So we had an awesome week because we had a BAPTISM. On Friday, we baptized A y P Verdejos after they got married. It was a  cool experience and I really enjoyed it. We went to their wedding which was about 20 minutes and then we had the baptism and I had the opportunity to baptize P.   She called me and asked me to do it. First she wanted the missionary who started to teach her to do it but our President said no. Then she wanted her son Roberto to do it but he is not a priest yet. So she asked me. I was more than happy to help her with that. The water was cold but the spirit was so strong it didn’t even matter! I just felt so good after I literally felt like I was glowing from the inside. I don’t know how to describe the experience but it was unique and I will never forget it. Also when A left the water I was waiting for him and I just hugged him so hard and he was crying a little. WOW it was so COOL!  I am so happy that we were able to help them progress and get married and baptized. Now we have to get them to the temple!

                                     
                                                                                                  
                                     
     

 Also I started writing all the blessing that I have seen in  my journal and I really like it because as I write the things I have seen I find more blessings to thank my Heavenly Father for. Then I just feel happy because I can see the hand of the Lord in my life. A big blessing I noticed was in the English class we are teaching. We decided to print an article from the Ensign in English to read with our class. It was about prayer and it talked about a family who lost a son to cancer. Then it just so happened that one of our students, O, had lost her youngest son. And the day we taught English was the birthday of her son who died. She said she almost didn’t come to the class but she decided to come and she said that the article was just what she needed to feel peace and comfort in her life. THAT WAS A MIRACLE!!

                                    

Also this week my companion finally started telling me what he wants to do and sharing his ideas with me. Actually, he kind of exploded with ideas-- it was awesome!  First we were planning a tour of the church and he told me in essence that I was focusing to0 much on sharing scriptures because I had one scripture for every place in the church. He said that the tour would not be very good and then he told me his idea. I was not mad at all which surprised me because he kind of told me my ideas sucked. But I was just so happy that he started to participate more and have ideas and desires what we can do and how we can improve. Also he told me I talk too much in the lessons and I need to shut my mouth. I also was just relieved that he was talking to me and now I know how I can help him. I need to give him more responsibility and help him lead the lessons. That will be awesome! I am happy with our companionship. I just have to find a way to help him feel better when he gets mad. Because when he is mad at me it is for 1 day or a day and a half. So I am going to improve that way. But I am super happy.

                           

Last Can you guys keep sending me awesome quotes that you here from the apostles or prophets or whoever but inspirational quotes.  I love them!   

Thanks I love you all.

Elder Christensen

I love you MOM  and DAD

PS I got called as District Leader 

                           

                                                         My Twin

                                     

MARRIAGE AND BAPTISM

This I have really good news! A and P HAD their interview to get baptized this week and they PASSED.  We have a their baptism scheduled for Friday and it will be awesome! I am really excited for them.  They are finally ready to get baptized. They investigated the church for a year but couldn't get baptized because they had to get married. They will get married and the baptism is right after.  We have to plan the whole baptism.

It has been hard this week as well because I think in the mission we are always doing something new. We never get comfortable and when we do get comfortable, we have transfers or we have some kind of change. I feel this way because I am trying to help Elder L get used the  mission, but I feel like a lot of times he gets mad at me and I don’t know why.  I struggle because he is super shy so he doesn't want to talk to me or in the lessons. But I know I was similar. I was scared to talk before but I know that he just needs to try and it will come. I know if anyone has changed in the mission it is me.

Before, I was so scared to talk to anyone. Now I find a stranger that I have never met and after five minutes we are friends. I had that happen the other day. We were looking for a house and we were a little lost. A man named MW came out of his house and we started talking with him. It was fun because he was really funny. Now whenever we see him, we talk a little and we’re just friends. I know the mission changes people. But I don’t know how to help someone experience the most from the mission because it is a decision we all need to make for ourselves-- To enjoy life. 

President Monson always talks about enjoying the life. He has two talks that I really like Finding joy in the journey and In Search of Treasure. The talks are about doing all we can do now. There is no tomorrow if we don’t act and live today!

I am super happy here I never really feel comfortable because we always have a new challenge or experience to face but that is what makes life fun Right?:)

I love you all 

Elder Christensen

I love you MOM!!

Gift from former companion

Street named after the day before my birthday!

No Letters :(

There happens to be a MAIL STRIKE going on here in Chile so I have not gotten any of your letters and i think it would be better to wait to send the package because it could get lost. Thank you and I love you all a ton. I will notify you when the strike has ended. But for now I won’t get any of the things you send me. 

                                     

This week was good but I made a big mistake. I decided with my companion that to have more success here we needed to have more activities in the church.   We started right away because I was super excited to work and to help bring more people to church.  So we decided to have a movie night and we invited a bunch of people and...No ONE CAME!!  It was sad. Then we tried one more time with the same results.

                                     

Wow! I thought “what is wrong with the people why don’t we have people coming to our activities?” Then I realized what missionaries are. We are just guides to help the ward progress. The members are the real missionaries. So I saw that if we want to have activities we have to work through the members. We had two activities that crashed and died because we wanted to work alone and not help the ward with ideas and work with them. We just give the ideas to the bishop and then we do the best we can to get working.

                                     

So this week I am trying with my Comp to work better with the bishop and so I asked him what he wants for the ward and he had an awesome idea. We are asking every member to pray and work with one person to bring them to the church and they are going to choose one person every year. It is not a lot but it will bring a lot of growth if every member who can bring one person in to the church. Also I offered to talk in sacrament meeting whenever he needed.  Well, I really offered all four of the missionaries to talk and then that same night he called me and asked me to talk in church. I felt good because I think the Bishop has confidence in us as their missionaries.

It was a good week

Thanks for all the support

LEs Quiero

Elder Christensen

I love you MOM!

                                

Ahora el Estudiante es el Maestro

(Now the Student is the Teacher)

We had an awesome week this week. I feel good because my companion Elder Largo is talking a little more. At first he was talking more with cats and himself than with me.  Now it is better and we are becoming good friends. I am really thankful for the advice Peter gave me. He said I just have to be super positive and be natural with him. I don’t have to try too hard and to just be myself.   I think that helped me relax a ton. 

This week I learned a lot from my companion, actually. So we started to fast after lunch on Saturday to get the 24 hours in for lunch the next day. It is always really hard to fast because people always give us food. So we went to the house of our investigators who are going to get baptized at the end of this month and they had cooked hamburgers for us for after we taught them.  I felt super bad so I decided to eat and Elder Largo was really firm so he didn’t eat. He told me it will always be hard to fast so you just have to be firm. So he finished his fast and I had to start mine Sunday. But I learned a good lesson of self control from him.

Also he has a ton of good ideas to play games and apply the gospel to his games and he has a lot of good ways to teach the Gospel and he is sharing his ideas with me now so I feel a lot better., 

He is really sarcastic too and I kind of just roll with whatever he says and laugh.  I can never tell if he is serious or not when we are walking in the street, but he is not sarcastic in the lessons  so that is good.

This week I learned something cool,  Well, I already knew it but I didn’t realize that I knew it. So we were teaching one of our investigators named Raul and he was talking about the nature of God. We are made in his image but not only physically, but mentally. A big difference between us and animals is that we can think and act for ourselves. Our memory is like God, too. Think about it.  We can communicate through writing because we all learned how to write and now we remember the meanings of the letters and words. So God told Moses to write about the creation.   It is like God was talking to us but 2000 years ago  and it works because we learned how to read!!

Other example, Journals are so important because I can communicate with myself from before the mission if I read my journal. If I wrote something in 2010 I can communicate it with myself from 2010 from my words. Through the Journal we can talk with our posterity!! That is so cool. I already write all the time but I am going to keep writing

I have a huge testimony of journal writing now!!

But that is my rant for the week thanks for everything I love you all and wish you the best!

Les Quiero 

Elder Christensen

Good week

I don’t really feel like I have that much to write this week but we have been working really hard. We had a ton of lessons this week so that was good and we found a ton of new investigators. I am trying my best to be a good trainer, but like the rest of the mission I just have to do my best and it is ok to feel a little lost.

My Comp, Elder Largo is really quiet.  He doesn’t want to talk, ever. When we are walking in the street I try to talk about the Gospel first and then everything else, but I just run out of things to say. I don’t know what a can tell him to get him excited to work but I know I have to help him. I can show by example and do the best I can. He has a really strong testimony and wants to be in the mission but he is afraid to talk. When I tell him he has to do a contact he gets really nervous. I guess I was the same when I got here in Chile 7 months ago. It is weird how fast you progress is in the mission. I never wanted to talk with people in the street but now it is something normal. I still get scared sometimes but I just do it. I had an idea to go back and read my Journal in the time that I was being trained so I could see what I wanted my trainer to do differently then I can do those things. I know the thing that is most important is to just love my comp and to do all I can to help him progress. And we need to be obedient so we can have miracles. 

There is something called vision. Vision brings miracle and desires to work. If we have a vision for three baptisms this month, which we do, we will get them. I know that we can help people prepare to change their lives.  We just have to keep moving on with Faith. The vision is super important!

Thanks for all the support and your prayers I know that the mission changes lives and I know that one thing at least, it has changed me. I know now that the Church is not just a religion it is how we can communicate with our God. I know this is His church and I know that he is perfecting us through our trials and challenges. I love the mission and my Savior Jesus Christ

les Quiero 

Elder Christensen

One Week Down

 I have been training for one week and it went well. I still feel a little overwhelmed with the responsibility. I am thankful for it though because I am excited to learn and do my best to help my new companion Elder Largo from Argentina. I feel like we have the gained the confidence of many of the members and I am excited to continue to work with them. I am talking a lot now in the lessons too because my companion ya know is new and is a little scared to talk. But he has a powerful testimony and is excited to be her working so I am stoked to work with him.

                                          

                                                                    Elder C and Elder L

We had an awesome conference this week with Elder and Sister Zebaillos of the Seventy and he is from Chile.  His wife talked to us about what we need to do to have the spirit with us at all times. She said we need to pray but we should meditate before and after to decide what we need and to wait and listen for the answers. Then study the scriptures and use our time well, and the normal things. Also a point that she said was that we need to be PURE in HEART.  There is no better place to learn how to be pure in heart than in the Mission. I am going to study purity and I have desires to learn more about how I can become more pure in heart and bring the sprit into my life. 

Elder Zebaillos talked about doing all that we can and teaching with the spirit. He said we don’t know our potential but God does. We should pray everyday that we can do all we can in the work. I know that God will help me be a good missionary and trainer if I humbly search his help through prayer and search for opportunities to serve others. I am really excited to train and improve as a missionary. Also Sister Zebaillos asked what is our limit? How much can we do? We will never know if we are not out working and pushing our limits to improve. I hope to push my limits everyday and search for my limits.

Thanks for all the support and I hope that all of us will continually push our limits to do the will of God and so he can work through us!

With Much Love Elder Christensen

Paz y Amor

New Companion, New Mission President

DID YOU SAY MIRACLES?

Wow what a week what a week. This week just so happened to be the last week that Elder Guevara and I would work together.  it was a week for the record books. We destroyed all of our records for lessons and new investigators and more members were helping us. So GREAT!   We had the best week I have had here in El Mirador.  I know that it is just going to keep getting better. I am very happy and very excited to work here.

We had two miracles that were huge this week!!  First we had a family home evening with a family and they invited their friends to come and listen to us. And they came! It was a family.  The parents are L and M and they brought two of their four children C y C.  They are 8 and 7 years old. They were super fun and we explained a lot about Joseph Smith and the Plan of Salvation. Also, we talked a little about tithing because L said he hates that churches charge tithing only so the leaders can get rich. We explained what we use tithing for and he was impressed and liked it a lot. Then we also explained some of our rules as missionaries and they really liked it. They said they don’t believe in God but they are going to read the book of Mormon and we are going to visit them again. So I think that YES they believe!

Second Wednesday we had our correlation meeting and we were twenty minutes late. When we got there we had a surprise. There was a couple there and they were waiting for us. Their names are J and T.   J is a member and he said the T wanted to be baptized!!  Then we continued to talk with them and they told us that they dated as youth. But T moved away to Santiago from the South of Chile. So they didn’t see each other again for 40 years! Then J went to visit his old home and found Teresa there. Both of there spouses had died. So they are dating again!  Super Crazy!. But T is very open and prepared to be baptized. We are teaching her the lessons and she came to church Sunday and is reading the Book of Mormon. This week we didn’t find the people. The people found US. That is the biggest miracle of all. People who are prepared and want to know God better are finding us!

Last We divided my Sector and we have new Sister missionaries in the other half of El Mirador. So we are going to have to help them a ton this Change so she can know more members and the investigators in the other half of the sector. I am stoked to help them and I know we are going to have a ton of success here!

Last I also received the call to TRAIN this change!!. So I will be a dad in the mission! I am going to meet my new companion tomorrow fresh from the MTC. I am super excited to train and I know that my new missionary will bring a ton of excitement and power to the ward. Really we are going to take out the trash these two changes. I feel scared but also super excited that I can help bring a new missionary into the field! It is a huge responsibility but I know that if I trust in God, do the best I can , be obedient with exactness, and pray always and study the scriptures I will have Gods help. We are never alone in this work. I feel like I am starting the mission again I have butterflies in my stomach! ç

Thanks for all of the help and support. I know that this is the Lords work and we are his servants. We have to do the best we can to help him save as many of his children as possible. WOW How can we not Press on in such a great cause?

LES Quiero Muchisimo

Elder Christensen

Elder John Keddington and Elder Christensen

Seeing each other for the first time in the mission.  Home ward friends!