"Don't Cry for Me Arroyito"

This week was my last week in Arroyito, because I have been transferred to a new area, which is in the middle city of cordoba. The "barrio" is called "La Madrid" and I've only been here a few hours but it seems cool so far! I enjoy being in the heart of the city there is lots to see. So Ill tell you about my last week in Arroyito.

On wednesday we traveled to Las Varillas for our district meeting like always but the real reason we went was to give a baptismal interview to a lady named silvina. I knew her from before, she was going to get baptized 3 months ago but there was some kind of problem and it never happened! Thankfully she has been able to get excited again to be baptized! She was baptized this saturday!

On thursday we had some goals in our area, which were to have 3 baptismal interviews with our investigators. We can't give interviews to our own investigators so the zone leaders came to do it, and It was a really good day! 2 people of the 3 were able to pass their interviews, one of them wasn't ready. We also had Milagros Ortega getting ready to be baptized too so we had the possibility of 3 baptisms on sunday. I felt really good about the work this day. however, in the night time after returning to the apartment we got a call and I found out that I was to be transferred. I was really sad because I love Arroyito and we have a lot of people to teach there and I also had made good friends there. 

On friday we were just working with the people who had their baptismal interviews to keep preparing them for baptism. There was a lot of problems though...one of the people is a kid named Leo. He is 12 and has serious anger issues. If you make a joke he will get very mad. He hates my companion because my companion got mad at him when Leo made a joke about marijuana. He likes me though and he asked me to baptize him. The problem is that his dad is angry with the world because somebody robbed some lambs from his farm, and he is living out in the country at his farm to guard it. And leo says he will only get baptized if His dad comes to the baptism. So we have been trying to get the dad to come back, but he doesn't want to. One of the other people we are preparing for baptism is ezequiel, however somebody is accusing him of stealing a motorcycle even though it was actually his brother...its never easy to baptize anyone because satan tries really hard to stop it every time. 

On saturday I started going around saying goodbye to everyone...we ate lunch with my convert milagros zapata. I have a notebook that I bring around for people to write in so they were able to write in that. I was sad to say goodbye to them mostly because I couldn't get much accomplished with them. I baptized milagros but her whole family is still inactive and it made me sad. They promised they would go to church on sunday to see my farewell testimony. After that milagros took us to see the river in arroyito...its what arroyito is known for but I had never gone until now. It is a really nice place actually.  We took a lot of pictures and went on this big shaking bridge thing...we were sitting there in the middle of the bridge and some guy came across on a motorcycle going super fast and the whole bridge was shaking like crazy I thought it was going to break and we had to run off or get hit haha. In the evening we had to go take the water out of the baptismal font with buckets...because if you can believe it the font is broken again. Im sick of it, the font never works, and until you experience it no one can understand how awful it is to take the water out with buckets. It kills your back and you get soaked. But we were expecting to have baptisms the next day so we had to do it. We brought david with us (who is going on a mission soon) so he could get a taste of mission life haha. After that I packed all night until 2 am it was great....just kidding its the worst part of the mission, I really dislike it.

Sunday was super anti climatic. We went early in the morning to pick up the people who were supposed to get baptized but there were some problems, I don't feel like going into it, but just know that all 3 fell through. Im sure they will all get baptized next week, its just sad because I wont be there! It was my last sunday there though so I had to say goodbye to everyone at the church...I was doing fine (emotionally) until after I gave my last testimony, and my convert Antonia (a 67 little sweet old lady) didn't know I was leaving until she heard what I said up front, and when I went back to sit down she started crying a ton it broke my heart and tons of people started crying it was crazy. This has to be the hardest part of the mission...saying goodbye to the people who you've seen completely change their lives. The people that we have baptized here are soooo much happier now.  im just glad I got to be a part of it. Im really going to miss Arroyito. I spent the rest of that sunday going around saying goodbye to everyone and taking pictures with them. Ive made a ton of really great friends here. The great thing about the church is you can go anywhere in the world and find great people who will be your friends no matter who you are or what language you speak. That night we set out in a bus to Cordoba, and slept there with the missionaries who work in the office. There are 12 of them in one apartment.....lets just say no body gets any sleep there haha those guys are crazy! 

Monday I spent the day with the guys who work in the office...it was really fun because I was the only "gringo" there in a group of people from brazil, colombia, dominican republic, chile, panama, argentina and others, its one of my favorite parts about the mission, getting to know people from all over the world. It was also fun to see how far ive come with my spanish! Its not a problem at all anymore! The office people have a lot of stress full work to do! (for example one of them is in charge of all the money in the mission, another is in charge of passport work and stuff) but they have a lot of perks..one of which is they can eat where ever they want and the mission covers it, so basically its kind of a party there in the office all the time with tons of food! It was a fun day haha. 

This morning (tuesday) i got up early with all my bags and went to the terminal to meet my new companion...he is from peru and he seems like a great companion so far! He says we have a baptism scheduled for this weekend so thats great! 

Thats a bout it for the week! Ill upload a lot of pictures!

Love you all! Sorry I didn't put a scripture, next week I will!

Faith, Without Works, is Dead.

This week has been pretty good, my new companion elder Ramirez teaches ridiculously well! Anyways I spent this whole week with a black eye. It still hasn't healed yet and I want it to heal because every single person I talk to asks me what happened and I'm tired of explaining it haha. What happened was, I was walking at night and a bunch of thugs came up and wanted to rob me and I tried to resist and one of them punched me in the face...
Haha just kidding, the truth is that I was playing soccer and I went to head the ball and the keeper punched me right in the eye. I have no idea what happened really I was watching the ball but it sure hurt.

This week was super full of teaching, we had a lot to do because almost none of our appointments fell through, and that is really rare. On Thursday we found 4 new investigators and invited 2 people to be baptized and they said yes. One of them is this 13 year old girl named Augustina. She is Asusenas daughter (who we also teach) and I feel super bad for her because she has a lot of problems. She smokes and has some other problems and she's really lost and she knows it. She's a young girl still, she should be enjoying her childhood right now but she kinda got "caught up in the fast life" and she doesn't like it.  All she wants is peace. She came to church with her mom and little sister this week and she felt good and she knows that she will have more peace if she tries to follow the commandments, so we will be helping her with that.

On Friday my companion tried to buy dollars off me for Argentine pesos, I have no problem with it but I knew he was gonna try and rip me off so I made him look up the exchange rate in a members house and now he doesn't want to make the deal anymore hahah. That day we also visited Carina who is the non baptized member. She has been going to church for a year and basically has a calling, but she's not a member yet because she needs to get married to the guy she's living with. He's a member but he says he needs to take the marriage paper work to a different city and his boss won't give him time off. So we suggested a fast to try and soften his boss's heart. In the night time, we went to a birthday party for Nancy's daughter because he plays guitar and he says he likes to play at parties. He tried to have me sing "baby" by Justin bieber because he doesn't speak English, it was interesting...

Saturday was kinda crazy. In the morning we visited some inactive members. The other members told us that they hate everyone but we managed to enter the house and have a good conversation with them. The most interesting thing that happened on that day however was that we had a lesson with some of our new investigators from 2 days ago and they are amazing. Its a family, with 3 little kids. We had left them a pamphlet the other day and the dad used the picture of Jesus on the cover as a model for a drawing he made for his mom. They are super prepared to hear the gospel. The mom is named Belen, she said she has been praying for a sign from God and she was super super happy during the lesson she never stopped smiling. It was one of the best lessons and everyone felt super happy to be there, but then something happened. A man came stumbling into the room, he was shirtless and he had an angry face. And the spirit in the room completely changed. I went from feeling super happy and calm, to nervous and a little scared and my heart started beating fast and I was sweating. Everyone in the room felt it, the dad put his head down on the table and Belen was sad, and this guy starts yelling at us and he said "we are saved by grace alone, and that it doesn't matter what we do here on earth because we will be saved no matter what, and that if you think works are important you are denying Christ and you are going to go to hell." He called us children of the devil. However, his message was the devils lie to the world. That we can all just do whatever we want in this life and then all automatically be saved. That is what Satan wants us to think, but its a trap. If our choices didn't matter, then why are we here?? Life is a test, and our choices, or our actions (works) determine our destiny. Its important to me that everyone understands that so I'm going to put a scripture here or maybe a couple.

2 Nephi 25: 23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

We are never going to be perfect. That's why it says after all we can do, that means try your absolute best to be like jesus.

James 2: 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James 1: 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

And so we see that faith alone can't save someone, if our actions don't reflect our faith. We need to keep the commandments.

So anyways that guy finally left after a few mins and the difference in spirit was incredible. Everyone started to feel better and the family was happy again. I'm not worried about them because I know they felt the spirit with us and not with him...but what I am worried about is that man happens to be the owner of their house (and also the house of our convert Nancy. He is the one who cut off her power last month). So later that night when we passed by to visit Nancy, (she lives above them) he was at their window yelling at them and saying we are devils and that we can't pass by anymore.. We didn't say anything we just went upstairs to visit Nancy. We are teaching her kids and friends now. It was good but when we came down, the handlebars on my companions bike were broken off...obviously we can't ride it anymore, someone is going to come fix it. But we are 99% sure that it was that guy who broke it. He claims to have a lot of faith in Christ...but demons also believe in Christ, demons also know the bible. A true follower of Christ wouldn't go around yelling at the people who rent his houses, cutting off their power because they go to our church, and breaking our bikes.

Sunday was good because a lot of our investigators came to church! 6, and 4 of them are planning to be baptized next weekend...also 3 of our recent converts were there. I'm happy to be seeing progress here in Arroyito. In the afternoon we had another asado (BBQ) and we took the sacrament to some elderly folks.

Monday was a super busy day too with teaching and I can't tell you how inefficient walking is...its nice to be able to have time to look around and see stuff but its so slow. We got some good stuff done but the main thing that happened was in the night time...we were teaching Nancy's kids and a friend of theirs, and that same guy barged his way into the house without asking or knocking and started trying to yell at us and fight but we basically just waited him out, and our investigators started defending us...that guy doesn't get it. The more he talks the more the people are in favor of us because they can feel the difference of spirit, its like night and day. As soon as the guy left the people we were teaching told us they wanted to be baptized.

There is opposition in all things...I can tell that those people are really important because the adversary is trying so hard to stop their progress. But I know that good will always triumph in the end. And you know what, we have an appointment with that guy (who owns the houses) on Thursday and I wouldn't be surprised if a miracle happens and he gets baptized. You never know haha.

I hope all is well!

Love Elder Christensen

The old gentleman in the picture is named (Roberto corazon de Jesus...in English it would be Robert heart of Jesus haha) 

First counselor in Bishopric

From Monday's service project.

Not sure what this is......

Fancy Bus!!!

Opposition In All Things.

P-day here has gotten so boring that we have started going to institute class during our free time...there is literally nothing else to do in this town, rather than sleep! That's what we did last Tuesday. A huge storm came up out of nowhere while we were in the computer place, and we had to ride home in the rain and cold. I think it made me sick. After the storm there was a huge double rainbow it was crazy.  I got a super bad cough though and I couldn't sleep at night so I finally ended up going to the doctor. This was my first time personally going to the doctor in Argentina, I usually prefer to just wait it out but they gave me some pills that actually worked really well and I got better in about 2 days. Im still kind of sick but nothing like it was before. 

On wednesday I was kind of nervous because we had a zone meeting, but I had to capacitar...I honestly have no idea what the word would be in english, but basically I had to teach a class to all the missionaries in the zone. It was my first time teaching the zone but it went really well! My companion helped me and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be haha. In the afternoon we visited our convert nancy, and we discovered that she has been drinking black tea because she didn't know it was bad. We confiscated that real quick haha. After that we did some contacting (knocking doors) and it went well I've gotten a lot better at it. Maybe its a coincidence but girls seems a lot easier to contact then guys...by that I mean they are always a lot nicer about it even if they reject us, but guys can be pretty mean about it. Im sure for sister missionaries its the other way around haha. We also played soccer that night on a synthetic pitch, it was awesome, but my knees got all bloody. 

On thursday not a lot happened, we taught asusena but it didn't go well because she was horribly distracted by the tv. She was watching a show called "caso cerrado", case closed, and it had some pretty crazy stuff. Its like judge judy or whatever its called. 

On friday we went to the post office so that my companion could pick up 2000 pesos his grandma sent him to buy a new suit. We got some bad news in that one of our investigators moved. Her name was Yesica but I don't know if we will be able to teach her anymore, she used to live with Valeria the lady who got baptized a few weeks ago. That night we ate dinner with a family of members, and they told us about the hurricane hitting florida and stuff. They also said that over 800 people died in haiti? :( I wish I could go there on my mission because im sure the people need a ton of help right now. 

On saturday we tried to do a service project, we were planning to work on the roof of one of the members here but in the end it was postponed until monday. It ended up being a pretty fun day though, my comp went to wax his face...shaving irritates his skin or something i don't know. It took forever and looked really really painful, but we had a good time talking with the people there and we were able to teach them a little bit and invite them to church. Hopefully we can see them progress soon! 

On sunday we had fast and testimony meeting, and it was the first day of a new rule that we have in the mission...if we don't have investigators in the church, we aren't allowed to stay we have to go out and find people. We didn't have any investigators unfortunately so we had to leave. I don't know whether or not im a fan of this new rule because I miss being in the church I felt terrible not being there on a sunday but president is an inspired man so we will trust him on this one. A certain member got mad at us for leaving because he doesn't understand that he's not in charge of us...its the elders quorum president but he took us into a room and gave us a talking to for no reason...I don't want to go into it but basically thought we were breaking rules he even called our mission president. ughghh. But this guy made me think of the scripture I want to share this week. Its in the Bible in James chapter 3. 

3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.

4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

This is obviously talking about gossip, or using hurtful words, or saying things that we shouldn't. The scripture is so true isn't it...its amazing how much damage words can cause. How great a matter a little fire kindleth! One match can start a forest fire. Its just important to remember to watch what we say and do because sometimes we can really hurt people without ever even realizing it, especially with gossip and spreading rumors...

I don't know if that guy calling president had anything to do with it, because I don't know what was said, but I know we didn't break any rules by leaving church early its the new rule for missionaries here. But my companion elder rodriguez was transferred in an emergency very unexpectedly today and I'm pretty disappointed. The whole ward is pretty upset actually and its a real shame because everything was going so well here and we had built up a lot of friendship and trust with the members. I don't want to make it seem like the ward is all fighting or anything but its just a shame that this had to happen. However, I'm sure my new companion will be great. He is from Colombia, and so far everything is going good! 

We spent all yesterday morning at the service project of the roof, we had a huge meat roast after it was really good. We spent all the afternoon helping elder Rodriguez pack all his stuff, and then saying goodbye too all the members and people we have been teaching. A lot of them were really sad, and the lady who was baptized most recently was genuinely angry! She said it's cruel to get close to someone and then have to leave so soon. Thats one of the tough parts about the mission. 

So yes, its been a week of challenges....something I'm trying to keep in mind is that there is opposition in all things! We could not know the good, if we didn't know the bad. We have to pass through trials to help us learn! Keep the faith! I hope everyone is doing well and was not too affected by the hurricane. You are blessed to live in a country where the houses are well built to withstand the wind. Some places like Haiti aren't so lucky, so count your blessings!

Love, Elder Christensen

PS the pictures are of the BBQ and the at the service project!

Old companion, New companion....

Do What is Right, and Have no need to Fear.

Our week started on Wednesday by traveling to San Francisco for our district meeting. Normally its just us and the 2 sister missionaries from Las Varillas, but this time the zone leaders where there too, to see how we did everything. It was fun having Elder Rodrigues the Brazilian there because he's super funny, and his companion is cool too but he was being super direct with the sisters and he was too hard on them I think. Their area is really hard because there are only like 14 active members there and he was pressuring them and I think it hurt their feelings cause they had a breakdown in the bathroom for 20 mins. But after that the meeting was pretty good. When we got back to our area we saw something interesting. A truck was driving on the "highway" and one of its wheels completely fell off and rolled away, there were tons of sparks and the part of the truck that was scraping on the ground lit on fire. I felt bad for them but it was kinda funny when the wheel that fell off kept rolling and it went past them haha.

On Thursday we ate lunch with a family kind of less active. Well its not that they are less active but everyone in the ward has been worried about them because the mom has been going through a lot of problems lately and seemed angry with the world. But when we got there for lunch she was super happy! And she said it was because her home teachers came by to visit her. Home teaching is really important because you never know when the people you visit are in need.

On Friday we visited another family who kind of needed a lift. The larios family lost their jobs at the factory, so its kinda of hard for them. I tried hard to pick a scripture to share with them that I thought could help. 

I picked this one in D&C 84:
35 And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;
36 For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;
37 And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;
38 And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

I like the scripture because it basically explains that when we receive the servants of the lord, (the prophets and apostles), we are receiving Jesus, and when we receive Jesus we are receiving his father. And when we do that and are faithful, we will receive all that the father hath! Life is a test, and its hard, but if we follow the counsels of the prophets that we heard this weekend then everything will be alright and we will receive our reward.

Saturday and Sunday we spent basically the whole time in the church watching conference. I tried to watch it in English on the computer but it wasn't working so I just watched it in Spanish with everyone else. Thankfully I was able to understand everything just fine. I enjoyed it a lot, I'm sure you all took your own notes so I'm not going to say anything other than something I really liked that was said in the closing hymn...."when you do what is right you have no need to fear!" That wrapped up the conference pretty well for me. I was really sad when it ended because while watching it I felt "safe" from all the crap that's in the world. I don't really know how to describe it.

Something funny was that Saturday night, one of the bishops councilors put a soccer match up on the projector before the priesthood session started, and then the other councilor came in and got mad and told him to kneel down and repent hahah.

When I woke up on Monday I was really sick I have a really bad cough and I can barely breath. I didn't go to the doctor or anything because there never are any here haha. Its not a big deal. On Monday it was hard to get stuff done, the most interesting thing that happened was while we were at bishop's house, his 2 little girls were laying on the ground in the kitchen, and this huge scorpion came out from under the rug and started crawling towards them. I killed it really fast but the girls were still really scared they were crying a ton! I'm just glad they didn't get stung haha.

That's about it! Everyone be safe during the storm that's coming this week. 

Love you, all I'll be praying!

Elder Christensen