The last few weeks!

Well. The Verdict has been reached.

I am finishing my mission in the Albemarle branch :)

I'm really glad...I was worried I'd have to leave for my last 6 weeks and spend it somewhere super unfamiliar. But I'm safe now! Both my companions are leaving, and another Elder who was serving in Burkeville, VA is coming in. His name is Elder Peterson. Soooo. Yeah!

Nothing real exciting happened this week except the fact I found out I'm staying. So I'm sorry for the boring email! But I'll try and save it with a picture! It shows you how ridiculous some white trash places in the south are. See if you can figure out what I mean ;) Enjoy!

love y'all
July 5th
Hey! haha So I guess this isn't too late for everyone but they finally changed the days the library was open back to monday but the 4th kinda messed that one up. So I'll be emailing on mondays from now on!

Well as I said last week my two comps were traded in for just one. Elder Peterson is his name. From good ol' star valley wyomin'. haha. It's interesting but we have been doin good together. Transfers were interesting. We were trying to find a ride up to Virginia Beach for like 4 days and no one could do it. Then on wednesday night we called one more person and we were able to ride up with him. So we get there early on thursday morning to meet up with him, with Elder Bobo and Elder Capsons stuff plus their two bikes and all of a sudden this tiny little red sports car shows up and it's the member giving us a ride. And I just am flat out convinced there is no way all this stuff is gonna fit in that tiny car. So we scramble, and make a few calls and after practically giving up we figured what we could do is I could just stay with a member in edenton while ym two companions ride up with this member. I wish I could show you how hilarious it looked with all of them stuffed in this tiny red car. It was great.

But things have been going well here. It's hot and it's humid and there isn't enough rain. But it's still the best place on the planet to be right now! We have 1 person who is planning on being baptized in august and we are really excited for that. It's hard being in such a huge area, but we do the best we can with the miles we have. I don't know if this is accurate or if I've already told everyone, but we have about 5,000 square miles to cover in this area with 1475 miles. It makes us plan out our days better I guess? haha. But we love it.

The 4th was pretty boring honestly. haha. We were fed some wonderful fried chicken by a member and a recent convert and just kind of chilled. We came into town and just kinda meandered around town for a couple of hours. Fun stuff. The fireworks started after 9 so we had to miss em this year. We could hear em, but the trees blocked the sight of them. Oh well. Such is life. It was great too...as soon as we got in a huge rainstorm came in, so all the hundreds of people down by the sound just got drenched. So I'm sorta glad I wasn't down there.

I wish y'all (those outside virginia and north carolina) could experience this humidity. Just to understand what I'm talking about haha. It's just not very fun to be outside when it's really humid. But I think I'm gonna dry up like a prune when I go home...back to the semi-dry oregon and then the desert of idaho. haha.

But this morning was especially fun. Our cuban recent convert is really tight on money and so he wanted to strip off this old metal roofing off these old fallen down barns and stuff for some extra cash. so we went over and helped out for a good couple of hours. We got all the roofing off with the only casualty being half of the trees in the area...but we also found this big old pipe down in the rain ditch and since weight is how they determine how much money you get and it's been so dry around here it only took us 15-20 minutes to pull out this thick metal pipe. Oh yeah, I also impailed my foot on a nail. And just to freak my parents out, it was a big old rusty one too :) Yay for tetnis shots!

All in all it was a good week. It's weird to think I'll only be doing this 5 more times. Strange indeed.

Oh and the name of this email was actually a line from someones testimony on sunday. Gotta love the south.

have a sweet week and thank you all for the happy birthday wishes! happy 4th (from the future)!

July 11th

SO yes. I am here once again. I'm actually emailing on p-days now! woo! haha. We had to email on tuesdays because our library was open on mondays. But they changed the schedule. Fun stuff.

Letttts see what's happened this week:

FINALLY we got a good amount of rain. Wednesday evening the bottom fell out of the sky. It rained 3 inches in an hour or so? Crazy. BUt this area needed it bad. Everything was dying. But it still hasn't taken us out of the drought which is nuts. But we hope it'll get fixed up soon.

Wednesday we also finally got teach one of our investigators at his house. It was great; we've been trying to teach him since I've been here. It was a good lesson. We went over the restoration and he definitely felt the Spirit of it all. He is planning on being baptized in August. We are super excited for him!

Thursday I got to go to zone meeting up in suffolk. It was a great one. We mostly just talked about church tours and whatnot. It's something we are trying as a prosylyting thing to show people the chapels so they aren't so unconfortable with it all.

Other than that nothing to awesome or exciting happened this week! haha. I basically sat in the house until just recently so we could get out and email! Fun stuff!

I hope you all are doing well. I love y'all and hope things are going for the best. Enjoy life!

- Elder H Christensen


Well the time of coming home is sooo close and were very excited to see hunter here is his Itinerary. Whats up with the 11pm return home! sheesh!

MISSIONARY TRAVEL
VIRGINIA RICHMOND MISSION

SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
DELTA AIR LINES 09AUG RICHMOND VA ATLANTA GA 420P 605P
DL 1178 TUESDAY RICHMOND INTL HARTSFIELD JAC
T ECONOMY TERMINAL S
NON SMOKING NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 1:45 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-88
SEAT 20D NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

DELTA AIR LINES 09AUG ATLANTA GA SALT LAKE C UT 715P 919P
DL 1333 TUESDAY HARTSFIELD JAC INTL
L ECONOMY TERMINAL S TERMINAL 2
NON SMOKING FOOD FOR PURCHASE NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 4:04 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING 757-300
SEAT 30C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

DELTA AIR LINES 09AUG SALT LAKE C UT EUGENE OR 950P 1045P
DL 4752 TUESDAY INTL
L ECONOMY TERMINAL 2
NON SMOKING NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 1:55 DURATION
FLIGHT OPERATED BY SKYWEST DBA DELTA CONN
AIRCRAFT OWNER: OO SKYWEST AIRLINES
AIRCRAFT: CANADAIR REGIONAL JET 700
SEAT 10C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

may 2011

Hello again everyone! I hope things are going great for you this week! Things are going pretty good here. I can't believe it's already been almost 4 weeks :O

So we had another storm this week, and it was pretty close to as bad as the first one. But some more interesting things; the tornadoes weren't so far away this time. We had driven back from an appointment way out in this area called Arrowhead beach, and on our way back the rain really started to fall. Just below the point where I couldn't see anything out our window. We finally made it back and started cooking up some dinner. So while my companions were doing that, I watched the storm out the window, and then something very interesting started happening as the trees were bending and swaying all around from the wind; all the trees outside started bending inward toward our house. It was so weird and then the wind was so bad that the rain got all churned up and turned into a mist. So I turn to the elders cooking dinner and I'm like, "Uh...we might have to go hide in the bathroom real soon elders..." and then we just joke about it and go on with our dinner. So it kind of mellows out and the sun starts to shine so we think, ah ok. It's fine to travel. So we had a baptismal interview to make it too for one of our investigators so we just hop in the car and start driving. It was across the Albemarle sound, which we have to travel over a three mile bridge to get too. So we get to the members house that the interview was going to be at and they don't answer the door. So we think, man that's really weird. So we call them and we find out they are in the members house across the street because there is a tornadoe warning (watch is there is a possibility for a tornado, warning means there is one on the ground) for the county we are in. So they run us inside and show us where the safe spot is (the bathroom) in case the tornado comes through. We sit for a while and watch the tv and endure all kinds of chastisment for having driven in the middle of the storm. But how were we supposed to know! haha. We then found out something even crazier; when i had seen the trees bending inward toward our house, at that same time we had had a funnel cloud forming behind us, which is what caused the trees to bend that way. But thankfully, the tornado never touched down. They actually had pictures of the funnel cloud. Craziness.

Well enough of the storm stories; we had a baptism this week! Our friend from cuba got baptized on sunday. it was great. He is like, the funniest guy in the world. Makes for some fun memories.

I also realized the Edenton is absolutely an old person town. Usually when towns have little "parties in the park" things or concerts, they have plenty of young people out dancing and having fun. Well this last week Edenton had it's "Boogie-on-broad" event (broad st. is the main street through Edenton) and when we walked down there hoping to talk to some people it was a bunch of old people swing dancing to like, 50's music. haha. It was great. retirement village usa!

Well we don't have much else to tell ya...I hope this will at least keep you entertained for a little while. Enjoy the week, remember the worth of a soul in God's eyes, and look out for one another. Love y'all.

- Elder H. Christensen

MAY 10TH

Hey y'all! I hope you're doing great! Things have been crazy lately, and to those who have written me letters in the past three weeks, I'm sorry I promise to write a reply on this coming monday. Sorry.

So let's see...what has happened since last tuesday. Well let's just say last week was a very stinky week. Just had alot of appointments fall through. Not really much going on. Thankfully no more stormy days, but we'll see.

We got to go and see our investigator that was confined to the hospital a few weeks ago. She was up in VA beach, and so we called and got permission to ride up there with a member. We brought her some little gifts and whatnot. She still has a long road ahead of her, but she is doing better. She has a trach in her throat, but hopefully will have that out soon. And as long as she has that in her throat she can't speak. So she was very frustrated when we came in because we weren't understanding her. But we stay in contact with her family and we do the best we can to help them.

Friday we went up to Suffolk for our Zone Meeting and that went very well. Those meetings have the potential to be either amazing or very boring. It really depends not so much on the preperation of the zone leaders, but on your own personal prep. And that's basically my philosophy on learning...although you do have more exciting teachers than others, when it comes to learning it's about what you put in, not what you are expecting them to hand out. alright and that's philosophy 101 with Elder C. :P

But afterwards we went to this place called Sal's pizza, and oh man. I don't know if y'all know what a strombolli is but they are basically like a calzone but more rolled up? I don't know. ha. but anyways they have these enormous strombolli's for 8 bucks there. So obvious choice for a bunch of hungry Elders. haha.

And Sunday was mother's day, which was great. I got to talk to my wonderful family, and see how they were doing and wish my mom a happy mother's day. It was great, I was counting down all day. haha. Another awesome thing I got to do that day was at church. Our recently-baptized cuban friend was getting confirmed that day and I got to do it. It was really cool. It's so awesomet o see those times, because these people have so much potential to do good. THey have the Holy Ghost constantly with them now and can go so far. But it's all about how they care for that gift. It's just like any living thing you are given in life; you have to constantly feed and nourish it. Without those constant nourishments, testimonies lessen, little by little, until you're worse off than you were before. And herein lies the challenge of being a disciple of Christ.

A great fun day was p-day; we got to go down to the Outer Banks. We travelled through Roanoke Island and Manteo and through Nag's Head, down through little rental villages like Waves and Salvo. It's crazy to see the narrowness of that part of North Carolina. Atlantic ocean on one side and the pamlico and albemarle sounds on the other. We also saw the Oregon Inlet which was really cool. one of the only breaks in the outer banks to get to the sounds. It's really cool. We got to see the Bodie (pronounce Body) lighthouse and were going to see the Cape Hatteras light house but didn't have time. Then we got to go back to the home of one of the daughters of the member who took us and were fed an awesome dinner of Soft shelled crabs, hush puppies, and slaw. Man. Three awesome foods :D haha.

and again I've talked way to much about food here.

But over all we had a great week. I hope y'all do the same. See ya next week!

- Elder C.

May 23rd 2011

So the parents are in big trouble! No email! HOW AWFUL.

:)

Anyways, yeah I am emailing from Ahoskie, NC today! My companions are both up at a leadership conference, and the district leader is in ahoskie, so they just sent me over there. It's kinda weird...but very similiar. I got to see first hand some of the left overs from the tornado mess that happened here. I definitely didn't see the half of it though, 'cause it's been a couple weeks since it happened. But even so, there is still tons of metal and debris wrapped around trees and things. It was pretty nuts. I definitely don't ever wanna be in a tornado.

Let's see what's been going on since last tuesday. We got our new companion in Albemarle, his name is Elder Capson. He and I definitely have differing personalities, but we make it work out. Working together with a companion is essential to having sucess out here...if there isn't any unity, it just doesn't work.

Our investigator who had a stroke is back in Edenton! She is doing very well. It is a huge miracle the way she has come back into it all. She had a left side stroke or whatever and usually that severly damages the speech abilities. But she is speaking very well now! She still has a ways to go before she can come home, but she is starting to be able to (just a tiny bit) move her right side (which was paralyzed from the stroke) so that is awesome!

Oh and aparently the world was supposed to end yesterday? I didn't even hear about this until after it was supposed to happen haha. Made me laugh. Shows how much missionaries hear/pay attention to. Things are just kinda crazy in the world from what I can tell in my limited sight. But you know how that goes more than I do.

Well all I'm sorry the email's short, but I hope life is treating y'all well, and I'll talk to you next week!

May 31, 2011

Hey everyone. Hope everyones week has been good. It's HOT here. 92 degrees at 10 in the morning. Woo.

Anyways, this week was pretty good. I was spending most of the week with the Ahoskie Elders while my companions were up in Richmond for a leadership conference. We had some fun adventures. Probably one of the funniest tracting stories I've experienced happened last week:

We were tracting some government housing, and walked up to this lady who was getting out of her car with a dog and a little girl. We asked her how her day was going and she said "terrible." we asked her if there was anything we could do to help it be better, and she just says "take the kid and the dog?" haha. Anyways so we start talking to her as she walks up to the door of her house and lets the girl and the dog into the house but stands in the doorway. we talk for a little while and she tells us how she "used to study with us (the mormons)" and she knew some about the book of mormon. Then all of a sudden she turns around and just shouts "OH NO HE'S GOT THE COOKIE!" and keeps yelling "YOU CAN'T EAT CHOCOLATE! YO GO'N DIE!" and then looks back at us and says real quick "Gotta go!" and runs inside but just closes the screen door. So as we are standing on the porch thoroughly confused, we just begin to laugh at how ridiculous the situtation was. We just hear her yelling in the house things like "YOU'RE GONNA SEND ME STRAIGHT TO HELL BEFORE I GET TO HEAVEN!" and (more at the little girl) "YOU GAVE IT TO HIM! I KNOW YOU DID!" So the Elder I was with just yells inside, "is there anything we can do to help ya?" and she comes back to the door. and the little girl comes too. She is just telling the little girl that SHE was the one who gave it to the dog and the little girl just had the funniest face of confusion on. Like, "what is going on?" hahaha. I love tracting for that reason :)

We also got to teach some really cool lessons. We taught this headquarter referral (someone who ordered a Book of Mormon or something over the internet/phone) about the restoration. He was built like a TANK. He used to play Linebacker for East Carolina University. But the lesson was awesome. It just seemed like every answer to his questions was in the scriptures we used. It's awesome to see the Spirit in action. For example, we started talking about the Apostasy, and he just asked "is that in the Bible?" and I had just turned to a scripture in 2 Thessolonians about the Apostasy. It just was an awesome spiritual lesson.

Oh, something else cool about Ahoskie; There chapel is a renovated sit-down restaraunt. Like they took this old place in Ahoskie, named bracey's and turned it into a chapel. It's probably one of the more interesting buildings I've seen on my mission. haha.

So anyways, things are good with me. Unfortunately, I haven't taken any new pictures this week! Sorry. I'll try for something cool next week.

Love y'all!

- Elder Christensen

June 7, 2011

Hello everyone! I hope y'all are doing well.

We've definitely started feeling some hot days. haha. Tuesday was the worst. It was around 100 degrees with 60-70% humidity. Fun stuff. We are also in a drought so that doesn't really help. But y'know. we make do out here in na' carolina.

Things have been pretty good this week. Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with a family who, although very active in their methodist faith, is very interested in learning more. So we are enjoying teaching them. Turned out, the member we took with us is kin to them. The father of their cousins wife or something like that. Everyone's kin out here. But the lesson was the best; we taught about the restoration and it just turned into her answering her own questions. That's the best way to teach! haha when the Spirit works within another person it's amazing to see the results.

Wednesday was great, especially because we got to teach our investigator who had the stroke again! she is doing great! Although she can't quite sit up on her own power, she is regaining some feeling her right side. But she can speak which is great. She's hard to understand sometimes, but I can understand her most of the time. It was funny because before too long, the we had acquired a little congregation of retirees in the retirement home she is staying in temporarily. haha. We even have a member who lives there come in and sit down with us. It was a pretty funny picture.

Thursday rolled around and we went up to chesapeake for zone meeting. It was a great meeting. We talked about obediance and focusing on our purpose. It kind of put in perspective for me why we live all these mission rules. It's not cause they are trying to make us miserable, it's to help us stay focused on what we are doing and remove distractions. That's pretty much it. We have the most important work to do and we can't afford to spend time doing anything worthless.

By the way, we've been taking our dinners at the church lately, so that Elder Bobo can practice a piano piece he's playing for the branch talent show tomorrow night. It will be great. It's a song called "Waterfall" by John Schmidt. It's a hard song, but he's almost got it down.

On saturday we drove out to columbia to see some of the people out there. We drove wayyyy out into the boonies. MIles and miles of fields. Full of cotton, tobacco, soy beans, and wheat. We also could see the smoke plume from the big forest fire over in dare county. We get smoke from that fire blowing into edenton probably every couple of days. It causes major problems for those with asthma. But I think it's gonna burn for a while because I hear it's burning peat moss and that stuff can burn underground for a long time. bad news!

church was great too, we had a little girl whose parents are members get baptized. Although we didn't have anything to do with it, it was still fun to be there and feel the spirit of a baptism.

and then yesterday we got to go up to Elizabeth City and that was fun. Just being near a big-ish city is fun. haha.

Things are going well down here. we are working hard and trying to help others come closer to their Father in heaven. I'm hoping the next week goes great. Thank you for all y'alls prayers and good wishes. I'll talk to ya next week!

april 26th

So hello again everyone. I'm pretty sure I haven't been able to go a week yet without craziness happening to me.

Just for an update our investigator that went to the hospital is still there. She unfortunately hasn't been improving. The missionaries all fasted for her on thursday and then the branch fasted on sunday. It was a great experience...we are still wiaiting and hoping.

Our cuban friend is doing very well. He is planning on being baptized on sunday and we are excited for him. Just got a few more things to get ready before sunday!

Really not alot happened this whole week other than saturday. Saturday we decided to go down to The nether regions of our area (which took us an hour and half to drive to) and work. We went down and met with a great member of the church down in Fairfield who fed us some awesome carolina bbq and just really good stuff.

This area was really cool because Fairfield is right on the edge of lake Mattamuskeet, which is the largest natural lake in NC. It is HUGE. But the area is also super redneck haha. we saw a mailman riding on a riding lawnmower delivering mail. hahaha. Lots of swamp, and apparently nutria are out here as well? I thought they only had those nasty things in oregon...

But after we worked a little in fairfield we travelled across this huge natural land bridge through the middle o the lake which was cool. We went down to this little town called Swan Quarter, which is right on the Pamlico sound, and has a ferry that goes from Swan Quarter to Ocracoke. That trip is 2 1/2 hours on a ferry. We didn't go, but we wanted to...haha. Then we decided to go up the left side of our area and come back home that way, but my companions GPS was set to shortest distance route, which will most ofhe time take you on dirt roads and back roads and whatnot. So I swear, we got so lost I'm surprised we even made it home. I'm pretty sure at one point we accidently left our mission and went just barely into the raliegh mission. Ridiculous day...over 200 miles worth of travel. Crazy!

Anyways...besides that we really didn't have anything too exciting happen this week. Easter was great, we ate dinner with a great group of members here.

Also. I found a turtle on p-day. :D (picture)

Anyways hope y'all have a sweet week. I'll talk to y'all next week!

april 19th

haha so hello again everyone I'll reply to everyone individually as well but just a little update on what's going on here.

This last week was a doozy. Every month we do whats called a "Car fast" where we don't use the car between 10 and 5. I guess it saves miles? (not when you cover 5,000 square miles...) So on wednesday we were doing our car fast. We had been walking most of the day when we got a call from one of the members of the branch here, telling us that one of our investigators (who was on track to be baptized on wednesday [tomorrow] this week) had had some kind of stroke or something and was on her way to the hospital. Thankfully we were in Edenton and started booking it to the hospital in town. On our way there we passed the street that that particular investigator lived on, and noticed that the ambulance was still there. But as we kept running, we heard the sirens and the ambulance passed in front of us. It was kind of surreal...knowing that that person we care so much about is in that ambulance. It was definitely nothing like anything I've experienced before. So we run to the car and get heading over to the hospital. It's pretty close, so we show up probably two minutes after the ambulance gets there and then proceeds the waiting. After close to an hour, (or so it felt like) we finally are allowed to go in and see her and give her a blessing. As we go in, they told us she was still heavily sedated. Elder Bobo (another elder with me) gave her a blessing and she was conscience enough to send grab each one of our hands and then we were told to leave so they could move her. And apparently she stopped being responsive after that. As we went out we were told tat she was goin to be life flighted to Greenville, NC. They changed that Norfolk General, and then Sentura hospital in VA Beach. Soon the helicopter was here and they flew her away. Shes still in the hospital right now and we are all praying for her. Satan definitely does not want this women to be baptized. But things are going to turn out alright.

The rest of the week went pretty smooth. Sorta.

We are about an hour and a half from the stake center up in Chesapeake, and we were struggling to find rides. We had thought the ride was taken care of, but at the last minute our ride cancelled. So we called and called and called and FINALLY, at 8 o'clock we got someone to take us up that night. So we ride up and realize we have no idea where we are staying. So we call our Zone leaders expecting to stay with them, but are quickly told they have no room to transport us. So the have us call the Bennet's Creek elders and we twist some arms and they let us stay with them. And I swear, when we left that house we left our whole life there. Especially our phone charger which we won't get till wednesday apparently. haha.

So we finally make it home Saturday morning and everyone has been warning us that there is going to be some severe weather coming in later that night. I admit it was kinda windy in the morning, but nothing prepared me for what happened that night. We had people telling us all day to get inside because this same system that was going to hit us had been ripping up Raleigh for a couple of hours. Torn up a Lowes and killed a few people. Around 7 o clock the storm really hit us hard. I'm used to storms, but when you couple it with the wind we had it gets really scary. Nothing nearby got hit, but we found out later that at least 68 tornadoes had been registered in the surrounding area, and just over the river into a town called coalrain (or at least sounds like that haha) there were at least 20 people killed and house torn up. There were some members of the church in the Ahoskie branch who lost there homes. I've never been around storms like that. I did learn one thing about storms in NC...if it's windy, raining and lightening, and it starts to hail, you better run for cover. Because that almost always precedes a tornadoe. So I had fun experiencing that! haha.

But it's not all bad/scary news. I think I told y'all about the investigator we were teaching from Cuba, but we invited him to be baptized on may 1st and he is shooting for it. Those moments definitely make it all worth it. The work is good, although it is slow at times, the sucess make it all worth the while.

I hope I've told enough...have any questions, let me know! haha.

Love y'all, have a sweet week!

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


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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

Yeah ok so heres the deal. Apparently the server went down or something cause everyone else had the same thing happen. so idk?

haha I heard that the Packers won eh? cool stuff. At this point I really don't care all that much but you know how that goes. haha.


Holy cow a Lady had a seizure? That sounds mega-intense. If I was giving a talk during that day I definitely wouldn't be angry haha...I'd be happy cause I knew no one would even notice if I messed up. haha we had a sunday kinda like that yesterday...it was fast and testimony meeting and we have this member who is kinda less active and in the middle of meeting (everyone is quiet waiting for someone to go up to the stand) he stands up and kinda quietly says "Lord, Lord, Lord..." and then he starts getting louder and louder and singing things like "I JUST WANNA PRAISE YOU" "LORD, LORD, LORD" and I was like, oh my goodness...what is going on here. Then he got up there and finished his song and told us about how he is so sick and he may not live and all this stuff. It's what you get when the african american religious culture out here is predominately baptist. haha. Sacrament meetings in our branch are a trip. Anything under the sun can happen...

By the way, I attached pictures from our baptism we had this last saturday (the 5th) It was great but oh gosh you have no idea how much stress we were under...you remember the hassle we were getting from the branch about that investigator getting baptized? Well this is him. and the DAY OF his interview with the Zone Leaders those same members called us and while Elder Parker was in the shower rebuked me to no end because we were actually going to go through with his baptism. They told me up and down that he wasn't ready and he shouldn't be baptized and all this other jazz. They just don't understand what baptism is. It's not a thing we need to be perfect for. It's not a last step, it's a FIRST step. Yeah we may still have some problems. But when you find the recent convert who is perfect before they're baptized let me know.

Yeah I'm just gonna say I've been real frustrated with some of the members of this branch lately. They were making our lives miserable. But the baptism basically was ridiculous as well. First off the hot water heater in the building wasn't on and we couldn't turn it on, so the font just filled with ice water. On top of that, when we turned off the font the plug started leaking so by the time they got in the water it was probably knee height. so with that, our investigator has high blood pressure so the water basically made him freak out and after the ordinance was said, it took probably like 2-3 minutes before he could syke himself up enough to go in the cold water.

Yeah but thankfully we are gonna have another baptism this friday :) So we will let you know how that goes as well.


I don't know haha...I'll try and send a few pictures.

Kind of another update on the suicide-investigator. We really haven't had any contact with him since that day, although we have tried. His phone is off and he's never at his house. BUT. We did see his ex-fiance driving around up in surry, and we were ALMOST positive it was him in the passenger seat. So we really have no idea.


I know, I'm doing better on money. me and elder parker have figured out how we are going to grocery shop from now on. We go to this place called "Dollar general (not a dollar store, just sounds like it haha) and we buy most of the non-perishable stuff, like cereal, canned foods, all that stuff. And then we buy the stuff we can't buy there at the regular grocery store. we save a ton of money that way. last p-day we only spent 25 dollars each for groceries. Pretty good considering we had enough for two people for a week!

Thank you for the advice on the money saviing. I'm working on it and will hopefully do better. Basically all the cash I get goes into my lock-box. I save that.

Oh gosh seriously? No way...that blows my mind...Tell David I say welcome home and back to this life. I feel for him. haha. Oh gosh I don't even wanna think about that day...


Thank you for all you do mom and dad....I love you all a ton. I hope your week is good and I'll talk to you next week!