July 20th Letter

Dear family,

¿Como está? So i got my new comp and were just chillin here in the internet cafe. It is weird not having Vasquez here.. i already miss him! but its all good. My new comp is from honduras and he has 19 months in the mission. I dont really know much about him yet, but he seems pretty cool. Today we had the change meeting and everything.. it was cool and i got my books :) exploring the land of the book of mormon.. its soo tite!
  last saturday our two babtisms went well, we babtised the 12 year old kid and then the wife of Richard also. So now we completed the family and they are all awesome. We going to teach them tonight and watch the joseph smith movie with them... im excited. They are working now to be able to go to the temple and get sealed. Which is a year from now, but still i am going to be here still and i can go to it :) So that will be awesome!! The other family that we have commited to be babtised the 6th of next month.. they would be babtised sooner but theyre going to nicaraqua for a couple weeks to visit family there. They arent married but we also commited them to be married the same day as the babtism in order to be babtised. They have a little boy that has 2 years. They are awesome too and are progressing also. We also have another couple that we are teaching. They are progressing but they have marraige problems so were working with them and still teaching them. They also have a babtism date for the 30th of this month but i think we need to work with them more to save there marraige and everything. But the work is good. we are contacting a ton of families. We contact like 3 families a day there are a lot here!
    These last two days we were kind of slacking tho, because Vasquez wanted to say good bye to the members and stuff before he left, Vasquez didnt want to leave the mission, he was sad it was over. Mom we only live as 4 elders, we dont actually work with the other elder usually, they have their own area and everything. haha
   Thats crazy that Lowell is gone now.. i hope the business does well. How many employees does dad have? Does he still have a lot of work? I miss roxy soo much... everyday i see like 4 bulldogs(there are a ton here) and i always think about when i see them. haha 
   That story about that girl is awesome mom. Yeah missionary work is fregin awesome, i want to teach everybody i know and show them the truth when i get home! haha especially our famiy!! 
  So do you have a copy of my partriartichal(my splessing is all messed up from spanish) blessing there? Yeah where it talks about hunting and everything is so awesome, and how through hunting(being a hunting guide  ;) im gonna be able to teach a lot of people the gospel. thats tuanies! 
  Yeah there are some hard days.. especially when i think about home i get really home sick and there are times where its so hard! But i know without the mission my life would have sucked haha i love the mission and the book of mormon. Ive always known the church was true but i didnt have like a strong testimony but when i read that book or when i see the first vision of joseph smith in the movie i know its true! I think out of all the things of the church i have the strongest testimony of the book of mormon. Its just so obvious that its true to me that sometimes when im teaching im thinking in my head ¨how do you not believe this..¨ haha I love the movie The Testaments, and the Joseph Smith movie too.. there are so fregin tite!!
  Well i love you all and i will talk to you this monday :)
Elder Christensen

Hola familia!
  How is everyone? thats crazy that it was the forth of july already!! Hows work going now that your without Lowell dad? tell me everything..
Well last saturday we went to the temple... but not to do a session.. we went cuz a familia that Elder Vasquez knows that was in his last area invited us to their sealing!! They are a family of 10 people... crazy huh!! and they are sooo nice and awesome... we got to chill wit them for like 2 hours before we went into the sealing. So we go through and do the session, and then we go into the sealing room and there were a ton of people there from their ward. it was cool. and then all the kids come... all 8 of them all dressed in white... and they get sealed.. it was the coolest thing ever!! it was so spiritual! it was fregin awesome!!!
  Then after that we got done around 2:30 or so and headed back to Garrabito. We filled the font up, called all the members, got the babtismal clothes ready, and everything. We go and pick up the family, Richard, Reina, Allan, and Ramsés. the babtism is at 5 and we get there and start to change and then all the sudden Reina tells us she drank coffee that morning... :( so we were like what??.... ugh that sucks. So then we talk to her and she says she´ll get babtised next saturday.. so were like ugh whatever... haha And then we start the babtism and i babtise all 3 of the men. It was cool and everything but it wouldve been cooler if Reina was babtised the same day... ya know? oh well.
  So we have to babtisms next saturday.. Reina and a boy that is 12 years old. Hes way cool too. his aunt is a member and he lives with her now. And one day he told his aunt that he wanted to be babtised so she called us and weve been teaching him and hes getting babtised Saturday. We are teaching this other really cool family that lives right by Richard and Reina... tonight were gonna have family home evening with the two families and a member family also.. so im excited for that!! Hopefully well find some more families too to be babtised.
  So Elder Vasquez heads home on the 21 of july. so next week. Crazy huh? he doesnt want to leave, hes sad haha but yeah im gonna miss him and its gonna be weird getting another companion. But it should be good!! Its weird being in a trio right now cuz we have to work in our area(Garrabito) and Elder Clark´s area also(Tibás) until the 21st when both me and Clark are getting new companions.
 I went to clarks ward yesterday because we had to take a family to his ward to church, so i got to meet all the members there too.. it was cool. There are about 5 members that could be my future wife... so we´ll see... theres one in partucular hahah ;) The girls here are so fregin hot!! ugh but its all good haha   
Love you guys... talk to you soon
Elder Christensen

2011 4th of July letter

Hola family..
how is everyone? im great, just chillin! Happy 4th of July... thats crazy!! haha what are you guys gonna do today?!
  So last week we found a new part of our area and we have been working there a ton. We have 3 families over there right now that we are teaching, its awesome! One of the families is getting babtised this saturday!! :) sick huh? they are  a family of 4, the parents, and then two boys, 15 and 13! they are awesome and im so excited to babtise them! :) We had a really good lesson with them last night and the spirit was so strong! we are going to teach them everynight this week before their babtism! So pray that everything will work out!
  Also Elder Lanza, the other elder that was companions with Clark, he finished his mission yesterday, and changes are in like 2 weeks so president just made us (me,vasquez,clark) a trio, so now its just us 3! haha but its all good! Ive had a trio twice now.. wierd huh!
  Hopefully well find some more families this week to.. thatll be good :) Well what else has been going on?? ive been out 4 1/2 months crazy huh, some days are really fast and some days are slow but im lovin it! i can speak spanish!! :).... more or less but its comin along haha Hows the relatives? i miss everyone a ton!! Well i guess theres not much more to say... haha you guys didnt write very much this week... ;(
Well i love you all and cant wait to hear from you next week.
Love Elder Christensen :)

june 27 2011

Hola familia,

how are you all? sorry that my email wasnt very long last week. haha Thats crazy about the highschool for the girls, when is it going to be built and ready? That will be cool for them tho especially to be able to go together. thats sick! Majerle is gonna do dance again huh? thats crazy haha
Thats awesome there were 4 elders on your plane ride home mom, what are the odds of that haha I cant believe you watched them meet their parents!! Tú estas loca.
So yeah everything is going great, we had the other babtism last saturday and it was great. The guy that we babtised is 54 years old, he is a doctor and he is like the smartest man ever, i swear hes gonna be a general authority or something!! Yesterday i gave to blessing to confirm him a member and the holy ghost during the sacrament, it was hard. haha but cool. and then in priestquorum, we confired the aronic priesthood to Juan(the guy we babtised 2 weeks ago) and also to Gerardo(the other babtism) and right after they both volunteered to bless the sacrament next sunday... crazy huh! haha it was way cool! :) Yesterday we had about 80 people at church to so it was way good!! And yes when i babtised Juan i remembered the C word haha and its ""conmisiónado" is spanish haha
           Yes we have been working hard this last week, we walk so much everyday i come home at like 9:30 and just fall on my bed!! But we are exploring our area a lil more, we went to this one part of it where there a ton of more houses and we contacted a TON of families! Last we we taught two new families and a guy, and all of them are our new investigators. They are awesome!!
   Thats crazy about the rattlesnake... why didnt you kill it and skin it?? haha I cant believe Megan died, that is so sad!! How is scott doing now??
  But yeah Spanish is going good, i can feel it getter better and better. I cant understand a ton and speak a ton. All the gringo elders say theyre jealous of my spanish cuz its way better than theres was when they started they say! so that makes me feel a lil better when im frustrated with the language!! Last friday and our zone meeting president Galvez came, it was cool, he taught us a lil and then showed us a talk by Elder Holland of the quorum of the 12. its fregin sweet, you guys should watch it. it was a talk by him in the MTC last january... look it up!! Dad you better be gettin that bow out... the season is almost here!! I better get some picks of you with something more than just your bow(an animal)!! Oh and the food is good, we eat at this hamburger place every night that is right next to our house, it has THE best hamburgers ever. and they are sooo cheap!!!
Well i love you guys, i hope you guys are doing good!! talk to you next week,
Pura Vida!!
Elder Christensen



Some of the members chillin before the baptism of Gerardo



Me and the Bishop

Some of the Costa Rican bills. sick huh? the 1000 colones is worth about 2 dollars and the 5000 colones is worth 10 dolars, you just double the number.

June 20th letter

Hey familia! how are you all? im doing well :)
Well i had my first babtism last friday, it was awesome, and he asked me to babtised his haha it was crazy!! i sent some pics tho :) the backyard looks awesome!! im glad everyone is doing good!! :) I havent got the books yet but i am excited to get them ;) hey matt is going to bring my watch that he took from me before i left back to the house, can you send it to me with more of the black socks from missionary mall... gracias :)
This next saturday we have another babtism so well see how that goes, but this guy is golden so it will be awesome. i dont have very much time today, so i love you all :)
Elder Christensen

June 13th letter 2011

Hola familia,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! Yo tengo mucho amor por tú!! :)(love you)
Well this last week has been much better :) it was a great week, we taught both of our investagadors with a babtismal date twice, and they are still golden :) One of them two sundays ago when it was fast sunday went up and bore his testimony infront of the congregrasion. it was super tuanies!!!!
 Yeah ive seen the blog, its sweet :) i just dont like the picture on the top...you should change it!! My comp goes home the 20 of july, crazy huh!! so ill have a new comp in like 5 weeks! oh freak, thats crazy about majerle... i hope shes ok.. tell her and maddi to write me sometime. haha raro.
So yeah everything is really good, i restarted the LDM in spanish, and  im in 2nd Nefi chap. 12 :) its crazy cuz i can understand most of everything that im reading.. :) and i write in my journal everynight in ONLY spanish! and its helping alot! also another that helps a lot is i write little stories out in spanish, that way i have to look up words that i dont know and it expands my vocabulary a ton!! i still get frustrated sometimes with it tho!!
So theres a member here that carves fotos into wood, like any foto that you want and hell carve it, hes really good, some of the others elders have some carvings that he did for them and they are unreal!!! so im gonna get one, there pretty cheap too!!
     So yeah we have a babtism this friday and then one the next week :) and hopefully they next week after that, well see! Tell the Makanoas hi for mi!!! and to write me sometime :) Yeah last week on the day on changes we went to this restuarant that a member owns, its a mexican restuarant, and it was amazing!! best mexican food ever!!! Thats sick you went to Texas mom, you better have bought some cowboys stuff for me ;)
Hows the buisiness going dad?! 
Well love you guys and talk to you next week!! :) ¡¡¡¡¡Pura Vida!!!!
Elder Christensen

Letter June 8 2011

Hola familia!
Pura Vida!
how are you all? i miss you guys a ton, some days are way hard and some days are way great, but thats the life of a missionary haha 
So yeah i feel a lot better, my tooth was just throbing for like a week and turns out that i had a rootcanal. haha classic!! but the dentist fixed it and im all good now :), you guys might already know this but theres probably 70 mil colones missing from my acount, i had to pay the dentist, the mission doesnt pay for it :( pero, the dentista is a new investagator we have now, we are teaching him now haha hes way cool. The dentist work here is so cheap its 12 mil to fix a cavity(which is like 24 bucks)haha and it was only 70 mil(130 bucks) for the root canal and the crown to fix everything, crazy huh! So im all good now.
We have 3 different babtism dates!! One is on the 17th of june, Juan! Another on the 25 of june, Gerardo. and the next one is on the first saturday of july, Daniel and his family. cool huh! Even tho last week kinda sucked cuz i was sick and then had a root canal and we lost like 5 of the families that we were teaching, we now how 3 babtism dates :) so im excited!! 
The other day when we were going to the zipline place it was closed cuz it was raining so hard :( but maybe ill get to do it soon. I had my pday today instead of monday this week cuz it was changes today. So we went to san jose and it was cool. We have a new elder in our district and he seems pretty cool, so esta bien. Im feelin good about spanish now, a couple days ago i had a dream that was mostly in spanish and a little inglish. and i woke up and felt like i could say anything it was cool. and then the next morning i woke up and felt like i havent learned barely any spanish at all ;( haha it was way weird. but i know ive learned a ton of spanish. The other gringos say that all you need to do is read the book of mormon out loud for like an hour a day. so thats what ive been doin, and its helped a lot. i can pretty much understand everything that im reading and my accent is getting soooo tuanies!! 
I got the package today but havent opened it yet. but thanks :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!Also there are two books that i want, no need. One is called Exploring the lands of the book of mormon. the other is called Lds guide to Meso-America, you can purchase them on amazon.com and but the dillivery adress as the mission home adress. i NEED these books so please order them right after you read this :) gracias.!!!!!
This last week has been really long and i feel like ive been here forever :( but i hope this week will be much better!! im working hard and trying to find families to teach!! I love you guys a ton, and talk to you next monday!!