January 27, 2014

Hola Familia y amigos mios!

This has been another great week! To start out, I am not getting transferred tomorrow but Elder Cardwell is. :( I guess we will find out tomorrow where he is going and who will be my new companion.

Mom, I will answer your questions first. Yes we finally got our mailbox set up, and luckily the post office held our mail while we were waiting, so I got the package. Thanks for the tie Anna it is sweet! :) it's important that any mail sent to my address here has clearly labeled Apt. #1 on it. And we don't have access to a printer at the church, and we don't read any emails on non p-days. But if you send me something spiritual or something I can save it on iPad :D 

Honestly I won't have much time to listen audio recordings of talks, it's fine to know that they did well. And as far as birthday requests, a reusable water bottle would be nice, and other than that I'm ok.

That's so sweet Elder Christofferson came to Tualatin! Still haven't been able to see a general authority yet, but someday!

Well we have had some cool experiences these last couple days. Back in Stoneridge Ward A. had told us to go see his neighbors from Mexico, but we never did and we finally decided to go over there. There we found J. and M., and they let us in with our hesitation. From the beginning I just felt like this guy was prepared to hear the gospel, and naturally we began teaching the Restoration. I will say that Spanish has never rolled more easily off my tongue! It was just natural, I don't know! I still messed up a bunch I am sure, it was not fluent Spanish by any means, but I wasn't even thinking about it. I just loved these guys. As I began to recite Joseph Smith's account of the first vision, we just felt the Spirit flood the house. later when I asked him how he felt he told us that when I had started talking he just felt something peaceful and good. And I realized afterwards that I had understood every word they had said to us! The gift of tongues is amazing, and I am just barely starting to see how it works! The spirit works with our imperfections, and helps us do the work we are called to do. I love it! J. is so legit, and he is coming to church next week! One of the coolest lessons ever.

Last night we saw a referral that a born again Christian guy gave us! His name is A. (we have taught like 6 different A.!). It was a very similar lesson to J., but it was in English and A. was smoking. But when we talked about the Book of Mormon, he said "I gotta get me one of them books!" Haha he is a cool guy. When we had first contacted him and told him who we were, he said "Well at least you ain't Mormons!" He felt sorta bad after we told him that's exactly what we are! But it was cool to see the spirit work on him.

Also we were asked to give a blessing to a member family with a ton of adopted special needs children, and we ended up going over there and giving like 6 or 7 blessings. They asked me to give like 4 of them! 

Well those are the 3 new people we found and everyone else we are working with hasn't really been progressing. An inactive family we are teaching told us last week they had stopped coming to church 3 years ago because they realized we didn't believe in the virgin Guadalupe/Mary, and they still have those Catholic beliefs. It was an interesting lesson! I have met very few Spanish speaking people who aren't Catholic...haha but they are awesome, I love these people. Hermana A. cooked us chicken and rice tacos one night. We thought she asked how it was so we nodded, faces stuffed, that it was great! Then she asked us "en serio? esta crudo?" Really? It's not cooked? Again, we nodded, assuring her it was delicious. But she was very concerned. Haha we gotta stop saying yes to everything when we don't understand.

Well, that's about all the news I have. So great to hear everyone is doing well! I recognize and feel your prayers, thanks everyone! The work is moving forward. Let's all take a step forward and be "Doers of the word" and of the work of The Lord! The time is now! Thanks everyone for you constant support and examples!

Elder Christensen