Eine Woche der Wundern

(A Week of Wonders)

This week was pretty amazing, So many Neat things have happened, and I sit here at the end, and can only be grateful. Monday, was a bit rough, it wasn't a very good P-day and because of a lack of preparation for Mothers day  and other things, it cost us some valuable time. After taking care of all that, we left to start our proselyting time. 

We walked out of the Internet cafe and I had a feeling we should go by on Chris Ameiza, a potential who we were having a hard time getting in contact with. He lived over by Innsbruckerring, which is only 2 stops on the U-bahn from Giesing (where we live) (Giesing by the way, is the name for this part of the City of Munich). So we go there. It was rainy, a bit chilly, rather annoying for missionary work because most people don't want to stop and talk to you. Anyway we go there, and well, he isn't there. 

So we started going door to door in the area (there being no one on the streets) and after the first building I looked out across the street, and down a little, and I felt that we should go door to door there. So I tell Elder Evans and we go. We door the first set of doors, no one had interest. It was now around 7:50 or so, and neither of us had eaten anything all day. We had originally planned to be home at 8 and have dinner. So that is what we were going to do, but then I felt like we should go one more set before we go home. So we did.

 The very first door we knocked on was Christiana. She originally said that she wasn't interested, but I bore a bit more testimony. She then asked me a few questions (all in English by the way, she is Nigeria, so we can teach her!) "Do you fast?" I said yes. "Do you believe in the gift of Tongues and other gifts of the Spirit". I said of course, and then told her a few more of our beliefs upon which she said "Ok, now I can meet with you". She had visited many churches and couldn't find one that she believed in. I invited her to church and got her phone number so I could arrange to meet her on Sunday. She was way cool! And she came, but I will talk more about that when I get to Sunday.

Nothing to extraordinary about Tuesday, we practiced for the musical Number for Mission Tour, Elders Klappert, Johnson Müller and I. We added Sister Bice from Stuttgart in on Thursday, but we sang I believe in Christ, Elder Müller accompanied us on the Violin. First verse Unison, second verse accapella parts, we skipped the 3 verse, and sang the 4th in German parts, with the Violin playing and octave above. It was pretty cool. :-)

Wednesday we met with Nataly, which went REALLY well. We brought the Hunsakers with us and it was a great lesson. We talked about Following the prophets and apostles, why we have them, and then watched a few clips from Special Witnesses of Christ. It went well, but we will need to push back the baptismal date. She doesn't quite feel ready, and wants to be absolutely sure that this is the true church before she will get baptized, because as I may have mentioned last week, she recognizes that it is a big change. 

That night we were invited to the McPhee family for dinner. But before that Elder Evans and I went by on some potentials we had down near Holzapfelkreuth. Neither one was there, but we still had 10 minutes before the Office Elders came and picked us up with their car, so we started going door to door in the area. On the 10th door we knocked on a Man answered and I started speaking with him in German, and he stopped me and asked if I speak English. YES! I do. I talked to him about the family for a bit, and he was going to invite us in on the spot, but we didn't have time, so we made an appointment out for Saturday! We were so excited that twice in the week, after going door to door for only minutes we had found English speaking potentials.

Thursday, nothing really exciting happened we had weekly planning, and help pick up the Stuttgart Elders and bring them to the Mission office to spend the night. The Sisters were lucky, they got to stay in the mission home :-) When all the other Elders, 18 of them, stayed in the office, which already houses 7 Elders... VERY OVERLOADED. We took two with us back here to our apartment, but our apartment is small, so that is all we could take. Too bad that those are the only two places in the Munich where Elders live...

Anyway Friday was amazing we had Mission tour, which nearly took up the entire day. Elder Teixeira, the Area President Came and spoke to us, and it was amazing!

Skipping to Saturday, We met with the man we found on Wednesday on the 10th floor. We found out that he is from Tibet.  We started talking and found out that he has met people from nearly every Christian denomination and has listed to them speak. He is buddhist but believes on Jesus Christ. He asked us if we could pull out our bible, and he goes to the cupboard and pulls out a brand new book of Mormon, with a card in it. I was shocked. I asked if I could see the card, and I looked at it, and recognized the number as the new Munich 2 sisters, who came here (Munich) the same time we did. 

Sister Smith (from Munich 3) was on exchange with Sister Scoggin, and had asked us if she had given us the information of a really cool guy from Tibett. She hadn't, but we found him through dooring!! He told us that everywhere he has been he has met missionaries from our church that he can't seem to escape it and that he thinks God wants him to meet with us and hear our message. I was shocked, but he said it with such conviction that I knew he was completely serious. He asked us what is so important about the Book of Mormon, and why we should read it, and off we went. That lesson was probably the greatest lesson I have ever had with an investigator my in my whole mission. 

I used an example that I have used in 9 transfers, because the spirit told me to use it, and when I explained it, everything clicked for him, and the spirit was so strong, there was such an enlightenment there. Essentially I compared the truth of the gospel to a plate, and the time of Christ and the apostles it was one complete plate, The apostles and prophets support the plate and protect it. But people became wicked and killed the apostles, the plate, so to speak, fell and broke into many small pieces. The problem then was, is the church took pieces of the plate and called it the truth, which it was, but only pieces of it. But some other people saw different truth, and took different pieces of the plate... this is why there are so many christian churches today, and each of them have parts of the truth, but not all of it. 

He thought for a second and then asked, do you think God will ever bring back the full plate to the earth? Elder Evans and I smiled and we taught him about the restoration. It was incredible. Then we made out an appointment for next Saturday. I then asked him his name and he said "Tenzin". I wrote it down and thought, "ha, that's really funny, the sisters told me they found a golden investigator from Tibet and his name was Tenz... oh no..." 

The previous Monday I was talking to the sisters and they said that had an investigator who spoke English and a bit of German, and asked him if because he was being taught in English, if they should give him to us, I told them, that what ever ward he wants to attend, those missionaries should teach him. They were going to ask him and let us know. Well we happened to door into him, and teach him a full lesson. The funny thing was, is he had made an appointment out with the sisters for an hour later, and they were on the way there as we were leaving... They still ended up meeting with him, and he really likes both of us, so we will see what will happen. 

The sisters reaction was really funny when we told them that we had just taught their Golden investigator. I am pretty sure that the sisters in Munich consider me an investigator thief or something, because the night before I was calling some potentials that I had found in the book, and set up an appointment with one, when I found out that she had been meeting with the Sisters in Munich 3 for  8 months... She spoke perfect English, but was German...

Anyway that was cool. I don't have much time left, but Yesterday was quite crazy. So Like I said before Christiana came to church. I called her a few days earlier, and had told her to meet us at Innsbruckerring at 10:20 or so. Well that morning Elder Evans and I go, and we wait, and wait, and wait, I gave her a call but she didn't answer. In the meantime so people walked up out of the U-bahn, 2 guys and 2 girls who spoke English only, and they started mocking us with the most foul language I have ever heard, every single word they used, except for the prepositions  was vulgar. It was so putrid and vile, more than I ever thought was possible to come from a human mouth. They were walking away, so I just ignored them, because I knew there was nothing that I could say to them. 

At 10.30 we walked back down to the Platform and waited, and took the next U-bahn. We got quite a few stops, when I get a call from Christiana, asking if we are still meeting up for church, we said yes, and we made arrangements to meet at Sendlinger Tor, where we needed to switch U-bahns to get to church. Anyway, long story made short, because I am pretty much out of time, we met up with Christiana at Sendlingertor adt 11.05, church started at 11.30, we missed the u-bahn and had to wait ten minutes, ended up missing the bus, and waiting 10 minutes by Aidenbachstraße. 

We got on the bus, and as we were getting off to make the 7 minute walk to church it started to POUR, so much. I was pleading in Silent prayer that the rain would stop, because I was worried that they would be discouraged and not want to come (Christiana had brought her 3 daughters ages 12, 5, and 1, her husband wasn't able to make it this week). And as an answer to the prayer the thought came to my head "Trust me". "Alright" was my thought. 

Well we get off the bus and are ready to go, and it poured even harder. It didn't stop raining till we arrived at the church... of course it stopped when we arrived. Elder Evans and I had umbrellas, and had given them to Christianna and family to keep them dry. We showed up to church at 12.15 or so looking like we had just gone swimming... But they liked it and may come again next week. The husband, although he couldn't make it told the wife she needed to go and see if it is a place where they could worship, they are searching for a church. At the beginning the 12 year old was not very happy to be there, but afterwards she was asking if they are/could come back next week. 

"Trust me" who would have ever thought? Granted I went swimming and they stayed dry, I was soaked for most of church, but they had a good time! :-)

We will hopefully meet with them this week and teach them all together. :-) The Lord works in mysterious ways I will just say that. It was really hard on me, everything that happened, but the spirit was especially strong in the sacrament meeting, when we made it just in time to hear the high council man speak on eternal families, and sing hymn 300 families can be together forever... All in all it was very worth it. And if getting soaked to keep them dry didn't earn their trust, I am not sure what would... I am grateful that things happen according to God's wisdom and not mine, it always seems to work better that way. :-)

I wish you all a great week!

Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Parental Note:  We were able to skype Elder Christensen on Mother's Day for about an hour and 40 minutes.  It was AWESOME!!  We loved seeing his face, hearing his voice, and his laugh.  Those of you who know him know how fun that is.  He is VERY HAPPY and doing very well. 

He took some time to teach from the scriptures and talk with Josh about his upcoming mission.  That was so fun!  Each of the kids was looking up scriptures as he referenced them.  And we had a good family discussion.  

Best of all, he bore a very strong and powerful testimony of missionary work, the power of prayer, and his love of Heavenly Father.  What an amazing time we had. He even expressed some very loving  words for his brothers and sister.  Parents really like that!

Another Week has come and gone...

Well, this week was normal. Ups and downs as usual. Too many fallen out appointments. We had 3 appointments which we had accidentally scheduled for Sunday night at 6, and we had made out splits and had all the preparations to handle them. In order to prevent them from falling out we had called twice throughout the week to confirm everything. Then Saturday night, we find out that Ola, is working and can't be there. Ok, perfect now all we need to worry about is splitting with members for Charles (MIRACLE!!!!!) and then Familie Brucku. 

We had contact with Familie Brucku on Friday evening to confirm for Sunday at 6 pm. Charles we had made the appointment on Thursday. I call to confirm again with Charles. No answer. Then later he sends me a text and says " I be living in a small place, could I just come to your worship service?" I told him when and where it was, and then he texted and said he couldn't come tomorrow, but next week. :-( 

Alright, so now its just us and the familie Brucku, with Brother Backman (member of the bishopric) coming (Brother Brucku is a member and his daughter LOVES the church and the missionaries, but she is only 8 and can't come on her own) They haven't come to the church for awhile so we made an appointment and invited Brother Backman. Well, we were advised/chastised from brother Opare (who came with us to an appointment (which fell out on the spot)) that we should ALWAYS call 2 to 3 hours before and remind the family that you are coming, so that you know it won't fall out for sure. So we called, and called and called (over the space of 3 hours leading up to the appointment). No answer, so we cancel on Brother Backman, and we go by ourselves. Sure enough they weren't home. :-(

Yeah, but on the brightside Nataly and Loveth came to Church! Wait, you don't know who Loveth is. So nearly 2 weeks ago, on an U-bahn heading home I talked to Loveth, and got her phone number. We called out got her address, and long story short, we were able to finally meet with her on Tuesday, and we brought a brother Itama with us. It was a bit rough. She had a really hard time understanding, Brother Itama was a huge help on that, but it still had struggles. We then made out another appointment for this Monday, which fell out, but we met with her on Saturday evening, and had a really good lesson, and invited her to church. We went out and met her at Moosfeld, and had the absolute WORST luck getting to church. 

My word, we missed the first U-bahn by SECONDS, and had to wait 10 minutes for the next. Then at Sendlingertor ( I have mentioned before this very rarely ever works) we would have made it, if it were just her, but she had a 4 month old ( maybe?) daughter, and that caused us to JUST BARELY BARELY miss it. 10 more minutes we need to wait. Now we are in trouble, we are on the verge of being late to church. But to show you that God knows all and is in charge of all, we arrive and barely catch the bus, on which there were some other Nigerian Brothers specifically Brother Chuckwudi, who actually speaks the same Dialect as she does, and he is an INCREDIBLE member missionary, he immediately came and introduced himself, and they start speaking their dialect. She really liked it and will come again  next Sunday. 

Nataly is amazing. She made it to church! but was only able to make it to Sacrament meeting because then she needed to go work from 2 till 11 that night. She works as a traveling nurse, taking care of patients in their own homes. Because she works so late, she doesn't get home till midnight or so, then gets something small to eat, and finally gets to bed. She told us that she has a really hard time getting up in the morning, and was going to pray for the strength to make it to church. She made it! And we will meet with her again this week. :-) Things are amazing and she is really prepared. The current goal is for the 25th of May, but that won't work because the whole ward will be at the temple ( Frankfurt... outside mission boundaries :-P) and won't get back till Saturday night. So we will see what will happen. But things are going well.

Now about Charles, this is cool, so on Wednesday this week, we had the ENTIRE day free. As opposed to having an appointment somewhere in the day. So we spent the day going by on this list of potentials we had, and contacting in the area for an hour or so. For the first several hours nothing. Had a few people yell at us to go back to america where we belong, other than that, no one wanted to talk to us. So we keep going. Meanwhile  I am praying to find some people, that someone somewhere will listen to us. And finally within the last section of the day, we find ourselves walking from Pasing to Laim. BY NO MEANS A SHORT WALK. Talking to everyone on the way. We found 2 people by then, both of which we need to give a way. And then we get a phone call. A man, who calls himself Charles is on the phone and he says

"You guys put a note in my mailbox for my Woman, but she is in Africa now, and I don't know how to take the message of your church to her".

"Yeah, that would be difficult... would you by chance have any interest in hearing our message"

"Yes I would like to learn more about your church, and message." 

Haha, Elder Evans was on the phone and his reaction made me laugh

"Thats great, Thats just great, wonderful, awesome... [awkward pause]  uhh, when would you have time to meet?" It shows you how little that happens when someone requests to meet with us, we have no idea how to respond when that happens. 

We are excited. Then we found someone else later on after we were nearly to Laim. Awesome. Prayers are answered. 

This week was rather incredible, I love personal Study, I have come across a lot of things in the bible and through other doctorinal study that have left me with questions, what does this mean? Why is it here? how is it supossed to be interpreted? I have thought about asking President Miles, but instead I have tried something else. I say an additional prayer, and ponder on the verse. Then write down thoughts as they come. It has been a wonderful experience for me. All of my questions thus far have been answered and I continue to gain more light everyday. I have learned SO MUCH it is unbelievable new insights on things, as I ponder specific verses of Scripture are brought to mind, and sometimes, I can even see the verse on the page in my head. It is truly incredible. 

I am so grateful for that. Personal Revelation is Powerful, and I have used it in so many cases. It has really shown me how much God loves and cares for me, If I have a question, how to plan out District Meeting, or a lesson, or anything, I can go pray and ponder, and I know that I will recieve the answer. I know that to be true. And I know that each and every one of you will recieve answers likewise, when you put in the effort to ask with real intent. 

I need to go now, but I wish you all a wonderful week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

What a week(end)!

Well this weekend has been a Huge roller coaster. I don't even know where to start really. We met with Nataly again, and we set a goal for baptism for the 25th of May!! We met her again today and things are still going really well! That was a huge highlight of last week. I am so grateful for that. 

Things went well, I don't know what else to add, we met with John as well last week, which was good. Sadly Bro. Opare wasn't able to come :-( But went alright none the less. 

My find is fairly fuzzy about this past week, and because its a new transfer I don't have my planner with me. All I can remember is this weekend we had Stake conference and Transfer Calls...

Well, I am staying here in Munich (YES!!) and I have now been made district leader. :-) I am excited for this additional chance to serve. It will be a completely new thing for me, and with this district there are special Challenges, but I am excited for it. And then there is stake Conference, which was absolutely incredible! :-)

The YSA Choir, that I was in sang in the adult session on Saturday night. Elder Boohm from the 70 spoke, he is from Holland. It was a fun talk, however one of the things that effected me the most was from Sister Kopischke, the daughter of Elder Kospishke I assume, she had a short talk but it was amazing, she related the chance she had to me someone who refines Silver ( I think it was her, maybe it was someone else, I don't quite remember) and she asked him 

"Do you really need to sit in front of the fire the whole time?" 

"Yes", he responded "If the silver is in the fire for even a few seconds to long it will ruin all of it". 

She then asked "how do you know when it is done?" 

"Simple" he said "When I can see myself in it" 

Man, that had so many scriptural applications to it that my mind exploded, and I missed the rest of the talk. Mainly in Maleachi 3:3 compared to Alma 5:19 as well as a number of Isaiah references and the hymn "How firm a foundation" "The flame shall not hurt the, I only design, thy dross to consume and they [silver] to refine" That was pretty amazing, I must say. 

Elder Boohms talk was good as well, he mentioned back when he was first called to serve in the 70 that Elder Kopischke ( who was at that point in time the president over the area) asked him how good his German was, he said that it wasn't very good at all. So Elder Kopischke told him to get a German book of Mormon and read it. He did, and at first it was hard but toward the end he had a better hold on it. Then Elder Kopischke put him in charge of the Frankfurt section of the Area. And then in the same conversation asked him what he was doing the next weekend. He had nothing and Elder Kopischke asked him if he could go and speak at a District conference in Erfurt. He agreed, then Elder Kopischke added "oh by the way, they don't speak any English at all". Elder Boohm said "Well surely there must be someone who can translate". Elder Kopischke responded "No, no translators, unless you want a 14 year old girl to translate for you [small pause] Good luck!" and then he hung up. 

Long story short he did a lot of praying for help, and was successfully able to organize it and go there and speak. Haha, this next part made me laugh really hard. He added, "I found out awhile later that I only made one mistake in the whole conference. In the adult session of the conference I wanted to tell the parents that they need to bear more testimony to there children. Instead what I actually said was that they need to bear more children..." This difference in German is so small. It made me laugh. "Zeugnis" in German is testimony, "Zeuge" is a witness, "bezeugen" is to testify but "zeugen" in one context means to have children, or in old English "Beget". :-) Oh, language mistakes, they are so funny. He then said "When I returned a few years later, I think they had doubled on members ;-)". 

And then there was sunday. Oh boy, that was an adventure. I sang solo on the tenor part of a song in a concert hall in Erding in front of the whole stake. Oh man thats a story. So first, this past week has been pretty rough on me and my Allergies, I have medicine and have been taking it regularly but I still woke up Sunday, with Cold like symptoms. And for those who know me, know that when I get a Cold, my voice gets very low. That is how it was, but after getting up showering etc. it went away and my normal voice was back. Well, the stake Conference took place out in a concert hall in Erding, about an hour or so away. We left early so that we ( Elders Helbig, Thomas, Evans and I) could participate in the Stake Choir. They were meeting at 8.55 to practice. Elder Evans meets some other missionaries there who he hasn't seen in a long time, so he starts talking to them and decides not to participate in the choir. Elder Helbig, who is fairly tone deaf felt bad that he was throwing the person next to him off, so he left. 

Now Elder Thomas and I are the only missionaries in the choir, which isn't all that big. Maybe 40 people or so. We practiced the first song 3 or 4 times all the way through. And then moved on to "I believe in Christ" It went well until the last verse, when the arrangement called for a key change. All of the sudden All the tenors decide that they are going to sing bass, because it is way to high for them. I and Elder Thomas were the only two that could sing that high, him in Falsetto and me at the very top of my normal range. Because of the key change, the tenor part now had a high F#, boy that was a stretch to get it, but I could! And could sing it loudly as well. We practiced it ONCE. I was still having problems with the tenor in places, but because Elder Thomas was there I was able to stay on pitch. I have only been really singing as tenor for the past few months or so. 

Anyway, the choir then has a 10 minute break before we sing prelude ( which was supposed to be the other song, not the really high tenor one). We all separated  Then it comes time to sing, we all walk back up there ( now because this was in a concert hall, and the stage wasn't that big, there were no choir seats, we just stood on a small riser in front of the pulpit). I get up there, everyone is there, except Elder Thomas... So now I am the ONLY missionary in the whole choir, and if that weren't bad enough, because all the tenors changing to basses they changed were they were standing. So now I was on the far right. 

Well, because of the position of that Piano, I blocked the pianists view, so I had to take 3 steps to the right. Wonderful. I am the tallest in the choir, I am standing on the backrow, I am now having to stand 3 steps separation from the other guys, and I have a name tag on my chest ( the only missionary in the choir) Also the only tenor. Could I possibly stick out anymore? I was looking for the giant flashing neon arrow sign saying "Hey look at ME!". 

There was a change in plans the song with the high tenor part was first... Oh boy, I look out and see Elder Thomas at the back row of the balcony with a "Whoops..." look on his face. I was so incredibly nervous. But I did it! And no one really noticed that I was the only tenor in the choir, despite it being a prominent part in some areas. I am grateful that for the help of the Lord during that song. I made a mistake, which through me off, but I quickly regained composure, and despite being terrified was able to sing the part. :-) 

That was my adventure yesterday. :-) The conference was other wise amazing. We performed two songs, the prelude and the opening song, with me standing out on the edge of the riser... anyway it was great. 

Well after writing all of that I don't have much time left. But things are going well, I am looking forward to another good week ahead. 

love,

Ryan K. Christensen

Weekly Update

Well, I don't know exatly what there is to report on. I mentioned Nataly last week I believe, as well as Brother Griffin. District Meeting on Tuesday was incredible. As always. :-) Alot of things fell out of place this week, and so we spent a lot of time contacting. We had 6 appointments fall out. I think, either 6 or 7 one of the two. Either way, it was a very challenging week. Very much so actually. 

I don't know why, but I felt completely exhausted everyday throughout the whole week, which made constant and daily contacting not so much fun...to say the least. It was really weird and I didn't understand it. Still don't but I seem to be doing much better now than last week. 

One huge highlight of the week was that we were finally able to get in contact with Ufi and meet with her. Brother Wellington (HE IS THE BEST!) Came with us to her and we had a good time. Though it was a bit of a culture clash however at the beginning, she is Samoan  and we showed up and she had made us a full meal, 3 courses. In surprise I told her that she didn't need to cook for us, and I don't remember what she said exactly but she let me know very clear that she WILL feed us every time we come or (said somewhat sarcastically) that we wouldn't be invited back. And because of the food, the appointment lasted a lot longer than I had anticipated. 1 hour longer to be exact... But she is way cool, and has an amazing amount of potential. 

It turns out that nearly all of her relatives are members of the church. She had met with missionaries before and really enjoyed it, but she didn't feel like the time was right for her. During the lesson she made the comment that maybe now is the time, because we had come across her name and felt that we should visit her. And showed up on her doorstep one rainy day... Something that I thought that was really cool, she saw my name, and was a bit excited, because the very first missionary that found her and started teaching her was named Elder Christensen. Same exact spelling. No joke. About 2 years ago is when he knocked on her door. And after a year and a half or so without seeing the missionaries we found her name in the area book and felt like we should go visit it. I happened to be the one to knock and yeah... It seems somewhat significant to her. I think it is really neat. 

However she is REALLY REALLY BUSY. But she ends her current job at the end of the month. So our Next appointment is May 3rd. The day after Transfers... Which also happens to be like 10 days away... Wow it has gone by so fast. Its making me a bit nervous... 

John had to cancel and move our appointment to this week, I need to call and see if I can move it to Wednesday night, he hasn't wanted to do it with his kids at home, because they would be too loud, but I really want Bro. Opare to come along especially because they are both from Ghana. Bro. Opare is absolutely amazing. He taught the Elders Quorum lesson again yesterday, and it was absolutely fantastic. The brother of the GML who hasn't been to church in like 5 years happened to show up yesterday. I got a chance to talk to him afterwards and he said that was the most incredible lesson he has heard in church ever. He shared some really cool experiences to illustrate his story, it was powerful, I wish I could describe it better, but I couldn't attempt to recount much.

It was essentially a wake up call to the priesthood body. His story was really neat, Essentially, one day he was coming home from work one day and a neighbor stopped him and asked for help. His neighbor said "Everyone in this building says that you can help me". Confused because he hadn't talked to many people in the building and was wondering how everyone knew he was the kind of person to help other people. Then the neighbor continued, "and I know that you can help me". He thought to himself ( this is much more funny when he is the one speaking in his African accent) "With what can I help him, I sure hope he don't want money, because if so, he's come to the wrong man". 

He kept thinking, what do I have that he doesn't. When he looked at himself all he saw was Kwame Opare who "..was born somewhere in the middle of African 500 years ago..." He only saw himself. Then the spirit said the Priesthood! And then he realized that he was more than just Kwame Opare who was born in Africa 500 years ago, but also part of a Chosen Generation, who has the priesthood of God, the Holy spirit and many things that others don't. He went into the man's home and talked with him for a bit, and prayed with him. He found out that this man was going to End his life that night, that we was going through a terrible time, not being able to sleep etc. He prayed for him, and asked him how he was going would have killed himself, the man brought out a huge bag of sleeping pills, Brother Opare took them into his apartment, and the man came to him the next day having had the most peaceful night of sleep he had ever had. He thanked Bro. Opare for saving his life. 

Then Bro. Opare talked about how the Lord was able to open this mans eyes, to see something in him (bro. Opare) that Bro. Opare himself couldn't at that moment see. It was a really neat thought as he continued how we are much more than we can see, and that we have the Priesthood of God, and that God "has invested so much in us, and we are sometimes sleeping on the Job!". :-) Hence the "wake up call" that I was referring to earlier. He said that ever since that day, he has never looked at himself the same. 

That was cool. Anyway, We also found a really cool Nigerian Lady this week. We talked to her on the street, and she PROMISED to call me the next day ( she didn't have her phone, and didn't know the number). She did, and we invited her to church, sadly she couldn't come, but SHE CALLED US! That is a good sign. :-) I am excited for that. 

On other news, I am singing in Stake conference. In the adult session with the Young Single Adults, and then the next day in Stake Conference. The YSA choir was really small, so they invited the missionaries. We are singing a beautiful arrangement of the EFY Medley in German. I like it ALOT. Especially the Tenor line on the chorus, which I am singing. I love it. Anyway, that will do for this week. Thanks for all the support!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

What a week...

These reverse p-days are really throwing me off... Man what a P-day, it has probably been one of the most rewarding P-days I have had though, even though it will be 2 hours shorter than it should... (According to Ryan, reverse P-days are just days where they do their proselyting during the day instead of the evening, and use the evening for email.  Nothing formal, but this happens from time to time).

But I will start off giving a bit of the week in review... Tuesday, we had district meeting, then went contacting (went by on our potentials) all day long. Everywhere we went, as I always like to do, we go door to door in the neighboring buildings. We found a few potentials that day! That was cool, Long, but cool. 

Wednesday, we finally went and ordered our German Visas. Glad to have that taken care of. Is weird to think about though, by the time My German Visa will expire, Josh will only be a month away from getting back from his mission. Yeah, it will be good till May of 2015. Weird. 

Anyway, then we did or study, and met with Nataly, a lady from Santa Lucia, in the Carribean. THAT WAS GOOD. Brother Wellington was an amazing Joint teach. He is awesome. We had to call him the day before, because the joint teach we had in mind, didn't work anymore. So I called him and started off by asking him how he was doing (he sounded absolutely EXHAUSTED) his response made me kind of laugh: "how am I doing... man, that's a story, well, I am just going to skip that and ask you how are doing..." 

We found out the next day at the lesson, that the day before he had worked 30 straight hours by his job, and had then tried to drive home. Praying that he could get home safely. It almost worked. A couple blocks from his house he fell asleep and ran into another car. Thankfully, he wasn't going very fast and no one was hurt. But he felt overwhelmed, and long story short prayed for help, and got the feeling "Just trust God" so he did, he put his trust in him that everything happens for a reason and that God has a plan. Then he felt peace. It goes on, but it really amazing. He made that lesson go well.  

After that we contacted the rest of the day. And ended up in Schön Geising. IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE. Here is the story. We decided to go by on Ufi, she was someone who we wanted to meet with a few weeks ago, but it fell out last moment, and we hadn't been able to contact her since. So we go to hauptbahnhof and catch a train to Aubing (on the border of Munich already) Well then I sit down and start talking to the people across from me (I have made it a point to talk to EVERYONE that I can regardless the circumstances, awkwardness etc. This is  a point where I had to really come out of my comfort zone... especially trying to talk to someone about the gospel, who is trying to mock or embarrass me while the whole train is watching...) 

Anyway, I start talking to these two people sitting across from me, it turns out that one is from England, and the other one actually came out of Oberösterreich, the portion which was actually in my last area. That was cool. But I got into a good discussion with them. GRR... She was SO CLOSE I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to learn more, she was smiling and really liked the testimony and the things that I said, but he was atheist  and said that it wasn't something that they would be interested in. :-(   And then she just kind of nodded and let it go... 

Anyway, they asked me where I was getting off, having long past our stop I just said, the next stop is where I need to get off. They just nodded and said that it was a pretty area. Elder Evans and I get off the train, and realize we are in the middle of NOWHERE. All we can see in every direction where trees. And a small road. That was it. Woops. It was now 7:45 or so. And we were so far from out Apartment, that we took the next train home and got back just after 9 pm.... 

That was fun. I wish you could have heard Elder Helbigs reaction when I told him where we were, and why we wouldn't be back for dinner at 8... " WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE?!! I was really the middle of nowhere. I don't  know what else to say about it. Later on we found out that if we would have followed the road a kilometer or so we would have come into the little dorf that was there. Oh well, it was to late by that point...

That was the adventure for the week. :-) We met with John on Thursday, and had an EXCELLENT lesson with him. We showed him  the Church's website, and watched a few Mormon messages (he really likes the word of God and inspirational music) and then talked about the restoration using the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  I love Acts 3:19-21. Which in most modern bibles reads like thus:  (referring to Jesus) "Who must remain in heaven until the time of the RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS..."  Then I pull out the pamphlet and say, this is exactly why we are here, and of what we are testifying. It was a great lesson. He understands it, and really wants to read the Book of Mormon now to know if it is true. We have another appointment with this upcoming Thursday and we will teach him the Plan of Salvation. He is really excited for that. So are we. :-)

Friday and Saturday had fallen out appointments, during which we went and contacted. We actually were successfully able to make and appointment out for the Munich 3 sisters. Which they were really happy about. That is one thing that I really love about working here, is that we have the whole city of Munich, so I can go and contacted for other missionaries, while finding people for us. Its great. I love it here. I was worried about not speaking enough German, but that is all that I do all day long while I am traveling, talking to everyone. Its so great. :-)

Sunday was awesome, we had two Nigerians show up to church, and Elder Evans and I got to teach them, as well as 3 African Brothers from the ward. That was really cool, Elder Evans and I were the only white guys in the room with 5 africans. It was incredible. Brother Opare was there and made the most incredible comparison I have ever heard. He compared the church to a car, and the priesthood power with the motor. It sounds crazy, but it was brilliant, and they understood it so well. Essentially he asked them "if I give you a car, and take the motor, can you drive the car?" "noway" and then compared it to the authority and "Power of God" (which sounds ten times cooler with a Nigerian accent) that Jesus gave his apostles to lead the church or in other words "drive the car". So cool. Nigerians are crazy, but so funny. And they immediately think you are the coolest white guy ever if you know there handshake. I have learned and I love doing it and watching there faces. They do it will out really noticing it, and if you do it as well, they get really excited. :-) 

Anyway, we had an amazing lesson. They are both excited and commited to reading the Book of Mormon and finding out if its true. :-) 

That brings me to today. So today has been crazy, we went shopping at 8 am this morning with Munich 1, came back had personal and companionship study, then went to the mission office, to pick up the keys to the church (we still don't have a key to our church yet) so that we could meet with Nataly at 12 with Brother Wellington again. We were out the door a bit late, and our train was a bit late, so when we started to walk from the office to the church we had a limited amount of time. 10 minutes, which was just enough to walk there. (The bus didn't come for another 7 minutes or so). So we start walking, and after a few minutes, I get the impression to turn around, I follow and notice a man and a woman dragging luggage down the street, so I turn around and quickly walked toward them, and asked if I could help them. They said no, but thanks, then I walked with them back a ways, and started talking to them. 

They asked me what I was doing here, and I told them that I am here to help people gain hope and feel Gods love for them. Neither one was German. He was Turkisch, and I can't remember where she was from, but it turns out that the man's employer had stopped paying him, and told him that he would have to wait for a couple of months to get paid. He had a family to support, and couldn't wait, so the manager told him to leave and never come back. So now he is as of 2 days, jobless. Just before then, they had a problem with there landlord, I don't remember exactly what it was, but they were forced to leave. So they were now Jobless and homeless. I told them, I couldn't help them with their apartment or money, but bore testimony that God loves them and hears and answers prayers. That was something that they really wanted to hear about. 

The mom is taking her daughter to France for awhile and the Dad will stay here at a homeless shelter until they can get a lawyer and get everything worked out. But they both wanted to hear this message and very quickly gave me there phone number. :-) I can't teach them because they are German speakers, but I am still really happy that I listened to the impression to turn around. Their bus came, and they got on.  Then I saw our bus, stopped at the stoplight and, we were able to successfully sprint and catch the bus to make it to the church at exactly 12. :-) 

The appointment with Nataly went very well. It went REALLY well actually. :-) She has a lot of interest in learning more about God, and she really liked what we taught her about the purpose of life. Some of the things that we mention were things that popped into our heads right in the moment. For example, while talking about earth life, I asked her if she has children. She does, then I talked about assigning them to clean their room, how if she told them to do it, then sat there and watched they would most likely do it... then she said something that made it incredible: "yeah, I could sit there, but I want them to do it, because they want to do it, and not because I am forcing them" "EXACTLY!!" That is exactly why we are here on the earth, away from Gods presence. So that we can learn to follow him, not because we are forced, but because we want to! That is what He wants for us. That is why he gave us free agency. Then came the point where it clicked in her head and she understood. Oh man, it was amazing. :-)

After that we went to visit a less active member in our ward, who just had the first of a series of surgeries for cancer. He has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctors only gave him a 30% chance of living. But he has been given a couple of blessings and miracles have happened. Through Chemo, and radiation, the spreading cancer, came back into one clump, and hardened, which allowed the surgeons to cut it out. Then his rate at which he is recovering from Surgery is remarkable. The day after the surgery he was able to get up and walk around. He also has a sarcoma, which was located by his shoulder. He had it removed many years ago, but it came back. And this time it was in a location, which if the doctors were to operate on it, would probably kill him. But with a blessing and much prayer from the ward, the sarcoma moved in location, it went from being a lethal operation, to one in which he would most likely loose his arm, to one in which he would loose use of the arm, and now the doctors say he will loose only partial use of the arm. That is incredible!! 

But we went and visited him then, which lasted some time, then with travel (and getting into another conversation with someone which took us a couple stops past Giesing...) I am now sitting here writing this e-mail. We also stopped at Marien Platz and went and got some things which took time. But its been a great P-day, very uplifting. :-)

I am loving my time here, if you can't tell. Things are going well, and I am seeing so many wonderful things happen everyday. We have been so blessed. I am so grateful to be here, I must say. I am so grateful for the influences of the spirit which has helped us so much. I love this gospel and know that it is true.:-)

Have a great week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

WOW!!!

Wow, this has been a phenomenal weekend. The Week was ok, but The weekend was amazing! 

But I will start with the week, It was pretty normal, we had a number of fallen out appointments... and did a lot of contacting. Nothing out of the ordinary there. We were able to have somewhat of a finding day however, which is really cool because nearly the entire district except for us works in the office. We organized a time between 6-8 on Wednesday night where we could go contact. 

We had Elder and Sister Hunsaker, the Munich 2 sisters, the AP's and us. Elder and Sister Hunsaker had a lot of fun, because in their last mission they never really had a finding day, and because we had Elders and Sisters, Sister Hunsaker went with the Sisters and Elder Hunsaker came with Elder Hemsley and I (we did splits with the AP's). That was a lot of fun. I had a really neat experience during that time, we were walking around and talking to everyone that we saw, and on a stretch of road I saw a lady riding a bike toward us, some what quickly might I add. And all of the sudden I got the impression that I should hold out a card to her as she rode by. So I did, not knowing what to expect, she skidded to a stop and asked me what the card was, and what I was talking to people about.  

So I started talking to her I think we talked 10 minutes or so. She was pretty strict protestant, but I told her that we want to help all people come CLOSER to Christ (not necessarily just come unto Him) Through a book. The Book of Mormon, I handed it to her and said it was a free gift, she looked at it and opened it up, coincidentally to Alma. When she saw the name, she got excited because her middle name was Alma (SAME SPELLING) and she also had a Grandma who was named Alma. So I talked about Alma for a bit and recommend her a chapter to read about one of his teachings. She didn't want us to have her number or address, but she said that she would read about Alma and give us a call. That was really cool. 

Now comes to the story of John. John is awesome, He talked to the Munich 1 missionaries on the U-bahn and gave them his number and address. We tried a number of times to meet with him, however he wasn't there twice. Finally I called him and asked if he had time at 1 (I called him at like 12.10) and we finally met with him. He is WAY cool. He is from Ghana, but has lived here for 25 years already. He has a wife and 4 kids, and is working as an engineer. He wants to hear more of the word of God. We had a great discussion with him, in which we talked about Apostles and Prophets, and invited him to come to General Conference, telling him we would pick him up. HE CAME! AND HE EVEN WORE A SUIT! Without us saying anything!! He only came to the Saturday evening broadcast (known to you as the Saturday Morning). 

We even experienced a miracle traveling there. So to get there we needed to take the U2 to Sendlingertor, then transfer to the U3 to Aidenbacherstraße then take a bus. But the transfer at Sendlingertor is not very good. The two U-bahns are scheduled to arrive at the same time, but on different levels of the station. I have taken the connection 20 times at least, and not once was I actually able to catch it, the U2 was always late, and we had to wait 8 minutes for the next U3. Long story short the connection was PERFECT likewise with the bus. Elder Evans and I was astonished, it NEVER works, Ever. 

And we were running late, but because it worked we got to the church EXACTLY on time. We hung up our jackets took a seat and had 2 minutes before it began. He loved it. He loves hearing the word of God, And he really liked all of the talks, about the Family, and how to strengthen it etc. It was an incredible session. We were supposed to meet with him today, but we have interviews, so we had to move the appointment a few days. But he is awesome. In his prayer back in the lesson thanked God for sending us to him and asked to help him find the right path!! :-) We are excited. :-)

Oh man, General Conference was incredible, absolutely amazing. Especially the first session. President Monson got up and talked and just before he announced the temples I had an incredible feeling come over me, an incredibly strong feeling which I could not described if I tried. Then he proceeded to announce that 2 new temples would be built. Then announced it.  Cedar City Utah. I was completely shocked, and started to cry. Cedar City is getting a temple! 

I remember back at SUU a lot of residents were waiting and praying for the day when Cedar City would get one. St. George is one of the busiest temples in the world. Especially in the baptistry, where each ward gets assigned one day a year in which the youth can come and perform baptisms for the dead. That's it. Because of SUU and Dixie it was incredibly busy. Most members there were sure it would happen eventually because of SUU.  Ever since being at SUU I have excitedly waited each General Conference for the temple announcements anticipating a Cedar City Utah Temple. Something which I have also prayed for. And now they will get one!  Cedar City will have it's own temple!! That was amazing. Haha, I was in such a stage of shock that I wasn't aware that there was another temple announced until later when someone mentioned the other one... 

Anyway, that will have to do, because of Interviews today, our P-day is a bit thrown off. And we had to do a survey as well... so I will bring this e-mail to an end. But I wish you all a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

First full week in Munich and Easter.

Well I have now had a full week in Munich. And it has been an Adventure! The ward, despite being so small is absolutely incredible. The members are very willing to help out with teaching appointments (not that we have had any yet, but I am getting there) and had invited us 5 times this week to come and eat at their homes. Its been awesome, and we have had full evenings all week this past week.

First, P-day, Elder Helbig and I already had Lederhosen in our possession, But Elders Evans and Thomas didn't but they wanted some, so they went and bought Lederhosen. They were having a sale there, so they got it for cheaper than they would have otherwise. That was a blast and we took a bunch of pictures, which are sitting back on the SD card in the apartment... I will keep this e-mailing session short, go home pick it up and bring them back, because we had a blast and the pictures are cool. (He did go back and get the pictures and they are attached below).

Anyway, then after P-day, was over, we got picked up by the office Elders and went to the Samuelson's for dinner. Which was fun as well. Brother Samuelson is from Sweden, and his wife is from the U.K. 

Tuesday we had district meeting, went by on a few people, and then got picked up by Elders Klappert and Johnson again, to go out and meet with a new convert. Her name is Gift, and if you can't tell by the name, she is Nigerian (they always name there children with interesting names, Hope, Gift, Wisdom, Beauty... etc.) Anyway, she lives out past Augsburg, which was only supposed to be a 65 minute drive from here. She hasn't been able to come to church for a while and the Elders here haven't been able to meet with her for awhile so we were determined to get there. 

But here's the thing it snowed that day, quite a bit, and we got out there on the Autobahn, and we hit traffic. HARD. The plan was to drive an hour there, have an hour lesson with her, and drive an hour back, being home at around 9. But it took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there, we gave her a "gift" basket from the ward, and talked to her for a few minutes. She had just recently come out of the hospital (none of us knew that she was in the hospital) and we were able to give her a blessing.  I was asked to anoint, and had to do it in English  (that was fun let me just say...). It was really neat that despite ridiculous weather conditions, we were still able to go and give her a blessing, after which she had tears in her eyes. 

It may seem ridiculous that we kept pushing on the Autobahn all the way there, but for that reason in and of it self made it important. Then we drove back and got caught in Traffic AGAIN. Elder Evans and I arrived back in our apartment at 10.20 that night... But it was good, and the drive there and back, despite the majority being so slow that the speedometer couldn't even register the speed, was a blast. 

The rest of the week was about the same, we went by on as many people as we could, made out 5 appointments for this upcoming week, and had an eating appointment every single night. There hasn't been a day this past week when we haven't seen Elders Johnson and Klappert. Doch (except), Friday, but other than that there hasn't been. 

Friday was neat, we went out and met with Clark, a Nigerian Brother who has lived here for a few years. That was cool. He has an incredible story. A lot of the Nigerians members do. Brother Opare's was even published in an Ensign in 2001 here is the link, I HIGHLY recommend reading it: https://www.lds.org/ensign/print/2001/01/latter-day-saint-voices?lang=eng&clang=eng

He is an amazing teacher last Sunday (not yesterday but the week before) he blew me away with his 3rd hour lesson "Grace, the forgotten blessing". I just sat astonished it was phenomenal and he talked a bit about is conversion story and Grace, how he wasn't looking for the gospel, he didn't pay, for it, didn't deserve it but still found it. Anyway Clark was awesome, he made us some Food, which was incredible, it was kind of like a curry with Chicken and other things. It was really good, even though when eating it I labeled somethings as "I probably don't want to know what that is" but it was still really good, and it didn't kill me :-).

And then we talked to Clark. I love the African members, they are great missionaries, bringing friends with them a lot and always looking for ways to help people find out of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about that he had given a co-worker a book of Mormon in English, and she wanted a bible as well, we will try and get him one. 

Its been fun trying to make phone calls this week... For the past year of so I have been talking to people in German, "Hallo ich bin der Elder Christensen, ich bin Missionar von der Kirche Jesu Christi, wie gehts Ihnen heute?" (Hello, I am Elder Christensen, I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ, how are you today?)  Elders Helbig, Thomas and Evans have had fun making fun of me when I make a phone call start talking in German and have the other person hang up or be really confused and then me saying "oh I mean I am the Elder Christensen von the Church of Jesu Christi, I mean Jesus Christ..." and then every now and again slip in a German word, or expression. 

And then what was the worst, so I have been speaking to a lot of Nigerians on the phone, and one of them told me that he would call me later, then without thinking I said "when do you be calling us back?" I was in the apartment at this time with Elders Helbig, Thomas and Evans. The phone call ended, and I turned around and they were completely silent and staring at me. Then they just burst out laughing and started teasing me about it. :-) Patience is a virtue which ceaseth not to be tested. ;-) 

Easter was neat, The meeting yesterday was small, maybe 30 people present if even that, but the spirit was strong and it was a very uplifting experience. It gave me a chance to reflect a bit more on the Savior's life. I am so incredibly grateful that he went through all of that for me. I am so grateful for His love and His Mercy which He has shown to me, and those around me. Despite my weakness, faults and other things He still loves me. I am still here preaching the Gospel, despite my weaknesses. Getting a chance to study and focus more on the Gospel I have come to love and appreciate Jesus Christs atonement and have come to know him Better. I know that He came to this earth. I know that he atoned and died for our sins. But I also know that wasn't the end. I know that HE LIVES. 

Er lebt und hilft mir jederzeit, er lebt, verschafft mir Seligkeit. Er stärket mich, wenn ich bin schwach, er höret all mein Ungemach. Er lebt, bewacht mich in Gefahr, er trocknet meiner Tränen schar. Er lebt, und weil er lebt ich sing, ER LEBT, DES KÖNIGS LOB ERKLING! Er lebt! hat leben mir gebracht, Er lebt! der Tod had keine Macht. Voll Freude meine Stimm erbebt: Ich weiß dass mein Erlöser lebt! ( words from I know that my Redeember Lives)

I love that hymn so much, I don't have an English hymn book with me, but the words in German are especially powerful to me.

I know that that he lives. I know that he loves me, as well as all of us. And with that I will close in his name, Jesus Christ, amen. :-)

Well that should do it for this week. Its been fun. I love this Ward and am excited for the upcoming week with a few appoinments. They will be neat. We have a long way to go, but we are off to a good start. I wish you all a great week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

White wash Chaos....

The first part of this past week flew by really fast, however after arriving in Munich its been incredibly long... 

So we arrive on Thursday, and its time to go to our apartment, I ask the office Elders if they have our Monats Kartes ( monthly Train tickets) they were like, 

oh... no we forgot, you will most likely need to buy your own tickets for the next few weeks. 

Alright, well what ticket do I need to buy? 

Thats a good question, I have no idea, we have a car... Try asking Munich 1.

Ok so we go to Munich 1,

" hey, do you know what ticket we need to buy?"

"Thats a good question, I don't think its the same as ours, try asking the Zone leaders,"

So we go to the Zone leaders," hey which ticket do we need to buy?"

"I don't know, you have to ask the Office Elders to see which ticket you are supposed to have..."

AH! Finally, we get things figured out and then I ask, ok so do we get a map so we know where we are going? 

"Oh, a map, yeah that would have been a good idea to get you guys... oops, we have a GPS in our car so we didn't really think to get you a map..."

Wonderful. We are in like the 2nd largest city in the mission, we have never been here before and have no Map. Perfect. 

We are staying with Munich 1, so they take us to our apartment. Its a nice apartment. We drop off our stuff, and then they have there plans, so they leave and go to where ever they were supposed to go. Then Elder Evans looks at me and says alright, so what do we do now? 

Street Contakting for the next 3 hours.

Ok, but where? 

I have no clue. Some where in Munich. Hopefully we don't get lost...

So we call Munich 1 and ask them where the best place is to go find people to go. (Oh yeah, the phone was brand new, and luckily I added Munich 1's phone number to the list, because it was the only number I had...) Elder Helbig said "go to Rosenheimerplatz."

"Where is that?" 

"right next to Ost bahnhof"

"ach so!, ok... where's Ost bahnhof?" :-)

It reminds or the Bill Cosby thing about Noah 

"Noah"

"What?!" 

"I want you to build an ark"

"Right, whats an Ark?

"... I want you to build it 300 cubits by 50 cubits by (100?) Cubits"

"Right, whats a cubit?"

Anyway They had a map of Munich on the wall, we found out where it was and I took pictures of the map. Then we went and contacted there for 30 minutes or so, but there was hardly anyone there, so we decided to go back and contact people in the area of the apartment, and help us get a feel for where we are. So we do that for 2 hours, and then go and Get a Döner, because they Munich 1 way underestimated the amount of food that the 4 of us would need to survive the weekend... Oh man, its been a party. 

Friday Munich 1 was going to help someone in there ward move, and there wasn't very many people that could come help, so we went and joined in, the member had estimated it would only take 2 hours, but it took us, including travel there and back 5 and a half hours. Despite having and additional 2 Elders there. It was fun though. Although they spoke ridicuously thick Bayerisch, despite being similar to Austrian, its still takes a full concentration to try and decifer what is being said. :-)

Anyway, we decided after that to go and try to locate our Church, since the office Elders knew what street it was on, but didn't know the number... I had been there back when I first arrived, and when I picked up Elder Robins, so I knew that it was around the area of Solln. So we located that on the map, and figured out which S-bahn went there and took it we arrived and  were eventually able to find it. For some reason, they put us in the Munich 1, which is on the complete opposite side of Munich, it's a 30 minute  assuming no delay) S-bahn ride, and then around 15 minute walk to get there. That's beside the point. We contacted everyone that we saw on the way there, and on the way back. No one wanted to listen. 

We go back to the train station and get on the next S-bahn, it was around 8 now, and we had planned to go pick up something for dinner and go home. We get on one end of the S-bahn, but it was full of a lot of drunk people, so we walk farther up and I take a seat across a Young Chinese girl. I start talking to her in German and than she says (in really good German by the way) I actually don't know that much German... but she spoke fluent English. 

We talked for awhile and found out that she just got here 4 months ago, and is studying Medicine here in Munich. She comes from China but to my utter shock was Catholic. There is a large community of Catholics in China. Who would have thought? We talked a bit about God and the Book of Mormon. We told her we give it out for free and she really wanted one. She had to get out, and she gave us her number. Haha, she asked us for ours, and with somewhat of a blank expression on my face I said " I have no clue what so ever, I got here yesterday, and this phone is brand new..." But yeah, she was really excited to get a book! I was so overwhelmed with joy because of that. We found someone who we can teach. I was so happy, I couldn't believe it. 

We got in contact with her again yesterday, and gave her the book. She was really excited. She also wanted to practice her English, so we invited her to the English class, which she was also really excited about. I have a lot of hope for her. She will come to the English course on Tuesday, and I hope to be able to talk to her more in the future about the book of Mormon. :-) I am excited. 

The other part of the assignment that I was mentioning, essentially the office Elders are so booked that they don't have enough time to teach everyone. So we are here to be essentially the full time missionaries in the ward. :-) They gave us an old Area book on Friday, which was a disaster really, and we spent 4 hours on Saturday reading through all the records, and putting the binder into order. Now we have a list of former investigators, and some potentials that they gave us. It will help us get a good start into things. So now it begins, we start to go by and visit everyone, contact on the way, recieve potentials from the whole Zone to teach.

I am so grateful to be here. As hard as it has been, I have been so blessed. We still don't have a map, but I have been blessed that after visiting somewhere once I can remember it, after only 3 days, I have a strong bearing here in the City, I know a lot of places and could get to them without a Map. All with the Lords help. So even though I was fighting a nervous breakdown upon first arriving  not having ANYTHING to get going, I have experienced the Lord's help and I know  that I am able to fufill this assignment here.

We still have a long way to go though. But I expect as before that the Lord with bless us, even though we may not know exactly where we are or going, he puts people into our path that are prepared. I am excited for these next few transfers here in Munich. :-) 

Anyway, this is quite the e-mail so I will leave it with that. I am still adjusting but I am having fun, and things are setting up quite nicely here. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

......... Speechless..........

Wow. I don't what to write. I have read all the e-mails already, well most, I couldn't really focus any farther to read them all. Between my transfer call, Beth's Mission call, and other things going on here and there my head is spinning. 

My transfer call caught me completely off guard I am not training, nor staying in Austria, nor being a German speaking missionary. I have been transferred to Munich, to open up a brand new area in the International ward there. As a result of the new missionaries coming in, a lot of new areas need to be open up. It is going to be one heck of a change. 

My area is the entire Munich Stake, however I will probably not travel often outside Munich and the areas in the immediate area surrounding them. I am not even fully aware yet of my whole assignment. President Miles, when he called me told me where I was going, who I was going with and told me that there is more to my assignment which I will find out when I arrive in Munich. 

My companion will be Elder Evans, who arrived here on his mission my first day in Wien, and with whom I have already been on a few exchanges. I will be in a new 4 man apartment, that much I know.  Elder Evans and I , Elder Helbig, who is 2 transfers younger than me, and a new missionary who he is training. I will be teaching all the English speaking investigators who are convenient to travel to. Which means I need to re-learn my English gospel vocabulary. :-) 

Having studied my scriptures, preach my Gospel, and have read half way through Jesus the Christ all in German, I have a difficult time remembering words every now and again. Naturally I will still speak contact people on the street in German, but Church, and all lessons will be English again. My ward is made up mostly of Americans. It will be interesting. Starting off with 0 potentials and 0 Investigators! (Sounds strangely familiar...) There are already two Elders in the area, but they work in the Mission office untill 5 Monday through Friday. Talk about getting thrown into cold water, I will get to see and work in the entire city of Munich as well as a number of other areas in the surrounding area. I get to see Neuschwanstein, that will be cool. (Neuschwanstein is a Castle that is very familiar and often related to the castles at Disneyland and Disneyworld). But I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I will need to teach in English again.:-P

Anyway, Congrats to Beth on her mission Call! The video didn't work, so I had to read the e-mail instead, but over the past few days and especially today, I had the feeling that you would be coming here. Trotzdem stehe ich unter Schock, aber naja, es ist zu erwarten. Weil wir so ähnlich sind, ist es keine überraschung dass wir in die gleiche Mission geschickt sind. (Still, I was in shock, but well, it is to be expected. Because we are so similar, it's no surprise that we are sent in the same mission.) 

It's beautiful here. Every year they do a world wide poll of the cities with the best standards of living. 5 out of the top 10 are in this mission. Vienna it self in this last poll was number 1 but has over the past few years varied between number 1 and 2 :-). Which is awesome, but is also a huge problem. People here have everything that they need, so they don't see a need for God... But with hard work and faith you find those who are ready to hear it. :-) 

I get to go preach to the African immigrants now... :-) Good thing I like fried Chicken and purple drink :-D (for those who don't get that, once I get over there and have eating appointments with Africans  I will tell you what I ate, and after a few times, you'll get it). Even here, there are a couple of African families in our ward (they are the best, truly they are) and every time I have had dinner with them it has always been fried Chicken, with some sort of side dish, and a some sort of Juice, (a lot of times a dark red or purple juice). But I have also heard of some really weird foods that Africans make (I am sure Zack can already testify to that)... So we will see.

We had Zone Conference this past week, that was awesome, Long but awesome. Other that this week was a full on face plant. EVERYTHING FELL OUT. EVERYTHING. We manage to teach 3 lessons. Thats it. Total. And church is included in those three. Ouch...

And everything since I got my Transfer call has only gotten worse... Something must be up, because Satan is doing everything he can to pull me down harder in ways then he has tried to before on my mission... I am  fighting through it though. Things will get better. I know they will. They always do :-)

Because I am being transferred I used the excuse to write Frau Zalka a text ( I actually called her first, but she didn't answer). A few minutes later she responded:
>>Lieber Elder Christensen! Ich finde es sehr nett, dass du dich von uns Verabschiedest! ;-) auch, wenn wir noch nicht getauft sind, haben wir viel von dir gelernt. Ich habe großen respekt vor jedem, der eine Mission erfüllt, was bestimmt nicht immer leicht ist. Ich wünsche dir das beste und lasse es dich wissen, wenn wir uns taufen lassen. Christine, Simon und Miriam.<<

That was cool. Most of you probably want a translation huh? alright:
"Dear Elder Christensen, I think it is very kind of you to say goodbye to us ;-) eventhough we are still not baptized, we have learned a lot from you. I have a great respect for everyone who serves a mission, something that is definetly not easy. I wish you all the best, and will let you know if we get baptized"

Anyway, through out it all. I am very incredibly grateful to my Father in heaven that I have been able to serve here in the wonderful City. I love Wien so much. I really do. It is a wonderful place, and I am very sad to leave. But with one door closing comes another open one. Munich here I come! :-) I really appreciate The comfort that I have recently received from God, 

When I first got my call to go to an English speaking ward, I wasn't very happy. I love the German Language, I love teaching in German. I feel like I understand things better in German. But on Saturday night, we were coming back to our apartment after visiting Edith and Chiara, I was riding in the straßenbahn (tram) and I started to talk to someone sitting next to me. He was from the philippians (I have no clue how to spell that anymore) (Philippines) and after a few minutes we started speaking in English. I was able to talk to him and bear testimony, and at that moment in time the spirit bore witness to my heart that where I am going, is where I need to be. 

And that I will be supported and helped while I am there, and that even though I will be in an English speaking ward, I will still get to speak German. :-) It was absolutely wonderful. And I know that is where I need to be. I am grateful for that. That feeling of peace even though I have no idea what lies ahead. But I know that God is in charge and he will be on my right hand and on my left if I do that which I am asked to do, and am worthy of that.

That will be all for now. I love you all and wish you a wonderful week!

love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

New Policy!... and Lederhosen

Wow! With the new missionary age change comes a new policy from the first presidency!

Missionaries are to write to their families each week and are also authorized to communicate
by email with friends, priesthood leaders, and new converts. Mission presidents should allow
sufficient time on preparation day for missionaries to write emails and letters. While in the
mission field, missionaries should receive authorization from the mission president before
entering into communication, including via email, with converts and others of the opposite
gender within the mission boundaries (see Missionary Handbook, 36–37).

That is way cool! haha President Miles entiteled that e-mail to us as "your prayers have been answered". :-) Wow. That is way cool, I don't even know what to say to that. It will help a lot, especially keeping in contact with recent Converts.

Well that was huge. On another huge note, I got Lederhosen!! I am so excited. When I first got here missionaries were all saying that anyone who serves here needs lederhosen, which I thought (at first) was just stupid (I didn't really know what they were)  But after I had seen real Lederhosen I wanted to get some. It even got to a point where I had somewhat of a nightmare, where I returned home from my mission and forgot to buy them! I had already planned to buy some Lederhosen before I left Wien, but last week Elder Chapman and I noticed that the store around the corner was having a sale! My Lederhosen would have costed 140 Euro, but I got them for 80! I also bought a shirt, socks, shoes and the hat! :-) I will attach some pictures. I bought them last P-day. 

Well, this week was otherwise, a bit of a trial of our faith. We had 11 appointments which fell out. That was hard, but we found 12 potential investigators! which is good, and we still managed to keep 10 appointments :-). Which was cool. 

However in the meantime I have become mostly deaf out of both ears... I can hardly hear anything. Too much ear wax, way at the back of my ear. I have tried a number of things and nothing worked until I went to the Strong's apartment on Friday, and she put Hydrogen Peroxide in my ear, and that helped a ton, now I just need to find some here now, and if not, then I will probably need to go to a doctor here. But its driving me absolutely nuts. Its terrible trying to participate in lessons when I can hardly hear what is being said... I have become a lot more grateful for my ears :-) And humble, as people mock my lack of hearing "HELLO GRANDPA CHECK THE BATTERY!" And I have learned a ton of patience, as all my attempts at a quick fix have fallen through, and I having to go nearly 3 days not hearing anything... But it will get better, luckily nothing else is currently wrong :-)

Through the fallen out appointments and other things come some cool stories however. I may have mentioned that we had an exchange last Monday to Tuesday, and that we were supposed to have 4 appointments in the exchange. Well 3 of them fell out. :-) But we found 7 potentials in the time period where we would have been teaching. That was cool. And finding day was also neat. It started out rough though. 3 and a half hours of straight up NO. No one was stopping except to tell me that I was wrong (which there is a bit of a funny story about that... I will get to it in a minute).

 I was praying the whole time, please Heavenly Father, help me find those who are prepared, please help me know what to say, and feel thy love for them. I kept getting turned down, and it was weighing me, down so I prayed harder, and 30 minutes or so before the finding ended I found 3 families. That was an answer to a prayer. I felt so good after that, it was incredible. Also a test of patience. :-) 

The "funny story" is actually not much of a story, just going through the day I talked to a man who tried to tell me that I need to study the new testament and only that would bring me joy or something to that effect, at which point I started teaching him a bit, and in the process I quoted 3 or 4 passages word for word out of the New Testament. Then he was like "OK, so you do know the New testament but..." he couldn't really figure out what to say, so I said something to the effect of "listen to me, I know that this Book is true, and that this is the true church, not because someone told me it was, but because I have taken the advice of the bible to "prove all things and keep that which is good", and because I need wisdom I asked God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and recognized through the spirit the good fruits. I know it and I know it comes of God, and cannot deny it. But If you don't want to listen, I am not here to force you. Then I came him a pass along card and showed him our number. He was speechless, but took it and said thanks. Whether or not he will call or not, I don't know. But I didn't do it contentiously, or angrily, and I left with no negative feelings. But I did give him something to think about. :-)

Also due to a dropped appointment, we were finally able to contact Josua, a man out of Portuguese speaking Africa who has lived here for 13 years. I found his name going through the area book, and notice that he wanted a Portuguese Book of Mormon, but for some reason the missionaries never recorded (and later confirmed) that they had never given him one. We went buy, gave him one, made an appointment out, and met with him the next day. :-) He is REALLY cool, just really busy, and the next appointment will be after I leave. Speaking of leaving, transfer calls are this Friday, again. And now it is REALLY likely that I will get transferred. We shall see.

That will do it for this e-mail. :-) 

The Lord is still leading this work, and even though it is really hard at times, It is still very rewarding to see the things that do go well. Like a couple of days ago for example. I was on a bus back to Florisdorf, Someone started talking to me in the bus. It turns out that he used to be a member of the church, but was no longer. He had his name scratched, he did say why, but I asked him if the missionaries could meet with him, and he very quickly said yes that he did. He really wanted to come back to Church. He lives in the Wien 2 area, and the missionaries there said that he came to church on Sunday with his fiance. :-) I was on that bus due to a fallen out appointment. The Lord truly moves in mysterious ways...

Thanks, I wish you all a great week!
love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Die Sonne Scheint! ENDLICH!!!!!!

(The Sun!  Finally!!!!!)

Oh man! The sun is shining again! Its the first time I have seen the sun in a month. AT LEAST. And its warm! It's so nice. Although it's giving me flashbacks of being back in Esslingen, and the beautiful summer in Vorarlberg. Man... I am really excited for it to be summer again, I must admit, I really loved summer as a missionary especially in Vorarlberg I got to stop thinking about it. Anyway, yeah I am really happy for it to be warm again. 

Anyway, this past week was pretty great. :-) We had quite the number of lessons, and not many fell out :-). Which is good. :-) We even got let in at a door! So awesome! Wednesday was cool, we had a finding day here in this area, which pretty much fell flat on its face, normally we should have all 4 companionships here. But the Zone leaders were at another district meeting, and Elder Stilger and Elder Hanson went to go find Elder Stilgers backpack which he had left on a bus somewhere in Wien... So it was just the four of us. 

But what was cool, sort of, is that we were supposed to meet with Edith and Chiara right after the finding day was over ( right around 19) but partway through I get a text from Edith saying that Chiara has the flu, which means that we shouldn't come anymore. Great... but a few minutes later we get a call from Andy, saying that he couldn't meet anymore on Saturday, nor any other time this week except that night at 19. Wow. So we met with him! And it went really well! He was supposed to come to church on Sunday with his Girlfriend, but they never came. :-( He probably had to work, he works as a nurse at AKH (the General Hospital here in Wien). But he is way cool. He is originally from Romania but can speak really good German, as well as 6 other languages. We hope to meet with him again this week.

We met with Martin and Marion as well. :-) And we had a really good discussion about the organization of the Church. It went well, and we will meet with them again this week, at the Familie Schmuck's home. That will be good. They are awesome, what more can I say? :-)

This week looks pretty promising, we are pretty well full! We are doing an exchange tonight with Wien 2 (Elder Gochnour is coming here with me) and we have 6 appointments between today and tomorrow!!!! SO COOL. Its so nice to have appointments again. We are also doing well with finding. We came across and old Potential list and I went through and called everyone on it. One of the people that I called is named Nico, and he is really excited to meet with us! He got home from working yesterday at 7:20 however, and had to cancel the appointment. :-( But he hopes to meet with us in the next couple of days. 

Friday was neat. We had a few potentials that night that we wanted to go by on. And one of them led us to Herr Stinner. He let us in and we talked about the Book of Mormon a bit. :-) He is cool. Speaks really bad Wienerisch, quietly, which makes it hard to hear him sometimes. But he took a book of Mormon and said that he would read it and was very happy to invite us back this week. :-) We invited him to church and hopefully he will come this sunday :-). 

Other than, that there isn't much new. Things are going really well. I am excited for an appointment tonight with Kevin, we found going door to door. He was at his Girlfriends house, her parents didn't have any interest, and neither did she, but before they shut the door he said wait! I am interested. :-) His mom is American, his dad Austrian, so he speaks perfect English and German (Americanische Englisch sogar) (American English even). He is way cool he lives in Klagenfurt, but is  going to move here to Wien within the next few weeks. He said, "I can't meet with you here, right now, because they aren't interested, but could I give you my number and then you can call me and we can meet?" We will hopefully meet with him tonight. Martine Hayden will come with us, and invite him to the YSA activities, and hopefully be a betreuer (coach, or friend shipper) for him. 

Anyway things are going well! I hope you are all well. I love this work. And I know that it is inspired of God. I am reading the Book of Mormon again, and I recently read Alma 26 again. I forgot how much I love that chapter. Verse 35 :" Have we not therefore reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, never, from the beginning of the Earth on has there ever been men who have had so great a reason to rejoice as do we..." Then further inverse 36: "Yea, I say unto you Blessed be the name of my God, who hath been mindful of us- wanderers in a strange land. Now we see therefore, my Bretheren, that God is mindful of every people, in whatsoever land they may live.." 

Sometimes I am near to the point of exploding with happiness BLESSED BE THE NAME OF MY GOD for all which he does here and all over the World. He loves his people, and as it says in the final verses of Romans 8 Nothing, not Engels, or powers, anything high or low, anything to come or that has come can separate us from the love God. Nothing. He loves his people and I am so happy to be here and to share that. There isn't anything more important than that. I know that there is a God, and that He our Father is. I know that this is truly his work among the Children of Men. What a Blessing to be apart of it. 

I wish you all a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen