Week 63

Mommy & All,

"All the world is a stage. And all the men and women are merely players." -William Shakespeare

This week was good. Last Monday for the first time since what feels like high school I gotta play real basketball haha so I was pumped about that. We also got some more snow so that was cool. 

On Thursday we gotta go over and teach one of our investigators named Miguel. He's from Jujuy which is the very top part of Argentina and now he's at the very bottom. He's been here for about 17 years now. We were able to talk to him and he told us a little bit of his story. His whole family lives up in Jujuy along with all his friends. He told us he used to drink a lot with his buddies. That every singe day they'd go buy beer to drink. The only time they didn't drink was if they were all flat broke, but if one of them had money they all gotta drink some more. So one day Miguel decided that he had to get away. Every day drinking was literally starting to kill him. So one day he just decided to leave his family, friends, and job to come to Ushuaia. He came down here and stayed down here for 17 straight years before he even went back for a visit. He told us the first time he went back was about 2 months ago and it was only because his mom got sick. When he went back up, he said he didn't know who anyone was. All of his aunts and uncles were old, all his cousins were taller than him now, and all the friends he left had a lot of problems. He had a completely different image of his whole family the last time he saw them and I'm sure that's true after 17 years. He also gotta see some of his friends which was hard for him as well. They'd all kept drinking after he left and they all have problems now. One has a severe case of diabetes, one has permanent brain damage, and he had more than one of his friends who died of alcohol poisoning. That's when he realized why he left because that would've been him. All his friends told him it was pretty good he left as well. Little by little he feels he's had slow changes in life to help him be closer to God and right now he's really trying to find that. We were able to sit down and read the Book of Mormon with him and just talk about we aren't here to be perfect, but we are here to get better. To just try and be a little better than we were the day before. He almost came to church with us but something happened and he didn't come. 

Friday was cool because we hosted another wedding at our church haha. The wedding judge came up to me and told me he just feels like he's a part of the Mormon Family now with all the times he's come over here the past few months haha. I've been to more weddings in Argentina than when I was at the house. 

Saturday was great because we were able to have Mikaela and Federico's baptisms. They were both super ready and looked great. Federico wanted Elder Fogo to baptize him, and Mikaela wanted me to baptize her. They were both really nervous, but she was especially that I was gonna drown her or not be able to get her back up but it all went great haha. They are an example of why we are here. We stand in the baptismal font with our minds on the temple and them getting sealed. Its always cool to see that little light in their eyes after baptism, and just being able to help them start on their path to Heaven.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen