Week 59

The best part of this week was going to help Fanny do Family History work. Shes going to the temple, and we helped her set up an account on FamilySearch.org. I took pictures, but I cant send them. Sorry. Anyway, we were going to help her do some indexing, or at least teach her how to do it. well, we got on to the site, and we tried to find her grandparents on the Paraguay registry. And there were only 1000 names. In all of Paraguay. We couldnt believe it. So we couldnt really do anything. It was really sad.

So now our goal is to contact the chruch and contact the municipality building in ciudad del este and in asuncion and talk to them about giving the church some census records or some baptismal records from the catholic church. But... yeah. Well see how far it gets. Just trying to help redeem the dead down here.

Fanny now teaches classes in church, she goes on visits with us, and even gave a prayer yesterday in sacrament meeting. It was quite wonderful. Transfers are next week, and if i go, i will really miss her. She has remarked about her sadness, as well. I hope she doesnt try and pull anything, like a hug or something like that.

A couple months ago, we were walking in a REALLY far out neighborhood, 5 km from downtown, and... yes. Well, we got a call the next day from a member from La Paloma. She said that her friend from km5 saw us walking around, and had a lot of questions for us, and wanted to learn more about the church. She came to chruch, and has now attended 3 times. We have had several lessons with her, and she just said that she recieved an answer that the Book of Mormon is true! Even her boyfriend attended with her! Well, shes pretty much our greatest joy in investigators right now. Her biggest obstacle is that she is not married to the man that she lives with. Soo.. yes.

We also found a man the other day. We walked up to his neighbors house -a reference- clapped, and then he called us over from next door. So we went. As we walked up, i thought ´´this is the new branch president we have been looking for!´´ I just had that feel. He said that he always sees us pass by, and has always wanted to talk to us. So we taught him about the restoration and the book of mormon. And hes from the Seventh day adventist church. So, as always, he started to combat us about the saturday worship thing. And it kind of destroyed the lesson.

we went back the next day, and bore our testimonies, and he still wanted to combat, but hes just too cool and too valuable. He kind of talked the saturday worship thing out of style, and we shared with him acts 20 7 about the apostoles taking the sacrament on sunday, and the fact that christ resurrected on sundAY and we explained our beliefs. Then he stopped wanting to combat, and we bore our testimonies again aobut the book of mormon, and it ended up a great lesson. Very spiritual. I hope you can get a little sense about it. Well.. he didnt come to chruch, but we will continue with him, He WILL be the new branch president.

we got a gym membership 2 weeks ago, and theres a gay guy there that always stares and winks at me. its very uncomfortable. But its not holding us back from going to the gym.

I love you all.

Elder Christensen

Week 58

Not every week is going to be an absolutely stellar one.

Just a good week. The highlight was that Elder Diaz skyped his family. Hes a great guy. His familys pretty cool. Cordobeses.

well... as i think of what im going to send, i really cant think of a specific experience that i would like to share. I know that the gospel is true, and i really enjoy being a missionary.

I still havent seen Paul Baskin yet.

Fanny is progressing very rapidly. She recently taught the class in the young womens. Shes going to the temple to do baptizms for the dead on 30 nov 2015. She is probably going to get her patriarchal blessing that day, too. She just got a full ride scholarship to her college next year. She is pretty awesome.

I love you all.

Elder Christensen

mcdonalds mcflurry.

Week 57

Hello.

Well this week went by really fast. I was in Ciudad del Este until wednesday, so i was just cruising around out of my area for a while... Good times.  Made a smoothie. It was delicious. I ate a lot of beans and rice. which, believe it or not, is starting to become my favorite meal. I eat so many beans. I used to STRONGLY DISLIKE beans before i came here, and now, i cant get enough!! Oh how the times change. If your wondering what i eat most, itd have to be

beans and rice

corn bread (sopa paraguaya)

mandioka

Noodles with chicken

juice

coke. actually, coke is probably at the top of that list.

Cereal. Just kidding. Cereal is definitely at the top of that list.

Egg sandwiches.

THis week, we had fast and testimony  meeting. And it was wonderful. What really stood out to me was that as sacrament meeting started, the back 4 rows were empty! Everyone sat up front! Such a different sensation for me! It was a crazy sight to see, that everyone wanted to be up front, and paying attention. It had rained yesterday, and when it rains, NO ONE leaves there house. Usually. But we had an abnormally HIGH assistance. All of the children were very calm. It was cool. As in the temperature. The windows were open. It was very peaceful, very spiritual.

As the meeting started, i said inside myself ´´if there is ONE SECOND of silence, im going to stand up and bear my testimony.´´ And there was a constant line. The whole meeting. We even went a little bit over in time. It was incredible. Everyone went up to bear their testimony. Love it. The Church is true.

Back to the temporal.

Today in kickball, elder christensen had an amazing catch. it was raining, so we were playing in an indoor futsol field. concrete. I was playing centerfield, and  someone kicked a long bomb. I was running back, I could sense that the wall was close, but i was closing in on the ball. I kind of jumped, and immediately as i caught it, a metal drink cooler appeared out of nowhere and took my legs out from under me, and i almost flipped completely over it. But i ended up just laying on top of it. It was an insanely good catch. You would have been impressed if you were there.

I ended up 3 for 5 with a triple and a double. I was a home run away from going for the cycle.

I hope you enjoy your day.

Elder Christensen

ps halelujah! pictures!! yes, i am very tall. And if you look closely in the second one, you can see the cooler that almost destroyed me

Week 56

Wow are those guys good, or what??

I dont know about all of you, but I went to conference with some deep, thought provoking life questions that i had, and All of them were answered!! I love conference. We tried so hard to listen to it in english, but it just didnt work out... Elder Christofferson speaks Spanish better than the majority of the translators, if you were wondering. His accent is truly incredible.

Well The new apostoles were called! And my home-boy, Elder Renlund gave another GREAT talk!! He just keeps coming through in the clutch! I cant wait to hear him every 6 months for the next few years!!

If theres anything i learned its that you can know that an urge you have is from the Spirit if you feel it in your heart and in your mind. Both. At the same time. And that I definitely need to be more charitable. I have a lot to work on.

And Devin Durrant gave some awesome insight on memorizing scriptures! It was called meditizar in spanish, i dont know what he called it english, but i thought it was cool, and i need to start memorizing scriptures again.

Well, those are my thoughts. I hope they didnt bother you too much.

Me and Elder Diaz are doing great. A few days ago, we walked past a house and a car pulled in the driveway. we saw a hand pop out the window and wave us over. So we went. We sat down with this guy, his friend, and his wife. The guy that waved us over was WAY drunk. Out of his mind. His friend and his wife were fine. Not sure what happened there. Anyway, He started trying to speak to us in portugese, even though he doesnt speak portuguese, and then after about 2 minutes, his friend told us that we should probably leave. So we agreed, and stood up to leave.

And then the drunk guy got way angry and yelling at us. He grabbed my arm, and Elder Diazs arm, not wanting us to go. Elder Diaz got away, then the guy tried to run after him and grab him. Well, me, 6´3´ and 200 pounds versus a short not to mention very drunk paraguayan is not really a contest, and he didnt really go anywhere. I pretty much held him in place and pulled him back. Well, he eventually let go of my arm, and we drove away. He was very sad.

Thats my story.

Alll of our progressing investigators just moved in with their girlfriends, so thats a pretty solid sign of a spiritual blockage.

I hope you have a joyous day

elder christensen

ps well the computer refuses to download my gorgeous pictures... My sincerest apologies.

Week 55

Hello, world

Well, sorry, but not a whole lot has changed this week. Besides the fact that fanny got baptized and confirmed! The baptism was awesome and super awkward at the same time. They messed up the prayer like 5 times, and didnt go all the way under the water for 2 times, and it was kind of uncomfortable, but finally, everything ended up fine! Whew. It was awesome because its an awesome person who really understands everything she is doing and has 100 percent of a desire to change her life and to serve a mission, and to help others here. Yeah. She has an insane amount of knowledge.

I dont know if i told you, but last year, she was very active in the catholic church. In fact, she was the equivalent of the relief society president. She said that every week for 2 years, she gave a talk, and taught a class in church. What? haha she stopped because she moved here, and then never really had desires to go back to the catholic church, and then started researching other chruches online.... man. I cannot believe her story.

She kind of gave us a hard time about not talking to her earlier, haha

She said one of her favorite parts of being baptized is that now when people ask her what religion is she from, she can say ´´from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!´´ She's the best.

Well Elder Hutchison left. And I miss him. And Elder Diaz came. He's an insanely good missionary. I couldnt believe it. Its crazy to hear this guy teach. He will be very successful on his mission, and later in his life. Especially in the church. He lives 5 minutes away from the cordoba temple, and both of his parents and his sister are temple workers. But if hes telling the truth, Cordoba, Argentina is more advanced economically and socially than the US and the chruch is also stonger there than it is in Utah.

Hes got a bit of Argentine pride. But I have a lot of American Pride. So well make a great team.

I hope you read those last couple sentences with a light heart.

I love you all very much.

Elder Christensen

ps i would send you photos of fannys baptism, but this computer will not accept my camera.

Foto de la conferencia Argentina con Elder Viñas

Week 54

Will get baptized on tuesday! tomorrow!

we got changes. Elder Hutchison is leaving... im super sad. ill miss him. but he´ll still be in paraguay. We kind of figured hed be leaving. thats why we changed the date of the baptism to tuesday and not saturday, so that he could be there. i dont know if thats cheating.

well in other news, one of our investigators started reading the book of mormon very intently. like almost memorized every verse. and can barely read. he told us the story of up until lehis dream. so we knew that he serioulsly had been reading a lot. he told us that he started praying, too, and loves it. feels so good. he told us he has real desires to go to chruch and be baptized.

we were thinking ´´this kid is awesome!!´´ he was so sincere, and showed great desire. Well, the next week, we went back, and he hadnt come to chruch. we asked him about why he didnt come. And he told us that he couldnt come because he got baptized in the chruch next to his house! ah!! didnt see that coming! So we explained the restoration of the preisthood again, and he listened intently, and said that hed be willing to be baptized again. but... he didnt come to chruch this sunday.... i guess he changed his life, so thats good. he definitely repented of a lot of things and thats good... but we did not expect that our visits and his reading of the book of mormon would get him baptized into another church

more importantly, we played kickball again today. i was 5 for 5. with 3 doubles and a home run. I probably should have gotten a triple on one of the doubles i kicked, but i made a base running mistake. so i guess im out of my slump.

Elder crhistensen

ps oh!!! my new companion is elder diaz. hes argentino. from cordoba. like elder piriz.