Week 20!

The work is hastening in Holt!

Sister Brems and I have seen a million miracles this week! I'll just share a couple.

 

Last transfer, they wanted to shut down our scripture study class because no one ever came. Sister Brems and I decided that we wouldn't let that happen, and this week we had 7 investigators there! Sister Brems and I work so well together and it's been such a blessing to see that hard work and strict obedience pay off. The Lord has His hand in every single aspect of this work, and I am so grateful for that!

 

Also this week, we kept meeting people who had been looking for missionaries! One woman had been meeting with missionaries in Detroit and hadn't been able to find them again since moving here. We were lucky enough to be led by the Spirit to knock on her door that day!

 

In church on Sunday, a less-active member who is deaf came to church! I was able to help interpret, and he had a great time. Turns out, a lot of members in the ward know sign language, and he made a lot of new friends!

 

Also, we just got this announcement from our mission president:
"We have been asked to become one of the first electronic missions. This means you will have electronic planners, area books, progress reports, and teaching records that can also be accessed real time by Stake Presidents, Bishops, Branch Presidents and Ward Mission Leaders. This will help them to immediately know about the people you are teaching. We will also be doing some online proselyting."

 

Whaaaat! This is so exciting! Our mission will be getting mini iPads for Christmas! One per companionship! This will make reporting our work so much more efficient, which will allow us to spend more time out working! I can't wait!

 

This week we also got some fun food. I tried durian! Durian tastes like how feet smell. It is the worst food in the world, basically. It's a fruit, that tastes like sulfur. But I couldn't turn it down! I love weird food adventures (last transfer I tried fermented fish oil which actually wasn't that bad!).

This week we also learned that Michigan is OBSESSED with apples. We've had apple cider, dried cinnamon apples, apple dumplings, apply taffy, apple crumbles for atop your ice cream, apple butter, and just plain old apples. All of those tasty treats were homemade, too! The food here is great!

NOW FOR SOME PICTURES!

 

I FINALLY GOT KFC!!!!

 more kittens! and this is my new companion!!!

I love being a missionary and I love you all! Have a great week!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen

Week 19!

Oh my WORD. This week had been full of so many miracles!

 

First things first, I GOT MY NEW COMPANION! Her name is Sister Brems and she is so beautiful and happy and wonderful! She came straight from the MTC but you would never guess it! We work so well together! She is from Portland, OR and went to BYU-Idaho for 3 years before coming out on a mission. She is so much fun! Being happy about the work changes everything so I'm so stoked that she's already got that down! I am beyond excited for this transfer!

 

This week so many great, amazing things happened.

 

On Sister Brems' first day, we didn't have much time to go door-knocking, but everywhere we went, people just approached us! One guy came up to us and asked us if Mormons really believe that God talked to a white salamander... Haha we quickly corrected any misconceptions. He was like, "Yeah I didn't think that was right. That's just what my preacher told me." Then he went on to say that he had studied the religion before and that he believed it truly was the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God! We will be meeting with him again this week!

 

Right after that, a girl was walking by us on her phone, and she hung up the phone so she could talk to us! She said she was looking for a church and asked if she could come to ours. She then asked if our church had copies of the King James Version of the Bible. I had one in my hand! I gave it to her, and then we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she asked if she could have one of those as well! She's coming to church this Sunday!

 

It's just been really amazing to see how when you are happy and work hard, miracles happen. We are so excited to be working together here in Holt. When I first got assigned to train Sister Brems and met her and everything, I was just so happy I thought I was going to cry! This work really is where I have found the most joy and I love every single day!

 

Some random things that happened this week!

 

We door-knocked into a lady who's house was on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition! It was BEAUTIFUL! Later we found out that a bunch of members from our ward helped build the house! It was really cool.

 

Also, one of the new sisters who came to the mission came up to me and was like, "This might sound weird, but you were my TA for Geography 120 last year!" Haha what are the odds?! It was so funny! I remember her distinctly! Well, her name and her papers at least!

 

This week the sister missionaries also got to teach a lesson at Achievement/Activity Days (activities once a week for 8 year old girls). It was so fun and such a cool experience! It's funny, because Sister Parmenter said that this week in Macie's class, they had a missionary lesson, too! I loved talking to all those girls and seeing their excitement about missionary work. We had them all make their own nametags and they were so excited to pin them on and wear them home. We also asked them what they could do to be missionaries now and they shared some great ideas like inviting people to church, serving their friends, and being excited about the gospel! It's awesome to see that those are principles of missionary work that apply to everyone!

 

I know this is a long email, but it's just been such a fantastic week. I love and miss you all! We gotta go because we're making a polka dot cake with an investigator! I'll send pictures next week. I hope you all have an amazing week!

 

Love, Sister Christiansen

Week 18!

Hello hello!

 

This week we had transfer calls! Sister McElvany and I were both super nervous but we ended up being ecstatic about the news. Sister McElvany is going to the area right next to ours (Mason) so I will still see her at church! She will have 2 companions! The Holt ward is going to have FIVE SISTER MISSIONARIES!

 

So as you may have guess, I'm staying in Holt!!! But get this... I am training a brand new missionary! I am super nervous but mainly very, VERY excited! I can't wait to meeet her and get her stoked about spreading the gospel. I can already tell she and I are going to do some great work together!

 

So that said, my address for at least the next 6 weeks is still:

2141 N. Aurelius Rd. Apt. 64

Holt, MI 48842

 

I am so excited for this new transfer! I meet my new companion on Thursday! Ahhh!!!

 

Okay now can I talk about how great General Conference was?! It was incredible. My favorite talks were Dieter F. Uchtdorf's from the Saturday Morning Session, Jeffrey R. Holland's from the Saturday Afternoon Session, and Richard G. Scott's talk from the Sunday Morning Session! SO GOOD! I encourage you all to read those!!!

 

I am now going to attach some long overdue pictures!

 

THIS IS A KITTEN THAT I GET TO HANG OUT WITH ALL THE TIME. One of our investigators, Marge, has like 30 cats and about 20 of them are kittens. ALJKGHSDKLG I CAN'T HANDLE THE CUTENESS.

These were the missionaries in the Holt ward before the transfer! That's Sister Dean, one of my all-time favorite members! Elder Fox (on the right) has a removable front tooth which makes me happier than almost anything in this world.

This is us and Bill! I won't get to teach Bill anymore since he's in Sister McElvany's new area (the area split) but I will still get to see him at church on Sundays and go to his baptism! He is SO AWESOME. 

Last but not least, here is a somewhat non-goofy picture of us Holt missionaries. We're going to miss serving together but I'm really excited to see what it's like to be in a ward with 5 sister missionaries!

I promise we're not as crazy as we look. We work HARD!

 

I love being a missionary. I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's no place I'd rather be right now! I love you all but I know God is taking care of those I love while I'm gone. Have a fantastic week!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen

 

 

 

Week 17!

Hello friends and family!

Wow, this week flew by. What even happened?

Well first of all, Marge came to church! She’s someone we’ve been teaching for a while now but has never come to church. Well yesterday she showed up! She cried during the first hour because she felt the Spirit so strong. It made me so happy to see her feeling even closer to God than she had before! I love church. AND NEXT WEEK IS GENERAL CONFERENCE!

So I will skip ahead to my invitation to you all. WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE! And while watching, have a specific person in mind and pray about what message they need. I can promise you all that a talk in General Conference will stand out to you as something that someone close to you in your life needs right now.  Sorry for the wordy sentence. I hope it makes sense. It will brings great blessings into your life! Listening to words of living prophets and apostles always does. Here's the info!

http://www.lds.org/church/events/october-2013-general-conference-dates-announced?cid=HPTH091213090&lang=eng

This week I got to hold a lot of kittens and teach a lot of lessons. What more could a girl ask for?

We met so many cool people this week! One guy had been praying for an answer right when we knocked on his door! Another guy used to go down to Alabama for KKK meetings but had a near-death experience and changed his whole life around and became Christian! One lady saw us walking in her neighborhood and ran outside waving a picture of four Mormon missionaries who had taught her in Detroit! And then there's Bill, our AWESOME investigator who probably knows more about the Church than we do because he's been researching it his whole life. We didn't meet him this week, but we met WITH him this week! It was a great lesson and the Spirit was really strong. He's planning on getting baptized in November! Bill is probably my favorite person ever. He's totally rad and hilarious and reminds me a lot of my dad!

Transfer calls are on Friday! Ahhh! I'm freaking out. You can always send mail to the mission office address during these potential moving times and they will forward it to me. The info is on my blog page (lettersfromcarly.blogspot.com). Thanks for all the support!

I know there's probably something more I need to write about but we are out of emailing time. I hope you all have a beautiful week!

<3 Sister Christiansen