Gustavo's Baptism

Dear Family.

Sounds like a lot of stuff happened this week back home! Nothing that cool happened here this week just our zone conference (where I got to see Elder Wilhelm again - that was coool) oh yeah and I received probably one of the best packages of my mission and . . . just a baptism!!! haha

Starting at the beginning. Wednesday was our mission conference, and those are always fun except we had to wake up at 6:00 am to get there on time. The conference is in Talca so before we could just get there so easily, but here we’re a little farther away. It was cool and way fun to see all the other Elders again and to hang out with them and talk about how things are going. Elder Wilhelm was down by Concepcion, so I hadn´t seen him for about 6 months so that was way cool to talk to him again. After the conference we went to the room where they had our packages and one of the assistants said ¨what the heck Elder Christenson you have another huge package!¨ I just told him my family loves me more than his loves him haha he just laughed and walked away. After the conferences we as missionaries always go to the McDonalds in Central as tradition. It’s always so funny to see all the people there cuz they just stare at us. Well it’s not that big of a surprise, seeing as hundreds of good lookin white boys are just crowding into this tiny restaurant. That’s always a fun experience. Later on this week we interviewed Gustavo and he passed so we asked him who he wanted to baptize him. Apparently about a week before I got to Molina there was a Stake Conference here in Curico. Our Mission President came up and spoke there and Gustavo attended it with Elder Reynolds and Elder Scott (his old comp). He told us he was just so impressed with what ¨that last guy said about repentance and remission of sins¨ (his words) and that he wanted him to do it.....we were like uuuhhh well he lives in Concepcion and is our Mission President, but we’ll see what we can do. We asked President Chavez and he told us that he almost never has space in his schedule, but that somehow they didn’t have anything planned that Sunday, so he came up on Sunday. He told Gustavo that in his 3 years as President we’ve had about 3000 baptisms, but that Gustavo was his first and only baptize that he himself was able to do. It was soooooo awesome!!! Anyways it was a pretty great week although we had a few ups and downs, the baptism at the end definitely made it a good one. Things are goin really good here, we now just need to go out and find some more Gustavo´s cuz that kid is just a stud. We told him that he really was chosen to accept this Gospel, cuz that’s how we felt about him. Easily one of the most faithful and powerful people I know. He’s 19 and now wants to be a missionary, how cool is that?!

We don’t have very many investigators right now so we’re going to be doing a lot of contacting this week, but I’m excited and ready for it. Pray that the people here in Molina will be receptive and willing to listen to us and test the Gospel in their lives. That story dad told me was way cool. I talked with my comp about it and we´ve just been talking about how cool it is to be in a church where Jesus Christ literally guides our leaders. Aaaahhh it just blows my mind how cool it is, and it makes me sad to see these people reject us. Not because they’re rejecting us, but that they’re rejecting their Savior and their Salvation. Anyways I just pray that God will be merciful with them and that someday they’ll accept it.

It rained really hard a couple of days here so I think now it’s time to cut my hair really short cuz the there’s no point in doing my hair in the mornings anymore cuz I just get soaked haha so I’ll have to send some pics of that next week. I love you all and thanks again for that package! I seriously LOVED your letters and pictures! Those treats are delicious and that Tree of Life diagram is sooo coool. p.s. Mckay you’re still breaking the rules I set before I left! I saw my blue vans were being used in California, your sins can’t escape me! Thou shalt be punished for that transgression, especially if those were the shoes your friend puked on. If so I expect a long hand written apology and a promise for a new pair when I get back! ahem anyways enough ranting and punishing.

I love you all so much and pray for you

still your favorite son/brother

Tanner

(Tanner sent an email for us to send his grandma and in it he bore his testimony so I thought I would include that portion of the letter to share with you.)

. . . I’ve had the honor and privilege of baptizing 7 people here and it’s just been such a huge blessing to preach the gospel full time. There’s something about a mission that just changes a person, and I’ve definitely felt that change in my life. My testimony of our Savior and his Gospel have just grown so much and now I Know without a doubt that everything I teach is true, cuz the Spirit testifies of my words every day. I’ve been able to see the changes people have made in their lives, and all for the Lord and because of their faith. To be an instrument in the Lord’s hands truly is a humbling yet powerful experience . . .