Week 68

Mommy & All,

"There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and how you use those are critical! You have 86,400 today and what you do today is going to seep in to who you are..." -Phenomenal

This week was good. Transfers happened on Monday. We all thought my comp, Elder Fogo, was leaving since he's already done 4 transfers here in Ushuaia and hasn't been anywhere else since he started the mission here. But when transfers were announced, he got assigned to do a 5th transfer here which is pretty rare and he's going to have been in his first area for 7 1/2 months which is fair amount of time haha. But Elder Jensen got a new comp, so we were in a trio with him, and since he's Zone Leader, we were flying around till Wednesday night with people going out and coming in. 

Friday, we had a really good activity that Elder Jensen planned. We invited all the members and our investigators to cook their favorite food and bring it to the church. It was cool because a lot of them are from different countries. We had a little competition with judges and prizes and it went really good. We also did a little Book of Mormon activity. We showed a video about the Testimony of the Book of Mormon, where Elder Holland talks about its pure power and witnesses. He talks about how so many people died, from Joseph and Hyrum Smith, to the pioneers, in order for the Restoration and the Book of Mormon to come to pass in our day. He also talks about how the Restoration wasn't a single moment or event, but how its continuous. All of us today are a part of that as well as we strive to share the gospel and be living witnesses in these times. Then we gave a book to each family for them to write their testimonies in it so we can share that with the people we talk to. 

We all met with Santi again this week. We were able to sit down and read with him some more. We read about the story of Jacob and Sherem. How Sherem came into the people of Nephi preaching against Christ and his coming into the world and how Jacob stood against him. Sherem then asks for a sign, that if all Jacob says is true about God, then he should have the power to show him. And then Sherem was struck dumb and that was his sign. In this part, it talks about how we shouldn't be sign seekers, how we shouldn't always be looking for something amazing to happen to grow our faith because if that's the case our faith will never truly grow. But it also reminded me that our God is a God of miracles. How it talks about in the Book of Mormon that miracles haven't ceased because Jesus ascended into heaven. How we can see little miracles every day if we are looking. We talked about this with Santi and his faith and spirit seemed to grow every day. He is praying and likes to read with us and asks questions in a way that he truly wants to learn.

Much Love,  

Elder Christensen

ABOUT MY FOOT: The surgery went pretty good. I am just starting to walk today and i still have 3 stitches in my foot that they are going to leave till next week. Excited to get out and start walking and working again though. 

Week 67

Mommy & All,

"Do you believe that one day, you are not going to live in a world that was given to you, but you are actually going to live in the world that you dream of!"

First off huge BDay shoutout to my Dad yesterday!! Hope 45 treats you good Ole Man! 

This week was pretty good. One of the members in our ward, Hermano Barcos, took us a little trip to a national park that is at the literal bottom of the world, where the road runs off and ends in the ocean and that's it. So its was cool to go see that.

We also had the chance to teach Sani again. We sat down and read the Book of Mormon with him and answered questions. We read the part where they find the Liahona and Laman and Lemuel tie Nephi up on the boat the they almost die. We asked Sani why he thought the Liahona stopped working. He told us that it was because it only worked when they were good and when they did good things. He went on to talk about Laman and Lemuel and repentance. He kept saying how those guys were crazy. They saw angels, experienced miracles, and yet still kept going back and trying to stop Nephi from doing what the Lord asked of him. He told us how  Laman and Lemuel never had a true repentance because they just kept going back and doing the same thing over again. And just how us in general are really slow to forget God, and really quick to do the things that he tells us not to. Just like how they tied Nephi up on the boat and it wasn't until the boat was gonna sink that they decided to untie him. This kid is 11 years old and is already giving answers like that so it was really cool.

Mikaela and Federico, the people we baptized came to church after a few weeks of not coming. Mikaela has been pretty sick with stomach problems and went to the hospital probably 9 times. Come to find out that she is pregnant with twins haha. That was cool. They also brought Kati with them to church. She is one of our investigators and it Federicos niece. It was good to have them all there and we were able to share more about the Book of Mormon with her and just be personal witnesses to that and the things we do as members of the church. So we are really trying to progress with her and help out Mikaela and Federico since they are brand new to this as well.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Week 66

Mommy & All,

"What reason can you remember, that you can call on, that you can reach on, that can make you get back up! Find that reason!" -Phenomenal

This week was pretty good. We had conference with Presidente Salerno on Tuesday and it went really good. We talked about just how we can make the mission so that it keeps improving. We are starting to focus on just being good at the little things. And that we need to do everything with love. There is no point in teaching a lot of lessons just to say you  teach lessons. We have to be able to do everything with love, whether its teaching, contacting, or just doing stuff for our comps. We are also focusing on finding new people and just always having people to each. Presidente Salerno has helped me a lot throughout the mission to realize the potential we each have not just as missionaries, but as people in general. And of course we are focusing on "Flooding the Patagonia with the Book of Mormon." We are having members write there testimonies on the inside front of the Book of Mormons that we give out to people. That they are able to me more specialized and a witness in today's world that the Book of Mormon is true. Its been cool to see how this mission has been able to change little by little.

I was also able to meet my long lost cousin from Brazil named Elder Otoni. He was baptized a little over a year ago and is brand new here in the missionary. He also happens to be black which makes us now 2 here in this mission haha. He is way cool and it was good to get to know him. When we were talking about the Book of Mormon during conference and how we need to give more out and such, he leaned over to me and said " All right now we are gonna start Flooding the Patagonia with Black Guys " hahaha and i died laughing. It was cool to be able to see a bunch of old comps and friends at conference as well. 

I was able to visit quite a bit with a member named Hermano Barcos. He is the coolest member I've met during my mission. He is separated from his wife who lives here in Ushuaia and his older 17 year old son lives with her. But he has an 11 yr old named Santi who lives with him and isn't a member yet. His mom served a mission and was super big in the church and then one day had a bad experience in the church and went insane and left Hermano Barcos and now hates the church. And she isn't letting Santi get baptized. His older brother is a member but isn't active at all, and all his mom does is talk bad about the church. He almost got baptized earlier, but his mom threatened to call the police. He lives in the zone leaders area, but all of us are working with him. We sit down and read the Book of Mormon and just answer questions for him. He is the smartest 11 yr old I've ever met. We sat down on Thursday with us 4 missionaries and his dad and him and talked. He didn't really believe in God and asked how we know he exists. We were all able to testify of prayers and answers. How all of us are here right now because we received and answer to prayer. Yet we got it in 4 different ways since we were all in 4 different spots before the mission. That really helped him and it was just cool to watch and be a part of that.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen