Week 50 - Alma 27:7 What's your verse?!

The whiteboard haha.

Today in Fort Yargo with most of the sisters in the Zone

Loved ones,

It's been a pretty wonderful week! I finally was able to go on
exchanges with Sister Hosman! Oh how I wish y'all could see her teach
and serve her companions and those she is visiting! She is amazing!!
She is so poised and the spirit enters the room when she speaks! Ah, I
love her!

One of my highlights this week was beginning our service at the Athens
Clark County Library. We  are helping preserve and organize some
interviews that were conducted anywhere from 1994 to 2011. The
interview topics range from WWII to desegregation. We listen to them
on cassette tapes and record the data in an spreadsheet so they can
digitize them and eventually put them online. I love listening to
their stories and feeling of their spirits. I find myself wondering if
they have come to a knowledge of the gospel or if their families have.
There was a group of ladies that were part of a genealogy group that
came in and also a young man looking for information on a family
member that he just found out existed. 🎶"The hearts of the children
turn to their fathers. Malachi prophesied the hearts shall turn"🎶. I
know sing that song in my head every time we go! We're also excited to
help those that come in with their genealogy too.

Jennifer came to church on Sunday. It's her last one before she goes
back to Brazil. A few weeks ago I promised her we would find people in
Brazil for her to connect with so she'd be comfortable going to church
and continuing to learn there so she can be baptized. As we were
talking earlier this week we realized how much the Lord fulfilled that
promise. Three more members that speak Portuguese have been been
placed in our path and 2 of them have been to and know members that
live super close to Jennifer! As we realized this we were overcome
with joy and Jennifer was so excited to see how Heavenly Father is
looking out for her!

We brought a whiteboard up to campus Friday. Missionaries for years
have done it! It's so awesome. We write a thought provoking question
on it and have people come write their answers. We roll it up 1 mile
and a little piece of it fall in the middle. We have a wonderful time
talking to all kinds of people about the gospel. Then we start rolling
it the mile back toward the institute building. It's a little wobbly
but we didn't stress too much about it. Luckily the sister in Monroe
were coming up to work with us and met us part of the way back. Slowly
but surly the entire whiteboard broke into pieces! We all carried
different pieces of the whiteboard back haha. It was quite the
adventure!

Being a missionary is the greatest! We're also beginning to work in
the Athens 2nd ward. We went to their ward council yesterday morning
and the first part of church before heading over to the YSA branch. We
were getting to know some of the members and saying hi to some of the
members we have visited. I said hello to this one woman and introduced
myself. She said "Yes! I met you a year ago in Nauvoo! You're almost
done with your mission aren't you?" It was Mary Joyner! She is the one
that introduced herself to me at church. Her husband is the bishop of
the Athens 2nd ward and his brother is our branch president. It's a
small world!! Not sure if that all made sense but I thought it'd be
fun for y'all to know!

I love all y'all!
❤️
Sister Christensen

😍🌸 the horticultural farm!

Representing VV1

Week 49 - Alma 37:36 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

We checked the sisters apartments in preparation for transfers next
week! That being said I don't have much time to email.

This week we brought two of our investigators to a baptism in the
Athens 2nd ward. It was an 8 year old girl and it was the sweetest
thing. I cried the entire time. Bringing back memories of my own
baptism and thinking about how special that ordinance is and the
eternal significance of it. What a blessing to have the priesthood on
the earth! Her older sister gave a talk on baptism and it reminded me
of my wonderful sisters and how much they have taught me. She also
received the gift of the Holy Ghost after. It was amazing. We had a
lesson right after with Ryan. He said he felt the Spirit when she
received the gift of the Holy Ghost and that he knows he'll be where
she was at at. It's just a matter of when. The change in him is a
beautiful miracle. I love being a missionary.

It's always a joy to see this ray of sunshine!

We started volunteering at the UGA Horticulture farm! We pick okra and melons so they can take them to the food bank! It's the best! It's absolutely beautiful.

I walk/bike this every day. I'm blessed! 😍🌸

Week 48 - Helaman 10:3-5 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

Sister Patten and I got caught in two rain storms this week! I loved
it! I love the rain! I can't help but laugh as we're running for
shelter when it begins to pour out of nowhere. I love Georgia!

It's been a good week! We're still teaching Ryan. We talked about the
temple last week and he went home and found "Preparing to Enter the
Holy Temple" on the gospel library ap and read the entire thing that
night. He loved it! His only concerns are his family. His mom will
think he is going to you know where if he becomes a Mormon. I can't
even imagine that. He asks to meet with us pretty much every day and
it's awesome. His friends Stephanie and Rachel are there to study and
read with him any other time he is free. He is amazing.

We texted a few people Friday night asking if we could meet with them
the following day. A less active member we've been trying to meet
texted us back letting us know he was moving and if we wanted to help
him he'd appreciate it. We let the ward know and 10 people showed up
to help. It was awesome! He hadn't been to church in years and he came
yesterday! We also had an investigator we've been trying to meet text
us back as well and say we could come over for a lesson with him. We
brought a member with us and it was a wonderful lesson. His girlfriend
and friend were there too and they all committed to read the Book of
Mormon and pray to know if it was true. Our member bore such a
beautiful testimony of the Book of Mormon and invited them to church.
They said they'd think about it... Then we told them we were speaking
and they laughed and said "We have to go then don't we?!". YES! They
came and they loved it! They clapped after Sister Patten spoke along
with another one of our investigators haha it was so cute! Either they
realized it wasn't what we do or they didn't like mine as much because
they didn't after mine haha. We met with them after church and they
are now planning to be baptized the first week of August!

Being a missionary is the greatest! I love and miss all y'all!

❤️
Sister Christensen

Week 47 - Ether 12:27 What's your verse?

Loved ones,

This week has been full of really high highs and really low lows!
Wednesday was full overwhelming joys! We came home and literally
poured out our hearts in gratitude to Heavenly Father.

Thursday was Sam's baptismal interview and we were having a meeting
with him beforehand. Right before our appointment he told Brandon,
another recent convert, he was getting baptized at 3pm on Saturday and
was super excited to tell him! When the lesson started he began to
tell us how God was leading him down a different path and it wasn't to
this church. It was pretty heartbreaking. He stopped responding to us
but we know he has contact with some of the members of the branch.
That helped us feel a little better. I know he will accept it one day.

I don't know if I've told y'all about Ryan before but he is amazing.
He reminds me of a combination between Tad and Dustin so I
automatically love him. He signed up to take the Sisters out to dinner
because he had questions about the church and he wanted it to be
informal. That dinner was my first full day here. Since then we have
been meeting with him multiple times a week. He attended church for
the second time Sunday. He wanted to fast and asked us to explain it
to him Saturday. Tuesday he told us he had been having trouble feeling
like Heavenly Father answers prayers. He didn't know if he should pray
to the God he grew up praying to or the God we pray to and he always
felt like he was talking to a wall and would just give up. He had told
us a couple lessons before about how he was considering becoming
atheist but decided not to one day when he saw the trees and knew
there had to be a God. I felt overcome by the spirit to tell him to
pray to the God that created the trees. I told him that Heavenly
Father knows him. He knows his sense of humor. He knows what makes him
sad and what makes him happy and he wants him to be real with him. The
next day he texted us and told us his prayers went so well and he was
so ready to meet with us the next day! He said he felt the spirit when
he prayed and that he doesn't give up halfway through anymore. My
heart about exploded! Sunday he came to church and then bailed after
sacrament meeting and we were quite sad. We met with him later that
night and he said he felt the spirit during my testimony and one other
and while the sacrament was being blessed and passed. Once again my
heart wanted to explode! He and Steph (his friend that is a member)
went to see his old baptist church during Sunday school just to see if
he was for sure making the right choice to meet with us. When they
went to his church they told him the 11:30 meeting was cancelled! He
is still trying to decide if that was his answer or not but you can
tell that he's leaning toward that! He is amazing. What a joy it is to
be able to help my bothers and sisters rebuild their relationship with
our loving Heavenly Father... I love being a missionary.

There were some stake boundaries rearranged that made for some changes
in the missionaries areas and companionships... Sister Kutterer is now
in the Marietta Stake and my new companion is Sister Patten. I'm super
super sad to have her go. I love her a lot. But I am glad to have the
opportunity to learn with Sister Patten by my side!

Congrats to Cristian & Hilary on their big day!
Hope T&T and Gma Mac had wonderful birthdays!

I love all y'all!
❤️
Sister Christensen

Sister Hosman 💕

We take pictures with the athletes sometimes so they'll talk to us for
longer... Then we saw this newspaper a few days later haha!



Hi!

I'm still in Athens and serving in the YSA and I'm really happy about
that! There have been changes in a few ward and stake boundaries that
pulled 2 sets of sisters out with nowhere to go. They did a big
shuffle of 6 sets of sisters. Sister Hosman was involved as well.
Sister Kutterer is now in the zone I just left and Sister Patten is my
new companion. Sister Hosman and her companion are going to come up on
Thursday and spend a day with us. I'm pretty excited about it. I bore
my testimony about change and how the only constant in our lives is
the gospel and Sister Kutterer bore hers about accepting the will of
Heavenly Father. He's always trying to prepare us for what is ahead.

We're sitting at subway in Walmart and a worker just approached us and
asked us what church we were from... She told us how she is sad
because her dad passed away with out having the opportunity to be
"saved".... I love being a missionary. She is so excited to learn
more.

Lunch with some of the sisters that got shuffled.