July 20, 2015

Some members and all of us

Hello everyone!!!!!! I hope everyone had an amazing week!!!!! 

So I realized I should probably tell you about my companion! hahaha Whoops! 

Hermana Warner:

So my companions name is Hermana Warner! She's from West Valley, UT and she's a convert to the church as of her sophomore year of high school! Her Aunt and her Uncle adopted her I think a year or a couple years before that and all of that part of her family is Mormon! She's really cool!!! Yeah!!! If you guys have any questions about her email me and I'll tell ya! hahaha 

So some things that happened this past week: 

AMERICAN DINNERS: 

We had THREE!!!! American dinners this past week!!!!! One was with the bishops family and we had grilled chicken and corn on the cob (we actually made jelote, which is the Mexican style of eating corn on the cob, like in nacho libre, but it w

as American none the less) then another was with this sister in the ward who her and her husband (served a Spanish speaking mission) were serving in the Spanish ward in San Juan before but moved here and just decided to go to the Spanish ward here! She was sooo awesome!! She reminded me a lot of some of my Young Women Leaders at home!!! She gave us BBQ chicken sandwiches on little pretzel rolls!!! She was adorable!!! Then we had lasagna at our ward mission leaders house!!! It was soooooooo goooooooodddd!!!!! so lots of American food which was crazy!!!

Temple Music Night: 

So on Wednesday there was a concert put on by the missionaries at the church building by the temple in Newport Beach! Hermana Green sang a Spanglish version of "Abide With Me" and it was soooo beautiful!!! Another one of my favorites was a sister sang "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" and signed the words in ASL while she sang! It was so incredible! After that we took some members and had Sister Ruiz (an English speaking sister who is from Guatamala) give them a temple tour. It was sooo amazing!!!!! That temple is so beautiful! 

Miracle:

So something fell through the other day so we were going to go see a member I've never met before who lived where we happened to be so we were walking and all of the sudden we saw a lady we've talked to before who's super super super nice but we couldn't find her number after we talked to her!!! So crazy!!!! So we got her number and she told us we should visit her at Smash Burger where she works one day!!! She's awesome! THEN we saw one of my favorite members, Andrea who's 16 years old. She has had a very very hard life and right now she's going through a lot. We just happened to run into her before she got home and ended up talking to her for 1hr 45 min. I really could tell we needed to be there so that she could have someone to talk to and it was really cool to see the Lord working through us!  

Well I love you all so much!!!! Never forget how much the Lord loves you all perfectly and individually!!! I hope you have an amazing week and that you are able to see the little miracles God gives you throughout the week! I promise as you do that, you will be able to be so much more happy!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Christensen

I'm a Trainer Now!!! What??? (July 13, 2015)

First of all I'd just like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RUDY'S!!!!! We had an Hermana Party will all the Spanish speaking sisters the lunch before we had transfer meeting and I made the meat and they all LOVED it!!! I was so much fun and sooooo delicious!! I also brought it to Emilia's house and her and her family loved it too!!!!!! Pedro (her husband) said it was way better than the "Texas BBQ" place here by us. Every time I pass that place I say "YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES!"  So from that I think you can infer about how grateful I was to have real life Rudy's!!!! So thank you soooooooooo much!!!!!! 

First Week Training: Well I'm a mom!(what missionaries call trainers) It's been super crazy but also super fun!! Right after transfer meeting and Hermana Warner and I were getting all her stuff I think like 8 people asked me "Wait...didn't you just get here?!?!?!" hahaha so that was probably really comforting for Hermana Warner!! But we're having lots of fun and I'm gaining more confidence and it's great!!!!! 

YASMIN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! The night after transfer meetings we went over and asked Yasmin to be baptized and she said yes!!! I asked her about 2 Aug. and she was like sure!!! Then Emilia asked if we could do the 1 Aug. so that it'd be easier for them to get food and stuff (I chuckled a little at that, these people really like to party for every occasion) and I asked Yasmin if that was ok and she said yes!!!! AHHHH I AM SO EXCITED!!! I definitely cried and Emilia definitely cried. It was amazing!!!! I'm sure Hermana Warner was like uhhh wow this is an eventful first visit!!!!!! BUT REALLY Im so so so so happy for her!!!! YAYAYAY

DINA CAME TO CHURCH!!!! 

Our 70ish year old investigator came to church and it was so amazing because she's been super sick and kinda house-ridden so that was really awesome!!! TENDER MERCIES!!!!!! 

Today we went and hiked in Laguna Beach by Emerald Bay up this HUGE hill!!! At one point I felt like I was walking completely vertical!!! It was crazy!! But the view was so beautiful and when we all got up all of the sisters (there were 10 of us) shared our favorite scriptures and the spirit was so strong. I shared 3 Nephi 22:10. It was perfect because we were surrounded by God's creation for us and in this scripture it talks about the mountains and hills departing, but even if that happened, the kindness that God gives of cannot leave. Neither can His mercy. It doesn't matter who we are or what happens in our lives, He loves us, perfectly and individually. It's just our decision to do the things that allow us to more fully feel His love.

This is Emilia's other daughter and Yasmin's sister!! her names Amalia and she's CRAZY!!! I love her sooo much!!!

Hermana Warner and I!!!

Hermana Williams and Hermana Carmack(she's in San Clemente)

Happy Belated 4th of July!! (July 6, 2015)

HAPPY 4TH!!!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day celebrating our independence!!! What a blessing it is to live here!!!
4th of July Festivities!:
I was on an exchange with my old companion Hermana Duncan and it was super fun to be back with her! We both had lots of red,white,and blue on! At around 11 we went and played soccer with a bunch of people in the ward and it was soooo fun!!!! Everyone was crazy good so I just ran around and tried to pretend like I knew what I was doing!! hahaha My one year of 7th grade soccer really came in handy! haha Then after that Hermana Duncan and I went to lunch and she treated me to Wendy's (she had a gift card haha)! It was weird cause we really very rarely eat out so it felt weird being in a fast food restaurant! Then after that we got a call from our Elders saying that their recent convert wanted us to have dinner with her because she apparently really likes us and said that she had been saving up money to feed all of us. So we decided we better go! The funny part is that it was about 2 hours after we had lunch, so I was trying to make it look like I was eating a lot because I was already full! hahaha I felt like I was going to explode! But she is super super super sweet and I wanted to show that I was grateful that she would give us food when they don't really have a whole lot to give. She told me that I was the funniest Hermana! hahaha I really like her and her family a lot! They're really amazing!

After that we had whats called a "window" where we pray for a specific time and place to go talk to people. So we went to our window and talked to one guy that was kinda sketchy with us so we called the Elders to talk to come talk to him. He was just super super sad and has had a lot of things happen to him but also was a little drunk and sketchy when talking to us so we decided that the Elders better help him! hahaha it was a fun experience! Essentially our Elders are awesome and came to our rescue!

Then we went to teach a less active who I love! We went to Emilia's house after that (she's the mom of our investigator Yasmin, shes a member but is less active but we are really really really close to her and she's like family) so it was fun to spend that time with her on the 4th! What made it super fun was that Hermana Williams met us there after her exchange was over so it was me, Hermana Duncan, and Hermana Williams reunited again!!! So that was super fun! Then on our way home we stopped at the Stake Center and watched the fireworks from there with our house-mates and one of their recent converts!! It was so amazing because it's kind of on a hill so we could see for a really long time and kinda could tell were they were going off in San Clemente! So amazing!

In other news:
So tomorrow is transfers, which means lots of changes. On Thursday I found out that....I'M GOING TO BE TRAINING A NEW HERMANA!!!!! I'm so freaked out but so excited at the same time!! I'm just a baby in the mission so it's kinda crazy! But really despite all my fears about not being perfect in the language yet or not knowing the area perfectly, I know that with the help of the Lord I'll be able to do the things He needs me to do! I'm so excited to meet my new companion and get to know and love her!!! It's going to be so fun!!!!!! and scary...BUT FUN!!!!! So please if you could be praying for me to be able to be the best trainer I can and for my companion to be able to handle my craziness! hahaha

Yasmin:
So Yasmin is our investigator who is the daughter of Emilia (who is baptized) and on the 4th Emilia told us that she said SHE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE ALL SO EXCITED FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're going to see her tonight and are hoping to set a baptism date for her tonight!!!! It's taken her so long but we're really been focusing on praying for her and it's so amazing so see that be an answer so our prayers!!! AHHH IM SO EXCITED!!!!!! She's amazing!!!
Well I love all of you so much and I'm so thankful for all the support you all give me and for your prayers and just everything you all do for me!!! I hope you all have an amazing week!!!