Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Tuesday!!!!!

  Just in case you missed me on Monday, I'm here on Tuesday!! So never fear you will still learn all about the happenings in my week! I just have an extra day to report and tons of exciting stuff to tell you about. 

  Monday: We stayed inside as much as possible, neither one of us like the cold, and snow. Later that night we met up w/ the Ball State Sisters for exchanges on Tuesday.

  Tuesday: I was w/ Sister Keil all day long!!!!!!!!!! Ohhhh man I love that girl so much!! She is just so super great. I got to spend the day w/ her on frigid Ball State Campus!!!!! I love campus, it was sooo fun to be there, it was just sooo stinking cold that no one wanted to talk w/ us, sorta unfortunate but hey such is life. We walked back and forth from the Institute to Bracken (the library) 3 different times. But it was all good.  We spent some time w/ Seth one of their RC's, and I got to go to institute which was soo fun!! It was all about repentance which is always a good topic!! I just love it. This time I did not eat anything exotic like Octopus w/ her....but I did eat one of those breakfast sausage and pancake things, and it was surprisingly delicious.

  Wednesday: I got to be w/ my favorite Sister Jacobson!! We had a really good District Meeting. We dropped one of my funny investigators, but I refused to drop him until I got a picture w/ him, and once I got my picture I was good w/ it. He was always good for a laugh that is for certain. We visited w/ some pretty awesome people. I got to see the cute baby bunnies, and Sister Kirk came out teaching w/ us, so that was fun. I love her she is great!!!!

  Thursday: We had this conference that we got to be apart of. However it was different than other conferences. It was by video and phone. So we watched it on the computer and then we listened to it via our phone. Crazy what you can do w/ technology right? It was for all the District, Zone and Sister Training Leaders, as well as others who were invited to it. Don't worry that meeting only went over by an hour, we were back to our typical meeting schedule :) haha. The Kirk's were kind enough to let us invade their home for the meeting. And Sister Kirk fed us an awesome breakfast!!! Then we played car hop from appointment to appointment w/ different members. It was kind of like being back in Englewood, going from place to place w/ different people.  We had a delicious dinner and Sister Inman was going to send a pic home of me and Sister J, but idk if I gave the right email addy, so theres that. We had some other good appointments that night and then we were off, to meet up for exchanges for Friday.

  Friday: I was w/ Sister Stokes in Muncie 2.2. Ohh man she is a cutie too! We have such great Sisters in our Zone, we are sooo blessed. But we had so much fun that day. We had some great things happen that day. It was fun to be w/ her, she is just so genuinely happy, and soooo nice to everyone, it showed me how I should treat others.  I also grew in my appreciation for my weekly coordination meetings, b/c once again, I really do love Brother Kirk, he is great!!!!!

  Saturday: We went to the Sisters (Ball State) Baptism, did some paperwork, and taught some lessons. We also text President and Sister Porter to see if we could spend Sunday night at their place. We had dinner w/ a super cute family that I love. I am going to do something for her when I go home, so that will be fun :) We saw Buddy, it turns out their family has been having a really rough week, so it was good to be able to see her. Oh and no worries we got the confirmation that we could spend Sunday night in Cinci!!!! I was ecstatic, and so super happy!

  Sunday: President called while I was in the shower and said that we were supposed to be doing a special musical number in 2nd ward. Sister Jacobson did some quick phone calls and worked things out so that she played the fiddle, and Sister Hefner played the piano of Come Thou Fount. It was sooo beautiful!!! It was a bit of a stressful morning for her. We had dinner w/ a really cool new family. They fed us legit Indian food, as in spicy and good. Then we drove to Cinci!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best way to end the day! In Cincinnati, it made me feel like I am part of the mission and not just out there. I just love President and Sister Porter sooo much! My life would not be the same if they were not in it. I am soo thankful for all that they do for me. I will forever be one of their biggest fans! :)

  Monday: We did our workout and then Sister J and I played some quick ping-pong before our meeting started, we had to do it before everyone got there too. I am sad to say I have lost most of my skills. Yesterday was sooo inspiring! I learned a million things, and I am sad to say I don't have time to tell you all now, but some other day!!!

  This week we have been invited to a few Thanksgivings, so don't worry I will be eating some wonderful dinners. We have Zone Meeting tomorrow, we are doing a Zone weekly planning as well. You should all make sure you check out the church's new video that launches on my favorite Jon boy's birthday!! Nov 28, He is the Gift is coming out and it is awesome. We got a sneak preview!!!!!!!!!! You'll love it :)

  Austin and Kellie Happy Birthday this week. TJ Congrats on receiving the Priesthood. Sara I am soooo sorry for your loss. I hope you know how much I love you, and that you are in my prayers!

I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

            Sister Christiansen

Amazing Revelation​!

Good Cold Morning!!!!

  It seems as though it is the norm to be freezing, but hey at least we're all in the cold together :) So much happened this week so I really want to get it all in, here we go!!!

  Monday:We did a sweet activity w/ almost all of the Muncie missionaries. We had a nerf dart war, it was sooo fun. We all had a blast. We found another random PM family, and she invited us back the next day so that was cool. I also met a super nice LA, and he gave us a ton of candy. He is one of the most conspiracy theorist people I have ever met, but it was all good. My mind got blown a billion times, but it was super fun. In the Conference Call President touched on the importance of Daily repentance again, ohhh man it is always great to get those reminders, about being able to do our part to qualify for grace.

  Tuesday: Exchanges w/ Muncie 2 Sisters. I was w/ Sister Driesel, and we had a good day. We did some volunteer work, taught a few lessons. We went to go try a potential, but I forgot the binder and couldn't rem. what house was their's so we went and said hi to a mem. to see what house it was, and she let us come in and do some service which was much appreciated on our part, b/c it was freezing cold outside. We had a good lesson w/ Sister Solomon and Jim.  He still isn't reading the BoM, but I received some revelation for him, so hopefully it'll help. Oh one funny story about this day, so we passed off some of our inv, to the Elders, b/c they weren't going anywhere w/ us, and we get a call from Elder Stoddard, he is one of the Assistants, and he starts off the conversation all nice and asking us random questions and talking to us about dinner, and bam he changes the subject to these inv, that we passed off, naturally neither one of us wanted to talk about it, so Sis. J, just walked over and handed the phone to the Muncie 2 Sisters and let them talk to him for a bit, then you hear this confused voice, "Where did Sister Jacobson go?" haha it was pretty great

  Wednesday: We did a zone fast, so that was great. We also spent some time in a heartless place.....jk, it was just freezing cold and no one was interested so we did some heart-attacking and peaced out! We had a good visit w/ a widowed Sister, had our monthly meeting w/ the Bishop. Borrowed our WML's rake, and awkwardly stood outside their house....hahaha it was pretty great.

  Thursday: Exchanges w/ Dunkirk. I was w/ Sister Ribeira, but the four of us were together in the morning b/c we did some service. Taught some lessons. Sang some songs, and everyone loved, loved, loved hearing Sister Ribeira sing, b/c she is great!!!! Saw Jackie and Tim again, that made me so excited.  Funny story of the day, I have been craving breadsticks, a lot, random I know! But at dinner Jama had given Sister J some breadsticks to bring home, and so I was laying on the ground against the mattresses, and on the phone w/ Elder Cheng reporting midweeks, when all of a sudden this bag of breadsticks lands on my chest, I kinda shrieked/screamed a little in the phone and threw it, and then all 4 of us were laughing sooooo hard, it made the rest of the conversation a little difficult, but no worries, Elder Chenge told us that he would pray for our mental health. :) haha

  Friday: So we had to be at the church early for a meeting, and then that meeting was delayed, about an hour I think, so we just kind of chilled at the church. The leadership meeting was super great though. We got to hear from Sister Porter, Sister Andersen, President Porter, and Elder Andersen. President talked about the difference btw leaders in Alma 48, and that was pretty cool to see. Elder Andersen talked about how we can become like President and Sister Porter, and then he talked about good leaders as well, doing things the way the Savior did. We also talked about how every relationship needs to have 3 members. You, the other person and God!  It was super powerful.  Then our mission conference meeting was super great. It was all of the missionaries in Indiana, so the Muncie and Fort Wayne stake. Sister Porter talked about how we all need to continue increasing our faith, President talked about the calling of a 70, (actually I heard 4 different versions of this, all from this weekend), he talked about the gifts of the spirit, preparation and other amazing things. Sister Andersen talked about keeping to the schedule, God has missionaries have a routine for a reason, and doing Godly things. Elder Andersen talked about covenants, Alma the Younger, (twice this weekend) I learned some cool things about sealings, how when we are consecrated we are happier people, and so on. Super big surprise the meeting got over a little after 3, and it was supposed to go to after 5......it was a bit of a shock. Our meetings never get over early. But it did, and so Sister Jacobson and I got to take Sister Denison for a while, it was sooo fun!!!! Then we went back for the fireside, but we hadn't had dinner so the Assistants were nice enough to give us the keys to their truck so that we could have their leftover food. We left them a bunch of sticky notes and a bucket of candy as thanks. It was a party. The fireside was super great, and I learned a ton there as well.

  Saturday: We had a fabulous lesson w/ Jake, and Buck, the spirit was so strong. A quality ward coorelation meeting, I really, really love my WML, he is great! Taught some lessons, had 2 YW out w/ us for a few hours and it was soooo fun!!!!! Had a pizza casserole and went to Stake Conference. It was soooo fabulous as well. I learned a lot about love, and what to do in future family and so forth.  Also a fun thing, day 2 of President and Sister Porter. Fun story of the day, we did a super intense work-out that they had given us at the conference on Friday and man, I thought I was going to die, so I text Sister Porter, and she laughed and said we had asked for it :)

  Sunday: Can you believe it, day 3 in a row of President and Sister Porter!!!! My life is just so fabulously great!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them soooo much! I learned a lot yesterday too, but the thing that stuck out most was what Elder Andersen talked about. Repentance. He taught a lot about it, and I feel like I understand it so much more clearly now, so inf you want to learn more check out D&C 58:42-43.  It definitely simplifies things. Its a 2 step process :)  Dinner w/ the Kirks, and that was soooo great!!!

I love being a missionary, I am 100 percent convinced there is nothing better in the world than to be doing this.  Yesterday as part of her talk Sister Porter had all of us missionaries come up and recite the Standard of Truth and it was just a good reminder to me of what I need to do, not just now, but always.

 

I love you all!!! Have a great week :)

Love,

         Sister Christiansen

 

Btw I totally forget to tell you how awesome my Zone Leaders are now. I used to be so good at talking about them, but just know that Elder Barfuss, and Elder Boden are top notch :)

 

 

 

 

Pass the Tissues Please!!

First off Our new Stake Presidency sounds awesome!!

Secondly bummer it wasn't President Porter's dad....

Thirdly I got the package and it made my whole day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was one happy camper! :)

Fourthly I get to have my Stake Conference this week, and since Elder Anderson is also doing a mission tour we get to have a special meeting w/ him alllllllllllll day on Friday, pretty cool huh?

Fifthly....I'm gonna get started now............!

  Monday: We had voice lessons again, and it was super fun! I just love Sister Hagopian she is a killer cool lady. We also had a mini chapel tour w/ this LA husband and his wife who is not a member and the spirit was awesome. OHHHH we went to the institute and learned a few new fun games to play, I'll have to teach you all when I get back b/c they are hilarious!! At least Sister Jacobson and I enjoyed them!

  Tuesday: Zone Meeting, it went pretty well. I learned some things, and the rest of the zone learned some things as well, the challenge now is just applying it, and making sure we are each making those changes. Being Consecrated!!! Its a hard task, but hey something we all have to do. We were kinda sick.....esp. Sister Jacobson so it was a little rough. No worries, I think btw the 2 of us we made it thru a good 75 tissues this week! Nyquil and Dayquil are my favorite friends. My quote of the day comes from Sis J, "You rock my Bacon! Idk what that means, hopefully nothing inappropriate." hahaha too funny.

  Wednesday: We painted, it was fun! We also ate a Chick-fil-a, always a good choice. Did you know that they have mouthwash in their bathrooms, and that it is pretty good? Talk about a legit place!

  Thursday: Weekly planning, Sister Jacobson made pumpkin rice crispies, and pumpkin muffins, both of which were super fab.  When we came back for dinner we decided to check the mail and my whole day took an extreme upswing! I got my glorious, wonderous package!!!!!!!!!! I almost cried when I saw the pumpkin bread and granola!!!!!! It was seriously the best thing ever. I ate some pumpkin bread, and oatmeal for dinner, good thing too b/c I had no idea what to eat, so it saved my dinner life :) haha but really thank you soooooo, sooooo much!!!! The Ball State Sisters came to do our exchange and I just love those 2. They are so cute, and so happy, and just fun, fun, fun to be around!

  Friday: I was w/ Sister Hefner, and we got to do some service w/ The Ball State Elders, and the Muncie 1 Elders. Then we ate lunch w/ Sister Stevens and had the best chocolate chip cookies ever!! Oh man it was great. We saw some great people. I was told that I was an evangelist.... I'm really not sure about that one. It was funny tho, let me explain the situation so you know what is even going on. We were on a street corner and were talking to this kid, and this guy who we had walked past b/c he was sitting in his car listening to ridiculously loud music gets out of his car and says, "why are you in my area?" We had a quick chat w/ him and he wasn't too impressed w/ us, but hey whatever works....I'm not an evangelist, I'm a Missionary. We saw Jim and rebuked him for not reading the BOM.....It was a good day, super fun.

  Saturday: We did our paper work right off the bat, ate our delicious potatoes.....They were great! Did some things found out some people have moved, met a nice lady in our ward that we didn't know at all. Paul and Irene made us dinner. It was taco salad, and super delish. We had a good visit w/ Sister Herrick she put together these really nice Halloween buckets for us. Visited Sister Hagopian and she fed us some cake and ice cream. Ohh so I started reading the Ensign and found this sweet quote, "In this church, what we know will always trump what we do not know." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Sooo true and I really liked it. Oh we also get to play around on lds.org a little and I read some sweet articles, I think my favorite was the one on church discipline.  I also found out I share my birthday w/ a famous Mormon, Brandon Flowers....also fyi I changed my Mormon.org profile a bit, so that was fun.

  Sunday:We took breakfast to this awesome family, they didn't end up coming to church b/c the dad was sick but  it was a good visit. We watched the B/c of Him video, which I seriously love sooooo much!!  We had a VT Conference in RS yesterday and it was really nice they fed us a legit lunch....yum! The Bar has been set tho if I go to any other VT Conferences.....just saying :)  The Horowitz's had us over for dinner yesterday, and I must say I love them they are just great.

  Monday:  today is my email you day!!! Woot woot. We are going to play a nerf war so that will be fun. 

  Coming up this week, Exchanges on Tuesday, and Thursday, Elder Anderson on Friday, Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Yep yep it'll be a busy week so that'll be fun.

  Personal Insights: So as I have been reading thru Helaman it is showing me the importance of not being prideful! My goodness I really hope that God does not have to humble me, that I can choose for myself to be a meek person, b/c the flipside is not so fun.  Follow the Prophet, don't question the things he teaches us thru our Prophet....seriously seek for what God wants you to change everyday, it makes a big difference in what happens in our day.

I love you lots!!!

​This is how we Exchange!

​I have no idea what we were doing, but just know we were having fun!!

Love,

         Sister Christiansen

Be prepared for teradactile!! It's great!

It's me again!!!!

First off, I would like to apologize for the lame excuse of an email I sent home last week. Let's just say the church was a bit of a zoo, w/ everyone and all of the transfer calls, and so on and so forth. I am repenting and moving forward and in order to truly complete the repentance steps I am making restitution by writing a better email today!

Alrighty Roo!!!!!!!

  Monday: We had FHE w/ Claudia, Amy and Chris which was super fun.  Also I tried my first taste of Culver's Ice Cream which was pretty fab!  Creamy and delish, you can't get better than that.

  Tuesday: We were dying all morning to get transfer news!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even tell you how badly I wanted to be there.  I wanted to be there soooooo bad!!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like it was super huge, and everybody who is anybody besides us was there!!! I caved and text everyone in the zone who went so I could get some info. Elder Boden is our new ZL, who was partially trained by Elder Barfuss, they are so happy to be back together, Sister Hefner is here, Sister Stokes, Elder Thompson, and Elder Crawford!!! Crazy stuff, I am sooo excited about our zone it is spectacular. The biggest news was that Elders got doubled onto Ball State, so now there are 7 sets of missionaries, in Muncie. 6 are proselyting. It was the craziest info day of my life. Also Elder Stoddard sealed his place as our favorite Elder of the transfer on that day as well, OHHHHH and I almost forgot to say that Elder Barnett became our new Assistant. I was soo happy about that one that I almost cried, I love him!

  Jama came out teaching w/ us and that was super fun. Also I worked on my door-bell ditching skills.....I think they are kind of lacking.........

  Wednesday: We did some service for Kelly and Chris. It was super fun, we were helping w/ taping so that she could paint some things.  We also had a super spiritual lesson w/ Sis Ellis. Wrote our testimonies so we could start giving them to peeps so we can learn them in Spanish.

  Thursday: Did our thing w/ the ZL's. Had Sister Brimhall out w/ us. Went  to the ward trunk or treat, and participated in the cake walk so I could get a cupcake. Had our apartment invaded by 4 other Sisters. I learned how much I love living w/ just my companion.....we get along so well, its lovely.

  Friday: We had to get up at 4:15 and leave our apartment at 5ish. I found out that 5 is too early to eat berry crunch cereal, its too much sugar that early in the morning.  We went on a 3 hour adventure in the car. We were driving on the most random roads, and it was a party!!!  All worth it tho, b/c MLC was sooo intense and super fabulous and revelatory. President pretty much told us that He has taught us everything and now it is up to us as to whether or not we hit the goals that the Stake Presidents set. There is no revolutionary thing he will teach us that will help us hit it, we have to each individually make the choice to do it. I already knew how imp it was to be accountable, and everything, but that drove it home for me. Esp since time is so short. We discussed this great talk on being a Consecrated Missionary that I loved so much, I am trying to make those sacrifices everyday so I can be the consecrated missionary He sent me to be.  Following the keys is one of the most important lessons I have learned on my mission! I am so grateful for President and Sister Porter and the change they have helped me make. OHh man so for lunch we did a pizza taste testing it was sooo fun!

  Saturday: We had to get going b/c we had only taught 9 lessons so we got ourselves going and taught 9 lessons that day. We had the funniest Ward Coorelation ever, I was dying!! Brother Kirk is fabulous! We had a serious miracle tho. We need to find families, that is our big focus now, and we went to go visit this investigator, and she had her aid there.  Her family was there w/ her as well, and one of her boys sat in the room w/ us while we were in w/ the inv, we loved him so much!! Afterwards we were talking w/ the aid and she is great, then her husband came back from dropping off the kids. We asked if they had ever talked w/ missionaries before, and she said no, and he said yes. He said that he is a member!! Say what say what!! They are great tho, we are super excited about them. We have a lesson set up for tonight. God has seriously been blessing us w/ random PM families tho and we love it so much.

  Sunday: A LA randomly decided to come to church. It was so great to see him walk in, and w/ no prompting from us. He has decided that he is ready to come back, and wants us to work w/ his wife more.  We are really excited about that!!!

  Miracles are simply everywhere, we just have to be willing to work a little for them, and recognize them when they do come.  I love this gospel and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to share it w/ others.  It truly is a gospel of change, and if we aren't changing everyday we are living it wrong!  

  Colton I am praying that the surgery goes well!!!

  Roger Happy Birthday this week!

I hope you all enjoy November!!

Love you lots!!

Love,

           Sister Christiansen

 

So I received some sweet revelation this week that I am totally not following right now b/c I wanted to share this w/ you. Friday was one of my longest days awake as a missionary. We didn't get home till 10....and so we were up for a little more than 18 hours..........crazy long right?!?

OH man I also made it thru Alma in my BOM so here I come Helaman!!

Also here are some Pics.

 

 Part of our Zone....from last transfer

 From the Temple

 SOOOOOO GOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Our poor pumpkins.....don't worry they look even worse now!!!! I don't even want to touch them!!! Talk about gross...........!

 

Guess who matches....EVERYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

WE DOOO