July 10, 2012 w/ pictures

What a week! It was long! I cannot even believe that it was the Fourth of July last week because that seems eons ago!

Tuesday - Our blessed ward mission leader's wife took us shopping. She is wonderful to us.

Wednesday was the Fourth of July. It was not the greatest day for missionary work but we did have a really great experience. We went to a BBQ at one of our member's home. It was a family BBQ so we felt kind of out of place. I wanted to leave within a half hour of arriving but my greenie companion kept putting it off. She was like, "Let me talk to the Lord about it" -- I laughed and waited until she felt ok about leaving. We had rode our bikes over, to avoid traffic, and on the way home I saw two people walking in the dark. I felt prompted to talk to them right as we were about to cross the street. I whispered to Andrus that we should contact them, so we did. It turns out that the guy, Miguel, is a less active member and his wife, Cheyanne, has been wanting to be baptized! What the?! This doesn't happen. We set up an appointment for Friday and on Friday we had a wonderful lesson with a baptismal invitation. We are shooting for the 4th of August! This ward hasn't seen a baptism in almost a year. This was such a blessing and was totally by the power of the Spirit. We are stoked. She came to Church on Sunday and we taught the restoration yesterday. She loved it all. I never hold my breath about baptisms because I know the adversary is strong, but we are really excited for her and anticipate seeing her baptized!

I skipped over Thursday on behalf of my story: Thursday we had district meeting. I did a training which went really well. We taught a handful of lessons and ate dinner at a house that sits on the beach. It was gorgeous. I can never get enough of the ocean. It provokes so much thought in me. I could stare at it for hours. I love San Clemente!

Friday was my one year and my greenie's one month. We partied. We treated ourselves to burgers and fro-yo and took some fun pictures!

Saturday was the longest day of my mission haha, that's an exaggeration, but really, it was a long, no-fun day. And Sunday was no bueno because I was really grumpy. I still have yet to master myself in controlling my emotions. Andrus handled it like a champ and by Monday we were all smiles and happy again. We rode our bikes to the ocean, did some service, and partied with old folks at their monthly empty nester party. Life is good - we are seeing miracles, big and small on a daily basis.

My little gem scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 33:6, "I glory in plainness, I glory in truth, I glory in Jesus...." Simple but true!

Love, Sister Christensen

P.S. Andrus and I are playing a joke on our district leader. Whenever they text us, their signature that appears on every text they send says, "Pray about it" so we decided to be funny, each time we text them, we put as our signature "get crazy".... so they think that when we text members and investigators, that it says that. It's hilarious because they are both soft spoken and would be horrified if we were actually writing that. They haven't confronted us yet but we are bidding our time. Haha.

Fourth of July! We got new festive dresses and I had red shoes and a red purse to get the full red, white, and blue!

One year, one month

Random picture with a monkey that we saw on top of a trash can and we knew we needed a pic!

July 3, 2012 w/ pictures

This email will be short and sweet: I am serving in San Clemente and I 100% love my greenie. She is fabulous and hilarious. Seriously, we have no investigators, no idea about our area, no solid focus 15, nada, and we have had a blast. Oh man, it's been fun. Tuesday I was shaking like a leaf waiting to find out what the deal was. When my greenie was called, Becky Andrus, she curtsied and I was thinking, "Oh heck, who is this chick?" I pretty much smiled and nodded all night. Transfers are exhausting.

Wednesday was the most stressful day of my life and on Thursday I made the conscious decision to chill out and have fun. From that point on it's been awesome. Sister Andrus' life motto is "get crazy"--do you remember mine, "party hard"?...yeah, we plan to have a lot of fun haha. We have tons of faith that we are going to blow this place out of the water. We already picked up an investigator on Sunday, Carmen (we call her Carmen San Diego from the computer game we played as children, "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego"). She has a son on a Mormon mission in Honduras, but she knows nothing about the Church. We are stoked, to say the least. We will see her later this week. Pray for her!

We did some service (I built a trellis) on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we both bore our testimonies to the ward. We are getting them pumped on missionary work. Everyone keeps telling us how excited they are to have sister missionaries because they haven't had them in well over five years. On Monday we had back-to-back appointments with people in the ward to help us get more familiar with everyone and get involved.

Our ward mission leader is amazing. They bought us each a GPS to help us get around the area. They help us out in every way possible and it's been so helpful! We are right on the beach so in the morning we sometimes bike to an overlook and watch the waves roll in. Also we cover part of Camp Pendalton so we work a TON with military families and Marines. I am slowly learning the lingo. We mostly contact (talk to random people on the street) to shirtless surfer boys....a little awkward but we laugh so much that nothing phases us. I am stoked on life. Awesome companions make the hardest of situations seem fabulous.

Party hard and enjoy the 4th! I love America!! Holla!

Party hard,
Sister Christensen

P.S. Just so everyone who writes me is aware, now that I am not right next to the mission office, the mail system is even slower. Every letter I get is now about two weeks later than when it was written. It blows but whatev, I am in San Clemente! It's beautiful, I can't complain.

My trainer (going home!) and my greenie!

Cheesecake night!

June 26, 2012 w/ pictures!!

Holy stressful week of my life.

I'll start at the beginning because the beginning wasn't stressful.

Tuesday we had a fabulous district activity. We played ultimate frisbee, sword fights, Knock Out, Never Have I Ever, and ate lots of treats. And took some fun photos. See below.

Wednesday we picked up a new investigator and set a new baptismal date - July 14th! We are so stoked for her. Her name is Emily and she is very much ready to be baptized! I already think she is wonderful. Later in the day we started the new member lessons with Hena - I love that girl a lot. She is so fun to chat with and teach. She loves every message we share with her, it's so sick. That night I received a phone call from President Cook. I was called to be a trainer and I will be white washing an area. For those that don't know the lingo, that means I will get a fresh missionary from the MTC [Missionary Training Center] and I will be going into an area with no former knowledge of the area---it's kind of cool because me and my greenie will be equally yoked, but also terrifying because I know nothing. Nothing. I will arrive in the area and start from square one. It will be an adventure to say the least. Stressful? Yes.

Thursday morning we get a phone call from Adan....to cancel the baptism. He needed to leave for Mexico to sign a will because his grandma was about to pass away. My voice was probably similar to the description of "stone cold" when he told me the news. And then we had back-to-back appointments all day so it wasn't until we saw him at three that we could discuss our options. After much delay, we came to the conclusion that he needed to be baptized now and not wait, thus commencing planning a baptism in four hours. Stressful? Yes. Don't ever do it. It's not fun and your blood pressure will most definitely rise. We called one million people to figure everything out. We moved the baptism from Saturday at seven to Friday at six. Holy heck, I never want to do that again. We treated ourselves to Baskin Robbins at the end of the night because my brain was literally exhausted.

Friday I woke up and was again dreading all that needed to happen to get Adan into the font. We had a couple appointments and then from ten to two I was in a new trainer's meeting. Sister Allred and Sister Rokobuli- two of my former companions- will also be training! We had really yummy breakfast burritos for lunch and then Workoff and I had appointments. We finished getting ready for the baptism.... The baptism was amazing to say the least. We had such a fabulous turn-out and at least five non-members came to see it. The testimonies and talks and prayers were alll so great. There was no way in heck someone couldn't feel that spirit in that room. Adan cried. I was smiling so big, I am sure I looked dumb, but I can't help it! I was so happy to see him take such a huge leap in his life. We had a lesson with Emily afterward and she is even more stoked for her baptism. She asked Adan to speak at it :)

On my way home it finally dawned on me that I am leaving the area and I cried....or more so, bawled. My heart hurt so bad because of the love I feel for these people. I have absolutely, completely, 100% loved serving here in Vista. I took a hot bath to calm myself down and I was fine.

Saturday was fulll of goodbye lessons, and Sunday and Monday. My heart is in Vista. I love these people a lot. There were a lot of pictures taken and a lot of hugs and a couple of tears. I ended up talking to my YSA [Young Single Adult] Relief Society President/guru/therapist for two hours last night. Jenny Taylor. I will miss that girl and her advice and her outlook. She's been fabulous. And the Mieures. And Hena and Adan and Jeremy and Emily and everyone in the Vista 8th and 6th wards because I have been treated so well here.

Ok, the Church is true. Read 2 Nephi 10 - the last couple verses that say something like "cheer up your heart for you are free to choose eternal life"....People, I have chosen eternal life. Every day it's a decision I make that I want eternal life and true joy and happiness. I try and build my faith in every way that I can. And I am happy.

Pce and blessings from CA.
Wish me luck!
-Sister Christensen

District activity.

Adan doesn't like to smile.

Jenny Taylor.

My Kami.

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.

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.

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.