Hi,

Well I am happy to report that we have survived Christmas. Now we are preparing ourselves for new years. Christmas was really great. We spent Christmas eve with a family in our ward and a bunch other people that they had invited and they gave us the best asado of my whole mission. Then we got to stay up to watch the fire works. There were a lot of fire works. We were on our roof and some guy started shooting fireworks in the plaza in front of where we live and they shot right over us  so that we could feel the rubble landing on us. So that was fun. And a lot of other stuff has happened. It was just a super spiritual uplifting week. Also changes happened the other week so we have two new people in the office. They are Elder Araújo From Joao Pessoa, Brasil, And Elder Holland from North Carolina. But also Utah as well. 

So happy New year and I will see you next week.

1: Elder Araújo

2: Elder Holland

3: Preparing an excellent asado with the Palavé family

La Navidad

Hey everybody,

Well we are getting really excited for the Navidad here. At least I am. And also everybody I live with. And also the assistants who I don't live with. And the shopping malls. And I think most of the missionaries as well. This week was pretty cool. First off we got the oros this week. I love receiving the new missionaries and seeing what their first reactions are. It is great. You would think that they would have researched more about Uruguay but usually they haven't. For example they are often surprised about the way people here look. Like one of the missionaries this time was really surprised that the guy doing his medical exam was a ginger, but there are a lot of gingers here in Montevideo. And they always have a lot of funny questions.

We also had the mission Christmas conferences this week. There were two with half of the mission at a time. Us oficinistas prepared an accapella  rendition of silent night and it turned out really well. 

And we taught a bunch of investigators as well.

In order to not feel sad about being away from home on Christmas here is a list of things I am grateful for about Uruguay.

1 Uruguayos

2 Yerba Mate

3 Guachos and their epic clothing

4 Asado

5 Besitos

6 Dulce de Leche

7 The beautiful landscape

8 The weird accent

9 Being super tranquilo

10 The fact that a nice date can consist of sitting in a plaza, drinking mate, eating a few biscochos, and maybe kissing a little bit with no more than a hundred pesitos spent.

11 The birds

12 The fact that all conversations end up going for the branches

13 La Noche de Nostalgia

14 Salus

15 Alfajores

16 That you can say Adios mijo, and it means hello

Good now I feel less homesick.

So it is Christmas time and that means that we should talk about Jesus. I had a spiritual breakthrough this week. We were in the Christmas conference and President Eddy made somethings clear to me that I hadn't Understood before. I used to think that when Christ said that " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of the my brethren ye have done it unto me it was because when we do nice things He approves and when we do bad things He disapproves. But then I realized that when we alleviate somebodies suffering or that when we avoid sin it has a direct affect on Christs atonement. The atonement wasn't something that happened and ya está, it is something that is eternal and always present. When we do something to someone else we are literally doing it to him. It is mind blowing to think about. So this Christmas season let us resolve to be more like the Savior and not stop in our spiritual development.

I love you guys, Have a very excellent Christmas.

Un Beso,

Elder Christensen.

Oh and also I started driving a little bit this week. I thought it would be weird but it ended up feeling very normal.

1) A tender reunion with old companions

2) Manzy getting something from the van

3) A nice church

Change week

Hey y'all whats up,

So this was a super full week and tons of stuff happened that I could write about but i will just mention a few highlights. First of all I just want to say that even though we don't always have a ton of time to go out and proselyte the Lord blesses the time we do have. So last weekend we went out and we found this new couple to teach named Gladys and Ruben and just let me tell you they are some of the best investigators ever. Over the course of the week we had several charlas with them including in the chapel and they came all dressed up and are super excited to come to church this tomorrow.

Also we decided to go into El Cante del Medio, which is this part of our area that we had never been before and we found this guy named fabian who lives in a black can and is very addicted to tobacco. We taught him some stuff in the front of his van while smoke from a pile of burning trash blew in and a bunch of little kids piled in to the back of the van to listen  to us. It was awesome. We set a goal for him to not smoke at all during our next lesson becasue he literally can't go five seconds without lighting a cigarrette. Then after our lesson he gave us a reference to a family called Vique that lives down the street. So we went over there and it turns out that they have 14 children and we taught a bunch of them and they all want to get baptized. The only problem is that the visiting days for the two oldest children in prison are on sunday so it makes it hard for the parents to come to church with us.

Also there is a church travel black out during the week of Christmas because travel is so expensive so changes are weird this time around. We already sent the valientes home on friday a week early. So on thursday we were in the offices getting everything ready and I got a call from one of our investigators named María. She and her husband Alberto are just a super cute little old couple that love having us over. So asks " ¿Dónde andan ustedes? and I was like " Estamos acá en la capilla." And she said "Bueno, vengan que les hice una torta de naranja". We went over after the baptismal interview for the financiers and ate the very best cake I have ever had in uruguay (Cake isn't very good here. Don't tell anyone I said that.") and taught about the importance of sabath day worship. It was beautiful.

Talk to you maybe on Christmas or maybe some other time,

Elder Christensen

1) Merry Christmas

2) I look awkward in this one

3) Eating the leftovers from the valiente dinner

Yup

Hey Everybody,

Well I can't really remember much of what happened this week, because it all seems like a blur. Here are some highlights. I administered English tests to the Latino missionaries who are leaving this week and want to get certified. We had interviews with President Eddy that ended up taking most of the day and were followed by very short two hour intercambios with the zone leaders. We got the report back from the church on baptisms and confirmations for the month of December and their were some really weird discrepancies between their records and ours, because they included some people as having been baptized that weren't and we have no Idea why so we are trying to get that figured out. Also one of the girlfriends of one of the missionaries sent him an enormous package through DHL and whenever that happens we have to go get it out of customs which took two hours and they opened it up and it was just full of candy and children's toys and gift wrap. And all of the other people in line were chuckling. We felt slightly embarrassed. So please don't send packages to your missionaries through DHL or Fedex.

And yeah there was just a bunch of stuff preventing us from working in our area this week which was super frustrating, but I am sure that next week will be better.

Also I think my brother Seth has a birthday this week so if you see him please say Happy birthday at him.

Scripture of the week- Mormón 9: 27-28

Fotos

1: Getting Christmas packages from the area offices

2: Our minds were blown by this sign

3: Chivitos Uruguayos

Hi

Opa,

Well it has been quite a long time since the last pday we had and everybody in the offices was getting pretty stressed out and desperate, and we also ran out of food in the house because it has been a while since we last went shopping, but I have still managed to gain a lot of wait. Speaking of that I have been able to go running for like the first time in my mission, which is really great. I switch off every morning with Manzanares and Newman, and we get to run down to the Rambla and see the Ocean which is nice. It has been a Year and a half since I last went running and my body is pretty much basura, but my lungs are still in better condition than either of thiers, so thank you cross country coaches.

So Yeah we had thanks giving dinner at the Eddy home and it was super great because their was pie but it had nada que ver with Greg Christensen pie, although I am still greatfull so don't worry.

And yeah we have had a ton of success in our area the last weekishness and we found a family who was taught by the missionaries over six months ago and are now prepared and dead set ont getting themselves baptized so we are really excited for them, and Our Investigator Carolina is making a lot of progress and really seeing the effects of the spirit in he life, although her boyfreinds, husband we're not sure whats veiwing days have been on sundays the last couple of weeks so she hasn't been able to come to church.

Also one of my investigators back in ferrocarril named Yanaina got baptized last sunday so we got to go becuase she was actually one of Elder Manzanres investigators too because he was trained their many months ago. Anyway she this sweet girl who was finally able to get baptized because she moved in full time with her dad and his wife. So her dad is this cool guy who is a convert of a couple years and he baptized her, and it was definitley the most spiritual baptism I have ever been to. Afterwards she bore her testimony about how after being baptized she felt super light like all of her sins had been lifted away. I saw Elder Helske. He is doing great. He is with Elder Souza who Elder Newman actually trained and they are taking great care of the area.

So Fun story. I don't know if you guys have heard about this Christmas service program called Ilumina el Mundo where you do something serviceable every day of the month, but the mission is getting all of the missionaries to do big multiperson service activities, and they had T shirts made for it. So the T shirt people were slow and didn't get them done until yesterday morning which was the same day we needed them, so Yesterday we spent the whole day with the assistants driving out to the zones close to Montevideo to deliver them. So we had gone out to the city of Las Piedras (The Stones!) And we were driving back and were in the middle of nowhere going pretty fast when all of a sudden Elder Mecham drives the front right wheel over an enourmous pothole. And then It started making funny noises so we stopped and discovered that we had a flat and were out in the wilderness alone. So we decided we needed to find some help and started pulling away when (and I am really proud of this) I said "Wait! before we destroy the rim lets see if there is a spare in the trunk." So we looked and lo and behold a spare with all of the tools to change it. So we jacked up the car and changed the tire, and Elder Manzanares almost got his arm broken off because Elder Mecham forgot to turn on the parking brake, and it was a lot of fun. So I don't remember if it was Brother Gosnell, Brother Brady, Brother Taylor-Jones, or Brother Haus or who that taught me how to change a tire in that one youth activity, but whoever it was thank you.

See y'all next week,

Elder Christensen

1)Yanaina and Andrés. No Idea who the little girl is.

 2) The great and spacious building ( a casino on the beach in carrasco).

3) A bunch of studs.