week 26

Mommy & All,

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of it for another." -Charles Dickens

This week has been a little crazy. So Monday night last week I found out my new comp, Elder Aquino, won't be getting here until November 4th. He is down in Puerto Williams, a tiny little town in Chile below Ushuaia. When you go there, you don't see other missionaries until you get transferred out so you are kind of stuck there until that happens. So Aquino is getting transferred out but his comp is staying there for another transfer and of course they can't just leave him down there by himself. So he has to wait for the missionary who is replacing him to get down there, then they will be in a trio for a day and then he can start the trip up here haha the travel time here is crazy. So I've been in a trio since last Tuesday with the Elders of San Martin, Elder Ekblad, and Elder Cullum. They work in the area right next to mine. It has been GREAT and we work too in both areas. Elder Ekblad graduated from Bingham this year and got to the mission just a transfer after me. Elder Cullum is from Orange County California, but his family moved to Spanish Fork like 2 weeks before he left so his siblings go to Maple Mountain. They are both way cool guys. Right now we are working in both my area and theirs and its awesome, since we have 2 areas, a ton of members, 2 places to sleep, and we can choose where to go for the day. 

Wednesday night, we visited with one of their investigators named Margarita. She has been an investigator for 3 years now and it wasn't until Elder Ekblad got here that she wanted to get baptized. She is awesome and literally knows everything about the Gospel and our Church. She is pretty much a member of their ward. She goes to church every Sunday, bares her testimony every Fast Sunday, she literally just faults baptism that is it. The sad thing is right now it seems almost impossible for that to happen. She is living with her boyfriend and they have a 2 yr old son. The complicated part is that he is still legally married in Paraguay to another lady and the only way to get a divorce is for him to go back to do that which again seems impossible because he can't miss work. It is sad because she told us a million times she knows everything is true and that she has never wanted anything more in this life than baptism. So we sat and talked with her about just continuing to do the little things like reading and praying each day. What impressed me about her was that she even Fasts. She told us she was so upset with herself because she couldn't complete a 24 hr fast she attempted. And shes just an investigator haha! So we explained that it doesn't always have to be 24 hrs and that she was doing great things. I could really feel the Spirit of God in her life. 

Friday we also visited Luis, a member baptized 4 months ago in my ward and he is already less active. He asked the church if he could have the book with the Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price all in one. So we went and took it to him. When we invited him to church he told us that he could only come to church is God wills it and he wasn't right now so he told us then he already wasn't planning on coming to church but he was really happy to have the book. Interesting things happening here haha.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

ALSO, A HUGE BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO NICOLE!! FORGOT ITS ALREADY FREAKING NOVEMBER HOLY CRAP!!! haha