Week 28

I have no clue what tramites means in english, but it has to do with Argentine visa stuff. It took up one entire day in Posadas, and then all of today, and some of yesterday in Puerto Iguazu. So that pretty much destroyed our week of working. The government requires so much from us! nah, its alright

Well i hope you all are doing well. I know i am.

This week started off wonderfully with our zone conference, and President Lapierre came and spake to us about pressing forward in the work. How to work with members better, and how to be more efficient and spritual as missionaries. He is a very wise man and i love listening to him. It was a great boost.

The 4 dollar backpack that i bought my first week in Paraguay finally broke.. So i had to buy a new one. I told Elder Piriz, and he said okay, and we went to one of the random booths that was on the side of the road. We passed maybe 5 or 6, and stopped at one, and i asked the guy there how much a back pack costed. He said a reasonable price, so i gave him the money, and as he gave me the backpack, he said ´´im a member´´    WHAT? So we immediately started talking to him. Turns out, he lives alone, and pretty much said that the members were his only friends, because he works a TON, and when he went to church, he felt the Spirit and really enjoyed it. He told us his testimony of Christ and of the Book of Mormon, and it was great. He started crying, and said that he missed going to church. We invited him, and he has kept his commitments so far, and it sounds like hes going to progress. Its great how the Lord puts a broken backpack on my shoulders so that we can find new people that can progress in the Gospel.

Our gospel doctrine teacher is the bomb. Her and her husband moved from Buenos Aires a little over a year ago, and they know a TON. they said that they went to the temple at least once a week for more than 5 years, and study the scriptures every day togethere, and its what keeps them so close. They have such a knowledge of the gospel, and really rock at teaching. All of the lessons here rival any lesson i have ever had. I seriously learn so much, and its great. Its awesome to see how strong some peoples testimonies are down here!

We were visiting one of our menos activos, and his son told us that he wanted a preisthood blessing. And his dad has the Melchezidek preisthood, but it sounds like he has never given a blessing, so we got to teach him how to do it, and it was a great experience. That is all

I hope you all are serving each other. Because you know that serving your fellow man is serving your God.

Elder Emil

PS i think i finally figured out how to do an attachment

Week 27

Yes, i finally did it. If this computer was ccapable of sending pictures, i would send it to you, because, trust me, my hair was SO long haha But now im looking like a real missionary, so thats good. Rockin the buzz cut for the first time in 4 years.

Not a ton happened this week. We saw just about no progression. I went on divisions with my favorite zone leader, Elder Farnsworth. That was fun. We went and visited 2 less active members, and had some REALLY spiritual lessons, with just a bunch of examples about answers to prayers,a dn the bleessings of reading the scriptures, but they didnt come to church. We even went before church to pick them up, and they got mad at us. THey told us that they were only going to come when they feel ready to come, not when anybody else tells them. So that was weird. I dont think well be going back there again. Which is sad. I really thought that family would progress.

We also had a lesson with this one 18 year old kid and his 17 year old brother. They were baptized 6 years ago, without their parejnts, and went to church consistantly for at least a year. Then the older 12 year old brother got offended by a member, and stopped coming,a nd wouldnt let his little brother go either. his little brother kept telling us how much he loved the church, and the Elders, and was really quiet. But his older brother was not about to forgive these members, and it was pretty bad. We talked about forgiveness and love for a long time,a nd he would just not budge. We even got so far as to ask him how he expects to be forgiven by Christ at the last day if he wont forgive anyone here. We are commanded to forgive all men. But he would not give an inch. We finally decided to end the lesson,a nd the younger brother gave the most sincere prayer i have ever heard. He prayed that his brother would remember how much they had loved church when they were younger, and that he would find his testimony again. And we left.

ON sunday, our district president, and our young mens president for the district spoke in our branch. And they were two of the best talks i have ever heard. On obedience, and just how they got their testimonies. Plus our district president played soccer for River Plate (the New York Yankees of Argentine soccer), so that was cool to hear him talk. There was not a huge turn out in the branch, and i felt way bad for everyone who didnt come because they really missed out. There are some STRONG members of the church down here. It was really good to see.

Our time schedule just changed, so i lost 30 minutes of sleep.So that was too bad.

As i am thinking about what i just typed, it sounds like i had a really depressing week, but im happy, and im cared for, and im having fun. I know that the gospel is true, and im very happy that i know all of you and I seriously love you all so much.

Elder Emil Christensen

Week 26

Well the highlight of the week was that we had another Preach My Gospel class, and 5 members showed up!! so that was exciting. It was the same class, with practices and all, and Id say that it was pretty successfull. It always suprises me when im just up there teaching, and then one of the members makes a pretty legit comment to what im saying. They know more about missionary work here than i did 6 months ago, thats for sure.

Just kidding that wasnt really the highlight. but there IS a part in Preach my Gospel that has prety much described my life and it is something like ´´some may not accept your message even though they have recieved a spiritual witness that it is true. And you will be sad.´´ And I am sad. But then I remember a scripture that Captain Moroni said, I think, and its something like ´´well everyone else isnt doing very well, but at least IM following the commandments.´´ I hope these shaky references make sense. I always thought id be waiting for someone to get a witness that its true and then watch them be baptized, but now i understand that im waiting for someone to want to come to church, feel the love of Christ through the members, and then get a witness. Who knew?

I went on divisions in Eldorado this week with a guy named Elder Taylor. He is 6´7´´ and was in Carlos Antonio Lopez before I was, so I heard a lot of stories about him. He reminded me SO much of Tad. It was quite strange.

God is such a reality to me.

We had district conference here. President LaPierre spoke, and it was legit. He spoke on Magnifiying your calling. He gave the example of if you dont have a home teaching assignment, you should RUN to your elders quorum president, and BEG him to give you one so that you can assist the Lord in His work and recieve the blessings that you are promised.

Also, before the Conference, some lady started to have a heart attack. We gave her a blessing. And immediately when the words ´´the pain will leave your body´´ were spoken, she stopped screaming, and calmed down. The ambulence came, and she was very level headed... THne the conference started, and we dont really know what happened with her afterwards. But it was cool.

I hear that Paul Baskin is coming to Argentina Posadas Mission. And I am so stoked.

Have a great day.

Elder Christensen

PS i just learned what an ´´attachment´´ is.

Darn i dont think that worked.

Me in Eldorado, and after, our District. My hair is really starting to get SO long

Week 25

Well i tried to attatch some photos. One should be from the baptism we had in November. And the other should be of me and Elder Piriz, but im just about 100 percent that it didnt work. Sorry.

Yeah. Ive been a missionary for 6 months now. I cant tell if its a long time, or not.

Some pretty weird stuff has been going on lately here. We found a new investigator about a week ago, and had some pretty good lessons with her and her husband. Then one lesson, like out 3rd, we started talking about baptism, and tthen she said ´´oh, im a member´´ ... what. She said that she was baptized when she was 12, and her brother went on a mission to Buenos Aires. And said that she doesnt like the church. It was so confusing. Were going back, and i think ill keep you updated.

For our little branch, theres not a whole ton of unity, so weve been trying to have more and more little activities. One of them was a Preach My Gospel class at the church. We had two people in attendence! and they were both named Elder. So we had some fun with the practices, and we both shared what we had prepared. No one was there, and that was quite the bummer, but Elder Piriz had prepared some good stuff out of preach my gospel, and we talked about it, and it actually endded up being a pretty spiritual night for the both of us.

Walking home at night one day, someone across the street yelled to us, and waved us over. He was an old investigator, hes like 16, and we went over, and he said to me, ´´hey! she speaks English!´´ pointing to the girl sitting at the table with him. And i said ´´really?´´ and she said ´´yes´´ with quite the accent. So i asked ´´How?´´ and she said ´´Well im from Denmark, and learned it in school.´´ ...YES haha I showed her my name, and she said its pronounced E-Mill, so it looks like my father has been lying to me my whole life. I did a street contact with her in English, and gave her  the 13 articles of faith, and asked her about what she believed. She didnt really want anything to do with us. So that was a bummer.

There is an eternal investigator here. She is an eternal investigator because her boyfriend of 6 years doesnt want to get married, and if she leaves him, she will have 3 kids and literally nothing else. Her boyfriend is actually a less active member, and was baptized with his whole family. Anyway, we were talking to them about marriage, and they agreed to get married on the 20th of March, so well see if that happens. If so, it means that she can get baptized,a nd we can start working on a temple trip for the next year. Anyway, at the begining of the lesson, her mom came out and started asking us a bunch of annoying questions about how ´´our bible is different from everybody elses´´ and before we said anything, her daughter, the Eternal investigator, with a SOLID testimony, pretty much just laid down the law. Even her boyfriend, the 23 year old kid who hasnt come to church since he was 13 defended the Book of Mormon. It was quite astounding. The mom understood completely, and pretty much walked away without anymore contention. It was awesome to see that. We did not say a whole lot. Pretty much it was them 2 defending the Book of Mormon. It was great.

Well I hope you guys have a nice day.

Elder Emil

Week 24

Montecarlo is a super tranquilo little town. Were pretty close to the river, and its weird how much of a climate change it is from oberá. There are a lot more bugs, and its not as humid, but its a lot hotter. And theres more clouds. I dont know. Maybe its just becauyse ive been here for 4 days.

Elder Piriz is SO funny. Hes a little 26 year old Argentinian. He was Young Mens president in his branch, and also first counsellor to the branch presidnet before he came out. Im pretty sure that in a branch presidency meeting, his branch president asked him if he was planning on serving a mission. He said no. And now hes here.

The pension here is tiny. The last two elders didnt get along, and never cleaned the pension as a result of it. So it smells really bad. And is disgusting. And  also, Elder Piriz is Argentino, so hes allowed to drink mate. And if you know what mate smells like, it smells like death. So its pretty awful. I will clean it later today.

Lessons are way easier here, because no one really does anything, so they all talk to us because their bored. So thats a plus. But they also dont come to church, because they dont have the highest example of self drive.

We had intervieews with President LaPierre on Friday. And he is a great man, let me ttell you. We talked about Shelby for most of the time, and i realized that I could not answer a  lot of his questions about her. So thats a bummer.

One of the members here is more than 70 years old, and she is diabetic. She says that the docters have told here that she might need to amputate pretty soon, so its looking like we might be losing limbs here pretty soon. Its both kind of sad and exciting at the same time. She is SO funny. Just an off the wall, loving old little grandma. Shes the coolest diabetic i have ever met. haha just making sure Connor is really reading the emails.

Well thats about it... Wait. Im in the zone Iguazu, and Elder Farnsworth, my first zone leader, is my zone leader again, and says that for a zone activity, we will probably be going to Iguazu falls this transfer. So im looking forward to that.

Nothing has quite advanced lately. Were just trying to find new investigators for the church, and resolve the needs of the less actives.

Have a wonderful day

Elder Emil

Well i was going to send pictures, but it didnt work.... Argentina...