RAISING THE BAR

Right now I am serving in the Zone Ochogavia. And I want to talk about a miracle that is going on here right now. You could say this is the most humble part of our mission generally. It had the reputation of being the hardest and worst zone in the mission when I got here. Everyone wanted to go to the Coast. There was no growth. A few months ago president started focusing a ton on this zone. This month they will baptize 17 people. That has never happened before. Now every missionary wants to be here. The missionaries wanted to go to the coast before just to see the ocean. But now they want to go to Ochogavia to work! It is a miracle.

This week I was on divisions with a Zone leader who had never been to Ochogavia. We started the day by finding 2 new investigators and had another lesson. But for the rest of the day we ended up knocking doors. I love it!! We have a lot of apartment buildings in our sector so we didn’t have to walk very far. It got cold. We kept walking. It was 7 at night and I felt like we should go knock a door that we had knocked a few days before of an inactive member we thought lived there. We went and they let us in! We taught lesson 1 and their son who is not a member loved it! He was dying to read the Book of Mormon. The elder who was with me loved it! He said it was one of the most spiritual experiences he has had on the mission. The Zone does not define the work. The attitude does. People hated Ochogavia and it did not progress. Everyone loves it now and it is soaring. We can’t see or judge by the outside appearance. God knows where to find success and he will give to us if we ask and if we work for it. He will guide us to the people or the people to us.

We can never be satisfied. It is great to have 17 baptisms in one zone. The missionaries worked hard. But it is not enough. Now we have to have more. It is not acceptable now because I know we can do more. Our mission is getting way better. The missionaries are more obedient and focused. We can’t go back to how it used to be we need to move forward. The bar has to be raised and I know I personally have to feel the weight of the situation and work as hard as I can to help.

It is the same with our lives we can always be better and more like Christ, we can learn and serve. There is not limit. We put the limit. God is Eternal and there is no limit. The bar has to be raised always. Goal’s right?

I can’t imagine what the Sons of Mosiah would have decided to only baptized 100 people. They probably would have achieved it. But No they said, everyone needs to hear this message. Mosiah 28 3

I am trying to increase my conversion to God’s work. I love it with all my heart and I know it is true. But that is not enough. I am trying to understand how to change my mind to be more like the sons of Mosiah. To increase the love I have for God and his children so that I shake to think of people not living with God. I need to put the ideas in action that’s the harder part right. Increase my faith.

 I love you all!! Love the mission. Bought a one piece pajama suit today I’ll send a picture. Love Chile. Love you mom and dad. I love the Lord

From Elder Christensen

PS Chile lost today in The world Cup in PKS sad but ok

 

New PJ's

    CHILE                                  

                                   

This week was good. We had changes on Monday & that went well. We announced most of them and that’s always good and fun. Then Tuesday we went and picked up the new missionaries from the MTC. I love doing that because they are always so excited and ready to work. We started talking to people in the street and they just did, like naturals--no fear. One elder who barley spoke any Spanish started talking with people on the subway and on the buses.  It was awesome, even though he could barely talk but he was already doing all he could!! 

Our drunken friend sneaked up on us two times this week! We were doing a contact and "Yankee" our drunken friend came out of no where and just stood behind us. He scared the woman we were contacting so BAD!! Then he started calling us Communists and told us to go home so we just started laughing and said goodbye to our contact and walked away. He ruined that conversation. But then he asked us what was so funny. We just laughed and left.

But that was not the end. Two days later we were walking in the street and we look over and out of the bushes came...Yankee. My comp said Hola and he said. GET OUT OF HERE! and started following us...We invited him to come along but in the end he didn’t want to.

Yesterday we had a really good day! We taught 6 lessons and we found a new investigator. In the morning it was kind of crazy because we had a problem with some missionaries, sisters getting separate form the companions-- well actually one ran away. But no worries we found her and she came into talk with President. After that we found a new investigator named G. He`s Colombian. We taught him lesson one and he told us he likes more liberal churches. We got up to leave and I was trying to be nice and asked him about a picture on his wall. I asked if it was him with his mom. It wasn’t… he said it was his boyfriend. Then we got all uncomfortable and left. You find a lot of different people here. But that was a weird situation.

Last, World Cup. So Chile beat Spain. We have to be in our house during the games. But after we left to work and the busses were so full!  We couldn’t even get to our sector because all the people left their houses and filled the streets and started drinking and jumping on buses and bus stops and crazy stuff. We ended up walking for like 25 minutes to get there.

Anyway, the mission rocks! I read Elder Hales conference talk on obedience today. I loved it. I learned about the importance of being obedient like Christ was. We must do what he did. He really did give us the perfect example and is here to help us follow him! I know that Christ lives.  He taught us the truth and set us free from sin. So we can return to live with our God again! I love you mom and dad

Elder Christensen

Chilean Dancers

WORLD CUP                

The world cup started this week and Chile played yesterday. So almost nobody let us in to their house but in the end we actually found two new investigators and invited them both to be baptized and they said yes! That is so great. I just love being here in the mission we have so many awesome experiences. The week started with crazy people offering us drugs...No thanks… to People inviting us in to their homes and wanting to learn more about Christ. There is no better feeling than leaving a lesson that we didn’t teach but the spirit did. And you just know. You know if the spirit is there or not so we just make the environment for it. 

Statue

The biggest miracle this week was we talked with a less active member named M who has been coming to church for two weeks now with his mom. But we asked him if we could go over and visit him with his wife and kids who are not members. And he said yes. We called later in the week to confirm the appointment and they said they were waiting for us. We went and they gave us dinner.  They asked us a ton of questions & we taught them the Restoration and invited them to church. M and his daughter D, who loves Selena Gomez, are going to come! The best thing is we are now just friends with them and they know we are here to help them.

Tall Radio Tower

One other funny thing this week was all the rejections we got. We talked with a ton of people and almost all of them said they were busy watching the soccer game of Spain and Netherlands. Some opened the door and just shut it and others closed their curtains and so on. Rejections are so fun!!

                                                   

I have thought a lot about something this week. I feel like the mission and life are just a constant fight. We need to be progressing everyday. If we don’t progress we go backwards. If we are not being more obedient or more diligent we are being less. That is the thing. We always need to be working to improve. And I think that is why the mission is so important because it puts people in situations where they need to progress and fast so we progress faster than usual for necessity and we start to understand the need of the Gospel. It is like a Green house like Dad always says. But new situations give you new experiences. A lot of the times we leave the old things behind. Which is a mistake. I think God expects us to always keep learning and not only that but to retain what we learn. Thus in the end we are always progressing or moving backwards. But being imperfect we leave some things behind and forget. We can’t forget. But if we do we must relearn. I feel like I am in a state of relearning and learning for the first time. Relearning old proselyting tactics that I used to do so naturally and learning for the first time how to be a good leader and be direct and other things.

Last part of my rant-- We need to remember at all times that we are here for one reason--To prepare to meet God. If we always remember Him we will be obedient and diligent in all things. We should tell God how we are doing on our path to perfection and we need to feel the weight of the need to improve. I am feeling that now. I love the Gospel and love Christ and his atonement. He gives us the chance to be always improving and to be better than we could ever be alone.

I love you mom and dad

Elder Christensen

 

Dinner

RAIN RAIN RAIN, nothin' but RAIN

Santiago Chile Temple

                                               

It rained now three times this week that is almost the same amount of all last year!! It feels like it always raines when we are least prepared. And today it started raining so we went back to the house and got umbrellas...Stopped raining. Haha good times. This week we were really busy  we had three meetings and tomorrow we have another one with Elder Viñas form the 70 it will be really cool! We had two zone conferences and we had to set them all up. One was in Melipilla always like going back there. 

We set up some role plays with all the missionaries, we had half one day and half the other. But we focused on looking for the peoples needs of less active members. Almost always we hear that member is smoking so what do we do...we teach the Word of Wisdom. But they are all members! they already know. We want to know why and how we can help them. So we focused on using the Book of Mormon..as always. It is just the best tool we have. The Book of Mormon just simply has to be true it works to well. IT has all the answers. We just have to read it.

I was reading a talk this week that taught that God isnt always going to answer our questions personally because he has already answered the same questions in the scriptures so we just have to look for them.

I had a funny experience today...So i drove stick for the first time today through the center of Santiago.. it wasnt too bad I killed the car a few times. But we went to the local Grocery store and when we left we got cursed by some drunk guys. Always nice. Also when we were in melipilla we had to clean the church after the conference and an elder Put Mate(an herbal drink) down a sink and clogged it so we plunged for 20 minutes to clean it all up. It was a fun time!

But in the End The Church is True, Thomas s Monson is a prophet called of God and The book of Mormon is true too. I know we have to stand up for our beliefs and the truthes of the Gospel especially today when it is harder than ever. I know God will help us

Love you Mom and dad

Elder Christensen