Week 57!

Hi everyone! I liked that whole bullet point thing last week. Let's do that again!

• It was the Fourth of July this week! Hooray! As a present, I got someone's expired driver's license. Jackpot! I also saw zero fireworks. Missionary life! 
• With that, everyone was talking about how exciting it was that it was the nation's 238th birthday and I realized, 'Holy cow, I've been to castles older than our country,' which is probably the most pretentious thing I've ever typed, but it freaked me out! Sometimes I forget how young we are. I love it. 
• MLC was this week so we got to meet the new mission president and his wife! They are wonderful! I love them already. Pics below!
• The work is moving along beautifully! The wonderful weather gets us so excited to go out and talk to people. This area has so many prepared people in it!
• I know this is the Lord's work. I am so glad I am here.
• This week was crazy, but everyone likes pictures better than reading my lengthy emails, right? So I'll just attach some pictures here!

MLC! All the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and President & Sister Jacobsen! They are absolutely lovely!

 

 

MLC meant I got to reunite with Sister Brems!

 And Sister Carlson! Whenever she and I reunite, things like this happen. I'm sorry.

 

 

I love my mission! This life is the happiest life! I love you all!

<3 Sister Christiansen

 

Week 56!

Sorry, but this email is going to be really short!

Random updates, bullet point style! Go!

• I love Sister Oswald! She and I have so much fun together. We both love cats and the New Testament and happy music so it's PERFECT.
• Our new mission president has arrived! It was really sad saying goodbye to President Hess. He has changed my life. But I know this new mission president will be wonderful, too. His name is President Jacobsen and we get to meet him tomorrow at MLC! 
• I strained my neck and back muscles this week! I think I pulled something while hauling hay, and then a couple days later it caught up with me. It was pretty painful but also hilarious. Sister Oswald and I were doing yoga in the morning, and all of a sudden I was like, "I can't move," and I actually couldn't move! It hurt so bad! Even laying back down was so painful that it brought tears to my eyes! I felt so pathetic haha.
  
• BUT because of that, I got a free massage! A lady in our ward helped me out. She did "Rolfing," which is like, SUPER-deep-massage that strips away your muscles from your bones where they've adhered so that they can realign. Basically, it's very, very painful. But it worked! I can move my neck again!

Once again, sorry this is so short!

To add a thousand words to this email, here's a picture from transfer day! That's me, Sister Oswald (my new companion), and Sister Pyper (my old companion). I love them all!

 

 

Michigan summers are wonderful! I can go outside in short sleeves again! I never thought this day would come.

I love you all!

<3 Sister Christiansen

Week 55!

This week was incredible! My new companion is here! Her name is Sister Oswald and she is hilarious! She is a great teacher and missionary and we are going to have an incredible transfer! I forgot my memory card, but you can see my companion in the video I'll talk about later!

This week started off the transfer beautifully. We had a lot of really cool experiences with our investigators. One of them, Austin, has been doing great and loves everything we've been teaching. He's studied religion and spirituality forever, so he just instantly recognizes truth when it's taught. He even came and did a service project with us this week! We hauled bales of hay! It was exhausting, but so much fun! I just think of how Joseph Smith used to say that service is our religion. What better way for someone to find out what Mormons are all about than to haul hay in 85 degree weather with some missionaries? Austin loved it! He's in the video that I'll attach at the end of this message.

Well, maybe I'll just talk about the video now. Sister Oswald and I have to give a training to the missionaries here about how to use visuals while finding and teaching people. To introduce our topic, we decided to make a video about how NOT to use visuals. It was a ton of fun, and includes some common mistakes that we all make, along with some not-so-common mistakes that are just funny. We enlisted the help of the zone leaders and Austin, and this is what happened!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqwl_jcr5zg

It was a lot of fun. We teach on Wednesday. I'll let you all know how it goes. Speaking in front of large groups of missionaries is half-terrifying, half-awesome. Hopefully I don't freak out.

I am so grateful to be serving in Mt. Pleasant. It is a truly wonderful area. I know that if we work hard and involve the Lord in everything we do, we will continue to see miracles!

I hope you are all having wonderful days and weeks and months. I will see you all soon. I am so happy whenever I hear updates about all the amazing things you all are doing. You are my heroes!

Thank you for being so inspirational!

<3 Sister Christiansen