帥哥社團派對

It snowed yesterday. I came to Taiwan expecting rain and maybe a little wind chill but I swear I was not prepared for snow. It was 2 degrees Celsius outside and 8 in our room so it was really cold to say the least, especially when you add the humidity to the equation.  

Anyways, slightly more important is that I made a great breakfast of mushrooms, eggs, cherry tomatoes, and Taiwanese sausages all fried up together. 

The transfers are this week. Should have some more exciting news next week. 

Love you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Cold Water

This last week was awesome! I went on exchanges with Elder Byers and it was so much fun! We saw a lot of miracles together and I learned a lot from him. 

He is a very earnest missionary. He is also very chill/relaxed. We got along great together! 

The coolest part of last week, which may be obvious, was the baptism of Zhuang Yu Qi! 

He is so awesome and was truly deserving of the title "Golden Investigator." I have loved teaching him. His understanding of the gospel grew so fast it was always a surprise at the answers he would give to our questions. I am humbled at his great faith... 

The baptism itself was very smooth, other than the cold water that filled the font, and there was a good amount of people who came to support.

Our district is making exciting progress! We are all working very hard here to help the Toufen and Miaoli wards grow. With our baptism this last Saturday we are hoping to sort of kick off these two areas. 

Toufen, the other Elders in my district, will have a baptism in two weeks as well so they are also just revving up their area! However, among all this excitement I also know there is a lot of improvement to be done. I am constantly humbled by the Elders here and their stalwart examples to me. 

Another funny thing that has been happening is the service we have been doing for a Sister Xu. She is not a member and is really old. She has us come and help her clean her TuDiGong which is a temple for the god of that area. So we have been cleaning up there a lot. 

Anyways, one of the funnier parts was that there were two women who came and sacrificed some food to the gods and as they were doing their thing, Sister Xu came up to us and whispered with a smile, "Just wait till their gone and I'll give you their food."Haha then as they were leaving one started taking the food back and Sister Xu made her give us some. We felt kind of awkward but you know how old people sometimes are. Hard to refuse sacrificed food.

I am so excited about Hannah and Spencer! I am stoked to see them in the temple! 

Never lose faith in people. I have learned that lesson the hard way. Don't ever give up ever. 

I love you mom! Thank you for your faith! 

Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen 

Everyday's a Winding Road Yah!

This week was awesome! A lot of funny things happened. 

I got told I was pretty, to stop following Joseph Smith and to just go back to America and get a wife, and also witnessed a man wiping his dogs bottom which I found odd. 

I also sort of noticed I have fallen back into previous eating habits. I am not eating very much again, which is weird because in the MTC there are three big block meals and until now I have been doing, that but recently I have started eating small and drinking a lot of milk. I am not sure if that is good or bad, but it is fun.

    

We have Brother 莊s baptism this coming Saturday which is super exciting! Zhuang Dx is very prepared. He is converted and I have no idea how. I know I didn't do anything special, so I think it must just be God's hand that guided him. He shared his testimony with us and it was beautiful. One of the coolest miracles I have seen on my mission. I am excited to see more of these with the time I have left. 

Thanks for sharing your testimony on forgiveness. I have seen forgiveness take a very important role in my life. I have forgiven before but I find most of the time I am the one that is getting forgiven. I have felt incredible amounts of mercy while I have been out here. 

I am worried mom. This time is going by so fast and I am scared. I know for a fact that I am not as far as I should be by now and I know that I have an eternity's worth of space to improve. Doesn't it seem hopeless sometimes? haha. 

I am grateful for the Atonement. I feel it is the only reason my lack of progress is acceptable. I am reminded constantly that when it says God chooses the least and lowest to do his work he was talking about me. I am humbled at your faith and testimony as well as love for me. I know that I don't deserve it mom. I know it. But I am so glad to receive it. I am grateful for my family. Both here and there. 

Love, Elder Henry David Christensen

Not Much Time

This week was pretty normal as far as the work goes. One thing that made it special was the rapid progression of our investigator Zhuang Yu Qi. 

His baptismal date is 1/16 and he is doing some great preparation. He goes to all the young single adult activities and attends all meetings very actively. When we met him, he said he only believed in ghosts. But now he has a firm testimony in Heavenly Father, which he received from the Book of Mormon. 

His interview is tomorrow and we are really excited about that as well. He will also be coming to the beach with us today to play hand ball and then a member is going to feed us all dinner and help us teach him. It has only been 3 weeks and he is already cruising through the Book of Mormon. I am very humbled to meet someone so prepared. It has not happened for me before on my mission and I must say it is quite the joyful experience. 

Another thing I have come to realize that I think is pretty darn hilarious is that Elder Hu is the exact opposite person of Elder Anderson. I was wondering why it felt so different and that is my final answer for the reason. It is going well though. I am working hard to get our companionship relationship to be better and better. I am looking forward to my time with Elder Hu!

love,

Elder Henry David Christensen 

開會啊 (to hold a meeting)

Hey y'all.

    

Christmas is over but really it goes all year round.

We had a good one over here. On Christmas day we did nothing that had anything to do with Christmas, but the surrounding days were pretty festive! We went picking strawberries and on a cool bridge that led to a little hidden retreat. 

Then on Tuesday we woke up super early and went to Taibei for the mission-wide Christmas conference. We went to the American Club hotel which is a super nice hotel with very authentic American food. They even had Mac and Cheese! 

The conference went from 9 am to 5 pm and then I went on exchanges with Elder Perkins. We got lost in Tucheng so we walked around and sang a lot of carols but no one wanted to listen. Still it was fun! 

The next day was Christmas and we had our ward party and our members killed it. One family brought three friends and their families which was super cool. We met a lot of great people!! 

    

It was good to see my good old family on Skype. It is weird how much time changes people. I almost didn't recognize some of my own family members, which was odd, but they were good changes. I miss them a lot and I love them even more. It is surreal that I haven't seen them in person for such a long time. It is something that not too many have experienced in this way. Which doesn't make me special, but it has helped me learn a lot about myself and further my belief that family is very important.

Love, Elder Henry David Christensen

WHO?

Transfers this week were stellar. I am now serving with an Elder Hu, who is Taiwanese. He is a homie. Although a little despondent at times he is a super hard worker! 

We have already seen a few miracles together. For example: Last Friday we met a Brother Zhuang and had a lesson with him, then set him up for the next day. He came, we had a great lesson and set a baptismal date, then he came to church and attended a young single adult fireside last night. 

We are meeting with him today again so it has been kind of fun because we didn't even really have to set up any of it. He is super willing to learn and likes the environment a lot! Super cool experience for me and Elder Hu to see right from the start! 

Besides that nothing else is really new. I am doing super happy and I am excited for this week. Our ward has a big Christmas activity coming up and all of the members are inviting homies. We are really pushing for a lot of new investigators to be coming out of this, so it is really exciting to be working so well with the ward! 

Also, I met this guy who is super smiley. He is from Sweden and lives in the Southern-most city. He likes to climb trees and is super friendly. 

Love,
Elder Henry David Christensen

Looks like there is one less meow in Miao Li

Title credit: Elder Anderson

    

So here is what happened. We biked through the church gates, chased away the twenty or so cats that hide on our church property and unlocked the church for an early morning meeting. I am not sure why (spiritual prompting maybe?) but I walked around the side of the chapel building and about 10 yards in front of me I saw a little mound on the pavement. Upon a closer inspection I realized it was a cat that had been, for lack of better words, ripped in half. 

It's innards were all over the property and the entire back half was just gone. We at first thought it was just dogs that somehow got in but later looked where the cats usually hang out and there were a bunch of bones. So, in short, we have some cannibalistic cats over here! Moreover we have one less meow in Miao Li! 

Anyways, this last week was hard! I am not sure why, but it felt pretty rough. However, we did see a few miracles. Last night, for example, we were waiting for an investigator in a KFC,when a man we had not met came up to us and introduced himself as he sat down at our table. 

We talked for a little bit before our investigator came in. The investigator confessed that he had shown his parents the BofM and they were opposed to him looking into other religions. But we prayed for him, and bore our testimonies to him and told him to never give up, then invited him to try again to talk to his parents.

He is a brave soul. Most investigators just don't show up and never answer our phone calls when this kind of stuff happens. But he came and told us to our faces. It was very respectable. 

Meanwhile, this other man, Brother Xu, was listening in and flipping through the BofM. After our now former-ish investigator left, we talked to Brother Xu for a little bit and set up with him to meet again. It was a miracle. I believe God wanted us to meet one so that we could meet the other. Super cool!! 

Anyways, other than that not much happened here in Miao Li! We are getting everyone excited for Christmas by sharing the new and old Christmas videos! It is a time to be jolly.

Love,

Elder Henry David Christensen