I Can't Describe My Happiness.....

Hello my friends, 

This week was full of traveling again, I think that has just been my luck the whole mission to be in zones where everything is super spread out and all the areas are really far away from each other. It wastes a lot of time in buses but its cool because we get to see a lot of different places. This week we went to las varillas to go to their district meeting and we were also going to do an interview for a baptism, but that didnt end up happening because the young man wasnt ready. ( I dont know if you guys remember Las Varillas, Ive been here a few times about a year ago, or a little more. I never thought I would see  that place again.) 

We were there on wednesday, the meeting was great, almost everyone in that district is brazilian (3/4) so they speak a really weird spanish but we can understand. Then on thursday Elder Kostura (brazil) and Elder Heap (a new guy from america) came to our area to work with us for a day. President wants us to bring all the elders in our zone to work in our area at least once a month, so we get to do a lot of exchanges and get to know a lot of people. It was a good day, I went with the brazilian, we were able to have some really good lessons and find some new people to teach. That day my companion stepped on a sharp rock and broke his shoe, also stabbing his foot so apparently he was in a lot of pain and came home a little early to lay in bed. He has bad luck with shoes, last night he tripped a little bit while pulling a heavy suitcase that had 60 Book of Mormons in it and the bottom of his shoe fell off, he has no shoes left that are not broken. 

The rest of the week we were just working normally, except friday my comp felt like he was going to throw up so we couldnt do much in the afternoon. On saturday we had some lessons with some new people, we had a really good lesson in particular with a girl named eliana, she said that she had been to our church before when she was 15 (shes 20 now) and that she wants to go, she also accepted a baptismal invitation and wanted us to pick her up to go to church the next day. But we were calling her in the morning and she didnt answer..the curse continues. We weren't able to get any investigators to church even though we tried our best. 

Church was different this sunday, we didnt have the sacrament because there was a special conferance which was broadcasted from salt lake, Elder Rasband spoke, and also Elder Christensen of the 70, I really liked his because he was brave enough to give his talk in spanish, even though it wasnt his first language obviously, and he had to correct himself a couple times, I respect it a ton because he could have easily gotten a translator like everyone else, but he didnt. There was also a sister who spoke, I cant remember her name but she talked about how sometimes the seeds people plant are not seen for a long time. It was good to keep that in mind. 

However what most made me feel good about this week, and basically made me feel super happy about my mission overall was a visit to cordoba last night. We had the meeting with all the zone leaders and president in the morning, but in the afternoon me and my comp went to visit a couple of familes in La madrid (because we both served there, when he got transferred I replaced him there). We visited some members first, some good friends that want us to come visit in november. And then we went to visit Familia Lopez, they are a family of about 20 people (its a guy named angel, his wife and 3 kids, then next door lives his sister, and her 2 kids, and next to them live one of his daughters, her husband, and their 2 kids) and all of them have been baptized within the last year. Elder Baute found them, and baptized 3 people there (Angels kids). Then he left and I arrived, we helped angel and his wife to get married, they both got baptized, then we taught his sister silvias kids and baptized both of them. Silvia we taught a lot but we werent able to baptize her then, but she just now got baptized 2 weeks ago! And all of angels other kids have gotten baptized that live close by, and all their kids and they are all soo different. They are all so much happier now...I couldnt believe how different they were. Silvia was always sad or angry when we visited her before, and she smoked a ton, but when I saw her yesterday she was like a different person. She was so happy and calm...And everybody else there was so happy, they were seriously so happy to see us. (we didnt tell them we were coming) When we got there in the taxi in front of their house some of the kids were outside and they all started running around and hugging us and yelling "Elder Christensen is here! Elder Baute is here!" and it was such a good experience. They told me that they didnt think I was ever going to come back there, and that they were praying that I would come back to see them someday...they are getting sealed in the temple in december, their daughter and her husband will be getting sealed in may...angel has been able to baptize his son in law, they all have callings, a girl named victoria that I taught told us she wants to go on a mission, it was all so great I cant describe how happy I was. They are getting so blessed, when I was teaching them they were having a ton of economic problems, but now they are progressing a ton, angel just bought a brand new car for his 20 year old daughter (and where they live 1 in 1000 20 year olds might have a brand new car) they are just getting so blessed and they are all super happy. Im happy too, it made me feel really good to see them like that.  I cant explain with words how happy I am to have shared the gospel with someone and to have had it change their lives. I think the scriptures can explain how I feel better than I can..

Alma 26: 9 For if we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla, these our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly beloved us, would still have been racked with hatred against us, yea, and they would also have been strangers to God.

26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls.

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

These scriptures explain pretty much exactly how I feel. Lately Ive been feeling kinda down just because we havent been having much success lately, even though we have been working hard the people have just been choosing not to accept. I was really sad, but God let me have that experience yesterday to make me remember that my whole mission hasnt been like this, that there has been a lot of success and that it wasnt all for nothing. Im super glad that I came here to this country, and that missionaries exist, because if they didnt, those people would still be strangers to God, they would still be unhappy. But they are happy now, so happy, and we can tell of their sincerity because of their love towards us and towards the church and towards everyone. Im super happy and I just want everyone to know that sharing the gospel is a really great joy. No one can know exactly how it feels until they try and do it, it isnt always easy but when you can see the results you will be so happy you will never want to stop doing it. I am going to keep working hard and I hope I can find a few more people like them before my mission is over. 

I love the work, I love all of you.  .....

Elder Bailif who goes home in 3 weeks, and my last comp....Elder Hidalgo

District meeting, drinking guarana (brazilian drink) and eating empanadas for lunch.

The before and after picture of the "rat" pet of Famili Urquiza. 

3 Generations Deep......

Hello my people, 

I love San Francisco! In other circumstances I might not love it as much (I have previously said its one of the most boring places on earth when I came here on pday a year ago), but I am a lot better at spanish now and Im really good friends with the people living in the apartment with me. 6 people can get pretty crazy though, there are only two 6 person apartments in the whole mission for a reason. 

My new companion Elder Baute is great, we have been in 2 of the same areas previously (Antartida La rioja, and La madrid cordoba) so its been fun talking about all the people we knew there. Also it has been going really good in our area! We are whitewashing the area like I said in my last email, so we werent really sure what we had in terms of investigators and stuff, the area book only had like 5 names on it. So we were expecting to have to knock a lot of doors this week, but suprisingly we visited all of those people and everysingle one of them let us in with no problem! The first day we didnt even tract a single house cause we were teaching lessons all day. That first day we invited 5 people to be baptized on specific days, and they all said yes! All in all this week 8 people agreed to be baptized. We are really happy about it, but now we have to see how many of those 8 will actually progress (they recommend that we invite people to get baptized by the end of the first or second lesson), so they still have a long way to go before baptism. The frustration has continued over from my last area...we had 7 people commit to church, and we arranged for them to be ready and waiting so we could go by to pick them up one by one in a taxi. But when we got in the taxi and started passing by the houses, none of them where home, or they were sleeping, or supposedly had to go somewhere at 9 am on a sunday...It was so frustrating. I wasted 95 pesos on a taxi ride to church and a drive around the block, and we didn't pick up single person. If I said I wasn't mad I would be lying. I know we aren't supposed to get mad, I know Jesus wouldn't be getting mad in this situation. But I just dont understand why this is happening, its been such a long stretch of difficulty in bringing people to church. I feel like its not my fault because I feel like now im the best missionary Ive been in my mission, but the people are just using their agency not to go...I cant think of anything else to do but to keep working and try to be patient. Talking this morning with my companion made me feel a lot better. He found a family in La madrid (the area we were both in) and taught them a lot, and then he got transferred. They only didn't get baptized while he was there because the parents had to get married. When I got transferred there I taught them for 2 months and went with them to the civil office many times to help them do all the paperwork until they finally got married, then baptized the same day. My comp elder baute told me that they are going to be getting sealed in november (right when I finish my mission) I dont know the exact date but I hope to be able to attend. It made me feel better to know that, because it helped me to remember that there has been a lot of success in my mission. 

Couple of interesting things this week: My grandson has arrived! Elder Faucett! There is a picture attatched of the 3 generations. On friday we were playing soccer with some investigators and youth from the ward, my "son" elder mooneyham tripped on a ball and smashed his face into a metal wall. I didnt see it, but I heard the impact, it was really loud. His eyebrow, both knees, and chest all got cut open so I took him to the clinic. He only needed 2 stitches in his eyebrow. He has a huge bandage though that he cant take off, I'm sure it is interesting to knock doors with that. 

Also there is another new missionary in the zone, her name is hermana porfirio from brazil, she doesn't know spanish, but thankfully portugues is really similar and I could understand almost everything she said, she also has a really cool accent. After the district/zone meeting we were all eating pizza in a park, and there was a bunch of school kids singing a song in the plaza for san martin day, and a bunch of dogs were mingling with the group and they started fighting furiously and all the little kids ran away screaming in the middle of their recital it was pretty funny. 

Im out of time! But I hope you are all doing well, love you all!

Mooneyhams wound.

....3 generations. 

The agenda he made for his son

The Nets are about to break!

Hello everybody, I got transferred this week! It wasn't really expected because I had been in my last area for a short time. I was only in Roque Saenz Peña for 9 weeks overall, because I switched areas half way through my first transfer in Rio Cuarto. Its unfortunate because I didn't get as close to the members in that ward as I have in my other areas, just because I was there such a short time and it was a really good big ward, we had lunch with a different family every day (usually its the same people every week) so I only went to each members home once or twice during the whole time I was there. Still, there are some people that I will really miss and I didnt want to get transferred because we found some really great people this week, and they are for sure baptisms for the 26th of this month. Im sad that I wont be there but Im just glad that they will be getting baptized so that all our hard work last transfer wasn't all for nothing! 

But yeah, with the transfer and everything I have been traveling all day, we left at 5:30 in the morning, 3 hour bus ride to cordoba, then another 3 hour bus ride by myself to san francisco. I fell asleep on the second bus ride, when I woke up I was surprised to see that the bus was stopped in the terminal in Arroyito! That brought back a lot of good memories, hopefully I can visit there sometime soon now that Im a lot closer. 

But with all the traveling today we have a shortened pday, I dont have a lot of time to write so Ill make this one short. Id just like to tell you guys about a lady named deborah and her daughter named brisa, that we just met this week. As you know from the last email we had been working really hard for 5 weeks with no success, but we had received what we believed to be revelation that "the nets" were about to break, at the revelation was true. We had been working with and teaching a lot of people, and something Im am understanding better is that all investigators are "fruits", but some of them are just higher up on the tree and need more time to be ripe enough to be baptized. We are not here to plant, but rather to harvest. There are people prepared in ALL areas, fruits that are within our reach and ready to be picked, we just need to have the lords help in finding them. 

So we worked 5 weeks, and found nobody who was ready. But finally, in the last week of the transfer God led us to some people who were ready! I asked a member who is a recent convert if he had gone with the missionaries before to teach anyone, and if he remembered where those people lived. He lead us to the house of Brisa and Deborah, and for us it really was a miracle! The first time we talked to them we found out that they had already received all the missionary lessons, had read a lot of the Book of Mormon and had a testimony of Joseph smith and that the Book of Mormon is true. They knew the word of wisdom, keep the sabbath day holy, everything. The only reason they hadn't been baptized is because the missionaries who were teaching them got transferred and the new ones never showed up at their house. They are excited for their baptism on the 26th and they both came to church on sunday! They are probably the most prepared people I have met to be baptized in my whole mission. 

That was the miracle we had last week, now my goal is to find more people like them in my new area! Im still zone leader, my new comp is from buenos aires and we are white washing an area, so im not sure if we have investigators or not. And even though I didnt want to get transferred, if I did this was the place I would have wanted to go! There are 6 of us in the apartment, and one of them is elder Mooneyham who was my best comp and he is going to be training now! We will meet his son, aka my grandson tomorrow so we are pretty excited for that. 

Sorry the email is short! I have a lot of pictures to make up for it! 

 

Trading Jerseys!

Some investigators and friends.

Youth from the ward.

Missionaries from the zone when we announced transfers.

Launch Out Into the Deep!

Hello! Everything is going good here. I just realized I will only be writing 12 more of these emails after this one..

We had a good week, it felt like a short week because we spent 2 days traveling back and forth from cordoba. We had a conference there on friday with a 70, named elder Spitale who is from right here in Cordoba, it was funny because he has a really cordobés accent everybody loved it! We have had 70s come to our mission before but this is the first time Ive met one from cordoba. The conference was really good, we all like them because we get to see a lot of our friends who are in far away areas, and the talks were good too. We all felt a little bit more motivated afterwards. We were tired though because we had to get up at 2:30 am to take the bus in order to arrive on time. We had made a plan to have lights out at 10 at the latest so we could at least get a little sleep, Unfortunately there were a few geniuses who thought they would be better off staying awake all night so that it wouldn't be so hard to get up at 2:30. They talked really loud and played guitar all night and kept the rest of us up, but its okay. 

The day before the conference we did exchanges, I went with an elder who was in the MTC with me named Elder Thompson! I dont know if you guys remember him from my first few emails maybe.It was fun working with someone who came here on the plane with me, it was the first time for me. We talked with a member who has been inactive for years, he was a missionary and everything but has no interest in coming back. It was really sad, because he said that he knows he will be condemned if the church is true because a 70 came to his house to invite him back to church and he said no. We talked to him for about an hour, I felt like we said everything that we needed to say,  but in the end he wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon of even a card with a picture of Jesus on it. 

Wednesday was also a really good day, we had district meetings, and me and my companion felt that we needed to do something to motivate the zone, we shared Moses 6:27-29 to talk about urgency, and 

D&C 82:10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. to talk about obedience. We had lunch with the stake president after, we played a bit of basketball with him and his young son afterwards. In the afternoon we were knocking doors with a lot of faith, but all of them were rejecting us. We didnt get disappointed though, and as we were walking a teenage kid called us over and said he wanted us to teach him about the bible..he said it was stuff that interests him, and he wanted to know about the after life, his dad passed away 5 years ago. Since then we have had 2 lessons with him and he has a baptismal date for the 20th. I think God saw our attitude and that we were working, so after lettings us get rejected a few times he put someone in our path that was willing to reach out to us. That same night we also taught 2 more lessons that went really well, we came out of the last one feeling really happy. As we were walking, a kid from the ward called us and said that he had found my companions name tag in the street that had fallen, and that he would bring it to us on sunday. We said "wow God is really helping us today!" and right when we said that a member drove by in his car and offered to take us home, saving us a long trip. I felt really spoiled that day, its so easy to get frustrated sometimes and be ungrateful, but that day I could really feel Gods love. 

Once again on sunday we had no investigators in the church, and I was really sad and I didnt understand why we weren´t getting blessed with people in the church if we were working hard. We even went to go pick everyone up in the morning but they were all sleeping. We were both super disappointed, but I think our bishop was inspired to share this scripture with us at lunch. 

Luke Chapter 5: 4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.

I think I kind of feel like Peter (simon) in this scripture...We have worked a whole 5 weeks, and we havent caught a single fish. But Jesus told Peter to keep trying, and Peter showed his faith by being obedient, and was blessed with so many fishes that their nets broke. I know that the same thing is going to happen here in our area. We have worked all night and fished nothing, but our goal now for this month is to procure the guidance of the savior to know where we need to "cast our nets"...and I know that if we follow his guidance we will catch more fishes than our nets can hold, we will have more people to teach than we have time for. 

Im already out of time, and my camera isn't letting me upload pictures. Hopefully next week I will be able to, but here is a picture from the conference that they sent to us! 

Love you all, Have a good week! 

Elder Christensen

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Hello my friends, 

Its going alright here, but the weather has been horrible its super cold, windy and rainy. I cant wait for winter to be over...people here use the cold as an excuse for everything, and its really hard to get people to go to church at 9 am because 1) they are still sleeping when we arrive to pick them up and 2) if they are awake they say its too cold to go outside.  

This has been something really frustrating for me and my companion. We have been working super super hard this past month, all of July working a ton. I think it might be the most I've worked in my mission or close to it, but in all that time no investigators have come to church. Its really frustrating because we have done just about everything we could do..we are teaching a man named Rodolfo who is 80, his wife is named Lili she is about that age too but she has some serious memory problems. In the last lesson we had with them on friday she asked us where we were from 3 times! But Rodolfo understands everything and still has a decent memory, they have a baptism scheduled for the 13th. But they need to go to church at least 2 times first, so this sunday we made a plan with them to go to church. The plan was that we brought breakfast to eat with them in their house at 8:30, then we were going to walk to the church with them (its super close to their house) but they didn't answer the door when we got there...Its just a bunch of stuff like that has been happening that is frustrating.  Im sad about it, but I dont feel bad personally because I know we have been trying really hard lately. Of course there are always things that we can improve as well, but Im happy with the progress because I think we are getting better every week. 

There is a really cool member in our ward named Renzo..he was a missionary in Utah, he got back a few years ago but we had lunch this week at his house and he was telling us about how he baptized his wife..they were friends in college, and he invited her to his house one time and taught her the missionary lessons by himself, all of them and after a month or 2 she was ready to be baptized. The missionaries talked to her for the first time on the day of her baptismal interview! Haha I wish that happened more often! They got married after that and they have a baby now. 

There is not a ton more to write about this week, we have just been working hard. My testimony of fasting is getting a little bit stronger, because we have started a new thing where we do an exchange with one of the district leaders every friday, and me and my companion fast. We bring them to our area to work for the day, the 4 of us. Its part of presidents new plan to have the areas of the zone leaders be examples, and I know that that was inspired! Fridays are always the best days of the week because there are always little miracles in the exchanges. We always have great lessons with our investigators on that day. Now we just need to get those people to church!

Here is a scripture that I liked this week in Alma 36:3 And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.

Im so grateful for all the help and blessings that God gives me in my life everyday! Life is hard, but I cant imagine how hard it would be if I didnt have the help of God...I would be alone and I cant imagine how hard that would be. The good thing is that God is there for everyone! Anyone that wants to can talk to him and receive his love..But it all depends on what we want. We all have our agency, and God wont force anyone to do anything. But God knows what path is going to bring us happiness in our lives, and he is willing to guide anyone who is humble enough to follow him and ask for help. 

Thats all I have for this week, no new pictures or anything sorry!

Love Elder Christensen