The Missing Email - Week 7 AND 8!!

This past week was a sad one.  We did not receive an email from E.  We checked all day last Monday, I finally had to force myself to set an alarm for 20 minute increments so I wouldn't keep checking more frequently than that.

Here is the explanation below, and the missing P-day email.

(This week we get to be happy because we get TWO emails instead of one!) 

.............................................

There was some bs emailing error last week. I sent 50 emails and no one replied last week and i was really sad and it looks like this was the reason. 

We were informed recently by our mission president that due to some
technical difficulties with myldsmail.net some emails that were sent
out between February 13-15 were not received by the recipients. So we
have permission today to resend those emails we have sent out. If you
have received the original email from the previous sending, please
disregard this message and the sending of the secondary email.

P.S. I love you all 

However it looks like nobody told me i could come back and fix it the next day. I can't express how mad i am right now.

Missing Week #7 Email

Hello, this is the first pday of the new transfer, and the 7th pday overall in Argentina. So much has happened so fast and I'm super tired. I¡ve been on a bus all night by myself traveling from Cordoba to a smaller city called La Rioja. I don't know exactly where it is, I just got here 4 hours ago, but it's somewhere in the desert near the mountains. Im here because i got transferred! It was a random emergency transfer, and I didn't know anything about it until 10:30 saturday night.

This transfer is kind of a miracle. The normal day of all transfers was last monday, and i din't get transferred. So i had resigned myself to atleast 6 more weeks with my companion. During the last week we still didn't get that much done. Somedays he wanted to go out and work a little, somedays he just wanted to sleep. But i decided that i wasn't going to worry about him anymore. I just controlled what i could control and that was following the rules and doing my studies and waking up on time. And i also had a kind of change of heart for my companion. He didn't have a dad back home, and also one of his friends back in paraguay died since he has been on his mission. So i started praying for more patience with him and decided that i was going to be a lot nicer and not judge him anymore because i don't know everything thats going on. I still think he shoulve been doing his studies, even if his leg did hurt, but everyone has their agency so I was going to let him make his own choices. No sooner had i decided these things and written them in my notebook, when I was suddenly transferred. "we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith" I thought i was doomed, but i kept the faith and then boom, transfer. A scripture that has been helping me recently is D/C 82:10. Its basically says that God has to bless us when we follow his commandments. God can't lie, so if we do what he says, we are guaranteed to be blessed in some way. I love it because its so simple! And its true. So yesterday was my last sunday in Ituzaingo ward. Some of them were actually sad that i was leaving, because now they have no one to play piano. But i got out of there just in time: We had a new music director called yesterday, and its a man and he doesn't know anything about music. As i was about to play the intro for the opening song, he just started singing really loud and waving his arm. So he was just singing a solo for a little bit cause everyone was super confused and i was trying to catch up with him. He was really hard to work with haha. 

Some scripture that i would recommend to anyone is the whole book of Daniel in the old testament. Every chapter has a major miracle in it. Its amazing how many signs the king of babylon gets and rejects before he is smitten. I also really like the first chapter (i think its the first chapter) Where Daniel requests healthy food and doesn't drink wine. Its the best example of the word of wisdom in the scriptures and its proof that is isn't just a new thing, the word of wisdom has always been a part of Gods true church. 

I found a little book of mormon, pocket sized, from my grandpa from 2008! It is really awesome because i can carry it around to translate scriptures that i don't understand very well in spanish. 

Im out of time. Ill tell about my new area next week! 

WEEK #8 - Bonus Email :))))

Hello, I have over three months in the mission now. My new area La Rioja is way better than my old area Ituzaingo in every way. The mountains are so pretty here. It all looks like Utah in the summer. The only thing i miss about ituzaingo is the bakery right next to the apartment. They have this festival going on here in La Rioja called "La Chaya", its been going on since i got here. People just gather in the streets and play drums and throw flour all over each other. Anytime we walk past these people in the streets they start chasing us and throwing flour, so we have to run away. Its kinda fun.

Last week we encountered some Jehovahs witnesses going about preaching. "testigos". My companion always wants to talk to them. He has studied everything about their religion and he told me he likes bible bashing. But we talked nicely with them, and we have a appointment with them tonight. I kinda feel like its a bad idea, but who knows.

The best thing we did this week was whats called a splash. Its when all the missionaries in the zone go to one Area and just tract for 2 hrs. Luckily for us, it happened to be in our area this time, so in total we got 8 new investigators from that to visit next week. I want to add that the name of our area is "antardida" meaning "Antartica", which is just cruel. This is the hottest place i've ever been in my life haha. Two scorpions came into our apartment this week too, they killed them and pinned them to our map. Ive never seen wild scorpions before and i really don't want to get stung by one. We also saw a girl get robbed on Saturday, she was on a motorcycle and another guy on a motorcycle grabbed her back and then she fell over and her arm got bloody. She caused a scene but there was nothing we could do really. 

Ive been studying in Alma still this week. Chapter 5 was probably the best one i read. Its pretty long (62) and i marked almost all of it. Its about alma, who discovered his people to be wicked, and he is trying to reclaim them by bearing down in pure testimony against them. There is too much to type so just read it on your own if you want starting from verse 12. I will type out 27. Its says "have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? If ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, could ye say that ye have been sufficiently humble?" That you have been made clean through the blood of Christ?  None of us really know when we are going to die, so it is important to always remember why we are here, and to always live as righteously as we can. I also like 38-40 a lot. Its really simple. If we are not sheep of the good shepherd (Christ) Then the devil is our shepherd. Whatever is good cometh from God, and whatever is evil cometh of the Devil. We will receive the wages of our work. There is a lot more good stuff in the chapter but i don't have time.

Adios,

Elder Christensen

The Lord WILL make our burdens seem Light.

Yesterday was my birthday! Tengo 19 Años. By the old rules I would just now be able to go on a mission. I can't imagine what it would be like if i had been working at the car wash all this time haha.

My only present was some sweet bread that a member gave me. And i got to miss the superbowl, but thats okay. I bought myself a cake from the bakery too.

Theres not that much to tell this week. I was the bowling champion again on pday of course. We still go to the hospital a lot for my companions therapy. The best thing that i can say about this week is that some of the less active members that we have been teaching are coming back to church lately!

I played organ in church yesterday for the first time ever. At least i tried to! The people in this ward aren't used to having anyone play while they sing, and a lot of them just like to sing at their own pace. Its hard to deal with!

Today is the last day of this transfer. I was really hoping for a transfer but nothing changed.

The scripture i would like to share now is from mosiah 23, verses 21-22. It says "Nevertheless, the lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless - whosoever putteth his trust in him, the same shall be lifted up at the last day."

This scripture is about the people of alma, who were super righteous but God allowed them to be "brought into bondage" by the lamanites as a test of their patience and faith. Sometimes, even when we are living righteously, God might send us hard trials. Thats because life is a test. Bad things happen to good people sometimes. Right now, I kinda feel like I'm "in bondage" to my bad spanish and a disobedient companion. I get up every day on time by myself, and do my studies by myself while my "trainer" sleeps. Sometimes I get really frustrated. I just try to be patient and have faith that if we keep choosing the right, the "lord will make our burdens seem light."

Also, something i just thought of: My teacher at the mtc told us that we shouldn't pray for the situation to be changed, but rather to know what we can do to make the situation better. I need to remember that.

Les Amo!

Elder Christensen

 

The Never Ending Siestas! P-day 5

Hello everyone,

 My birthday is next sunday! And by that time ill have been on my mission for 12 weeks.

So last pday after emailing, I bought Ice age 1,2,3, and the christmas one for $1. (we are allowed to watch animated movies on pday with our mission prez.) I feel like that was a deal that would make my mom proud. A steal at twice the price.

You would not believe how many people cancel/forget about appointments. 3 investigator appointments canceled this week, and 4 times members who volunteered to give us food forgot about it. There has been much involuntary fasting in ituzaingo. Another thing thats hard to deal with is the siesta. People here sleep 24/7. No one gets up until 9 or 10, then they work from around 10 to 1. Then, everybody goes home and takes a nap until around 5. All the shops are closed, nobody is in the streets and nobody answers their door. Its really annoying. By 6, everything is open again until around 10. Then they go back and sleep for a few hours, but a lot of them get up in the middle of the night to go party at the club, then just sleep in really late. I truly believe that argentina could be a world power if they didn't take a 4 hour nap everyday.

We spend about 2 days in the hospital this week for my companions leg therapy. Its about an hour away and the wait is always long. So i just read or write the whole time. I started reading "Jesus the Christ" and its pretty good. Im sad though cause its the last book missionaries are allowed to read that i haven't read yet, and i still have 21 months left. What am i gonna do.

I was able to drop off the other elder christensens package at the office finally, after having it for 3 months haha. They said hes been asking for it forever!

Some good things happened on the 20th. We went ot have a lesson with this kid Rodrigo, But he wasn't there. However, his neighbour, this lady Teresa was outside and she invited us into her house. She said she had heard about how we blessed a lady with a brain disease (this was on my second day in the country, i don't know if i mentioned it) and she told us that she was doing so much better now. She wanted to hear what we had to say. She listened to everything, i gave her a pamphlet, and we are going to meet with her again on wednesday. I don't think it was a coincidence that Rodrigo wasn't home. Teresa was who we were really supposed to talk to.

During my studies this week i got though the story of Abinadi. In one generation the nephites had gone from being very righteous to very wicked with king noah. So God sends Abinadi to call them to repentance. God is always giving people second chances. I went through and highlighted everytime abinadi says "except this people repent" or variations of it, and it was a lot. Abinadi teaches them the whole gospel in these chapters (mosiah 11-17): the 10 commandments, plan of salvation, atonement, resurrection, how little children have eternal life, and prophesied the coming of christ and the time when "the salvation of the lord shall be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue and people". (Our day). Many many times he promises blessing to those who repent, and warns of destruction for those who don't. But still they didn't listen. My favorite is chapter 13, when Abinadi is filled with the power of God so that no one can touch him. Verse 4: "because i have told you the truth you are angry with me." The wicked take the truth to be hard. I think thats so true. The only people who are offened by church teachings are people who aren't living it and don't want to change. Verse 9: "But i finish my message:and then it matters not whither I go, if it so be that i am saved." We all know what happened next. Abinadi was put to death because he would not take back his words, sealing the truth of his words with his death. Abinadi is one of the greatest examples of faith in the scriptures. I think abinadi knew he was gonna die before he went out to teach, but he was okay with that because he had become truly converted, so that his will was in line with Gods. Sound familiar? Luke 22:42: "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." Think also of Joseph Smith, Giving himself up to go to Carthage. When someone is truly converted, what they want doesn't matter anymore.

Another thing to take from the story of abinadi is to not be discouraged with rejection. Abinadi probably died not knowing if anyone had listened to him. But 1 person did, Alma, and a whole nation of righteous people came from him. Missionaries get rejected A LOT. But, even if someone rejects the gospel at first, it could lead to them being baptized later. All we can do is our part, the rest is up to them.

The next time I write, Yo tendré 19 años! 

Adios,

Love Elder Christensen