Catching Rides

Hey family,

I hope you are all doing well! I had a pretty good week. Last week we had to take Spencer’s advice and hitch-hike home from a zone activity. We ended up driving to Loncoche in a semi-truck as well. We got dropped off on the other side of town, but we made it out ok so that was good.

We have a new roommate from Provo, Utah. He is a really great guy with a really mello personality. It has been really good for me to have someone around that I connect to and can get along so easily with. It is possible we could be here together for several months.

I bore my testimony yesterday and I ended up talking about the relationships we make through the gospel. I was kind of surprised because it wasn’t what I had intentionally been thinking about, and I kind of got emotional. While I was talking about these types of relationships I was thinking about all of our family and all of our ward family, who I love so much. One of the problems we see is that people can get easily offended and it can shake the ward. Every ward or branch in Chile has at least 400 members but only 40 or 50 come to church. It is a tragedy and it can make the work pretty difficult sometimes. Anyway, I hope my testimony helped the members realize that they can enjoy and  build these relationships. Like I have said before, it is an amazing thing when someone really embraces the gospel. The people of Chile are great people!

Well, we got a call from President yesterday telling us to work more with members. I will try to write about the members next week, there are some really great stories. My favorite is this young family with one daughter and one more child on the way. They are so pure. For me, they are the Church here.

I am working on being bold and fearless.

I love you tons!

Elder Christensen