Wow! A lot Happens in the Mission!

Sergio's Baptism!

Lots of things happened in the mission and some are sad. But mostly super happy things happen here. Thinking of the week and what I can share with you, I think I´ll start with the beginning of the week. Well the sad news of the week is that we had our bikes stolen.... Someone broke the lock and ran off with some of the worst bikes I have ever seen hahaa! So in the end I think it was a blessing that we don´t have the bikes anymore. So we are on the look out for new bikes that we can buy. And in the mean time we are walking a bunch here. 

  

But even though our mode of transportation has been limited we work even better this week than before. We taught a lot of people and have been finding a lot of new people to teach! I feel so good just to be busy all day haha. We had interviews with President this week, which was awesome. We talked about our personal progression and how we can be stronger in the Faith of Christ. He is a great man and really cares for his missionaries. The assistants talked about doing the small things in missionary work, like filling in your planner and writing in our area book every night. It was great meeting and we learned quite a bit. We are really learning how to become effective servants of the Lord here in Campana haha.

  

And of course the best news of all is that Sergio Got baptized!!! Yeah we are pretty happy right now.  Me and my comp have gotten pretty close to Sergio over the past few weeks. And when it came to who was going to baptize him we thought of who of the members could do it. We thought that it would be good for him to have someone from the ward baptize him. So we called a Hermano in the ward and asked if he would do it. He was thrilled to be part of the baptism. In the 9 years that he is a member he has never baptized any one. I think it made his week. The services went well (we had a youth in the ward help Sergio in the water due to the fact that he has one arm). After his baptism our ward mission leader had him give some thoughts. 

  

He got up and said " There are two things that I never thought would happen in my life. 1. Lose an arm and 2. Be a Mormon." He is so happy. After we closed with a prayer the ward members went and greeted him. When I went to go and congratulate him, he hugged me and said "Thank you for coming to my Gate and Saving me." I have to say that when he said that I started to cry. I´m so grateful to be here on my mission. I know that He was prepared by the lord. I love missionary work.

We had the Bishop confirm him the next day. The ward is very excited to help their new Brother. Now plenty of things happened this week, but these are some of the greatest things that came to pass!

I love you all so much and I hope that this week treats you well! Be good people and remember That Elder Chriss loves you all!!!

Con Amor, 

Elder Taylor Chriss

That is one tired Elder!

Elder Chriss and Elder Sosa

Campanita!

Elder Chriss and his new Companion, Elder Sosa!

First week of the transfer and we are already having a great time. My new comp is super great! He is from Peru in a place close to Brazil called Iquitos. He is super short, and he loves to work. This week we have been working a lot to find people to teach. Talking to tons of people. I think I´m going to keep track of all the Juans and Marias here. Every other person seems to have those names. We have also been passing by as many Peruvians here as we can. It's a great way to contact someone if you have something in common (Country or food). 

  

We have been riding our bikes all over the place this week. My poor companion has been getting used to our sad bikes. He has not used a bike since he was 12 years old, and he has never used a bike that to use the brakes you need to pedal backwards. So it's been a training/get to know the ward week haha. But so far this week nothing has broken on our bikes so... we call that a success!

  

Our investigator Sergio came to church this week and he is doing great, We are planning his baptism this weekend so we are all praying and working with him a lot so that he can get baptized. He is super great and really humble. I´m so happy to have him as an investigator. And we are helping several families come back to the church. We had 3 families that we haven´t seen for a while in the church. It's really great when people accept commitments and then do them. I´m sure that is how our Heavenly Father feels when we obey the commandments haha. 

I´m super happy that I´m staying here in Campana, Its so great here. Normally here in this mission, we move around a lot. So I´m glad to stay here where it is really chill and there are a lot of potential. 

 I love you all, Hope you are all doing good, Help you fellow man and be good people. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Chriss

Watching the game with the Marin Family!

Messi - The world's best player!

Sub Campeones Del Mundo!!!!

WOOOOO ARGENTINA!!!!  We came in second in the Mundial, But that's okay because we made it to final! 

Now when it comes to Soccer, we were able to watch the game against the Netherlands this past Wednesday with a member family. It was great to be able to watch and cheer with some of our members. We went with the Marin Family.  It was great. And being Sunday we didn´t watch the final. Although we heard the yelling and shouting all around us. But we hear that it was a great game and well fought. It's great even though Argentina lost, the people we still out celebrating and launching off fireworks!

This weekend was a great time. First of all we had our Ward Conference in Campana II. So all of the leaders of the Stake came to our ward. It's great all the work that is going on here to help build up the ward. We have big plans for the ward and we are here to work. 

Sergio our investigator wasn´t able to make it to the church on Sunday.  He sprained his ankle pretty badly and wanted to have some rest. We passed by him afterwards to see how he was doing. He seems to be getting better. We have his Baptismal Date for the 26th of this month. We are hoping for the best.

   

Some news, We had transfers and I´m still staying here in Campana! Plus I´m getting a new companion. His name is E. Sosa. He is from Lima Peru and has around 8 months here in the mission! He is a good guy and I´m excited for this upcoming transfer with him. This is the longest that I've been in an area. It's a good thing that its a good one and that I like it here. Only problem is that there is almost nothing to do here on Pday. 

   

That's some of the things that are happening here in Campana, It's a great little place, very peaceful and calm. I´m loving it here in my mission! Have a good week do something good for others and I will talk to you next week.

Love 

Elder Taylor M. Chriss

Argentina for the World Cup!!!!

Headed to the Argentina World Cup Game!

Wow, quite a bit has happened this week and for the most part it's good stuff!!! 

 Let's just say that it's getting even colder here in Campana! It's not as cold as Utah, but it's a moist cold that is just bitter haha. We are working super hard as always and our ward is doing awesome. And of course ARGENTINA WON TWICE!!!!

  

The greatest part of this week was this past Tuesday. We as a mission got together to have a devotional in a cool international school, (the school of Presidents sons). It was a great meeting we talked about the great strides that we are making as a mission. We had 66 baptisms as a mission this last weekend! It's the highest in one weekend that we have ever had as a mission with Pres. Ayre. So It was pretty great to be together as a mission. I got to see all of My good friends Like E. Hankins, Williams and Engebretsen. It's been a while since I have seen them, due to the fact that I´m super far from civilization... haha. 

After the devotional President got up and told us that we were now going to have a Argentine Cultural Activity... WE WATCHED THE GAME!!!! Yeah we got to see the Argentina vs. Switzerland game as a mission!!! It was so great. We ate hamburgers and had a great time. The amount of noise was crazy when Argentina Scored haha. Good times in Argentina!

I, unfortunately, came down with a pretty nasty cold this week and I´m still trying to get over it. But that doesn´t get me down. We still are teaching and visiting a mountain of people. When you are busy the mission is a lot better. Our investigator is doing great. He came to church this Sunday! We are trying to teach him but he has a very busy schedule. But he is progressing so we are super excited about that! We always seem to find people when we get lost in the work! Makes sense to me. This next week is transfers again so I will be writing next Tuesday, to let you know if anything changes!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Taylor Chriss

The Fog of Campana!

Yes the title is a bit odd, but that is the new thing here in Campana. It is getting colder here and the fog is coming in. That means that we are basically walking around in the clouds haha. It's pretty crazy that there is so much fog that we can´t see a good ten feet in front of us. The whole freeway is just covered in fog so that you can hardly see anything. But although we can´t see anything doesn´t mean that we can´t work haha. This week me and my comp have been changing things up again.

   

This week me and my comp went through our list of members and Less Actives and looked over all the people that we haven´t visited yet. We found a large amount of people in a part of our area that we have never been to due to how far it is. But we said ¨We don´t have any appointments today... lets go!¨ So we went to Barrio Otamendi!!! And let's just say that we found several miracles.  

 

Sometime the addresses of the people are pretty hard to find here. The numbers go 142 to 133 to 143 so sometimes we are just running around in circles. But at one house we decided to ask if they knew an in- active member that lived close by. They told us around the corner and the third house on the left. So we went to the third house and clapped, A man came out and greeted us ¨Hello Elders¨. We thought it was the member we were searching for.  Actually it was our new investigator! He told us that he met the the missionaries when he was 12 and he has great memories of the them. He was never baptized but his brother was. We invited him to church and HE came!!!! He is the most humble person and is just plain awesome!!! 

 

The Lord blesses those that are diligent in finding new people!

 

We are seeing a lot of great miracles here in our area and in our district. I´m so glad to be here in Argentina. I would not want to be any where else. On other news Argentina Is Playing tomorrow, VAMOS ARGENTINA!!! We are excited here! haha. 

 

Keep cool and I love you so much!

 

LOVE

Elder Taylor Chriss

Ahora Tenemos Frio....

Waiting for the bus in the morning cold!  Glad he has the birthday present mom made for him last year wrapped around his neck!

I hope that everyone had a great week. I know that I sure did!! haha. I swear that I have a lot to say to you. But every time I sit down and start to type I forget everything.... One this is that my comp and I are getting pretty angry at our bikes. We have officially named them Lasarus´s Bikes. Because they die and come back die and come back. It's pretty funny how well the bike shops are used to us. 

But it's just another thing to laugh about.

This week my companion and I worked super hard and well the results didn´t seem to be in our favor. We were not able to have much success. But we know that our diligence will pay off in the end! I love this area because it's so big and there are plenty of opportunities. We are working with a couple of families now and are doing all we can to help them out. 

We did have a cool meeting the other morning in Baradero, a small branch in the middle of no where about an hour and a half away from my area. We had to get a ride from a member to get there haha. Anyway, this meeting was with the missionaries and our Ward mission leaders. It was together with our Stake President on expanding the Missionary Work here in the Zarate Stake! It was a great meeting talking about several of the plans that we have to help our stake grow. Our ward mission leader is a great guy and is helping us a lot! I took a video of the fields of Argentina just to get a better reminder of how cool it is down here haha. 

The temperature is dropping pretty fast. Its a wet cold here so everything that gets cold is more cold and you feel as if every thing is cold. But thanks to my moms scarf that she made me, I´m doing great!

  

And of Course Argentina won their game this week!!!! It was super funny, me and my comp were on our bikes looking for people to talk to.... during a Argentine Game.... and I look at my comp and say I don´t think Argentina has made a goal yet. (We always know because the people go crazy every time they do) and my comp looks at his watch and says I think that it has ended... Just as he said it, people start going crazy yelling GOALLLLLLL!!! haha Argentina won in the last few seconds.

I want to testify of the power of Comfort that comes from our loving Heavenly Father. I will say that in the mission field it is tough when you have a not to successful week. But I know that the Lord loves me and when I do not succeed now, with Him I will succeed soon!!

Love you all a ton! Do some thing good for one another and Have a great week!!

Love, 

Elder Taylor Chriss

Super cool sunset in my area plus a barn!

Cleaning out the Font with Elder Henriquez for a baptism!!!

Vamos Argentina!!!

Elder Chriss and Elder Henriquez

Well I have several topics which I can speak on this week. So my letter will be a little bit more interesting. Just to let you all know I´m doing great. I´m just super happy. The mission is the greatest thing in the world. Every day I have the chance to serve and enjoy. Argentina is a great place full of good people. But I´m not going to lie most are pretty tough and not really accepting. But when you find those that the Lord is preparing everything turns out great! 

I am truly in love with the food! Every time we eat with our members we eat very well. Empanadas and pasta are the greatest things in the whole world. And here it is almost always made by hand! 

This week we had a great meeting in Zarate with the Assistants and President. It was a Zone Conference to talk about what us as a mission are focusing on at this moment. We talked about making better and power commitments with our investigators. President shared a great story from his life how he was working really hard on a project for work that took him 6 months to complete. When he presented the project the Company called him and told him that is was a great project. But at the moment they were going to go with another company's project. He was super down and didn´t know what to do. Then came on a commercial by Micheal Jordan talking about all the failures that he has had in his career. But Micheal is known for being the best because he got back up and kept on playing. This gave Pres. Ayre the strength to keep going and after 16 other failures, he finally succeeded and made a lot of money. Hence the reason he can afford a mission. I love that story because the one of the main focuses in our mission is that when we fail we keep going until we have the success that we need! But one of the best parts of the meeting was after when we all got mail.... I GOT A PACKAGE!!!! I finally got a package! The date that my Mom sent it was the 7th of Feb. hahahaha Slowly but surely I am getting my mail. Thanks mom for the Peanut butter and Captain Moroni Tie haha. 

Also another great that is going on is the World Cup has started. I´m being positive about it although it causes quite a bit of problems. The problem is that people do not want to talk to the missionaries when there is a game going on. And if you're not familiar with the world cup, there are games going on all day. So we don´t have very much time to find new people, only in between the games. Hahah last night was The Argentina game and Fathers day. So we literally had no place to go. Between people gone visiting fathers and the whole country stuck to their TV´s it was pretty hard to find any one to teach haha. 

I´m using my Dwan Argentina tie for every time there is a Argentina Game ha. 

But really all is well I´m loving it here in the mission. My district is doing great we are working hard to help the people of Campana and together we are doing just that. We have an Elder in my District named Elder Henriquez he is super great and is helping me a lot to do the work here in Campana!!!  

Keep up the loving and I will talk with ya next week. 

Lots of love 
Elder Taylor Chriss