HALLELUJAH

The return to La Rama !

Squad!

Back at it with Kevin!

Another week somehow has come and gone and church was canceled for the third straight week. So crazy. Thanks Iowa. But it lined up that the Spanish branch in Des Moines was still having services so we did not hesitate at all to go and say hi to all the day 1 homies. And it was just soooooo good to see the Branch again!! Everyone was all asking if I was back in the branch, sadly no, but catching up with everyone was so nice. It was the best Sunday in a while. I have missed all those people so much. I was one happy boy!

Jose and Susy just keep getting more solid every day. Susy is probably halfway through Mosiah by now and Jose is probably not too far behind. They are eating the Book of Mormon up and are actually retaining everything they are reading. It has been so fun to keep teaching them and we had such a fun lesson the other day. We were planning on talking about the Gospel of JC and then have them start thinking about people that they knew who would want to learn about this with them. That was supposed to be tied in to the enduring to the end part. Well we get halfway through and someone knocks on the door and ends up being a friend of theirs. We introduced ourselves and were a little surprised not knowing what they wanted us to do (keep teaching or kinda just stop there). Susy then chimes up, "yeah I invited Maria to come see the new baby and listen in to the lesson and see what she thinks!" Oh okay... so our original plan was totally shot and they beat us to the punch. We ain't complaining! They both also clicked really well with our member Fede so we are hoping with that they get a little more urgency to figure Jose's job out.

My boy, Bro. Macmboma

Thursday, we were stopping by a Nepali family that we were trying to get going and embrace the Gospel. They were so kind and let us right in as usual. We start talking and they just kept on looking outside. 15 minutes later, there are like 20 other Nepali people crammed into this small apartment. The wife, Gonga, decided to "accept Jesus" that day so all her family and the pastor from the church were all gathered there to witness it. So during all this shuffle of people coming in, Elder Matthews and I were just trying to bounce... we had more stuff to do. BUT THEY WOULD NOT LET US LEAVE hahahah. So we were stuck. The next 45 minutes was maybe the wackiest thing ever. Consisted of all these people praying out loud in a big jumbled mess of Nepali, singing and clapping with two white boys wondering what was going on, lots of just random "HALLELUJAH's" the one word I could understand and the pastor just yelling at everyone. Lit. I also caught the pastor totally peeking during all the prayers (I didn't know we were praying) so that was pretty funny. Side note: everyone was sitting on the ground except for us two and the pastor. We sat on the couch. So part of me was saying "this is mad awkward. I just wanna go" and the other part "oh okay. You want me to preach too. I'll preach to you" and then go and just drop bombs on them. Only the latter happened. Well, turned out that us being stuck in there for 45 minutes had a purpose. We finally get out and had plans to be able to make contact with a referral we got named Ishmael. We ended up running into Ishmael in the stairway and he basically said we caught him at just the perfect moment. Any other time before, he wouldn't have been there. Anytime after, he wouldn't have been there either. DIVINE DESIGN. It's all part of the Big Man's plan for us. He is always watching over and guiding us even if it does include being stuck in a whacky Nepali Baptist ceremony for 45 minutes. Our man Ishmael is coming to church and is saying his run in with the missionaries "is a sign from God to listen and to follow their council." I couldnt agree more.

Sending love your way! In turn, please send back some face shots from the slopes.

Elder Christensen

Los Hispanos

MLC Squad Pic