Friday, November 15, 2013

It Totally Made It Worth It!

Hello friends and family. So it's been a little over a week and a half since I had a chance to write.  This past Monday was a holiday so the libraries were closed and we've been going nonstop since.  Really quick, I had a chance to play tennis with my companion Elder Febbo.  We only got to play for about 30 minutes, then it got dark.  I hate how early it gets dark.
 
Finding has been a bit of a struggle for us until this week.  In the first 2 weeks with Elder Febbo, we only found 1 new investigator.  This week, we have found 8, and we have potential to find a few more.  Hopefully the appointments we have set will go through.  Most of those were found when Elder Febbo was on exchanges with Elder Mostert (my companion from last transfer).  They found a family of 4, an old guy, and set an appointment with a guy that said he has 10 kids.  We'll be going by the big family today.  They told me that in their contact with this guy, he asked, "Why are there all these churches and just one Bible?  Why can't we all be united?"  I love how logical the Restoration is.
 
Little miracle of the week (sorry, it's a bit of a long story).  So Elder Smith and I were on exchanges yesterday.  To set the ground work for this story, remember back to Jaime Morales that Elder Smith and I baptized right before he left Fletcher.  Since then, Jaime moved into Arroyo boundaries, but got permission to keep going to Fletcher.  At about 3:00 yesterday, we get a call from Elder Alvarenga (Elder Alvarenga was in my district the whole 6 months that I was in Fletcher and is now in the area where Jaime is living).  Elder Alvarenga tells us that Jaime just found out that he has cancer in his kidneys.  We were blown away.  Thinking about the situation, I said to Elder Smith, "What are the chances that the day that you and I are together again, we get a call that Jaime has cancer AND that he lives in our ward so we are allowed to go visit him?  This is too much of a coincidence.  We have to go." 
 
I was super worried at first that we weren't going to be able to make it because we had set appointments for the whole night.  Then, our 8:00 cancelled which gave us our opening.  We show up a little late, and he's not there.  I call Elder Alvarenga to get Jaime's number to call him, and Elder Alvarenga didn't pick up.  I remembered that a few weeks ago, I asked one of the Fletcher missionaries for Jaime's number and luckily the text hadn't been erased yet.  So we gave him a call, and he said that he was at the store getting something quick, and he would be home in 5 minutes.  So we wait outside his new place and he comes up and we spend about 30 minutes with him.  He was absolutely beaming to see us.  We talk a bit and pray with him then share D&C 122:7,9 (love that scripture!)  We then ask him for a ride home. 
 
On the way, I remember that I had something in our apartment that I had been meaning to give him.  At his baptism, we had everyone write down their testimonies super quick while he was changing and we were going to put them into a book.  For about a month, that stack of papers stayed on my desk.  One day, randomly, I decided I needed to put this thing together.  So I put it all together, made it look nice, then put it back on my desk.  So I remembered on the way home that I still had that book to give him.  And I had Elder Smith there with me to give it to him.  His face was priceless!  It was totally the pick-me-up he needed.  He kept on saying, "I know the Lord is with me.  I know the Lord is watching me."  It was soooo cool.  Elder Smith and I were actually having a pretty rough day to that point.  Everything, EVERYTHING, cancelled.  But then that totally made it worth it.
 
Sorry for the long letter.  Have a great day!
Elder Christensen

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