Milagros Pasan!

Elder Chriss and Jazmin after her baptism.

Well just as the last week, the miracles keep coming.  We had the baptism of Jazmin this weekend! It was so great and we had a good amount people at the Baptism. So we are pretty stoked about that. And we had our family that we found this past week come to church yesterday. So we are pretty much some of the happiest Elders you can find! haha

But as I look back at this week, I can´t stop being grateful for the things  that I´ve received from the Lord.  Really I can see the blessings. I have learned that the best way to see the blessings of our Heavenly Father is to look backwards. Then you notice the changes and the help.

I´m so happy to be here in Campana. It has been kind of like the Refiners Fire. Not because of the weather, but that it has been hard to do a lot of the things and to stay positive about them. But after a good time and several miracles in my life, I've been made better. Through my trials I now feel like a better person. I´m so happy for the trials as much as the happiness. It's all part of the plan.

 

I´m not really sure what to write this week, but these are some of the thoughts that I have to share with y'all. I´m so grateful for your help and love that you give me. I´m praying for you all and I know that my Savior lives!

 

Love

Elder Taylor Chriss

Elder Sosa, Jazmin and her family, and Elder Chriss!

Capilla Abierta

I love it when all of our hard work begins to show a lot of results and allows us to better help people! 

This week was full of miracles and great blessings!  I´m very grateful to my Heavenly Father for all the guidance this week. I´m not sure where to begin because there are many great things that came to pass here in Campana.

One of the tender mercies that we received this week was after working and working we were blessed to have a great investigator decide to be baptized after a good time of difficulty to get her family and her to come to the conclusion to be baptized. We are planning her baptism this weekend. We are going to have her less active Father baptize her.

  

Also here in our area we have been asking referrals of every person that we talk to. And well after 25 referrals contacted, my comp saw a house that somebody earlier in the week said lived a big family there. We went to contact the house and found a family of 7! They are the greatest family in the world and have the desire to get baptized! So we are super happy and to find out that they are friends with another family in the ward. So we are looking forward to teaching them

  

This week we also had a Capilla Abierta (Open Chapel) which is a program of the South America south area, which we have a married couple come and bring big posters describing what is the LDS Church. We stand outside and invite people to come in and see the church. Its like a Visitors Center at the temple, we just change the place to the chapel. We even had a Christus statue. Well it all turned out great. We had several other missionaries from the zone come and help us. In the end we received 30 referrals and several investigators that came from the activity. Plus the members are super excited about missionary work.

 

To finish off the miracles, Sunday morning as we came into the church, we saw a youth sitting in the back of the chapel alone. I recognized him from the activity the night before..... His name is Andres and he came to the church BY HIMSELF!!!!  He loved the church so much the night before so he came to the Sunday services!!! And he told me and my comp that he heard in the activity that he needs to get baptized (Me and E. Ramirez taught Baptism) He has never been baptized and he asked if we can help him with that!!! WOW miracles are happening here in Campana!

 

So that is a little bit of the things that are happening here in our Area. I'm loving the mission and am very happy serving the Lord. I have a testimony of Hard work and placing everything in the hands of the Lord.

 

Love you all a ton, Have a nice week! Write me and let me know how you are doing!!!

 

Love 

Elder Taylor Chriss

 

To the Villas!

Some of the Elders from the Zarate Zone, Tallest to Shortest!

Wow! We have been working a ton here. Me and my comp have been doing all we can to help our area. I´ve been here for a while so we thought, "Let's go to a place that we never go to normally." After a great day of divisions with the Zone Leaders, my comp and I decided to go to a the Ghetto part of our area and look for the people the Lord is preparing. So our week was trying to get to know the Villa better. We contacted a bunch of people this week and we are opening up a lot of opportunities.

Some great news... We are breaking all sorts of records here in our mission. First off, we broke the record of Baptisms in our zone. We came out with 21 Baptisms as a zone!!! Me and my comp had 3 baptisms this month!!! A record for us (don´t have the foto)... They are named Aylen Luana and Pablo. They are kids of some less actives returning to activity. We are super happy for them. In the end it was more like a baptism of the ward. And that's not all. As a mission we have broken our record of Baptisms in a month. We have baptized 213 people as a mission. We are super excited and we know that the Lord is blessing us A FUL (a lot). We are going to keep it up and help all we can to be baptized for the remission of their sins.

Some more great news.... We have new bikes!!!!! We don´t have to walk anymore. My bike is bright green and pretty old, But I love it!!! So that is some of the best news of the week. 

And to finish off with some Spiritual chat, I have found that a lot of times in our life we do all we can to be good and to help others. But as things normally go, we get tired of trying to help or be good because the results don´t come quick enough or don´t come at all. As I pondered this type of thinking a scripture came to my mind, D&C 64:33&34 which says. 

33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

 34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days. 

This came to my mind saying not to give up on do the good things. even though it can be tiring. We must keep going with the small things. 

I love you so much and hope you have a great week. I´m sure going to keep on working, and I hope you all can to!

Love

Elder Taylor Chriss

Campana for the Gold!

Lauti, President Ayres, and Elder Chriss, oh and Elder Chriss' new haricut!

Well the Transfers are in, and Elder Chriss.... You are staying in Campana with Elder Sosa! This is the longest I will stay in an area in all of my mission so far, haha. But I´m super excited to continue the work here in Campana. The Zone Leaders called and said Elder Chriss You are leaving... You are going to Campana2..... Awwww these leaders and pulling at the heartstrings haah.

Also today in the morning Lautaro Castelli, an awesome youth that has been helping us out a ton, was set apart and left to serve his mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was so cool this whole week the family all came together as they prepared their first missionary. The Castelli family are the greatest and I'm so happy for them. They are a convert family and it is such a great testimony of what I´m doing here. I´m helping families to grow together so that one day they can live together forever.

Some other great news is that this past Saturday, Sergio, our recent convert, went to the temple with the ward. He doesn´t have a recommend yet but he went and enjoyed the gardens and the spirit that he felt there. I´m so happy that he could go and enjoy the temple.

  

Before Lauti left for his mission, he came with us to the Farewell of the missionaries. It was great to see my good friends from the mission and for Lauti to feel the Missionary Spirit there. The Sister missionaries that started the mission with me, are now going home, that was a bit weird to see them leave. But in the end it was a great meeting, and we enjoyed it a lot.

  

I´m really happy here in my mission, I couldn´t imagine a better place for me to be than here in Argentina. I´m really coming to love the people and I´m looking forward to this upcoming transfer and I will keep you filled in on all the Miracles that the Lord is sending our way.

With a lot of love, 

Elder Taylor Chriss

At Lauti's Farewell

The Del Monte Family I love ummm!!!

Really Quick!

Hey all! Sorry that this is a really small letter, but today all of the places to write in are closed. It is the anniversary of the the death of San Martin the man who liberated Argentina, Chile and Peru from the Spanish. So of couse nothing in Campana is open.

 

This was a great week here in peaceful old Campana. I had a lot of paper work to do so I went to Capital to do it. It's a great place. Here in our area we are finding alot of investigators and teaching a lot more. We are excited about the work in our area. 

 

This next week is transfers so I will be writing you all Tuesday next week. I´ll let you know if any thing happens. Sorry again that this is a short message. It's hard being in a small town with very few options of writing. I´m good and happy so don´t worry about me 

Love you all 

E. Taylor Chriss

Can't keep me in one place!

Bienvenido a Uruguay!

What a week of crazy traveling! I have to say that I'm super tired. But that's a good tired. The type of tired that says "good job for working hard". As I like to tell my companion "Elder don´t worry, you can sleep when you get home." He still has a little over a year until he gets home haha. 

Wow we are raising the bar here in the Zarate Zone. We are focusing on contacting the most amount of referrals that we can. For those that don´t know, here in our mission we don´t knock doors. We focus on working with members and the referrals they give. So we are getting really good at asking for referrals.  

But the coolest news of the week was my recent trip to Uruguay. Like I said the last week, I had to leave the country for some visa papers to take affect. So this past Tuesday I and about 30 other missionaries from the mission Buenos Aires North went to Colonia, Uruguay for the day. It was awesome and one of the best P-days ever haha. We visited some cool historical places and a cool old fort. We ate some typical food from Uruguay. It was a steak with ham, bacon, and and egg on top. It was so good. The food made it all worth it. We spent almost the whole day there. It was super cool and I´m so glad to have had the experience. 

 

Because I´m in the farthest zone in the mission, me and two other elders had to come down and stay the night with the Office Elders so that we could make it in time. Then after we got back from Uruguay we just stayed with the Office Elders again because Ihad a meeting with all the other District Leaders. So it was kinda crazy. I wasn´t in my area for 2 1/2 days. Plus my companion stayed in Zarate while I was gone, so our area was empty. 

  

But we came back and worked like crazy to make up the days that we missed. And the blessings came as we got to work. I´m so glad to be here in the mission. It's full of ups and downs. But all of the downs are worth it when we have our ups. MAS VALE!! 

 

I love you all and I want you to know that the work of the Lord is always worth it. Now go out there help your fellow man and give a missionary a referral!!!

 

Love you all so much!

Elder Taylor Chriss

 

Sunrise in Buenos Aires! (And a Canadian Photo Bomb!)

 

Tramites y Viajes (Procedures and Travel)

Argentina is just great! We are working a bunch here to help every child of God.  First off, without bikes we are walking a ton and using buses so we are becoming more effective in the areas that we go. My legs are killing me... But its very satisfying to come back and the end of the day and know the pain is a day of hard work haha.

  

I´m not going to lie, not much happened this week. We talked to a bunch of people but not many worked out. Our members have been getting excited about the missionary work here in the ward because one of the youth in the ward is getting ready to leave on a mission soon. So we are using that to get things done up here. 

 

One of the weird things about Campana, is that during the day we will be walking around and a horse will just pass in front of us in the middle of no where. Yes it is a modern town and all but for some reason horses run free and their are no owners to them.... haha Argentina, land of random horses.

 

So some crazy news! I´m still dealing with visa papers and problems, so the other day I had to go to Buenos Aires to do some paperwork, and tomorrow I´m going to Uruguay so that the paperwork can take effect. So I¨M OFF TO URUGUAY!!! well only for the day, I´m going to cross the river, and then later in the day come back to Argentina. It's going to be awesome. Not many people can say that they served in 3 countries in their whole mission haha. So I will let you know how that goes.

 

I´m so happy in the mission, not for success or for the area, but because I wake up each day with a purpose that matters. I love my Savior and I wish you all a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Taylor Chriss