Week 74

Mommy & All,

"For what is everyday but a series of choices between the right way, and the easy way." -Rise & Shine

First off wanna give a big Birthday Shout Out to my little bro Brandon here on Wednesday! About ready to be a teenager congrats on making it this far because i thought either Caleb or I would have killed you before this, but you made it! 

This week was pretty good. I gotta make the awesome trek up to Comodoro and then back down. I left Ushuaia at 5 AM Tuesday morning, and got back Friday at 11:45 at night. I gotta spend a little more than 49 hours this week traveling. But overall it was good and we had fun. 

Thursday we had meetings and trainings with Presidente Salerno. After the first Thursday morning video, Presidente told me I had a visitor. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was a member or just someone I'd met in Comodoro, but as I was walking down the hall, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me. You know, I'm used to that because it happens every single day when I walk in the street, but usually not with other missionaries since they already know me. So I rounded the corner inside the church and almost fell over when I saw Dustin (my comp from the MTC) with his girlfriend Virginia. When he left the mission, I honestly honestly thought I'd never see him ever again so it was a huge surprise and was great. We were able to sit and talk and catch up and they ate lunch with us. It was also cool to meet his girl who I've heard so much about. Dustin started crying when he saw me which made me laugh and remember the MTC and how he is such an emotional guy. That was the highlight of my week was to see that bro again.

After that we found out who we'd be training. So my 10th comp is Elder Dacuy from Mar Del Plata in Buenos Aires. He is also my 8th Latin comp haha. He is a cool guy who is quiet but funny and has a desire to do the work we were called to do, and just try and help people. He told me that he is also adopted. He was adopted when he was 2 months old, and has never met is birth parents either. So we one thing in common right off the bat which is cool. I think we are gonna have a good time together. He also really likes to play basketball which is PERFECT for what we do down here as I've said in other emails haha. We also had a good mission experience with him. When we were coming back down from Comodoro, we were in the last leg of our journey, traveling from Rio Grande to Ushuaia. About half way between the 2 cities, the bus suddenly died, and we rolled off to the side of the road and we sat there in the middle of no where. They said a rock got kicked up into some tubes and the bus wasn't gonna run. So they called someone to try and get a replacement, or a new bus. So we sat there for about 2 hours waiting for something to happen. Some people thought we would have to sleep in the bus. The temperature dropped to about 25 degrees and since the bus wasn't running, it got a little cold out there haha. But somehow they got it up again and we got here. So he has already started his mission off good haha.

Conference for me personally was really good. I've never taken in more or learned more from any other conference before like I did from this one. More than anything I learned how every single one of us, no matter who we are, We are good enough, we are fit for the calls that we have, and that is isn't enough to just have goals for this life. We all need eternal goals. Because we are all good enough to receive eternal life, which is the greatest gift God can give to any of us. That really helped put things into focus for me.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen