week 51 ish

Hey everybody!

Well it has been a cool week this week. Elder Helske continues to make steady progress. Except that he likes Uruguyo junk food way to much. Every thursday and monday there is a churro cart in the far corner of our area, which really isn't that far becasue our area is tiny. But it means that every thursday and monday night we have to go and throw down 100 mangos on churros. Other than that the assitants to the president came over to do divisions in our area because Our district leader Elder espìnola asked them to because he is kind of broken with a herniated disk. SO I spent the day with Elder Hunt. We had this slightly drunk guy come up and talk to us and we taught him about how he is a child of God and how through the atonement he can be healed of his alcholism. So he through away the water bottle full of cheap wine in his hand. His name is Javier. He has forty six years of age. Just like my dad as of this week. Except he looks way older than my dad. Uruguay wouldn't be uruguay without large quantities of boxed wine. It has also been raining a ton the last few days. Rain is fun.

This is just what a month in Uruguay does to someone so don't judge.

I can't even remember what week it is so I am going to stop trying

Well I was seriously hoodwinked this week. There we were just sitting on the curb teaching nelson about the restoration, when Patricia, one of our investigators saw us and was like "hermanos come over here when you are done" So we went over and she asked us if we liked mortadela, and I didn't know what mortadela was so she sent her daughter to go get us some. She brought out two sandwiches that had some kind of lunch meet on them, and she told us it was made of horse. So I thought cool Ive never eaten a horse before. So I ate it. And it had a weird flavor. And I thought it must be what horse tastes like. Except Elder Helske said the horse flesh in finland is a lot stronger. So then the next day we were eating lunch with Presidente Viera. And I told him about it. And he said that Mortadela is traditionally made with horse meat. But it is illegal to sell horse meat here excpet for export to france. And that they just make it with a mixture of cow flesh and swine flesh. SO it would have been a cool story. But now it is Just a dissapointing story.

Also Elder Helske is having a problem. He has been struck with the new missionary alfahor addiction syndrome. I don't blame him because they are perfect, but now it is like every day, " Can we buy alfahors? Do you think we could get some alfahors before we go in for the night?  What do you think the best alfahor out of all these would be? It is okay though because he is dangerously underweight and can't eat much in one sitting. We did try deep frying alfahors in fat and it was good.

Other than that I have just got to say I am really glad to be on the mission. It's worth every sacrifice. So go on a mission if you didn't get the hint.

1) Refined fat. Just the thing for a rainy day

2) Playing uno with the zone

week two training

Oi genge,

Well It has been another absolutley fabulous week in the service of the Lord.  Elder Helske is making progress in his adjusment to a fully fledged mormon missionary. He has been pretty resfriado, so Hermana Eddy, President Eddy's wife told us to stay in the house all friday. We took advantage of the opportunity to catch up on some sleep. Well I did that. Elder Helske has actually been overcome by an incredible never before seen scripture marking mania. His sky blue colored pencil has turned into a stub in less than a week. He boxed in every single verse in genesis chapters one and two in orange. I am not actually sure how he does that so well given that he his slightly color blind. But if he can make sense of all of the confusing marks then its all right.

I realized that I am not really qualified to train a new missionary, so I have mostly been treating him like a regular companion that I just have to show how to do everything and hope that one way or another we can simultaneously survive and not destroy the area. I moslty have to do all of the contacitng and teaching, and talking in general by my self, but one night we were just teaching the familia Pereira  and talking a little about the expiaciòn and he heard me say dicha palabra and he got excited and whipped aout mosiah chapter fourteen and read it and taught it all by himself in really broken spanish, and he actually has really great ideas about what we can do for the area and the investigators so I am happy about the inititiative.

Other things that happend this week. We are getting into the rainy spring season, so it rained quite a bit this week. It was hard to keep my clothes dry, so I have been wearing certain clothing items for the past three days, but it is okay because the weather is cool. Actually all of the rain has made the air more humid than normal, and our floor is ceramic, so it was pretty soaked  and gross for a couple days.
Elder Helske has been teaching me about the finnnish concept of sisul, wich he basically described as the burning motivation shared by all finns to do things just because somebody said they couldn't, drive out the russians with only cocktail bombs, or be happy during the winter. I decided to share in the finnish spirit and commit myself to having a six pack by the end of his twelve week training period.

So see you in twelve.

Me and my comp

Week 13 Ferrocarril

Good afternoon everyone,

Well It happened. I am now training a brand new missionary. Early in the morning on saturday I traveled to the mission home in Carrasco where all twenty of the new trainers were fed a delicious breakfast casserole, and then given a capacitation from president Eddy. Then we all went and hid behind the temple to wait for the oros to line up facing away from us. I started shivering from being nervous which is just another of the weird things that have started happening to me on the mission. Then we went up and lined up behind them until they were told to turn around and meet us. And that is how I got my new companion which si different from how it normally happens. His name is Elder Mark Klint Helske. He is from Kemi, Finland, except that his mom is a gringa and he has lived in saint george Utah for the last few years which is how he ended up coming here. He is 18 years old and strait out of highschool. He used to have hair that was super long on the top but shaved on the sides. He likes motorcycles, welding, rugby, playing percussion in the marching band, and a lot of other things to. We actually get a long super well which is great, although it is awkward trying to switch back into english especially because elder vera is training a Peruano in the same house.

But I actually feel kind of bad for him because he is experiencing major culture shock, really misses his girlfreind, has zero spanish experience, and got a bad cold all while getting here, which were not things that I experienced. But we will make it through this.

RUnning out of time right now but you will be informed on more next week

1) Elder Helske sleeping in his chair during personal study time

2) a good shot of me.

Week Twelve Ferrocarril

Hello Everybody,

Well time has come for changes. That means that some things will be changing. On monday I got a call from president Eddy Who said, "Elder Christensen You are going to be training". So on wednesday I go to the mission home to pick up a brand new missionary, and will spend the next three months making sure he doesn't get lost or eaten by feral dogs. I am pretty excited because it is going to be fun. Then later we found out that I will be staying here to train and my causa Elder Tenazoa is being transfered to parque de plata. It is kind of weird that he was only here one change but that is okay. Other than that we are moving forward as normal. In the last few weeks we have had a really hard time finding new investigators or having lessons with people so I am going to have to think of some different methods to try out. I will let you all know what happens.

Jergas Peruanas: Causa, Chuchera, Pata, Broter= Homie. ¡Que Palta Loco! - What avocado, crazy person= That was a silly thing you did or said.

Have a great week

Elder Christensen

1) ¡Noche de Hogar!

2) A Macumba sacrifice in the local park. Umbanda, It kills chickens.

Week 11 ferrocarril

Queridos amigos,

Well it has been an excellent week here in Uruguay. Not because a lot of things super exciting happend, just because we're serving the Lord, being led by the spirit, and I enjoy being alive. That being said this week Andrès and Patricia who we started teaching the week I got here finally accepted a baptismal date for december 30th. But they have to decide that they want to get married first to fulfill with la ley de castidad. Most people in Uruguay don't ever get married because A) they don't see any reason for it B) It is really expensive and complicated to get married due to beuracracy C) It is even more complicated and expensive to get divorced. But whatcha gonna do. We also ran into an inactive member who sat near president Hinckley on a bus when he was here to dedicate the temple. We helped a different inactive member to put stucco on the brick room she is building for herself. I learned how to mix cement with a shovel on the street. I can now check that off of the long list of things that I don't know how to do but probably should.

Fun fact of the week. The English form of the spanish name Joaquìn is Jehoiachin. Ezekiel 1:2. I dare somebody to put that name to a child.

Lately we have been having really cold nights, and warm comfortable days. Maybe spring is coming early this year.

1) Elder Tenazoa's face. If you look closely you will notice that he has gold rimmed teeth. It was shocking the first time I saw it but now i don't notice.

2) I had a surprise reunion with Elder Filigrana today. He is currently serving in Lomas de Solymar, where I started and only has nine days of his mission left. He came to his old area in Melilla to say good by to people

3) ¡Football!!!!!!

Week Four change two ferrocarril

 Dear Gente,

This week was pretty normal. We taught one of our investigators named Juan Manuel about the plan of salvation. He was kind of concerned about the ghost of his suegro which he clames has been turning the automatic light on and off. I let Elder Tenazoa handle that one because he claims to have more experience with ghosts from living in the jungle where a lot of black magic and things happens. But who knows. 

That is pretty much all for right now. Have a good week,

Elder Christensen