Saturday, December 13, 2014

December 8, 2014

So, due to other stuff I needed to do, I´ve got like 3 minutes.

Here’s an excerpt from an email I sent to a future missionary who asked for advice on how to prepare for Osorno:

"Bring a nice sleeping bag, because there´s no central heating at night (can´t keep a fire going while everyone´s sleeping).  And I don´t know if you´d be able to buy it or if you´d have to make it, but I have a sheet liner that slides into my sleeping bag like a sock, so instead of needing to wash the sleeping bag, I wash the sheet.

It doesn´t hurt to learn a little Spanish before arriving.

Memorize the references and content to some of the scriptures in Preach My Gospel in Spanish.

Make sure you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith.

I think the most important thing about serving a mission is to be very obedient and keep up a good attitude. There are a lot of missionaries that get depressed or discouraged when they see how many members have fallen away from the church, how many active members don´t keep the commandments, and how many missionaries who don´t do what they´re supposed to. In the mission, I´ve learned that my own attitude and ability to be a great missionary is INDEPENDANT of what anyone else is doing. Strive to be like Christ, and remember that you won´t see most of the fruits of your labor until after the mission. Never feel embarrassed to go to your leaders for help, but remember that your first source of help is Heavenly Father. Enjoy the mission. You get out of it what you put into it. It will stretch you much much much further than you thought it would, but if you are faithful and suffer with JOY, you will enjoy and love the mission very much.

Oh! Last bit. The month before arriving to the MTC was the hardest month of my life up to that point. Satan knows your potential as a missionary and will tempt you tenfold. Put on the whole armor of God and be vigilant. Talk to your bishop about anything that even remotely makes you feel unworthy to be a missionary and he will help you SO MUCH! Repentance is awesome. :D

Enjoy it! I hope I get to meet you in the field :)

-Elder Christopherson"

That´s literally all I have time to say.

I love you all! The church is true! We had a great Stake Conference. :D And we saw the Christmas fireside from Salt Lake City. :D

-Elder Christopherson
                                                                             

December 1, 2104

This will be disappointingly short. Sorry. Today´s a little complicated. Why? My companion, Elder Astete got assigned to be the financial secretary of the mission, so he needs to move to his new apartment TODAY. I´m going to have to stay in the house with the other two elders until my new companion arrives in Wednesday (the other elders in our house have to stay in the house because one of them is recovering from an injury).

I love love love love love being a missionary :D

Love you all!

-Elder Christopherson
                                                                                   

Nov 24, 2014

Tommy! How dare you get a photo with a llama before I did. I thought there´d be more of them in Chile, but there are just a bunch of dogs. Elder Astete said there are a lot more in the northern part of Chile.
So much to say! I´ll start by pasting what I sent to President Obeso. It's in Spanish, but you can use Google translate or ask someone who speaks Spanish to translate it. :)
"Hola, Presidente :D

La semana ha sido buena. Hemos tenido various momentos bien sagrados. Estabamos llegando a una lección un poco tarde con nuestro lider misional. Es un niño de 9 años con una abuela activa y una mamá quien no es miembro. Teníamos una idea de lo que ibamos a enseñar antes de entrar, pero por alguna razón, no sintió correcto. Sólo teníamos 20 minutos para enseñar. Al entrar en la casa, nos dimos cuenta que el niño estaba enfermo. Empezamos a enseñar del Sacerdocio, en vez de nuestro primer plan. Su mamá dijo a su hijo a pedir una bendición, él lo pidió, y dimos una bendición de salud. El Espiritu estaba muy fuerte y fue una forma tan inspirado por Dios de enseñar del Sacerdocio a un niño.

Tuvimos otra lección cuando sentimos cambiar la tema cuando el investigador habló de su lectura en 3 Nefi. Empezamos a enseñar de la obediencia, que yo creo que muchas investigadores no endienden bien antes del bautismo. Fue exactamente lo que necesitaba. Sé que esta es verdaderamente una obra inspirada y guiada por Dios.

Gracias por todo lo que hace,
Elder Connor Christopherson"
So, Elder Nelson visited. That was cool! Elder Astete and I got up really early and were the first ones there. We got to sit right in the front :D We all got to shake his hand, along with Sister Nelson, Elder Viñas, Sister Viñas, and Presidente and Hna Obeso :P Elder Nelson has really clear, glassy eyes up close. He was so funny :)
There were interpreters who stood beside Sister Nelson and Elder Nelson, and when Elder Nelson pronounced some crazy east European name, the interpreter pronounced it spot on, and Elder Nelson stopped to say to the interpreter, "That was so good! I´m so proud of you :D You´ve really got that nailed down."

It was especially interesting to see the differences between Elder Ballard´s visit and Elder Nelson´s visit. Elder Ballard was like a businessman, very focused on one topic (talking to everyone) and gave us numerical goals. Elder Nelson didn´t really stay on one topic, but you could tell that he said something that was meant to each of the 250 or so missionaries there.
Something else I noticed is how much Spanish Elder Nelson actually knows. He told us to all sit down in Spanish, and he talked about the etymology (I butchered that spelling) of the Spanish word "evangelio" which translates to "gospel." The "ev-" means message in greek (v changed to u), and "-angel-" means angel in all three languages, so it´s literally an "angelic message."
Interestingly, I liked Sister Nelson´s talk better than Elder Nelson´s talk. They were both wonderful! Sister Nelson talked about how we use our time wisely and she talked about Shindler´s list. Both Elder Nelson and Sister Nelson talked about marriage, saying that the girl should never say yes to a proposal unless they know that he loves God more than her, and that the guy should never propose, unless he knows that she loves God more than him.

Oh, we also had an activity where the chapel hosted an activity for a group that wasn´t related to the church. It´s a group that helps people with different social and mental capacities learn music. There were about 250 people who weren´t members of the church there, and there were lots of missionaries to talk with everyone. We had some good discussions.

Love you all :D

Elder Connor Christopherson