Week 42 - 1 Nephi 14:14 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

It's beginning to warm up here in Georgia! It has been around 100 the
past few days and the humidity is no joke! I enjoy being warm though
and some people are a little more inclined to let us in which is a
blessing!

We had an interesting week! I went down to Kennesaw State University
and served with Sister Stauffer for a day. It is where Sister Hosman
served when she was in my zone. It's a completely different type of
missionary work in a way. We stop busy college students and talk with
them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because there are not as many
students on campus during the summer we were pretty much chasing
people down around campus haha. It was fun! They wrote with some chalk
outside of the cafeteria "Hungry for more?... Check out Mormon.org!".
We rode bikes the entire day. I loved it!

Friday night Sister Giddins and I both drive down to Kennesaw to serve
in there for the day. Sister Lauritsen and I rode bikes and Sister
Giddins and Sister Kinser took our car. Sister Lauritsen and I made a
goal to find one person that was willing to meet with us again and
talk to EVERYONE. No matter how ridiculous it was. So we did. We left
cards on construction workers cars, stopped people while they were
exercising, handed cards to people talking on the phone and many more
other examples. We probably tried to talk to 30-40 people. Some people
were not so receptive but FIVE people were so glad we stopped to talk
to them and invited us back. A few people had a copy of the Book of
Mormon, some had been to our church before, and some hard never heard
of our message. We don't know these people but the Lord does and He
has placed them in our path for a reason. It's our duty to reach out
and find out why. I know Jesus Christ lives. I know I am never alone
because He is always with me. What a blessing and a gift that
knowledge is. I love being a missionary!!

Thanks for all y'alls prayers! I love you dearly!

❤️
Sister Christensen

Sister Giddins though.... 💛

I found someone that almost loves popcorn as much as I do 😍. All of his older siblings were recently baptized! Such an awesome family!

Those hydrangeas though! 😍

I rang that doorbell! 💁🏼

Bre Moss painted these for me!

Sister Vicznesky came out with us yesterday and let us wash their
cars! You made it in Amber's wedding album!

Week 41 - Alma 5 12-14 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

Wow, it's been quite the week! We've been blessed to have Elder Dube
here with us. I met him on Wednesday and he came to a multi zone
conference on Thursday! He is the most loving, fun, and spiritual man
I have ever met! He is so full of the joy of the gospel and it was
exactly what I needed. And exactly what our mission needed.

Elder Dube wanted to do as much work as he could while he was here so
we were all asked to find people for him to teach with us after our
zone conferences. What an apportunity!! We didn't have anyone that
would really be ready or willing to go have a lesson with him and it
honestly wasn't really on our minds. Tuesday we had made a goal to
invite as many people as we could to be baptized and it really changed
the way we approached every conversation and lesson. We were rejected
A LOT but we know it prepared us to meet Naya. She was outside on her
phone as we were walking by and Sister Giddins felt like we needed to
wait so we did. She walked up and intoroduced herself to us. We taught
her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she was so
accepting and asked us questions to help her understand all the way
through. It was great! She couldn't get enough of what we were telling
her. Out of nowhere the thought came to me to invite to have a lesson
with us and Elder Dube. She accepted and was super excited just to
learn more. She also accepted the invitation to follow the example of
Jesus Christ and be baptized! We were in shock when we left. We called
the assistants to the mission president and set it all up! Because the
zone conference was in Roswell we stayed there to plan and had a
recently returned missionary picking up Naya for our lesson and
bringing her to us. We were so excited! Sister Barben and I did a
impromptu roll play in front of 3/5 of our mission and I was
TERRIFIED! I was shaking the entire time but I learned a lot and it
pushed me way out of my comfort zone! We tried to get into contact
with Naya all day and never heard anything back... We were getting
pretty nervous. We talked to President Bennion and he assured us if it
didn't work out it was okay. The elders in our ward had their lesson
fall through and President Bennion asked us to let them use our car to
get home. We had Joslyn (the returned missionary) coming down anyway
so we gladly agreed! We were able to go grab dinner and bring it back
to eat with President and Sister Bennion and Elder and Sister Dube.
Just the 6 of us!! It was so wonderful! We got to know more about his
life and his family and we always love spending time with President
and Sister Bennion. Naya never showed... We were pretty sad but Elder
Dube reassured us that is was GREAT and it was all part of the work.
Hope this makes sense..

We stood and sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" during sacrament
meeting yesterday. Can't help but cry every time. I love that song!

I am feeling very blessed this week. I love all y'all and I'm so
thankful for a loving and all knowing Father in Heaven. I am thankful
for a wonderful family back home.

All my love,
❤️
Sister Christensen

Lake Allatoona!

After President Bennion gave the elders our car he gave us his to go
get food. It was insane!!

Sisters preparation day!

Week 40 - Words of Mormon 1:7-8 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

I love being a missionary. It's the best! This week has been really wonderful. 

About a month ago the Elders brought up doing the 21 day challenge in our ward. I had heard to be cautious of doing it so I wasn't super on board. I talked to our sister training leaders and they counseled us to work with the ward mission leader and Bishop and if they were on board then it could be fabulous! They loved the idea and we started bringing it to families in the ward. 

This past Tuesday we were checking in on some potentials and had found a new investigator in an apartment complex. Just before we were about to leave we felt we should cross the street and try to meet the daughter of one of our recent converts and her family. We saw two men and a little boy getting out of their car and stopped to ask them if we could share a card. They were very friendly and we had a great discussion with them. I noticed the little boy looked familiar and asked if his grandma's name was Angelina. It was!! We had been talking with our recent converts future son-in-law and his father! They were amazed and knew we were meant to meet them at that time and invited us back the next day. As we were talking to our recent convert about it she was overcome by the spirit. She was on day four of praying for her less-active or nonmember friends morning and night and her daughter and son-in-law were on the list. The power of sincere honest prayer in behalf of those we love is incredible! And how thankful we are for the quiet promptings of the Holy Ghost that led us right to this wonderful family. 

Thursday morning we went and had interviews with President & Sister Bennion and then did an endowment session at the temple. I saw Sister Hosman for a minute and got to give her a big hug right before interviews. It was great to see her. I love the temple. Being inside filled me with peace and gave me the strength to continue enjoying this time to the fullest. 

I recently read Omni 1:26 and found these two quotes in the institute manual I really loved.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught the meaning of offering ourselves to the Lord: “Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 91; or Ensign, May 1995, 68).

On the same topic, Elder Maxwell later taught: “As you submit your wills to God, you are giving Him the only thing you can actually give Him that is really yours to give” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2004, 48; or Ensign, May 2004, 46).

I love all y'all!

❤️

Sister Christensen

Me & Sister Giddins

Some of the sisters in the Marietta East
 zone

It's so green... I love it. It's probably one of my new favorite colors.

Sister Kinser, Sister Lauritsen, Sister Giddins, Sister Hansen, Sister Toese, me, Sister Patten, Sister Stauffer 

Week 39 - 2 Nephi 27:23

Loved ones,

What a week! It was so wonderful to see all y'all for Mother's Day!
Mom you are as beautiful as ever! Sister Giddins and I are still
laughing about Coco chanting "kill the beast!" for 5 min straight.
That girl sure has grown.

Mom and Dad, thanks for serving the Lord as Bishop of the ward for the
past 5 years. I'm excited for what the Lord has in store for y'all
now.

I forgot to tell y'all about Bella over Skype! About 9 weeks ago when
we were helping the Woodstock ward mutual night by teaching the Young
Women how to teach the restoration I met this woman out in the hall.
They had food there for the kids and we started talking about how good
it smelled. Next thing you know we are talking about her family and
how she has a daughter that was a twin but she miscarried her twin
sometime before birth. Just like me! She was really easy to talk to
and I was excited to bring it all back to the gospel. But next thing I
knew she was gone. Fast forward to last week... We got a call from a
member in our ward. He had a friend that was going through a lot and
he felt inspired to ask her if she'd like us to come over. She said
YES! We called and set up a time for us to stop by and that we'd call
the day before to confirm. We called and she didn't answer. But the
next day she texted us asking if we were still able to come by and
sent us her address. We were in shock! We knocked on the door and she
is the woman I met in the hall 9 weeks ago! I was thrilled to see her
again! Turns out she was almost baptized 15 years ago but someone told
her she couldn't go to the temple because she had been divorced! She
felt there was no point if she couldn't do the work for her ancestors
so she walked away. We explained to her how she CAN go to the temple
and helped answer a few of her other concerns. She said a few weeks
before we came over she had been looking for her Book of Mormon to
read. She still has some concerns about organized religion but we know
as she gains a testimony of The Book of Mormon everything else will
fall into place. Her friend was SO excited when we told him what had
happened. I'll try to remember to keep all y'all updated on her!

We are going to the temple on Thursday and we are SOOO excited!! Also
Elder Dube from the Seventies is coming next week!



All my love,
Sister Christensen

I was pretty happy to see y'all 😍

Sister Eide took this of us singing 🌷🎶

Week 38 - Alma 56:46-48 🌷💕

Loved ones,

This week has been quite interesting! First off, I am staying in the
Allatoona ward for another transfer!! Yay! And Sister Giddins will be
my new companion. We were roommates at the MTC together and I just
love her to pieces!! I will really miss Sister Beazel. She has taught
me so much in the last 6 weeks.

We biked almost every day this week and I absolutely loved it. I don't
know if I'll ever be biking in races with Grandpa Mike but I have a
new appreciation and love for it! It makes it so much easier to enjoy
the beauty around and we were able to stop and talk to many more
people this week too!

One of my favorite experiences this week was bringing out one of the
young women in our ward out with us to teach and tract. She is the
daughter of the family mom and dad met last month. She lives super
close to Karen (the woman we helped move into her home and taught
about the restoration on her front porch) so we decided to drop by.
She let us in and we talked about how moving was going. She said she
tried to read the Book of Mormon but the print was too small for her
but that she had been praying to know if what we had shared with her
was true. It was hard to read her but we're hopeful when we bring a
large print copy of the Book of Mormon by she will read, PONDER, and
pray about it. I know the Holy Ghost will bear record to her that it
is true if she will do those three things. She really is such a sweet
lady and I'm happy we got in touch with her again.
After that we stopped by the apartment of a teenage girl we taught a
few weeks ago. She knows is true and wants to be baptized but her aunt
and uncle won't let her. They did say we could stop by to say hi. We
walked up and I confidently knocked on the door. We quickly realized
it was the wrong apartment haha. But we were able to teach him and he
promised to read the information we left him. I watched as Sister
Beazel bore a strong and sincere witness of the truthfulness of the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong. I might
have knocked on a different door than planned but it was exactly the
right door we were supposed to be at. Sam (the young woman) told us
all about her plans to go on a mission and now she is going to
practice the lessons on her non member boyfriend so she'll be more
prepared. She also wants to go out with us every Sunday! I love it!!

I am so excited to look at your lovely faces Sunday! Especially my
angel mothers!

I love all ya'll,
Sister Christensen

We helped Sister Eide can soup and I got to wear my Green Bay apron from Jordy Nielsen 💚💛

I ❤️ goats. 

The Moore's. We sing songs out of his Hymnal from 1939 for him.