A Brilliant Idea

Hey!!! How is everyone?!
   Things here are going so well. Elder Light and I are loving Mandurriao! That’s all I have to say haha....but since you have something to read, I will tell you about a project we have been doing this week....So in the Philippines, each Barangay (a small community, like diamond valley would probably be split into two barangays) has a captain, who is the head of the barangay, and I think seven or eight kagawads, which are the counselors. Our vision is that the missionaries get more involved in the community so when we see people they don’t think we are students or anything, they will know exactly who we are and what we do here. So what we have been doing is getting our more influential members to go with us to the captains of their barangays and Elder Light and I will 1. introduce ourselves, 2. explain what we are doing there in their barangay and 3. offer our help to them like service project, English lessons or whatever! We really love it and it has been sweet. We have already met two of the captains in our area. We have appointment to meet the other ones this week, but we have like ten more to meet just in my area so it will take a while.
    We also were proselyting this week and we saw the photo of the city mayor so I said "hey, I just got an idea, what if we went and met the mayor?"...Elder Light said "that is a way good idea, let’s ask president if we can" so I called president Pagaduan and asked and he said that was a brilliant idea, and he wants to go with us! So that will be our focus this week, trying to get an appointment with the mayor of Iloilo, we will just introduce ourselves and I think give him some sort of gift as well but we will see what happens.
   Our work is going great. We also learned that Elder David A. Bednar will be visiting Iloilo in August so i will probably get to meet him! he will be here about the time of my birthday! That is cool news, huh?
   Elder Webster is probably already packed and ready to go home! It’s nuts. Time is fast....Mom, to answer your question, I think I will be home on October 10 because we here are a day ahead of you all. But I don't have flight plans yet..
   Do we have the same stake president? Same address?
   That is cool that the Chelsi Run went well again!
Love you all lots,
Hey dad what is going on? Things here are going very well! We are loving our area.
   That is neat that Devin is going on his mission already. He was just barely a junior when I left! I am old!
   I hope Britt does well in her track meet back east! Sounds cool you get to go back there. I hope you like it.
Sounds good about the homecoming thing I guess. Whatever works! What time is our church even at right now in Diamond Valley?
I love you and miss you lots.
Elder Garrett

Homecoming on October 14

Hello everybody whats going on?
We had another rad week in Mandurriao. :) Our favorite family came to church again and they are well on their way to getting baptized in August. We were also able to contact, teach, and set a date for a referral from a member! Her name is Clarence and she already has a sweet testimony of the Book of Mormon! She read it and prayed about it, and just like the promise says, she found out that it is true! She came to a baptism with us on Saturday, that other elders had, then afterwards Elder Light and I had a stake correlation with the stake presidency and we shared the missionaries needs so we can all help each other with the Lord's work!
Elder Light and I are getting along great and loving life here in the city! Best food, best members, best investigators...everything is the best! We have started talking a little about what things are going to be like when we go home, not getting trunky or lazy at all, a matter of fact, I feel like I am working the hardest I ever have!... but it's unavoidable to think about haha...We can't even imagine what it will be like. Such a crazy thing to think about. I got my e-mail from the office today that says my flight is October 10. Not sure what time, but they will e-mail that to you sometime soon. I think I will be fine doing the homecoming on Oct. 14 or whatever. I don't want to worry about that yet haha. You just take care of that please :)
This week, Bryan Collins, and Seth Price (Elder Collins and Price) e-mailed me and Collins even sent picture, haha. It was sweet. They are my boys. It is the sweetest thing to hear from them!
I am glad you are all doing well and loving life. We really are so blessed! Dad, congrats on your new job title, whatever it is haha. You are the man! Mom, keep up the good work running Britt around wherever it is she is going. You are like super mom.
I am loving the time I have here. I love this mission. I have learned so much. I love you all and take care this week!
Elder Garrett Christensen
Hey dad, how are you?
Things here are great. I love it here. We are having a lot of great things going on in the zone and especially in our area...Being a zone leader is fun because we get to see the numbers of all the missionaries in our zone and sometimes it is frustrating due to lazy guys, but others are working so hard...(on another note, Elder Light and I are killing everyone in numbers :)..haha joke...but serious!
Congrats on the job. I prayed for you that you would do well! Macy told me you had a interview or something.
I don't know about the different hunts. You just decide and I will do whatever because I do want to hunt I just don't want to worry about dates and stuff right now haha. Sorry to be a burden to you.
I love you lots dada and hope you are happy and healthy.
Love Elder Christensen

Pizza Hut & Veyo Pool

ZLC Pictures with President Pagaduan! Enjoy & Halong!

Hey family whats going on? This week was sweet and we had a great time. The Maximo family came to church again and they really enjoyed it. Brother Maximo said that he is completely done smoking and using alcohol so we are excited for him. They are still on line for August 4 unless we see any other problems.
Last week we had zone leader council (I will send a picture) which was sweet. President taught us about repentance and we learned a lot. We also got to account for the efforts of our zone. We did alright but have lots of room for improvement. We then had the best lunch ever! It was Pizza Hut, iceberg salad, and a baked macaroni casserole things haha. It was so good. Sister takes good care of us. It was even better because it was July 4! America day :)...By the way, how was your America day? We also got to go on splits this week. I went with Elder Jenkins, my buddy from my first area. He is kind of nervous because he is going home in August so he is close. It was fun to talk with him though and teach for an afternoon.
This upcoming week we have another training. Wednesday and Thursday in Arevalo with all the trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders so it will be fun seeing all the missionaries.
I loved hearing all the things going on back at home and I am glad to hear that all is well with you. Elder Light and I are doing awesome and I actually was telling him the other day about Veyo pool, then something crazy happened and we met a couple missionaries that know people from Veyo and stuff haha. It was funny I was laughing because I was just talking about it with my comp. We are both happy and healthy! Sorry this is short.
Love Elder Garrett Christensen
Hey dad whats going on? Thanks for writing.
We had a really good week this week! We are seeing great things. Sorry I have nothing new to tell you guys ever. I feel like I just say the same things over and over. We are enjoying our service.
That is way awesome about Tori, Steven Nelson, and Travan Topham. Tell them all I am way happy for them! They are making way good decisions it seems like. That is something I never realized until my mission is the importance of making good decisions. You have been a good example of that for me.
I miss you lots and love you. Only three months haha. It's way too close.
Love you
Elder Garrett

I Hope I Die Here

Hey y'all what is going on?

   This week was pretty rad. We waited for a call from president all day Monday and Tuesday to tell us we would transfer...but nothing came! So that means Elder Light and I will be here together another nine weeks (this transfer is three weeks longer due to some MTC program they are doing in which they will start teaching the missionaries Hiligaynon instead of Tagalog for our mission and Bacolod mission, that is why I had to decide to go home in October or November.)...So the next transfer day is Aug. 31, right after my birthday...Then I will be on my last transfer until October 9 or 10 when I will go.

   We have the sweetest people here in our area! I hope I die here haha and don’t get transferred to another area before I go home, but President doesn't like killing ZLs or people in the office so they always get stepped down before they go home. That happened to Elders Price, Adams, Jenkins, and Collins so it will probably happen to me although I don't want it to!

   The Maximo family came to church again and they are doing so well! They are the best! Also we were finally able to teach Aileen's (the woman we baptized in June) husband, Romer...We hadn't talked to him since he was in Manila but now he is here on vacation until tomorrow when he will go to get on a ship for nine months! Crazy job!

   This week was fun though because we had 15 missionaries leave and 17 come to our mission so we (since we live in the city) got to work with them when they had down time. It was pretty surreal seeing Elder Price and Collins and those guys leave. They are my good buddies. They were good missionaries in every sense of the word. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we worked with brand new missionaries. I worked with Elder Brown from Morgan, Utah and also Elder Baldwin from Blackfoot, Idaho and they were sweet. Of course they were way quiet when we taught since they can’t speak yet, but I had a really good time answering their questions and helping them adjust a little to life here. Then on Friday was transfer meeting so we all met up in Arevalo and had a sweet meeting where all the greenies met their trainers and others were transferred to their respective new areas. Elder Baldwin turned out to get trained where I was trained, Sibalom, Antique so that will be sweet for him!

   I am loving life here and we have a sweet week this week. We (Elder Light and I) get to teach zone meeting tomorrow and then interview all the companionships. Then on Wednesday we have zone leader counsel in Arevalo with all the ZL’s. Then on Thursday and Friday we will have missionaries (trainers and district leaders) work with us since they have a training.

All is well in Mandurriao!

Love, Elder Garrett Christensen

Hey Pops, Whats going on...I am staying in Mandurriao so I am excited. That is too bad that Brock came home, he would have loved it out in the field. I heard Tadd Challis will be going to the Philippines on his mission. Do you know what mission? That is cool that you had a busy week and that The Littlewood's will probably move to Provo huh? Who did Tori Leavitt marry? Is he from St. George?

   Everything is going sooo well here I am loving my area and companion and everything is awesome here! We have sweet investigators and all is well! Love you lots dad. Take Care!

Elder Garrett Christensen

Direct Answer From God

Aloha: haha just kidding I don't speak Hawaiian :)
   This week was a sweet week, We stayed super busy and had a lot of fun. The only thing is that it was a pretty regular week so I don't really know what I want to say to you all haha. hmmmm....
   The Maximo family was not able to come to church this week due to the dad being really sick, and he is the only one that can drive their tricycle. That was a bummer but we had two others there. Linette, 22, who is the best friend of a members and she is doing very well, maybe will be baptized in a couple months but not sure, she has some concerns we are still figuring out and working on. The other was Sonia, 60+, who we were teaching when I first got here but she wasn't progressing well so we didn't really visit her much, she told us she had like a vision about Christ and Joseph Smith and stuff so she went to church haha. She is....different but really nice and funny. We also teach her daughters.
   We had a cool story with the Maximo family last week though. What happened is on Saturday night we visited them and they loved our lesson but the dad had to work. (He owns his own welding business) because he was welding a tricycle and the owner needed it. He said he told the dude it would be done in four days but it had already been a week so he was being pressured to work on it instead of church. We tried to address the situation but eventually I just promised him that if he asked God through prayer, in faith, if he should go to church or if he should work, that God would show him what to do. He said that after we left he was pondering and thinking about what to do. He said he wanted to look for an answer from God so he opened the Book of Mormon and he said the first verse he looked down at and read was Mosiah 16:17, which is about resting on the Sabbath day and not working. He said he took it as his direct answer form God and promised us he would follow all that we are teaching him and his family. They went to church the following day (June 17) so they are doing so well! We also taught them the word of wisdom and even though they all have problems with it, they all committed to follow it no matter how hard it would be. They are rad.
   I love Mandurriao and the ward takes such good care of us here! The only thing weird right now is that Elder Price, Collins and all those guys go home tomorrow! It’s nuts haha. I am excited for them but lots of my good buddies in the mission will be home in two days haha. Mission is short. Elder Light and I are doing great too. We have the same vision of what we want to happen in the area. He might transfer on Friday though? We also get to work with all the incoming missionaries this week. So we will be the first real missionaries they work with until they get their real companions. Should be fun.
All my Love,
Elder Garrett Christensen

Hey Elder Light plays guitar here.....could you look up and send us the guitar chords for the George Straight song "Best Day"....Thank you!

Having Fun, Being Obedient and Loving Life

This is the Maximo family of 9...Don't mind the kid flipping you off. They don't understand what that means here haha. They just do it because they see movies where people do that. It is of them in their tricycle...It's used for hauling things like steel, animals and his family.

Hey this week was way rad, we were really busy though. First of all, we had to go on splits on Wednesday so I worked in Mandurriao with Elder Collins (my roommate from Roxas) and Elder light went to Molo to work with Elder Manwill (a new missionary) and we had a great time. Elder Collins goes home next week so he is really nervous/excited. We also have some elders giving us some problems in our zone, so Thursday morning, we gave them a surprise visit to their house when they should have been doing companion study. We will just say they weren't...they weren't even dressed...So we had like an hour long talk with them. So frustrating. They are both close to going home so they don’t want to work...big waste of our time. We then had to go report to President Pagaduan so we talked to him for a while too. We also had a high counselor tell us that he was assigned to their ward this week so he went and he said they were 15-20 minutes late for church and just talked the entire time. He went on a mission and he said they were the worst missionaries he has ever seen. Needless to say we have lots of work to do with them this week, but President is involved so I am sure we will get it taken care of.  I also got your package and Elder Light did too! Needless to say we have been snacking on M&M's, jerky, Big Hunk, salt water taffies, and dill pickle sunflower seeds!! It’s the best! I also liked the U of U shirts mom, I wore one this morning because we played basketball at 5:45 a.m. (I know, crazy things happen on your mission, like waking up happily at 5:45) but we won, of course.

   Well the Maximo family came to church again! All nine of them! I also got a picture of them because I knew mom would want one! They are the best and are sacrificing a lot to go to church. They have a baptismal goal date of August 4. We also had some other investigators go to church so we had a way successful week!

   Hey mom, we have a member here that sells real pearls color white, pink, or black and they come with one necklace, one pair of earrings and one bracelet for 2,200 pesos which is like $50... Are you interested? I have seen them and they are very nice. Elder Light ordered some so he will take them home. Just let me know. They can be for you, or Macy, or a gift or something...

   We also had to attend a general priesthood meeting on Saturday with all the priesthood from Iloilo Stake. We learned about home teaching. Elder Light and I were the only missionaries invited because they want us to learn and then "show the pattern" to our zone. Hopefully we can get better home teaching here in the Philippines soon. It is almost nonexistent.

   I hope you guys are all having fun and loving life. I go home so soon I really am doing my best. I feel like I am in my prime and our work is exploding so we are happy boys! I also love hearing about all your plans and things going on there!

All my Love,

Elder Garrett Christensen

Hey what’s up Pops!

Thanks so much for the e-mail. I did not hear about JR Seau that is crazy. I also never knew about LT so thanks for telling me. Crazy how many changes in the world can happen and we are completely oblivious to it all.

   Life is so awesome here. The lord is really helping us. I appreciate all your prayers and the stuff you sent in the package. Thanks for the Elk post card, crazy seeing an elk for the first time in a long time...I even taped it up by my desk so I can see it lots. I can’t wait to hunt again. Our health is great and our spirits are high.

I am happy to mow the lawn when I get home :) I am also happy to have a new mower haha...hopefully it is a riding one :) jk... Happy Father’s Day by the way.

The Pacquiao fight is pretty much done because they say there is a rematch in November so I will be in America to see it! I am excited to see what happens.

I have a question... what are the words to that country song by George Strait about like camping with his dad and then getting a car and saying like "this is the best day of my life"...Elder Light likes country so we sing it sometimes...The song of this week was..."Johnny's daddy was takin’ him fishing, when he was eight years old..." haha. We are having fun, being obedient and loving life.

I love you lots dad!

Your boy,

Elder Garrett

Hey Britt:

  We are having a good week and I agree sometimes it isn’t that fun wearing the same thing but we like it because we get to share about Christ every day. How is it going up there doing track and stuff? I hope you are liking it.

Love Elder Garrett

It's Official, I Will Be Coming Home in October

Yo Yo Yo:

Whats going on there in Snoop Dogg's hood? Things here are going so well! We had the best week! It started out last Tuesday. We taught our zone meeting in Arevalo to all our missionaries. We taught about teaching our investigators to seek revelation through prayer. We had a lot of fun. After that, we did interviews of every companionship, so it took a while. Interviews were to find out 1. How their obedience is. 2. If they are doing effective studies. 3. What special needs they have that we can pass on to the stake leaders, and 4.Their needs for their investigators. It is fun to talk one on one with the elders and sisters. We get to get to know them a lot better. We had a dinner appointment every day this week except on Thursday haha. We get treated very, very well in this area, which is for sure the richest in my mission. One night we ate at Jason Hibbert's house, he is an American here with his American wife and kids for a couple years for work. She cooked us a chicken casserole! Talk about heavenly. Followed by brownies and ice cream...gotta love Americans!

On Saturday night at 7, Elder Light and I had a stake correlation meeting which is where we pass on needs of our missionaries to our stake president, President Torres. He is the man and you can tell he really wants to help us. President Pagaduan also accompanied us to that meeting.

On Sunday we had the sweetest thing happen. We have a family named the Maximo family that we are teaching. There is a father, mother and then seven kids! They all came to church yesterday. They don't have a car but they do have a motorcycle with a side cart thing that they use to haul pigs around so they stacked chairs on there and rode like ten minutes to church! It was so sweet. The kids ages are 17, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, and 6...so that means we could potentially have the baptisms of eight people coming up soon! yeah boy!

Regarding the Pacquiao fight, everyone here says it was "ihaw" which is a slang word for like "unfair" or "pre-decided"....they all think that Bradley paid the judges or something haha, so I don’t know. It was a pretty big deal yesterday for us. Lots of people yelled at us about it haha, but it’s fine.

I love my companion, Elder Light and we get along great. We are working super hard and we found some sweet new investigators this last week. I love this area and this work.....

Please tell all the family there that I love them a lot and think about them. Tell them I can’t wait to see them in October. (Yes, its official, I will be coming home in October.)....I hope you all have fun. Love you all tons!

Elder Garrett Christensen

Hey Pops:

This week was sweet. It’s official. They asked us this week and I decided to go home on October 10 or 11 whenever it is, we'll see...but it will be mid-October. Which is crazy because that means I have like exactly four months left. Time to sprint to the finish. Sounds like you are all having fun in California. I could use me some relaxing on the beach, but this is more fun anyway. The people are all mad about Pacquiao but that is expected so no biggie. Luckily that will be my last time here during his fights haha. His fight days are way hard to get any work done! Everyone is "busy"....I love it here and am happy to be here. Love you dad.

Elder Garrett