Everything That Could Go Wrong.....DID!

Helloooo this is pday number 30 in the country of Argentina. haha thats a lot. Anyway, this week was really, really strange. It started on tuesday with a normal work day, but in the evening there was a *boda*, which is a wedding party but in this case it was a party for some people who got sealed in the temple last week. It was pretty fun, there was a lot of good food and there was a lot of dancing and stuff. We had to leave before it was over but it was getting pretty crazy! I attatched a picture of some of the decorations. (it was in the chapel..)

So on wednesday morning we went by the church at 6 am before catching a bus to San Francisco...they left it completely destroyed! I should've taken a picture of it. There was cake and empanadas smashed everywhere and all the balloons were popped and thrown everywhere. It was quite the scene, and I fully support the practice in America of cleaning the churches after activities before everyone goes home.

We arrived in San Fran later that day just fine, and had a good Zone meeting. There is a picture attatched of our zone, They sprung this meeting on us at 10:30 the night before, but we only had to travel 2 hrs so it wasn't that bad. It was a good meeting, and we got back to our area at a decent hour. Wednesday was also "dia de los amigos" in Argentina, and the bishops family invited us over that night for a little barbeque! It was really nice of them to think of us.

On Thursday, we had to go to Cordoba because I had to do some paperwork at the chief police station so that I didn't get deported from the country. By this point I was pretty sick of travelling, but I really like the city of Cordoba because its so massive and so much stuff to see. That basically took all day. Afterwards they gave us a little bit of money to eat lunch there in the city. We ate at McDonalds, and it was the first time I had eaten fast food since the salt lake airport! It had 2 stories and It was super super crowded, I mean every table was full and there were large lines. It was crazy.

On Friday morning, we had to travel again. To las varillas this time, because my comp had to give a baptismal interview to an investigator of the sisters there. That journey takes over 4 hours in bus, or 1 1\2 in taxi. My comp wanted to go in taxi to save time, but that  was way more expensive. But we went, and we had a decent day working out there. We found them some new people to teach, and we talked to the lady who was thinking about getting baptized. When we first got there to her house she wasn't very sure about being baptized, and her husband didn't want her to do it. Basically, we just got them to like us (I gave them a quarter, nickel, penny and a dime because they collected foreign money) and then started talking about baptism, she was able to get super excited about it! She actually started getting mad that she couldn't get baptized the next day! That was pretty cool. So in the end her baptism was set for next Saturday. We got some icecream after that, and set off for home. That is when everything went downhill.

We had missed the 8:40 bus to San Francisco, and we were hoping there was one before 10:30 so that we could make it there in time to take the next one at midnight back to Arroyito. However, the earliest one was at 11:10. That would've meant sleeping in the San Francisco terminal all night, and I honestly would've been fine with that, I just wanted to get out there. But what ended up happening is that we decided to sleep there in las varillas. Obviously we couldn't sleep with the other missionaries there, so we had to sleep on the floor in their church. But they don't have a real church building because there are only like 15 members there, so they are renting out this old abandoned doctors house to meet in. So we got to sleep on the hardwood floor of this creepy old doctors house with nothing but a blanket, and it was freezing in there. There is this big table in there under a light and it looks like he used to do illegal surgeries there.

So that night really sucked, but we lived, and we set out next morning for the bus. That is when I realized that I did not have the keys....I lost them. I have no idea what happened, they are always in my pocket. The last time I saw them was Friday morning at 6:30, they are most likely in some taxi somewhere. So that was really embarrassing and ruined everything. I had to call the office to tell them that I had no keys, and then they started getting mad at us because we were still in the other area, and it all just turned into this huge big ridiculous deal. I just wanted to get out of that area even though we had no keys because I was tired of the office people getting mad at us so we left in a taxi and got back to our area as soon as possible. So we got to walk around our area all day without ever showering or anything, and we were supposed to await the zone leaders to bring us a spare key at 6:30 pm. That got changed to 9, then 10:30, then they told us that we had to come there to San Francisco if we wanted they key. We got on a bus and arrived there at 3 AM. That was where we finally got the key, and the next bus left at 5:20 am to our area. I was so tired and cold and it was terrible. While we were walking to the bus terminal I think I fell asleep and I tripped and fell and ripped a big huge hole in my second favorite pair of pants. We got back to our area at 7 am, just in time to go to church and directly afterwards to a lunch appointment. Basically everything that could've gone wrong did. On top of losing the keys and not being able to really sleep or shower for 3 days, when I got back inside our apartment I discovered that I lost one of my 2 name tags. And when we finally got to take a shower, the hot water didn't work.

So with all that mess we only got to work a little bit in our own area. We have an investigator with a baptismal date for this Saturday, her names Angie. I'll talk more about that next week after it happens.

That's about all there is to say. I hope everything is going well at home!

Love, Elder Christensen

8 Month Mark.

Today is my official 8 month mark in the mission. 1/3 of the way done, a little more actually because the mission isn't exactly 2 years long. 

We are a bit short of good investigators at the moment. We have some but they aren't super interested. We work a lot with less active members, and we are at least seeing some progress there with people coming back to church. 

I've been trying to use what techniques I know to try and get people to teach. Contacting (door knocking) is the worst way to do it and my comp hates doing it. I don't mind doing it, but it isn't usually very successful. Another thing I've started to do is ask members for references every time we eat lunch with them, but they don't give them out very easily. They usually say that they don't have any friends who aren't members.

The most interesting thing was travelling to a different area for a district meeting on wednesday and getting back to our area at 2 AM and then making a 40 min walk home in the cold. I have no idea how this is allowed in the mission but it is, and we have to do it all the time! I've basically gotten used to it haha.

During lunch on tuesday a cat jumped up in my lap while I was eating. And of course I didn't get mad, I like cats, I just tried to gently lift him off and put him on the floor, but he grabbed on to my tie with his claw and ripped a huge gash in it. The lady who made us lunch got super mad at it and started beating it with this big stick and I had to defend it haha. It was quite the scene. It was one of my best ties too but Its fine haha.

 Bikes are so good to have in this area but also so much pain. My companion has spent over 100 dollars on his bike, because every time we get them fixed it seems like something else breaks. The front tire on mine is broken right now so we go around riding double bike a lot. It must look pretty ridiculous, people laugh at us a lot. Its awesome. 

Church was good yesterday. Right after church we went to a recent converts house and had a huge awesome barbeque. It was the best one I've had in argentina so far! After that,  We had a ward council meeting in the church that was 2 and a half hours long. 

My favorite scripture of the week: This is Alma 17:13. 

 13 And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.

Im bascially just trying to remember that this is the lords work and that we just need to trust in him, He's going to make sure everything is alright when the work is done. I know this church is true and that its really really important. Trust God and everything will be okay. 

Thats about it for this week. Sorry there are no pictures.  I love you all and I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

-Elder Christensen

The Bird Poop Saga continues.....

The week started with us going out to work on Tuesday after lunch in our apartment.  Not long after we left, a bird pooped right on the back of my head. I couldn't believe it.  I thought getting pooped on directly by a bird was a rare event. All my life before the mission I had never gotten pooped on by a bird, but in less than 8 months here in argentina it has already happened 3 times! 

We have an investigator with a baptismal date for Friday the 29th...its kinda a weird day to do it but she set it herself. So we will see what happens with that. She has come to church 3 times, but all of them were before I got here. Her mom is really crazy and I think that might be part of the reason she hasn't been coming to church more. One of her parents is baptized, but they just have some tricky family issues so its hard. 

I found out that the girl genesis from La Rioja (remember her?) that I had been teaching for 4 and a half months finally got baptized. Right after I left of course. Im just glad she finally did it! Thats proof that parents can be convinced...her dad was a Jehovah's witness. 

This place is making me fat. All the members here are rich for argentina standards and they give us as much food as we want. Its better than starving like I was in my last 2 areas, but I feel like a pig so Im starting to get serious with my exercises. The thing is that its super hard to eat healthy here! All the members give us is sugar...these pastry things, tons of bread, and soda and sugar juice. You can't get water its almost impossible. If you ask for water they offer soda, and if you say no just water is fine, then they bring you sugar juice. 

Its amazing how calm this town is. We can leave our bikes outside the bus terminal for 2 days, without locks, and nothing happens! It is sooo different from my last area. The downside is that this place is pretty boring, its out in the middle of nowhere so on p-day if we want to do something fun we have to travel pretty far in a bus, and its expensive. 

We had the grand idea to bike 60 km to a fun place to spend p-day with some other missionaries from our district, but we woke up and it was raining. We didn't feel like riding 60km in mud, so we went in taxi instead which took almost all our money. My companion is finishing his mission in 3 weeks and has basically no money to buy stuff to take home with him haha. But anyway, we have to travel back there again on Wednesday, so we are going to try biking it! My comp thinks it will take about 4 hours...Im kinda nervous because i've never biked that far before. And im just waiting for our bikes to break while we are 2 hours out into the desert with no phone service, and no money haha.

Nothing else super interesting happened during the week...On Saturday night I drank a liter of mate before bed without eating anything and it killed my stomach! I told people about it and they acted like that was common knowledge not to do. Well, now I know!

I finished the book of Ether. Chapter 12 is probably one of my favorites in the whole Book of Mormon! Check it out!

Im out of time now...love you all, hope you had a good 4th of July week!

Love, Elder Christensen 

Cordoba Temple Visit

We did a lot of traveling this week. So much so that we went 5 days without being able to work in our area. We were in san francisco sunday - Wednesday, and then on thursday we went to the cordoba temple! The reason we were in san francisco was for a zone p-day on monday, and then on wednesday we had a zone meeting and it didn't make sense to travel for hours just to get back late and then leave the next day to do it again, so we stayed there. The zone meeting on wednesday went from 9 am to 3 pm which is ridiculous! They are usually 1 or 2 hours maximum, so that basically killed a whole day as well.

On thursday, we decided to go to the temple in Cordoba because my companions recommend was expiring on the 30th of june, so it was the last day he could go! All the missionaries are allowed to go one time per transfer (6 weeks). Its kind of hard for us in Arroyito because we are so far away and its expensive to travel there and back, but I wanted to go because we have never been before. So we decided to go....it was my first time doing it all in spanish and ill admit I didn't understand completely everything haha but it was still a good experience. 

It definitely wasn't cheap to travel to the temple from our area! We had to get up at 4 Am to go, and  I spent about a quarter of my money for the month just on bus tickets and taxis, it was ridiculous. It was funny that the guy working in the temple at the front desk was from texas and didn't know spanish! 

We found a family of 6 people to teach this week. We have only taught one lesson with them, my comp wanted us to sing a hymn for them to invite the spirit and little kids were laughing at us while we were singing haha.

Today is the 4th of July...I do not enjoy holidays in the mission at all. Im feeling a bit homesick. But anyways,  We celebrated by roasting "chorizos" over a fire we made on our patio. I think it was a bad idea because the concrete got really hot and blew up! It was kinda scary haha. So now there is a big patch of ruined concrete. Our landlord will not be pleased.

I ate cow tongue this week. That is the new #1 grossest food that I have ever eaten. I ate two little pieces of it before I knew what it was and it was super weird. Then somebody told me what it was and I almost threw up. It just seems super weird to be eating the tongue of a cow haha.

We watched a movie called "facing the giants" this week. Its not a mormon movie but its christian and it was pretty good, its about football. There was a scripture in it that I liked. Matthew 19:26: 

 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Simple but true! The JS translation of the verse makes it even better, or at least more clear. So read it if you want. 

Thats about all, Happy 4th of July everyone! Shoot off some fireworks for me.