remember how i love that story about the logan saints who aaaaaaaaaaaalways had something come up when they wanted to go to the temple, then the prophet told them to, "drop their buckets and run"? Well, I love that story. And I think about that everytime I go to the temple. Including TODAY!!! we just got out of a session and holy hannah. We were there for hours and hours because we did NOT want to leave! I know I'm spoiled because the temple is close, but, like bro said after he went through a few months ago, "once you go and you're spiritually fed, you realize how STARVING you are!" haha. so true. I feel like I just thanksgivinged at jude's. mashed potatoes from gladebaby. so good. only spiritually. i only have one comment for you: The church is true.
This week has been UNREAL. i have had SO MANY things happen that I've been excited to tell you about, so I'll just start! bullet points anyone?
• has anyone heard of a program the church is doing called the "Hispanic Initiative"? unbelievable. It's a real thing. It's been going down for awhile but it's being put into action HARDCORE, especially at the battalion. We read tons of scriptures about the Lamanites being gathered and about the preaching of the gospel to the elect... and then my heart swells and i feel SO GRATEFUL to be a part of the gathering of the ELECT children of our Heavenly Father! We are FULFILLING PROPHECY HERE!!! anyway people, the hispanic initiative. my notes: "the church is embracing the undocumented!" gbh said, "there is a PURPOSE why they are coming here across the border; the Lord's hand is in this." Apart from Mexico (in 2008), the US was the SECOND HIGHEST in hispanic population. read 1 ne 21:22 15:13-14, dyc 90:11 and the title page... the book of mormon was written TO THE LAMANITAS!!!! it's everywhere. i think i mentinoed it last week maybe even, too. who knows. i see it all over the scriptures and feel honored. 1 ne 22:7-8, 2 ne 30:3, dyc 49:24, enos vs 13... enos straight up prayed to the lord that the record would be preserved for HIS posterity... oh my goodness. "the church must never assume the role of forcing the spanish speaking people to l earn english. the church is for the people and not the people for the church." -spencer w kimball. anyway. the point is: they are elect. we are fulfilling prophecy harvesting them and restoring them to the truth. (and there are two languages we all should know; the language of the restoration an the language of the lamanites. aka SPANISH AND ENGLISH! SO SICK!)
• milagro. i've been bursting all week to share this with you. on thursday we were serving on temple grounds last week. sister lewis was showing a member family the phots and telling them all about the majesty when I saw a couple walk up kinda far away. i walked over to them and found out they were from france. they spoke minimal english, well, she did, he spoke maybe 2%. haha. (i love percentages.) so we walk over to the pics and she just starts flipping through them WAY fast and i was totally alarmed because this is a SWEET teaching tool and way for them to feel the spirit and us to ask inspired questions, invite them to learn more, etc etc etc, but she was speeding through it. i could tell it was going to be rough explainging stuff because of the language barrier. so i was trying to kinda pull the book towards me and explain the celestial room and sister lewis peeled off to talk to these two boys who were standing sorta close to us. she said she walked over and felt prompted to ask where they'd served their missions--somehow she knew they were members... guess where they'd served? FRANCE!!!! so they came over and talked to these people for seriously like 10 or 15 minutes. it was BEAUTIFUL. sister lewis and i were both crying a little bit because of how unbelievable it was and how strong the spirit was and how they ALL lit up like fireworks to speak french. anyway, did they didn't end up referring. BUT. they felt the spirit. they were given such a good impression and were interested and i KNOW things will be different next time they see missionaries in france. this also helped me see and feel how AWARE heavenly father is of us. individually and personally. he arranged that PERFECTLY! seriously, those two rms weren't going in.. they didn't even know why there were at the temple. one of them had driven SEVEN hours to get there and they'd been there two minutes before sister lewis walked up to them. God knows!
• Next milagro. So like two seconds after the aforementioned miracle, we were sitting on our chairs basking in the beauty of what'd just happened when i looked up and there was a dude whizzing past us plugged into his ipod. he was practically gone, but... we TALK WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!! so i just yelled out to him. Kept walking. yelled again, and he came back and talked to us. it ended up being that he'd just gotten off work and had NO where to go, he was just heading home, but had no hurry. he told us how stressed out he is about the end of the world and not knowing where to turn... we testified and he was WAY interested. adn then--get this--guess what happened? haha. I INVITED HIM TO BE BAPTIZED. and he said YES!!!! hahahah as if tat wasn't enough, i knew five seconds later that the missionaries in that area would be coming to replace us at the temple. so we waited with him, tony, and the sisters met him and set up an appointment. UNREAL. and if i hadn't been prompted to open my mouth? who knows.
right now. go and read the talk, "defending the family in a troubled world" by Bruce Porter. it's on page 13 of this month's ensign. a--his diction is fabulous. b--WOWOW IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! SO TRUE!!! will you go read this talk immediately?
well. the lights are flashing. i've gotta jet. just know i LOVE you all. SO MUCH! and i lvoe the gospel of jesus christ and being a missionary. it is the best time of my LIFE!!!
love, hermana christensen
ps who has been to the sd temple?
aaaand YOU ARE ALL ON THE SAN DIEGO TEMPLE PRAYER ROLL!!!!! BELIEVE IT!!!!
and if you could pleeeeeeeeease pray for the aguirre family, i would be so grateful.
love you!
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