Zone P-day and Stake Conference

Sorry this is late, The Zone leaders decided to have a Zone p-day last minute. Things are going well here, there are hard days when no one wants to listen. Its rather interesting, I don't exactly know how this happened but we meet with all 8 of our investigators once a week, all on saturday. Which means that the rest of the week is pretty dry... Me and Elder Heinrich have been knocking down refferals like crazy though, we have been picking a town to go to, and then spend all day there, visiting all members both active and less active, and getting refferals then going and contacting all that we receive. Its been pretty cool, we hope to continue to do this till we meet and get referrals from everyone in the ward. It takes a ridiculous amount of planning though. And a lot of running/walking. Because down in the small towns there aren't as many buses, if at all. So in order to do everything we want and be back in time we have to plan out all bus times, locations everything. And if we are running late it means sprinting to catch a bus. ( I have lost 15 pounds so far from all of the running!) I have been rather amazed many times I thought that we would be to far away to catch a bus, but surprisingly we have yet to miss one. Even when we are 2 minutes away from the stop and the bus is right around the corner from it, It will get stuck at the light for the exact amount of time we need to get there. Its crazy!

As far as my ankle is concerned, it is much better, there are days that it causes me some pain, but over all its not too bad. I am loving the weather, I think it was saturday, but in the sunshine it got up to 80 degrees ( or so it said on our thermometer ( again I would like to emphasize that it was IN THE SUN)) but even not in the shade it was 12 Grad, which is roughly 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Still can't understand Schäbisch (a local dialect of German), but my ability to understand Hoch Deutsch (high German) has improved dramatically. Lucky for me Church is in all Hoch Deutsch, so its easy to understand.

Speaking of Church, yesterday was Pfahlkonferenz (stake conference). It was broadcasted from Salt Lake City, Elder Russel M. Nelson spoke, and President Eyring as well! Haha Elder Nelson blew a kiss to his daughter and son in law ( President and Sister Miles) as well as to his grandson who was in Berlin ( this was broadcast to all of Germany, Austria and Switzerland ( and I dearly hope that it wasn't truly live, like everyone said it was. Because that means that it took place a 2 am in Salt Lake City)). I must say, it was a bit interesting to see an apostle of the Lord blow a kiss on a program which was being broadcasted in 3 different countries, but it was sweet to see, I wish I could have seen the l their facial expressions however. The conference was spectacular! President Eyrings talk was amazing. He talked about where his family comes from; His Grandpa came from a weathly aristocratic German backround while his grandma came from a small cottage in the mountains in Switzerland. It was amazing. His Grandpa was Henry Eyring, which I think is the same Henry Eyring that is spoken about in the book Mormon Scientist if so that means that amoung other things, he was a world renound chemist. And as I discovered yesterday, he translated the Doctorine and Covenants into German! That was cool to hear. 

I know, I am a nerd for getting excited about a chemist translating the Doctorine and Covenants into German, but would you really expect anything less from me? :-) I am not sure if it was the same Henry Eyring though, the timeline doesn't quite add up. But none the less its still cool!

I think it was Cassie who asked me where we normally do e-mails, and I don't remember if I said or not, so I  will say it again. Normally on P-days we go shopping from 11 to 12 then catch a bus to Sirinau, which is where our church is, we bring a Lasagna mit and cook it while e-mailing their. Then we can eat lunch and e-mail for a couple hours. It works out well. Right now however, we didn't have time to go to Sirinau ( we have a dinner appointment, and we had the Zone P-day) so I am at an internet cafe´around the corner from my apartment. Last week after we e-mailed, we went and visited the Esslingen Burg ( fortress) I took a ton of pictures which you can see when you get my memory card in a few days. It was beautiful! It was originally built in the year 1200, its nearly 600 years older than our country! Its high up on the mountain so I shot a few pictures of the surrounding areas. I got a picture of both the Protestant Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral, and a not so good picture of the Mosque ( it was really far away.) Anyway it turns out it was never used as a refuge in times of attack, rather it was a gathering place for the town during celebrations. 

Speaking of Celebrations Easter Celebrations have begun, A lot of Fasching, which is essentially a carnival. As you can imagine, we have seen some incredibly drunk people. I find it weird that they celebrate the ressurection of Jesus Christ, by consuming large amounts of alcohol. And then there is Schmutzige Donnerstag, ( Dirty Thursday) A really weird tradition in which girls walk around with pairs of scissors and cut off the mens ties ( its also accompanied with fasching and other celebrations ( apparently it gets so bad, that there are certain cities in which the missionaries aren't allowed to go out after a certain time)). ( I really want to meet the person that came up with this) I don't get the purpose of it, but I was lucky enough to survive unscathed ( good thing too, because I happened to be wearing one of my really nice ties...)

Anyway I hope all is well at home, things are well here. I hope you will excuse my spelling, I don't get to use English all that often, and there is no spell checker... But yeah. Well, I will talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Ryan Christensen

Prayer, Sprained Ankle and How Not to Wash a Sweater

Its hard to know where to begin, but I will do my best to explain what I can. It's been an interesting past few weeks, a lot of ups and downs as one would expect from Missionary work. As far as investigators go, we had an incredible experience this past Saturday. We met with Frau Baumann for the first time, Elder Heinrich and Elder Hyatt had given here a Russian Book of Mormon (she is a Russian lady that has lived here for 12 years). We stopped by on Saturday to give her a simple invitation to church ( We didn't think she would actually meet with us because she had said she wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon first). Well she finished. It took her only 3 weeks to read the entire Russian Book of Mormon! And she absolutely loved it! In fact she wanted more copies so she could send them to her friends and 2 children in Russia, she even said that she would pay for them if necessary! She is the perfect example of those people which are spoken about in D&C 123:12 those "who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". She has read the entire bible twice as well as a lot of other religious/ philosophical books but says that the Book of Mormon stated the truths so clearly that she loved it! She said that she studied alongside the bible to see if there were any contradictions, upon finding none, she said that she accepted the book as the word of God, and believes EVERY WORD in the Book of Mormon. At that point me and my companion about asked her if she wouldn't mind meeting us down at the river dressed in white ;-) She gave us her two kids contact information and asked us if the missionaries in Russia could go and see them. She really loves the Book of Mormon.

Another Family we are teaching is Romanian, It is the Father and mother, their daughter and husband, and their 4 year old girl named Datia. It is really hard teaching them because only Thomas (the father) can speak fluent German, so unless he is there we can't really teach. Danny (the son in law) can speak a little bit of German and English, so between the two we can understand enough to get to know him better. Its been really rough for their family, they are immigrants and are trying to find someplace to work, and from what they say, no one wants to help them. For Danny, he is in a rough predicament, he wants to learn German, but he can't unless he goes to school, to go to school he needs money, to get money he needs a job, to get a job he needs to be able to speak German... I sure hope and pray that things will work out for them.

We have many more investigators, but those are the two that we talked to most recently. As far as mail is concerned, I don't know what to say, my companion said that his family didn't get the letter from the mission president till a month after it was sent... So it could be just that the mission office doesn't mail things the same day, or something, who knows. But I sent my first letter from here home on the 16th (Happy Birthday Mom!) but it was late in the day so it may not have shipped home till the next day. If the 3 day thing is true, you will most likely get it today or tomorrow. But, the memory card isn't in there... I decided to send it separate so that I could write an explanation for each picture, It’s done now so I should be able to send it out today or tomorrow.

This picture is of a really cool looking building in an area near Alstatdt Esslingen

And this picture, the quote from Elder Heinrich explains the picture the best "When it says 70 degrees, it means Celsius, not Fahrenheit." :-)  A much needed laugh at the ignominious demise of what was a nice, expensive sweater. [I asked him in a different email if he was staying warm enough, if not he should go buy a sweater, he responded that he would as soon as Elder Henrich figured out how to wash one. ]

I never knew really what it was like to pray till I got here though, which I will explain with the following story On my first Saturday here (essentially my 4th day here) we went and visited a less active sister who lived in Plochingen. Now, Plochingen is on the side of a mountain, and to get to her house it was a 2,000 ft elevation change ( talk about leaving the ninety and nine, my goodness...) it took us 20 minutes to climb the 2,000 feet of stairs ( Upon arriving I was convinced that I never wanted to see a staircase again, which obviously won't happen but I still have hope ;-) ) and we had Fruit tea and cake. First time having tea, I don't see why people like it...

Leaving the house, we realized that we were in danger of missing our train that would get us home before 9:30, so we ran [Ryan and running don't cooperate too well so when reading this, I knew what was coming... :) ] to the bus station, we took the street instead of the staircase,  and while running down an unlit Plochingen road, I managed to hit the one divot in the entire road and went down very hard. My ankle had rolled in the process, and was throbbing really bad. ( I later, thought of Alma 27:17 and tried to find humor in the situation)  But we were still 1500 feet above the train station and needed to hurry. In an effort to keep pace, but not put to much stress on what I thought was a sprained ankle, I ended up pulling some muscles in my other leg, and have what feels to be shin splints ( let me tell you its been a *fun* couple of weeks walking around :-) ). We made it down to the train station just in time to see our train leave. We sat at the station waiting 30 minutes for the next train to take us home late.

At that point in time I felt incredibly homesick, I was in pain, I was far away from home, I couldn't understand the dialect, I felt inadequate and completely alone. So I turned to the only person I could, my Father in heaven. I have always avoided vain repetitions in my prayers and tried to keep them sincere, but I don't think I have ever prayed like this. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to make it through the next 23 months. I could not possibly describe the feelings of peace that I felt at the moment in time. I felt the pain of homesickness leave and the comfort that It won't be easy but I that I will be able to make it through the next two years. We have a loving Father in Heaven Who hears and answers prayers I testify of that, the words of this hymn have caught new meaning to me:

Mein Herz, das an Jesus sich lehnt  mit Vertraun, kann sicher auf deine Verheißungen baun; und mag alle Hölle auch gegen mich sein: Du lässest mich nimmer, du lässest mich nimmer, du lässest mich nimmer o nimmer allein.

My heart, which on Jesus hath leaned with trust, can surely build off of your promises; and if all Hell would combine against me: You would never leave me, You would never leave me, You would never leave me oh never alone."

I testify of that. God Lives, he loves us and will answer our prayers and comfort us in times of need. He has done it for me, and I know that he will do it for you. 
Elder Ryan Christensen

Letter From President & Sister Miles

We received the following letter from Ryan's Mission President and Mission Mom. The letter is dated Wednesday February 8, 2012, and was received February 18th.

To the Family of Elder Christensen,

Your son, Elder Christensen, arrived safely as a missionary of the Alpine German-Speaking Mission.  After his arrival, I had a wonderful interview with him.  The same day, there was a new missionary orientation.  Later that evening, they had a testimony meeting and a special dinner at the mission home.  We hope that you have received our email and pictures from the first night here.

Elder Christensen has been assigned to serve in Esslingen, Germany.  Enclosed is a map on which we have marked the location of his first proselyting area.  He will be working with Elder Heinrich, an experienced missionary, who will skillfully and carefully introduce Elder Christensen to the particulars of his mission.  We have enclosed a letter that Elder Christensen wrote on his first day in Germany.

Please send all mail directly to Elder Christensen at the following apartment address:

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Elder Ryan Kelly Christensen
Heilbronnerstr. 30
D-73728 Esslingen
Germany

Inasmuch as transfers occur frequently in the mission, please make sure you always have his current address.

We are grateful to have Elder Christensen in our mission.  The new missionaries always bring with them a wonderful spirit.  Please know that we will watch over him with great concern.  We expect that he will serve our Father in Heaven valiantly.

May the Lord bless you abundantly for all you have done to help Elder Christensen prepare to serve with us.

Sincerely, Richard L. Miles, President, Alpine German-Speaking Mission
                Brenda N. Miles

Kelly asked Ryan about a cathedral we kept seeing when we looked at pictures of Esslingen on the internet.  He responded with the following information.

Yeah! that huge cathedral is a Protestant Church, it was finished in December of 1213 ITS AWESOME! It's in an area called Alt Stadt ( old city) its awesome! I wish you could all be here there is so many things that I wish you could see, I haven't take many pictures because today is the first P-day, I will take pictures of our apartment and then send the memory card home. The Esslingen Ward is the largest in the stake with 200 members. The Church is a 30 minutes walk away from our apartment. Everything shuts down here on Sunday, and so there isn't a bus to take us to church, we leave at 8.20 and make it there at 8.50 Its a long cold walk.

Pictures

Ryan sent a couple pictures in an email, of the Elders going to Germany and his District in front of the Provo Temple across from the MTC.

First Letter from Germany!!

Sorry this has taken so long, first things first, if you didn't get my letter, DO NOT WRITE TO THE MISSION HOME. The letters sent there will only be given to me once a transfer, every 6 weeks. So I won't see it till the end of transfers... and I don't want to wait that long to get letters. My new address is below, and unless written EXACTLY how you see it, I won't receive it, they are very picky about mail in Deutschland.

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heilbronnerstr. 30

Esslingen 73728

Germany

Sorry I haven't sent any mail home yet, I have had a ton of things to get taken care of here, and I haven't gone by the post office recently. Then I just decided to write home in an e-mail because I now have a lot more time to do so. The flight over was alright, I wasn't able to sleep much, because space was incredibly limited. That and over the Atlantic Ozean, we hit a ridiculous amount of turbulence... 200 mile per hour tail wind. Along with other things shook the plane fairly well. After that I wasn't able to sleep much. I figured that I slept maybe an hour or 2 at most. Which means that with 4 hours of sleep I had a 32 hour long day with about an hour or so nap in the middle. Needless to say, the first day was rough. They kept us awake all day long, so that when 10:30 came around all of the new missionaries were unconscious in bed. Jet lag, however was virtually gone the next day. 

After Landing in München, we met the APs and the Mission Präsident and his wife. The Präsident and his wife took our luggage in "das beast" (A Van that they have) and they drove back to the mission home. We on the other hand were all give a copy of the Book of Mormon and were informed that on the 40 minute train ride home we were supposed to give out our copies to people on the train. (The AP's came with us to make sure that we didn't get lost anywhere). Lucky for me and Elder Young, we already had a decent hold on German and could hold a conversation, so we could ask someone to talk with us, so that we could improve our German. We would start up a conversation, they would casually ask us how long we were going to be here, and we would say 2 years. They were dumbfounded. We then began to talk about our church... and, needless to say, we gave out a lot of pass along cards and Copies of the Book of Mormon. Something that not even the AP's were able to do :-) We got to the mission home, where we had lunch and were basically instructed for most of the day. We ended up spending the night in Munich, half of the missionaries stayed at the Mission Presidents home, the other half stayed in the AP's apartment. The next day we had a meeting at the church for 3 hours, then me and elder Heinrich, boarded a train, and took a 2 hour Train ride to Stuttgart on an ICE. ICE is Germany's high speed, long distance train. IT WAS AWESOME!

We took another train to Esslingen, and began the day with visiting a few people we are teaching. If all goes well, there could be as many as 8 people ready and baptized in the next 6 weeks! Missionaries in this area normally teach 15 to 20 lessons a week! We very rarely go tracting ( actually we don't tract at all ( Germans don't like surprised, so knocking on doors is pointless)) we street contact instead. Which brings me to the language. Here the Dialect is Schwäbish, it is one of, if not THE MOST DIFFICULT of the German Dialects to understand ( excluding Swiss, which is considered to be it's own separate language). But Schwäbish is just weird. They drop the endings of all of their words, pronounce what little of the word that is left different, and mush words together into what sounds like one word. For example the question: Verstehen sie? in high German sounds like: Voisch? in Schwäbish. When spoken quickly it actually sounds more Asian than German. I have a long way to go... Most people try to speak high german with us, but even then, some still have a heavy schwäbish accent which can be difficult to interpret. Luckily my companion can understand schwäbish, so he can help me out when I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.

Elder Heinrich, contrary to what his name may indicate, is not a native German, he is actually from St. George Utah. But he can speak German very well. He is a bit eccentric, but we get a long quite well. Things are going well in Esslingen, I don't know how much you have been able to see, but our area is HUGE! Its a 2 hour train ride from one side to the other (including connections). Imagine from our house, to Eagle mountain in length, and up to the point of the mountain in width. Its just Elder Heinrich and I for that whole area. But Esslingen is where most of the population is, so we don't really travel outside of it. We did travel to Owen this week though, we got a referral from Church Headquarters, so took a train down there. roughly 40 minutes of travel to visit one person in the incredibly small dorf of Owen. They had no interest... so we tried street contacting for the next 30 minutes until our train arrived then took a 40 minute train ride back to Esslingen. I wish you could all be here, I can only imagine how much dad and mark would love to ride these trains, they are way cool. Some of them are even double decker trains.

The food here is pretty amazing. We make our own food, for the most part, but a lot of German food is fairly easy to make, such as Spätzle and Maltaschen. Spätlze is a type of noodle that nearly everyone in Germany uses, its really good, and you can add almost any sauce to it. Maltaschen is incredible, its basically giant ravioli with spinach and meat on the inside, we like to pan fry in garlic, chili powder and other spices, its REALLY GOOD, and incredibly cheap! To make it for both me Elder Heinrich it cost roughly 2€ which is roughly $2.60 per meal between the two of us, and it is very filling. 

OH! GUESS WHAT?! The mission president just announced that are mission will be expanding into ITALY! Northern Italy is mostly German, and for the first time since World War I the German population is being allowed to worship in German, so we will go down there are start missionary work there! I could go to Italy German speaking! How cool would that be?! On the other hand though, Switzerland is no longer giving Visas to Americans, so I won't be serving there in the foreseeable future, but I could still go to Italy! 

Sorry this doesn't discuss the MTC, I have that letter written, and I will send it out today. It should arrive home on Thursday or Friday.

I love you all,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

P.S. I need pictures! Pictures of family and friends so could people please send those? Some investigators like to see pictures of family and friends, I don't know if its to prove that we are actually normal People or not, but yeah, it would be appreciated.

Greetings from Germany!

Brother & Sister Christensen-

Sorry we are late getting this to you- we sent it the first night your son arrived and had the wrong spelling for the address. So we will try it again and see if it gets to you this time. Your son is wonderful and we are excited to have him here with us!

Love & blessings-

Sister Miles

Begin forwarded message:

Subject: Greetings from Germany!

Dear Brother and Sister Christensen-

We are delighted to tell you that Elder Christensen arrived safely in Munich this morning.  He is tucked away in bed now after a long day of orientation. 

We thought you might enjoy these pictures from this evening. His new companion is Elder Heinrich, and they will be serving in Esslingen. 

We are thrilled that he is here and are very impressed with his preparation and enthusiasm.  He will be a great missionary.  Thank you for all you have done to help him become the fine young man he is today.  We love him already, and we will do all we can to help him grow as a missionary and have a successful mission.  If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.  May the Lord bless you and your family at this wonderful time of missionary service.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Miles

Alpine German-speaking Mission

Tuesday Letter

Dear Mom and Dad,
I somehow neglected to mention a few things (I really dislike the email time limit).  This past Sunday me and my district sang and arrangement we created of "Ye Elders of Isreal".  We sang accapella, it was awesome!! I sang bass, Elder Young sang tenor, Elders Moss and Rivera sang alto and the rest sang melody.  If I can, I will see if I can record it on my camera for all of you to hear.  Also if you wouldn't mind posting that any letters sent after Thursday would better be sent to the mission office in Munich.  Can you also send me a copy of my mission call?  I would like a copy to refer back to periodically.  Thanks for all the support and I look forward to talking to you briefly on Monday from the airport.
Love,
Elder Ryan K Christensen

P.S. I was just made District Leader, more info to follow

Weekly Update

Dear Family,

Things have been going well for me here, this past week has flown by! It's nuts! I am still in disbelief that one week from now I will be making my way to Muenchen! I am so excited to go! The MTC has been... well interesting to say the least. From some letters that I have received, I noticed that I didn't exactly explain very well why I am in the international ward. The reason for this is most international students speak English, and so when they get called state side, or to an English speaking mission, they come here and learn the lessons, and gospel vocabulary for three weeks, then are sent off to their respective missions. This is common enough that they have made a branch for it. Because American curriculum does not require that you learn a 2nd language, it is very rare for an American to speak a second language well enough to be fast-tracked ( on the 3 week schedule) and sent out. I should clarify however that the Spanish speaking fast-track is a branch in and of itself, which I assume is filled with Americans. But that is just it, not very many Americans learn a non-Spanish second language, if a second one at all. Does that help a bit? It is rather weird being the minority for once. It makes me laugh however, because one of the first questions I get asked is " are you American?"  Yes, I am American and I am the minority, please don't rub it in... :-) It's awesome though, I have met people from everywhere! Hopefully dad got my letter today about my travel plans if not I am sending you a copy of the full itinerary, but here is somewhat abbreviated version:

Report to the Travel office at 5 am ( I am one of the lucky ones, some elders have to report as early as 1 am! ( the church likes to fly them out so that the missionaries can start proselyting on the same day they land )).

I travel from Salt Lake to Atlanta, and then onto Munich.  I will land there the morning of the 7th, which will be around midnight here.  

I completely skip a p-day, so you won't get an e-mail next week. I should be able to call from Salt Lake airport though... so hopefully that will suffice :-)

Today being a P-day we got to go to the temple, and this time instead of doing an endowment session, me and my companion went and did sealings. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! The blessings of the temple are truly marvelous to think on. All of the promised blessings, and the ability to be sealed as a family for eternity! I always have thought that I had a concept of this, but until I was able to be a part of  it, it really hit me, how incredible of a blessing this truly is! It's something that I have taken for granted, having been born in the covenant. It kills me that there are people out who don't have these blessings! And the only reason they don't know it, is because they don't know where to find them (D&C 123:12). This is why missionary work is so important, there are those seeking to come closer to our Heavenly Father, and don't know how to. We have been so blessed to have the gospel and all of these blessings.

That’s  all for now, I will let you know of any changes,

Love you all,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

MTC continued...

Dear Mom and Dad,
While I wait for laundry I will continue writing you.  I hope my email hasn't sounded too down, truth be told most of the time things are great.  Sundays are hands down my favorite day.  We had the most incredible fireside last night, Clayton M. Christensen spoke.  It was quite possibly one of the greatest talks I have ever heard.  He spoke about his experience as a member missionary and how to teach people how to read, ponder and pray to gain stronger testimonies.

The closing song though was what sold it.  It was a special arrangement of Called to Serve.  I know you are familiar with the 2,000 stripling warriors, well the MTC has almost exactly 2,000 missionaries (I think it's actually 2,100) but this arrangement was sung by all 2,000 of us.  It started with the piano playing a marching type of song with a couple fanfares, then we came in really quietly singing the first verse of called to serve.  It was meant to paint the visual of an army on the other side of a hill marching to battle.  As we began the second verse, we sang a bit louder as if we are coming over the hill and as we reached the chorus we sang louder.

 "Onward ever onward as we glory in his name, onward ever onward as we glory in his name, forward pressing forward as a triumph song we sing, God our strength will be, press forward ever called to serve our King" 

 As we said King we stood and sung, as the D&C states, with all our heart, might, mind and strength, repeating the chorus.  I am not going to lie, I was doing all I could not to cry, it was incredibly powerful.  The spirit of God in that room was more powerful than words could ever describe.  That experience alone makes all the sacrifices of serving a mission worth it.  I can't wait to go and declare the word in Germany.  This is the true church, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, my testimony of that has already grown exponentially.  The Book of Mormon is true, and Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet today.  I love you all and will write you again next week.  Thanks for the love and the prayers.
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

P.S.  There is a rumor floating around that Thomas S. Monson is speaking here on the 31st!  How cool would that be?

MTC

This will probably be shorter than I want it to be, I apologize, we only have a little bit of time to e-mail.  It has been killing me having to wait to tell you this but, I arrived here and was in class less than 30 minutes after you dropped me off.  I asked the teacher how long I would be here, and he said, "they didn't tell you?"  I said, no and he said this class is the Advanced Language Track, if you are in this class you will only be here for 3 weeks" YES!!  Elder Young and I (he is my companion, and lucky for me also happens to be going to my same mission) were blown away and excited.  It has been interesting here, I didn't officially get a companion until day two (being the advanced language track has really caused a lot of chaos) Because of the advanced language track I am in the international ward, which according to my Zone Leader makes me and Elder Young the first Americans they have seen in the ward for awhile.  It is so awesome! Everyone in my ward is from a different part of the world, and I get to meet and learn a little bit of a few different languages.  For example 1 of my Zone leaders is from France, and the other is from Denmark (he is fluent in German which makes it fun to talk to him)

The days are going a bit better now, at first it felt as each individual day was an eternity.  But as we adjust to the schedule it makes it easier.  There are a few buildings that are shut down due to renovation, so there are 6 elders per room with 4 closets to split between them.  I wouldn't change it for anything though, my roommates are the coolest!  Elder Tiatia, lived in Samoa for a few years before moving to Orem, he was called to serve in the Auckland New Zealand mission, Samoan speaking.  Elder Moss is from Washington state and is called to serve in the Germany-Berlin Mission (on his ID card it abbreviates it as GER-GER and so we call him Elder Gerber, mainly when he does something stupid, we all get a laugh out of it, even Elder Gerber.  :)  Elder Rodriguez is his companion from Mexico City, and is going to the Riverside California mission Spanish speaking.  Elder Young is my companion, he is from "St Louis Illinois"  He lives in Illinois, but he is so close to St Louis that he will say that is where he is from when asked.  As previously stated he is going to the Alpine-German Speaking Mission as well.  It is good to have German Speaking elders in the room, it allows us to practice our German.  Being here for 3 weeks (actually it will be close to two (I won't know till tomorrow, but we will likely leave here February 6th, a Monday two weeks from today).  They don't teach us any German, so we have to find time to teach ourselves.  Which I think I like better, it allows me to study what I want, I have already taught myself how to pray in German, and have advanced my language enough to be able to teach the lessons (they aren't called discussions anymore) in German, and be able to answer virtually any question they can ask about them, and it's only been 5 days.  There is so much more that I would love to say, but I don't think we will have enough time so I will try to give you the highlights, and perhaps wreite you a letter.  But overall things here have been alright.  It's hard, I look forward to mail every day and as of yet, I am the only Elder who hasn't received any mail (except the package that I got this morning, Thank You :) )  I do realize I have only been here a few days, so I assume letters will come as people get time.

Thanks for the package and the notes, it helps :)  Life has truly been great here.  I am doing well and know this is where I am supposed to be.  Expect a letter in a few days with the rest of my stories.

Until then,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen