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

Me again

Ohh hey,

  This past week was eventful and I learned soooo many wonderful spiritual things, but I forgot my notebook.......so lets see how much my brain remembers!!!

  Monday: Brother Cappelli came out teaching w/ us to Dan, and it was super fabulous b/c Dan quoted back half of his talk to him.  We were so impressed that he remembered.  He is working towards baptism this weekend on the 30th. That is exciting stuff my friends!

  Tuesday: We taught James w/ Brother Dupre, and Sister Morales came out w/ us to visit some people. We saw Sister Greathouse and enjoyed the time w/ her.  She is soo sweet.  Then we saw Sister Landis, and then Sister Campbell came w/ us to Dan's and we broke our tradition and went inside his house.  That was unusual.  Sister Helis took us out to eat. Pizzia is fabulous my friends.  Marion's is definitely a must if you ever go to the Dayton area. So we went to visit the Hollands and Sister Colton was a little out of it. Earlier in the day we had text Christian to see if he wanted to come out w/ us, but he had been busy, and when he walked in he asked us what did you girls need. Somehow Sister Colton thought that he had said are you Sisters going to eat w/ us. So she replied no we ate lots and lots of food. He gave us a pretty puzzled face and said you wanted food. I was laughing and said no we had a lesson, so we were just checking to see if you could come.  It was funny tho. If nothing else I had a good laugh.  

  Wednesday: Brother McMurtry came out teaching w/ us and then invited us over for lunch.  BLT's sooo good.  Tyler came out teaching w/ us and we had some super quick lessons w/ some peeps.  I thought I was going to die that day, it was soooo humid!!! Man when we go out in the mornings I feel like we are going to die, it is killer!  We had a good visit w/ the Henderson's and then we went and taught Brother Rhoudebush.  He is soo nice.  We had a lesson all set up w/ the Eyong's but they forgot so we taught Sam and gave him his own BoM and I even gave him a special inscription on the first page. We went to dinner w/ Sister Terry and then we went and taught the Blanton's.  It was good times.

  Thursday: Manna from heaven!!! Zone Conference! I received pages and pages of inspiration.  President Porter gave us more revelation on the power triangle and how to use it in our lives. It is found in D&C 103:36 in case you are wondering.  But in short here are some things I learned. Our obedience shows our love for God, and our diligence shows, our commitment to God.  He talked a lot about increasing our faith in Jesus Christ.  It was awesome.  I learned a lot of things about and for myself.  It is really cool to see the way the spirit directs us in the things we need to change and do better on. Because like President is always reminding us we need to be changing everyday.  We cannot be the same person or we are not applying the Doctrine of Christ into our lives.  We need to be repenting everyday and working on something new.  He used the example of one day we bury the selfish person and the next day we bury the impatient person. Everyday we need to be perfecting ourselves and the only way that is going to happen is if we think to God and allow Him the opportunity to help us change. Two other things that are super important was this. Find what is right. We have to look for the good.  He said that a person or situation is going to have as many bad things as we find.  It is our choice.  We have to be finding the good. We absolutely cannot be looking for the bad, or that is what we will see.  Secondly Lock your mind. We have to weed out garbage. We do not have time or space to dwell on bad things.  If we lock our mind on the good we will be able to be much happier.  It is super important to do that.  There was a lot of other things that I learned but those are some of the highlights.  I was inspired to be a happier person, who looks for the good in every situation.  Because lets face it, realists are pessimists.  They are indeed one and the same and I don't want to be one of those.

  Friday: We had a surprise meeting and so Thursday night there were 6 Sisters total  in our apartment. it was a little crowded to say the least.  But the good news is Sister Colton and I actually finished weekly planning in the time slot we had for it. Also Elder Campbell and Elder Giblette brought cookie dough Oreos, and those are good!! We then actually went on our exchanges and I was w/ Sister Lewis. We got to go see Sister Spencer and hopefully cheered her up a little, and we had a good visit w/ Miss Tammie.  Mostly though I was just reminded that we are put w/ certain people for good reasons, God definitely knows us best!! Sister Colton and I love being together.

 Saturday: We got to celebrate Brother Morales' birthday w/ him.  Also our server looked so familiar and I just kept looking at her. Turns out she was Amy, someone that I had found for the Spanish Elders a good few months ago. So it was fun to see her again.  We watched some of the Restoration on Brother Dupre's computer, Dan really liked the movie. Did a heart attack, you know all that fun stuff.

  Sunday: We went to ward council, and church and made the baptismal program. Taught our little cutie Brandon. he is definitely the person who is most excited to see us each time we visit, and he isn't even technically an investigator.  But hey its all good. He brightens our day so thats what really matters.  We had a good visit w/ Sister Mosier.  We went to a fireside in Greenville, and they have the cutest little building I have ever seen!!!!!!!! My goodness I loved it.  It really is so cute.  But anyways, it was a good Missionary fireside, the only problem was that there was almost an equal amount of missionaries as members....but hey it was a chance to see President and Sister Porter again so Sister Colton and I jumped at the chance.  We had a good chat w/ both of them and it was fun.  We were also able to talk w/ President Valencia for a little bit, which was good.

  I love you and I hope your week is  awesome.  Enjoy being a member of God's Kingdom on earth! :)

Love,

         Sister Christiansen

PS Keep Dan in your prayers b/c his baptism is on Saturday

Hey Everyone

Good Morning!!!

  So today I am really grateful that families are eternal.  A less active that I used to go visit a whole bunch died last week, and we were asked to give the prayers at the funeral. Ohhhhh my goodness it was sooo sad. I couldn't help it I cried a little at the funeral b/c the overwhelming feeling in the room was just utter and complete devastation.  It reminded me how important keeping our covenants truly is, b/c we honestly have no idea when the end will come.  I am so grateful that we can be w/ our families forever. I know that it is an eternal principle and it shows us how much God truly values and loves us.

  This week was interesting and I'm going to give you a quick rundown:

  Monday: We taught Dan and one of his friends. We also found out that some people don't live where it says they do on our ward roster.....but actually that is a common theme thru the whole week, b/c on our roster I don't know a huge number so Sister Colton and I are actually trying to find out if they still live there or if their records are just floating in our ward.

  Tuesday:We had some delicious BLT's for lunch. We taught Dan at a members home and had lunch.  We saw Gaylene, and she talked our ears off.  We tried to go heart attack our favorite family. We were able to do so, but as we drove off they saw us. But it was tons of fun.

  Wednesday: We took brownies to district meeting to celebrate Elder Tavake's birthday, and also I'm going to say so we could also celebrate Ty-o's and Jordans as well. District meeting was great. Elder Campbell always has games for us to play......We saw a fun LA couple who asked us "To what do owe this visit too?" We replied back that it was Wed at 3, and we were just keeping up w/ the last few weeks.  They didn't realize that we had set up a standing appointment I suppose, but hey we enjoy it. I ate some delicious cotton candy ice cream. We got to hang out w/ our champ member, Brother Dupre.

  Thursday: We never left our apartment besides for our morning run. Sister Colton was ill, it was not her favorite day of the week. I was able to spend some time doing some much needed record updating, which was painfully BORING!!!!! I text the Elders and told them I was bored out of my mind.  But luckily Sister Colton woke up and I was able to spend some more time w/ her. It was good bonding time that is for sure. and then we had to cancel some appointments we had, and Brother Dupre was going to come out w/ us but I told him we needed to cancel and he asked if we were sick and then he brought us some things. It was soooo nice!! We are really grateful we have someone to always help us out. 

  Friday: We were on exchanges and we had a good time. I was w/ Sister Hefner and it was good times.  Nothing too exciting happened but frozen custard, that my friends is always exciting!!!!!  Also we did some more heart attacking, b/c who doesn't like exciting surprises on your door??? Also b/c we live a ghetto life, we used....Electrical tape to make it happen #justdoit

  Saturday:  We got to go out of the mission, and see missionaries from Columbus.....weird eh?? I kinda felt like a rebel, no worries it was totally okayed.   We taught Dan and Brother Dupre came w/ us to that appointment.....also later that night we were walking around this neighborhood looking for some new people, and we got this text from Brother Dupre which said, "D&C 31:3-8. You are on the Lord's errand! You are doing great things." Ahhh isn't he nice??? Seriously if we ever need anything he is our go to guy. However we might need to find a new bestie b/c his wife is due like next week w/ their 4th child......

  Sunday: Sacrament meeting was probably the most spiritual moment of my whole week.  It was also much needed. The spirit really helped put things in perspective for me.  Brother and Sister Cappelli spoke yesterday and I just love them. They absolutely amaze me. They moved here strictly on faith. They are from Virginia and they just both had the impression that they needed to move and so here they are....quite literally.  My whole goal in life is to be as spiritually intune as they are.  Sister Cappelli talked about their story of moving here and some good take aways from her talk were "I asked the Lord, what do you need to tell me?", "I went to the one person whose opinion really matters....the Lord!", "There are many reasons to be fearful, but there are more reasons to be faithful". Brother Cappelli also had amazing things to say.  He really centered his talk on 2 principles. God will always provide for us, and The Lord is in control.

  It was simply outstanding!!!

I love you all and those that are doing the school thing good luck on your first week :)

Love,

           Sister Christiansen

Longest Week of my Life!!!!

Hey Wonderful people!!!

  First off I have an important thing to say: Tyson Happy, Happy Birthday I love you more than most! You're my favorite brother, and I hope you have a simply fabulous day coming into the land of double digits. :)

  Second off: Jordan I hope that your Birthday is simply fabulous as well! 

  Thirdly someone tell Colton Congratulations on his Baptism!! That is so wonderful!!! The more I learn about baptism the more important it becomes to me in helping others learn about it so they can decide for themselves to take the step of coming closer to Christ.

 Onwards to my week summarization!!!

  I am going to preface the report by saying that this week I learned that I need to be a better person.  Sister Colton and I still did a lot of things, but there was so much room for improvement. I feel that I learned a lot of things about myself, and with a fresh start this week I can again refocus and be a better person. :) I just love the Atonement so much!!!!!!

  Don't worry we still taught 34 lessons, 17 mem pres and had 6 at church. :)

Monday: We had a FHE at the Tiptons house with an inv. We learned that our game really wasn't so effective at holding little kids attention, but the important thing was that we tried ;)

  Tuesday: I ate the healthiest lunch of probably my entire life. We had fruit and vegetables.....that was it. Don't worry tho, I made it slightly unhealthy by drenching everything in ranch. Brother Dupre came out teaching w/ us again.  We gave him the rocking chair to sit on and you should have seen his face when I warned him against sitting on the cushion......priceless is all I have to say!!! He is fast becoming our best friend in the ward.  He always wants to come out teaching with us and help us out as much as he can.....it is so nice!!!! Then we had Christian come out teaching with us again. Miracles happened and we were able to drag him around a few different places to get 3 mp w/ him.  It is so nice that he is willing to come out and go around w/ us.  Then we had some lessons w/ Brother Morales, and in case you were wondering, we were on time!!!! It was a big deal for us. We had to text and tell him that we beat him because it was such big news :)

  Wednesday: We had Zone Meeting, and visited w/ the Henderson's. I had one of the more interesting "conversations" of my mission. I learned some enlightening definitions to a few words.........good times had by all involved.  Oh we finished Mountain of the Lord w/ the Ballards. It was a pretty good movie. I at least enjoyed it :) But they were just so lucky that they were able to see us 3 times this week. Once w/ Christian, once w/ Sister McMurtry and once at Church.

  Thursday: We watched the Restoration w/ Jeremy and Sister Estes. I think by time I come home I might have that movie memorized :) Good thing I like it eh? We went randomly to visit this investigator that we had planned on dropping and surprise surprise....she put herself on date. It was not at all the outcome we had expected, but hey it was a good one. :)

  Friday: Sister Haas saved us!!! I love her soo, sooo, much!!! She helped us out by giving us some much needed recipes, and also some supplies that we did not have.  Also she invited us to have some lunch while we were there, so we ate something w/ actual substance....which was nice.

  Saturday: We had another lesson w/ Jeremy.....this one went wayyyyyyyyy deep!!! But he just smiled and went w/ it w/ us. We found a new investigator that lives down the street from him that has 2 grills.  It is so sweet, one on top, and one on bottom. Can't get better than that :)  But we had a sweet miracle!!!! Peter came out teaching with us!!!! It was his first time teaching w/ us.  

  Sunday: We spoke in church. I never actually wrote my talk......slight problem eh? Also I found out that morning that our Stake President was going to be there.....talk about no pressure eh?!?  Don't worry, I prayed really, really hard and lets just say that Lord really, really answered my prayers. I got up, w/ less than a page of notes, and ended up speaking for 17 minutes. It was a pure miracle. I must have been boring tho, b/c as I looked out at the congregation there were at least 5 people sleeping. :) that isn't a joke

  We are having a baptism this weekend. Dan is being baptized and we are quite excited. He still wants Elder Tavake, who he calls Sun, to baptize him. But no worries it'll all be taken care of.

I love you lots, and I want you all to know that I know that this gospel is true. and that as we apply the Atonement in our lives it truly changes who we are, into something much better.

 Have a great week!!! and Tyson and Jordan I really do hope that your day is simply the best!!!!

Love,

        Sister Christiansen

Englewood run continues!

Oh hey its me again,

  Turns out Englewood and I are still besties :) Going 7 transfers strong!  But hey I'm super excited b/c we have tons going on and I have lots to accomplish here still.  Sister Colton and I are going to continue to see a billion new miracles this next transfer.  The way this companionship works is like this: Sister Colton is the brains, and I just throw things out there. She makes sure we get tons accomplished, and I just go along for the ride.

  But good news we have a big week planned this week with lots to do. I am kind of hoping that we calm down a teensy bit, b/c I'm getting super worn out with the fast pace that we keep. But ohh well such is life.  

  This past week we did pretty good.  We had 38 lessons, 23 being member present, 6 new, and 6 at church. Our zone did really well too, which was great to see. We had 25 at church, and 3 baptisms this week. cool beans huh?

   So on Monday we had a goal of 3 mp and one inv, wasn't there, our other cancelled, so we had the one, and then our member suggested we go and try the other inv again so off a knocking we went, and then Sister Colton and I were praying sooo hard that something would work, and God gave us a miracle. When we walked out of the appointment we found a new inv. It seems God is always showing me that He is the one in charge of this work, and I just simply need to do as He directs me too.  

  Tuesday we went to do FHE with the Hollands and we read the story of Jonah, I haven't read that since I was in 9th grade I think. But we had this super spiritual lesson on the restoration w/ them that was super awesome. Probably one of the best restoration lessons I have taught this past transfer.  That was cool.  We love our weekly FHE appointments. Oh and we didn't have time for dinner that day so it was nice that we were able to have some super good zucchini bread.

  We never seem to have time for meals, b/c we run from one thing to another, but this week we are changing that, b/c we both really love our food :)

  Dayton has a Senior couple nowadays they are super cute. They have only been married for 9 months, but I think it'll be good to have them around.

  We have called on a bunch of members all week long. Yesterday in his testimony Brother Morales kind of mocked us for asking him if he wanted to come spend quality time with us. It was all good tho :)

  Mission Leadership Council was awesome as always. I learned lots. I even got to give one of the 20 minute trainings. The Assistants called us Thursday morning and I had to do it on Friday. I was freaking out a bit, but the other Missionaries were really nice and told me it was good, so I'm going to go w/ that :)

I love you lots! I hope that you have a fun week and as you go to Idaho just remember that church is still important :)

Love you,

 love Sister Christiansen

 

I still need some good things to do w/ little kids. I am running out of creative ideas to do FHE and other such things, so some ideas would be stellar :)

 

One last bit Miracle!!!

This Sunday we had such a miracle at church.  We took breakfast to an investigator with a member.  When she came to the door she was wearing not church clothes which was not a good sign. Then she had a few concerns about church that we were able to resolve with the member, which was really really good. She said that she would be coming along in a few minutes she just had to finish getting dressed. I knew beforehand that unless we followed her to church she probably wasn't going to make it.  Turns out I was right. She never made it to church. Sister Colton and I were a little upset!! But its okay because God loves us, and sent a miracle our way.  There were a whole bunch of people at church yesterday quite a few that I didn't know, and Sister Colton saw some lady with 2 kids that she said we needed to go talk to after sacrament meeting, because I had no idea who it was.   She left before Sacrament meeting ended, but then a few members had a prompting to go and get her, one of them followed it and introduced Alexa to me.  Turns out her life is kind of in rambles right now, and she just felt like she needed to go to church. The one that she usually goes to was closed yesterday so she told the bus driver she wanted to come to the next closest one, which miracle of miracle was ours. She said that she felt so much better and we are headed over to teach her tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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