Photo:  Elder Holt and I were cutting firewood for a lady. We`ve taught her 18 year old daughter. The mom said I needed to keep the little girls away from Elder Holt while he was cutting with the ax, so I opened up my backpack and they started rummaging. One took out my camera and took this  photo (along with like 50 photos of her finger covering the lens). One of the 3 girls attended church. She`s like 7 years old, so I don`t know how she ended up going because the rest of her family has never come before. She went with an older lady in our ward who can barely take care of herself right now, so it`s surprising how that all worked out.

 

Photo: This is where I`ve studied the last 2 months. Sometimes it`s neater than this, sometimes it`s a lot worse. The stuff in back belongs to the owner of the house, but she still hasn`t taken it all out. It`s sort of a storage room.

 

March 24, 2014

 

Wow, we`ve talked to lots of gringos today. The first one we saw in a Colombian pastry shop. He`s a member who has a home here Patagonia. The other was an English teacher who I found very intellectual. It was an interesting conversation. He said what really kept him from joining the church was that you can`t drink coffee. He said that there are so many Mormons who don`t drink coffee, but they do drink lots of Coca-Cola or lots of other junk food. President Uchtdorf and Elder Russel M. Nelson both talked about making healthy choices in October`s General Conference. Set the example. Your body is a temple. Care for it! That`s something I`ve been working on a lot in Chile.

Sorry... That was a rant when I`m really really short on time today.

The woman we’ve been teaching is getting baptized this Saturday :D God answered a prayer when we couldn`t find anyone to accompany us to the baptism interview at the church. We had been calling for like a half hour when we knelt down to pray. The phone rang before Elder Holt finished the prayer with a member who could accompany us. God hears prayers.

Love you all! Mom, the new pattern stuff looks great :D very professional :D I like the smart fox. A sister in the ward drew me Pokémon :D :D :D 

-Elder Connor Christopherson

March 17, 2014  (another email from Connor that I forgot to post last week)

I really love being a missionary right now. We have several people who are preparando to be baptized. I`m especially excited for one woman we’ve been teaching, who is scheduled for 29/3. We had a family home evening with her and a young newlywed couple and the wife gave an awesome testimony about repentance and obedience. (She also drew me an awesome picture of Eevee, Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon.)

We`ve found tons of future and potential investigators and we`ve also been finding more less-active members. One who I didn`t really know well (my companion did most of the talking when we visited 2 months ago and I apparently wasn`t very focused) called us because her mom is in the hospital in Puerto Montt. We prayed and offered words of comfort and she said, "Si o si, tengo que ir a la iglesia este domingo" (No matter what, I need to go to church this Sunday).

I`m really a bit stressed because there Are a lot of people we need to teach this week and I`m not sure we`ll be able to get to all of them. Most people can only be visited after 7:00 (people get out of work really late in Chile and we can`t go in the houses if there isn`t a man in the house) so that just gives us a few hours every day to visit and teach those people who`ve asked us to visit. Even then, Elder Ballard when he visited said we`re not teaching enough people. I think I need to work on maximizing time when we`re with people. It can be so hard to focus on what we want to teach while still teaching people, not lessons. Those we teach like to talk and talk and talk, saying very little with a whole lot of words. I`m trying to avoid doing that myself as I teach.

Oh! Dad, could you send me my line of priesthood authority? I`ve never really seen it before (as far as I remember). I figured that would be important to have.

The mission is really humbling me. Every day I`m reminded of all the things that maybe I ought to be doing but I don`t always get around to doing, like writing in my journal, asking for references, calling people beforehand to confirm appointments. I try my very hardest to get everything done right, but in the end I fall very very short. I`m amazed by my companion, Elder Holt, and his ability to just get things done. If he wants something done, he does it, and I haven`t a clue how he does it all. I`m baffled. We balance each other out with our strengths and weaknesses.

Keep hastening the work! Be ready to teach because opportunities will come if you look for them or not.

Love you all!

Elder Connor Christopherson

PS: Anyone have a clue what this symbol means? Ç  It`s on the keyboard right where enter ought to be and I keep hitting it. çççççççÇçÇçÇÇÇÇççÇÇç