Last week of September?

Hey, Hey! I can't believe its Monday again,

  I have tons to say so lets see what actually makes it into the email.

First off the Women's meeting was fabulous!!! As they were talking about preparing to go to the Temple I couldn't help but think of how well it applies to me as well, because we are going in October! Happy day!! I am so stinking excited, I love the peace that it brings to our lives and the serenity that comes even from the sight of it. As they were all talking about how we are all Temples too, it really did hit me, especially being out here where the actual edifices are few and far between, but members are around, so everytime I see one of them, I get to see a part of the Temple. Cool thought they gave to me.

  Monday: We had a Zone day, Funday, Monday. It was great we got to play volleyball, chair soccer, and never have I ever.  

  Tuesday: We were on exchanges w/ Ball State and I got to be w/ Sister Krueger.  So off the two of us ventured into the unknown land of Munice 1. No worries, we did not get lost. Thank Goodness for GPS's ;) We did get to go over to a members house and make pumpkin scones, which were super delicious and turned out to be our way into several peoples homes. Super great eh? Also in my ward there resides this super awesome painter. I even got to go into his work studio, his paintings are fabulous. I don't know if his stuff is online or anything, but his name is Bill Inman.

  Wednesday:Back w/ my companion! Happy day. We had District Meeting, and then we went and put balloons and heart outlines on a set of our Sisters Door. We even gave them a plate of the scones, we were going to just leave them on the ground, but then we thought "emm....better not!" and we taped them up on the door. Hahaha it was soooo great looking. Ohhh I almost forgot Wednesday is "onenessday" so our zone all dresses in the same color, and then Sister Jacobson and I took it a step further and did our hair the same....humongo buns on top of our heads. It looked great incase you were wondering.

  Thursday: We went on a goose chase looking for a member. We didn't find her, but we found a gold mind of a good area to find people in. A member took us out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and I discovered the most wonderful things ever......sweet rolls!!! They were my very favorite part of the day....oh and we had a ward coordination meeting w/ our WML and some ward missionaries. I love our WML, he is so great. He is from Utah and is a resident here....there are a lot of those, I can't remember if I told you that already or not.  

  Friday: Exchanges w/ Elwood.  We (all 4 of us) got to go do some volunteering at Christian Ministries which was great. While we were there we even got a self-referral! Talk about exciting, b/c that doesn't happen everyday. Then we were all helping a lady in our ward move, and I was once again reminded of how important it is to not just accumulate a ton of stuff. This is so ironic considering that it is coming from the Sister Missionary who has a boatload of things....but seriously we helped w/ 2 loads, and I don't even feel like we made a dent. We had Sister Hills come out teaching w/ us, and come to find out it was her first time ever going out w/ missionaries. She did so great tho, she shared this sweet personal experience w/ the investigator and it was lovely. Then we were out and about trying to find this former inv. When we went to the house it was vacant so we went and knocked on a neighbor's door, she was pretty nice.....until I said we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..... Then we decided to stay on the street and find our purpose, and went towards this house w/ some serious blasting music. It was kinda late, so it was pretty dark, and there were about 8-9 porch monkeys outside. I waved at them, but they just kind of ignored me, so I walked right up to them and we had a bit of conversation amidst the super loud music, and we found the craziest named investigator I have ever had. His name is 10:30. Don't worry, I checked like 3 times, and it really is his name. 

  Saturday: We went to the church to do our bishop email, and we found the Elders car. We decided to leave them a sticky note, and then just b/c we tried their car door, and guess what friends.....? It was unlocked!!! We had lots of fun....I feel like we were instrumental in teaching them a very valuable lesson in life. Lock your car doors :) haha! We also had lunch w/ my new favorite person in Muncie. He is a member of the YSA Branch, and is super awesome! We watched the Women's Meeting and it was phenomenal, as mentioned above. I took a page of notes from everyone but President Uchtdorf....he got 2 and 1/4 :) The thing that impressed me from him was the importance of Joyfully living the gospel. I mean we really should be the happiest people, we do have the Good news of Jesus Christ, and we have a living Prophet who we get to hear from this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sooooo excited :)

  Sunday: I got this good quote from SS. "Happiness that comes easy is fleeting." Truth my friends, that is pure truth. We made tater tot casserole for our lunch/dinner, and...................no surprise here...........I burnt myself. I got an immediate blister, so Sister Jacobson was so kind as to finish making it while I sat there w/ an otter pop on my finger. It is sooooo small, but it hurt so bad. Also I found a connection to home. One of the ward members here is cousins w/ Jed Woodward. Small world eh?

This upcoming week is going to be great!! We have 2 exchanges, that we are doing back to back, and then we have MLC on Friday down in Cinci, and then General Conference!!! Talk about fun stuff.

One last thing to say. If someone does something nice for you remember to thank them.....in any sort of way. Gratitude is mightily important!!!

Lots of love!

 Sister Christiansen :)

Just in case you were wondering today is my 16 month mark!! :) time sure flies :)

Muncie 1 is oh so fun!!!

Hey everyone!!

  I hope that your day is super fabulous and a little warmer than the 50 degrees we are rocking in................Muncie, IN. Yep its true folks, I have left OH for the first time of my whole mission.  I thought I'd never leave, and boy do I miss its warmer temperatures.  Every morning we go out running I feel like I am going to die of coldness......not really, but it really is quite chillier than Ohio is right now, but who knows since I left it might have gotten colder too.

  Moving right along, I am companions with Sister Jacobson, who is super great. I feel like I am already learning tons from her.  She extends baptism like a boss.......to everyone we talk to, its pretty great.  We get along really well, which is fabulous.  We are over 4 sets of Sisters, so that is a bit of a change for me, since I am used to only 2 sets.  But it will be good. We sat down and already planned out our exchanges for the whole transfer.  My Zone Leaders are Elder Chamberlain and Elder Barfuss, they are really nice too, so that is that info for you.  

  I think I'll do things a little differently this time round. I will still do the weekly round-up but I also have specific things that I want to share so I'm going to make sure I get to those things. But here goes:

  Monday: I said goodbye to some peeps in the hood of Englewood! Haha it was weird knowing that I was peacing out after such a long time there.  The hardest was saying goodbye to the Eyong family!! I love them sooo very much! They always made me feel tons better when I was having a hard day, even if Patrick would laugh at me and call me the baby :)

  Tuesday: I was a wreck, I was super nervous about who my new compadre would be, but no worries, I have a legit one so we are all good. We had a bit of a change up w/ the Assistants. One of them got released and is now in a trio of Zone Leaders, it was crazy!!  Then off I went to the land of Indiana. Our poor co-driver had kidney stones so the journey was a bit difficult for him.  I utilized the extra travel time for some sleeping. I figured I had nothing better to do so might as well enjoy the wonderful zzzzzzz time.  We visited a few people and it was all and all a good day.

  Wednesday: We had a meeting with the Zone Leaders......at the institute building. Because guess what!?! There is a college campus in the middle of my area!!! Isn't that exciting! I get to see regular people my own age every day of my life in Muncie.  We drive thru campus everyday, and I must say Ball State has a gorgeous campus.  But anyways back from that sidenote, the Institute building is in the midst of frat houses. Its this cute yellow house. Then we did some other things, went and took birthday cookies to a LA, and she gave us some delicious cupcakes. I learned a caboodle of things from this lady in our ward who is intense into gardening. She freezes a billion things, and cans and is super prepared with food so she doesn't have to buy spices and other such things, it was pretty cool. Then we had a meeting with the Bishop. He is super great!!! He is very missionary minded and is way into making sure that things are happening here, it is pretty awesome to see.  I almost forgot to add in this sweet miracle we had. We had an appointment, but the people weren't there, so I offered a card to this girl, and then another one came over to get one too. But she was pretty young, and we were talking w/ her for a bit, and then asked if her mom would be interested, so she takes us over to her apartment and says "Mom there are some people here to see you" Then she proceeds to beg her mom to let us in, it was so cool. Her mom is super fabulous by the way and we have been back once and have another appointment tonight.

  Thursday: We had dinner with the cutest family! They are super great, and there kids are quite simply dolls. Then we had a few lessons w/ Leigh. Sooo I have to super quick tell you a bit about Linda. First off she is awesome, second off, I think she has come out teaching with us 5 out of the 6 days I've been here.  We go and grab Miss Leigh and then she shares her testimony with people and it is fabulous.  It is so nice having people that are available to come w/ us. We met this kid named Kenneth, who reminds me soooo much of Kent, it is slightly crazy. It is so true that everyone has a double in the world.

  Friday: We had lunch w/ the nicest lady ever!! Unfortunately she lives just over the train tracks that separate Muncie 1 and Muncie 2 so we are going to have to pass her off, but she is fabulous.  Then we had a meeting w/ the RS Pres. who is also super grand. Dinner w/ the Single Adults (of our ward) They fed us quite the meal. It was good. Then we had a lesson and the guy that came out teaching w/ us is from Johannesburg South Africa.....isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard? I have met more people from Africa than I ever imagined I would by coming to OH and IN. We had another lesson w/ our inv w/ a baptismal date of Oct 11.  

  Saturday: Our apartment was being reroofed and we had some watermelon in our fridge that Sister Jacobson cut up and put in a bowl and then we took it out to them, but she made me be the deliverer, so I walked over to this guy and said this is for you, gave it to him and walked away.  Then I backed her out and we headed away and they all gave us big smiles and waves. Lesson learned give workers treats and they'll be your best friends :)  We went and did some service of peeling and cutting apples which was pretty fun.  Had dinner w/ the cutest family. They both went to USU and were majoring in Exercise Science too. Connections are just grand. Actually there are a ton of people that are connected to USU funnily enough. 

  Sunday: Primary Program!! Too cute, it was simply fabulous ;) Also WC is divine. They sit and discuss things and are wonderful to watch at work. We had dinner w/ the Horowitz and some Ball Academy girls, and a foreign exchange student from China who is getting her masters at Ball. It was so fun, and delicious.  We taught a lady named Sunny who is the sweetest thing ever!! She is great and is coming to the Women's Broadcast on Saturday which I am very excited about. I can't wait to go and listen to that wonderful stuff!!!!  Last night I had an unfortunate encounter with some dog poo......it got all over my shoe, and our car mat, so luckily Sister Jacobson had some wipes and I went and put it down and she shined the car lights at me while I cleaned it off......however the smell did not dissipate, and we are still left with the remnants today!!!  Talk about bummer eh?  To end off our night we went chalking which was ooohhh so fun!!!

  This week we have bunches of stuff to do, like 2 exchanges and who knows what else. I hope that you all have a glorious day!!!

Love,

         Sister Christiansen

I almost forgot!

President Burdett is awesome!! I already got to shake his hand 3 times.....in one day! and he holds a call every week w/ the leaders of the Zones in the Stake so that is super cool. Also I went from a being the only set in a ward, to 4 other sets in the same city as me....weird!

I love you all, and think its fabulous you got to go to the Dedication of the Ogden temple!! That is sweet! I want to go to it when I go home :)

Lots of love!!!

Guess what?!?!

Hey Familia!!!

  I'm being transferred. After a billion years in Englewood, I'm heading out.  Good news is that Sister Colton has everything under control and is going to take super good care of everything.

  But I'll run thru this last week for you!

Monday: Cincinnati Reds game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was sooooo fabulous. I had the time of my life w/ all the other missionaries in our mission. It was so great, and I didn't pay any attn to the game, but just in case you were wondering they lost.  We also didn't get home until midnight, and that made the next morning super hard to get up....but no worries I made it thru.

  Tuesday: We found a new investigator, and taught a few lessons. Then we went and visited Brad and Sister Mobley, which was the highlight of our day! He is the best ever. We also cleaned all the doors at church since they were in desperate need of some help.....and Sister Jenkins fed us dinner.

  Wednesday: We had District meeting in D-town and it was super fun.  We made gold chains and took pictures in our d-town hats.....it was super great.  I love my District, I'm super sad we are being seperated, b/c one from each companionship is leaving.  But oh well we had fun while it lasted.  The Cappelli's had us over for dinner, and it was tons of fun! They are the coolest family and I want to be just like them when I grow up.  Then Brother Cappelli came out w/ us and and we visited the Blantons, and had one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had w/ them, and following that lesson we went and taught one of the most spiritual Restoration lessons ever! I'm telling you Bro. Cappelli is a spiritual powerhouse and the spirit just radiates from him. that is how I want to be one day.............But the investigators we were teaching are super awesome, they think it is so awesome that there is a prophet on the earth again.....talk about awesome!

  Thursday: We were supposed to have a lesson w/ Jeremy, Brother Terry, and the Elders but Jeremy didn't really participate....as in he was really busy....But oh well.  We had the Mormon dog out w/ us and that was fun....he almost got attacked by another dog.  The Morales had us over for dinner and it was a good time as always. When we walked out of their house we saw Patrick, and Sam b/c it turns out their friends are the Morales' neighbors.  Who knew?

  Friday: Friday the highlight was visiting w/ Tiffanie, and having Dinner w/ the Dupre's.  We had white chicken chili and it was divine!!! It was fun to be w/ that cute family that helps us out so much, they are quite simply rockstars.  Then we saw Sister Spencer and we attempted to sing to her, but seeing as we are both tone deaf, it didn't quite work out. I don't think we even made it thru one song w/out laughing.....whoops!

  Saturday: Social media day. Sister Dunn came and studied w/ us which was fun.  Then we did some baking at the Stucki's. Walked across the street and had lunch w/ the Haas. Brother Dupre met us at Jeremy's, and we had a lesson there, and then we took a trip out of the mission to do some service at Lindsay and Andrew's house, and embarrassingly enough I am still sore......I have no muscle left in the least......bummer eh?  Sister Mobley took us out to dinner w/ Brad and I got to hang out w/ my favorite little buddy. Then we had a quick visit w/ the Eyongs, to round out our day.

  Sunday: We went and visited Sister Mosier, and had another visit w/ Sister Spencer.  Sister Mosier loves us, and we found the perfect commitment to help her out.... Poor Sister Spencer is still struggling lots, but we had a good open lesson w/ her last night.

Today is going to be an intense day of packing!! Expect to see at least one package in the near future.  I love you lots, and the good news is God is always in control, and the church is true no matter where you are.

I love you!!!!

Love,

            Sister Christiansen

Reds!!!

Hey you!!!

  So guess what?  We get to go to a MLB game tonight :)  Cool stuff right?  Who knew my first MLB experience would be in Cinci and not San Fran :)  too bad they aren't playing the Giants that would be simply spectacular!!!

  In other news it hasn't been that long since I emailed you last, but surprisingly lots has happened so here goes!

  Wed: We took another fabulous nap, who knew that being a Missionary was so draining?? Not I  that is for certain.  We had a pretty good lesson w/ the Blantons, and then the Cappelli's invited us and Dan over to their house for a lesson.  It was super duper fabulous!! Then we had scripture study w/ their family which was fun.  It was just a good reminder that no matter the age of your familia members scripture study should always be one of the biggest priorities in life.

  Thursday: Zone Meeting. It was good stuff.  We had a pretty spiritual testimony meeting there as well, most everyone in the Zone bore their testimony.  We took the Eaton Sisters out to lunch b/c they won the finding challenge on Monday.  Then we had a lesson w/ Jeremy and Brother Dupre.  We were soooooo, soooo, sooooo happy to have him back out w/ us again :) We also visited Dani w/ him, and the poor lady had a few more unfortunate things happen to her. Namely two of her kittens died. The one was my favorite. The little blind one, conveniently named, No See.  That was a bummer.  We had dinner w/ the Helis' and ate pretty healthy once again.  I even ate fish mahee-mahee, or something like that.  Then we made some ooey-gooey brownies to  take to the Dupres. We had a lesson w/ our favorite little Brad.  He is cute as ever, and just has such a desire to learn its soo fun!  Visiting the Dupre's was soo fun.  The baby is so stinking cute!!!  It was good times.

  Friday: We were on exchanges w/ Eaton.  I spent the day w/ Sister Hall.  We went and visited a LA, and afterwards we met the nicest guy from Kenya! It was good times talking w/ him.  He moved to Colorado to go to school, and when I said I was from Utah he asked me are you from Ogden?  I said no, I live close to there tho.  He told me people from Ogden are so nice.  It was fun.  Then we met 3 other new investigators, they are pretty cool people. I'm excited to meet new people all the time.  We had a good lesson w/ the Spencers, and Arnold even prayed for me, so that was super exciting.  We had dinner w/ members and not going to lie I enjoyed the ice cream the most! It has been so humid as of late, it  is killer. I sweat buckets, and so I'm pretty sure I smell super fresh :) haha  We had a super quick lesson w/ Dan b/c he really didn't want to meet w/ us.  We had an impromptu lesson w/ the Eyongs, it was good times. I really had no idea what to share w/ them and it ended up being one of the most random scriptures ever, but the Spirit totally helped me turn it into something that actually applied to them so it was good stuff.

  Saturday: Nothing of importance happened, except Sister Colton made me German pancakes.  They were super delish in case you were wondering :)

  Sunday: We had church, and we had a crisis, but we dealt w/ it so its all good. We are just super grateful the Cappelli's moved into our ward.  We did some drop bys of food to people.  We had a really good visit w/ Sister Cappelli. We also had a lesson w/ the Eyong's for the first time in forever!!!

The best part of today is the fact we are going to Cinci w/ our BFF Sister Morales.  Oh and in other news we have another Social Media Split on Saturday. Pray that things work out :)

Love you lots!!

Go to the Temple for me!!

Love,

          Sister Christiansen

September?.....Weird!

Time flies.....at an extraordinary pace!

  This past week I felt like we were crazy busy, and yet not that busy.....here goes the weekly report.

  Monday:  I took a glorious 3 hour nap, it was straight bliss!! Definitely the high of my day.

  Tuesday: We were on exchanges, and I was in our area with Sister Rose.  We had a pretty productive day, which was nice, b/c I'll tell you what not many exchanges actually work out that way.  We were even fed lunch and dinner! What a treat.  My lazy streak could continue on.  

  Wednesday: We had district meeting, and b/c I have the best district leader ever we made microwave brownies.  It was really fun, and we went over the baptismal quadrant and I was reminded of those things that I need to do better on.  I am learning more and more the importance of changing who we are every day.  That is what the Atonement truly is about, changing us daily to be more like Christ.  We had a good visit w/ the Blantons, and we changed our usual time to earlier, and he was sooo lively it was great.  We taught the WoW, and it was soo funny to see his reactions...apparently we need to keep building faith before that one is going to work for us.  We had this prompting to go visit a LA and it was sooo great, b/c she was soo happy to see us. Her phone has been off, and so we haven't had any interaction w/ her.  It was a good visit.

  Thursday: Weekly planning, and we made those delicious brownies.....they were really, really good. I could have eaten the whole pan myself.  The Dupre's had their baby girl too. So that was exciting.

  Friday:  I left Englewood and spent the day w/ Sister Hall in Eaton.  It was a bit of a rough day, w/ all these appointments cancelling on Sister Hall, I felt bad for her, b/c usually that is what happens for me, when I am in charge of planning the exchange day.  As I was studying I was reminded of the importance of families, and how important FHE, fam prayer, and fam scripture study is.  

  Saturday: we did some service and then we made cookies for the baptism, but we had to be inventive about what to put them in, b/c we were making "to go bags" we cut the top off of sandwich bags, and cut electrical tape in half, and bagged 3 cookies. Inventiveness right?  Brother Dupre thought so, how do I know this, b/c he and I had a good chat.  Basically it was a crazy day. But good news Dan got baptized and is now a member.  It was a little unique but hey thats what makes it interesting and hopping right? :)

  Sunday: Brother Henderson spoke in church and had the whole audience captivated.  He has a fabulous way of rolling all of these stories together that seem to have no correlation and it was sooo wonderful. We had a good visit w/ Sister Spencer and Jennifer was there as well, b/c she knew we were coming so that was fun to see her again.  No worries she still loves me lots :)

  Monday: We had a few lessons w/ some peeps.  Brother Rhoudebush gave us a whole box of donuts, don't worry we didn't eat the whole thing, I probably could have tho....b/c you know me and sweets.

  Tuesday: Blessed day of Mission Leadership Council!!! I loved it sooo, soo, much!! It always inspires me to be a much better person.  The spirit was soo strong and it taught me sooo many things.  We spent a lot of time talking about where we were a year ago, and where we are now.  I know that I personally have made a lot of progress, but there are so many more things I need to do to become even more.  We talked about all the things that our mission does differently than other missions and how we have all of these tools, but we need to make sure that we are doing the basics.  It was sooo great. Also President taught me a lot about Church and made me never want to miss Sacrament ever in my life. It was very amazing.  We did the first half of the day at their house and then we ate lunch and migrated to the church for the second half. It was phenomenal tho!! After President spoke we did a testimony meeting, and then we ended up going an hour over. The spirit was so strong it was one of the best experiences.  

  Wednesday: Preperation day!!! I am soo grateful b/c I almost ran out of clothes!!!  I hope that your week is super fabulous!!!

I love you lots!!

  Love,

           Sister Christiansen