August 2025 Letter

 

Dear Family and Friends,

It seems that the months, days and weeks are flying by right now.  Has it really been a month since we wrote?  Wow!

There have been a few things on my mind of late ... they seem to be mostly on family, the missionaries we are serving with and more particularly, those that are currently having challenges.

In our June letter, I told you of a missionary that wanted to serve with us. As you may recall, his service missionary adviser was at a point that if it wasn't going to work with us at Welfare Square, he was going to suggest this elder end his mission.  I referred to him in that letter as Elder Bk; we will call him that here too.

Elder Bk has been so joyful in his service with us.  While he does not have all of the same capacities as other missionaries, he comes with an amazing attitude to serve and help where he can.  He comes with a smile on his heart and a skip in his step.  His communication is always with joy and he is a delight to have around.

Elder Bk will be completing his mission this week and we will miss having him around.  We are so very glad that we had room for him and that he wanted to serve with us.  We hope that wherever life takes him, he will continue to have the cheerful personality that he does now.

Another missionary that we currently have serving with us is challenged with depression, Autism and other things too.  He has struggled on some days to want to serve when he gets there.  This week, I invited him to our office and we sat down to openly discuss his attitude and need to come with a desire and commitment to serve.  My "natural man" beginning was less about seeing him through the lens of God and more about seeing him as lazy, not dedicated, etc.  Of course, our visit was not going really well.  He was watching something on his phone as I spoke with him in our office.  He was only listening with passive interest.  He commented that he felt that his service advisers and I were all like robots and that we were not really understanding him or his personal challenges.  After several minutes of trying to make sense with him, I paused and prayed mentally for help.  I felt a distinct impression that I needed to in fact try harder to understand him.  To understand what he was feeling and going through.  Only after I really tried to do this did he put his phone down and start to talk more freely with me.  I feel that I had a breakthrough with him on that day.  While his challenges are likely far from over, I do feel like I can be better in the way I approach him.  I feel that because I understand a little more of his heart, he will also try harder.

His next two days he spent at home and in a very depressed state.  He did text with us, which we see as an improvement.  He is waiting to get into counseling that will hopefully help him resolve much of his depression.

I'm grateful that I took the time to pause and listen harder and with more understanding.  I'm grateful for the promptings of the holy ghost to help and guide me.  One thing I can say with certainty is that when I try to run things or do things my way (the way of the natural man) they do not go nearly as well and sometimes are a flop.  When I take time to listen for promptings and do things with the guidance of the Holy Ghost, it always seems right and it turns out much better.  

We pray for our missionaries and for inspiration on how we can help them. It is encouraging when we have those moments of enlightenment on occasion to know what to say or how to respond to them. We do see the blessings of the Lord quite regularly when we are looking for them.

One miracle story happened a few weeks back. A sweet sister missionary texted that she wouldn't be coming to service for a while. She had been in a car accident. This was quite concerning for us because she was born with a severe case if brittle bone disease. Her body is very fragile. Her spirit is strong as a lion. She told us the car had to be towed but she had no broken bones. This was a giant miracle. She said non of the airbags went off, which probably spared her. She was sore but well. We are so grateful.

We had our first taste of local sweet corn yesterday.  We've been enjoying a few cherry tomatoes from plants we are growing and we have enjoyed fresh rasberries too. This has all been a welcome treat!

We are excited this coming week to meet our new mission leaders.  They have been here now for a little over a month but we have not yet had the opportunity to properly meet them.  On Thursday we will have a Zone Conference and get to be taught by them and then hopefully we will have the opportunity to actually greet them and say "hi".

Also this coming week, we have scheduled a tour over at the Bishops Central Storehouse.  Toni has been asking me to take here there since we started our mission.  Their warehouse, as we understand, is a building that is just huge (6 acres under one roof).  Stay tuned and next month we will be able to tell you more about this.

Sorry, I didn't do very good with the camera this past month.  Perhaps next month.  The picture I included is current and shows less than half of the 50 missionaries that we currently serve with.  They are a joy.  Look and you can see the delight in many of their faces.  Some of them don't show emotion very well and are still delightful.

We love you all.  God loves you all.  Jesus loves you all and desires to be in the details of your (our) lives.

Love Mom & Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, your neighbor and Friend, Elder & Sister Christensen