Week 15

Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas waas a 24 hour pday! and it was wonderful! We ate a bunch of asado, we travelled 6 hours to Natalio 10, and hung out withthe elders there. We watched 17 miracles, and then tried to hike to the Parana river. We didnt make it. I felt like a real person. it was strange.

Over the week, i read Our Search for Happiness. it made me sad because there are some sad stories in there. It made me happy, because Elder Ballard was an auto dealer and talked about his dealership a few times, and it made me reminiscent about the dealership. and it has some awesome insight on eternal families. It is a rocking book, and really explains quite well how knowing that your family will be together forever builds your relationship on earth, today. It was a joy to read, and I would recommend it to anybody. It is not very long, and Elder Ballard ahs a very strong testimony of Christ that will rub off on you.

We have met a lot of new families that show a lot of progress in Lopez. I feel like there are only 20 people that live here, and then we come accross a rocking family that decides to read the Book of Mormon!! Its going to bless their lives more than they know. We really hope that they will continue coming to church, and reading and praying.

Well It waas a short week, but a good one!! I love yolu all!!

Elder Christensen

Week 14

Hello, all.

Christmas in Carlos Antonio Lopez literally barely exists. It is very sad.. The only christmas tree is made out of paper and is hanging in my kitchen, taped to the wall. There are no christmas carolers, and i really doubt that well get much snow.. but ill keep my fingers crossed.

But it just means that I get to focus on Christ!!

So speaking of miracles, we were going to take a but into encarnacion, 8 hours away. But it didnt come. Then it rained. So we were stuck in Lopez for much longer than we thought we would be. We called a guy with a truck, to hire him to drive us 2 hours to the nearest asphalt road so we could catch a bus. And he told us he could leave in 3 hours. So we had some time to spare. We contacted 3 houses. Were accepted in all 3, and found some of the most promising investigators on this side of the parana river! it was stunning ! 2 of them came to church on Sunday, and they both LOVED IT!! so much!! And the third didnt come because it rained... But IS reading the book of mormon, and likes it, AND accepted a baptismal date with flying colors.

They really enjoy the doctrine the church teaches, bisecuase its true and comes directly from God. It was SO nice to finally see some progression in some investigators after a couple week draught.

We spent 3 days in Encarnacion for our Christmas Devotional, so we didnt really work a ton, but it was very nice to relax, and spend time with the couple zones that were at the devotional.

I love the christmas season, and i miss the snow very much. someone should wathc the HE Is the Gift video fromt he church, because i havent yet. But i know it exists. I hear its pretty good.

Elder Christensen

Week 13

So this week has absolutely FLOWN by. It was so much fun, but it was also really hard.

Its very strange here in Lopez now. We had to drop a ton of our investigators because they ´´dont want to change their religion´´. like 120 percent of the people here are catholic, and about 15 percent attend thier church every week. thats 105 percent of the people that dont attend church hahah but really. Its almost as if they feel that our message is true, because they say they feel good when they talk to us, but they dont understand what it means. And we have yet to find a way to teach them what it means.

People also have been turning down our invitation to pray and ask if the message is true. Its not that they say they'll pray, and then don't, it's that they say that they wont pray. I never thought id encounter that, but has ahppened a lot theis week. so strange. Please pray about it. Its so simple. Pray about whether the book of mormon is true. Every day. its so simple, and the blessings are eternal.

Elder Acevedo is the FUNNIEST person i have ever met. He makes me laugh so hard. We have so much fun, and every day so far has flown by because we work so hard and were always exhausted and were always laughing

I love you all. have a nice day

Èlder cristen

This picture is a copy of one that Paul Clements took on his mission. Someone should find him, and show it to him

Week 12

I warned you guys that something like this might happen.

Sorry. This is a short email. But thats what we get from living in Carlos Antonio Lopez.

Elder Acevedo is probably the most organized, funniest little person i have ever met. He worked for the president in the mission office for 9 months in his mission, so he really knows how the work should go. He is SO funny. He walks really fast, and is really personable with the people, and has a solid testimony. Hes freaking obedient and i love it.

Our zone leaders are still the same, and I could not be happier. I get along with them reallly well.

Usually when I find tarantulas in the house, i just avoid that area. I finally got the guts to kill one this week, and it was probably the strangest experience of my life.

I love you

Elder Christensen

Week 11

So yes. I will stay in the middle of the jungle, but I will get a new companion. His name is Elder Acevido, or something like that and he's from Bogota Columbia. I think Cuchabomba, near where grandma and grandpa served!! so thatll be fun. I met him once 6 weeks ago. He was just training another gringo that was in my zone in the mtc.

So i finally jmade a scripture case out of a cereal box. I looked down, and it said TRIX centered across the top. It was for my triple combination. It made me laugh. A lot. haha The scriptures are true.

I recieved my second package. plus a few letters. I'm not exactly sure what the notebooks are supposed to be for… Yes, that was a joke. Im very happy!

My most spiritual experience happened yesterday. We gave the Aaronic preisthood to two of the men that were baptized last week. I'm sorry, I still cant send any pictures of them, but one of them has had a real problem with alcohol, and has been almost deathly ill for the past montha nd hasnt taken alcohol the whole time, so its really a blessing. And now hes starting to get better,a dn theres just a new light in his eyes. I dont know. It was really spiritual, and I was very happy to be able to be in the circle for them.

Sleeping last night was a beezy. It was probalby 100 degrees, and we didnt have any power, so there was no moving air. I was sweating like there was no tomorrow. It was awful

I got to spend a couple days with the zone leaders in encarnacion, and it was freaking fun. it was SO nice to finally talk to someone in english, and theyre both obsessed with sports, too, so that rocked.

But otherwise, I'm loving it!! The gospel is true!!

Elder Christensen

Week 10

yes. If you have been following josh blotters emails, read the first linme of his last email, and I will echo that.

So not much has happeneed this week in terms of actually working, but we DID have 7 baptisms and 7 confirmations. AND I got to do one of each of the ordinances. IT was nice.

Its a family with a 85 year old mother, her two daughters, one of her sons, and three of her granddaughters. one of ther daughters was already super active in the church,a dn they have heard the discussions for the last 6 months, but have never really gotten anywhere. Then one lesson, they said that they felt something that they have never felt befroe, and wanted to be baptized. It was pretty nuts.

We would normally baptize in a river, but since the grandmother is in really bad shape, we drove 3 hours to the nearest chapel and baptized in the font there. Her son said that he wanted me to baptize him because i was big. So that was pretty flattering. I give my thanks to my parewnts for giving me the genes. I didnt mess up the ordinance, even though i memorized it once in the MTC and forgot to practice it. So that was nice. It was a pretty special experience.

They will probably end up being a very active family in the church, since LLopez is such a nice town.

Now for the secular stuff- My umbrella broke in the middle of a rainstorm. So that sucked. I was soaked.

Also, our appartment is in the middle thrid of a house. we literally have to walk through someones bedroom to get to our living quarters. it rocks. One of the days, I saw A guitar leanign against the bed... so i asked if i could borrow it, and he said yes, and i played my heart out that night. I miss the guitar... IT was the best day of my mission yet haha

Elder Christensen

Week 9

Whats up, gang??

So nothing really happened this week, sorry. I think we spent 2 days in our area, which sucked, and couldnt really do any work. We had a zones conference, and a district conference.

At zone conference, I got my package! ¡que rapido! so thank you. We got to speak english to the americans. That was very enjoyable. And we got to hear president lapierre talk to us. He is a very stellar man, let me tell you. It was very uplifting.

We found a store in encarnacion that sells empanadas for 10 cents each. Holy freaking cheap, haha so we bought 20 (only) for two dollars.

Our group leader{s son just got back from his mission, and helped us teach a family preparing for baptism. It was going to be just 3 of the women in this family getting baptized, but we got them all to agree to be baptized on saturday, since we were able to tell them that they have recieved answers to their prayers, and theyre prepared. Theyve listened to all the lessons multiple times, and have come to church every week for years, so it was awesome for them to finally make the step towards bapitsm! so instead of 3, we should have 6 coming up on this Saturday!

Our 82 year old investigator has been in Argentina, across the river, for the past week with his brother, so we are just waiting to set up a new date for his baptism. Its a weird situation.

We just watched the first vision video. And i saw joseph smiths log cabin home and thought {{wow thats a nice house{{. I thought about what i just thought and kind of laughed. haha because it IS nicer than any building in Lopez. Its kind of weird how 200 years ago, the americans lived a nicer lifestyle than the Paraguayans today.

Kind of humbling. So i spent over 20 hours on the bus this week. That{s a part time job. I got a pretty sick picture of me riding the bus, my head out the window, the dirt road going off into the distance, the farm fields, the jungle starting up again. Its freaking awesome. But i dont know how to hook up my camera to the computer, so sorry. hahah

I love you all!!

Elder Christensen

Week 8

So not a lot happened this week. sorry.

We had a zone reunion. So that took two days of travel. We had to wake up at 1 AM to catch the bus into encarnacion. We rode for almost 8 hours, then walked like 2 miles to the stake center. Whew. but our zone leaders are WHITE!! and american11 and speak english!! woohoo! so i had the first englsih conversation i had had in almost 2 weeks. Which means I had the first conversation ever in 2 weeks. Just kidding.

We ate lunch in encarnacion, and looked up at the tv. And they were rolling the sports scores along the bottom of the scrreen. And it said Jazz 102- 100 Cavs. And me and one of our zone leaders jumped up and cheered and high fived and yelled "were going all the way!!!" hahaha so that was good to see

We had a lesson with a part member family this week. The dad is kinda anti-mormon, and never really liked the missionaries. As We were just chatting, I pulled out the picture of my family, that i keep in my scriptures marking dyc 110:4-5. their son brought over my whole scriptures to thier dad, and he read the scripture. and then sat and pondered and said.. how beautiful...  and he stayed for the lesson! He usually leaves when we share something! AND he participated. So well see if that gets us somewhere.

I drank beet juice. It made me think of dwight schrute.

So we hoped to get a baptism this week, but our invesigator is 82, and dying. His anti-mormon children are nursing him back to health right now, but its not looking good. its really scary, because this pretty much is his last c hance for baptism, because his children Do not want a vicarious baptism. Its a really weird situation. We hope to baptze him this Saturday, health or sickness. We'll see

I have been reading the crap out of the libro de mormon. In Spanish translaitng the words that I didnt know, I started this week. I just finished 2 nefi 27, the last charper of isaiah. And it is the first time that i endjoyed isaiah. When you liken his words to laman and lemuel, it IS pretty clear. Strange.

Love you all!! I ate asada last week too hahah and we found a frog in our room, so that was fun

Elder Christensen

2 months down

Week 7

Hello everybody.

I love you.

So this week, we had divisiones. Companion exchanges with our district. I went to Natalio 10, yes the name of the town does have a number in it, with Elder Villalba. Its the town where our group is based out of. It has a branch. Its three hours away by bus. Woohoo! this bus ride destroys your white shirts, let me tell you haha

So we contacted a lot. It was alright. Clapping outside of houses isnt as weird as I thought it would be. We dont knock on doors, we stand outside the gate, and clap. Fun.

We had a lesson all in Guaranì. how strange. What an impossible language. It reminds me of korean. We will see if I every try to learn it. Everyone said not to even worry about it. It´s impossible ahaha

One of the days on exchanges, we went deep into the pARAguayan jungle. It was beautiful. I thought for sure that i would get a huge sunburn, since we were out there forever. But I was Fine. We walked a ton. All day. The day I was supposed to go back to Lopez, it rained. And the dirt roads get absolutely destroyed when it rains. So I stayed in Natalio 10 for 6 days. And only had one shirt, and one pair of pants. They were absolutely destroyed ahaha But I made it back to lopez safely.

Halloween was sick. Everyone here has heard of halloween, but no one celebrates it. How sad. It was the first huge rain and thunderstorm i saw. It was nuts. It was like a cartoon. Every lightning bolt literallly lighted up everything like the sun. Im serious. And when it rained, you couldnt see more than 50 feet in front of you. It was coming down so hard. I have seen more rain here than in the rest of my life combined.

We have a baptism on saturday!!!! Woohoo!! hes 82 years old; His name is A and he is pretty much awesome. His family doesnt want him to get baptized, but he has a testimony.

I shined my shoes today. They look awesome.

That´s all. I love having an hour every morning to read the scriptures. I feel the spirit every day. Its great

Have a nice day

In Natalio 10

Yeah I live in the jungle. This is like 50 feet away from where I live

Week 6

So this place is awesome. i dont know what everyone was freaking out about.  The area is a little bit bigger than our ward, and there are probably just as many people living in it. Its awesome. it really is. We had like 20 people come to church on sunday, and the only reason we are a group is because only 3 men have the preisthood. But giv Lopez some time, and eventually it will be the strongest stake in the world!!! haha

So the bus ride here was a bit of an adventure. It was almost exactly like the trip up to the cabin. There was about an hour on a fairly busy and small freeway, then we went down a dirt road. Except the dirt road was in worse shape, adn we were in a bus with standing room only. And when I say like the cabin trail, I mean the whole way. There was a hill that reminded me of ours. And if they weren't pumping awful 70s music that I had never heard before, but knew that I hated, I would have been scared about falling down the cliff and dying. ahahha but thats okay

The other day, we went to the Paraguayan consolate to get our visas. we went to iguazu. They told us that we were less than a mile away from iguazu falls, and we were just chillin for 6 hours, but never went. That was a bummer. But it was fun to walk around the city.

There are a ton of Germans here. Its weird. Everyone never guesses that im from the US. They all guess Germany.  I didnt really expect that. One of our investigators is from Germany. Shes sweet. She came to church on sunday, and liked it a lot, and has come a few times now, so well see what happens.

Yeah, a ton of people here speak guarani. Its the native paraguan tongue. it sounds a lot like korean. And apparently its as hard to learn. Therres like grunts and stuff. Its weird. So I wont be learning that any time soon haha.

Hermano Ramirez is the group leader here. He is going to be the next prophet. He is freaking sick. He lived here for20 years and had the sacrament every week for his family. Its sick. He translates our lessons into guarani for our investigators that dont speak castillian. He is awesome!!

Dinner and Breakfast dont really exist here. Everyone just eats lunch. And siesta time sucks. Theres nobody anywhere. We have our study time during siesta time. We have a really weird schedule. And everyone goes to sleep at like 8 so its really hard to stay our for the whole time

Had my first barbeque on sunday. It ROCKED: Its as good as everyone expects it to be.

Missionary work is different than I thought it be. All we do is just go around sharing lessons and scriptures. I dont know why I thought it would be different. But its very chill. At least for the first few days in Lopez. AND I can actually speak a fair amount of Spanish. At least with Elder Silva- hes sick, I love him. But still I just cannot follow anyone else. Elder Silva says that it{s because everyone speaks castillian as a second language, and alll have way thhick guarani accents. So... sweet. Oh! and its probably because Elder Silva is from  Peru, and the peruvians are known to speak very slowly.

Everyone here loves  Portugese music, and crappy music that sounds like a shuffle of Casey Kasems top 700 from the 70s. Its awful but i can deal with it

Go to church. Read the scriptures. They're nice. Have a nice day!!

Elder Christensen

Posadas

HEy. so I made it. And the keyboard is really wierd, so forgive me of my misspellings.

If you want to know, the mission home address is 

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

Misión Argentina Posadas

Córdoba 1243 Casilla #12

Posadas CP 3300

Misiones

Argentina

And mother: They have a lot of packages sent here, and they said theyve only heard of two that went missing. They open up every single package, since they dont allow food or electronics to enter. So keep that in mind. They say letters are as reliable as packages. And no one cares about the Jesus stickers. They ahve to open every package. Or you could just send me a Dear Elder.

Well travelling was fun. 10 hour flight. always a blast. The Uruguayan rugby team was aboard with us, so they were really fun to watch haha

On all 3 of our flights, I sat on a row of only missionaries, I guess they didn{t trust me to talk to anyone, haha. BUT the hermana in front of us on the flight to Buenos Aires started talking to the guy next to her. I heard him say that he didn{t want to talk about religion, then I forgot about them. She kept talking to him, thne like an hour later, I heard him reading aloud the first vision, haha and then I watched him read the entire Joseph smith history haha she leaned back and asked for a Book of Mormon, Which Elder Ah Quin (yeah, he{s poly) had. And they kept talking for a while. I couldn{t really hear what about, but it was fun to see. I wonder what will happen

So we had an 11 hour layover in the Buenos Aires Airport... Well a different one. We flew into one, then took a really... nice... bus to a different one across town. And yeah. like 50% of the time, there are painted traffic lines, and no one really uses them. not even as suggestions. For the plane ride, we just walked onto the tarmac as planes are taking off and went up the ramp onto the plane. It was fun. It was really loud. I was like 50 feet away from a plane that was taking off.

My first thought about Posadas was "wow" it's really big. And it kinda is. Theres not a lot of area to it, but its got a lot of skyscrapers. More than SLC. I guess we landed in Paraguay, then drove across a bridge to Argentina. That was fun. The mission home wasreally nice. reaally nice. It has a pool! haha But posadas is cool. It{s... I dont know how to describe it. There arent really any traffic laws and its just like any other south american city that I picture to be like.

It's REALLY nice weather here right now. Perfect. Not that humid. kinda cool. temperature wise. They said it gets up to 50 degrees here. Celsius. Oh yeah. So Im going to die in the next couple months.

Everyone here is really awesome. President LaPierre is the nicest, coolest guy I have ever met. I love him to death. He was great.

So my first area is going to be in Paraguay. In a town called Carlos Antonio Lopez. Legit. Theres not a ward there. Theres not a branch. Its called a group. So that means that theres a man thats allowed to give the sacrament to his family. He showed me where it was. Its not on the map. He showed me where the branch its based off of is located. THAT town isnt on the map haha. And its a two and a half busride of 70 Kilometers from the town with the branch to CAL. hahahahaha so this is gonna be awesome. President told me that the only place that has internet is a member´s home. one of the grown sons of this man. He said the internet might not work on Pday, so you might not hear from me next week. Or in the next 6 weeks. He told me it is literally the most remote area in the mission. He said "some people speak spanish" haha so I'll have to learn Guarani. My companion is Elder Silva. speaks very little english. But im replacing another tall white utahn, so I should be fine!!! hahhaahaha im so fetchin stoked

I love you all. Ill keep you in my prayers!! Remember to read your scriptures and pray!! It will do ya good!! I love to read Luke 12:27-28 if you were wondering. Look it up. Its fun

Have a nice day!!

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

Elder Fallentine & Trev at temple

Adam Kemp (Church history tour) Harrison Rodgers (WXHS) Chase Jenkins (Church history tour)

Week 5

Hello everybody.

Pretty much this week has been the same as every other week that I have been here. So I will skip the secular stuff and just go straight on to what I have been studying in personal study, if that's alright with you.

I spent like 2 hours studying 2 Nephi 25, and I would recommend it to anybody. It pretty much just prophesies of Christ. It talks of his resurrection, and his life. It's legit. It just really hit home with me that day. Verse 23 says: "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." We have the scriptures and we have the gospel today for the purpose of bringing everyone's children and everyone's brethren to a knowledge of Christ and his redeeming power. He is the only way we can gain salvation. It doesn't matter how good of a person is, how many kind deeds they do for men. They still have to believe in Christ, and verse 30 tells us that we "must keep the performances and ordinances of God." Verse 26 is awesome, too.

Remember that the only reason why we share the gospel is because we know that through the gospel is the only way that we can return to the full glory of God, and we want others to have that same chance to live up to their potential. So be missionaries. Spread the good word of the restored gospel. Go to the temple. It's awesome. I'll try my hardest if you do!

The only reason Mormons are so weird about sharing the gospel is because it brings us such joy!! We want everyone to get to know the living God through prayer and scripture study! We have  a living prophet on the earth, and he has the authority to tell us God's will. For everyone on the earth. Read the Book of Mormon. It's fun.

Sorry that this email is pretty much all over the place and really scrambled, I'm sorry. But I just want you all to know that I love you and I wish you the best! You're all awesome, and I'll be seein ya in Posadas, Argentina next week!

Have a nice day

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

This is my district saying goodbye to our teacher Hermana Martinez, and two MTC volunteers Jose and Hely

Week 4

Hello family and friends and acquaintences and missionaries.

So I got my flight plans! woo! going to Argentina! I can wait for the 11 hour flight, but that's okay! Everyone in my zone got their flight plans! no one got reassigned! nuts!

I saw an Elder wearing a Kanab Football tshirt one day! He knows the Jensons, of course! I asked him what day he has TRC, and he said Tuesday! I told him that Grandma is there on Tuesday, and he totally knows her, and was stoked! hahaha so that was awesome. talked with him for a long time about Derek, Brandon, and Cristian.

Vai Sikahema... ?... The BYU/Green Bay football player gave us a devotional a couple nights ago!! He was awesome! Way dramatic and excited! It was pretty much on "every member a missiionary" he was way funny. He said that he can't wear a nametag, so he just wears BYU everything whenever he travels. haha and It's pretty much the same thing. It was awesome to hear him talk about loving to share the gospel with everyone he meets, basically. He was way funny. Loved it

 So we started teaching a little guy named Marco at the TRC. He is supposedly an investigator. He has polio. He's from Peru. and has a small family, but is an empty nester. He was awesome. He would pretty much share his testimony with us the whole lesson, after we would read a scripture and ask him what he liked about it. It's fun to talk with people. Spanish is starting to make sense. In the MTC, but I should be in for a suprise in a week or two. (We saw Marco in the Temple! AND another one of our TRC investigators! it's suprising that they let Catholics work in the temple ;) haha). I seriously look up to that man. He was wonderful.

Every single day is still the same. I'm loving my companions and we're having a ton of fun. We're pretty much a four-some companionship.

Hey!! IN SOCCER (we play ever day) I was probably 15 yards from the goal, and someone took a shot that went up in the air a little behind me, so i turned around, and I BIKED IT, THEN AS I TURNED AROUND TO WATCH IT,,, IT HIT THE CROSSBAR!!! OH!! IT WAS NUTS!! Everyone almost went nuts. Soccer seriously is my life now. Not really, but we play it every day.

That's about it! Have a nice day!!

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

Week 3

Sorry guys, but pretty much every single day is exactly the same for me now.

Bad-ish, kinda good news. I went to the travel office on friday. And they told me that my visa hadn't come through yet, and that I was now going to stay in the MTC for 2 more weeks. So That was weird. But whatever. I will serve my time in the MTC the exact amount I expected to, So I shouldn't mope about it. The guy that told me said that he was in the MTC for 14 weeks waiting for his Russian visa, so I guess I still have it way easy. They did tell me that if I get my visa in the next 2 weeks, I'll go straight to Argentina. Like ASAP. But if not, then I'll be reassigned to Scottsdale Arizona, Spanish Speaking!! JK but that'd be legit.

My fingertip callouses from playing the guitar have all peeled off. It was pretty much the saddest, most unforgiving sight I have ever seen. I didnt want to take my hands out of my pockets. I was very sad. I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. And now my fingertips are super soft. And ugly. I hate it.

The temple is fun. Going there every week is definitely a blessing. I won't have a temple for 23 months, so It's good to get going there a lot.

I read the Bible a lot here. And I have gotten to know it pretty well, since I use the footnotes and ccan somehow remember them. My branch calls me Elder Scriptorian. It's weird how much I am able to remember. Gift from God.

We are doing SKYPE lessons with an investigator right now. It's very hard. There are few times when we are not destracted enough by shoddy technology to feel the spirit. But it is possible. I have huge respect for missionaries that do those lessons often. David Giles.

HEY! I saw Grandma Jenson in the TRC again!! It was awesome! She's our favorite MTC person ever. Her Spanish is impeccable, and so is her smiling face! It was a great blessing to see her a second time!

The Melby's blanket found me, and now I am warm at night :)

I play soccer every day.

Elder Spencer Brewster is here hahaha I picked him up from off the bus and showed him to his room and his classroom haha it was legit! Love having another familiar face here.

So we were doing our laundry last night. The 4 Elders that live in my apartment. We walk in to the laundromat to switch our clothes, and we saw our TEACHER doing his laundry!!! Hermano Draut!! Hhahaha it was awesome!

That's pretty much it. Conference rocks. Everyone here is going crazy

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

Week 2.5

So I went to the Ogden Temple dedication on Sunday. That was pretty sweet. It was cool to look up and see all the missionaries there.

Teaching lessons is getting harder. I want to be able to say a whole bunch of deep doctrinal things really quickly, but I am unable. And when I try, I look like a fool. It really sucks. I need to stop trying to go beyond what I know I can. If I would just be content with the fact that I don't know Spanish, and that I should keep it simple, then I would be fine. So that's what I need to work on.

On tuesday, we were scheduled for the TRC, or Teaching Resource Center. And I remembered that Grandma Jenson volunteered there on Tuesdays! So I was spreading the word around my district, and we were pretty much freaking out. So we showed up. They gave us a quick shpeal. We would just practice-teach a random member. So me and Elder Fallentine were assigned to Room A. We walked in the doorway, and I saw a very familiar woman sitting on the couch!!! GRANDMA was there! So I pretty much was jumping through the ceiling. Gave her a hug. We taught a really crappy lesson, because I was so shcked,  and I didn't really say anything, I was just staring and smiling ahaha so we finished, and said bye, and that was t!

That night, We had two other Elders stay with us. They were the last two Elders in their district, and were getting on a plane to Go to their San Francisco Missions in the next couple days. Everyone else had already left, and their room had already been reassigned, so they stayed in our 'guest room.' Elder Perry and Elder Wallace. Elder Perry looks exactly like Luke Larsen, Shelby's old... friend. It was hilarious. And he was way funny. And Elder Wallace was from England, and equally as hilarious. Pretty much the two nights they stayed with us were two enormous parties. They hour from when we got let out of class to quiet time. We had so much fun just sitting around joking.

The first groups of Spanish Speaking missionaries are starting to get moved to Main campus. we are the last group that willl not spend any time at Main campus. In like 3 weeks, West Campus is getting shut down. It's intense. Like camping.

I seriously LOVE preparing lessons with Elder Fallentine. I never thought I would, but companion study is one of the best hours of the day. Our 'investigators' are just our teachers, playing the role of someone else. EXCEPT we just barely started talking to a real investigator! They have a bunch of investigators just sit around campus, waiting for us to give a lesson to them. So me and Elder Fallentine started talking to... Maria. She is from Guadalajara and is very Catholic. We pretty much just talk to her about that. What she believes about God, and What we do. It makes me pretty freaking stoked just to talk to people. Because it is very enjoyable.

I had to go to the police department a couple days ago to get fingerprinted again. So what that means for my visa, I don't know. But everyone going to the Argentina Posadas mission had to go, and no one else, so we'll see how that works out... we got to drive in a police car! and we got to turn on the sirens, so that was pretty darn legit.

We went to the temple again today, and it was great. It was raining like a mother. We got so wet. Well not really. We all had umbrellas and were perfectly dry, but it was raining way hard. Every time I go to Main campus I see Elder Lund, and I love it.

We listened to Elder Richard G Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles give us a devotional on Tuesday. It was great. He's a great man. Spirit was awesome.

That's about it. Have a nice day

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

My old District 

Week 1.5

So the MTC is confusing.

I still hadn't gotten my travel plans as of….Thursday. And my entire district had theirs. They will be leaving on Monday or Tuesday. So I was kind of stressing a little.

That day, someone from the MTC gave me another language evaluation, to see where I sat. Then they told me that my visa still has yet to come through. They called my mission president, and my mission president told them that transfers are two weeks away. It would be best to keep me in the MTC for 2 more weeks, let me learn more Spanish, then get into my mission during a transfer week. Instead of getting reassigned to another area and being a third wheel with a companionship and kind of being awkward for 2 weeks.

So I'm staying here until October 6.  Not too bad. I wasn't upset at all, since I was expecting to be at the MTC for 6 weeks, and now I'll be here for 4. And two weeks is a long time.

So I changed districts. I'm in an intermediate district, so pretty much everyone took a few years of spanish in high school, and that's it. I broke up a trio of elders, so that was pretty convenient. My new compainion is Elder Fallentine. He's from San Diego. All he talks about is the Beach. And I smile and nod. Our roommates are Elder Osgood from Bay Area, California. Santa Barbara? No. I dont remember. Something like that. And then we have Elder Smith from Knoxville, Tennessee. They're nuts. They are pretty dang funny and have a ton of fun here. We have a solo hermana in our district, Hermana Myers from Chicago. Our teachers are Hermano Draught from Michigan and Hermana Martinez from Mexico. It's weird to be the only one From Utah.

My old district was WAY quiet, and it was very nice and subdued. My new district talks a lot, and that's fine. We still study when we're supposed to, but they spend every second of free time talking about life, or whatever. And there is some pretty intense stuff that goes on outside of Utah. I'm very happy that I live in the bubble that I do. Is that bad? I don't know. Well of course it's not bad. Like nothing bad happens in Utah compared to everywhere else. It's very nice. I didn't really appreciate it  until now. Having like ALL of everyone I know going on missions is such a blessing. I'm so happy I had such awesome friends.

That's pretty much all that has happened. Oh! I went to the temple again today, and it was great. twice in a week. My PDay changed. It's on Saturday now, in case you couldn't guess....

I should have brought a blanket here. The blankets they gave us are like 5 feet long, and it's freezing in our apartment. I use 2 blankets and 3 sheets, and I turn out okay, but sheesh. It's very inconvenient.

Class in this district is SO much different than in my other district. The teacher talks so much slower, it's almost harder to understand him. And all the missionaries have such gringo accents, it's awful. But whatever. I am struggling to remember that this is where I'm supposed to be and I should be taking advantage of being here for 2 more weeks. I don't know why I'm struggling. I got here, like 10 days ago. It hasn't been long at all.

So that's about it

Have a nice day!

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

Despite what the pictures show, I actuallly am happy hahah

Week 1

Soprendido!

So I get to class, after I got dropped off the curb, took a 10 minute bus ride to the Spanish MTC, and dropped my bags off at my room.  I look on the bag of materials they gave us, and it says, in pen, "Adv" below my name. I thought "Wow. That might stand for advanced." I knew C-bear was in the intermediate class, but I thought that I botched the language exam, so I was kind of curious to see what it meant. Then my district came into the classroom while I was just talking with the teacher. I am the only white guy in my district. I didnt see that coming. The lesson started, and I was the only one that day that didn't really participate in the lesson. It was all in Spanish. And I expected that, everyone told me that It was, but it was most discouraging to see EVERYONE in class be able to communicate with the teacher. I understood probably 80% of what he said, but I only had something to say like three times.

So they gave us a schedule for our time at the MTC. And the schedule was only for 2 weeks. And I thought. Weird. The whole last day was "PACK or leave" so I thought... wow. I might have to do this 3 times.

Elder Marroquin is my compainion. He's 19 and lives in West Valley and is from North Hollywood. He's cool. I like him.

The next day was 9/11. My roommate, who I recognized a little, and then he said "I recognize you" when he saw me and I said "yeah, you do look familiar..." Elder Pastrana. Well, he's from Maple Mountain, well Uruguay, and he said that he was living in NYC during 9/11. He said they told everyone to go home, and the teachers were kinda freaking out, and he was just happy to get off school. NUTS!

We met our branch presidency. They're awesome. I feel so much love from them. I'm in the branch that speaks fluent Spanish. ALL day. Every meeting. Anyway, Brother Nilsson in our presidency went to Posadas on his mission! WITH STAN ROBERTS!! He knows him! Crazy! I love him. He's a great guy. I'll send a picture eventually, but I don't have one right now. They interviewed us. I was interviewed by Brother Jeffs. I told him about my 2 week schedule, and how it still says I'm scheduled to leave in October. And he said "Oh, no, dont worry about that. If you're in our branch, you leave in 12 days." And I just started laughing, and he started laughing with me, and he said something like "SI, se puede!" (you can do it!)

Elder Cruz is my other roomie. He's from .... Puebla? Mexico. And speaks 3 languages. He looks like he's 50, even though he's only 22. He was baptized 5 years ago, and has a strong testimony. He's great. He always asks me "donde vas?" and I say "argentina." and he says "NO. Ar-HEN-tina" And I say "oh. yeah. arhentina." It's funny.

So yes, the language is hard. But everyone in my district reassures me that I belong in advanced Spanish class.  Walking around, since everyone is learning spanish, we all say hola when we see each other. My roomies told me to say "Pasa la bola" (pass the ball) or "cameron sin cola" (shrimp without a tail) in response. It's funny because it's just so random and doesnt make sense, BUT it rhymes!! "hola, pasa la bola!" And its also HILARIOUS be cause no one speaks Spanish, so they just say "si..." or "y usted..." Not only is it reassuring because I can see that no one here speaks Spanish, but it also lightens the mood for my district.

Sunday was awesome. We just studied the scriptures, and that made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. I hadn't really ever been taking advantage of personal study, and I was really feeling like crap. Then after I studied for like 3 hours straight, I felt the spirit, I felt God's love, and I just felt prepared to be a missionary. It was so relieving. I kind of expected the first few days to be hard, but in reality, they were just that. It's more than just studying. It's relying on the Lord. It's knowing that you will never be enough. I am so used to coming to an obstacle and tackling it, but now I can't tackle it. I need to have the faith that when I come to the obstacle, I won't run through it- God will lift me over it.

Today is Preparation day. We went to the temple and I almost fell asleep. It was exhausting, and it was nice, and comfortable, and I felt good, and I was tired, okay. We did laundry. That was fun. The food here is not as bad as Drew says it is. They have cereal as far as the eye can see. And I eat a banana every meal. And I've had probably 10 apples, and since I'm with all the Mexicans, they told me to smother everthing in the famous mexican hot sauce- tapatio. They drink that stuff. And It is pretty good. I use it a lot. I did my laundry today. That was fun. My teachers are great.  Brother Alletto is really easy to understand. He's from Savannah, Georgia, and he enunciates well, and I understand 95% of what he says, and I feel like I can participate, and It's awesome.  Brother Wood kind of scares me. He smiles all the time, and he has a weird accent, and he's taller than me, so that's not good. He has helped me SO much with my Spanish. I think he has done more for me than he thinks he knows.

Well that's about it. I love you all. Tell all the Salesmen that I love them. Especially you, Tim.

I'm having a great time.

Have a nice day,

Elder Trevor Emil Christensen

PS OH!! So they pulled me out of personal study, and brought me to another apartment, they told me that there was some confusion with my flyout date. The system STILL says I leave october 20th, but if I am in the advanced class, then I will have to leave next week. and had me take another language evaluation, since I am not fluent, and they said they don't know if I will stay in here for 5 more weeks, or leave next week... So I will tell you what happens. I might be in the missionfield next time I email, but I will definitely know what's going to happen to me next time I write!

PPS I LOVE GRANDMA"S DAILY NOTES

With Jordan Mack from our ward (going to Madagascar)

With Paul Evans (Lacrosse Team)

I look SO HAPPY in all these pictures.  haha

Soprendido

hey.
I am well. I am excited. I am safe. I am in the advanced spanish class, and it's scaring the crud out of me. So I will probably be here for 2 weeks. not 6.
I sent you a letter.
Have a nice day.
Elder Trevor Emil Christensen