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

La Playa

This week I went on divisions to the Coast which is about one and a half hours from Santiago. It was nice. I saw the ocean and everything. But in San Antonio there are a ton of hills and they are not small!! I got pretty tired. It was cold outside so we were all in our big coats then we went up the hill and were all sweating because the hill was so big. 

We visited this really cool family who are evangelicals’. We sang a hymn to start and then we taught a little about baptism. Good lesson, great family, and we made it short-like 25 minutes. But after the lesson the family wanted to sing for us. They pulled out two guitars, a banjo and an accordion. And they sang their hearts out and it was really good too. It made our hymn look very simple but it was still great!! Nothing better than evangelic songs!!

We also had some interviews—well, president did some interviews with the Zone Peñaflor and we were there doing classes with the missionaries, It started at 9 and ended at 4 so after we proceeded to the Maipu mall and bought a huge burger and a nice Completo (Hot dog with Avocado) it was good!! Good old fast food. I’m so sick of it, we always buy food for the first time in my mission but we cooked lunch today. We made Avocado, egg, rice, dorito sandwiches!!! They were way good !! 

We ate a ton!

                                      

We are teaching this guy named G who just gives me hope. I get happy to just be around the guy. He is one of those people who is just a GOOD GUY. He loves God and always is reading the bible. So we gave him a book of Mormon and he is already in 1 Nephi 8. He loves everything that has to do with God and he always makes time to pray and read. He is a super nice guy too. I love talking with people who want to know the truth and not just that but are willing to search it and work to find it. The only way to know if our message is true is if you read the Book of Mormon and there are so many people who won’t even read it. But that is all you need. I know God will answer G and will let him know the book is true. In God we can Trust Always! We need to do our part. 

I love the scriptures they are so important! I love reading them in the morning. I always try to get to my studies early so I have more time to read. I know that God talks to us through the scriptures, God is great, he is simple, he doesn’t need to reveal to us personally answers to questions he has already answered. The answers are in the scriptures! 

I love you mom and dad

Love Elder Christensen

2 Nefi 9: 50-51

JOURNALS

This week I have been reading up on some of my experiences I have had here in the mission. I have been writing a ton too, because my companion taught me to be a little more detailed in my entries. Then we started reading up the experiences. I feel like I have been here forever but it has passed by like a day. It is the weirdest feeling. 

It is getting cold down here and it actually rained for the first time this week and we got caught right in the middle of it. We left in the morning and it looked all good. But then we took a bus to our sector later in the afternoon and it was raining a little. We said hopefully it stops...It didn’t. We got soaked so we were running around looking for houses that had roofs that covered the doors so we could hide from the rain. We contacted while hiding and almost everyone was busy but we still found a cool guy named A who let us in and tried to give us coffee. But we got hot chocolate in the end so all good. He accepted a baptismal date and is coming to church tomorrow!!!

Today we had an incomplete family of I and M who invited us to eat with them and we went. They are so cool.  We are praying really hard for them so they get to church tomorrow. It is so good getting to know people here!!

I have been having a lot of fun too with Elder Foster.  He has really helped me laugh a lot more while working and we are finding a ton of new people to teach! We have a lot of work to do but we still find a lot of time to get out to our sector and we actually have a lot of investigators. President Barrieros always says “a happy missionary is a missionary who teaches”.

That is the truth loved family!

I love you mom and daddy and the rest of the bunch too!

Love Elder Christensen

Funny Experiences & Graffiti

                                               

Wow we always have funny experiences in my new sector. Last night we were contacting and we were finishing up the day. We were going to go take a bus back to the house and I told Elder Foster that we had to do one contact more. So we knocked on a door and an old lady came out. She just kept asking, “What do you want! What do you want!”

So I said hi and that we are missionaries here to help you. She continued no no no you only believe in Joseph Smith and not in Christ and God so I don’t need to talk to you. You don’t even understand the bible.... and all that. We tried to explain to her what we REALLY believe. But she didn’t want to hear.

It was so outrageous that it was really funny. Elder Foster started laughing right there in the doorway and I did too. Good old street contacts!

                                            

But we actually had a great week! We started it out by giving a training meeting about how to be a good leader and the importance of obedience and the seriousness of the mission. It was pretty good. It helped me focus a little because I am not here to get to know Chile because there are people dying spiritually everyday!! We need to help them!

The real miracle of the week was that we went to visit a less active member named I, and he wasn’t home. But his wife came outside, who supposedly hates missionaries. We started talking to her and she actually told us she didn’t want anything to do with us. But we just kept talking and literally God changed her heart in front of our faces. She came out to the fence and shook our hand and said come back Friday. We went back and I was still a little shocked and sat us down in the front room alone. Then his wife, M, came out and said what are you doing out here come in!!! and we sat down in the family room with her and I and their two sons who are not members. We just talked about Christ and we saw some short videos about him and we read Mosiah 3 in the Book of Mormon. It was so spiritual we are going back tomorrow and I know they want to go back to church. They still have some challenges but they want their sons to get baptized too. M asked for a blessing after too. It was so cool we didn’t even do anything; it was all the spirit with the Book of Mormon!!

I know this is real and Jesus Christ is our Savior!

I love you mom and dad

Elder Christensen

Goodbye to Melipilla, First Gringo Companion and We bought a Zoo…almost!

                                             

I got changed out of Melipilla. The last 6 months went by way too fast. I got sent to Ochogavia 2.   I am actually in the same zone as Elder Keddington right now but I never see him because I don’t pass a lot of time in my sector because we have a lot of work to do outside of our sector too! 

                                            

We have had some really crazy experiences this week. I have been in my new sector for like 4 days and we have already been chased out by this one drunken crazy guy who always calls us Yankees. And also an old drunk guy told us to pray for him because the devil follows him around. It is a little weird but the work is the same and I love it!

                                           

Elder Foster is a good missionary. He is my first American companion and we get along really well. I have never laughed so much but we work hard too so don’t worry. We have talked with a ton of people this week because we have to find new people to teach. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of people to help.

Elder Foster & Elder Christensnen

                                     

I know this church is true. I know this is God’s work. I have seen so many miracles here. Just after a long day of walking around and someone says, Yes,  I would love to learn more about your message; Or a member who says I have a friend who needs your help. They come in small ways. But more importantly I have felt the truth of this work. I have felt the gospel bless the lives of others. I have felt the spirit when a new convert gave her testimony about the Book of Mormon. I know this is true. I know Jesus is our savior and redeemer.

I love you all and see you tomorrow!!

New Missionaries and Trainers

                                            

Elder Christensen

Love you Mom!!

Saying Good-bye to Melipilla and Friends

                                   

Giant Egg balloon

   

Zoo