Week 68 - John 8:12 & Matthew 5:14

Loved ones,

I sure hope all y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! We did here in Suwanee!! Sister Neff and I didn't want to over stuff ourselves like last year so we had one dinner appointment and about 25 other short lessons with anyone that would have us over. It was so much fun! 

I have crazy news! I will begin training a new missionary tomorrow! She just flew into Georgia today and I'll find out who she is tomorrow. I'm really humbled and pretty nervous... I can't wait to meet her! We'll be here in Suwanee together. I'm 98% sure Suwanee will be my final area in the mission. I LOVE Suwanee! I will miss Sister Neff and her fun spirit! It's less sad to see her off to a new area because we know we'll see each other in just a few months.

The Lee's were sealed on Saturday. It was probably the best day of my entire life. I can't even begin to describe the joy I felt talking with Sister Lee in the Brides room before the Sealing and seeing little almost 3 year old Ivy being brought into the Sealing room in all white. Last night I was talking to President Bennion and he didn't realize he gave me permission last month. He said he was thankful I went because he heard from a few other people how I recognized Brother Lee's parents in the Temple and helped them back out to the waiting room with the temple President. Nobody else would have recognized them and they would have gone into the Sealing room. It was a crisis avoided and he was very thankful I was there. I'll tell you more of that experience in a few months.

Yesterday morning we had scheduled to rake an investigators heard for her. We had to borrow the rakes from a member and told her we'd bring them back after we were done. We raked it was great and as we were dropping them back off to her we saw this cute little old lady across the street attempting to rake hers. Of course we ran over and finished her yard for her. We started talking with her and asking her about her beliefs. Next thing we know we're touring a Buddhist temple right behind her home and it was awesome. When we came back to her home 10 min later our member was there with a Chinese copy of the Book of Mormon for this sweet lady! We thanked her for giving us a tour and asked if we could give her a tour of our Chapel. She gladly accepted and asked if she could bring her husband. Our member then asked if she could invite her other neighbor across the street. So she walked us over to meet her and we set up another church tour! 

Have y'all seen the new Christmas video? It's so good! I'm excited to serve like the Savior over the 25 days. 

I love all y'all!

❤️

Sister Christensen

Hi family,

I love you! Seeing the Lee's sealed really was the best day ever. I wanted to share a few words that the sealer shared with us all:

Our trials are not to prove our worth to Heavenly Father but to prove to ourselves we are worthy of the blessings He has in store for us.

Our trials are not to see how much we can take but to see how we will react to them.

I love all y'all!

Just wanted you to know how much your daughter is loved. These pictures where taken yesterday at the temple at Bro. And Sis. Lee's sealing.
You have a great daughter we have enjoyed working with her.

Sister Jean Underwood
Mission Secretary

The Lee's 💕❤️

One of the 25 families! They're awesome! 

We brought hot chocolate to the Turkey Bowl 🦃🏈

Week 67 - D&C 98:1 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

Its been a great week! We had to run around and inspect apartments before the transfer again so I don't have a ton of time... sorry! But I want all y'all to know how thankful I am for the love and support. I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I am thankful for His gopsel. I am thankful for the Book of Mormon that is the evidence that it has been restored. It's true! I am thankful for a living Prophet and I am soooo thankful to know my family can be together forever. How amazing is that?!

Here is an amazing miracle that happened this week:

Tuesday night we received a call from a sister in our ward that we don't know that we'll. Her schedule opened up and she wanted to invite us to dinner the next day. We just happened to have it open and gladly accepted! When we arrived dinner had about 15 min until dinner would be ready. We looked at each other thinking "Uh oh, what do we do?". We decided to not sit and wait but to try a few houses around her. When we asked her if that was okay with her she pointed us in a direction to go. Her close neighbors had enough of the missionaries haha. But it worked out PERFECTLY. We walked a few houses down and saw this boy and his older sister walking into their house. We waved and yelled a cheerful hello. We asked if we could give them our card. We introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a little video with them. They invited us in. It was three sisters that ended up staying to watch the video with us. A 19 year old, 15 year old, and a 12 year old. We showed a video of President Monson titled "What Matters Most". They loved it! We went back on Friday... it was amazing. We asked why they let us back in. They told us we made their day! We asked them if they had ever wondered why there were so many churches and the little 12 year old just lit up and said "Yes!". We testified of the Book of Mormon and the restoration to them. We asked them about how they felt. The little 12 year old said she was so hopeful that questions she's had would be answered. Her 15 year old was speechless and smiling from ear to ear. The spirit was so strong. We asked them if they would like to read the Book of Mormon to find out if these things are true. The 12 year old chimed in again and said she had a friend leave one at her house and tell her she could keep it! The 19 year old said she's been wanting to read the Book of Mormon because a few people have told her it changes people's lives. My heart was about to burst. One of my favorite moments from my mission. We testified and promised it would indeeed change their lives because we know it's changed ours. It helped me gain a stronger testimony of being diligent with time. Asking inspired questions and focusing more on what they need to feel. I love love love being a missionary!

All my love,

❤️

Sister Christensen

We played World Cup today... it was so fun!

We were helping someone clean out their garage... haha. I love Sister Neff!

Week 66 - Moroni 10:3-5 What's your verse?!

Sister Neff 💕

Sugar Hill Zone Meeting

Our Georgia Family. The grandparents make us call them Papa and Granny haha. LOVE them. So southern.

Loved ones,

It got cold real fast out here! It's nice! There are also some fires
going on in North Carolina or Tennessee or some nearby state and it's
bringing down a bunch of smoke down here! It's been going on for about
a week now, pretty sad! It's been a struggle for my little asthmatic
lungs haha. But we've managed.

We went to the temple this week and had interviews with President and
Sister Bennion! It was great! I'm so thankful for the Plan of
Salvation.

We had a lot of our investigators drop us this week... That's been a
little rough but it's free'd up a lot of time to go out and talk to
all kinds of people and I love that so much. We have simple truths
that bring so much joy. In our ward conference yesterday we talked a
lot about having faith based conversations with people. We have so
much to learn from those around us and hearing about what brings them
joy and their testimonies of Heavenly Father always touches my heart.

A few months back I had this fun idea to help me gain a greater
appreciation for the translation of the Book of Mormon. Did you know
it was translated in 65 days? I didn't until just a few months ago! I
knew it was done quickly but man... that's quick! Such a miracle! So
on December 20th I am going to start reading the Book of Mormon again
from the beginning and aim to be finished on the 23rd of February. I'm
inviting anyone that would like to join in with me! It'll be fun! A
member here is going to make up a cool chart for us (a few other
sisters are doing it with me too) so we know what page we need to be
on each day and we can add cute stickers to each day when we finish
reading. If you'd like to join me let me know and I'll send you the
PDF when he finishes it.

I love all y'all!
❤️
Sister Christensen

I ❤️ Sister Giddins

Week 65 - Enos 1:1 What's your verse?!

Loved ones,

What a week! I thought the trees were beautiful last time I emailed... they've become even more amazing! So many warm oranges and reds and I love it! It's actually started to get a little chilly. It was still in the high 70's for the past couple weeks.

Tiree was finally baptized this week! It was amazing to see this entire family come together to help their friend (who has become family) enter the waters of baptism and receive the Holy Ghost. So many of their family members were semi active and now are fully involved and some of them have decided to begin meeting with the bishop to become temple worthy so they can go with him. It's been such a miracle. He was supposed to get baptized last week and was on date a few different times when the elders were teaching him. We were pretty sad and he and his girlfriend weren't really responding to us the day it was supposed to happen. We felt like we should help them see the real love we have for them. We found a dollar frame at the store and put one of our favorite pictures of the Savior in it. We wrote a note to them bearing our testimonies and left it on his girlfriends doorstep. There was such a change after that. Sometimes I get so sad and frustrated when people don't do what they say they are going to do. Sometimes the spirit directs us to be more firm but sometimes the spirit directs us to show more love. It's helped us want to do more of the little things to help people keep their commitments and show our love and support for them as they are trying to make huge changes in their lives. Love truly is the essence of the gospel!

Saturday after the baptism we helped put on an event at the church. There was a blood drive and a program called Mormonism and True Islam. Two members of our ward stood up and talked about our beliefs and then two representatives from the True Islam faith stood up and shared their beliefs. It was a get to know your neighbor event to help us understand each other and clear up some misunderstandings people may have about both faiths. It was pretty cool to see 100 of the True Islam faith sitting with us in the chapel. We made lots of friends. They had a booth set up for us all to try on Hijab (the veil worn by Muslim women). We felt a little weird about it because we didn't want to be disrespectful but they were so happy to see us try them on and gave us the scarfs! 

I love all y'all! 

❤️

Sister Christensen

Night before the baptism.

Such a special day!