Oh Christmas time, OH CHRISTMAS TIME! You'll drive us Elders Crazy!

Hello wonderful people! This week has been the most insane of probably my entire life. Anyone who's served a mission in Malaysia can tell you that Christmas can be a wonderful way to die happy. But don't worry, I'm alright.

Anyway, first things first, IT WAS SO GOOD TO TALK TO YOU ALL THIS WEEK! It doesn't seem possible it was only Wednesday (more like a year ago), but it was awesome and really helped me a lot. The one thing that was really different about how Malaysians celebrate Christmas is that they essentially keep celebrating it until New Years. That's a tradition I could get behind. This week was basically stuffed to the brim with activities and parties, with the Branch Party tomorrow night. 

Now, People! The Penans were in Kampung this week, so we didn't get to meet with them. But we did meet with James after Church again. The lesson went extremely well, we taught the 1st lesson though the 1st vision. The spirit was super strong. Sis. Katrina has been helping us teach him, and she was awesome yesterday. She was even Anti-Prepping him though we didn't ask her to! Afterwards he gave us some delicious Seedless Rambutan. 

We also had a cool miracle Saturday. I was feeling a little case of Heat Exhaustion Friday night, due to us stopping on the beach to plan some things and I didn't bring a full water bottle, I'd though we were going home. The next morning my head hurt somewhat, so Elder Wayment gave me a blessing. He'd said I would have strength for the day and be healed, but I didn't feel better right away. That day we had a combined Christmas Lesson with all the less actives in Kampung Damai (Bro. Day, Sis. Rita, Bro. James and Sis. Ngana). Christopher and Davidson went with us, and it went really well. Afterwards we had some sort of dance practice with a member named Felix for the party tomorrow, but my head still hurt and my balance was off. I went and sat on the couch and read the Ensign. Meanwhile, a 17 year old boy came and sat next to me. He was Felix's cousin, not a member, and we started talking. Apparently he comes to church, but has never received a Book of Mormon. I gave him one, and he was extremely happy. He even said 'Thank You' in English! Apparently he reads the Bible a lot in School. His name was E. Nelson. Immediately after that my head stopped hurting and I was fine. I realized after that if I hadn't felt sick, I wouldn't have been sitting there and met him. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. 

Love you all so much!

-Elder Christensen

Mom Note: We were able to skype with Elder Christensen at 5 a.m. Sunday morning.  We were blessed with a fantastic connection and could see and hear him perfectly.  IT WAS HEAVEN FOR ME!  BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!   He looked and sounded great, very up and happy, enjoying it all so much.  He was at his branch President's house on Christmas night for a big party and was able to use his laptop.  We talked about a lot of things.  We learned that proselyting is incredibly inefficient. Half of the homes are Islamic, identified by a particular kind of Christmas type light that they have above their doors and light for a certain holiday, but they leave them up all year. Another large percentage are Buddhist and only speak Chinese.  They too identify their religion with a Buddhist picture or statue.  They really try to work through the members for contacting, they have much better results.  He said everyone identifies their religion with some kind of something on the door. The Mormons put out pass-along cards, or photocopy the front cover of the Book of Mormon and put it up on their walls.  I also thought it was interesting that people go home to their native Kampungs for Christmas.  He said that there will be 200 missionaries with the new missionaries coming, there are only 100 missionaries now, so there is the strongest likelihood that he will be training, as will almost everyone else, after only being there two months, and in the MTC only 6 weeks. I am so grateful for everyone who bows their head in prayer for these missionaries world-wide.  Anyway, he is loving life and doing great, and we are so very grateful for your prayers and interest in his behalf!  

Christopher and Davidson..recent converts!