April 25, 2011

Hola familia. I hope that everything is going good in the states. Things are going great for me right now. I am in Bajio for one more cambio for sure with my companion. It's good and I'm very glad it turned out this way because we are having great success. We asked another guy who is 20 years old if he would be baptized. We have been working with him for a few weeks and his parents don't really want him to be baptized. But he wants to be and knows that all of this is true. He is a great guy, and has gone to church off and on for the entire 3 months that I've been here. As of now, he attends every week. It's great. But what is truly special, is that my comp asked if he felt responsible to make this decision to be baptized. He said yes. We then asked "when do you think we can schedule the date for you to be baptized? He then asked me when I would probably be leaving Bajio? I said that probably the first days of June. He then said "well I want you to baptize me before you leave, and I want a photo with you at my baptism. This was way special and hit me way hard. I felt way blessed to be able to have this privilege. This mostly happened through being a good friend. Then we also had to ask this other guy's parents, who is 17 years old for their permission for him to be baptized. So when we were teaching him, his mom was there and we asked him to bring her over so that we could ask her for her permission. So she came over and we told her about his decision to be baptized because he had prayed and knew that he should do this because he will belong to the true Church. She didn't answer us for like a minute while she was thinking. Then she said that we had her permission and that he could be baptized. She also said that after we teach him, we can teach her and her husband. This was an awesome experience. Then after this, she invited us to eat. It was very cool. But a funny story now is that my comp and I were invited to go and eat at our conversos house, and she had this plate of food that didn't look very good. So my comp started to take out his camera and then I asked him why are you taking a pic. He said in Spanish so I can say, and then in English he said "I eat this crap!" ha ha. It was way funny, and the green food was pretty nasty. But things are good. We have 2 baptisms for the 7th of May and 1 baptism for the 28th of May. We will work hard to obtain more. But I love you guys so much and miss you a ton! Love, Elder Christoffersen

4/18/2011

Hola Familia! This week was a great week! Our three baptisms all went well, but it was pretty scary. We needed the baptism clothes and the zone leaders didn't bring them. So we were way frustrated and were going everywhere to try and find clothes! We found some for the guy and needed one for the mom and her daughter. We can't reach the zone leaders because they don't have phones. So we were thinking of what to do. We decided to try and find their house. I lived there are for a week, but it's way confusing. We took the micro that goes through their area Campa Rosa, and I didn't recognize anything until we passed this park that I had remembered. We got out of the bus, and I couldn't remember much. So we just started walking with what felt right. Then finally after a couple minutes of walking and turning down a few roads, we found the house! We hurried up to the members that live next door and they said there was a guy inside painting. We were lucky because the door was open. We ran in, found the clothes, and hurried to the baptism. We were there just in time to meet our investigators. We were so relieved that we were able to make everything run smoothly. I'm so thankful that the spirit was there to guide me to the house. If we would have taken one wrong turn, we would have never found the house. We are teaching this girl now, whose parents are members, but she isn't baptized and wants to be. She is way smart and answers our questions better than most of our adults do. She will be baptized this week or the next. She lives in Carmen also. It's like a second area to us because there aren't missonaries there still. But more about the baptisms we had Saturday. I baptized the mother and her daughter. It went well and I didn't have to repeat it. My companion baptized the 22 year old guy and he recieved the aaronic priesthood yesterday. I also recieved the privilege to confirm the daughter into the church and confer the gift of the holy ghost. It felt great and I could feel the spirit so strong. Even though we were in front of all the members in sacrament, I didn't feel nervous at all, and the words came without any problems. Me and my comp. also had the opportunity to speak. We spoke and the spirit was strong, and all the kids were quiet! It was great. A little more about another one of our investigators who we taught once. He came to church the next day, then we brought him again and he found out he has another friend in our ward. The other priests got a long very well with him and they were asking me in front of him when he could be baptized? My comp and I havent even taught him about that yet, ha ha. It was funny. But I am feeling good now and the mission is starting to come along a lot better. Cambio is Wednesday, so I will tell you what all happens. Thank you so much for all your love and support. Cassi has the address for packages that is a lot easier to get to me through the Church. I love you all a ton and pray for you. love, Elder Christoffersen

Pictures April 10, 2011

Camron just sent home an SD card full of pictures from his mission. Check them out.

April 4, 2011

Hola familia. So this week was definitely different. I was in the house for 4 days with dengue. I am not going to lie. Dengue is the worst illness that I have ever had! But I am living and completely better now. I had a fever every night and a headache for 4 days that was rediculous! It was to the point where I could feel the headache in my dreams. But I learned a good lesson from dengue. That was that I need to be more humble and be willing to ask for help. I prayed and prayed that I could get better through the help of my Savior. But when my comp asked if I wanted a blessing, I realized that I could have just asked for a blessing. My comp is worthy and has the power to act in the name of God. He asked me at about the point when the pain was terrible and wouldn't go away. But after he gave me the blessing, right after I felt loads better and the headache started to go away. The priesthood power is real and we should never live below the blessings and privilelges as President Uchtdorf said. It's truly powerful and if we ask with humility and faith we will receive according to the will of God. We are his children and he doesn't like or want to see us suffering. I learned another thing this week that was way cool. It was during our time serving after general conference on Sunday. We had two appts. scheduled, and both of them weren't there. So we had a back up plan for this new member to go and teach. When we got there, her boyfriend was there and he was a nonmember. We were able to teach him and the spirit was very strong. He said he was willing to listen to our lessons also. His future seems bright to me. I realized that when you're worthy and diligent workers in the mission field, the Lord will guide you to those souls who are ready for the gospel. Certain events had to happen for us to be able to teach him. We also tried to visit other investigators but they didn't have time. As long as you're worthy, diligent, and faithful, the Lord will have his hand in your life to guide you. You don't need to worry where your life goes or what trials you are having, because our Father in Heaven knows what is best for us. He will provide the way that is true happiness. No other way will truly bring us happiness. One funny story, but very cool, was when we taught one of our investigators about the word of wisdom. He had a problem with tea. So my comp said, "Do you have any tea in here? And he said ya." My comp said, "go grab it." So when he grabbed it and showed my comp, my comp said, "You can't drink that." and put the tea in his pocket. He then asked if he was willing to keep the word of wisdom, and he said yes. One more thing. Our three baptisms are still good for the 16th. So I will tell you what's going on next week. I love you so much, and wish you the best, and pray for you. love, Elder Christoffersen

March 28, 2011

Hola familia, My week was pretty great and pretty rough but in all its all good. I'm alive ha ha, but we had some great experiences with investigators. We had been praying that we could find people that need the gospel. We had a mom and her daughter from a area that is closed come to our church because she wanted to be baptized. So we got permission from the president to leave our area to go and teach them. We"re also teaching this 22 year old, and the day we were going to ask him if he would be baptized, just before we asked, he said, "now what do I have to do to get baptized?" So we talked to him and two others. They are going to be baptized on the 16th of April. This is very cool! Our prayers were definitely answered. Somehow I got Strep with other problems. I took amoxicillan and then yesterday it was way cold at night. With the humidity, its terribly cold and it made me way sick and sore. I ended up getting a fever. It's not that bad now. They say I might have "dengue", but if the pain in my body gets worse, I will find out. Another way cool story we had, is about this investigator who is Baptist. When we teach him and share scriptures he wants to read the whole chapter before believing us ha ha. We taught him about Joseph Smith and it felt way powerful. We asked him if he would pray, and he said yes. We asked when,and then he said "when I finish the whole Book of Mormon" ha ha. But he said only a week maximum. Holy cow, he works almost all day too. It was way cool to hear that. But things are going great. We're finding people who are prepared for the gospel, and people who are sincere. I'm excited for Conference. I'm sure this year it will mean a lot. It will be in spanish so it will be legit. We had a conference with the president and he talked about prophesies, and the problems in Japan, and how Joseph Smith recieved revelation about this. I also realized that even when you think you're doing awesome, you can also get a ton better! There is always room for improvement everywhere. But you can only find that out if you stay humble. If' your're not humble, you won't improve. I hope that everything is good for you guys, and that you have no problems. I love you so much and love hearing from you! I cant wait to hear from you next week! love, Elder Christoffersen

March 21, 2011

Hola Familia, I had a pretty dang good week and had some good learning and pondered on some stuff. You truely learn who you are out here and you develope a ton! It's pretty interesting. My Ribs are feeling great and my comp and I are doing good with our companionship. We both like to do things our way, but we end up coming up with something that we decide to do. I'll tell you a story that is pretty awesome. This week we had a day with appoinments every hour for proselyting and no one was home and every one wasn't letting us in to teach. Even contacts were rough. I was getting down on myself, and doubting my spanish,and just being negative. Then my comp stopped us and said, "lets contact these houses, and he had me do it. The first was a guy from Brazil and he said that they didn't have time, so we went to the house next door. It was this girl 23 ish years. We said, would you like to hear our message? She said yes right away and it was like a door smacked me in the face. I was way tired and when she said that, my eyes opened up way wide, and I was shocked! But way happy. We taught them and everything went way well,and were gonna teach her and her husband soon. Also we have another investigator, but she is in love with the Bible and doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon or accept it either, But we came to teach a family close by her house and she said "Elders pasan",which is come in. She seemed sad and I knew something was on her mind. So we went in and after awhile she lost it and was crying about her son who was killled by a drunk driver. She didnt think it was fair. So after awhile we asked if she wanted a blessing for comfort and she said yes right off the bat, and wanted me to give it to her. It felt way good and she was crying throughout it. But after I said amen, she seemed a lot better and wasn't crying anymore. It was very spiritual. Later that night we taught an investigator who is catholic, and he went to our church too. He asks a lot of questions he asked how sacrement goes, what all happens, what classes he will be in, and what they teach. It was pretty cool. He is coming to our FHE, more or less its tonight and all the missionaries in our zone with investigators are coming to watch a movie. So are some others, so it will be good. One last thing is that my talk I gave on Sunday went very well. I wrote 4 scriptures,and I can now give talks with confidence. The words come to me, and I receive inspiration. It's awesome I am not scarred anymore either to give them. It's a good feeling. You learn so much on a mission! It's legit. You build up a lot of strength and I have only started so I hope to progress more and more. I love you guys so much and wish you an awesome week. I got your "Dear Elders" and I will respond to them and your letters when I send new ones. I love you tons. The address is to the offices so its safe to send the packages there love Elder Christoffersen