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