Week 8 MTC.

Iaorana Outou!

So nothing too exciting happened this week honestly. Other than Dallin H. Oaks visited and spoke to us. That was awesome. I got to sing in the choir for that Devotional and I felt honored to do so. The Tahitian is coming along great. We've taught The Restoration and Plan of Salvation in Tahitian. 

That was a blast. It's sort of hard to believe that I'm out of here in 10 days. I'll be teaching the people of French Polynesia and I can't wait to do so. Every P day we get to go to the temple and that definitely brightens my day no matter how tired or stressed I am. The Temple is without a doubt the House of the Lord. 

It's been hard sometimes but I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us even if sometimes we feel alone. I guess that's my spiritual thought for this week. We're never alone. Even if we feel it sometimes it's not true. Our Father in Heaven is always there for us and he wants to help us and talk to us. All we have to do is ask. It requires some faith, but I know if we exercise a particle of faith, we can reap the blessings. I think of the Hymn "Be Still My Soul" and the first line. "Be Still My Soul, the Lord is on my side" That's important to remember always. I know that's so true. I love you all and hope you're all doing well. 

Love, Orometua Christensen

Week 7 MTC

Io rana!!!!  Okay to start, there are 14 words in Tahitian that mean banana and I intend to learn all 14. But also there is only one word for bad/wicked/evil. That oughta tell you what things are prioritized in Tahiti and I love it. Also there's no actual word for sorry which is pretty cool. So yes this week we started Tahitian and it is a blast. It's totally different from French. The word for book is buka but pronounced poo-ta. There are only 13 or 14 total letters in the alphabet and any other letter that isn't in that alphabet for the most part make a t sound. Needless to say it's the coolest language ever. It's simple and fun and I couldn't be happier with the call I've been given as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. The second day of Tahitian (Tuesday), we taught a lesson and it went better than I expected but it's still really hard to comprehend sometimes because there's no verb (to be) in Tahitian or (to have). Also ia ite means to see/know. 

We had to say goodbye to part of our district Monday morning because they left for Africa. They're awesome elders. That's pretty much it. I know we're excited to leave for Tahiti in a little more than two weeks. 

Spiritual thought for the week: It's really easy to turn inward in times of hardship and it's human to want to do that, but I know that when things get hard, and we turn outward and focus on others, we will be comforted. If we have the character of Christ and try our hardest to worry about others more than ourselves, then Heavenly Father will make up the difference and give us the comfort and peace we need. 

Until next week! Love you all!

Orometua Christensen

Week 5 MTC

Hello my lovely friends and family. It's been a fantastic week here in the MTC. General Conference was so cool here. If I could take one thing from conference it would be humility. I heard that so much probably because I'm a missionary and that's pretty darn important if I want to be successful. So yeah. Humility is key. You have to put others first and think of yourself last. For those that aren't members, those talks from general conference are on lds.org. Or if you just want to know what general conference is all about go to that same website. I wrote down some language goals for the end of the MTC, 1 year in, and the end of my mission. Basically my total end goal is to have an accent with my English. I've already started to notice how hard it is to bear my testimony in English and I honestly don't like speaking English in class. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that the area seventy from the Democratic Republic of Congo showed up randomly and he knows like no English and he was just made a Seventy. He went from being a Sunday School teacher to being a Seventy. Him and his wife were so much fun to have in our classroom. 

Also they're putting one of the final beams on the new MTC building and they let everyone here sign their name and mission on it. Upon hearing I could let everyone know how cool I was by permanently defacing an MTC beam, naturally I seized the opportunity. In the top picture my teacher Frère Vanderholm is standing next to me. He's sorta my idol right now. He served in Tahiti and was an assistant to the president for like a year. He's a great example to all of us and I love being taught by him. 

Well that's about it. Je vous aime ( I love you all)

Love, Elder Christensen

Week 4 MTC

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!!

So this week was crazy. Lots of exciting stuff happened. To start, the ambassador for the United States from the European Union visited our class/district. He was super nice and his wife was there. It was pretty scary before he came because we didn't know if he was going to speak only french the whole time. He ended up speaking mostly english to us so that was a relief. 

Almost all of our zone left like I said they would and they're all safe and sound in France and Tahiti. But the good news is that we got 11 new elders and sœurs and Elder Crandall and I were made the zone leaders! I'm super excited to help these new elders with anything they need. It's nice to have more around. 

Easter Sunday was amazing. M. Russell Ballard spoke to us and pretty much just talked about the story of Christ on the earth. I loved it! We're all getting really excited for conference I think. It'll be a unique experience. I don't think I've ever been this excited for conference haha. Other than that, nothing to report. If you lovely people have any pictures to send me, I'd be happy to see how you all are doing:). Thanks for all your prayers and love. 

I may have already sent this scripture, but John 14:26 is still my favorite as of now. It's all about how the Holy Ghost is the comforter. It's definitely the truth. When we have hard times, it's completely okay to ask God for comfort and I know that he will help and the Holy Ghost will comfort us in times of trial. 

Love you all!!

Elder Christensen