Christmas Call is coming! (MOM's blog title!)

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

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

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

2 letters one day

Hello Family and Friends!
how is everyone? from your emails, sounds like everyone is back to normal, and not sick anymore, ya? Dad, i didnt have time to answer your questions last week, so i'll answer them now. yes, we have the 15 names program here, it's a world-wide program- unfortunately not many wards actually have a fully functional one, including Mudgeeraba. and as for who is senior companion, we're actually co-senior, so we're supposed to switch off weeks being senior comp, but we get along so well, that we just kinda dont have one senior comp, whoever has the better idea is the one that calls the shots. so it jumps back and forth between us multiple times a day. anyway, thats so exciting that the tree business is starting to take off! i hope it does well for sure, imma be broke after the mission! :P and yous are going to utah for thanksgiving! are you going to the gray's again?
My week has been... well... for lack of a better word, interesting. we were all over the place trying to contact everyone. it was so hard! no one seemed to be home, and i think i've lost weight for all the biking as fast as i can up hills, and whatnot. then, we set up 2 appointments for saturday, which were supposed to be really solid, in member's homes and everything, and then everything fell apart on us friday night- we're getting fed up with people around here, so we're just going to find some new investigators. p-day was fun last week though! we played baseball! it was fun, but a little sad, cause the sister i came in to the mission with was there for her last p-day. she's way cool, and today is transfer day, so tomorrow she goes home to new zealand. that leaves me as the ONLY one left from my intake! so since i go home earlier than i would have been, no elders will go home the transfer after i go home. oh well. thats probably good, cause the intake i go home with, theres like 20 of us, so that'll be a big hit the mission. speaking of transfers, we found out on sunday night that neither of us are getting transferred, so we'll be in mudgeeraba through christmas and new years! we're excited for that. i had a few kinda cool insights this week while studying though. one of them hit me pretty hard though. i was reading the last chapters of mosiah, about the sons of mosiah leaving on their mission to the lamanites. this time i looked a little deeper at what might have been going through their minds and through mosiah's mind. a few moments of looking a dates and events, i realized that mosiah sent his sons on a mission to people who were his enemies, and one year later, died, 13 years short of their arrival back in zarahemla. of course they must have known he was nearing the end of his life, as i'm sure he probably did too. i think of the missionaries who's parrents or other famiy members die while they are on their mission. how hard it is for them to stay on the mission! and for another 13 years! how difficult would that be for them? it helped me gain a deeper appreciation for the kind of men the sons of mosiah were, and mosiah himself. anyway, i have to go again, i'm being kicked off AGAIN. so i'll talk to yous next week!
Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

so i got kicked off earlier, so now i get to finish the email from this morning. after we got stood up this last weekend, we had a good day of church, we taught the lesson again in gospel essentials, and then had a good chat to neel prasad- the less-active guy whose wife and daughter are the ones we're trying to teach and baptize. then we had dinner at the Ryan's house. they're a way cool family, and they have a PING PONG table!!! i was so excited, and bro. ryan gave me a game, and i beat him in overtime! so i'm still not too bad at it, which means collin, you better watch out! :P then yesterday, we went out to visit a bunch of people, and it was raining all day, except for when we had to be on the bikes. it always seemed to stop for us. we even went to dinner, and as we pulled up, it was just starting to spit, and as soon as we were in the house, there was a massive cloud burst, and it went until about 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave, and then started again a couple minutes after we got home. it was sweet. many tender mercies. oh, last week we had someone back into our bikes while we were using the car, and they didnt leave a note or anything. the only damage was my front wheel was bent, and elder prina's back wheel was bent, the tire popped, and a spoke was broken, and we later found out, so was the gear thingy. so we carried our wheels to the shop, and had the guy take a look at them, and he had them until the next day in the arvo, when we got them back. that same day, we GQ'd an older guy who immediately just said that he would buy us a coffee, and talk to us, so we sat down with him, (dont worry we didnt actually get any coffee) and he "gave us 20 minutes." well turns out he's anglican, and he wants to teach us. so we talked to him for almost an hour. afterwards, Elder Prina asked me why i didnt say much, and i had to say because i couldnt think of anthing nice to say to this guy- he couldnt "accept a church that was based on the book of mormon and 'prophets.'" it was all i could do to counter that with how HIS church started... it was kinda frustrating... but kinda funny, and then the classic statement when the converstaion turned to politics- "Obama is doing wonders over there, he's such a good president." i wanted to spew. but we had a good laugh about it afterwards. anway, that was the week, so i'll talk to yous later! love yous!

love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

Some teaching! yae!

Hello my family and friends!

this has been a bit of a trying week, with lots of little tender mercies mixed in. yes, I still have my cough, unfortunately, but it hasnt affected me as badly as last time. i found that cough lollies (drops) work well for keeping the cough down, so i almost constantly have one in my mouth. i went through like 5 bags of them this week. it was kinda funny, but they worked well. also, my brakes on my bike pretty much didn't exist any more, so i had to replace them too. i'm SO glad i learned how to fix bikes- biking high adventures are a MUST for any young man planning on serving a mission. if you cant take care of your bike, you are stuffed! anyway, i also went on a trade-off with the district leader this week- Elder Paki. he's pretty cool, and his area extends down into New South Wales. so there's a round about that is half way in Queensland and half way in New south wales, and we drove around it like 6 times and i took video- funny thing is, NSW is on daylight savings, and QLD doesnt do daylight savings- so on the one half, it was 5 o'clock, and on the other, it was 4 o'clock. it was funny! if the video fits i'll attatch it to this email. and i'm sending that jump drive home soon, cause it's full! 4 GB of photos and videos! anyway, on a more serious note, we were finally able to teach people this week. we taught violet and her family this week- she's a fijian lady who is very spiritual, and also happens to be a pastor at some church in robina. but she committed to read the book of mormon, and to pray about it, and when we asked her if she would be baptized, assuming she got an answer that the book of mormon was true, she accepted! so we were happy about that. no date, but we can work with that. then, the same day, we had a lesson with the prasads- he's a less-active member, who is fijian-indian, and his wife and daughter are non-members- they've been taught before, but anny, the wife was always to preoccupied with her studies, so it never really went anywhere, but she's done now, so we asked if we could start teaching her and zinia (the daughter) again, which they accepted, so we taught the restoration, and it went well! we also had them come to church this week, and they've done that before, but they leave after the second hour- i think because anny is shy and doesnt want to go to RS by herself- but this week, one of the ladies in the ward came up to her after our gospel essentials class, and invited her to RS, and she went! and then after church, like every lady in RS was surrounding her, and talking to her and she was having so much fun! i was like, YES! answer to prayer! it was so good. yesterday we actually taught gospel essentials, and Elder's Quorum. and it was funny, mum, we were teaching about the Holy Ghost too! isnt that amazing how organized the church is? we're on opposite sides of the world, preparing the SAME LESSON! anyway, i'm being kicked off, so i have to cut this short... i love yous so much!

Love, Elder Tayler Christensen

Hello November

hello family and friends!
what a week this has been! Cara, i totally forgot to say happy birthday to you this last week! Happy Birthday! i hope it was a good birthday, and from the sounds of it, it was. and you turned 19! i turned 19 while i was at BYUI! it was awesome! and mum sounds like that convention thing was really good! lots big mormon names there. and larry's not doing too well is he? thats not good. hope he gets feeling better. i hope things continue to go well for you dad. soudns like being bishop is bringing you a lot joy, being able to help people, and be an answer to prayers. it always feels good when someone tells you that you are an answer to prayer.

anyway, this week was another frustrating week for me, everyone who we were going to teach baled on us. the sad thing is that they had like no remorse- they literally said, "i'll have to cancel on yous" without any explanation or excuses- ugh so annoying. common courtesy just doesn't seem to exhist anymore. oh well. but we did have a lesson with an inactive girl in the ward. she's the daughter of a couple that just recently became active again. she's been anti before, and hasnt ever really given church the time of day. but we started teaching her daughter the discussions (her daughter is only like 4, but it was a way to indirectly teach her mum). so ashleigh finally sat in on the lessons, and this last week she actually came to church! it was AWESOME!!! she even came to our gospel essentials class. it was way good. so hopefully we'll be able to get her back on track. we're excited to see what could come from that. besides that, i havent really had too much going on this week. it was Elder Prina's birthday on sunday, so that was fun. we just did something at the flat, and had cake and ice cream. it was really good. but that is basically all that happened this week. oh, and i have my cough back, so your prayers on my behalf would be greatly appreciated- i know you all pray for me regularly, and i am so thankful for that- i need all the help i can get. ok well, have a good week, i love you all!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

Re-dedicating

Hello My Family and my Friends!

Well, sounds like everyone has had a very fun week! my week was decent, and very spiritual for me. i learned a lot this week, and made a few decisions. so the first thing i know you'll want to hear about is whether or not the extension on my mission got approved- well i'll tell you about that. it's quite interesting. so after i asked president and told yous that i was trying to extend for as long as i could, i began to feel a bit uneasy and not sure it was the right thing to do. i began praying very hard to know if it was really the right thing to do, including in the celestial room in the temple. i didnt have any answer for a while, until friday morning. i was taking a shower of all things, when the answer came. see, i was expecting this spiritual experience with this, the way i usually feel the spirit- that is, with tingles up my spine and goosebumps and the works- what i kept failing to realize was that the spirit works in different ways, not only with different people, but with different times and answers in the same person's life. so im in the shower, and i'm thinking about it, weighing the pros and cons, and then out of nowhere this voice comes into my head- not my voice, which doesnt really happened when i'm thinking- and basically just said something like this: "i gave you your mission call when i gave it to you on purpose- i delayed you coming out because i needed to, but that doesnt mean you get an extension- come home when you're scheduled to come home." and that was that. i wont argue with God. so even though i would love to stay longer, i think God has other plans for me. this was the first time i'd ever felt like i was finally doing what my patriarchal blessing tells me to do- that is to constantly seek the lord's will concerning me throughout my life- finally i understood, and now i'm applying that to myself.

anyway, this week was kinda frustrating in the work side of things. we taught zero lessons to non-members this week, though not for lack of trying. everyone decided to cancel on us, or just not show up. the highlight of the week was the ward halloween party- the first "trunk or treat" party the Mudgeeraba ward has ever had. pretty cool. it was fun, and we got lots of good pictures. i'll have to get them off elder prina though, my camera was dead- oops. so that was fun. church was also pretty good, we had a good lesson about the priesthood in the gospel essentials class, which elder prina and I taught, so hopefully the 2 recent converts from last transfer will be all good with that. besides that, there's not a whole lot to report this week- it was just really frustrating, but elder prina is that man, and has managed to keep himself and me optimistic. i'm glad to be serving with him, it has really made my life easier, and has helped me recover from the stress of Emerald. anyway, thats the week. I love yous all so much! Cant wait to hear from you next week!

Love,

Elder Tayler Christensen

ps- i would attatch pictures this week, but the computers at the liabrary are retarded, and wont let me upload from my camera, so i have to go get a card reader- so there will be photos next week.

Photos from the Gold Coast--New Area

Week and a Half

Hello My Family and My Friends!
what a week and a half this has been (haha, get it? its actually been a week and a half... :P). anyway, it has been a long week. We started the week off pretty good, getting a lot of work done, but we weren't finding anyone, and it was starting to get really frustrating. so we were listening to a recording from Elder Prina's twin who is serving in hawaii, and he recorded almost the whole of a day he referred to as his "windows of heaven day." he basically left at 8am and tracted all day in the rain until 9pm. so we decided to do just that the next day on saturday. so we left at 8am and promptly got called by a less-active member to come help him move a desk. so we went over there, and he fed us breakfast, which was nice. then we spent the rest of the day tracting. we got a lot of weak potentials, the "ya sure, you can come back and see how the reading went" but we knocked on one lady's door, and shared a condensed restoration with her, and she was happy to have us come back this week. while we were at her door, she had a friend inside who lived in the same complex, and so when we finished the rest of the complex we saw that lady go back to her flat which we hadnt knocked yet, so we knocked it too. she came out, and was all excited to see us, we didnt even share anything with her, and she's already inviting us to come back and share the message with her! so we have an appointment with her tomorrow (thursday) and her friend at the same time. so we're really excited about that. well, you wanted to know about Elder prina- he's from detroit, MI but left from provo. he's a way cool guy, with lots of very fun quirks. he's like 6'2" and is a very hard worker. we have had so much fun together so far, and we're looking forward getting lots done this transfer. anyway, you were asking about the letter elder Purser wrote. yes, i knew about it, no, i didnt read it. it was obviously something meant for your eyes only. i had thought of writing a few of my companion's parents, but havent yet- it is a good idea though. and speaking of mail, my flat address, is 16 arbour ave. Robina, QLD 4226. i havent gotten mail in ages! please send lots! :D oh, and the reason the email is delayed this week, is because i got to go to the temple! and that always happens on wednesdays. also, we had interviews with president Langeland. i asked a lot of medical questions, to which he was very helpful, and then i asked a question i've been thinking about for a long time- i asked if i could extend my mission. not heaps, just until my visa expires, which is like 2 or 3 weeks after i would go home anyway. but i decided i wanted to stay as long as i possible could. so he said he would look in to it, and let me know what the area presidency says. so i dunno if that throws any plans off, but that would mean that instead of march 30, 2011, it would be april 16, 2011. so it's not set in stone, but it's in the works- if that throws off some family plans though, let me know, and i'll see what i can do. but i really REALLY want be hear for as close to 24 months as possible, and so an extra 2 weeks sounds really good to me right now. lemme know what you think.

The Gold coast is very nice, and i've enjoyed it here so much! it's a nice change from emerald, and it's closer to the ocean, so it's a little bit cooler, which i'm happy about. you can look up the Gold coast online, it's like the most famous beach in Australia and high up there in the world. i live in robina, so you should be able to find it pretty easy.
anyway, this has been a good week, and i look forward to hearing from ya'll next week!
Love you so much!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen

Oct. 3, 2010

hello family and friends!

it sounds like you have all had an eventful week! man, its been ages since i went to the beach, that sounds like so much fun! thats definitely on the list of things to do in like 6 or 7 months. oh, speaking of which, 2 milestones happened this week. as of the 30th of september, i have exactly 6 months left on my mission, and by the way, i am the only one who is allowed to talk about that, dont tell me how much time i have left in your emails please! the other one is just kinda funny. as of sunday, elder purser had been out on his mission for as long as i have left to go- it was the "crossover" point. :P anyway, everyone asked about general conference. i dont know exactly when we'll get to see it. its kinda a sticky situation at the moment though... we definitely wont be getting it this next week. possible the next week. BUT, transfers happens this week, so if i get transferred, in all likelihood, i'll miss it in emerald, and since everywhere down south gets it a week after, i'll miss it down there too. so i'm just downloading it, so that if i do get transferred, i can listen to it while i travel down. so that should be good. i got all my bases covered i think. and i know it was awesome, we watched Jefferey R. Holland's talk last night at dinner with the Watene's. it was so good. i loved it. such a contrast from his last 2, but just as powerful. i'm looking forward to listening to the rest of conference.

well, my week was a little bit harder than i had expected. i have some form of pink-eye, thats been bothering me for some time now. i keep getting the antibiotics, but they seem to only be temporary relief. it just keeps coming back. so we'll see if i can get anything else that might be stronger... also, the floods are still out. nothing has really gone down, and 4 WEEKS of RAIN are predicted starting next week. and to be perfectly honest, i would LOVE to be here for it. but we'll see. we had another lesson with Eli this week, and tried to set a baptisimal date, but his parrents said no, so we're thinking of ways we can help them understand how good this will be both for them and for Eli. so hopefully this week we'll be able to do that. we also went to virginia's house again- she's the lady who's partner recently died, and she's been having massive trouble with the estate. we took bro. McKay with us, and he has a law degree, and so he got her all sorted, and on the right track, so she was very grateful. it was really good, and the barrier is basically broken down now, so we are asking her this week if she wants to take the lessons. so we'll see how that goes. and thats bascially been the week. oh, yesterday, we had fast and testimony meeting, and it was so good. i bore my testimony about the savior- i found myself saying things in ways i had never thought of, and it just flowed. it was awesome! i noticed a few of the youth, and one in particular who is pretty wayward, really perk up and listen... it was kind of shocking. but it felt so good, and i felt the spirit confirming everything i said. :D i love it. the church is so true, i cant believe it! anyway, thats the week. I love you all so much! have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Tayler Christensen