Monday, September 23, 2013

Koreatown and Love to Dwan!!!

Hello everyone! How are y'all doing?

This was a pretty good week. We have been busting our humps off spreading the gospel here in LA. To start off the week we tracted for 5 hours straight.... yeah that's right. We woke up one day and thought we have no investigators and we are running out of plans. So we ran out and tracted!!! Well we got several appointments from that and now a certain part of LA definitely knows who the Mormons are. 

The rest of the week has been preparing our LA English class. We have posted up fliers on every post as far as the eye can see. This program will work and we are so excited for it to pick up. We had President Weidman come to our class to see how every thing is going, sad thing was this was the slowest day that we have had in a long times soooo awkward!!!

I love all the mail that you are all sending especially the care packages from my wonderful mom. Every one in my district loves when I receive packages, I'm a sharer!! haha I can't think of anything that I need out here.

Now here is the part that I've been thinking of since 9 o'clock this morning! To Dwan Christensen, it pains me deeply to hear of your sickness. This has been racking my soul so much I just wish I could be there for you and your wonderful family. As my mission President told me, the reasons that we grieve or feel sadness is because we love. And I just want to say to Dwan and the whole Christensen family that I love you all so much and I am praying for you. I know that everything will get better and that our Heavenly Father is mindful of our sufferings. I know that families can be strengthened through these trials and that we are never alone in these time. Dwan again I love you so much you are such a great person and I am so grateful to know you.

I love my God, family, mission, companion, trials, friends,and everything that makes me grow as a person.

Please know that I know that this is the only true church of our loving Heavenly father!  Keep strong write your favorite missionary.... Me.
Con Amor
Elder Chriss

Monday, September 16, 2013

LA English!



 
Well we are here again, on our great email day. I swear this week flew by fast. To tell you the honest truth I don't have much for you all this week. It was a lot of riding my bike around talking to people and not really seeing much success.
 
I did go on splits this week with my awesome district leader Elder Miller. In his area of Korea town. He is really funny and just a great guy to be around. He says that his area is really difficult as well due to the large numbers of skyscrapers and restaurants!!
 
It's kind of sad but our one investigators just disappeared... we don't know where he went... the lady that referred him to us disappeared as well.  So we are focusing on finding people as of late.

 
Cool news though, we started up LA English!! Me and Elder Palomino are the teachers for the Intermediate class and we have 4 students in our class which we are excited about. So far no non-member students but we just put up a bunch of flyers around town. We are super excited for this class and this program.
 
Sad to say I've run out of things to say... I am happy and i'm doing great. although i don't have much to talk about i'm still enjoying my time here in LA.
 
Any pictures from home would be great to have!! and I would love to hear from as many of you as I can. I Love you all I love my Savior and I hope you all have a good week.
 
Love, Elder Chriss
 
 

The Griffith Zone!

Monday, September 9, 2013

LaFayette Livin!

Hey everybody just another great week here in Los Angeles California, Serving the Lord!!
 
This was a pretty uneventful week because it was a shorter week. But even in the small amount of time I have seen the blessings of the Lord poured upon us. At the moment we have one investigator and we are working hard with him to get a testimony of the BoM and la Iglesia.

Me and Elder Palomino have been bustin' hump here in this area. But although we have not seen much success from our labors we know that our efforts in this area are not in vain. One of my favorite sayings is "It's always darkest before the dawn" So at this moment it's pretty challenging but it will improve.

My Zone is called Griffith Zone, and to tell you the truth we aren't the most united. We are in different parts of the city and it's hard to get to know the rest of the zone. But I LOVE the Elders in my ward!! They are fantastic people and I am so glad to be working with them. Elder Miller, our District leader is such a fun guy and is a blast to be around. Oh before I forget, Every Wednesday and Saturday we eat with Hna Guttierez, and she also feeds any other companionship in the ward that doesn't have dinner that night. We always have a blast over at her house.

  Now the other day I was reading a talk given by Joseph B. Wirthlin named "Band of Brothers" in this talk he talked about missionaries and our brotherhood ( he also included sisters) and talked about a famous group in WWII known as easy company or the 506th paratrooper battalion. This group was a brotherhood forged through trials and difficult times that they suffered together. And just like in the mission field we must become the Brother/Sister for our companions. Though there are tough things that we go through each and every day we go through them together. We build each other up though this short 2 years.
 
I leave my apartment every day ready for what ever LA throws at me because of my Comp, my district and because of our band of brothers. I am so grateful for the missionaries that I serve with. We are on the front lines of the war on sin, and we will stand together. As Pres. Uchtdorf says "Lift where you stand" and that is exactly what we shall do.

As church members we need to be there for each other. We are strong as we rely on our Savior and each other.
 
I love you all so much and I hope to hear from you all soon, I would love to get some pictures from y'all!!

Until next week Con Amor
Elder Chriss

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Temple P-Day!


Elder Chriss and his zone after a session in the LA Temple! 
And yes, that is Hermana Warner. They are once again in the same zone.



Well as you can see by the title of the email, today is Temple P-day! These are the best P-days that we can have. To be able to go early in the morning to the temple is the exact thing that we missionaries need. 

My new area is super tough! The people are divided into two groups, lower class and SUPER upper class!!! The lower class people that we teach are a delight and very humble with what they have. The Supa class is another story.... we never get the opportunity to teach them... So me and Elder Palomino have been working in the more humble area. We have a part of our area that is super cool, Its Korea town. A super big area full of Korean and Latin people we ride our bikes all over Korea town. 

This week we found a new investigator named Everith, He is a super cool guy, and we are working hard on teaching him the Gospel. 
Cool thing, the other day we went to the church to go and do a class and well not a single person was there for the class.... BUT there was a wedding of a missionary who served here going on. And Guess who was the Best man? (Elder) Channing Winterrose my old Comp!! It was so cool to see him. He is doing great, has been working in Elko Nevada building Houses, and now he is on his way to Hawaii for school. 

I love my companion, he is so awesome and he is teaching me so much.  He was Elder Winterrose's Companion at some time as well. He is a great person and is helping me a bunch with my Spanish. Our apartment is still nice and cool with our AC. It has been sooooo hot here in Los Angeles lately and the AC is so helpful. Since we are on bike in a super hilly area the heat just dries us right up. I drink like 20 bottles of water a day. 
My new ward is so cool. We have great leaders who back us (missionaries) up 100% plus we have dinner every night with members!!! Not to sure when our English class gets started but I will let you all know when it does. 

Best of the week is definitely the temple. This is what I would like to talk about with y'all today. How grateful I am for the temple and the blessing that come from there. In LA the temple sits on one of the most valuable pieces of land in all of California, right in the center of Santa Monica. To the eyes of the world it is just a piece a land with a pretty building on top of it. But to us as members it is so much more. It is a beacon unto every one that we are the TRUE church and we will not go away and that we are given blessings through that building that no other place or plot of land can ever give us. I am grateful for the Blessing that the temples are for us. 
To all that read this, go to the temple as soon as you can. You will never regret the time spent there.

I love this Church because it is based on my favorite person (Jesus Christ) and I know that I am his disciple. 
I hope to hear from you. Send me Letters. They are Gold for us missionaries. Stay strong in the faith and know that Elder Chriss is praying for you!!

Love you all

Elder Taylor Chriss

Elder Chriss got to email chat with his dad today and sent him this picture while he was talking to him!
Hollywood!!!
Sunset over LA

Elder Palomino