Never Be Afraid to do What's Right

This was my first full week as senior companion.  I was a little bit nervous before because I wasn't sure if I was ready to lead all the lessons, or if I would be able to speak well enough, or if I knew the area well enough.  I shouldn't have worried! God prepares those that he calls, and he helped me to do everything that I needed to do. This has been one of the best weeks of my mission! Im super tired because we worked really hard, I haven't been this tired in a long time, but Im happy because we are trying to be obedient to the rules. 

Its funny that my first companion in the mission was from paraguay, and now a year later my first time being senior companion is with a paraguayan also. Well, the first day with my new companion was good we went and taught some people we met on monday in the morning, named maria and daniel. Maria has never been baptized in her whole life, and she was very interested in coming to our church. Daniel has a church already, but he has been to ours before and he is interested in learning more! After lunch I had prayed for inspiration to know where to go to knock doors...because we didn't have a ton of investigators and we needed to find more. I felt we should go to this street called "roque Arias", so we went and found a few people but nothing super exciting. I was kind of disappointed at first because I thought something amazing was going to happen, and we had to walk super far to get there. But on the way back, we took a route I had never been on before, and sure enough something incredible happened. We asked a family who were sitting out on their porch for directions, and they said "we know who you are." and they turned out to be the parents of a guy I knew in La Rioja who is a member of the church! I couldn't believe it. What are the chances I would randomly run into this guys family, who live in the ghetto of a huge city in a different state? These people aren't members, but their grandson is! He was a friend of mine in La Rioja, and they told me that he just left on his mission this monday to Bolivia! I know that him leaving on his mission has prepared his grandma (julia) to receive us and to learn more about the gospel, and what her grandson will be doing for the next two years. I know God led us to her house. 

On thursday we had a zone meeting in the morning, I like our district. We didn't have lunch scheduled with anyone so we had to eat in the pension, however it wasn't all that bad because it enabled us to sleep a little bit longer during the siesta. The afternoon was great because the district leader came to give the baptismal interview for matias! And he passed, so he is all ready to be baptized now. 

On Friday we had a great lesson with a person named alejandra that we met this week. It was kinda funny how we met her too, because we knocked on her door 3 times and she never opened it, so we went to the house next door. She thought we were gone so she came outside to water her plants or something and we saw her so we went back to give her a second chance to reject us and the first thing she said was "I have a church, I go to the universal church". Thats the one that started in brazil where they do a ton of "miracles". Anyway, we started talking to her and she opened up to us, and agreed to meet with us again on friday. The lesson was really good. We had planned to teach about the Book of Mormon and the restoration, but I felt that we should teach about the plan of salvation instead. I know that was inspiration because it had a huge affect on her, and she was excited to come to church on sunday. In the afternoon we taught a lady named Elizabeth, she is actually a member already but I am not happy with the missionaries who taught her before us because she doesn't understand anything still, she has "santos" all over her house. However I kind of understand the problem of the missionaries who taught her, she is extremely difficult to teach because she NEVER stops talking, and I really mean never. If you ask her a question, or try to start talking she goes off into a different subject automatically it is really frustrating. She really needs help though so we aren't going to give up. 

Saturday was the only day of the week that I didn't really enjoy, because it was frustrating and hard to get things done. In the morning we had our meeting with the ward mission leader to plan the baptism of matias, that was good. Then we had lunch with family Acosta, it was for 12:30 but we got there and they didn't even start cooking until 2:30 and we didn't get out of there until about 4, then at 5 we had to go to an appointment with some less active members but they didn't pay us a lot of attention, they left us all alone for a while because they were really busy around the house it seemed. I made them banana bread because they asked for it, but I don't think they even liked it. The one good thing was that the dad of that family promised to help us by picking up alejandra to come to church the next morning. When we got to his house the next day at 9 am to go pick up alejandra, he was fast asleep. We had to knock forever to get him to come answer the door. That is the reason he doesn't go to church, he is always sleeping. We reminded him he had promised to pick up alejandra, and thankfully he agreed to do it.   She was ready and waiting outside her house, and she had invited her husband jorge to come to! It was the first time we met him, it was really great that she invited him! She loved church, the class was great, we spoke about the judgement and how we will be judged for our works, it really made an impact on her. She said she wants to come every week now! 

Monday was the last day of the week for us, we were extremely tired but we kept trying to work hard. I don't think I have ever walked so much in my life. We taught two really good lessons on monday, one with Julia (the lady who is the mom of my friend in La Rioja) and with a friend of a member here, his named is miguel. We gifted both of them a Book of Mormon, and explained the importance of it and how they can know if its true or not. Both of them are going to read and pray to find out if its true. The lesson with Miguel was in the house of a member named Maria Romero, she helps us a lot. In our mission we call lessons with both members and investigators an "ideal situation", but this lesson with maria wasn't exactly ideal because when we were explaining that Jesus was the only perfect person to ever live, she started talking about how she thinks Jesus sinned because "he had kids out side of marriage" we were like what the heck are you talking about??? It was weird but it all turned out good in the end and Miguel learned a lot. 

The scripture I want to share this week is one we read in companionship study this week...by the way my new companion is great, he is willing to work hard and he has only been a member for 1 year, and he is 25 years old already. I respect him a lot for going on a mission at that age, and for only being a member for such a short time. 

The scripture is Moses 6:33 Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you. 34 Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.

I like this scripture because it gives us clear instruction on what we have to do here! We are living in the last days and Jesus is going to come again soon...we have to help the people decide now, who they are going to decide to follow. We have to prepare ourselves now, because if we don't do it now, in the next life it will be too late. Yes, its true that people who never heard the gospel in this life will be able to hear it in the next. But for those of us who have that chance now, we need to take the chance while we have it. It won't be possible for us to just change who we are in the next life, we have to do it now. Never be afraid to do what's right, because God is with us when we do. 

Love you all!

Elder Christensen

Cool Airplane

My comp Elder Gwilliam.......one of the only people here who is taller than me!