TRANSFERS!‏ Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2015 11:52

Hey Família!

So yeah this week was the week of transfers! I got transfered to another area but in the same district. So its pretty close to where I was but different house and different area but same Chapel. Area Borocongo! haha yep and I have a NEW comp! haha Who would have thought it? Right now I am with Elder Vaira and he is from Brasil! My first real brazilian, and he is white! Looks pretty american and everyone up here in the Northeast is brown so... But he seems pretty chill. I am sweeping the area with him which means that neither of us were there before and have to start over from scratch. I will miss my old area for sure! Sitio Lucas is finally starting to give way to all our work and we had 7 investigators there. Because people actually went! Anderson and Nedi went again and even though they say that they dont have the intrest to be Baptized I think that Anderson is starting to give way to the idea.. I love that family I cant wait to hear good things here soon. Also a bit of info, In my house I am leaving with 3 brazilians so I will be learning alot here pretty quick. Elder Wilson stayed there in the Branch and so I will still see him at District meeting and stuff. Strangely I can feel his absence right now. Miss that crazy kid. I grew alot with him. But yeah lets see what happens this week. Sorry all this info is spilling out but yeah dont really know how much else to stop it. Today will be unpacking and trying to get used to all these new people and try to make everyone like me.. Christensen habbit haha. Other than that, winter just started up here in Brazil which really just means more rain. But things really have cooled down here in Campina Grande! Super nice!

Alright so a few things before I forget. SO I lost my Patriatical Blessing so that would be sweet if you could just fax me a copy in the next email.. 

and... no thats all I can think of.

LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

AMOR

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

better week by far‏ Sent: Mon 6/22/15 9:12 AM

Family!

What is up you people! So yeah to start off this week was a whole lot better than the last week. We started off with a surprise split with our ZL without any reason or call ha. Then we had a blitz in our area (all the missionaries from the District come and work in you area for a while) on Thursday and Saterday we had a Branch Party to celebrate São João which is a huge thing here in Campina Grande! And this Sunday we had our INVESTIGATOR family come... and I gave a talk as well. So it was a pretty fast week and I will try to cover the best details for ya. So yeah the Blitz was pretty good I guess. We gained a lot of people that we could pass by on Friday. But none of them had real interest or any desire to go to church. If the blitz did anything it was to show our LZs that we are trying the best that we can even though we arent throwing down 2 Baptisms a week. haha no but in all honesty its all good. SÃO JOÃO is in full force now! haha So here in the North East they have this celebration to remember the pinoneer ranchers back in the day with basically an entire month of party. As tradition everyone eats corn and they have like 20 different traditional plates of corn. haha Everyone wears plad and the women wear their hair in pig tails and fireworks every second and any time. They even have 3 days in spacific where everyone is supposed to put fires infront of their houses, so yeah be waiting for that photo. Yeah its pretty tight. Our branch went out to a park named Parque das Pedras (Rock Park) to this house that was litterally made completly out of bolders! They have this huge water reserve as well and everyone went on top to take pictures and everything. IT was super pretty and orange.

 I look super orange because Helton (a brother from the branch) changed the filter of the camera to enhace the dopeness of the colors.. his words.. but in portuguese. so yep!then after we chowed down on some corn with Palminha, bolo de macaxeira, and other stuff. They have a traditional dance here called a Quadrilha and it is super sick. I will have to teach you all when I get back. Its brazilian square dancing! oh yeah and everyone listens to FORRO! haha (i cant even explain it in words) THEN MOST IMPORTANTLY! Anderson and Nedi went to church this sunday! They already have told us a few times that they have no desire to change religion but I know they loved church and they actually knew a ton of people that were already members so they felt right at home. I also gave my first talk in Portuguese! I wasnt a big deal because the mission kinda took away my fear of talking in puplic and the size of our branch helps too.. haha I only feel a little bad that maybe it wasnt the best grammer yet. haha But hey seemed to be laughing at my jokes so I think it worked fine. This next week is the last of the transfer so yeah we have arrived at another transfer where I dont want to leave the area because of the few people that are finally progressing and the few people that we are finding here are really starting to pick up! The lord knows better though..

 The blurry food pic is a food named Buchada! Its a stuffed stomach with intestans and other delisious stuff. SUPER TASTY.. dont let its looks or other descriptions lie to you. Another traditional North Eastern thing.. but a majority of the people dont like it.. haha only us true brazilians.

the other pics you can figure out. also 

Até próximo!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

E tá doutor! ‏Date: June 15, 2015 at 8:16

What is up my family!

So this week was another bumber. Basically everything we have worked for these past 11 weeks here have been close to irelevant. Nobody was at church yesterday even most of our members. And yeah there was a few that came from the Sitios (Ranches) but only because President Silva (our branch president) picked them up. Patricia didnt make it. Other less actives are super lazy and dont come. Our investigators say they will come until Sunday morning and nobody shows and or answers their phones. We only have 3 roads that we havent knocked completly yet. Our ZLs and liders are asking what we are doing wrong. Elder Wilson is getting stressed. Im right with him. 6 months is way too long for any human being to be together with out the bonding factor of MARIDGE! haha But its just another week in the books and another week with little blessings and miracles that made it all worth it. This last tuesday we went to an endless pizza joint with out Branch President. Super good! Still brazilian pizza, which is super different because they dont use tomato sauce or real dough. Throw a few toppings on it and it all tastes the same though right? haha But it was pretty fun. Other than that we had a split this week and I walked around with a Brazilian Elder fresh out of the MTC. He was super fired up to call people to repentence thats for sure. haha He is a little proud right now but just give him a few more weeks and he should calm down hopefully. haha Our house doesnt have water for 4 days out of the week now. And for some reason I cant sleep all the way through the night as of recently. haha sorry this letter isnt suposed to appear like a complaint letter Im am just updating you all with my life. haha

SPEAKING of playng piano. I play the piano for our branch. Ok its a recording but i am there to keep the beat and follow the director. haha its pretty tight.

Everyone keep strong. I stole the General Conference talks LIAHONA from one of our members because our mission is pretty slow on getting the missionaries anything so thats what I will be studying like crazy! Modern Day PROPHETS!! they are the best.

6 more months!! Im gonna start my serious work out schedual for you guys now. Im coming home an awkwardly tanned , BUT FIT, studmuffin.

LOVE YOU MUCH!

Chão 

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

Family!‏ Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 11:43

Hey, its my favorite time of the week already!

Crazy fast how time flys when you are knocking doors for 10 hours in one week! haha Half true statement right there but its all good. This week was a little bit of a mental test on our sanity but we have a few new people to work with so it was worth it. Right now was have two families that are pretty great. The first we found some time back and still they havent made it to church. It was all set up to go this week but we have no idea what happend. We are planning on passing there tonight to try and catch them but who knows.. Maybe the desire is still lacking. This other family we found Friday night are actually a pretty great family with potential. Fathers name is Anderson and he as a semi-active catholic but he loves to talk to us about the gospel. We met the wife as well and she is super pumped to learn more about the church. Given the fact that we found them on Friday, they didnt make it to Church even though we called them the night before and they said they would go. My prayer is that they will find time in there crazy busy schedual to meet with us more and go to church. We need a miracle here!!!

One couple just walked into church sunday and there story is super awesome. He said that he was in a library when they were throwing out old "never read" books when we found a Book of Mormon and felt impressed to read it. He took it home and asked his girlfriend if she had heard of the Book and she said she was Baptized there but never returned for some reason. So they both decided to walk  about 3 miles to go to church in out building. While they dont live in our area, we were stoked to meet them and they should progress here with the Elders assigned to their area. So MIRACLES DO EXIST!

Alright you cool kids.

Chão! Vos Amo!

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

ai ta doudo rapaz!‏ Mon, 1 Jun 2015 12:37

FAMILY!

Hey first things first. Jenny I am so happ0y for you thats awesome!!!! WYATT, já tem meu amor rapaz!! I feel so relieved to know that while everything went well and the baby is healthy, there is still a pretty good story there too! haha LOVE YOU GUYS! ZoneD here we come!

SO my week was pretty good but also pretty much a let down on all preportions. We worked alot with trying to get our investigators to progress this week but turns out that no one was a church this week, exept a 9 year old kid who is the son of our awesome LessActive we reactivated here 2 weeks ago. SO yeah it was kinda lame to watch everything we worked for this week go down the tube but on the otherside we still can see the fruits of our LessActive and he is a stud. Hope to get his 9 year old interested in being baptized here soon but I garenty ya that his thoughs arnt in the gospel haha! This week as well we went out to the sitios (ranches) and walked for like 2 hours with one of our members to talk to her friends that are interested in the church. haha it really was like bear grills status, #maybewewillhavetosleepheretonight! haha but it was very pretty for sure. Our house is pretty great and Elder Rojas from Peru is one of my favorites. I love new missionaries... they are always so much better than us old timers. They bring that needed breath of fresh excitment back. Yeah other than that I dont really have much else to say. I always feel bad because I feel like I should drop a message more spiritual but then my mind kinda goes blank. Ether Im not having any, or im so enveloped in it that I cant tell the difference. haha I know its the latter. For now Im just super pumped for our Less Active. Turns out he was praying for an anwser on how to quit smoking the day we found him in the road! So BOOM there ya go. Miracle! Fabio is his name.

As far as the stuff for the Stake facebook thing, just share one of your favorite stories of mine of anything about the people I talk about. People are everything. The one thing that I will forever be greatful for in my mission will be THE PEOPLE! Thats what its all about. I have never notice before just how full of love you heart gets when you introduce someone to the gosple! These are people that I have never talked to in my life. These are people that I never found in their best circumstances, and I was privledged enough to watch the savior change them. I still get excited to go out and work a little harder because I now that the next, Peggy or David or Patty,Daniel, Patricia is just another door down the road. ITS ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE! I just wanted you to get that point across for me mom. My mission for me will always be the memory of forgetting about my life and living it through the lives of others, and no amount of Pictures, P-days, Culture will ever overpower the joy that comes from helping gods children.

alright I gotta split..

até próximo gente

ELDER CHRISTENSEN