We Have to Help more People Come to Christ!

Hey everyone. First I would like to shout out to Utah for whipping BYU. Put a big smile on my face here even across the world :) Also Reggie Bush is playing for the Dolphins? What happened there? Any other trades/transactions like that that I should have known about six months ago haha? This week has been a weird/okay week. First of all, my tooth started hurting again and when it hurts it gives me intense almost migrainal pain in my head so I talked to the dentist and he said to come to his shop. The only problem is that Roxas is 3+ hours from his shop, so Elder Collins, Elder Adams, Elder Price and I came down to Iloilo for my dentist and they also had some training to go to since they are Zone Leaders and Elder Price is District Leader. So while they did that I worked three days in an area called Arevalo which is in Iloilo City. I worked with two elders named Elder Ball and Wilson, both of which entered the MTC with me on the same day and traveled here together. It was fun and they have a great area. We then went home to Roxas on Friday night and worked as much as we could. Then on Saturday, President Pagaduan came up to do a baptismal interview with a candidate of ours that has some serious sins in the past so he had to talk to President. He will be baptized October 1. He is 22 and a great guy. I am glad that you are having a good time at home and everyone is staying busy. We have been so busy here it’s nuts. I feel like I look at a calendar and its September 1 then the next day it’s September 15. It’s crazy here. I am loving my new companion. We get along great and both have the same desire and vision of our area. This week we will work harder than ever. We have to help more people come to Christ! I got a letter for my birthday from Grandma Hirschi, so please tell her thanks and I love her. I also got letters from the Ogilvie family and Brother & Sister Christian. I'll write them back. Next time you see them, tell Bill Sherwin and Jaime Nyberg hello back for me. I am loving the work and stoked to be where I am right now. Thank you to all of you for all you do and your sacrifices for me. I have been given much. I love you all! Elder Garrett Christensen

New Area - Roxas City / New Comp Elder Price

Hello everyone This is Elder Christensen from my new area, Roxas City! It has been wierd for me adjusting to the city environment but I like it a lot. There is better food too :) My new companion is Elder Price from Riverton, Utah and is a stud. I am way happy to work with him. He is very obedient and hard working. We will get along awesome. We had six investigators at church yesterday and church was great. I am in Roxas 2nd ward. There are four wards here in Roxas City. We should have at least a couple baptisms coming up soon so we are excited. This is supposedly the "seafood capital of the Philippines" so maybe I will get some good food? Even though I hate fish, maybe crab and shrimp :) My roommates are the Roxas zone leaders and I like them a lot too. Great missionaries. Elder Adams from Murray, Utah and Elder Collins from California. Your pictures look like you had a ton of fun at Lake Powell and sounds like everyone is doing great! I am also happy to hear Dixie beat Pine View. That is always good to hear. This week I got your package. Thank you very much for everything! Also the Dixie Elder is always good to get. I am proud of Britt for doing soccer and tell Breck happy birthday! I can't believe it is time for the rodeo again! Breck, Mace, Britt and I went to it last year and it was way fun. Regarding the tooth, I believe I will only have to go back one more time and he said the cap thing will cost 6,500 pesos, or like 100+ dollars which is a lot cheaper than America so I guess that's good. But I feel fine and am happy here in Roxas. I love you all! Elder Garrett Christensen Hey pops. Things here are going great and loving the work here in Roxas City, Capiz. That is too bad that Utah got beat. Thats no good. That is crazy BYU played Texas though! Thats cool. Where was it? Has NFL started yet or no? I hope it gets cooler for you so you can get out in the hills. That might be one of the things I miss the most. Just time out in the mountains. Now I am in the city so I dont even see a mountain haha. Our apartment is ok, too. I saw a huge rat the other day during a lesson. There are lots here I have heard. We also have a lady that lives on a busy street corner and has lived there for 13 years. She doesn't leave the corner. Her hair is in gnarly dreads and she has worn the same clothes for years. It's crazy but things are good. Thanks for being a great dad and for the oil in the package. I love you tons and miss you more! Alright I am off! We are going to play basketball with the zone and I am about to ball them all up! Love you all! Elder Gary....p.s. now I have to learn Ilonggo haha I hate the languages in this country! Your son, Elder Christensen Hey britt how are things going with you? I hope all is well and you are having a good time with school and sports. Are there a lot of handsome bachelors in your sixth grade class? :) haha jk jk. I am very proud of you for doing soccer and being a good girl for mom and dad. I love you tons! Bye! Elder Garrett

Pictures

Elder Farnsworth and Sister Pagadaun at the dentist

Me in a "CR" or bathroom

Elder Key and I at Navarro house - crazy member in our ward and so, so funny

Sad to leave New Washington

Hello everyone. Another week has come and gone from New Washington and I have heard some sad news. I will be transferring on Friday to a new area. Where, I have no idea but all I know is that I will miss the people, members, investigators, roommates, companion, food, and everything else about New Washington! We are having an awesome time and seeing our work progress everyday even better. Sometimes we have too many people to teach and we cannot fit them all in a day! We had three investigators at church this week which is okay but some that committed didn't end up coming. That always is a bummer. Can you believe that it is September already and conference/my hump day is next month? Yikes! I am glad you guys are all having fun at Lake Powell and I hope the house boat is fun. Tell dad to stop driving so fast in the main canal so mom won’t yell :) I miss the boat. That is another thing I will miss about New Washington is the ocean and seeing it everyday. I truly have been blessed to be here. This week I got in the biggest fight of my mission. We went to a new investigator who was a referral from a member. When we got there, his pastor from the "Church of Christ" was there and he wanted to argue. At first we just told him to be quiet so we could share our message but he kept talking and not letting us share so we started bashing with him(we shouldn't have, but did haha.) He thought he knew the scriptures well but Elder Key and I worked him. He brought up stuff like the priesthood, living prophets and apostles, the name of the church, apostasy...all of which we are able to scripturally back up :) At the end he said "well I don’t think you should come back, you are just wasting your time" and then he closed his scriptures and said "I will say a closing prayer" then he prayed that we would "malalaman ang katotohanan" or "come to know the truth." We spanked him. Other than that not a lot happened. I went to Iloilo again to do the tooth and it feels great now! No problems at all. I will be getting a ceramic crown on Thursday so then it will be done. Things are going well and I am loving life. Love you all, Elder Garrett Christensen Dad: Hey how is everything going. First of all, I found out something cool this week. If you remember Alema Key, the middle linebacker from Springville my senior year...Well that is Elder Key's cousin and he knew him. Other than that, things are going well and I am loving it here. That is good that Tanner is doing well and a good player. I am also glad that everything is good with Dixie football! Also I am glad that Utah is doing well. BYU is oh well....haha How is Lake Powell? I bet you are all having a good time. Anyway I love you lots Dad and hope all is well. Love Elder Garrett

Hey Britt how is everything going? I hope you are loving Lake Powell and things are going well. How is soccer and everything going? I hope all is well. I hope you are being a good girl. Love you tons!

Baptism of Maria Mae Nerval

Hey everyone, this is big twenty year old, grown up Elder Christensen from Iloilo :) How is everything going there? Things here are great. I will start off by saying that we had an awesome baptism this week of Maria Mae Nerval who is the sister of Myra. So both the first and second baptisms of this area are in the same family. We had it on Saturday night at 7:30. It was late so Myra would be able to make it from work. The thing here is most people are in bed by like 8 or 9 at the latest so things at night are hard here. But we had a lot of members there and it went well. So last night (Sunday) Elder Farnsworth and I drove 4 and a half hours down here to Iloilo so I can go to the dentist later. Sister Pagaduan is taking really good care of me here. Other than that, our work really has been blowing up in New Washington. We keep finding new people that are progressing and going to church. We found two new families that are listening to us and doing great. I am glad that you guys wrote Brother Weaver from Sibalom. He is an awesome guy and I was super lucky to teach him. Right now I am at the mission office e-mailing (where president and all the office people work.) No mom, we were not affected at all by the storm in Manila. The weather here has been great. Overcast so it’s not hot but not raining too hard. I feel weird today in my mind I feel like I should be celebrating but the thing is that I am so happy. This is an awesome birthday so I have no complaints. I love being here, with these people and this place. Sorry this is short but I will send pics. I love you all! Elder "over-the-hill" Christensen Hey dad, you look good in the Pilipinas jersey! Hopefully you like it and can find any reason to wear it haha. Things have been great this week. I am going to the dentist in a half hour and then I will make the long trip back up to Aklan. I am excited for you all to go to Lake Powell and have some good, family time. The boat house will be cool too. How is the football/hunting/paradise season going? Anything new? Hopefully all is well. I love you and pray for you all! Elder Garrett Hey Britt, life here is going awesome. I really like it and am having fun. How is your new school with all your new classmates? I bet tons of boys are checkin’ you out! How are all your friends and your soccer team? I hope all is well. I love you!

We shouldn't even have a P-day

- Me climbing a coconut tree -

We did a service project cutting down weeds with a 'binangon' (machete)

Hey family what’s hattnin?? Things this week went very, very well. I was joking with my roommates that we shouldn't even have P-day and we should just work today but they all declined haha. I am glad that the package got to you and I hope all the stuff fits and made it there without getting ruined. Hopefully you like it all too! I probably will only send maybe one or two more in my mission so if you really want something, tell me. Thanks for the suggestion Mom, I will look for a nativity scene here. This is going to sound mean/bad but what grade is Britt in? 5th or 6th? Does she go to Tonaquint now? She looks really gwapa/maganda in her pictures haha. Looking older though for sure. I can’t believe I am almost twenty! The next time I e-mail I will be 20. I am not sure how I feel about it. Oh well. So this week we had what is called zone conference which is where Pres. and Sister Pagaduan come up and do like a training type thing for us. We learned about how to be a better companion, and also how to improve on some teaching skills like asking questions, listening, committing, etc. It went really well and I learned a lot. We also got portable DVD players for every companionship which is rad. We are allowed to watch all the church movies so hopefully nobody abuses it and gets them taken away by watching other movies. Every night as an apartment we have watched a movie or a segment of a movie and it is sweet. We also had stake conference this Sunday which went very well. The temple president and his wife came up from the Cebu temple. They are from Idaho and were nice to talk to. Our area is on fire right now and we are having a blast. Maria Mae (the sister of Myra) is going to be baptized this Saturday the 27th. We also are very close to getting John Ray married so he can be baptized. We have been doing a little bit of finding this week and it turned out well. We found a family, the father and mother are never there but it is an 18, 17, 15, and 14 year old They are all listening and have great questions and yesterday they told us they think what we are teaching is true. We told them to pray and read so they will know for sure. They are the Castillo family. My tooth is fine. I think I will go to Iloilo this week to a doctor. Don't worry. Sister Pagaduan is on the ball and is really worried so it will get taken care of. My health is great. My spirits are great. The work is great. Regarding the guy from last week. He was actually forced to leave the city. So that guy is no longer in New Washington. They made him move back to where he is from. So don’t worry about me getting stabbed haha. I love it here in New Washington and am glad to have at least another two or three weeks here, possibly more. I can’t think of anything I want for my birthday. I truly have been given much and anything is fine with me. Maybe some money would be good so I can buy some new pants here. The benches we sit on here are cawayan, or bamboo. And since they use nails on it, it is really easy to rip the seat on pants so I need to get some new ones made. I am glad that you are all happy and healthy and i Love you all more than anything. Love, Elder Garrett Christensen Hey Britt! How are you? Things here in the Philippines are going really well! I hope you are liking school and having fun but getting good grades! How is football/hunting season? That is so awesome that you scored! Keep practicing and you will be the best! I love you Barbs! Hey dad what’s going on? This week went awesome. I have no complaints. That is cool that football is started, I can’t believe it, but it’s cool haha. Who are the good players for Dixie? What grade is Tanner Webster? I am glad they got a good win. Also that sounds fun that hunting season has started. GOTTA LOVE FALL! I definitely think fall is my favorite season even though it is the same weather here haha. How is work going? Is it starting to cool off there or is it super hot still? Our health is all doing great! We are working hard and really seeing the fruits. Our daily planners are always full of people that we can help come unto Christ! I hope you have a good week and find some time to catch a ball game and hunt too.! I hope your jersey is good and fits. You should send a pic! haha love you dad! Miss you too! Elder Garrett "sharp shooter" Christensen

08/14/2011 Photos