Professional Photography Session

Not a lot of time at all because Ive been working on my BYU essays for 3 hours, so this will be nice and short. 

We had a good week of teaching, we had great success in finding new investigators with a lot of potencial, as well as inviting the investigators we already had to be baptized. The lady named Carina who went to church last week with her two daughters, well we had a great lesson with her, we invited a member to visit her with us and they became really good friends, I think it helped a lot in the lesson. They lesson had so many distractions, people came in and went out of the front door every 5 seconds for the whole lesson, and one of the little girls who is usually super calm was screaming bloody murder right when we were trying to talk about baptism, but in the end we were able to teach the importance of baptism again and invited them to be baptized on the 24th. She said yes, as long as her husband says yes, which isnt a for sure. She also said she wants to ask him in person, and since he is a truck driver he could potentially be gone for weeks or months. Hopefully that can work out, we promised her that if she prays before asking him, God will soften her husbands heart. Hopefully it works out, and that she will be brave enough to ask him over skype. 

We met another family, they were old investigators, and they were super happy to see us when we got there, they said they didnt know why the missionaries had stopped coming by. They have a 10 year old daughter named nahara, we love her she is super funny and she is really interested in God for someone her age, her mom says she is always asking to be baptized and that the mom has been planning to get her baptized for a while. She didnt really care what church she was baptized in, so we offered ours and she accepted. The mom is super nice too, she is reading the book of mormon and the only reason she cant be baptized right now is that shes not married. We are going to try and help her to understand the need to get married so that she can get baptized as well! This has happened a few times in my mission, that people have been super ready for us, and only havent been baptized because the missionaries stopped passing. God knows when the moment is right, and he sends us back to them when they are ready. 

We also got a reference from an elderly man in our ward, he took us to teach his grandkids, whose parents are inactive members. We had a great lesson with them too and are working with them to have a baptism for a kid named Gastón on the 8th of october!

A funny experience was that a family in the ward asked me to go out to their little farm in the country to take their anniversary pictures because they think the missionaries have nice cameras. They had some pretty funny poses, there was over 40 pictures, I felt like a profesional photographer. Sadly I deleted most of them already but I saved some of the best ones so that you guys can see a small sample. In the picture I attatched, they asked me to get on another elders shoulders to get a nice angle..

Thats about it Im sorry there is no time to write more and Im really tired from writing my essays, but Ill attatch a lot of pictures to hopefully make up for it. 

Love you all, have a good week! ​​

Family picture sample.

Our Apartment.

Skype Blesses Families.

Hello! I hope everything is okay after the hurricane, it was pretty big news here, I think they hyped it up a little bit on the news, they said it was the strongest one that ever touched land in Florida and everyone was telling me that it was going to destroy everything. I was hearing all this the day after the crazy earthquake in mexico, the week after the crazy hurricane in houston, and ive also heard there are a ton of fires in the west of the USA. I dont know if all the information im getting is correct.  At least it sounds like everything is okay back home. 

Anyway, we have had a pretty good week here, on wednesday the members actually gave us a reference which isnt something that happens everyday, it was a guy named hermano Toncovich, we had never been to his house before but he called us and invited us to lunch and said he would have people there for us to teach. His house was so far away, he lives on a farm kinda out in the country and we had to walk so far to get there, we felt like the original  missionaries of the restoration walking so far. We had a pretty good lesson with this guy, his name was marcelo and 3 months ago his wife passed away, she had cancer, and he is now left with 2 kids. He said he is kind of angry with God, but we shared a video with him, I think in english it might be called "Mountains to Climb". Its a mormon message but its really good, he liked it so hopefully he can let God help him find happiness in his life again. 

We did an exchange on thursday, I went with my "grandson" elder Faucett, it was pretty fun, not many missionaries get to go on exchanges with their "nieto" in the mission, we had a good day, we visited that really good family I wrote about last week I think (Valeria, Julio, and 2 kids) they are the ones that sell home made bread, churros and stuff, when we visited them they were really busy making dough and stuff so we didnt get to teach a ton, but at least they gave us tons of bread and churros, they didnt want to let me give them any money for it, so I hid it in their house, I hope they find it. 

Friday was just a normal day, we had a soccer activity that night for investigators and youth in the ward but it was really cold and rainy, so unfortunately only a few people showed up. My companion also messed up his knee playing a little. 

Saturday his knee was hurting him a lot, he wanted to stay and rest and have me go out with someone else, but the other missionaries already had appointments. I felt like we needed to go out, because saturday is the most important day in inviting people to come to church, and I didnt want "the curse" to continue. So he agreed to go out and visit a few people, and Im really glad we did! We visited an investigator named Carina, and her 3 kids (Im sure ive written about them, but I cant remember what ive written in the past weeks). We were able to help her a lot I think, because she was really sad because her husband (who is a truck driver) wasnt going to be coming home that weekend, and maybe not for a while. Because when the temperature starts heating up, he transports ice cream, and he goes to buenos aires, cordoba, rosario, and uruguay, and he never is able to come home. Last year he wasnt able to come home for 6 months. That basically sounds like the worst job ever. But she was really sad because she was scared that it might happen again now that winter is ending and he has to transport more icecream. But I showed her how to use skype, she didnt even know that it existed, and we also helped her set up the Book of Mormon app on her phone so she can listen to the scriptures instead of reading (she has bad vision). That made her feel a lot better, and she agreed to come to church on sunday! 

It was raining and super windy and cold sunday morning, but we got up early and we had made pancakes and maple syrup to eat breakfast with them (maple doesnt exist here, but one elder has an extract to make it yourself) and after breakfast we took them to church in a taxi, two actually because there was 6 of us in total. Taxis are expensive, but I dont care how much it costs if they actually go. So she went with her 3 daughters, 2 are older than 8, and I think they really liked church! The members did a really good job greeting them and being friendly, and the girls had a lot of fun in primary too so I think they liked it! We went back to visit them this morning, Carina is super happy because she has been video calling her husband a lot and they are both happy to have discovered skype. We think that family has a lot of potential! 

Im just happy the curse is ended and we had investigators in church, its great that its a family, usually its just one or two people out of the family and its sad because they dont all share it together, but when its a whole family or at least the majority, you can focus a lot more on the aspect of familias eternas. 

In my studies this week, I dont think it was a coincidence that I was reading in the book of helaman, and I arrived at chapter 12. I was kinda sad just thinking about all the natural disasters that have been happening lately, and wondering why, but I think its pretty obvious why. It was the perfect time to study chapter 12, here are a few of the verses.

1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

North America is probably the richest continent in terms of resources, or at least one that has prospered a lot, but its crazy to see how so many people have stopped caring about religion, or even stopped believing in God, they dont care about the commandments, they just do whatever they want, following the easiest path, and we have so many things and there are lots of people that are so so prosperous. I think the only way for us to stay humble is with chastisement. But when a parent punishes their kids for misbehavior, its not because they dont love them, its to teach them not to do it again, its the only way to help them learn, and its for their own good. 

23 Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.

All God wants is for us all to repent and come back to him, he doesnt do anything thats not for our benefit. All we have to do to "prosper in the land" is keep the commandments, and I know God will bless and protect us. 

Thats about it this week! Hope everyone stays safe and has a good week! 

Love, Elder Christensen 

The Generous Bread Lady.

Hello my friends, 

Guess what, its been another week of travelling! When I get home I never want to go on another bus...we got up at 4:30 on friday to go back to Córdoba, I love the city so much I just hate getting up so early all the time, we went because we had exchanges with the assistants to the president. It is always great working with them, because they are really good teachers and we learn a lot from them. I was working with elder kent, he is from utah and super cool, this was my second time doing an exchange with him (i dont know if you remember the last time, he was super sick so all I did was take him to the hospital) but it was a great day this time, we found a lot of new people to teach. The exchanges are great, we also talked a lot about our zone in San Francisco, to see what can be improved, I talked a bit about how the districts could be rearranged so hopefully some people wont have to travel as much! When we came back from Córdoba, unfortunately the bus that goes direct was all sold out, so we had to take one called Mar Chiquita which is indirect, that means it stops in every single little town on the way to san francisco. We got back at 2:30 am again because of that. 

This week we have been focusing on using a list of members that president printed out for us, on the list it has the names and addresses of 16 people who live in families where someone is a member, but not the whole family. We are planning to visit all 16 of these people, at least one of them is bound to progress. We have already visited a couple of them, a lot of them are kids whose parents are members, but way inactive. Its a shame because the kids are usually great but a lot depends on their parents. Without a parents support, the kids have a tough time getting to church on their own etc. So Ive been realizing even more how much of a responsability it is to be a parent. So much of the way a kid turns out has to do with his parents. Its just like in the Book of Mormon, it always talks about how the sins of the lamanites fall upon the heads of their parents. Its a big job, super important, I just cant believe that there are parents out there that dont try to influence their kids to be on the right path. Its really sad but I have seen it a ton in my mission. All I know is that God knows whats going on and he will have all of that in mind in the judgement. 

Just so you know the curse continues, none of our investigators came to church again. We went to pick up 2 of them in taxi and they didnt answer the door. For one of them its the second time he has done this so I think he is a goner for now. I dont feel like talking a lot about this, what we are going to do now is drop a lot of investigators and focus on finding new people, ones that are actually interested in their salvation. Like it says in D&C we must find those who will receive us...

Yesterday was our first day with our new plan, all we wanted to do was find new investigators, and we also did exchanges, I went with elder Betz from Arizona and my comp went with elder Lapo from Ecuador, so there was 4 of us working in our area. All in all we found 8 new investigators, one of them has a baptismal date, and I especially think we found some milagros. 

Me and Elder Betz went to a neighborhood so far away, I had never been there before, but we had an appointment with a lady who sells homemade bread in the city and churros and stuff, however when we got there she wasnt home. I was sad because it was an hour walk just to get there. But we decided to knock on the door of her neighbor right in front of her house, it was a guy sleeping but I started off talking to him about soccer, then hunting, then the restoration, we ended up talking with him for an hour, he lives with his girlfriend and 2 kids, but he is a really good guy (named fabian) and received the message really well, we went inside his house at the end to say a prayer, and we met his 12 year old daughter named tatiana who was really cool too. 

When we got out of there, I decided to knock on the bread ladys door again because maybe she was home. She still wasnt, but as we were starting to walk away she pulled up on a motorcycle with her husband, they were pulling the bread cart. Their 8 year old son also arrived at that time from soccer practice, and they had another 10 year old son inside. But they were soo cool, they just let us in and they all sat down at the table and started talking to us and asking us tons of questions about us, america, and the church and they gave us tons of bread with chicharron (dont know what it is in english) and mate, its was so good and we were able to teach all of the restoration to them as well and gift them a Book of Mormon, you can tell they enjoyed the lesson because they gifted us a huge bag of bread when we left. I have really high hopes for them, its rare to get let into a house where the mom dad and multiple kids are all present and participate in the lesson. 

Thats about it for this week! I dont have any new pictures sadly, but I hope to be able to report some miracles and people in church next week! 

I love you all, hope you are doing good!