Two Months!!

Okay so excitingggg I hit my two months last week and it's completely insane because it's gone by so fast!! Especially my time here in Chile, it's literally felt like maybe a week because I'm having the best time ever!! Not because it's always easy or fun because its not lols but because this is the most important thing I could be doing with my life right now and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to serve and love God's children!!

So anyways

These past few weeks all we've been doing is dropping amigos and figuring out which of our amigos are actually interested in our church. BTW amigos are our friends that we are teaching about the church. Which might sound bad but it's actually good because when I first got here, we had about 70 amigos which is way to much. You cant progress with 70 people and not all of them were super interested in our church and only wanted to talk about Jesus for fun which isn't a bad thing but you guys get the point. So we've been very blunt and direct with a lot of people basically asking if they want to be baptized or not and if not, we have to drop them and move on. So now we only have 30 amigos which is great and we're feeling good about the potential and progress of these people.

We have a couple of people with baptism date goals who are doing awesome!! Check back later for updates on them but we would have a whole lot more baptism dates if people would just get married. I swear every single person has the same story. Lived in Haiti, got married, marriage was awful but the wife/husband won't sign the papers for divorce, moved to Chile for work, started new and has been living with the love of their lives for many years with multiple kids, but can't get married because they have a partner back in Haiti. Literally every time. Right now we have 6 people who are ready for baptism and want to be baptized but just can't because of the same exact situation. So it's been a little sad because we have to drop these really awesome people who are doing fantastic because they have no potential for progression until they get married with whoever their living with. And it's reallyyyy hard for these people to move out and live on their own even if they want to because that means the income is cut in half or more and needs lot of these people can't afford to live on their own. This is probably our main problem right now but all we can really do is trust in God's timing and pray for and expect miracles!!

Spanish story:

Okay so I'm at the point where I'm starting to feel a lil more confident with my spanish but then things like this happen and my self esteem plummets.

So we were walking down the street when some guy stopped us and I thought he asked if we believed in the First Vision. Of course I replied very enthusiastically, yes!! This guy got super excited and started talking super fast and started getting super close to us. Who know what would have happened because my comp grabbed me and started running away while dragging me behind her. After I was like bruh what the heck and she was dying from laughing because apparently this guy asked us if we believe in love at first sight, not the first vision, and after I replied yes he started talking about our future together. So that was fun and fresh and apparently I'm still incompetent in the spanish world

Spiritual thought:

So ever since I've gotten to the mission, the president is really pushing for us to talk about baptism in every interaction. At first, I had a really hard time with this because I thought that if we did this people would think that we are only looking for more numbers or to raise our statistics sort of thing. I also didn't like it because I think some people need more time. If someone came up to me on the street and started talking about baptism right off the bat, I'd run away. Point is, I didn't want preaching the gospel to turn into a sales pitch for baptism.

Anyways, after a fun lil interview with presidente, he helped me realize that it's not that way at all. As a missionary, we have a job. And that job is to invite the spirit into others lives and help people progress in God's plan! We can't convert or change people, that's not in our control.

God's job, is to prepare the hearts of his people. God's timing is perfect and who are we to try to mess with His plan for other people? We can't force someone to accept the gospel, when God wants them to be ready, they'll be ready. This is all that us as missionaries and God can do.

YOUR job is to accept it. It's up to YOU if you want to invite the spirit into your life or change your life and align it with God's will.

Out here in Chile I see so many people go 90%. They take lessons with missionaries, they have the faith and correct beliefs, they live good lives. Everything that they're doing is good! But what they're missing is a little effort on their part. Any effort we give to pray, read, attend church, or anything else that brings us closer to God is up to us and no one else can make that decision for you. It has to come from you

Okay lo siento this makes zero sense and is just a bunch of my discombobulated thoughts but I hope you enjoyed it

Yall I'm keep trying to make these short but I gotta keep my fan base updated so I'm so sorry hopefully you just skipped to the end and looked at the pictures:)

Love you all very very much and am praying for all of you every day!!

Chao

h. christensen

Things I learned:

1. Sometimes being a missionary feels more like being a matchmaker tryin to get all these people married for baptism

2. Chileans show their love through a lot a lot a lot of food (mom I'm gonna need a gym pass when I get back)

3. Literally who told me it doesn't rain here?? They owe me a raincoat

4. I'm getting married to a Haitian and I don't have enough Spanish to stop it from happening. My protests meant nothing

5. I just found out earthquakes happen every night here and I just sleep through them

6. Apparently swearing brings the light of Christ

7. If you hear "rica", run.

8. Don't miss the bus but also just dont take the bus