Week 12 - Boulogne

It's getting way too hot here! That's all I have to say about that.

We got a new district, basically, and zone, it's pretty much all Elders now, which is fun. The members have been giving us a ton of references lately, which is awesome. Milagros is getting baptized on Friday, which will be good. We have this crazy investigator named Veronica who never stops talking, but always has a desire to learn and keeps her commitments, so not too much to complain about there. We got a ton of new investigators from the mutual activity on Saturday which is always soccer, so I'm really excited for that.

The Spanish is coming along pretty well, and sometimes Elder Telis will just make me teach the whole lesson and won't say anything, so I learn faster I guess. We finally got a Ward Mission Leader this week, and it's this guy in our ward that I really like.

The two main soccer teams in BA, River and Boca played yesterday, so it was insane outside. And I don't know what we are going to do tomorow because there's going to be riots and all the public transport is shut down because they all hate the President or something like that.

I really like Alma 37, it talks about the power of the Book of Mormon it's a really great chapter and we have been applying that in our teaching. Love you guys hope you all have a great week!

Elder Tanner Christensen

For Family:

I miss you guys, hope school is going well, and I hope you have a good time on your eastern europe trip!

Week 11 - Boulogne

This has been a great week.

Let's see where to begin... Tuesday was the last district meeting of this transfer, and it was good we talked about having true desires to convert people. 

Tight now we have a girl named Milagros thats going to be baptized Saturday, and she is so awesome. We talk to her everyday and she's really been progressing so much. She's from Peru, and she says she has felt really alone ever since she moved here, but ever since she learned about the church, she feels so much better.

On Saturday, she even made us some Peruvian food which was sooo good, especially after the fact that we eat millanesa for lunch practically every day. Anyway, Milagros has literally been a milagro (miracle) and we are so excited for her.

Friday we did divisions with the Zone Leaders, so I spent all day Friday with Elder Byers, which was crazy because it's just two dudes from Spokane Washington, preaching the gospel down in Buenos Aires. It was so fun and we taught a bunch of lessons that day, and I learned a lot from him. Plus, that night we spent the night in their apartment and ordered a ton of ice cream which was really good.

Saturday, we were literally having no luck. Nobody was home for our appointments and nobody was in the streets because it was pouring rain. So, we went to the chapel ,and just said a prayer and asked the Lord what to do because we had no idea what would work. It came to my mind to knock on the door of some contact that we had made like two weeks ago, that we had already tried to contact like 3 times, but they were never home, and pretty sure they were just ignoring us. But I was just like, "let's do this". It turns out they weren't home, but thats not the important part. Literally directly on the way to their house, we ran into an investigator in the street that we had been trying to track down for like 2 weeks and we talked with them for like 30 minutes. Anyways, moral of the story is that the Lord provides, but not always in the way you would think.

Today for P-Day we bought a ton of asado [meat used to barbeque] and cooked it at the church with the Elders from Suarez and Ballester, it was awesome.

Everything is good. Miss you all.

Elder Christensen

For family:

Everything is going well, nothing to complain about. It's gonna be sooo hot in the summer I'm already starting to die of the heat. Everything is going well, the first transfer down, love you guys :)

Elder Christensen & Elder Byers, at the Zone Leader's Apartment

View from the Zone Leader's Apartment

View from the Zone Leader's Apartment

Week 10 - Boulogne

So this week was really good. Don't have much time to write, so I'll give you the highlights...

We have so much to do, it feels like sometimes. We have a really good investigator named Milagros who's going to be baptized soon, and we are working really hard with the ward to reactivate a couple of families. It feels like I've been here in this ward my whole life, its weird.

Here's a miracle that happened this week.... It was like 12 noon and we had a teaching appointment at like 12:30pm and lunch at 1:00pm, but our teaching appointment fell through and our lunch told us to come at 1:30pm. So we had an hour of unscheduled time, so we were just talking to people in the streets, and knocking doors, which is never very effective, right. But then we were walking and this one guy stops us in the street, and says, "Hey you guys are the mormon missionaries right?" and we are like "yeah". He told us that he had been praying for guidance, and that he was actually baptized in our church a long time ago, and if our appointments wouldn't have fallen through we wouldn't have met Esteban, which was really cool.

Some funny things that happened this week. Everything is going really well, nothing to complain about. My Spanish is getting pretty good. I taught pretty much all of the Gospel Principles lesson on Sunday by myself, which was awesome.

Well, this morning I was shopping and I needed to buy a comb which is "peine", but I went into the store and asked the girl if they had a "pene" and "pene" means... well, I guess you can look that up in a Spanish Dictionary for yourself. Elder Telis is never going to let me live that down.

For family:

Everything is going really well. I feel settled in now, and really enjoy everyday, although some parts I don't love, everything is good.

Elder Christensen & Elder Byers - both from the Spokane East Stake in Spokane Valley, WA, and friends from High School!

Elder Christensen in Chinatown, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Elder Christensen in Chinatown, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Week 9 - Boulogne

I've been thinking this week,  "Why is it that every Argentine feels the need to put cut up hard-boiled eggs on every freaking food? Pizza, empanadas, rice, pasta, it's in everything. I'm sick of it.

On Tuesday and Wednesday it was so hot, or at least it felt hot, bc it said it was only like 19C or 20C [66F or 68F] which is nothing compared to the summer. I already know that I'm going to die from the heat in the summer, but thats okay, those are my only two complaints for now.

One thing you need to know about Buenos Aires specifically is there are two main football clubs called "Boca" and "Rivers" and when they play everything shuts down. We were trying to teach a lesson on Wednesday night when River was playing, but whenever River scored,  I thought there was an earthquake going on, like I was scared the first time.

We have this really awesome investigator named Milagros. She's from Peru, and is really interested in learning about the church, and we taught her twice this week and it's really nice because a bunch of the members of the ward have already reached out to her and befriended her. She's going to be baptized on the 22nd of September, we hope.

So Friday, we did divisions, and I went out with the District Leader, Elder Vasquez and that was fun. We talked to a bunch of people and taught a really good lesson to a member and his friends. But the best part of that day was the lunch, because we got a ton of milanesa [thin cuts of breaded meat]  and potatoes, it was awesome.

Sunday was the day Elder Rasband was going to come and speak in Stake Conference, or so we thought. It turns out he got sick and couldn't make it. All the missionaries were joking that he ate some bad milanesa, but that is definitely possible, believe me I've already experienced that, and you do not want to know more.

We did have one of the Seventy,  Elder Carlos Godoy speak and he gave a great talk about following the Prophet. He said that President Russel M. Nelson is going to teach and reveal a bunch of new things this upcoming General Conference and we should be ready. Another thing I liked about the Stake Conference, was that missionaries are like rockstars and I literally stick out from the rest. I had like 15 people ask me to take pictures with them and I'm kind of famous in this stake now, which is awesome.

Sunday night it was finally time for Elder Telis to have a language mistake for a change. We were walking through the Villa Hidalgo late at night, which was probably not the best idea, but anyways, this dude looks like he's been waiting for this opportunity to talk with an American his whole life and screams out at us in broken english "I want to **** you tonight", and I'm like, man what a weirdo, and I kept walking. But Elder Telis doesn't speak English so he walks over to start talking to him about the church, but I'm, like "Nope let's go", so that made me laugh for a long time after that.

This morning we taught a really awesome lesson to this family, and when we were talking they were super-touched, and started crying, so we have 3 baptismal dates set for them, so that was awesome.

The mission is awesome, it was a great week.

Elder Tanner Christensen


For Family:

Everything is going well, the Spanish is improving and I'm bonding a lot more with the people we are teaching. I just decided, man I'm gonna talk, I don't care if its wrong, and its been going well. I miss you guys, and hope everything goes well at school next week for Katie and Garret.

[Parent note: Here's a link to a General Conference talk by Elder Carlos Godoy, to get a feel for what he's like, the talk is called, "The Lord has a Plan for Us!"]