Hola!

This week was so GREAT! We are being so blessed!

So remember the Rivera family?! The referred family of 6? They are
amazing! We were able to go and teach them the restoration this week!
It was such a spiritual experience! Maria (the wife) was so fascinated
as we shared the Book of Mormon with them. She just couldn't believe
that there was another testament of Jesus Christ. It was really cute!
The rest of them were listening so intently and were so excited to
read and come to church. I feel so blessed to be placed in their path
and help hem become an eternal family.

We also found another little family! It's a single mom and her
daughter! They are so prepared. We taught them the restoration this
week as well! After we shared the experience of Joseph Smith, the
daughter was like, "are you serious! He actually saw them?" Then they
both proceeded to tell us that they knew it was true. Then the mom
started to cry and told us that she's been having dreams of her mother
recently. We were able to testify and tell her that her mother is
waiting for her to accept the gospel. I have noticed again and again
how we are not alone in this work! I have had soooo many experiences
where the ancestors of our investigators help them accept! I am really
grateful to them!

We also had zone meeting this last week. It was my last one. I was
able to give some training on leadership in relation to observing and
the gift of discernment. I really love this zone. They have changed so
much over these last few weeks! The things that we implemented in this
zone are being implemented across the whole mission! The Lord is
really hastening His work and we are seeing so many blessings!

Para qué sepan... At the beginning of the year, all the zone leaders
sat down with President Mortensen and we prayed about a goal to set
for baptisms. By the end of this year, the Lord would have us baptize
600 people in our mission. Anyway, last May we were behind for our
goal. We decided that we were going to fast once a week as a mission
so that we would be able to catch up. This last June was the highest
baptizing June ever in the history of this mission! And July is going
to be even bigger! It is crazy how the Lord really can do His own
work. If we do what He says, we are bound to the blessings that He has
prepared.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Christensen

We had such a great week! I have never felt so much joy in the work! Over the course of a mission you go through days that are really good and days that are not so good. I have honestly felt like every single day over these last few weeks have been incredible! The Lord is blessing us so much!

So a member referred us to a FAMILY OF 6! The member said he was outside getting his mail when his neighbor came over and asked him if he was a pastor. The member was like, no... Then the neighbor said that he has seen him put on a white shirt every Sunday and go to church with his family. He wanted to know why. The member explained to him that he has been going to church for about 30 years and how it has blessed his family. The neighbor was so fascinated and told him to send us over! We went over to meet them and they are perfect. As we were leaving, they said (in Spanish), "We just really want to know what it is that makes our neighbor go to church every week." PREPARED. 

 

We had a mini zone meeting this week. We have been working so hard to increase the faith in this zone! We sat everyone down and counseled about goals and our vision. My other sister training leader companion had the idea to have everyone write their negative perceptions of the zone on little pieces of paper and then we buried them in the ground. We were "burying our weapons of war". Alma 24: 15-18. Haha! It was super cheesy but it pumped them all up.  It has been crazy to see the miracles as we have come together with the Lord! My very first week here, the zone had eight investigators at church. Yesterday, we had 21! And they keep coming! We also had four baptisms this last weekend! It was amazing because this zone "doesn't baptize." Everyone is getting really excited! It makes me so so so happy to see them succeed! Everyone is starting to understand that when we work with the Lord, miracles are bound to happen! I LOVE THIS MISSION.

I got to go back to H6 yesterday for a baptism. Gaby got baptized! She was an investigator that I taught when I was over there! She is from the Dominican Republic and is so cool! It was so wonderful. The spirit was so strong! I just hugged all the members and we just all cried because we all miss each other. That ward will always hold a very special place in my heart. My other investigator Juan is getting baptized soon! So I will get to go back again for his baptism. Woooo!

I can't believe I only have three weeks left. The mission has become such a part of me that I can't imagine doing anything else. When I think about all the things I have learned, my heart is filled with gratitude. I had no idea the Lord would bless me this much. It has been such an honor to serve Him over these last 17 months.

I love you all!! Read your scriptures!!

Hermana Christensen

 

Hola! Hola!

Hola! Hola! 

This week was so crazy! We have been working harder than ever and I am exhausted! (please note the extra bags under my eyes in these pictures.. haha) BUT. We have seen so many miracles! Missionary work is the most fun when you work until you're about ready to die. We had to drop a lot of our investigators this week. They just weren't keeping their commitments or they had to flee the country. It was sad, but it needed to be done. We were left with a very slim teaching pool... So Hna Twitchell and I put on our walking shoes and knocked all day every day. It was so fun! And so hot! And there were so many miracles! Not only did we find a bunch of bomb people, but we also recieved SIX referrals from mormon.org. Six people in our area were just randomly looking on mormon.org and referred themselves to us. We were able to get in contact with all of them and they are all so awesome! I have come to see again and again that the Lord will never withhold blessings when we do our part. He is bound when we do what He says! 

More miracles! So we have been working really hard to increase the faith of our little zone. Yesterday we fasted as a zone for those whom we wanted to see at church. We told all our missionaries to text the zone whenever a miracle happened! It was so cute. Yesterday we doubled our church attendance as a zone. Everyone was so excited! It makes me so so happy because they are starting to see that they can succeed with the help of the Lord. 

I have come to accept the fact that I am going home. I have been working on the myplan program. It has really helped me see that going home from your mission is not the end of the world. Haha! Heavenly Father did not intend for us to only be happy for 18mo-2years of our lives. There is so much more that is coming!

Have a great week! Read your scriptures! 

Herm. C. 

Hola

Hello! 

Sorry this will be a little short... We don't have much time! 

So I was sent to the Louetta ward! It touches H6. Haha! We actually live in the H6 area and our neighbors are some of my old investigators. Hahaha! Its actually really sad to drive through H6 everyday. I miss that ward so much. But all is well because the Lord has a different assignment for me in this new area! President actually talked to me the other day and gave me a pretty intense assignment for my last transfer. I have been sent to an area and a zone that is "hard". I have spent a lot of time on my knees this week and we have already seen so many miracles. I have met with my fellow zone leaders this week and we have set a bunch of goals and made plans for how we are going to strengthen the faith here. Its going to be such a great transfer! I am so excited! 

My new comp is Hna Twitchell! She just finished her training and is really cute! I feel so blessed to be here with her!

Have a great week! I really am so so sorry this is short and lame. Next week will be better! I promise! 

I love you all! The church is true! Missionary work is the best!

Hermana Christensen

Hola!

We saw a ton of really cool miracles this week! I learned the
importance of following the promptings of the spirit! It was such an
awesome week!

Miracle #1: Oralia finally went to the temple! It has been a struggle
to help that woman find names so she could go! We finally went on
Friday. When we got in the car to go, a HUGE storm rolled in. It was
so bad! The roads started to flood and everything was a mess. Oralia's
family has been waiting soooo long for their work to be done and the
temple was only about 20 mins away so we (Oralia, us, and the relief
society president) decided that it was worth the risk. As we were
driving, we felt a distinct impression to take a different route to
the temple. It was a route that was longer and potentially more
dangerous during flooding due to the fact that it was right by the
bayou. We decided to obey and took that route to the temple.
Everything was fine and eventually we made it to the temple. Come to
find out, the road we were driving on first had been shut down because
the water had gotten too deep. If we hadn't listened to that prompting
we could have gotten ourselves into a potentially dangerous situation.

 But because we did listen, we made it safe and Oralia was able to have
an INCREDIBLE experience at the temple.

Miracle #2: On Saturday, we were walking back to our car after an
appointment when we ran into this man. He was just standing around and
jamming to his beats like most people here enjoy doing.. He was a
little creepy and was right in our path to get to our car. I have
learned that whenever there is a risk of getting mugged, the best
thing to do is to approach them before they approach you. Haha. We
gave him a smile and asked if we could share a card with him. He was
actually very nice and we started getting into a gospel discussion
with him. A few minutes later, this other man walks up out of no where
and starts doing sign language to us. He was slow of speech but we
could understand him if we listened really close. He told us that he
was a member church and attended the deaf Ward. After a few minutes,
we ended up giving the creepy man a Book of Mormon and went on our
way. The deaf member told us that he had been sitting in his apartment
watching basketball when suddenly he felt something was wrong. He said
the feeling wouldn't go away so he walked out on his porch to look
around. He said he saw us talking to that man and felt like he should
go down there to be with us. It was so cute to see his little
testimony grow as he realized he had listened and acted on a
prompting. The Lord protects His missionaries.

Miracle #3: About a month ago, Bishop gave us an assignment to visit
this less active that no one had ever met. We stopped by her house
many times but she never answered the door. This last week, we kept
getting a prompting to go visit this lady. We went to her apartment
complex and started walking towards her apartment. On our way there,
we saw this Hispanic girl hanging her laundry out to dry on a clothes
line. We felt like we needed to go over and talk to her. As we walked
over there, she looked up and her jaw dropped. She started jumping up
and down and yelling, "Hermanas! Hermanas! You speaking Spanish?" We
were like, "Si!" She got all teary eyed and then proceeded to tell us
that she was baptized about two years ago in Honduras. She had just
arrived to the United States about a month ago (about the same time
Bishop felt prompted to have us visit the less active). She didn't
know any English and had no idea where she could find the church. She
told us that this last week she got on her knees and pleaded with the
Lord to send her the Spanish speaking missionaries so she could go to
church and take the sacrament. She was all smiles and kept saying, He
answered my prayer, He answered my prayer! It was so tender. Turns out
she is the next door neighbor of the less active. Her and her brother
are the only members in her family! We are going to baptize the rest
of them!

I can not even begin to explain how many miracles and blessings I have
seen here on my mission. These last 16 months have been the greatest
of my life. I know that the Lord is very in control of His work. It
has been such an honor to represent our Savior and be a tool in
blessing the lives of others.

Have a great week!

Hermana Christensen

Hello! 

We had another great week! I LOVE THE MISSION. 

We had Zone Conference this week. Once again, President Mortensen changed my life. We went over the Plan of Salvation and I learned so much. It seriously changed my whole view of the gospel. I think I am going to share the things I learned in my homecoming talk. It was that good. 

There was a Hermana who extended her mission and went home on Saturday. She stayed with us on Friday because we live really close to the airport. Friday night we got to go to Presidents house so she could have her interview. We just sat on his couch and ate popsicles with Sister Mortensen. It was a good time. Haha.

We found a new family who just got here from Cuba. Cubans are my favorite. They have a really think accent which makes them a little hard to understand! We taught them the Restoration and they were literally on the edge of their seat the whole time. They were so excited about our message! They came to church yesterday and we are going to set dates with them to be baptized this week! Woo! 

The Torres family got baptized on Saturday! They are so cute!  

Sorry this is so short! I don't have much time today! 

Hermana Christensen

Hola

Hola! 

I know that every week I say that we had the best week ever and we saw so many miracles.. But this week we really did! Haha! We really do every week but ESPECIALLY this week. 

Kenny and Natali came to church!! Let me tell you the story of Kenny Bautista.. About two months ago, we got a phone call from Kenny. She told us that we had given her a card when we were walking down the street and that she wanted us to come to her home and teach her. So we go to her home and it turns out she is a member! She was baptized in El Salvador when she was 14, went to church for a few years and then moved to the USA and lost all contact. We started teaching her and her family (none of them are members). They have been reading in the Book of Mormon and were progressing really fast. Her 8 year old daughter (Natali) has already read the whole children's Book of Mormon and is already in Alma 59 in the real Book of Mormon. The only thing that stopped them from progressing was church. Kenny felt really awkward about coming to church again and had some fears that she would fall away again if she started coming back. We had been praying really hard about what we should do and last week we got an answer! We went into their home and taught them the story of Peter walking on water (Matthew 14). We compared the boat to our comfort zone or the things that are easy and comfortable in our lives. Interestingly, the Savior was not in the boat, He was out walking on the water in the middle of a storm. We talked about how they have shown their faith and "left the boat" by reading in the Book of Mormon and taking those steps to the Savior. Inevitably as we get closer to the Savior, the storm starts to get a little more fuerte. When we look at the example of Peter, he had three options when the wind started coming and the storm got stronger. 1. He could return back to the boat 2. He could sink and drown 3. He could look to the Savior and keep going in faith. After we discussed about what happened to Peter, we looked at them and were like "The Savior has asked that you come closer to Him by attending His church. You have three choices, what are you going to choose?" The spirit just filled the room and Kenny started to cry and said, "I'll see you at church." Then we all cried and it was one of the best moments of my mission. She came yesterday with Natali! It was so beautiful to see her act in her faith! 

We found another new investigator this week named Anarelys. We taught her the Restoration and it was so powerful! There have been very select times where I have teared up during the first vision. This lesson was one of them. After we had taught her the Book of Mormon she was like, "I will read it but I already know its true!" She is so perfect and so prepared!! We are really excited for her!!! 

I feel a lot of anxiety every single day because there are so many people in this world who are living without the safety of covenants. I realized I have very little time left on my mission. It really goes by so fast. So so so so so so fast. I think I am coming to understand how Alma felt when he was lamenting about not being able to cry repentance to the people forever. My new life motto: Alma 29:1-3. I feel you man.

Well have a great week! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers! Read your scriptures! The church is true! 

Hermana Christensen

Hola

We had such a bombin week! I have never been more exhausted in my entire life. We found two families this week! And guess what! They both just moved here from different states and they both have had the discussions before. One lady has been going to church for two years and told us that she already knows the Book of Mormon is true. Wooo! Blessings! I have seen time and time again on my mission that when we go out and find that the Lord leads us to His elect. 

We found another really prepared friend this week. Her name is Socorro. We were walking back to our car after a lesson and saw her bringing in her groceries. We walked over to her and offered our assistance. She said she was good so we gave her a pass along card and started contacting her. Before we could even really say anything she looked at us and said, "when can you come over, I want to learn more!" We were just like, whaaaaat! We set up a cita and then she invited us into her home and gave us some water and fruit. (Hispanics have a weird obsession with fruit). We are going to go teach her tomorrow! Woo! 

We had a really awesome sacrament meeting yesterday. Every Sunday I just feel the spirit so strong. Obispo Myers runs a really tight ship. The members are expected to be at sacrament 15 minutes early and they are to sit and read their scriptures until it starts. No one walks around and greets their friends. They all sit quietly and listen to the prelude. It is so special. It really sets the meeting up to be great because everyone's mind is prepared to receive revelation. I have never seen a ward that has more respect for the Sabbath day and the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. Its really awesome! Our investigators can feel it as they participate. The Houston 6th ward is such a special place! 

We had to do more flood clean up this week. It is so nasty! We have been helping our ward members throw out all their things. The streets of Houston are just piled with furniture and wet dry wall (the irony.. haha). There is also a bunch of sewage everywhere. So nasty. Everyone is coming together though to help! Its a blessing in disguise because a lot of people have been humbled and are more receptive to our message. 

Well, have a great week! I love you all! 

Hermana Christensen

Floods.

Floods.

Hailee Christensen

4/25/2016You;rusty_cook@hotmail.com;

Photos

HOLA.

This week was so CRAZY. I made it on the Houston news.. Again. Haha!
The floods have destroyed so much here. My area got it really really
bad. We have a lot of Ward members who lost their cars and homes. We
have been doing service all week to help clean up! On Thursday we
helped this baptist church distribute disaster relief supplies. People
were lining up to get help. I had never seen so much need before in my
life. It was very humbling to talk with them and listen to their
stories. As we started, another huge storm rolled in. The rain and the
wind came pounding down and we had to run to get all the supplies
inside the church. People started panicking and started stealing the
supplies. It was so crazy! We had to do some serious crowd control and
try to calm everyone down. Once the storm died down, everything was
fine, except for the fact that we all looked like wet raccoons. We
distributed food, clothes, and other things to help them out. If you
want to look it up, it is on the internet somewhere. Haha! Look up
Houston flood, Harvest church, Greenspoint district, Mormon
missionaries, something like that. Haha!

ORALIA GOT BAPTIZED AND IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. She was so
cute. I just love her. The spirit was so strong.

We met this new investigator named Karina. She is super awesome! She
is actually a professional make up artist. We actually met her because
she came up to us and said we had cool eyes. Then she asked if she
could do our make up. We said yes but only if we could teach her. Heh
heh. We went over today and she did our make up and we taught her. It
was a win win for everyone.

We had transfers! I am staying in H6. This will be my 5th transfer
here! Ahhhh! So crazy! I am so happy though! I love H6 so much!

Well, be good! Read your scriptures and say your prayers! Sorry this
is so short!

Hermana Christensen

Tocandoooo

Hola! 

Quick little update. Houston is flooded. AGAIN. We literally got NO sleep last night because world war 3 was going on outside. The lightning and thunder was shaking our apartment and the water was coming down!  We had water coming into our apartment and everything was flooding outside. It was so intense. We lost our running water this morning (#NoShower) but all is well now! The cancelled school and work for everybody. We have just been chillen and calling everyone to make sure they are all ok. Yay for natural disasters. 

This week was so awesome! We changed the way we contact and it has been bringing so many families! Ahh! We have been asking people what God desires for their family in this life and in the next and then we start teaching them about the restoration/eternal families using Mathew 16. We have had people cut us off and invite us right into their home to tell them more. We end our contact by telling them that we have evidence and that we would love to come back and share it with them. They flip out and get so excited. We found five super prepared families last week plus a bunch of other people! People are searching for this message!! 

ORALIA IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK! POR FIN. That woman and I were best friends in the premortal life. I can just feel it. Haha. We just always talk about deep doctrine and what she is learning in Jesus the Christ. She is so awesome! I love her so so much! We are already planning to go to the temple with her to do baptisms next week.  

We have transfers this Sunday.. I am really worried I am going to get transferred considering I have been here for almost 6 months. H6 has become my home. I love these people here more than anything! 

We had stake conference yesterday. We are in a English/Spanish stake. The English members here are a hoot. There was one old couple wearing matching raccoon hats. And another little kid wearing swimming goggles. Oh Texas. 

Well, I love you all! READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. 

Hermana Christensen

Hola Amigos

Hola amigos! 

We had a really great week! It was actually a bit of a "harder" week just because a lot of our plans fell through. Grrr. BUT, because a lot of our plans fell through, we were able to find find find! And that always brings so many miracles! We found this man named Jose who just moved here from Utah. He told us he had been taking the lessons in Utah and wanted to get baptized soon! He was so happy that we had found him! Woo! Blessings! It seriously blows my mind how many prepared people we have found here in this area. People will seriously just walk up to us and be like "Here I am, teach me!" It just goes to show how you can plan all you want but this is still the Lords work. He will lead us to those He has prepared. 

We had interviews this last week! They were so good! I know I say this all the time but I just love President Mortensen. I just want to follow him around and write down everything he says. Haha! It has been such a blessing to be sent to this mission! 

We had a great ward council yesterday! Obispo had each leader choose a family that they were going to minister to for the next three months. The spirit was so strong as we were all lead to those whom the Lord knows are ready to come back. There are going to be so many miracles as the leaders in this ward reach out to those in need. We also reviewed our goals for the year as a ward. My greatest desire in life is to reach our sacrament meeting attendance goal. I feel this is one of the most important numbers in the church! It represents how many people are receiving a remission of their sins each week! Hermana Childs and I decided that we are going to focus all of our planning around the names behind these goals. I feel like we don't focus on the ward goals as much as we should. These goals reflect those whom the Lord would have us reach out to so that we can build and strengthen His kingdom. Woo! Ward goals!

Well, I love you all! Thank you for all the letters I have been receiving recently! Haha! I will try my best to write you all back! Sometimes I am really slow... Disculpame! Have a great week and read your scriptures! 

Les Quiero Mucho!

La Hermana Christensen (O como los hispanos dicen "Creestenseen")

Still Struggling for a Clever Line

Still struggling to think of a clever subject line..

Hailee Christensen

4/4/2016You;rusty_cook@hotmail.com;

Photos

Hola! Hola!

CONFERENCE. Changed my life. We are so blessed to be able to sustain
living prophets and apostles! The church is true.

This week was great! We had zone meeting this week! I had to give some
training on family history. It was really fun! I love my little zone!
We are pretty small in number but together we see crazy success! So
remember how I told you that President Mortensens teaching modules are
being used in the whole church? They were actually introduced to all
MTCs last Thursday! Ahh! This mission is literally the greatest
mission in the world.

 

Quick miracle! I went on an exchange this week down to the Heights.
It is right by downtown and is sooo sketchy. Our first appointment on
our exchange was with a member who was going to feed us. We get to
their home and they weren't there. So we called them and they said
they had to run a quick errand but would be back in 20 minutes. We
decided to go knock some doors while we waited for them to get back.
We were in a really bad part of Houston and not too many people wanted
to talk to us. We decided to knock one last house before we started
making our way back to the members. A woman answered the door and just
looked at us in shock. She then started to cry and invited us into her
home. Turns out her and her family had just moved to this area. They
had been less active for years but had recently had some trials in
their lives that turned them back to the gospel. She said her and her
husband had both been praying to find the church. She told us that she
never thought the sisters would come knocking on her door because they
lived in such a bad part of Houston. It was a really tender experience
to see their faith grow and for them to realize the Lord hadn't
forgotten them.

I don't have much time but here are some pics!

My cute little zone!

Buenas!

Hola!

Esta semana fue llena de milagros! Aprendí muchas cosas! I just love
being a missionary!

We had a family history training this week. It was so good! President
Mortensen is so inspired. He is starting this program with us where we
are going to start teaching family history classes to the community,
in colleges, schools, library's, ect. He created these lesson plans
that teach step by step how to use family search and how to do
research. We have been piloting them in colleges and they have been
crazy successful. The classes are jammed packed! They have been so
successful that family search actually called President and told him
they want to take his programs and implement them across the church.
It is going to bless the lives of people all around the world!! I have
really gotten into family history being out here on a mission. We are
only given an hour a week to actually do it, but I am learning a lot!
It is so much fun! And super addicting! And it is super effective to
convert people to the gospel! Family history can turn hearts! And the
Book of Mormon can change them. I can't think of a more powerful tool
for missionary work!

We had an awesome week! We had a lesson yesterday about the Atonement
during church. I was sitting next to Oralia. Right after the class
ended she turned to me and just started telling me all the revelation
she received during the class. She said she had never understood the
Atonement until now. It was a really tender moment. The best thing in
the world is watching people realize they have a testimony. She is
getting baptized at the end of April!

We had another encounter with a southern preacher this week. We
usually have about 1-2 a week. Haha! At the beginning of my mission, I
never knew how to react when people bluntly tried to fight with us.
Now I just kind of laugh to myself when people start going off. I have
learned that the best thing to do is just to patiently listen and then
bear powerful testimony and then leave them with a card. I have a lot
of good stories to tell y'all when I get off mission.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Read in the Book of Mormon
every single day! I love you all!

Hermana Christensen

This is our English class! And Nacho libre corn aka "Helote"

Me encanta ver el templo

Hola! Hola!

Sorry I was unable to write last week! We had to fix a car. Haha! We
are seeing so many miracles! I love being a missionary. This past year
has been the best year of my entire life. I just can't believe it is
quickly coming to an end. (Wipe away the tears)

Anyway, Oralia is finally getting baptized! Woooo! We have been
working with her since I got to H6! She is the most golden
investigator I have ever been blessed to teach! I love her so so much!
We have been fasting with her and helping her get all prepared for her
baptism! It is going to be so beautiful!

We had the opportunity to go to the temple last week! Our mission is
gearing up to start this huge family history initiative next week. It
is really amazing. We have started is thing called, "faith meets
families." Every fourth Friday of the month the temple is reserved in
the evening for recent converts to take their family names to the
temple. It is literally the cutest thing ever! We have been having so
many little recent converts go for the first time! Anyway, in
preparation for all the family history fun, President Mortensen told
us we could go to the temple if we found our own names. Everyone in
our district found one and we were able to go and do all the work for
our ancestors! It was amazing! I have only been to the temple three
times on my mission and so it is always so great to go! I didn't
understand the importance of family history until I came out on my
mission! Everybody do your family history!!

I have gotten to the point on my mission where I have to eat tortillas
and salsa with everything.

We had our ward conference yesterday. It was so uplifting. Every
Sunday I always feel so uplifted! The Houston 6th Ward is a very
Celestial place. We talked a lot about Sabbath Day observance and the
importance of the sacrament. I never realized how important the
sacrament was until I came on my mission. We literally can not return
into the presence of God without the sacrament. I would hope that
there would never be anything that would take priority from being at
church on Sunday!

Well I love you all! Here are some pictures from the temple! We also
decided to have a war today for Pday. It was a really dumb idea.
Hahaha! I am covered in flour as we speak.

Con mucho amor,
La Hermana Christensen

Hola!

Transfers! It literally just feels like we had transfers. Time is
going by so so fast! I will be staying in Houston 6 for yet another
transfer. I'm really happy because I love this area! My little
compañera is getting sent away from me. This whole training experience
has been really fun! I am going to miss her!

We had MLC this week! We talked a lot about helping the missionaries
teach the "why" of the gospel. It is one thing to present doctrine and
something else to help people understand how it applies to them.  We
should always have the end goal in mind and before we teach anything,
we should ask why.

We had a surprise visit from Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson (General YW
President) and Sister Carol M. Stephens (1st Councilor in the General
Relief Society Presidency). They met with all the sister missionaries
and gave us some training! I learned so much! This Sunday we have
Stake Conference and Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming! I am starting to
wonder if the church is going to move to Houston because everyone
keeps coming down here to visit! Haha! It is so awesome to have the
opportunity to meet with so many General Authorities!

In other news.. I finally got sick. I thought I would make it out of
my mission without ever missing a day. Nope. I woke up Saturday with a
high fever and was out of commission all weekend. It was literally the
worse experience of my entire life. Haha! Missionaries can not afford
to be sick! There is too much to be done!!!

The Easter initiative starts this Sunday! I am so excited! As
missionaries, we get a special sneak peak at the video before it comes
out. It's really good this year! I'm so pumped to use it in our
finding and teaching efforts! I would like to encourage everyone to
share the video with everyone when it comes out!

Well, have a great week! Read your scriptures!!! Love you all!

Hermana Christensen

Hola

Hola!

This week was super full of miracles! It was probably one of the
greatest weeks of my mission! First of all, Hermana Vandyke and I
broke the world record for people contacted in one day. Just kidding.
A lot of our appointments canceled on Saturday so we decided we were
going to find. We contacted people for 4 hours straight. We went down
to this street called "Greens" (it is sooooo ghetto) and we just
walked up and down and hit up a bunch of apartments. At the end of the
day, we had invited 101 people to learn more. We saw so many miracles!
The first door we knocked on was this man who told us the night before
that he had been praying that God would lead him to the true church.
He was so shocked when we shared a little bit about the Restoration.
He kept saying "the good Lord is so good." We were like yes, yes He
is. We also found a bunch of less active members. That tends to happen
more then you would think. We always find people who were baptized
back in their country and then lost contact with the church when they
came to America. My planner is packed with information to find all
these peoples records. Haha!

We also had a surprise baptism this week! His name is Noel Marquez.
Him and his wife are literally some of my most favorite people I have
ever met. Noel had been taught for over a year. He was just waiting
for permission from church headquarters. He finally got permission and
was baptized on Saturday! It was so beautiful! He couldn't stop
smiling!

I went on exchanges this week with my little Hermanas. It was so fun.
I love seeing all the good work everyone is doing in this mission. The
Texas Houston Mission is literally the best mission in the world. We
are seeing incredible success here! Blessssings!!!

I'm almost done with training! We have transfers next Tuesday. Ah. I
am probably going to be transferred... To my last area. I realized the
other day that time is going by way to fast and that my mission is
almost done. It makes me so so sad.

Anyway, have a great week! Read your scriptures and say your prayers!
Love y'all!

Hermana Christensen

Miracles

Hola!

We had such a great week this week. Actually.. This week was slammed
with meetings. We had zone conference on Tuesday. It was one of the
best zone conferences I have ever been to. We talked a lot about how
people don't accept the Book of Mormon because they don't understand
the bible. Then President Mortensen proceeded to blow all of our minds
with his wisdom. He is my hero. If I had a choice to eat lunch with
One Direction or President Mortensen, I would pick President. He has
taught me so much!

My little friend Christopher got baptized this week. He is this little
9 year old boy who is the son of a part member family. I taught him
for a while when I first got here. The elders took them over a few
weeks ago so they could help the nonmember father! It was such a
beautiful baptism! I love baptisms! Oralia is close to her baptism.
That woman is so fiel! We are still waiting on her mother to arrive
from Mexico...

We found a lot of really awesome people this week! We had a really
cool miracle with our bishop on Saturday! Bishop Myers was out
visiting some less actives and he came across this little family
washing their car outside. He walked up to them and gave them a family
proclamation. Then he called us and told us to go and contact them but
not to mention that he had sent us. So we went over there and casually
contacted them and told them we had a message about how families could
be together forever. You should have seen the look on the guy's face!
He told us we could come back and teach them! Miracles!!! Woo!

Well my loves! Have a great week! Read your scriptures! I love you all!

Herm. Christensen

Hola! Hola! 

This week was amazing! One of the best weeks of my whole mission! On Saturday, we had the privilege of listening to President Nelson. I got to shake his hand. It was literally one of the coolest experiences of my life. He looked right into my soul and thanked me for my service as a missionary. The spirit testified to me again and again that he really is an Apostle of the Lord. 

We had a couple of really neat experiences during the devotional with President Nelson. During the whole meeting, the spirit was so powerful! There were about 500ish missionaries gathered together in the same room! At the end of the meeting we all sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives." As we sang the last verse, there seemed to be more voices joining in and singing with us. The volume grew and when we got to the chorus, it seemed like the heavens broke open. I know that we were not the only ones singing. The spirit was overpowering as hundreds of Gods children testified together of their Savior and Redeemer. It will be something that I will never forget. 

We had a really great week this week as far as teaching. We are planning on setting three more dates this week! We also had six investigators come to church! Ah! It was such a blessing. We had members all sit with them and they just loved it! It brings me so much joy to see all our little friends come closer to the Savior. I LOVE MY MISSION. We have a baptism coming up next week. Everyone pray for Carmen!!

I hope you all have a really great week! Read in the Book of Mormon and go to church! I love you all! 

Love,

Hermana Christensen

Hola amigos! 

First things first, PRESIDENT RUSSEL M. NELSON IS COMING TO OUR MISSION! He is actually coming to a stake conference in the spanish stake.. but.. WE ARE HAVING A TRI-MISSION MISSION CONFERENCE! It is going to be us, the south mission and the east mission! And President Nelson is going to shake all our hands! AHHH! It is this Saturday! I am so so so excited!

We had another super great week! The work here is on fire! We set three more baptismal dates this week! Which means that we will have a baptism almost every week in February! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! 

We saw so many miracles this week! We got a ton of referrals that are all super awesome! The work really is hastening! We are always just running from appointment to appointment with no time to even breathe! It is so awesome! 

We got transfer calls today! I will be staying here in Houston 6 with Hermana VanDyke. We are going to finish her training! Wooo! I love this area so much!

Sorry again that this is a little short! Have a great week! Invite everyone to church! I love you all! 

Hermana Christensen

Pancakes

Hola! 

We had such an amazing week this week! We had two really cool miracles that I wanted to share with you all....

1. So once upon a time, Hermana V and I were out visiting this less active. We go and knock on her door and.. she wasn't home. So we walk back to our car. As we are walking back, this other car pulls up and this hispanic lady jumps out and starts waving at us and smiling really big. We had no idea who she was but we waved back and went over to talk to her. She runs up to us and gives us a big hug and then looks at us and says, " I have been looking for you for three years!!!" Turns out she had been taught by missionaries in Honduras and was getting ready to be baptized. Then she unexpectedly had to escape to the USA for some reason and lost all contact with the church. She told us that she knows the church is true and wants us to teach her so she can be baptized. WHAT. I have no idea what we are doing right but we literally just get handed prepared people all the time! The church is true! We are super excited to teach her and help her take those important steps to baptism. 

2. There is a less active family in our ward who haven't been to church in over 10 years. When I got to this area, our bishop pulled us aside and told us we really need to focus on this family because he felt that they were ready to come back. I have been here for almost 12 weeks and have knocked on their door at least 100 times and they never answered!!! About two weeks ago we decided to give it one more try. We knocked on their door and they opened right up and invited us in! We taught them a little message and set a return appointment. The second time we taught them, we committed them to church. At first they were like ehhhhh but then the daughter was like we will be there. I was blown away. We wanted to make sure they kept their commitment so we told them we were coming over before on Sunday to make them breakfast and help them get ready! Haha! So yesterday we went over and made them pancakes and THEY CAME!!! I was so happy. Then after church, their two sons who aren't members told us they want to be baptized! BENDICIONES! 

Anyway, this week was super awesome. Missionary work is the best. I love you all! Read your scriptures! 

Mucho Amor!

Hermana Christensen

One Year Mark

I hit my year mark this week! It feels like it has all been a dream. I was looking back at the beginning of my journal and I was shocked at how much I have changed during this mission. This last year has been the best year of my entire life! I have learned and grown so much! What a blessing it has been to share this glorious message with the people here. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve! 

I had my first mission leadership council this week. We talked a lot about new standards for the mission and how we can increase our finding efforts. Then on Friday I got to teach everything we learned to the rest of the zone. It was so fun! I had like a thousand meetings this last week. I remember when I was younger that I would always complain when ever my dad or mom had a bunch of meetings. I feel like I understand now. Haha! There is a lot of planning in the work of salvation! 

We had a lesson with one of our part member families the other day. We asked their five year old, "Why do we take the sacrament?" and she responded... "For the ducks and the beavers." I am still laughing about it five days later... 

We celebrated Three Kings Day with one of our investigators. It is such a strange holiday. Pretty much all you do is eat this big bread thing. It kinda looks like a huge doughnut. Inside the bread are a bunch of little plastic babies. They are supposed to be baby Jesus. If you get one of the babies then you have to throw a party for everyone else and make tamales. So random. I think I am going to keep this tradition going in my future family! Haha!

We have a super awesome baptism coming up in February. Her name is Oralia! She has already finished the whole Book of Mormon and is now working on Jesus the Christ. She is so awesome! She told us yesterday that the first thing she does when she wakes up is read two chapters of the Book of Mormon with her family! She is such an inspiration. I am so excited to her to be baptized! 

I hope you all have a super great week! And I am so sorry that I have been slow at responding to some of your emails and letters! I barely have enough time to think! Haha! I am working on them though! Patience is a virtue! 

Read your scriptures and say your prayers! 

Hermana Christensen  

2016

Hola! 

I am so sorry I didn't have time to write an email last week! I am so busy I barely have time to breathe! Haha! Life as a sister training leader/ trainer is a little intense but I love it! I have learned so much these last few weeks and I have really watched myself grow. It has been a wonderful opportunity to serve at a new capacity. 

This last week was super awesome! I became a marriage councilor in one of our appointments for the first time in my life. Haha! We were teaching this part member family and all of a sudden they start telling us all their marriage problems. Then they started fighting.. then they started to try to get us to take sides.. My poor little companion couldn't understand a thing that was going on and kept looking at me all concerned. I got really bold with them and pulled out the family proclamation and made them read certain parts together and then made them commit to start praying as a family. It was so interesting because we have zero experience with marriage and yet we can still tell these people exactly what we need because we have a knowledge of the gospel. I have noticed this as well with other investigators. These people will literally confide in two 20 year old girls who have little to no life experience and expect us to have the answers to some of lifes hardest questions. And the great thing is that we have all the answers! The gospel can literally fix any problem in the world. We are so blessed to have this knowledge! 

We have been finding new people like crazy. Finding has always been one of my favorite activities! I love talking to people. It is so fun to watch the change in peoples lives as they begin to accept the gospel! 

I realized today that I am about to hit my year mark. I still feel like I just got to Houston. Missions seriously go by so fast! It makes me so sad that it will all have to end someday. :(

I hope you all have a super great week! I love you all! Make sure you are reading your scriptures!!!! 

Con amor,

Hermana Christensen

Luke 22:31-33