"Pick a Side!"

Wow, such an awesome week! I hope everyone else had a good week too.

Tikkurila is the best, I am having a blast here. So much to do! I will start with some details on the city. It is really big, so there are tons of trains and buses. Many times we run so that we can catch them....some times we miss them...but a new one will come in like 20 mins...so we are good. We had this one experience were we just finished sports night at the church, and we left to go to the train station, but while walking we realized that elder jacobsen didnt have his pass or his coat...but we were holding tacos in our hands that we were going to eat when we got home. We laid the tacos down on the grass and ran back to the church, then we ran back, picked up our tacos and ran as fast as we could to the train station...We were so tired, i was running behind elder jacobsen and he was carrying his taco like a paper scroll our something and lettuce and food chunks kept flying out the back of it...it was so funny,  I started to laughing but then started choking, so i focused on running...we ended missing the train by a couple of seconds. We basically run everyday for either a train or a bus. Keeps us healthy.

We have english class and Finnish class and then also sports night. Sports night is the best, we play chair soccer...way fun. Kind of hard to explain...but there are usually like 20 people there. Mostly investigators or potentials. Once you get out you can pick up the ball and throw it (but you cant leave your chair) At one point, this guy (our investigator..more on him later) picks up the ball and throws it two handed like an Ape throwing coconuts or something. It used so much force that i think i saw him float off of his chair...and he released the ball midflight. It was a close range missile, probably like 100 mph and nailed this guy (our other investigator) right in the face. I think everyone was in shock for quite some time. The other guy did recover though. Anyways, sports night is the best.

We also played Sähly last pday, it is basically street hockey. super fun. I was sore all this past week.

Sundays here are really fun, we have a big ward and three sets of missionaries. Also, there are many english speakers because lots of immigrants are baptized. We teach a less active member a couple times a week named Hien, we talked this week about missionary work. He really wants to go to the temple also, so we have been focusing on getting him to church. He came this sunday! and he brought his really good friend! So that was super awesome. Members are so important to missionary work. (now is the time to start). I had to translate for a different Vietnamese guy for priesthood session, and I made the whole thing up. I had no idea what they were saying, he is an investigator, so I talked about challenges in life and how we can overcome them with the gospel. He speaks just about as much Finnish as i do, so hopefully he didnt catch on...but I think it went really well. 

We taught alot of really cool lessons this week, and found two new investigators. Edward (the guy who got hit) and Osas (the guy who threw the ball) They are from the Ivory Coast and Nigeria. We had two really good lessons. They both have a strong faith in God. Their parents taught them well. It is so important that as parents, you teach your family about God. This is part of our job. We shared the Book of Mormon with them both and talked about the blessings of it. We are going to meet with them again this week  and are very excited for them. There is a little problem though, One of them doesnt know how to read, so we are going to have to figure something out. If anyone has got any ideas.

We also found a really cool less active named lucky...he got baptized awhile ago up north, but got lost somehow when he moved down here. He was so cool and was super happy to see us. He is also from nigeria and is way buff and manly. At one point he pulled out his phone and started playing EfY(Especially For Youth) 2010 music and singing along to it and says he still listens to it all the time. The rest of his family aren't members though, so we are excited to be able to teach them and help him to find his old testimony again.

Cool/funny things this week:

-At English night, we invited this turkish girl. and she showed up like 50 minutes late, so she was only there for like 10 minutes. But we left outside to go welcome her in and I shook her hand and she gave me a nice kiss on the cheek. My comp was way jealous. 

-There are lots of bunnies here. They just chill in peoples lawns and stuff. We spotted some eating grass or something a couple feet away from us.

-Yesterday, someone blew up a trash can in the city center, it was pretty cool. A fire truck was trying to get in but the people wouldnt get out of the way. But no one got hurt i dont think, so that was good.

spritual thought:

I heard this quote at church on sunday : "You cannot sit on the fence for too long, soon your bum starts to hurt and you must pick a side to get off on." I loved that quote so much. It is so true. We cannot be on God's team and also oppose him at the same time. We must pick either one. It is so easy to try to do both. We know the answers but sometimes want to experiment a little. Stick with God's team and everything will turn out ok!

We also eat dinners with this family every sunday, and they are sort of like this. They know what to do but dont really want to do all of it. Also they are having trouble with forgiveness and repentance. Sometimes we are forgiven and we just need to forgive ourselves and let it go. We are going to tell that to them next sunday. They are super cool and always make the best food. 

I hope that everyone has a great week!

love elder christensen

Our homemade cheese soup.

The Choice is Yours.....

Hello all! 

What a crazy place this is! I really love it here. So So much different than Seinäjoki. I have a great Companion named Elder Jacobsen. He is a cool guy. He has been here about 4 months longer than me, so we are both pretty new. We are having a great time. It is good because our Finnish isnt the best, and here there are alot of english speakers haha...so that is way cool. Lots of africans and middle eastern and some finnish people too. So we get a good mixture. I am in vantaa, a city just north of helsinki...Lots of people and lots of public transport. We always take the trains everywhere or a bus. In our train station there are 6 railway stops and they come like non stop so we always have a train to catch. It is great. We also biked twice, so thats good. I will miss biking. At first i didn't like it in seinäjoki but it started to be pretty fun and a good leg work out!

Elder jacobsen and I dont have any investigators right now...but that will change soon hopefully. We taught this guy named Hien from vietnam..he is a less active member, but wants to go to the temple. They were working with him for a couple weeks now. We are trying to get him to church. He wanted to watch a general conference talk with us, so we planned to show him elder Eyring's talk on feeling the holy spirit in our lives...and then talk about how in church we can more fully come to feel this, and God's love for us. But, we accidentally showed his talk on faithful ministering. For the first 2 minutes or so I was thinking "wow, what luck we have"...but it actually went really well with what we wanted to do. Hien loved it and we had a great discussion about it. He also committed to pray everyday and ask Heavenly Father to help him not find excuses to not come to church at the end of the week. He really does have a desire to go to church. We also asked him to come on a lesson with a potential that we had and he said yes! (we walked to the lesson for about 20 mins and got there and the lady was at work...so it was a no go...but at least he came with us!!)

We have been finding a lot of good potentials, if they say no to the gospel, than we invite them to either a finnish night, an english night, or a sports night. Yes, we have all 3. They are really fun and we've had some really good turn outs. Especially to sports night. there was about 16 or 17 of us there...and we played a kind of version of soccer. This one guy kept kicking it way hard though and people kept getting hit in the wrong places, some people got pretty mad (or injured) :) But it was a very fun night. We have that every saturday. 

for personal study this week, I have been reading in Ether in the Book of Mormon, and in Exodus in the old testament. In the Book of Mormon, there has been alot of secret combinations...I really hate secret combinations. Such evil things. In Ether right now, there is quite the problem. 

Ether 8:19 says: For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed 

blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man.

I really like this verse. Never has Jesus christ and Heavenly Father ever worked or done anything in secret. They want everyone to know about them and even come to know them really really well. This is one of the reasons why we have missionaries, so that everyone can hear His message! In exodus right now, God has been revealing his laws for the past couple chapters, He wants his people to know of him and to live like him. We have every opportunity to come to know our Father in Heaven.

I hope that you all have a great week! love elder christensen

Two Very Good Questions Indeed:

Hey all!

I hope that everyone had a blast of a week. This was my final week in Seinäjoki. I will leave tomorrow to go to Helsinki! I will be in Vantaa which is a city just north of Helsinki..they are connecting cities. The ward there has around 200 something i think, and 3 sets of missionaries, so that will be quite different then what we have here in seinäjoki...which is 15. I am quite excited.

There is lots of stuff I will miss about seinäjoki though. You become way close with the members. And, no longer will i be playing piano for the sacrament meeting, which is sad...my skills have doubled i feel like since i got here. Also, there are lots of pheasants here. very cool birds that i used to hunt in south Dakota. There is a law here that makes it so you cant hunt them though. Also, there is my man veli liukku...we can not teach a lesson in this branch without him...everyone else lives to far away..he is essential....to everything. We also have the best district. On wednesday, we had our last district meeting. Elder Lewis and I made ribs and baked beans for everyone. It was awesome. We realized at the end of this transfer, that we had bought too much food, so we decided to donate it to a good cause.

But, there is lots to look forward to in my new area! We are going to have a great time there.

The work:

This week elder Lewis and I taught quite a few lessons. We now have 7 investigators! yes, some of them we havent met with in a while because they have to keep canceling, but we havent given up hope. We taught this one girl named Anna twice this week (both times with veli liukku) and had a really good discussion on the restoration. She wrote down two questions for us to answer for our next visit...and during our next visit we answered them. they were : how do i get out of the church if i join, and am i allowed to watch tv? 

I say, very good questions indeed. The concerns were taken care of. 

The work is going very good here. My testimony has been strengthened so much serving here in seinäjoki, that Christ really does lead this work. He knows us and the people around us. He really is...always near (aina lähellä). I had the opportunity to give my going away testimony this past sunday. It was quite the spiritual experience. Honestly i never thought i would feel the spirit that strong speaking Finnish.

In personal study this week i read quite a bit in the Book of Mormon...in Mormons book. Many many wars occur there, even to the elimination of the nephites. It is quite clear to me that when we allow Christ to fight with us in our battles, we cannot loose. Take the strippling warriors for example, or any other battle in which the nephites were righteous. When we choose to push Christ and his help away, He can no longer fight our battles with us...we are left to our own abilities. 

Mormon 4:5 But, behold, the judgments of God will overtake the wicked; and it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished; for it is the wicked that stir up the hearts of the children of men unto bloodshed. 

I think that this is a wise verse...it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I forgot to say what my favorite talk was last week during general conference. I really liked all of them...but Elder Defeo's Talk about love was quite good...and every time president Nelson spoke was awesome. He can walk faster than me, so can elder oaks probably......

much love, elder christensen

I do not know a thing about these pictures.....lets all ask him..... what in the world!!!???

"Even As I Am"

Good Day everyone!

What a week we just had! General Conference was so good. I loved every minute of it. I still havent seen the sunday afternoon session completely, but i got some sneak peeks. I really like how elder holland says it : "there is no rush like the rush of revelation" How grateful I am for a living prophet today. I really love president Nelson.
3 Nephi 29:6 says 

Yea, wo unto him that shall deny the revelations of the Lord, and that shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost! This conference just shows how involved Christ is in his OWN work. It is awesome.

This week in personal study I read
3 Nephi 27:27: "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." What better time have we to change and become more like Christ than now? There is nothing like the present. Now is a great time to take what we have been given and try and improve on some things. I have some of mine picked out already.

This easter was very fun. We didnt have a whole lot of tracting because of the holidays, but did talk to a few people on the streets. If anyone is on the streets...we will find them. We made some good friends with the trash collectors. (they collect cans and cash it in for money) We made probably like 18 pounds of fried rice again and filled a giant trash can full of it and stashed it in the fridge. 

We have been trying to shareTHIS easter video with people. We shared it with one of our investigators this week and she started crying. it is way good. I would encourage all to watch it that can. The signs are in Finnish, but the song is in english.

This is elder Lewsi and My last week together. This was the fastest transfer ever. 9 weeks gone by in the blink of an eye. On friday we get told where we are going next. I fear that my time in seinäjoki may be coming to an end.

Love you all....Elder christensen

Easter Antics....?