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 

Brotha Wang Makes the Dive

This week was awesome! 

A little rainy still, but we saw a lot of miracles and have met a lot of really solid people! We are stoked to be able to see each of them progress as we continue to focus on repentance unto conversion. 

We went to the ZOO!

We also had a baptism for Brother Wang Qi Ming this week which was exciting. 

I was able to introduce Brother Wang to the members at his baptism which was a great honor as he is one of the most humble and faithful men I have met. I also stood with Elder Dong as a witness of his baptism and was able to lay my hands on his head to assist in confirming him a member of the church. 

I have been blessed greatly this week. I am doing happy! Elder Robinson has helped me a lot as far as being positive goes. We keep each other happy and are loving our time together as companions! 

This week I also got to go on exchanges with Elders Hammond and Hamilton. I was really sick with a cold (and still recovering) but we still went on exchanges because of time and it worked out OK. I just kept going even though it was literally killing me. 

There was a sense of victory at the end of each day this last week and I am still alive so it was worth it. 

Those two elders, though nervous to be district leaders, are awesome! They have a lot of love and determination to help those they are serving. I learned a lot from them and I was able to talk with them and give them some new ideas of things that they could try that worked for me as a district leader. 

Also my companion and I took some time to do some training which was fun and we all learned. 

Exchanges are tiring but sure are fun!

    

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

We moved apartments this week and our new apartment is awesome! It is right by the mountains and the street name is pretty funny. It is Beetle-nut Road which is the Taiwanese version of tobacco, so it is a great coincidence that we moved here. 

Moving this week was fun but it did take out a lot of finding time because it was such a big project. You can imagine the filth and junk that piles up after five years of 19 year old teenage boys living in a small space with no desire or know-how to clean. It really was quite the project and we are excited to be done with it. 

We ended up throwing away all four desks and all the furniture and pretty much everything that we didn't bring ourselves because it was all broken and gross. Our new apartment is a lot better and more modern. Our toilets were made in Japan and have some cool functions. At night, it will light up and it will spray ya good when you are done to get you all clean. It's real nice. 

Besides moving, it was also a rainy week which sometimes means less people are out, but we were still able to see a lot of miracles and success despite the distractions and setbacks. We would come home soaked but happy because we were working hard and that is always satisfying. Our pants dry out pretty quick but my shoes have been soaked through for a few days and are still a little moist. The bottoms are falling off too but I think they will make it through to the end. I might bronze them after I get home haha. Anyways, it would be nice if it stopped, ya know?

We are also really excited for Wang Qi Ming, who is the brother that is getting baptized this next week, and we have been working a lot with him to overcome smoking. He called us the other day and said he had no more desire and that he was ready to get baptized! He had his baptismal interview at the same time as another set of Elders' investigator Sister Chen Bao Feng did. Brother Wang passed and so did she! We are all really excited for their baptisms coming up this next weekend. It was my first time doing a baptismal interview (I interviewed Sister Chen) but I wasn't nervous at all. I think it is just because I am an old missionary haha. It was a very relaxed and peaceful interview and the spirit was there. I was happy to be able to help someone make this step towards Christ, repentance, and baptism.

Thank you for your love and support have a great week! 

Elder Henry David Christensen

Robinson Crusoe

Adventures for days here in the Southern Zone.

I got transferred down here after only one transfer in the northern zone which was kind of weird. 

But I am still a zone leader and now my companion is one of my better homies from the MTC. We are the same age on the mission and will both be going home the same day. 

He is Elder Robinson and he is a skier from Bountiful Utah! We are homies!

It has been super fun and we have already seen a lot of success! 

I hope to not move again from this area but I got here right as we sealed a deal to move apartments so the other day we went and checked out our new apartment and it is on Beetle Nut Road. 

It is super nice and I am happy to be moving because our apartment right now is super gross. 

The paint is falling off the walls and the doors all don't close and etc.. It is the worst. 

We live with another companionship and it is fun to have more homies to chill with! It is a good life here. I couldn't be more excited and happy.

We have adventures every day. you can too.

Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Yesterday

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though their here to stay. oh, I believe in yesterday. 

Yesterday was beautiful. It is easy to lose focus on the beauty of the work, but yesterday we were able to teach with the purpose of truly trying to bless others with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Statistically, yesterday was not super great, but I felt the spirit many times guiding me and we were able to share with people in a very special way. 

I am doing pretty well, although I do feel quite a lot of pressure on my shoulders. We have been working so hard and just not seeing any real results so we are hoping to focus more on the spirit and Christ as well as the other mission initiatives. I know that tomorrow and today don't need to be painful or daunting. They are not meant to be that way. In a sense we need to just look forward and try our best relying on the Savior.

On another note I started noticing that soda was really making me feel gross so I vowed I wouldn't drink it anymore. So at least till the end of my mission I won't be. But I feel I could do it forever just to avoid that unhealthy feeling. Hopefully I can have more energy. 

    We had a fireside last night in Taibei which was pretty cool. We brought one of the less active members as well as a recent convert from our ward and they seemed to enjoy it. I was also able to see a lot of missionaries that go home this next transfer and I won't see them again soon. So that was weird. But I am pretty used to goodbyes now. 

All in all it was a 還蠻不錯的一個禮拜 (Quite good for a week). I am loving it here and trying to keep focused. My companion often mentions things about home so it is hard to focus but he is getting better about being sensitive as to what he talks about. haha

I am so grateful for you and your testimony. It has been a rock and foundation for me as I slowly have built my own beside yours. I fasted for you and dad yesterday and I hope you are doing well and healthy. I love you mom.

Love you all have a good week!

Love,

柯衡瑞長老