One more week till conference!!‏ Date: March 30, 2015 at 11:54am

Hey hey everyone!

Sorry for the later letter but this morning we were playing soccer so I cant really say that I feel guilty. Figured it will still be morning where you guys are anyways so its all good.

This week was pretty good. DANIEL got BAPTIZED! I don't think I did this guy justice yet in an email but here are a few more reasons he is a stud and a half. When we have lessons, he asks to say the prayer. He reads the Book of Mormon... and understands it like he has been a member his whole life! No joke! We were talking about the Tree of Life and all that jazz and he nailed it on the interpretation. We still havent even confirmed his thoughts, we told him to keep on reading and find out for himself. He brought his MOM to the baptism so she could watch. (She is super catholic ) AND.. HE loves soccer! HE is a stud on all levels. I got to baptize him and a really funny story was that the baptismal clothes we had for him, the zipper broke, so he had to wear an XX-large haha! He looked like the michilan tire guy! It was pretty funny. In other news.. we basically have no new people to work with so we are gonna try to work through Daniel and find some of his friends or family to get exicated about the church. Should be pretty easy because Daniel is the man. 

DANIEL IS THE MAN

O CARA!!!

Things are going with Wilson and the other elders in the house. You just have to take a step back and think about people outside the context of the mission world. I think some times its pretty easy to get caught up in the small things and not realize that we are all just as much vulnerable to weaknesses as the people next to us. Its been pretty rainy today and it was a little sketchy playing ball on the court today sliding around but I am begining to feel more addapted to the culture and everything around me. Today waiting for the Train, I was sitting in the sprinkling rain on the ground trying to strech out my cramps (this body is so outta shape!!) when I looked up at the skyline of the appartments and green and was thinking that this place is home! I am beginning to get the hang of the Lang more and more and while I still have a ways to go I feel good thinking that if I tried to speak english fast right now I wouldnt be able to do it. No dreams in Port. or anything yet.. at least I think. But the lang it coming. 

Have a great week everyone! Dont worry about your favorit sibling/child out here. Im loving life and all its challenges. Time is moving crazy fast out here.

Till next week

Até próxima semana!

LOVE

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Rain‏ Sent: Mon 3/23/15 9:28 AM

Familia

What it up you guys! I had a pretty fast week and it has been raining for the past three days so thats fun. The weather has cooled down a little but today the sun came out and now its just hot and humid and terrible. We started off the week pretty good. Daniella was baptized on Wed. and I guess you could say she was prepared. She came to church again yesterday and received the Holy Ghost so its already better than it was last time. But in reality I am happy for her. She has progressed a lot. Other news this week was that Daniel, my favorite BRO in the world was SICK this weekend!! So we have to wait another week until he can be baptized. Yeah they happen pretty quick down here (baptisms) but in reality we have been teaching Daniel for like 6 weeks already. He is super solid so I am not worried about him. I will be blessed to be the one to Baptize him so I am very humbled. Look for the picture next week! Will be my first one in a year (with PEGGY). My companion is proving to be my hardest obstacle right now. Ha and yeah it hasnt been that fun. But we have our good days and our bad. So there really isnt much more to say. I just gotta Bear-Down #goCATS because I know there have been times when I havent been the easiest as well.

Our churrasco ZONE P-DAY last week was super good! I miss P-days so much! I was tuns of fun to hang out and play some ball but It is almost guaranteed not to happen for a long time. Everything here is "rewarded" on a "how many baptisms have you had" basis so for now we will just sit in house and play Ukulele and eat bananas. haha Carmeleta is super awesome but right now she is going through a phase of SUPER CLINGY which is not good. This past week she has bought me an Umbrella a Flamingo Towel (the favorite local soccer team here even though the team is located in Rio de Janeiro... long story) and she feeds us every time we see her! Heart of Gold, let me tell ya, but there is a line and she is dancing with it! haha She is awesome though. 

MOM- HAPPY BITHDAY! in Português more commonly you woud say PARA BEMS (which just means congratulations) but Feliz Aniversario também!

51 and young! I like it! Hope you have a incredible day and week! You really are the best Mother a kid could ask for! I love you with all my heart! To the moon and back and then to Brazil and then back again! 

Alright folks! I will send some pics and then I'm off to another week! 

Com Amor e Fe, pode mudar o mundo!

chão gente,

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

E ai E‏ Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:00

Hey family.

So this week was pretty dang interesting. We started off by finding out that some lady in our ward is wanting to get baptized again because the first time she didnt get the holy ghost #instaLessActive and so this created a rift when a few schedualing plans but me on high aleart of whether or not she is ready. Luckly all went well and only a few people almost died because of my wrath.. haha But its all good now and she is still preparing for a baptism this week. (sorry if you still dont conpletly understand all the details of it but it really isnt important, you can ask me when I get home.) This sunday we had almost everyone go to church that is a legitiment investigator! Daniel came! I love that guy! He is prepping for a baptism next week so lets hope it all works out! And Carmeleta pulled off a miracel to make it to church for her confermation! She orignally had work and that was going to pull her away for going but we prayed hard and she ended up walking to church on her own when she found out about not having to work and arrived just in time for sacrament! She is awesome! Right now though I have the fear that she is way to attacted to us as missionaries! Not good. I hope that she can develope those relationships with some of our members #allaboutthatmemberwork though.. So yep this week we are just preppin for two baptisms and trying to make a week without wanting to kill someone! haha It will be fine.

I dont really know what else to tell you guys! I thought my last letter was pretty good and had a great story too but apparently you all want more for me!! haha. Being a missionary is kinda the same thing over and over again so I dont know what to tell ya! Portuguese is coming along! I can speak it a whole lot better than when I arrived. I am still trying to learn more words and frases that dont have to deal with a gospel topic but its all good. With every improvement in portuguese I begin to feel like a missionary again. Moms Qs- haha of yeah Meals.. alright there is something you guys need to learn about Brazilian culture right now. They eat the same thing every day! haha Rice, Beans, Noodles, and some kind of meat. I like it for sure and there are curten members that make it better than others. I had fish one time the other day and it was super good. idk though. Its all the same. ha Fruit here is where its at though and I have grown to love bananas. Idk why but here they are just so much better. I like Goiaba a bunch too. Fruit here is where its at. You cant knock a mango down in the back of your appartment and eat it in the states like you can here! Cookies are just normal cookies. Nothing compaired to Oreos though... (next package please?!) American snacks are hard to come by here. They have Doritos but its just not the same.

Alright Gente (people) Today we have a zone p-day for the first time since I got here so I am pretty excited to have a P-day thats actually worth it like there were in the states! Im planning on Soccer for at least 5 hours and we are gonna fire up some meat! Im looking forward to it! Love you all and have a great week! 

ps GO CATS

Com Amor,

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

nother week in Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 12:07

Hey everybody.

Yep so this week was an interesting one. One of those that wakes you up and makes you realize that there are only 5 more to come. Ha the other Elders have calmed down a little bit. I had to do a humble check right quick and stop being so angry about the situation. People are only disobedient when their testimonies are hanging low. Just means they need more love than normal. Same for Elder Wilson. This kid is gonna teach me a lot I tell ya. haha The most important news from this week was that Carmeleta got Baptized!! I was kinda on the wishywashy side of it when it was being planned and how that day started out but luckly the spirit touched my heart after it all and I know it did for her so I can rest assured that she will take that promise with her for the rest of her life. First real baptism in Brazil and while it wasnt the same of how it was in the states, Church is still true! Her sister also came to support her and she was really fun to get to know last night. We are super blessed to have Carmeleta in our lives and her sister was super greatful that we were there to help her sister. Our other investigators are draggin their feet hard core so that will be the focus this week.

In other news too, I killed a fly last night with my PEN! Yeah it was dope. I was just chillin there with my journal at the end of the night like always when this fly just kept going at it. I was like "fly back off me bro or your gonna get yours.." then I swatted my pen at it and cliped it or something and it fell to the ground and i killed him! Other success story of the night. 

I should get the V-day package tomorrow and I am stoked to see whats inside. I have all these brazilian people to share my american candy with so I am hopeing its stuffed. Thanks for the report on Hayden and the Family! Sounds awesome but so weird at the same time. What is home?? ha jk Thanks for reading my letter at the thing.. I am stoked to hear that the ward is going strong. Didnt realize that I grew up with three Dallins.. and I give brazil a hard time for naming everyone Maria! haha 

Alright you party animals. Hang in there till next week! Thats what I will be doing!

Muito Amor Veu!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Transfer week! Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 12:50

Editors note! Seriously having a missionary is amazing! what a great spiritual fix everytime I read his letters. Love it!

pics are from last P-day when we visited the fort of cabedelo!

Hey family,

So yep we had trasfers this week but everyone stayed so its really not a big deal. Surprizingly I have learned a bunch from this last transfer so I am ready to see what this one will bring. As well I get to stay here and see Carmeleta get baptized and maybe our other sweet investigators as well so this next transfer will be great. Still with elder Wilson and we are actually getting along super well. I have learned that if you want to learn to love someone all you have to do is be obedient and preach the gospel together. If you are like the other elders in our house you get along only because your disobedient and ready to go home. So yeah this is the one thing that is gonna be the struggle here this transfer.Half of our house is falling off the loose end right now. Back to Carmeleta! She is so incredible! She is probably one of the most humble, nicest people i have ever met! Like food off of here own plate kinda nice. I love her! She is quitting café right now and she has been to church and is loving the idea of having a great ward family in her life. She still has a little fear of baptism still but with every visit we discover one more reason why and work on resolving it. We also have another investigator named Daniel and he is the boyfriend of a member. He is a stud and a half! He is progressing super fast and the only thing that it lacking is going to church. Hopefully he can come this week. He is about 33 years old. I told him once "Hey, você é o cara!" (you're the man) and now evertime he sees me he says the same thing to me! ha ha dont know why it its pretty funny! I love our investigators in this area so the more I think about it the more excited I am for another 6 weeks. "curb investigator" kinda fell through so yeah idk we are working with it still.

Also we had our stake conference as well so thats pretty crazy! Snow up the wa-zoo for you guys! Thats sick! Got the email forwards about Stokes and Daniel. Daniel sounds so good now! So much of a difference! And where is stokes going? All I know is that he is learning some redonk language and is still in the MTC.

Well know that I love you guys with all my heart! 

Com amor!

Chão 

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

 Carmeleta and our breaking the café addiction party!

And a youth that lives in Jacaré named João Lucas! He is a stud and a half