02 July, 2012
My Family! :)
My awesome family,
Sorry that my email didn't get to you last Monday on time! We were very busy in the morning helping Elder Raymond and Elder Mwetu move into a different missionary house. The contract to rent the house expired on July 1, so we had to have everything out this week. We packed up all of their stuff into the truck and helped them move into the other missionary house where Elder Taylor and Elder Lyman stay. It is a big enough house for all 4 of them. Elder Taylor is from Escalante in Southern Utah! His mom went to high school in Piutte! Mom probably went to school with her. I will try and find out his mom's name and see if you knew her!
Yeah, the trip down to Awassa was a little bit of an adventure, but is was fun! We are just glad that we were able to get the truck back up here to Addis. President Habtu is really amazing! He has so much responsibility and he gets everything done! He is the District President and he works for the Church and for the mission. He is awesome! He has 4 phones because so many people are always calling him. Haha.
Megenagna is a great area! The branch is very strong and they meet in a big nice building. They are so blessed!
Being a zone leader is a great privilege! I am so grateful to be able to help the zone become better and achieve greater success. This past week we held our Zone development meeting and also our district leader council. District leader council was held on Tuesday night. We have 4 District leaders in the Zone. Elder Raymond in Megenagna, Elder Horstman in Beklobet, Elder Lee in Kaliti, and Elder Beames in Debre Zeit. We met with them and shared what President Jackson's vision and goals of Ethiopia are and where he wants the zone to be in the coming months. Kaliti Branch is brand new this transfer. President Habtu has not yet been able to find a building for the Church to rent in Kaliti. We are hoping and praying that it will be soon! Once they find a building they will be able to split Beklobet branch and create Kaliti Branch. Kaliti is a sub-city in Southern Addis Ababa. Kaliti is kind of like a borough in New York city. We are looking forward to having a branch there! The Church is expanding all across Addis Ababa! President Jackson shared some interesting statistics with us about the city of Addis and then the whole country. He said that 72% of the population of Addis Ababa is above the poverty line and only 28% is below. But then he said, "Leave Addis Ababa and those numbers flip." 72% of the population outside of Addis Ababa is below the poverty line and only 28% are above it. The Church's foundation needs to be built in Addis before we can expect it to be stronger in the rest of the country. We are building those foundations right now! It is an incredible opportunity. I love Addis Ababa so much. I love Ethiopia! I love serving them and sharing the restored Gospel with everyone!
You know what? I actually miss washing my clothes in a bucket! I feel so lazy just putting them in a washing machine. Haha.
Yes, on Wednesday President Jackson, the AP's and the Praders will be arriving. They are new to the mission. They recieved their mission call to replace the Parrishs. Sister Parrish is slowly improving. She is heading in the right direction.
Elder Calcote is a great companion. I love serving with him!
Do you remember about me talking about Elder Wayecha that worked with us in Debre Zeit? He is in Megenagna branch and we are teaching his family and preparing them for baptism! He is so awesome.
It is amazing how much has happened in the past 2 years since I received my mission call. 2 years ago this month!
Thanks for all of the stories that you shared with me in your email. I'm sorry that this weeks email is short! Elder Seyoum and Elder Lee's water in their apartment shut off and we are taking jerry-cans down to them so that they can wash their clothes and have a bird bath. We are also visiting with a family this morning! And we are preparing a baptismal report to send to President Parrish. He still wants to be updated on the mission. We have to call all of the Ethiopian missionaries and receive an updated report on all of their baptism records. I promise that I will share more details next Monday! Elder Calcote and I share this computer and he needs a turn to email his family. I hope you understand! You guys are the best family in the whole world. Thank you for your love and support!
I love serving the Lord in Ethiopia! It is the best decision ever!
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
Here are some more pictures! The pictures of the family is of Elder Wayecha with his family. They are so awesome! I love you guys so much. Thanks for the support and love that you give to me!
Love,
Elder McKade Christensen
--
25 June, 2012
Back in Addis Ababa!
My amazing family,
It has been another incredible week in the mission field! Serving the Lord is so amazing and filled with blessings. Every day I learn so much and continue to grow in many different ways! Yep, I'm in Megenagna now! Last Tuesday morning President Habtu and Elder Calcote picked me up from Debre Zeit. I wasn't expecting them top pick me up until later in the afternoon,
but early in the morning they called and said they would be there in 5 minutes! They said they were traveling down towards Awasa to meet Elder Frost and some of the other missionaries coming up to Addis for transfers. I was excited to see more of Ethiopia! About 2 hours later as we were half-way to Awasa Elder Frost called President Habtu and told him that they
had crashed the truck and that they needed help. President Habtu called the local police station that was close to the town we were traveling through and we met them all at where the accident was. Elder Frost was driving on the freeway and a goat was crossing the road and so he pulled right really hard to miss it and the truck swerved around and went off the side of the road and almost tipped over but there was a wall of dirt that they hit against and then it propped the truck back up! It was very lucky that it wasn't worse! We thank Heavenly Father for the mount of dirt that stopped the truck from being totaled. We took a spare tire off from our truck and replaced on the crashed truck. And then President Habtu was able to drive it again! Elder Frost was not hurt at all and neither was Elder Lee. They were the only 2 in the car. Elder and Sister Frost are from Hurricane, Utah. They are so nice! They are the senior couple down in Awasa. Then Elder Lee and Elder Seyoum got into the truck with us and we headed to a local town and ate "Shekla Tibs". It is amazing grilled meat with injera! It is President Habtu's favorite food and it was his birthday this last week so he wanted to celebrate with us! He is such an awesome guy. He helps us out anytime that we need him! We traveled back to Addis and Habtu took the damaged truck into the garage to be fixed and looked at. We followed behind President Habtu as we traveled back just in case the truck stopped working. I took a picture as we were driving because I was surprised that
we actually got it to work! We are very grateful for the blessings we receive from Heavenly Father in times of great need! I was very happy for the time I was able to serve in Debre Zeit. I'm glad
that I will still be able to go see it once in a while when we go visit the Debre Zeit district! Yeah, Santa Kruz's family is doing fantastic! I hope and pray that they continue to stay strong! Destali, Henock and all of the other people are doing great still! Elder Calcote and I take turns taking reports every night, so I get to call Elder Beames every other day and see how Debre Zeit is doing! It is really fun to hear how Beklobet is doing too! I know all of the people that they tell me about in their reports and I love to get updated news about each of the investigators and members! I'm really excited to get to know all of the Megenagna Branch too! I love this zone! Yes, Henock now has a baptismal date for July. Yeah, I didn't want to give the iPad back to him when he let me hold it! Haha. I have made so many great friends in Beklobet and Debre Zeit and now Megenagna! These people are so special to me. I love this country! Elder Calcote is an amazing person and missionary. All of my companions have been awesome! He is from Utah. He also lived in Texas for 1 year before he left on his mission. He attended a community college in Dallas for 2 semesters! His mom lives close by Dallas. His Dad lives in Utah. He started his mission in Ethiopia! He has been serving for 13 months now. He is in the same group as Elder Whittworth. Elder Calcote knows how to speak Amharic! He really is great at it. We don't even have to use a translator because he knows it so well. He is a great comp. and I am so happy to have the privilege to serve with him! He has been here as a zone leader in Megenagna for 4 transfers now. We have a lot of things in common! We get along great! Yes, I will be driving! Scary huh? Haha. We went to the American Embassy last Thursday and got my Utah driver's license notarized. We are going to the DMV on Wednesday to get my Ethiopian drivers license. It was so much fun to be in the American embassy! There was actual Americans that were working there! It felt so cool! It is a very nice embassy. That is where the Beklobet Branch president, President Lieshman,
works! Assignments as a zone leader will be fun! A zone consists of districts. There are 4 districts now in Megenagna zone. Megenange district, Beklobet district, Kaliti district and Debre Zeit district. Kaliti just opened to missionary work this transfer! We are still looking for a building to meet in for church in Kaliti, but at least we have the missionary work started! We already have a few strong members that live in Kaliti that currently travel to Beklobet Branch that will be able to help the Church in Kaliti have a great start and grow strong! Malari lives pretty close to Kaliti, so I hope that he will be able to be a key helper in building that branch! Megagnaga is in the East part of Addis Ababa. It is a very busy part of town. We have a big building that is owned by the Church and it has a mission office in the same compound. They even have a room in the mission office for the zone leaders! We have a computer to do zone reports and other stuff to help the zone. I will send you a picture! The AP's in Kampala call us 2 times a week and we report to them. I talked to Elder Kendall on Thursday night. He is such a great guy! I love him. He goes home in July! I can't believe that this is his last transfer! Our house is so nice! I couldn't believe how nice it was when I first saw it! Haha. We even have a nice washing machine! It has a upstairs and big rooms. It is just me and Elder Calcote in the house. We have big parties in the house. We try to keep the music from blasting too loud so our neighbors aren't disturbed! Just kidding! It is pretty quite...So I have started to sing opera again! We have a lot of fun together :)The APs and President Jackson are coming up on July 4. They are bringing the new Addis Ababa senior couple with them! They are the Praders. I don't know where they are from yet. They have big shoes to fill since the Parrishs are gone. But we know they will be great! Meganagne branch is pretty big! The average attendance is 120. The Branch president of Meganangne is from Utah. He works at the American embassy. He is so awesome! His name is "President Snider." He is so funny. He reminds me of
John Carty. Thank you for forwarding that email from Elder Rennie. I hope that you will be able to meet him someday! He was a great influence on me for my mission. I will always be grateful for him! No, there was no Utah license plate. I searched for one all over the wall, but I couldn't find one! At least Idaho was there. Tamrat was happy!
I don't know what kind of flowers they were at the chapel. They looked like daises to me too! Make sure that Grandma Westwood sees them. I knew she would love them. I still wiegh around 165. There is so much good food in Megenagne! They have multiple donut shops and pizza places everywhere! I will have to be careful! Haha. I really don't want to gain any weight though...
That is funny what Kacey said about me looking like Grandpa Christensen! I actually thought the same exact thing! I guess that is a good thing. Grandpa Christensen is a good looking guy!
I'm so happy to hear that Grandpa Westwood is doing better. Thank you for the update. I'm glad that he is improving and that he is happy! Please tell him that I love him and that I'm proud to be his grandson. It means a lot to me that he served in the war. I respect him for it. I've really come to appreciate my country and I that I have there.
Thanks for the pictures of Katie at her swim meet! In one of the pictures I thought I saw Mr. Kerr standing in back of Mom. Was he there?
Katie looks like she loves to swim and she is really good at it!
That is cool that Mom saw Matt Amidan. I keep in contact with him almost every week. He sounds like he is doing great!
As we were traveling down to Awasa, I saw another huge herd of camels and I hurried and took a picture of them with Elder Calcote's camera! Please show the photo to Gavin. I hope he likes it!
Yeah it has been really rainy in Addis lately. It is the rainy season from June to September. I love it! We won't be walking as much anymore, because our area is probably the biggest in the mission and we use the truck to accomplish a lot of things in the day. Like this past week we drove boxes of supplies around to the different branches and picked up new missionaries from the airport and drove people around. Also, this morning we helped move some of the missionaries from their old house and moved them into another missionary house. The truck is a big help! I love being back in Addis. It feels like my city! I'm really hoping that St. George has grown a lot in these past 2 years... I love big cities! Haha. St. George is awesome even if it is still small :) It's big city for our family!
Thanks for the qoutes from the books that Dad found. I really love those! They are so true. Obedience is difficult at first, but as time goes by you realize that those commandments were given to you so that you can become a better person and have more freedom.
Thank you for all of the love and support that you give me. I know that I saw this every week, but I truly mean it! I really love you guys and I am so grateful for you. I love serving the Lord Jesus Christ. He is truly our Savior and Redeemer. I love helping other people come to realize the same things that I have come to known by reading the Book of Mormon. Daily scripture study is so important! Right now we are reading 1 Nephi with a family that has been baptized for a few years and there 8 year old son just got baptized. The Father's name is Debebe and he has 4 children. Last night we read 1 Nephi ch. 3. I realized that from verse 7 and then the last verse of the chapter, Nephi and Laman's attitude is completely opposite. And who eventually succeeded? Nephi did! I've learned that we have to just trust in Christ and do not rely on our own strength. We might think we are strong enough, but we aren't. If we want to be happy, follow what the spirit is telling us and follow Jesus Christ!
Thank you for sending me uplifting emails! I love you guys!
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
አ;ልድክጅፋል ;ቅድፍጃ;ልክድፍጃ;
but early in the morning they called and said they would be there in 5 minutes! They said they were traveling down towards Awasa to meet Elder Frost and some of the other missionaries coming up to Addis for transfers. I was excited to see more of Ethiopia! About 2 hours later as we were half-way to Awasa Elder Frost called President Habtu and told him that they
had crashed the truck and that they needed help. President Habtu called the local police station that was close to the town we were traveling through and we met them all at where the accident was. Elder Frost was driving on the freeway and a goat was crossing the road and so he pulled right really hard to miss it and the truck swerved around and went off the side of the road and almost tipped over but there was a wall of dirt that they hit against and then it propped the truck back up! It was very lucky that it wasn't worse! We thank Heavenly Father for the mount of dirt that stopped the truck from being totaled. We took a spare tire off from our truck and replaced on the crashed truck. And then President Habtu was able to drive it again! Elder Frost was not hurt at all and neither was Elder Lee. They were the only 2 in the car. Elder and Sister Frost are from Hurricane, Utah. They are so nice! They are the senior couple down in Awasa. Then Elder Lee and Elder Seyoum got into the truck with us and we headed to a local town and ate "Shekla Tibs". It is amazing grilled meat with injera! It is President Habtu's favorite food and it was his birthday this last week so he wanted to celebrate with us! He is such an awesome guy. He helps us out anytime that we need him! We traveled back to Addis and Habtu took the damaged truck into the garage to be fixed and looked at. We followed behind President Habtu as we traveled back just in case the truck stopped working. I took a picture as we were driving because I was surprised that
we actually got it to work! We are very grateful for the blessings we receive from Heavenly Father in times of great need! I was very happy for the time I was able to serve in Debre Zeit. I'm glad
that I will still be able to go see it once in a while when we go visit the Debre Zeit district! Yeah, Santa Kruz's family is doing fantastic! I hope and pray that they continue to stay strong! Destali, Henock and all of the other people are doing great still! Elder Calcote and I take turns taking reports every night, so I get to call Elder Beames every other day and see how Debre Zeit is doing! It is really fun to hear how Beklobet is doing too! I know all of the people that they tell me about in their reports and I love to get updated news about each of the investigators and members! I'm really excited to get to know all of the Megenagna Branch too! I love this zone! Yes, Henock now has a baptismal date for July. Yeah, I didn't want to give the iPad back to him when he let me hold it! Haha. I have made so many great friends in Beklobet and Debre Zeit and now Megenagna! These people are so special to me. I love this country! Elder Calcote is an amazing person and missionary. All of my companions have been awesome! He is from Utah. He also lived in Texas for 1 year before he left on his mission. He attended a community college in Dallas for 2 semesters! His mom lives close by Dallas. His Dad lives in Utah. He started his mission in Ethiopia! He has been serving for 13 months now. He is in the same group as Elder Whittworth. Elder Calcote knows how to speak Amharic! He really is great at it. We don't even have to use a translator because he knows it so well. He is a great comp. and I am so happy to have the privilege to serve with him! He has been here as a zone leader in Megenagna for 4 transfers now. We have a lot of things in common! We get along great! Yes, I will be driving! Scary huh? Haha. We went to the American Embassy last Thursday and got my Utah driver's license notarized. We are going to the DMV on Wednesday to get my Ethiopian drivers license. It was so much fun to be in the American embassy! There was actual Americans that were working there! It felt so cool! It is a very nice embassy. That is where the Beklobet Branch president, President Lieshman,
works! Assignments as a zone leader will be fun! A zone consists of districts. There are 4 districts now in Megenagna zone. Megenange district, Beklobet district, Kaliti district and Debre Zeit district. Kaliti just opened to missionary work this transfer! We are still looking for a building to meet in for church in Kaliti, but at least we have the missionary work started! We already have a few strong members that live in Kaliti that currently travel to Beklobet Branch that will be able to help the Church in Kaliti have a great start and grow strong! Malari lives pretty close to Kaliti, so I hope that he will be able to be a key helper in building that branch! Megagnaga is in the East part of Addis Ababa. It is a very busy part of town. We have a big building that is owned by the Church and it has a mission office in the same compound. They even have a room in the mission office for the zone leaders! We have a computer to do zone reports and other stuff to help the zone. I will send you a picture! The AP's in Kampala call us 2 times a week and we report to them. I talked to Elder Kendall on Thursday night. He is such a great guy! I love him. He goes home in July! I can't believe that this is his last transfer! Our house is so nice! I couldn't believe how nice it was when I first saw it! Haha. We even have a nice washing machine! It has a upstairs and big rooms. It is just me and Elder Calcote in the house. We have big parties in the house. We try to keep the music from blasting too loud so our neighbors aren't disturbed! Just kidding! It is pretty quite...So I have started to sing opera again! We have a lot of fun together :)The APs and President Jackson are coming up on July 4. They are bringing the new Addis Ababa senior couple with them! They are the Praders. I don't know where they are from yet. They have big shoes to fill since the Parrishs are gone. But we know they will be great! Meganagne branch is pretty big! The average attendance is 120. The Branch president of Meganangne is from Utah. He works at the American embassy. He is so awesome! His name is "President Snider." He is so funny. He reminds me of
John Carty. Thank you for forwarding that email from Elder Rennie. I hope that you will be able to meet him someday! He was a great influence on me for my mission. I will always be grateful for him! No, there was no Utah license plate. I searched for one all over the wall, but I couldn't find one! At least Idaho was there. Tamrat was happy!
I don't know what kind of flowers they were at the chapel. They looked like daises to me too! Make sure that Grandma Westwood sees them. I knew she would love them. I still wiegh around 165. There is so much good food in Megenagne! They have multiple donut shops and pizza places everywhere! I will have to be careful! Haha. I really don't want to gain any weight though...
That is funny what Kacey said about me looking like Grandpa Christensen! I actually thought the same exact thing! I guess that is a good thing. Grandpa Christensen is a good looking guy!
I'm so happy to hear that Grandpa Westwood is doing better. Thank you for the update. I'm glad that he is improving and that he is happy! Please tell him that I love him and that I'm proud to be his grandson. It means a lot to me that he served in the war. I respect him for it. I've really come to appreciate my country and I that I have there.
Thanks for the pictures of Katie at her swim meet! In one of the pictures I thought I saw Mr. Kerr standing in back of Mom. Was he there?
Katie looks like she loves to swim and she is really good at it!
That is cool that Mom saw Matt Amidan. I keep in contact with him almost every week. He sounds like he is doing great!
As we were traveling down to Awasa, I saw another huge herd of camels and I hurried and took a picture of them with Elder Calcote's camera! Please show the photo to Gavin. I hope he likes it!
Yeah it has been really rainy in Addis lately. It is the rainy season from June to September. I love it! We won't be walking as much anymore, because our area is probably the biggest in the mission and we use the truck to accomplish a lot of things in the day. Like this past week we drove boxes of supplies around to the different branches and picked up new missionaries from the airport and drove people around. Also, this morning we helped move some of the missionaries from their old house and moved them into another missionary house. The truck is a big help! I love being back in Addis. It feels like my city! I'm really hoping that St. George has grown a lot in these past 2 years... I love big cities! Haha. St. George is awesome even if it is still small :) It's big city for our family!
Thanks for the qoutes from the books that Dad found. I really love those! They are so true. Obedience is difficult at first, but as time goes by you realize that those commandments were given to you so that you can become a better person and have more freedom.
Thank you for all of the love and support that you give me. I know that I saw this every week, but I truly mean it! I really love you guys and I am so grateful for you. I love serving the Lord Jesus Christ. He is truly our Savior and Redeemer. I love helping other people come to realize the same things that I have come to known by reading the Book of Mormon. Daily scripture study is so important! Right now we are reading 1 Nephi with a family that has been baptized for a few years and there 8 year old son just got baptized. The Father's name is Debebe and he has 4 children. Last night we read 1 Nephi ch. 3. I realized that from verse 7 and then the last verse of the chapter, Nephi and Laman's attitude is completely opposite. And who eventually succeeded? Nephi did! I've learned that we have to just trust in Christ and do not rely on our own strength. We might think we are strong enough, but we aren't. If we want to be happy, follow what the spirit is telling us and follow Jesus Christ!
Thank you for sending me uplifting emails! I love you guys!
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
አ;ልድክጅፋል ;ቅድፍጃ;ልክድፍጃ;
Here are a few more pictures of the office and of the Church compound! I hope you enjoy them! There is picture of a family that we visited on Sunday and it was their daughter's birthday! The father works in the Church garden. His name is Sa'id. It was so much fun!
Love you!
Elder Christensen
Love you!
Elder Christensen
--
18 June, 2012
Happy Transfer news! :)
Hello my amazing family!
It was a great and rewarding week. Heavenly Father guided us and blessed in so many ways! Sunday was especially good. Santa Kruz and his whole family came to Church! His Father, Mother, brother, sister and even his little sister! It was so awesome to see them all as a family attending Church together! Ever since I arrived in Debre Zeit we have been visiting their family every week and strengthening them. First Moges, his father, started to bring Santa Kruz to Church with him. Then a few weeks later his brother started attending. And then his Mom! And then finally on my last Sunday here they all showed up! I couldn't believe it. Heavenly Father surely blesses families! Sometimes it is hard for people to re-activate themselves and start coming to church again every week. But, we they have support and love they can do it! We should not give up on anyone! Keep strengthening. Keep smiling. Keep loving. :)
I mentioned last week that it had been a challenging week. It was. But it was a terrific week! The more challenging the more blessings, right? :) We have had so many blessings these past few days! Elder Goodner and I were eating our lunch at the Church last Thursday. We were just sitting and talking about what we thought would happen with transfer news. And then 2 guys walked into the Church compound and told us that they wanted to learn more about the Church! We were so surprised! We quickly put away our lunches and started discussing with them. One of them knew English pretty well and so he was able to translate for the other guy. Their names are Destali and Dijina. They are from Addis Ababa, but they are visiting their families who live in Debre Zeit. We showed them the Book of Mormon and taught them about where it came from. They seemed pretty interested! We are really excited to continue to meet with them. They said that they are really busy with their work right now, but they gave us their phone numbers and Elder Goodner will be meeting with them this next week! Also, on Sunday one of the members of the Church brought us a referral! The referral's name is Zinash. She is about 35 years old. She attended Church and she loved it! Can you believe how much Heavenly Father takes care of all of his missionaries? He has thousands and thousands of missionaries, but yet he remembers and loves each one!
We met with Henock again this week. He even came to Church yesterday too! He is reading the Book of Mormon and strengthening his testimony of the restored Gospel. He had a few questions about the history of the Book of Mormon and we were able to help him figure out the answers this week. If he continues to attend Church, he should be able to be baptized in a few weeks! He is a great guy. He has lived all over the place! Yeah, it was great to hold an iPad after 18 1/2 months! :)
We haven't heard anything about Sister Parrish. Last I heard she was still improving! Hopefully we get some updated news soon. I will let you know. I hope that I can visit them someday at their home in Park City, Utah. They are one of my favorite senior couples ever!
Transfer News!
Well, another transfer has flown by! Today starts my 14th. It was a great transfer with Elder Goodner. I really enjoyed being his companion! We accomplished a lot of work and the Lord strengthened us and our testimonies all along the way. I can't believe how awesome of companions I get each transfer! They each seem to be the nicest Elders! It is a great privilege to serve a mission. I was expecting transfer news to be small this time because last time there was a lot of changing! But there was just as much change this time! Almost half of the 26 missionaries in Ethiopia were switched around! Elder Manyakanyaka is going back to Uganda! He will be serving in Mbale! I am so happy for him. I loved serving in the Mbale branch. Elder Manyakanyaka is really happy to go back to Uganda. He is a great missionary and will do good wherever he is called. Elder Ondieki's new companion is Elder Cook who is currently in Uganda. Elder Cook is from California. I've met him a few times and he is a great missionary! Elder Goodner's new companion is Elder Beams! Elder Beams will be the new district leader here in Debre Zeit. I will be transferred to Meganagne back in Addis Ababa! I've been called to be the new Zone leader and Elder Calcote will be my new companion! I was surprised to hear all of these changes and it will be a fantastic adventure! I am really excited for this new calling and opportunity to serve the Lord in Meganagne Zone. Meganagne district, Beklobet district, Debre Zeit district and now Kaliti district are all apart of the Meganagne zone. Beklobet branch is being split and they are opening a new branch in the southern tip of Addis Ababa city, Kaliti branch! Elder Seyoum and Elder Lee will be opening the Kaliti district tomorrow. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is when all of the transfers will happen. It's exciting times for Ethiopia! The Church is expanding. The Gospel is spreading. Testimonies are growing!
Yes, Elder Rennie is flying home probably right this moment. He was such a great missionary! He will be greatly missed in the mission. Also, 2 other Elders finished their missions; Elder Welch and Elder Gibby.
Mom better get ready for the adventure of visiting my mission! It will be awesome, don't worry Mom!
We found an Idaho license plate at a restaurant! We were eating there with Tamrat. He is a returned missionary. He served in Kenya. He is a great guy! He is planning to attend BYU-Idaho, so we thought it was really funny to see an Idaho license plate! He is excited to go to Idaho. He will probably be there in September or October.
Sounds like you had a great time with Katie and Gavin over the weekend! Please tell Gavin that there are lots of camels, especially here in Debre Zeit! While we were traveling to Adulala we passed by a big herd of Camel. I tried to take a picture but we were on a very bumpy road and the picture was really blurry.
I'm glad Dad had a good time at the scout camping trip. I bet Dad enjoys being the Scout/Deacon leader. Happy Father's Day Dad! Thanks for being the best Dad in the world!
Thank you for the love and support that you give to me all of the time! I really really appreciate it. Thank you for the quote from the missionary quote book. It really means a lot to me. You are the best family in the whole world. I hope that you know that. My testimony has really grown from serving my mission.
Here is a quote that I love. "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper," For me, it has become much much deeper. I can't even express my gratitude for this opportunity to serve a mission. I thank Heavenly Father every day for this amazing chance to serve him. My faith and testimony has grown so much. I know that the Book of Mormon is so important to our knowledge of Jesus Christ. I've read the whole Book of Mormon and I've read the whole New Testament, and I know that the 2 books intertwine together to create an incredible pool of knowledge about the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can tell the difference of the level of faith and commitment in members of the Church who have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and those who have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and continually study it and search out the principles of the Gospel found in the Book and strive for complete obedience in their lives. It isn't enough just to read and pray about it. It isn't a "Once in a life time" experience. It isn't a one time thing. It should BE your life time experience! It should happen all of the time! I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. We are His Latter-Day Saints. President Thomas S. Monson is God's mouthpiece to speak to His children. This Church is built upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets with Jesus Christ being its cornerstone. I testify that the Prophets and Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints produce wonderful and amazing fruit whereby we shall know if they are true messengers of God! We have a lot of fruit from our modern day Prophets! We have 182 sessions worth of General Conferences filled with the words of Heavenly Father! We have the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have The Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and tons and tons of other talks given my Apostles and Prophets in these last days. We are so blessed to live in this period of time. It is awesome! I love you and I share you my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love,
Your Ethiopian missionary,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
P.S. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I attached.
Picture one is of the current church's flower garden. I thought mom would enjoy seeing it!
Picture two is of some of the members preparing seed packets for giving to the members so that they can plant their own gardens! Gardens are awesome. I want to have a big garden!
Picture three is of Tamrat and his Idaho license plate. He is excited to go to BYU-Idaho!
Picture four is of me with a member family. The Father's name is Misak. He is the Gospel Doctrine teacher.
Picture five is of me dressed up in traditional clothing with a member family. They are awesome! So many people actually still wear this type of clothing! It is cool!
It was a great and rewarding week. Heavenly Father guided us and blessed in so many ways! Sunday was especially good. Santa Kruz and his whole family came to Church! His Father, Mother, brother, sister and even his little sister! It was so awesome to see them all as a family attending Church together! Ever since I arrived in Debre Zeit we have been visiting their family every week and strengthening them. First Moges, his father, started to bring Santa Kruz to Church with him. Then a few weeks later his brother started attending. And then his Mom! And then finally on my last Sunday here they all showed up! I couldn't believe it. Heavenly Father surely blesses families! Sometimes it is hard for people to re-activate themselves and start coming to church again every week. But, we they have support and love they can do it! We should not give up on anyone! Keep strengthening. Keep smiling. Keep loving. :)
I mentioned last week that it had been a challenging week. It was. But it was a terrific week! The more challenging the more blessings, right? :) We have had so many blessings these past few days! Elder Goodner and I were eating our lunch at the Church last Thursday. We were just sitting and talking about what we thought would happen with transfer news. And then 2 guys walked into the Church compound and told us that they wanted to learn more about the Church! We were so surprised! We quickly put away our lunches and started discussing with them. One of them knew English pretty well and so he was able to translate for the other guy. Their names are Destali and Dijina. They are from Addis Ababa, but they are visiting their families who live in Debre Zeit. We showed them the Book of Mormon and taught them about where it came from. They seemed pretty interested! We are really excited to continue to meet with them. They said that they are really busy with their work right now, but they gave us their phone numbers and Elder Goodner will be meeting with them this next week! Also, on Sunday one of the members of the Church brought us a referral! The referral's name is Zinash. She is about 35 years old. She attended Church and she loved it! Can you believe how much Heavenly Father takes care of all of his missionaries? He has thousands and thousands of missionaries, but yet he remembers and loves each one!
We met with Henock again this week. He even came to Church yesterday too! He is reading the Book of Mormon and strengthening his testimony of the restored Gospel. He had a few questions about the history of the Book of Mormon and we were able to help him figure out the answers this week. If he continues to attend Church, he should be able to be baptized in a few weeks! He is a great guy. He has lived all over the place! Yeah, it was great to hold an iPad after 18 1/2 months! :)
We haven't heard anything about Sister Parrish. Last I heard she was still improving! Hopefully we get some updated news soon. I will let you know. I hope that I can visit them someday at their home in Park City, Utah. They are one of my favorite senior couples ever!
Transfer News!
Well, another transfer has flown by! Today starts my 14th. It was a great transfer with Elder Goodner. I really enjoyed being his companion! We accomplished a lot of work and the Lord strengthened us and our testimonies all along the way. I can't believe how awesome of companions I get each transfer! They each seem to be the nicest Elders! It is a great privilege to serve a mission. I was expecting transfer news to be small this time because last time there was a lot of changing! But there was just as much change this time! Almost half of the 26 missionaries in Ethiopia were switched around! Elder Manyakanyaka is going back to Uganda! He will be serving in Mbale! I am so happy for him. I loved serving in the Mbale branch. Elder Manyakanyaka is really happy to go back to Uganda. He is a great missionary and will do good wherever he is called. Elder Ondieki's new companion is Elder Cook who is currently in Uganda. Elder Cook is from California. I've met him a few times and he is a great missionary! Elder Goodner's new companion is Elder Beams! Elder Beams will be the new district leader here in Debre Zeit. I will be transferred to Meganagne back in Addis Ababa! I've been called to be the new Zone leader and Elder Calcote will be my new companion! I was surprised to hear all of these changes and it will be a fantastic adventure! I am really excited for this new calling and opportunity to serve the Lord in Meganagne Zone. Meganagne district, Beklobet district, Debre Zeit district and now Kaliti district are all apart of the Meganagne zone. Beklobet branch is being split and they are opening a new branch in the southern tip of Addis Ababa city, Kaliti branch! Elder Seyoum and Elder Lee will be opening the Kaliti district tomorrow. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is when all of the transfers will happen. It's exciting times for Ethiopia! The Church is expanding. The Gospel is spreading. Testimonies are growing!
Yes, Elder Rennie is flying home probably right this moment. He was such a great missionary! He will be greatly missed in the mission. Also, 2 other Elders finished their missions; Elder Welch and Elder Gibby.
Mom better get ready for the adventure of visiting my mission! It will be awesome, don't worry Mom!
We found an Idaho license plate at a restaurant! We were eating there with Tamrat. He is a returned missionary. He served in Kenya. He is a great guy! He is planning to attend BYU-Idaho, so we thought it was really funny to see an Idaho license plate! He is excited to go to Idaho. He will probably be there in September or October.
Sounds like you had a great time with Katie and Gavin over the weekend! Please tell Gavin that there are lots of camels, especially here in Debre Zeit! While we were traveling to Adulala we passed by a big herd of Camel. I tried to take a picture but we were on a very bumpy road and the picture was really blurry.
I'm glad Dad had a good time at the scout camping trip. I bet Dad enjoys being the Scout/Deacon leader. Happy Father's Day Dad! Thanks for being the best Dad in the world!
Thank you for the love and support that you give to me all of the time! I really really appreciate it. Thank you for the quote from the missionary quote book. It really means a lot to me. You are the best family in the whole world. I hope that you know that. My testimony has really grown from serving my mission.
Here is a quote that I love. "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper," For me, it has become much much deeper. I can't even express my gratitude for this opportunity to serve a mission. I thank Heavenly Father every day for this amazing chance to serve him. My faith and testimony has grown so much. I know that the Book of Mormon is so important to our knowledge of Jesus Christ. I've read the whole Book of Mormon and I've read the whole New Testament, and I know that the 2 books intertwine together to create an incredible pool of knowledge about the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can tell the difference of the level of faith and commitment in members of the Church who have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and those who have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and continually study it and search out the principles of the Gospel found in the Book and strive for complete obedience in their lives. It isn't enough just to read and pray about it. It isn't a "Once in a life time" experience. It isn't a one time thing. It should BE your life time experience! It should happen all of the time! I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. We are His Latter-Day Saints. President Thomas S. Monson is God's mouthpiece to speak to His children. This Church is built upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets with Jesus Christ being its cornerstone. I testify that the Prophets and Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints produce wonderful and amazing fruit whereby we shall know if they are true messengers of God! We have a lot of fruit from our modern day Prophets! We have 182 sessions worth of General Conferences filled with the words of Heavenly Father! We have the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have The Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and tons and tons of other talks given my Apostles and Prophets in these last days. We are so blessed to live in this period of time. It is awesome! I love you and I share you my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love,
Your Ethiopian missionary,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
P.S. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I attached.
Picture one is of the current church's flower garden. I thought mom would enjoy seeing it!
Picture two is of some of the members preparing seed packets for giving to the members so that they can plant their own gardens! Gardens are awesome. I want to have a big garden!
Picture three is of Tamrat and his Idaho license plate. He is excited to go to BYU-Idaho!
Picture four is of me with a member family. The Father's name is Misak. He is the Gospel Doctrine teacher.
Picture five is of me dressed up in traditional clothing with a member family. They are awesome! So many people actually still wear this type of clothing! It is cool!
--
11 June, 2012
Missionary life! :)
My great family,
Happy Monday everyone! It is really good to email you this morning. It has been a challenging, but great and rewarding week here in Debre Zeit! The Lord is with us and strengthening us along. The Branch is doing really good. They have a wonderful Branch Presidency who lead them and show them a fine example. There was 102 people attend sacrament meeting! We were sure glad to push over 100 again! On Saturday night, Elder Goodner and I sent out text messages to some of the recent converts and less active members. Most of them showed up to Church the next day! Although, we only had 1 investigator attend Church. We don't know why the others didn't come to Church, but we will be meeting with them this week and help strengthen them and help them to Church. We met with most of our investigators last Thursday and Friday and invited them to Church and they said they would come, but I guess we can look forward to next Sunday and hope that they come!
We are currently working with four investigators. Henock, Tilahun, Abde, and Takali. We met with Henock and Takali last Thursday. They are friends and came to the appointment together. Henock recently moved from Khartoum, North Sudan to Ethiopia. He was born in Eritrea and grew up there, but moved to Khartoum for a job and lived there for 8 years. He is now living in Debre Zeit where most of his family lives. He is 32 years old. One of his sisters lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and recently visited Debre Zeit to see her family. And guess what she brought Henock? An iPad. And he brought it to the appointment in a little zip case! As we were all sitting down I noticed that he was holding the little case in his hands. I knew it was an iPad and I started to laugh. He even let me hold it! Haha. Back to the lesson... We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him an English copy to start reading. He excepted it, but we could tell he was still a little confused. We told him that the only way he could know if it is true was to read it and then ask God if it was truly His words. He got excited and said, "You can ask God questions in this Church?" We replied to him that God wants us to ask all of our questions to him. Heavenly Father is the source of all truth and he loves us and wants to share all of it with us if we are willing to ask, seek, and knock. We really hope that Henock asks Heavenly Father in faith so that he can receive his answer! I am so grateful for the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. We really can ask God questions in this Church, because it is His Church and it's true! What a wonderful blessing.
Santa Kruz didn't come to Church yesterday but his father, Moges, came and he told us that Santa Kruz wasn't feeling good. We are going to go see him on Tuesday and see if he is better!
The Branch party food was made by some of the relief society sisters at the Church. Not everyone brings food like at our ward parties. The Branch provides the funds for the party and the Relief society takes care of all of the cooking and preparation. I bet Mom is glad that Relief society isn't completely responsible for all ward parties at home! Haha. You guys love ward parties!
We didn't hear any news about Sister Parrish this week. Hopefully they will continue to keep us updated! I'm sure she is doing better though.
Transfer news is starting to swirl! Most of the missionaries think that transfers will be very small this time since the past 2 transfers were really big changes. I am guessing that Elder Beames will leave Beklobet. I don't really know about anyone else. I think that there will only be a few people move. I will let you know for sure next week! I have a feeling that Elder Omondi is going to be the next AP. We will see soon!
I still have no idea why they are building such a big church in Debre Zeit. But we are lucky that they are! It will be great for the members here. It will create a lot of public interest when they have an open house. It will be so good for the church here!
Yeah, Adulala is a big adventure every time! There are chickens on the roof and goats and sheep and everything on the bus with us traveling to Adulala. It's like a small zoo on the bus! Haha. We didn't have to sit by the driver on top of the engine this time. But we got to sit in the isle on little buckets because the bus was completely full and they were very kind to pick us up. We waited for 3 hours to get a bus going back to Debre Zeit! We thanked Heavenly Father for providing a bus for us so that we didn't have to walk back. That would have added to the adventure!
Being able to see my mission brothers was a great experience. We probably won't be together again until our farewell dinner with President Jackson! I would say that we have all had pretty adventurous missions. Each of us have our own stories and adventures! Hopefully you can meet them someday.
The local hamburger places are pretty good (Or I've just really gotten use to them) ;) The Pizza is actually really good too. They would compare with cheap places at home.
I received your package on Saturday! Thank you so much!! President Habtu was driving down to Awassa and he stopped in Debre Zeit and dropped it off at our house. I loved everything that you sent me! Thank you for all of the treats and goodies. Also, I loved the Church News paper! I thought it was so interesting! There was an article in there about the 1st stake being created in Cape Verde. We have a family in Debre Zeit and there son is on a mission there. We are visiting them tonight and I am going to let them keep the page with the article about Cape Verde on it. They will love it! There was also an article that talked about Ethiopia too. Also, please make sure to tell Adriana and Isabelle a special thank you from me. I love General Conference edition magazine. The mission still hasn't gotten any, so I am especially grateful to Adriana that she sent me one! :) Please tell Grandpa Westwood thank you too for the postcard and the smarties. I loved it! You all made me so happy. Thanks for everything and for loving me! I shared a lot of the candy with the other missionaries and some of the branch members. They thank you too. You made all of us so happy! You are the best!
Elder Goodner and I are doing great together. It would be fun to stay with him for another transfer! He is a great companion. He is really enjoying Ethiopia! I love it too! I can't wait to show you guys the Beklobet Branch and the Debre Zeit Branch! You will love all of the members. They will for sure want to feed you! Get excited Mom! No forks!
Ethiopia is really growing. Addis Ababa has so many buildings under construction. We really hope that the Church will match the growth of this country as it continues to grow! The Church has so much potential here. We are only beginning! Soon the triple combination will be available in Amharic and it will really help the members know the history and doctrine of the Church better. Most of them can speak and read English, but the old English used in the scriptures is hard for them to understand. I can't wait for the day when they have all of the books of scripture in their language! Hopefully this year! I love serving here. I've really gained an appreciation of the amazing opportunity that I have to serve the Lord in this special part of His vineyard.
Wow, you got me really excited when you said Mitt Romney sent you a letter! Haha. Did you guys contribute? We hope he wins!
Yeah, thank you for sending me Elder Aston's email. Sounds like he kind of has a tough companion. He will figure it out though. No worries. Mission is awesome! The Lord teaches you so many things!
Sounds like Kacey and Jordan are having fun traveling to Yellow Stone Park. I hope they have a fun time! Make sure to remind them to keep saving so that we can go on our California 2013 summer trip! We will have to go to the LA temple!
Thanks for keeping me updated about our neighborhood and other people and also for those great quotes. I always love to hear whatever you guys have to tell me! Thanks for the nice big email every week.
I found this article on the Church news website:
"Sometimes spiritual insight comes from an unexpected place. I was watching an interview with former President Bill Clinton the other night when he said his biggest concern with kids sending text messages to each other 80 times a day is they are not living in the present.They are missing the joy of being awake to the moment.Being awake to the "now" — to the present — has been a spiritual virtue for centuries.It has been said that even paying complete attention is a form of prayer.And yet, so few people are able to do it.Being aware of life "now" was a key teaching of Jesus ("Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.")Buddhists and other contemplatives have built their entire spiritual lives around the idea of being aware of living in the moment.So why don't more of us do it?It's not just texting teens who look for distractions, who try to "be somewhere else" instead of in the here and now.Many of us create tasks to keep busy, to keep our minds occupied so we don't have to confront our lives. It's as if we fear if we allow ourselves to live in the moment we will somehow disappear, or perhaps we fear that despair will set in, that troubling memories and dark fantasies will flood in.But those who take the risk, who actually learn to be awake and aware, often find that the void we fear is often filled — not with darkness and loneliness — but with sweetness and light.They have learned — along with Michael McLean — that if they hold on, the light will come.They often find the peace and serenity that was hidden by their helter-skelter lives.I think that is what Clinton was getting at.When we constantly live in the past, or in the future, or — as in texting — live somewhere else besides where we are — we miss the power and beauty of the present.We miss being truly alive.In religion we sometimes say a person is "active" or "inactive," as if religion consisted mainly of buzzing around, doing things.But sometimes a light switch becomes "active" when it simply allows energy and power to flow through it."We need to concentrate on what has been called 'the holy present,' " wrote Elder Neal A. Maxwell for the LDS Church's Ensign magazine back in 1974, "for now is sacred … The holy gift of life always takes the form of now."His thoughts chime in my mind with an old Zen proverb:"No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see."
I've really appreciated this article and the message that it teaches us. We really must stop and count our blessings. Take time to live "now". If we are always planning for tomorrow, we might forget about today! I've learned this lesson as I've been a missionary. If you always think about the future and going home you will miss what is happening right now! You don't want to waste your time as a missionary thinking about the future and then when you finally are home think about the past and wish you wouldn't have wasted that time thinking about the future!
Mission is going fantastic. I'm trying my best to live in the "now" and not to worry about the future. It seems tempting to think about the future right now especially on the down hill of the 2 years of service, but this is the most crucial time to serve! I've been set apart as a full-time missionary right now. I will use that calling to the best of my ability! I love serving as a full-time missionary. Thanks for all for all of the love and support. You are the best family in the world! The Church is true. I love it!
Love your Ethiopian missionary,
አድፍሳል;ክጅድፍል;ክጃድፋ;ልስክጅፋስል;ድክፍጅ
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
Happy Monday everyone! It is really good to email you this morning. It has been a challenging, but great and rewarding week here in Debre Zeit! The Lord is with us and strengthening us along. The Branch is doing really good. They have a wonderful Branch Presidency who lead them and show them a fine example. There was 102 people attend sacrament meeting! We were sure glad to push over 100 again! On Saturday night, Elder Goodner and I sent out text messages to some of the recent converts and less active members. Most of them showed up to Church the next day! Although, we only had 1 investigator attend Church. We don't know why the others didn't come to Church, but we will be meeting with them this week and help strengthen them and help them to Church. We met with most of our investigators last Thursday and Friday and invited them to Church and they said they would come, but I guess we can look forward to next Sunday and hope that they come!
We are currently working with four investigators. Henock, Tilahun, Abde, and Takali. We met with Henock and Takali last Thursday. They are friends and came to the appointment together. Henock recently moved from Khartoum, North Sudan to Ethiopia. He was born in Eritrea and grew up there, but moved to Khartoum for a job and lived there for 8 years. He is now living in Debre Zeit where most of his family lives. He is 32 years old. One of his sisters lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and recently visited Debre Zeit to see her family. And guess what she brought Henock? An iPad. And he brought it to the appointment in a little zip case! As we were all sitting down I noticed that he was holding the little case in his hands. I knew it was an iPad and I started to laugh. He even let me hold it! Haha. Back to the lesson... We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him an English copy to start reading. He excepted it, but we could tell he was still a little confused. We told him that the only way he could know if it is true was to read it and then ask God if it was truly His words. He got excited and said, "You can ask God questions in this Church?" We replied to him that God wants us to ask all of our questions to him. Heavenly Father is the source of all truth and he loves us and wants to share all of it with us if we are willing to ask, seek, and knock. We really hope that Henock asks Heavenly Father in faith so that he can receive his answer! I am so grateful for the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. We really can ask God questions in this Church, because it is His Church and it's true! What a wonderful blessing.
Santa Kruz didn't come to Church yesterday but his father, Moges, came and he told us that Santa Kruz wasn't feeling good. We are going to go see him on Tuesday and see if he is better!
The Branch party food was made by some of the relief society sisters at the Church. Not everyone brings food like at our ward parties. The Branch provides the funds for the party and the Relief society takes care of all of the cooking and preparation. I bet Mom is glad that Relief society isn't completely responsible for all ward parties at home! Haha. You guys love ward parties!
We didn't hear any news about Sister Parrish this week. Hopefully they will continue to keep us updated! I'm sure she is doing better though.
Transfer news is starting to swirl! Most of the missionaries think that transfers will be very small this time since the past 2 transfers were really big changes. I am guessing that Elder Beames will leave Beklobet. I don't really know about anyone else. I think that there will only be a few people move. I will let you know for sure next week! I have a feeling that Elder Omondi is going to be the next AP. We will see soon!
I still have no idea why they are building such a big church in Debre Zeit. But we are lucky that they are! It will be great for the members here. It will create a lot of public interest when they have an open house. It will be so good for the church here!
Yeah, Adulala is a big adventure every time! There are chickens on the roof and goats and sheep and everything on the bus with us traveling to Adulala. It's like a small zoo on the bus! Haha. We didn't have to sit by the driver on top of the engine this time. But we got to sit in the isle on little buckets because the bus was completely full and they were very kind to pick us up. We waited for 3 hours to get a bus going back to Debre Zeit! We thanked Heavenly Father for providing a bus for us so that we didn't have to walk back. That would have added to the adventure!
Being able to see my mission brothers was a great experience. We probably won't be together again until our farewell dinner with President Jackson! I would say that we have all had pretty adventurous missions. Each of us have our own stories and adventures! Hopefully you can meet them someday.
The local hamburger places are pretty good (Or I've just really gotten use to them) ;) The Pizza is actually really good too. They would compare with cheap places at home.
I received your package on Saturday! Thank you so much!! President Habtu was driving down to Awassa and he stopped in Debre Zeit and dropped it off at our house. I loved everything that you sent me! Thank you for all of the treats and goodies. Also, I loved the Church News paper! I thought it was so interesting! There was an article in there about the 1st stake being created in Cape Verde. We have a family in Debre Zeit and there son is on a mission there. We are visiting them tonight and I am going to let them keep the page with the article about Cape Verde on it. They will love it! There was also an article that talked about Ethiopia too. Also, please make sure to tell Adriana and Isabelle a special thank you from me. I love General Conference edition magazine. The mission still hasn't gotten any, so I am especially grateful to Adriana that she sent me one! :) Please tell Grandpa Westwood thank you too for the postcard and the smarties. I loved it! You all made me so happy. Thanks for everything and for loving me! I shared a lot of the candy with the other missionaries and some of the branch members. They thank you too. You made all of us so happy! You are the best!
Elder Goodner and I are doing great together. It would be fun to stay with him for another transfer! He is a great companion. He is really enjoying Ethiopia! I love it too! I can't wait to show you guys the Beklobet Branch and the Debre Zeit Branch! You will love all of the members. They will for sure want to feed you! Get excited Mom! No forks!
Ethiopia is really growing. Addis Ababa has so many buildings under construction. We really hope that the Church will match the growth of this country as it continues to grow! The Church has so much potential here. We are only beginning! Soon the triple combination will be available in Amharic and it will really help the members know the history and doctrine of the Church better. Most of them can speak and read English, but the old English used in the scriptures is hard for them to understand. I can't wait for the day when they have all of the books of scripture in their language! Hopefully this year! I love serving here. I've really gained an appreciation of the amazing opportunity that I have to serve the Lord in this special part of His vineyard.
Wow, you got me really excited when you said Mitt Romney sent you a letter! Haha. Did you guys contribute? We hope he wins!
Yeah, thank you for sending me Elder Aston's email. Sounds like he kind of has a tough companion. He will figure it out though. No worries. Mission is awesome! The Lord teaches you so many things!
Sounds like Kacey and Jordan are having fun traveling to Yellow Stone Park. I hope they have a fun time! Make sure to remind them to keep saving so that we can go on our California 2013 summer trip! We will have to go to the LA temple!
Thanks for keeping me updated about our neighborhood and other people and also for those great quotes. I always love to hear whatever you guys have to tell me! Thanks for the nice big email every week.
I found this article on the Church news website:
"Sometimes spiritual insight comes from an unexpected place. I was watching an interview with former President Bill Clinton the other night when he said his biggest concern with kids sending text messages to each other 80 times a day is they are not living in the present.They are missing the joy of being awake to the moment.Being awake to the "now" — to the present — has been a spiritual virtue for centuries.It has been said that even paying complete attention is a form of prayer.And yet, so few people are able to do it.Being aware of life "now" was a key teaching of Jesus ("Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.")Buddhists and other contemplatives have built their entire spiritual lives around the idea of being aware of living in the moment.So why don't more of us do it?It's not just texting teens who look for distractions, who try to "be somewhere else" instead of in the here and now.Many of us create tasks to keep busy, to keep our minds occupied so we don't have to confront our lives. It's as if we fear if we allow ourselves to live in the moment we will somehow disappear, or perhaps we fear that despair will set in, that troubling memories and dark fantasies will flood in.But those who take the risk, who actually learn to be awake and aware, often find that the void we fear is often filled — not with darkness and loneliness — but with sweetness and light.They have learned — along with Michael McLean — that if they hold on, the light will come.They often find the peace and serenity that was hidden by their helter-skelter lives.I think that is what Clinton was getting at.When we constantly live in the past, or in the future, or — as in texting — live somewhere else besides where we are — we miss the power and beauty of the present.We miss being truly alive.In religion we sometimes say a person is "active" or "inactive," as if religion consisted mainly of buzzing around, doing things.But sometimes a light switch becomes "active" when it simply allows energy and power to flow through it."We need to concentrate on what has been called 'the holy present,' " wrote Elder Neal A. Maxwell for the LDS Church's Ensign magazine back in 1974, "for now is sacred … The holy gift of life always takes the form of now."His thoughts chime in my mind with an old Zen proverb:"No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see."
I've really appreciated this article and the message that it teaches us. We really must stop and count our blessings. Take time to live "now". If we are always planning for tomorrow, we might forget about today! I've learned this lesson as I've been a missionary. If you always think about the future and going home you will miss what is happening right now! You don't want to waste your time as a missionary thinking about the future and then when you finally are home think about the past and wish you wouldn't have wasted that time thinking about the future!
Mission is going fantastic. I'm trying my best to live in the "now" and not to worry about the future. It seems tempting to think about the future right now especially on the down hill of the 2 years of service, but this is the most crucial time to serve! I've been set apart as a full-time missionary right now. I will use that calling to the best of my ability! I love serving as a full-time missionary. Thanks for all for all of the love and support. You are the best family in the world! The Church is true. I love it!
Love your Ethiopian missionary,
አድፍሳል;ክጅድፍል;ክጃድፋ;ልስክጅፋስል;ድክፍጅ
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
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04 June, 2012
Adventurous week! :)
I am so thankful for an awesome family that loves and supports me. You guys are great! Thank you for all of your nice emails. I really enjoy reading and hearing about all of you. This week was very interesting! We were extremely busy meeting lots of different people and we found a lot of new investigators! Heavenly Father really blessed us. It's amazing to see how Heavenly Father will bless you as you try your best to accomplish His will in missionary work. Maybe you will go contacting for 6 hours and you meet 24 different people and maybe none of them will be interested, but as you are walking home Heavenly Father will provide you with someone unexpected that walks past you that is willing to listen to the Gospel message! It's amazing! :)
President Jackson is keeping us updated on Sister Parrish's health. She is recovering slowly, but surely! She is in Washington D.C. and she has 3 daughters taking care of her along with the best medical care, plus I'm sure she is receiving extra blessings from Heaven because she was an amazing missionary! We love Elder and Sister Parrish and wish them the best from Ethiopia!
The Leadership trainings from 2 weeks ago were really really great. President Jackson shared some great news about the future of the Church in Ethiopia. He asked us not to spread around the news yet, because some things aren't for sure, but they will shortly come to pass! The Church will of course continue to grow and we will be expanding to different areas. The Debre Zeit Chapel is almost finished! The entire outside is painted and they are just making the finishing touches on the inside. Only around 2 more months until we move in! The branch president of Debre Zeit branch, President Ephraim, is very excited to move into the new building! He thinks that the new building will create a lot of interest about the Church in the community. I shared with him an idea of having an open house after the building is dedicated. That way more of the community could actually come in and see what the Latter-Day Saints are all about! I'm excited for the Debre Zeit branch too. It will be great for them!
The trip to Adulala was great! We went on June 1 Friday. We left in the morning about 7:30 and arrived in Adulala at 9:00. The bus dropped us off and we were at the base of the valley where the village is located. We walked for about a half hour and arrived at the Tashuma family's house. The whole group was there waiting for us! There is only about 15 of them, but it was still really cool to see all of them! And yes, I remembered to take a picture! ;) We went into the little building, sat down with everyone and shared a small lesson about prayer and how to receive blessings from praying. I've really gained a testimony about prayer since I've been on my mission. I don't know what I would do without prayer! I'm so thankful that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father whenever and wherever we are in the world! And He will answer our prayers in His own time. We then shared about the Book of Mormon to a new investigator in the group and gave him an Amharic copy to read. The little group is growing! Person by person. Testimony by testimony. Someday in a few years there might be an small official branch! After the lesson they shared injera with us. It was different though. They had injera with scrambled eggs! It was so good! Elder Goodner likes injera too! We eat injera most days for lunch. Good thing we can get injera in Nevada when I get home. You guys have to try it! And then one day you will try real Ethiopian injera in Ethiopia! After we visited the Tashuma group we headed back down the hill towards where we were dropped off to visit one more family before we left. The father of this family's name is "Magersa". He has been a member of the Church for almost 3 years. His wife and children are members too. Every Sunday they travel up to Tashuma's house to take the Sacrament with the rest of the group. He had a few friends over at his house when we showed up and we shared with all of them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon! It went great! We are going to see all of them again on July 1, since we are only suppose to travel to the village once per month. After we finnished visiting everyone, we waited for a bus to bring us back into Debre Zeit. It was a long wait! We had to wait for 3 hours to find a bus going back to town! Adulala is literally "In the middle of nowhere". Haha. It was a fun trip and it was awesome to see the Church group out there again! I attached a few pictures of our trip to the village. The group of people is the Church meeting group inside their church house. Then there is a picture with Tashuma, his wife and me. Then the outside photo of a group of people is at Tashuma's house just outside of the little Church meeting house. This is almost every member of the Church group! The other picture with a little family with me is Magersa's family. It is inside their house. There is a giant tree on the way to Tashuma's house. The people of Adulala call it their "Wisdom tree". It is a really huge tree! It looks exactly like the one in Lion King. There is also a picture of a goat eating a cactus. I don't know how the cactus needles aren't hurting his month, but he was enjoying it! There is also a picture of me with my 3 mission brothers! Elder Christensen, Elder Augistine, Elder Jenkins, and Elder Morgan. One from Utah, one from Arizona, and 2 from California! It was the first time since the MTC that we have all seen each other. We have had a lot of great experiences to share with each other since South Africa! This was taken at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa at dinner after the Leadership trainings. It was awesome!
Elder Goodner is doing great! He is very much enjoying Ethiopia and the missionary work here. The 18 month celebration was good! We all went out on Saturday afternoon to a local hamburger place and ate together as a district. It feels weird to be 18 months now. It kind of feels that mission will actually end someday! Haha. Thanks for having a celebration for me at home too. It is an exciting time! And please tell Katie thank you for making the card for Adriana. I'm sure she loved it! It looked really cute. Thanks for sending me a picture. 18 months down. 75% complete. Only 6 months left! I've gotta serve my hardest with the time I have left!
The Branch activity was good last week. There was only one person who brought a friend, but we have started teaching him and he actually came to Church on Sunday and last Sunday! His name is Tilahun. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him his own copy to read. He speaks good English too! We are so grateful that he is willing to learn about the Restored Gospel. The activity was basically just a lunch, but everyone had fun talking together and getting to be more united as a branch. The missionaries enjoyed it too!
We usually walk about 10-15 miles a day and usually go running 3 miles in the morning. Elder Wayecha has finished his mission and now he is back in Addis Ababa. I'm sad that he is gone. We will miss him a lot! He helped us out so much.
Thanks for making sure that the Temple visitor center had an Amharic Book of Mormon. I'm glad they have one! Represent Ethiopia!
Thanks for letting me celebrate Lauren's birthday with the family! I'm glad I could be there. Looks like we had fun!
I'm so happy for Madison! Sounds like her baptism day was perfect. I'm glad that you guys were there to support her and be there with the rest of the family. The pictures look great! Merrill looks exactly like Grandpa Westwood! I'm glad that you were all able to be there and see the family. Yeah, I don't think a creek baptism would be good in December.... We should probably do it inside. Keep reading the Book of Mormon!
Yes, I definitely support President Romney. That is awesome that he is the official GOP representative now! November here we come!
I am so happy for Elder Aston. I know that he will love his mission and the MTC. I want you to keep me updated on how he is doing too!
I'm glad that you were able to spend some time with the kids and have a sleep over with them! Sounds fun :)
Wow, Ben just barely turned 18! He has a long time before he can even go on his mission. I'm sure he will keep busy during the next year though. He will enjoy Dixie. That is cool that he will be home so that he will be able to come to my homecoming talk and my wedding! Thanks Ben :)
Well, there was a baptism on Sunday from Elder Ondieki and Elder Manyakanyaka's side! His name is Zalalem. He is 26 years old. I had to opportunity to interview and fill out his baptismal record. He is a very nice Brother! He works at a Hotel kitchen cooking pizza. (Yes, it is great pizza, I've had 3 of them)
Santa Kruz was confirmed by his father, Moges, during Sacrament meeting on Sunday! We are really happy for their family. Even Santa Kruz's Mom came to Church! She hasn't attended church since I've been here! It was so great to see her there. Hopefully she will continue coming! Also from Elder Ondieki and Elder Manyakanyaka their baptism from 2 weeks ago was confirmed yesterday too! It was a really great week for Debre Zeit. I am loving mission so much and Heavenly Father is blessing us all the time! Amharic is still coming along great. I love talking to people and actually understand some of what they say back to me! Haha.
Thank you for being the best family in the world. I love you guys so much! I love being a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ. Thanks for the love and support!
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
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28 May, 2012
Ethiopia is awesome! :)
Yes this was another amazing week in the mission field!! Heavenly Father surely blesses all of His missionaries and helps them at all times. This week we went to Addis Ababa for Leadership trainings. It was so great to be able to see all of the missionaries! The Awasa Zone also came up to Addis for the trainings. It was so much fun to see Elder Seyoum and Elder Murrary! President Jackson usually travels down South to Awasa for their own leadership trainings, but with Sister Parrish, he needed to stay in Addis. He was helping to prepare to fly her out of Ethiopia on Monday night. She and Elder Parrish will be ending there mission. She is heading to Washington D.C. today where 3 of her daughters live and they have 5 neurosurgeons lined up to immediately begin treatment on Sister Parrish. She has received very good medical care here in Addis Ababa, but she needs more medical attention that is only available in DC. President Jackson said that she will be able to recover 100% if everything goes well over time. We have all been praying for her and Elder Parrish. I love Elder and Sister Parrish. They have been an amazing missionary couple and we will miss them so much. We appreciate the love and service that they gave all of us. Good well soon Sister Parrish!
The Leadership trainings were one of the best that I've ever been in on mission. President Jackson shared a lot of news about the future of the Church in Ethiopia. We can expect great things! It will be awesome to tell my wife and kids in 15 or 20 years, "We laid the foundation of the Church in East Africa." It's fun to be a modern day pioneer! The new Debre Zeit Chapel is almost finished! Maybe 2 more months! I can't wait to bring my family back here and show them all over Addis Ababa and down through Debre Zeit. It's amazing to be an Ethiopian missionary!
On Sunday President Jackson, Sister Jackson and President Habtu visited our Sacrament meeting in Debre Zeit. It was great to have them their! On Saturday night, President Habtu told us that they would be coming to Sacrament meeting tomorrow. Elder Goodner and I were a little worried that Sacrament attendance would be lower than last week because we had been in Addis for Thursday and Friday, but to our surprise we reached 109 people at sacrament meeting! And there wasn't any Americans! Haha. On Saturday night Elder Goodner and I went gate to gate on a lot of the members houses in our area and reminded them to come to Church! Heavenly Father truly blesses His missionaries! The clothes from the California family were distributed after Church yesterday. The members were so happy! It will help a lot of them.
Yeah, the trip to Adulala was definitely worth the time! We were so happy that the Tashuma family is now all baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ! Tashuma's wife couldn't come to Debre Zeit because it is so expense to travel, but Elder Goodner and I are heading out to Adulala for our once-per-month visit on Friday, June 1. We are so excited to visit their family and teach them about having Family home evenings and other lessons to strengthen their great family! I will for sure take a picture with the whole family and send it in my email next week. It should be another adventurous trip to the Adualala group!
Yes, it was a great "Welcome to Ethiopia" last Sunday for Elder Goodner! He is a great companion. I really enjoy serving with him. He attended Salt Lake Community College for a few months before he started his mission. He has a "friend that's girl" serving a mission in Hong Kong and he says if things don't work out with her when he gets home he will sign up for the military. His Dad is a retired military personal and Elder Goodner thinks it would be a great future for him too. We are accomplishing great things together and we are excited for my 18 month party celebration! The celebration includes: Deep-doctrine discussions, Ensign article readings, and filtered water with Hawaiian punch powder mix poured into cups with ice-cubes! :)
Thank you so much for sending the package. I am very much looking forward to receiving it! I love you guys!
Yeah, the picture from last week was of my clothes. They still look white and clean! I love the CTR brand pants and dress-shirts. Anyone leaving on a mission I would advice CTR. You know how weird it will be too see a washer and especially a dryer? I might still just wash my clothes in a bucket and hang a line outside and let them air dry!
It's great to hear that Elder Graf did great in the Provo, MTC and now he is enjoying the Brazil MTC. I'm sure he will do fantastic on his mission! That is pretty excited for Elder Aston leaving on Wednesday for the MTC! He will arrive in Tuscon, Arizona maybe around the end of June or early July? Just in time for the heat of the summer! Enjoy it! I miss it. Dry desert air. I love it! Don't worry, Heavenly Father will make sure that Elder Aston has the exact perfect Mission President for him. I have a strong testimony about missionaries being assigned to Mission Presidents! I can't believe that Elder Admundsen is already home from his mission from England! He must have had an amazing experience serving in England! I love missionary work! Anywhere in the world it is great!
I am so happy that Katie enjoyed 1st Grade! She will probably be a little bit bored over the summer! She will prepare for 2nd grade and hangout with Grandma! Thanks for sending me the pictures of your tadpole hunt! It looks like you guys had a lot of fun! Kacey looks like she is ready to have a baby! Exciting! More children = more future missionaries! I want to send out 12 missionaries from my family! ;)
I can't believe that Ben graduated from High school! Thank you for sending me his graduation invitation. I am excited to see it. Do you know what is plans are now? He is a great friend for me too!
I glad that you were able to have a great time with Grandpa Westwood! Thanks for sending me a picture of the family! He looks like he is still doing great. I am really happy that Lori and Brady were able to make the trip from Alaska and visit Grandma and Grandpa and that is awesome that they are coming to St. George so that you can see them too!
At Sacrament meeting yesterday we had 3 new investigators that attended! We were very suprised and very happy!
There is a branch activity today at the Church and we hope that our members will bring their friends so that we can start helping them learn about the restored Gospel! I know the Church is true and I love serving it! It was another fantastic week in the mission field. I love all of you and I thank you for your support and love that you show me! While I have been on mission I have really come to realize how important family is! I love you guys! Be good!
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
P.S. I was looking through my memory card and saw some of these pictures from Uganda! I hope you enjoy them! I love you!
P.S.S. Elder Goodner has a step counter and we tracked how far we usually walk on average per day. About 15 miles! The church is true!
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21 May, 2012
Another awesome week in Ethiopia!
Sunday was awesome! It was such a great week. Yesterday we had 102 people attend sacrament meeting! Nagusay was confirmed and also Tiruku was confirmed from the other Elder's side too. There was a family from California that visited our Branch. So there was 96 Ethiopians and 6 white people! Haha. Nonetheless we still we had 102! We were all really happy to reach 100! The family was here in Ethiopia for LDS Charities service projects. The family had a son who had just returned from his mission in Brazil last week! He had been home for like 5 days and then they flew out here to Ethiopia to do their service project. They were really happy to be out here in Debre Zeit. They asked us lots of questions! They asked how long missionaries going to Ethiopia have to spend in the MTC studying the Amharic language. They were very surprised to find out that we were not taught the language in the MTC and that we are learning it on the job. I loved attending the South Africa MTC. It was a great experience! The California family is going down to Southern Ethiopia to do their project. Their are donated a bunch of clothes to all of the different branches of the Church here. There is so many clothes! They will give them to the Branch Presidents of each branch to deliver out to people who really need them.
Santa Kruz was baptized yesterday! His Father, Moges, was the one who baptized him. It was really special! Santa Kruz is 9 years old and it was really funny to see him dressed in the little tiny white baptismal suit! Elder Ondieki and Elder Manyakanyaka also had a baptism. Her name is Lalesae and she is 27 years old. I interviewed her on Saturday afternoon. She has a great testimony and I hope that she stays true to it!
About 3 weeks ago we visited the Adulala group in out in the village. We were able to teach the "group leader" Brother Tashuma and his 3 children. He asked us if we could baptize all 3 of his children, but we told him that he would have to travel with them to the Debre Zeit branch and attend the Sacrament meeting and other Church meeting in the future and then we could baptize them. Well, we were at the Church on Saturday and then Brother Tashuma called and told us that he was bringing his children tomorrow for Church to be baptized! We hurried and got their baptismal forms ready and all of their information written down. During the 2nd and 3rd hours of the Church meetings, I interviewed each of his kids. Elias is 13. Shambia is 12. Martha is 10. They were each so happy to be baptized! They speak Afan-oromo, so it was a little difficult to interview them and obtain their information for the baptismal records, but we did it! Sunday was a busy and great day! Debre Zeit had a total of 5 baptisms and 4 confirmations. Each of Brother Tashuma's children were confirmed during the baptismal service because the journey is too expense from Adulala to Debre Zeit for them to come again next week to be confirmed. I took lots of pictures! I was happy for the Tashuma family. Even Brother Tashuma's wife is a member! Now all of their family is members! It was so great!
We went to Addis Ababa this Thursday to pick up Elder Goodner and to go to a Zone Development meeting on Friday morning. Elder Goodner loves Ethiopia! He is almost 15 months old on mission and has spent all of his service in Uganda. He was surprised at how organized Ethiopian streets are and how good the food is! (Coming from Uganda, almost everything seems great) Haha. He is very happy to be here and he hopes to serve the rest of his time in Ethiopia. He is from South Jordan, Utah. He is really cool! I really enjoy having him as my companion. We share a lot of the same interests! I've even sparked his interest in Mitt Romney! Elder Goodner is studying out of the Book of Mormon right now and we are reading it together during our personal study. Right now I am reading the book, "Jesus The Christ" by James E. Talmage. I've been reading it for a while and I really have learned a lot! After each chapter there are end-notes that have scripture references and I like to look all of them up to get more information. My testimony has really grown so much from reading this book! I am so grateful for all of the Apostles and Church historians who dedicate their lives to writing books to help all of us learn more about the Savior.
President Jackson and the AP's are coming up to Ethiopia this week. We will travel to Addis Ababa on Friday night and then the trainings start on Saturday morning. Also, on Sunday the there is a District leader meeting, so I guess we will stay in Addis Ababa most of the weekend! We are all excited to be with President Jackson this weekend. The trainings are always so awesome!
Yes, Elder Litchenburg is in a new area down by Shashemene. Elder Murray is his District leader. I like Elder Murray so much! He is a great guy.
Thanks for the information about of the neighborhood people. I love to keep updated on them! And thank you so much for preparing me a package with Adriana and Isabelle and Grandpa Westwood! That makes me so happy! Remember don't put my name on the package though. President Parrish will know who to give it to by the return address. (I'm the only Elder from St. George.) I received a small package from Adriana this week! I loved it so much! Please make sure to let her know how much I loved it! Thanks guys! You are the best family :) Please tell Grandpa Westwood a special "Hello" from me and tell him that I am thinking of him and that I love him and Grandma!
Yes, I know Elder Horstman. He is in the same Zone as me. I know him very well! He is a really nice guy. He said that he was from Utah though? I didn't know he was from the Denver area. That's cool though. He is a great missionary!
I am happy that Gavin is interested in sports now too! We will have lots to play with together! Sports and video games. Best of both worlds! You can be a nerd and a sports guy at the same time right? Haha. I'm happy for Gavin! He looks great in his pictures. The kids are sure growing up fast! Holy cow! Lauren is getting big! Good thing we have another baby on the way soon! It would be pretty boring without Kacey and Jordan's family! I am so happy that Katie loves school! And Lauren's 3rd birthday is next Tuesday! Wow. I can't believe that! When I left she was 1 years old!
Thank you for sharing those nice quotes with me! A member actually read an interesting chapter out of a book while we were at their house this past week. It talked about a Doctor who studied how people were more successful than other people. The study found that more successful people have more energy and "Go power". People asked the Doctor, "Well, how did those people have more energy than the less successful people?" The Doctor replied, "They simply had more energy. More will-power." The people again asked, "But how did they get more energy? Where did they get more will-power?" The Doctor replied, "They made it inside themselves. They told themselves that they could be successful and they were!" The Doctor then explained that positive thinking actually has physical effects on our body and brains that actually produces more energy and adrenaline in the blood stream. Positive thinking is the key to a healthy mind!
There was also a talk by a member of the Seventy a few years ago about "The power of Fasting." It talked about the "Scientific" view of fasting. When you go without food for 24 hours your body starts to take in energy from fat cells and fat storage in the body. After 24 hours, the body starts to look for other sources of food. 24 hours is basically the perfect formula for fasting! As Latter-Day Saints our Prophets have actually been commanded us be "Optimists". The Prophets must have known something we didn't, even before science proved it right! That is evidence for all of us that we must follow the Prophet's council even if we don't understand why. We will eventually be grateful that we followed their instructions!
Elder Goodner and I are doing great together! He was really surprised to arrive in Ethiopia and find out that we were having 4 baptisms on Sunday! Haha. It was a really nice welcome for him. We are working hard for the Lord Jesus Christ. We are His servants and this is His work. It is an incredible experience to work for the Creator of the world. As it says in Mosiah 2:21 even if we work with all of our whole souls we would still be unprofitable servants to God, because he is the one who makes everything possible. He is the one who lends us our breath and our lives. Heavenly Father will bless us infinitely if we are obedient in living his commandments. Last night we were at a family home evening with President Ayelea's family. President Ayelea's is the District Clerk. Basically the Stake Clerk. He travels to Addis Ababa to Meganagne to meet with the District Presidency. During the family home evening, he shared his feelings about the Orthodox members who bow themselves to their church building and kiss the cross. The Orthodox say that it is an outward expression of an inward commitment. But President Ayelea said that for Latter-Day Saints we inwardly bow ourselves to all of Heavenly Father's commandments. We live a life of obedience to all of the Church teachings and we strive everyday to emulate the Savior's example in our lives. Someone once asked President Hinckley, "What is the symbol of the Mormon faith?" "We don't see the cross on your temples or on your church buildings. President Hinckley replied, "The symbol of our faith is the lives of our people". We are the light that shines as a beacon to all of the nations in the world. We must live worthy of our callings.
Thank you for all of the love and support! Serving a mission has been the best decision I have ever made. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's Kingdom on Earth. Ethiopia is amazing. I can't wait to bring you back here someday! Amharic is so much fun. Love you guys!
ትሃንክስ ኦርፍ አ;ልጅፍ አልክድ ፍል;ከጃ!
(The Book of Mormon is true!)
Love,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
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14 May, 2012
Happy Mother's Day!Dear Family,
It was so great to be able to talk to you! You are truly the best family in the whole world. It is great to be updated on your lives. I'm so glad that everyone is doing great! This week the email will be really short. But I promise that I will send a detailed email next Monday with pictures! I will be able to tell you about Elder Goodner too. I'm excited for him to arrive! Santa Kruz will be baptized on Sunday and Nagusay will be confirmed. I will have lots to share with you next week! I love you and I am so grateful to have you as my family. Thank you so much for letting us talk on the phone. I enjoyed it very much! The Church is true! I love being a missionary. No need to worry about me! Heavenly Father is watching over. Elder Wayecha is coming back from Addis Ababa tonight. We are excited to have him back too! I am very happy and loving my mission. 6 months to go! I will work my hardest!
I love you!
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
P.S. I attached a photo of a Bajaj. They are awesome!
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07 May, 2012
Awesome week! :)Dear family,
Transfer news! Elder Lichtenburg has been transferred down south to Awasa and Elder Manyakanyaka and Elder Ondieki are now companions. I will remain also in Debre Zeit as the distric leader and my new companion will be Elder Goodner from Utah! He is 14 months old on mission. He is Elder Beames brother on mission. I am very excited to serve with him! I've been in the same zone with him while I was in Jinja and he is awesome! Happy transfer news week! :) Today starts transfer # 13!
I know that I always say this but this week was fantastic! Sunday was really great. We had 95 attend sacrament meeting! So close to 100! We are almost there! Santa Kruz attended Church also Samuel, Nagusay, and Abebech. Samuel was confirmed and Nagusay was baptized! During the Baptismal service it started to pour rain and I was playing the piano during the opening song and as I was playing I said a quick silent prayer that the rain could stop for 5 minutes while we went outside for the baptisms! We walked outside and it stopped raining and we finished the baptisms and then went back inside and then it started raining again! It was a little miracle :) Nagusay was very happy to be baptized. He has been investigating many different churches and he said that one of the biggest reasons that led him to this Church was the name! "The Church of Jesus Christ". It's so simple to identify who's Church it is! It isn't Catholic's church or Orthodox's Church. It is the Savior's Church! We are very happy for him. He is 55 and he is a teacher at a high school. He also has 3 other teacher friends that are members of the Church and so he sits by them and he feels comfortable! It is great that he already has friends to sit by and to fellowship him. Santa Kruz will be baptized on May 18, 2012. We still haven't watched General Conference, but the DVDs have arrived and we will for sure be watching them next Sunday! Abebech is meeting with us again on Thursday and we plan to give her a baptismal date for May 18 also! We are so excited for her! She brought her 6 year old daughter and she enjoyed primary. In her class the teacher gave all of the kids CTR rings and Abebech's daughter was so happy! I really hope that they will come next week. In the Debre Zeit branch the only speak in Amharic and guess what? I can actually understand a lot of what they are saying during their talks and lessons! It is so cool. Even during the lessons, Elder Wayecha doesn't even need to translate back to me what the investigators is saying because I can understand them! It is really a blessing to have the help of Heavenly Father to support us in missionary work. We couldn't do it without His help! Good thing we are working for the true Church! ;) David attended Church yesterday too and he told us that his Father was still in the hospital, but that he was transferred from Addis Ababa to Debre Zeit Hospital. We offered to come visit him at the hospital and so at 5:00 we went down to the Hospital and waited at the gate for David to come show us inside, but we couldn't call him because the cell phone network has been down for the past 3 days. So we waited for 20 minutes and we weren't able to go inside the Hospital without David, so we went back to the Church. Maybe we will try again to visit his father tomorrow! I hope that he is doing better. It sounds like he is improving or they wouldn't have transferred him back to Debre Zeit hospital. We sure hope that he gets better soon!
Yes, I have talked with Elder Cunningham about Koosharem. It's a small world! He told me that his mom told him that she saw Grandpa Westwood.
The pictures from last week:
The guy with the T-shirt of Africa is a returned missionary from Kenya. They gave him that T-shirt when he finished his mission. His name is Tamrat. He is so nice! He can speak English perfectly. He even teaches an English class at a academics center and he has invited us 2 times to teach the class. It was fun! The students ages are 16-20. The next picture is of Elder Weyecha and a member of the church named Ashibir. Behind them is Ashibir's home.
That's cool that you say Erin Perry at our Church. I'm sure she's excited to leave on her mission! She will be a great missionary.
I'm excited for Landon Aston too! May 28 is coming up quick! I'm sure he will enjoy Arizona! That is great for him. Wow, I didn't know that Brendon got sick and got reassigned to a different mission! He has served in 3 places now! Nevada, Mexico and now Arizona! May 15 is almost next week. I hope everything goes okay for him! Thanks for the updated news about missionaries. I really enjoy hearing about them! I can't believe that Andrew Johnston only has less than 5 months left!
That is awesome about Dad wearing my old worn out pajamas to go out in public. I'm sure Dad thought that they looked really good on him!
That is very nice of Merrill and Renee. Please tell them "Thank you so much". Their family has been very supportive and loving to me my whole life. I very much appreciate them.
Paul Morrell owns a lot of things in Southern Ethiopia! Everyone in the Church knows him! That is cool that you know someone that is coming to visit and help do humanitarian projects. I've met so many people that are doing water projects and other service here for the Church! People from Canada and Idaho.
In Ethiopia there are a lot less orphanages and things like that. There is still some, but not as many as Uganda. The people in Uganda are much quicker to accept help than the people of Ethiopia. They want to do it themselves and not have so many NGO's and help. It is part of their culture. They are very proud of Ethiopia! Also, family relationships are very much stronger than in Uganda. They take care of their children here and let them live in their house. That makes me so happy that you are staying in contact with the Beames and that you are going to help them. Thanks guys!
Thank you so so much for attending the Dixie College graduation for me. I'm so glad that you were able to be there for Adriana and to celebrate with her. Adriana is super woman! Good job to Cody and Joanie too! Also, I am very happy that you were able to attend the temple with Isabelle and have some ice cream too! I'm trying to remember what ice cream is.... Haha ;) Thanks for eating some for me!
I am very excited to be able to talk to you this week! Hopefully the cell phone network is working... Don't worry it will be! We will pray and hope. The best way will be for you to call me. It is difficult to call international from Ethiopia on the mission cell phone, but I will give you the number and you can call me. There is an area code, . The phone number is . If you want to call me me sometime on Saturday afternoon around 1:00 pm, it will be around mid-night Sunday morning here. If after a while it stills hasn't worked, I know your phone number and will call you. Put enough time to talk for a long time! Haha. I love you guys and can't wait to talk to you! Happy Mother's Day soon! You are the best mom in the whole world. Believe me, I've seen a lot of the world! Haha.
"Missionaries can be likened to three kinds of ships: barges, sailing ships, and ocean liners. Barges need to be dragged, sailing ships are great when the wind and tide are with them, but ocean liners keep fighting their way through storms. Missionaries must realize that Satan will do all in his power to slow them down, to cause disappointments, to turn them into a barge, or to make their sails go limp. At such times, your love of God and faith in the Savior will take you through disappointments to your goals."
This is an amazing quote that couldn't be any more true! I think that I started out as a barge. Eventually God formed me into a sailing ship. Now He is helping me become an ocean liner! Satan really does try to slow down the missionaries in anyway that he can imagine! But our love of the Savior will sail us through all of the disappointments and help us reach our goal! Thank you for sharing that quote!
Thank you so much for all of the information and quotes and stories that you include in your email. I love to hear about my family!
There is a small village about 1 hour east of Debre Zeit. It is a small "teff" farming town. Teff is the grain that they use to make injera. If you can believe it, we have an unofficial Church group out there with a couple of Melchizedek Priesthood holders! They meet in a small mud house and administer the sacrament each Sunday out there to a small group of about 15 people. There is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder named "Shimelas" that travels out there under the direction of the Branch President and conducts the meeting. Once a month, the missionaries travel out to the village and teach the group. The village is named, "Adulala". Last Tuesday, Elder Manyakanyaka, Shimelas and I traveled out there on a big bus. The whole time that we were traveling out there I was thinking to myself, "Is there really a church group clear out here in the middle of no where?" We kept driving past herds of Donkeys and camels. We drove on a small dirt path the whole way. The group is so nice! We taught them a lesson on Charity. I am so excited for this little group of faithful Latter-Day Saints. They are so humble and willing to listen to all that we have to teach them. It was a great opportunity to be able to meet with them and to see their humble village.
It was another great and amazing week in the mission field. We are truly Ambassador's for the Lord Jesus Christ. I love you so much and you are the best family I could ever ask for. I love to serve the Church. It is true! I love Ethiopia too.
Thanks for everything. I can't wait to talk to you! Make sure Kacey & family know that they are invited to the phone call and Adriana too!
Be good!
Love you,
Elder McKade Alton Christensen
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