Transfers are on the way!

Howdy Y'all! 

Things have been going well here in Texas! I am happy to say that we are finally done with doing interview training for at least the next couple months. But this week we also started working on transfers. It has been another long, but good week!  Our week has mainly been interview training and transfers! 

We haven't had a lot of time to be finding this week.  We tried to be with Kyle as many days as we could also! We worked hard to have daily contact with him! And he was baptized on Saturday!! I will talk about that more in  a little bit.

So interview training as a whole went really well! It was probably the most exhausting 3 weeks of my whole mission. But I would not trade that for anything else! Opposition and hard things helps us to grow and to stretch. It helps us to see that we can do so much more then we thought we could. And as we rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ we can have our burdens made light! I know that to be true! I am convinced that is how I made it through those couple weeks! 

Transfers have also been a very good learning experience for me. I have enjoyed being able to sit down with President Mortensen. We started doing transfers on Wednesday night. We were at the mission office until about 1030 at night! It is cool to see how the spirit begins to take over and it helps lead you to where the missionaries need to go!

 Now the first little while was easier than the latter half, but we feel that we did our best to put missionaries where the spirit told us to. We put in another 6 and a half hours on Friday. We felt that for the most part we were done with them, but were still pondering on a couple of our decisions. Then we got back together on Sunday to do any final changes. From about 6:30 pm until 11:10 we were at the office finishing things up. So it was a late night. We are feeling really good about it now. 

But the highlight of the week would defiantly be seeing Kyle get baptized! t was such a great baptism! The spirit could really be felt so strong! They had me speak about sacrament! For what ever reason I couldn't decide exactly what I was going to say. Even up until the point I was suppose to give the talk I kept changing mind on what I wanted to say! But I think the spirit helped me out! I wouldn't say it was the best talk, but it worked. 

That is like my favorite thing about being out here and serving is the fact that you can truly see how the gospel changes someones life. And that is the greatest thing! I love it so much! It has helped me to have a small taste of the way our Father in Heaven looks at us! He was sitting in the front row by Elder Hillebrant and said," Salt Lake City here I come!"  He is planning on going and doing baptisms for the dead in April and going and watching general conference. 

It was also so funny, because right as he walked into the font he turned and said to us, "lets do this!" He said that after he was baptized he felt so good! It has been such a miracle to me to see how the gospel has changed Kyle's life. He is completely different than he was when I first met him! He is so much happier, and things are going so well for him right now! Just the more we have talked with him since, you can see the change that has taken place. He is already wanting to start doing missionary work. He asked how soon until he can start coming and teaching with us. 

Sunday he was confirmed, and he was glowing! It was so great! He was saying that he just wanted to just stay at church all day. The bishop also came and talked with Kyle about recieving the Aaronic priesthood, and getting a limited use temple recommend. And after hearing that Kyle got even more excited! God truly has prepared Kyle for the gospel. It has been a miracle and a blessing to have been able to work with him. And I look forward to being able to continue meeting him and seeing him continually progress. 

And real quick just touching on the coming to church part. Church really does bring a whole new light into each of our lives! It is so great!  Going to church and partaking of the sacrament is what can bring the most spiritual power into our lives! I have felt it so much in my life! I am so grateful for each week when I can go and partake of the sacrament and reflect on the previous week. I know as we each try to make the sacrament more meaningful in each of our lives that we will see a difference and we will come to understand the atonement more fully and feel of the Saviors love for each of us. I know that to be true and I testify of that! 

Well sorry this one was so short, its been a crazy week. 

I hope y'all have a great week! 

Elder Joshua V. Christensen