Mom Note:

It was so precious to be able to see Elder Coy on skype! We spent a precious hour talking with him. Some grandparents thought he looked thin, some thought he had filled out and matured, so I guess he's somewhere in the middle and doing great! :).  We enjoyed hearing about his typical day, the strange foods he eats(bread is bought as a dough and it is fried), and we loved hearing about how much he loves the work.  He used the words of Joseph Smith and said "Mom, don't worry about me, I am well enough off!"  We were able to join in family prayer over skype and said a tearful goodbye, (at least on the Mom's part :)). 

Here's the letter we received afterward.  

I love you so much!

I know we just called, but I wanted to take this chance to briefly update on this week.

Last monday we walked to the church with Acui, Lena, her husband Kenyang, her brother Dundong, her daughter Senia, and their friend (a younger kid) Rolland and had a wonderful family night with them. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and played badminton, and Brother Kong even came. We have met with them several times this week, teaching them the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation among other things. They are very eager to learn and are now on date for a little less than a month. They also came to Church and had a series of awesome experiences, including the most reverent Sacrament Meeting we have had since I have been here, and hitting it off extremely well with the members in Sunday School. It was awesome.

We met with Ela this week as well. She was having some struggles in her life, some personal, and others including a tooth ache, bringing her children up righteously, and inviting her husband to learn of the gospel. We were inspired to ask if she would want a priesthood blessing. She didn't know what what was, but after a brief explanation she did want it. Parker anointed and I gave the blessing. It was simple and beautiful. Afterwards though she testified that it was exactly what she needed. She said she had had a private, personal prayer the day before, and the blessing was an answer to it. She also felt a peace and a strength, as also something seemed to leave her body.

Madeline has apparently been struggling. She hasn't been answering our phone calls, and she was never home when we tried to meet with her. She apparently was very attached to Elder Capener, the elder before me, and seemed to change after he left. She did come to church, but only for about 30 minutes.

Ingang is doing great. We have yet to settle a baptismal date, but we have hopes to do so this week. Her daughters seem to be increasingly busy and harder to meet with. We did have a cool experience in Permai though. We met a more educated teenager which had met missionaries before. He spoke some English, and we eventually met some of his family in his house with him and shared a Book of Mormon. We don't yet actually know his name though, because he had met Parker before and Parker didn't remember.

It was so great talking to you! Love you so much!

-Elder Christensen