Letter from Andrew

Andrew is the one with glasses

We got an email from Andrew on Bryce's birthday.  It was great to hear from him...he lives in England.  He was never Bryce's companion but served in some of the same areas.  Here are some of the things he had to say--thanks Andrew for sending it!:

On his birthday, I want to tell you a funny experience I had with him.

It had been a long day on exchanges in Port Elizabeth, and being new to SACTM, I wasn't really used to the Bikes that Elder Christensen and Elder Later enjoyed. Of course, the considerate Elder Christensen planned to park the bikes for the evening and do some contacting and knock a few doors. I say knock, but I mean ring buzzers of the gated properties of Walmer. We got to one house which was behind a fence and lowered at the bottom of a hill, which had a long twisting drive up to the gate. We walked to the gate and pressed the buzzer...the conversation went like this:

Man: Who is calling?

Elder Christensen (EC): Hello we are missionaries from...

Man, abruptly: I'm sorry, who are you looking for?

EC: Well, we're missionaries and we share...(cut off)

Man, abruptly again: Please state the name of the person you are looking for.

EC: Well, we share with everyone in the home, we are...

Man: Please state the name of the person you are looking for.

EC: Everyone, we are from the Church of...

Man, Very Angry: Please state the name of the person you are looking for!!

EC: Well...whats your name?

The Man hung up, and we laughed and laughed. The Man was terribly rude and would hardly let Bryce finish a sentence, but it didn't phase Elder Christensen. He was resilient and kept such a positive spirit with him. I learned so much from that one experience, that rejection, hardship and trial do not need to be miserable - we could rejoice in the journey and instead of having bad feelings towards others, we could happily go about doing our duty with a smile on our face. I took this lesson through the rest of my mission with me/ Bryce's wit and positive attitude made missionary work with him a absolute joy, and even a year later while serving as district leaders in East London together, we still laughed about it.