Record Breaking Week!!

Hey one, Hi All!

  So it sounds like all of you have been nice and busy this past week! What do you know, we have too!!!!!

  Sister Colton and I have been having so much fun together, and we are seeing miracles, like 20 billion times a day.  I honestly can't believe how much the Lord is Blessing us! But I'll tell you what, I'll take it :)   

  Some of our number highs this week were: 40 lessons taught, 16 member present, 11 baptism extensions, and yep it was pretty darn exciting.

  I have some seriously awesome stories, so I hope you all enjoy these!!!!

One investigator that I love lots is an 18 yr old girl, and we decided to take a younger ward member w/ us to visit her, he is 22, (sorta unneeded but slightly necessary info).  Her older sister happened to be there and she started talking about how she grew closer to God and wanted to leave behind all the other things like: drinking, and smoking, and sexual relations, and then she continued talking, however her younger sister got caught on the sexual relations part and pointed out that she has a few kids. Then she turned to us and asked all 3 of us individually if we were virgins.  Haha soooo funny!! We all assured her that we were, and she believed me, but she wasn't sure about the other 2. Needless to say it was hilarious, and quite an interesting turn of conversation to say the least.  We had made cookies that day to take to people and since we felt kinda bad that our member had been in such an interesting conversation we gave him a bag of cookies.  Don't worry he wasn't scarred for life or anything like that, and it seems like he's still cool w/ coming out w/ us.

  We were teaching Dan the other day and we were outside, and this group of kids walked over asked what we were doing and ended up joining us for the lesson.  We got one new investigator that day, and later in the week when we went back to teach our little friend we got 2 more. Kids and the gospel, its a good thing they like it. I love how when they hear it, it just makes sense to them and they feel the spirit and want to learn more. Cool how that works huh?

  We had the most spiritual church tour of my life with Audra!! Oh my goodness it was amazing!! She almost cancelled on us, but then she decided not to, and boy are we glad she didn't.  The member that was with us was awesome too!!!  She felt the spirit so, so much and it was fantastic. She accepted a baptism date of August 23rd, so we are working towards that ;)

  Brother Dupre came out with us, and we had an awesome time with him.  He is a spiritual powerhouse. One of my absolute favorites that I have ever had come out teaching with us.

  In random news, I ate clam chowder for the first and last time in my life. The more I have eaten seafood the more I have truly realized that it really isn't for me! That was my happy Birthday Karen dinner in case you were wondering.

  Sister Colton helped Patrick w/ his computer woes, and potentially became his favorite. We almost died 3 times with some cute members. Sometimes its not worth saving the miles is what I've decided. :)  

  We spent some time w/ a cute family in the Spanish Branch. They were so excited to see Sisters, but unfortunately I know zilch in the Spanish Language....but they loved us nonetheless.

  Friday we were on exchanges w/ Greenville. I was w/ Sister Bergeson, and I learned a ton, not sure if she did :) We had some sweet lessons.

  I promised Jeremy some jokes, so if you have any please let me know!!!

 The Gospel is the most amazing thing ever! and there is nothing I love more than being a missionary!! Thanks for all your love and support, it means the world :)

Have a killer week. And my best advice to you Kammie is don't pull out directly into oncoming traffic, otherwise you'll do great!!

Love,

        Sister Christiansen

PS this is my insert from my letter to President

But I have to say Sister Colton and I have seen so many miracles together, and we have had so much fun! I look back on our week and I realize that we accomplished a lot, but at the same time there was definitely many areas where we could have actually done more and seen even more miracles.  The Lord has definitely blessed us so much.  We run around all day like chickens with our heads cut off, but at the end of the day we still get a lot done, which is somewhat surprising because we sometimes seem to have no direction.

  One of my highlights of the week was when we had a semi awkward lesson with one of our investigators and member of the ward.  We are teaching this 18 year old girl and so we took a younger member of the ward with us.  Her older sister ended up bringing the conversation around to not keeping the law of chastity. So then our investigator ended up asking all 3 of us individually if we were virgins, it was pretty hilarious.  Needless to say we kinda need to watch out when she starts asking questions. :)

Hi Everyone! This is my new district! Me, Sister Colton, Elder Crawford and Tavake (Zone Leaders in Dayton), and Elder Campbell and Giblette (E. Campbell is the district leader and they are in Dayton too!)

Prayers Work!!

Hey guess what?!?

  All of your prayers must have been super powerful, because I got a new companion on Monday.  President gave me a ring on Monday afternoon, and first off congratulated us on hitting leadership in both areas, because that was 20 bajillion miracles all in one, and then he told me that I was getting a new companion that night, but that the Assistants would call with the details. Don't worry it only took them a few hours to actually get back to me, I was dying w/ anticipation, but it was all worth it!

  The Assistants helped make one of my dreams come true, because I got to be alone in my car for a half hour.  Nothing like a car ride....alone!!!! Really it was fabulous. I followed the other Sisters to their apartment so we could leave a car there, and then go about our Missionary life until it was time to get my new com-padre. We didn't leave to meet them until after 8, so it was a late night....but it was all exciting stuff.

  So the news you are all dying to here is. My new companion is Sister Colton, she is awesome. She is also an Aggie. We are the same age. She is also from Utah....we are a bunch of those regular boring missionaries right? both from UT, members our whole lives and all that jazz. But we have had so much fun together. She is from Alpine.  If you have any other questions let me know, and I'll attempt to answer them.

  Continuing right along Tuesday was interview day with President and Sister Porter.  We were traveling down there, and the GPS wasn't working.....as in it wouldn't get the info needed from the satellites to direct us there. So we called the Elders while we were driving in Dayton, and they ended up directing us on a 10 minute detour...we were actually really close to making it to Centerville all on our own with out a GPS, but I got a little too nervous and didn't trust myself, but ohh well. The good news  is we did make it there....eventually. Since we are the Sister Training Leaders we didn't have to do some of the things required of the other missionaries, and instead got to be over those things. So I got to sit in and evaluate and be the investigator to most of the companionships in our zone. It was super fun!!!  

  I also got to have grand interviews with Sister Porter, and then with President as well. Every time I am around them they make me feel like a rockstar. They are so complimentary, I practically thrive off of it. But it was super awesome. I had a grand time with President!!! I really think he will be an Apostle one day, and then I will have the opportunity of saying that I know him.  

  We went and had one super awkward contact, but no worries, she became a new investigator.

  We have a pretty awesome investigator named Dan that we have taught almost everyday this week. He even came to a baptism in Downtown Dayton on Saturday, so that was fun.  

  We  have started to utilize this one member in our ward, he is an absolute rockstar!!! He makes magic happen so that is good news.

  We had a new family move into the ward this last week, and this week we took her out teaching with us. She is soooo super amazing.  One of my new favorites to take out teaching that is for sure. The lesson we had w/ her was soo super spiritually amazing!!! and the 2 investigators we were teaching both accepted a soft baptismal invite, and then committed to church so that was awesome.

  We went on exchanges w/ Eaton on Saturday and  Sister Hall and I spent some extra time down in D-Town after the baptism. We met some awesome people, and one of which actually went to church and became a new investigator on Sunday for the Elders.  Cool beans huh? We had a miracle of miracles happen yesterday. We had 6 investigators at church. The 2 that had committed earlier in the week. But then we (Sis. Colton and I ) were down right terrified when we walked into gospel principles, b/c wouldn't you know it the lesson being taught was.....D&C 89. I wanted to take them and walk them to a different place, b/c we have only taught them once. The lesson was super spiritual tho, and they were okay with it so that was good. I just hope that it doesn't scare them away at all.

  So we almost didn't hit Leadership this week. We still hadn't found the required amount of investigators, and it was after 8:30 (which has been termed the holy half in our mission) so we were soo, soo, blessed by God to be able to find a new investigator. It might be pride that pushed me on, but hey since we are in Leadership we have to hit it....every week, that is the point I see.

Gracie congratulations on your baptism!!!! That is so awesome!! I am so excited that you were able to be baptized. And as a Missionary, I can tell you that there is nothing better than seeing someone make that special promise to God that you just did!!! Way to go girly! :)

Thank you for all your love and support! I love you all sooooo much. Happy Pioneer day this week....celebrate it for me, b/c no one really cares about it out here :)

Last but not least. Happy Birthday to my favorite 26 year old on planet earth!!!! Karrie you are my shining star, and I hope you know that you are better than the best!!!!  I love you lots and lots!!!

The church is true, and God answers prayers, even if they are something as weird as wanting a companionship of 2.

Have a killer week!

Love, 
        Sister Christiansen

Two Area Life

Hey everyone,

  So this week was full of a bajillion miles, a little bit of stress, and some amazing miracles!

  We spent all week going from one area to the next back to the other, and going back and forth and back and forth.  It is somewhat crazy.

  Monday we went and visited some LA's in my area, and then went to Eaton.

  Tuesday we taught the coolest family ever!!! They are the Eaton Sisters investigators, and boy I am glad that I was able to meet them.  They have one of the cutest little girls, and she and I are besties....like seriously. She had me play w/ her and everything. It was awesome b/c we had a mem. come out w/ us who had never gone out w/ the Sisters before and she just loved it.  We also got to teach cute Mr. Jeremy. I had dinner w/ the Dunn's and got to spend some quality time w/ Sister Morales she was my replacement companion for a bit.

  Wednesday: We had District Meeting in Eaton and it was a party.  We then taught some of the Eaton Sisters inv, and I really like some of them, and others, namely one is slightly insane. .... no joke tho. He gave us the grossest mineral water from France, like it is literally from France. Think of the Soda Springs water, but in a bottle...... yuck!!!

  Thursday: I got to teach George!! He is still my very, very favorite. Sister Weir ordered some pizza and while we were waiting for it to come we did the lesson.  It went pretty well I thought. No worries this week I did not talk near so much.   :) I think he is making progress. I told him the key to making legit strides, he is still not doing it, but now he knows.  We visited the Blacks w/ Brother Nyberg.  We started watching the Mountain of The Lord.  That is good stuff, you should all check it out!!

  Friday: I was on exchanges w/ the Greenville Sisters.  Thank goodness we were able to teach a bunch of lessons, and get two new inv.  Both of which were from the Spanish Elders.  Good thing I have them around to help me get new investigators.  We had a good lesson w/ a cute girl named Teaa, and I tried to convince her to come to church but alas she did not.

  Saturday: I was back in my regular trio.  We taught the awesome family from Tuesday. And no worries, their daughter still loves me.  We had a good lesson, and the same member came w/ us and had an awesome experience again.  We taught a few la's in their area, and one of their cute investigators again. Then we headed off to the Morales had a good dinner, and went back to their area. We were able to find some cute investigators....but I guess only one counted seeing as her daughter is 8....bummer eh? Oh well.

  Sunday: Sister Terry was my all day companion.  In a very literal sense we were together from 8 in the morning till 9:30 last night.  We had a good ward council where one of the Stake Presidencies talked abt a Presentation that President Porter and President Valencia put together.  Our stake has some pretty lofty goals, but hey it always gives us something to work towards.  We taught a pretty cool inv who had a Finding Faith in Christ passalong card in his drawer, so he pulled it out and called and we have a cool new inv.  He is interesting, but is all looking forward to our next lesson w/ him.  We had dinner w/ the Dunns again. and Mom I have a suggestion for you. Next time you make homemade pizza you should put zucchini on it. Sister Dunn asked me what I miss most, and so I told her pizza and she fed me some absolutely fabulous pizza yesterday. They remind me a lot of Robyn and Kent, they are a really cute little family.  Brother Dunn got me all updated on NBA free agents. My goodness I can't believe LJ went back to the Cavs....my only question is Jordan do you now root for them, or do you stay w/ Miami Heat?? Also I am super glad that UT matched the offer for G-Time, I would have been devastated to lose him!!  We had a good visit w/ Sister Mosier.

  All in all it was a super successful week. We were able to hit Leadership standards in both areas, which is so  amazing.  I'm telling you what God's Grace truly attended us on being able to do so.

Have an awesome week! Also if you wouldn't mind praying that I get a companion so we don't have to keep doing the back and forth all this week, I would be super excited!!

Oh and I get to see President this week, b/c we have interviews tomorrow.

Love you!!

   Love,

           Sister Christiansen

Sister Weir, she's the best!!

I live in a zoo!!

Hello,

  I love you all and I hope that you had a simply fabulous 4th of July! Mom it looks like you had a good birthday, which I am glad to see :) Madison is looking cute as always and Colton looks so snazzy as Elder Ransbottom. Which I am glad to say that I got an email from my new favorite Elder! He sounds like he is doing good. I can't tell you how glad I am to have a missionary buddy nowadays.  There is nothing like the bond you create with the other missionaries, I know that it is something I'll cherish forever!  Alright now for a peek into my crazy life!!

  I am going to start off with something that'll blow your mind......Sister Harding had to go home for a surgery and now I am in a companionship with the Eaton Sisters, because they do not have another companion to give me.  When I'll get a permanent companion is yet to be determined.  Hopefully sometime this week. In the meantime we get to play shuffle and cover both areas........but good news is Sister Harding is supposed to be back in 3 weeks.

  I had a good few stressed out moments when this all went down yesterday. Now, comes the explaining part....you ready for this?

  So we knew that we needed to do a switch so Sister Harding could head back to Utah but we had no idea of when or how it was going to happen.  We called President and Sister Porter but no luck, so we were still doing our thing thru-out the day and then we were in a lesson, and the Assistants called, but Sister Harding didn't answer the phone, however when President called she answered.  Turns out they had looked at the paper wrong, they thought she was flying out at 8 am today.....but it was actually 8pm yesterday, so she came back in and we told the lady we have to go. Not going to lie I wasn't too torn apart to have to leave early!! We were down in Drexel which is a good 20 min from our apartment, and we made it back there. Luckily she had already packed. Then Sister Terry gave us a ride down there. The original plan was to have us drop her off at the mission home, but we took her directly to the airport which was good, b/c we didn't get there till 7:12......nothing like cutting it close right? The Lord works miracles....that is for sure and for certain.

  We had a pretty good week tho.  We found 13 new inv, and that was exciting. It beat my old record.  

  We did some fun chalk drawings for the 4th of July and got kicked out of a park in Downtown Dayton.  That was a first!! No worries, they were super nice about it.  It was fun tho, b/c I got to wear pants....in public....but seriously, I love jeans, so all of you that can wear them, truly appreciate them the next time you wear them. I haven't worn my jeans in a year, so that was one of my highlights this past week :)

  Life is crazy!!! I love you all!!! I hope that you know how much this gospel means to me. I know that the Lord has a plan for each and everyone of us, and that He truly knows what is best!

  Oh also the Mission Leadership Council was so inspiring...and I guess you all got to see me, so you know what I look like nowadays.  

Love, 

        Sister Christiansen

Happy 4th of July!!

Hello, Hello,

  So sorry last week was a bit of a downer email, but seeing the cause its understandable right?  I have a hand written letter, don't fall down or anything but I did make an attempt today :) I promise I really do love you all, and I am super grateful for all your love and support, especially for my birthday it was great!! Thank you for the letters, cards, gifts and such. You are all my favorites.  

  I have a few random things to say and then it will be an abbreviated mulosh okay?

 Colton Good Luck!!! You are going to love being a Missionary, its simply the Best. Have someone write down the setting apart blessing tho, b/c you'll want that, it's super special!!!!!

  Phillip did indeed get baptized, so it was a long time coming but a Baptism finally happened.

  I am still a Sister Training Leader......

  Englewood is not the same w/out Sister Schmitt. Its still good, but not the same.

  Happy Fourth of July this week!

  HAPPY BIG BIRTHDAY MOM....MOTHER.....MA......MOMMA...........MOOOOOOMMMMM! I can practically hear my voice on your phone....hahaha! I hope your big Birthday Bash is all that and a little more.

  Monday we packed...it was an all-day adventure. I was even gifted some new things.

   Tuesday I had a delicious donut for breakfast, not that I needed it or even wanted it, but it was good nonetheless. Transfer meeting was good, President had lots of good things to say that I needed to hear, but boy oh boy I was downright nervous, and seriously lacking a desire to be there.  But hey guess what? I bet you never guessed. I got a new companion and she is awesome. She is from Utah and her name starts with Sister and ends with Harding.  She is super nice and I think it'll be good. I told Sister Schmitt that I am praying to be transferred so I can see her one last time before she goes home.  A set of Sisters got doubled into Greenville and they have been living w/ us. They are moving out sometime this week, either tomorrow or Wed. They are super cute and its fun living w/ multiple again. But just as before it'll be nice to be back to regular life, w/ just the 2 of us.

  Wednesday oh I forgot to tell you Elder Crawford is my new Zone Leader, and I already know him so that's nice. My new District Leader is Elder Campbell and I know him as well, so that is also good. Phillip passed his interview, in case you were wondering.....

  Thurs: We got to spend some time w/ Sister Haas, because they fed us dinner. I love her, she's awesome. Jeremy got to see the church and he seemed to like it so that is good news.

  Friday: It was a weirdish day. I did get to see the Dayton Air Show a bit, b/c we were out and about as they happened to be up in the sky above us.  I even got a picture of all 6 of them.  Cool story huh? Phillip was late to his own baptism, but the good news is that he was there.  There were 10 missionaries there, so that was kinda cool. The spirit was uberly strong and I really loved being there. Plus Sister Schmitt was able to come back and I was soo, soooo, soooooo excited to see her again.  She told me it was almost worse to say good-bye the second time. I had told her a little bit ago that Companionships are like mini-marriages, and transfers are like divorces.  She told me when we saw each other again that it really was like we had gotten a divorce.  But it was great to have her there, esp, since she did all the teaching from the get-go. I was just the tagalong but the good news is they seem to like me too, so I'll take it :)

  Random sidenote: Alison I hope that your birthday was great. I was slightly distracted last week and forgot to say anything!! But Happy Birthday....even if it is late

  Saturday: Sister Dunn came out w/ us. One problem our appointment was cancelled but we needed to come up w/ something w/ her and luckily we did.  It just was a bit of an adventure.  She was cool w/ it tho.  We had some good stories going in the car so that was good. Zane one of my favorite YM came out w/ us for a bit, unfortunately things didn't go as planned, but hey we were able to spend some quality time w/ him.  We saw a bit more of the airshow, helped Sister Terry plant some of her 241 strawberry plants, worked on helping her put together her aquaponics thing...that was cool.  We had dinner w/ the Morales which is always fun, and good.  Sister Crumb came out w/ us and we got caught in a downpour.  I should maybe find my umbrella. We'll see I get sorta lazy and I don't always love to dig thru my suitcases.  

  Sunday: Jeremy came to church!!!! Hallelujah! We had 3 at church and it was exciting b/c 2 of them it was their first time so that was cool. We had linger-longer after church, and it was all good, but it was all carbs.  Nothing like a good carbo loading food session. :) We didn't have to use any miles yesterday....thank goodness about that.  We also visited an Alzheimer patient and I just could not find anything to talk w/ him about b/c he is just that far gone, so that was interesting!!! But all in all it was a good day.

  Today: we went on a walk w/ Brother McMurtry and other such fun things.  

I love you lots and lots!!!

Also here is my copy from my letter to President:

 This last week has been crazy! Its been good besides the fact that I'm going through separation anxiety not being w/ Sister Schmitt, but I figure its like going through withdrawals, since I've been with her for so long.  I really, really love her and I am so grateful that I was able to be with her, because I learned so much.

  Phillip's Baptism was great.  It was good to see him so happy about making it into the water.  He had some trials but being the determined person he is he just plowed right through them and was baptized.  Some of his family did not want to come but he brought them anyways, and we were way late getting going, but it was all worth it.  He is so, so happy, and it was great to have such a strong spirit there.  I know that he is destined to do great things, and I am excited that I got to be a small part of it.

  I am glad that you talked about Thinking to God at Transfers, because I really need to get better at it.  I like to mull things over in my mind and I know that if I instead take it to God things will be resolved quicker and more effectively.  

Have a great week!!!

Love, 

         Sister Christiansen

 Its my favorite..... Jeremy!

 This is the cake the Elders gave me! It was a good one :)

 This is Sister Schmitt's copy of our Friday night adventures. :)