week ending 7.31.11

 Hey everyone,

How are you all doing? I am really good, the week we had was really good! We had 5 investigators that went to church and they are all progressing towards a baptism. The Aguilar Family are doing really well, the dad doesn't want anything but that's okay for now, he will see the change in the life of his family and we will see after. But the mom and daughters are really excited for their baptism.

 The other people that we are working with are Victor and Javiera they are brother and sister and their mom likes that we are teaching her kids and she wants to see how the church is.

Francisco is a young man that is 15 years old and he is looking for a church to join and he has prayed and feels that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. He is going to make a lot of friends in the church I am really excited for him!

 So today a couple of us are going to have a BQ and we are going to fly Chilean kites and play ping pong! I am really excited to eat some meat baby haha. 

I am doing good and I am really excited for this week that is to come! I love you all and we will be talking!

love,

Elder Christensen

week ending 5.29.11

 Hey everyone,

Well it looks like something cool will be happening this Saturday. If you guessed the end of the world - you're wrong. haha No, it's my birthday! whoooooooooooooooooooooo! That's right, I will be 21 years old and I will be just kickin' it here in Chile doing the Lord's work - not doing anything cool for my birthday. What am I saying? The Lord's work is the coolest thing in the world, so that's ok.

This week we found 10 new people to teach and 2 of them are from Peru and it's a family and they said yes to get baptized on the 26 of June so we will be working with them a lot this month to come. And we found a lady that is really awsome. She believes in the Bible and when we started to show her the Bible with the Book of Mormon she was like, "I like the Book of Mormon, it seems like it's more complete." I was like, "You got it!" haha But she isn't married so she can't get baptized until she is married to the guy that she lives with or moves out. Moving out won't happen. haha.

Another thing that is funny (my companion said it was okay that I write this). We were walking down the street and my comp says, "We need to go to the house. I need to use the bathroom right now." So we started back home. I thought it was just a normal bathroom run but he says if another wave hits me I wont be able to hold it in. So we started to walk a little faster, he was squeezing so hard but all the sudden he stops and puts his back to the wall and with a terrified look on his face and says, "I am pooping." Oh man, I started to laugh. I felt bad but it was so funny. And then we get to the house and he's like "It's running down my leg." It's so funny at this point but it gets better, he starts to poop his pants again before he got to the bathroom. After all of this, there was poop everywhere and the words of my companion "I feel like a 240 lb baby!" He is so funny. I will never forget that day.

Well that was my week and I am pumped to be 21 this Saturday. Have a good week and I will talk to you next week. Love you all!

love

Elder Christensen

PS The photos are of me in the hospital and it was great fun. haha.

week ending 5.15.11

{at zone conference with President and Sister May the day after being released from the hospital.}

 Hey everyone,

I didn't write last week because I was having surgery (for all of you that didn't know.) It wasn't anything super bad, but if you want to know more you can ask my mommy what, how, when, why, and all that jazz. haha.

This week I sat in the house and read the Book of Mormon for a week and now I think I am good for this week. No, that's a joke. I love reading that book.

On Sunday I used my surgery to ask our investigators if they would come get us and take us to church. It worked and they came and liked it, but they couldn't stay for all the meetings. The next thing that happened at church was that I was in pain for all of it but after it was all good. It was sweet, I got to stay with a family while my companion went out to work and I got to help the kids with English.. well they are not really kids, they are as old as me but it was cool. My companion had a good day working he did a lot and found new people so that's pretty cool. We are trying and praying that Miguel and Marlen get baptized this weekend so pray for them. If anyone goes to the temple this week please put them in there as well. Thank you so much. Oh, and please pray that I get better so that I can work at 100% for a whole day because I am at about 45%.

Today we went to the doctor and he told me that everything is healing well and that I am just fine - so don't worry. I go back to talk to him on Thursday to get checked out again. All is well and now I don't have so many pains.

I love you all and thanks for all you do and for all of your prayers. Have a good week and we will be talking next week.

love,
Elder Christensen

week ending 2.13.11

Hey everyone!

This week was a good week, we helped out a investigator get over some addictions that he had and he went to church and really loved it this time. He got to see a baptism and he also loved that too, he is getting ready to be baptized on the 27 of this month. He is such a great guy! A funny story with him, we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he drinks tea and coffee and we taught him that it is bad for him and we was like what with a surprised look on his face and said, that is bad for you?! It was great and he gave us all his tea and coffee. So he is really willing to make the changes that he needs to so he can be baptized to be washed of all of his sins! So if you can put him in your prayers that would be sweet! Thank you.

More about our week:  Well we had a freak storm come into the part of Chile that I am in. It started to rain and there was lighting and all that fun stuff and I asked the people during the 3 days when was the last time that this had happened and they said I have no idea. Or I don't think ever. So the world is changing or just Chile. haha. Also there were 35 earthquakes in the South part of Chile, don't worry I didn't get to feel them. (dang it). haha. But the country is going crazy and I get to be to see it all. Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha. Well, that's what happened in Chile.

So today we got our fridge fixed after not having one for the past 3 weeks and now I can buy food and eat good now.!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, seeing that my mom is health food crazy. haha.  But she isn't crazy. haha. Maybe just a little. haha. I love you mom. And the same guy worked on the thing that heats the water up and now it's all good and we can take hot showers with a high water pressure, so pumped am I! hahaha.

We also have 2 other families that are working towards a baptismal date, the first one is Cristian and Stephanie, they are so great and want to get baptized the only thing that is hard for them is getting to church. So if you could put them in your prayers so they can make it so church so they can complete their goal. The other family that we are working with is German, his daughter Cloudia, and her son Mat. They are super great!  We found them yesterday and we have high hopes for them. So if you could put them in your prayers that would be great! Thanks.

I love this quote:

"Tell me what a man thinks about when he is not required to think, and I´ll tell you what kind of man he is."  ~David O. McKay

I love you all and have a good week!

love,

Elder Christensen

PS  You thought I forgot, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

week ending 2.6.11

Hey everyone!

This week started off so great! We started to find so many people and our investigators were so excited for everything getting ready to go to church. Man, when that happens you feel so happy and all you can do is get on your knees and give thanks for all you have to our Heavenly Father. We are teaching two different families that are just great! One is Cristian and Stephanie and they are so great, they have talked with missionaries before but they are ready this time. Cristian told us he wants to get baptized and he is ready. His wife was like "I am a little bit tougher than him." I laughed when she told us that and we asked her why and she gave us a lot of different excuses. But we are working with them and they will be progressing here soon! The other family is great we just got to know them.

Something really amazing happened, I got to witness Danilo getting the priesthood! I was so happy watching that and he is so happy and all. I am really happy for them and I am planing to come back to Chile to see their sealing in the temple! =)

We went to lunch one day with a new family that lives in our branch and they live in this part that is really rich. When the husband (not a member) came to pick us up he was white and had a deep voice, I was like your not Latin. haha. He is from Canada and is really funny, he was crackin' jokes the whole time. I loved it. But this sister is so great she is like I am going to spoil you guys even if you don't want it, so I asked for Life cereal. haha. The cool thing was that they have two baseball gloves and Elder Stark and I threw a little and I let one go really hard and broke one of the gloves. Know what that means? I still got it. haha. It felt good - but I felt bad about the glove and he said it's all good and that they don't get used. haha.

So that is a little about my week. I really don't have anything else to say except have a good week and I am glad to hear from you all! Talk to you later!

love,
Elder Christensen

week ending 1.30.11

Hey everyone,

Well this week was really sweet!!!!!!!!!! Danilo and Violeta got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooooooooooooooooooo they were so happy! I messed up on the prayer and had to do it 2 times, whoooooooopppppssss. But it's all good - Danilo still got a remission of his sins. And we asked them how they felt after and they said, "I feel as light as a feather." It is so awesome to hear the testimony of a new convert and see that they are really happy and that they wanted to be baptized to follow Christ. We had the baptism on Saturday and the got confirmed on Sunday and they were really happy. Danilo had his interview to get the priesthood, he is going to be a Priest this next week! So excited for him and his family! woooooooooooooooooooooooooo! The photo of Danilo and Violeta in normal clothes is right after they got baptized.

Well the other reason why this week was so great is that we found of 10 new people this week! 5 of them came to church and they loved it and the members were doing such a good job to make them feel at home. I am really excited to keep working with them. One of them is named Juan (John) and he is great. He lives alone and travels all over Chile to find work and when the work that he is doing is up he moves. He is a hard working man and he needs your prayers so if you could put him in your prayers so he can keep learning the gospel that would be awesome!

The other 4 are girls, they are so funny. They asked me if I knew the Jonas Brothers and I said no, and then they asked me if I knew Hannah Montana. I said she was my ex-girlfriend and they freaked out. But I told them right after that I was joking. But one of the girls went and got a magazine and there was a photo of Hannah Montana and a boy and they all said that it was me. haha. Crazy little girls. Well, their ages are 18, 16, 10, 9, 7.  We are also teaching their grandma and brother & cousin. This family is so big they all live together in the same lot but in different houses. They are all reading and praying so we are going to keep working with them and see if they can keep the things we ask them to do and if they really want to do this. They are great.

Thanks for all the prayers that you send my way. They are helping a lot, I would not be able to do this work with out them. And thanks for supporting me in this battle haha. Have a good week!

love,
Elder Christensen

week ending 10.24.10

{Ivan and his son Gaspar, they are such a cute family}

Hey everyone,

This week went good for us. We had people go to Church and Constanza, Camila´s sister, is going to be baptized this coming Sunday so we are really excited for her. We also have seen some crazy weather here - it goes from being super hot to super cold.

We found a family of like 3 families. haha.  They are from Peru and they are so cool. I talked about them last week when they took the photos of us. haha. Well, 2 of the daughters went to church and they loved it and they have read a part in the Book of Mormon and prayed and they feel good about all of it. I haven't really gotten to know them as well as I would have liked but we are going to, and we'll help them find their answer about the truth that we are teaching them. I love finding people that just take everything in just like they have known it before, that's when you know that they have been prepared for the message.

We have been teaching Constanza a lot - trying to help her get ready and in the same time we are trying to help the mom and dad get married so they can be sealed as a family. Man, by the time I am done helping people get married I will be so good at it, I´ll be ready for after the mission. haha. So Constanza is doing really good, last night we asked the questions that they ask in the interview for baptism and she passed but that was only a practice. The real thing will be this week and after she is all ready to become baptized. So if you could put constanza in your prayers to help her keep praying and progressing, that would be amazing. Thanks.

Something that I have been learning through study and the spirit and other things is the justice. The justice is something that we cannot get away from but someone helped us so we can get help through it. Christ is the only person that could have paid the price to satisfy the demands of the law. But the help from Christ doesn't come free, we need to do our part by living the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we do not live the gospel we have to pay for all our sins to satisfy the justice and that means we cannot live with God or Christ or our families so we need do all we can to live the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is true and I know that we can have happiness through Christ, to have happiness is the purpose of life (2 Nephi 2:25). I love you all and thanks for all your support.  Have a good week and talk to you next week!

love,

Elder Christensen.

{the Palomo family, they wash my clothes every week and they help us out so much. love them}

{the Ramirez family, we made pancakes with them last p-day it was fun.}

week ending 10.17.10

 Hey everyone,

Well this week was a butt-kicking week. It was just like getting blessing after blessing! We we started to look up all of our investigators and while we were doing that we passed by like 5 people and they really didn't work out.  But then we came up to one that worked out, it wasn't the person that we were looking for but we found a family from Peru and they are so amazing. We are going to go past their house to teach them this week and help them. But the funny thing was we went in just to say a prayer, because they asked for one - then we told them that we were from the USA and they ran and got their camera. It was funny and the first time that has happened haha. I am happy that I get to have these experiences.

On Sunday we had a baptism, yes that's right Camila got baptized. She was so happy and her sister was so happy and is really excited to be baptized on the 31 of Oct. Maria, the mom, was so happy. But before all that we filled up the font with water that was warm and nice but then something happened. One of the other elders came up to us and said that the water was gone, and that was 20 minutes before the baptism. It took 2 hours to fill the font up with warm water. So we were on panic mode haha. So we brought in a hose and turned on the cold water to fill it up fast. We got it full of water in about 20 minutes, it was sweet. But the down side was that the water was so cold. I felt the cold on my legs for at least 1 hour after the baptism. haha. But I was so happy to be able to baptize Camila and get to know that family and help out the ward that I am in. I have seen so many things happen that I would have never thought would happen, the Lord works in ways that we don't understand some times but they work. We just need to trust in him and all will be good!

 I know that this is the true church of Christ and that the true Gospel of Christ is found in the world today. Thanks to Joseph Smith we have these 2 things that change lives. I am so happy to be so deep into the Gospel of Christ!

I love you all and I am thankful for all the support you give me. Have a good week!

love,

Elder Christensen

week ending 10.3.10

 Hey everyone,

Well this week was super great seeing that we had conference!!!!!!! There were so many things I loved and I learned so much. I am going to talk about some of the talks that I liked.

First, Elder Costa, something cool about him, he came to Chile and talked to us about a month ago so it was weird to hear him talk in English. But I loved how he talked about the prophets and the 14 points of a prophet.  That helped me to better understand what a prophet is and how important it is to have a prophet. The next one was by Pres. Uchtdorf when he talked about slowing down and making sure that you are safe through the hard things and not to speed up to get through the hard times. That helped me out to see that I need to slow down when I am in hard times and make sure that I take care of them slowly and not try to rush the things that need to be taken care of. Another fact, Elder Duncan was the Mission Pres. before I got to this mission. haha. Another one was Elder Gong how he talked about the importance of temple marriage and work. It is a great blessing we have to be able to have these blessings in our lives and we need to take advantage while we can to do these great things. Well that is just some of the things I learned this week, I invite all to read the talks and study them for personal Revelation.

click here to read conference talks

Now about some of the people I am teaching. Karl, he is doing so good he went to conference and loved it. His baptism is planned for this weekend and he still needs a little bit more preparation so if you could put him in your prayers that would be great!

Camila is doing great. We had to push her baptism back so she will be getting baptized the 17 of Oct. Her mom just had a baby and is getting really sick. Her name is Maria, please put her in your prayers so Maria can get better and help her daughter get ready for her baptism.

Carolina and Monserrat, we didn't see them all last week. They were really busy and have been running back and forth from the hospital. It's crazy how Satan tries to attack people I know that they will get over all these things but once again can you put them in your prayers so they can get through these times and come unto to Lord. Thanks.

Well I am out for now but thanks for all you do for me and the love you send me. Have a good week and I hope to hear from you next week.

Love,

Elder Christensen

The photos are from a hill called Santa Lucia. It's pretty cool! It's right in the middle of the city and you can see everything from the top tower. So sweet!

week ending 1.17.10

Hey everyone,

Well today I sent my companion home, yep that's right, my trainer left me so I am getting a new comp today. I am going to miss Elder Davies, he helped me so much and I am glad he was my trainer. chow Elder Davies.

Okay this was a tough week for me and Elder Davies because our investigator, Estefy, decided that she didn't want to get baptized anymore. She loves the church and everything. We spent 4 hours this week with her trying to figure out what happened. She had so many different stories and stuff. But we went to talk with her family and we found out that her sister has been telling her bad things about our church and that she shouldn't get baptized. That was tough for us to hear. We tried to straighten things out with everyone but it didn't work. So that was tough.

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone,

These last couple days have been good, I got to talk to my family on Christmas and that was really good. It was weird to hear their voices and it was fun.

We had a baptism this Sunday, but I don't have my memory card to send photos of Christmas and the baptism so that will have to be next week. The girl that we baptized is amazing. Her friend is a member of the ward I am in and they are so strong. When she shared her testimony after her baptism, I knew that she has been waiting for this for a long time. I was so happy that I could help her out and share the message of love with her. And the funny part of it is that she lives in Viña del Mar, so we stole her from that mission. hahahahaha. That's right - go Chile Santiago Mission.

week end 12.13.09

I just want everyone to know how much I love my GREAT GRANDPA BOB!!!!! I love him so much! I love you grandpa - you have helped me so much and I am so glad I have you in my life!!!!! =)

Okay this week was pretty good!!!
Johnathan got confirmed, and he showed up right after the first song and my companion was going crazy. he kept saying, "please let me have a confirmation that doesn't have troubles" but he got there. Johnathan is such a strong young kid, i am excited for him to grow up in the church and become a strong missionary.

week end 12.6.09

hey everyone,

today is the start of my 2nd change, (a change is every 6 weeks). and i am still in San Felipe. I am so happy i am staying here for another change, because we have so many good investigators up here and i hope have a lot of baptizums this month. oh and it doesn't feel anything like christmas here, seeing that it is 96 degrees plus everyday.
I dont know what i like more dying of heat or frezzzzing, and everyone tells me that it is going to get even hotter here, all i say is "oh great!" but i love it here i am so happy and just loving the mission.

okay so this week was a great week, we found 6 new investigators. and all of them seem like they are ready to hear the gospel i just hope i can tell them about it in a way they can understand.

week end 11.29.09

hey everyone,

so this week has been a great week! i have been able to speak spanish okay and at least tell people what i want to share, i never thought i could.

Elder Corbrigde of the 70 came to my ward this sunday and shared an amazing testimony and it was like the only thing i understood. he was really nice and he was happy to see the missionaries smiling and happy. it was a cool experience.

this week we had an talent show in the ward that i am in and it was way funny, i have videos of most of the acts and i have video of the things i was in. oh man it was so fun and i had a great time, but it took up 4 hours of one of our days so that really hurt us with the work but i am trying to say its okay lol. i loved it and it was a good stress reliever.

week end 11.22.09

hey everyone,

it's been a month and i am loving the mission, i am working hard and having fun. but this week was a little tough, because we worked really hard and didn't find anyone new to teach but our investigator, Johnathan came to church and he took out his earring so he is getting ready for his baptizum on the 6th of dec. yessssssssss!

okay, this week has been a crazy one, and the only things i am going to tell you about are some of the fun and crazy stuff that happened this week.