Thanks for including me in those prayers. When I get back I’ll do them in Spanish which will be fun to share with you guys. It’s so weird to me to keep hearing about all this snow you guys have. It’s sunny, warm, with a nice beach breeze here and I’m always putting on sun block, curse you white skin!!! Glad to hear you guys are having fun, and that Toby is nice and warm in his sweater that he wears now...how embarrassing, we dress our dog. I totally spaced it on the awesome picture that dad drew of the Savior, and I was looking at it this week, and made sure to send an email to him to thank him for it. It really is amazing and every Elder I’ve shown it to has been impressed. Yeah that’s how we are in the Christenson home, although the Spider man picture I drew yesterday in Sacrament meeting for an investigator’s 4 year old son to keep him quiet was a bit better in my opinion. The 4 year old liked it anyways....
On Tuesday I dropped off Elder Isom at the bus terminal, which stunk, but it was fun cuz I got to see a lot of Elders I’ve known throughout the mission, including Elder Hadfield from my MTC dorm. It’s been sooo weird to see all the elders who got here with me and hear that they’re now training, being zone leaders, and now Elder Keller (you don’t know him) who came in my group is an assistant with Elder Pitcher. It’s pretty cool cuz they were comp’s here in Frutillares together and found The Oportu family and several other recent converts, and now they’re back together. Anyways, I went to the chapel in Conce at about 1 o’clock and we waited for about an hour to get our kids. A giant group of about 15 missionaries got here, including a Sister Young who is from Elder Balkman´s ward, so it was cool to talk to her for a bit. My kid’s name is Elder Conley. He’s from California and is a really nice kid. He’s just laughs at the things that the Chileans do here, and it’s fun to see somebody who finds everyday things, which I find normal, so weird and extraordinary. He’s a smart kid and speaks decent Spanish, but struggles understanding, but so did I when I got here. It’s crazy to me how much we grow on the mission. Both times I’ve trained has really shown me that the Lord takes this gringo kid who’s had everything he needs his whole life, and turns him into somebody who works all day everyday to help others who don’t get to enjoy the pleasures of the United States or the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Conley loves our sector cuz it reminds him of Cali, the beaches, the breeze, and the hills. We had a pretty trying first week, talk about baptism by fire for the kid, and had little success in finding new investigators. We did however have an investigator named Claudia in church, who has come 3 weeks in a row. We were pumped cuz the first two weeks in a row we passed by her house to go with her, but yesterday she came by herself with her son. We also found an old man named Winceslao (I have no idea where that name comes from, it took me 2 days of practice to even say it) whose wife is a member and has gone to the temple, but he’s never been baptized. The elders have shared with him so many times, that he told us that he thinks this will be the last hit with the axe that he needs to have him fall over and be baptized haha. He’s a stubborn old guy, and we had some pretty direct lessons with him telling him what he needs to do. He had plenty of excuses for not repenting and not showing faith, but we shut everything down with scripture and pure testimony. Anyway he showed up to church on Sunday, so we’re hopeful for him, but he needs prayers so that his hard heart is softened. Besides that we had some heartbreaking moments of really good investigators telling us that they don’t want to continue anymore. I hate those moments cuz you just open your heart and soul to the person to ask them to continue a little longer and put a little for faith on the Lord, but they just don’t have the desire. Sister Oportu´s sister’s husband (that’s a mouthful) got home from a work trip and told us that he’s decided that he doesn’t believe in God, so he’s not going to continue with us, and his wife, Monica, told us that she wanted their whole family baptized together, so she wasn’t going to continue if her husband didn’t. Talk about using your personal agency incorrectly. I was pretty bummed after that, but we’re working hard and the Lord will bless us. We need your prayers that this week the Lord will guide us to the Home of someone that is ready for the Gospel, and may be baptized in March!!
We did have success in the district this week. Elder Pierce and his new comp, Elder Hafen, baptized a girl on Saturday that was confirmed on Sunday. I was happy for them cuz they’d been struggling for a while, and now the girl’s sister wants to be baptized as well! The work goes on. We struggle to have our faith tested, although sometimes it’s for our own stupidity and lack of planning, but saying that our faith being tested sounds better, so we’ll go with that. We’re going to work hard this week, and I feel that God is going to strengthen our testimonies and we will be greatly blessed with success.
I love you all and thank you for all you do, and I’ve had several crazy dreams where I’m meeting you guys when I get back ( some of which are very strange) and I look forward to that day when we’re together again, but for now I gotta keep working, so stop distracting me in my dreams!!

LOVE YOU TONS
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