Week 77

Mommy & All,

"Its easy to be on the bottom, it doesn't take any effort to be a loser! Doesn't take any motivation or any drive in order to stay down there on a low level. But it calls on everything in you, you have to harness your will to say I'm going to challenge myself!!"

This week was pretty good. We were able to see Raul and Matilde get baptized this week which was the goal that we put with them so that was great! Rauls younger Brother, Ruben, did both of their baptisms which was a cool thing to see as well and made them all closer as a family. It's been great to see all the changes they've made in their lives from the time they chose to get married to when they decided to get baptized. The best feeling in the world is when you see all your hard work pay off. It's amazing to see how we as missionaries can be such simple tools in the hands of the Lord to bring and present the message of the Restoration to everyone who doesn't already know it. Raul, Matilde, and I have all become good friends throughout this whole process. It's been great to be able to make eternal friends with all that we go through together.

We also gotta teach Ignacio this week. He called us up one day and just asked he we could come over and talk to him. He is really struggling with things in his life and he drinks a ton. He told us that he wants us to help him stop drinking and get out of his problem. We told him about the basics of what we teach about the gospel, about how Jesus Christ knows all of our pains both physically and emotionally, and that as our Savior He is the one who can help us overcome anything we have that troubles us in this life. We also talked with him about the Word of Wisdom and the power of the Book of Mormon. We invited him to read and really study it, and that it was one way to help him overcome is addiction to drink. It's a type of power that's indescribable. Only through our faith and the Holy Ghost can we come to feel it touch our everyday lives and really change us from the inside out.

We are also still working with Brian. We always are able to get him to come to come to the soccer and basketball activities that we have every week, but he doesn't yet have time to come with us on Sundays. On Wednesday, we all lined up to play some basketball and that was really fun and is always a good time to relax a little. We had enough guys that they wanted to play Gringos vs Latinos. So it was Me, Elder Jensen, Taylor, Holmes, and Harper, against Brian and a bunch of members down here. That was really really fun and we really started to become good friends with Brian through things like this. Also just really grateful to be with all these guys right now. They help me to always be a better missionary and just a better person in general as we are all changing and growing together out here. It's been hard of course as the work always is. But these guys make it a little easier just by being great friends and helping me laugh every once in a while haha.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen