Hey I hope you all had a great weekend! Conference was amazing for me. I was able to watch all sessions except the priesthood session, and IN ENGLISH! I was very excited for the opportunity to be able to watch conference and understand. Something I took for granted before my mission, when I used to only look forward to conference because it meant I didn’t have to get dressed in my church clothes on Sunday. I can tell you now that I regret not taking conference as seriously as I should have. Conference was a lot different for me this time around. It really depends on the attitude with which you watch it, and for me this weekend it was a spiritual experience. I’m sure that you all took your own notes so I won’t write a ton about what I learned, but I will say that I could feel very obviously and powerfully that those men who spoke to us are truly called of God, that they love us and that God loves us. As Elder Holland said, the first great truth in the universe is that God loves us more than we can understand. I know that these things are true.
Other than conference, this week had been kinda sad. We experienced a disappointment when the 4 investigators who promised us they would come to conference on Saturday with us if we helped them make empanadas to sell that morning. We skipped our companionship study to help them do that, then came back when it was time for conference. We even had a member with a car there with us to take them, but they weren’t home. They had gone to a party in the city. It made me sad and it made my companion really angry. People just don’t know what they are missing out on.
The two other elders in our apartment baptized 4 people the past 2 weeks. Obviously I’m happy for their success, I just wish I could emulate it. I just try to remember that the baptisms are for the Lord, not for us missionaries. They aren’t a statistic. Yes obviously try and baptize as many people as you can but remember its not you doing anything, its God and the spirit. When I see missionaries using their number of baptisms to settle a dispute among themselves it is just so wrong. That’s called getting prideful in the work, and we should be more like Ammon in alma 26. Especially we need to remember that without God we are nothing.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
Just because we didn’t baptize anyone last week doesn’t mean there weren’t any miracles. We gave hermana Rivadera a blessing of health on Wednesday. When we got there she appeared weak and said she had pain in her bones. We gave the blessing and then left. When we came back she told us about a warm feeling she got during the blessing, which started from her head and went down her whole body. After we left she said all her symptoms left and she felt “bien”. She testified of this to her children who we are teaching also. How they can follow up that miracle by skipping conference to party in the city I’ll never know. As long as we are doing our part though its okay I guess.
There were some changes in our apartment this week. Our new elder is from Guatemala, and he is a good person and a good missionary. We 3 gringos are also glad to have him rather than a chileno living with us because he can’t boast that his nations soccer team is better than ours. The day he arrived actually USA beat Guatemala 4-0 haha. Anyways, I went on exchanges with that Guatemalan elder on Tuesday and it was fun to talk to him all day and see how my Spanish has improved. I still have a really long way to go, but there has been improvement.
Something horrible happened this week. They called and told us we aren’t allowed to take the siesta anymore. It was a real blow. Without the daily hour long nap I feel so weak and tired. Its crazy how fast I got used to having it, now I don’t want to live without it. There’s nobody in the streets even in the city from 2-6 anyway, so its almost pointless for us to be outside. But oh well I’ll find a way to live without my nap. I managed it for 18 years before my mission so I guess I can do it again.
We had an interesting experience with an investigator this week. Maximiliano, the guy who knew about kolob. He said he would read the book of Mormon All Night! and then ask for an answer. We kinda didn’t feel too good about that. Its impressive that he was going to read all night but getting a testimony is a process that won’t happen all in one night. We told him about Alma 32 and how faith is like a seed, it takes time and nurturing before it can grow, before we can get the fruits. It takes patience. But he was like no, if I don’t get an answer tonight I don’t want anymore. So he read all night, from the time we left until 4 AM, and he read from page 1 all the way to 4th nephi. Woah! But when we got there in the morning, he openly told us that he had read it looking to disprove it and find faults with it. And of course he didn’t find any, his biggest “doubt” was that he didn’t think it was possible for the nephites to build a temple so quickly ( in 2 nephi 4 I think ). We were like huh? It doesn’t even give a time frame, they could’ve been working on it for years. All his other doubts and questions we were able to completely resolve and show how it was in line with the bible. However, he still wouldn’t believe. He said until I have a vision or dream or something from another world, I will not believe. He even said if he got an answer he still wouldn’t be baptized because he still needs to investigate every other church. Good luck buddy, there’s 20k Christian churches in the world. What I learned from this experience is that we really need to have good intentions when we ask for an answer. If we want to get an answer, we have to have every intent to act on it. As far as I’m concerned, someone who just reads the book trying to prove it wrong rather than hoping its true will never get an answer, and is no better than the Pharisees asking Jesus for signs, yet still unbelieving.
I have one more thing to report. We were talking to some people we randomly contacted at their house and it turns out they’ve been members for 14 years but haven’t come to church for about 13. Anyways, while we were there, this little girl comes up to us holding this huge tortoise and asks of if we want it. Duh we wanted it. We carried him back to the apartment and made him a nice salad. He’s just living in here with us now, he eats about 2 whole tomatoes today and a bunch of lettuce and apple pieces. His name is Teancum, but I don’t know how long we will be able to keep him. I have a bad feeling its illegal haha.
Shout out to my cousin Seth Dana who got his mission call to Brazil!
Hope everyone is well!
Love, Elder Christensen
I love getting a sneak peak at their apartment!!
What about Teancum's poop??
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