Week 90

Ciudad del Este 6

Well, the changes came, and I'm going to Paraguay! Woo hoo! I'm going to Elder Baskin's old area! I'm pretty excited.

Well I'll just tell you guys one story. Yesterday morning before church, we were going to pick up a family of investigators to take them to church with us.  We've been teaching them for about a month, and they have had just so many miracles passing in their lives and just haven't done anything about it. It was very frustrating. Well we decided to accompany them to church. They live about a 45 minute walk away. To get to their house, you have to go up this one hill, and then it starts turning downhill. and they just live 1 block away. So you can't see on the other side of the hill while walking up the hill. Well, as we were walking there, I said to Elder Christiansen "you know what would be the most beautiful sight in the world? Watching Hugo and Rosana walk over that hill with their 2 kids." and I bet you can guess what happened 15 seconds later. I was so grateful.

Church was awesome.

I'm going to miss Garupa. The members have turned into some of my very best friends. I love it!

Elder Christensen

The thing I'm going to miss the most is the peacock farm right in the middle of the area!

Week 89

Brother Sanabria
That guy is the best!

We've had a lot of opportunities to leave with him. He's the local high councilor here in Garupa Ward. He's 40, served a mission in Buenos Aires, has 2 daughters, is a black belt in kung fu, and is one of the most spiritually sound guys ever. He's truly someone that I want to be like when I'm older, haha who knew? We've left with him a few times, and every time that we're going to leave with him on divisions, I always dibs him, haha poor Elder Christiansen.

We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and he just gave a killer testimony that was something  like "we don't have to do everything here on the earth. But it just depends where we want to go. I do everything that I do because I know where I want to go."  It was better in the moment, but he is just so generous and helpful and kind with everyone. I've gotta take a picture with this guy.

We've just left a lot with the members lately, and just to talk with them in the street about their conversion and about their families, and hearing them give counsel to their neighbors about spiritual things just makes me so impressed of the people down here. My love for them has grown.

Well we went to Santo Tome on Wednesday. It was pretty great. The highlight was meeting one of the men there that is preparing for his baptism. He's 40. They found him 4 weeks ago. They found him on a Tuesday, and the next Sunday was testimony meeting. By that Sunday, he had already read the whole Book of Mormon! And he got up, less than a week after have even heard of the book, and testified of its truthfulness! Since then, he has read it a second time, and is in 3 Nephi right now, about to finish for a 3rd time. Truly amazing.

But thats not even the best part of this guy. His main issue right now is that he smokes. But he has now quit smoking. How did he quit? He just stopped.  He said that the first day that the missionaries came, he was smoking 3 packs a day. By their next visit, 2 days later, he was smoking 2 packs a day. Then a couple days later, 1 pack per day. Then they taught him the word of wisdom, and he cut it down to 10 per day, then 5 per day, then 2 per day, and then, less than 3 weeks later, he had quit smoking entirely. What helps? Just reading the Book of Mormon and feeling the Spirit. He says that its not even an urge anymore. But it was pretty sad. When I talked with him, he was practically trembling from withdrawals. But its been about a week now! Incredible guy. He's ready for his baptism.

You're the best

Elder Christensen

Week 88

We have had a ton of divisions this week. For 5 nights this week, there was another pair of missionaries in our apartment. 2.5 kilos of ceareal and 10 liters of milk disappeared after 4 days. Me and Elder Christiansen were pretty livid, but then we realized that it was a great opportunity to build our charity. So I guess thats good. Were so blessed.

The highlight of this week is that we reactiviated a less active woman a couple months ago, and her son got baptized. Were now working on getting her to the temple. We gave her the booklet ´´how to prepare to enter the Holy Temple´´, and she pretty much read and memorized it in a day. We taught her the law of chastity, which she had never heard anything about before, and now strives to live it. Which is good. Her dang boyfriend moved out a while ago. And last week, we downloaded for her a conference session. And she watched is ´´about 6 or 7 times.´´ And she now has a huge testimony of the living prophets. Shes the best! She even offered to go and bring an investigator to church when she accompanied us on a visit! She started bringing her extremely less active mother to chruch, too, and now her mom started talking with the bishop!

Its truly amazing the changes that occur in some people that just want to do what God wants them to. For the church to grow, it just takes a few good people who want to magnify their callings.

iT rained a lot yesterday. Not many pepole came to church. But one investigator DID make it. A 70 year old man. I actually have not yet taught him. Thank you, divisions.

Im doing great. The ward is awesome and the members help a ton.

Elder Christensen

PS, in one of these pictures, im standing in front of a building. Look up the Denmark Copenhagen Temple, and you will find that it looks EXACTLY like it!

PPS I love you

Week 87

Mother's Day

Hola che

Well I don't really know what more I can say. It was awesome to see the family. Pretty much they're all the greatest.

I'll just send you a bunch of pictures. I already told you all of our stories. Enjoy my family pics, and enjoy your families.

Elder Christensen

Week 86

First things first, it has been FREEZING here lately. We're talking 40 degrees Fahrenheit! In the afternoon, it's still hot, but we have to sleep with a heater! Crazy!

The... what the... a little kid just came up to us, tapped us on the shoulder, asked us if we were the mormons, we said yes, then he gave us a little pass along card of the Virgin Mary. ... Something fishy is going on here...

Anyway, it was the best testimony meeting of my life yesterday! I even cried!

Our mission president told us to challenge Diana to give her testimony during testimony meeting. She passed her baptismal interview, she is allowed to be baptized at any time, but she just wants to wait until she's even more sure... So we challenged her to give her testimony. She said she would.

When she stood up, everyone knew that she was an investigator, and there was just a stillness in the room, and she gave a killer testimony. It sounded like she had been a member for years. She said that she knew that the church and the Book of Mormon were true. That her life has changed a lot. That going to church, she really DOES feel better about herself. That reading and praying makes her know that God exists. She talked for probably 3 minutes, testifying. It was crazy. After the meeting, all the members went up to her and congratulated her, and gave her advice, and it was awesome. It made me feel very overwhelmed. I was just so happy for her.

We went by afterwards with a member. He showed her pictures from his baptism, and told her of all the blessings he has received, then HE invited her to be baptized, and she still wants to wait. It's killing us.

In other news, One of the families that we started visiting, the one who said that the day before we came, he saw two pillars of fire coming from the sky, started going to church! But for whatever reason, they started attending a different church. I'm not sure why. It's extremely frustrating.

Another woman that we found last week said that she prayed to God, asking to know what church to start attending and asked for help in deciding. 2 days later, we showed up at her door. She said that she felt the Spirit, and is so stunned that we came to help her decide. Well... we visited her Saturday, and she said that she decided to attend the Lutheran Church. I wanted to jump up and yell "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! WHY??!´" She doesn't want to pray and ask God anymore which church to attend. She said that she was baptized Lutheran, and it wouldn't be right to change. I was GOING to yell at her "you think that it was just a coincidence that we showed up at your door right when you were praying for guidance?" But we didn't. All we did was thank her for building OUR own personal testimonies in our message. We felt the Spirit with her, and now are certain that what we teach is correct, and that we really are guided by God. Then we left.

Well it's been a rough week. But Diana´s testimony was great.

Hey, I'm not sure if I said this last week, but...

We're teaching another family. They didn't come to church yesterday. They were on vacation. The mom said that she had a lot of questions about religion. She attended an Evangelical Church, and it just made her more confused. So she stopped attending. A week later, she prayed to God, asking for help. And within an hour or two, we showed up to her house, and set up an appointment to return. We went back the next day, and talked about the Restoration. And she loved it. Her husband, also, loved it. They will be baptized, I know it.

Ups and downs this week.

Today, ill be able to see Elder Baskin, so i'm pretty stoked about that. We'll be staying in the mission home tonight together!

Elder Christensen

me over a freeway

me close to a river and an old volkswagen van

selfie

me eating choripan with our Elders Quorum President in the church

The entrance to a cemetery freaks me out

me cooking lunch today!