hello family and friends!
well, its been a crazy week, but its been a good one. we had the mission christmas party yesterday, which is why i didnt email yesterday, but it was really good, very fun, and i got your package! :D anyway, i have little time to write this email, but i need to set up whats going to happen for Christmas call! so the family who's letting us use their phone, asked if we could do skype, which we asked president if we could, and he said yes, we can, so thats an option. we can also do the conference call if that works better for everyone, i'm not too bothered either way. just email me back soon, and i'll just buy the phone card, and if i dont need, i'll just give it to another missionary for mother's day. so i'll check my email briefly before i call home. also, i will be calling on Chirstmas day for yous. which is the 26th for me. so i'm looking forward to talking to yous! quick investigator update- jade came to church this week, which was awsesome, he's pretty keen. so we'll have a lesson with him this week. :D ok, thats about it. oh! had a good experience with answers to prayer this week. i've been driving the car around lately to learn the area faster, and it's working good, but i havent driven since forest lake- like 9 months ago, so i was a lil rusty... but i went around another car by going up on the angle curb, but failed to miss the big hole on the other side of it, i scraped the bottom of the bumpers... ya... no visual damage done, but when we stopped the car, there was a very fast drip coming from the bottom of the car, and i flipped a switch... so we called the car coordinator, he told us to take it in the next day, then we stuck a bucket under the car over night to see what it was... it was just watery, so we figured it was coolant from the radiator... ugh. but all night and that morning i was praying that it would be a quick fix because we had a lot of appointments that day in the morning, so we told the car co. everything, then he called half way through the car ride but i didnt hear it... but we were driving on the motorway, and i felt prompted to turn off the AC and just roll the windows down... radiator problem i thought. so the car co. left a message that he thought it might just be the condensation from the AC dripping from the bottom, which would be completely normal... well i checked under the car, and with no AC on, there was nothing dripping from the bottom! :D prayer answered. we wasted a few K's but it was worth it. i obviously needed a little lesson on prayer, and that was a good way to teach it. anyway, thats just a few highlights from the week. i'll talk to you on chirstmas though! :D love you all so much!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
Musings of an LDS Millenial
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
December
hello my family and my friends!
this has been such a crazy week! firstly becasue it rained. and rained. and rained some more. its raining right now. not that i mind the rain here. its warm! nothing like oregon rain. but i suppose its more like the winters that i know, so it SORT OF feels a bit more like christmas than it did last year at this time. i keep walking in to people's houses and seeing their trees up, and going, oh ya, it's christmas time... yay. its just so weird with it NOT being cold. i'm kinda glad i wont live here forever, but at the same time, i think christmas next year would be fun to come here! we'll see though. anyway, sounds like everyone had a good week. Dad, i totally feel your pain with being sick but being uber busy. its no fun. although, i'm probably not as busy as you, but there are some days when i feel like it'll take a miracle to get me through the day. especially the days when we're on the bikes. but i survive, every day. honestly dad, in response to your questions, i'm tired. i always try to not be worn out, or at least act like i'm not wearing out, but i feel like giving up some days and just sleeping for a week. Its pretty hard sometimes too, having the motivation to get up and go to work in the mornings, in light of the fact that i havent had a single baptism for the entirety of 2010. and now, i feel like i'm running out of time. the end of the year seems like it's my cut-off point, even though i have until the end of march. so that's what is REALLY going on inside my head. i know that being a sower is just as important as being a reaper, but sometimes i just wish the reapers would let me help once in a while. but while all this runs around my head sometimes, i have nothing to complain about. i certainly didnt expect my mission to be a "bowl of peaches," so all things considered, i am still very blessed to be here, and i feel the lord's blessing every day. it is ALWAYS there. my patriarchal blessing instructs me to "trust in the lord. do not doubt him, or fear." i've learned that these are quite serious instructions, and they're not always easy to follow, but when i follow them, i have NEVER been let down. and so it has been a week full of blessings. first off, nearly everyone who even sort of knows me in the ward, said happy birthday to me yesterday at church, so that made me feel good. then this last week, we were tracting, and i've been really working on getting out of my timid ways while tracting, and had a chance to be bold. i knocked on a door, and no one answered, but we could hear them around back of the house- normally i feel like i'm intruding walking around to the back of someone's house, so i normally dont, but that day i just felt like i had had enough of being afraid of people. the message i share is more important than whatever they're doing. so i walked around the back of the house, and there were 2 men and a woman, and a little boy. one of the men and the woman are partners, and the boy is their son, and the other man was a friend of theirs. and they were suprisingly warm and friendly, and even though at first all of them said they werent that interested, all of them perked up at some point, as they allowed us to teach their almost 8-y-o son the first lesson. then, the dad, who was very atheist volunteered to take his son to church not this week but next week, and they invited us back for another lesson this week! so that was good. that was probably the best thing that happened all week. the other awesome thing that happened, was that we went to a family called the Wolffs for dinner this week, and they had a good referral for us that from the sounds of it, is golden. so we're excited to be able to teach her, but the other thing was that Bro. Wolff is a physio! but he's not just a physio, but apparently one of the best in Australia, and FINALLY someone told me what was wrong with my back! basically, all the joints in my back got sprained when i had the open heart surgery, and all my muscles got "confused" and then tightened up, and then i subconciously favored those parts of my back, and now they're all out of wack, and my back muscles are significantly weaker than they should be, and way too tight. so he gave me some stretches to do, and recomended this thing called a thoracic back extension rack. he had one at his house, and i tried it- basically its just an arched piece of plastic with two ridges on it, and you lay on it, and it digs into the muscles and loosens them up. he said that its the best thing out there for this type of problem, and is supposed to be used basically for the rest of my life. intitially, every day, but once i actually start to heal up, it'll peter out to about once a month. it costs something like $150 australian to get one, but for a lifetime tool, i think it's not too much, so i asked him to order one for me, and i'd pay for it. but i wanted to run it past yous, especially dad, first. so just let me know. i want to fix my back asap. and bro. wolff is also giving me free physio sessions starting in a couple weeks to help me heal up completely. its awesome! then on saturday, there was district leader council, so elder prina went to that with the other DL and the zone leaders for the Gold Coast zone, and i went on a trade off with the other comp. they're the chinese missionaries in gold coast, and they had a lesson, so we went to it, and i pretty much just sat there, cause the lesson was in chinese, so i didnt know what was going on, but apparently it was a good lesson. anyway, that was pretty much the week. not too much else exciting happened. just hoping to find, teach and baptize someone ASAP! your prayers would be much appreciated. :D anyway, i hope yous have an amazing week! i love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
this has been such a crazy week! firstly becasue it rained. and rained. and rained some more. its raining right now. not that i mind the rain here. its warm! nothing like oregon rain. but i suppose its more like the winters that i know, so it SORT OF feels a bit more like christmas than it did last year at this time. i keep walking in to people's houses and seeing their trees up, and going, oh ya, it's christmas time... yay. its just so weird with it NOT being cold. i'm kinda glad i wont live here forever, but at the same time, i think christmas next year would be fun to come here! we'll see though. anyway, sounds like everyone had a good week. Dad, i totally feel your pain with being sick but being uber busy. its no fun. although, i'm probably not as busy as you, but there are some days when i feel like it'll take a miracle to get me through the day. especially the days when we're on the bikes. but i survive, every day. honestly dad, in response to your questions, i'm tired. i always try to not be worn out, or at least act like i'm not wearing out, but i feel like giving up some days and just sleeping for a week. Its pretty hard sometimes too, having the motivation to get up and go to work in the mornings, in light of the fact that i havent had a single baptism for the entirety of 2010. and now, i feel like i'm running out of time. the end of the year seems like it's my cut-off point, even though i have until the end of march. so that's what is REALLY going on inside my head. i know that being a sower is just as important as being a reaper, but sometimes i just wish the reapers would let me help once in a while. but while all this runs around my head sometimes, i have nothing to complain about. i certainly didnt expect my mission to be a "bowl of peaches," so all things considered, i am still very blessed to be here, and i feel the lord's blessing every day. it is ALWAYS there. my patriarchal blessing instructs me to "trust in the lord. do not doubt him, or fear." i've learned that these are quite serious instructions, and they're not always easy to follow, but when i follow them, i have NEVER been let down. and so it has been a week full of blessings. first off, nearly everyone who even sort of knows me in the ward, said happy birthday to me yesterday at church, so that made me feel good. then this last week, we were tracting, and i've been really working on getting out of my timid ways while tracting, and had a chance to be bold. i knocked on a door, and no one answered, but we could hear them around back of the house- normally i feel like i'm intruding walking around to the back of someone's house, so i normally dont, but that day i just felt like i had had enough of being afraid of people. the message i share is more important than whatever they're doing. so i walked around the back of the house, and there were 2 men and a woman, and a little boy. one of the men and the woman are partners, and the boy is their son, and the other man was a friend of theirs. and they were suprisingly warm and friendly, and even though at first all of them said they werent that interested, all of them perked up at some point, as they allowed us to teach their almost 8-y-o son the first lesson. then, the dad, who was very atheist volunteered to take his son to church not this week but next week, and they invited us back for another lesson this week! so that was good. that was probably the best thing that happened all week. the other awesome thing that happened, was that we went to a family called the Wolffs for dinner this week, and they had a good referral for us that from the sounds of it, is golden. so we're excited to be able to teach her, but the other thing was that Bro. Wolff is a physio! but he's not just a physio, but apparently one of the best in Australia, and FINALLY someone told me what was wrong with my back! basically, all the joints in my back got sprained when i had the open heart surgery, and all my muscles got "confused" and then tightened up, and then i subconciously favored those parts of my back, and now they're all out of wack, and my back muscles are significantly weaker than they should be, and way too tight. so he gave me some stretches to do, and recomended this thing called a thoracic back extension rack. he had one at his house, and i tried it- basically its just an arched piece of plastic with two ridges on it, and you lay on it, and it digs into the muscles and loosens them up. he said that its the best thing out there for this type of problem, and is supposed to be used basically for the rest of my life. intitially, every day, but once i actually start to heal up, it'll peter out to about once a month. it costs something like $150 australian to get one, but for a lifetime tool, i think it's not too much, so i asked him to order one for me, and i'd pay for it. but i wanted to run it past yous, especially dad, first. so just let me know. i want to fix my back asap. and bro. wolff is also giving me free physio sessions starting in a couple weeks to help me heal up completely. its awesome! then on saturday, there was district leader council, so elder prina went to that with the other DL and the zone leaders for the Gold Coast zone, and i went on a trade off with the other comp. they're the chinese missionaries in gold coast, and they had a lesson, so we went to it, and i pretty much just sat there, cause the lesson was in chinese, so i didnt know what was going on, but apparently it was a good lesson. anyway, that was pretty much the week. not too much else exciting happened. just hoping to find, teach and baptize someone ASAP! your prayers would be much appreciated. :D anyway, i hope yous have an amazing week! i love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Crazy Week-Dec 2 Post
Hello family and friends!
well, this has been a VERY interesting week. Elder Prina is the new district leader, and he's been doing very well, he's so humble, but he knows his responsibilities, and does his best to execute them. We have had some better luck this week, with teaching people, we met most of our goals, and had some good laughs on the way. we also had our share of disappointment, but at least it wasnt more than our share. and it soudns like everyone had a good thanksgiving this week! man, yous are lucky, 2 dinners in a row. Guess what i had for thanksgiving dinner? Pizza. Australians really dont get the whole "feast" thing- turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, the lot. Pizza. :P it was actually a good dinner, and the family that fed us were a less-active part-member family that was moving to brisbane the next morning, so we cut them some slack on that one. oh dad, i had some questions for you, first, Elder Prina came out from Provo, and wants to know where you lived when you were in high school, and i need to know what the name of your Mission was, and the years you served. if you could let me know in your next email, that would be great :). well, this week was, as i said before, Very interesting. it started with a visit that we made to a potential investigator's home. we biked hard to get there, and it started pouring rain on the way, so we got there and we were soaked, then she wasnt there, but her less-active partner was, so we talked to him, and then she showed up, but she wouldnt talk to us, and her partner didnt really know what was up, so she gave us the cold shoulder, and we had to leave, so we were biking back, still wet, and now frustrated, and we were on a pretty busy road, and as i was biking, trying to make it back to our flat on time, out of nowhere, i got blind-sided in the face by a flying bottle, thrown from a very fast-moving car. luckily, it was plastic, so all it really did was startle me. But usually stuff like that makes me mad, and i cant stop thinking aboiut it, and things i'd like to do to that person for like a week, but for some reason i just laughed, and went back to what i was thinking about before that. later, i was reminded of Peter, when he rejoiced that he was able to suffer for the cause of Christ. and i thought, ya. i'm taking some very small things for Christ's sake, and really, its not that bad. the other really interesting thing that happened this week was that we went on trade-offs with the zone leaders, and we taught this lady, whose son is a former investigator, and he was there, but he didnt sit in on the lesson, but he could hear what we were saying from where he was. for most of the time, i was watching him, and he was listening intently, and i could tell that he was feeling the spirit. then i had to use the toilet, and when i came back, his entire countenance had changed, and he was now staring at the fellowship that we brought, with this kind of evil smirk on his face, and his entire body tensed up. it was kinda scary. we found out from him, and from his mum, that and evil spirit possessed him occasionally, and that it had been gone for a few months now, but as he said it, "I was feeling the spirit. thats why HE came." it was kinda scary, but at the same time, i could still feel the influence of the Spirit, so all feelings of fear were gone. Elder Jensen, the zone leader i was with, said that he would bring some people over later, and they would give him a blessing, and get rid of the evil spirit, and the guy was very grateful, and even agreed to come to church the next day. that was cool. but that was pretty much the week. i hope all has gone well for you, and that you all have a good week! I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
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