Ohh my gosh!

First off,

  I'm being seperated from my best friend. Sister Schmitt is being transferred, and it's her last transfer on the mission.  Only 2 of us are staying from our whole district. Me and Elder Tavake.  We're both a little upset, esp, since I didn't see it coming.  I really didn't even write a good email to President, b/c we got our call as we were emailing, and I just don't know what to say.

  My Birthday was fabulous!!!! I loved it.  We had such a party in our apartment, and we still have birthday remnants spread over our house. The Zone Leaders went to a luau and gave me a cake they got there, it is really nice, but I don't have my camera cord w/ me so I'll show you some other time.  It was super delicious too.  We did a training that morning and it was totally spirit directed so that was awesome.  Sorry this one is not so exciting, I'm still sitting here in shock.  I loved my presents, and I am also so excited that little Max made it here safely. He is super cute!! Jordan and Sarah congrats!!!! :)  Also Colton Congratulations on going thru the Temple that is soo awesome!! I am so excited that we get to be missionary buddy cousins.  That is so fun. 

  We met this really awesome guy this week who knows his Bible super well, and seeing as I don't this could be a slight bit of a problem.

  Sister Schmitt loved the clothes btw.  We are all matchy-matchy today.  Good thing since it's one of our last to do so.  We even have matching watches, rings, and now skirts and shirts.  We do our hair the same and we pretty much are the same person.  I am going to miss her the most of everyone I've been with.  I was not expecting this in the least.  Sometimes God puts hard things in our path, but ultimately its for our benefit and gain.  I am so, so grateful for the time I have spent as Sister Schmitt's companion and also even just around her.  She wins for the person I have been around the most.

  Philip is going to be baptized on Friday at 7.  We are praying everything goes well.  Ohh my goodness, this is insane.  I don't really know what to say anymore.

  I got a picture w/ Jeremy, and I'll send it to you, sometime.  We also have a D-Town District Hat picture. It's pretty great.  Sister Haas came out w/ us this week and we had tons of fun w/ her. Esp when she had to kill a spider w/ her flip-flop.  Colio I needed your email today so thank you!!! I completely  understand what you mean.  I also was on exchanges w/ Sister Hall this week.  They had a baptism on Saturday. So there was a baptism on my birthday, just one I had no connection w/.

  Brother Morales took us out to dinner for my birthday and we had a great time.  We had a good visit w/ Sister Mosier yesterday, and we went and saw Mitch again.  Sister Anderson and I used to teach him, and he has decided that we can come back again. 

  God is everywhere.  All we have to do is look around and we can see that He is watching out and knows what is best for us, even if we don't.

  I love you!!!

 

Love,

         Sister Christiansen

Birthday Week!!!!

Hi one, hi all! :)

  So it sounds like you are all running on full gear. Things are never too slow. I feel like my life is on a fast pace, but really Idk if I'm doing that much more than all of yall :)

  Weekly Round-up:

  Monday: We had a 2 zone fun day down in Kettering.  We had fun w/ our other missionary peeps.  Sister Schmitt, Elder Litster and I worked on our volleyball skills...on our own court, since we didn't exactly feel qualified enough to join the others.  Fun none the less ;) We had a lesson w/ one of our investigators and it was so-so....not sure the interest level....Then we taught the Eyoungs about the WoW. It was good stuff, b/c hallejuah they have no problems w/ it. They said that those things are not important, and Marti (when we taught her on Saturday said that God told us not to do those things in the Bible) was all for it as well. Thank goodness there are still people in this world that want to not smoke, drink and party.....Yay!

  Tuesday: We were having tons of fun w/ Sister Wilson.  She is a cutie and I love and miss her...this week w/ her went way tooooooo fast! We went and taught one of my favorite investigators, Jeremy!! he is still cute as ever. We taught him all abt the imp of Church. Had dinner w/ Sister Wilson's G'rents, and had 2 impromptu lessons w/ other inv. Good thing we excel at going  on the fly. We knocked twice at one inv. door, and there was no answer so I gave him a call and was talking w/ him and he came and looked out the window and said "You have a million people w/ you" I was like its okay its just the missionaries, and our member, "My house is a mess", Its okay we'll close our eyes.  haha I really did say that, and thankfully he let us in. It was sooo funny!!!

  Wednesday: District meeting....we got to hang out in D-Town a bit. One of our Elders and his mini did a little beat-boxing thing for us w/ the song "Sail" it was really good! Too bad I didn't pull out my cam.....oh well. We had a good lesson w/ a LA, and we focused on some of what Elder Fallabella taught us, so look at us using our new knowledge. Champs are we huh? :)  WE had a really good lesson w/ the Blantons, and I love them lots and lots.  A few laughs are always appreciated.

  Thursday: We did some weekly planning and worked on creating some rhymes for the rap Sister Wilso was putting together.  We had dinner w/ the cutest lady in the ward...We also taught Jeremy, and he was sooo funny.  Maybe I should get a picture with him tomorrow, so you know who I'm talking about....we'll see. :)  We had to meet up for our exchange. Sister Wilson wrote a super awesome rap.....and then she sang it for the Zone Leaders, on our chat w/ them.

  Friday: We had a lesson w/ Ray at the library, and as we were walking out I saw this guy who I wanted us to talk to, so I told Sister Hall to go start the convo. His name is Steve and he is soooooo awesome. I kinda took over the convo, but he is sweet, and I can't wait to teach him. So we had just had this killer awesome spiritual moment w/ Steve and he was all excited to learn and then we got approached by this guy and he went on and on and on......I tried a good few times to get away from chatting w/ him but it never worked. Basically he was getting at the fact that we will be damned because we are not teaching the whole truth when we go out teaching people. He said I would never take away from anyone's faith, so I jumped in and said we don't we just teach what we know and let the spirit testify of truth. He did not like that......but Heavenly Father took pity on us and sent some rain. So I said it's been good talking w/ you but I've gotta go have a lovely day.  Basically the gist of this whole story is that everytime we have a spiritually high, uplifting moment we have Satan come in and try to tear us down, which just shows how true this really is.....at least thats my thoughts.

  Saturday: We had to say goodbye to our Mini. It was sad, she is soo cute! But she did email me, so that was fun stuff.  We got to have an impromptu lesson w/ the Blantons.

  Sunday: We got to help w/ the Father's day Breakfast that was fun stuff. Also we met our goal of 5 inv at church and that was super exciting. Sister Schmitt and I had some pretty good convo's w/ Philip

, and also Norbert. They are hilarious.  Also this totally was not fun to find out.......our Chapel is infested w/ Bed-Bugs!!! Good thing Sister Ward taught me all about how not to get them.  

 Monday: Sister Schmitt and I got matching D-Town hats....and we are kicking it in a Missionary Thuggish way :)

I love you all!!!

  Love,

          Sister Christiansen

Also looks like the baptism will be on June 28....Sister Schmitt's Birthday

Hey June!

Hey Hey How goes it?

  Swell I hope. Our week was pretty good.  We had lots going on. So lets see how much I can make it thru. Ready, set, here goes:

  Monday: we had a zone fun day, and we played volleyball, lets just say what athletic skills I had have gone downhill since coming out.  Not much practice = not much skill.  But hey its whatere! Happy Birthday Grandpa, I did think about you :) Hope you all enjoyed the festivities. We had some good little lessons and thats about it.....

  Tuesday: Mission Leadership Council!!! So much awesomeness.  We had to get up early and drive down to Cinci so that was fun.  I always love a good road trip, the only part I don't love is saying goodbye to all those miles. But it was a trip filled with Spiritual awesomeness, so its all good w/ me.  I took a billion pages of notes. Some of the highs of that day were, seeing Sister Rolfe, Sister Denison, President Porter of course, as well as Sister Porter!!! Among others, but I'm just very attached to those ones, as you well know.  Elder Martin gave an awesome training on how we need to make our Zones more like a family, so we have been working on that. Trying to get to know each other more, and share some awesome highs. When we got back to our area we tried this awesome referral, and we had some good times, that is for certain.  Back to MLC it was pretty funny because at one point President decided to talk to everyone about my growth. So he was asking me about how I was when I first came out, when I was training, and now. He pointed out that we have to help people grow, so that was fun.  After I was talking to Elder Martin and he asked how it felt to be where I'm at now? I just had to laugh a bit and said it felt really good. 

  Wednesday: We went to Dayton and planned out the Zone Meeting, almost got a parking ticket, and have some rainy lessons. We were in another flash floodish sort of thing. There was a ridiculous amount of water flowing on the streets, I was glad that some members were driving us around, and also glad that I was in the backseat, so I could not see exactly what was going on for the drive....don't worry our lives were not in peril.  We had a good lesson w/ our buddy Jeremy.  I just love him, and I don't think he has any idea that I do.  We invited him to church and to read the BoM, but unfortunately since we were in the middle of a monsoon we had forgot to grab one to take w/ us to teach him with....so we had to tell him we'd bring it the next time.  The Morales had us over for dinner. Sister Terry went down to the Blanton's with us, and we had a good lesson w/ Sister Blanton. She is sooooo funny!

  Thursday: We had Zone Meeting and it was super fun.....Sister Schmitt and I got to be in charge of a game, we played, get to know half the zone.....I enjoyed it, so hopefully others did as well.  We had the Bruno's out w/ us and Austyn was catching me up on some NBA Draft info. I'm kinda bummed Jabari decided to go to the NBA....a mission would have been really good for him, but oh well I suppose.  We had a lesson w/ Ray, a good time as always....nothing he said is really standing out, so I'll move right along.  We had a killer good lesson w/ Sister Crumb and Brielle who is superb! She came to Stake Conf. on Sunday and that was a killer good miracle.  

  Friday: We had dinner w/ Sister Weir.  I miss her sooo soo much!!!! We also had a really good lesson with the Eyoungs, w/ Brother Nyberg. They are on date for the 21st of June!!!! So hopefully I'll have a baptism Birthday!!!!!  

  Saturday: We taught this awesome lady named Tanya, she is sooo cool. She was crying and could feel the spirit so much it was fabulous!!! Then we went and picked up our Mini-Missionary.  Her name is Sister Wilson and we love her lots :) She gets to be w/ us for a whole week. Fun times huh? Stake Conference is killer cool! Elder Fallabella (sp) from Guatemala is super awesome!!!!

  Sunday: we saw a billion miracles!!! and President and Sister Porter, it made my day!

I love you lots! 

Love,

            Sister Christiansen

Hello Best Month of the Year!! JUNE :)

Hi Everyone,

  First off Happy Birthday Grandpa! I hope that it is a fabulous day :)

  Secondly this past week kind of flew by, and same story as usual, I can't believe its time to do the recap already.  I'm going to give you a few random highlights and do the usus.....then since last week's wasn't very informative I'll try to go back and hit some of those highlights as well.

  Tuesday: We didn't really want to go out, but we did, and because we did we found some cool peeps.  We did get feeling better no worries.  I took a nap for a few hours and it was lovely.  It might be the first nap I've ever taken on Preperation Day and I quite enjoyed it.

  Wednesday:  We had District Meeting down in Dayton, and then we didn't have time to go get lunch at our place so we stopped at WestTown to get some Pizza Hut. We went to go in, and couldn't b/c you either have to type in a code, or get buzzed in.   Weird eh? Good news was, the pizza was really good, bad news, it burnt the roof of my mouth.  The Nybergs came w/ us to see Deliah, and she gave us some delicious Pineapple Upside Down Cake, but she had made hers w/ Chocolate cake, and I would highly suggest it, b/c it was super delicious!!!! Yum Yum :) We went to go visit Andrew, but he was not there and then they had to skedadle, so we were trying to refigure our plans and we look up and see Andrew carrying some laundry down to his car, so we popped out of the car and here is how the convo went: Sister Schmitt "We're not trying to be weird or anything, we were just trying to figure out where to go now" Andrew, "Sorry I missed you, I just woke up, can we reschedule?" Us "Heck yes!" Jk it wasn't exactly like that, but you get the gist of it right?  I was happy b/c I really like him so I was glad he hadn't stood us up.  We went and visited the Henderson's.  Learned lots of funny stories about them.  Bro. Henderson was telling us how when he was a missionary it was called Deviation day.....so who knows maybe that's what I'll call mine sometimes too :) We had a Church tour w/ Ray.  He and Spencer were an answer to our prayers, b/c we were kind of despondent about how plans hadn't really worked as planned. Ray had us laughing the whole time.  Sister Schmitt was actually crying b/c she was laughing so much.  It was a grand time as always.  The best part was when we walked in the Chapel, we were pointing out the spirit, and then Ray goes I see a spider, its going to go get its dinner.  Talk about hard to keep my reverence, too funny!!! We love him lots and lots.  Then we were going to go talk to some of the YW peeps, and saw Bro. McMurtry and Sister Schmitt  asked if he wanted to go to an appointment w/ us and off we went.  He actually did 2 w/ us and it was all God's grace that we met our goal....One of our inv. had a baby that was 7 days old and offered to let us hold her, it was so hard to say no. She was Adorable!!!!

  Thursday: Happy One Year Mark!! yay :)  We had weekly planning and then we walked to the Stucki's in the blistering heat.  It was nice and toasty. Taught a quick lesson which went pretty good and then we went to the Haas and had a bowl of ice cream and some chips and salsa.  Sister Haas is so sweet, I love her lots.  She took us to the Helis' for dinner w/ them and the Dotson's. Then Sister Dotson went out teaching w/ us.  We taught Ray, and good times as always. Then we went to see Sister Roberts, a new move in, w/ Sister McMurtry.  Good times my friends, good times. Plus we did not use our car or any miles that day :) so much happiness

  Friday: Service for Sister Terry and then she spent the whole day w/ us.  We had lunch w/ her and Brother Terry. Then we had some killer good appointments w/ her.  We went and saw Jeremy, whom I adore. He is so sweet, and he really just wants to get close to God, and regain some things he lost. (He was in a really bad motorcycle accident and was in a coma for 3 months) But I love him.  We taught Deliah again and it went really well.  Angela's I'll be honest I don't really know what went on, I was sitting right there, but I was trying to keep one of her daughters entertained.  She was pretty good, but I was nonexistent in the lesson. Whoops. Dinner was at Penn Station and was super good.  Then we went to the family from Africa that we are teaching. They are super cool.  They are actually from Cameroon.  Cool stuff huh?!? Jordan if you have any suggestions on how to teach we'd love to hear.  We think we need to have the dad study the material first and then go and teach, it seemed to work better that way.  

  Saturday: We helped do some taping for prep work for painting. Then we taught some lessons. and saw some serious miracles.  God is great!!

  Sunday: Church was good.  Brother Morales gave a fabulous testimony and brought the spirit in soooo fabulously.  Plus Sister Rivero is back and we are so happy. She is so sweet, and super hilarious.   Sister Morales gave the best lesson on Forgiveness, and you should all watch this video on Mormon Channel....."The Savior Wants to Forgive.." so good and sooooooo powerful!!!

  We were able to teach 33 lessons, have 4 at church, 12 member present, and the Assistants just text us and told us how awesome we are......basically this week was fabulous!!!

Also I don't think I've made mention one time this week how much I love Sister Schmitt, but let me tell you I dooo!!

I love all of you to the moon and back!! Have a killer good week :)

Love, 

          Sister Christiansen

Ps I'm too lazy to go back to last week! Sorry about that :)

 

1 more thing 

 

I forgot to tell you all some exciting news!

I get to go to Mission Leadership Council tomorrow and I'm so excited!! :) 

Love you