Week 54

Mommy & All,

"To every son the mother ought to be preeminently the woman of women; she is the one woman in the world to whom the son owes his earthly existence; and though the title "Mother" belongs to every woman who has earned the honors of maternity, yet to no child is there more than one woman whom by natural right he can address by that title of respectful acknowledgement." -James E. Talmage

Just wanna give a huge shout out to my Mom and the whole fam for all they continue to do for me and it was great talking to them yesterday. I hope Mothers Day was good for you Momma and of course I can't repay you for all you've ever done and I'm so proud to call YOU my Mom.

This week was pretty good. We were in Las Heras until Thursday. On Wednesday, I was doing divisions with Elder Arismendi who's been in the mission about a month now. As we were walking down the street, a guy stopped us asking where we were from because he said he knew we weren't from around here. So I told him I was from the U.S. and he looked at me a little shocked and said "You look like you have the face of a Chilean!" So that was a first. The funniest part was the Arismendi is from Chile and he looked at this guy like he was insane haha. So now in my mission I've had people tell me I'm from the Dominican Republic, Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Salta (northern Argentina), and now Chile haha. Anyways he went on to tell us how us Mormons don't believe in the Holy Ghost and how we think that Joseph Smith is Jesus Christ and stuff like that. Then he told us that God truly loved us, that we need to stop lying to people about the Book of Mormon and the message we preach and we need to preach the truth, and invited us to search for the kingdom of God. We told him that God loved him as well and invited him to search as well haha. So that was a good time. 

When we got to Perito, we were able to meet with Susana the new member we found last week. She told us a little bit of her story how she was baptized when she was 8 yrs old and how her dad loved the church and the missionaries. She moved down here in 2002 and had always asked for missionaries down here but never saw any and she never knew about Natalia or any of them that were here as well. She talked about how she felt so alone and how she took a turn for the worst and how she smoked and drank a lot up until she had her first kid. Now she has 2. After her 2nd kid she started smoking again but told us that she hasn't smoked now for almost a year. So we showed her a Mormon message about when Thomas S. Monson was in the marines and felt like he was the only Mormon standing alone and how even when we are alone we must still stand strong. It ended up being that he wasn't the only Mormon as he came to find out. He quotes a primary song he learned that says "Dare to be a Mormon! Dare to stand alone..." and how we never really are alone because we have our Heavenly Father. So for the first time in 15 years, Susana attended a church meeting yesterday.

We also got to teach Gisel again and she came to church as well. We got to teach her the Plan of Salvation and focused on the fact that she had her 2nd little girl just 3 months ago and how she can be with then forever. She actually ended up telling us that she knew it was true. That shes felt it twice and believes it. She wants to get baptized with her boyfriend (so they need to get married first) and her 10 yr old daughter. So now hopefully we will start working more with her boyfriend Julian.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

     Max told us on the phone that he had turned into "That" fanny pack guy.  Here it is in all it's glory.

Max and Elder Arismendi (An actual Chilean.  Don't they look alike?)

                                                     
To demonstrate that though he has changed he is still Max.  I had to ask what it was.  Pigeon feathers and dead pigeon bodies that he was so impressed with, and knew his Mom would appreciate it, that it deserved a tag picture as well.  

The motel they have been living in while the search for more permanent living quarters. It apparently has the nicest bathroom he has seen since getting to Argentina and since they have no kitchen that have been "forced" to eat in the hotel downstairs when they don't have eating arrangements.  He is still excited to get a place to settle into since half of there stuff is still in Las Heras.