Letter from Bryan-Nov. 20, 2012

Bonjour, tout le monde! Ma famille et mes amies. J'éspére que vous êtes trés contents. For those of you who have no clue what I'm saying, "Hello, everyone! Family and Friends. I hope you are very happy." I know that I am. It's amazing here, I love my district and my companion, and my teachers are truly amazing. We began teaching an investigator last Friday. So we were kind of just thrown into the swing of things. Her name is Jamie and she is from France. She has been here studying at BYU for 3 weeks. She speaks less English than we do French, so it's a great way to force us to learn. I feel that our lessons have gone very well. We have been able to incite the spirit and answer some of her hard questions like, "If the Book of Mormon is different (about the Americas instead of the east) then how can it aid the Bible?". And most importantly I believe that she feels our love and concern for her.

I am learning so much, so quickly that I can't deny the help I'm receiving from our Heavenly Father. I'm already saying every prayer in French and I'm helping push everyone else by speaking as little in English as possible. If I can't say it in French I try not to say it at all.

The first two nights I had trouble sleeping, and woke up several times. Since then I only wake up once a night. Some previous missionaries hid an alarm clock that goes off at 3 AM that we still can't find, so I keep waking up to it...I think it's on one of the ceiling tiles. It's making my days hard because I'm so tired. But I can't complain too much. The last three days our district started sitting together during meals, and we've grown much closer. Elder Gonsàlez and his companion, Elder Swensen, are really funny. I enjoy talking to them immensely. We're not as close with the two sisters in our district because they like to go off on their own, not that I can blame them, they're the only sisters in the district. Elder Cox and I are in the choir and at tonight's devotional we'll be singing Come Thou Fount. I can't wait for it! I'm in the Baritone section with Elder Cox, but there's not a Baritone part so we're singing Bass.

I'm out of time to email so may I make a request? If you want to email me will you do it through DearElder.com? Then i won't use my designated 30 minutes on the computer for Prep Day reading emails. Instead I'll be able to use the 30 minutes writing emails in response. I love you all and send my greatest hopes and prayers to you.

Love,

Your Missionary

Elder Christensen

P.S. Mom, will you put this quote as my Facebook status? "It's better to be an apple pie than a fruit cake." with Elder Gonsàlez 

November 17, 2012

Bryan's first letter came today. He said to share it...so here it is...

Dear Family and Friends,
     I am now on my second day here at the MTC. I am doing well; I have a roof over my head and good food. I am amazed and slightly overwhelmed by the wonderful sights and experiences that I have already had here. My companion is an Elder Cox from Mesa, Arizona, and I already love him like a brother! We are so alike in so many ways: we're always willing to try new things, our personalities are very similar, and we share almost the exact same sense of humor. We've already nicknamed our French instructor, Frere Smoof!
     It was a little bit much at first, having our instructor only speak French, but I am amazed at all of the things that I learned as they come flooding back to me. I am already helping others in the class with pronunciation and other various things. There are 8 of us all together in language study, 6 men and 2 women. Elder Cox, Soeur Foster, and I are all going to the Paris Mission. Whereas Elders Behling, Williams, Swensen, and Gonsalez, along with Soeur Hooker, are in the Lyon Mission. Soeur Hooker is from England and Elder Gonsalez is from Spain. Our teacher, Frere Smith returned from the France Lyon Mission four months ago and got married 12 days ago. He is such a happy, fun-loving guy. I can tell we're going to become great friends!
     Time seems to be going by so quickly here, but I feel like I've been here my whole life I feel so at home and loved. I know that this has been the best decision of my life thus far! At first I was sad for leaving, I miss you all so much, but I quickly immersed myself and I hardly have time to think about how much I miss you. I need to go and check off my immunizations now, otherwise I'd write more. I'll write again on my prep day, Tuesday, but for now, know that I love you and miss you! But also know that I am having the time of my life! May God be with you till we meet again. Dieu soit vous jusqu'au revoir. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Christensen