Sam sent the following email & photos on Sunday, May 24, 2015:

From: Samuel Christensen <samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Another Day, Another W

Date: May 25, 2015 12:42:38 AM MDT

Hey guys,

Wow, I was really missing keeping up with major league baseball. That stuff is good times. [Peter had sent Sam an email with some current baseball stats and information.]

We met a less active girl who speaks english really well last week and she served a mission like 8 years ago or something. She told us that "good people leave the church, and bad people stay in it." It's sad. We decided she was one of the most prideful people we'd ever met. She was very nice, but some of the things she said.. She's gotten caught up in anti-literature I think.

One thing we tried to do this week is "spread seeds" because we just felt that the area was a little cold and not very open to us, so to spread a seed we either smile or wave or say hello to someone and if we can see that they are visibly uplifted with a return smile or say hello back, then we count it as a seed. It has to be a positive experience for them and we hope that their countenance will be lifted. So that's nice because it's not really anything extra, it just forces you to focus on looking happy and seeing all people and being nice at all times, mostly when you're riding your bike. Hopefully by putting all that positive energy into the area, one day someone will come and find one of the seeds that we planted in someone. We were going for a weekly total of 600 but came out with 490, but we're going to do better this week.

We do have a few new people to teach, and that's really nice. Missionary work is pretty dang boring when there's no progressing investigators. And one of our current investigators is really good. He found out for himself about prayer and repentance and told us about it. He's a really cool kid.

We were visiting an active member family last week and sharing a lesson and in the middle of the lesson a yellow liquid started dripping from the wooden slat of their ceiling and falling onto the bags that they were sewing for their job. Their neighbors live upstairs. They casually called up to them and said something was dripping through, and got a response that it was just scrambled duck eggs. That's a relief. They moved the bags and carried on listening to the lesson. So the next time you think you don't love your neighbor because of something they do, just think about these guys and be glad you don't have duck egg embryo dripping into your house. They took it completely in stride.

My piano playing skills are coming back up because I've had a little bit of time to practice like a few weeks ago for like an hour or so. I sight read all the hymns in sacrament yesterday and i could play them all right. I don't know what they are beforehand. But honestly, if I messed up, they wouldn't know the difference, so there's not that much pressure. They didn't ask me to play the hymns. No one did, they just expect that someone will and no one else will, so there you go.

A nice lady at sacrament gave a talk yesterday and closed it by bearing her testimony about coming to church all 3 hours. "You should come to church all 3 hours, because it's cooler than your house. That's why I come to church, because my house is really hot, but the church is cold."  Amen. The congregation nodded in silent approval.

Another woman named her son Komsot, or, "Tragic" because he was sick a lot as a child. Isn't that like cursing that kid for life?

Elder Myers and I are doing well. I don't do as much talking as I did before when I was a senior companion, but I am getting to learn a lot of new, good words. My language isn't that good. Like I can talk to people and they can understand me, but as they're quick to point out lots of times, I'm not so clear. But that's ok.

I got to do a baptism interview for one of the district leaders in our zone this week. The lady I interviewed was really amazing and it was amazing to hear, from her with basically no prompting, how much better her life has gotten and how much peace she feels in her family and how her husband has changed so much, since they've entered and learned and applied in the church. It's hard for me to testify about stuff like that in my life, because (obviously) I've been born in the church and had positive influences around me for so long, so to hear her say stuff like that and really share how much better her life is because she has the church makes you step back at appreciate all that we have in our lives, and hopefully gives you greater desire to help other people find the missing link in their lives. I know if people haven't yet become acquainted with the gospel or haven't fully tried, then there is something out there that they should try-wholeheartedly- and see if it brings any change or not. 

That's all I've got, guys. I am promising to myself that I will not be the "devotional" missionary, and now it's happened two weeks in a row. Crap. What's happening to me?

Sam's Email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net

Sam celebrated his 1-Year anniversary last week with cookies and milk. :)

Sam wrote:  "This was on a random building. Go Cougars"

Sam wrote, "This river marks the entrance to our area. Isn't it beautiful? It smells great."