Week 14

Good morning everyone,

It has been quite a week this week. It started out kind of slow and discouraging. Nothing was really happening. We went out one morning with the intention to talk to as many people as we could and it rained on us and nobody wanted anything. But then this Friday after zone conference I had a feel ing like we should go by this guy named Juan whou said to come by that day. Now this is someone whou I  had known since my first week and he was always too busy to do more than say hi, so I was going over there with the intention of chastizing him a little bit for always telling us to come by and never letting us in. But you know what, we got there and he stopped working and had us sit down and we had a great discussion about his life and the Gospel and it turns out he was super prepared and agrees that our message is true. After the trial of your faith, right? That same day we went to this family we have been visiting, and I have had the foal of moving them up to the level of more serious investigators, and they agreed to eventually be baptized and let us help them stop smoking. Two of them were even able to attend a meeting at church. Here I was thinking that everybody in Lomas who might accept the Gospel had already been found, but we are seeing some miracles and I know there have got to be more people out there bing prepared. My favorite contact this week happened yesterday. We were walkin past this house we always see and then I saq that they had chickens with no feathers on their necks in the yard. So I went and talked to the guy there and he was really friendly and let me hold on and offered to let me take a baby one before I left, which I strongly considered, but decided the logistics wouldn't work out. Also there have been some changes that make it so we have more control over our daily schedule, which will make it interesting, Although there weren't any crazy changes here like might happen in some other places.

Also I was talking to our recent convert patricia, and she was like, wow you have gotten skinny, when I met you you were super gordito! I only met her a month ago. I am going to have to punch a new hole in my belt soon:)

Qoute of the week: No seas trucho- Asistant to the president, Elder Richmond

This is a photo of some nice trees and dirt.

Attachments area

week 13

Hey everybody,

Well it has been quite a week. I got my new comp Elder Caudle this week. We get a long really well and he is a good missionary. He has 18 months on the mission, but for some reason every one in his group goes home in four. This week was actually the most difficult for me so far because of the transfer of responsibilty to me, and I am not the kind of person that is the best at planning, but I have done a ton of growth this week as well, with the language and everything else. As far as stuff that has happened this week, There are these horses that just hang out in my neighborhood in a junk pile, and I saw the guy that owns them out with them, so we went over and had a good chat, and we sat on some piles of concrete and taught the restoration. It was pretty cool. Also we found a house that has a whale skull just hanging out in front of it. Crazy stuff. I think we are going to get good work done here. I just want to say that I know that this is the Lord's work because I feel closer to the spirit than I ever have before in my life. Now have yourselves all a great week.

Élder Christensen

1: Elder Caudle

week 12 finally

Hola gente,

First of all on wednesday I am done with training! I am going to stop being an oro and start being a real missionary! i am super excited, although now i fi do anything wrong it is my fault and not my trainer's. By the way we our changes. Elder Lockhart is going over to be district leader in Rocha in a branch called Uno A. He is super excited because he is going to live in a six Elder house with all of his "homies". It is going to be super fun for him. So here is what's happening to me. I am staying in Lomas ( de Solymar) and a guy named Elder Caudle is coming to be my comp and the new district leader. All I really know about him is that he has been the mission financier for a while and he likes to wear a scarf. I was actually super surprised that I am getting another gringo comp, like " how am I ever going to learn spanish?¿?¿?¿" But I realizedd it's what the Lord wants so it is cool.

We also had two baptisms this past saturday. The first was a woman named Patricia. She was an investigator of Elder Lockhart and Elder Bravo three changes ago, and then she went to Rio de Jainero for a couple months. Well she came back and we went to visit her and she said " I had a baptismal date didn't I? so just over the course of the past few weeks she gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the  Book of Mormon and converted herself. It is a beautiful thing. THe second was a guy named Michel and he was a total surprise. He is the husband  of a woman in our ward named Natalia and he was completely atheist but he would always walk Natalia to church because she is blind. Well we got a call from Natalia last tuesday and she said " hey Michel wants to get baptized" and we were like what? So we went over there and we asked Michel why he wanted to get baptized, and he said he realized that the fact that his daughter was born completely healthy is a miracle and a blessing and he wants to get sealed in the temple with his family. So we were like " cool, well you can get baptized this saturday if you want" and he was like " yeah ok" so we went over every day to get all the required lessons taught, and it worked because he already knew everything. Busy week.

One day I realized that my hair was too long. Elder Lockhart had cut the sides before a couple of time and did a really good job, so i asked him if he could take about a third off of the top and he said " oh yeah sure of course." So I sit down and the he just starts going at it with the clippers and i was like "Este..." and then he was like " oh hey I think I cut it a bit too short, but I mean you have too get at least a few bad hair cuts on the mission, and i mean it doesn't really look too bad" and I was like "Este...". But it is growing out pretty fast so all is good.

Quotable quote of the week: ¡No soy Vos¡ Yo soy Usted. -Victor

Verb of the week: Lloviznar

Marine mammal of the week: Marsopa

1:Us and Michel

 2: Us, Elder Bravo, and Patricia

3: The 'Strict

4: Me and Super Griddo

5: Another one of those birds

Week 11 I think.

Hi peoples,

Well we have had another great week here. Elder Lockhart is super sure that he is getting transfered next week, but this also means that this is my last week as an oro, which they call those of us in training, because we are still bright and shiny. This week we contacted some interesting people, including but not neceserally limited to a man dressed as a woman, and a German who doesn't speak spanish very well, but is here for the slow life and a stable South American government. I am worried because we need to find some new good investigators, but I am confident it is going to happen. Also I saw my first strange wildlife this week! There are a lot of wierd birds here and a ton of hilarious toads that hop around everywhere, but one day I was walking down a dirt backroad and I looked down a side street and I saw what looked like the backside of a guinea pig. It darted into the marshy brush, and I ran over there and saw it again for a second before it was gone. I will probably catch one someday and take a picture. Sorry that the emails have been shorter lately but I need more time. I will work on it. Have yourselves a great week,

Elder Christensen,

1: Sandía-watermelon

2: Sandíar- to eat a whole watermelon by yourself the night after a fast sunday.

3: Mission accomlished

This is a wierd waterbird that is everywhere here. No Idea what its called.

Week 10

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Hey everbody, so I guess my first black year has started, which is to say one complete year of missionary service. New years was pretty great. We spent the evening with one of our investigators, and then later in the night the zone leaders came over to hang out at our house.We all got onto the roof again and ended up sleeping there, but Elder Valqui had a hard time pulling himself up and he ended up kicking in and breaking the entire window and window seal of the unused portion of house attached to ours. It was okay though. Everyone was telling us that the fireworks would be bigger on new years eve but they actually ended up being less. I have also finally learned my lessen that the yerba should never ever be consumed after breakfast time. I think I only got two hours of sleep that night.

We got asked to give talks in church this past sunday. Elder Lockhart's was about setting goals in regards to preaching the Gospel, and mine was about the urgency of the work. It was super short and really bad, but we had low attendance from the festivities so that is all right.

Well I am pretty excited to see what has happend in a year from now, so I guess I will see you then.

Best of regards,

Élder Christensen

Christmas Eve dinner with Victor and Luisa