October 7, 2009 - Letter

Elder Tang (Sugar)

Hello My Beautiful Family!!!! Hello Tanner!!!

Wow I can't call him Elder anymore huh! Tanner looks great! Thanks for sending that picture! Not going to lie, just got really homesick, I wish that was me in the pic instead! Was that at the airport? Did Max get to meet Tanner? I always talked about him and bragged about his spanish when I was with Max! I am sure Tanner will read this so when he finds some time I would love a letter! Did he give his homecoming talk? Did you tape it for me? Is his Spanish fluent? Probably better than my Chinese lol! Wow! I am so happy he returned with honor! I promise to do the same! One thing I will never forget is saying bye to Tanner at Claim Jumper...He told me Ryan you better be gone when I get home! I promised him I would! Now look at me, I've been in Taiwan for 7 months now! Tell him I love him and miss him!

Would you two stop bragging about Conference! I havn't seen it yet! It's always one week later in Taiwan for future reference, because they have to translate it! Anyways tomorrow is Zone Conference, Friday we have nothing then Saturday we get to ride down to jia yi city and watch the sessions at their Chapel ours is rented that's why we have to leave our area. Then Sunday session is at our Branch so we will watch the DVDs! Haha ya I can't wait to hear Elder Bednar! I am sure Elder Holland's was awesome as well!

Ya this area is really awesome it's really rural so not many people to talk to but I have learned to stop scooters and cars by waving them over to the side of the road! Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesnt lol. I love the members here and the Branch President is my favorite! We were in a meeting on Sunday and they want to start a fhe again! I gave him my advise on having it on Friday instead of Monday cuz everyone is working on Monday and most of the time is free on Friday nights. At least in heng chun it was like that! haha you spelled heng chun HENG CHUNG???? wow I need to teach you guys Chinese! So anyways he liked my idea and we will have it once a month on Fridays! I felt good I could help! Because my last areas I would just sit in meetings cuz I didn't understand, I was always depressed because I didnt understand what they were talking about. As of right now my listening is getting way better and talking as well. I still don't understand at times but that's only if it's a vocab word I don't know! I am getting to the point where if i dont understand one vocab word they use another one that I know then I understand! It is great the lord is blessing me a lot lately!

So yesterday and right now I am on exchanges with Elder Tang! He is from Taibei, his english is really bad so throughout the exchange I havn't spoken English once! I couldn't be more happier! He has helped me improve my chinese a lot! I wish I could do that every day with american companions but most of them dont speak Chinese all the time which hurts me because I love to SYL! It makes me speak my language all the time! I hope sometime in my mission I get a native!

So I have a huge miracle to share with all that are reading this. Monday night my companion says we are going on exchanges and I will stay here in my area acting as a temporary senior companion for the day! I was so scared because i havn't been able to have the oppurtunity to do that! So as I was setting my goals a number came into my head 15! I felt that I could have a miracle day as senior companion and find 15 new investigators and 15 baptisimal dates! When I told my companion my goals he said Elder you can do it! That's a lot though you need to work really hard! Also he said he had faith in me and would tell the zone leaders I would be senior for the day! One of my leaders said it's not a good idea to put 2 junior companions together! I am on my 6 th move and ElderTang is on his 10th! But he said it's Elder Gallaghers choice! I over heard this and told Elder Gallagher to trust me that I can do this! He had no problem and said I don't care what he thinks I feel that it is your time to shine!

Real quick...I don't know if you remember Elder Heder but he is one of my zone leaders now!!!! (the twin) his companion is from tai zhong who hinted no! So he also said President Hoer would love me if i had a productive day! So right now I am fasting cuz we didn't fast on Sunday because it was the mid august moon festival and people gave us food all day! So we chose to fast yesterday until today at 12 30! We are breaking our fast in jia yi shi (city) we will go to the pizza hut all you can eat! I am so excited still havn't been to the pizza hut here! Might need to use my card by the way lol! A little expensive but going to be worth it! Anyways yesterday in my fasting prayer I prayed to do a good job with Elder Tang and find 15 prepared people that want to be baptized! So all day we worked really hard we got lost for 2 hours riding to this guys house but added him to be baptized on nov 7 and his sister! That night at a 7-11 we added a ton more! Now mind you a normal day is about 4 baptismal adds a good day is 7 or 8 prepared souls! But we ended up getting 18 ADDS!!!! TIhey all set up to meet with us! Last night when my companion called for numbers he was so excited to hear I added 18 when they had a rough day adding 4! He said Elder how do you preform these miracles all the time and prophesy of hitting a goal! I told him it wasn't me it was the lord that helped me find and place in my path these 18 children of god! He also said the zone leaders were happy with me as well! Ya I am still shocked the lord gave us that many! Now we need to take care of them and teach them the gospel! I love you all and thanks for your love and support! Tanner write me soon!

Love, Elder Christensen