week 28

Mommy & All,

"Your imagination is yours. You can remember the past you choose, rehearse the future you want, and identify with the real and fictional heroes and events of your selection." -John Rogers & Peter McWilliams

Friday, Elder Harris and I hit the 6 month mark here in the mission. Its crazy for us to look back and see how far we have come since the MTC haha which is pretty far. Thursday, we had a Tsunami in Elder Harris' area, so we went on divisions together. It was pretty cool because we never really thought we´d work together out in the field. He is still stressing out about the language pretty bad which isn't fun to watch, but he is working really hard overall. So of course we all know about Donald Trump. On my first contact with Harris, we knocked a door of this big house and an older man came out. As soon as he saw us he started to get this little smile on his face. When Elder Harris started talking, the man looked at him and then me, back to Harris then back to me one more time. And while he is looking at me, he starts pointing at Harris and saying, "Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump..." probably about 15 times hahaha and I just started dying laughing so hard. And apparently that's happened to most of the white guys here. But now, everywhere we go whether its with members, investigators, or just contacting, the first thing we get asked about is "what do you think of Donald Trump?" I'm the only one who doesn't get asked a ton about it. Because if someone doesn't already know I'm from the U.S., most people don't assume it. When I first got here, I got asked a ton if I was from the Dominican Republic. When Id say no, almost always the response would be "oh, but your parents are right?" Now that I am learning how to talk, a lot of people ask me if I'm from Brazil because apparently I talk with that kind of accent (I have no clue). I do know that there are black people in Brazil though because one plays in the NBA. And I have had a few people think I'm legitimately just from Africa haha. 

We have a new investigator named Javier that we are working with. We found out about him because his girlfriend and her kids moved into our ward a few weeks ago and they introduced us. He has been an investigator for about 6 months now and his girlfriend, Hermana Velasquez, wants him to get baptized because they are engaged to get married this coming year. The sticky part of course, is that he still has to get divorced from his 1st wife. He is a really cool guy and really nice, but doesn't have much faith. He was baptized Catholic, but only because of his parents, and he never went to their church. He comes to church every week with his girlfriend and her kids. But he believes and loves to focus on philosophy. He is 45 and has studied a bunch of things like that. He told us he doesn't even believe in Adam and Eve because its too weird for him and doesn't make much sense. We've met with him a few times and have just gotten to know him and shared our stories. We are working with him on gaining a very simple testimony. He is even reading the Book of Mormon. We just need him to start praying.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen