Monday, February 28, 2011

Good bye February

hello family and friends!
well this week has been a good week. we were able to get a lot of work done, and are starting to move forward with a few people. it has been a good work week though. first off, i'm sure you're all wondering about the baptism. well. we had a lesson with Edward this last week on wednesday, and it went really well. we just went over the rest of the commandments, the baptismal interview questions, and then made a baptism program. he asked me to baptize him :D. so i did. the baptism was on saturday at one o'clock, and it was a very spiritual experience. i enjoyed it, and when edward and i were changing he kept saying how happy and light he felt. then, that morning i was trying to decide which video to show while we were getting changed, and remembered the John tanner story on the new D&C DVD. so we watched that and Edward and I walked in with enough of it left to figure out what was going on and be there for the real tear jerking part. the spirit was so strong and there was not a dry eye in the meeting. it was so good. i'm excited to keep working. and Elder N. is progressing very quickly. i was so scared i would run into some pride issues with him, but he's been very humble, and has the attitude of obedience, and learning. so i've really enjoyed that. it sounds like everyone else had a good week too! Anna, what a great experience that workshop. i'm sure that will have an impact on the rest of your life. you asked how to be a good missionary. i think you were talking about study... well the best way to study missionary work is to just look for all the missionary everything in the scriptures, and then when you read Preach My Gospel, its good to know the lessons, but since you probably wont be teaching full lessons, chapter 1 and 2 are the best, where you study your purpose as a missionary and then study how to study. those are good chapters. those are the only ones new missionaries are allowed to read for the first 3 months in the ABM [Australia Brisbane Mission] as well. so that would be a good start. I'm sure Dad and BJ and Richard could give you some good suggestions as well. Anyway, times up, i've got to go. i love you all so much! have a good week.
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Happy Single-Awareness Day!

Hello Family and Friends!
this has been a very interesting week for me. we were able to teach Edward again on saturday, and again on monday. the baptismal date is still on for this saturday! there's a lot of logistics that i have to sort out though, so hopefully it all goes well. the other investigators havent really made heaps of progress but they're doing alright. we're having a lesson with cameron and naomi today, and emma and bill are happening sometime later in the week. um... we did some service this week too... i got to use a CHAIN SAW! it made my day. thats pretty much it. nothing too much exciting during the week. the weekend however, and the last few days have been absolutely crazy! as you are probably aware, it was transfers this week, and although i was hoping elder Itaea would kill me off, he got transferred. we found out on sunday night. so we spent monday packing and going to see everyone in the ward so he could say good bye. then at 10 pm on monday the APs called me... they asked me to bring some extra clothes so i could stay an extra day in brisbane... that only means ONE thing... and i knew what it meant so i freaked out a little... so we went to transfers yesterday, and it sounded something like this: "Elder Christensen as been serving in Gympie with Elder Itaea. Elder Christensen will continue serving in gympie with...... a... trainee." so normally trainees dont come in at all until wednesday, and trainers dont pick them up until wednesday night. however, i got a call after transfers that the missionaries coming from the New Zealand MTC actually had already arrived and the one i was training was in that group, so i went to mission home, met him, and then we drove back to gympie. which by the way, is a 2.5 hour drive. anyway. his name is Elder Nai, he's samoan, but he's from sydney. he's awesome. humble as. love it. so this last transfer i dont really have a choice. I HAVE to do and be my best. so prayers in my direction would be very helpful! :D ok well, thats all the exciting news for the week. i love you all so much! thank you for all that you are doing! have a good week. this church is true. i know it is. because i'm the happiest i have ever been in my life. love you all!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Good bye January

hello family and friends!
haha, i love how i get on to read all the emails, and when i go back to my inbox to read the next one, theres a new one at the top, and then that happens twice. makes my day. :D ok, well i tried to read fast so that i could write in a bit more detail. this week was so good. not in numbers, just in awesomeness. Australia day was on wednesday- something like the 4th of july, except not. we were meant to proselyte that day, which we did... in Tin Can Bay. which is kinda a resort town, but we have a few members that live there, and we did some tracting, and then had a lunch-dinner party thing with some members of the ward- i played cricket for the first time... its harder than it looks, but i thought it was still just as boring as it looks... probably wont play again... unless yous all want to learn... ya. but it was fun anyway cause we just mocked each other the whole time, and it was fun. then on thursday, we had interviews and training. my interview with president was short. i only had a few questions for him, and he got all the information about the area from Elder Itaea. so it was quick, in and out. and i also had a temple recommend interview after all the other interviews were done. so i have another one. but its only good until june or something like that. so dad, book me in for another temple recommend interview soon after i get home! :D anyway, the training was REALLY good. the zone leaders gave a mean training. i had the opportunity to do some real plays with some newer missionaries, and was very entertained both by their greeness and by their amazement at how elder Itaea and I teach... its really nothing special, we just applied what we were taught like 2 minutes before that. i kinda like being an "old" missionary. except for the fact that everyone tends to remind me how close i am to going home... not helpful when i'm trying to focus everything on the work. but hey, whatever, i gave LOTS of old fogie missionaries crap for going home soon, so its about time that i copped it. hmm... oh, we had a lesson with cameron and Naomi this week. it was good... there was a serious lack to question asking though, and therefore a lack of the spirit... it was sad... i left non-plussed. however, they came to church yesterday, and seemed to enjoy it- however, i will NEVER sit in the back of the chapel with an investigator again. so much noise. anyway. we did heaps of tracting this week, and also did some service, helping some recent converts move house. it was good, i havent met them before and they're really cool. um... what else. went to poached baptism yesterday.... lady living in my area, being taught by the zone leaders... grr... oh well, she had really good fellowship down there, and is down there more often than up here... but they asked us to come so that we could introduce ourselves to her, and get her to get confirmed in Gympie ward next week... she straight up said no, but we are going to see her tomorrow. so hopefully we'll be able to convince her. so that was pretty much all the missionary stuff that happened this week. we went out to tin can bay again this morning to feed the dolphins... unfortunately you have to get in the water to do it, so we just ended up taking pictures of other people feeding them, which was still good, i got some good ones.



the best thing, is that we started doing all of our follow-up visits/calls yesterday, and we have like a bajillion lessons set for the coming week. hopefully we'll be able to make some significant numeric progress. i still have 4 baptisms to go with almost exactly 2 months to go. i'll get them. i know i will. got some REALLY good potentials this week. anyway, i am so happy to be here! i have been blessed with the spirit so abundantly this week! Dad, its true what you say- on the mission God had you over the fire, and does all the pounding there, and the sharpening and honing come later. but i love it here. i love everything i have learned. i KNOW the church is true. i KNOW the book of mormon is true. no doubts. the priesthood of God is on the earth, and the members of this church are the sole possesors of it. we have all the keys needed for salvation. no other church can claim that. this is it. and guess how i know it? not because i've been "indoctrinated" from childhood, not because mum and dad have testimonies, not even because i'm a missonary. its because the holy ghost whispered to me that this is true, and I do NOT have to rely on ANY earthly evidences whether it be man's word or text to know, that what i teach is true, and that it brings the only true and lasting joy you can have. i love it. :D
ok, well, i'm out of time. i love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

ps- ran into some JW's the other day- had a good conversation with them about their "literal" translation of the bible as opposed to our "loose" translation of the bible... then i showed them in their bible the word "marshmallow" (job 6:6- compare it, its funny) and was then very entertained as they tried to explain that one, especially when they concluded that it must be some type of plant. :D ended the conversation as quick as i could after that. anyway. just thought it was funny.

you are GOLDEN

hello my family and my friends!
well, it has been a very good week this week. we had a lot of lessons and we found a few new people to teach! so it has been a very good week. we found a young couple called Emma and Bill. we just tracted into them, and they thought we were J-Dubs, so they started to just tell us they werent interested, and then they started asking us questions, and then they invited us in once they found out that we were mormons, and that we werent trying to force them into anything. so, emma is only 17 and bill's not much older, and both of them have have had very little if any religious instruction. they really enjoyed the message of the restoration, and they had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation, so we gave them sort of a movie trailer of the plan of salvation, which really got their attention, and then told them we had to go, and we'd have to schedule another appointment- they wanted us to come back ASAP so we went back 2 days later, and taught the plan of salvation. they really liked that, and it answered all of their questions. we invited them to church, but they werent able to come. but they said that they would love to come next week. they decided that they really liked us, so last night they also invited us to a bon fire at their house... but we met one of their friends who's pretty much in the same boat they are, and who we were able to talk to about the gospel, and now they're interested too. so its all good. :) then the really big thing that happened this week was a guy called Edward. he's the boyfriend of a recent convert, and he's GOLDEN! he has already read most of the Gospel principles book, and prayed about it and received an answer.(!!!!!) so when we taught the restoration, he was like, ya that all makes sense, i believe that. then we asked him to read the book of mormon and pray about it, which he readily accepted. then the coolest part happened. we usually try to get the investigator to pray on the first lesson we have them. its usually not very easy to do, but in this case, before we go to that, Edward was like, "i feel like i want to pray to close this up... is that ok?" after getting over the shock, we were both like, yes! yes! that is DEFINITELY ok! please! so he prayed. and it wasnt anything special, it had no flowery language, but it was heartfelt and sincere, and the spirit was present. it was awesome. we then set a baptisimal date with him for the 19th of february! :D :D YES!!!!!!!! i am so excited. i've always wanted to teach someone who was golden. :D so its good. anyway, the rest of the week. i know all of you have hear about the massive cyclone that hit northern Qld. yes, it was massive. they're saying its rivaling or exceeding the strength of hurricane katrina. we still arent quite sure of the damage done, or the safety of the missionaries up there. we havent heard anything from our leaders. however, you have no need to worry about me. the cyclone didnt even come close, and it was far enough away that we're not even getting the low pressure front from it. so i'm all safe. i'll update you when i know what happened for sure up north. the weather down here though, has been so hot. and it's been like 1000% humidity. makes tracting mean something. it's great though, almost everyone we talk to offers us water. so we're staying hydrated! yesterday, we had a special training from president langeland and the APs. (thats why i'm late emailing yous) it was really good. president and sister langeland put together a slide show about joseph smith, and the qualities of a prophet, and how he exhibited each one, and gave specific examples. it was really good. then, the APs gave a training on committing investigators to pray, and read the book of mormon. we real-played it, and there was an odd number of companionships, so we got to real-play with president and sister Langeland. that was great. i was really nervous, but president langeland complimented me on my real play, so that was nice. :D thats pretty much been it. ok. well, thats all i can think of, so i'll wrap it up. i hope yous all have a great week! i know this is the true church, and i know that "a man can get nearer to God by abiding by it's precepts." the church is true. the book is blue. :D love yous!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen