No Regrets.

Decent week here in Cosquín, it was great talking to the family on Sunday!

There have been a couple disappointments, mainly with kenti and ximena both deciding that they don't want to get baptized anymore. Both of them took that decision because they thought it would be too hard to keep the commandments. Sure, its hard...God never said it would be easy, he only said it would be worth it. I know it will be worth it. Life is a test, and the rewards of living life the right way will be better than we can possibly imagine. I just wish I could help people understand that. The here and now isn't the only thing thats important...but we have to respect other peoples agency. They are free to choose..the sad thing is that a lot of people choose what they want NOW, and in doing so they give up what they want most. 

Some of the positives this week were that I got asked to play the piano for a stake choir that has been formed for the stake (well its actually a district) conference next month. Its actually kinda a bitter sweet thing because the practices are long and sometimes in far away places, which takes up a lot of time. But its good because I like piano and Im happy to help.

Another one is that although we lost a couple of investigators we have some others that have been progressing a lot. One is a kid named francisco, he is 15. He's the kid that we kicked out of bed at noon to teach him a lesson last week. So we were surprised that when we went to pick him up from church he told us that he had been awake since 7:30 ready to go! That was a good sign that he was actually interested. When we got to church he had a good time, the other youth  sat with him and talked to him a lot, it was really good. There is a possibility that he could be getting baptized this sunday after church.

We also teach a guy named daniel, he is about 45 maybe, and he cuts hair from his house. We like teaching him because he actually takes it all really seriously, sometimes the investigators just mess around but he actually recognizes that its important and that it could change his life. He is always really sincere in the lessons, we have taught him about 3 times so far. He really wants to know if its all true, and he recognizes that we are trying to serve God and to help people. After the last lessons we had with him he said "thanks for coming by to save my lost soul". Its little moments like that, that make the mission worth it for me. 

Church was great on sunday, mauricios old grandparents came with us. Oscar fell asleep during sacrament, he was completely out. His wife elbowed him to try and wake him up and tons of drool fell from his mouth onto himself. He's a legend. 

We also had a great pday, this was our last one with me and elder mooneyham. Its been a good 4 and a half months! We went to the zoo in cordoba, we saw some crazy animals. It was weird because the zoo got bad reviews from members but we thought it was actually really cool! We also bought a few ties.... got to keep growing the collection. 

A scripture that I liked this week was in the last chapter of the book of Jacob: 26 And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream...

The part that most sticks out to me is the part about life passing away as if it was a dream. Its true. Life passes by super fast. When I was a little kid I never thought my mission would actually arrive, it always seemed so far away. I never thought I would actually be an adult. Now its actually arrived, and when it started it seemed so long I thought it would never end. But now here I am with less than a quarter of my mission left. Before I know it Ill be 45 and I'll have kids on their missions. Life just passes so fast, we have to take advantage of every moment, and try to do our best so that we don't have any regrets afterwards. 

Hope you all are doing well, I love you all. 

Elder Christensen

The pictures: Me and elder taylor with the star wars ties, a cool place overlooking cordoba and the ferris wheel, some cool murals, and some crazy monkeys

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