Peace

Tiny Doors

Hey Everybody,

I hope you are all doing really well! I had a good week. We had cambios today and I will be staying here in Angol.

I am doing well. We had a great baptism this week. It was awesome to see P get baptized. It has been great teaching him and seeing him gradually change and open up to us. We are really striving to help him and his family focus on the temple now. Yesterday we had a fantastic Sacrament meeting and everything was about the Temple. There were two great talks and also a couple who were sealed last week that bore their testimonies about the temple.

We also had an interesting run in with some new investigators this week. They were members of another church and when we went back for the second visit they were very critical about some of the things we believe. They told us that the Book of Mormon is worthless to them because it doesn’t mention it in the Bible. That made me really sad. If only they knew.  But I learned some very key points. During the entire lesson I felt peace. Even though we didn’t get much of a chance to speak, I felt like the Spirit was testifying to me the entire time that I am good and that we have the truth. That was a sweet experience for me. I also learned that some people can be a little too stuck on exactly what the Bible says. These people wouldn’t accept Joseph Smith as a prophet or the Book of Mormon, because they weren’t mentioned in the Bible. It was interesting that they were so closed to everything. I learned how important it is to be based in revelation because it is so easy to misunderstand the Bible.

Yesterday someone escorted us off of his property after we knocked on his door. We didn’t even say a word. That was pretty intense.

Anyways, missionary work isn’t always easy, but we just keep going.

Yesterday I was working with Elder Parkin all day in my sector. He is awesome! We had a really great time! Tell his parents that he is a great kid and they should be really proud of him for his great testimony! He has a great spirit about him! We found two families yesterday, it was awesome!

Love you tons,

Elder Christensen

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Family,

I have had a pretty good week. 

The young man we are teaching is doing great! There is a good group of returned missionaries in our ward and they have been taking good care of him.  I am really happy for him and was thrilled on Saturday because he came to a baptismal service and after told us that he felt really comfortable in church. 

We also have another investigator who is doing very well. He was going to get baptized this week, but his wife will be traveling, so he will get baptized next week. I am really excited for him because he has seemed really great these last two weeks. His wife and daughter got baptized a few months ago, so we are really excited to start helping them take steps towards the Temple. 

I have been doing well this week. I want to thank each of you for your letters last week they really meant a lot to me and helped me so much. I am so grateful for your love. 

I loved reading your letters this morning as well. I was really sorry to hear about Dad´s back. That made me feel really sad, but i am glad that it isn't worse. I cried when I heard about mom's experience at the grocery store. Mom is the best! She holds the family together. I want to thank her for all of the work that she does for us! Mom does all the dirty work and everybody is going to really miss it when they leave the house, I can promise you that! I am so grateful for all the work mom puts in to make our house a home. I also liked reading about dad's one on one time with Claire. That one on one time with mom and dad is the best. It is so special. I loved the time I spent with mom right before I left. 

I loved dad's challenge to read the New Testament with him this year and for my thought I would like to share Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it shall be given and seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened".  Right after this it talks about the scripture mom shared with me today as well.  What father will give his child a stone if he asks for bread? I like these scriptures because Christ is inviting us to ask, to seek, and to knock. I believe He wants us to ask so that we remember to be humble and to choose on our own to turn to God for help. I believe that He wants us to seek, so that we can learn and grow. I also enjoyed reading the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6: 9 through 13 and meditating upon the importance and significance of each phrase and how it covers our basic needs. I was touched as I read a while back in 3 Nephi about how Christ prayed for the Nephites and I feel like we should remember the way he prayed for them when we pray for others. I also learned that we come to understand others better when we pray for them. I feel like that is one of the primary reasons the Lord asks us to pray for our enemies. I also noticed in my personal prayers as I prayed specifically for others I felt a special spirit. Often, I become too focused on myself.

Anyways, kind of a mess, but I learned a lot in my studies this week and it is hard to type and express it all so fast. I hope you can make something of it. Thanks for the invitation dad. I am now in Matt 9!

I love you all more than I can express. Have a great week! 

Elder Christensen

New Year's - Everlasting Beginnings

Hey Family

I hope everybody is doing really well.

I had a pretty crazy week.

Last Monday we had an appointment with a reference from mormon.org. The appointment was with a 19 year old young man. He told us that he had been raised Catholic but during his teenage years he stopped believing in God. One day while he was on the Internet he made friends with girl from Utah either through facebook or mormon.org. She began telling him about the gospel and invited him to pray. He told us that he prayed and that when he prayed he felt really good. After hearing this story we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Yesterday he came to church and stayed for all three hours and tonight we will have a Family Home Evening with him and a young couple in the ward. This was a big answer to my prayers and a very special experience for me. As were sitting with him in sacrament meeting yesterday. I was touched by the way the Lord works and how He answered this young man’s prayer.

That same day we also found an excellent family. We shared with the oldest son and his sister. They didn’t accept the baptismal invitation but said they would like to hear more. I felt the spirit really strongly in this visit and I feel like they will get baptized soon. At the end of the lesson the mom came in to listen and told us that she was an inactive member and that her brother had served a mission. She had great memories from the Church.

New Years was great, other than the fact that our neighbors partied until 7:30 in the morning. Chileans don’t do too much for New Years, other than drink and party. It is not like other South American countries that have crazy firework celebrations everywhere. Fireworks are prohibited except for official shows by the city. I was lucky and got to see the city show from our window.

It has been insanely hot. The temperature really doesn’t say it is that hot. But the sun is extremely intense. Yesterday my companion walked around with an umbrella even though there weren’t any clouds in the sky.

I am grateful for the New Year and a fresh start. This year I set some different goals that I am really excited about.

Some of my favorite Scriptures right now:

Philippians 3

 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

I have been frustrated with all of the trash in this world the past few weeks but today as I was reading in the Book of Mormon I loved the counsel of Mormon to Moroni after describing all the trash they had to deal with.

Moroni 9

 25 My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.

I loved this and it counseled me on how to deal with the trash.

There is also a great quote from President Uchtdorf about how there are no endings in the gospel, only Everlasting Beginnings. That is one of my favorites because I hate endings and love beginnings.

Grateful in Any Circumstances - President Uchtdorf

Anyways these are some of my thoughts. I love you tons. I thought of you guys skiing on Saturday while I was melting.

You are the best! LOVE YOU!

Elder Christensen