Week 24 of Serving the Lord!

This week was so exciting. There is so much to write. I'm going to have to do this in bullet point form!

• First of all, Elder Golden from the First Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission! He spoke last April in General Conference if you remember. He's the guy with the cool South African accent! He talked to us about a ton of brilliant things. My notebook is FULL of scribbled notes. I loved how he talked about the most important restored truth that came from the First Vision was the restoration of the true nature of God. Everything we teach comes back to our relationship with God. It's so important!

 

• After the Half-Mission Conference in which Elder Golden spoke, we were driving back to our areas in a van of 12 missionaries, and the sunset was SO GORGEOUS. It was bright red and orange and pink. It seemed like every time you looked back at it, it had changed completely. Michigan is gorgeous. We were all filled with so much joy. A bunch of 19-22 year old kids were just so excited about the sunset and about all the eternal truths we had just learned from Elder Golden... it was just a really awesome moment. Where else in the world does that happen? Missionaries are so weird, but it's the best thing ever. PURE JOY.

 

• WE HAD OUR FIRST TORNADO WATCH YESTERDAY! There was a TERRIBLE storm but luckily no tornado! But we were asked to stay inside for a bit to stay off the roads. The tornado was headed our way! As a result, I ended up crouched in our bathtub reading the Book of Mormon. Haha we were so excited and overdramatized everything. It was terrifying and awesome. Here I am! Sister Brems said that when I am in a storm I turn into half Keira Knightley, half wet rat. Hahaha what. I can see the wet rat part FOR SURE. We were freezing. P.S. I AM READING HELAMAN 5:12 LOL.
   
  • I MADE A PUN THIS WEEK. The state of Michigan kind of looks like a mitten, and everyone uses their hand to point out where they live. But anywho, this week we realized... We're MITTENARIES!!!
   
• OOH I have a request. This might be kind of silly, but I want to put together a photo album that I can have with me here, and I was wondering if kind of as a belated birthday present you guys could each send me a picture of us together or something! Or just a picture that will remind me of you! 4x6 is perfect! If you can, that'd be awesome! If not, I guess I just won't be able to remember you... haha just kidding! If you can't, no worries!

 

• I ALMOST FORGOT. Transfer calls came and Sister Brems and I get to STAY TOGETHER IN HOLT! WOOO! So my address will be the same for the next 6 weeks (2141 N. Aurelius Rd. Apt. 64 Holt, MI 48842). YAY!

 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen

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Week 23 - I turned 20!

 

Hi everybody! Sorry I didn't get to email yesterday - it was Veteran's Day so the library was closed. But we get to write today! But we only get half the time we normally get so this is going to be very short. Sorry!

 

Not emailing yesterday was okay though because it meant MORE TIME AT THE ZOO! It was amazing. I will attach pictures at the bottom instead of explaining everything but just trust me when I say it was THE BEST DAY EVER.

 

For my birthday dinner, we got to eat at that awesome family's house who makes us all the delicious natural food. They made me an Oreo cheesecake with organic Oreos and healthy enough ingredients that I can EAT IT FOR BREAKFAST. Yesss.

 

This week I met an 8 year old who's in 8th grade! He and his family are in our ward and they fed us dinner. He's crazy smart! We talked about outer space for like, 30 minutes.

 

We've seen so many miracles here in Holt! One of our investigators wants to get baptized! She is so cool and keeps talking about how the gospel answers questions she's had all her life but hasn't been able to find answers to until now! It is so awesome to meet with her. Plus she has a tiny baby girl who is just adorable and SO HAPPY!

 

I feel like this week was so so incredible but I can't remember everything right now!

 

Transfers are on Friday and I'm pretty sure I'm staying in Holt, but just in case, you can send anything this week to the mission office address and then resume sending stuff directly to me next week. Haha thanks so so much! The mission office address is

1400 Abbot Rd. Ste. 310

East Lansing, MI 48823

 

I hope you all have a great week! Here are some pictures!

 

This is our district at our last district meeting of the transfer! Crazy missionaries. 

 

 This is me and Sister Brems!

 Another picture of me and Sister Brems. Can you spot the difference? (HINT: IT'S THE TIGER IN THE BACKGROUND.)

 The snow stuck for the first time yesterday! YAAAY!

 Birthday dinner with the coolest family ever!

 And now for my all-time favorite picture ever... Me & my baby!!!

 

Love you!

<3 Sister Christiansen

 

Week 22! I love all of you!

First of all, I got like, 12 emails asking me more about what an Amish chicken is haha. It's just a chicken that was raised on an Amish farm. We have a ward member here who gets all her food from that farm and so we get raw milk, fresh vegetables, and more every time we eat at her house!

 

Okay so this weekend was incredible. I got to go back to MSU on exchanges!!! I saw Bruce AND Yifan!!! They are both doing so well! Bruce (who was only baptized 4 months ago) just got the MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD! I was really sick when I was there, and there were no other missionaries around to give me a blessing of healing, but then we saw Bruce! He ended up giving me a blessing with our old ward mission leader! It was his first blessing and was such an incredible experience! The Spirit was so strong, and I am now completely recovered and healthy!

 

We got to have a lesson with Yifan and every time I see him I just get so happy! He is so strong in the gospel and is being such a great example to his friends all around them. I am so blessed to know both Bruce and Yifan!

 

Being at MSU was tons of fun. Sister Smith, our sister training leader, was my companion for those days and we had such amazing adventures. We talked to tons of people on campus, and tried all the berries we saw on the trees. It was just really hilarious for some reason. We'd see a berry tree, run over, nibble at a berry, and throw it on the ground in disgust. They all tasted awful, but for some reason, every time we saw a new type of berry, we HAD to try it.

 

This week we also got to carve pumpkins at a member's house! Sister Brems carved a temple into hers and I carved the sun, the moon, and the stars into mine! Halloween was really fun.

 

So we thought that each companionship would be getting an iPad for Christmas, but as it turns out, we're each getting our own! Crazy! There are also rumors about letting us keep them when we go home. The Church leadership thinks that 18-21 year old missionaries will take better care of them if they know they're theirs to keep. Exciting!

 

On Sunday, a General Authority, Elder Dunnigan, came to visit our ward! He talked about aligning member missionary work with full-time missionary work. He and our mission president, President Hess, came to our ward's sacrament meeting. Sunday was so awesome.

 

Also, a less-active recent convert who's 19 came to church for the first time in months! He is awesome! He got up and bore his testimony about staying strong despite tons of peer pressure. He's a sophomore who's pre-med at MSU and he sees people do a lot of reckless things there... He was talking about how he was grateful for his standards, especially after seeing people do such crazy things. He was like, "I'm not saying I'm better than them... But the way they act makes me feel like it!" The whole church burst out laughing. Everyone at church loves him because he's like their adopted son. He's adorable. We're hoping he goes on a mission!

 

I feel like I used TONS of Mormon-lingo so far in this email, so I'm sorry if none of it makes sense.

 

Now for the best news ever... President Hess said I can go to the ZOO for my birthday!!!! Since my birthday is on the 11th which is a p-day, I AM GOING TO THE ZOO!! I am so stoked. I can't wait. I will take TONS of pictures.

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen

Week 21!

This week was WONDERFUL!

But I don't have much time so I'll try to keep things brief.

 

First of all, that less-active deaf member came to church again on Sunday and wants to come every week! That is awesome but it also means that I am now interpreting with another member who signs every Sunday in church! Scary! It's been really fun though and I'm learning a lot.

 

I ate an Amish chicken this week!

 

I had my first Michigan snow on Wednesday!

 

I went to a baptism on Saturday! It was for this guy the elders are teaching. He's been investigating the church for 15 years! He's gone through 31 elders! When he said that, the bishop's wife said, "Maybe it would've only taken 1 sister!" It was funny. He's AWESOME.

 

We taught a lesson to an investigator WHILE SHE WAS IN LABOR! She was having contractions every 5 minutes and she thought they were just false alarms so she had us keep teaching. But apparently she went into the hospital after we left and had the baby that night!

 

I don't know what else to say because my mind is racing all over the place right now! But I will write a better letter next week, I promise!

 

I love you all!

 

<3 Sister Christiansen