hello my family and my friends!
what a fast week this has been. sounds like everyone else had their share of interesting this week too. This has been a very unusual week. tuesday, we went down to our district leader's area for a trade-off and had a fun time with them. i ended up spending the day with the DL's comp and we pretty much tracted and did follow-up visits all day. it was fun. then we stayed the night there again, and got up at 2:30 am the next morning so we could be on time for our train at 4 that would take us down to brisbane where we were having zone conference/mission tour with Elder Hamula of the area presidency/seventy. it was so good. very insightful. he's very knowledgable. one of the things that i really liked that he said, that has applied to me on occasion, and to almost everyone, is "if you say, 'thats just how i am, i cant change' you are damning yourself." pretty strong language i know, but i think the missionaries needed to hear that, because after the meeting, everyone was like, "man, that smashed me..." so it was really good for the mission. then we spent all day traveling home, missed our dinner appointment by 2 hours, ended uip with the last yucks from k-fry, and went to sleep ASAP when we got home. it was a LONG day. but it was a good day too. then we spent most of friday getting ready for becky's baptism, since everyone else was gone to the youth temple trip, including Becky's daughter, Tarsh. so then saturday everything seemed to fall apart. except the baptism. but we had like 4 other appointments during the day, all of them cancelled, and i just sorta flipped out... i get so stressed around baptisms... there's so much to do, and it seems like everyone just turns their phones off or goes walkabout at just the time i need to talk to them. it is ever so frustrating. so needless to say, everyone just saying sorry, cant do it on saturday just pushed me over the edge... i just went and had a long talk to God, took a nap, squared my shoulders and went out again. we got emma to come to the baptism, and the baptism itself went well... besides the fact that Becky is deathly afraid of water going over her head, and the first time i baptized her, her elbow was still up... so doing it the second time, she was a little freaked out, but she went all the way under, and it went good. Emma really enjoyed it too. it was good. so then yesterday, we had church, and Emma AND Bill came. finally! Emma really enjoyed it, and Bill liked the gospel essentials class. it was good. and Elder Nai confirmed becky too! it was a good day. then we were able to have lessons with becky and bill and emma after church, and make it to our dinner appointment on time too. it was good. :D so now i'll just be working my tail off to make sure Elder Nai has people to teach when i go, and not leave him with nothing. so we'll see how it all goes. but thats pretty much been the week. its been good. and i'm out of time, so i'll talk to yous later!
love you all so much!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
Musings of an LDS Millenial
Monday, March 21, 2011
March 13--Spring Ahead
hello my family and my friends!
im short on time this week, there were lots of emails, and i had to take that quiz thingy...[for BYUI] im glad everyone had a good week! mine was pretty good. found some new people, taught some lessons... sorta. we are teaching becky all the lessons again, but she's had them twice, plus the times when her daughter took them. so we've been having her teach us, which has been really good. all we do is make sure she understands everything, and we just fill in the gaps. its been good. one thing that sorta made my week, was that yesterday we had ward conference, and the stake president got up and talked about the missionaries in the gympie ward for like 5 minutes, and had nothing but praise for us both, as well as me specifically- i dont really know the stake president, but he must have talked to my zone leaders because he mentioned a few things that he could not have known just from our brief meetings... so that made my day/week. besides that we also had a bon fire for a ward activity, and we got Emma to come. not bill though, he had to work... it was kinda a bummer. but she really enjoyed it. i also made cookies because they had a priesthood bake-off... it was kinda funny. didnt win, but got "honorary" 1st place or something like that... :P anyway, thats pretty much the week. sorry this one is short.
ok i love you all!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
im short on time this week, there were lots of emails, and i had to take that quiz thingy...[for BYUI] im glad everyone had a good week! mine was pretty good. found some new people, taught some lessons... sorta. we are teaching becky all the lessons again, but she's had them twice, plus the times when her daughter took them. so we've been having her teach us, which has been really good. all we do is make sure she understands everything, and we just fill in the gaps. its been good. one thing that sorta made my week, was that yesterday we had ward conference, and the stake president got up and talked about the missionaries in the gympie ward for like 5 minutes, and had nothing but praise for us both, as well as me specifically- i dont really know the stake president, but he must have talked to my zone leaders because he mentioned a few things that he could not have known just from our brief meetings... so that made my day/week. besides that we also had a bon fire for a ward activity, and we got Emma to come. not bill though, he had to work... it was kinda a bummer. but she really enjoyed it. i also made cookies because they had a priesthood bake-off... it was kinda funny. didnt win, but got "honorary" 1st place or something like that... :P anyway, thats pretty much the week. sorry this one is short.
ok i love you all!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
Monday, March 7, 2011
March Progress
hello my family and my friends!
well, this has been a very interesting week. it was pretty slow to begin with, but the last couple days were pretty hectic. it all started on thursday. we were a little late leaving the flat after lunch, and i was a little grumpy with myself for being slow, but as we said the prayer to leave the flat, i felt calm, and i was thinking about what order we would see people in, and the thought that we should go see the H.'s (less active family) first was strongly impressed on my mind. so we went there first. Good thing too. we go to visit them at work, because they live really far out of town. turned out sis. H. was on the verge of breaking down. she was over-exerting, and her daughter j. had recently been through a very traumatic experience, and was not handling it well. she asked us to come around on Saturday to give her a blessing, and we agreed. and then she just talked to us. i dont know what happened exactly, but it seems pretty intense. so we just helped her off-load and then we went and took care of out other errands. then we drove down to kawana waters (and hours drive), and stayed the night, and then elder Jensen (DL) and I went to the leadership training meeting. far out. i know why i was never in leadership. those leaders are intense, and they're like the best teachers ever. i got smashed by them! it was a little scary how inadequate i was feeling. it was a good introspection opportunity though and i have made several goals for myself to achieve before the end of my mission. so that was good. then it took us 3.5 hours to get back to kawana waters from brisbane, because we had to pick up bikes for me, cause gympie doesnt have any, and then crutches for another missionary in the district, and then it was pouring rain, and peak traffic. it was yuck. it should only have taken us an hour to get back. we ended up having to cancel our appointments before 6, and then i got to drive for an hour in more peak traffic, with heavy rain, and a trailer with bikes in it. that was fun. that was friday. then saturday we did our weekly planning, and went and gave the blessing to j.. it was kinda a cool experience. i got to be voice, and i was praying hard to be the mouthpiece of God for j., and i felt the spirit so strongly while i gave the blessing. i felt kinda like how Richard explained it to me- i could FEEL what God wanted me to say, but then i had to put it into words. that was the first time that i really felt that. it was really cool, and they were all very grateful. so i set them up with the bishop and a few other people that they trust in the ward, to really get the ball rolling to help j., and the family recover. so i felt very helpful. then that night, we had dinner with b.. it was such a good visit. if you remember i told yous about her when i first got to gympie- she's the one with multiple personalities (17) and who pretty much is a dry mormon. we've been trying to help her decide to get baptized for ages. like over 6 months. so finally after dinner, on our way out, she gave a tie to elder Nai (i already have one from her) and told him he had to wear it in 2 weeks, and that i did too. she'd been going on about what she was going to do in 2 weeks all night, and i had just thought it had something to do with me going home or something, but we finally asked what she was going to do in 2 weeks, and she said "i dont want to go through any more missionaries." at first i thought she was dropping us, and then i realized what she meant as she said,"so i'm getting baptized in 2 weeks. the 19th." i was in shock. i was totally speechless. i had NOT been expecting that. so that was pretty sweet. she was like, i need 2 weeks, because i'll have both kids with me in 2 weeks, and i have to stop smoking for 7 days, so i have some medication and the 15 step program, and i'm going to do them. and then she pulled out her own copy of preach my gospel, told us she read the whole thing, and then told us that she would be able to answer all the interview questions. shock again. i think i might actually hit my 4 baptisms goal. we have a few other people lined up, that we just need to commit. hopefully it goes well. i'm way excited. so that was pretty much the week.
anyway, times up, gotta go. i love you all so much! have a good week!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
ps- mum, thanks for taking care of college stuff, its really taken a load off of me. really appreciate it. love you!
well, this has been a very interesting week. it was pretty slow to begin with, but the last couple days were pretty hectic. it all started on thursday. we were a little late leaving the flat after lunch, and i was a little grumpy with myself for being slow, but as we said the prayer to leave the flat, i felt calm, and i was thinking about what order we would see people in, and the thought that we should go see the H.'s (less active family) first was strongly impressed on my mind. so we went there first. Good thing too. we go to visit them at work, because they live really far out of town. turned out sis. H. was on the verge of breaking down. she was over-exerting, and her daughter j. had recently been through a very traumatic experience, and was not handling it well. she asked us to come around on Saturday to give her a blessing, and we agreed. and then she just talked to us. i dont know what happened exactly, but it seems pretty intense. so we just helped her off-load and then we went and took care of out other errands. then we drove down to kawana waters (and hours drive), and stayed the night, and then elder Jensen (DL) and I went to the leadership training meeting. far out. i know why i was never in leadership. those leaders are intense, and they're like the best teachers ever. i got smashed by them! it was a little scary how inadequate i was feeling. it was a good introspection opportunity though and i have made several goals for myself to achieve before the end of my mission. so that was good. then it took us 3.5 hours to get back to kawana waters from brisbane, because we had to pick up bikes for me, cause gympie doesnt have any, and then crutches for another missionary in the district, and then it was pouring rain, and peak traffic. it was yuck. it should only have taken us an hour to get back. we ended up having to cancel our appointments before 6, and then i got to drive for an hour in more peak traffic, with heavy rain, and a trailer with bikes in it. that was fun. that was friday. then saturday we did our weekly planning, and went and gave the blessing to j.. it was kinda a cool experience. i got to be voice, and i was praying hard to be the mouthpiece of God for j., and i felt the spirit so strongly while i gave the blessing. i felt kinda like how Richard explained it to me- i could FEEL what God wanted me to say, but then i had to put it into words. that was the first time that i really felt that. it was really cool, and they were all very grateful. so i set them up with the bishop and a few other people that they trust in the ward, to really get the ball rolling to help j., and the family recover. so i felt very helpful. then that night, we had dinner with b.. it was such a good visit. if you remember i told yous about her when i first got to gympie- she's the one with multiple personalities (17) and who pretty much is a dry mormon. we've been trying to help her decide to get baptized for ages. like over 6 months. so finally after dinner, on our way out, she gave a tie to elder Nai (i already have one from her) and told him he had to wear it in 2 weeks, and that i did too. she'd been going on about what she was going to do in 2 weeks all night, and i had just thought it had something to do with me going home or something, but we finally asked what she was going to do in 2 weeks, and she said "i dont want to go through any more missionaries." at first i thought she was dropping us, and then i realized what she meant as she said,"so i'm getting baptized in 2 weeks. the 19th." i was in shock. i was totally speechless. i had NOT been expecting that. so that was pretty sweet. she was like, i need 2 weeks, because i'll have both kids with me in 2 weeks, and i have to stop smoking for 7 days, so i have some medication and the 15 step program, and i'm going to do them. and then she pulled out her own copy of preach my gospel, told us she read the whole thing, and then told us that she would be able to answer all the interview questions. shock again. i think i might actually hit my 4 baptisms goal. we have a few other people lined up, that we just need to commit. hopefully it goes well. i'm way excited. so that was pretty much the week.
anyway, times up, gotta go. i love you all so much! have a good week!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen
ps- mum, thanks for taking care of college stuff, its really taken a load off of me. really appreciate it. love you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)