Whoops, Today is Tuesday…what happened?

Hahaha just kidding!   We had our preparation day today because we had changes yesterday so we didn’t have very much time to do anything. It was a good change. I can’t believe that 2013 has already ended. It makes me think how short life is, how little time that Heavenly Father has given me to work here in Chile. 2 years is all. At times it is true that it feels like it will never end. But most the time I hope it never does. My companion told me the other day," what is the point to start something if you are just waiting for it to end" It is true there. is no reason to serve a mission just to see the end of it.  We must love it and change through it. This time is precious and I don’t want to waste any of it.

Ok, I am going to make it short this week. I have a  Miracle of the Week and then Lesson of the week. First; the Miracle of the week: 

We have investigators named E and J. They are super cool, but we went to their house yesterday and they said we had to talk. They said they don’t want to listen to you guys anymore. We like your visits but we don’t want to get married or go to church. And we said whoa whoa whoa, Who said anything about that?  We just asked you guys to read the Book of Mormon and we can get to the rest a little later. They said oh that is ok we like to read the Book of Mormon because we feel better in our day and everything goes better. We also like the stories, so we will keep listening to you and reading the book of Mormon!!! Bam Roasted!!

I know that if we just read the Book of Mormon it will change our lives. We don’t need to think about anything else because that just complicates our lives. We need to pray everyday and we need to read the Book of Mormon and nothing else.

Lesson Learned:

Today I called a sister to see if we could just pick up our lunch so we could have more of a p-day. She said no. Then we went to her house and she started talking to me in English because she lived in Arizona for a long time. But she asked me," What does your mom do when she invites a lot of people over to your house to eat or have a party," So I said well she cleans up the house and cooks all day. Sets up the tables and makes the house look its best. And she makes sure everyone is happy and fed before she eats. Then the sister asked me, " How would she feel if they called and hour before to ask if they could just pick up the food".    Obviously that was bad. In Chile we call this a PALO which is like a Slap to the Face. I did not appreciate the work and the sacrifice the sister made to invite us to eat lunch with her and I felt sorry for that.  I will always remember to be thankful to eat with a family here. They sacrifice so much to have us over for lunch. I love the Chileans!!!

                                       
                                       

I love you Mom and Dad

Elder Christensen

With my Rudolph pen

I love Pretzels!

 

Friends

Elder Hipster

Friends

The Church?

Christmas Day Phone Call

Hey, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am super happy here, that I love the mission; that I love you guys, I love you all, you guys are the best; but also I know the Book of Mormon is true; we should be reading it everyday; it is so cool. It is the best book ever; and if we read it every day, it is going to help us as a family; it will help us in every way that we need; it will help us concentrate to do every thing we can to prepare for when he comes again; He needs us; we need him; thank you mom and dad for teaching me that to help me on the mission. I love you all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from CHILE

I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Family I love you all! I think one of the most important things I have learned in Chile is how to tell people that I really love them. Do we take the time to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us? But more importantly is to show it--am I right? I feel so happy to be here in the mission because I feel like we always say I love Christ or I love my heavenly father. But do we show it? How can we show it? I have asked that question before and what better answer than leave two years to serve my Father in Heaven.

Really this week was a little hard because we had a ton of Meetings! We had to go to Santiago and we had divisions and a ton of stuff. But I noticed an old habit that was creeping back in to my life, which is when I compare myself to others. But it is such a waste of time. What is the point to compare ourselves when God made us who we are for a reason. Maybe we are not the best sports players or maybe we are; maybe we are not the smartest but maybe we are. In the end does it matter? No. I have never found the scripture that says only the Best are welcomed to have Eternal life. 

So I decided I am not spending enough time on my knees.

Truthfully I love Chile. I love the people I love the food. I love the culture. I am so blessed to be able to spend Christmas here. Sunday we went Christmas Caroling. It was so fun. We went to visit less active members but we sang to all their neighbors too. There are people who don’t have anything for Christmas, They don’t have a tree or they don’t have family. But they all said thank you for the music. I am impressed. I will be more thankful for the blessings I have. 

I love you all and See you Wednesday! 

Elder Christensen

MORE MIRACLES

This week went well.   We are working and working and working. I love the people here, they are so nice and I love talking to them and making new friends in the street. This week the Miracle was that we went to the Central Plaza to contact and invite people to a choir and I talked with a man named A and he didn’t want anything and I asked why not. He said he was tired and wanted to rest. So we kept talking for about 10 minutes and I invited him to come to an English class and he came!! That was so cool because he actually said he wants to know more about the church! So Awesome!

Another Miracle is that my dad is OLDER today!! But he is still un cabro chico as they say it here in Chile. In English it is “a little Goat”. That means he is young. Happy Birthday dad!  Thank you for the letters and all the advice that you have sent me. I am so thankful to have the parents that I have and I am so happy to be here. I know that you guys worked a ton to help through my life. And...I was a pain!  I’m still a pain! But you helped me anyway!!! You are the best dad in the world. I know that best gift I can give you is just to work my hardest and to do all I can to help the people I meet,  to play piano when it is possible, and memorize scriptures and stuff like that!

Also we had a District conference.  It is like a stake conference but for a district because we are not a stake---Yet! It was really cool and President and Hna Barreiros came and they always take out the trash. Their talks were really good and we got to eat dinner with them on Friday. That was cool! They made me and my Comp stand up in front of everyone in the adult session so I was a little embarrassed but the conferences was really good.

Tudu Ben aca

I love you all especially mom and dad and James because you will be 13 in two days!!

CHORO

This week was just Choro. I am glad to be here. We had a ton of meetings this week so I had to go to the Coast where I saw Elder Largo we didn’t talk a lot but it was cool to see him again. It is always nice to see your comps again. We had a Zone Conference that was AWESOME! We focused on using the Book of Mormon more.  We did a practice where president Barreiros had a doubt about the church like if we believe in the Virgin Mary and then we had to answer it with the Book of Mormon that was cool. My companion Elder Alfaro and I had to do a practice in front of everyone too.  That was good and fun! But I know I need to use the Book of Mormon more!!

Then we had to go to Santiago to the house of Presidente Barreiros. It is HUGE and it is so far away from here we had to ride 2 hours in a bus and the 1 1/2 hours in subway to get to his house. But it was cool. It is a part of Santiago that is completely different from where we live. When we got back we had a meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader Bro. M.  He is awesome and has a plan to help the Branch get moving on the mission work.

Last we had a couple of miracles no mas. We went to visit a recent convert named M and her two sons M and C. Who are awesome and know a ton about the Gospel. Then we got to know her sister J who is not a member and also J’s boyfriend, E. They are super cool and we talked with them for a long time!! Then we taught about the Book of Mormon. At first they didn’t want to read but then they said, “Give us a chapter and we will read it”!  They Rock! 

Then we had a Choir yesterday and J & E came to listen. It was a choir that teaches the Restoration but with Music. I felt the spirit super strong and they did too because J came to Church on Sunday for the first time ever. And to top it all off M,  her nephew gave a talk on Agency and did a really good job. And all the members went to talk to her and helped her get comfortable. It was so awesome. I am so thankful to the members for the work they do!!

I love you all especially Mom and dad

Elder Christensen

NEW WARD, NEW PEOPLE

This week was great.  We got to go on some divisions which are always fun.   Today we played soccer but on grass, which was super cool because we never get to play on grass, only on cement. But it was fun. We all ran a ton.

The thing that is good about being in a new ward is that we find a lot of new people. I still feel like I need to organize myself a little better,  but I am happy that we are working well here. We found an awesome family this week. They were missionaries too...for the Catholic Church. But they are not serious Catholics and they want us to go back. C y P. They love the family and they said they will do anything to protect it and help their family. What better way to help the family than by practicing the Gospel of Christ.

I think the coolest person I have met is Oscar. He is an old Fire fighter and he is the funniest person I have met…seriously. His wife recently got baptized and she wants us to teach her husband. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes!! Then said “in the Adventist church”. hahahah. But he knows the book of Mormon is true and he loves it. His wife is really cool too. She rents out rooms in her house and she invites all the people who rent in her house to read the book of Mormon with her and all the people have a book of Mormon and they read it!!! She is an awesome missionary. I know we can follow her example and be better missionaries everyday. I love you guys

I know the Book of Mormon is true and it is the tool we have to help others know the truth!

Love

Elder Christensen