Re: Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 4:31 PM

hola famlia
well can´t lie, i loved getting letters from everyone this week, it was just one of those weeks haha but yeah sounds like cooper is doing great in soccer, always proud of that as long as he isn´t haha jk but bien hecho hermano keep up the hard work. Jenny, sounds like everything is going well for you and britton and thank you for the encouragement. before i forget, what do you two want for your birthdays. cause i´m hoping to send a package home like next cambio, transfer, or at least before christmas, which reminds me that i still need to get dad something, and no don´t argue, just let it happen and help me out with some suggestions haha you can even help pay for them if you want haha jk but yeah we will see what happens when i start collecting things. and danielle, sounds like you are rocking school which is good to hear. i´m holding back calling nmsu a high school haha jk its wonderful and just keep up the hard work. glad to hear you are making friends with your roomates, and yeah, never be afraid to go home to mom and dad, they are pretty good too.
so ill just mention these two things write now. first we had a meeting with the president on tuesday that i´ll talk about more later but he told us a couple of things. first that we are allowed to go to some tourist cites once in our mission. they are as follows teotihuacan, zocalo, y parque chapultepec. so yeah if you could just look those up for me and give some suggestions about which ones i should see and when that would be cool haha second the whole meeting was about leadership and obidience and yeah it ends up that i can only write my family emails. thanks guys
life in the mission haha
last monday the elders had a soccer game with a bunch of little mexican kids and you can guess it we won 9-10 haha it was a hard faught match but in the end, the righteous prevailed haha k sorry that was dumb
so right this last martes we had a special leadership meeting with the president for all current and future leaders, haha no not for me, my companion is district leader but yeah i went and sat in and all that good stuff but it was pretty over my head in spanish. like i´m learning more and more every day and i understand what people are saying for the most part but speaking and when they talk fast are still problems haha anyways i was trying to understand. it was way intense but completely awesome. all of the older missionaries are having trouble with the transition of presidents but i think now they know this president is for serious. i have a lot of respect for him. i also got to see elder heap for the first time since we split but it was a hand shake and a see you later cause he was going from a meeting as i was coming but hopefully i will get to see him again soon.
so this week in the work. we have no new investigadores, we found a lot of ex members that dont like us much but yeah it was pretty frustrating and it came out with elder tolosa and i getting into a lot of arguements. idk we can both do better.
ivonne, our single mom, is officially hiding from us. not helping the fustration haha but yeah she saw us the other day up the street and got in a taxi and drove the other way. so yeah idk what we aregoing to do with that. the family gonzalez the ones i love are on pause because the mom is having doubts about why the restored gospel is important so they are on pause. they are getting a lot of pressure too from their families, very catholic, it is frustrating haha but idk what to do, im thinking back to the basics, prayer and fasting. and thanks tay for your contribution, youre great.
pues nothing really happened the later end of the week, it was just cold haha i didnt see the sun for three days haha but today was flaming hot so yeah its all over the place. but yeah saturday, that was an adventure. we had a baptism planned in our chapel for that night and we showed up in morning to see the font had not drained from the last baptism i had performed the last week haha cause in mexico its too hard to just have gravity grain it for you, no you need a pump to suck it all out. yeah wasnt working this week haha so with four red buckets, and a solid hour and a half of sweat and effort we we able to pour all the water from the font to a toilet haha i enjoyed it. that is why im here, to work. whatever type it may be haha so yeah we had another baptism this week, another hijo of a previous inactive member that we brought back. alberto federico alva mora, and i did it again! but this time we get in the font and the doors to the font are closed and than the crazy kid goes, i don´t want to do this right anymore, he is nine haha i was like what? but we worked it out with another elder and we did the ordinance and i had to do it twice because his feet shot up haha but it was good and that we went to kfc after to celebrate! haha not my favorite but i ate it. domingo, another adventure. had to wake up at 430 to start the font for a baptism at 8 for my favorite family every, the family soto, love them. we had their two kids scheduled for that morning. but yeah we had to leave at 430 on a 30 minute walk to the chapel cause taxis are not same at that hour and i didn´t have my sweater cause an elder stole it from me haha so i had an old mexican blanket around my top and my bronco plad sweats on the bottom haha great times. but yeah their baptisms were amazing. the dad did it and i was standing in the restroom on the sideline coaching haha it was great. jorge and mirian, love them. so yeah i didnt think that i had to do anything cause of the dad doing the ordinance and elder tolosa conducting and then the mom asks me to bear my testimony... simple but sweet. just my style haha im not going to say i cried cause i didnt but.. yeah love that family.
just to clarify for everyone, 15th de septimbre is the day of independce, cinco de mayo is not a national holiday haha i was shocked as well.
k i love you all and pray for you often. thanks for everything and i´ll be looking for the package soon i think. love you all!! to the moon and back...

con amor
Elder Christensen

One baptism done, hundreds to go Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:11 PM

hola everyone
well Im a little short on time right now so i cant write a whole lot to your emails but i did get them and they are all wonderful, sounds like everyone and everyteam is rocking which is always good news. so im going to just start with the beginning of the week and go from there and possibly answer some questions on the way.
lunes
so yeah we had the biggest national holiday in mexico. biggest disappointment ever haha i mean there was noise all night but it wasnt anything that i was expecting. it didnt help that it was raining... again... i could totally live in portland after this haha its ridiculous but yeah so mention on the disobient side, we were suppposed to be in our apartment by 6.
martes
we had surprise interviews with the president on tuesday, mine consided of, yeah this mission is in the hole with dissobientience and that the new americans that havent been affected yet are the ones that need to make the change, so yeah it was kind of a heavy discussion but i like my president very much, and really he was just asking me to be strong. most of the elders dont like him however which is the problem. also tuesday i had pig skin stew.. yeah way gross. felt like eating straight chewy fat but elder tolosa gave me the eye so i ate the whole thing. not going to miss that
miercoles
we totally have a new awesome family, the motas, five girls, a grandmother three daughters and a granddaughter. they love us and ask loads of questions that are rreally good and we had them pray about our message right there and susan the oldest daughter stopped the the prayer and struggled to the end and with tears told us that she felt the love of her heavenly father. its those moments that make it all worth it. only problem is they smoke like chimneys... yeah we are working on it.
jueves
went to the df with all my buddies from the mtc to finish our visas, love seeing them and hearing their experiences, i have seen everyone except elder heap. he is out there, but yeah it was great to see them and i saw elder ashcraft again... haha yeah so he had a huge scab on his head from getting hit in the head by a firework on the 15th.. he told people he ran into a pole but elder memmott told me the truth. to say i enjoyed it is to put it lightly haha good times. that morning i did lunges too... worst decision ever, totally almost died, couldnt walk for days after haha everything hurt. im going to wait for the next attempt
viernes sabado
i had my firt baptism! i performed it and did it perfect the first time. we had eight planned for this week and yeah people felt pressure from family or didnt show, very discouraging, i was ready to call quits cause i was so frustrated cause i know it has to do with our my companions disobiendience. idk, i can always do better too
domingo
well yeah appartently every third sunday the missionaries speak for the duration of sacrament, which has a lot to hyms, but noone to play the piano. so yeah i talked about prayer for 20 minutes in spanish with a lot of stuttering and blank looks but elder tolosa said that everything made sense so i felt better. it was intense though haha also am learning how to play the piano again, because we have two hours of church meeting that we dont have anything so i went and played closer my god to thee for an hour. i dont want to brag but its pretty awesome. haha no but with practice.
ok packages are a no go, i dont have an address yet and the one you have is wrong so yeah tomorrow maybe ill talk to someone. money is simple, the first day they gave us a debit card and we get about 900 pesos for the month, which i learned a little late so now i have 50 for the rest of the month haha totally doable, im not worried.
alright im off to a meeting but i love all of you and im glad you are all doing great things, dad great job on the raise and cooper, goals are great, but making others better is what makes a great team. i know you know that and i trust you are doing your best. you are all amazing and wonderful and i am working hard to be the missionary you and our heavenly father want me to be.

con amor
elder christensen

The First Mexico Letter Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 5:00 PM

I am having the worst possible luck with computers, i was about to send this ridiculously long one with everything that i wanted to say and than the power went off.. I hate myself but here is my second try, so sorry
last week I had to go to the actual Mexico city to finish my visa papers and yeah we got back and elder tolosa was being dumb and we had no time to send anything so that's what happened
i love your letters and I'm glad that everyone is doing well and i wrote you all something but yeah frustrating haha
I'm going to abbreviate everything that i said before really fast cause I'm running out of time again, so we have some pretty awesome investigators. one single mom loves us and had a really rough life before she met us and it was all because of her ex husband and yeah really bad stuff, the gospel does truly find the meek and humble but yeah she knows that our message is true but the only hurdle that we have faced is the law of chasity.. yeah kind of ironic because it is with her terrible ex husband so yeah that is kind of a downer but just like in track you have to kick down and keep going, it doesn't have to be pretty but it just has to work. she is set to be baptized this Saturday with another family, gonzalez, family of four and wonderful, the dad let us in and cried the first time that we sang and prayed for his family, they have the most awesome little boys but yeah i love them. and the last ones are an inactive family where the dad wants to baptize the kids but wasn't worthy so we are working with them to make it happen. the family soto, i can not express how much I love everything about them!! ahah but really their little boy, so tight, i taught him how to pound it with the knuckles and explode, we are close haha and i totally cried twice in one lesson. elder tolosa refused to teach the lesson, which he does when he wants me to practice my Spanish but yeah i taught about testimonies and than we practiced bearing them because the next Sunday was fast Sunday, i totally cried when the mother, who knows the gospel is true but quiet about it i guess, bore her sweet and simple testimony. I don't cry!! haha ok well i do but not for other peoples testimonies haha but i cried again when Jorge the little boy blessed the food cause he totally messed it all up but I felt the love and the effort so much, he was all embarrassed but I gave him a knuckle and it was all good again, I love them!!!
the food is OK, haha im probably not going to miss it as of right now, there have been some plates that i have enjoyed but really it is all kind of bland, and hot haha but i like it enough, I have tried everything that has been placed in from of me and the only really crazy thing so far has been cow nerves in vinager.... yeah gross and i had to have seconds ahah but it was worth the experience?... no haha my apartment is pretty sweet, i enjoy it except when elder tolosa sets off fireworks haha i try to tell him to stop. Mexican independence day today, supposed to be two days of noise and alcohol haha cant wait. but yeah my mission is one of the highest baptizing missions in the world and probably one of the most disobedient.... it is frustrating but i will be the missionary mom thinks that I am =)
K i got to jet but I love you all and you are all very wonderful. i live in coacalco or heroes coacalco, mexico. the packages, just send ups to my mission home or a members home but I haven't worked that out. we don't have maids, only members that clean our clothes.
k really i love you all and sorry about the letter again, i will get better at it
love love love

elder christensen

Pictures from Mexico

Mexico!

The 1st Apartment

New Companion

Sterling Moment

Westley's Cousin Sterling works at Nike Outlet and found some great Nike Mexico Shoes. Here is Westley sportin' the new shoes.
Westley pointing to his mission and Sterling's Mission in Perth, Australia. Amazing!

Re: Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 4:51 PM

hey guys,
today has been ridiculous and I don´t know where my companion is and I need to be gone in ten minutes like at the church so i love you and I am so sorry this week is not going to happen. happy birthday dad!

elder christensen

Yeah I´m Totally Here Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 4:43 PM

hola familia,
pues where to begin haha it´s good to hear that everyone is doing well. and i´m glad to hear that my sisters are all moved in and doing great with their new apartmenets. no email from cooper.... cimmon... haha proximo vez. entonces uh yeah i´m totally in mexico city haha my area is called villa de los flores, and no there and not a lot of flowers everywhere haha my companion is elder tolosa, a native from yucantan mexico. the first night we all got dropped off in our areas, he wasn´t there haha but the zone leaders were and they helped me get to my house and meet elder tolosa. on the way they needed to do a baptismal interview, one of them is from colorado otherwise I would not have known that haha but we went and one interviewed and me the other leader and the sisters who were the missionaries preparing the family sat and talked with the family. The little kid, probably six years old would talk to me and I would get nothing haha I woud just stare and than the zone leader would translate and I would answer in spanish the best I could and then the kid said something about me that everyone laughed at and I looked and the zone leader to learn that the kid thought that I talked like a video game. yeah good thing I don´t have any pride otherwise it would have been hurt. haha but yeah elder tolosa knows more spanish than he leads on, there are only a couple times every hour that we need to wip out the dictionary haha all the members have been told that I don´t speak spanish and so they practice english or say something in spanish really slow that I understand and than I do and I respond perfectly and they are like ¨you know spanish!¨and than rattle something off and I go back to the blank stare haha but yeah it has been great so far, today is my p-day, obviously, and what i didn´t know was that we spend it as a zone so we met up with them and had three hours of instruction which again, didn´t understand, and than we traveled thirty minutes on a bus haha buses anyways to another zone´s area to play basketball and soccer, it was very fun and I got to see elder memmot from my old zone. and elder ashcraft.... but i like him better now that I don´t have him as a companion haha suprising fact for the day. about thirty percent of mexicans actually play soccer, let´s just say I would be an allstar. my companion doesn´t play haha but it´s fun. I have to go tracking now so sorry I couldn´t write more. I love you all and will write more next week. Do great things.Con amor Elder ¨chístansan¨