Hello from Paradise!

Well I am now in Austria, it's unreal. Its gorgeous beyond description, I have some pictures, but they do it a horrible injustice. Its so green! And then there is the Swiss, and Austrian Alps! I have never seen anything like it in my life. I will attach a few pictures. Lake Constance was awesome too! On our way here, we stopped in Lindau, which is on an island in Lake Constance. It was a very scenic train ride, my camera was dead ( maybe it's because he took so many pictures of cars and animals!! :)   )so I don't have any pictures sadly. But yeah, I arrived safely and am enjoying Austria! The dialect is... well Its been a bit of a transition. The dialect has two names, Vorarlbergerisch or Gsibergerisch. The second name comes from their word "gsi" instead of the High German word "gewesen". I am beginning to pick up on it. I find it rather interesting, that the verb "sehen" ( which means "to see") seems to have a different word in every dialect, sehen and schauen are both High German, but depending on where you are in Northern Germany will determine on which one is used more. In Schwäbish the word is "gucken" (pronounced something like "goocken"). And in Gsibergerisch, however, the word is luacken. On an funny side note, I just noticed how "Gsibergerisch" almost resembles the word "gibberish", which wouldn't be a half bad way to describe the way it sounds ;-) 

Oh man, there is so much to talk about... First off something cool, for those out there who have seen or know of, Baptists at our Barbeque, Errand of Angels, One good Man, The Letter Writer, and Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates. Well, the man who made them is in my ward, he lives across the street actually. Talk about a small world, I would have never thought that of all places, Dornbirn Austria is where I would find him. The ward here is incredibly small! There were probably no more than 60 people that came to church yesterday! Very very small. The Ward mission leader is from Great Britain. And let me tell you, he is VERY British. We talk with him in English and he has a very noticeable British accent. ( On a side note, I find it funny that I go from having an Australian companion to have an British GML). Christian Vuissa ( the Director of the films stated above) is making a new movie in Austria that will show on KBYU in November, anyway he has a friend here from america who is helping edit the film. Trevor is his name, and he doesn't speak German, so I got my first shot at translating Sacrament meeting yesterday... That was a bit of a challenge, but as I started to get the hang of it, it was kind of fun. The first talk was hard, because it had a strong dialect influence ( church is in High German, but some people still speak with heavy accents) so I wasn't able to translate very much of the first talk. But then the High Councilor got up and spoke in very clear high German, which is when I was able to translate almost word for word. Very cool. :-) 

As far as missionary work goes, well its going to be rough. We have 0 investigators. Which I thought was just because of lazy missionaries. But after 12 or so hours of non stop dooring and and street contacting. I have changed my mind. Nearly everyone here is either Catholic, or Turkish. If they are catholic, they just say " I have my faith and I am going to stay with it" word for word. If they are turkish, then either a) they can't understand us; or b) even if they do, their Muslim. Which we have to get permission before we can actually teach them. But so far not many people have much interest. Its going to take a lot of work to find people here, but I know the Lord will help us find those who are ready and willing to accept the Gospel.

I get to go to Winterthur ( in Switzerland) twice this week! We have an exchange with the Zone Leaders, and I will be traveling. And due to the cost and the time, the Area Presidency has authorized us to travel alone on exchanges. It would cost twice as much money and take more time to meet somewhere and exchange. So I will get to try and Navigate to Winterthur on my own. I change trains 4 times... taking a total of 2 hours to get there. But I know where to get off and change trains, so I am not very nervous about it. That will happen on Wednesday, then on Saturday, Elder Esplin and I will go to Winterthur again for a District leader conference. And then next P-day, we will probably go to Liechtenstein, so that I can say that I have been there ( If I am going to be this close, I have to go visit ;-) ). Only 3 months into my mission and I will have already visited 4 countries! 

Dornbirn is a really quite place, compared to Esslingen, which was more of a downtown Salt lake feel, Dornbirn has a more rural aura about it. Large fields, open areas, less crowded housing and its just peaceful. For that reason I really am liking the city. Leaving Esslingen, came rather abruptly, we had a ton of eating appointments, and then went and stopped by on a few people, and I left. I miss quite a few people in the ward, and the investigators. But I look forward to making new friendships with members and investigators here. 

Did I mention anything about my German Visa? Well they are getting really strict about the residency permit laws, and because I was going to Austria, well, they destroyed my visa... and Elder Bullock, the only other person in the Zone that was being transferred, they took his visa and destroyed it as well. So now its time to get an Austrian Visa... hopefully it goes a bit easier than getting a German one. 

I think that is all that I have to mention, I am really enjoying Austria and the area. Its going to take a lot of work here, but I am up to the challenge! :-) 

By the way the first picture I sent was of the field that is write across the street from our apartment, and the second is from the Balcony at the GML's Appartment. The Mountains that are on the right side are in Switzerland, and the mountains that you can barely see to the left ( not the green hill but the snow-capped mountains just behind the hill)  are in Liechtenstein. That is how close the border is! 

Things are going well, I hope all is well at home, Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen.

New Pictures ....... of stuff

Sorry this is so late, I know you are desperately waiting for these.  So here you go! Sorry there aren't very many pictures of me.   I will try and change that! Love Elder Ryan Christensen

Parental Note: we received just over 200 pictures - most of which we are not posting as they are of plants and animals at a zoo, and cars at the Mercedes Museum.  When Ryan stated that there were not very many pictures of him, he was not kidding.  The only photos of him were posted 2 weeks ago.  So here are some pictures of the zoo and the Mercedes Museum.  The rest will be saved for when he is home.  Mom will be writing a letter with more specific instructions on what she wants to see in the photos for the next round :).  Dad and Josh think the car pictures were cool (but understand the need to see a missionary posing next to a cool car too).

TRANSFERS!! - DORNBIRN AUSTRIA!!

Well, I will admit I was suprised with Transfers. I thought I would stay in Esslingen, or atleast Germany. NOPE! I AM GOING TO DORNBIRN!! The city itself is in Austria, but the area is the one and only to have Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein in it! 4 NATIONS IN ONE AREA!  Wow, this is my Third Transfer, have I really already been here for 3 months? Its unbelievable. Did you ever receive a map of the mission? If not I will send one hope this week, as well as a thumb drive with the Atonement talk on it ;-) My new companion will be Elder Esplin, which is REALLY Ironic, because he was with Elder Stokes in Tübingen. Poor Elder Stokes, he has been really wanting to go to Dornbirn, While in Tübingen, his companion Elder Esplin went there, his new companion Elder Moulton, had just come back from Dornbirn, and told him all about it. Which made him really want to go, and now I am going there...  

I am not looking forward to the dialect though, it is apparently so incredibly hard, that once I learn it, I will be able to understand every other Dialect of German. It has a bit of Swiss, Österreichish, Bayerisch, und Schwäbisch. SWISS IS RIDICULOUS. Yesterday there were a few people visiting the ward, and one of them said the closing prayer in Sunday School. After they finished I asked Elder Stokes what language he thought that was, he thought it was Russian, I thought it was either Polish or Hungarian. Come to find out, its Swiss. I can see how if one could understand that, everything else would be easy... On a matter of Moving, Here is my new address (don't get used to this, I only have it is because of Elder Moulton. Normally you wouldn't know my address till the week after I got there). 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT

Montfortstraße 21a

6850 Dornbirn

Austria

There is so many cool things about this area that I have heard, First off, its right on the Bodensee (Lake Constance(Spelling?)) which is supposedly gorgeous, and also MOUNTAINS!!! SWISS ALPS! Finally, I will see mountains again! And the Neuschanstein (Cinderella) Castle, is not in the area (its in Kaufbeuren) but Dornbirn is the closest to it, so I will most likely go visit it! The ward there from what I have heard is also incredible and the missionary work is good. It will be cool.

Its been quite the mix of emotions, I obviously am excited to go, but I am really sad that I have to leave Esslingen. I just got used to Schwäbisch, I know my way around, I love the ward, the members, and the investigators. It was so bad of a mix, that on Friday night, and Saturday, I became fairly sick. Its so hard to say goodbye, especially to the Romanian family, the only reason I was able to make it through the lesson in control of my emotions, is because I had already intended on coming back on Wednesday to say goodbye. Because unlike all my friends and family, in 2 years I will see you all again. But now I don't know when, or even if I will see them again in this life. If I don't ever come back to Stuttgart, or even if I come back after awhile, there is no guarantee, with their circumstances that they will still be there. What makes it a bit harder is that this Saturday we were going to set a Baptismal date with them... The changes that they have already gone through is incredible. There is a bit more of a light in their eyes now than there was when I first met them. I hope all goes well for them, the only thing that is really holding them back from baptism is that they don't have money to come to church. And because they have a hard time understanding, coming to all 3 hours is fairly pointless, and because they can't come to all three hours, we can't have a member pick them up. This is when I wish we had a Romanian interpreter in the ward. If they were in Waiblingen they wouldn't have any problems, because the Kiefer family lives there, they could easily translate for them. As to what they will do to work out that problem, I am not sure. But unless we can figure out something, they can't get baptized which they really want to... 

Sorry that paragraph was a bit sad. As I am accepting the fact that I am leaving, I am getting more excited to go. Its going to be crazy on Thursday though. Elder Stokes and I will catch a train from Esslingen to Stuttgart at 11:25, then at 11.56 Elder Esplin and his companion will arrive in Stuttgart to pick me up. Elder Stokes and Elder Esplins Companion will wait with the Zone Leaders until their companions arrive at around 3. My train leaves from Stuttgart at 12:57 and arrives in Dornbirn at 4.20 pm. 

As for my Visa, Elder Stokes will send it to me when it arrives. In the mean time I will be getting an Austrian Visa. Which will be nice, then I won't need to worry about Visas again for the next 2 years ( they are good for the duration of my mission). 

Anyway Transfers are the biggest piece of news, everything has been the same, a normal week of Missionary Work. So I will leave this already incredibly long email come to an end. I hope all is well at home! Everything is going well with me, save it be that I need to leave. But thats just what a mission is, I will have to do it many more times throughout the rest of my mission. By the way, I gave my Facebook information out to a few people, so if you could accept them for me, it would be greatly appreciated :-) 

By the way, that paragraph that I talk about the Romanians, it doesn't come across as complaining does it? It shouldn't its just hard to serve and gain love for someone then to say goodbye. That is the main message that I want to convey, while I am excited to go to Austria, which I am. I am also sad to leave here because I really love it. Maybe one day I will come back and be a Zone Leader in Stuttgart or something. Who knows. We will see :-)

Until next week, when I will be e-mailing you from Austria!! 

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

Wow! Another Week has already gone by, as well as a Transfer... almost

I can't believe its already been a week, although last week was INCREDIBLY LONG. Elder Stokes has been sick, so he has been resting, meanwhile I deep cleaned the entire apartment, fixed the fridge, the sink, and organized about everything I could find. As well as reading "Our Search For Happiness" in its entirety, and having some intense scripture study. Not being able to really do much missionary work was, in all honesty, a bit saddening. Don't get me wrong, the studying was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING but, I its not what I was sent here to do. All but 3 of our appointments cancelled on us this past week, we still went to all the ones that were pre-scheduled, but we didn't do much else.

As stated in the title of the e-mail, yes another transfer is coming to a close. Before I came on a mission the transfers used to alternate, a 7 week, then a 5 week, and so on. But they changed it so that they are now all 6 week transfers, but the change happened right after a 7 week, so to make up for it, this one was a 5 week transfer. Interviews with the President are tomorrow, and transfer calls are this Friday. WOW. The following Thursday I could have a new companion, area, or even Country! ( Which is HIGHLY unlikely, because my German Visa should arrive in the mail in about 4 or so weeks, so I think I will be staying in Esslingen at least one more transfer, till I have the Visa safely in hand.) But then all hats are off as to what could happened next. I have a few ideas of what could happen, but I will keep them to myself until next week ;-) Elder Kuhlo ( Zone Leader), on an exchange kept telling me that I am going to be a great leader, and hinted that I may be in for a surprise this upcoming transfer... But we will see. 

Sorry I haven't sent any pictures home just yet, I am backing them up first, just in case they get destroyed in transit. I will attach a few from the Museum, and my trip to the botanical Gardens/ Zoo. 

The first picture is of me at the gardens, we ( Elder Smith, Elder Neumeyer, Elder Heinrich, and I) were all wearing glasses, and we walked from a cold, not so humid room, to a very warm, incredibly humid room. All of our glasses fogged up, we all laughed and took pictures of each other.

The Second picture is of me and the Romanian Family: Danny, his wife Andrea, Datia ( the 4 year old) and Danny's mom). Apparently Romanians don't smile for pictures... I promise they really are very kind and happy! 

Anyway, Like I said, with Elder Stokes being sick, not much happened this week. I really like "Our Search for Happiness" the intent of writing it was to help other people outside the church understand us a bit more. In order to do this it covered essentially our entire doctrine and gave some neat explanations of things. I also read a Talk on the atonement by Cleon Skausen, if you can either find a written copy, or a mp3. They are different, but both incredibly amazing! It completely changed my view on everything, especially Chemistry! I will try to send you a copy, but so far I haven't been able to do so. It's a beautiful talk about the Saviors Atonement. I may sound weird that I just linked Chemistry and the Atonement, but Chemistry is a HUGE part of the Atonement. I am assuming you are all now very curious, you need to read it! I will send a written copies of it when I can make a copy of it. 

I am so grateful for the Saviors Atonement for me, and what it has done for me in my life. I am grateful that Jesus Christ did do it for me. To give me a chance to repent and to become clean again, to gain strength and help from Him who is all knowing, knowing from experience. I am grateful for my opportunity to share that with others, there are those out there who don't know about it,  who don't know that because of the Atonement, we can have a hope of something better. That this life is just a small moment, that there is something far greater than anything that we can imagine. John 17:3 says something to the effect that "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the true and living God" with a little cross referencing, and some linguistic work, you can change that scripture to this " this is life eternal, that they may have a relationship of greater love and closeness than words can describe, with thee the only true and living God". Thats a pretty powerful statement, that the end goal is to get to know God and have a friendship with God that is of far greater love and closeness than we can really imagine. To live again in his presence with all of our friends and loved ones. That is only possible through the Atonement of Christ. Without it, we would have to be cast out of Gods presence being subject to the devil and his angels forever. What an amazing gift the Atonement is which delivers us from the devil and returns us to the presence of God. And as Moroni says in Moroni 7:2 , what a gift to let others know about it. 

Anyway thats all for now, I hope all is well at home. Good luck to Josh, Beth, and anyone the Pleasant Grove Choirs who will be going on Choir tour this week! Travel safely! 

Love, 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Easter, The Atonement, and an Eye of Faith

Wow, What a week! Sorry this e-mail is going to be short and late. Today is a holiday ( Easter part 2 ( Easter and Christmas are two day long holidays here)) and because of that my entire schedule is thrown off. Normally P-days go something like this: (6.30) Wake up, (von 8.00 bis 11.00) (from 8 until 11) 3 hours of studies, (11.00 bis entweder 11.46 oder 12.16) (11 until either 11:45 or 12:15) go shopping for the weeks groceries, (11.46 or 12.16) catch a bus to Sirinau to do e-mails till about 2:30 or 3, then find something to do for the rest of the day. Well today all the store are closed, so we couldn't go shopping. Few people work today, so we got invited to a lunch appointment at 13.00. Then, because of the holiday, THE MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM was open! So we went there and spent a few hours there, and now I am back here at the church writing this e-mail. It was INCREDIBLE! Oh Man, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, which I will send when I get the new memory cards. For those out there who don't know, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimier separately patented the first car at the same time ( they set up opposing companies, but in the financial crisis following WWI they joined together). So in the museum they have every advancement from the first motorized carriage to the really new cars. VERY COOL. 

This past week has been pretty normal, except we went door-ing for 3 hours in pouring rain in Frickenhausen. Yeah, there is a town in my area called Frickenhausen. :-)  Sadly my umbrella broke about halfway through... so I was one sopping-wet-pathetic-puppy-dog-looking missionary by the time we knocked on the last door ;-) Haha but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Its been very cold and rainy here for the past week or so, I don't think I seen the sun for 8 or so days, its so weird. But at least its consistent, unlike the weather in Utah that I have been hearing about... This week was a bit weird with the holidays ( Good Friday and then the 2 days of Easter). Its crazy on both Easter, and good Friday, Esslingen looked like a Ghost town, there was practically NOBODY out. No cars. All the shops were closed. It was so different. Holidays are big family days, so we weren't able to meet with very many of our investigators :-( But this week should be better. The man that I talked didn't show up to church. It might have been due to Easter, I don't know. I hope I see him again. I am considering door-ing in that area to see if I can find him. I don't know, we will see. (Last week he wrote of a man who asked the next time they would be meeting at the church, someone who had previously had contact with the missionaries)

Easter was nice, what a wonderful time to reflect of the wonderful gift of the Atonement. And to celebrate the Resurrection of Him of redeemed us. Sacrament meetings was amazing, I love singing the hymns about Easter, the Resurrection, usw. They are powerful, and very uplifting. I am so grateful for everything that my Savior has done for me. Alma 7:11-12 Is a wonderful reminder to us of the purpose of the Atonement, In verse 12 it states that he went through it so that His bowels could be filled with mercy according to the flesh, so that he could understand from a personal perspective of what it's like. So he knows how to comfort us in every situation. In 3 Nephi 11:15 The Nephites get to see and feel the prints of the nails in hands and feet. There is a phrase in Ether 12:19 that I really love, It speaks over those who have gotten to see Christ personally, in the middle it says that they got to see with their eyes, what they had seen WITH AN EYE OF FAITH. That is a very cool description. We may not get to see those nail marks with our own eyes, but with the eye of faith we can. And as it says in verse 4, with that faith we can hope for a better world at the right hand of God. Because of what he did, we have a chance at living with God again, we can have that hope in us, that nothing, not even death can take away those blessings from us and our loved ones. But in to gain that hope, we need to have faith, and we don't get that faith till it has been tried. Its an interesting principle, that in order to gain that eye of faith, to gain that hope, we need to be tried, sometimes with very hard things. But God knows that it will ultimately end for the better. I am out of time, but I would like to add that I know that Christ lives. I know that he died for me, and that because he did that, I have a hope that I can one day return to Gods presence with friends and family. I know that on the third day, Christ was resurrected from the dead, and that HE LIVES. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter! And that everyone will have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Wow, What a weekend! General Conference

Wow what a weekend! This was probably by far the most enjoyable General Conference yet! It was really weird though. The "Saturday morning session" is a live broadcast out of SLC that began at 6pm. Jan Fabian (an investigator) came to that, so we saw that one in German. Wow. That was rough, the translator had a bit of a rough time keeping up, so there were times where he spoke really fast, and I was hopelessly lost. But I managed to get the Hauptpunkte von (main points of) each of the talks. Talking to him afterwards, he said that it was wonderful and what they spoke about was really something important ( I am glad that he understood more than I did ;-) ). Sadly, it being late on a Saturday night, the trains didn't work out well, and so Elder Stokes and I weren't able to get home till 10 pm. Its rough, because it takes almost 75 minutes to get to the stake center, and consequently return too, and if you miss your train, it can take a much longer time.  Anyway on Sunday morning, the Priesthood session was the first session which began at 11 and went to 1, then at 2 began the "Saturday Afternoon Session" which went till 4. Then after a 1 and a half hour break, Music and the Spoken Word began. Something which I thoroughly enjoyed! Followed by the "Sunday Morning Session". It is incredible how we can all go and hear the same talks, but yet, through the spirit can get completely different things out of it, depending what we need. Specifically for me, what talks I could give to our investigators that would benefit them.  I am very grateful for the Spirit of the Lord, who was able to enlighten me as to which talks should be given to who. 

These talks are truly inspired of God. Fridays here in the mission are when we do weekly planning, it takes 3 hours out of our day, but it generally is one of the worst days to proselyte. Anyway, so we had previously set up an appointment with Mae and Steven at 5pm. And the way it worked out we began planning at 4pm, we had planned to start the planning session, go and have a lesson with Mae and Steven, then come back at 6 plan for 2 hours then eat dinner, and end the night. Well we get up to Mae and Steven, and they weren't there, we call them, but they couldn't meet then, so we made out a return appointment, and returned home. We resumed planning and finished at 19.30 ( 30 minutes before we were going to have dinner). Sitting there wondering what to do, I had the impression to go to the Romanians. We had a disc of music for them, and some talks that had been printed out for them. So we thought we would run by real quick, and possibly have a quick spiritual thought or something. Anyway they didn't too far from us, so we walked there. On the way there a very sad looking Man came up to us and asked us if we were from the Church (Specifically meaning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). We responded in the affirmative and we started to talk with him. He shared with us that his life is very terrible right now, everyone in his family has passed away, parents, and all siblings, he was addicted to drugs, but as of a few weeks before had stopped cold turkey. He said to us that he needs God in his life, he felt completely alone and was having a very rough time. He asked us when the next meeting at our church was ( he knew where our meeting house was, ( I guess he has had contact with missionaries at some point in the past)). We told him that this week was different than the other weeks, but the next meeting in Sirinau would be the following week. He had no interest in General Conference, but said that he would be at church next week. We gave him our phone number, told him that we were willing to help out in anyway that we could, then parted ways. He was on my mind for a large part of General Conference, and I was stunned to notice how many talks mentioned, in part or whole, that we ARE NOT ALONE. Wow. Especially Elder Hollands talk which mentioned that its never to late to repent and come back, that no matter how hard life is, no matter what we could have done, we are never outside the reach of the atonement. I am going to burn him a disc of those talks, and give it to him this upcoming Sunday.

But going back to that story though, it is amazing to see that the Lord really is in charge of things. If that appointment we had didn't fall out, we wouldn't have had time to go to the Romanian Family, and would have not been walking on that street to meet that man. I guess we might have seen him later on, but I don't doubt that he needed to meet us at that point in time. And visiting the Romanians at that time was inspired as well. We got there and talked to them, one thing that Danny mentioned to me, is how much he really wanted to learn German, but didn't have money to go to school and learn it, and without German it is almost impossible to get a job. I remembered that my German was greatly improved by reading the Book of Mormon in German, so I offered it to him. He expressed a concern of not being able to pronounce things correctly because he couldn't hear German being spoken. At that point it was brought to my remembrance that Elder Heinrich had a recording of someone reading the Book of Mormon in German, and that he had put it on a flash drive for Elder Smith, but because he left to Salzburg, he had given ME the flash drive to deliver to Elder Smith ( which was going to happen the following day). The flash drive happened to be in my backpack, and because of that, I was able to put a copy of it on the computer that they had. So now he has an inexpensive way to learn German and the gospel too! Only an all knowing Father in Heaven could have come up with something so perfect. 

That was the biggest thing that has happened this past week. I am excited to meet with the Romanian Family again this week and see if they have prayed about the Book of Mormon. And with them now having a computer with Internet, I can show them where they can listen to church music, and Listen to church talks etc. Missionary work proceeds forth, despite my weaknesses. I am grateful for a Father in Heaven, who always helps me through the rough times, who allows me to serve and be a part in this most glorious work, despite those weaknesses. Its truly a great blessing. 

Anyway, This e-mail is probably long enough :-) Things are going well here. I am officially legal in Germany for the next 2 years! (Ryan's application for a visa was approved) That's a relief to have that taken care of. I hope all is well at home, and that everyone enjoyed Conference! 

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

P.S. Haha I listened to the German Translation of Elder Christofferson's talk. Haha That poor translator...(struggled to translate the phrase) " What ever that is supposed to mean" it cracked me up. Anyway. Bis nächste Woche! (Until next week)