September 10, 2012

I couldn't think of a subject line. And WELCH is based off of this short, hilarious experience:

Elder Magleby and I went into Burger King on a depressing night of finding people all night. But we didn't really find anybody, so after a good 2 hours of work in North Newark we went to drown our sorrows in bacon hamburgers and fries. So we order and as we're waiting for our food, there's this old black guy wearing jeans and a baseball cap that walks in, walks over to the soda fountain and starts willing up an old bottle of Welches grape jelly wrapped in a plastic bag. It was HUGE too probbaly like a 32 ounce bottle. Anyway, he fills it up, mumbles something under his breath, and walks out without another word. Newark is awesome.

So we had training this week on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 am to 4 pm. It was really great. Towards the end, President Jeppson (who is a patriarch as well, (it's one of those positions that stays with you forever, like a bishop)) basically gave us all a blessing as he bore his testimony. It's incredible to hear him speak and then hear a literal change in his speech as he pronounces blessings on the heads of us missionaries. Mission Presidents have so much divine power, it's amazing.

I used to hate role plays but NOW after doing literally 500 over those two days, I can appreciate them more. They're really good opportunites to work out kinks in your lessons and receive revelation too. I got some sweet ideas from various missionaries that I worked with. ALSO, I got to hang out with Elder Romrell, one of my MTC companions (he got put with me and Elder Waite when his companion went home).

It's weird because Elder Romrell, Elder Waite and I are the only New Jersey missionaries left from our MTC district. Everybody else has gone home due to depression/health problems. Super sad. Hopefully they'll be coming back out soon but it's still gives me heavy boots.

This week we only taught 17 lessons. Boo! But that was partly because Tuesday and Wednesday got destroyed due to training.

But we found two new investigators this week. One guy named Tony, a peruvian that we met on the streets. He was great because we just talked about the churches and if there was one true church and whatnot. So he basically set up the return appt himself, which hardly ever happens because people usually aren't interested. The other person was Vanessa, from Uruguay. She has two sons and 3 step children. She's probaly only like 35 or so too. She was super great and listened to our message and her son Lucas who's like 9, has long beautiful brown hair. I'm jealous. When I got home, you all better believe that I'm growing my hair out again. And a lush beard as well.... moving on.

Going back to the training really quick: the biggest things I learned are the following:

1. Be quiet.

2. Slow down.

3. Listen to the spirit.

YOU ALL KNOW ME. I love to talk and communicate with people and just be their friend. But the problem is, is I talk TOO much and don't the spirit room to come and and speak for us. Elder Magldby is cool, collective and reserved. I'm trying to be like that, and it's incredibly how much I've calmed down these past weeks, JUST FROM listening to eh spirit more. I love it. They say every companionship is a trio: You, companion, Holy Ghost. It's a wonderful feeling when you know that and when you use the Holy Ghost as the tool that God has given us.

My spanish is coming along. Elder Magleby has good spanish, but he speaks like a total gringo. So I've already noticed my accent is going a little downhill. OH. COOL thing: I've been told that I look Puerto Rican and Italian so far. We'll see what else comes next.

I'm going to the ZOO today in South Orange, (WHERE GARDEN STATE WAS FILMED). I'm stoked.

For everybody that wrote me, I probbaly won't have time today. But I'll try to post some photos so Matthew can post them on my blog.

Tanner: got your letter,. IT WAS AWESOME.

Chris: wrote you back.

Hayley" WRITE ME.

Bayley: I'm sorry I'm the worst at writing you. I'll try to get you next week.

FAMILY: I'll try really hard to write you all next week.

ELDER Niels Christensen

ps - Indian Bro. Jackson, from the english ward is cooking a rich french meal for me and Elder Magleby this Sunday. I'll send pics. Also, he's awesome and printed off lyrics for me for "On the Floor (brandon Flowers) and "I'll Fly Away" (Allison Krauss and Gillian Welch). SO I'm going to sing them for other missionaries and it will be grand.

September 4, 2012

Because it was Labor Day yesterday, none of the libraries were open (duh) so we didn't get to email. And we have an appt with a Dominican guy named Lloyd in about 10 minutes. So I gotta fly.

Quick updates:

-Baptismal date with Maria Paez. She's like 80 years old and is awesome and tells her children to go to hell.

-Peruvian BBQ yesterday with Hermano Vallejo (high priest group leader). Incredible. Grilled steak, chorizo-like-sausage with sliced peppers, grilled corn, fresh bread, rice, INCA KOLA (the BEST) and other stuff. It was amazing. (PS another favorite drink is a purple corn drink called Chicha Morado. It's out of this world.

-ELDER Magleby: follow up trainer, from American Fork, 6'3, used to be a male cheerleader, really hard worker, good missionary, we get along pretty well.

-I'll send some photos soon. DAD - The SD card that you sent me doesn't work. Don't know why. I'll send it back though.

-Beach volleyball yesterday (beach court in a members apartment complex). Brother Jackson, from India is incredible. MATTHEW, her wears some incredible shoes. Like 400 dollar chucka style leather dress shoes. Wow. I'll send pics. He's ALSO an amazing chef. Sending pics and whatnot SOON.

-Got some more letters. Still backed up on writing letters. Trying to respond to everybody.

-Miracles in Newark. OUt of gas. Found a new investigator. TONS of street contacting. Elder Magleby is pretty good at it.

Love you all. HOpefully I can write a wee bit more in a couple of days.

Elder Niels Christensen

August 27, 2012 (Kearney, NJ)

It's INSANE how quickly this transfer passed by. And this is only the first one. I was talking to Elder Key about how quickly I felt it went and all he did was laugh and say "You have no idea."

Elder Storey is getting transfered, which means that I will be getting a follow-up trainer tomorrow at the conference. It's going to be great though. Elder Ream (zone leader, also getting transfered from Central Newark) told me that he was super glad his trainee got a follow up trainer because he learned things from his f-up trainer that Elder Ream NEVER would have been able to teach him. Hopefully that's the way it will be. I'll miss Elder Storey though. He was great and exactly what I needed. He taught me a great many things but mostly he taught me how to love your investigators and have eternal patience with them. Goodness gracious is he patient.

So this week, we taught Lydin again (finally!). She's still progressing, reading the Book of Mormon and keeping up on her prayers. She said she feels like she needs to learn some more but when she does that she'll be baptized. I can't remember if I told you about her but she's like 21, from Ecuador, is a hostess at Applebees, and is REALLy sweet and nice. Always willing to listen and always keeps commitments, EXCEPT for coming to church. Super frustrating. That's one of the biggest things we're working on with her. The importance of church. Nobody realizes that. And it's hard to get them to really understand.

We also taught Mario a few more times. Mario is in his 50's, from Ecuador, lives with his "esposa" (though not married), but wants to be baptized. The problem is, is his esposa, Lola, is not super into the idea of marriage, as well as being a member too. They live above a super active, really devoted member family, which consists of Ronald (16, has a mohawk, loves working out, comes out with the missionaries frequently though) Rosa (Ron's mom, endowed, incredible member, supports the ward really well) and Ron's grandmother (also awesome, also a super devoted member in the ward). Anyway, we're continually working with Mario to try to get him to set something up with Lola while we're there. He's really funny and nice and always wears a yellow or grey tank-top. I'm telling you guys, the tanktops here are in abundance.

A few nights ago, Elder Storey and I did a music lesson at a Thursday night family night at the Castro's house. We played the guitar and sang hymns and talked about music and why we use it in the gospel and the spirit that it brings and whatnot. Afterwards, Hermana Castro asked me to come play "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" in spanish at a ward activity on Saturday night. I said sure. So we went and I sat down and started playing in front of about 40 members and NOBODY started singing with me. They all just looked super confused. So I frantically looked over at Hermana Castro who swept in to rescue me. She showed me the lyrics and guess what? DIFFERENT LYRICS. Not the regular lyrics for Brightly Beams. So we started over and I was a little peeved and embarrassed and I looked back at Elder Ream, Winslow and Storey, and they were all busting up and taking pictures. It was funny though. OH and afterwards Elder Ream (who is the ward pianist and probably the best pianist I've ever met) started jamming on piano and guitar and we were going NUTS. Both of us soloing and shredding and playing jacked-up versions of hymns. It was so rad. He's incredible at taking a chord progression and just JAMMING. Goodness I love music so much.

A super less-active family started coming back to church. They're in the zone leaders area, in Harrison and Central Newark but it's SUPER AWESOME to see that light come back into their life. They have been inactive for 19 years and yesterday the father of the family recieved the Priesthood. Incredibly experience. He's going to be baptizing his daughters next week. I'm really excited for them.

Good week. Time to start anew with a new companion and a new-take to missionary work. This area is really slow moving and my goal is to speed that up in whatever way I can. I got a really good compliment from Elder Storey the other day. We were talking to our investigator Israel and Elder Storey basically just praised me for being able to walk right and just talk to people as if I was friends with them. It felt good to hear that because I've been feeling low lately, basically that I'm just a crappy missionary work, because we haven't had any baptisms or confirmations. But it was wonderful to hear that, especially from Elder Storey.

I'm super backed up on letters right now. I have to write 10-11 people. So sorry if you don't get letters for a few weeks. BUT I LOVE ALL OF YOU.

Keep reading your scriptures and praying. I mean it.

Elder Niels Christensen

Shotouts:

CHRIS: got your letter. Writing you today.

Hayley: I don't know if you're sending a letter soon or have already sent one... but I'm sending one today.

Bekah: LOVED YOUR LETTER still/ Writing you today.

Lydia: writing you today FOR SURE.

FAMILY: I'll try to start writing you next week. Love you.

VERINA: totally got your letter. Next week I'll write you.

SEE YOU LATER.

20 August 2012, Kearney, NJ

EVERYBODY. This week was rough. We didn't have a lot of lessons, new investigators or real success with our the little people that we taught. But we did reconnect with an old investigator and a family of potential investigators, which should be awesome.

Highlights:

-Got some CD's from Lydia. She's gets a gold medal for that one.

-Did more contacting this week. I'm getting better with just talking to people on the streets. Like I just walked up to a family sitting on their porch and asked them if they knew a good place for pizza close-by. They told me a few places, and we talked for a few minutes and then I was just like "Oh by the way we're missionaries..." and jumped into a discussion. I was proud of myself. We set up a return appt but they bailed on us yesterday.

-NATALIE - got your letter, writing you TODAY. Be stoked.

-BEKAH - got your letter, going to try to write today. love you so much.

-We had president interviews this week. They were wonderful. I love talking to President Jeppson. I get super stressed though because I've had at least 3 people tell me that they feel like I'm going to be "future of the mission", including Pres Jeppson. It freaks me out, but at the same time, OBVIOUSLY, I feel pretty great and humbled. HOWEVER, quick story, while we were driving to pick some other Elders in an area called Bayonne, we saw something gross/crazy. We were waiting in the car for the other Elders to come out, and we saw this guy stumble out of a bar (this is at 9 o clock in the morning) with a grocery bag in his hands and he puked on the sidewalk. Then we noticed that his pants were down. He stumbled up against a car, drunkenly trying to pull up his pants without success. Let's just say I saw a lot more than I wanted to see. Total frontal nudity. It was pretty gross. I'm just glad that we were like 30 yards away from him.

-Have had a couple of dreams in Spanish. SUCCESS! I'm actually learning.

-We were teaching a less active/recent convert a couple of days ago and out of the blue she was like "next time we need to have the dating discussion, like what's okay and what's not..." Elder Storey and I just looked at each other and laughed. We LOVE teaching Law of Chastity, especially in spanish. So that's going to be fun. We'll see how that goes.

-Cool discussion about faith with Elder Storey this week. Mostly just this: The reason why faith is SO important to have is because it's ONLY needed during our lives on THIS earth. Think about it: before, we lived with God. We didn't need to believe in him. And after this life, we know what's coming. We know we're going to live with God, as long as we keep doing the things we need to be doing ON THIS EARTH. It's insane how much this life matters, in comparison to how short it is. FAITH is what drives us to continue to follow God. It's what drives us to act, to change, to better ourselves and to ultimately reach salvation.

Last week of the transfer. Can't believe I'll already been in Jersey for 5 weeks. I was telling Elder key yesterday how quickly I felt this transfer went by. All he said was "You have no idea." He's almost been out a year now. I love him and respect him so much.

Have faith. I love you all.

Elder Niels Christensen

A few photos

Niels finally sent some photos. Here are a few of them from the MTC and New Jersey.

6 August 2012

Everytime we drive through the backstreets of Kearney and other greener areas, all I can think of is the movie "Garden State" and driving a motorcycle on these roads and Coldplay's "Don't Panic" playing on a stereo. I want to find out where it was filmed so I can visit those places when my mission is over.

This week was pretty SWELL. Last night we met with Elder Key (district leader) for his weekly check-up with the companionships in the district. He told us straight up that we were some of the most obedient, hard-working missionaries he's ever seen and he said our numbers were awesome this week. We taught 24 lessons, several of them were with members, and we got 5 new investigators. We felt really great about that and we're really pushing ourselves to find more investigators. Also, Elder Storey told me a phraze that I thought was hilarious the other day. And it was even more hilarious because we had been talking in an Irish accent for a good 15 minutes and then he said "Numbers, numbers mean the most. Never mind the Holy Ghost." I was dying. I'm such a square already. CHRIS: this is what you get to look forward to.

Next week, Elder Storey is baptizing 8-year-old Diane Isla, who is pretty much a golden investigator. Her mother is a member, her father and older brother are not. But she answers all of our questions perfectly and is such a wonderful girl. Something funny that happened last week though was after we finished giving Diane a lesson, her Dad and her brother brough back donuts and coffee. So we had donuts and Diane started drinking coffee and looked up at us and was just like "Mmmm yummy coffee." And I wanted to hurl/start cracking up because a) I HATE the word "Yummy" and b) duh coffee. It was hilarious. Elder Storey and I just looked at each other and were like "I wonder what we're teaching next week."

We had a RAD lesson with an old investigator that I think might be getting baptized in a few weeks depending on how things go. His name is Hermano Guerrero. His wife is an inactive member. We taught about the doctrine of Christ and towards the end we basically explained all the blessings from living the doctrine. We asked "when would you want to receive these blessings?" (which is similar to a soft baptismal invite) He said always, but there things that one needed to do first. The beautiful, albeit really chaallenging thing about teaching part member families where the members are less-actives is the fact that if we do the right thing, we can get a baptism AND bring them back to church. But it's difficult because most of the time, the less actives aren't SUPER interested in coming back to church. It's so sad to see inactive people that you kjnow that THEY KNOW it's true but they dont' do anything about it. That 's why we work so much with less actives.

My hands and fingers are hurting and raw. I've been playing guitar/studying all morning. I'm also going to try to get my hands on a tape recorder soon.

I'm getting pictures developed at Wal Mart today, family. So you'll get them SOON. HOPEfully in a week or two.

Sorry about being impatient, Dad. thanks for thinking of me and for prepping a package. I'm STOKED to get it.

I went on an exchange this week. I will not lie to all of you: it was hell. I can't say who it was with, but let's just say that he was an english Elder and he cluelessly tried to speak to Spanish speakers in a LOUD english voice. If they wouldn't understand, he would just talk louder. And everytime I'd start getting anywhere in Spanish, he would stop me and ask me to translate. Ay. It was rough. AND, we'd go in with a lesson plan and as soon as we would get in there, he would change it, (NOT even according to the needs of the investigator). Like one time, we went in with a plan to teach Plan Of Salvation and out of the blue and said we were going to watch a video (mind you, in english) and we were going to talk about temptation and the power of the devil. We watched the "Spiritual Crocodiles" video from Boyd K. Packer (in english of course) and then talked afterwards. And I tried to steer the lesson in a different direction but he would ALWAYS bring it back. Anyway, it was really fun.

He just walked out of the library and he's wearing a fedora. GAH. I'm the worst. I need to be better with other Elders and frustrating people.

Speaking of which, latin people NEVER keep commitments. It's so hard to get them to do anything. But everybody has such powerful testimonies and strong faith. We're just really working with them, trying to get them to ACT on that. Yep, we definitely read James 2:17 (faith without works is dead) frequently in lessons. The strange thing is how much I love them and want them to be happy, even though they dont' do what they tell them.

Our long time investigator, Carlos Gamarra, is incredible. He's always the one dragging his kids to church, participating in Sunday school, and volunteering for prayers and reading and whatnot. He's one of those guys that you'd think was a member if you it was your first sunday in the ward.

Elder Storey continues to amaze me. He teaches, exhorts, questions, and commits with such power and authority. I am always trying to be more like him.

I forgot to tell you all that when I was in the MTC, I convinced my entire district to quit washing their hair. It was rad. And now I've already convinced 3-4 elders in New Jersey. It's wonderful how persuasive I can be.

Elder Key has a select few songs on his iPod that I actually like. Him and Elder Garcia listen to the same 5 songs over and over again. I'm pretty sick of them. But he lets me borrow it every once in a while and I listen to ENYA (Chris: it's freaking rad), Phil Collins (don't make fun Matthew, it's just the Tarzan soundtrack), ANNNNDD the raddest version ever of Mr. Brightside (it's the Vitamin String Quartet version so it's instrumental). LIfe it sweet when I listen to those songs.

Sorry how random and sprawled these letters are/have been. I'll try to be more focused next time.

Hayley: Got your letter from a few weeks ago. I sent you another one before I got this one. So write me back and then I'll write you a long one.

Tanner: Got yours too. THANKS MUCH for the stories and words and whatnot. I wrote you a letter too. So write me. ALSO, greatest envelope I've ever received, bro bro.

Bayley, Bekah: wrote you letters. Hopefully you get them soon. Love you both.

Love you all. You know I do.

Y Dios los bendiga.

Elder Christensen

July 23, 2012, Kearney, NJ

Whooooa.

That's all.

OK. This week has flown by. It seemed like it lasted forever but at the same time it was just Tuesday a second ago. It's a wonderful place here in New Jersey.

Some crazy things that have happened so far are:

1. It rained Wednesday, Thursday, Friday here. Flash flood on Wednesday. Seriously the streets were FILLED with water. It rained so hard for about an hour straight. We were driving through thigh deep puddles and stuff. It was wonderful because the first 2 days we got here it was 93 degrees with humidity. Unbelievably sweaty.

2. I did what's called a fear-buster on Monday where we went off with a trainer and spoke with people on the street. ON the FIRST day. It was a little sketchy but it was a really great experience. Newark is terrifying. Not really but there are some areas where missionaries can go, but you're not supposed to be walking around in that area. Just from this first week I've realized time and time again how blessed I am to live in Utah and have a nice house and a yard and whatnot. DAD: the houses here are literally 4 feet away from each other. Even in the nicer area where we live (just outside of Newark) called Kearney (pronounced Kar-nee), the houses are nicer but still very close to each other. We live in a small apartment-like building. AND GUESS WHO MY ROOMATES ARE?? So my companion/trainer is Elder Storey from Orem UTah. He's just great. He has super curly hair, a high voice, is hilarious, 21 years old and makes fun of me because I'm not a New Jersey driver. (FOR SOME DUMB REASON, I'm the designated driver, which is weird because drivers here are nuts. I'm already an incredible parallel parker though. You HAVE to be.) 

Anyway, the other Elders in our apartment are Elder Garcia from the Phillipines and......ELDER KEY. Remember the polynesian Keys who lived across the street from us?? LARS. Remember Ammon?? His older brother, Alema Key, I live with him. It was so nuts when I saw him at the transfer conference. AHH. Anyway, his family lives in Missouri now but he's in New Jersey, English speaking. He's been out about 10.5 months. He's wonderful. He's our district leader and I've already learned so much from his wonderful example and goodness.

3. We've had two experiences where guys came up to US on the street. One time we were walking to a less-active member's house and this guy was driving past us in a beat-up minivan, but he slowed down and was like "I WANNA READ THAT BOOK!" in a thick Dominican accent. So he pulled up ahead and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He was like "You've got that Mormon book right?!" and we were like "YEAH RIGHT HERE." He said he had been wanting to read it for a long time. He was Dominican, so he was a black guy, wearing a stained and tattered tank top, and had a goldish, grayish goatee. He was so nice though but other Elders have to teach him because he doesn't live in our area. The Lord TOTALLY prepares people for the gospel.

4. President Jeppson is the man. He basically said to us straight up that he loves the Mormon Tabernacle choir (he sang with them for a while) but he does NOT like listening to them all the time. He said we can listen to anything that invites the spirit and uplifts us to be a better missionary. Also, he said, if you play an instrument and don't have a way to play it here in Jersey, FIND A WAY. He was saying how the Lord doesn't want your talents to go to waste. SO basically I'm going to try and find a guitar somewhere. He said it's totally fine. Elder Garcia has a guitar right now but I want one of my own. However we're only allowed to play on P-DAYS which is alright and totally reasonable. I was suprised to hear that we are even allowed to have them and play them. So Elder Storey and I are going to start doing opening hymns in our lessons with the guitar and voice and stuff. Good thing I picked up a spanish hymn book in the MTC.

Sorry this is so long. There's way too much to tell you.

5. We only have like 3 investigators and they are all part of part member families or friends of members. We have Carlos: Coolest guy ever, He's probably in his late 30's, Peruvian, speaks English and Spanish; his family are all members but he's not yet. We're going to try and work with him. We also have Israel; he's a friend of a member family and he's AWESOME. Long, messy curly hair, from southern Cali, dresses nicer than most New Jersians and is pretty loud especially when we teach him with the family. He's a little femi too but he is wonderful.

I've learned so much about being a missionary in the first week. So the ward is about 300 people (approx) but only about 90 come to church. The retention rate is not good here so in this area, we work mostly with less actives. TONS OF LESS-ACTIVES. It's difficult to teach families I realized because you have to talk to the kids in English and the parents in Spanish, so you're constantly switching back and forth. But overall I'd say we teach 80 percent spanish and 20 percent English. It's very interesting. It's a little frustrating working with less-actives though because you have to find something for them to truly be converted... again. They've already experienced the joy of baptism and joining the church but they've lost that. So it's our job to get them on a higher spiritual plane and really help them realize how important this is. Elder Storey was telling me during a rad companion study last night that it takes a BETTER missionary to reconvert less-active members.

OK. So our address is:

310 Elm Street FL #1

Kearney, NJ, 07032

Pretty cool. Kearney is really nice. It's pretty and all the houses are small and quaint. Our area is called Kearney and Oranges. Two cities just outside Newark. Newark is pretty dirty and trashy. A lot of one-way streets. Garbage all over the streets and gutters. A LOT of black people. A lot of hispanics. Not a whole lot of white people. MORE fried-chicken stores than I've ever see in my whole life.

MUSIC: I NEED MUSIC BAD. I'm going to make some assignments and more than anything in the whole world (you have no idea) I want you to send me CD's.

DAD and FINN: I need: O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, George Winston (everything), start me off with a few good classical CD's. The Lower Lights. (PLEASE), The Cold Mountain Soundtrack, Emily Browns church stuff (Finn FIND IT), and here are a few songs I would like you to tack on the end of burning those: Thrice: Come all you Weary, and Child of Dust, and from Brandon Flowers: On the Floor (it's about prayer). Don't think that I'm pushing mission rules because I have prayed and I feel good about all this stuff. ALSO: If you could buy the We Bought a Zoo soundtrack and send that to me I would explode with happiness. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I'm begging you.

LYDIA/CHRIS: YANN TIERSEN. PLEASE. An elder was playing it on the piano the other day and I freaked out. Also, Sufjan Stevens appropriate stuff and EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY. I'm serious guys. I NEED THIS. ALL of Explosions in the Sky's discography. Chris I"m serious. I need you to help me out man.

EVERYBODY WRITE ME. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

Remember that the gospel is true. There are two brothers in at the computer next to me fighting over the computer and they're nuts. But seriously, God loves all of you. Pray to him, read your scriptures an go to church to learn about Jesus Christ.

Elder Niels Christensen