The thing about Virginia weather though is it's moody. It changes with a whim. we're back into the 30's and we had a thunderstorm last night. haha.

That's so awesome about Dad getting set apart. I'm glad that Grandpa got to do it. Man! I can't believe Grandma is gonna be 80. That's crazy. I thought she was still in her 70's too. (you should send me some of that Jam)


Man Jordan's injury sounds intense! man...if his foot is messed up bad enough he'll still be hobblin around when I get back! haha. I guess keep me updated on it all. (honestly not to worried about him getting his liscense either...ha.)

I definitely did get the package. Thank you so much! I am currently wearing the slacks, the watch, and I used the Thomas brush to brush my teeth this morning! haha. The watch is awesome, so let dad know thank you. I've never had a kinectic watch before. I alternate between the one I got for Christmas and this one. Today is a square day :)

march 3rd

haha yes I definitely have been in Wakefield for this long. We joke that if someone is in an area long enough (7 1/2 months) they become the prophet of that area. So...guess who?! haha. I think I'm getting kind of tired of all the garbage that goes down in this branch. There is so much contention it's sickening. Like especially between the 1st counseler and the branch president. mostly coming from the 1st counciler. ugh. I don't want to leave, but if I do next transfer I'll be alright with it.

My step-son is from Olympia, Washington, although he was born and raised in Utah. I'll tell you something that's really cool mom, and you can't let this leave this email (that goes for you too dad if you're reading this) but he's gone through the same addictions as I have and recovered from it as well, and we had similiar experiences which is a burden off me to be able to talk about them with others. It's been a huge blessing.

haha the jack bauer guy isn't our branch president, he's our branch mission leader! Yes I know the series ended last year. don't ruin the ending though! oh, and I was converted to Lost by Elder Parker. I will be watching the entire series of Lost when I come home. he basically explained the entire plot up to the last season. and if you ruin it I won't come home. haha.

So a quick story from this last sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and so we were sitting with our recent convert, who is the coolest black gentleman you'll ever meet, and he starts getting his cane all ready and we're both like, "YES! he's gonna bear his testimony! woo!" and he gets up and he hobbles up there and explains that "when the spirit tells you to move, you move!" and then he explains that when life get's really rough, you gotta "try Jesus. just try Him!" and then he kinda backs away from the mic and sorta half whispers while shaking his head, "you're not gonna like it....you're not gonna like it...YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT!!" and just shouts that into the mic. and then he kinda smugly looks back at everyone and says "y'all have a nice day" and starts walking down. oh my gosh I wanted to laugh so hard it was such an awesome testimony and he was so proud of himself haha. He sat down and I patted him on the back. haha. It was the best.

and last sunday I forgot to tell you that we had our chorister totally pass out during conducting the opening hymn, and so we moved downstairs in the basement, and then while down there we had the former ym president's wife oppose (like when the do the whole sustaining vote thing raising your arm) the new ym president. I've never seen that happen in my life. It was ridiculous. Again why there is so much contention in this branch. ugh!

Anyways, I love y'all and hope your week is sweet. We're off to play some basketball and dodgeball for a zone p-day! haha.

March 14th
Life is going good! I hope you realized that we started emailing earlier! haha the library changed it's hours.

Yeah I heard all about the Tsunami. That's crazy about the evac though. They've been calling this the "great earthquake" in japan apparently because it was the worst one in recorded history. I just don't like when people see stuff like this and are like AHH OH GOSH IT'S THE SECOND COMING ARARARARARA. Yes. the second coming prophesies of earthquakes. But it also prophesies of a lot of other things that HAVEN'T happened yet, and probably won't happen for a while. I'm ranting because it was like all sunday it was about that. People don't stinkin know the scriptures.


haha yeah Jordan emailed me about his foot. that stinks...stupid ct technician got y'all questioning if it's broken or not, so just see a doctor as soon as you can. don't trust the ct tech! haha. I'm betting he probably won't be able to go to the thing either way if he's still in intense pain after two weeks. so yeah. Tell him to get a job! haha. Seriously though...I wish y'all had me get a job at his age! It would've really helped!

I'll get a shirt for Jordan today. I know exactly what kind shirt to get too. No worries. Thanks for the idea!
I have no idea what's going on with the branch president...it's ridiculous and I try and just ignore it.

I'm totally gonna get into Lost. Don't care what y'all say! haha.

when they opposed the new calling, the branch president sent out a member of the branch presidency to talk to her. It's been 2 sundays and they haven't been here for either. Soooo...yeah. bad news bears. We moved downstairs so we didn't all just stare at the chorister while she was recovering. ha.

April 4th
HEYYYY. Before I say anything. The time is come: I am leaving Wakefield :(

But here is the fun part....I'm going to North Carolina! haha. I'm going to the ABSOLUTE bottom of our mission. No one goes further than my new area goes. It's ANOTHER little branch called the Albemarle branch. Good luck marking my new area on your Virginia map! haha.

New address:

4107 B Ashley Dr.
Edenton, NC 27932

So yes. I'm really bummed, but also really excited. I have two new companions (we are in a trio down there) and There names are Elder Simpson and Elder Bobo. (no joke on the last one.) so that will be interesting. We apparently live with the branch president. So yeah. I've now officially been in all three states of my mission! Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina! haha.

New tablet eh? That's really cool though especially if you can get it to work with the droid market. That's what you need to do. Tell me some of the cool stuff it can do?
Ways the Priesthood has helped me? or ways I've helped others with the priesthood. Well I'll share one story that I don't know if I've told you or not...I was back in New Kent, and I woke up one night with a horrible blinding pain in my chest. I my first reaction was, "it's just heart burn, just take some tums and go back to bed." but I took tums and it didn't go away. I aimlessly wandered around the house mostly because I was in too much pain to go back to sleep. It progressively got worse and worse until I was sprawled on the bathroom floor pleading to Heavenly Father for it to go away...I remember distinctly saying, "please...I don't want to go to the hospital..." and the first impression I got was, "you need a blessing" I kind of pushed it away for a second and then it came stronger. I got up woke up my companions (who were asleep through this whole ordeal) and, while being hunched over in pain, said "Elders...I need a blessing." As soon as those Elders starting that blessing, the pain faded. By the time it was over the pain was entirely gone. Some would say it was just good timing. But I know it was my heavenly Father trying to teach me a lesson about how important a priesthood blessing really is, after all you can do for yourself.

Helping others? I would probably say how I've been able to use my priesthood to help others enter into their Father's kingdom through baptism. With that priesthood, those sons and daughters of God are able to have all of there sins washed away. in D&C 50, the Lord asks the prophet a question, "Unto what were you ordained?" Basically said, Why were you given the priesthood? He answers for us: "To Preach my gospel by the Spirit..." We were given the priesthood for two reasons. To preach the gospel by the spirit, and to perform saving ordinances such as baptism, and conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I hope that helps. The scripture in D&C 50 you'll just have to search for...it's there though :P

Anyways I'll keep mine short this week too...other than a picture from our lunch break in General conference. haha. This week we had a big long exchange with the petersburg elders cause they didn't get conference at there chapel. so we had fun.

anyways I know it's short but thank you so much I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

April 12th
Hey everyone! I thought this would be easier than emailing everyone individually, but let me give y'all an update on what's been going on since I got transferred down to North Carolina! I know some of you haven't heard from me in quite some time but just thought I'd shoot y'all an email.

The first couple of days has been good. We live with our great branch president and his wife. We live just outside the town of Edenton and it's been a trip. Just the drive from Richmond to our new home took us probably from 1115 to 5 o'clock or close to it. Quite a drive. Saw a few "Bear Crossing" signs which I've never seen before...pretty interesting. But so far from what I've seen, North Carolina isn't that different from Virginia...it's definitely been humid the past couple of days, but I figure that's just the east coast summer.

The work has been going great down here. We just had a baptism on sunday and another one coming up real soon. But some great miracles have been happening down here. We actually had someone call US and ask us to come teach them. And that never happens...haha. But I'll be honest, I thought the area would be country, but it is no where near Wakefield! haha Edenton itself probably has the same population as all of Sussex county. haha not quite but real close. What's real cool as well though is we are right on the Albemarle sound. Infact the library is sitting almost waterside. It's really cool to see.

I got to participate in one of the most crazy things on saturday. A Good ol' north carolina pig picking. I swear when my companions told me about this I thought it was something where you picked dirt and crud off pigs. Shows you how much of a westerner I really am. Well, after I found out we were preparing the cooked meat for a fundraiser for a local volunteer fire department, I was pretty stoked. And for all of you back home or out west or whatever, BBQ down here is absolutely NOTHING like BBQ back home. I'm not bagging on it, but meat with bbq sauce is not bbq. So we found out this fire department had been up through the night cooking upwards of 50+ hogs so they'd be ready to prepare by eight in the morning. We got there before 8 and got on our thick rubber gloves and aprons. What they would do is assemble probably 8-10 people at a table and just throw down a quarter of a pig in front of you and you'd pull all the good meat off of it and put it in a bucket. Then when the bucket got full someone would take it to another table where there were choppers chopping up the meat. then when it was finely chopped, it was mixed with the greatest bbq sauce in the world (which is vinegar based), then put back in the bucket and on the grill to stay warm. It was incredible how hot those pieces of meat where...even with my super thick gloves a couple of times I had to take a step back and let my hands cool off. But in the end we helped this little fire department earn some money to keep fighting fires!

Just fyi, our library is closed on mondays so we have to do it on tuesday. Just for future reference!

The branch out here is great, but a little small. We have a phase two building which is pretty decent size. But now I know what you meant brother fly when you said the rooms where so tiny. Crazy. I also was toldlike, three days before church that i was giving a talk, so that was fun. Felt like it turned out well, I always love talking the first sunday in an area, and I promise that's not sarcasm ;)

Well, still alot more discovering to do out here and work to be done. I hope y'all have a sweet week and let me know if you have any questions or anything!

Love y'all and talk to you next week!

- Elder H. Christensen

feb 24 2011 catch up time again!

Hey Hey! I'm sorry about the monday abscence but I assumed you realized it was a holiday! haha. Anyways....

I'm glad everything worked out safely. I always get tripped out on the time zone changes with flights...I couldn't imagine the time change deal with dad...I'd probably just have to pass out for a day. haha. I'm real glad Jordan and Ryan did so well with taking care of you. Tell them they have my approval. haha. I'm kinda surprised Jordan did so good but I'm glad he did. (Don't tell him I said that :P) Ok. Thank you for sending the me the stuff, it is definitely greatly appreciated!

ANYWAYS THE BIG NEWSSSS.

DUM DUM DA DUM DUM DA DUMMMMMM


----

I'm staying in Wakefield another 6 weeks! YEAAAAAAA!!!

The sad news: Elder Parker is leaving :( But I knew it had to happen eventually. I'm going to be doing what's called step-training with a very new Elder. Basically he's been with one Elder for the past six weeks (the first six weeks of his mission) now he's coming to me. His name is Elder Richards. I've met him before, he's a pretty cool cat. But just so you know, I'm glad I get to stay another six weeks. I'm really attached to this branch, and I'm not afraid to tell you I'm going to cry like a little baby when I have to leave :)

Uh-Oh. The dreaded stake president call. You are mean for making me wait till next p-day to find out what's going on. But I'm sure Dad will be called to be a Bishop and you'll be in the Stake YW presidency :) let me know!

Oh my gosh Jordan is turning 17? UGH. I remember before my mission realizing that he'd be that age when I come home. It all feels like it isn't real. what the. ryan driving? no it won't ever happen. I'm still 19 and my mission will last forever. (If I have anything to say about it :) )

Anyways yeah so quick update on our week:

We are basically starting from scratch again in the area. All of our investigators got baptized....I guess it's a good problem? I don't know. But I'm kinda figuring out some goals I have for this next month and 1/2 and what I wanna do. So I just need to sit down and figure it all out.

We've been trying to do some more community service out here in good ol' Wakefield and so we went to the Mayor (who owns a service station here in town; yes it's like you'd see in some movie) and asked him what kind of service opportunities he had. He told us he wanted us to rake some leaves at this ball park in town so we did that today. I don't have a problem raking leaves (except oregon leaves, like in grandpa's back yard since they are always wet :( ) but when it comes to raking PINE NEEDLES, that's when I have a problem. It was good though, we got to help out our little community.

I'm real sad that Elder Parker is leaving. Me and him are best buds. But I'm definitely better at my seperation anxiety than I used to be. So I'll be fine...I'm excited for this next month and 1/2!

Anyways Mom & Dad, love you so much and hope your week is good. I'll talk to you next week