This Is What It’s Like to be a Servant of The Lord

안녕하세요!!

     Oh man what a week it has been! I cannot believe its almost been a month already. In some ways it kind of makes me sad that it’s moving as fast as it is. This has been by far the most engaging, Spiritual, and most fun week at the MTC so far. 

Here are some noteable things that happened this week:

-This was the first full week of Korean immersion.

-We did sealings at the Timpanogus Temple.

-First Korean HOA (Practice investigator lesson.)

- Elder Kevin G Brown of the Seventy gave a powerful talk about not giving up.

I’ll start with the Korean Immersion classes. I'll be blunt, it’s pretty difficult. These classes have definitely tested my note taking skills. So far we are required to speak as much Korean as we can in class but that has mostly consisted in "Yes" "No" "I have a question" and "I don't understand" Oh and we cannot forget about our favorite phrase, "방귀 뀌었니다" Or in other words "I farted." Other than that though I've been getting through it well. It’s pretty crazy the amount of conjugations/grammar forms there are. So far we have learned about 20 of them. There are still more to come. It makes me kind of worried but also excited to master it.

Next was the temple. And can I just say that the temple is one of my favorite things at the MTC right now? Its just awesome! I look forward to it. This time wasn't as impactful as the endowment was last week but it was still increadible. I've never done sealings but for any of you who have normally your in a room with about 6 or 8 people and even then thats pushing it. For us we had about 22 of us consisting of mostly Elders and some Sisters. It took us about 5 hours for half of us to do a sealing twice haha! All the temple has taught me is that I just need to keep coming back!

Now I want to share my most spiritual moment in the MTC yet. Here is some context: In the MTC we do these things called HOA's (Helping Others Appointments) and basically what they are, is you schedule an appointment with a supposed investigator or someone posing as one and you teach a lesson. This week we had our first full Korean lesson. And safe to say we were barely prepared for it. We walked in with our notes we printed out with little phrases of different questions and things we wanted to say. We said hello, how are you doing, and if she knew who God and Jesus Christ were. She answered and we barley even knew what she said haha! My companion offered to say the prayer and he delivered a very heartfelt and sincere prayer in Korean and it completely filled the room with the spirit. We continued with our questions and other facts about the church in our broken Korean but as soon as we both bore our testimonies the spirit completely took over. I had prewritten a testimony down in my notes but I had felt prompted to say something else. I said

"I know our heavenly father loves us and that his beloved son Jesus Christ died for us. I know this to be true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen." 

I had read this from our Korean learning app and it was absolutely insane how much the spirit filled the room when I gave that brief testimony in Korean. It felt like I wasn't even reading a foreign language when I read that. The words came out so smooth and I read it with ease. I then closed with a prayer that also was in Korean and I had said some things I had never practiced before. In the moment I didn't realize how much the spirit was affecting me but after when we left riding down the elevator I just kept thinking to myself. 

"Was that feeling, that warmth and confidence. Was that what it feels like to be a missionary?"

Yes. Yes it was. Boy does that make me want to get out to the field even more now!

To close I want to share a quick quote from our Tuesday devotional speaker Elder Kevin G Brown of The Seventy. He said,

"You're purpose is clear! You have been reserved in heaven for this purpose to be a missionary. You made that decision in heaven to serve. Do not bury your Talent. Do not give up. There are people who need YOU specifically."

I am paraphrasing a bit but his whole talk was about enduring till the end and giving it your all on the mission. That is something I strive to do. So, Thanks to everyone who is believing in me and keeping me in your prayers. I myself am praying for each of you. I know there are some that are struggling with their testimonies of the church and the best advice I can give is to simply pray and ask of God. It's what Joseph Smith did and it’s what I have done every single day. I cannot stress to you all how much it will change your outlook on life. When you feel comfortable I'd like to challenge you all to read the Book of Mormon every day and again pray to God about it. I testify that if you do these things your testimony of the church will grow and you will see the joy in so many more things in life. It will open the door to new opportunites, relationships, and knowledge. 

I love you.

Thanks,

Elder Christensen.  

Elder Christensen with a friend from our ward Elder Barlow