What a week!!

Happy Late Memorial Day!!!

  At one point on Sunday I told Sister Schmitt there is an awesome concert on today for Memorial Day.  

  We had a busy week.  It was really awesome because thru God's Grace we were able to teach 31 lessons.  That was pretty miraculous especially since we were at Zone Conference all day Tuesday, and then we were with the Spanish Elders on the bus on Wed, for part of the day.

  Zone Conference was really great, I took over 20 pages of notes.  Now I just need to apply the things I learned so I can be much, much better! President was fabulous as always as was Sister Porter,  President Valencia, and the Assistants.  They are going to be fun, sorta crazy but super fun.

  Here is my insert of my letter: This past week was pretty awesome.  We were really hoping to meet our goals, and we did on some, but we really wanted to hit our member present goal, so that is the big push for this week.

  I absolutely loved the chance of going on exchanges with Elder Taylor and Elder Wells.  They are awesome and it was really good to watch them and see what I can do better to help more people learn about the gospel. It was fun to do something different and still have a lot of success.  We found a bunch of cool people on the bus, and it was nice because a few actually even live in our area.  

  I love serving with Sister Schmitt, we have seen so many miracles, and we know that there are bunches more waiting to happen.  We are so excited to baptize a family in June, along with the rest of the Mission.

 President Porter's birthday was on Friday.  We had exchanges w/ the Eaton sisters on Friday.  On Sunday Bishop told me that I am a good missionary, but I should definitely not go into being a comedian......Sister Hall and I had got volunteered to be in a talent show, and it went very downhill.....as in terribly,  terribly lame.  

Love you have a great week.

Oh my goodness the crazy saga continues in my life!!!

I got moved all the way to Englehood!!

  My goodness, I spent all day packing last Monday, and today I think I'll spend quite a bit unpacking!  Fun stuff :)

  I was literally shocked last week, b/c I didn't think I was leaving.  Turns out the reason I didn't think I was leaving is b/c I wasn't really heading anywhere. It was my secret dream to be Sister Schmitt's companion, and we talked about it, and then Tuesday morning I found out dreams do come true!!! Haha, but really.

  Sister Schmitt and I are now in charge of the whole ward.  We are the only set, and I think we are the only ward in the whole mission that just has 1 set.  It is crazy b/c we were both really busy when we were both in our separate areas in the ward, so don't be surprised if we go around like chickens w/ our heads cut off!  It has been a glorious 6 days thus far, but we are going to have so much fun.

   Here is my insert so I can be lazy and not write the same stuff again. I am so excited to be Sister Schmitt's companion.  We were able to have such an awesome week together.  I know that everything we were able to accomplish was through God's grace.  I am very grateful for the chance we have to be together in Englewood.  Some of the miracles we had this last week were:

  Getting 10 member presents.  We were able to see miracles and really had to work for it, but at the same time not really because God stepped in and made up the difference for us.  

  We were able to find several new investigators by talking with everyone, especially those that we really didn't always want to.  

  I definitely see how important diligence and persistence is.  One night we could have headed back home to make it in at nine, but we decided to talk to a few more people and miracles happened.

  They truly do rain down, we just have to allow them to occur.

  Monday: Packing.............All.........day............long! Oh I also drove around lost in Dayton for a while so that was fun. :) I was stressed to the max to be honest.  

  Tuesday: I died of happiness when they said that Sister Schmitt and I are companions.  I am her Junior Companion and we are Sister Training Leaders............over 1 companionship of Sisters. I am excited, it will be way fun.  Plus I'm w/ Sister Schmitt who I have wanted to serve w/ forever....we might become the same person I think. We have lots of fun together so I'm excited.  We got to spend some good quality time w/ Sister Weir, who was very excited I stayed by the way.  Visited George and Mason real quick like, had dinner, you know the regular life stuff.  Oh so guess what? Sister Ashcraft went to Milford, and I got to see Sister Scott again which made me so happy!! And our Assistants got doubled in! Elder Martin and Elder Fivas!! I am so excited about that, because I love both of them lots.  I love knowing people. It's simply the best.

  Wednesday: We saw many mighty miracles. We were able to teach 4 mem pres lessons. Visit some of our fav. LA. We had a major revelation in terms of Jon.  Stay tuned, I'll let you know how that goes.  God's grace was everywhere that day.

  Thursday: We had 2 member pres lessons. which was exciting. Dinner w/ the Helis' which is always a very lovely time. Other good things happened, but I'mma skip right along.

  Friday: It was our first rough day together, we didn't really get our goals, but it was a good day nonetheless. We ended up doing service and other such things. We also had to pass off our BoM lesson to the Zone Leaders and then the Sisters had to pass theirs off to us. One of our investigators really opened up and told us lots and lots of things, so that was good.

  Saturday: Sister Schmitt extended baptism to 2 drunk guys, it was pretty awesome.  Next time I guess its my turn, I was too nervous to do it then.  We contacted a ref, and it was kinda awkward she just looked at us and was like I'm still in my pajamas, nevermind the fact it was 2:30 in the afternoon.....good times. 

  Sunday: We had ward council, and church, and a meeting, and other things. The Terry's came out teaching with us so we could reach our goal of 10 mem pres. it was awesome!!

This week we have Zone Conference tomorrow. Sister Schmitt and I are going on an exchange w/ Elder Taylor and Elder Wells, to better learn how to talk w/ everyone, and be a boss at personal contacting, and an exchange w/ the Eaton Sisters...probably on Friday.  So it should be a good one.  

Thanks for all you do for me!

Homework for this week, reread Bishop Stevenson's Conference talk, b/c its awesome!!

I love you!

Love, 

        Sister Christiansen

P.S. Clair and Maxine good luck w/ this week!! You're in my thoughts and prayers!

Holy Moly!!

I love you all!! 

  That phone call was simply fab!!  Thanks for letting me see all your beautiful faces, even if you didn't see mine.  It was good from my end I'll tell you what. Plus Miss Madison is simply a doll I love her!!

  I was dead wrong! Sister Ashcraft and I are being doubled out, so today has been a busy, busy day!! full of packing and all that other what not, mostly consisting of packing.  I text George to make sure he would be around for this evening so I can get a picture w/ him for my darlings....so there you have it, I'll do it today :)

  We had a really good week. We did things I've never done before, like finding 7 new investigators, teaching 27 lessons and so on.  Fun times that is for sure and for certain.  

  Oh yes you should stay in contact with my darling Sister Weir, because she is simply the best.  I love her to pieces and beyond.  When we talked w/ her earlier she almost started crying and I felt so bad.   I am sad to leave, but in a way I guess I'm sorta relieved, b/c I feel like there is not too much more I could do here, except keep up on my very favorite peeps....ya know?

  We had some really good lessons, with some of our less actives and it was good to see them progress a bit, but now we are moving on so hopefully others can keep it up. I'm sure they will tho, so no worries in my part. I just hope they love my people as much as I do. I'm also super grateful that I got pictures w/ some of the members, b/c after 6 months here that would be a pity if I left w/ none.  

  Goal for my new area, take pictures sooner, than at the very end.  (We'll see how that goes)

  Happy Birthday this week to Robyn!! I hope you really enjoy your day :)

  BFFF Dillon!!! I hope that your Birthday is also  most excellent!! You should draft someone into making you a cool cake....maybe one that isn't the leaning tower of Piza this time round! :) 

  Roger and Sara Congratulations!! I hope that your day is super special. I love you both and I hope that everything goes well :)

  I already told you but Stacey sang for me this week and it was awesome.  Her voice is simply gorgeous. I got a pic w/ her but forewarning, I look super nasty!!  Also that day is the day that I put Miss Kate on date. Who now has a new date, b/c we had to move it a bit. as in one week back on Saturday.

  We got to help Brother McMurtry cut down juniper bushes on Wednesday and it was fun.  Nothing better than service clothes I'll tell you what :)

  We had a million and 2 drop by visits, which was fun as always. We also had a zone meeting, and later we had so much fun at the church that we thought we'd go back and vacuum a bit.  Nothing like some good service.  I also went to the snazziest McDonald's ever......talk about fancy! Not going to lie I was quite impressed.  However as we all know it doesn't take too much to do that haha :)  We had a good visit w/ Sister Gatton, she is simply a doll, and I shall miss her that is for sure.  

  Mason gave me a million more questions that I do not know how to answer. Hopefully whoever is coming in is a mad genius scripture wise. Or can just bedazzle him w/ the spirit.!! That would work too!

  We went to visit some people and funny story. They told us ohh we were just leaving, got in their car and drove away.  So we were sitting in front of their house putting the next destination into the GPS when.....ohh Hello, they pulled back in. haha awkward for them right? Guess they weren't too interested in talking with us that day. Not going to lie I busted up in the car.  I found the situation to be quite enjoyable. Nothing like being a missionary I'll tell you what.

  I want to throw in that even just writing that story made me laugh again. haha

  Saturday was Social Media Day round dos!! If you see any pictures of me online, just look away okay, I was not looking too fresh haha :) but really.  It didn't go quite as smooth as we would have liked, but oh well nothing ever does.  We did enjoy ourselves tho.  We saw several miracles and found 3 new investigators. (btw all of our investigators came from Sat. and Sunday cool huh) We taught 8 lessons that day which is our all time record I think.....It was simply remarkable. God's Grace definitely attended us this week!!!!!

  Church was good, we had breakfast during the third hour so that was lovely.  We taught a few lessons found a few new investigators and I got to talk w/ you!! Happy Day!!!!

  I love you all!! Have a splendid week.  Soon we shall see where I'll be coming from next I suppose! :)

Love, 

        Sister Christiansen

 

 

From Social Media Day!!!

 

Good afternoon.  I'm Sister Crumb, of Union, Ohio, and I'm a member of the Englewood Ward, where Sister Christianson is currently serving on her mission.  On Saturday, May 10th, I spent three hours with her and her companion, Sister Ashcraft, and took photos of them for the Cincinnati Mission's Social Media Split day. I really enjoyed accompanying them to the various appointments, and even had the opportunity to bear my own testimony of the Book of Mormon to one of the people we visited. :-)

I'd meant to get the attached photos to you for Mother's Day, but ran out of time in the busy-ness of my own family's needs yesterday.  I hope you enjoy this little snippet of Sister Christianson's mission.  I will send a few more in a separate email.

Sincerely yours,

Sister Crumb

 

 

 

Hello!

Another Week has come and gone!!

  So guess what?!?! I get to talk to you this week!!! Oh my gosh I'm so excited :)  I'm going to go straight to my weekly recap and do other miscellaneous stuff as it comes to me! Sound like a plan!?! ....good, glad to know you agree.

  Monday: Sister Helis took us to visit Amelia. I love them both, they are great. We were outside, and it was a teeny bit chilly, but hey we had a good lesson.  Then we met up for exchanges with the other Sisters, and Sister Schmitt and I headed off to Vandalia, for our own little partay! :)  I'll tell you what, I had the hardest time planning that night, and then as we were going about on Tuesday I saw why, b/c nothing worked out as planned, everything got super switched around.

  Tuesday: Sister Schmitt and I had such a good day together.  We got to chat it up, and spend all day figuring things out. We went and had an impromptu lesson w/  and Mason became....a new investigator!! We had a really, really good lesson. The spirit was quite strong, and we found out a lot about him.  We were going to go visit Meryl, and we drove all the way........to Dayton, and she wasn't there! BOOOO! Its okay b/c we followed the Zone Leaders to someone else, but she was asleep, so then we chatted about some things, and headed off to visit some other people, back in our area. We spent some time w/ Sister Streleck and Brother McCracken. Had Dinner and exchanged back to our regular comrades! All in all a grand day.

  Wednesday: District meeting, and then we all ate leftover Chinese in the kitchen, so that was fun.  We had Sister Dunn come out w/ us and she brought her little baby, who is 10 months old and so super cute!  That was fun, she told us after that that was her first time coming out with the missionaries, so hopefully it was a good experience.  We had a good visit w/ Sister Landis, I just love her oh so much!! She is so sweet, and it turns out it was not a super day, so our visit was a needed thing, I love when things like that work out. :) We had Stacey come out w/ us this week and then our person cancelled so we randomly showed up at Lukes's. He was like I thought you weren't coming till tomorrow.  But we had a good quick chat and then skedaddled. Because we had a lesson w/ the Joseph's. We had just a bit of time left before we had to go in for the night, so we headed to McD's and then we took Miss Olivia a hot fudge sundae! We totally enjoyed the ice cream...!

  We had Zone planning at the church on Thursday, and all of us Sisters (as in the 6 of us) went to lunch. We had a lesson set up and a member to go w/ us when shazamm the person cancelled so we had to real quick like pray for inspiration of what to do instead. We both got that we should go visit Noah, and off we went to see our funny boy, who never texts us back! Miracle, he was there! The lesson went pretty well, and we finally finished the Restoration. The only problem being I pretty much overtook the whole thing, whoops. Then we had a cancellation and random things happened but we met our goal of 2 mp, b/c God stepped in and gave us a miracle. We had a new inv w/ our members.  Sister Gatton is who we ended the night w/.  All in all a successful day.

  Friday Happy Birthday Lisa! We had another lesson w/ Mason and it went pretty well, he asked some q's that quite frankly I have no idea how to answer. Any news on Bro. Maughan's info??   We did two different Service things, so I got to wear my fun clothes twice in one day!! What are the chances of that happening? SLim, thats what.  We had a good visit w/ Gaylene and set up a dinner appt w/ her and Richard for the next day.  And we visited Sister Neu. Always a good time.

  Saturday: Brother Bruno and his son Austyn so kindly dedicated much of their afternoon to going out w/ us, but nothing quite worked as planned so everything got moved and shifted around but all worked out in some sort of way.  Sister Dupre' came w/ us to the Joseph's and we had dinner w/ The Russells, so that was super exciting.

  Sunday: We had a baby blessing and that is always fun.  Then we visited w/ Debbie, and Sister Riggs, Charles, and met his brother Kenneth.  Had dinner and finished out the night at the Spencers, and also met a nice guy on the way back to our apartment.  

  Story time!!

 Alright so on Wednesday we got a text from Christian asking me where I was from in Cache Valley? After I gave my response I got some texts talking about my Bishop (as in Bishop Rhodes) and Stake President (President Traveller) , and how he (as in Christian) was in Logan checking out the college.  It was soo funny.  Turns out Lindsay's coworker from Logan, is Bishop Rick's. He was helping to provide some Logan info, while Lindsay was providing info I'd shared while being over at their place.  So yesterday at Church I talked to Christian, Lindsay and Sister Holland about how funny it was.  Talk about a small world tho, right?

Anyways I love you lots!!!

Love, Sister Christiansen :)

oh Ps. here is this stuff:

So this last week was really awesome.  Sister Ashcraft and I exceeded our member present goal, which was super awesome, especially since it didn't feel like we tried that much harder than other times when we haven't reached our goal.  It was definitely an example to me of how grace comes in and helps us do more than we ever can!

  I have a few questions for you this week. We have been meeting with Mason and are working with him more than George right now.  Mason asked us a few questions that quite frankly I have no idea how to answer.  It really bothers him that in the Book of Mormon they talk about light and dark skin.  He said that it is specifically important in the Book of Mormon and is not so in the Bible.  I said that it could be looked at symbolically, but he disagreed with that one.  He was also wondering why Jacob refers to the Jews and Gentiles? I don't know what to do for that one.  One last one, he said that the Book of Mormon does things out of the timeline.  As in the Nephites know things about Christ before people over in Jerusalem do.  

  There you have it, some of Mason's questions that puzzled me this week!

Happy Mothers Day!!

So I can't believe I actually forgot to mention this, but then again, knowing me yes I can!

Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite Mother's out in Utah, and other such places!! I hope your day is super special!

I love you all very much!

Birthdays!!

Oh hey one last thing! I'm a little behind on some Birthdays! Uncle Bishop I hope you had a splendid day!! :) Auntie Angie I hope  you get feeling much better and that you have a fabulous day!!!

I Love you all!!