week twenty two more or less.

To whom it may concern ( if anyone),

Wow the temple was a wonderful experience. It is just really wonderful to be able to be in a place where you can feel the spirit of  the Lord and forget about the rest of the world. Go to the temple.

Well our investigators are doing all right. We are just trying to figure out what we can do to help them progress. We are on the hunt for a Job for Luís still. We are not very experienced in that area but are not ruling anything out. We might make an announcement on the radio. We found a cool new investigator this week named Javier. We knocked on his door and as soon as he opened it he said " oh come in sit down" we were pretty sure he was an inactive member but it turns out he was a guy who had listened to the missionaries like fifteen years ago, but they had stopped visiting him. They knocked on his door more recently in the last few years and he told them to pass by but they never did. Now he is happy we are here.

This week we had a lunch appontment with a member but weren't sure how to get to their hose, so we stopped at another members house to get help. He told us to come in because he had something to show us. He walked over to his fridge and pulled out a frozen armadillo the size of a great big fat house cat with a bullet hole in its shell. The first thing I thought was " wow he had an armadillo in his fridge" The second thing I thought was "wow that reminds me of me"

We had a zone activity today and were playing soccer and I kicked a soccer ball into an hermanas face and she got slightly concussed and had to go to the hospital so I feel pretty bad about that.

Also I loaned my memory card to the zone leaders for a thing  and they are still trying to find it so no pictures this week.

Thanks,

Have a great week

Elder Christensen

week 21

Dear folks and friends,

We have had another excellent week. This week we fasted with Malaquìas to help him to feel the comfort and courage he needs from the Lord to take the step to be baptized. He was really excited about it and I think we will see some good results from that. We also have a new investigator called Laura. She was on the point of being baptized about a year ago and she is really interested in listening to us again. Our investigator Luìs Told us that he would be willing to quit his Job in order to be able to keep the sabbath day and be baptized, It is Just that he is fifty two and has done nothing but take care of race horses his whole life so he needs to be able two find a new job. That takes a mountain of faith. I don't really know what to do besides pray.

It got significantly cooler this week. I am excited for winter because it is more adventurous and I look good in winter clothes. We did a lot of walking this week, and because I had eaten a bunch of choclate it kind of destroyed my body. I decided that I need more protein in my life so i got some powdered milk. I realized that it is the same stuff they put on the outside of cheese puffs. I felt simutaneously proud of food science and engañared. I also put powdered milk into fresh milk. It was amazing, like milk flavored milk, double milk. I would recomend.

We are at a temple conference in Montevideo today. I am pretty excited because it has been 6 months since I went to the temple and I could use the spiritual revitilization.

Have a great week

Elder Christensen

Attachments are

week 20

Wow everybody I can't wait to tell you about some of our investigators.

One of them is this this guy named Malaquìas ( That's spanishyol for Malachai) His has been taking lessons from the missionaries for months now and has a super strong testimony of basically everything and has had a number of baptismal dates but they keep falling through because he wants his family to join him but they are not interested and that makes him feel lonely. He is kind of old and really smart and loves to learn things and talk all day about them. He reminds me a lot of Victor from back in Lomas.

We have this neighborhood outside of our regular area called Hippodromo because it has a hippodrome and the hermanas messed up and went proselyting there and found this guy named Luìs who was really excited to get baptized this saturdau and we have been teaching him. The problem is that he works taking care of horses for this guy and his boss threatend to fire him because he had been going to the church on sunday morning instead of to work, so we are not sure what to do about that. Suggestions are appreciated.

The sunday before last we had a fast with all of the members in the mission to be able to find the people write now who are prepared to be baptized and I think it is working. On thurday it was raining really hard, and we went to this future investigators house as a back up plan, and the lady named Eh del Vina, let us teach her and she said that she had been waiting for us to pass by and recognized that we were sent by God, and we taught her about prayer and the restoration, and she understood everything really well and liked it a lot and agreed to be baptized on April eighth. Crazy stuff.

I got my hair cut last week. First time in my life that I have ever gone to a barbist. He did a pretty good job but not as good as dad does it.

Today I complete 6 months. It is like I just got done with the first lap of the mile race. To celebrate we went to this little pueblo that is in the zone leaders area and right on the border of Brazil called Aceguà. We went to buy important supplies cheap, like brazilian choclate. I saw a lot of guachos. I would like to be a gaucho. And also learn portuguese.

I couldn't check the pictures today but I am pretty sure they are

1) Me in Brazil

2) Me and Elder Cortez taking an epic selfie

3) La Frontera

week 19ish

Good Morning Everbody!

Wow a lot of stuff has happened this week. I think I will just start from the beggining. I spent My last day or so in Lomas packing and saying goodbye to some folks. It was kind of sad to say good bye to Victor because I will probably never see him again, but he made us chileno completos to say good by. Let me tell you I used to never like hot dogs but they do them right in south america. In the morning a van picked me up to go to tres cruces bus terminal where got on a bus to Melo. It was pretty great because I got to sit on the top floor right in the front where there is a window to give a panoramic veiw of the countryside. Uruguay is so beuatiful I almost wanted to cry a few times. A lot of it looks just like kentucky. A lot of it looks nothing like Kentucky. I saw a number of ñandu on the way, which are like emu but not. I think they are the largest bird in the americas.

It turns out my new comp Elder Cortez is actually from Beni, Bolivia, so Elder Caudle was confused. We get a long really great, mostly because he is hard working and pretty funny and we think a lot a like. He has 13 months on the mission, so about halfway through. I like my new house as well. It has two stories and separate tables for studying and eating which is a nice change of pace. The only problems are that there are bedbugs in Elder Cortez's matress and also I am taller than most of the door frames so I keep hitting the top of my head on them. Our area, Colón is the most urban part of Melo, so we have the center and stuff. It is quite a change because there are actually a lot of stores, and food carts here and things like that. I have had some really good food. Lechón is great except for the foot and the little hairs. Uruguayo mexican food is actually less mexican than american mexican food, or even tex mex. It is fig season here, so I get to enjoy sweet of fig. It is divine with ice cream.

We have a number of investigators and people to teach. Folks here are more receptive so it is a nice change of pace. Two of our investigators have baptismal dates but we will see what happens.

The ward is also pretty good to us. There are about 100 active members, and 400 inactive members, and Melo isn't that big. We have some work to do. I got to present myself in church on sunday but it was kind of ugly because I need to talk more slowly and think about what I want to say. We also have a tomato garden in the little outside space behind our house.

Well thanks for listening and have a great week.

Elder Christensen

1) Me with my eyes closed, Elder Cortez, And brain damage waiting to happen

2) A horse

3) some campo

Week 18

Compatriot Human Persons,

Well I have now spent a full three changes in Lomas de Solymar and I am being transfered. I am going to the city of Melo to an area called Colón. Para que sepáis Melo is way out in the campo close to Brazil. It is pretty much the farthest away you can get from Montevideo in the mission, like an eight hour bus ride so I will probably get there late tomorrow night. I am going to be companions with this guy called Elder Cortez. Now you might be thinking "Wow he is finally going to get a Latino comp and learn spanish" but think again. Elder Caudle who was in the offices as a financier and knows everbodys account history says that his first name is Jason and he is from Americaland. There you go. He might be wrong though so we will see what happens.

We got a new investigator this week! It was just this woman we talked to in the street a few weeks ago named Judith. We passed by her house last week and she let us in to teach her. That was a huge surprise and relief. I feel good about that. We did an epic contact this week. We were just walking down the street when all of a sudden I saw the form of a large beautiful friendly red canine creature in somebody's yard. I thought " Could It be?" I walked over and patted its head. I realized that yes it was! I rang the door bell. A woman walked out. I said excuse me but your dog is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, and I adore Rhodesian Ridgebacks. She responded oh yeah they are the best dogs ever they are so friendly and kind and attractive. ANd I said yeah they are I totally need to find one when I get back to my country. By the way  have you ever talked to missionaries? Yeah but I don't believe in anything. I love this country.

We have spent the last couple of days going around saying goodbye to people. That is kind of sad, but lomas will be in good hands. Well I love you guys, have a great week.

Lagomorph of the week: Liebre

Quotable quote of the week: ¡EEh Che Vos Washington! Nos vemos.- Hermano Soba

1: Me enjoying the color yellow

2: Elder Caudle, like most people, not enjoying the campo as much as me

3: Me despediring myself with zone leaders Valqui and Mcmillan