Hello beautiful Children of God!

This last week was insane for a number of reasons, but far from un-enjoyable!

Monday was a weird day of transfer preparation mostly, especially as both Elders Hobbs and Tan were leaving from our household. That night though we went to Alim and Ani's house, who informed us that they had just brought back their daughter from the hospital. She's had some sort of fever, and they asked us to sembayang for her (worship). We ended up explaining a little about Priesthood blessings before we administered to her, I anointed and Elder Poppleton blessed.

Tuesday, literally the entire day after District Meeting, was involved in helping the Sisters move from their old apartment to their new one. It was a lot of fun though, and we got really sweaty and dirty. Elders Bester, Poppleton, and I were assigned to bring everything from the old apartment to the parking lot.

Wednesday was the bitter-sweet day of saying good bye to Elders Hobbs and Tan as they left for the airport. We helped them out in the morning, Elder Hobbs was up until early finishing packing. That night we met with one of the potentials we had, a friend of a member named Suni. His name was Laman (Lah-man, not LAMAN), and we were welcomed by him and his friend Thomas. It was kind of a weird lesson though, as Thomas kept asking us about immigration to America while Laman was genuinely interested. We haven't had a follow up lesson yet with them.

Thursday we were waiting for the new Elders to arrive, until we found out that they were delayed until Friday. So we did Weekly Planning. We also had a great opportunity to correlate with the Sisters that replaced Elders Hobbs and Tan, Sister Anderson and Sister Willis, This is Sister Anderson's last transfer in the mission, which means that the end of this transfer the Sisters of our group will go home. Sad day!

Friday we welcomed the new Elders into our house! Elder Stenquist has been out for 4 transfers, and Elder Tessers is fresh from the M.T.C. It's been a lot of fun to have them there, and we have all gotten along very well. 

Saturday we followed up with a former from Elder Hobbs's area book who let us in, his name being Bah. He's a very nice man, loves learning about Jesus, but reminds me a lot of Jerry from Sibu. We talked for a while, but what seemed to interest him the most was the concept of Prophets and Gospel Dispensations. Also, I had a written letter in my bag to send home, and it might have fallen out in his house. I'll need to get it back.

Sunday was very spiritual, a lot of less actives who hadn't come all came at once, but sadly none of our investigators. One sister bore powerful testimony of how the Savior had helped her to overcome her husband cheating on her, and now, a year later, she was strong enough to endure everything. Last night, after finding a less active, we were prompted by the spirit to leave as we didn't feel safe. Elder Poppleton was slightly disappointed as he has always wanted to beat up some thieves. We had a delicious break-fast Sunday dinner of spaghetti though.

Love you all so much! The work is picking up, and this transfer will be miraculous!

-Elder Christensen

Hello everyone! Things have been great so far for this week, very long and crazy, miracles and trials intermingled throughout!

So, Monday due to the sickness of last week, the 4 Elders in our house skipped out on the Zone Activity with the possibility of Hospitalization. Since it didn't happen and we are all fine, Elder Hobbs and I did another Escape room. This one was a Murder Investigation theme, and it was way fun. We barely finished it with a minute to spare.

Tuesday, Elder Hobbs gave a great training based on the idea of putting your heart in the work, so that you want to follow the commandments more then feel regulated by them.

To be honest, I can only remember those events in relation to knowing specifically when they happened. We have been finishing up a massive project that we have been doing for about 3 weeks when we found 3 old area books and have been following up with every former and less active record in them. Part of why we did this was to try and break out of a certain part of our area that the missionaries have been working in for years, where, as Elder Poppleton was telling me he observed from a year ago serving in Kuching, that all the members that are active now as compared to then are different except the Branch President. We finished all we had to do in that area, as with all that work only 2 kingdom builder families have been found. We hope no to explore all our area this next week to find some more non-Chinese neighbourhoods.

Also, the Teachings of President Heber J. Grant is an amazing book that I relate to incredibly for some reason.

We had two miracles come from the follow up though. One was that the parents of a recent convert 12 year old boy, Augustine, have suddenly become very receptive. We taught them the Restoration, and his mom seemed to really enjoy it. She's a little more educated, and helped translate for the father, but anyone could have understood the spirit in that room. They invited us back and live within walking distance of the church. The names are Ali and Ani (dad and mom).

The other was a less active follow up. The Mother, Sister Sai, has been coming back to activity with some friends, and we have started teaching her 17 year old son Jimmy. We hope to have him on date and at church this week.

Now, the one big trial was that we had an instance of straight up rejection. That Chinese iban mix man that we found last week decided that we were decievers and fools after 3 minutes in his house this time around, and I spent Personal this morning figuring out why it says we feel joy and happiness because of that in D&C 75. It's good though, because it means that this church is true. We even used that experience almost immediately after to help a family of struggling eternal investigators.

Anyway, last night after an emotionally draining week Elder Poppleton and I found a great stress relief in creating fictional quotes from a man named Elder Rhineberg, an apostle of the FLDS church in 1970. It was hilarious. We get along too well, it's almost scary. Another 6 weeks together, and now he's my District Leader!

Love you all so much!

-Elder Christensen

Aduh

This week has been..... a lot of things. Good in the end though :-) Here we go.

Monday we went down to waterfront, the big tourist area of Kuching, where I spent all the money in my personal account on a sweet sword, some silk pyjamas, and some other little knick knacks. The problem now is finding a box big enough to send it home in :-). 

Also that day it started to rain (it still hasn't stopped).

That night we found the Police in front of the house where many of our members live in the kampung next to the church. They were bringing back Augustine, who apparently was innocent. He had the goods dumped on him by the real criminals, two young boy recent converts of the age of 15 and 9, who were then on the run. It was good for his mother to see him back.

Tuesday was Zone Meeting in the morning, it went pretty well. President Mains has a strong focus on Chapter 8 right now, I was able to share what Elder Sutherland shared with me about Virtue, that being that Aristotle once defined Virtue as something that fulfils its purpose (hence a virtuous pot holds water, a virtuous thought uplifts you). Afterwards, Elder and Sister Pryzbila asked us to help them transport a mattress to a new senior couple's apartment, then treated us to McDonalds. We had a lot of good conversation about political stuff, he's a really smart man.

Wednesday we woke up sick. I had a bad head cold, Elder Poppleton's neck really hurt, and it was raining really hard for a while. Apparently Ibuprofen really knocks me out, so we were in the apartment recovering (and on a rain check) until 4 in the afternoon. We continued doing the family prayers every night, and Wednesday was when we found the two culprits newly returned. They seemed okay, we still don't know their full guilt or situation. After the day's work we returned home to find that I had a weird looking rash on my legs, almost like an allergic reaction. It was gone by the morning, but we informed Sister Mains.

Thursday was an awesome weekly planning, Elder Poppleton was led to find two old area books in our office that were full of teaching records from in actives and former investigators. After Family Prayers. the rash was back, this time in a weird ring on my chest. Once again it was gone by the morning.

Friday we had no appointments confirm, so we devoted several hours to calling through the old records. We have been slowly working through them and have already found a large number of people ready to meet again, including a man named Tinit who, when he found out who we were, said he actually wanted to come back to church this next week. He called us back to confirm his own attendance. As we were doing that, the rash slowly returned on my arms them left. It was only there for a few hours.

Saturday the rash didn't show up, but we were able to follow up with two former investigators, Bro. Nayau's family and a man named Jimmy Wong (not sure on that name). They both live near waterfront. Sis. Madeline, Nayau's wife, was the only parent present, the husband left, but we were able to visit the family with Sister Rosie. They have 6 kids, the two oldest being twin boys over sixteen. Sister Rosie is a returning less active who lives near them, and it turns out that she was the one that referred that family originally! We taught specifically out of 'How To Begin Teaching', and made our missionary purpose and our combined destiny very clear. Sister Rosie bore powerful testimony of the church, speaking of her own conversion. 

Then was Brother Wong, a heritage mix of Iban and Chinese. He had only been taught a very few times before, as he was very stubborn and indoctrinated in his own church a year ago (according to his record). Now he seemed very humbled and different, and had a lot of questions. We were able to bear testimony of the restored church in response to an article he had read in the local paper spreading lies about the Prophet Joseph Smith and polygamy. He said he had never really believed the article, and was grateful we came. He has a lot of issues that will be answered when he learns the plan of salvation.

In the middle of the night I woke up rubbing my hair. I went to the bathroom to find the rash all over my neck and head (not my face), and I could feel it under parts of my hair. It didn't itch though, just felt a little numb.

Sunday morning I called Sister Mains about that, as it was again gone by morning. I asked the other Elders for a priesthood blessing at that point, and Elder Hobbs gave a beautiful blessing promising miracles for our area because of our trials and that the source of the rash would be found. 

Church itself was great, afterwards we had an awesome correlation meeting with President Changai. 

The raining had escalated to a flood in the kampung, so we walked in the flood to remind everyone to say their family prayers.

That night the rash only half returned on my legs, but during the night I had the strangest experience of actually feeling myself get more healthy. This morning, talking with Sister Mains, we said how there was a previous Elder that had a similar situation to mine (except his was worse, it didn't leave) where he had a allergic reaction to a virus he had at the time. It seem that is what happened to me, as I had that head cold the entire time. But it is already improving, and not contagious as nobody else has had it.

This week has been one of the most ridiculous and longest of my life. And miraculous at the end.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Love you all!

-Elder Christensen

Hello everyone!

This week had a lot happen, here we go!

Monday we went to another Escape Room, this time being called Imprisonment. We were tasked with escaping from a jail cell and rigging security systems. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we had the great experience of Elder Hobbs's first District Meeting. He did a great job, focusing on the purpose of Sacrifice. That night we did some contacting and met a nice man named Jose. We told him we were 'lost' (we were walking around), and he led us back for a while, giving us a nice chance to talk. He gets back from kampung tonight, so we hope to meet him tomorrow.

We had interviews at the church with President mains, the first time since I was with Elder Parker in Sibu. It was a great experience, President Mains is such a inspired man, we were able to talk for a while about the current state of the mission and what we could do to help it. Immediately after that some members gave us a deliciously huge durian that everyone in our house had to eat that night.

Elder Poppleton got some really cool inspiration for our area a couple days ago, he thought it would be a good idea to start doing a family prayer with a bunch of struggling families that live not only near each other, but near the church. Last night was the second night of doing so, one of them told us her son had been arrested and her husband was drunk. She felt so hopeless and powerless that she admitted to suicidal tendencies. We told her we had no idea what she was feeling, but Jesus Christ did. We read a little, Alma 7:11-13, and said a prayer with her. The spirit was incredibly strong.

It was such a strong witness that we were there when we were needed to be.

Yesterday was also the day that Elder Randy Funk came to our branch! It was a great experience, he served his mission in Indonesia and could still speak the language somewhat, but I was asked to translate. 

I love you all so much! This next week will be just as great, following up with some potential investigators!

-Elder Christensen

Hello everyone! This week was crazy but pretty good, here's the gist of it.

The work went a little slower for a couple reasons, as some of the families we have been working with have fallen through for a variety of reasons. Monday was fun, we danced a lot. A Lot. Sister Coward from New Zealand had choreographed this massive Broadway level production of a Christmas medley dance that took our P-day and part of District meeting to rehearse. It was a lot of fun though and we pulled it off pretty well. The only adverse reaction was after it was all done my knee started to hurt a little, might have pulled something. Nothing serious, but Sister mains just told me to ice it and go a little easier for a while. No worries though :-)

That was a lot of our week, and the party itself was on Wednesday. It was a blast, full of performances from all the branches. Ours was best on American standards, but nobody really appreciated it on Iban levels.

Friday was a fun day, we went on exchanges with the other Stampin Elders. I went with Elders Tan, and Elder Poppleton went with Elder Hobbs. It was a fun day, we randomly found an arcade machine at a mall that could have won us iPad Mini's and smart phones as Elder Tan went to order some new glasses that were on New Year sale (by the way HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!). That night we were able to meet Elder Jahali's family (one of the Elders in Sibu). It was awesome, and Elder Tan is a great Elder.

Saturday we went and started a fast with a less active lady that is incredibly strong in her faith. Her husband never joined the Church and her kids all fell away, but her faith is inspiring. It's hard for her to come on her own, but we started a fast together for fast Sunday. There's a large number of women with less active or non-member husbands here, to the point where I have been praying for them collectively. I don't know how to help them as all of those men have no interest or weird doctrines. I almost hope God will just help to humble them enough to turn back to Him.

I love you all so much! Today we might actually get those swords! Love you!

-Elder Christensen

Dear Wonder Family

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

This last week was pretty good, but by far the best part was calling all of you! That was definitely the highlight of my week and it's been a pretty good Christmas week over all.

This last Monday we had a really fun P-Day activity when we were able to go to an Escape Room (it was so awesome we almost want to do it again today). It was Da Vinci Code themed, meaning we had to solve puzzles that gave us codes to open doors using colors, pictures, numbers, letters and patterns (sometimes all in one puzzle). It was way hard, and we accidentally placed the wrong code into the last door, causing a 1 minute delay that prevented us from finishing in an hour. It was the best P-day thing I've done in a long time (in SIbu it was only Rugby).

That night we visited the 1st councellor's family, Bro. Pelima and his wife and daughter. That was the beginning of a long stream of Christmas visits that lasted all Tuesday and Wednesday. We literally met with probably 20 families, sharing brief messages  (Usually Alma 7: 11-13). It was exhausting, but fun. 

Thursday morning we called! Yay! The rest of that day was parties at various member houses, including President Changai's house, and a member brought us out to Brother Beliang's house!

President Main's counsellor, President Arrow, invited everyone for an American Christmas party (he's rich enough to afford it). It was a great time, but almost distracting as all it was was AMAZING FOOD and people watching movies. We got to talk a lot though, that was really fun. We met with Sofia, a girl that contacted herself and this last Sunday brought us to meet her family. It was a little awkward as the uncle, the only male there, left a little after we started. We finished the lesson teaching through the doorway, mostly focusing on the identity of God and prayer.

Sunday night we had a lesson with Sundau, a convert of some years already. Her nonmember husband had said we could meet him that day earlier in the week, but that night he didn't want. He still let us in though because it was raining. We met with her anyway, finding that she had still held strong on pure faith although her children had fallen away from the church. She prayed for them all daily. We decided that this week before fast Sunday we would all pray for her family daily, and fast together at the end of the week. She is a very touching example to all of us.

Love you all so much!

-Elder Christensen

Hello Family! Sorry, after this email we'll be switching to a better
kedai, this is all I can to here. If it's too late, just go to bed,
we'll be talking more this week! (Was there a mission prep this week?)

Anyway, this week was a pretty bitter sweet one. Finally leaving Sibu
after 9 months was not tear jerking but not easy. I gave Merang's
family the Bible Video DVD, they well appreciate that.

Anyway, I flew out Wednesday morning to my new area, Stampin, Kutching
(Kutching means 'cat' in Malay). Elder Poppleton was in my M.T.C.
group, but I haven't seen him since then. He was in the Navy before
the mission, planning to join the army after he returns, and is famous
in the mission for being a really funny guy. It's been a blast working
with him so far, and this area is much easier to work in then my last
one. I'll be focusing on self motivation, now that I realize how much
the refiners fire was keeping me stoked up in Sibu. Here is the first
area I've had with all four borders outlined!
The branch is great so far, President Changai is the President and he
is a very nice and insightful man. Elder Poppleton was telling me that
his previous companions didn't really enjoy biking, weekly planning or
companionship study, but he wants to do all of those. It's been a busy
couple days.
I still don't know the people very well yet, but we have been working
with some less actives including Elder Beliang's older sister
Josephine. She seemed really excited to hear how he was doing, and it
was a good experience to meet her.
Other people include some recent converts and less actives, including
Sister Bia and Sister Durina. They both have reportedly been on the
upswing recently. A miracle was finding a potential in the form of a
man named Ambrose, a inactive Roman Catholic who lives in some flats
across from a less active member, Sister Rosie.

It's been a good week though, felt nice to get to bed early on Sunday
for once, love you so much! Talk to you later this week!
-Elder Christensen