Week 62

Well if you want to know how the zone is, look up ``hindenburg blimp`` on YouTube, and any of those videos will give to a good picture.

Yes, i Am in Natalio 10 right now. the branch of Carlos Antonio Lopez. If you speak Paraguayan slang, I am not found here in Natalio. Ill probably be here for a few more days. Ive been working with Elder Andrascik from Syracuse since thursday. Were having a blast. Hes still in his training, so im now considering myself his trainer.

well, the most exciting thing that happened this week was that I got to do divisions in Carlos Antonio Lopez!! Where I started the mission more than one year ago! So exciting! We went to visit a couple of new investigators that the elders had found, and they were some of the same people that I had taught before! It was very funny. The town is very very small. Theres not a lot of new people to find haha

The members are all still great. A couple more people got baptized, but the church attendence is pretty much the same as when i was there last year. Being there brought back so many good memories that i have with Elder Acevedo. I really enjoyed my time there. It was a great day. I took a couple more cool photos during the bus ride. Ill try and send them.

In the past couple weeks, ive been studying the Articulos de faith. And i just try and think of every scripture story and scripture that i can that supports our beliefs. And guess what? The Church is true!

Its actually one of the coolest things ive studied so far, and its awesome.

Have a nice day

Elder Christensen

[Pictures Needed]

Week 61

Sorry that im typing a little slower today. Some bug a couple days ago bit me on my right middle finger, and it swelled up like a balloon, and hurts like the dickens.

I will be home in less than 9 months. If someone gets pregnant today, I will be home for the birth!

Yes, it happened! I went on divisions with the èlder Robert Paul Baskin. It was a blast. He doesnt manage his sector very well, and still doesnt know how to speak spanish, but he sure is trying!

Just kidding, hes doing great! We had a blast going on visits with this one member, and then we went contacting. It was probably one of the best days of my mission. Behind the first day that me and Elder Hutchison met FAnny. Anyway, going on divisions with Paul really made me realize that Utah is awesome, and that I love my family and friends. I had never realized that before. Just kidding. I had always knew it, but being with him rekindled the flame. Well... kindled the burning forest fire thats there.

Thanks for being so awesome, gang!

The missions going great! The zone is a bit of a black hole if you want to be obedient, but whos counting?! Elder BAlcaza is awesome. We really get along very well, and he likes to work.

The 9 year old girl who were working with will be baptized on 2 december, so thats awesome.

We just had a multizone conference yesterday, and because of that, im writing to you folks today. The conference was AWESOME! I love listening to Presidente Talk. And the other missionaries. I just love feeling the Spirit, and I love learning from other people. We talked about a lot of missionary stuff. Mostly having a higher quality of teaching. 50% of the mission has less than 6 months in the mission, so its just a lack of experience that were trying to make up for. Its really weird that im one of the most experienced in the mission.

During the conference, they were trying to get us psyched to do exercises in the morning, so they had 2 elders to a pushup contest. And i was selected... crap. It was technically a tie, but im pretty sure that I lost. I did probably 50, and Elder Eddenfield probably did 60. But it was timed, and we were going both for the same amount of time, but he was going faster. So that was fun.

There have been like 3 people who have told me that the US congress declared the 3rd world war. Im pretty sure that its a lie.

I love you all.

Elder Emil

[Picture Needed]

Week 60

By the authority of the Preisthood of Melquisedec that i hold, this week i gave a child a name and a blessing.

Im not kidding. I was sitting there in gospel doctrine class yesterday, and a recent mother walked in, and handed me a piece of paper. It was a certificate of a baby blessing. Then she left. I was very confused. Right before the sacrament meeting started, i asked our branch president why i had this paper. He told me ´´so you can memorize her full name.´´ What? why do i need to know this babys full name? ´´because the parents want you to bless her.´´

well, so i had about 10 minutes to pray and pray and pray and prepare myself and pray some more. Before the meeting started,  i asked both of the parents if they REALLY wanted me to bless their baby. The father, Daniel, was baptized 2 months ago. He asked me to baptize him. And i did. And now, he told me that he doesnt want to wait a nother few months to get the melquisedec preisthood, he wanted me to bless and name his baby that day.

Well i couldnt really say no. I was pretty calm. I was super happy that the missionary handbook has what needs to be siad in a baby blessing. halelujah.

I blessed her, and it was a pretty awesome experience. Its not that i felt unprepared, but i felt super immature to be doing that sort of thing. I would have never guessed that i would have done something like this on the mission. But i was very happy to have the experience.

So... yes. I cant really remember if anything else happened this week. Changes came. Im going to Encarnacion with Elder Balcaza. Hes from Buenos Aires.

Paul Baskin is my District leader. So im pretty stoked about that.

And also, Carlos Antonio Lopez is in my zone, so i will SI o SI be going back to visit.

The mission blesses you in ways that i never thought were possible!!

Elder Christensen

teaching fanny. she lives so far away.

roberto and alfredo

Daniel is on the left. His wife and baby had to leave early... i couldnt get a picture..

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.