Rewarding Week........We achieved "Zion"

This week wasn't easy, but it was rewarding!

On Tuesday we taught Antonia, the lady we found last Saturday. She's pretty old (66) and she understands everything and has a lot of faith, but its hard for her to remember stuff. For that reason we kind of have to teach her as if she was a little girl. It was really really funny to teach her about tithing. She had no issues with paying it, but it was really hard for her to figure out how to calculate the 10%, and when she doesn't know the answer to a question she guesses. So we got some pretty funny answers while we were testing her haha. But I love Antonia. She's a really good person, she has almost nothing, but she is always helping her neighbours and the people that have even less than her. But most of all, she is super excited about the church and she was super excited about baptism. That's how it should be! The gospel is something happy the people should be excited about it. I imagine there were lots of people like Antonia when alma baptized 3000 in one day in the book of Mormon.

On Wednesday, we taught Nancy again. She has this cat that always wants to "suckle" her ears...its really funny \ gross. Its a boy cat and he only does it to girls haha but its really distracting during lessons. Anyways Nancy told us about how her landlord cut off her power and wants to kick her out. Why? Because he found out that she goes to our church and he hates Mormons. I was scared that she was going to not want to go to our church anymore because of that but it didn't stop her. She said shell just find a different house to live in. She has a lot of faith. She also has a bad bad past but she is totally committed to change. In the past 2 weeks she's already stopped smoking, ditched her bad boyfriend, and is about to move houses all for her faith. She's changed so much and its so amazing and she's a lot happier now. The difference is obvious. She used to sleep all day and never talk but now she's happy and actually doing something with her life its great.

On Wednesday we went to Las Varillas for our district meeting, aka the most boring place on earth. I am so so happy I'm not there, and I feel bad for the sister missionaries there. There is only one active family there and apparently they don't get a long with the sisters. There is also absolutely nothing there in that town. Its rough. Thankfully we got to come back in time for a soccer activity at the church in our area, and we roasted up chorizos too it was good.

On Thursday I had to go to the church to try and figure out how to pay this guy who made me a leather scripture case. Its pretty cool.  He wants me to pay him with an electronic transfer but my card won't let me do it (I think cause my card isn't from Argentina haha) and I still haven't figured it out. He calls me like 5 times a day its really annoying. The bank people don't even know how to help me its ridiculous. But anyway while we were at the church trying to figure it out a member was there and he asked us to take the curtains to a lady named maria funes so that she could wash them. We were kind of annoyed because it was way out of our way, and he could've done it in 5 mins on his motorcycle. But we did it, and we found 3 new investigators there. They had a question about why god let's innocent people die in wars in the middle east, and we were able to answer the question really well using the book of Mormon. They seemed really interested and I gifted the book of Mormon to one of them, and they want to go to church. So obviously we are happy now that we had to take the dirty curtains to that lady! God works in mysterious ways that we can't always understand until later.

On Friday it was kind of awful. It was super hot and windy and dusty (the first hot day since I got here) and on top of that my comps bike broke so we got to walk around all day. I never realized how big Arroyito was until I had to walk. It's so slow and we can't get anything done because it takes go long to get from place to place. But we were able to get one good thing done, which was to get the mom of milagros to sign her baptism paperwork. I can't remember if I've talked about milagros before or not. She's 14 and her whole family are inactive members, except her dad, but she likes going to church and she wanted to get baptized. It was a struggle to get her moms permission (it reminded me of the girl Genesis in La Rioja. She got baptized after I left). But in the end she signed it.

On Saturday the zone leaders came to give Antonia her baptismal interview. She passed of course. We also had to clean the church at 5. It took a long time. Our investigator Mariano came to help us clean.

On Sunday we had 4 baptisms lined up. Our baptismal goal for the month was 4, and at times it didn't look like we would meet the goal. But by a miracle all 4 baptisms happened yesterday! The names and ages of the people baptized were: Nancy Castillo (36) Antonia Villalba (66) Milagros Zapata (14) and Mariano Tramontana (26). Nancy and Antonia were for sure baptisms, milagros and Mariano we weren't sure if they would go through. Mariano told us that he would show up to church at 10, but by 10:30 he still wasn't there. So we went to an empty classroom and prayed, and I prayed that he could wake up and "arrive" at the church. But after the prayer we remembered that faith = action. Faith without action is nothing. So we went to go get Mariano ourselves. I was worried that his parents would open the door (he's scared of his parents they don't like the church) and that he wouldn't go with us because of them. But, his parents just happened to be in Cordoba for the day, and Mariano was alone and able to come with us to the church and get baptized. God is in control of the situation and he will make sure what needs to happen happens. I felt like nephi going into Jerusalem alone to get the brass plates...he said he was led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things that he would do. I didn't know if his parents would be home or not. If they were home it would've ruined everything. But we just did what we had to do and it worked out, and we found Mariano alone. Kind of like nephi found laban alone hahah.

So went back to the church and changed into our all white suits, to prepare for the baptism. The font was filled and all the people were there, but then milagros told us that she wouldn't be baptized unless her mom was there. So we went with a member in his car to look for Milagros' mom. I felt really weird knocking on the door wearing my all white suit, I'm sure it caused a scene haha. The guy who opened the door got scared for a second when he saw us I think, he jumped when he opened the door hahah. But we found the mom, (her names Graciela) and she was able to come see the baptism.

So in the end all 4 baptisms went through. Stuff always falls through in the mission. The elders in San Francisco had 2 baptisms fall through yesterday, but for us yesterday it all worked out. As a zone, we achieved "Zion"... That's what they call it when every companionship in the zone has at least one baptism. We all feel pretty good about that. I think this was the first time in my mission that that has happened in one of my zones.

Now that all our best investigators have been baptized, I'm sure next week will be all about finding new people to teach.

That's about it for this week. I love you all and I hope all is well!

-Elder Christensen 

Short and Sweet....9 months out.

Another week full of traveling, to both San Francisco and Córdoba. We go to San Fran every Wednesday for district meetings and i'm kind of getting sick of all those long bus rides, plus it takes all our money haha. I won't complain about going to Córdoba though, I love the city and I hope I get an area there someday. The reason I went there was to get some of my paperwork done...so I can finally be legal with an ID in the country. Its about time, its been over 9 months! Its always fun in Córdoba because we get to see a bunch of other missionaries that we normally don't get to talk to. I met this funny kid named elder Switzer that had memorized the winner of every single superbowl and the score haha. The hermanas from our district were there also in Córdoba and somebody robbed their backpack...it had their keys in it to their apartment and everything. I know how it feels to lose keys!

I don't have a lot of time to write but Im happy that on sunday we had 4 investigators come to church. Nancy, Carina, Mariano, and Antonia. 

Antonia and Nancy are both miracles. They are both going to be baptized on the 28th. I wrote a little bit about Nancy last week so this week I'll write about Antonia. We found her Saturday night knocking doors and she let us right in. She said that the missionaries used to pass by her house over a year ago, but they stopped coming by and she didn't know why. She said that she has always wanted to go to our church and that she just can't because she can't walk very well. She is 66, we gave her a ride to church yesterday, and she accepted a baptismal invitation for the 28th. That just shows that there are people out there that want to be baptized, we just have to find them. And knocking doors can work sometimes! 

Im out of time so sorry that its a really short email. I love you all! 

-Elder Christensen

Loosing count of which P-day!!

This week was pretty good! I have barely any time to write because my computer has been super slow but Ill write as much as I can. 

On Tuesday we had zone meetings in san francisco, and spent the rest of the week traveling. So the week didn't really get started until Wednesday. I don't know if you guys remember when I talked about giving a blessing to a disabled girl in my first week here in arroyito....it was a while ago. But we never went back to that house, until this week I felt we should go back. We did, and we found the mom of the girl there. She told us that the blessing worked really well, and that the doctors said the girl was progressing a lot faster than should've been possible. That made me really happy to hear! The mom is also interested in taking the lessons now.  She had a dream where she died or something and she came to a big white house, but she couldn't enter because they said she "wasn't ready yet". So she took that as a sign that she needs to get closer to God. So now she wants to go to church and even wants to get baptized! We are really happy about that.

On friday we went back to Córdoba for another conference. We have a lot of these if you haven't noticed. Elder Texiera of the 70 was there. He is from Portugal and is the first general authority from his country he said. His wife also talked to us, she couldn't speak spanish but she could speak english, so the other elder Christensen from the cocoa florida stake translated for her, it was pretty funny. There is always a ton of food at the conferences and I ate about 10 facturas and felt super sick afterwards haha.

We got back super late from that, but we were able to teach some good lessons the next day. We are teaching this guy named Mariano...he gave us his answer about whether or not he wanted to be baptized on a piece of paper in an envelope. He stressed us out by saying "if its a negative answer I hope we can still be friends" but it said SI! 

Mariano was supposed to come to church on sunday, but he didn't show up. While we were in church we received a message from him saying that he was sorry he didn't go but he was in the hospital because he ate some hotdogs from a street vendor and got super sick. I was really disappointed that he couldn't come to church but I couldn't help laughing when I read that message. Its interesting to see all the stuff satan works with to stop people from going to church...even Hot dogs! 

For P-day today we went fishing in the river with a member named Marcos Varela. It was great.  We caught 3 cat fish and cooked them up for lunch. It was really good! His wife also made us a cake (thats what she does for her job) so it was a pretty amazing cake. 

Thats basically all the interesting stuff I can remember right now. They asked us to sing in the choir yesterday because they didn't have enough men, so we did. 

I'm out of time, I love you guys!! 

Elder Christensen 

Working Hard Feels GREAT!! #32

We worked really hard this week! It feels a lot better to be working hard than to not be working hard. You don't think that until afterwards maybe but after a day of good work it just feels really good. My new companion elder Rodrigues is pretty quiet but I don't mind, I'd rather just get on with what we have to do anyways. He is a good worker and pretty funny at times.

I don't know why I feel like I don't have a ton to say because we did have a really good week teaching wise. Something interesting is that we worked in a trio for half of the week because an elder in san francisco was without a comp for a while. It was really weird knocking doors with 3 people there, I feel like that would make people a little nervous haha but it worked out really good! The elder who was staying with us is named elder Taylor, from Arizona. He has 10 months in the mission, but he started 2 years ago and had to go home early now he's back. He's funny and he helped us a lot in the lessons. A strategy that we have been trying out in the lessons is to have us and all the people we are teaching say a kneeling prayer, and after the prayer we all just stay there kneeling for a minute in silence with our eyes still closed. It might sound a little weird, but the spirit really goes to work in a reverent atmosphere like that. All of the most spiritual moments of the week were during those prayers, and most of them were said by elder Taylor. 

If anyone is preparing themselves to go on a mission, learn how to put a bike chain back on. My bike chain falls off about 5 times a day and I have to walk around with black greasy hands all day. Its great!

We went up one day to see the river...or the "little stream" as they call it. That is where "Arroyito" gets its name. I attached a picture of us in front of the river. A selfie haha. The other picture attached is of me and a little girl named augustina. She is 10. She's really funny and probably my best friend in Arroyito.

She's also the bishops daughter. She told me that her mom left church crying yesterday, so when we went to their house to eat lunch I shared a scripture that I thought of for her (the mom) and had her read it.  It was D&C 58:2-4. 

2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God con-cerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory;the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

I love this scripture. She started crying a ton while reading it, though I hope it was the good kind of crying! 

That's about it for this week. Im in san francico right now for a zone p-day, we played soccer.  It was super fun for a while until someone kicked the ball over the 20 ft tall wall and lost it. Ill send some more pictures in a different email! 

Love, Elder Christensen 

The Book of Mormon is True. I Know it.

We had transfers today. My old companion elder Lyman went home as he finished his mission. Congrats. A large part of this past week involved us being in Córdoba so that he could do some paper work to be able to leave the country. That took up a lot of time but its always nice to go to the big city and see a lot of other missionaries.

On tuesday we were able to get a lot of work done. We had exchanges, so I worked in our area Arroyito with an elder from ecuador. He looks a lot like messi its crazy! I wish I had a picture of him. But anyways, we had some really good lessons. Especially with a girl named milagros. She did her homework, which was to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and pray. She did that and had a good experiance, and felt the spirit. She said she wants to be baptized so I'm super excited about that and we will be visiting her a lot in the coming weeks.

On thursday I learned how to make homemade tortillas. They don't eat tortillas in argentina. I've never seen them, but my companion taught me how to make them. They are really easy to make and they are super good! Probably not too healthy though.

The funniest thing that happened this week was that me and elder Lyman were walking a long a fence, and there was this big dog barking at us from the other side. Elder Lyman tried to scare it with his scriptures but the dog grabbed them in his mouth and ripped them out of his hands and pulled them through the fence! It was really funny/Embarrasing to knock on the door and say "help your dog stole my book"!

So my new comp arrived today, he is from Uruguay. The first day with the new companion is always really weird and awkward, I kind of hate it. We are in that stage right now, but he will get settled in soon im sure. We have a BBQ scheduled for tonight at 8 so that should be good.

Some crazy stuff happened to the sisters in our district. They were supposed to have a baptism on saturday, but the mini missionary couldn't take the stress/depression anymore so she went home 2 days early....which cancelled the baptism. Im pretty upset and annoyed at that sister missionary. If she could've waited 2 more days she would've had her first baptism! I don't really know what goes on over there.

Oh yeah. I finished reading the book of mormon this week, for the first time in spanish. Its a great book, and its true. I know that its not always easy to understand the scriptures, but at the very least they always help me to feel relaxed and comforted. If I have a crap day, or if I personally feel like im not good enough or that its all too much and too hard and that I can't do it anymore , I just read the scriptures. And no matter what part Im reading, it always calms me down and gives me a feeling that I know everything is going to be okay. I know that anyone who reads the scriptures will get that same feeling any place any time. Even if you've already read them, read them again. Youll feel better. Even if you've already prayed to see if they are true, pray again. Maybe don't pray for big huge signs just pray for your faith to be strengthened. It works everytime, just do it. 

1 Nephi 4:1 And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren,saying: Let us go up again unto  Jerusalem, and let us befaithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is  mightier than all the earth, then  why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of  thousands?

If you ever have to choose between following the commandmants and not following them, just be like nephi here. " why not keep the commandments of God? He is mightier than the whole earth"...even if there is any doubt, you might as well just keep the commandments anyway. Nothing bad can happen from being good.

Thats about it for this week! I hope you guys are all doing well!

Elder Christensen