week 39

Max's pictures refused to upload this week with the slow internet.  Thankfully I got a few for other parents. I also got a letter from Max's companion Elder Soto today.  He is from Peru, where I served my mission.  It was fun to get to know him a little.  He said that they are working hard and were able to get 20 people to church in Perito Moreno which he said was incredible.  It is obvious that he and Max are getting along well.  

Mommy n All,

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is that so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

This week has been a little crazy and we traveled a ton. We went to Caleta on Wednesday to watch the World Transmission the church gave for missionaries only where they changed a few things with key indicators and the schedule you have depending on what part of the world you are in. They changed a few things for Latin America, but only a few different hours is all nothing big. They we traveled to Caleta again Thursday night and then Comodoro on Friday to have Conference with President. Then we headed back to Las Heras Friday night, then got up early Saturday morning and headed to Perito Moreno. Then Sunday night we headed back here to Las Heras haha. So we have taken a few bus rides already. Yesterday was our first Sunday in Perito. Since we have 2 areas, we switch each Sunday but visit Perito for 2 days each week. One Sunday in Las Heras, the next in Perito and so on. Out in Perito there are only 2 member families and they meet in someones house when they can't find another place to rent just to have sacrament meeting. There is only one guy out there who has the Priesthood and so he always does everything, so they like it when we come. Perito is really cool and the people there are nice as well. 

2 things happened yesterday. We contacted this lady named Luisa Saturday morning. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to church. We started church at 11 and told her we would come to her house and get her. She was like ,okay, yeah whatever, thinking we really wouldn't. We showed up at her house at 10:40 and woke her up like we said and she was kinda surprised. Elder Soto really really insisted that she come to church. She lives with just her 6 and 1 year old daughters and pretty much told us she was going back to bed. We said okay but we would be waiting for her outside if she changed her mind. When we were standing outside the "church house" waiting, I got a prompting to say a simple prayer. I did and just asked if God could put something in her heart to help her come to church. It was about 11:10 and right as we turned to go inside, Luisa comes rounding the corner with her daughters!! Elder Soto and I looked at each other with big smiles and said "Oh...My...Gosh" hahah it was awesome.

After church we went and visited a reference from a member. Their name was the Familia Darian. They'd lost their first baby 11 yrs ago when he was 4 months old to a sickness. We wanted to share what we know about how they can have more comfort and peace through the message of the Book of Mormon. The Dad Javier came out and talked to us for quite a long time about everything. He was all over the place and has so many different opinions about God and religion and seems pretty confused even though he told us he wasn't haha. One thing he did talk to us about was how his baby died and that it was his fault is what he said. Apparently, he didn't believe in some medical thing and they didn't take the baby in and it passed away. He said he feels like he has a huge backpack of rocks that he carries all the time which is guilt that he carries. We told him he can get rid of that but he said he doesn't want to. He feels he deserves that punishment for not helping his kid. So we tried just giving him the Book of Mormon but at first he told us no. He had every other religious book and he said he was good where he was at. He said his heart wouldn't let him and that he is very hard. Then we said okay share this with your wife. He got a little softer then. He told us he has talked to every church that came knocking at his door, and we were the first ones to ever offer to leave our book. He told us he couldn't accept it for free. We insisted that he don't give us anything but he wouldn't even listen. He started to take off a chain he was wearing around his neck. He took the Book of Mormon from my hand and replaced it with the chain. In the middle of the chain is an emblem that is his baby sons engraved face, and on the back it has his name. I told him I couldn't accept that. He pointed to his heart and said "I always have him in here. Please take it and pray for my son and my family." His name is Agustin Darian.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen