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Camron's FINAL letter

Hola familia, This week was a really good one. We worked really hard and we were very blessed. We were blessed to have Felipa and her son Gabriel to church yesterday and also the 9 year old son of a less active family that we are helping to reactivate. I am sure December will be a great month for my companion and it's truly because of the fruits of hard work. Maritza that was baptized last week was at church with her husband and they are both a lot happier than they were before. It's really a blessing to get to see converts keep the commandments in their lives and get to see the blessings that take place when they do. It was a great sacrament meeting yesterday too. The three young men that sent their papers in to become missionaries recieved their callings and all three are going to Venezuela, and they are all going into the mtc the 10th of April. Two of them are in the same mission. It was great to hear their testimonies and how excited they are to go out and serve the Lord. Another young man, Rodrigo comes out to teach with us once in a while and is almost done with his papers. He will be receiving the Melchesdek priesthood here in a couple weeks. It's great because he was less active and a convert. We helped him along with the help of the others that are preparing to go out on their missions. Now he is active and excited to go out on a mission of his own. We have found a lot of new investigators and they are pretty good investigators too. I showed the picture of the temple in Cochabamba to one of the fathers we taught and I felt like I should ask him what he thinks of when he sees this picture, and he said, "the house of God."  It was really cool to hear that someone who has never seen a temple and doesn't know anything about it, just by seeing a picture, knew it was the house of the Lord. What a priviledge we have as members in the kindgom of God to have His house always available to us. My comp now really wants to become a leader in the misison and I'm trying to help him so that he can become one. I'm sure that with the sincere desire that he has, that he will be a great leader. To become a great leader is all about humility, diligence, and obedience. With these three factors everything else comes in to play. I Love you guys and hope you have a great week!   Elder Christoffersen

  P.S. See you in person very soon......

Nov. 19, 2012

Hola familia, This week went really good and ended even better. We worked hard and we were priviledged to be able to help Gary and Maritza get married Saturday and then afterwards Maritza was baptized. It was a really good night! It went really well and was planned very well too. They were so happy and you could tell that keeping another commandment will always make you happier in life. They are going to be awesome members of the church. They are going through a lot of hard times and this usually always happens because the Lord is shaping them into true saints in these latter days. It always requires difficult times to see how much the Lord truly loves us and how we need to put our trust and faith in Him so that we can overcome these trials in our lives. But it always helps us become and transform into the people that our Heavenly Father wants us to become. We also got to help out two eight year olds be baptized. One of them was the daughter of a convert.  She is reading the book of mormon and has already read all the way to Alma and is juist 8 years old. But when we were doing the baptismal service the 8 yeart old girl hadn't arrived yet and  the other 8 year old boy was really scared to get into the water. They were trying desperately to convince him for like a half an hour. We were thinking that we were going to just have to end up doing the service without them. But then his sister took him to a room to talk with him and he finally was ready and right when he came back, the other girl got there. We could see that things worked out perfectly so  that all three could be baptized. The Lord always will work things out in His way and in His time. We were also very surprised at church when the mom and little brother of this guy who is preparing to go on a mission came to church. We never thought she would come because she usually doesn't take things very seriously when we teach her. But she stayed all three hours too. It was way cool to see her and her son was even way surprised when he saw her walk into the church.  We are hoping that everything will work out with them and we will work hard on our end so that it will. I love you guys a ton.     Love,   Elder Christoffersen

Nov. 12, 2012

Hola familia, This week was really good and we worked hard once again. We were able to find some great people to teach. Gary and Maritza finally did their paper work and they are planning on getting married and baptized this Saturday the 17th of November. Seems like they chose a really good day to get married. They are going through some pretty hard times lately because they just got kicked out of their house. It was because of a fight that they had with his mother-in-law. The step dad is also becoming a really big problem. But the Lord put us in their path right after their fight happened. They were driving to go look for a house and we just happened to be walking down the road where they were driving. When we got into their car, they told us that they wouldn't be able to take us to their house to teach them. They then drove and parked under a big tree by some stairs. They were very sad and Maritza was crying. We then got out with them and sat on the stairs to teach them about how our Heavenly Father qualifies us for His special blessings and many times to gain those blessings we go through some really hard times. We told them that everything that happens to them will bless them if they will only come unto Christ. We shared with them a couple of scriptures and they seemed to feel a lot better. I'm not really surprised anymore how we always seem to be in the right place at the right time. This is truly the Lords work. He knows what's best for every one of us and what we need to do to be happy is to keep His commandments. There aren't coincidences for the Lord. Everything goes according to His will and in His time. To me it seems like a miracle how everything works out perfectly. That is why it is really important to be in the right place at the right time, and to be ready and worthy to do the Lords work. Because without Him, we cannot succeed. I am sure this is going be a great week and that we will have many more miracles to experience. I Can't wait to let you know how it all goes . Love, Elder Christoffersen

Oct. 22, 2012

Hola familia, This week was pretty good. I received my last transfer and I was sent back to Santa Cruz.  It's gonna be a great transfer.  My new companion's name is Elder Yamberla. He's from Equador and what is really cool is that he can have long hair!. So he has this pony tail looking thing and it's way cool. He is the only one in the mission that can have long hair. It has to do with his culture. But he is a great companion, he works hard,and we get a long. We are teaching this couple. The husband is a member but his wife isn't and this week they are going to get married. Afterwards, she is going to be baptized. It's going to be great. They have the best last name ever. I have wanted to teach a family with this last name my whole mission. It's Paniagua which means "bread and water" its the best. But they are really awesome and they are going to be great members. They truly want the gospel in their lives and I am sure it will really help them out a lot. The weather here is a lot cooler. It's like 100 degrees and it feels a load better. There has just been a lot of wind lately and here in Santa Cruz there is sand. So it lifts up in the air and hurts when it gets into your eyes. But it's worth it having the wind to cool things down. It's funny too because my area is right next to plan 3000, my area before Puerto Suarez. But the members are great and I'm sure we're going to have a good cambio. Well I look forward to talking to you guys next week. See you later.       Love,   Elder Christoffersen

Oct. 15, 2012

Hola familia, This week was pretty crazy. I got a little sick with the stomach flue but I got over it in two days. It's not the worst I've had so it was all good. I'm 100 percent now so we are working hard once again. We had a couple of trials with our investigators and we had a rough time getting them to church. But we still have a lot of hope that the Lord is going to guide us to a family that needs the gospel in their lives and that are going to be very thankful to recieve it and also live it. We had a long day of talking to people Sunday. The sun was really hot and we weren't having much success but we finally made an appointment with a couple that we had found last week. The first lesson we taught them was about the book of mormon and we also gave them a copy. They were going to go to church yesterday but they couldn't go and they felt bad when we got to their house yesterday. They thought that we were going to be mad. Once we arrived there they asked us if we had come to get our book back from them. They also told us that they were sorry. But we explained that it was ok and we began to teach them again. It was cool too. The lady told us that she had a dream that the second coming happened and that she was judged and God told her she had already had her chance to follow His gospel and that she didn't accept that opportunity when he sent his servants to knock on her door. She said that she woke up crying because it was so real. She then said that after her dream, she prayed that she would be able to have a chance once again before He came. Right after that, we got to her house and she thinks that we could be the answer to her prayers. Elder Blaser and I testified that we knew we were the answer to her prayers and that He is giving her this opportunity to enter into His kingdom so that she can be, and will be prepared for the second coming of Christ. We left that appointment really surprised and really excited to be able to teach them. We truly hope that they can continue to progress and that the Lord will continue to prepare them to accept our teachings and that they will be able to act upon what the spirit teaches them. They are a couple with 2 kids back in Sucre that are waiting until their house is completely finished out here so they can come live here too. Whatever happens, we know the Lord will prepare the way. Once again, I'm excited to tell you how things go next week. I hope you all have an awesome week.   Love, Elder Christoffersen