Easter Initiative

This week we traveled to Taipei at 6:00 AM and were there until 7:00 PM. The reason for this extremely long day spent in Taipei was the special training zone meeting. President Day, Sister Day, the temple sisters, assistants to the president, and our zone leaders trained us for what in reality was a really long training but it felt very short and I really enjoyed it. We learned about a lot of things but most importantly was the new Easter Initiative. The First Presidency has issued this message: The Easter holiday provides  a natural time to testify of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and to 

invite all to learn more of His teachings.  Use the initiative to help  the your mission discover, embrace, and share the Atonement of  Jesus Christ, which makes salvation possible.

So, from now until they tell us to stop, we will be sharing this simple message. Because He lives. There is an awesome video they made that we have been sharing. If you have not yet seen this video then look up: #becausehelives . It is awesome! And I am really excited to help all know that Christ is not gone from us. We can see him every day through our actions and through the actions of others. If all things are done with love, Christ will be found.

On another note, today I want to talk about Amahs. An amah is a very old old lady and they are typically found picking up garbage, driving scooters with a large mass of garbage on the back, or in a park slapping themselves on the arms or legs. These old women are wonderful. Though they speak only Taiwanese for the most part they are really funny to talk to. Taiwanese is quite the language. It shares similar sounds as Chinese sometimes but is a different language and my American mouth was not made to make the sounds that the Taiwanese language requires. It involves a lot of grunting and it sounds really funny. Amahs are awesome and if you are ever having a bad day go help an amah. But, a warning, if they are driving watch out because they just go for it no matter the color of the light or where they are. 

we found Sting

I am also very honored that President Child would make such a nice comment. He is such a wonderful man. I hope he and Sister Pat are doing ok. I will pray for them.

I am excited for Lillie’s pony! I hope it comes with note attached!

I love you mom. Thank you for the example you set. I am, as the aliens in Toy Story say, "eternally grateful."

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Hope ya Know I Had a Hard Time

my sketch of the week

I didn't really have too hard of a week. I have gone through a pretty good cold though. It started with a sore throat and now I am sitting here with a nose that resembles a faucet that doesn't quite turn all the way off. 

But I am happy. Truly the only bad part of the week was being sick and that was still not enough to really make it hard. (unless you count trying to speak Chinese with a stuffy nose.)

my area! and that is my zone leader elder hughes and some people we met 

The title of this week’s email is after this link that I am attaching. It is a clip from one of Elder Quentin L Cook's talks. His invitation towards the end of the video is to find someone who is having a hard time and to help them. It is simple but I think it is hard to serve people because when we ask "is there anything I can do to help?" most people reply with "No." 

That is why we must take action! Taking action is something Christ asks us to do with everything. We can't gain a testimony without praying and reading, we cannot learn how to be humble without lowering ourselves, and I have found that to serve people we must do one simple thing. Serve them. 

I am also going to try and take action in living up this invite.

This small clip made me happy and hopeful so please take a moment to watch it:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-05-21-hope-ya-know-we-had-a-hard-time?lang=eng

Elder Henry David Christensen

下雨 RAIN!

There was a lot of rain this week which is not surprising in Taiwan, but the part that makes it notable is that it was freezing cold! And as you may or may not know, most people don't like the cold, especially me! This made it difficult for us because literally NO ONE would answer our phone calls! 

We made a list of the people that wouldn't answer and it included 90% of our investigators. So, we had very few set ups which meant a lot of finding. Riding a bike in the rain is an experience I believe everyone should have because it really just helps you feel humble. Next time it rains.. SEIZE THE DAY! 

Because of this rain our week was very slow, but Sunday was and always is the day of miracles! 

First, It was very sunny and second we had set-ups almost every hour! (funny how on a sunny day we were inside people's homes all day).

We started by visiting Huang Shi Neng. He has improved a lot this week and I would like to thank all those who have been praying for him because he is off of alcohol! And on top of that he has a goal to make it to the temple to help his family become eternal. What a miracle! 

In Jeremiah chapter 29 we are given this promise about prayer: 

"12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord:" I know because of prayer we can be found of God. He will come to us and he will comfort us. 

I saw an amazing example of this as we sat in a small circle in the worn down home of Lin Jun Feng, listening to this 70 year old man witness that what we have been teaching him is true and that he would be willing to follow Christ and receive baptism. As he prayed in closing he thanked God for allowing him to meet me and my companion and that we could help him to know Christ.

Oh, and this almost brought me to my knees. I KNOW it was not me that taught this man. I know it will NEVER be me because I know that when we seek God, with all of our hearts, he will be found IN us. And when he is found in us, we become his messengers. I hope that today and tomorrow and hopefully through all of this next week and eternity, God can be found in us. 

Elder Henry David Christensen

Thrashers

    

This week as I worked with Elder Francis I found we have a lot in common in interests, hobbies and certain personality traits. One of those traits includes not liking talking to people.

When I was at home I would rather have stayed home for a movie than go to a party or just hang out with a small group of friends instead of going to a large gathering of people. I wouldn't say I was socially inept, I just didn't like that scene. He is the same way. 

It makes finding harder when neither you nor your companion enjoy talking to people. But as soon as this problem was apparent, I found this scripture from D&C chapter 35. It reads, "Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thresh the nations by the power of my Spirit."

I am one of those week things of the world. My scriptural knowledge is lacking, and I have so many flaws it is beyond my ability to count.

BUT, I know that God has called us to work together through revelation and I know Elder Francis and I can use our similarities to become a big strength in this area. I am loving it here in LuoDong.

We are working our hardest to keep it up and we have spent a lot of time finding and have met a few interesting people. Here is one of them: His name is Xie DX. He is about 50, retired and a little bit odd. He has a lazy eye and a very bad stutter which makes him hard to understand (on top of the fact that he is speaking Chinese), but he invited us over to his house to rest. 

Of course, since we don't rest, we shared the first lesson with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. He has no way to get to Church but he said we can come back any time and we have already gone back once. He is super willing to meet at any time and will listen to what we say then ask questions. He is awesome!

We have also continued to meet with Huang Shi Neng. He is still coming to Church though half the time it is with alcohol on his breath. We met with him early in the week with a member of the bishopric, and the visit was awesome. Not much was said, just comfort support and love were brought into his home through the spirit and it was pretty powerful. 

We visited him again on Sunday and that went well too. We drew him a picture of the Plan of Salvation and talked about how he needs to help his brother get to the celestial kingdom. He sort of connected the dots that God loves us enough to give us trails so that we can learn and overcome through relying on Christ. It was good and I think he is slowly getting better. 

We were sent here to thrash the nations. We are all weak, and we fall sometimes, but he calls us. And he called US! The weak things can become strong through Christ. And he has commanded us to give it our all no matter what. 

Elder Henry David Christensen

Hello, Goodbye.

On Wednesday night we did not receive a call for transfers, but we both felt like we should have. We called the mission home and they were like “oh ya sorry we forgot to call! Elder Love is moving and you need to be in Taipei at 9:00 a.m. in two days!” 

So the next day we said goodbyes to everyone and then packed and the next morning headed to Taipei. Elder Love was in and out of my life pretty quick! But my new companion Elder Francis is awesome! We have a lot in common and are working well together from what I can tell. We like a lot of the same things and he is a hard worker so it has been really fun the last few days. I am loving it!

We were able to meet with a lot of people and have some good experiences. We met with a “less active” that has been inactive for quite a few years. She, Angela, kindly invited us over when we called her and as we introduced ourselves, she was kind and polite. 

But when we started talking about our wonderful gospel she became a completely different person. She began to yell at us. I believe she did and said all she could to make us argue with her. Near the beginning of my mission, assuming I could speak Chinese then, I do not know if I could have held back. 

But I have learned a lot since then and I know that "bible bashing" is not something that brings the spirit. We were able to sit in silence as she yelled at us, then quietly invited her to read the Book of Mormon and we bore a solemn but powerful testimony. I know that this will allow us to come back into her home and hopefully bring the spirit. Elder Francis noticed that she did not seem very happy and that there was a sadness in her home. We have a fullness of hope that she will come back into the true fold of God, and bring that joy back into her home. 

Another experience was when we were finding at a park near our apartment. We stopped a lady and asked if we could give her an English tract. She said happily "of course!" I was confused because that rarely happens but after a little bit of talking we found she was a “less active” who at one point had been a missionary in Taichung. 

I was bewildered to say the least. She was eager to pray and speak with us and we found she had a very strong testimony of the church but that her husband had had a bad experience with the church and so he had forced their family out of activity. We invited her to pray for the faith to have her husband go back to church and she gave us his work address (which is right in the middle of our area). It was an awesome experience and quite a miracle! 

I love these people. I am so grateful to be able to serve them here. They are so fun to talk to and we have met so many wonderful men and women. Though a lot of them have broken my heart more than a few times, I know they will eventually be able to find joy in Christ just like I have and that makes it worth it.

I got a valentines package from Jeni and it was so awesome! My companion and I ate all the candy in seconds! Thank you Gochnour family! I love you all so much!! I also got letters from Adelide and Lillie! Thank you!! I love you! And most of all thank you to my mother. I got your package with all my favorite snacks and goodies and I loved it! I am being extra careful at watching my rate of intake so I can ration it a little longer. My companion and I have also listened to the music you sent about 10 times through already! 

Thank you!! I love you all! Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen