Week 3 - Buenos Aires Argentina MTC

What's up everyone? Things are going pretty great down here in BA. So last Friday we had to go get fingerprints and some background checks at some government building. The building was in the middle of downtown Buenos Aires, once again I cannot stress how misleading "Buenos Aires" is, the air is always smoky because everyone smokes like a chimney. But anyway, the city was so cool and so big. We got to walk around the Obelisk downtown which is basically Argentinas version of the Washington Monument.

PARENT NOTE: Here's a shot of the Buenos Aires Obelisk

On Saturday then we went proselyting in the west part of Buenos Aires, in the suburbs basically. And no, for all of you hoping, I didn't get mugged it seemed really safe actually, and people just kept to themselves. OK I have two funny stories about proselyting:

1: Right after they dropped us off, me, Elder Peterson, Heineken and Russ kind of stayed together and knocked a couple houses because we were scared to talk to people. So Elder Heineken has been talking all week about how badly he wants to use a bidet because apparently everyone has one here. We even had l a 30-minute discussion on how to use a bidet with our teacher which was very interesting and informative. So we knock on the first door and Elder Heineken just straight up goes to the guy and says like ¿baño? (bathroom?) and the guy was a little puzzled at first, but then let us all in and showed Elder Heineken to the bathroom. So we are kind of talking to this guy about the church, sitting at the table, and then all of a sudden we hear a bunch of water spraying from the bathroom and the guy runs over there to his bathroom and opens the door and Elder Heineken had used the nozzle wrong and water was spraying everywhere. Then the dude gets really mad and kicks us out. Might have been one of the funniest things that ever happened because Elder Heineken just like sprayed water everywhere trying to use this dude's bathroom.

2:  Later in the day Elder Peterson and I were just talking to people on the street and we started talking to an older man about the church and how it was restored through Joseph Smith. He goes on about how he's a Catholic and he always has been, but he appreciates what we are trying to do and just talks for like 15 minutes straight. That's the thing about Argentines, they're not shy about telling their whole life story to some random American dudes at a bus stop. So anyway, we teach this dude basically the first two lessons about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. But then we start noticing some weird things about this guy. Like he asked what our names were and where were from literally 6 times within 30 minutes. Then everytime we start talking he mentions that he's a Roman Catholic and we are like, yeah we know buddy. Then we start talking about his family, and how his kids live near him and he keeps mentioning that everytime we bring something about family up. So then after like 45 minutes of teaching this older man we realize that he probably has Alzheimer's or something. Then like 15 minutes later we were talking about families again, and he's like yeah i have a son, and then I said, let me guess he lives in that house down the street, and he started freaking out and was like "wow how did you know that?". So, we gave him a Book of Mormon and the address of the Chapel because we invited him to go on Sunday. Well, we don't know if he went or if he could find the church, heck we weren't even sure if this guy could find his house. But oh well, it was a good lesson, and I could still feel the Spirit.

Our best and most spiritual lesson of the day came with like 30-minutes left of our proselyting time. We were just knocking a few doors trying to ride the time out. But then we knock on this door and a 30ish year old woman comes and starts speaking in rapid Spanish and we tried to talk with her but we weren't getting very far, but then it turns out she speaks perfect English to, even with a British accent which was sick. She tells us that she is an Atheist and hasn't really had any religious background, so we start teaching her about the Restoration and how through Joseph Smith the True Church of Jesus Christ was restored on the earth and she thought that was really special. Then we ask her about her family, and she says she really loves her husband. And then we tell her how families can be together forever and she starts tearing up a little bit and she's like, "I want to know more about your church" and it was just a super-great lesson. Overall the proselyting experience was awesome.


On Tuesday all of the the gringos that had been here for 6 weeks, and latins, left to go to their missions and it was actually pretty sad to see them go. On Monday night we all went outside and sung the national anthems from our country, that was cool. So from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night, my district of 12 people were the only people in the MTC. Hermana (Sister) Pitarch even brought us home-made cookies. Elder Peterson and I of course snagged the best beds and lockers in our room. Last night at like midnight, two new Elders that are staying in our room got here, and the rest are getting here this afternoon i think.

We have been playing a lot of soccer during outside time and our whole district gets along real well. It was Elder Hartmann's Birthday yesterday, so as a present we gave him all of the dulce de leche packets that we had taken and gave them to him. Anyways, so far I love my mission, and i miss all of you guys!!!

Elder Tanner Christensen

For Family:

To Answer Questions:

Dad: Carlos Aguero is the manager of the MTC so he teaches like devotionals and workshops with bigger classes, but we have a main teacher for the 12 person district in the morning,  and one in the afternoon. All of the teachers are super fun and super good.

Mom: I answered most of the questions in the big email, but yes the sisters were mad at me for telling them that, but they got over it because they all have a crush on me. I haven't really played basketball since I got here no one is really interested in playing. Nobody was even close to mugging me, it seemed pretty safe. If you want to try to find the neighborhood the point where we got dropped off was in the "Caseros" neighborhood on the streets Fischetti and Torquinst I think. You might be able to find that on Google Maps or something. I haven't felt homesick at all and I feel fine its just the MTC is a little repetitive and after going proselyting I'm ready to go. I love you guys so much and miss you!

PARENT NOTE: This is the "Street level" view of the intersection of Fischetti and Torquinst, using Google Maps to cruise up and down the streets, looks like a solid middle-class neighborhood.