December 17, 2010

This week seems to be like the most normal one yet. We are all learning Spanish very fast and this Monday were going to have to teach lesson one in Spanish. We practiced teaching it twice and i did pretty well i want to do way better but i definitely got my point across. One of the most spiritual experiences that i had this week was when we went to our fireside we had the byu men’s chorus sing and at the end of it they had a video with seems from the testament of Jesus and his ministry. And after the clips a lot of us were teary and we felt so good that we were here serving our savior who did so much for us so we could be happy and be freed from sin and also spiritual death. Then after the devotional we were very privileged to watch the testament and it was the best ever since i understand so much more and because i am a lot closer to my savior. When this ended all of us were teary eyed when Jesus appeared to the main father at the end and gave him his eyesight back after he saved his son it was an awesome experience as we all talked about it when we went back to our rooms. Every time I am not feeling like the spirit is as strong as i would want it i just teach and it comes back so strong. But one of the best feelings i have had this week is when i was teaching i didn’t have the fear at all of what i was going to say i felt so confident because i knew since i did my part to study and pray that the spirit was definitely there for me so i knew when ever i felt the spirit to go ahead and start talking and teach from my heart and the spirit would make sure that i had something to say this feeling is so incredible i love it. We are losing our teacher hermano cleek this week cause he is going home for Christmas right now then switching districts after new year’s so it is sad because we all love him a ton. And then we are also being left by Hermana Truman who is awesome she also switches at the years end so it’s sad but i might not be here to see that but I’ll find out hopefully soon. But on a funny note Elder Hammond again who is hilarious he was in a bathroom stall and there was an elder on both sides one from our district and the other was his companion so they play pranks so his companion says elder Hammond, and he didn’t answer him so he was thinking uh oh that’s not good then he saw elder Hammond’s feet outside the stall then he looked up and elder Hammond had filled up a 7 gallon sized garbage container full of water from the tub and poured it out over the stall on him when he was on the pot. His companion jumps up and screams and since its tile floor it title waved and hit the other elder and all the sudden (me and my roommates not knowing this happened) Elder Hammond runs into our room slams the door dives under our bed and hides behind suit cases ha ha then like two seconds later someone knocks on our door and they both ask where is Hammond! And they saw his feet and ran and attacked him it was way funny to hear them tell the story but our district is way awesome. We are way spiritual some of the most spiritual moments ever are in our testimony meetings and this one elder said we are the best friends he has ever had and we mean so much to him when he had the rock style life and could have gone big in a band then changed it all for his heavenly father cause he had a rough life. But we also have a way fun district to right before bed time it gets way funny and fun but i miss you all a ton and love you so much have an incredible Christmas can’t wait to get your letters love
Elder Christoffersen.

Pictures 12.11.2010

12/10/2010

This week probably felt the most normal out of all of them. We are now definitely in the flow of things and we are learning so fast and we are also learning so much that it is insane. My spanish is starting to make more sense and i am understanding more and more each day. This week my companion almost went home because of medical and because he was very discouraged. We tried everything we talked to him by being understanding and then we shared our feelings and we were also stern with him telling him that he needed to stay here. Even after he met with our branch president and both teachers after wards he told me when we went on our temple walk that he didnt care what anyone said and no pep talk was going to get him to stay and we had a lesson that was directed to him that he even said that it wasnt a bad thing to go home and that he was ok if he didnt serve and he wouldnt fall away from the church. We heard about every escuse and reason for him to go home even after everything we tried so on sunday a lot of us fasted for him(24 hours is pretty rough with a lot of study) but we did and then on monday before he made his decision if he would stay or go home we had a prayer for him as a district with our teacher and our zone leaders and my district leader asked if i would offer the prayer. This was probably the first time i said a prayer and felt like i said everything i needed to say that we wanted of my companion it felt way awesome and the spirit in the room was very strong as we were all kneeling in our classroom. But as that day went on he called his parents so that he could talk to them about how he kept going into the doctor and how he isnt sleeping good and how he was scared he was going to have to get surgery because of how bad he was feeling. But he came out of the room with tears in his eyes and he seemed a lot better and me and a companionship were waiting for him to come out and he said that he recieved a blessing from his dad over the phone and that he new that he was going to stay and that he has never felt so good before in his life. As the days have gone on he knows that he is staying here and that he is going to bolivia. All of his medical has somehow vanished and he isnt feeling sick or getting sick anymore its prettty crazy what the power of fasting and prayer can do. We realized that sometimes that you can only do so much and prayer will do the rest. But on a funny not one of the elders is planning on taking a bubble bath and singing loud for everyone to hear ha ha its gonna be exciting. He is not scared to do a lot he is pretty funny. I wish all of you an awesome christmas and fun winter i dont know if ill be going to peru wednesday because i still havent been called to the office to grab my visa but i will find out in the next few days hopefully i get it but im ok where ever i go. I love all of you and hope that this is an incredible week one last thing we had an aweome missionary conference witch had a lot to do with the atonement and there is so much more to it then we know and also about when christ was born it was truely a awesome conference. Then the devotional tuesday was about how we need to know christ or we cant teach of him as well and the speaker brother swick built the first chapel in bolivia it was a cool story. I love devotionals they are always truely amazing. I will right you wednesday if im not leaving or when ever i find out. I need the letter i sent to be mailed to neil germaine youll probably have to find the address on facebook and dad i need to know if you know the christensen twins one is married to my branch president she said she knows you cant wait to hear from you till next time

love Elder Christoffersen

Post Cards

I found some really fun post cards while I was at Deseret Book today. Here are some of my favorite ones. This first one really makes me laugh. I figured I could send Camron one or two cards a month. I will share more with you as I send them out.

First pictures sent home

Look at Camron's belly :) He told me in his last letter that he has gained atleast 8 pounds from the food there!!

December 3, 2010

So this week at the mtc was pretty dang good i didnt think that i would have as powerful of experiences as i had last week but they were pretty dang awesome first we had to teach the second lesson and i did not feel like we had prepared well enough to teach this lesson because we had just finished our outlines on them but we did it and it went pretty good. But what i felt that was so great about teaching this lesson is that at the end when i was promising blessings to one of the elders and baring my testimony words just seemed to keep coming to my mind and i was saying them so well with out trying to find words it felt so great and i could not have ever done this with out the spirit. I havent known untill now how the spirit is so powerful and when you trust the spirit and open your mouth having prayed and asked for the spirits guidance you can definitely rely on him because i am here baring whitness that when i trust him that i teach more powerfully and i teach more to the needs of who i am teaching to its a great feeling. Another awesome moment was when i had to teach with another elder in my district. I was scared of this because me an him havent ever taught together so i didnt know how this would go. But because we opened with a prayer and asked if the spirit would be with us so that we could be guided in what to say and help out the elder we taught things went very smoothly and we both opened up to the elder we taught. I thought it was great because after the elder that we taught told us that he really looked up to both of us and that we were great friends and that we meant a lot to him and i felt really good and we all told each other how we felt and how things were going. But the one thing that gave me the most confidence is that i never really knew if my testimony ever had effect on anyone i try to show how much it means to me(which since being here i can now look others in the eyes and bear testimony with passion) but i didnt know if it truely effected anyone but the elder who taught with me said that i know when camron bears his testimony i know that what he is saying is true. This made me feel so amazing inside and helps me to be able to express it more often cause i know that maybe it can have a greater affect on others. The MTC here turned from i cant wait to get out of here to be in the field cause its so close to home and feels like a prison ha ha in a way(this is what i felt the first day or two) to becoming the most spiritual and life changing incredible place ever and its so needed because it has changed so much of how i teach how i bare whitness of truths how i promise blessings when others commit to come closer to christ. The MTC is truely a great place and hope that peru will also be the same way. My companion is pretty sick he cant go number two so idk if he will make it we encourage and comfort him but im sure everything wil work out for him I leave for Peru on december 15th and its pretty dang exciting ill miss my district a lot and our great teachers. Im so greatful for all of the support which you are showing and i looked forward every day to reading your letters i wish you the bess holidays ever and hope that you will find time to gain the real meaning of Christmas the birth of Jesus Christ our savior who lived so that we can enjoy the blessings of our heavenly father love you all Elder Christoffersen

November 26th, 2010

Letter by email:

Forward this to everyone in our family , Kenzie Courtney.Thank you so much for all of your prayers and also you words of support and love. I have felt the spirit so strong these past two weeks while i have been here. Our sunday fireside was awesome and it made me feel great.When we sang the opening songs we got to sing like four hymns and i thought that was pretty dang cool because when i sing now the spirit is so strong because all of the words hit me so much. When the songs speak about how much our savior loves us and serving him and how he is there for us i get pretty emotional and im not able to sing becaus ei cant get the words to come out but i just keep reading as the words go by on the screen. In class wednesday night our teacher was a sub that we had had once before and he taught us how to commit our investigators with power and he gave us hints on how to accomplish this. He had us practice with our partners and my companion isnt very good with speaking and when we teach he struggles for words a lot but when he invited me to read and pray to find out if the book of mormon is true and promised me blessings then testified of it he did this with out struggling for words and it was powerful and i could feel the holy ghost burning inside of me and i thought it was incredible how he did this when he had trouble before. Then it was my turn to testify to him and i had the spirit so strong i was so confident and i looked him in the eyes and told him how blessed he would be and i testified how it has blessed my life and that i know wihtout a doubt of its truthfulness and then i said to him Elder Justesen will you read and ponder specifically third nephi 11 and pray to know if the book of mormon is the true word of God.When i said this it felt as if the holy ghost was burning out of me as if flames of truth were coming from my body i felt so incredible my joy was so great i was so happy and i knew that this is what im supposed to be doing and i cant wait to be able to look my investigators in the eyes and promise them this and testify to them and see changes take place in their lives it truely had made me so happy once i had done this i was so thankful that he had challenged us to do this. Then we had elder Per g Malm speak to us and it was very uplifting and his accent was way awesome he is sveedish ha ha but he was also funny. Then thursday morning we had a devotional and we were singing and i was feeling the spirit strong again and danget i was getting emotional again around all the elders but all the sudden durring a song Elder Jeffrey R holland Walked into the building and we all stood and a rush of emotion hit me and i felt gods love for me so strong again because he loved us so much that he provided an Elder to speak for us on thanxgiving it was awesome. After our devotionals we have a review on them and we all bear our testimony on how they affect us and what we think of them in our district and the spirit is strong. But it makes me so happy to see that even though i have seen the 12 elders in our district almost all get teary eyed probably from being homesick they all love there heavenly father so much because they show it in there testimonies. The last thing i will share is that one kid in our district had a bad past with law and such and his friends werent the best but i didnt think he would make it and i couldnt figure him out but i felt so bad but also so loved that when he bore his testimony for us he said and i just like to say that all of you are my friends and he got teared eyed and then so did i it made me change my whole view on him and he is a great friend also. I love you guys so much again thank you for your letters and your dear elders they are awesome i am doing great here at the MTC love Elder Christoffersen

November 20th, 2010

Letter by email:

The Mtc is pretty cool here the food is pretty good i like how we can eat as much as we want. My first day was pretty rough and the only thing that is keeping me happy is the comfort of the holy ghost and your letters. Im doing good right now i can bare testimony in spanish and also pray in spanish. My companion at first had way bad homesickness and i prayed so hard for him to be able to have comfort. I have never had that strong of a burning inside of me when i prayed for him. He got a blessing and decided that he was going to stay and not go home he was way close to leaving. Me and him get a long pretty well but he doesnt like to study as well as i would like. My p day next week is going to be friday so ill be emailing around this time or a little bit earlier. I did have dads debit card ha ha and i mailed it home today so it should be there monday if not watch the account i need a picture of our family and also the one of kenzie in my room on my dresser. We study almost all day but i like it because it brings the spirit and i need it almost as much as i need air. Gym for me is usually at 635 am ha ha so its hard to get good for a bit but its pretty fun. 650 missionaries came when i did because of thanksgiving week so it can be crouded. but its way awesome because me and 3 other companions in my district are going to santa cruz and i think im leaving around the 6th of december to peru. Keep sending dear elders they bring me great comfort and thank you for the heart letter it was so precious. Dont take the spirit for grannit its worth more then anything to me right now i cant stress that enough. I look forward to emailing you next week and i hear sunday is way awesome so i cant wait I miss you and hope for the best for all of you guys ill respond to your dear elders its easir to do that then to try to read emails while i have 30 minutes to type love you so much!

Elder Camron Christoffersen

Contact Elder Christoffersen

Here is some of the many ways you can contact Elder Christoffersen.

Good ol' Snail Mail:
Elder Camron Christoffersen
MTC mailbox # 289
BOL-SC 0126
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Super Easy and quick: http://www.dearelder.com/ , they will print your letter and deliver it the same day you wrote it.

Or you can email him: camron.christoffersen@myldsmail.net (he likes hard copy letters better than emails since he only gets 30 minutes on the computer).

Once Camron reaches the MTC in Peru, (approximately Dec 1st) his mailing address will be:
Elder Camron Christoffersen
Peru MTC
Centro de Capacita Missional
Melgarejo 159
La Molina
Amazonas 12
Peru

In the Mission Field in Bloivia, Camron can recieve letters through pouch. That address is:
Elder Camron Christoffersen
Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0150

Hope that helps you to contact him as soon and as often as possible. He loves your letters!

MTC

Dad wanted to have a blog for Camron with the letters and pictures that he sends home. So here it is. These are the pictures that were taken the day Camron was sent to the MTC.

After breakfast, we went over to the Provo temple to take some pictures.

I love this picture. You can tell how much Payton loves her Uncle Camron.

Carli really had a hard time with Camron leaving. They are such good buddies.

They have the MTC set up to get the missionaries in and and the families out as fast as possible. They do it so fast that you don't have time to even think about crying.

Here is the last we saw of Camron as he was led away.

Camron is going to be such an awesome missionary. We all ready miss you cam!