FIGHT FLIGHT or FREEZE

Jan 12
4 min read

Hey!

I'm not entirely sure how I want to start this email so I am just going to jump right into some stories for this week.

One Of The Weeks Of All Time

So, for this week I was able to participate in 2 exchanges. One of them was with the District Leader's companion. His name is Elder Curtis. He's a funny dude. He has this super dry sense of humor and has had a couple of funny one liners. He is on his 3rd transfer right now and he has some really good Korean. When I was with him we had a goal to open our mouth and talk to 25 people. We were able to achieve that goal. But when I say "We" I mostly mean Elder Curtis. I think on my own I was able to only talk to like 5 people... but, I think I learned quite a bit that day and I was able to gain a little more confidence in myself.

One funny thing that happened was when we ended the exchange. My companion and I were walking to this bus stop when there was this old man and his wife walking toward the bus stop as well. Well the old man must've not been having a good day as he started to suddenly go down. He did this really hard lean toward the road and eventually lost his balance. His wife caught him but she couldn't hold him so now she started to go down. He had managed to somehow get half his body off the sidewalk and the other on the road taking his wife with him. This was a little scary as there was a bus barreling toward them as well. So I ran up to them and practically caught him before he could roll onto the road. I then pushed him up onto the sidewalk and he just sort of sat there dazed. I then picked him and dragged him onto the bus stop bench so he wasn't sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. The worst part was he did not help me with his weight at all. He just decided to go completely limp. It was only until I sat him on the bench that he sat up straight and started to come back to his senses.

So, yeah I guess I may have saved a dude from getting ran over by a bus. If you know me, you would know that in those types of situations where there is a "Fight, Flight, or Freeze" response I would normally freeze. My mom can attest to this. Specifically when it comes to warning her to not hit a cone in the middle of the road. Anyway, I am getting side tracked. The reason I brought the Freeze thing up is because guess what my companion did that whole interaction. That’s right he just watched the whole thing unfold.

The other exchange I had was with Elder Sasing. He's one of the Elders that is living with us in the same apartment. He has 4 months left on his mission. He's super skilled in the language and also missionary work in general. We have gotten to become great friends. I would argue we have a better relationship than I have with my own companion. So when we were on exchanges this week we cooked! Within 2 hours we talked to the most people I've ever talked to this transfer and we got 4 contacts, more than I've ever had this transfer. I even talked a dude in Chinese that is how strong the spirit was during that exchange it was crazy. If I was companions with him I would not be mad haha.

Conclusion

I recently listened to a talk that really hit me in the feels. It’s titled "A Summer With Great-Aunt Rose" by Elder Uchtdorf. I was especially struggling this week with just general homesickness but I listened to this talk and I was just overwhelmed with the spirit. It tells the story of a girl who travels to live with her Great-Aunt Rose. She does not want to go. This girl gets there and hates it because of how different the house is. She misses home a lot. After enduring for a couple of weeks she learns to absolutely love it there to the point where she is sad to eventually go home. She especially grows to love her Great-Aunt Rose and finds out she is the happiest person she has ever met. She learns a lot from her about how to find joy even in the hardest of times.

Now it’s more specific than that so I really do suggest listening to it. I liked to imagine Great-Aunt Rose as my Great Grandma Maughan. I'm not entirely sure why she was the one who came to my mind but maybe that is why it hit me so hard. I mainly applied this story to my mission. Coming to a different place with so many changes, a difficult language, a different environment and so many rules. As Elder Uchtdorf taught with this story, if you endure and have faith in Christ then you will learn to love the place you are in and eventually wish to never leave. I hope to get to that point.

Okay! Well, That’s all I got for you all. I appreciate those who have sent me emails. I've, again, tried my best to respond to all of them. But please keep sending them.

Love you guys.

-Elder Christensen