Vamos arriba Uruguay

Dearly beloved freinds and family.

First of all I just want to say that

¡URUGUAY  1!

¡EGIPTO 0!

¡ VAMOS ARRIBA CELESTE! ¡ VIVA EL ORGULLO CHARRUA!

We were doing our weekly planning session this last friday when all of a sudden we heard many explosions and gunshots and sirens and full throughted shouting and felt the need to duck under the table because the house was shaking a little bit, but also felt the contentment to know that Uruguay had scored on Egypt and the burning certainty that the Celeste will go on to win the world cup this year.

But other than that it has very very very very chilly this week. When the sun is out for a short period each day it is too hot to where a coat but when it goes away it is imposible to keep your whole body warm all at once. I honestly havn't been sleeping very well because the cold keeps waking me up early every morning even though I have a nice duck down sleeping back. But not complaing because it is worth it to be able to preach the gospel of Christ all day Every day.

We have a ton of investigators and New converts here, and we are in the biggest ward I have ever been in so there is a ton of work to do here. It is really refreshing to look back every sunday and see a full chapel with tons of young people. Our ward mission leader is always amazing. His name is Hermano Pedro Herreros and he is from Valencia spain so he speaks in vosotros and with a funny accent. But every time we set up a solid appoint ment with an investigator we send him a text and he contracts a ward member to go with us.

But yeah

Love you guys.

Elder Christensen

 1) Elder Lemos forgot to shave and wear a tie this day because in Sarand´' del Yi there are no street lights so he couldn't see himself

 2) Elder Córdova made us cow heart with spinach rice today. Super good. I have decided that in terms of culinary excellency it goes Thai food, then southern food, then peruvian food.

3) this is Elder Córdova and Elder Nalder who we live with

Durazno

Hey everybody,

Well It was super sad to leave Rocha but my new area is really great as well. It is about a three hour drive strait north from Montevideo. My new companion is Elder Hilton from Santa rosa California/ slash also Utah. We got replaced in Rocha by Elder Harper from Las Vegas, Gringolandia, and Elder Ibarra from Lima, Perusalén, and they seem on track do get my old investigators batizados.. It is really cool as well because I am now in the zone with my beloved son Elder Helske now serving in Paso de los Toros, and Elder Lemos who is really cool and is serving in Sarandí del Yi.

Let me  know if you have any questions.

Love Elder Christensen.

Eric and I after his baptism

Elder Hilton 

Elder Helske and Elder Granillo. I have more time on the mission thatn both of them combined. Crazy

Rocha Deleted

Hey everybody,

Well we have had some major curveballs thrown at us this week but I will get to that later. So a report about the Elder Holland conference. It was really cool. All 350+ missionaries from the Uruguay Montevideo and Uruguay Montevideo Oeste mission got to go up and shake his hand, and then he taught us about a lot of things especially about how preach my gospel was written so that missionaries would study it and be converted in order to later convert others and how we have to decide right now if we are going to be on the Lord's side or not, and also about the effective use of the book of mormon. But the most impressive moment was when he left his apostolic blessing that we as a mission would be able to progress and do even more than we are already doing, and that people would know that they had been in the presence of servants of God just by meeting us among other things. So that was really cool. Also he mentioned that we have two of the very best mission presidents in the whole church, and I have only met maybe three or four mission presidents in my life but I affirm that claim. Also Sister Teixeira who was also there and spoke sends her love.

So we had a great experience this week. Josè and Irma after a number of weeks investigating got baptized. Josè asked me to baptize him which was really cool because I have never gotten a chance to do that before. They basically said that when they were baptized they felt this incredible feeling like all of this weight just disapeared. It is really cool to see there testimonies grow and they are going to be great members of the branch here.

So this is where things start getting a little interesting. Our investigators Eric and Dayana were supposed to get baptized today on Elder Hemeyers last day. What happens is that Eric had already been to church a bunch and taken the missionary lessons in Montevideo, but then he moved here to get married, and we miraculously found them looking for a less active member. So dayana has only been twice to church and has to come three times to get baptized and they didn't come this week because they had to go to the hospital on sunday morning. So yesterday we were giving the numbers to the assistants and

Oh emergency, presidente Serròn is coming right now to get the key to the secretary office and I have to get off. Any way Eric and Dayana are getting baptised today anyway and we are filling up the font right now. We are getting whitewashed out of Rocha which I am super sad about and I am going tomorrow to Durazno because they closed La Paloma to missionary work and the zone of Rocha is changing from a zone to a district.

So yeah

1)Baptism.

2)Me, Cristofer, and Flopy

Holland Conference

Hey everybody. 

Elder Holland came and spoke to the two missions here yesterday. It was definitley one of the greatest privelages of my life to here a living prophet speak to us face to face. We went to Maldonado today to visit some of E' Hemeyers converts so I don't have any time and will tell you all about it next week.

Love Eli

1)Josè e Irma got married at the judicial building this week

2) Elder Rodriguezth from Barcthelona. He likes pizza

3) A distant picture of Punta del Este

Hi

Hey everybody,

I hope you are all having a great monday. We had a pretty good week last week. We are seeing a lot of progress with our investigators. Are main core of investigators right now is basically four couples, There is José e Irma who are getting married this friday and baptized next week, then we have Eric and Dayana. Eric and I share a birthday so I am probably going to just go hang out with him when that comes around. Then there is Denis and Yanina. Denis ran some competitive races in the states a few years ago, and didn't really beleice in anything before, but he came to church yesterday and was really into it. Then we have José y Melisa. José has a lot of questions and reads El Libro de Mormón a lot but wants to take things slowly. And thats them. It is pretty great to teach and stuff.

We also went to Chuy this week. Chuy is weird. There are a bunch of arabs that live there so if you walk down the street you just hear a bunch of spanish, portuguese, and arabic all kind of mixed together. But that is okay because those are all languages that I want to learn. I bought a passion fruit and ate it. Not a fruit for the weak.

So funny story. We were out proselyting a few days ago and lunch time came around. We decided to stop at a little skate park on the way. Elder Hemeyer just popped his front tire up onto the curb and kept riding, so I thought that I could do the same, but it turns out that I have no skills so the next thing I knew I had flipped over the front handle bars and was lying on my face in the gravel. It was a good experience because it gave me an excuse just to lie on my face in the gravel. Oh and I will also be writing on tuesday next week because Elder Holland is going to be speaking to the mission on monday. Not my freind Elder Jacob Holland the assistant, but rather Elder Jeffery Holland the Apostle, so I will let you know how that goes.

Love Elder Christensen

1)Now I can never run out of sweetened fig pulp. Thank you Brasil. 

2) Maracuyá juice. Brasil, The biggest in the world.

3) The gente in Belloni. We did divisions there this week.

Hi everbody

Hi everybody,

We had a pretty good week this week. I got to explore some more of Rocha which was fun. We actually got bikes this week. They are pretty nice bikes. My legs and back are pretty sore now, so hopefully I will get back in shape. We also took Irma and José to the juzgado to register to get married. It went great and they have to go back on friday the 25th at 1:15 for the marriage. Then hopefully they get baptized a week later. We were also having a hard time finding any new investigators my first couple of weeks here, but then this week we found a whole bunch so that was great. We also got to bike out to this little neighborhood about six miles away called Riviera which is sitiuated at where the arroyo de rocha opens up into la laguna de rocha. Brasileños and argentinos like to come here to spend tranquil vacations on a nice freshwater beach, but there was nobody there because it isn't summer anymore so it turned out to not acutally be an effective use of time.

And yeah. The gospel is true, keeping the commandments is a great way to be happier, and Jesus Christ is our savior.

Love, 

Elder Christensen

 1) Me and Artigas

 2) Me at the Lagoon

3) A not very flattering picture of me in a bike helmet

Hey

Hey everybody.

We are having a great time here. Irma and Josè have grown a lot in faith the last week and we are going to go to the Juzgado tomorrow to register them to get married so that they can get baptized. We also had this mom and daughter come to church yesterday named Rosanna and Yanina and they liked it a lot so we have been working with their family. We have been struggling to find new investigators this last couple of week but we have seen some great miraclesthis week so it is great. Everybody give your moms a big kiss on the mejilla this sunday and tell them that you love them because moms are great.

Un abrazo

Elder Christensen