Notes from Christmas Skype Video Call

Here a notes from our Christmas video call with Garrett. He asked us all what we got for Christmas. He asked if his bedroom is “still intact”. He said he liked the 12 days of Christmas gifts we gave him. He especially loved the little photo album I made him and the candy. He had Macy and Brittney stand together to see how Brittney has grown so tall. He said Britt should play basketball since she is so tall. He laughed and laughed when Cliff said he got a leather coat from Santa. He said “what are you going to do with that?” We described our Christmas Eve party. He asked about Court and asked how Jeff and Cambria are doing. He asked if Brad is “big” since the football schedule I sent him said Brad’s weight is 195. Britt showed him her cat, Harley. Macy described the home improvements she and Breck have made to their house. He asked about what our vehicles are. I described my new Kia. Macy and Breck and Dad all still drive the same vehicles. He said his roommate, Elder Scott, said “he’d hook us up” to go pheasant hunting in Nebraska. Elder Scott comes home in February, but will probably go to BYU. Garrett misses his companion, Elder Price, who is now in New Washington. Nearly everyone who is interested has already been baptized in New Washington. He said: A barangay is a small place like Diamond Valley, but part of a bigger city. Like Cox Landing is a barangay of St. George. I’m at an internet café. It is just a bunch of computers. “ It has aircon”. (air conditioning) That’s what it’s called here. In my first area I got a lot of letters, but now it’s you guys, Mandi Mathis, Mark Johnson and Kyle Sherwin and Aunt Lisa. I don’t really hear from any of my buddies who are on missions. We get our mail every Friday. Kyle Sherwin writes me an e-mail and then I write him a hand letter back. It usually takes about two weeks for him to get my letters. I love Kyle’s parents a lot. Kyle wants me to go to University of Utah with him when I get back. Macy, Breck and Britt showed him their braces. We showed him the journal we bought for a sister missionary at his request. More quotes: For Christmas Eve we taught a recent convert who is 74. The people give us a treat and glass of water or Sprite at our visits. We went over to the stake center, which is in the middle of the city and there are four wards in Roxas City. There is a man from England who married a Filipina. He has lots of money so he paid for hundreds of street kids to have lunch. On Christmas Eve, we were able to serve them food. It was really fun. I took pictures of the poor kids. The man also gives them gifts. Garrett showed us pictures of the kids. They had a baptism this week of a lady named Barbara. He loves the camera he took on his mission. It continues to work well. He found a paper at an investigator’s that said “I have a crush on Elder Christensen, because he is cute and I like him. “ We laughed! The Filipinos sit with their shoes and bum on the ground. They are comfortable with it. He showed us pictures of JoAnn Tan and her husband who feeds him every Sunday. She is my friend on FaceBook Garrett’s stomach “hasn’t been terrible. Whenever I eat it hurts. I went to a doctor about a week ago. She thinks it is from me taking Ibuprophen. If it’s not better in another week I’m supposed to go back. He asked if we have tried any Filipino food. He wants us to make chicken abode and try it. “It’s so good on rice.” He only remembers eating rice once a month when he was home. Now he eats it with his spoon in his right hand and his fork in his left hand. The fork puts rice into the spoon. The people make disgusting fruit salad with mayonaise. Since mayonaise is expensive they think the missionaries will like it. He says “sorry we’re full”. It is a Christmas tradition. Also, they’ll gut the fish and leave the scales and fry it. “I never, never eat that. I hate the fish. I tell people I have an allergy. Some of my companions like it.” “They eat chicken and pork, but never beef. Beef is too expensive. I’ve never eaten it at a member’s house. Everything has a sauce. They use meat as part of a rice topping with sauce. They also grind up fish for “fish sauce”. Balut is a delicacy here. They have pig brain and cow tongue. I’ve tried cow tongue and it wasn’t too bad. I think I’ve gained a little weight. At the doctors I was just 85 kilos (just under 200 pounds). That’s about what I was when I came out on my mission. I’ve lost muscle and gained some fat. We told him about our upcoming Brian Head trip for New Years. Britt showed him her new bedspread fabric. He asked about the bulletin board (shrine) where we put the world map and pictures from his mission. Breck showed him his new snow board. It says hello in different languages, but we couldn’t find “Kumusta”, hello in Tagalog. He got the run-down on what snowboard equipment everyone planned to use. He said “I would wear my football girdle when I went snowboarding so that whenever I hit a rail I would have a cushion for my tailbone.” “I’m way stoked that Brother Weaver is in the branch presidency now. He told me greeting for you. He is awesome. He said he would come to church with us in America when he visits America.” (Garrett baptized Brother Weaver in February 2010.) There are four sister missionaries in Roxas City. We get along well with the sister missionaries here. We are with them a lot. I like them. How many people went to church in our ward today? Not your family! We told him we didn’t go to church because Macy and Breck forgot their clothes and we were putting together Brittney’s new bedroom set. He said “that’s about as good as the excuses we get here. We have 318 members, but like 60 go to church. Yesterday we had 30 people. “ We had 3 dinner appointments on Christmas Eve at 5, 6 and 7. Christmas we ate at Joann Tan’s who is a member. She is on Facebook. We had a really relaxing day because nobody wanted us to come. We said hi to Elder Adams and an Elder from Hawaii who taught Garrett to play the Ukali. Garrett got a kick out of us trying to pronounce the places we’ve read about in his letters. He is currently speaking Illongo. In New Washington he spoke Tagolog and Aklan. He can’t speak Aklan very well, but he can understand it. You have to gurgel your throat and he can’t do it. He spoke Kinaraya in his first area, Sibalom. He said: “We were talking about how we communicate. We mix all the languages and English when we talk in our apartment. For example there is a word here that means “I didn’t say it”. We use it a lot. When I first got to the Philippines I hated it to be honest. My companion could barely even communicate with me. My investigators couldn’t understand. I enjoy it a lot now. It’s cool being able to talk with them. “ We updated him on Gramps. He asked if Gramps is going to church. We updated him on Papa Joe and Irene. We updated him on Grandma Sherry and Amanda. Joe Rebman, Amanda & Shay and Ben Rebman. He said he might want to be a foot doctor. He asked about “Court’s Emple” and condo in Brian Head. He said: “We actually talk about sports a lot here. We miss it because we can’t watch it, so we just talk about it.” Breck, Macy & Cliff confirmed several trades and updates on sports. He said basketball is the big sport there. “You can be walking down the street and you can see like four different basketball games going. It is all on dirt floors and they play in their flip flops. We play basketball every Monday. I still suck, but it’s fun. They also like boxing.” He asked about Brittney’s school classes. She said school is “boring”. He said “mingnow” is how they say boring. He got the run-down on Britt’s love life. She said “I have a crush.” He got a run-down on Breck’s motel and Breck and Macy’s upcoming trip to Thailand. It seems like he said “Ahhhh” a lot. (I’m not sure if this is a language thing or not.) He said: “The Philippines is kind of like the Mexico of America. Everybody wants to get out. Like they go “abroad”. They work in Hong Kong, Asia, China. They all want to work abroad because there is “bad work” here. He asked about the Bri Leavitt family and how Bri’s construction business is doing during the poor economy. He is shocked that Taylor Leavitt is already married and is glad Taylor and her husband have good jobs. He asked about Mikayla McDonald. We asked what he wants in his next box. He said all his clothes and things are fine. They buy rubber shoes there that last like two months and cost about $5. “I won’t need shoes. I really don’t need anything. It is nice to have like candy and stuff. Maybe like Jerky and some pickle sunflower seeds.” “I gave the consecrated oil to the ward and saved some for my next area. Transfers are January 13. In your mission you have like 18 or something and I only have like 7 left. I’ll probably only have like 2 more areas. Here it seems like a day is really long, but then I look at a calendar and say like whoa it’s December 23! I’ll be honest. I miss Elder Price a lot. Do you remember like Joe Rebman who had a companion he really liked and then got a transfer. That’s how it is.” I’ll probably get a new area on January 13. I haven’t heard much from people who were with me in the MTC. It’s crazy how far we are from each other.” “I like it when you send pictures from home.” Macy asked how he feels about coming home. He doesn’t think about it much. “ I can’t imagine driving a car. Here you either drive a Jeepney or a tricycle. You go out into the street and stick out your arm. You hop on and tell them where you are going and they drop you off. Being at home would be way weird.” He is excited to go to the lake when he gets home. We told him about the new businesses in St. George – Kneeders, Petco, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Paradise Grill, the Patio Grill, the new airport. Rebel Sports moved from the factory outlet mall to the same building as Hurst’s. He asked about Joe Rebman’s homecoming. He asked how Joe’s English was when he returned. He said, “My simple conversation is fine, but deeper words that I haven’t used aren’t at the top of my head. I’m nervous to go to college, because my English isn’t good. “ He asked about Macy’s EMT certification. She is just under a paramedic, but doesn’t want to go back to college to become a paramedic. It was fun and she is sad that she is done. He asked what Brittney used to say for swimming when she was little. She said “Whoosing”. He asked about the deer hunt. “I’m looking so forward to sleeping in my bed. The matresses are so thin here. My back hurts every morning, but by afternoon it’s fine. It a little twin and I’m not used to sleeping on that. I’ve had a queen my whole live. “ He yawned several times during our call, so we told him he needs a nap. He said, “that’s just how it is here. I yawn all the time. We don’t have any time. In the afternoon and night I feel fine. Everyday it’s 10:30 we go to sleep 6:30 we wake up. I’m always a little bit tired.” “The people on the street are usually nice. I never feel worried because I’m so much bigger than them. They always yell stuff at us. They work construction and in the evening they get drunk and brave and talk to us. They’ll tell us to take a shot with them. Some even buy us Sprite and give it to us. A lot of people are nice to us because we are American. They have seen American’s on t.v. The members are really nice. They are always surprised that we can speak the language. It will be weird to come home and not be stared at all the time. Like here everyone stares at us all the time. When we’re back we will just be regular dudes.” (Apparently since he does everything with his companion or roommates, he thinks as “we” instead of “I”.) I asked him to tell us the story about the little girl who was so shocked that he knew their language. It is my favorite story from his mission. He said the little girl just kept touching her mom’s shoulder and saying “he looks like an American, but no, he knows our language.” He said “She never did want to accept that I’m American.” He also told us the story of the little girl who said Joseph Smith “is super, super good looking” when Garrett showed her a picture. “The little girls are way, way sweet. The little boys are sweet too, but then they grow up.” It was hot. Garrett kept wiping his lip of sweat. I mentioned that he doesn’t describe things in his letters anymore. He said “When you’ve been here so long it just seems normal. It would be like you trying to describe hoping in a car.” His house is “not as bad as his first one, but not as nice as his second one.” They have a small confection oven – like 10 X 10 inches. They cook nearly everything on a gas burner. They use bucket showers. They don’t use toilet paper. It’s just normal. “When I first got here, I was like I’ll never do that. It’s so much easier. You just use water. In every bathroom there is a bucket full of water and like a scoop that you scoop water with. It’s hard to explain. You splash it off and then after you wash your hands you put alcohol on your hands which kills like 99.9% of the germs. I think it’s actually cleaner, but I don’t know. When I get back I’ll decide. “ The sister missionaries came into the internet café. Sister Simeito, Sister Patrico, they said “hi” to us. One is Filipina, but lives in Seattle Washington. The sisters looked at the screen and we could see them stand behind Garrett looking at us. They look darling. The sister thanked us for the journal. “When you come up to an old person you touch the top of their head with the top of your hand. It’s blessing them.” “The bottom third of the Philippines is native missionaries only. They won’t let Americans serve there.” The call continues…. I haven’t had time to transcribe it all yet.

Malipay nga Paskoe akon Pamilya

Malipay nga Paskoe akon pamilya! (Ilonggo so if you said it to a Tagalog person they would not understand it. It means Merry Christmas....In Tagalog Merry Christmas is "Maligayang Paskoe" ) Things this week have been pretty good here in Roxas. My stomach has been going kind of crazy. I went to a 'gastroenterologist' doctor and she gave me medicine and thinks it might be a small ulcer or something. She thinks it might be from taking Ibuprofen my whole life and especially when I had my hurt tooth a few months ago I took it a lot so I wouldn't be in pain and could focus on the work. So it should get better fast. I feel good this morning.(I usually am emailing around 9-11am here.) On P-days, we do studies in the morning and then come straight to the email place. I will call as early as possible but it will probably be around this, normal time. I am loving the 12 days of Christmas haha I had the pizza last night. It was good. We do have pizza here but it’s not usually good so it was nice to eat it last night. I also love the pine nuts (sooo good), Hersheys chocolate (my roommates love you too, haha), necktie, toothpaste, just everything is way good so thank you! Regarding the typhoon, yes it affected the people of "Mindanao" a lot which is southern Phils. But it has not affected us. It just rained a lot this week. We have caught glimpses of news here and it is so bad there. A lot of people have died. I am really excited for your business mom. It sounds like you are putting a lot of work into it. I am sure it will pay off. I am excited to hear more about the new office in St. George. We are still going to have a baptism on Christmas Eve (possibly two) so we are excited for that. I also sent you a letter in the mail but don't open it until after we talk on the phone for Christmas, okay. :) There is one for each of you. Sorry I didn't have time to do one for the entire family. Just read them an e mail or something. Tell them I love them lots. Sorry but I also I also have a request from a district-mate from here in the Philippines. She wants a journal and she is really pretty poor so can’t afford one. Just the same one as the one you sent me. If you can, please send one in my next package. I told her it will be her late Christmas gift. I asked the sister missionary what kind of journal she wanted and she said she wants one like "cute" haha, so you choose mom what kind but it’s for a girl so try to get a "cute" one. She also said she wants it pretty small. So you don't have to buy a big nice one. Just buy a small, 'cute' one for a sister missionary. Maybe like the size roughly 6" X 4 1/2. I will trust you and Britt or Macy to buy one. Thank you. Love you. I have some extra time so I want to share a story....Last night we went to an investigator named C N, the sister in law of H who we baptized in October. She has had doubts about our message. I felt the impression to ask her this question. "If Jesus Christ was sitting here with us and you had to ask him a question, what would your question be to him?"...She thought for a while and then said "I would ask where the right path is for me to go to return to him".....When she asked that I immediately thought of 2 Nephi 32 which is about the right path returning to our Father. We opened and shared to them and I really felt the spirit in that lesson. It went well and now I feel strongly that she will be baptized. She asked questions about " What are the regulations of being baptized and stuff" I hope you like that story. One more awesome thing we found out about this week at zone conference (where president comes and talks to us in Roxas) was that Bro. Jim Weaver from Sibalom............IS NOW IN THE BRANCH PRESIDENCY! That is crazy huh?! I was shocked but so stoked to hear someone I baptized is now in a leadership position. It is so cool to feel like I helped someone like that and now he is involved so much in the branch there. I love this work here. All is well with everything and Christmas season is here. People here are doing funny caroling at night where the kids go from house to house asking for money and singing Tagalog Christmas songs. I love this season. I also can’t wait to talk to you all. I love you all. Merry Christmas. Elder Christensen Hey Britt I love you lots too! I am in Roxas city...pronounced (ro-has) and it is really “cityish” but fun to be here. That is cool soccer is done. I am excited for you to start track. I can’t wait to talk to you next week. Love you. Love you lots, I love you guys lots and the next time I talk to you it will be on the phone face to face haha I love you all lots and can’t wait to hear more stories and what’s going on. Love you, Elder G Christensen Hey papa what’s going on? Things here are going really well in Roxas. It is good to hear all the bowls. I miss watching college and NFL. I am glad the Dolphins are doing a little better. I hear the Packers are way good. Who beat them? That’s one thing a am excited for when I get home since it will be football season. Things are going well here and we are staying busy. My comp doesn't quite have the same desire that Elder Price and I did so I kind of have to keep him going and do everything but he is hanging in there. Our work is going well. We should have baptisms this week. I am loving it here. I can’t wait to talk to you all. I can’t believe it has been seven months! Love you and miss you. Elder Garrett Christensen

We Have Some Sweet New Investigators

Hello, It was good to hear that you are all doing well and enjoying your Christmas season. Vegas sounds fun and so does the NFR. (I wanna go there next year if possible.) I bet the parties were also really fun. I miss stuff like that. As for me, I am doing great. Not a lot happened this week except we have some sweet new investigators. This woman, E B, was a referral from a less-active member we re-activated and so we have been teaching her with the help of our member. She is "Catholic" but doesn't believe in the things they do so she started studying with the "saksi ni Jehova" which is Jehovah's Witnesses but she said in their Bible study they try to teach you how to fight other religions and she didn’t think that was right, but now she started listening to us she said our teaching her and the Book of Mormon makes her feel "busog" which is like "full" or like "satisfied" so that was cool to see. She will be baptized on January 7 hopefully. We also should have two baptisms on Christmas Eve so that will be fun. My companion and I are doing well. I like our roommates too so life is good. I have had a weird stomach ache this week for like five days but I have been talking to Sis. Pagaduan and I think it has been getting better so no big deal. They really take good care of us. What plans do you all have for Christmas? Anything fun going on? We have a few dinner plans going on but nothing too sweet haha. About calling, will you please figure out my SKYPE account thing again haha. Sorry I don't remember the password or username. Just e mail me the password and stuff so I can log-in on Christmas. Thank you. Last night at the stake center (not our church, but it’s in Roxas City also), we watched the first presidency devotional. It was sweet and of course it was nice to hear the prophet and think about Christ. I am loving the work here and all is well here in God's Country. Love You All, I love you momma girl! Elder Garrett "Ako Pa" Christensen Kumusta akon pinalangga nga amay: Things here are going really well Pops! The NFR sounds fun, I remember the year I went, we had a sweet laser show before it started. Do they do that every year? Sounds like the Christmas parties were fun as well. What NFL teams are doing well? Is college football over? I heard they are having a strike for NBA. Is that true? Anyway, all is well here with Elder Williamson and I. We are working well and have lots of people listening to us. Love you dad, and miss you! Tell the whole family hello for me at the Christmas party and that I say "malipay nga pasko" or Merry Christmas Elder Garrett Hey Barbs. I am doing well. I am glad you are doing good also. Aeropostale sounds fun and I am glad you got lots of clothes there. I am also glad that your cat is healthy. How is your Christmas season going? Did you go snowboarding yet? I love it here and I love you! Bye bye, Elder Gary

All is well here in God's Country.

Well this is Elder Christensen with some crazy news from Roxas. We had transfers this week and like we expected, Elder Price transfered (He transferred to my old area, New Washington), but here is the shocker haha. My new companion, is also my old companion haha. I am assigned with Elder Williamson(my companion from New Washington.) I am not sure what happened since I have never heard of that happening before but its true haha, we are back together. It is okay since we get along well but it will definitely be a big change. I wont lie, I miss Elder Price and the way he was about the work. He was a stud and I will chill with him post-mission. Other than that, I got one other new roommate. Elder Latu from Hawaii is also here in my house. He lives by North Shore, Hawaii(where we went when we visited Hawaii) and he is cool too so we are all happy and healthy. Regarding the work, it has been getting better and better, but we have still experienced challenges. We had a family of three with baptismal dates on December 24 but when we visited them on Saturday, they told us the Father will not allow us to visit them again. So that was a bummer but we still have five people with a baptismal date for December and January so we are excited for the progress of our area. Regarding calling home on Christmas, we are allowed to use Skype(including the video this time) but I assume we will call on Monday which will be Christmas there? I will let you know when we get more information. I got the package this week so thank you mom for all the gifts and pizza stuff! I also love the M & M's! I wont lie though, I opened the calendar since we were planning for January and had no calendar. I love all the photos and it is a way sweet calendar! I left all the other gifts unopened though so I will do the twelve days thing like last year. That is rad about Tyler Condie and Tanner Theobald, if I remember right, didn't Dallas Theobald also go to Brazil? That will be sweet for those two. When do they leave? Like February-ish? I am not sure about Jim Weaver's nephews or where they are from, I bet you could find out faster than I can by e-mailing him since I cannot e-mail him back and a letter to him takes a couple weeks. Anyway we had a good week and have a lot of good investigators that I am excited to help come closer to Christ. I love the work here and am happy and doing well. I am thankful for you all. I am thankful for the Church I Love You all, Elder Garrett Christensen Hey Britt how are you? I am glad you are doing well and loving life. I am excited for you to be able to go snowboarding, I miss that a lot. I bet it would be fun to do that! I can't wait to be able to go with you again! I heard you did great at your piano recital! Good Job! I love you and miss you! Bye! Elder Gary Hey Pops, whats up with you? Things here are going great. Both of my new roommates love sports so we talk lots about sports so that is good. What is the update on the NFL? who is doing well and who is...not doing well haha. I can't believe the NFL is slowly coming to a close. Is it playoffs already? Have you been scouting at all or not yet for deer? Have you been ice fishing this year yet or is it not cold enough yet? That is cool someone Elaine knows is coming here to my mission. They will just love it haha. It has been super hot the last few weeks but its not unbearable. It hasn't affected the work at all. I loved seeing the picture of you fly fishing on the calendar mom gave me, it looks so pretty up in the mountains. It is pretty here too but just different. Here it is tropical. Palm trees everywhere and everything is green year round but there, its pine trees and stuff like that so it is just different. I love it here but I am excited to get back to pine trees and four wheeling at Boulder Mt. haha. I am also stoked for a little fishing/relaxing. It's coming up faster than I can imagine so I am trying my best to work super hard. All is well here in God's Country. I love and miss you Dad, Elder Garrett