Ethan's Ten Percent in Argentina: 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)