Fröhliche Weihnacht Überall!

(Merry Christmas Everywhere!)

(This email was received on Christmas Eve.  As a family, we were out of town and could not get it posted to the blog sooner than today.  We had the AWESOME opportunity to see and talk with Elder Ryan Christensen via skype on Christmas morning.  Words cannot describe the joy in seeing him.  It was hard to say goodbye after about an hour, but it was amazing none the less.  We love and miss Ryan but know that he is doing well and serving the Lord with all his heart.  On Thursday of this last week he was expecting a transfer call for his companion Elder Steed.  We will know Monday what happened.  Also, he told us that in March his mission will get 90 missionaries more than they currently have.  They expect that number may increase again in June.  Very exciting!  We are very grateful to the GML and his family for allowing the missionaries to use their computer and spend a little time with us on Christmas.)

Wow its really hard to believe that it is already christmas time again! Has it really been almost a year now that I have been here? Crazy. 

This will be really short because I will talk to you tomorrow evening, and today we are totally packed. We were invited by Schwester Mittermayer to lunch, and then to the Vodusek Familie for dinner. But it will take a long time. We are allowed to stay out past 10:30 twice between now and new years, as long as a member gives us a direct ride home. And so who knows how long we will be with them tonight. :-) 

I really don't know what to write in this e-mail, there wasn't really anything exciting that happened over the past few weeks. Martin and Marion are really sick so they weren't able to come to Church yesterday, we were able to meet with Martin though, Marion was sick and had a really good lesson with him. 

Frau Zalka came to Sacrament meeting, she too was feeling a little sick, but much better than before. One of her concerns that she mentioned in an sms to our GML is that she doesn't know if she "für die Kirche geeignet ist". I don't know exactly how to translate that to English. The closest that I can think of is that she doesn't think that she is fit for the church or if she qualified to be a member. I gave her 2 Nephi 26:24-28, 33 and then Alma 7 14-15 to study and pray about. I hope that helps. 

24 He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he ^bloveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw ^call men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: ^aCome unto me all ye ^bends of the earth, ^cbuy milk and honey, without money and without price.

 26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should ^adepart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

 27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his^asalvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath ^bgiven it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to ^crepentance.

 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but ^aall men are privileged the one ^blike unto the other, and none are forbidden.

33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he ^ainviteth them ^ballto ^ccome unto him and partake of his goodness; and he ^ddeniethnone that come unto him, black and white, ^ebond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the ^fheathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

 14 Now I say unto you that ye must ^arepent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth ^abeset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

If not than maybe 3 Nephi 9:13-15, 21-22; Mosia 18:8-10. :-) We will see. She will get baptized, as will Martin and Marion. It's just a matter of time. 

Martin has studied the church for a long time and knows everything even really deep doctorine. He has come across a lot of anti-mormon literature and says that he has already worked everything out in his mind and nothing has or will take him away from the church! We just need to get them married, before they can get baptized... But they will Marion really wants to learn and understand, they pray and read together out of the Book of Mormon everyday, and come to church often. They always ask US when we can meet, we don't even need to ask them. :-)

Anyway thats all the time I have today. I will SEE you tomorrow!!! 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

16th of December...

Well Another week has yet again gone by. Strange. I guess yesterday I officially became 20. Which I pretty much forgot until President and Sister Miles called and sang happy birthday to me on their trainride back to Munich ( We had Zone Conference this past week here in Wien). And then that night Elders Stilger and Davies called and sang. :-) But other than that it was another normal day. 2 eating appointments one with a cake, Sister Fries ( who made the cake) was and probably still is totally unaware that yesterday was my birthday. :-). Ohwell. :-) But nothing really happened, and Its weird to think that I am now officially 20. Thats REALLY REALLY weird. It will take some getting used to :-).

I sang a solo yesterday in Sacrament meeting. Which is somewhat of a miracle because one, I am terrrified to get up in front of people, and 2 because I had a really bad cold, and trying to sing all the other hymns my voice was cracking REALLY bad. But when I got up and started, I wasn't shaking, and, my voice held, I sang it, kept pitch really well, and didn't crack! Thats probably the first time I have really performed in front of people like that. I don't know if I will do it back at home, because  singing for a ward of 80 or so is a lot different than 500 or so, but we will see. :-) The song was "What child is this". Elder Steed wanted me to sing it will a few other people. But still planned for me to solo the first verse and the end phrase. A lot of people like it. It was cool. Totally new experience for me though.

The main highlight out of this past week was Zone Conference. They are always incredible! Its neat to get together as missionaries with the Mission President. The spirit is always strong and uplifting. I really enjoyed it. I don't have my notes with me, so I can't really remember everything that we discussed. But it was amazing. :-)

We had the ward Christmas Party on Saturday, which was neat. It was set up with various booths that one could visit, Chesnuts; roasted potatoes (done outside the church); a "Kinderpunsch" stand ( "Punsch" (hot punch) is normally alcoholic and the versions without alcohol have the word "kinder" right before them (it means children's)); a Stand where you could decorate Christmas tree ornaments (put on by the young women (of course ;-)); A Christmas caroling stand; a Stand were you "Shoot" cans down with a ball (Put on by the young men (no surprise there either ;-)); A waffel stand; and a lot of other things.

It was a lot of fun, Martin and Marion came, and I had invited a number of less actives, some of which came! And there were a number of other people that were there who didn't belong to the church. It was neat. :-) Haha the Primary put on a skit of the sign of Christs birth in america. They also had Danny Schäffner and Sammy Jankowsky join in, which if you knew them... It was hilarious. It was a very successful evening.

Martin and Marion were busy this week so we weren't able to meet with them sepeartely. But they came to the christmas party, and Church again (they have come now 6 weeks I think!). Frau Zalka is going through a lot right now. We got another letter from her on Friday (well the GML did) which essentially as he explained it, explains her whole life experiences and then she said that she wants to be baptized on Saturday (the 15th) at 11 am. Because the Primary was practicing for the skit anyway, and she really wants to get baptized. But then he called her, she didn't answer and sent him a text saying that she still wants to get baptized, but her neighbor was going through an incredibly hard time. The son of this neighbor passed away a year ago, and only a few days ago her husband committed suicide. So she is staying with her and comforting her right now and can't come to the ward christmas party and will probably not be able to come to church.

Then Frau Zalka's son got her (Frau Zalka) sick, and so she has the flu now as well... ugh. Pray for her that she won't lose the desire to be baptized after all these trials. I don't know when she wants to be baptized now, I think she wants to do it somewhat soon. But I am not sure yet. We will try to get in contact with her this week and aim for the 30th of December.

Anyway, I need to get off now, So I will let this come to an end. Thanks for the support and prayers!
I love you all,

-Elder Ryan K. Christensen

10.12.2012

Today's date is the only thing that I can think of to title the e-mail. :-) I really don't know what to write about at all, so this may or may not be short. We shall see.

Jakiri is now auf Kur (on treatment), but the bishopric has worked it out so that he can come to all the church meetings! I am really happy about that, and so is he. Haha he is the only member of the church at this klinic, and everybody is asking him questions about the church. He says he is teaching and bearing testimony all day long. He said to me last night "I thought this place was supposed to be a place where I could rest!" But instead he is answering everyone's questions about Joseph Smith, and the church and belief all day long :-).

He felt (before the baptism, and still now) that he didn't know very much at all, and he is slowly figuring out that he still knows somethings. I gave him a Gospel Principles manual yesterday as well as a True to the Faith, to help him answer the questions and learn more things in his free time. :-) Apparently a lot of the other people there have a lot of interest in learning about the gospel. I am curious to see if any of them become investigators in the future. :-)

I got to see the Christmas Devotional yesterday! That was really neat. The talks were wonderful and so was the music. I really enjoyed it. Listening to it translated took the humor out of the jokes sadly (lacking the vocal intonations, and complete accuracy due to the translators) but I still really enjoyed it. Jakiri did as well, and so did Martin and Marion. Sadly Frau Zalka's son started feeling really sick and had a high fever, so she wasn't able to come and watch it with us in the church. But she said she was going to do it from the church website. 

Things are going well with Martin and Marion. We met with them this past week. And watched The Testaments. It was good, Martin liked it, we discovered that Marion cannot handle even the slightest bit of violence in films, so even that of the church made movie, was too much for her (and personally I think there was more violence in that movie than need be). :-(  But we were able to bring it back and focus on the idea of the movie, that the book of Mormon and the bible are both Testaments of Jesus Christ. That when Christ said "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold" he meant the Nephites (3 Nephi 15:21-24). And invited them to read 3 Nephi chapters 11 and 17 (we recommended reading more but suggested that they AT LEAST read those two) and then invited them to pray about it.

They will be coming to the ward Christmas party on Saturday but are too busy to meet otherwise. They seem to really be liking things though. Martin is really excited, Marion not so much. He knows a lot about the church. He has a triple combination and a few other things, and I asked him what else he had. His reply was: 

"you know how items on the church's online shop are fairly cheap?", 

"yeah"

"over the past 6 or 7 years, I have spent around 300 Euro buying things from there".

He has everything! All of the manuals that you can buy, everything. He has been reading the Liahona magazines for awhile and occasionally quotes things from them in our lessons! It's crazy. He is just waiting on Marion to be ready. I am excited for them. :-)

We had a bit of a funny experience this past week. We were invited to eat with Mutti Mittermayer again, and Martin Hayden came with us. After we were done he drove us home. Little did we know, but there had been a burglary in the area by two men wearing completely dark clothing. Well dark clothing just happens to be standard winter missionary attire. I was wearing my Black coat, Black Gloves, completely dressed in dark colors, and Elder Steed was as well.

The police had set up some checkpoints in the area. So we got stopped, and the policemen saw us and asked us to step out of car. Martin was driving so the officer started asking him questions where we were what we were doing etc. He told them that we were just visiting a member of the ward, and that he was driving the missionaries home. At which point he turned to me and asked "missionaries? "Yeah, we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ, we come and teach people about the his gospel, would you by chance have any interest in learning about it?".

No, I am not joking I really asked the police officer if he wanted to learn about the church. He told me no, and was somewhat silent. Then he let us go :-). 

Well that will do it for this week, nothing else overly exciting happened. I wish you a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Video From Austria

A few weeks ago, some neighbors (Darren and Annie Rollins) went on a trip to Austria.  Darren had served in Vienna Austria on his mission.  They were there to see the area he served in and happened to ask some Elders if they knew Elder Ryan Christensen.  They said "Heck Yea", and told them he was serving in Vienna now. 

So the Rollins went to the ward where Elder Christensen was attending and were able to see him. They took the following picture and video.

Elder Christensen, Elder Steed, Darren Rollins

Ryan mentioned in his blog post about how stunned he was to see the Rollins in Vienna.  You can see in the video that he is still a little overwhelmed.  It was very good to see and hear him. We love and miss him, and getting to see his face and hear his voice and see that he is doing well is a great comfort.

Thanks to Darren and Annie for going to Austria to check up on Elder Christensen for us!

If you cannot see the video through email, you can access it on the blog at www.ryanmissionblog.blogspot.com

Baptism!

Well, I will explain in a second, but we cancelled Frau Zalka's Baptism, but Jakiri was Baptized!! (And confirmed of course!) We met with him a couple of times throughout the week, he had his struggles, but he never gave up and he was baptized! It was such a huge change for him, and he recognized that.

On Sunday he asked me to bring a really sharp knife or scissors to the baptism on Friday. I was confused but I brought both, and just before he climbed into the baptismal font, HE CUT HIS HAIR! His hair wasn't really all that long, and he didn't need to cut it but, he wanted a new look to go with his new start. He is so happy now. He still is having his struggles, but is moving forward with faith. It is so neat to see. Haha, there were 8 investigators at the baptism, who subsequently were a bit worried that they would also need to cut their hair if they were to get baptized. The missionaries ( there were 4 other companionship there) cleared it up fairly quickly.;-) Frau Zalka came to it! She almost couldn't because she was having car problems, and they didn't get resolved till an hour before she needed to leave, but she came and really enjoyed it. 

Which brings me to her story, you know most of it, 2 p-days ago we went and visited her, she had her interview, and she requested the 2nd of December as a baptismal date. Well, the following sunday (a week before yesterday) she didn't come to church, saying that she wanted to go the her Evangelisch ward one more time to get "Clarity" (I guess to make absolutely sure that she was making the right decision or something) but asked us to keep the baptismal date as is. Ok, so we did, the GML called her that night and everything looked to be fine, she didn't feel anything at all, so we were still on for Sunday.

We had previously designed to alternate with the GML and call her throughout the week. Every night. He was supposed to call her on Monday, but he happened to be traveling so he forgot. When he got back he noticed that he received a letter from Frau Zalka in the mail, and the letter said that she did NOT want to be baptized at all. So he called her and talked to her. She had sent that letter a few days earlier, and it was supposed to arrive on Friday or Saturday. At which point he talked to her for a bit, and decided that we were going to call off the baptism, and give it a few weeks in which she should come to church and Jakiri's baptism, then once things are a bit more constant, talk about a baptismal date. So that is why she was not baptized this past Sunday. Her son was sick yesterday, so she only came for Sacrament, but she came to the baptism as well and things are looking better. We will probably wait another week or so before we talk about a date, we hope that we can maybe shoot for the 23rd or the 30th. She knows everything she needs to know, she has a testimony, she just needs to get some support, and stick to her testimony. So that is where it stands on that currently. 

We met with Martin and Marion (I spelled it Miriam before, that was just a shot in the dark based on how they pronounce it, but the name is actually Marion). After having 3 discussions lasting nearly 2 hours a piece, we finally succeeded in explaining the Plan of Salvation to them both. It's really interesting teaching those two. They are on two completely different levels. Marion when we first started meeting her was agnostic, not atheist but wasn't really sure if there was a God or not. Martin on the other hand has been religious his whole life and has been studying about our church for 10 or so years, and knows a lot about deep doctrinal things. This is why it took that long to explain the Plan of Salvation.

We would get Marion to understand, then Martin would ask a question that was somewhat deep doctrinal, and Marion would get confused. We would read a scripture, and Marion, who thinks VERY logically, would get confused or not understand, so we would back it up and explain it verse for verse. But we finally answered all questions and they both understand it, so that they don't have any more concerns. Then we talked about baptism, and we challenged them to prepare themselves and set the goal of being baptized on the 30th of December.

But the one problem is, is they currently are not married, but living together. And it's somewhat difficult to get married here in Austria, The paperwork a lone can last between 2-4 weeks, and that's if you REALLY push for it. And Marion was also really concerned, she wanted to feel more sure, she still had a lot of doubts, and when we told her that she could be ready (marriage aside) for baptism in 4 weeks she was really skeptical. But this is where the miracle comes in.

Yesterday was fast and Testimony meeting. She was really skeptical about obtaining a testimony so quickly. I sat next to them yesterday, but we were in the back, typically where all the families with young children are. So the atmosphere, wasn't exactly the best, and I was really worried that they wouldn't feel the spirit. But I happened to look over at her during the meeting, and she was crying, not just tears in her eyes, but full out crying. I tapped Martin and asked her if she was alright and he nodded and said that it was a good thing, that she was just really touched at the testimonies. The next three testimonies were given by some young women in the ward, which were also very powerful (poor Marion, she was rather embarrassed that she was crying so much), and after that the meeting came to an end with the hymn "Freude der Welt" Joy to the world. Didn't help much :-).

After the closing prayer she made a straight shot to the bathroom (because she was still crying) When she came out she still had tears in her eyes, and Schwester Jankowsky (Nina Jankowsky (there are a lot of Jankowskys in the ward)) Went and gave her a hug, and invited them to lunch with her family (YES!!!). I about started crying. IT WAS PERFECT. Exactly what Elder Steed and I wanted, and were praying for. That she could feel the spirit, and that we could find someone to invite them to lunch or something, some friends in the ward! 

So that was our day yesterday. Very successful. I confirmed Jakiri, and survived. (It is the first time that I have ever confirmed anyone, doing it in German, in Sacrament meeting if front of the whole ward) I was really nervous and was shaking, but only made one mistake in that I said "Mitglieder" instead of "Mitglied" ("members" instead of "member") but I was ok, and I did not need to do it again (thank goodness!).  Haha, and then after Church I ended up giving him (Jakiri) a blessing because he ate some expired food and got food poisoning from it. I have blessed enough times in German that I can do that without a problem. :-) I am just going to remember "MITGLIED" next time :-).

But yeah. that is pretty much all that happened this week. Jakiri loves Elder Steed and I, he refers to us Yang and Ying, respectively. :-) I don't know exactly the entire meaning behind that (the names have a meaning associated to them, and he gave me a small explanation, but if anyone wants to look that up and tell me what they mean, feel free :-) ) Essentially what I got out of it is Ying is more reserved and Yang is more aggressive. He says that we were the only two which could really help him out. That was kind of him to say.  Which fits us really well in our relationship with Jakiri. It took both to bring him to be baptized now, instead of later.

He is going on Kur on Wednesday. Kur is essentially a 6 week vacation in a hospital, where you take a break from all of your problems. He wants to get a new job working with Computers, but before he can begin training his soon to be employers are requiring him to go take a break :-). Believe me, its needed. The only problem is, is that he will be gone for 6 weeks and won't be able to come to church. We are going to organize it so that he gets visits from members and us while he is there, because he can't leave. So that is to come. But we will take it one step at a time. :-) 

Thats all for this week, I love you all and wish you all well!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Der Herr hat's gegeben, Der Herr hat's genommen, gelobt sei der Name des Herrn!

I don't have my bible with me, so I couldn't tell you exactly where that scripture is, I know its in Job somewhere (Job 1:21). It says something to the effect "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken, praised be the name of the Lord!" It was a scripture that has been on my mind the past few days, I really like it. But holy cow, what a week! Long story short we are going to be having two Baptisms this week!

Monday last week, was by far one of the most intense days I have ever had. Let me explain: So after I e-mailed you, Elder Steed and I went and shopped for our food, then went to the Zone P-day that they were having at the Institute Center. We went there and were there probably about an hour and a half (we arrived at 2 pm), When we get a call from our GML who tells us that we need to come to Deutsch Wagram (about an hour trip away) as soon as possible, he has a huge surprise that is more important that P-day! We were a bit shocked, but he knew how far away it was for us, if he is telling us that we need to come to Deutsch Wagram as soon as possible, its really important. My first thoughts were, "It has to be about Frau Zalka, he got contact and wants to drive up to Großharras and teach her!" I was excited, and we left as soon as possible.

Bru. Jankowsky picked us up and took us to his home (refusing to tell us what was up until we got to his apartment). We got in he invited us to sit down, and then he pulled out a letter, The return address on it was from Frau Zalka. Ok, I was really intriuged. It was 4 pages typed. Single space. LONG. But it explained everything. The weeks leading up to when she had set the date she was absolutely sure she wanted to join the church, she said she even had imagined herself being standing in the font being baptized. But the week after she set the date was chaotic. She was having an internal battle, she would have negative thoughts, doubts, anti-mormon literature come into her head, followed immediately by positive uplifting thoughts, that counteracted the doubts. This happened the entire week long, getting worse and worse and worse, to the point where she couldn't concentrate at all on Sunday Morning.

She and her children were completely ready to come to Church, her son had a part in the primary program and was really really excited to come to church. It was at that moment where it got so bad that she couldn't take it anymore, and she sent decided not to come. She felt a bit better throughout the day, and on Monday morning she sent us that text. But that night she couldn't sleep at all. Until 3 a.m. when she finally grabbed her Book of Mormon and started reading it. She felt the spirit strong and it enlightened her mind. She knew that this church was the right church. But she didn't call us. instead she wrote us a letter explaining everything, and planning out her whole baptism. Talks, deserts, who was going to baptize, confirm be witnesses. EVERYTHING down to the smallest details, then asked us if it was still ok to be Baptized on the 18th of Novemenber. But because of Austrian post, we didn't recieve the letter until the 19th. A day later.

Bru. Jankowsky, upon reading the letter immediately called her and essentially got the ok to visit her that night. Which is when he called us told us to come as soon as possible. She didn't have time to meet until 7 or so, and it was an hour away. But we had an appointment at 6:30 with Jakiri. So we had to Call Wien 3 and get them to do an emergency split with us. Thats was a nightmare to organize, they had an appointment as well at 8. On the complete opposite side of Wien. So I stayed here with Elder Evans (who is new to the mission) and Elder Babcock, and Elder Steed went with Bru. Jankowsky to Großharras. All in all it went well.

The Appointment with Jakiri was cut short, because we both arrived late, but it was still really good. I had a feeling to sing a hymn to start out, so we did and we read a scripture that popped into my head out of the Doctorine and Covenants "My son Peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and if thou endureth it well, God shall exhalt the on high." It was incredible. After that I got to try and navigate to an address in Wien 3's area. That was fun. The appointment was with a member and her boyfriend, who is agnostic. Elder Evans left a thought about the light of Christ, and we talked about how everyone had it, that is given us to judge good from the evil to the intent to bring closer to God. It was short, but it was good. Meanwhile, Elder Babcock gave Frau Zalka the baptismal interview, and a new date was set for the 2nd of December. And so far everything seems to be going well. But please pray for her that all will go well this week. We are going to be calling her every night to check up on her. Hopefully to help get rid of any doubts.

Jakiri is going to be baptized!!!!!!!!!! This is truly a miracle. Coming into the week of his interview, he said that he didn't have a testimony of Thomas S. Monson being a prophet. Which was the only thing holding Jakiri back from Baptism. And we were worried that he wouldn't be able to be baptized, because of it. And we were worried that he would be afraid, he has a lot of fears. We decided to watch "Special Witnesses of Christ" with him at the Church. We were praying that he would be able to recieve a confirmation that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. We watched it, and at the end we bore testimony, and asked him what he thought, and he said that when President Monson was speaking, that he felt something, he had a really good feeling. A couple of Days later we were with Martin Hayden, who just returned from his mission a few weeks ago. We watched "The Race of Life" A talk that President Monson gave in this past April General Conference. We all bore testimony and he and Martin talked about it for awhile. We eventually had to leave but Jakiri stayed and talked. I talked to Jakiri that night and he said that he felt Good about what happened and that he was thinks that Thomas S. Monson is really a Prophet, but would pray for a confirmation!

He got the confirmation. We met on Friday just before the interview and sang hymns together (Well Jakiri and I sang hymns, Elder Steed accompanied on the Piano). President Hoefel came and everything went well. He did a great job interviewing, because Jakiri came out and was really happy. His fears are gone concerning baptism, he is excited to be baptized!! He has made such a huge change. Haha we all have gotten really close, he wanted us both to baptize him, as in like both be standing in the font. Sadly that can't be, but Elder Steed volunteered to baptize him, so he will baptize, I will confirm, and I will be standing on the stairs leading out of the font to Congratulate him. :-)

I am so happy, he is different. HE is happy his fears are gone he is different, and a lot of people have noticed it. He has been meeting with missionaries off and on for 12 years or so.  He wrote a note to past missionaries telling them all the sins he has done, and because of it they treated him differently. That hurt him really bad, and he was terrified to come to church for fear of people judging him based off of what he has done. But he opened up to us, and ended up telling us a number of things that he did, and we didn't shrink or back away. But we supported him and promised him that through the atonement that there wasn't anything that couldn't be washed away. He has had a hard life and now he is on a path to a much new and improved life. And he knows it. He can finally get rid of the pain that he has been carrying with him for a long time. It's truly incredible. Continue to pray for him though, he still has this week before the baptism. Satan is going to be working hard on him. He is meeting with his father tomorrow, and he knows his father will try to bring him down, so if you could pray for him, that all will go well. We are meeting with him nearly everyday this week. And are going to be praying hard for him.

That ought to do for this week. :-) I wish you the best, and I look forward to sending pictures to you next week!

Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Another Crazy Week

Wow this week was crazy as well. Frau Zalka hasn't had any contact with us at all. She won't pick up the phone, we still don't know why. But, Jakiri, who I mentioned a long time ago, has agreed to move up his baptismal date to the 30th of November. This is huge. He is scared and satan is working on him INCREDIBLY HARD. His interview is this friday with President Hoeffel at 4:30. Please pray for him.

He knows that Joseph smith is a prophet with out a doubt. And he understands that he needs to be baptized and that it will be good for him. But he is scared. He has had a far worse past than any of you can imagine. He is by far the most incredible person that I have ever met though. He is the perfect example in my eyes of someone Christ-like. He helps out a few single mother families here in Florisdorf. He gives them everything, all his money, his time, everything. He sleeps in a single room apartment on a hard wood floor, and only eats when people give him food, because he gives everything to serve these families.

He still is haunted by his past however. His past sins, and these things that has happened to him. And satan is trying to eat him alive before he can reach baptism. Telling him that its too late, that he isn't good enough or worthy to be baptized, and this list goes on and on. He is battling everyday to overcome these feelings. He is ready to be baptized, he knows that it will be good for him, and that when he gets baptized that all the sin and guilt can be washed away.  We have a recently returned missionary that is helping him a lot. Martin Hayden, absolutely a stud. He was baptized 4 years ago, who also had a really hard life and was on the point of near suicide when he found the gospel, and has the most powerful testimony of receiving a remission of sins at baptism that I have ever heard. When he made the decision to serve a mission, he was supporting his single mom and 4 brothers WITH HIS OWN MONEY. And he prayed and asked heavenly Father to take care of them for him, and he said that Heavenly Father said he would, so he went and served a mission and didn't worry about them at all, and came back and found out that the Lord had kept his promise. An incredible testimony. He met with us and Jakiri yesterday and it was incredible. That will help a lot, but if you could please pray for Jakiri, he needs it. 

Another really cool things happened yesterday. At 4 we had an appointment with 4 communists. Or that is what Elder Steed called them (he didn't know their names). Elder Solt had contacted them back when he was here and agreed to meet with them under the terms that there would be no discussion on politics. They met with them and apparently had a good discussion but never made out a return appointment till I arrived about 2 months later. I called them (five weeks ago) and made out an appointment for yesterday (they are really busy). Well they came to the church yesterday and we sat down and started talking. 3 of them are totally Atheist, one of them has a weak belief on God.

They started off asking us questions like crazy, really weird questions dealing with war, killing people and what we thought about the death penalty. Which threw me way off, and there was no correct answer that I could give and I knew that. They were twisting our words like crazy. We finally were able to change topics, and I asked them a question about their belief on God, Elder Steed at this point left the room and was gone for most of the discussion, taking a couple of phone calls. So it was me with 3 Atheists and one who didn't know what to believe. It was a neat experience, I don't remember all of the details. I started to ask questions and to teach, and the words just came to me. The spirit was telling me exactly what I needed to say in that exact moment, and it was so powerful. I bore powerful testimony, and the words were flowing unto me. The German was nearly if not completely perfect. At the beginning of the lesson, the three were convinced that there was no God at all and didn't see a point in it at all. But left all promising, all WANTING to find out through prayer. 

One of them, named Phillip, told me that he went to Catholic school and prayed all the time and never felt anything, therefore there could be no God. But then we talked about what his experience was with prayer and he said that it was the standard "Vater Unser" prayer (Lord's Prayer) that they prayed twice an hour or something like that. Then he said that to him it was just memorized words with no meaning. "Exactly." I quoted them the verse that is immediately before the "Vater Unser" (Lord's Prayer) and then I taught about what it means to pray from the heart. To mean it. Again, the spirit was so strong and at the end, he was the most sincere, asking me, if I pray and don't feel anything, am I not praying correctly, or am does it mean that I am not praying from my heart... Questions like that.

He REALLY wanted to know if there is a God or not, and wanted to make sure that he did it correctly so that he could find out. I told them that they may or may not feel anything on the first time. I used a scripture out of Alma where is says that he fasted and prayed MANY DAYS to get an answer, and then later told them about Ether 12:6 talking about how you don't receive a testimony till after your faith is tried. Then promised them if they really want to know and pray, that God would answer them, and that they can know just like I did that it was true. It was an incredible experience. I can honestly say that the promises made in Doctrine and Covenants 11:21, and 84:85 really are true. 

"Trachtet nicht danach mein Wort zu verkünden, sondern trachtet zuerst danach mein wort zu erlangen und dann wird deine Zunge gelöst werden; dann, wenn ihr wünscht, wirst du meinem Geist und Wort haben, ja die Macht Gottes um Menschen zu überzeugen"

 "Sorgt euch nicht in voraus, was ihr sagen sollt, sondern häuft in eurem Sinn beständig die Worte des Lebens auf, wie einen Schatz. Dann wird euch zur selben Stunde das Maß eingegeben werden, das einem jeden zugemessen werden soll"

21

Seek not to ^adeclare my word, but first seek to ^bobtain my^cword, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my ^dSpirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the ^econvincing of men.

 85

Neither take ye thought beforehand ^awhat ye shall say; but^btreasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be ^cgiven you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

 

Sorry I only have memorized in German. But they are true, and I know that they are, because I have experienced it myself. And I know for that these promises are for missionaries and non missionaries alike. 

That will do for now, Thanks for the love and support. It means a lot to me. I love you all and wish you the best!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Wow.

Another huge roller coaster this past week. Mostly with Frau Zalka. She was the one who we we had set the baptismal date with this week. Which is what she recommended. However, it won't happen. And neither Elder Steed or I know why.

I called her on Thursday to go over a few things with her regarding the interview and clothing, Everything was fine. The primary president called her Saturday evening to see if her children wanted to be a part of the program. She also talked to her for a bit, and Frau Zalka had read all of the pamphlets we had given her and was really excited to come to church and get baptized! The primary president told us that three times in the conversation Frau Zalka had mentioned that she WOULD BE at church. Ok. But she wasn't there. at 10.00 Schwester Kemendics (primary president) called her and she didn't answer (unaware that she had already tried calling) I called her. No answer. A little bit later she got a text that said something to the effect of: Leave me in peace today. If you want to help just pray to God to give me strength, I will talk to you later this week.

Ok, so we were all a bit worried that something had happened. The whole Zone (upon hearing that there she may not be baptized on sunday) all prayed for her last night. This morning she sent the Ward mission leader a text saying thanks for everything, but she doesn't want to be baptized, and she will stay Evangelisch. He sent her back a text saying that he respects the decision.  He invited her to pray about it, and then asked if she would tell him perhaps what changed her mind. We still don't know, but we suspect that it was anti-mormon literature of some type. Probably on the internet. Within 36 or so hours she went from completely Golden, to unsure and possible doubting, to not wanting to be baptized at all.

And I don't know why. It all happened so fast and my head is still spinning from it. So that is that. We are going to do what we can to try and figure out what happened and to not give up. But we can only help as much as she will allow us. The best thing at this point is to stand back and let her tell us according to what she wants, lest she feel like we are trying to force her to join the church. All hope isn't lost, I hope that she will come to herself, and remember all of the good feelings that she has had. So that was the sad new of the week.

On a completely unrelated story, yesterday I found out what if feels like to be in such a huge state of shock/ stupor that you are paralysed. No body told me that the Brother and Sister Rollins (Neighbors living 2 houses down the street.  Brother Rollins served in Austria on his mission) were coming to Austria! My word. Yesterday just after 2nd hour got out I was out in the hall talking to Elder Steed and out of the corner of my eye I saw two people walk around the corner, and the thought was "that looked like Brother and Sister Rollins, but that couldn't be possi..." Dumbfounded.

I can't really describe it, as I turned to actually look and saw them walking down the hall towards me, I was... I can't describe it. Alma 31:19  19 Now it came to pass that after Alma and his brethren and his sons had heard these prayers, they were astonished beyond all measure., except the prayer, I really understand that scripture now... :-)

Wow. Astonished absolutely stunned was I. In a good way :-). They took a lot of pictures and tried recording me a number of times, but I was just too shocked to really say much. They thought that I was still in Dornbirn, so they weren't expecting to be able to see me at all. They went to Church on the Böcklinstraße (The building that he went to when he was here) and talked to Elder Davies and Cox there, who are from Sandy and American Fork, respectively. They asked if they by chance new me, and they were like "YEAH TOTALLY! He is in the fifth ward here in Wien!" Then the elders gave them the address of the church, they put it in the navigation and came. Luckily our church is offset 30 minutes from that one, so they made it just before Sacrament meeting. For the Primary program. :-) Absolutely crazy. Haha after the meeting he asked me if I by chance new a "Mutti Mittermayer". She was famous when HE was here. He was even invited and had dinner with her once. 25 or so years ago. Luckily we have Michael, because apparently she can't cook very well... ;-) That was a neat highlight yesterday. 

I can't really remember anything else from this past week. There is Martin and Miriam. So about 2 weeks ago or so we got a phone call from someone running the church website, A guy named Martin had requested himself, and wanted us to call him. So we did and made out an appointment for this past Thursday. We thought we would just be meeting with him, but he brought his girlfriend with him. We gave them a church tour and answered their questions about the church. He has been studying things about the church for 15 years or so, she was baptized Catholic, but has never gone to church and doesn't know what to believe.

We sat down and had a great lesson. Talking about Jesus Christ, the atonement (briefly, she didn't know what that was, so we gave a short explanation and set that we would discuss it in more detail next week) then got into the apostasy and then watched the Restoration DVD. It was powerful. And they both agreed to come to church, and they did! We had a great investigator class, they liked it and will be coming back next week. I am excited for them. The feeling that both I and Elder Steed got, was that Martin wants to be baptized, but he wants his girlfriend to get to that point first so that they could progress together. And that was kind of what he told us, he wanted us to focus the lesson on her.

She seemed to really like Relief society, she seemed pretty happy at the in 2nd hour, and after Church (again we had the primary program, good week to come :-)). We will meet with them again on Saturday, and talk about the plan of salvation. 

Anyway, I am out of time now, sadly. Thanks for all which you do. I love you all,

-Elder Ryan K. Christensen

P.S.

Picture 1: Wiener Sunset

Picture 2: "Diet portion" with Michael Meetloaf, Potatoes, and Red Cabbage. VERY GERMAN.

Picture 3: Wiener Night sky. 

Hallo-"Wien" Roller Coaster

My goodness, this has been by far the craziest week I have ever had on my mission, without question. Holy cow. Some huge miracles. Some of the most stressful moments of my mission. Mensch (Oh, Man!). And most of that was between Friday, and Sunday, and because of that, I don't really remember anything else happening during that week.

But Friday. Oh my, so, it started off fairly normal, wake up study, eat lunch etc. We had a lesson that night with Michael and we hoped to  set a baptismal date. Well Elder Steed was feeling really really sick. But we were going to set a baptismal date with Michael that night and couldn't miss it. So Elder Steed rested and I made a bunch of phone calls and read the bible for a couple hours.

I love the German bible, its SO much easier to understand, I can read it like a novel, its awesome. So that's what I did. I read from Mark and into Luke 10. (I also compare how some verses are written in the Einheits, and Martin Luther bible, as well as the English, because sometimes they can be translated differently).

Anyway, one person I called is named Mike. Elder Cox met him on the street and got his number, and gave it to us (thinking he lived in our area). So I called him and talked to him trying to set up an appointment. He is an atheist  and was concerned about wasting our time because he couldn't promise that he would convert or anything. I said that's fine, we are just here to help other people find joy, through coming unto God. He seemed satisfied with that, and we made an appointment out for Monday. Nothing sounded wrong at all. 

Later on, I was in the kitchen washing dishes and cleaning up, and for some reason there was a question that kept coming to mind; What would I say to someone who was going to commit suicide? I thought it puzzling but I thought about it and came up with a few scriptures that I thought would help. After that I didn't think about it much.

Well it was now time to get ready to go to Michael. We always eat first then teach him. Elder Steed was feeling a bit better, whether he was or wasn't it didn't matter we were going. Long story short, the lesson was a bit of a train wreck. Real quick, Michael is roughly 55, he is on rehabilitation for something, and is staying with a member of the ward, known affectionately by everyone as "Mutti" (Mom). Mutti Mittermayer is 85 or 86 and when she invites you over to eat, she expects you to eat EVERYTHING on your plate. If you don't she will give a warning "Aufputzen!" (Polish Up!, Clean up!) and if you still don't SHE WILL FEED IT TO YOU. You don't mess with Mutti Mittermayer.

Anyway, she has had some abnormal inflammation of her feet, and so she was in the hospital. We thought this lesson would be just us and Michael. Anyway, so we were at Muttis house, and all of the sudden another member of the ward shows up. An older lady in our ward who knows Mutti Mittermayer. Ok thats not a problem, or so we thought. She was acting really weird and was being really rude. The spirit wasn't there, and we didn't feel like we could extend the commitment. Later that night, Michael took us to Bahnhof, and said that she was drunk and that he could smell the alcohol. Wonderful. Elder Steed was furious, I wasn't pleased, but I wasn't quite angry.

Anyway, thats not important. We get home that night, and at 8.45 I get a text from Mike: "You believe in God, please pray for my wife and 2 kids. I don't believe on anything, and tonight at around midnight, I am going to kill myself".  PANIC!! I called president Miles, and the police and for the next hour and a half almost I was the phone with people. First I called the police (here the number is 133 and not 911) so I had to figure that out, and then I gave all the information I could, which was just a name and phone number (and I knew that he lived in district 20). So I gave that to the main number. Then about 15 minutes later I had another officer call and ask where I was, in Florisdorf, and I gave all the information to them. Then they had two police men that came to our apartment, and I had to do this all again. Elder Steed was just like "eh, I have been through worse", totally calm. Meanwhile I am going through an internal meltdown not knowing what I should do. We tried Calling him, the police tried calling him. No answer. President miles recommended trying to send him some uplifting texts, and which point those thoughts in my head earlier came back. So we send some carefully worded texts to him to try and help him. Using some of my thoughts earlier. We sent a text to the Zone Leaders who passed it on to the whole Zone to pray for a guy named Mike, who was going through a hard time. Long story short we didn't here back from him at all. Neither Elder Steed or I was very tired, so at 11.50 we said a prayer (again) for Mike. After which point we were able to sleep.

The next morning I didn't here anything. The police called me at 8.30 to say that they still hadn't found him, and that the number for the phone was not him (it actually belonged to an elderly lady on the complete opposite side of Wien (which turns out was actually an Error on the part of the phone company). Ok interesting. Then we get a text from Mike. Who thanked us for our texts and said that he still needed to live for his children RELIEF.

It turns out that he had a really hard night. Disappointed a lot of friends, lost half of his paycheck gambling, (which made his wife incredibly angry) and was outside drinking a lot of alcohol. Then he sent us the text and turned his phone off. He eventually fell asleep, and nothing happened Well we got in touch with the police, they took care of everything, and with the recommendation from president Miles, we met with him that day. We met at the church near his house and brought Jakiri as a joint teach (even though Jakiri is an eternal investigator, he has a strong testimony, and loves to help people). I prepared the lesson, again with all the thoughts and scriptures that were running through my head the day before. And, even though he is atheist  he says that " he will take it slow and say only one prayer at night before he goes to bed". He will bring his family next time and said that he was interested in coming to Church. A golden Atheist, who would have thought? We will see where it goes from here.

That was one story. The next happened on Sunday. Do you remember the lady that I mention last week in my e-mail? Who I said might be Golden. Oh man, this is where some of the insanity comes in. She came to church again. So during the second hour we were going to teach her about the restoration. We say a prayer, and I ask her the question, "what do you know about the restoration of the Gospel?". She went on for 10 minutes and taught us the whole thing. IN DETAIL. When Joseph Smith was 14 there was a lot of religious competition going on. His own family was divided. So he had a question and read in James 1:5 ( SHE QUOTED IT FROM MEMORY!!!) He saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and felt the spirit. Teaching us that they are 3 seperate beings (JAW ON THE FLOOR). They told him that there was no True church, but in time that they would give him everything that he needed to restore the true church, meaning the same church that Christ created when he himself was upon the earth, because when the apostles died, the church became corrupted. That was what she said. Shortened, but almost exactly what she said.

We were stunned. We were all confused and just bore testimony for a bit. Then I asked "what does "Priesthood Authority" mean to you?". She went on to teach us about the 2 priesthoods, and quoted D&C 121 talking about how it can only be exercised upon principles of Righteousness. Again we were stunned. Elder Steed in amazement asked " is there anything that you DON'T know?!" We laughed and I kept asking questions. The only thing she didn't know was what happened between death and the Resurrection. I gave her Alma 40 and we had a quick discussion. She has read the Book of Mormon 3 and a half times! She has been reading the Liahona magazines for who knows how long, reading all the conference talks and everything. Bru. Jankowsky (the ward mission leader) asked, " so whats missing". Her answer "baptism".

She then went on to explain that she knew the church was true, and felt like she was ready for baptism. We set a date Novemeber 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( IT WAS HER IDEA!!) Bru. Jankowsky invited her to lunch at his house with us. I went through all of the baptismal interview questions (in preparation for the real interview which will be next week). And, well She is VERY READY. THAT IS A MIRACLE!!!!!!

Give someone who was considering Suicide hope and invited him to church. Find and teach a Golden investigator. See and work miracles. Those are the things that you can do as a missionary. I am stunned and so overwhelmed with Gratitude. 

I don't think there is anymore that I can say on that. Wow.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy "Hallo-WIEN" ;-)

Well, I feel pretty good right now I hope you all do as well. The church is true, and God is preparing people in many different ways. It's pretty amazing. 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen