25 And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

I really like this verse. The Stripling warriors were obedient to exactness to Heleman and therefore they were blessed. One part that I really like is that it says that there was not one soul among them who had not received many wounds. Sometimes we think that as we are obedient, that God wont give us trials. For example you might say "how could you do this to me?" And than start a rift with God because you are mad at him. Every single one of the strippling warriors was injured. God gives us trials to help us grow and to test our love for him. With obedience however, God does promise to bless us, and in the end to live with him again. Welcome trials. Just like in sports, you grow more when the competition is fierce.

Me and elder lewis got to go on splits this week on monday. Elder Englund (the swede) got to go to Temple Square because he is an international missionary. All of them go once while at the MTC. We had quite the experience together. We got to teach a lesson together which was really really good. I learned a ton form being with him, and got to implement some of the stuff i learned into my own companionship. That night we taught Jussi again. It was a very special lesson. he was struggling with understanding prayer and the atonement. We went completely off what we had planned for him. When you listen to the spirit, you can teach someone...not if you just give the lesson that you planned. We shared a mormon message on the atonement with him. And he said after, that he now understands what it means to feel the spirit. (Something different in your heart.) Hopefully this lesson is the turning point with him. 

Thanksgiving was such a wild day!  We started off with a devotional with elder Bednar. He did the sort of question and answer thing that he did with our stake awhile ago. Very good talk. Than, we went to lunch and had the classic thanksgiving food. the stuffing was really good. The BYU eggnog was the grossest thing ever. It was like drinking boogies. After lunch we had a great service project. We basically went to the underground parking garage and made food bags for hungry kids in Utah. Then, we watched a really really good movie called : "love kennedy" it is so good. You should all watch it. It really puts into perspective that God has a plan for all of us, and that you attitude matters a ton.  Then, we had an wacky band called "Nashville tribute" come and sing for us for about an hour. All I am going to say is that it was one of the things i have ever heard. The MTC presidency sent us an email today saying that they were surprised that some of the songs were very wild, and reminded us that we shouldn't listen to this type of music. It was a counrty band and people would get up and clap and dance.

cool things this week:

I got a new haircut. Haircuts in Finland cost 70$ so I tried to get a new style where I can just have my companions do it. 

We were studying up on 6th floor watching some guy fly a drone around the MTC. He was hanging out for a while, but then the cops came to made him leave. 

Finnish elder named elder Helske. He is from kemi, Finland...very cool guy. we always run into him. He is going to france on his mission. I am not sure he likes us very much though. We always try to talk to him.

We wanted to do baptisms for the dead this week, so we got on our family search and found some names. You have to use your own family names if you want to do baptisms. I helped elder reed and viitanen figure it out so that they could find some too. If you aren't doing family work...you should start now. People always say that "mine is already done." thats what I thought too, but every time i look i find someone.

Vanhin Jordan and I write about volleyball everyweek to keep everyone updated on our gym time. This week was pooop.

"Sermon of the Bed"

Hello everyone! How is it going? I can't even remember how long i have been here. Either 5 or 6 weeks i think. Time really does fly by here. Everyone says it, but it is true. When you are not focused on what you need, and more on what others need, you loose yourself in the work. Those who loose their lives for me shall find it.

We had a really busy week! To start off, my favorite quote of the week:

"Whosoever casteth the first stone, let him cast it first." Not sure the elder who said that,

got the quote completely correct, but... we are all growing!

The Great Danes left on monday morning. It was sad to see them go. They were my first roommates. Good guys. One of them had an obsession with saying "chimps" a lot. Elder anderson...my first companion sent us a huge picture of chimps to put on our wall after he get back home. I still keep in contact with him. really cool fellow. He is working to get back out here after next semester ends. Elder Danielsen-Jensen is the other Dane who left. Very spiritual guy. He started a thing in our zone where every night, one person from the zone gives a "Sermon of the Bed" - A spiritual thought.

On sunday before they left we sang " God be with you till we meet again" in danish and Finnish and last verse in english. There was a great spirit in the room. None of us practiced the 3rd verse in english though because we thought that there would be english hymn books there...but there were none, So most of us just mumbled until we got to the chorus.

Our two investigators, Jussi and Niina, are both moving along. Jussi's lessons sometimes get really weird. He has difficulty reading the Book of Mormon. Last night, he read the Index instead of the actual book.

I had a really cool experience as district leader. In our weekly district interviews, I was talking with elder Lewis, and he got emotional and asked me to help with his journal writing. He was not finding enough time to write all that he wanted to write and was falling behind on his days. I was a little caught off guard at first, and stalled for time by asking if it was lost or something. But As I sincerely thought about how I could help him, the thought came to my head that I should tell him to write little notes in the back of his notebook throughout the day so that he can remember what he had done that day, and that he wouldn't waste time trying to remember important things throughout his day. This was a huge blessing to him! It was like an answer to prayer. God was able to bless me so that I could help him. No matter how small you think something might be, it might be huge for someone else. Always keep that in mind. 

For our tuesday night devotional, Elder parrella from the 70 came and gave an awesome talk. One thing that he said was to come unto christ. This made me think, often times when we hear this, we think that it means to become like christ. To Become as he is. Another way to think of it might be: that christ wants us to become like hime so that we can return to him. Literally "Come unto Christ"

Today, we played 2-2 volleyball. Funnest thing I have done since i have been here. It was great. We were all sweating and running around. It is amazing how fun volleyball can be when people actually try. Same with anything...put your effort into it. One thing that we talked about in priesthood on sunday was that we feel the most joy when we create something. That is a gift from God. Imagine how much joy Christ and Heavenly Father had while they were creating the earth. Their purpose is for us to have joy. I can bet that you could hear them saying as they were working "This is such an awesome earth. I am so glad that we can make this earth for them so that they can be like us."

One thing that I have noticed is that as I read the scriptures, I get some much more out of them as I read with a pencil or highlighter in my hand. If you are reading to find something, you will find it. Read with a purpose. I have been reading in Mosiah 5:13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?.. "Ye cannot serve a master you don't know" We Come to know the ones we serve... Especially Chirst.

We got to host on wednesday again. 540 missionaries came in that day. There was that much because next week is thanksgiving, and they weren't going to have missionaries come in that week. So some of them will have to stay at the MTC an extra week...Because you have to go out to the field on certain days so that it works with transfers for that mission. All the ones that I had were going to usa missions. Just saying, you can tell which elders at the mtc are foreign bound or stateside. Not that one is better than the other. But they are different. My 3 elders this time were going to arkansas, san diego, and Oregon. It was a lot better than last time. They cooperated and were able to leave their families. Last time, I saw this guy giving hugs for like 10 mins. 

interesting things this week:

there was a fire right next to the MTC in someone's house.

A deer got loose on the campus. Some guy in a cart tried chasing it a way but it kept running past him.

Finnish is still awesome. We teach a skype lesson tomorrow with someone in finland. I can't wait to get there. I hope i get to go to the northern most parts of finland!

love elder christensen!​

The MTC Food is Growing on me!

Good day everyone! I hope that everything is going great! Still at the MTC! 4 more weeks.

My good friends the Danes (my old roommates) are leaving this week...on monday! We are going to be so sad to see them go. We definitely have the best Zone there is. Since everyone in our zone is at least a 6 week mission, everyone gets to know everyone really well and everyone becomes really good friends. We got 4 new danish sisters a week early for some reason...so they were able to meet the old danes. We are going to be getting like 12 new missionaries in the next week, all sisters. our of the 54 missionaries in our branch right now, there are 30 sisters and 24 elders. There is a great need for sisters to serve missions. We have noticed that in general, the sisters are spiritual studs... and often make really good missionaries. One reason for this is because they usually really only come on their missions because they choose to, because they know they need to, and that they want to. Elders sometimes feel like they have to. But this isn't how it should be...Young men need to get in spiritual shape and choose to serve, want to serve, and then... go serve...not because you are asked to, but because you want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week was a pretty good week! We got one of our Investigators: Juusi, to agree to baptism! We were giving him a church tour, and at the end, we felt that we needed to ask him again to be baptized. He said "Miksei" "why not". He is a strange fellow, but we are very happy for him. One thing that we are taught as missionaries is that if you leave an appointment/lesson without giving them an invitation to do something...you have failed your purpose. We are here to help people come closer to christ. They do this mostly through their own actions and changes that they make in themselves. They can't hang off our testimonies forever...They need to find their own. Another thing that we have been trying to practice is to show real disappointment when an investigator doesn't follow thru on their commitment. When we first started learning Finnish, and someone would say that they didnt read their assigned scriptures...than we would say something like this..."ok, hyvää" which means "ok, good" because we didn't know much of what they were saying except that they mentioned the Book of Mormon. YOU NEED TO BE DEVASTATED that they didnt do it. This is so important. If they dont know that the Book of Mormon or prayer is that important, why would they do it?

It started snowing one of the days this week...It didn't stay, but snowed for like 4 hours. pretty cool. They also started putting up christmas lights today! One thing about Utah and the mtc is that the mornings are so cold, but then after you put on your sweater and suit coat in the afternoon it is boiling hot. 

Elder Russel M. Nelson came to speak to us on tuesday! It was a great talk...(did you know that he got married 12 years ago) He has such an awesome spirit. When he came in, we were singing "if the savior stood beside me" You could literally feel Christ's presence there. Like I said a couple letters ago, Christ physically runs his church.

We had our last TRC on wednesday. This is where you teach members who know Finnish. We taught this super funny old guy from Iceland i think. Awesome guy. That was probably the best lesson ever. We taught on recognizing blessings in our life. I feel like that lesson was just for him. After our lesson, he said the closing prayer. It was like ten minutes long. My companion elder viitanen's parents are Finnish and they showed up. We didnt get to teach them, but his mom gave us cinnamon rolls. Very good.

The MTC food is really growing on me. The best thing in the world is the MTC broccoli and Cheese. (Parsakaali ja juusto) so good. And we have burgers a lot. today was chilli cheese scones. One thing that I have started doing during gym time everyday is running for the last 15 minutes that we have on the track. This really helps start out my day great. Also, sometimes volleyball can be super fun, when everyone actually tries, which is most of the time, but sometimes you get a goon who wanders on and messes around. Don't be that guy. Worst thing in the world.

Some cool finnish experiences that I had this week:

During one lesson, Our investigator asked about spiritual gifts. I was explaining it and tried to say "esimmerkiksi, minun lahja on että minä olen mukava" (for example, my spiritual gift is that I am nice) but said "makkara" instead of "mukava" so I said (I am a sausage)... Messing up while learning a language is how you learn. I probably won't make that same mistake again. I dont understand how being scared of messing up can keep you from talking, christ fills in what we can't say. If at the very least you make someone laugh because they have no idea what you are talking about.

Sometimes finnish can get really mental...for example:

kuusi = six...while kusi = pee

tapa häntä = meet him...while tappa häntä = kill him

We all love it here at the MTC. I can't wait to get to Finland. We get there a day before their 100 year of independence. It is going to be crazy!

Love elder christensen

One Month Down: Obedience Brings Blessings.

Another week at the mtc is down. We have one month to go! We leave for Finland on Dec. 4. It is still awesome at the MTC. All of the leaves have fallen off the trees. Everyday the sidewalks get cleaned and the next day, there are tons of leaves again. We have got another investigator to teach now. Her name is NIINA..from china. she doesn't know anything about the gospel or anything about God...but her boyfriend just recently got baptized. We teach her again on saturday. We are still teaching JUUSI, the scientist. We tried to get him to come to church last week, but he said it was so boring the first time that he went. tomorrow, we are going to teach him about church. we might do a church tour sometime too. he thinks everything is just really weird. He is progressing though a little we think. after like 5 or 6 lessons, he finally read the Book of Mormon. HE read 18 pages. in our last lesson he kept talking about how buff moroni and nephi looked in the pictures in the Book of Mormon. He is an interesting fellow. 

Some news from our Cocoa, FL stake missionaries at the MTC:

caleb gants left for provo last week

chris silvernail is here for another week...he is going somewhere in UTAH. I talk to him all the time.

jack naismith just got here as well, he is also going somewhere in utah. maybe orem.

On sunday i got asked to be the new district leader. This just basically means that i have to lead discussions, get mail, and interview people and do some extra meetings. "the Lord shall qualify those whom he calls." I also had to pass the sacrament on sunday....it is weird to pass now because basically every single ward does it differently. We sort of wing it and see how it goes. One thing that we all learned is that we should be doing most things with our right hands when using the priesthood. (blessings, passing, grabbing the water and bread, raising your hand to the square) president oaks says that he doesn't now what it means, but that this is what Christ wants. Priesthood holders: do things with your right hands if physically able. Also on sundays, (my new comps dont really want to go to choir) so we go to the top of the new building. There is this special room that we always go to. right beneath it there is a large grass field. we always hope to see some soccer players or frisbee matches. usually there are some. on sunday for some reason there are always two college students playing soccer.

I had to give the prayer for the devotional as well. the speaker was mitch davis i think was his name. he is a movie maker i think. 

How was Halloween? We didnt do much here. some people got sent tons of candy though. One of the finnish elders got sent like 30 ties to sell for his brother. They are really nice. I think i will go after some of them. Everyone here covets my sock ties, sometimes i loan them out. For tuesday night devotional elder chirstensen of the seventy came and spoke to us. One thing that he said was that "you should want Christ on your side". This reminds me of when we were reading the Book of Mormon and my brother asked why the nephites always prayed to God after the battles and thanked him. It isn't because they were bad fighters. It wasn't because they couldn't have won without him. they did after all have better weapons and armor. Why did they rely so much on God's help? It isn't that we can't do it on our own. But that with God's help, we can do even more. He wants to help us...we just have to ask.

Another cool things that elder christensen said was that "all priesthood holders have authority...however...power comes through actions and desires. 

In our discussion after the devotional, we were asked to come up with an answer to "how can you help others become converted." One thing that we discussed was that you can help by loving them and including them. Often times, new members or converts fall away from the church do to lack of inclusion. At church, we are commanded to "worship together" "that we may strengthen ourselves together". there is a reason that newly baptized members are given the gift of the holy ghost on sunday in front of everyone. If you aren't getting to know them and trying to include them...START NOW :) 

For our TRC lesson yesterday, we taught about service. all three people we taught are newly return missionaries. It is amazing how quickly we forget the importance of service. It is a commandment. We need to find more ways to serve outside of our callings in church (even thou those are still good.) I remember the 2 weeks before i came on my mission florida was dealing with some hurricane prep and cleanup. that time went by so fast. when you aren't thinking of yourself, you can get more done, you can be happier, you can feel christ's love for you as well as for those you serve.

One last thought on obedience. It feels like everything at the MTC is centered on obedience. If you are obedient, blessings immediately follow. Christ says so. Mosiah 2... great chapter.

24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

I hope that everyone is doing great ! hopefully it snows this week!

love elder christensen