Saturday, July 26, 2014

BAPTISM

This week was crazy!! I am living with 5 elders who are going home on Monday. It is a little hard to focus but I am so excited to get my new comp on Monday!! Just to top of the change that we’ve had, we are going to have a BAPTISM!! We were so close all month and just pulled it out. 

Her name is G and she is just like MATILDA!! So weird! She is so smart!! She is smarter than her mom and she is only 10. Her mom is a member but was inactive and we started teaching her. We actually went with President Barreiros and he told us we need to focus on G and baptize her. So we did and we taught her everything! It is a miracle that she learned so fast!! I can’t believe it. But she is getting baptized tomorrow! I am so happy. She is so happy and her mom was crying a little bit she was so happy!  I love the Gospel! Completing families is the bomb!!

We also passed this whole week with president Barrieros. I love this man. He has taught me so much! He was talking about some trunky subjects this week because all the assistants are dying except for me and Elder Hasler. He asked us how we can feel the spirit after the mission. The only way is do what we do here. Study the scriptures everyday, pray, go to church, teach with the missionaries, share the gospel, serve in a calling. The gospel is so simple!!! I love it. But wait...
Luckily I still have a ton of time left to keep working here:)
Love you mom and dad!!

Elder Christensen

Saturday, July 19, 2014

CHEERS

                                      
This week was cool. We had an investigator who is getting baptized wanted to leave with us to do some visits. It was way fun because we only had two ours and we had four lessons planned. Well we had less than 2 hours. We just ran to the lessons and they were all about 20 minutes but really cool. And G, our investigator, learned a ton and he loved it. The best part was that he read the Book of Mormon with us and he prayed in almost every lesson.  That was really great. 
That is the best when people just want to leave and do visits with us.

We were also on divisions in the BEACH!!! I was in Cartagena but it was cold. There are a ton of hills so I just worked out the whole time but the missionaries are great they are just working way hard here. We went to a restaurant called CHEERS. We bought some Churrascos that had the circumference of a Pizza but were way bigger and were so GOOD!! There was a mountain of fries on top. So we have been eating pretty healthy. It cost 20 bucks but it was worth it.
                                           

I just want you all to know that I’m happy here. It is just like Preach my Gospel says: There is no other work more agreeable. There is no better use of time. God Lives and Loves us
I love you all too
Elder Christensen






Saturday, July 12, 2014

OBEDIENCE

The other day we had the meeting with all the new missionaries to see how they were doing and if they’re getting used to the mission field. They all seem to be good and all the trainers are machines so we are not too worried about them.  In these meetings we always watch a talk given by none other than...Elder Holland!  While listening to this talk, some thoughts caught my attention. First he said, OBEDIENCE is the first law of...EVERYTHING!! That is true, if we want blessings, we have to be obedient. And the other was that we should always live the high standards that we live on the mission. Missionaries say just for two years we do this. But it isn’t just two years. Some things change like the clothes and the hours, but the conversion and the obedience and devotion can’t change and they won’t.

Then we had a meeting with president and he pretty much told me who my next companion will be. But we’ll see in two weeks. He talked to us about how to be a Zion people and told us we will never do it if we are lazy about going to the temple. I love the temple!!! I have not been for so long...1 year. But I know it is the greatest blessing ever! He taught us why we try to baptize all the people, why in the church does it seem like the missionaries only want to baptize? (Article of faith 3).  We can’t enjoy the blessings of the atonement without the ordinances. Without baptism the people will never feel the power of the atonement in their lives. But not only baptism, but confirmation, and the sacrament EVERY WEEK!!
President Barreiros said if we are not preparing to take the sacrament every week we are not preparing to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father.

I love the meetings with president he is so spiritual and awesome!

For the first time in my mission we had to kick a member out from helping us. We called him.  MARCOS, he just reactivated. We asked him to leave with us at 6 pm and it was 3 pm. He said where are you guy’s right now? We told him and he said he wanted to go right then. Cool, we taught about 4 lessons, but then all the plans fell through and we just started contacting. We told him we didn’t have anymore lessons and he could go home. He said come on lets go eat at 11 at my house. But we explained to him we couldn’t. But it was cool! I wish all the members loved serving with us.  It is a blessing to work with the members
I love you mom and dad

Elder Christensen

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Family History Stories


This week was awesome as usual. We had the monthly meeting with all the leaders but this was probably the best one of my mission. We had a huge counsel meeting and just talked about the mission and how we can get better and it went really well. 

 
In the end we had a class about....Our family history and the importance to learn it and teach others about it. So I got the feeling that I should start reading the stories that dad sent me at the beginning of my mission, that truly I had never read before.  They are super cool!! I learned that we have an ancestor that invented Tupperware and that there were a ton of Baptists and Lutheran ministers in our family. The earliest convert I have seen so far was baptized in 1832. And someone helped out in the burial of Joseph and Hyrum. I just got super excited to read the stories. 

I have never really known how to teach this to the people. Because I don’t know how to do it very well on the computer and we don’t even have a computer. So I think the best way to do it is share your own stories and get them excited to find out their own family story. And then we have to work really well with the members so they help the investigators or inactive members find their history. 

I was a good week.
Sorry for the short letter
I love you all
Elder Christensen