Greener than green here in Tennessee

Dear Family and Friends

Because of the rain we have had the green explode here.  I am sending a few pictures to show you.  We have been told that we need to soak up all the green we can because there is nowhere even close to this green in the west.
We have so many people telling us how they will miss us and how about extending or how about moving to Tennessee.  The bottom line is that we will miss them but we signed up for 18 months and it is almost done.  We also have family that have now moved to the west and it would be ironic for us to change locations just as we get the majority of our children and grandchildren near us.  We are so looking forward to not having to fly to get to see them and to see them more than once a year.  We might even be able to see some ball games, some recitals, some school programs, some graduations etc.  We will miss Eloise's graduation we think.  We missed Emma's baptism.  But there are great blessings that have come with those sacrifices. Let me just tell you a few we have talked about.  When Porter had his bike accident we thought about it after the initial news and decided that Porter was protected so we could stay on our mission.  We feel that Uncle Gregg has had blessings in his treatment so we could stay on our mission.  We feel that we were to go when we did so Meg and Justin would have a place to live while Justin found work and they figured out how and where they were to live.  We have had financial blessings come while we have been serving.  Grandma Baker has had good care even more than before since we came on our mission.  She is still with us so we could stay on our mission.  We have had friends decide to go on missions since we have come on a mission.  They were probably going to go anyway but we feel blessed that we could encourage and now encourage from home as they serve knowing what they are experiencing.  Those are some of the blessings we feel have come to our family and our friends.

There are other blessings that have come as we think of the things we have studied learned shared and taught.  We have many people that we have learned to love.  That is a blessing.
We have learned to love the young missionaries.  We have so much hope for the future of the church and the gospel.
We have some great ideas about the future.  They are not set in stone but are in the mind and we are prayerful about the future.  Please let us know how you are doing.  We love you.

Spillway at Norris Dam

We had a senior activity this weekend after four zone conferences we were ready for a little rest and relaxation.  Elder and Sister Christensen were in charge and we decided that it would be fun for the outlying senior couple to come into Knoxville area and do something connected to the Smokey Mountain National Park.  So stayed a night in Townsend a little resort town otuside of the entrance to the park.  We then tookthe mission van and went to Cades Cove.  A beautiful mountain area with meadows hills mountains creeks and of course some bears.  The other thing interesting about Cades Cove is that in the 1800 it was a community and so there are cabins and barns and churches through out the area.  There is even a grist mill and blacksmith shop still standing.  As we came to one of the old churches one of the sister's had been there and knew there was an old piano in it.  So we decided as a group we would sing and record our music for posterity.  Telling everyone that we sung a song in a Methodist church while on our mission.  I played and we sang Nearer my God to Thee.

See the little black bear cub there were four of them and the momma

When we got back from our senior retreat dad and I went to see a big dam that backs up the Clinch River which is part of the Tennessee water ways.  There is so much water in this area that they had to place dams in order to help the flooding that would occur downstream.  This is the first one they built back in the early 1900.  Somewhat like the Palisades dam.  They have had a lot of rain so they are sending a lot of water over the spillway.  Have a great week.  Our family has been so blessed please remember to thank our Father for these blessings.  Love Mom Grandma and Sister Christensen

greenest state

Silly missionaries

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Dear Family and Friends,
          This is definitely the wet season in Tennessee!  It's raining and has been doing so for the past week.  There are little rivers everywhere.  It makes things so green and beautiful.  I think I said this last year but I'll say it again this year--even the weeds are beautiful and green.  We are both so grateful to be in such a beautiful place.  Most of the blossoms are falling off the trees now but we are expecting more blossoms on different kinds of trees--empress trees, crepe myrtle trees, and mimosa trees.
          This past week I went to my barber for a haircut.  I had been talking to him about the gospel a little at a time in the past.  This time I asked him if he would like to visit with the missionaries at his home.  He said, "yes."  So we are arranging for the young sisters in his area to go to his home and teach him.  I think Cecile and I will go too.  Last year I started going to him when our Ward High Priests Group Leader told me he wanted me to go to a different barber.  I thought that my hair looked awful or something but then he said, "I want you to go so you can preach the gospel to him."  I was glad because I didn't think my hair looked that bad.  Anyway, now we'll see what happens.  We have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of new people and plant a lot of gospel seeds.
          Yesterday, for our P-day activity we went downtown to the Rossini Festival.  This was our second time, as we went last year.  We only spent a short time because it was raining.  Mom passed out several pass-along cards to people we met.  We ate "street" food--crab-cake sandwiches, which were very good.  We listened to several singers and groups of singers and tried to stay dry.  It's a really fun street festival.  Next Saturday we will be with all the senior couples in the mission for an activity in the Smoky Mountains.  Cecile and I are in charge of it.  We hope if goes well.
          It's been busier than usual in the medical part of my responsibilities lately.  Many missionaries are having medical difficulties.  But many are having mental difficulties--mainly stress and anxiety issues.  I'm not sure parents are preparing their sons and daughters to be away from home and to take on hard things.  I think we should make that a point of discussion with our families.
          Last Sunday was Easter Sunday.  We had a great Sacrament Meeting.  We were invited to our Bishop's home for Easter Dinner.  It was also a birthday dinner for their youngest child, Anderson, who turned one year old.  He is the cutest little boy.  When we are around families it makes us a little homesick for our family.  Our time is drawing close however, we won't be much longer in Tennessee. Our President has said that we will be released on June 7th.

Anderson Pickett, 1 year old

Everyone watching Anderson dig in to his cake.  Bishop Picket is taking the photo

Two of our favorite Missionaries, Elder Cushing and Elder Tevaga

Easter Weekend in Knoxville

Dear Family and Friends

We spent most of the week doing zone training but ended up doing the Blue Ridge parkway on the week end.  We started out at the park visitor center where I bought a CD of mountain music and sounds from the mountains.  We put that on during the 2 hour long car ride.  It made it fun to her the sounds of rain, birds waterfalls and such as we drove along.  The sounds of the birds is something that I will miss when we come home.  There are many trees in TN so there are many birds that fill these trees with song.  I love hearing the birds sing their songs in the morning.  There are many different songs that each variety of bird sings.  Spring happens to be the mating season so it is very noise at times.  I wish I could send you some of there songs.
We will miss the trees and song birds.  We thought that we would see the spring covering the ridge of the applacchian mountains as we drove up and along the 469 mile road that connects the Smokey Mountain National Park with the Shenandoha Park in the northern part of Virginia.  We didn't relaize that spring might be in Knoxville and lower elevations but it has not come yet to the northern parts of the mountains.  So we went but we did not see much as far as trees and bloomage.  The trees had not leafed out yet.  We will have to try again.  We only stayed in the NC and TN part of the drive.  It would take a long time to do the whole distance and the speed limit is only 35 the whole time.  There are many visitor centers and camping areas and lakes to visit along the road.
When we got home we took a sister in our ward to the easter egg hunt.  She is someone I visit teach and she has some mental problems from birth but she is about 40.  She usually comes to church with her mother but has not come lately because her mother has been sick in body and spirit.  But yesterday when we invited we also invited the mother to come and she rallied and came with her daughter.  They both loved being able to be out and with the ward again.  They are both converts of about a year.  Anyway Erin loved the egg hunt and found many eggs only problem was she was in the toddler area looking for them.  The toddlers didn't care.  It makes you feel good to help someone have a good time or to feel good.  So we saw that they both came to church today which is really the ultimate desire we have for them is to be in church.  Stand in holy places always helps the future outlook on things seem better.
Another thing we did today on Easter Sunday was get up early and go to the top of a hill where we walk every morning and watch the sun come up over the trees.  We sat at a picnic table there and shared some of our feelings about our faith in the Savior.  How grateful we are for his life and giving up of his life.  We have been thinking about what we should do next with our life.  It is hard because we have only planned as far as a mission.  So we need to plan more but how and what and when.  This statement from President Nelson has come to me and I want to share it with you.
" When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him.  When he can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life.  You will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do." Easy to say hard to do.  The focus of our lives has to be way different than mine is now.  But I want to try and do better.
Reading about the Savior is a great start so dad and I have both started and have been reading Jesus the Christ.
We have much to learn and much to do before we come home but we do realize that our mission time will be ending.
Two last things we did and will do.  We taught the Sunbeam class today. Whoa! it was a real learnig curve for both of us.  It's just a good thing we had lots of fish crackers.  We talked about the Sabbath.  and how to get a Sunbeam to think of the Sabbath is beyond me.  We told the Manna and the
Wilderness story and used marshmellows for manna and had the kids lay down and go to sleep while we put marshmellows on the floor by them.   It was a stretch I know but it kept them with us.  Otherwise they were under the table taking off shoes socks, trying to turn the lights off and on, throwing the chairs and writing on the chalk board.  We survived however.  Happy Easter to us.
We are going to the bishops house for Easter dinner that will be nice.  Well we love you all and wish
you a joyous Easter today.  Love Mom, Grandma and Sister Christensen

Dogwood Tree

Blue Ridge Parkway 

Easter Sunday Sunrise in Tennessee

God's Creations are a Testimony of Him

Dear Family and Friends,
          In Knoxville they have what is called the Dogwood Arts Festival and Dogwood Trails.  In the springtime the dogwood trees blossom everywhere and there are marked routes to drive in your car to see them in particularly beautiful neighborhoods.  We went out on Saturday afternoon drive to see them.  We drove on 3 of the trails.  One of the neighborhoods was one that Susan and Andrew had taken us into when Grayer was a baby and we visited them in Knoxville.  We came back being in awe and wonder over the beauties of God's creations.  We really enjoyed this and felt our testimonies of our Father in Heaven strengthened.  I'm going to include some photos of this activity.  We consider ourselves so blessed to be here in Tennessee.
          We were able to participate in a wonderful baptism last night.  A lady and her son and daughter were baptized in our Ward.  We first met them when we first arrived in Tennessee.  It's taken them a long time to be taught and get ready.  The lady's husband did not join and leaves the room when the missionaries come to teach.  She and the kids were confirmed to be members of the Church in sacrament meeting today.  This brings a lot of enthusiasm to the Ward.  We are hoping that the spirit of missionary work will spread and grow in our West Hills Ward.
          We are busy with a series of Zone Training Meetings again.  We will be traveling again 4 days out of 5 this next week.  We try to turn these long days of travel into something fun too.  We did learn in the MTC that "if you are not having fun then you are doing something wrong."  Anyway on Friday we will be in Asheville, North Carolina.  So we will be spending a little time to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  This drive has been on my "bucket list" to do before we leave Tennessee.  Our time is getting short now.  We have been told by our Mission President that we will be released on June 7th.  When we think about being released it's easy to be distracted from the things we should be doing as missionaries.  We do need to make plans but do it in such a way as to not take our focus off of the mission.  There is still lots of work to be done.  We love the work and are grateful for the opportunity to serve.
          We love you all and wish for you to have a great week.  Remember, "be good, don't be bad."
Love, Elder and Sister Christensen, TKM

Azaleas in a beautiful yard

Cherry Blossoms

Beautiful Landscaping

Beautiful Azalea bush and Dogwood trees

Very beautiful home on the dogwood trail

More azaleas and dogwoods

White Dogwood tree, Purple line on the road indicates the trail

Dear Family and Friends

We are now officially in April that means we have May to go and we are heading home.  Our release date is June 7th.  We plan to leave early that morning and try to get to Colorado in three days.  We are rendezvousing with the Berry family to do a little vacation time with them since they did not get anytime in Tennessee with us while we were here.  Why they want to spend time with us is a mystery.  We are not that exciting but we decided that it would be fun to see them and Colorado is the mission field for Mike when he was a young missionary.
We have noticed that we our very comfortable in Tennessee and we are now starting to worry about the transition in going home.  We are especially grateful for the news that Megan and Justin have of  a place to work and live that is not so far for us to visit and them to visit us.  We have been grateful that they could use our home while we were gone but were a little worried about how it would be to live with each other if they did not find a job and know where they would live.  Grandparents love to have grandchildren come to visit but it would be an adjustment to live with children again.  I guess we are grateful that they don't have to live with us old people that like quiet and order. And they don't have worry to about noise and clutter because we are there.  I know that Heavely Father was answering all of the prayers that were in our behalf and Meg's family behave.  We are very grateful.
We have had many things to be grateful for and the ability to watch conference starting with the women's conference is a real blessing.  It seems that when the 6 month mark comes into view with conference we are so ready to be instructed and bouyed up that having this living water to drink from renews our souls.  We have also been to the temple recently which has given us another chance to be taught.  I learned something this past time that was really interesting to me and I hope I can get further instructions on it when I go again.  It was something I had not thought about before.
Grateful for temple worship and how important it is to our understanding of the plan.
Today is the second day of general conference.  We will spend it quietly listening and enjoying some time to rest.
Yesterday we had three Elders for the afternoon session and a recent convert come to watch with us.  Then we had two Elders come for dinner and the recent convert and then the Elders stayed to watch the priesthood session with dad.  He said it felt like he had his sons with him to watch conference.
Probably not the exact feeling but a little reminder of the times he has had his sons with him while enjoying conference.
The recent convert is struggling with her decision to be baptized.  She believes it was the right thing to do but then she gets confused and wonders because she has so many things to work on and to know that it is over whelming and she wonders if she did the right thing.  She suffers from depression so any change I think is hard for someone that has that ailment.
Any extra stress makes it harder and so the stress of joining and learning and knowing they aren't at the same level as others makes them doubt.  I am just impressed she has come as far as she has. The only one in her family.  All by herself she is preparing a path for others to follow that may seek a new way and want more truth.  This is also a lot of pressure for one person.  I have spent sometime talking with her.  Lots of txts.  I hope it will help her.  One of the big things that happened was right after her baptism the sister missionaries her missionaries were transferred.  She felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her.  That is why we got involved even though we are not in her ward.  I see that there are many people the Lord has placed in her path.  She can't see it but I can see that He has her welfare all the way.
The opportunity to help others come to Christ are so many.  He is the only source of peace and happiness. We have to be bold in our desire to offer a better way for someone to live.  I think most everyone is seeking peace and happiness.  It can only be found in it's true form in the gospel.
We encourage you all to look at the new Easter message the church has now on the church website.  As the president introduced it as zone conference he told us that it has nothing in it that is just mormon related.  It is basically a Christian message even the music and art work are generic.  All the music and art the church owns the rights too but the way it is produced it could be from any christian church until you get to the end where it says the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I have returned recently to talk to the lady at the art gallery frame shop.  We talked about an hour on her recent readings in the Book of Mormon.  She said it is interesting but still can't understand why God would give another book to replace the bible.  They think the bible is so great that nothing can accompany it.    Even though we say it doesn't replace but adds to they just hear what they want to hear.  So I don't think she will be interested right now.  I have asked her if she would listen to the missionaries and she got really nervous and said not right now.
I had another missionary experience with a man named Steve.  We (Sister Coburn and I) met him in a grocery store lunch table.  We talked about marriage and I expressed the thought that marriage is a God given pattern.  This seemed to ring true to this man (47)who is not married and has never been but is wanting marriage but is afraid of the committment and that so may marriages go wrong that he is not to sure he wants the hurt.  I told him that marriage is like his business he has to be committed all the way even when it gets tough and that working through the hard things is what makes a marriage or a business strong.  We told him we were missionaries for our church serving in Knoxville.  He said he had heard of the mormon and had wanted to read the Book of Mormon to see what it was about.  We took his name and address told him we would get him a book.  We later found out that he didn't put the apartment number on the address.  We didn't know he lived in an apartment.  We wonder if he did that on purpose.  So another road leading to nothing.  I don't know how the missionaries keep doing what they do so much leads to no interest or avoidance.  But then once in awhile there are some that do chose to listen and chose to join.  Last week end our mission had 14 baptisms.  Thats is a lot for one weekend.  It was the most our mission has seen since Pres. Griffin has been here in Tennessee.
The bible culture is so strong here and people are so comfortable and very blinded by the generation family religion.  It is a wonder anyone joins the church here.
Well I will just tell you that we are going to miss the springs in Tennessee they are beautiful with very little wind.  Our favorite thing (like Rob's family) are the birds that sing there many different songs and the redbuds.  So most of the pictures are from the red buds we are seeing now.  Soon they will be gone and be nothing but leaves and the area will start to look like brocolli again. So these pictures are the memories we will have of the spring in Tennessee.  Love you all Mom Grandma and Sister Christensen

Sisters I took from our ward to enjoy the dinner before the women's conference
Leslie Marre and Carolyn Boiling

Dad did not see the women's conference so one night we watched it together
it was good to hear it again so soon after

Crossing the bridge over the Tennessee River

  
Red Buds