A week of service!

Letter from Monday March 31, 2014:

Howdy everyone! Things this week have been pretty well. We had some cool things happen and alot of great opportunities to serve. Monday started we had our normal p-day, and then that night we were able to go over to Brother Marshburn's home. He talked about trying to get his family to sit in on the discussions. And so we were hoping that they would all be there. But when we got there they had some other things pop up. So we just went through the restoration with him. And while teaching it in the beginning I was asking him questions. And he was answering them just fine. But then like half way through the lesson he started asking questions that an investigator would ask. And so it took me a second to turn it more into a role play and go off the question. But as soon as we made the switch we had such a great lesson. The spirit was so strong, and it was just a great lesson! I think it was also a really good experience for my companion Elder DeLuca. I let him answer alot of his questions, and he did great. But it was so good to be able to go over that an teach him. And then we just ended the night at our ward mission leaders. We just talked with him a bit and that was when Elder Peterson said good bye to them. So over all it was a really good night. 

Tuesday. 

We drove up to transfers in the morning to drop Elder Peterson off, and we were there for a little while helping people out. And then we also had to run over to the mission office for a bit to pick up so different supplies. So that was mainly what we did that morning. It was kinda hard to see Elder Peterson go, but he will do a great job! He was asked to serve as a district leader in the Klein Wood ward. 

Well we got back to our area and we had some referrals that we needed to go and check on. And so we also did some tracting with it. We were able to meet some different people, but sadly none of them were interested in learning more. But we then and talked a little bit with Ashlie. She is our leasing consultant at our apartment Complex, and the sister missionaries have been teaching her. So we went in there to see how she was doing and she mentioned that she wanted us to do more object lessons with her. Well me and one of my former companions exhausted all of our ideas for object lessons so we weren't sure what we were going to do. We told her to give us a subject she wanted the lesson on, and she chose the Resurrection. Elder DeLuca began to teach her about the resurrection, and I just pondered what I could do to make up an object lesson that had to do with that. So I was looking around and finally I was able to make one up. 

I used one of the nice pens she had on her desk, and I compared that pen to our bodies. I explained that because of the fall that came with Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit, our bodies became mortal and subject sin and death and pain. Well I took off pieces of the pen and explained those points and then compared the ink cartage to our spirits. When we die our spirits go to the spirit world where those who live good lives and follow that example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds that restored priesthood authority of God  will dwell in a state of happiness. And when the resurrection comes our body and our spirit will be reunited and I put the pen back together and explained that we will have perfect glorified bodies. And they they will never be separated again. It was a cool experience to see how the spirit can work through someone. This object lesson was really simple, but it was good and the spirit was there. I have such a powerful testimony that our Heavenly Father does love us and he does help us in our time of need. 

Wednesday

We went and helped out at PCI again this week. And I just love being able to help out over there. The people who come are such great people and they are so great to talk to. But following that we went over to Randy's house. We have been helping him to quit smoking and we had a really good lesson with him about patience. And again the spirit was there and it helped Randy to want to try even harder to try and quit smoking. So we will keep praying for him and help in in any way that we can. Some of the other plans we had for that night ended up falling through, so we went contacting at the water way.

Thursday

We went over to our bishops home and helped him out with some of his taxidermy, and also had our weekly missionary meeting with him. It was good because I feel that we were really able to help relieve some of the stress from bishop and he was able to help us out and give us ideas on places we need to go and visit and members that we need to check in on. We then went back and did some of our weekly planning. We weren't able to finish. We were planning in the business center in our apartment and Ben walked in so we were talking with him for a little while and invited him to come with us to watch general conference this next week.  

And then we had dinner with the Christensen family in our ward and taught a great lesson with the sisters on the laws and ordinances section in preach my gospel. It talks about a lot of great things. And I would invite y'all to take some time in family home evening and talk about some of the sections and try to apply it to you families life. I know it will greatly bless you!

Friday we had district meeting, and our new district leader Elder Weaver did a great job. I met him for the first time, but apparently he came out in July with one of the other districts. So we flew in together but we didn't meet. But after that we went and volunteered at a Presbyterian church and helped them with rummage sale there were setting up for. One of the sisters in our ward called and asked us to go over and help her out. But we were able to help and meet some great people! 

Saturday 

We participated in our ward service project and we went around and helped clean up trash around the woodlands. And it went over really well. At the end we went to North Shore Park and had lunch with alot of people from the community and we were able to talk with some of the people there about the church which was great! Right after this we went back to help at the Presbyterian church and helped them again until we had to go to another service project that was coming up with one of our members. So we went to the members home and helped them with some things and then they asked us if we could mow there neighbors lawn. And we said that we would love to. 

And so we started doing that and the neighbor walked out and it turned into a great missionary opportunity! And in a couple of weeks we will go back and help them fix there fence so we can meet there neighbors that live behind them. I love seeing how excited the ward is getting about missionary work and you can tell that they are looking for more opportunities to share the gospel! We had so many great chances to serve this week, and we were blessed for it, and I know that others were blessed as well! Service is the way we can soften peoples hearts and help bring then closer to Christ!

Sunday we saw a very cool miracle! Our church meeting was about to begin, and we sat down and we had a sister from another ward walk up to us and ask us if we were expecting anyone to come to church. We told her we weren't and she said that she saw someone walking around the back of the church in Jeans and and looked kinda confused. So we walked around the whole building trying to find him. And so when we went back to sit down we saw in the back the person that the sister was talking about. We went back and introduced our selves. And I guess Elder Peterson and DeLuca met this guy at Market Street while I was on an exchange. So I never had met him but he ended up coming to church! So that was really cool! He seemed interested in coming back, and he said he wants to come and see what general conference is this next week! He lives out of our area, so we will have to pass him on, but he is definitely one who the lord has been preparing to hear the gospel! And to finish the day we went around to different less active members and members and were able to see how they were doing and share brief lessons with them.  So it has been a great week!

Well I look forward to being able to  watch general conference this week, and I know that I will be able to find answers to prayers and see miracles come from it. I would like to invite all y'all to write down a couple questions you want to have answered in general conference and then pray before it starts to find an answer. And I PROMISE you that you will be able to find an answer to that. Our Heavenly Father is mindful of us and he will answer our questions as we prayerfully go into these meetings and search for an answer. I know this to be true and I know that if you do this that you will come out of these meetings feeling closer to our Father in Heaven and you will have the spirit to be with you more. I know this to be true! And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Joshua V. Christensen

One Picture is when we first started cleaning up at the service project on saturday, and the 2nd is when all of us finished, we were walking back to the park we met at.