Pickle-ball Champs!

Whats up, last week wasn't as eventful but it was still good. Had various lessons throughout the week as usual, but we had to push back this 10 year old's baptism which was supposed to happen this coming saturday. His name is Jamal, he is african american, his mom had been baptized for almost a year, but never really had Jamal get taught or have him sit in on the lessons or anything so we have started from the beginning with him. He is a bit tricky to teach, the spirit will come in during a lesson then Jamal will throw the scriptures off the couch or crawl under the table so it's hard to know if he is retaining anything....we will keep working with him.

There were 27 people on date to be baptized in the month of October but only 11 went through, so my Mission president had an emergency zoom meeting with the whole mission sometime last week and basically said we need to try harder and make sure we are thoroughly teaching our investigators everything.  I know my mission president is called of God and that he wants and knows what's best for our mission. Every time he gives a lesson or speech to us I can feel the spirit so powerfully and I know the whole mission is trying super hard to follow the rules and bring others to come unto Christ.

...Anyways we have another man on date who has been taught for like 4 years apparently so for our lessons we just read whatever we want with him. Our branch has church every week now, and he came to church 2 sundays in a row and he said he wants to be baptized so we're putting him back on date to be baptized for like the 6th time, pray for Jason.

....I crashed my bicycle last week, my companion and I always touch each other's back tires, anyway he was getting super annoying with it, and he swerved in front of me so I rammed him super hard far up near the front of his back tire but he kept turning left when I thought he'd turn back right after I hit him but he didn't,so I crashed cause he cut me off.  I'm not gunna lie, I got pretty salty, but i didn't show it and it was kind of my fault so it's all good.

.....last P-day the elder that is in the marines bought 4 pickleball paddles and 2 balls on amazon and they got here on like thursday, so today we've been going hard.  I'm proud to say that me and my companion won the little tournament!  It was super fun....................anyways can't think of anything else so talk to you all next Monday.    

First Time Laying Cement.....

Hello, what's up?  Its pday again. Looking back the week seemed like it flew by, you'll wake up at 6:30 and then pretty soon it's already 10 pm and you're getting ready for bed.....

Last week on Tuesday we helped a member build like 20 feet of sidewalk. He had a cement truck pull up and just dump it along in the area where the side walk was being made....the truck driver dumped the cement and then just sat there watching us and it was kinda awkward because my companion and I didn't really know what we were doing, not that it's hard to shovel concrete around, but its was the member's side walk and his property, so it was kind of weird flattening it and making it all smooth cause we didn't want him to blame us when it didn't look perfect......

The rest of the week was good, had various lessons over the phone and face-time. Picked up a new investigator but not sure if she's just taking lessons to try and get free money or if she's actually interested. We got 2 investigators to come to church not for the first time, but they both hadn't gone in months....yesterday was my first time meeting the branch in person, last Sunday it was over zoom....we walk into the church building and the branch president asked if I could speak so I just introduced my self and then talked about Ether 12:27....basically it talks about how God gives us weaknesses, and he will make us strong if we humble ourselves and come unto him.....verses 4 and 6 are also fire, if you haven't read that chapter in awhile you should reread it sometime.....

I didn't say too much about my mission president last email, but basically he played college football and maybe some semi pro or something so every time he speaks to us he talks about football and how raw he was back in the day, kind of like how my dad always talks about being a pilot.....my mission president will be having a very spiritual talk and then say how much he could bench in his prime or how he could out jump all the other guys on his team lol, my companion says he needs to be more humble, but I love it, and it's awesome because I dont think he means to do it....like he just subconsciously has to always talk about his football days....

We had exchanges this week so I left my area and slept in the zone leaders house while one of them came down and stayed in my apartment with my companion....the elders room I switched with is pretty funny, he has tons of Confederate flags and belt buckles in his room and the other zone leader is black, so I wonder what was happening while all that was set up haha.....also 500 (a nic-name for another missionary) said he could have played as the snapper for the university of Utah's football team but he decided to go on a mission....not sure if that is factual...keep in mind he's 5'8 and like 170 lbs.....anyway that's all I can think of right now....adios!

At Home MTC - 6 Weeks - DONE!

Lawson made it through the process of at home Missionary Training at home.

In part he was studying Spanish, in hopes to eventually make it to his actual mission call destination:

Puebla, Mexico!

Currently he is serving in St. Louis, Missouri.

He had a happy mission miracle when our Orlando, FL Temple opened up for live endowments just 

days before he was to leave.

The temple opened for a private session for Lawson, and 16 guests,

it was very last minute, but we were able to get a few special friends to join us.

If you are interested in following Elder Christensen's mission growth and adventures over the next two years, please subscribe with your email address, you will receive an email confirmation,

and you will be good to go.