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

MELIPILLA 

Wow this week was awesome!  I was a little lost all week with my companion Elder Alfaro. He is really funny and awesome and is helping me a ton here in the mission. He is from Salta Argentina and he has  22 months in the mission so that is cool. He has a lot of experience. But it has been a blast to work with him. The Branch here is really cool. We have a ton of youth that want to split with us and help us. I am super excited to work here. 

We had a baptism Sunday after there was a lot of Craziness.  A member fell and was bleeding from his head, but all good we took care of him and then he came to the baptism of his daughter and his grandson. That was really cool. There are a ton of awesome people here in Melipilla we are finding a lot of investigators. There are a lot of families that are not all members so we have a ton of work too. We also have 6 missionaries for this one branch. The work is working!

First Baptisms since coming to Melipilla

Yesterday we went to visit Sister C, who recently got baptized. She is super cool!!! She rents rooms to college students who study here in Melipilla, she gave a Book of Mormon to  every one that lives in her house. They read it together and it is so cool. She always is sharing the Gospel with her neighbors and inviting people to read the Book of Mormon and her Husband O does the same and he hasn’t even been baptized. He is awesome!!!! We invited him to be baptized and he said Bueno for the 22 of December. And then I said I loved him and he said good lets get married!! So that was funny he is a Jokester.  All in all we are all good.  I love the mission. I just feel so good right now. I fell relaxed and happy. I know the Book of Mormon is true. There is no other book in the world that is better.

Love Elder Christensen

 

Baptism before I left the last area

send off party

Good bye Elder C and Elder L

Saying good bye to first Companion Elder C from Spain

Melipilla

WHITE WASH

Two words that are very special for me now. I think I am starting to feel like Eliza must have felt when she started the mission. I just got moved to a new ward in Melipilla which is more of the country. We live in a little town and on one side of the street there are houses and a mall and on the other side, there is a cow farm. It is fun to see and to get to know Chile outside of Santiago. I am about 1 hour outside of Santiago. I am almost to the Beach but it is about 30 minutes more by bus. I am super excited. My companion is Elder Alfaro from Argentina.  He is really cool. We are both new to the ward.  We don’t know anyone. We don’t know where we are or who our investigators are. But we are both super excited to work and I am happy to be here.

                                          

                                                                            Melipilla Chile

They called us Saturday and said the Elder Largo and I are leaving so we started to say goodbye to everyone.  Elder Camus, my first companion, finished his mission today.  It is so crazy how time pass so fast. I am all over the place right now.  I can’t even focus really well because we have so much to do!!  I love the mission.  I know that the most important part is that we can enjoy our time that we have to serve the Lord with our whole hearts.

It was hard to say goodbye to all the families I got to know in El Mirador for the past 7 months. But I am also super excited to get to work here in Melipilla. We have an investigator in El Mirador named Doris who was super mad that we left and also some of the members were sad, but I know it is for something. They need to know other missionaries. I am happy for Elder Largo too. I know he will be able to keep learning more with a different companion. I have a ton of pictures to send but I can’t. I don’t know what I can do about that but I hope I will be able to fix the problem. 

Thanks for all the love and support I hope you all know I love this work and I love you but more than anything I love my Father in heaven and his son Jesus Christ.

Love, 

Elder Christensen

 

LDS Meeting house in Melipilla