Monday, June 25, 2012

June 19, 2012 w/ 5 pictures!!

It was a fabulous week. Wednesday and Thursday are always a little hard because it's getting back into the swing of things, but we had a wonderful week.

Wednesday we did service for a non-member. She just had a baby so we cleaned her house. She commented that it's nice to know that humanity and love still exist in this world. It was all I needed to hear to feel appreciated and glad that we did it. I love doing service. It really does make me feel better. The rest of the day was kind of rough, so by the end of the night we treated ourselves to Baskin Robbins. I def. needed the boost.

Thursday we had a mate party with one of my favorite less actives, the Roths. Mate is a weird tea-like drink that is disgusting, but apparently it's all the rage in Europe. I tried it straight, but then had to fill it with sugar and milk to even get it to taste remotely desirable. Mate=fail, but the afternoon was fun. We saw Hena that night (prepping her for her baptism) and just had so much fun. I love her a lot a lot. She's hilarious and we never seem to get to our lesson because we talk too much!

Friday we were supposed to do weekly planning but we had too many appointments. That night we got thrown into the Lion's Den (so to speak). A family we tracted into invited us over for dinner. We were happy to accept. We went over and the first thing that the husband says is, "Well I won't be calling you 'Sister' so what can I call you? You see, we don't have the same beliefs, so what's your first name?" I was like, "Oh heck no. You can call me Christensen." And then I knew. This was a caverly chapel family. In fact, this guy was an ex-Mormon who had his records removed and had it framed and put up on the wall! We then had a 2.5 hour dinner with them where they attempted, key word attempted, to grill us and tell us we were on the wrong path. Oh the poor ignorance of these people. Little do they know that I am a professional, non-Bible-basher and there is nothing they can do or say to get into my testimony and shake my beliefs. I love knowing truth and I love having real faith. I love the gospel and there is nothing that will change that. It was a joy to make it home and feel the refreshing feeling of the Spirit in our apartment.

Saturday we attended a baby shower. Despite being missionaries, we are still women and we still get baby hungry. Babies are just so stinkin' cute! Then we helped make tutus for Girls Camp. In the afternoon we had dinner and a movie with Dani and Kami. And thennnn.....drumroll please......Hena's baptism!!!! It was so fabulous. Oh man. She is going to be such a leader and role model for so many people. She got up and bore her testimony and it was beautiful. The Spirit was so strong and she is just so amazing, I love love loved it! See pictures.

Sunday Adan had his interview and passed!!! He is all set for Saturday, 7 p.m. He came to Church with all his piercings out and in a white button down. He looked so fresh and is so ready! Workoff and I taught second hour and it went really well. That night we had dinner with the Reber's, who are friends with a family who served up north, the Whitaker's. For six months I have wanted to Whitaker's to come to dinner with the Reber's and they finally did! I loved the Whitaker's so much, it was such a fun night seeing them. They are a bomb family. My sister Amber is going to marry their son Ty. You hear that Amber? I got it all set up.

Monday was busy. For Family Home Evening we played a hilarious game where you tie a balloon to your ankle and people have to pop each other's balloons but not let theirs get popped. It was a lot of fun. Also the elders and us put together a video of all the recent converts and it was soo good! I'll have to have it posted to Facebook somehow. I love converts!

The Church is true and we have another wonderful week ahead. Transfers are next week and I am pretty sure I'm out....I better because I already started my goodbyes haha. Pce and blessings from CA. Party. Hard.

-Sister Christensen

Adan being gangsta. He painted that under an abandoned bridge.


The tutus we made.


Baptism!!


My fave families


She's preggo....I'm not.

Monday, June 18, 2012

June 12, 2012 with pictures!

The weeks do seem to be flying past. This is going to be a highlights email again, as opposed to a day-by-day update.

Wednesday Sister Workoff and I went to see Adan. It was pretty funny - he was mad at us for the throw down lesson. He was all, "I AM getting baptized and I AM changing my life and you two cannot stop me!!!" Little did he realize that until this point he kept being very loosey goosey about things and hadn't really decided any of that. Throughout the week we have taught him the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Law of Tithing and he was game for all of it! We kept getting nervous about teaching him each of the "big" three but again, he never ceases to amaze me and is always ready and willing.

Thursday we had a fun movie night and watched "17 Miracles." I love that movie. I mean, I hate that movie because it makes me cry and I feel like the most spoiled, lucky, ungrateful person in the world, but I love it. Every time I watch it it reminds me what people have sacrificed so that we could all worship as we please. The pioneers are my heroes. If you haven't seen the movie, you need to watch it and then say a solid prayer of gratitude.

Saturday was awesome...mostly.....I accidentally took 200 mg of caffeine in the morning. A lady in my ward gave us some natural supplements to help give us more energy. I mixed up the instructions she gave us and instead of 2 biotin capsules I took 2 energy capsules, which have 99 mg of caffeine in them. Right as I swallowed, my companion was like "WHAT?! NO!!" I freaked out, but the damage was done. It didn't have any truly negative side effects. The plus was that I had energy all day, the minus was that I was awake until Sunday and have had a hangover - caffeine-headache ever since....so lesson learned, note to self......don't take that much caffeine ever again.

But besides that, we had fun doing service for Shauna in the morning, and then we had Macey's baptism! I have been teaching Macey since January. She is eight and a child of record, but she was not raised in the Church. Her mom has started coming back to Church and wanted Macey to be baptized for Macey and not because all her new friends had done it. She is hilarious and so much fun. During one of the talks she was asked, "Macey, why are you getting baptized?" She said, "Becauseee, the sister missionaries taught me soo welll, I know I am ready!" It was stinkin' cute.

That night I got to participate in my very first Pinewood Derby! It was a family ward party. We hadn't made cars, but people made extras so we got to race. Mine got 4th or 5th place! Haha, it was an adventure. It made me really want to make my own car! Also, that night Hena had her baptismal interview and she is all set! This Saturday, 6pm!

Monday was also a great day. We tracted, had a couple lessons, and had a fun Family Home Evening. I am pretty much packing my bags to leave this area on the 25th so I am enjoying every moment I have left here. We have two fabulous weeks planned, with two more baptisms and I am stoked! Missionary life rocks.

Party hard!
Love Sista C!
Movie night!


Mace Face at her baptism!


Adan was looking fresh at Church so we took a picture.

Monday, June 11, 2012

June 5, 2012 w/ pictures

It was a wonderful week in the world of missionary work.

Wednesday we did a lot of service and tracting. We had one lady say, "Thank you for being nice even though I wasn't interested"...it was so refreshing. I love nice people even when they don't want to hear from us. We did splits that night and had success in tracting down less active members. I went with my RS President (who is more like my guru), Jennie, and we had fun, as always.

Thursday I was Miss Grumpy Gills (I quote Finding Nemo a lot in teaching children....they get it better). You know when you just wake up and are grumpy and almost nothing can pull you out of it. Yeah, that was me on Thursday. My poor companion was such a champ and just suffered through it with me. Thankfully we kept fairly busy and had plenty of appointments. Seeing Adan helped boost my mood + an awesome lesson with Hena and Saia (our baptism next Saturday) = a much happier missionary.

Friday was EXCHANGES WITH ALLRED!!!! I was stoked. I don't know how/why President loves me so much that he allows me to work with my favorite companions again, but this was my second exchange with a previous companion and I loved it. It was so nice. We don't even have to try and we teach in unison and by the Spirit. We had dinner with Jennie and it's been a while since I have laughed that hard (I love Workoff--we just have different senses of humor).

Saturday was jam packed with appointments. It was a bummer that we were super rushed exchanging back, but Workoff and I had to go to Saia and Hena's wedding! It was beautiful and we are so happy for them. Hena is a perfect example of the Lord preparing someone and we just happen to be the lucky ones to lead her to baptism. I truly love them.

Sunday: I had a pretty cool experience with fasting. You know when you wake up and realize it's Fast Sunday and then you kind of bemoan it a little cause not eating sucks? Well, that's how I felt when I woke up. I didn't really want to do it, but I had plenty to fast for. So I said my "begin the fast" prayer and basically the Spirit knocked me upside the head and said, "Stop being selfish, this is not about you." The light bulb went off and I realized I am not fasting for me. I am not just giving up food. I am so called "suffering" so that the pain/suffering/sadness/weakness of someone else might be lifted just a little. It made it all better. Every time I experienced a hunger pain, I said in my head, "God, that was so that _________ (insert name) might receive an answer, or feel less sad, or see some success"....It worked and I made it through fasting without complaint.

Monday was wonderful. I love keeping busy on Monday because it helps me to NOT focus on the fact that it's P-day's eve. We had district meeting. Then we visited a girl who is me without the gospel. I know exactly who, where, and what I would be without the gospel in my life and she is it. I have really connected with her and I sincerely hope and pray that one day she will realize something is missing in her life. It was a fun visit, followed by a throw-down lesson with Adan. He has received answers from God (the most direct answers I have ever heard of in my life) and he is now "deciding" what path to choose. I felt some righteous indignation and we left him with -- "When you decide, let us know."

I am a missionary for Jesus Christ. I am on the Lord's errand. I think I have said this before, and I will say it again, I will not waste my time. I truly love Adan, I desire him to be baptized and feel the love of God in his life. We have given him the tools he needs to make that decision, but until he makes it, we have nothing further to offer him. It makes me fairly upset when I hear about missionaries teaching someone for six months, a year, or even a couple years and that person makes no commitments, doesn't come to Church, doesn't pray - or in Adan's case, does all those things, RECEIVES an answer and then wants to decide. No sir. You can be taught by the next missionary who wants to coddle and baby you, but not me. (stepping off soapbox)

I love what I am doing. It's hard, it's frustrating, it's annoying, but it's all worth it. We have another fabulous week ahead of us and I cannot wait. Pce and blessings from California.
-Sister Christensen

Allred and I back in action


The wedding!

May 29, 2012 w/ pictures

A fabulous mission is made up of moments. It's not the every day minutes and hours that make a mission awesome. In fact, some days the minutes and hours might as well be days and months. But it's when the Spirit touches someone so deeply they are moved to emotion, or they realize they found truth, that makes every mission so, beyond, worth it.

I am not going to give you a play by play of my week. Looking over all that we did, it was kind of a blah week, but in fact, it was one of my favorite weeks of my mission. It's miracle transfer, and miracles are happening all over the place!

Adan is such a stellar investigator, but unless we teach strictly by the Spirit, the lesson doesn't progress very far. We taught him three times last week and yesterday. Every time we teach, I say a little prayer in my heart and then I let the Spirit take over. Sometimes I don't even really remember everything I say. It is the coolest feeling ever. I know how the Spirit speaks to me and directs me and all I have to do is aim it correctly. I can pretty much tell you exactly what will take place during the lesson because the Spirit has already confirmed it to me. It is so sick. You may or may not have any idea what I am talking about, but I just love it. Adan is working toward being baptized June 23rd. One day Adan is going to be a stake president. Mark my words. Teaching him is such a privilege and I don't know how I got so lucky to be a part of it.

Yesterday we picked up our 8th investigator in about 7 days. Her name is Hena, she is Samoan. We got into her house and we realized she is not just any investigator. She is prepared and ready to make the changes in her life. Not only did we teach her the entire first discussion (and she soaked it all in beautifully), but we invited her to be baptized June 16th. Her response was (very enthusiastically), "Let do it!!!" The Spirit was so strong. I was so overwhelmed with peace and love and excitement--pretty much every good emotion you can feel. Again, it was so sick. I love it.

In case you missed it in the last paragraph, we picked up 8 investigators since last Monday. All of them are families. Do you remember a couple weeks ago when my mission president came up to me and said, "Let's find some families for your ward" and I burst into tears because I was so discouraged? Yeah, I think Heavenly Father was probably laughing at me because He knew what was in store. One is a family of five, two are families of three, and then we have Adan and now Hena. I am on cloud nine.

OK - I'll tell you the less happy stuff now. One, Mike Mieure got deployed for two months. I was really sad to see him go. We had a bomb lesson on Tuesday about testimonies and how to strengthen them. I wanted to make sure Mike and Dani both knew how much I love the Lord and the gospel and that I am on the Lord's side. We had a nice breakfast on Saturday and said "goodbye." I cannot wait to come back and see them. I adore the Mieures.

Sunday I got the migraine of the century. Why the heck do migraines happen? I had a wonderful sleep, ate a ton of fruit for breakfast, took my vitamins, and then BAM - I was incapacitated by this migraine. It was not fun at all. No amount of medication worked and I just had to endure through it with only a couple minor breakdowns.

Monday my companion got the news that a little boy she babysat was killed by getting hit by a car. We both shed a lot of tears reading the story about it and thinking about how hard it must be for their family. We took a moment of silence and I felt prompted to write them a letter, so I did. It was a moment of reflection on how precious life is and how much I love my family--so, so, so much!!

That's all I have to say. The Church is true. It binds families for time and all eternity. It is a beautiful knowledge we have.  It's going to be another great week - just you wait!

Pce and love from California
-Sister Christensen

Our goodbye breakfast. They wore their Utah shirts on purpose. We have a little rivalry going on. Notice I wore navy blue. Go BYU!


Adan. He told us he doesn't know how to smile for pictures so we told him to do a crazy face and this is what he did. A perfect smile. Such a dork.