Friday, February 27, 2009

Frank's Letter February 25th, 2009

Here's a link to Frank's latest letter... he's doing so well!
Frank's Letter

Ouch!

I have a migraine. I don't get them often and when I do, I just drink a Spark (miracle drink!) and it goes away. But today it isn't going away.

Perhaps it is because Dilbert is home, sick from bronchitis and the effects of a powerful antibiotic.

Perhaps it is the gaggle of extra girls playing hide and seek in my house...

Probably it is because I am sitting at my laptop with the glare of the afternoon sun shining in behind me. Darn sun.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Frank's Letter February 18, 2009

Dear family,
This week has been a very good/productive one. It's been sad but happy at the same time. The investigators we're teaching now haven't moved much, and we had to drop Michelle. Someday she might be ready. The problem isn't that she takes a while to learn, that we can deal with. She just absolutely will not come to church. She goes to great lengths to avoid us and it on Sunday mornings, making up fantastic lies and other things. The Sprankles, the less active family I mentioned, did not come to church. We're goin to go over there today to "love them back to church", as the sisters in the other ward would put it. Roger and Betty, our other two people scheduled for baptism will also not be ready for the date we had scheduled. This is due to some mistakes Roger made before we started teaching him; he's in the hole for 2 weeks right now. It's not anything that would keep him from being baptised in the end, but he won't be out until after the scheduled day. The good news is that he has the right outlook on the situation, and I think he will still be baptised when he gets out. He took in his BoM and has been reading it. He's made such a change since I got here even, and he used to be worse than that. The Bishop didn't want us to teach him at first because he thought Roger's intentions weren't sincere and he wanted to prey on the ward. Now he's really cleaned up his act, and is doing really well. Other good news is that we finally did make contact with Charlie again, and we'll be teaching him tonight! We plan on commiting him to baptism. He'd had a serious flu, but we finally got him on the phone again late last night and he's doing better. We also were finally able to reach Brian, the guy we gave a blessing to and cured from cancer. He lives just 2 streets out of our area though! What a shame. We'll have to give him over to the other Elders.
The work is really moving forward here. We met another guy on the street on Monday who committed to be baptized in 5 weeks. One of the ward members speaking in Sacrament Meeting told the whole congregation that now was the time to really move forward. Now is the time to refer all your friends to the missionaries, and gave a great talk on member missionary work. (Our area here has seen some really apostate missionaries in the past) He said we were the best set of Elders to come through since he's been here. Our ward mission leader told us the whole PEC was in agreement of that, and they discussed it in PEC. I have to say, I feel pretty optimistic about the work here in the future. As another bonus, we're teaching a part member husband who the ward thought would pull his wife from the church. He comes to church every week and has got a calling now even, just needs to be a member. Our awesome investigators Ted and Dody came back from Roanoke 3 weeks early too! We're going to teach them this week instead of next transfer. We were able to get back over and see the Sierras yesterday, one of which is Arielle, the girl we baptized last transfer. She's solid, comes to church and has a good testimony. I just can't put to words how excited I am about the work here right now. It's escalating in a way I've never seen on my mission. It's wierd to think of it all; where everything was in Hampstead, or even here when I first came to Hagerstown. I've learned and grown so much. The members here have really caught the spirit. It's REALLY wierd to think I've been out almost six months. 13 days to that mark. This transfer is half over now, and I am amazed to look at the progress.
So, we didn't end up going back to Antietam. It's snowing here today, and Marylanders are afraid of snow. The member doing the tour cancelled. If only they could see the 2 feet out there. Nick's mom wrote of having a ton; I wish we could get some out here. There isn't even an inch on the ground. What's really funny is that when we did our shopping we noticed that people had ransacked all the bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper to stock up for "the storm".
I have a few requests to make. The first is about contacts; I know my perscription chaged for one of my eyes. Would it be possible to get contacts in the new perscription? I don't know how long that lasts or if I'll have to go to an optomitrist out here. The other request is a wierd little thing called a cricket. It's a little metal piece that pops when you click it; the allied paratroopers used it in WWII in Normandy. Elder Call had one, and it made for a great object lesson. If you could find one of those for me I would really appreciate it.
As far as addresses, I sent a card with a few people written on it in my last package home; those are the basic ones. Most important is Brady, because I have a letter written to him that is sitting unaddressed on my desk. We'll be checking our email every saturday from now on, when we send progress records to the ward council, by the way. I won't be able to write, but if something time sensitive comes up you can send it and I'll get it then.
It's good to hear Hillary had a fun time. especially that she was a big girl and went on the "scary rides" at Disneyland. I sent her a birthday letter a few days back, let me know if she gets it. I also included that talk, so you can take a look at that.
As far as the hotdog/raisin pizza goes, I did have something interesting this week. The same family I was talking about had us over for dinner, the Svenssons, fed us spaghetti noodles and ketchup, with slivers of carrot. Apparently it's common in Sweden. It wasn't bad, but it feels all slimy going down your throat, just really weird.
Thanks for looking into the stuff I asked. I'll have to get back to you on the pants; I can't exactly check here. I'm ok for now; I inherited a few extra pairs of suit pants from a missionary who got transferred last time. When summer rolls around I'll need some wash and wear stuff though.
The batting cage was pretty sweet. They've got everything a missionary could want that he could use, even besides the "holy of holies', as they call it (just a little blasphemous). Air hockey, pool, ping pong, yeah it was a good P-day. And it was 65 degrees! We played volleyball in the park with t shirts in February!
Let Dad know I miss hearing from him and I hope he gets better. I've got some interesting stories to tell him next week that I wouldn't tell you because you'd worry too much.
My time here is up though, so I have to go. Until next week.
Love,
Elder Rob Christensen

How well do I know my spouse?

since Dilbert is home sick today (and yesterday) with a horrible case of bronchitis, I thought I would join in a post this little survey about my DH.

(Just a little survey)
How well do I know my spouse?

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? The Science Channel... no, the Discovery Channel... no, the History Channel... Oh heck!

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? bleu cheese

3. What's one food he doesn't like? I recently discovered he doesn't like fruity or sweet with his meat... That is almost as upsetting as finding out he prefers Diet Coke over Pepsi. When did that happen? He was a Pepsi man when I married him!

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? See #3

5. Where did he go to high school? Dilbert is a Davis Dart. Yup... you read that right. He's a mighty Dart (snort)

6. What size shoe does he wear? 9 1/2

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? He already collects stuff... coins, stamps, precious gems, rocks and now antiques.

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? turkey with mustard and salt and pepper

9. What would this person eat every day if he could? No question... hamburgers and fries.

10. What is his favorite cereal? buckwheats. Everyone I know loved buckwheats--why did they stop making them?

11. What would he never wear? a U of U baseball cap and a ponytail.
.
12. What is his favorite sports team? BYU-- is that a sport?

13. Who did he vote for? McCain

14. Who is his best friend? Me!

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? write about him on my blog

16. What is his heritage? Danish, Scottish, Irish

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake will it be? Chocolate with chocolate frosting

18. Did he play sports in high school? nope. Auto shop isn't considered a sport.

19. What could he spend hours doing? looking for bargains at the DI

20. What is one unique talent he has? He can fix anything--and he can carry on extended conversations using sentences ending only in prepositions.


Anyone who reads this, I challenge you to fill it out about your hubby!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Frank's Letter January 11, 2009

Dear Family,
My week has been pretty good, if a bit crazy. There's been a lot of drama and crazy stuff that I can't go into even.
Elder BroadHEAD is actually back to his mission normal now. He thinks he's been sick the whole time he's been out because he's always tired and sometimes gets into this pity party thing, but with some help he pulls out of it. I think the reason I'm hear with him is for that; to help him along. He's had a rough time here and in a way before he left too. I'm glad to try and do whatever I can to help him along. I think he'd been over the upper respiratory infection for a while last transfer and hadn't been interested in getting out for a while, so had kept it up. Anyways, things have taken a good look this transfer so far, since we've been back out there. We've basically started over from scratch on our ward mission stuff, meaning new less active families, and we're getting new ward missionaries and stuff. That's kind of crazy for us, but so far the outlook is good. We have been able to recontact a do not contact, and half the family even came to church on sunday. Our investigators haven't made any significant breakthroughs this week unfortunately. Some are backpedaling, others sort of coasting. Charlie, the golden guy, has even been avoiding us I think. 2 of them are still progressing towards baptism though, and that's all that really matters in the end. You find that you really care for these people. I didn't know whether I was going to be able to when I first got to Maryland or even this area, but man was I wrong. Each person is so special to me. Don't get me wrong and think they're all perfect or angels or anything, I could strangle some of them right now (not literally).
This week we had zone conference, which was a very good experience. It's a great morale booster just to hear President Moody speak, and we have even more great new ideas to implement into the work. No chances to go on more exchanges yet; Elder Dickens is only go to do one exchange with each companionship it looks like. My last district leader did one with each companion, so that's a change. They've still been helping me with Spanish though, and I've come a long way. They just switched an English to Spanish this last transfer I found out, but in 2 more they have all the Spanish leadership and senior missionaries (I mean older guys, not like Grandma and Grandpa) going home (there are only 16 total so it's not that big a thing), and no new missionaries coming in. I'm shooting for that, and I think at some point at least, it'll happen.
Our weather here has been pretty nice all week actually. The past week has been 45-60 every day, and right now it's 65. It's gradually going to get colder again, but it's been nice to have this respite. I think the worst is past too, and that from here the weather will start getting warmer generally. This is especially good, because we get to go back to Antietam next wednesday and it was FREEZING last time, so we were all trying to rush through everything so as to not keel over.
I'm sure Hillary did great on the ACT. I meant to write her a letter on my last P-day, but ran out of time so I'll do it today. It's exciting to hear that she's going on her first trip too, I think she'll have a blast. i'm also glad to hear I could have a positive influence on Coulson.
I have a question though. What do I have to do to get a new pair of shoes on the 2 year guarantee? A pair of mine are getting to the end. I seem to have problems with shoes out here, my p-day shoes are almost completely destroyed as well. Also, still waiting for those addresses. One more thing: I've been looking for a place to get some classical music and it's all WAY expensive that I've seen here. I was wondering if you could look on the internet and maybe find it for cheaper? One is the Paavo Jarvi recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique/Romeo and Juliet overture; the other I'm not particular about a recording, but it's Claude Debussy's La Mer.
As far as the package goes I'm not sure what to ask for. We've got plenty of junk food, like candy and stuff, but cookies are always nice. It'll be getting to be warm enough soon where we can work without coats on, so before too long I'll need my short sleeved shirts, and a few more pairs of washable slacks. (2 is just not enough) On a funny note there, I split the entire seam of the seat of my pants last week when I bent over to look at something. We were walking a long way from the house, so I just had to keep on my coat (which was long enough that I'm pretty sure it covered it) the whole time. It's being fixed now, but it was pretty funny. I think I'll be able to deal without the scarf for the rest of this winter at least, but I may ask for it next year. We helped some members move out yesterday and they literally gave us ALL their food; garbage bags full, so I have no lack on anything in particular. They were such a cool family! They moved up to Kennewick, and I told them I'd have to come visit them and the Moody's and the Yetters (another senior couple out here) sometime. Oh, and we did another move (there are just too many...) for some new neighbors that were moving in next to us. They were bringing in some stuff from the truck and we offered to help, thinking it would be just a few minutes, then it ended up taking our entire day. We went back with them to their old house, where they had this monster entertainment center that just wouldn't fit through any door of this old house (which it had been assembled INSIDE), so in the end we had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together. Our whole day saturday was hard manual labor, and I was so sore I just laid on the couch forever the next morning (after our 6:00 meeting). I think we put a really good impression of the church in her mind though, if nothing else comes of it.
It's interesting to look at all the members out here and compare it to my experiences as a kid back in Texas. A lot of them do the same seperate table thing even. There's this one kid, Karl Svensson, who I swear could've been me 10 years ago. I remember how I used to think the missionaries could do no wrong. It's really important to set a good example for these kids for when they go out on their own missions, besides the normal reasons for wanting to be successful and obediant. But enough reminiscing.
The members who signed up for us for for dinner tonight invited us to come over a bit early to use the batting cage in their basement. Pretty sweet.
It's getting late though, so we have to be heading over there now.
Love,
Elder Rob Christensen

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Snow Day


We woke up to a foot of snow yesterday. And it didn't stop... By the time it was over, we had nearly 18 inches of heavy wet snow. It was backbreaking, to say the least.

The heavy snow caused many tree limbs to snap, pulling down power lines with them. The elementary school was without 1/3 of it's power the whole day. It was kind of funny... every 3rd classroom was out of power. Apparently the school is fed by 3 power lines. Anyway, I was lucky enough to have been asked to sub for the lunchroom duty--NOT. The kids were out of control after having spent the last 3 hours in the dark. Who could blame them?

Fortunately, everything was back to normal this morning... Normal, that is, if another 6 inches of snow is normal. It is supposed to snow every other day for the rest of the month. It is at this time every year that I question our judgment to postpone the purchase of a snow blower another year. Snow is a pain in the back.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Today is BNLFan's birthday and I am officially the worst Mom. I totally forgot. Partially it was because we celebrated last night because she has to work today and partially it was because I was tired this morning, but I forgot to get up and cook her breakfast. Other than that we've had a good time celebrating.

Seventeen years ago I was in a dark place... I had lost a baby 9 months earlier and was convinced I would never have another baby--let alone another girl. We had just moved to FL from Provo. After a very powerful blessing by my DH and a lot of premature contractions, BNLFan came along, 6 weeks early, scrawny and feisty and wriggly. She's been delightful ever since (except for a couple of angry years when she was 4 and 5 but thankfully she grew out of it).

So happy birthday to my DD and BFF.
xoxo
Mom