welcome home! (almost)

Well the end is near my friends. I apologize that I have failed in keeping up with this blog. I was meaning to write at least a little something every week, but it's been over a year since the last post so obviously that didn't happen. But I did want to share a few pictures and tell you a little about the past year and a half of Wes's mission. I'm not a very eloquent writer, but I want to pay a little tribute to Elder Christensen. If you know Wes, you know that there is not a harder worker or more dedicated guy out there. From the moment I meant Wes, I knew that no matter what he wanted to be, get or attain, he would be determined to get it. His mission was no different. I heard from him every week, either through a personal email, family forwarded email, or a letter. He never once complained or told me he was doubting what he was doing. He was always working hard and looking forward to good things that were coming his way. He always was saying positive things and telling about all the success he was having. He was humble through out his whole mission. We had to ask him if he got made a zone leader, he would not just tell us. Many of the members from Brazil have added me on facebook. None of them know much english, but they use google translate to communicate with me and tell me how awesome Wes is. It has been incredible to meet the people that he has had such an effect on in Brazil. I feel extremely blessed to have been a small part of Wesley's mission experience. He made it easy to want to be there for him and support him. From the beginning I have been able to watch him learn and grow week by week and have witnessed him become an incredible messenger of Jesus Christ. I know he has touched so many peoples lives, whether they ended up being baptized or not. He is truly incredible. He lights up any room he walks into with his smile and his contagious positive personality. I am so blessed to know him, and excited to see what the future holds! Wes is leaving Brazil on the 14th of November to fly straight to Saudi Arabia to see his family. He will then arrive in Utah on December 2nd. Thanks to anyone who has read his blog and been supportive of him. I know that he has felt the love and prayers of all his friends and family. Welcome home in a week Elder Christensen! I can't wait to see you! PS.. I wish I could put captions for these pictures, but that would require me looking back through all my emails, so you can just enjoy looking at how cute he is! Prepare for a picture overload..

schedule and surgery

good news of the week:
Wes finally got his hernia taken care of! He is now recovering, near the mission home (whatever that means), and it sounds like everything went well with that! I will update more on that when I hear from him on Wednesday (hopefully)! And other good news, Wes finally enlightened me this week on his what his schedule is like! So now I have a little better idea of what he does all day every day and of what his apartment's like! OH and he enlightened me on the love the brazilian women have for the missionaries... one more thing to worry about while he's gone I guess! :)

june 23rd email..

answers time!----
Schedule:
6:30wake up
630-7 Excersizes ( i swear i spelled that wrong it looks stange.. whatever.)
7-8 get ready, eat "breakfast"
8-9 personal study
9-10 comp study
10-1030 language study
11 leave the house
11-2 lunch for 1 hour inbetween 11-2 oclock
2-9:30 teach, walk, contacts
9:30-10 plan tomorrow
10-1030 shower
10:30 sleep.

the apartment is tiny tiny tiny! ha its cool, its 1 room and a bathroom.so the fridge oven study desks and beds are in the same room haha.
we dont do much on pday today we´re going to a members house today to kick it with them they have 3 kids. 2 boys that are like 15 and 12 and a daughter thats like 3 years old. but we went to the zoo a while back. sometimes we just sleep. ha
money. we get like 40$ a month to spend on everything. food groceries, bus, etc. i dont have money to buy cool stuff to bring home but im gonna figure something out. cuz my personal credit card got blocked haha so it doesnt work. :) its all good!
the members are cool now. i dunno why they like me. the members didnt like the missionaries when i got here the hated the missionary that left before i arrived. ha but they like us now!! so its all good!
girls. you know i dont like girls!! just kelsey! but the woman here like the missionaries. ha i guess they did like a questionare or what ever its called and the mormon missionaries are the number 2 fetish in Brasil. haha i think fetish means that people like them. i dunno really.? but yeah. i know that youre gonna get all mad at all the girls in brasil now haha but you know that im a missionary and im serving the lord so i dont pay attention to them! ha k i decided i wouldnt tell you this till i got back. but, ill tell you to get it out of the way! in itatiba we were buying crackers at the supermarket and i went to the entrance to get our backpacks while elder pedroso paid for them and i looked over and there were 2 girls entering the store looking at me. so i made the angry face haha and looked forward. like i should! as they passed i heard, "Mmmm.." haha and one of them almost ripped my butt cheak off ha... so.. there you go!! but thats it dont worry!! but there isnt a problem with snakes here so its cool.
And. yes, ill have surgery tomorrow morning at 9am. ha so yeah.. thats about it!!!
-Elder Christensen

And here's part of his letter to his family..

this week has been good! we had a mission conference yesterday to say goodbye to Pres Castro Deus and he gave an awesome talk.he said something that i thought was so awesome. seriously. i think he stole it from a nike commercial or something. ha just kidding but its sweet. he said,"Vida é doura, por quem é mole!"
it means, Life is hard, for those that are soft. not the meaning of soft as in soft hearted. soft as in week minded. it made me think about times that ive thought in my head, "dang it its so hot today, no one will open the door, i cant get enyone to talk to me, etc." I realized that my faith was "mole". that things are only tough if we let them be. if we let the situation beat us. we always have the savior by our side if we are willing to do what is right. but we have to have faith and be strong. be willing to fight.

Doesn't he sound great?! Hopefully he'll still email on Wednesday and I can give a better update on the surgery recovery! keep him in your prayers!

cutest picture ever!

So, that couple on facebook wrote me back today! Here's what the message said..

Kelsey, it´s a pleasure to meet you too! Today we took pictures with children in Primary, the children love Elder Christensen, he is awesome with them! Oh, he also speaks Portuguese very well! So, while he stays here, we can ask what you need! :) You guys are a cute couple!

How nice huh? I have been so excited about this allll day! And.. she sent me this incredibly cute picture of Wes and all the primary kids!


Isn't it adorable?! I opened this and cried. It's been so fun to get these pictures and talk to someone who knows him on his mission!

yay for technology!

So today I got on facebook and had a friend request from a couple with a different looking name. I was really confused why they would add me and didn't think much about it. Later, I looked and with the request they sent me a message telling me that Elder Christensen had lunch at their house today and asking me to add them! Of course I did, and they had this cute picture of Wes and his companion eating at their house! (yes i took it off their facebook, i'm sure they won't mind!)


How cool huh? I wrote them back, and i'm hoping they speak english and tell me more. The message I got was in english, but you never can be sure! But how amazing is technology these days seriously? I can talk to people wes saw just a few hours ago! I just thought it was so exciting and wanted to share! And.. i guess that means he tells people about me, which is also super exciting! ha i'm a nerd I know! :) I'll write again if I get any new information from them!

june 16th

so i was really hoping that Wes would send emails after he went to his doctors appointment, but of course that didn't happen! he was writing then rushing off to go, so unfortunately I have no more information on the status of the hernia or surgery, and won't until next Wednesday! So I will keep you posted as soon as i know anything!

Okay, so I usually don't put stuff on here from my emails, but I thought the testimony Wes bore in his email this week was super strong and simple and I wanted to share it with you, so here it is..

Kels, i know that this the Christs church. i know that every bit of it is true. i know that Christ loves me so much that he bled from every pore for me. That he, hanging on the cross, didnt accept help, and though able to give up the ghost at what ever moment he wanted to, he stayed, for hours, with dull nails driven through his hands wrists and feet, being rudely mocked the whole time; because he loves me. i know that he had my face engraved in him mind. and how much i would desprately depend on him. I love my savior. i love the Church. I know its the Only path to happiness. The whole world can try to trick themselves in to thinking other things with bring happiness. but theyre wrong, other things cant. Only this church and its teachings can make anyone happy.

and here's the family email.. :)

i have to run to the doctor right now! but things here are so good. yesterday was really weird. it was the first game of brasil in the world cup, and the country stopped! seriously, we couldnt find anywhere to eat lunch yesterday. and in Downtown campinas, we could walk in the road!! there werent cars, people, or anything. it was mid day in those old western movies. ha it was completely dead. but, We worked of coarse! :) we had a family home evening last night and played some funny games and shared good messages ill try and send a video next week im so sorry im in such a hurry!!! we dont have any baptisms scheduled this week.. but next week is promising so we gonna keep working and teaching and wait fo rthe lord to extend his hand. i love you all!!! ill talk to you soon!!
Elder Christensen

pictures!

So these pictures are actually from the May 19th email, but i wanted to put them in a separate post so they would be at the top and not get lost in all the emails! Again, the captions i put on the top are how Wes described them!
isn't he cute?

Nações. ghetto. the dangerous area of itatiba

sugar cane i think.. ha we went to a members house a few pdays back for lunch and had some of this

the sunset every night here

me and president Castro Deus after multi zone conference

BATIZMO Carlos da Silva

district meeting

pretty dope graffiti -just fyi, wes wore/wears? michael jordan shoes and clothes like every day, so of course he loved this! :)

the past month or so..

so i didn't realize that i haven't updated since april 14th.. it is now june 13th. so i'm warning you in advance, there will be a LOT of emails. i know it is a lot to read, and i don't expect you to read all of them! but i do want to put them all on so maybe someday wes can go back and see them all in one place together! so again, i'm sorry about the length of this! read what you want and enjoy :) also.. excuse the spelling and grammar errors! He is usually in a big hurry when he writes, so sometimes it struggles and i really don't want to take the time to fix it! ps.. i usually put the emails to his family on here because there is more information about the mission in them, which i'm sure is more interesting for you all!

June 9th

HEY MAMA!
whats up? things here are pretty cool. its been hot during the day here, but freezzzzing during the night its been crazy! but its good! mom thank you so much for the email. it was so good. im so glad nate called you to be there. thats so awesome. i cant describe how i felt reading what he said. simply because i know what kind of an impact he´s going to make on peoples lives. thanks for that mom.
Im so glad to hear that grandmas doing better!! tell her to keep getting better and hang in there for another year and a half deal!? ha
anyway. this week was difficult with investigators. especially finding new ones. the world cup is starting so the streets are litterally empty and people wont answer the door. that was a tough part about the week. but we had lunch at the patriarchs house on thursday and he they had the May ensign out on the table. i hadnt seen it yet. but i looked at the cover with pres Monson and the SMILE he has on his face. if theres anyone on the world that dares to say that he is not completely happy i want to hear it. so,, so the question is, how is it that he is so happy? and the answer is so so easy but so easy to forget at the same time. i started thinging about how the gospel brings happiness in our lives. we have all had times when we werent doing everything right. where we weren´t obeying commandments. because we get tricked into thinking that not doing what ever it is that we´re supposed to, or doing what we arent supposed to, is going to make us happy. but we can all look back at that moment in our lives weather it be right now, or years back, and say that we arent or werent happy. All anyone wants is to be happy! and we have the perfect example of how to get there and stay there leading our church. its so great to know without a doubt that this is the true church on the earth. i know it with out a doubt mom. there isnt another on the whole wide world that can make anyone happy! how blessed we are to have already found it. how blessed we are to not be confussed, and to have the answers. People can say any thing they want, that they heard from there neighbors, grandmas, neighbors, dog about the church. but the church is perfect!! its doesnt have faults!! no one will ever prove it wrong, because ITS TRUE!
i hope everythings going well!! im gonna write a talk for lacies baptism today and ill send it nexy week, cool deal?? i love you so so much!! talk to you soon!!
PS! i found a scripture for you. and i wont change my mind :) haha
D&C 103:36
thanks for everything!!
later!
Elder Christensen


June 2nd

hey everyone!!
how are you? im awesome like usual! my companion is waiting for me so i gotta hurry!!
but things are so good here. its pretty crazy here, itatiba was pretty calm. this week we were doing contacts and a man aprouched us and started talking to us. asking questions, where are your guys from? what kind of church is this? blah blah. so we talked to him for a while. he said, "im not on the right path in life. i know it. but im a god fearing man. so i respect you two. and i have your back." then he started to tell us, "i know my proffesion is wrong, but im careful not to kill children because i know god doesnt have patients or forgiveness for that.
but i know that the drugs i sell kill fathers and mothers, but i have to make a living." he went on talking to us, and as missionaries we were just talking to him like an old pall. telling him things like, you can change, you can find the right path, christ can help you. things like that. so he told us he liked us a lot and he liked to talk to us. at the end before he left, he said,"my name is João Paulo, conhecido como O Rei do Crime de Campinas." (john paulo, the king of crime in campinas) haha it turns out he´s an extremely powerful drug dealer here. ha so its good he likes us!! but anyway. that was the crazy experience of the week.
We´re having lots of spiritual experiences with our investigators as well i promise i just dont have time to tell them in the email, next week i promise!!
i love you all!!! im doing so well!! i know that this is christs church and there is no other path to happiness!
E. Christensen

may 26th - transferred to the city, campinas!

hey fam!
it was good to hear from you today!!! it sounds like youre all really good!! things here are good! i only have one update this week. i got transferred to Campinas! right here in the center, and its huge!! its a cool place, and its way easy to do tons of contacts because theres so many people but, the bad part is that lots of people treat us like animals ya know? BUT!!! i still love them. at least if i do my very best to share the gospel with them, their blood wont be on my hands so thats comforting. hows it going over in saudi and utah? sounds legit. my companions name is Elder Carvalho. hes cool, he´s a little dude. ha he is from the north where its really hot and they have tons of fruit.i feel bad cuz i really dont have tons to say, this week went so so fast! OH! ha oh yeah we had a baptism! it went well and everything! the only problem is that after the font was about half way full the water decided that it didnt want to continue coming.. ha it just stopped. we did like every thing to figure out why but we still dont know. anyway. ha we just had to baptize her on her knees, but everything went well! ha i was bumbed to be transferred because this week we were planning on giving a training on teaching. because some of the members love to teach with us and do divisions with us, but they get really excited to share everything, and in the middle of the resoration we´ll ask them to bear testimony on the book of mormon or going to church, and we end up getting a lesson on the restoration, as well as word of wisdom, pornography, tithing, missionary fund, and about any other random thing you could think of shoving into the first lesson. ha so yeah.. but i left the training for elder pedroso. everything is well here! no new info on the surgery. just goin goin goin!!
i love you all! The church is true. there is no other path
Elder Christensen


may 19th

HEY EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
whats up??? things here are awesome!! it looks like we´ll have another baptism this week so thats good! it rained today for the first time in a while! so its nice and coldtoday! dad, i bet its way pretty there, i hope youre taking pictures! give everyone a hug for me! thanks for the advice on the surgery, i sent an email to president just barely saying pretty much the same thing. we´ll see what happens! ps, are they english speaking missions there? Mom it sounds like it was awesome to have everyone over! i hope you had so much fun! im glad that grandpa is doing well. i hope you gave everyone a hug for me!
so, heres the spiritual experience for the week.this family we´re teaching has 4, Jacó-father, Ivoní-mother, Tiago-filho, Maiara-daughter. the dad is a little out of the picture because he works every sunday so he cant be baptized yet. but we´re teaching the whole family anyway because the keds can be baptized. tiago has 22 years, and maiara has 14 years. we were working with them hard, teaching and all, but we werent working with the mom much because she was very cold and didnt show much interest. but we invited the whole fam to come to church with us on sunday. ivoni said shed go with the tiago and maiara. so wewere excited, but they didnt show up. so we went over after to see what happened. it ended up being that tiago works until 5 inthe morning so he was too tired and didnt feel up to going. so ivoni and maiara felt a little shy going alone. so, we started talking to them a little more, and without us asking ivoni said, today wasnt a good day. we asked why and she said, because we didnt go to church.. we were blown away because how she had been towards us before ya know!? she continued to say that, they have had people from every different church in their home. but no one leaves the same feeling that we do. she said that she likes having us there because of the feeling in the home. and said that she knows that the church is true and that thats where she needs to be.
It was so interesting. it was like not going to church gave her a testimony in a way! because she felt an emptiness and was sad for the rest of the day, and relized that its because she wasnt there. so she realized the importance of going.
it was touching to hear such a pure simple testimony from someone that has never had contact with the church.
We have transfers this week.. ahhh. nobody likes transfers. unless you have a crapy companion. but my companions a stud. oh well. we´ll see what happens!!
i hope everyone is well! i love you all!!! take it easy!
Elder Christensen
PS mom a year ago from sunday we were down at snow trying out! WOAHHH
and next week was graduation.. could this year have gone any faster?!
love you!!!


may 12th

I'm doing so well! i feel like having this hernia, working thought this pain in the heat, has helped me to rely on the power of God. and helped me to have faith and know that if i continue to work and do my best, the Lord will put people in my path that are ready to hear my voice. there are only two weeks left in the transfer and its crazy! every transfer is a dream! thats why its so important for me to work like every day is my last because soon it will be. how are things with the kids dad? is it just a big party over there every day after work? ha just jokin. hopefully theyre doing well in school and all that jazz. it was good to talk to mom on sunday! i was worried it would leave me trunky but it didnt, it was just a good breath of air! I sure do love you guys, i hope you know that id do anything for you! im praying for you constantly. Youre a huge inspiration to me dad, thanks for every thing you do, and for the continual path that you lay for me to follow. talk to you soon!!
Elder Christensen

may 5th

another short and sweet email from wes! he did talk a little about 2 nephi 2:25. He was saying how it's such a simple yet profound scripture, we exist to have happiness. He then asked me the question, are you happy? i think that's a good thing to ask ourselves and to always strive for, happiness is the purpose of our existence! it was a good reminder for me, and hopefully all of you! just somethin to think about!

april 28th
wes was in a huge hurry to catch a bus to go to the doctor, so the email was super short!

april 21st

hey yall!!!!!!
wahts up??
first off i have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to chase and chandler!! everyone has to sing happy birthday to them for
me, and hug them both till they mean it :) hehe
and also props to dad for scaring chandler. i hope he didnt make mom
clean his filter.
im in the biggest hurry ever today, but everything here is going so
well!! crazy at times but im learning so so much.
start with the unusual. this week, we were talking to a lady who was talking through
her window up about 15 feet and her dog that was at our level decided to
start peeing on me. ha i only got a little on me because im a ninja but
it was pretty funny. my comp didnt hesitate to laugh out loud. Also
this week i got kissed. yes kissed.. ha i dont think ive ever been more
embarrassed in my life. i dont really get embarrassed! but holy crap i
wanted to die, and again my comp didnt hesitate to laugh. ha im pretty
sure now im the most well known missionary in the mission. hernia and
got kissed. crap. ha other than that, all was well this week!

its very hot again. were hoping to have a baptism this week. his name is
Carlos. pray for him. holy cow we went into another part of town
yesterday called Jardin das Nações. the complete other side of the city
from san francisco. i thought san francisco was ghetto. its pretty
tranquil in san fran, usually we are out of there before its dark. but i
was nervous during the day in nações! serious favellas. we taught a
lesson and this lady was crying because her son is in jail for having
guns and selling drugs... its a problem here.

things are well! im going to pic up my visa thissaturday in Sao paulo!
cool eh?
im praying for you all and for grandma.
i love you all!!!
i gotta run, ill talk to you soon! thanks for everything!!
Christ lives!

WEs
SOVA!!! :)