Merry Christmas from Tennessee

Dear Family and Friends

This is our Christmas card to you.  We know that most of you don't have time to read our blog but we thought it would be nice to send our thoughts by blog and by mail.
We want you to know that we are thinking of you as we approach this special day.  We will miss you all and the celebrating we do together but we also know that it is time for us to focus on the Lord's work and express our love for Him to the people of Tennessee.  We can't do that if we are in Idaho.
We do love you and hope that you are blessed with the special spirit Christmas brings to the earth.
Love, Mom and Dad Grandpa and Grandma, last but not least Elder and Sister Christensen

Just a little recap of our past year.  Many of you know we are serving a mission in Knoxville Tennessee.  We arrived last year three days before Christmas.  The journey in this new phase of our lives has been one of great learning and a tremendous feeling of love.

Here are just a few things we have learned and loved.
                                                 
                                                       The Lord has work for us to do even
                                                        when we think our work is done.


Some of our work has been to keep the missionaries from going to the emergency room for every
little illness and injury

.

Some work is to feed the missionaries.  They all love to be fed .  You can do great things through food.

 
Some of our work is to help them remember to keep their apartments clean.  To find places for them to live and then move them in or move them out.

candy bar for keeping their apartment clean

Elder Christensen and Elder Creasy an elder that Elder Christensen
delivered some 19-20 years ago.  

Some work is to bring needed cars to their area so they can cover the large areas of the mission.

Sister Wagner and Sister Christensen at the mission office



Some of our work is to support the mission president in doing things he does not have time to do. Like writing letters to parents, stake presidents and missionaries.  All of the work is good.  

Things we love have come from doing the work of the Lord.

We love the beauty of the area.  Green is the color of this state.  The green from the thousands of hardwood trees.

We love the good Christian people of the south.  They speak of faith in Christ openly.

We love to see many parking lots by churches filled on the Sabbath day.  They have a desire to worship together.


We love the simple backwoods self reliance of so many people.  They have learned to work hard.  Many come from poor circumstances but make do and share what they have.  These couple each built their own homes from the ground up.

We love the way we feel when we get to share a truth about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We love giving out pass-a-long cards.
We love teaching with the missionaries and being part of their missionary lives.
We love being together all the time everyday! We walk together swim together, shop together, clean house together, ride together, pray together and cook together.  

Our last message is a few words from a song we often sing but we think we need to take better heed to the words.

THE WORLD HAS NEED OF WILLING MEN WHO WEAR THE WORKERS SHIELD.  COME HELP THE GOOD WORK MOVE ALONG PUT YOUR SHOULDER TO THE WHEEL.  



WE LOVE THIS WORK AND KNOW THE LORD NEEDS ALL OF US TO DO HIS WORK WHETHER IT IS IN YOUR FAMILY OR YOUR WARD OR THE WORLD.