HISTORY

A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.

From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.

In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.

Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.

Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.

We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.

As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here.
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Sunday, April 5, 2015

Watching General Conference in BC

British Columbia, and particularly Vancouver and the Lower Mainland have become a prolific melting pot, as people from many lands immigrate here, hoping to find a better life.  Today, when

we went to our stake center to watch General Conference, we found that 5 rooms throughout the building had been set up with monitors for broadcasting all sessions in 6 different languages:  English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Korean.  Some of the Saints here joined the Church in their homelands, but many others have come from the efforts of our missionaries who are here teaching the gospel in all those languages, except Russian.  Some of them are teaching immigrants from their own countries, in their native tongues, but many more come from somewhere else, and learn the languages from scratch. Off the top of my head, I can think of missionaries from USA, Canada, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Palau, Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea,  Phillipines, Micronesia, Australia, and England.

I think I posted this photo before, but these two are from Taiwan and Hong Kong.  They are companions and teach in Cantonese and Mandarin, and somehow they communicate with each other and with the rest of us as well.  Obviously, English becomes our common bond.  So, some of these young people have to learn to function in two languages that are not their native tongue.
These are our homies, the Korean speakers, pictured here with Mission  President Burt and his wife, Leslie.  On the left is Elder Kim, born in Korea, but moved with his family to Nampa, Idaho when he was about 10 years old.  So he is fluent in Korean and English.  Love this kid.  He keeps me afloat at church as he translates what Korean I don't get, which is most of it.  A funny little story about Elder Kim:  knowing that there are also a lot of Chinese people here, and that it is difficult to tell the two apart, I asked him how they find the Koreans when they are making public contacts.  He told me today's Koreans are quite trendy, and for some reason, they love New Balance shoes.  So, these  Elders just go out among the crowds and strike up conversations with people wearing New Balance shoes.  Next is Elder Okamoto.  That's Japanese, right?  Well,  his mother is American, but his father (never been in his life) was half Korean and half Japanese.  Elder O grew up in Las Vegas where he joined the Church about two years ago.  He arrived here from the Korean MTC (Provo) about 3 weeks ago.  He already speaks better Korean than I do.  Next is Elder Porter, just a good ole white boy from S. Utah, who has been here just over a year, and is doing very well for having started the language from scratch.  Speaking of scratch, he is a scratch golfer who has a golf scholarship waiting for him when he gets home.  Regardless of nationality, language, or assignment, what these young missionaries all seem to have in common is a strong testimony in the truthfulness of the gospel and a deep desire to share their message with the world.  They are much more prepared and focused than I remember  missionaries being when I was in their shoes 45 years ago.  I have yet to meet any who are not intent in their purpose and who do not reflect the joy that comes from knowing the truth and being  confident in your purpose.  With their limited life experience, they can be a little scatterbrained when it comes to driving mission vehicles, sometimes presenting headaches for the fleet coordinator (me,) but they make up for it in spirit and motivation.  I am confident that the future of the Church and the world is in good hands.
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