Week 91

Mommy & All, 

"Allow your pain to push you to greatness!! Some of you have been knocked out by life, and you got up and saw the blood and said eeeeehhhhh he hit me...Sometimes in life, you have to hit back!!!" -Born in the Dark

This week was pretty good. Elder Allen was my comp last week since we were both without comps so we had to go back and forth working in his area and in mine. It was a nice time traveling again haha, but we did have quite a bit of success and some good laughs, he's a good dude.

So this week I got the Africa question again haha. Elder Allen and I were at lunch with a member in his area, and they were super nice and started to ask me a bunch of questions while we were eating. They started to ask about the fam and where I was from and all this stuff. I told them I was from the U.S. and they thought that was cool. Then they asked me again where I was born and I told them Houston. Then they started to look at me a little funny and asked where my parents were born. I told them the U.S. as well and they started to get more confused so they asked me where my grandparents were from and I said the U.S. as well haha. So then after a couple rounds of this game, one of the sisters just comes out and says "You seriously weren't born in Africa, or at least your parents?" Haha I told them no but of course, all lines lead back there at some time. But it was pretty funny how they were surprised I had 3 generations born in the U.S. haha.

Another one of these happened just yesterday when we were eating in Elder Allen's area again. We were eating with this really cool family who looked at my pics and asked me a million questions about adoption and how that all worked and just how my fam was put together. During the conversation, one of the sons who is 16 piped up and asked, "So were you born on the other continent?" At first, I didn't understand that because no one had ever asked me like that before. So he looks at me again and says "You know, the other continent out there Africa, were you born there?" So then I had to explain the same thing to them as I did to the other family and it was pretty funny. 

On Sunday I went to the other ward, Palazzo, and it was a cool time. For Elder Quorum, we all went in a room and sat in a circle and had a council where we talked about the Sabbath day and specifically the topic of Worship. They started giving ideas on how we can prepare before, during, and after the Sabbath to worship God and Jesus Christ. Then they started talking about service and lending a helping hand to the people who might need it to be ready when the Sabbath arrives. The topic of Sabbath day service got brought up and a counselor from the stake presidency brought up the saying that Jesus said when he said something like if your cow falls into a pit on the sabbath day, you aren't going to wait for the Sabbath to pass to get it out, but you will do it right away. In some cases of service and things on the Sabbath that is the case. Then another guy said that after that happens though, we must prepare ourselves so that the figurative cow, whatever it may be, doesn't fall again next week. Then the counselor quickly responded with the question "okay so what can we do if the cow does happen to fall down again?" And literally without a pause or a thought, almost like it was a planned response, the whole Elder Quorum says almost in unison, "We can have an Asado!!!" (Argentine Barbecue) Elder Halverson from Washington who was with me, him and I just start busting out laughing and everyone starts laughing as well. That was just the biggest showing to us just how ingrained the culture of Asado is here in Argentina. So that was another funny moment.

Well, I literally just said goodbye to my best buddy in the mission Elder Jensen a few minutes ago. He's flying out to Sac Town tomorrow morning and it was good to see him one last time. Wouldnt have made it through the mission without that guy, that's for sure. Its been great to get to know a lot of the guys in the mission and grow close to them as friends, but that guy is gonna be someone I never forget.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen