Week 76

The Proposal 2.  Yes. Somebody else proposed to us. We contacted a Menos Activo, and her single, chubby 25 year old daughter asked us if we wanted to marry her. We said no. And that was pretty much it. Nothing too dramatic.

Well I've learned some things about myself from the mission:

1. My face looks weird.

2. I cannot mimic any type of accent. Even in English

3. I talk in my sleep.

The best part of the week that I will share is that we had a KILLER lesson with Diana. We went to the capilla with an RM and a young woman from the ward. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end of the lesson, we opened up the baptismal font and talked about baptism. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said that she didn't feel prepared. She has to work on forgiving her father. And just opened up to us about the problems that her dad has and how it has affected her life. She started crying. The young woman went over and consoled her, and then told her stories of her childhood, and they both started crying and were there talking for probably 20 minutes. Meanwhile, us 3 guys who are around 20 years old are just standing there awkwardly watching.

Well it ended very well. Diana continues progresssing, the sky is blue, the ward is great, I'm happy to be a missionary.

We did divisions in Virasoro, and I took a picture with a carpincho, but the computer isn't reading my camera, so I guess you'll still have to wait for that photo.

Love you

Elder Christensen

Week 75

This was a great week.

I bought some new pants. My shoes officially got destroyed beyond recognition, and I bought some new pens, too. So im doing pretty good. Except that I sweat an impressive amount of sweat everyday. I get so soaked that after lunch, we have to go back to the apartment, and i have to change my pants because its so embarrassing. what fun

WE went to talk with a menos activo, and we asked him how he joined the church. He said that when he was 12, he was walking down the street, and he looked ina box on the side of the road, and there was a book of mormon in it! He said he was just intrigued, so he grabbed it, and started reading. Acutally, he read until 3 nephi! Then he stopped. He said that he thought it was just a cool story, he didnt know that there was actually a religion that used its teachings.

well when he was 14,the missionaries showed up at his house, and started ta lking with his family. They pulled out the book of mormon, and he said ``hey! I have that same book!`` and then  they told him what it really was. And told him that to know if it was true, he had to pray and ask God if it was true. He said that he did, and now knows it was written by prophets of God. Then he and the rest of his family got baptized. Cool story. But now hes inactive. Well, as it turns out, he said he was feeling a little bit bad about himself, and he remembered that reading the Book of Mormon made him feel much better, so he started to read it again. A couple months ago! And said he knows he needds to start attending church again. Hes 20. mission-bound,  in my mind, but i dont think he know that yet...

in our ward, normally 110 people attend. But yesterday, it rained, so everyone decided to take the day off, and 27 showed up. Thats just the culture here, so its not that different that he didnt come to church.

Remember the Paraguayan afamily that wwe found last week? Well as it turns out, we gave them 5 verses in the book of m ormon to read, and they didnt read! Except for their 17 year old daughter! And she read, like 10 pages! She said that she felt awesome while she was reading it. She didnt really understand a  TON, but she remembered more or less the storyline, so we know that she read! She also said that she feels the Spirit when she reads it, and that she thinks that its truer than the Bible. But hasnt prayed to know whether its true or not. So thats her next step. But she said that she feels something different, the Spirit, when she talks with us, and she doesnt feel it when she goes to other churches. It was awesome! We talk with her whole family, but shes the only one that has a fire in her eyes.

We also had some great experiences, just walking to and from appointments, and deciding to talk to someone, and then we have an awesome lesson with them. Im not sure if they will progress, but we sure had a good time talking about the book of Mormon and repentance with them.

Have a great day

Elder Christensen

Week 74

Whats up?

This week was pretty great. Kind of stressfull.

The reason why it was stressful was because I was pretty explosively sick the other day. I was in the bathroom for a long while. Im definitley much better, but  heaving for such a long time just sapped all my energy. Thats what happens when i try and cook my own lunch!

Theres a lot of dengue going around here. I really think that half the city of Posadas has it. And paraguays worse. Everyone has it. Not really, but its becoming quite the epidemic. Only one hermana in our zone has dengue, so it has avoided the missionaries here, more or less. But it feels like a ticking time bomb.

One the spiritual side of things, we were walking around, late one night, and Elder Diaz told me that his old compainion had passed this house, and he said that they used to visit some investigators there. so we passed the house, and elder Diaz said we were going to see if they would accept us. We clapped outside, and they came out and told us to come in.

So we went. And it turns out that they DIDNT talk with the misisonaries before. Theyre just some extremely friendly paraguayans! I miss paraguay... everyone would talk with us. Anyway, we just started talking with them, and they asked us which of all the chruches was true, and all the awesome classic questions! We finished the lesson listening to the father of the family pray! It was awesome! Ill tell you if they progress, but we have lots of hope

Elder Christensen

Week 73

Hello

Well im now with Elder Diaz again. He's changed from a super sophisticated, impressive joven to a super sophisticated impressive young single adult. What a big difference it is between 18 and 19! We're working a lot, and we've had many spiritual lessons. Its great to be at his side again.

Well the highlight of the week was sacrament meeting yesterday. Since it was my first week here, they had me bear my testimony and introduce myself. But another hermana, Hermana Reynoso, ALSO just barely got here. So she went first. She's from LA, but her parents are mexican. So she said "I'm from the US, but don't worry, I'm 100% Latina!" Then bore her testimony. Then I went up and said "I'm from the US, and I'm 100% gringo!" The Elders Quorum President didn't stop laughing for the whole meeting. I'm hilarious.

We also had a meeting with the stake presidency yesterday. It was 6 elders, and presidente LaPierrre, and we talked about how the stake is way to dependent on the missionaries for work that THEY should be doing. With regards to menos activos and conversos recientes. So we talked about what we were going to start doing to put a lot of the workload on the members here. Were going to stop doing their job, and then they should become more self sufficient! That's the big push in the church here in Argentina. Becomeing self sufficient temporally and spiritually.

I love you so much

Elder Christensen

Week 72

This week we did a service project for one of our investigators! She almost got baptized 5 years ago, and is starting to progress! So to reward us, she let us cut her extremely ingrown grass with a couple of dull machetes! We did some work! It was extremely difficult, but we got a good chunk of it done! I didnt take any pictures, but it looks SO much better. Our workmanship was exceedingly fine. So if anyone needs me to cut their lawn with a machete, I could totally do it! I have the blisters to prove it!

Transfers came. And im going to Garupa. Its right next to Posadas. My new companion is my old companion, Elder Diaz. Hes from Cordoba, Argentina. Im super excited to be with him again. Hes great! I know that we will be blessed with A LOT of work to do. And im stoked.

Weve been working with our branch here in something thats called ``missionary environment``. It entails sharing the gospel with your friends by giving more references, participating more in church, and when investigators or menos activos come to church, the members are as friendly as possible. And its going great! We just had 5 menos activos come to chruch, and immediately all the members flocked to them, and started talking to them, and were singing hymns with them, and it was awesome!

As I have mentioned, one menos activo just randomly showed up with his family, and said that he wanted to be a better example. Well today, he blessed the sacrament for the first time in 13 years, and when we talked with him yesterday, he said that him and his wife were talking, and they want to serve a couples mission when their youngest son, who is 12 years old, moves out! So they've started saving money, and want to prepare themselves spiritually to do it, too! So that was awesome.

I love you all.

Elder Christensen

Week 71

One of our investigators calls me "The Russian" because she says that I look like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. I'm not going to complain.

Well the most exciting news from this week is that our zone has started to play a contacting game. Each companionship in the zone picks a day and picks what were going to contact that day. Green houses, people with dogs, people with children, blondes, old people, have been some of the subjects. Then we just try and go out and contact as many of these people as we can. And our zone is getting to be much more lively and it gives us a bit of thrill in missionary work. I dont know if its the most spiritual thing, or if I have a segway into something spiritual, but were just trying to do a bunch of things to talk with as many people as possible!

An 8 year old girl was baptized in our branch this week! We didnt prepare anything because its the branchs responsibility, and when we showed up, no one else had prepared anything either! So we ended up having to fill the font, give talks, clean, prepare the program, and get baptismal clothing, all that night! It was a great opportunity for us to do a little service!

We have two lesser active families that are starting to come back to church. We never visited them before, they just showed up because they decided that they wanted to be good examples for the rest of their family, and they knew that going to church was the way to do it! So now were trying to help them find other ways to serve and be examples to their families and those around them. What a wonderful thing to do! Hooray for living the gospel!

Well, the chruch is true.

Elder Christensen

Week 70

11 Enero 2014
Just kidding, its 2016.

This was one of the best weeks I've had in a while!!

On Friday, during the zone meeting, we got a text from Presidente LaPierre asking if we would be able to do divisions with him that day. We were already planning on leaving with a member, so it was perfect! I went with Presidente, and Elder Quesada went with Hermano Trinidad. Presidente is pretty much the most spiritual man alive. His teaching style is extremly simple. He just shares what he knows, then the Spirit does the rest. It was fun. We contacted one house, and the first thing they said was ``I dont want to talk to you. Im from the 21th century``. Makes sense. After about 30 seconds of loving banter from Presidente, they couldnt help but to talk with us. Turns out, the whole family sat around us in a circle, and asked us questions about the Book of Mormon and about life after death, which we answered using the very same book of Mormon that was in my hand. It was great.

Well the day before, we were with Hermano Trinidad, and one of his neighbors said hi to him, and instead of saying ``hi`` back, he said ``hey, no joke, when can i pass by your house with these missionaries and talk about Christ??!``... hm... i like his style! We set up an apppointment for the next day, when Elder Quesada went with him. They taught the Restauraction. and apparently during the lesson the man said ``wow. I was confused before. I thought you guys worshipped Joseph Smith, but now it all makes sense. Now i WANT to read the Book of Mormon.`` Then asked if he could invite his friend to attend church with him. Wow. This guy was giving them more references than the whole rest of the branch combined!

Well, they didnt attend church, but it was a faith building experience!

Weve been looking for Menos Activo members lately. And like 6 attended yesterday. It was insane. And our branch president had interviews with all of them... lets see if they decide to be active in the only true and living church upon the face of the earth...

Last week we had meetings in Posadas. It was great to see Elder BAskin there. I always love listening to Presidente LaPierre. Were trying to change the culture of the mission. to teach repentence and baptize converts.

While we were in Posadas, we finally cut our hair. The Argentine lady that did it really should not be cutting hair. the worst 3 dollars ive ever spent.

Have a wonderful day

Elder Christensen