Love reading how grateful Ethan is for the opportunity he has to give this mission service. And he's excited for General Conference, the twice-yearly conference for the entire Church held in April and October.
March 24, 2014
Familia,
Man that sounds like it was a pretty fun week
for everyone, that's cool! Those jerseys look sick Andrew, man you guys are
getting all the cool stuff! :) Man this week has been crazy I don't
even know where to start! First off I got a text from the Zone Leaders
yesterday saying that I was getting transferred but they didn't know where yet,
and then I found out late last night that I will be going to Laredo and I’ll be
whitewashing!!! That means that my new companion and I will be getting there at
the same time this week, working in a new area. It will be way hard but I'm
excited I'm going to Laredo!!! It's pretty much puro espanol there, I’ll
probably be there all summer and it's the hottest part of the mission!! It's
just great, I'm so excited, but I'm kind of sad I’m leaving Flour Bluff :( It's
all good though.
Another thing that happened this week: we were
biking down the road and these guys pulled over in front of us and wanted to
talk to us. They started talking and they literally didn't stop for 45 minutes!
All they did was bash us and tell us how wrong we are and that were going to
hell and all this crazy stuff. And like literally they didn't stop talking; we
may have said a handful of words and they just went for it. So finally there is
this little pause and I spoke up and just said something along the lines of
this: "Thank you so much brethren for that message. I’m going to be honest,
I have no idea what your point was and I'm a little confused as to why you are
so mad at us tonight but my only counsel I want to give y’all is I
invite y’all to teach by the spirit. But I am so grateful that the Lord made
our paths cross tonight. Y’all have really helped me see some things and really
increased my testimony that the true church of Jesus Christ was restored
through a prophet named Joseph Smith (that was the biggest thing they were
bashing) and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the
Lord's kingdom here on the earth. We need to get going now, we have a very
important message to share and everyone we see needs to hear it. Thank you for
your time." Elder Roth and I then shook hands and just biked off and they
kept yelling stuff at us. It was really something.
Zone and Stake conferences this week were
awesome, too, oh man they were so good!! I’ll send home the programs, but
Presidente Maluenda got up to speak and, oh my gosh, it was incredible! All he
did was talk about how much he loved us (the missionaries), like in a nutshell
he just thanked us a ton. And then Elder Jim L. Wright (he’s a Seventy) had all
the missionaries walk up onto the stand and say our purpose. First we said it
in English and it was kind of rough because none of us know it in English. But then
he had us say it in Spanish and it sounded way good! It was a great experience!
Oh, and my bike broke pretty bad this week.
Thursday night the crank from the peddle totally came off :( So we took it to a
bike shop and they have to order a new part for it but not anymore because I'm
being transferred so I'll have to take it to a bike shop in Laredo to get it
fixed.
I'm so grateful for this gospel!!! I have no
idea what I would do or where I would be without it. Christ lives and He leads
and guides the Church. And what a special opportunity we have in just 12 days
to listen to that guidance through His chosen servants and apostles. Joseph
Smith in reality saw God and Jesus Christ – that was a real, historical event
that actually took place. It's not made-up or fiction – it is 110% real. Keep
helping the missionaries in Nashville. Have fun at baseball Andrew – those times
go by wayyyyy too fast!
Love y’all!!!
Elder Christiansen
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