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David
A. Christensen, a member of the BYU-Idaho Religion Department, shared
experiences from his service as a mission president in teaching the importance
of learning, loving, and lifting in the campus devotional Dec. 3.
He
began by reading from Alma 5:6-7 and 12-14.
“How
are we doing, ‘brothers and sisters of this church?’” Brother Christensen
asked. “Have we allowed the memory of our blessings and the understanding
of Jesus Christ and His
Atonement to have full sway in our hearts? Do we have an image of Christ in
our ‘look?’ In our ‘walk’ and
our ‘talk?’ Do we maintain that image all day? Even when were alone? Especially in the private moments of our lives?”
He
recounted the substance of two phone calls he received while he served as
the president of the Chile Santiago North mission, including one from a
general authority asking about one returned missionary’s worthiness and
another from a young woman who was considering a serious relationship with
another elder who had served there.
“I
have thought often about these telephone calls. To you 2,000 or so anticipating mission or having just
received a mission call:
Wouldn’t the constant thought of a future call from a general
authority or a call from your potential future spouse help you in setting
the kind of standard you will want to adhere to as a missionary? How much
more will the thought of our final interview with our creator and Savior
Jesus Christ impact our behavior throughout our entire life?”
Brother
Christensen then repeated the question that Alma poses:
• Have
you been spiritually born of God?
• Have
you received his image in your countenance?
• Have
ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
• Do
you exercise faith in the redemption of Him who created you?
• Do
you look forward with an eye of faith?
He
then posed the questions in shorter form:
• Has
he learned?
• Does
he love?
• Is
he a lifter?
Regarding
learning, Brother Christensen read from D&C 130:18-21 and 93:36-37,
27-28.
“Intelligence,
the kind you will want to have in your life, ...is the kind that comes
through obedience. The price for intelligence is simply obedience. We must
learn to be obedient.”
He
then taught about the importance of love. He read Moroni 7:44-48 and said
“The Lord himself has announced that love of God and fellow man is the
commandment upon which all others hang. He has further counseled each of us to earnestly seek
charity, or the pure of love of Christ, as one of our cardinal, or most
important, virtues.”
He
related the experience of a “wonderful” missionary who “came to the mission
with the greatest of all desires to be extraordinary, to be like Ammon,
Aaron, Omner, Himni, Muloki or Ammah.
He was as near ... exacting in his obedience as anyone of the Sons
of Helaman.” However, this missionary struggled to be tolerant of those who
were not as focused.
“He
lacked one critical attribute–love. He hadn’t come to understand the love
of Jesus Christ and His atonement in a personal or empowering way. He
didn’t have a love for the Chilean people. He didn’t love many of his less
perfect companions. I sensed his motives were rooted in 100 percent ...
fulfilling the duty of his calling more than doing things for his love of
God and his fellow man,” Brother Christensen said.
“We
spoke openly about his challenge in interviews and on other occasions,” he
continued. “He understood and acknowledged the void he felt. Characteristic
of his wonderful nature, he took counsel from his mission president, but
mostly from the Spirit. He engaged in the process identified by Mormon when
he counseled his son. He prayed with ‘all the energy of his heart.’ I have no doubt that included in
his every prayer was a supplication to feel and have the love of God and
for man in his heart. I know that he fasted and sought with every fiber of
his being to be filled with this love.”
Brother
Christensen defined the final attribute, that of being a “lifter,” with a
quote from President Ezra Taft Benson.
“The
man who is greatest and most blessed and joyful is the one whose life most
closely approaches the pattern of Christ. This has nothing to do with earthly wealth, power, or
prestige. The only true test
of greatness, blessedness, joyfulness is how close can a life come to being
like the Master, Jesus Christ.”
Brother
Christensen has been a faculty member in the Religion Department at
BYU-Idaho since 1989. He took
a Church Educational System leave from 1995 to 1997 to build the institute
program in South Florida and the Bahamas. He returned to teaching for two more years, and then was
called to serve as the president of the Chile Santiago North Mission from
1999 to 2002.
A
graduate of Ricks College, Brother Christensen earned his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees from Brigham Young University in Provo.
He
has served the church as a mission president, a counselor in a stake presidency,
on several high councils, as a bishop, in several bishoprics, chairman and
writer of several church curriculum manuals; he considers his most
important calling to be that of a home teacher.
Brother
Christensen and his wife, Deena, have eight children and six grandchildren.
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