week ending 7.3.11

Hey everyone,

This week was really cool! 

This is the doctor that I have been going to and the same one the cut me open. haha. So, if anything bad happens in the future, we can all blame him haha. His name is Raul Morales. He is a great guy haha. 

This is a little girl that asked me to baptize her. I didn't teach her but I know her family, they are all members. When they asked Krishna (that's her name) who she wanted to baptize her she said, "the tall, funny one, Elder Christensen" and then she called me and asked me herself.  It was great!  I love that family!

 So we have been working hard this last week and we found some good people that are really interested in listening and a young man that isn't baptized but his parents are members and they want him to get involved in the church again. We are excited to work with him. His name is Leo. So if you could put him in your prayers that would be sweet! 

This week the weather has gotten really cold, there hasn't been a lot of rain - but it's so cold. I am wearing a coat over a sweater, over a white dress shirt, and over an Under Armor long sleeve. And I am still cold! haha. But I bought some long johns and they are great! haha.

I have started to teach English in the church every Saturday and last week I had 4 students.  Yup, it was the other 4 missionaries in my ward (I am the only North American out of 5 missionaries, there are 2 from Bolivia, El Salvador, and Honduras). No one showed up but this week, we have told a lot more people so I think there will be a lot of people there.

It would be sweet if you could put me in your prayers so we can do all we need to do, like be obedient, diligent, happy and all the other things a missionary needs to do this work because I don't want to lose the stride in these last months. Thank you! I love you all and have a good week!

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 10.10.10

 Hey everyone,

This week has been a crazy one, but a really good one. So we have been working really hard with our friend Karl and we were a little scared this week because we went on a road trip for work to the south part of Chile for 3 days so we could see him. The reason why we were nervous better said is because his goal for his baptism was Sunday and we wanted him to be ready. On Friday we finally got to see him and we did the pre-interview and he answered everything really well and we both felt that he was ready.  So we called the zone leaders and planned the interview for Saturday.  He passed the interview(long story short) and on Sunday he was baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he was so happy, I have loved to see the changes he has made in his life. He told us, I am one of those lost sheep and I am coming back to the fold. It was so cool. Oh, the water for the baptism was about 100 degrees, lol but we got it cooled down in like 10 minutes while everyone was waiting for them to get in the water. My bad, I was the one that made it too hot but I didnt know. haha.

And for Camila, she will be baptized the coming Sunday and we are really happy for her. she has been really sick these last couple of days so if you could pray for her health that would be great! Thanks.

Well that's all I got for this week. Thanks for reading and supporting me. Have a good week and I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Christensen

We found this roll of stickers in the street and we took it home and we didn't know what to do with it so we put it all over us and taking it off sucked. They were high powered and it felt like they were pulling my skin off. But it will be a good memory. haha.

week ending 9.5.10

Hey everyone!

Well this week was a crazy one, every day felt like it went by really fast.  I would wake up and then the next thing I knew I was in my bed again going to sleep. The time is starting to go really fast and I am not liking it to much. If it stays like this I will be home before I know it and i will be happy,sad. haha. But we had a good week, 2 days I wasn't with Elder Nielsen.  We have changes for a day and its cool to get to know other missionaries, but every time Elder Nielsen and I would get back together we would through a small party, it's great.

One of the things that happened this week is that Cristian turned 28 so we had a BBQ for lunch with him and his family. All the photos that I sent to you guys was at the BBQ.  The one with me is the Pot leaves that they have in their house.  They aren't going to use them but I was going to put a card saying break in case of emergencies, but I was lazy. 

haha. They got CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooooooooooooo. Now we are on the road to a eternal family - so happy for them!  They are doing good and making friends in the ward so we are really happy with what is going on and how everything is working out with them. So keep putting them in your prayers so they can make it to the temple in one year!

With Leti and Guillermina, they are doing great and going to church.  The only thing is that Guillermina doesn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  We found out why and its because she doesn't want to get baptized if she gets an answer. But we helped her see that it's really important that she gets baptized so she is going to pray again to see if Joseph Smith was a Prophet. So please put her in your prayers that she can get an answer from God. thanks.

So I had a question and I learned something this week...

•Why was it important that Christ had to bleed his own blood?

(to let you know I studied this in Spanish so I am translating from Spanish into English so lets hope it works. haha)

 Matt 26:28--- this is my blood, bleed for the remission of sins.

that led me to a different scripture in the bible in Exodus:

Exodus 24:3-8---Christ had to bleed for our sins has a symbol for sacrifice, because in the law of Moses the people had to do blood sacrifices to receive forgiveness. they had to do that because Jehovah made that convent with them.

then in Hebrews 9:15-22 it teaches us and says " with out bleeding of blood there is no remission of sins." I know that Christ lives and that he paid for my sins and all the sins of the world and I would do anything for him to show him how much I love him. That is my testimony!

Love you all!  Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Christensen

week ending 5.2.10

Hey Everyone,

Well this week was really good for us in Conchali 10.  We had a baptism.  His name is Carlos and he is 15 years old.  He is a little gangster but he is really funny and he likes the church and feels comfortable in it, that's always good to hear. We have been working with him for a long time but we got him to the water.  His baptism was really good.  His family was there and now his brother and sister want to get baptized, and his cousin too.  So we are going to work with them and hopefully help them be baptized too.  So I think May is going to be a good month for our Heavenly Father in Conchali 10.

Last week we did service.  We were putting in stepping stones for a family and the father of the family was helping us.  When we would put down one of the stones we would put sand under it and he kept telling us it was anti-earthquake.  Man, he is the funniest guy.  He was a wrestler here in Chile, a luchador.  Just like Nacho Libre, it's cool to hear his stories.

A little about my sector:
We have lunch with a family everyday but Monday, but sometimes the family can't do it so we cook our own food.  Elder Ojeda made some Mexican food, rice with milk.  Man, that stuff is so good.  We have made hamburgers and mashed potatoes (thanks for the packets mom! hahaha)  We only eat out on Monday's.  (Man, I waste so much money on Monday's.)  A sister washes our clothes, all we have to do is buy the soap.  Man, the members love the missionaries. 
My sector is really different than my last one.  I am in the city and there is a lot more stuff going on and it's faster.  But it's not a bad sector, we don't have any problems with the people and we are happy for that.
My ward is really cool.  It's a ward from super old people to newly married to babies.  It's a really nice ward and I love it.  But the building doesn't have heat so it's really cold.  During Sacrament Meeting there was an earthquake, like 5.4 or something.  It was rather big and I was like weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Some of the older sisters got up and ran for the doors.  I just sat there like, "this is fun!" 

These are my sweet new soccer shoes.  They were 30 bucks at the mall and I love them.

Update on me:

-I am 6'2" - still  :-(
-I am 210 pounds - yes I have gained 10 pounds :-(
(I had a hard time getting my suit pants on so I will be working out this week so they fit me.  Man I am getting fat!  hahaha

Have a good week everyone.

Love you all,
Elder Christensen

week ending 2.21.10

Hey Everyone,

Okay - this week was a good one, well a good one to test my faith. I took this test by the horns and lived it up and learned a lot. I love doing this work, sometimes you don't see the good stuff right off the bat but we need to have faith and hope that it will come in the future. And I have learned that I need to have hope and use my faith to show that I have hope that God will give me help with every thing. I have been trying to become the missionary that my Father wants me to be.

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.