Week 60

Mommy & All,

"Its about gaining that competitive edge! You cant afford to make excuses. No excuses when you feel pain and trust me, You Will Feel It!" -Unknown

This week was pretty good. With all the snow we didn't travel to Las Heras till Tuesday and then we got back here Thursday afternoon. 

We were able to sit down and talk with Gisel Friday morning and that was really good. She literally knows everything that we teach an investigator before baptism, and we more doctrine as well because of her brother. She is super really for baptism, she just has that little marriage problem with her boyfriend Julian. He doesn't really have any desire to get married. She sat down and told us that she is 100% sure that everything we've taught is true, and how happy she is to know that. She isn't even baptized yet, and says that she has already seen a difference in things in her house. She used to have tons of problems with Julian and used to fight with her 10 yr old daughter Briza a ton. She says that its mostly gone away ant that there's been a different spirit in her house. So she really wants to get baptized to be able to have that guide of the Holy Ghost. She wants to get married to Julian to make it all work, but told us that in the very end if he wont even consider it that they'd split up. She told us she doesn't rely on him for anything and can definitely do things by herself with her little girls since she raised Briza while she was alone because her first boyfriend left her while she was pregnant. And she said she will remind Julian of that because she really wants baptism. At the end of the lesson, she ended up asking us how she can share our message with other people! That she has a few people in mind she wants us to teach because of how its helped her so much . So that was really cool. 

Friday night we gotta go see Marcelo, Maria, and Augustin. Maria made us the best empanadas I've ever eaten and we showed them a Restoration video and they loved it. We invited them to pray as a family if all this is true. Marcelo's brother Andres has been working a ton with them as well so they always have awesome questions. They are another family that's super ready, we just have to get them married and get them coming to church consistently. 

Saturday we got to go see Fabiano. He is a guy we've only taught once before, but already knows a ton about the church since he'd talked to Elders when he was in Salta. So we sat down and just answered questions that he had about the things he read since we last came. Then we talked about nothing but baptism with him. He sees that its really important, and wants he promised blessings that come from it. We were going to put a baptismal date with him for the end of July because he still needs to come to church, but just our luck he leaves the first week of July to go do border patrol between Argentina and Chile, and is going to be up there till August 6th. But he said he wants to keep preparing while he is up there, and that he is going to take the Book of Mormon with him. He even said he will give us the phone number of the house he's in up there so we can call him and teach him sometimes. 

It started snowing here again Saturday night at about 11. By 10 'o'clock Sunday morning, we had a 12 inches of snow.  So we only had 4 people at church. We didn't have a shovel, so for the people to get into our house I had to take a chair and clean off our walk way haha. It continued to snow all day Sunday, so Vega and I just walked around with a shovel we got from Hermano Naiman and looked for people who needed help. We ended up pushing, pulling and digging out 11 cars out of the snow. Right now we are sitting on a little more than 18 inches city wide and it just started snowing again while I'm typing this email. The locals here say that Perito hasn't seen snow like this since like 1991. So its been a good time.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Week 59

Mommy & All,

"I flinched, when I should`ve scurried." -Uncle Max (Lion King 1 1/2)

First off I wanna wish my Little Big sis a happy 21st birthday! Wow we are starting to grow up. Second I wanna give a Shout Out to my Ole Dad for Fathers Day yesterday. Like Mom, I cant thank you enough ever for all youve done for me. You've given me the best example in my life of how to have a work ethic to get what you really want. Never seen a harder worker or more dedicated person when it comes to reaching the goals he sets. And of course with the goals I've had in life, your example has more than helped me. Thank you for that.

This week was pretty good. We got to see Raul last Monday and he made us Ostrich. Its kinda like Road Runner and actually isn't that weird for people down in this part to eat it and I thought it was pretty good.

We headed to Las Heras Monday night and didn't get back till Thursday afternoon. While we were in Las Heras we got to stop by and see Cyntia for a bit and that was cool. She's struggling with health problems so we shared Ether 12:27 with her about how God gives us weaknesses so that we can be humble and through faith he can make them our strengths. She really liked that and invited us back this week to eat empanadas haha. 

Friday it snowed all day long which was pretty cool I thought and we got about 5-6 inches. So Friday morning we trudged through the blizzard to go visit Luisa. We shared Alma 34 with her that talks about how we shouldn't put of the day of our repentance till the end because by then its too late. She understood what we were saying perfectly, but told us she is not getting baptized outside and the blizzard going on while we were teaching this lesson didn't really help the cause. So we asked her what she thought if we somehow found a place inside here in Perito and she actually said yes to that. So we are hoping that in the coming weeks we can have a chance to see her baptism. Friday we also gotta see Gisel. Julian finally got back from his trip to Cordoba so we were able to talk to the both of them together and it went pretty good. We were able to talk about marriage and baptism and how the 2 together can bring all these blessings into their lives and the lives of their little girls. We were able to sit down and read The Family: A Proclamation to the World with them and that was really good. Like I've said before, my comp and I are both able to testify because of the example our parents have given us while we were growing up, and what kind of blessings an Eternal Family can bring. So they said they will start the talks about marriage so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

 On Sunday, Augustin came to church so that was really good and we got to go visit with his family that afternoon as well, with his parents Marcelo and Maria. We shared with them The Family: A Proclamation to the World as well and sat and read it with them and they seemed to enjoy it. They ask a lot of really good questions and ended up telling us that they are planning on getting married at the end of this year which was really cool to hear. I'm pretty I wont be around here to see that or their baptism, but its good to hear they are starting that process. We also talked a lot with them about the Plan of Salvation because they have a tons of questions about that. Marcelo, Gisel, and Yanel are losing their Mom to cancer and are of course struggling with that and have a lot of questions about what goes on after all this. It does help us out a lot that their brother is a Branch President and the questions that we cant answer he can. We say that the Plan of Salvation contains the answers to the questions of the Soul. Where did I come from, what is my purpose here, and where am I going after this life. It's great to help people recognize this Plan. A plan we all chose and accepted before this life, we are just here to give a reminder. Everyone talks about Eternal Life and Eternal Families, but we are able to give people the formula and steps to make it there.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Week 58

Mommy & All,

"I wondered what would break first. Your Spirit...or your Body." -Bane

This week was pretty good. We left Perito Tuesday night and didn't get back till Saturday morning because we were traveling. 

Tuesday morning went well. So for some reason we get all these flies in our house that are 3 times the size of a normal fly. They don't bite or anything but for some reason here they are way bigger so the buzzing sound is a lot louder. So that morning I was killing flies and it was going good. About 2 min before we left that morning to go work, I was standing by the door waiting for my comp. And I saw a huge fly sitting right on our front window. So I sized it up and came after it. Now this has never happened before in my life. I've smashed tons of flies against windows before and its gone good. So I go to hit the fly and the next thing I know my first is through the window and there is glass everywhere haha. I was more shocked than anything and it scared the crap outta my comp who was in the other room. So I walked outside just to see if it was that noticeable (it was) and to clean up the glass. the good new is that big fly was lying there dead in the middle of the wreckage so i got him. Bad new is I had to spend all day Tuesday dealing with a window replacement haha. Sure making a lot of memories out here in Perito. Also Monday was cool because Elder Smith our district leader, and I were throwing the Football around and a bunch of little Argentine kids who've never seen a football before came up and were just amazed. So we got to teach them how to throw and play football for the first time and they loved it. 

We were in Las Heras Tuesday and Wednesday and we headed to Comodoro on Thursday. Friday we had conference with President so we had all of Thursday free in Comodoro. So I got to go back and see La Prensa for the first time in 6 months and it was really cool. They cleaned up most of the water and mud from the storm but there is still a bit. I gotta visit the Familia Alvarenga where I lived the whole time I was there, and the Familia Cercuetti who treated me great when I was there so it was awesome to see them again. Friday I also got to see a lot of the bros from Comodoro who I haven't seen in about 6 months as well and it was good to catch up with them. 

Saturday morning we came back to Perito. We gotta visit with Luisa which was good. We just talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of course baptism. In the end, she ended up telling us that she knew all of the things we said were true or she never would have opened the door to us after the first time 6 months ago. So we asked her what was keeping her from getting baptized and she honestly just said its because its cold and she doesn't even wanna be in the water for 10 seconds outside in the Perito winter. So we are again seeing what we can do about that little problem haha. We were also able to visit with Marcelo and Maria. They are the parents of one of our investigators named Augustin and I never really had the chance to talk with them. We hadn't even seen Augustin in about a month and a half. Marcelo is the brother of Gisel and Yanel, 2 of our other investigators and Maria is his "wife". They have 3 kids together the oldest being Augustin at 15 and the youngest is less than a year old. The brother of Marcelo, Gisel, and Yanel is the Branch President in Pico Truncado as I've said before so that's how they know the church. The one time I talked with Marcelo, he didn't want anything to do with marriage or baptism. Saturday night, we were walking in the street in the opposite direction of their house, when the random thought came to mind that we should go visit Augustin. Remember we hadn't been to his house in almost 2 months. Augustin had just barely left when we got there, but Marcelo and Maria gladly welcomed us in and said they'd been waiting for a visit from us for a long time which shocked me haha. We ended up talking for 2 hrs, with them asking asking us how they can get married, go to Pico Truncado to get baptized, and then later get sealed in the temple! Marcelo even told us he has a desire to get married so that was awesome. So hopefully we can start the process of working with them towards that goal now as well as with Gisel.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

week 57

Mommy & All,

"Dig deep down, deep deep down and ask yourselves Who Do You Want To Be, figuring out for yourselves what makes you Happy." -Unknown

This week was pretty good. On Tuesday we got a fridge, washing machine, and the chairs to have church meetings brought to the house so that was good. On Wednesday we got to see R. again. We got to his house and started talking to him for a bit and then he looks at me and tells me he is going to share a secret with me. He continues to tell me that there is a reserve of pure fresh water under his camping ground. And its the only unused pure water source in the World, and that he is the only living person in Argentina to know about it. He goes on to explain that before the World ends, all the water on the planet is going to become contaminated and undrinkable, and that he is sitting on the planets last hope for drinkable water. He told us that NASA came and visited  him and talked with him about it and that other people have offered him tons of money and all sorts of things for his land because they know something is underneath but they don't know what according to him. So he tells me that he is telling me this because he says he thinks I'm best buddies with Barack Obama because I'm black and from the U.S. (that's what he told me). So with him as a friend I have to have friends in high places. Then he looks at me with wide eyes and says, "I want you to talk with your United States friends because I know you have a lot of influence up there. But don't freak out and just be really calm and cool about it. I want you to tell them about the pure water reserve and have them come down here and I will sell it to them. Then after I sell it, you'll get a chunk of the money, and we will release this secret to the public and you will be one of the most famous people in your country. WE WILL BE BUSINESS PARTNERS!!" He continues on saying he doesn't wanna sell it to Argentina but to the United States because he thinks we will give him a lot more money. He says the reserve is like liquid gold, and says it actually talks about his place in the Bible hahaha he said and I quote, "It actually talks about my place here in the Bible. I don't know which Bible...but its in one of them!" I can just picture someone reading in the Bible where it talks about the end of the World and reading the words "Mini Camping R." as a part of that. Vega and I had a good time with that one after haha. Guys I promise, even if I wanted to make these stories up about the things he tells to us to make my mission sounds more interesting I honestly couldn't do this good. For those of you who know me, you  know my creativity level is not this high so I have to be telling the truth hahaha. Anyways after that he changes the subject and asks how old I am. I tell him I'm 19 and he tells me I look old enough to be 40 so that made me feel good haha. He tells me I'm big for being 19 and that I'm young enough and big enough to fight a bear. Super random. he tells me he knows a guy who owns a bear, and he is going to call him up and tell him to come to his mini camping so I can fight his bear. He wants me to go 3 rounds with this bear at his mini camping and then we will both be super rich because he says tons of people will come and watch. The stories honestly get better and better every time with this guy. 

Sunday we had the first church meeting here in our house. We had a total of 9 people counting us and Luisa with her 2 little daughters. So only 4 members showed up. Natalia and Nahuel were in Gallegos doing medical stuff, but everyone else just decided to sleep in so that wasn't awesome. We were missing like 10 people but we had the meeting anyway of course and it wasn't too bad. Yesterday we also gotta teach Gisel and Yanel. We talked about the "banquet of blessings" that are waiting for us if we choose to show our faith and act and we showed them the Elder Uchtdorf video that talks about how we shouldn't have to wait to find our our blessings until its too late, but that we should look now. And of course we talked about baptism. Gisel is ready and told us that when her boyfriend comes back from Cordoba that she is really gonna try and convince him to get married so she can get baptized. So that was awesome to hear. 

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Week 56

Mommy & All,

"You gotta dream...you gotta protect it. If people cant do something themselves, they're gonna wanna tell you that you cant do it. If you want something, go get it. Period." -Will Smith

This week was pretty good. On Tuesday we headed to Rauls for a bit to see how he was doing. We walked in and there was a big plate of meat in the middle of the table. When we sat down he brought out 2 plates and told us to eat. So we started eating and it actually tasted pretty good, but it was a taste I'd never tasted in meat before. So out of curiosity like I do most times now when I'm eating a plate of meat here in Argentina, I asked what kind of meat it was. And of course most of the answers are interesting and different. So when I asked Raul, he looked up at me with his little Raul smile and said, "It's Roadrunner." Like the bird off of the Looney Tunes with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner haha. I'd heard that people here hunted and ate that but I never had gotten the chance to try it and its actually pretty dang good! Thursday something similar happened. We went to the Familia Naimans house for lunch. We got there and ate some good Locro and Empanadas and such. Then Hermana Naiman put some slabs of meat down on the table and told us we had to eat it and guess what it was. So we picked it up and started eating and it tasted like regular meat for the most part. I guessed it was horse meat because I've already had that and that was the kind of flavor it had. Horse meat is the best sandwich meat in the world by the way and I highly recommend it. Anyways, we couldn't guess what it was. They ended up telling us it was Boar meat like Pumba the pig from the Lion King haha so that was cool. So just in the last month I've eaten Mussels, Road Runner, and Boar. 3 things I'd never eaten before. I don't suggest the mussels but the other 2 are pretty good. 

Thursday morning was interesting as well. We were contacting and we knocked on this wooden house. This lady who was about 70 years old opened up the window. I got to say "Hello we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ" before she looked at me and screamed, "I AM A WOMAN OF CHRIST!" And then this lady starts screaming, I mean SCREAMING, verses of the Bible at us IN HEBREW for about 3 minutes before she took a breath haha. It was another one of those times when my comp and I had to choke back a hard laugh. So after those 3 minutes she flipped back to Castellano and continued to tell us that when we walk in the streets we must tremble when we walk to show people that we have the fear of God in us and that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ, and that we must wash the feet of Jesus with our blood and stuff like that. Then she put her hand out towards us and blessed us, then told us to have a good day and shut the window. My comp looked at me and asked if that really happened. I looked back at him and told him that it was just another day in the mission hahaha we both had a good laugh in the end.

We have been working with a lady named Luisa this last week. She was one of our investigators when I was with Soto, but since I've been with Vega we haven't really seen her till this week. She came to church once when I was with Soto and is honestly super ready for baptism. So we went to her house 2 days this week and just talked about baptism and all the blessings that brings and it was pretty good. But she told us that she didn't wanna get baptized again. She was baptized once in the Catholic church as a baby, and then baptized in an Evangelist church a few years ago. We explained the whole line of authority thing and how we need to receive our authority to teach and baptize form God but she still has lots of doubts and doesn't really want to pray to see if its all actually true. So we will see what happens with her. 

We found found some new people this week named Fabiano and Angelica. They have 3 kids together, the youngest being about 4 months old, but we don't yet know if they are married. They are both from Salta (northern Argentina) and said they knew the church up there. Angelica told us that she has some Mormon friends and they are really cool. Fabiano told us that he actually talked with some Elders from the U.S. up in Salta and he actually had the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price up in Salta as well so that was way cool to hear. So we were able to teach them the Restoration and give them a Book of Mormon. We talked a little about baptism with them as well and we told them about Ana Maria and when Fabiano found out that we baptize her, his eyes got huge haha. Of course us being new here, it is different and surprising for the people who knew the church in other parts to see that here. Also Hugo, Susana's friend, came to church for the 2nd week in a row with her so that was awesome. We are barely starting to teach him as well, so we hope to keep continuing the progression with all these guys.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Added from another email today:  The housing situation still isn't great but that's okay.   We didn't have Church there because the guys from Comodoro didn't bring us chairs so we couldn't do it there anyway. There's lots of stuff I guess that we need to do to become a branch here including number of priesthood holders, number of people here in Perito etc.. we are actually a lot farther off than what I thought to become a branch. We don't plan the talks or anything for sacrament meeting, Hno. Naiman does that but we make everything work so its equal. All we do Sunday is take the sacrament and then someone gives a talk and if they don't take enough time then one of us gets up and just fills the time that we need to fill. The whole thing is only one hour so just sacrament meeting. We have 17 members in total with there kids I'm pretty sure.  The members take care of us and we are really united out here I feel and they do tons for us and just keep the church alive out here so its good. It will be hard to leave since I've never spent this much time in one area. This is technically my 4th transfer here so it will be something like 6 months working with these guys and a 4th of my mission. 

Week 55 (Max's football number Jr. year)

Mommy & All,

"Its easy to dream a dream, but its harder to live it."-Wale

This week was interesting. Up until Thursday all we did was pack and get our stuff ready to go to Perito. Friday morning we took and hauled all our stuff to the house in Perito and see how it was. The very first time we gotta see the inside of the house was when we moved in because the guy who owns it wouldn't give us the key till he had all his money. On the bus ride out there Friday morning, the police stopped the bus like they normally do and checked everyone's ID's. Of course I was the only one on the bus who didn't have Argentine ID. So they stopped the bus for about 20 min asking me all these questions and I almost had to go to jail for a sec but they ended up letting me go after looking through all my stuff. So the next thing on my checklist is getting them to send me my ID card which they just barely finished but its in Comodoro.

 So when we got to the house it was interesting. It wasn't as big as we'd hoped because we needed a place that had a big enough kitchen so we could do our church meetings there so we will see what happens with that. The bathroom experience here was a fun one. So the very first time we used the toilet it got clogged so the very first thing we bought for the house was a plunger. But every time after that the toilet got clogged so something was wrong. That was proved to us Saturday morning when my comp went to go take the first shower. So the water from the toilet and shower run to the same spot and we could hear it go down but it made a funny sound. So a few minutes after my comp started his shower I heard a scream from the bathroom. Apparently while he was showering, EVERYTHING that we'd flushed down the toilet came up through the shower drain hahaha and the drain for this shower is about the size of a medium squared floor tile, so for the shower its big which makes that experience even worse but funnier haha. Anyways that's when we knew it wasn't actually the toilet, but everything under the floor that was clogged up and never got cleaned out. So Hermano Naiman came over yesterday with a hook to see what he could find. He ended up fishing out half a rug that someone had flushed down the toilet and about enough hair to make a basketball. So after clearing that little blockage, our bathroom was at least functioning up till this morning so I'm not sure what we are going to do. We are still waiting on a fridge, washing machine, and microwave so hopefully that will get here sometime this week. 

Saturday we got to talk to Gisel again. We were able to talk a lot about marriage because that is the only thing she needs and then she can get baptized. We told her about all the blessings she will receive by getting married and baptized. We said that marriage isn't just for baptism in her case, but its for her family and life in general. We were able to testify of how she will be able to have a better relationship with Julian not just through marriage but having the gospel and that spirit in her home as well. I was able to testify through the example that my parents have shown me. We work with and meet a lot of people who aren't and don't wanna get married but wanna get baptized and it seems that the main fear and reason they don't wanna get married is the "what happens if we fight" factor. A lot of them fight with their boyfriend or girlfriend often and the very first thought they have is breaking up and getting separated. In almost every case the only reason they stay together is for the kids, not for each other. We talked with Gisel about how every relationship and marriage is going to have fights and disagreements. The only difference is when you are married your first thought isn't to split up but try and work it out. Also that when you have the Gospel to hold it together your marriage and the spirit that comes with that, its a lot easier to forgive that is the key. So we had a good lesson  talking about that. Only problem is that her boyfriend Julian just barley left and headed up north to go through a police course for a month so it will be a sec before they can talk about that together.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

Week 54

Mommy & All,

"To every son the mother ought to be preeminently the woman of women; she is the one woman in the world to whom the son owes his earthly existence; and though the title "Mother" belongs to every woman who has earned the honors of maternity, yet to no child is there more than one woman whom by natural right he can address by that title of respectful acknowledgement." -James E. Talmage

Just wanna give a huge shout out to my Mom and the whole fam for all they continue to do for me and it was great talking to them yesterday. I hope Mothers Day was good for you Momma and of course I can't repay you for all you've ever done and I'm so proud to call YOU my Mom.

This week was pretty good. We were in Las Heras until Thursday. On Wednesday, I was doing divisions with Elder Arismendi who's been in the mission about a month now. As we were walking down the street, a guy stopped us asking where we were from because he said he knew we weren't from around here. So I told him I was from the U.S. and he looked at me a little shocked and said "You look like you have the face of a Chilean!" So that was a first. The funniest part was the Arismendi is from Chile and he looked at this guy like he was insane haha. So now in my mission I've had people tell me I'm from the Dominican Republic, Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Salta (northern Argentina), and now Chile haha. Anyways he went on to tell us how us Mormons don't believe in the Holy Ghost and how we think that Joseph Smith is Jesus Christ and stuff like that. Then he told us that God truly loved us, that we need to stop lying to people about the Book of Mormon and the message we preach and we need to preach the truth, and invited us to search for the kingdom of God. We told him that God loved him as well and invited him to search as well haha. So that was a good time. 

When we got to Perito, we were able to meet with Susana the new member we found last week. She told us a little bit of her story how she was baptized when she was 8 yrs old and how her dad loved the church and the missionaries. She moved down here in 2002 and had always asked for missionaries down here but never saw any and she never knew about Natalia or any of them that were here as well. She talked about how she felt so alone and how she took a turn for the worst and how she smoked and drank a lot up until she had her first kid. Now she has 2. After her 2nd kid she started smoking again but told us that she hasn't smoked now for almost a year. So we showed her a Mormon message about when Thomas S. Monson was in the marines and felt like he was the only Mormon standing alone and how even when we are alone we must still stand strong. It ended up being that he wasn't the only Mormon as he came to find out. He quotes a primary song he learned that says "Dare to be a Mormon! Dare to stand alone..." and how we never really are alone because we have our Heavenly Father. So for the first time in 15 years, Susana attended a church meeting yesterday.

We also got to teach Gisel again and she came to church as well. We got to teach her the Plan of Salvation and focused on the fact that she had her 2nd little girl just 3 months ago and how she can be with then forever. She actually ended up telling us that she knew it was true. That shes felt it twice and believes it. She wants to get baptized with her boyfriend (so they need to get married first) and her 10 yr old daughter. So now hopefully we will start working more with her boyfriend Julian.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen

     Max told us on the phone that he had turned into "That" fanny pack guy.  Here it is in all it's glory.

Max and Elder Arismendi (An actual Chilean.  Don't they look alike?)

                                                     
To demonstrate that though he has changed he is still Max.  I had to ask what it was.  Pigeon feathers and dead pigeon bodies that he was so impressed with, and knew his Mom would appreciate it, that it deserved a tag picture as well.  

The motel they have been living in while the search for more permanent living quarters. It apparently has the nicest bathroom he has seen since getting to Argentina and since they have no kitchen that have been "forced" to eat in the hotel downstairs when they don't have eating arrangements.  He is still excited to get a place to settle into since half of there stuff is still in Las Heras.