The Book of Mormon Helps us Interpret the Bible

This week started with a big day on Wednesday, The zone leaders came to my district meeting, partly to evaluate it and also they made the trip to do baptismal interviews for a couple of our investigators. However after the district meeting it all went down hill pretty fast, because neither Analía nor Mauricios parents will let them get baptized, or even get the interview. Mauricio is 14 so its somewhat understandable but Analía is 22 and its ridiculous. She is old enough to make her own decisions, but whatever we won't give up. I was just frustrated because basically the zone leaders came for nothing, its an expensive and long trip. One good thing about that day was in the night we had dinner with family palomeque, and they celebrated my birthday (3 weeks late, better late than never) with a cake and everything, it was really nice!

Thursday was a good day for the other elders lepe and larsen, because I got to do a baptismal interview for a 9 year old girl they had been teaching named Irene. Her grandma was a member but inactive and they lived together....talk about a gold mine. Later that night we taught the first english class with the youth here, they all thought the word potato was hilarious, we still have no idea why. 

On friday we woke up to an earthquake...it was the first one I can ever remember feeling, it was crazy it opened the window and it made a really loud noise. I hope wherever the center of it was is okay, but I haven't heard any news so I feel like it was probably just a small one. That day we also found a gold mine of our own, another 9 year old kid who isn't baptized but his mom is a member. We have been teaching him and he will probably be baptized in a few weeks!

Saturday we were in a trio, because Elder Lepe had to go to cordoba for his final interview. We had a fun day working as a trio, and we had a lot of things to do to prepare for the baptism of Irene. We started filling the font, then went outside to wait for elder Lepe, and when we saw him he was walking down the street drinking a coke, he is funny and goofy, we will miss him. Once he arrived me and elder Mooneyham left to go teach a lesson while they finished setting up the baptism, during the middle of the lesson they called us saying we had to go there urgently because there was nobody there and they needed us to go as witnesses. So that was interesting having a baptism with almost no one there, not quite sure what happened with that. 

On sunday we brought mauricio to church again, we gifted him a white shirt and blue tie because he didn't have any. He was feeling super happy during and after church, and its a real shame his mom wouldn't let him get baptized. Maybe in the future he will be able to, but he really loves the church already. Our investigator liliana was also there, going on her crazy kissing sprees like always. She kissed all the young men on the cheek and also all little kids. I escaped somehow, it was a stroke of luck, but she had a good time at church.  she isn't baptized yet because she is waiting on her marriage paperwork still. That night we carried lepes bags to the bus station (they were huge and heavy with no wheels) and sent him off. He should be back in Santiago Chile by now with his fam. 

Yesterday was elder Larsens last day in Cosquín. So we where in a trio again, and we hung out a bit while he finished his packing. We contacted a little, I met a lady who lives in Arroyito! I got super excited and I told her that I used to live there too, and we talked a bit and I got her address and today I sent it to the elders who are there right now and they will visit her this week. (The elder there now is my MTC comp, elder Jackson!) In the afternoon the faucet in our kitchen exploded, and water was shooting everywhere. I have a video but its taking too long to upload. But I had to call a "plomero" (plumber) named Jesús to come fix it and I had to pay 300 pesos it was bogus. But he fixed it good. Then we bought a huge pizza for elder larsens last dinner, and this morning we took him to the bus station at 5:30 and he is in cordoba now. 

They have closed half of Cosauín, so its just me and Elder Mooneyham now but its alright. I will be here for 6 more weeks at least! 

I've been continuing my reading in 1 nephi, and here are some interesting scriptures in chapter 13. 

26 And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.

 27 And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men.

 28 Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God.

Here Its talking about the Bible, how it was a very important book written by the apostles of the Lord in jerusalem, but how the devil has caused many important parts of it to be lost, and overall it has been made very confusing. This was something that I never really could understand clearly before the mission. Why is our church the only one that has the Book of Mormon? But after talking to so many people here and seeing how every one all translates the same passages in so many crazy ways, I can see why the Book of Mormon is necessary. Does confusion come from God, or from the devil? Obviously the Devil, but thankfully God has provided us with the Book of Mormon to help us to understand what the bible says! I recently asked an investigator what the Book of Mormon means to her, and she said its a way to interpret the bible. Its not 100% what it is, but its a good way to think about it! Using the references on the bottom of the pages you can always study both at the same time...I have been doing that a lot lately and its really interesting! 

Thats all the time I have today! I love you all!

Elder Christensen

Here are a few pictures: a cat chillin on the counter in the internet cafe! The other ones are my last p-day and our district with the zone leaders in the district meeting. ​

Be Quick to Forgive....

This has been a pretty good week! We worked hard again, just like we did last week, except this time we had good success! Lots of our investigators came to church and for that reason we are really happy! 

Wednesday was alright, we had the usual district meeting in the morning, it was actually kind of bad because I couldn't find chalk anywhere in the building, and I had planned to be writing on the board a lot (I have to run the meeting and we talk about the numbers for the week and stuff so its kind of important to write stuff on the board) but we survived. After that we had a nice dinner with the palomeque family.  The best part was when my companion was sharing a scripture and he said "esta escritura es muy rica" which translates into "this scripture is delicious!"  he meant to say this scripture is really good. It was pretty funny and the family all laughed. 

On thursday we had a lesson with a kid named mauricio, it went really well and he said that he would be baptized on the 25th of this month. He seemed pretty excited, his mom said it was fine but that they would have to talk to his dad too. Hopefully his dad says yes! 

On friday morning I had to go to the internet café to do reports for the people in my district for the first time..everyone told me it was the worst part about being the district leader, but it wasn't too bad! In the afternoon we had a lesson with a member who has been inactive for a long time, but the lesson was really good and he sold me some cactus jam..its called arrope and comes from a cactus, that might sound gross/weird but its really good! 

On saturday in the morning we had an appointment with a girl named analía, she is 22, we met her friday but we didn't have a ton of hope for the lesson because she didn't seem that interested, but she let us in, and the lesson went really well! She is very shy, but she said she would come to church with us on sunday. Something unfortunate that happened was that we found out that one of our best investigators, Liliana, smokes..but we made a plan with her and she wants to work on stopping. 

Church was great, we had 5 people show up! Mauricio, Analia, Liliana, and 2 kids of a less active member that we are teaching. During the meeting, Analia came up to me and said she wants to get baptized, and that she also wants to invite her friend to come next week! That made me super super happy, we have an appointment with her to night that we are looking forward to. Sunday night we walked all the way up the mountain, about a 45 min walk to visit a guy and his wife named Yamil and cecilia...it was a really long walk but we had a fun time with them. They are christian, and they have very similar beliefs to ours, for that reason it was kind of hard to teach to convert, but I focused on the Book of Mormon which is what we are supposed to use if we don't know what else to say. 

That afternoon we also were walking through a neighborhood, and in the distance we heard a bunch of chanting and drums playing...it sounded like a soccer match or something but it was weird because we are in a small town and we had never seen a stadium here or anything. But of course we followed the noise, and we ended up discovering a secret soccer stadium in the middle of a neighborhood, there were tons of people there with flags and drums all jumping around and singing. We went in for a second because it was free entry and watched for a few mins, the match was good but it caused a scene because tons of people there recognized us, and were yelling stuff out at us...for example "hey look we got two elders here! Where are your bikes haha!?" and they thought it was so funny. We didn't want to cause a bigger scene so we left, but I hope they play on p-day sometime so we can go back in normal clothes and watch a match. 

Here is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that I liked this week: in 1 Nephi 7 

19 And it came to pass that they were angry with me again, and sought to lay hands upon me; but behold, one of the daughters of Ishmael, yea, and also her mother, and one of the sons of Ishmael, did plead with my brethren, insomuch that they did soften their hearts; and they did cease striving to take away my life.

 20 And it came to pass that they were sorrowful, because of their wickedness, insomuch that they did bow down before me, and did plead with me that I would forgive them of the thing that they had done against me.

 21 And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done, and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness. And it came to pass that they did so. And after they had done praying unto the Lord we did again travel on our journey towards the tent of our father.

This is at a part where nephi's brothers are trying to tie him up and kill him by leaving him to be devoured by wild beasts, but he prays to have the strength to break the ropes and he escapes. Then they are trying to kill him again, but I like how some of the other people there stood up for him. Lots of times in life we see people getting bullied, and usually its easier to just stand by and watch, or even to laugh. But the scripture just made me think about the big difference we can make if we stand up for somebody. If something isn't right, we need to say something. Also something impressive is how nephi was able to just forgive laman and lemuel so quickly...lots of people would probably hold a grudge after their brothers tried to kill them, but he forgives them instantly. That should be an example for all of us. If we can forgive instead of holding a grudge, we can resolve problems so much faster...

Thats all the time I have. I love you all and hope you are all doing well!

Elder Christensen 

Beautiful view...

Argentine money is lots prettier than ours!

Time is Flying.....60th P-day!

60th p-day in Argentina, nice! I feel older and older in the mission every day.  It seems like time is going by a lot faster. I think its going by faster now because I don't think about it as much anymore. In the beginning of my mission I was constantly worried about it, and thinking about the time and it seemed to crawl by. But now that I don't worry about it, when I do occasionally check the time it always surprises me to see how little I have left! 

Well this week has been decent, I would've said it was good but we had the huge let down of not having any investigators show up at church. We even went to their houses before the meeting started to try and pick them up, but they weren't home. So that was a let down. 

On Wednesday my companion elder mooneyham was still a bit ill, after the district meeting in the morning he just died in bed for a few hours, I let him sleep hoping he would get better. We were able to visit Gimena that night for a bit though, in case you don't remember she is our investigator who speaks english. She had a Book of Mormon in spanish, but she wanted an english one to practice/study her english. She has a huge final exam this week to finish her 7 years of studying english in the national university of cordoba, but she has failed it twice previously. She is nervous about it and is studying 24/7 and says she doesn't have time to read the Book of Mormon right now, but I promised she would do better if she read a chapter I left her. She agreed to do it, and later texted me and said she did it. So please pray for her that she can pass her exam this time. 

On thursday we had a lot of technical difficulties, I was trying to download the restoration video to show to some of our investigators, the super old ones, because we feel that it would help them a lot but we were trying to download it for 2 hours it was so annoying. And in the end the dvd player can't even read the file. That just shows me that the video will be really important for them once I get it to work. 

On friday the zone leaders came to do exchanges with us. It was fun because I went with my friend elder Welch, he is going home in 2 weeks and he can't believe it. We had a crazy visit with liliana, she is one of best investigators and she accepted a baptismal invitation, she just needs to get married first. She understands that and is willing to do it! She also has some crazy catholic beliefs deeply engrained. She showed us this picture of "the virgin of mate", mate is a cultural drink here, but they worship this virgin and pray to her. Just the mate cracks me up, if you guys came to argentina you would understand the mate and how people drink it 24/7. I drink it a ton too its really good I just hope I can find it in America after the mission.

Saturday was a solid day of work. We had lessons with familia baez (the super old people) and with ximena and her little daughter, and also with americo (the guy with the mangled hand, cant remember if I have talked about him or not). They all said they would most likely be coming to church, and although they didn't this week I still have good hope for them. A little funny story was that while I was talking to some guy in the plaza next to a catholic church, and these 2 girls were looking back at us and while looking they both tripped on a curb and fell down, both of them!  It was hilarious. Another thing we did was at 9:20 we were starving, and the store closed at 9:30 and we were pretty far away, but we sprinted there, over a mile, and made it just as it was about to close. Im sure it caused a scene but it was worth it. 

Sunday was a rough day because none of our investigators came to church, but we had a good lesson with a kid named mauricio. I don't know why we never had high hopes for him, but sunday he told us he was seriously considering joining the church!  His mom said she is fine with him making his own decisions. He is 15 and im sure he will be coming to church next week. 

Monday was decent, The main thing I remember was that we talked to a guy who is blind in one eye, and was selling honey on the side of the road.  He told us that his kids are all members, and that his son even went on a mission to columbia, and the guy had the name tag in his wallet. It was super cool!  We have an appointment with him on friday. He also invited me to come with him to "El Clasico" in a few weeks, its when the two biggest soccer teams from cordoba play each other and its huge here. He is a season ticket holder and he can get one other person in free, I was dying to say yes, but I doubt we would be allowed to go. After the mission I definitely need to go to that match at least once though. 

Today for p-day, my old zone, (cordoba west) came up here in the train to spend the day with us, we played soccer and cooked some meat over a fire. It was fun, although I am pretty burnt again. 

So this week I finished the Pearl of Great Price, and read the Joesph Smith History. Because I am writing down all my thoughts during the studies now it takes me forever to get through the books, but its better this way. Something that called my attention in the story was verse 6. 

 6 For, notwithstanding the great love which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions. 

There are a ton of different churches in the world! Lots of people are confused about why if there is only one God, then why are there so many churches?? We know that if we ask God, He will make that answer known to us, but lots of people have different beliefs and the last thing we should do is contend with people. Lots of times, the best thing we can do is be an example! When people see us living our beliefs they will be able to know that what we believe is true. 

Thats about it for the week! Hope everyone is well and having a nice valentines day! Love you all! 

When the streets become rivers!

Our Zone.

My homemade banana bread....turned out great this week!

I'm 20 Years Old TODAY!!!

Today is my bday! 20 years old..time flies I really can't believe it. Last night I stayed awake in my bed until 12 so I could feel myself turn 20. As soon as that happened, I just started trying to remember as much about the first 20 years of my life as I possibly could...I was awake for a long time just thinking. I remembered stuff I didn't even know that I had remembered, such as a sandbox at our old blue house in Utah, and playing with toy cars on the floor in the hotel we used to live in when I was about 4, or when me and my brothers used to bury star wars action figures in the backyard and then forget where they where and never be able to find them again. That one made me laugh! ...and of course a lot of more recent stuff! It was a cool experience though honestly, and it made me happy to be alive.  I'm grateful for everybody who has had an impact in my life thus far. I love you all!! I also prayed a lot after that and had some personal experiences. I just want everyone to know that I know that God loves us all, and that he knows us really well. He's our dad, and I know we`ve got a mom up there too, and that she misses us. We were with them before, and more than anything I want to be able to be with them again. It all depends on what we do here! 

We have had another good week here in cosquín. On Wednesday we didn't have a lot of appointments so we where out "knocking doors". I just say that so you can understand, really we clap our hands really loud and the people come outside. I can't remember if I had explained that before. Anyway, we were in a super rich neighborhood, and getting rejected hardcore. I mean real hardcore, some people when they saw it was us, just turned around and went back inside without a word. Another guy came out with a knife and yelled at us. It wasn't too fun. So we prayed out there in the street, harder maybe then I have in a long time to receive inspiration. The inspiration I received was to visit our investigator Juan. We went to his house and.....he wasn't home. I got really disappointed, but I remembered that everything happens for a reason. I knew we were there for a reason, so we went over to the house directly in front of his and clapped. A lady came out with 2 little kids, and all morning we had been trying to talk to people about the restoration, but I went with the blessings the gospel has for families with her and it went really well. She seemed really happy and we got an appointment with her. Her name is diamela. 

Later that night I also cut my hair, I love having the clippers it saves me a ton of money. I also cut elder Larsens hair, this other kid that lives with us. People gotta start paying me for this. 

Thursday was just us getting up way earlier than normal to get on a bus to go to cruz del eje, it was about a 2 hr ride. We had a zone meeting there, it was the usual not sure if it was worth 350 pesos. My companion did some tie trading there and got some sweet deals. 

Friday was a decent day, we had a first lesson with a guy named americo, he lives off in the woods at the foot of the mountain. It was a really cool trail to get to his house. Afterwards my companion found a tick on the back of my shirt, so that was lucky. That afternoon my companion also tried to help some guy fix his car, but he couldn't figure out the problem. However, the guy saw that we were people with good intentions and he invited us to visit his home some day and introduced us to his 11 year old son. 

Saturday was when I started getting a bit sick with my cough. Also I felt pretty sick after I drank a whole liter bag of yogurt...thats right, I drank a bag of yogurt. Im going to miss this liquid yogurt when I go back home. We had a first lesson with this lady named Liliana...she is really great, she is a bit traumatized because she was a nurse in the war argentina had with England in the 80s, over the falkland islands...she said there was a grenade thrown next to her at one point, and a soldier tackled her to protect her and save her life, but the soldier died. Not sure 100%  if its a true story or not, but I believe her. I hope we can help her out. She came to church on sunday and she loved it!

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting...we had two investigators there, Liliana and a girl named ximena who is 25, and has a 1 year and 9 month old daughter named lucila. I absolutely love lucila! She gives me a hug every time she sees me. Ximena we met in the market during the festival, and she said she had talked with missionaries a few months ago and that she never went to our church but she had always wanted to. So she came on sunday for the first time, I think she liked it. Lucila was really happy in the church, she was running around like crazy and kept trying to go up on the stand. My companion wanted to share his testimony, so he went up and was doing great! He called me up to help him translate a bit but I know that everyone felt the spirit and got a little bit happier when he talked. I shared mine right after him and tons of members offered us lunch afterwards it was crazy! 

Monday my companion got really sick, we think its the flu or something but he couldn't work so I went on a split with elder Larson because I had some super good appointments set up, one of which was with diamela and it was one of the best lessons of my whole mission. She is one of the most prepared people I have met. She understands everything so well before we even teach it, it was unreal. I hope she comes to church this week!

And then this morning was my bday. my 3 roommates surprised me with some stuff, I don't know how they went out without waking me up but they bought a bunch of donuts and facturas (argentine pastry) at 6:30, (remember we get up at 7:30 now) and then came in around 7:20 singing happy birthday! they had made a card and they bought me a soccer ball as a present! It was really nice and a lot different then my last birthday a year ago. That day, my trainer laid in bed about all day and I bought myself a cake and ate it alone. It was rough, but im just glad that Ive come so far since then! Im super happy to be training, and to know spanish, and most of all to be in cosquín. Ive only been here for 3 weeks but I think it will be one of my favorite areas of my mission!

Ive still been studying the Pearl of Great Price lately. Its a book you could read in a day, but I have been taking it super slow and have been thinking about it a ton. What Id like to tell everyone today is that writing down your thoughts while reading the scriptures makes it a whole different experience...there's a scripture that says if an elder writes something in the spirit, it becomes scripture. Or at least personal scripture, but the way you can tell if what you write/say is from the spirit, is if you learn something from it. Ive surprised my self a ton from my writings and everyone should try it!

Im out of time...I love you all! Have a good week! 

Elder Christensen

We love you Ethan!  Happy Birthday Son.