June 2024

Dear Family and Friends,


Well, here we are, three weeks into our mission.  It seems like it all happened so quickly.  It’s kinda ironic … having been waiting for a mission call for so long and then all the sudden, here we are.


The past 3 weeks have literally flown by.  We spent a week in the MTC which was very delightful and now we have been at Welfare Square for the past two weeks.  Here are a couple of highlights from each …


MTC:  Some of our favorite things there were:

  • being amongst so many of our young Elder and Sister missionaries

  • watching these young missionaries they were striving to to good and be good

    • they would go out of their way to open and hold doors for everyone, even if it made them wait for a bit for a long line of people

    • within the cafeteria was a different story, however (haha), yet they were not inconsiderate

    • visiting with them was very good too … they have wonderful spirits

  • visiting with and learning alongside the other senior missionaries was also a treat.  We all come from such vast experiences in life.  Our small district (group of missionaries) was made up of 4 couples.  The Smith’s are from California and are serving in La Serena, Chile.  The Stowell’s are from Cody, Wyoming and are serving in Kenya, Nairobi.  Both of these couples are serving in missions that were just created.  Their mission leaders either just arrived or will be arriving within the next few days.  The Cranes were also from California but have moved to Utah and are serving in the Kentucky Louisville mission.

  • These three couples became dear to us in the short time that we were at the MTC.

  • The classes we attended each day were good for us.  They helped us to review many things that will be good for us as missionaries.  Our instructors were excellent.  Our instructors were early to mid twenties in age.  They are all former missionaries that are now working at the MTC while they are attending school at BYU or UVU. 

  • Devotionals in the evening were also a great treat with great topics and certainly those that talked brought the spirit of the Lord with them.

  • When we were together for one of the evening devotionals (the speakers were Emily Belle Freeman - Young Women’s General President and her husband), we all sang the hymn “Called To Serve”.  Imagine around 3000 missionaries standing to sing this song.  It was powerful.  It was emotional.  Toni and I looked at each other during the first verse and both commented at having had a lump in our throat making it difficult to sing.  We did, nevertheless, find the ability to sing.


Welfare Square:

  • We are meeting and getting to know the young service missionaries there.  We have 33 at the moment.  One just left this past week and we have another that just started too.

  • The young service missionaries are in age between (18-25 - the Elders) and (19-29 - the Sisters).  I could look up their actual ages but I’m going to guess that they are all closer to the young side of this.

  • The missionaries are always upbeat with good attitudes and a desire to serve.

  • They have been very helpful to us … helping us learn about the various areas in which we serve, being patient with us, etc.

  • A couple of highlights that are heart warming to us are:

    • during our daily scripture study that we do together for about 20-30 minutes, one of the elders stumbled on a few words and then said “I’m sorry, I’m not a good reader”.  Another missionary spoke up directly and said something like “That’s not true, you are a good reader”.  It was very good to witness this as one helped another to be bolstered up.

    • one of our missionaries asked if he could swap duties with another on Thursday this past week.  I pointed out that I felt that in general we should all complete our assigned duties.  I then asked him why we should make such an exception to which he replied that this elder has A.D.D. and on Thursday’s the duties in the Dairy include a cleaning process that affects him negatively. Wow, I thought, this is cool that he knows the other well enough and wants to help him out.

  • It is fun to see how these young missionaries are non-judgmental of the patrons that come to the Bishop’s Storehouse.  They cheerfully engage with the patron as they help fill their food order with them.

  • One of our responsibilities here will be to arrange where each of our young service missionaries will serve.  We make assignments to areas for a 6-week period just like in other missions.  So for 6 weeks, they will have a given schedule which gives them a specific area where they are to work each day that they are here during the week.  We are working on our first “transfer” (change of assignments).  We plan to have that ready for them to start with their new schedule on July 8th.  We do have 6 of these young service missionaries that are leads and we have been quizzing them to make sure we are doing this correctly.

So, I guess while time has seemed to fly by, we do feel that we have already learned so very much and come to love these missionaries that we serve with.


We hope each of you is doing well.  We pray for you; especially when we know you are having challenges.  Know that we love you.


Elder Eugene & Sister Toni Christensen


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