March 16, 2015

Moms email was funny. I feel like you were just going through a really long week and you passed through a happy moment with that email xD She just sent Lord of the Rings quotes with a paragraph blurb about her week.

District Meeting :)

I´ve got a great district right now. They´re from, (left to right) Canada (for 5 years, but she´s originally the Dominican Rep), Calif, Nicaragua, Chile, Colombia, Utah, Utah, Calif.

 

I´ve got less time, sorry, but long story short, Elder Marshall is in Utah right now due to his stress fractures. I´ve been in a trio with the elders who live with me but who are in the other ward. It´s been really weird, because I´ve been floating between them, divisions with the members, and divisions with the elders from another ward in my district. It was especially weird going to chuch accompanied by only members. Even more weird is that one of the sisters got sick and they had 2 very important appointments, so we taught in their sector, and brought them medicine. The most weird is that I got stuck with a member withought knowing that he had an appointment with the sister misionaries in his house. I couldn´t leave because he was my "companion", so I was in a lesson with the sister missionaries, which isn´t supposed to happen. President said he still doesn´t know who my new companion is going to be. He said he´ll call me, but that was a week ago that he said that.

My sector´s been slightly abandoned as I´ve been floating between 3 sectors. I´m going to try to set good appointments in my sector so we can spend more time there as a trio.

I love the work! I used one of the facsimiles in the book of Abraham to teach an investigator, which I never thought I´d do. He´s frustrated that his mom isn´t receptive to the gospel, so I showed him that Abraham´s parents weren´t receptive either and even tried to have him sacrificed to false idols.

Love y´all :D

Elder Christopherson

March 9, 2015

 

Yikes, so today is one of those days where I´m really short on time.

 

So, this week´s been very different. We got the MRI results and found that my companion has 2 stress fractures in his right foot. The traumatoligist said he can´t put any weight on his foot and that it´ll take a very long time to heal. We went looking for crutches, but in the two medical supply stores that we tried, they didn´t have crutches of his size (Elder Marshall is 2 inches taller than me). Well, walking around looking for crutches was really bad for Elder Marshall´s foot. Before we got the results of the MRI, we walked the least amount possible (just to go to lunch or a really important appointment), but now we know he can´t walk more than 50 meters at a time. We brought our matressess downstairs and have been in the house this week.

 

​Imagine this, but with the curtain open (we shut it for the photo),

this was my life for a week and a half.

 

It´s been a blur of organizing stuff, trying to study and be productive (although I got really sleepy a lot of the time, although I´m learning a little more how to focus better (with food)), learning the best way to cut a pineapple (we got juice everywhere), and talking about random stuff. We played chess a few times and the elders from the mission office (including my old companion, Elder Astete) came during their P-day (Saturday) to play a Chilean version of Risk. After, President Obeso and his wife dropped by to talk with us and they bought us food, which was very nice :). Depending on what Salt Lake tells us, Elder Marshall will either be sent home to recover, or he´ll be with another elder who can´t walk for a few weeks and I´ll work with the other elder´s companion.

 

Yesterday was President Obeso´s birthday and all the missionaries in the nearby zones went to the mission house to celebrate a little. We didn´t plan on going because of my companion´s foot, but President actually came by our house to try to pick us up. Unfortunately, we weren´t there! We were at the bishop´s house, taking our time because we didn´t have anywhere else to go. President Obeso tried calling us, but our phone was dead. Kinda sad, because they ended up watching Meet the Mormons in the mission house, which I´ve wanted to see for a long time :P

 

Anyway, the church is true, the gospel blesses lives, and I´ve been staring at the Book of Mormon enough this week to know that it´s true and brings people to Christ.

Love y´all!

-Elder Christopherson

March 2, 2015

 

So, where to start....
 

I´ve got a new companion named Elder Marshall from Orem, Utah. He´s awesome :D I find him to be very loving and humble. Fun fact: Elder Marshall has memorized a scripture every day since he began his mission! Elder Marshall´s also got problems with his foot, which is part of the reason he was sent here to Osorno (from Punta Arenas). We still don´t know what´s wrong. The X-ray doesn´t show any problems, but the doctor says we should try an MRI. He thinks it´s a stress fracture, but we can´t confirm it yet. I learned a lot about how doctors work as we went to the mission nurse, the doctor´s office (only to find that they were all gone for lunch), the doctor´s office again (to see if we could come in later that day), the other doctor´s office where you can get an MRI (we weren´t actually supposed to go there yet, but we thought we did), and the doctor´s office a third time (this time we got looked at), and tomorrow we have an appointment with the MRI doctor. I now know how to steer my way through the Chilean medical bureaucracy :D.

Elder Marshall´s not allowed to walk much, so we´ve been in the house a lot. A lot of missionaries get stressed when they have a lot of time cooped up in the house, but to me it´s so relaxing :D I´ve gotten to organize so much stuff that´s been a mess for so long and I actually took a nap! We´re working on a plan to be really organized this transfer and improving our daily and weekly planning. I´m not sure we´ll actually get to put it in practice if his foot doesn´t get better soon, but he says it hurts a lot now. We´re going to work a lot with the members and do divisions so we can visit the families that are most important to visit.
 

I told you I was going to talk about Jose. He´s an investigator that the sister missionaries found almost 3 weeks ago. He said he quit smoking like the moment he began talking to them. He came to church the next Sunday and participated in Gospel Principles class. Or rather, he started talking about how he didn´t like one of the talks in sacrament meeting and was considering standing up to object. He talked a lot and it we never really did get to talk about the topic of the class. The same thing happened in Priesthood meeting. He noticed all the flaws of the members of the church. He´s pretty smart and is very observant, and is especially bugged that members arrive at meetings late.

Anyway, the sister missionaries didn´t lose faith in him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He read 22 chapters in 2 days, but he didn´t just read them, he took notes and analyzed everything. I had the chance to talk to him about order in the church and he couldn´t just show up and object to everything, he needed to have Charity, recognizing that the members of Christ´s true church are learning too and the best way to make things work is to help instead of judging and to love instead of pushing. The sisters also talked to him and were very clear. He changed 180 degrees! He came to church in a white, button up shirt (something he said he´d never do because it looked prideful to him (but the sisters explained about respect and reverence)) He participated in the classes, but not in a disruptive way, not taking too much time while still being insightful. He´s just taking everything in and changes every time he realizes that he does something wrong. It´s amazing!!! He even helped us do a home teaching activity last Sunday and visited less active members with a member of the bishopric. I´m really excited to see when he´s baptized :D
 

Love you all :D

-Elder Connor Chrisotpherson

 Connor is far right.

Connor is standing front row right.

Wow! I have quite an impressive family! My dad tied for 2nd in a double century (200 miles on bike).

I´ve got SOOOOO much to say!!!! Where do  I even start?!?! I will probably only get to describe  a fraction of what happened!

We have cambios this week. Everyone thought that most of my district, including me, were going to leave this cambio, but everyone stays except Elder Salgado (my companion). He´s going to Punta Arenas in the cold. Apparently, my new companion is really good! Elder Marshal is from the same group as Elder Alder (who I´m living with and who is a REALLY good missionary).

I´m glad I´m staying. I thought for sure I was going to leave, but I wanted to stay. This ward is full of great families, and I feel like I´ve gotten to know the sector really well. I can tell about people on just about every street. It would have been really sad to have that knowlege lost. We´ve done a lot to establish a good member/missionary relation in the ward. 

Mom, could you send me all the photos of my baptisms? I don´t have those in my memory card since I lost my old camera a while back. Could you also send any photo that looks like I´m teaching someone, knocking a door, or talking to someone in the street? I need it for something.

Oh! I got the christmas cards :D Everyone looks so different and older (well... the adults look pretty much the same)! Especially the people around Max´s age look completely different than how I imagine them in my head.

Two weeks ago, we went into a big catholic cathedral in Osorno. There´s a member who acompanied us who was studying to be a Catholic priest, but then he found out that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church and got baptized :D It was pretty interesting. There are lots of stuff that called my attention. One is that everything is really big and dramatic. They´re very reverent, which is great. I noticed that there was a ton of focus on Christ´s death and suffering. It made me appreciate so much more the knowlege that He lives now. He didn´t just die, but he conquered death. Even in His suffering and death, He was the Son of Man, the Great Jehovah in the flesh, the King of Kings. I know that He lives and that because of the Atonement which was wrought by Him, we can live with our Heavely father forever :D

Gotta go, but I love yáll so much :D

Don´t let me forget to tell you about Oscar next week. He´s an investigator of the Sister missionaries, but his story is so interesting.

 

Love y´all :D

-Elder Christopherson