The Last E-mail

Hey Everybody!

Well This is going to be my last week in the mission field. I have today tomorrow and wednesday to proselyte, so I have to take full advantage, and then on thursday I go to Montevideo to go through the temple in castellano one more time and have a conmoving noche de hogar with President and Hermana Eddy. Wow writing that suddenly made me feel incredibly Meloncholy. It is definitley going to be a tear fest in the airport on friday night.

I have to say that I really love missionary work, Because I have really come to love so many things as a missionary. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and feel like I have come to develop a personal relationship with and am grateful for everything he has done for me. I love the doctrine of the gospel and its beauty and perfection, and I love new convets becuasue they are such special people. I love President Mark Eddy and his family because he is one of my biggest male role models after My dad My grandpas and prophet Nelson. I love Uruguay and Its wonderful people. I feel so sad because I feel like a part of my heart is going to have to break off and stay here with them, but I guess that is okay because they have made it a lot bigger and a lot fuller. I love all of my mission companions and comrades and feel like I have made life long friends even though they live all over the americas and europe. And I have come to love the Holy scriptures especially The Book of Mormon and the New Testament.

Well I would like to thank everyone for giving me so much support and for suffering through my Emails. You guys are great. Well on Saturday at 11:24 a.m. I will finally step foot on the greatest of all of the earths regional political units and hug my family. They are the best. I gave the best sacrament meeting talk of my life yesterday so this sunday I will have to try to top it. Love you guys.

P.s. Funny story so I really havn't collected many souveneirs but I have always wanted a Peñarol flag and have never been able to find one. So as I was rounding the corner to come and write I saw a store that was selling a Peñarol flag. I was expecting it to be at leat three or four hundred pesitos but it only cost two hundred mangos. So now I can represent the biggest athletic club on earth.

1) Me in front of La Cucha. This is really funny if you ever served a mission in Uruguay

It only takes three minutes and forty seconds to read fist nefi 1

Hey everybody,

We did a lot of looking this week, and it resulted in a lot of finding. I won't go into to much detail about anyone because we are not really sure what is going to happen with them yet. Also we saw some people fill a horse cart with dirt, but it got stuck in a ditch and the horse could not get out, so we got behind and pushed and the horse got unstuck. Probably something that will never happen to me again.

Anyway preaching the gospel is great.

Love,

Elder Christensen

Hi

Hi,

Well Changes came around. Below is a picture of my new companion Elder Samuel Grajeda. He is from Dallas. He always introduces himself to people as " Soy mexicano pero vivo in tejas" But I think that is a lie because he is more american than apple pie ( a dearly missed and well beloved american delicacy) he has 18 months in the mission field and likes to play trumpet and listen to religious discourses.

anyway We have had an interesting week. It got really cold again this week. We had to drop most of our investigators and are now looking for new ones, but we have this one girl named Elena who will probably get baptized in a couple of weeks. Also Elder Córdovas new comp is a short term missionary from Aeroparque in Montevideo named Carlos Zapata. I guess there were an odd number of missionaries in the mission so the assistants just called him up and said " HEy y'all want to me a missiary for six weeks?" And he was like " Ta, dale, I don't have a better way to spend my time". But it is great because I love hanging out with uruguayos.

Well keep it real.

Love Elder Christensen

 1) A funny picture Elder Lockhart sent Elder Helske before he died

2) Carlos

Changes

Well Changes rolled around again. Elder Hilton went on sunday to whitewash Las Piedras and Elder Helskes comp went to be mission Secretary( second time that has happend to him). So I am just cruising around Durazno with Elder Mark Klint Helske teaching faith and repentance. It is a ton of fun. My New and final companion will get here tommorrow. His Name is Elder Grajeda, and I think he is from Texas.

Well make sure to keep the commandments.

Love Elder Christensen

 1) Hopping on a train

2)Nalder and Helske

3) Elder Córdova made seviche

Hi

Hi everbody.

We here are all super sad about Uruguay staying outside of the world cup. Its because Cavani didn't play.

But that isn't the important part the important part is preaching the gospel. We have had an amazing week this week. President Eddy came throught town and gave an inspiring conference and ever since then things have been flying. We are finding a ton of investigators from good references and things and have been teaching a lot of lessons. Some of our main investigators are Antonella, the pareja of a less active member, María also the pareja of a less active member, Elida and silvina, the freinds of a recent convert, Florencia, the neice of a recent convert, Gabriela who's husband was a member of the church but recently passed away, and the other maría, also recently widowed, who is the freind of a recent convert and his recently reactivated mom. So what is the moral of this story? If you are a member of the church have references and go with the missionaries to teach them. It works.

I am not going to send any pictures today because we have been spending the day in paso de los toros, and the cíber is really slow. But It is the coolest city I have been in yet.

Love Elder Christensen

Hi

Hi Everbody,

Well we had a crazy week. First of all Tabárez got baptized this week, he got his act together stopped drinking and smoking and on monday night told us that he was ready so we spent all week getting him prepared. He is really happy. He decided to join the church because he has seen huge changes in the lives of some of his closest freinds ever since the got baptized a few weeks ago and even though he struggles to read because his vision is bad he has gained a great testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. He is fifty and works as a city garbage collector and likes to make silly jokes.

We did a lot of traveling this week. We visited three diferent cities in our zone in three days and it has killed our proselyting time. On friday we were in a town called Sarandí del Yi for a thing. We were there when URUGUAY BEAT PORTUGAL  2- 0! It was probably the most commotion that place has seen in years. We were walking down one of the main streets when they won and I am pretty sure that everybody who owns a car in that place made a caravan and were honking their horns and waiving their flags behind them. Now we just have to beat Francia this friday at 11.

So yeah, Love you guys! Have a great week.

Elder Christensen

1) Brother Heber Daniel Tabárez with his freinds Cecilia, Claudia, and Milagros the day of his baptism.

2) A chill perro

3) Sarandí del Yi

1-0

Hey everbody,

first of all

Uruguay 1, Arabia Saudita 0

And according to the commotion outside we just beat Rusia 2-0. Now España is going to get what's coming them. Or maybe Portugal depending on how their games go.

But anywho it was an interesting week this week. We are teaching this cool investgator named Tabárez who is medio gaucho. He used to be in the uruguayan cavalry and did peace missions in the congo. He has a strong testimony of the book of mormon because even though he barley sees well enough to read he has some close freinds who just got baptized and it has made an enourmaous difference in their lives. And he feels the spirit very strongly when he goes to church and things. So we will see what happens.

Had another fun experience last night. It was 8:30 last night and we were almost as far away from the house as we could get when we see this really sketchy looking guy stop in the street and look back at us. Then we catch up to him and he says " wow good thing I ran into you guys". And then he just breaks down and starts sobbing and telling his whole life story about how he is a drug addict and that he was on drugs right then and  how his señora is alcoholic and that they always fight and that he tries to work hard and do things right but that nothing ever goes well for him. So then he walked with like twenty minutes with us down some unlit back roads and calmed down alot. I was pretty tense the whole time but Elder Hilton was pretty tranquil. Anyway he wants us to come teach him so we will see what we can do.

Have a good week.

Elder Christensen