Ferrocarril week one

Dear Folks,

Wow I just have to say that the Lord really does bless his servants. With epic miraculous ocurrences.

But to start from the beggining. I got to my new area on wednesday and I am loving it. It is just a really normal suburb outside of Montevideo. There are houses and parks and things like that. My new compaion Elder Diaz is super cool. He is from Otorbalda Ecuador and has been in Uruguay for eleven months. He likes to drink yerba mate and go mountain biking.

The members of the ward here are really cool and I appreciate that, because they care about missionary work and help us out a lot. Especially this guy named José María who is a convert of a few years and currently the elders quorum president. he let us help him cut branches off of this giant alamo tree and then made us an asasdo.

As far as investigators there havn't really been missionaries who have done much work here in a while so we have been working really hard talking to tons of people. So far we are teaching this guy named pablo who is the son of one of the members here. He has been in and out of prison and drugs and things but wants to change his life and be forgiven by God so he is progressing.

We found another investigator named María nazaret. We were Just Knocking doors my first day and she came out and was excited to see us so we set up an appointment and went back friday. Basiccally she is a young Mother who wants to know about the Book of Mormon because she wants to have more truth in her life. So we taught the restoration. 

Now here is the really crazy part. One day we talked to this guy named Juan Manuel with an excellent beard outside of his house. We told him we were missionaries, he said to come by the next day at five. That was it. So we went by and nobody was there. Then yesterday happened. It was cold and rainy and nobody was out or opening their doors. We stopped at his house but nobody came out. Then we were just walking down the street and all of the sudden this car pulled over right next  to us and rolled down the window and it was Juan! He said do you remember me? let me turn around and park. So  he did and got out, and said that he was sorry he hadn´t been there when he said he would but that he saw as and wanted to hear what we had to tell him. SO we taught him right there in the rain, and are going back this week. If you were ever a missionary you understand how amazing that was.

Other than that is has started to get pretty cold here. And the thing is that even when the tempurature isn't that cold it still hurts because of the humidity. I went out one day with a coat and gloves for the first time, and we stopped to talk to a guy and I started shivering and almost passed out. So life is good.

1 Me and Elder Diaz

2 Elder Teixeira and Elder Castillo who we share the house with

3 The railroad that gives this neighborhood its name

 Boina

Bombachas

Silk pañuelo

Epic riding poncho

week six change five

Dear family and freinds,

Well today I am writing on Tuesday which means that today is- bom bom da bom dadadadadadad BOM da DAAAAA!- Cambios! Well this is the news. After twelve escellent and exciting weeks in the beautiful city of Melo I am being transfered to a neighborhood called Ferrocarril on the outskirts of Montevideo. I am going to be companions with Elder Diaz from Ecuador. I am pretty excited about that because he is my friend from back in La Costa. It will be fun. Taking my place her in Colón will be Elder Roquemore. He is siz and a half feet tall, three and a half feet wide and very soft spoken.

But Other than that life is good. Elder Filigrana kept being sick in the beggining of the week, but I did an intercambio with elder Ward which was great to get out of the house and not have the responsibility of working in your own area. While on the intercambio we ran into a scorpion in the road. It was two and a half inches long and fat and black. I touched it with the Book of Mormon and it got mad at me.

 On Thursday we had a conference in Carrasco with Elder Packer of the quorom of the seventy and half of the mission. It was good. The theme whcih I took away from that was the need to do things which would increase the influence of the Holy SPirit in every moment of the day.

In the last part of the week we were able to leave a bit and visit some people and we experienced a milagrito. We were talking to Malaquías and his wife Ana sat down and started talking with us and listening to us! We had a good conversation about the plan of salvation and she shared her testimony about how God has blessed and supported her in her life. I getting a little choked up just thinking about it. At the end Malaquías closed the lesson with a prayer thanking God that she had decided to join us. cool stuff.

Other than that Malaquías hosted a goodbye porotada for me. It included pigs feet. I am really going to miss all of these cool people that I probably won't see again. But that is what the resurrection and temples are for.

See y'all around,

Elder Christensen

1) Malaquías, Ana, and nieta Romina

2) Javier

3) The Fernandez family and the zone leaders

4- A horse

5- The cat that lives in the cyber café that once bit me.

Week 5 or 4 or something of change 5

Dear Subscribers,

Well this week has been substantially bizare. I can't remember how to spell bizzare but I guess it isn't that Important. On Monday we went and taught our investigator Ramón. He is a 70 something old guacho with a bad back that looks likes he is in his 50's and is ridiculously muscular. His first bisnieto was born a coup´le of weeks ago and his family is really important to him. On tuesday we taught Malaquías. We were surprised to find that after all this time as really interested investigator he doesn't have a good understanding of the premortal existence or the resurecction, or really very much of God's plan for the eternal progression and development of our soul. We also had a ward council with just the bishop his first counselor, and Gustavo Ferández, the young mens leader. On Wednesday Elder Filigrana came down with a strange flu like ilness and he isn't getting better so we have been stuck in the house since then. SO far I have done a lot of cleaning, finished the book of genesis and got a ways through exodus, memorized the books of the old testament in spanish, and watched Ephraims rescue twice.

Wednesday was the one year aniversary of the day That Elder Filigrana's girlfreind back home dumped him, so we were going to celebrate with the traditional toddy's choclate chip cookies and milk. We searched diligently and found not even one bag of milk in the whole city ( or at least around our house) it turns out there was a strike at the local coleme milk packaging plant. I think it was the first time in my life that I have been seriously negativley affected by a workers union.

On thursday we had a zone conference and interviews with president Eddy. He has a master plan for how to maximize souls brought unto Christ that involves a lot of hard work and personal revelation. I have a theory that he shaves his head because being bald makes you more receptive to inspiration from the spirit, but I am not sure how to apply the scientific method to that.

On sunday an hermana in our ward gave us a box of asado to go for lunch. It included two long thick pieces of roasted cow intestine. I told Elder Filigrana that he could have it. He didn't want it because colombians don't eat things like that.

Also I got to skype my family for mother's day. I cried more this time than on christmas so that was pretty great. I am grateful to have what is in my opinion the best mother in the world. Thanks Mom.

Signing out,

Elder Christensen

Dear Everybody,

Well I missed last week because it was like labor day here and all of the cyber cafes were closed so we had to track down keys to the family history center and there wasn't much time. Other than that we have just been preaching teaching and living life. We found two new investigators yesterday call Maria and Eloí. I have high hopes for them. It is starting to get very cold some days

Well have a good week

Elder Christensen

1 The Bishop singing karaoke in the ward porotada

2 The ward porotada

3 Elder Filigrana is an hinch of Peñarol like me