CTR Squad

November 13, 2017

CTR Squad

Elder Christensen's 'squad 'sporting their CTR rings

Hello!

Another great week in Des Moines! Starting to get into the swing of things and finally get my bearings. Who would have thought having no mountains at all would throw you off so bad? First couple of weeks my head was spinning trying to figure out where we were. But all in all, weeks are flying by and the work here is really progressing.

A lot of positives this week but with Luis it was kind of a roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs. Because of that we have hit a stand-still with him. Last Monday night and throughout the week we were able to talk to him and he really opened up to us. He expressed his frustration going to work and every time the people around him are smoking and always offering him a cigarette. A really hard situation to be in and I don’t blame him for really struggling with quitting. He then expressed his frustration with his family situation. Things are improving at home. The branch was able to donate a whole car of clothes for everyone in the family. But Luis and his wife, Crystal, don’t always have the closest relationship. Really sad to see that holding him back along with the rest of the family. Because of this contention, Crystal and the 12 year old son refuse to go to church with Luis. There’s only so much we can do and so much support we can give. But after talking with Luis and Crystal alone, we made it clear that the ball is in their court. If Luis wants this, then they both will start making efforts to change, TOGETHER!

But…it wasn’t all negative with Luis and his family. He has a genuine love and desire for the gospel that I can see and feel. He has all of us as his screensaver on his phone and has told us that he wants what we have for himself and his family. And because of that love and desire (since it will be a little while before Luis can be baptized) we are going to go ahead and baptize his daughter, Amelia. We thought really hard about this as a companionship but we are hoping once Luis sees his daughter in the baptismal font, he’ll have a nice reality check and really push through his addiction. Amelia’s baptismal date is November 25^th.

We started teaching this super dope Dominican family last week! Two sisters and their 3 sons, their husbands are still in the DR. These two sisters, Maria and Chiqui are hilarious! They are awesome and being from the DR, super religious. They love having us come over to talk about the gospel. And because of that, Chiqui and the three boys came to church yesterday. We set a date for December 23^rd for them. Maria is super Catholic and works on Sundays but we are hoping that when she sees the happiness of the gospel fill her home, she’ll want some of it too.

So at church yesterday, we had a total of 8 investigators (Luis, Amelia, two of the little girls in the family, Chiqui and the squad) 5 in this group are old enough to get dunked. Probably the most stressful Sabbath day ever but it was awesome! Also found some solid investigators this week so the work is moving along here in IA.

This week reminded me of how important it is for each of us to trust in the Lord’s timing.

Thank you for the constant support. Love you all so much.

Deficil es bueno!

Elder Christensen