Exercising is good!!! (August 24, 2015)

Buenos tardes!!!! I hope everyone is having a fantastic end of the summer!! Good luck to everyone who will be starting school up again soon!! I hope and pray everything goes well!!! 

So first things that happened! 

Andrea got to come to church!! It was super awesome to see her there again!!!!! 

Emilia and the fam went to the "riber" as Emilia told us( we like to joke about saying English words in a Spanish accent because Emilia thinks its super funny when I try to do that hahah)  and they called us to tell us how much fun they were having!!! Such a fun little thing to do before Yasmin starts school! Yasmin also told us she's feel happier and a lot closer to God!! YAYYYY!!!! 

So we now have 3 new investigators!!! One is Irma, the woman we found during the zone blitz I talked about in my email on the 10th, and she's amazing!!! We went to her house on Saturday planning to teach the Restoration but she had lots of super super awesome questions about what we believed! That lesson was a really really cool experience for me because she knows her bible inside and out and is very, very knowledgeable but I was able to answer her questions and after I did she understood and accepted most of the things we shared very well! She asked us if we believed in the Trinity (which she prefaced with the fact that she did) and I explained the Godhead and after she said something like "Huh...well that makes sense! I guess they are separate!" Also we talked to her about the pre-mortal life and the kingdoms of glory. At first she did not receive those topics super well but by the end she just had kind of the same reaction of "huh...well that makes sense!" It was very cool to have that experience because at first I was very scared it would become an intense bible bash (which I refuse to have with people because they're silly and people get angry and it just doesn't bring happy feelings)  but everything was just motivated by kindness and love and the Spirit was there and I could not have explained the things I did without the gift of the Holy Ghost or the gift of tongues either! She said she would read the Resto and Plan pamphlets and she also wants to come to our church one Sunday! I'm so excited about her!!
Now for the other two. While running one morning in our apartment complex I felt the prompting to stop and talk to this lady and tell her who we were and tell her if she ever needs help with anything to let us know and she ended up talking to us for like 10 minutes about her beliefs and her daughter who was in an accident and couldn't walk but now can and is working on gaining function back in one of her hands. She told us to come by one day and see the miracle God had worked with her daughter! So we went by yesterday and showed her and her family Because He Lives and she told us to come back today at 9am, so that's what we did! We went and talked and shared the message of the Restoration and they seemed to accept it very well! They're very devout Christians and have a very strong faith in Christ. They seemed to really like and accept the idea of Joseph Smith seeing our Father and also our Savior which was very cool! We invited them to go back and read the whole thing and pray about it to know if it's true and they said they would! EXERCISING( both body and exercising faith in promptings hahah I'm such a missionary) IS GOOD!!!  SO MANY MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING!!!! 

Well that's all folks!! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! I love being a missionary!! I love this Gospel!! I love all the people I get to be with and serve here!!! I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ!! AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!!!!!! Have a wonderful week!!! 

~Romans 8:35-36 & 38-39~ 

Hermana Christensen <3

I'M STAYING! (August 17, 2015)

I got my haircut today!!! Then Hna Williams curled it for me! It's not super different but I wanted to take a picture for you guys!!! 

So transfer calls were on Saturday and Hermana Warner and I are both staying!!! YAYAYAY!! We're so excited!!!!! I'm so happy I get to stay here for a little bit longer!!!! Hermana Williams is leaving the ward though :( she's going back down to San Clemente :( Which is sad because I won't get to see her except at Zone Meetings, institute and sometimes on p-days..which I guess is still a lot but one or 2 days a week is still a big difference! hahaha But hopefully that means that when I go down there I could maybe be companions with her again!!! AHHH!!! So that's exciting! But who knows that might not happen! Que sera, sera! Whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do!! 

So this week was probably the hottest week of my whole life. Every day it was upwards of 100 degrees. I think I probably sweated off like 10 buckets of water every day! And the people we visit don't usually have air conditioning but I honestly don't really care because I just love seeing everyone!!! I'm just so grateful that we have an air conditioned car and that our apartment is conditioned too. It's made me very grateful for the many blessings I have!!! Also I'm a lot more tan than I've ever been! Bonus!!! 

So I had the opportunity to go on an exchange in English work this week!! I was in the area where the missionaries who are over my 2nd cousin Adam's ward are!! They are over 3 wards though! So crazy! But it was cool because the missionary I was with (Sister Gillins, she's amazing and I love going on exchanges with her so much) was like yeah you're cousin talks about you when we eat with his family! it's so crazy! but we went and visited two of their investigators who both happen to be wheel-chair bound. They also both have trouble speaking and communicating but with both visits the Spirit was so strong. The were probably 2 of the most amazing people I've met in my life. They were so excited for us to be there and so loving!!!! It was a really really cool day!!!

So nothing else really huge happened this week but I do want to leave you with a scripture. I want to invite all of you to read Luke 6:38. I invite you all to think about how God often pours out blessings to us after we have worked and sacrificed. I also love how it says "shall men give unto you". Ponder about the ways God has blessed you through the people around you. Try to be thankful for those people who have been instruments in the Lord's hands and strive to be instruments yourselves and I promise you by playing a part in the way God manifests His love to His children, you will be able to feel His love for you more strongly. 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have a wonderful week filled with wonderful miracles!!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Christensen

It was 101 one day and then the next day it was 103!!!!!!!! We were dying and hence the next picture where we went to get yogurtland before our next appointment( we offered to get some for the person we were going to next but she said she didn't like it :O )  because we had a little bit of time! AND A MEMBER BOUGHT IT FOR US!!! What a blessing!!! It seriously felt to awesome to be recognized because that NEVER happens!!! (sorry I look gross I was sweating so bad the whole day)

WONDER OF WONDERS, MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!!! (August 10th, 2015)

I hope everyone had a buenismo semana!!!

Yasmin has been doing pretty well! The other day we went over there and she just asked us to bring pictures of our families and stuff so she could see them so we did that and it was super fun! Then we went to the park and played on this tire swing and the swings and she just took like a bazillion pictures on her phone and she said "I'm just going to take a bunch and edit them and make a collage and give it to you guys when you guys go home!!! That'll be so cool, right???" Then on Saturday we went over there and showed her a video then went to the park again! I tried riding her Penny Board and it was super hard! Those things aren't like long boards!!! And yes we did all these in our dresses/skirts! We're pros! Basically whatever helps us be friends to Yasmin and makes her happy, we will try to do it! Like almost throwing up on a tire swing!!!! <- aka what I did hahahaha 

Also this week we had some fun miracles happen!!!!!! 

Andrea, a young women who's mom wasn't letting her come to church can come now!!! We fasted and prayed for that so that was amazing to receive that answer!!! Prayer and fasting are real people!!!! haha 

We also found out that this less-active family who's been wanting to be cealed in the temple but haven't been able to go to church because the husband has been working on Sundays so that other lds people who he works with can go to church, can go to church now!! They were there yesterday so I hope they can continue and then get cealed!! They're sooo amazing!! Even the stake president has been working with them to get them to the temple!!! MIRACLE!!! 

We had a zone-blitz in our area on Saturday and it was absolutely amazing!!!!!! So we switched up companionships and sent the 3 Hermana companionships to different areas with a list of less-actives they could see or just told them to contact because we felt good about finding potentials in those areas. So I was with Hermana Green in the area where our investigator Dina (currently on hiatus in Peru and have no idea when she's coming back) lives. So this miracle starts off as many missionary stories do, we had knocked on door after door after door and none where interested. We contacted an agnostic and an atheist, both we're super nice, but not interested. We had street contacted and even crashed a party to contact someone who was grilling cactus in the park, still nobody super interested. Then we knocked on a door and asked if we could do the survey with them, she obliged and we asked her some questions. She was Catholic but was pretty nice and said we could maybe stop by!!!! Finally!!! Then we had a little bit more, again like the cliché missionary-story, so we could either head back and meet up a little bit early or knock on one more door. We decided to knock on this last door and we knocked and a woman answered the door. We asked her if we could ask her a couple questions for a religious survey we were doing and she said she didn't have a whole lot of time but sure! So we asked her the first question " Are strong, close families important to you?" And she goes on to say of course and that because God sent His Son so that we could live again and because He loves us and He's given us families to be happy and to grow and that they're like the basis of life and it was like she was reading right out of Preach My Gospel(aka the book us missionaries use to help us study and teach)!! I got the impression to ask if we could come inside and she said Of couse!! and led us to her patio where her husband offered us fruit and water and let us pet their super cute, tiny, exotic bird named Luna!! Probably the coolest bird I've met too! Made me change my mind about never ever having a pet bird! hahah But we also went on to have the most amazing conversation, she talked about agency and how the world around us is a testament of God's love for us and her testimony of Christ and more! she quoted the bible, I quoted the bible, she told me how amazing it was what we're doing helping people come closer to God and Christ and I quoted our purpose as missionaries and it was absolutely the most elect and prepared person I've seen so far. She was also sooo respectful of what we do and soooo kind!!! I asked her if we could come back and meet with her, her husband, AND Luna and they said yeah come by any day and she told us to text her whenever too!!! I'M SO EXCITED TO MEET WITH HER AGAIN!!!! I'm just so so so so so so grateful for that miracle and to have been able to have such an amazing experience and to have met such an amazing and kind person. Her name is Irma and I love her so much already!! Just by asking the first question we got to having one of the coolest experiences of my mission! I really felt like dancing around and singing like the guy in Fiddler on the Roof "WONDER OF WONDERS MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!" 

Also cherry on top of an amazing week is that we got to go to the Temple on Thursday!!! It was such a blessing and such a spiritual experience to be inside the house of the Lord. I love the temple!!! Afterwards Hermana Warner and I kept singing the primary song "I love to see the temple, I weeeenntttt there tooodayyyy!!!" hahah we're dorks but we're awesome dorks!! hahaha But really it was so amazing!! Especially because that's where Kendyl is going!! AHHH!!!! So excited!!! 

Well I hope everyone has another fantastic week!!! I love all of you and you all are amazing!!!!!! I encourage all of you to look for the small wonders and miracles around you each day. Because I promise you they're there! You just have to be looking for them! 

Love you all!!!! 

Hermana Christensen!!!

August 3rd, 2015

Buenas tardes mi familia y mis amigos! Espero que todos esten bien y que tengan una buena semana! 

Good afternoon my family and friends! I hope all are well and had a great week!!! 

So first to get the bad news out of the way because nobody likes that! So this week we got some disappointing news from Yasmin. So she's had this problem with her eye that's been causing some discomfort and pain and the doctors really have only been able to say that it's do to the fact that she has depression. She received a blessing and we've been praying for her but the other day she got frustrated and told her mom that God doesn't listen or help her so she doesn't want to be baptized. We got to talk to her mom, Emilia, alone because Yasmin was out with a friend and she told us what had happened and why Yasmin was saying she didn't want to be baptized. She told us that after Yasmin said that Emilia told her that she was going to send us a text to tell us, which she did. She also told us that after she sent it Yasmin felt sad about it and said that we probably weren't going to love her or come see her anymore. So we wrote notes to Yasmin and gave them to Emilia. We were pretty disappointed and also surprised because we had been seeing a light in her that I haven't ever seen before. She came to church AND mutual last week and she made a friend and it was really awesome but then that happened. However we have faith in the Lord's timing and we're going to just continue to work with her and help her strengthen her testimony. And also we haven't been able to see her since Tuesday because Emilia keeps having to work or leave the house or something but we could just need to talk to her and maybe she'll change her mind but it's alright! Heavenly Father has a plan and all we can do is just love her through it!! 

So now for the fun stuff!!!! 

A bunch of stuff fell through the other day and we just decided to go see Diana (less active 17 year old who we haven't been able to meet with because she works 2 jobs now and is also the very first person I met on my mission and I love her soooooo much!!!!!!!!) and see how she's doing if she wasn't working. So we pull up to where her house is and there was this HUGE kids party going on. There was a bounce house (I'd just like to let everyone know that I've seen more of those on my mission than I ever have in my life, I think it might be a cultural thing and I love it so much) and a piñata going on with like 3 that had already been smashed and were sprawled across the lawn and a bunch of little kids running around!!! So after I got over my amazement of what I was seeing I realized how hard it was going to be to find Diana or even get to see her. But right as I thought that she just happened to be walking to her neighbors house right by our car!!! MIRACLE I THINK YES!!! So I just pointed at her and was like DIANA!!!! and she was like OH MY GOSH!!! (in a good way!) and so then we got out and she asked us if we wanted cake and wanted to meet her new boyfriend and hang out so we were like uhhhh sure! So we just got to hangout with her at her brother and her cousin's 8 YEAR OLD birthday party! The biggest 8 year old party I've ever seen in my whole life. Also the chipmunks were playing and they WERE SPEAKING SPANISH. It was one of the most hilarious things I had ever heard!!! But it was actually a really great missionary opportunity because we helped her sister (not a member) set up for the cake and got to talk to her and got to talk to Diana about seeing her and got to see Citlali (her cousin who's also less active and like 16). It was also really hilarious to be the only gueras (white girls) but everyone was happy we were there!!! 

We had breakfast with Emilia on Saturday and talked to her about her life and it was soooooo crazy. She's been through so much especially getting here to America and that was the craziest part of what she was telling us. It made me appreciate the things I have so much more and just want to help her even more to always remember the love that Heavenly Father has for her. She's so amazing though. She told us several times she's just so thankful for Heavenly Father for helping her through all her trials and everything. Also she made pancakes (in Spanish pronounced pan-kay-kes) and eggs and we put Valentina (my new favorite condiment since coming out here, it's hot sauce but it's basically the best thing ever, Soy Mejicana). It was so fun!!!! 

We sang at a temple concert night last night at the church building next to the Newport Temple (aka where my sister will be married next March, it's fine I'm just super excited and so happy)!!! All of us Hermanas(how everyone refers to the Spanish speaking sister) sang "Savior, My Redeemer" in Spanish and it was pretty cool! We didn't have a whole lot of time to practice and we kinda messed up while performing but everyone stilled loved it! So I don't know if anyone really noticed! (they probably did I'm just hoping no haha) Then we did temple tour with a bunch of members of our ward that came!!! We walk around outside the temple and a sister (Sister Ruiz usually does it, she's English speaking but is from Guatamala) talks about the temple and it's sooo awesome!! I encourage all of you who ever have the chance, members of the church of not, to do a temple tour! They're sooooo amazing!!! 

Well that's all for this week folks!!! I would just like to close with my testimony that Heavenly Father loves you!! I've gained a very very strong and sure knowledge of that fact on my mission and I can testify to you all with all my heart and might that He truly loves you, and that His Son, Jesus Christ also loves you. So much that He came to this earth to suffer and die for all of us, but I also know the greatest gift that He has given, the most joyous and glorious part of His ministry, was that He lived, and continues to live and to help us through every trial we have ever had or will ever have, so that we can also live forever with our families.so long as we follow His teachings revealed through the holy scriptures and through those who posses the restored priesthood that was given to Christ's Apostles, and are called to be His prophets, seers and revelators. I testify again saying that Christ and Heavenly Father truly love you all perfectly and *individually*. 

I love you all so much!!!!! I hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Love, 

Hermana Christensen

July 27, 2015

Hey everybody!!!! 

I hope everyone is enjoying summer wherever you happen to be!! I know I am!!!! So this week!!!! 

Emilia's Birthday!!! :

So last Monday was Emilia's birthday and so we went and ate dinner at her house and she made Mole!!!! SOOOOO GOOOOODDD!!!!! I loved it sooo much!!! Then we just sat and talked to a long time and it was so fun to be there with her!!!!! 

Yasmin!: 

So the week before this past week Yasmin went to the hospital to figure out what's wrong with her eyes. She's been having lots of problems with them for the past couple months. It didn't seem like anything super serious was wrong but when we were waiting to see her in the hospital while she was getting an MRI Emilia told us she was worried because Yasmin was worried and scared. But then when she came back she seemed like she was fine and all was good. Then she didn't come to church that Sunday so we had to her baptism date to Aug. 8th. Which is ok because now we have more time to help her prepare!! But then Emilia said that the doctors said it might be due to depression and Yasmin definitely has been showing signs of having that. She's told us it's just been hard to be truly happy. But the cool thing to see was that now that she has a baptism date and we've been seeing/teaching her pretty much every day, I've seen a light in her gradually glow so that's been amazing to see. She came to church yesterday and made a friend with this other 14 year old girl who's mom is less active and she had two sisters but she's the only one baptized out of her sisters and it was her first time at church and now her and Yasmin are going to mutual together tomorrow!!!! So awesome!!! Yasmin is just getting more and more light about her. So amazing to see! Emilia told us too that she's thankful for us because she said we've really helped her a lot just to be more happy. So I'm so grateful for that opportunity. 

Dina!!!!: 

So she told us that she's going to Peru (where she's from) on a trip and she doesn't know when she'll be back. Her daughter and granddaughter will be back in a month but she doesn't know for sure. I was definitely heartbroken. Especially because we asked her if she know the Book of Mormon was true and she said something pretty much like "Well yes, its logical. " So then we explained that she knows that the things we teach her are true too! So we asked her if we could set a date for Sept. 13 (I told her that's what I wanted for my birthday) but she said, true to Dina- form, "I don't like to make promises" hahaha We love her so much and we got to say goodbye and when we went over we just talked to her about her life and she gave us orange juice and ice cream. Basically my mission grandma. She's amazing and I'm going to miss her sooo much!! She leaves today!!! 

Pioneer Day!!!: 

So there was a stake pioneer day activity on Saturday! It included a 5K run in the morning at 8 and Hermana Williams and I wanted to run in it sooo bad!!! Plus Emilia LOVES to run so we were hoping she'd go with the whole fam. AND SHE DID!!!!! It was sooo fun!!!! At first we were both with Emilia and Amalia in a stroller and Yasmin too and Pedro and 

then Yasmin got tired so I walked with her and Emilia, Hna Williams, and the stroller + Amalia kept running!! It was super funny because Hna Williams was pushing the stroller and kept loosing control of the front wheel and it was super funny. But they went on to run/ push the cart the whole time (like true pioneers) and I went with Yasmin. She did great for her first time doing anything like that! We ran quite a bit of it but we talked some of it too! She kept looking at me and asking "are you even tired???" hahah but it was fun because we just got to hangout and she talked to me about stuff that goes on at school and how shes feeling. It was awesome cause she told me that she's been able to feel a lot more confident lately so that's awesome!! Then later at 4-7 there was a fun activity with Pioneer games, hamburgers, hotdogs, a live band, and lots of other fun stuff!!! It was so fun!!! We hung out with Yasmin the whole time and we even won her a fish!!!! (side note: yesterday at church Amalia came up to us and said "my fishy died!!!!! It went into the toilet!!" we all had to try so hard not to bust out laughing hahaha) But it was such a blast and so cool too because not only did Emilia, Amalia, and Yasmin come to the 5K and activity but Pedro (the dad who isn't a member either) came to both!! He's seriously one of the kindest people I've ever met!!! He always gives us mangos and whole watermelons when we're over there! hahah But it was such a fun day and a great way to end the week!!! 

Well that's all I've got folks!!! I hope you all have an amazing week!!! I love and miss everyone so much!!!! 

ALSO BIG SHOUT OUT AND CONGRATULATIONS AND SO MUCH EXCITEMENT FOR MY SISTER KENDYL FOR GETTING ENGAGED!!!!! I'm so excited for her and Sergio and love them both so much!!!! AAHHHH!!!!! YAYAYAY!!!

Anywho, Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Christensen!

Me and Dina!! 

Me, Hermana Warner and Yasmin 

The cutest member took us to In & Out for dinner because she couldn't feed us in her house. She was so apologetic and felt so embarrassed but we were so excited! I told her that all of you guys are from here and that there isn't a whole lot of In-n-Out's in Texas and she INSISTED that we take this picture for you guys!!!! Ah I can't wait for you all to meet these people!!