原來如此

黃金萬：

Tom is a great guy. We were contacting on the streets on day when we met Tom. He was super nice but a little timid and seemed pretty apprehensive as well. But he was willing so we met with him. Multiple times. The first time he was pretty quiet and not to receptive but we kept sharing and he opened up a little bit. He expressed his worries and doubts for his family and their safety. We were able to use the gospel to guide him to the realization that he could, through Christ, have peace. 

After meeting with him about 4 times he confided in my companion on the side that he had already been baptized. This often occurs because there are a lot of christian churches in Taiwan, so we weren't surprised. We asked "was it in our church?" He said it was not and we told him that next time we would talk about why he can and needs to be baptized again. So we met again and boy did we pound it. We taught all we knew about prophets, authority of the Priesthood and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and he just would not budge. We found our words had no effect. 

He kept saying "I am already baptized!" and asking why he needed to get baptized again. We followed up with other questions and eventually in a moment of frustration he blurted, " I AM ALREADY A MORMON!".... My companion's and my eyes met  and we both started laughing. Our ward mission leader, who was present for the lesson also started laughing and we all had a good long chuckle. Thus we met Tom the L.A. (less active). 

Also, a sister missionary got stressed this week and ran away. She was gone for like 5 hours and no one knew where she was. She is fine now I guess but it was really unusual. She is super intense and is having a hard time because she got put into an area that is kind of struggling. We are trying to help her. But she is kind of a tough case. Wish us luck! We are focusing on charity with her. 

Good vibes bring it all full circle. We must have love and joy when we come in contact with God’s children to have good vibes. 

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Like Two Peas and then a Pod

We biked up to this pot in only 40 minutes

We killed it this last week with some great workouts and then started today at 4:00 a.m. with a trip to the mountain city of ShiDing. 

It is a 26 miles ride and 90% of it is straight up hill, so it was a great work out. We rode it pretty fast. We got up and down with some break time in just 3 hours which was pretty good considering terrain. 

The trip takes you up a long hill through the mountains with no flats and some steep parts which took us 40 minutes and then there is a peak looking over the great valley of ShiDing. 

After resting and waiting for the rest of the gang, we rode down a hill which was steeper, but shorter by just a kilometer. The turns were pretty sharp so we had to slow down a few times, but over all it was pretty smooth and it was a beautiful ride. 

Biking is fun for the journey. Ultimately there are few places/destinations that will be better than the journey itself. After visiting this small town we headed back up. 

Going back up this hill took us 30 minutes to scale and was a killer on my legs but super worth it. Then it was a good cruise downhill for about 20 minutes and we were home. ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! 

the first peak in shiding

I loved the views and time to exercise. I also was pleased because I was in charge of planning the trip and it went well and a lot of missionaries came and went safely, so it was good.

I have been working on my art skills recently

We received news that I will be staying with Elder Robinson this next transfer and I am stoked about that. We will have only one left after we split! 

I think this transfer will go by fast, which I am sad about, but I am good friends with my companion and I have so much to learn from him still! I am excited to say the least! 

We have a baptism coming up next Saturday and we are excited for that and then today we are going to the temple, which is also a great blessing. I am doing great and loving my mission. Y'all 加油!

Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Robin Hood and Little John

 Runnin' through the forest is our daily routine now.

We had an awesome zone meeting this last week! Our focus for the trainings was  to give everyone a chance to share and teach. So we called ahead and gave every missionary in our zone a responsibility for the meeting. The night before, we found out that President Jergensen would be there, so we were pretty excited to see how it would all turn out. It went awesome! 

We received a lot of inspiring training and President Jergensen loved it! He was super happy how united we were as a zone. It was pretty cool. 

Recently we have been focusing on 1X1 which is just focusing on the one in front of you right now. For example, if I run into a member on the street, I will give that member 100 percent of my attention and love. Same thing with investigators or missionaries. 

It is hard to do, love everyone, but I think it is a great practice. We are also focusing now on using the scriptures and become good teachers and I am loving it. I think our mission is forever heading in a wonderful direction. I love my mission president. He is a great man and a true friend.

I passed off 3000 characters in Chinese!

I went on exchanges with an Elder Merrell this week and it was super fun! He is a quiet dude but very hard working. He has a lot of love in his heart and shows it through his thoughtful teaching and effective use of scriptures. It was awesome to learn from him. 

Last P-day we biked way up into the mountains and my legs are still sore from it, but we are doing it again today because we don't care about that.

The coolest part about this last little bit of time is the growth in our recent convert Wang Qi Ming and the progression of Alex Huang our investigator. Brother Wang will get the priest hood next week! And Alex: about three weeks ago on a Saturday night we were getting ready for bed and a random number texted us asking when church started. We told him and then asked who he was and he was like, "oh, this is Alex!" and we had no idea who that was. 

Nevertheless, the next day he showed up to church. It was kind of a weird way to meet him, but Alex is a homie. He cares a lot about health and has pretty good English. He has a friend that he went to school with that joined the church just a few months ago and it was super cool to see them catch up. He is super awesome. The other day when we met with him after almost 2 weeks of not seeing him we talked about scriptures. He had already read the first 50 pages! 

a lizard that lives in our apartment

an Taiwanese Aboriginal Woman

We shared on some great ways to get stuff out of the scriptures and it was super spiritual and then we committed him to keep the word of wisdom as well as some other commandments. He is super willing and is awesome! We have some other awesome people that will get baptized soon but we are most excited for Alex.

Have a good week!

a member drew this of me

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Math

This week was awesome! We saw a lot of miracles and I am excited to see what we can do this week. Last Preparation day, we rode a bus up into the mountains and went to this place called "Thousand Island Lake." 

It was beautiful and we got a little hiking in which was nice. I think a good day really does start with exercise. I have found that the days I don't exercise hard are usually the harder and less successful days. 

Now that my companion and I are healthy we are excited to see what we can do with more energy! 

Exchanges were good this last week. It is hard for me sometimes, however, because I still feel like I have no idea what I am doing and it makes it pretty stressful to try to be a good example to the missionaries in my zone.

But I am also confident that God will make me into the tool He needs to carry out his work as long as I am willing to work hard. 

I was able to exchange with Elder Anderson and Elder Stevenson this week and both exchanges went pretty well. These two are probably the ones who are struggling the most and I am hopeful that the exchange helped. Christ led perfectly and worried about his apostles because they could not understand fully. But for me, I am just not a great leader, so I am really relying on the spirit to guide me as I train these younger and struggling missionaries.. 

I think back to when I was a little younger on the mission and the struggles I had. My leaders then were so awesome and I learned so much from them, and I felt like they really inspired me to become better. 

May God grant me with the blessing that I also will be able to do the same to those who need it.

那我希望你們都可以很快樂！加油加油！

(I hope you can be very happy! Come on! Come on!)

Elder Henry David Christensen