Week 26: Zwick

Well, we had like a billion meetings since Friday; it was pretty intense.

Elder Zwick of the Quorum of the 70 came to Knoxville and did a bunch of meetings with us. We basically just got trained on how we can be better teachers and whatnot. It was really fun.  In the first meeting all of us got to go up and shake his hand. The missionary beside me decided he was going to do something funny.  He walked up and gave him a pass-along card and Elder Zwick took it and said, "Thanks! I could use another one of these." Then me being in line right after had to do something fun as well, so I turned on my best Canadian accent and said, "Thanks for coming here, eh!" He then laughed and asked what part of Canada I was from. Whoops, wasn't expecting him to talk to me and we had a short little conversation. My plan sorta backfired since I dropped my Canadian accent after the first line.  Elder Livingston and I also had the opportunity to participate in a priesthood blessing that Elder Zwick gave to one of our investigators; it was a pretty intense experience!

Well transfers is on Wednesday so I will have a new companion come that time and I will be staying in Rockwood.  Thankfully I wasn't called as a trainer. Out of the 5 missionaries that arrived here at the same time as me, 2 of us were called as trainers for this transfer and I dodged the bullet this time.

Anyways we took Christmas pictures so here you go! 

I seriously was really proud of my ugly sweater; it has freaking unicorns on it. 

Miss you guys! And expect a picture of my new companion for next week :D

Elder Christensen

Week 25: Soon!

Well, we're only 9 days from transfers! So that's pretty crazy. I've already been in Rockwood for almost a month and a half already!  It feels like I just got here a couple of days ago.

We climbed up a star.  And by that I mean there is this little tower for communications (I assume) that the town put a big light-up star on. It gets lit up every year around Thanksgiving time and goes til after Christmas. There are some really rickety steps and missing steps to get up there.  We finally arrived at the top and got to see a wonderful view of Rockwood since the tower itself is on a big hill right at the edge of the town.  It's always really fun to get up to high views and look down on the places you just were. I dunno, it was really fun, ok?

Elder Livingston gave a haircut to a less-active member in our ward who was in a nursing home. He loved the haircut so much that he gave us $10 to go get McDonalds. It was awesome.

I'm not too grand on time right now so I'm going to cut this one pretty short, but I promise you guys the most amazing email ever next week with pictures and everything!

Miss you guys!

Elder Christensen

Week 24: A Saviour is Born

So it was a pretty average week this week so I'm going to take some time to talk about the new video our church just came out with for Christmas: A savior is born.

It can be found on Christmas.Mormon.org or on YouTube.

It's a really good video for the Christmas season and I encourage you all to watch it. It's only a couple of minutes and it makes you feel good :D

Anyways, I would feel like I'm cheating everyone out if I didn't put more than that in my email, so I'll just mention that American Thanksgiving was pretty cool, although it wasn't as fun as Canadian Thanksgiving.  I learned how to play a game called Corn Hole and I slayed at it. Like seriously, I'll take on anyone in the world. I'll attach a few pictures of Thanksgiving, although my picture-taking game is as weak as ever, so I don't have many good ones.

Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving, or whatever, and I think it's officially the start of Christmas season now. I've already broken 2 ornaments on different people's trees because I'm retarded, so keep me away from your Christmas decorations because I'm a monster that is uncontrollable, apparently.

Miss you all!

Elder Christensen

P.S I have no idea why Elder Udy is holding a random dog in that picture.

Week 23: Racoon Slayer

I have taken on a new nickname as I have hit my very first small animal with a car. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but I am currently the driver in the area so I am driving on the daily.  A couple of nights ago there were 2 racoons in the road just chillin, so I decided to do the only reasonable thing and hit it.  If it were a squirrel or something I might have felt bad, but racoons are straight mean, so I didn't feel too bad about it.  I've seen so much roadkill since I arrived in Tennessee and it's so rewarding to join the club that contributes to that roadkill. I feel like I'm getting more southern every day.

We haven't been going down to Farragut to hang out with other missionaries and play basketball recently so we have had a lot more time on P-days to hang out with just the 4 of us in Rockwood and shoot some hoops and stuff.

Thanksgiving is going to be so tough. We have like 2000 appointments we got invited to and narrowing it down to the ones you want to go to is pretty hard, especially with a limited amount of food you can fit in your stomach.

Well, that's about everything. I'm pretty sure Thanksgiving is this upcoming week or something. I really don't remember since the real Thanksgiving was like over a month ago and people don't tell us to come over on "X" day. They just say Thanksgiving.

Peace.

Love, 

Elder Christensen