Where Will It Lead.....?

Wow, what a grand week. It is Elder Weeks's last one here in Espoo with me. He is going to be moving onwards. My next companion will be Elder Krause! He is an Elder from my MTC group, so that will be lots of fun. 

Last p-day was really fun. We went to this National Forest called Nuuksio. We went with 4 other elders and had a blast. We set up hammocks on this riverside and tried to fish (nothing was caught) and we also grilled up some sausage, and played some ultimate frisbee! Might have been the most fun pday I have ever had. The day before during tracting, we knocked this Argentine's door, and she said she she was a sausage maker. And I said "No way, I love sausage!" so she goes and gives us 16 argentine sausages for free so that we could grill them while out in the woods. What a blessing!

Friday and Saturday were really busy days. On Friday while President Aura was making everyone's transfer calls, we were planning people's travel. Very tricky stuff. We needed to get all the missionaries to their destination and always be with a companion at the same time. It is a big puzzle but way fun I think. It was an all day thing though. Spent thousands of Euros. Then on saturday, we told everyone their travel. That took also the full day, except for soccer with the boys in the morning, and a way good lesson with our friend. I played goalie during the soccer matches and kept a couple of clean sheets. Some poor defensive mistakes led to a couple of let ins. But that is ok. 

Our friend Bob is doing so good. We take it really slow with him, we go over a little bit at a time because it is all pretty new for him. He is still excited to be baptized on may 25th. He came to church, and after it he kept saying that he was feeling so so happy. "I just feel so happy right now" It got me thinking of myself being happy. This is really what joy is all about. In 2 Nephi 5: 27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.

I love this scripture......What do I need to be doing to always be living after the manner of Happiness? I think that it is no secret. We have been given so many instructions and guidance. I love President Oaks's talk in conference "Where will it lead?" That is a great question to always ask ourselves: Will it lead to happiness or eventually sadness?

I love you all!

Love Elder Christensen

GRATEFUL.

Well, we are leaving straight way this morning to go hiking in the national forest called nuuksio. I hope to take some pictures of it, but i am so bad at taking pics, so we shall see if it actually happens. So I only have like 30 minutes to email today and will try to just send a weekly. 

We had a way good week. So busy. this next week is when we prepare for the upcoming transfers. And it has been way busy, after Friday everything is going to get crazy. We already had a prayer meeting with president about all of the companionships and it was a really cool experience. you could really feel the spirit confirm a choice or not. When we were praying about me it was way powerful. We have not bought anybody's travel yet though because it might change. so we are going to wait for friday to do that. All 83 missionaries needs to be with a companion at all times as they are traveling and it like a super intense puzzle trying to figure it all out. 

We set a baptismal date with this guy named Bob. He is way cool. We brought him inside our church and gave him a tour. He talked about what we do as missionaries and as we were showing him the font said that we want to help him to come closer to Christ and baptism is an essential part of that. Later on in the lesson, we showed him a short easter video about Christ and invited him to follow His example. He said Yes! If he knows that it is true. 

Also, this Easter in the morning before our church, one of our investigators asked us to come to his church. It is called Vapaa Kirkko. We went and it was pretty fun. There was a band there playing some hymns and the priest had us all jump up and down and yell hip hip hoorah. It was awesome. I am so grateful for the sacrament and that we have an opportunity to partake of it every week! I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ! 

One thing that I have noticed recently, is how grateful my mission has made me. During a meeting about 2 months ago, with the departing missionaries, President Aura asked us to go around and name one adjective that we have become because of our mission. He was the last one, and when it got to him he said grateful. It just really hit me hard that by the time that I will be going home, that I want to say the same exact thing! That I have joy because of the gratitude that I feel.

We really are so blessed with so many things!

Love, Elder Christensen

The Church is the PEOPLE.....

Wow, this week flew by so fast. We were so busy. We had zone conference tour this week and it was way fun. We got to see all of the missionaries here in Finland. Lots of driving too. We started the week by waking up at 4am, and driving to our mission office to work on a powerpoint. Then we got on a plane at 7 and flew to Oulu, which is in the North of Finland. After that day, we flew back with the Auras and slept here in Espoo. Then the next day we drove to Helsinki for Zone conference. After that we drove to Tampere, and from Tampere to Mikkeli. Lots of fun road tripping. It was just me and my comp in the Yaris, so we had a great time. We got to listen to the last session of General Conference. There was a really cool quote that i heard "we should not be asking our selves after we get home from church, what did you learn at church? we should be at church and ask our selves, what did you learn at home this week?" Part of our zone Conference was all about church and the importance of helping our friends to come to church. I love how the church does not mean the red brick chapel in Mikkeli, or the old bank in Seinäjoki. The church is the people who have made covenants with God and want to follow his Son Jesus Christ.

 

We had a good time at church this week. Our less active friend came with us. We are very happy for her. We are wanting to help her build back her testimony and then get her kids excited about the gospel. She is the mom, and the only member in her family, so we really want to help her kids also find out for themselves. We also found this couple this week from Iran who are very interested in learning more about God and Jesus Christ. The wife has lived here for 9 years and speaks pretty good, but the husband just moved like 6 months ago, and he doesn't know english or Finnish. We gave them a Persian Book of Mormon though, and they were super excited about that!

We helped two families move this week. One family moved from the city to a little rich village about 30 minutes north. They had us over after church this sunday for an amazing grilli. We had tons of makkara and some pork and corn. It was so nice. The weather here is almost near perfect, the sun is almost always shining and around 40 - 45 Fahrenheit probably. So it is really nice. We also helped this family from Russia move in. They seem really solid. They are going to be working at the Temple doing maintenance and such. It will be fun to get to know them!

It was an awesome week!

I love you all!

Tap in Goooooooaaal!

Wow, the week of General Conference. I have been waiting for this for 6 months. I have not yet watched the sunday evening session, but i am very excited to see it. I loved all of the talks, and we are planning on sending quite a few to our friends here in Finland. One quote that really stuck out to me was by Sister Craven : "There is not a right way to do a wrong thing." That just really stuck out to me for some reason. It is so true, there is no way that doing anything wrong, no matter how perfect it is, that it can become right. It reminds me of a quote form President Aura to me and a couple missionaries a while back. "Are you doing things right? Or Are you doing the right things?" This can be applicable in all things, not just missionary work!

But other than that, We played a good game of Soccer this week. For some reason, all of the africans that we play with, put all of the 4 elders on one team. They were stacking the sides because we are pretty bad compared to them. But my comp is way good. In the very first game we went way hard they were trying to be fancy, but we put up high pressure right off the bat, and I had a tap in goal. All of the Africans went crazy and started teasing the team that lost. And then in the very next game, my comp had a long distance laser and the goalie had no chance. All 10 africans on the sidelines, started screaming and ran onto the field and picked up my companion. It was so funny. 

We had a meeting called MLC this week. It is when we meet with all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. We did some training on technology, and that is what we are going to be doing this week as well as we do the Zone Conference tours. We have been teaching our investigators a lot these past couple of days. One was taught on the temple grounds here. It went really well. We are so lucky that we have a Temple in our area! Everyone we talk to has seen the Temple and they all have questions to ask about it or something to say. So it really has been a blessing for us! We asked two of our friends to be baptized this week and both said yes if they felt that it was true. We have no dates, but that is a step in the right direction!

That is it!

I love you all! Love elder Christensen

A God of Miracles...

Wow, we had another miracle week! So many great things. I love being a missionary here and seeing so many miracles! 

We had the 3 day meeting with all of the trainees and trainers and it was awesome. I remember back to when I was a little trainee and having quite a few questions and really looking up to all of the trainers and the ap's. It was the very start of my mission and I was in a tiny little branch and didn't know Finnish, it was dark 100% of the time and we hadn't taught a single lesson in my first 6 weeks. It was so good to be able to help some people that are in the very same spot 1.5 years later. It is amazing how much you learn in such a short amount of time. 

Also, Elder Weeks and I got smart phones this week. We are testing it out. We both got different models and plans. I really like it so far. My first day was a bit hard. I asked to switch phone numbers with this dude on the street and I could not figure out how to do everything. There is definitely some relearning to do. But it has been way good. We no longer have to come to the office every time someone has a problem traveling and such.

We had a really good week of work too, even though we only had 3 days to proselyte. I have seen that as we do all that we can to find, and really desire to help people, that it doesn't really matter how much time you have, Heavenly Father we help us. We found 5 new friends this week, and even had a friend in church. His name is Daniel. He is super religious and really wants to know if the message we share is true. Also, that couple that we found last week when we were prompted to go outside is so golden. They are muslim, but I seriously think that the girl (who is from Guatemala) is a descendant of nephi or something. She got so excited and really is going to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it is true. 

We are heading off to the zoo, so I must get off...but next week will be a good one for sure. For a spiritual thought, Me and my comp wrote  a letter to the mission yesterday about miracles. We talked about how we cannot just simply wait for Miracles to happen. We know that God is a God of miracles, and that He will continuously bless us. But we are not asked to sit on the sidelines and cheer Him on. He wants us to be there in the bringing about of miracles. He has shown us the way. Mosiah 8: 18 says: Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings. We are here to be a benefit to each other.

Wow, I love you all!

love Elder Christensen

Us and Sister Aura....Mission Presidents Wife