"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!​