January 12, 2015

Dear Family and friends,

This week was equally busy as last, which sure makes time fly. I can't
believe it's already been two weeks. 

Crystal got baptized Saturday,and I confirmed her on Sunday, she is awesome! 
She had quite the experience investigating the church, and she has gained a lot of
faith! She is a math major and has a very logical mind, and at her
baptism she shared how she gained her testimony using a spiritual
"proof" or experiment. Her hypothesis was that the church was true,
and that God did exist. And she was going to do some procedures,
assuming her hypothesis was correct. She said these procedures
included beginning to obey the commandments, reading the Book of
Mormon, praying daily, and coming to church. She said she then
examined the results and analyzed whether or not good or bad things
happened because of it. She found amazing things begin to happen in
her life and she knew what she was doing was right. The coolest part
about the baptism was that our investigator Ashley came and felt the
spirit so strong, and after we taught her and she committed to be
baptized! She is still worried about her family situation, but she is
doing all of the right procedures and is seeing the results in her
life. I love that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple and yet can
change any life that lets it. It's awesome!

Elder Madsen and I went to another MLC last week and had some great
training. Right after I went on and exchange with Elder Fife! Haha it
was like dejavu, being back in my old bed, but we had a lot of fun
together. I'm really glad we stayed companions for a while. We ate
some habanero peppers straight just to try and be manly and get pumped
for finding some Spanish speakers, but we ended up just burning our
mouths out and making our faces and eyes sweat. But we ended up
finding a new family and setting a baptismal date with one of the
Investigators we had taught together before I left!

Yesterday we were looking at our week and noticed we hadn't found
anyone to teach in our area yet. So we prayed and felt inspired to
visit some former Investigators. Turns out the one we decided to go
see wasn't there (to our knowledge), BUT right as we walked up to his
door, we contacted one of his neighbors, Zack. It didn't take long for
us to realize he was the reason we were there. Pretty much all his
friends are Mormons and he talked about how great it was when he read
the Book of Mormon all the way through once! Anyways, we taught him
right there and set up a tour at the welcome center (institute) on
campus. I love experiences like these. They remind me that God is in
charge of his work! We just have to place ourselves in his hands and
he will do it! I think so often I lose sight of that and get
distracted, and as a result I'm a useless instrument in the Lord's
hands until I can refocus.

So my apartment is pretty nuts. Elder Shepherd is a 300 pound 18 year
old missionary and for some reason I always lose when I jump on his
back and try to wrestle him... :P he is from Boise, ID. His companion
is Elder Busick, or Elder "Bisquick" and he is from Montana. Then
Elder Madsen is from Topeka, Kansas. We all get along well and have a
lot of fun. I'm adjusting just fine.This week we have another Investigator being baptized.   Her
name is Rachel! Keep her in your prayers, as well as Ashley! Thanks.
Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Collin Christensen