Awesome Meetings and Mission Tour

Buenas,

Man, what a great week! Ok, to start off Elder and Sister Foster were just unbelievable – it was amazing. The spirit was so strong as he spoke with us and it was a very powerful meeting. Some of the topics he talked about were: the power of prayer, the importance of our missions, working with members, knowing that we are children of God, and a few others, and it was really, really good. Then he had a small meeting with all of us leaders about how to lead and how to love the people we serve so that part was great, too. Oh that's cool you saw the picture!

This is a photo of all the missionaries currently serving in the Hidalgo Zone
of the Texas McAllen Mission (TMM). There are 10 zones in the TMM
that include about 190 missionaries (140 elders, and 50 sisters).
Elder Christiansen is standing, third from right.
Seated: President and Sister Maluenda, and Sister and Elder Foster.

What? Clay has a girlfriend, what is up with that?!?!?! :) That's good to know that everyone is doing well though. Yes!! The missionaries had a baptism in our ward, that's fantastic!!! What's the boy's name? Andrew, go to some lessons with the missionaries at his house. Man, that sounds like there are a lot of fun Thanksgiving plans. I kind of wish they had a turkey bowl game here, but I don't think it's happening. Most of the members in our area are either going back to Mexico because their kids are out of school, or they are just taking it easy because Thanksgiving isn't a Mexican holiday, so it should be pretty chill. As of right now we just have one dinner appointment set up, but we'll probably end up with three or four. That's cool about Ensworth and MBA in the finals – hope we win! Send lots of pictures next week from all of Thanksgiving. So this week is the last week of the transfer so next Monday I'll know if I am staying or if I am leaving.

Right now we are actually teaching quite a few different families so it has been going great! One of them came to church yesterday for the first time and they really liked it. Oh, ok, so they have a huge super, super chubby, fat baby and all during church it was just getting passed around by all the members so they helped us out big time on that one, haha. The other two families we’re teaching didn’t come because one of them had sick kids (the Santos family), and the other family didn't come because they slept in. But we’re still working and teaching them. We teach the Santos family with their neighbors, so there are like 10-12 people there. And they all just love my laugh, like it's unbelievable. If I start laughing at something little, then they all just start laughing and then they can't stop. It's super funny.

All is well though and I am loving my time here down in South Texas. Can't believe it's already turkey time, but it's all good. Best of luck to everyone playing in the turkey bowl and hopefully there are no serous injuries.

Amor y paz (“love and peace”),

Elder Christiansen 

A Spiritual Feast ... and Freezing Cold!

Buenas,

I hope everyone is doing well back at home. Got the email and press release from Dad about the College Board, and congrats!! This past week was super good, man I learned so much! This past Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had meetings all day long with Presidente Maluenda, and they were amazing!! He talked a lot about obedience, becoming leaders the way the Lord wants us to be, faith, the power of prayer, goals and plans, doing things in the Lord's way, the desires of our hearts, and a lot of other stuff, and it was a spiritual feast for all three days! It was also a lot of fun because I got to see a lot of my buddies from around the mission – all the elders in Corpus and Laredo and Brownsville/Harlingen stayed in the McAllen area so it was a blast!

We also found a lot of people to teach this week and we found a lot of families, too! And because of that we had a lot of investigadores (“investigators”) at church yesterday so that made it more fun, too. Oh, it has also been FREEZING cold, oh my gosh, it was 55 the other day and it's 50 today and I'm wearing literally all of the winter clothes that I have, haha, I'm such a baby now when it comes to cold weather. Oh, and we got even better news too...we have mission tour this week!!!!! That's when a general authority comes in and we have meetings with him so he can teach and train us some more! The person coming in is Elder Bradley D. Foster, so I am really excited for that, too!

The mission is going really well and it is still such a blast – it never gets old, I love every minute of it and it just takes my breath away when I think about all the important things and lessons that I am learning out here. There is no other way I would have learned these things had I not decided to serve a mission. It's also incredibly scary how fast the time is going, but that's another story. There is nowhere in the whole world I would rather been than here in South Texas. Oh, ok so I’m telling you this and please, please don't get worried or anything, everything is fine and under control and I'm100% healthy – but in your prayers this week, specifically pray that my feet can get better. I got a blister or something like that for the first time in my life, and it's just taking a while to heal up. So, yea, please say special prayers for my feet, haha. I love y’all a ton!!

Con amor (“with love”),

Elder Christiansen

Having Charity for All Heavenly Father's Children

Buenas,

Man, what a week it was this past week, I don't even know where to begin. There was a family that was going to get baptized by some of the elders in my district so I went over to their house (the family's) on an exchange to do the baptismal interviews, and everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. It was just one of those nights I guess. I'm not going to go too far into it, but it was just a mess. The boyfriend of the mom of the family they were teaching never wanted to listen to the elders, and then when I was there he ran out and just started yelling at us telling us to leave. It got pretty intense and since I was on an exchange with a younger elder, I started talking to the boyfriend and it was pretty intense, haha, like he was not happy at all. And then he called someone else and he gives me his phone and the person on the line was yelling at me saying that she's calling the cops and a bunch of other stuff and that she hates us and to never come back, it was pretty crazy. But after my right-handed haymaker nailed his left eye he stopped talking to us and went inside (haha, no, no, no, I’m totally kidding, obviously I didn't hit him, I would never do that, haha). But it was pretty chaotic though. And then I went back over to a different house looking for the family Sunday morning to see if they were coming to church, and while I was talking to the mom, one of her sisters came out and just went off and was yelling at us, too, so it was a "Yell at Elder Christiansen" type of week. It was all good though, it really helped me learn to have a good attitude and to have charity towards all of Heavenly Father's children.

Life is so, so good though and I love being a full-time missionary. I am also super excited because we're having 3-day training again (it's 3 days in a row of Presidente training and helping all of the zone and district leaders in the mission so we can in turn train the missionaries we are in charge of). It should be super fun though, because I loved the last one. I love y’all so much!

I love y’all,

Elder Christiansen

Surprise Text and Photo from South Texas!

Love technology! I got a text message on my phone last night with the photo below attached. What a fun surprise! It was sent by a member in the Hidalgo area, and Ethan and his companion were celebrating a birthday with her family. Such a sweet and thoughtful gesture! We continue to be so thankful for the kind members in South Texas who take such wonderful care of the missionaries! 

Buenas,

Yay, y’all got the photo! It was the Fuentes family's nieto (“grandson”) who was having his birthday party. He was turning 4. It was super fun and we just talked to la Hermana Arrembide the whole time. After the photo she wanted to send it to our mamas, so I was like, ok great!! Sounds like it's been a crazy week though! Good luck Andrew on college stuff! And good job Dad for being a beast at seminario! (teaching “seminary”).

Elder Christiansen is on the back row, on the right.
Looks like it was a fun Disney birthday party!

This week has been good, hard but good. We haven’t had really anyone we have been steadily teaching so it's been a bit of a struggle. It has been a good learning experience though. Life is going well, though and I am still really focused on my mission, even though I've been talking a little bit about college and my roommates and stuff like that. Haha – yep, the time sure is flying. I literally can't believe it! But that's why we have to take advantage of every moment to learn, grow, and help others to come unto to Christ because the time to go home is coming up pretty quickly. I love y’all a lot and thanks for all the support! Pray that we can find families to teach and baptize! I love y’all!!

Con amor (“with love”),

Elder Christiansen

World's Largest Killer Bee!

Buenas,

Cool, sounds like it was a fun week for everyone! That's so cool about Dad being the jefe (“chief”) at the College Board now! It sounds like Andrew is doing great at Ensworth, too, so that's cool tambien (“also”). One of the high schools in my area is the Tigers and their football field has blue turf, but they are really bad. Ok, so quick things for college:

I got an email today from Aaron and him, me, Jared, iDawg, Dirty Harry, Ty, Mason, and Chaka all want to room together when we get back for fall 2015. Mason, Chaka, and Ty won’t be back until winter 2016 though. Ok, yea, I’ll talk to Presidente about the form for BYU.

"It's the world's largest killer bee, right in Hidalgo!"

"And then there's me next to the bee. It's a random, giant statue in the middle of my area."

This week was pretty good, though. We had interviews with Presidente on Friday so that was awesome! He is a very, very inspired man! Yesterday we taught a blind guy and he came to church from his apartment and it was super awesome! If he can make it to church than any of us can, and there is no excuse! But then he told us he didn’t want to learn anymore but we cleaned his apartment and then he played the piano for us for a bit, which was amazing. All is well though and I’m loving my mission! I can't believe how fast it is going by but that's ok! I love y’all!! I’m sending home some pictures, too.

Con amor (“with love”),

Elder Christiansen

Staying in Hidalgo!

Buenas,

Ok so yea, I got my retainer and it fits great. I haven’t gotten my flu shot yet but we’re planning to go. And yes I got Ben and Karli's box and I loved it!!!

So I am staying in my area and so is Elder Thornton! My whole district is staying as well so nothing too crazy happened. This week has been good, though. We've had a hard time finding people to teach lately so we have been trying to improve on that and find people. Those are cool pictures of Andrew. He looks like he's gaining some weight though, haha. I finally got caught up on Conference talks as well this morning so that was good, too. They were all so good! Oh, ok, so one of the zone leaders had to go home to get some tests done because he has been kind of sick so that was pretty hard. He's a super good buddy of mine in the mission, I've served with him for like 7 or 8 transfers, so please pray that he gets better so he can come back. It sounds like y’all had fun in Utah that's cool. That's a cool story about Mrs. Mietchen and her mom meeting Preisdente Uchtdorf too, haha.

Nothing super crazy is happening down here, all is well. Life is good though and I am SO happy to be a missionary and to be having the wonderful experiences that I am having!!!

Paz y tranquilidad (“peace and tranquility”),

Elder Christiansen

Seeing "Meet the Mormons" ... and God Loves Us

Buenas,

So another great week serving the Lord! I'm glad y’all liked “Meet the Mormons” and actually we got to see it as well, and early! We watched it with all the missionaries in a chapel in McAllen on Tuesday morning and I absolutely loved it!!! (I actually really did like it, but it also might be due to the fact that I haven't seen a real movie since “Mulan” on New Year's Eve last year, haha). But I thought it was great! It's playing in a theater down here as well so a bunch of the members have gone to see it and they said that they really liked it. Yes please invite TONS of people to go watch it because it is a great movie to share about the church. Yea, I got a letter from Ms. Shockley and that was so nice, and I already wrote her back (crazy I know). It rained a bit this past week so that was good – it is still super hot and humid. I also got my retainer today as well so that was good. Also someone told me that there is an iPhone 6?!?!?! That's crazy!!!!! Man Andrew's watch tan looks just like mine!!!!!! And that's sick he's going out to BYU!! Did you find out any info. on when to register for classes and stuff? I can do that out here but I just need the dates because I heard another missionary talking about it.

Life is good down here in Hidalgo though, nothing too crazy has been going on. We've been teaching a couple different people but they aren't really progressing so we are hoping to find a lot of people to teach this week. Transfers are next week too so we’ll see what happens. I think I am going to stay but we’ll see. I hope all is well at home. I know that God loves us and that we can feel that love as we keep the commandments and do our best. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know that it was translated by Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph saw Our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove and that they came to him to answer his prayer. I know that the priesthood was restored, or brought back exactly the way it was so that way we can be with our loved ones forever and enjoy all of the blessings that come from the Atonement. I love the Lord. and I love y’all!!!!!!!

Con amor (“with love”),

Elder Christiansen